Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Hosts Pastors' Lee and Jim.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
Cleaning House: The Spiritual Reset Button
A single verse in the Bible holds the power to completely reset your spiritual life. In this deeply reflective episode, Pastors Jim and Lee unpack the transformative message of 2 Corinthians 7:1, revealing a three-step approach to spiritual renewal that can change everything about how you walk with God.
What does it truly mean to "cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit"? The pastors address this challenging question with refreshing honesty and practical wisdom. Rather than offering quick fixes or surface-level solutions, they dig into the heart of what motivates lasting spiritual change - God's unwavering promises to us.
"You don't need a better you; you simply need a new you." This powerful distinction cuts through the self-improvement mentality that plagues many Christians. The conversation tackles common misconceptions about spiritual growth, particularly the idea that we must clean ourselves up before coming to God. As Pastor Lee emphasizes, "We don't clean up first and then get saved. We clean up because we are saved."
One of the most illuminating segments explores what it means to fear God with reverence rather than terror. Using the analogy of a parent-child relationship, the pastors paint a picture of healthy spiritual reverence that motivates us not out of dread of punishment, but from a deep desire not to disappoint the One who loves us perfectly.
Whether you're struggling with setting boundaries in relationships that pull you away from God, battling habitual sin, or simply seeking a deeper connection with your Heavenly Father, this episode offers a blueprint for spiritual renewal grounded in God's promises. Take the first step today toward bringing "holiness to completion in the fear of God."
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week with your hosts, Pastors Lee and Jim. It's time to inspire, uplift and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now. Welcome back to Beyond Sunday. It's Pastor Jim. I'm here with Pastor Lee and today we're going to be getting into a sort of a spiritual reset button for our lives. 2 Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 1. We're going to be in 2 Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 1. I'm here today with Pastor Lee, as always. How you doing, brother? What's going on, Pastor Jim? How are you Doing?
Speaker 2:well, doing very, very well. Yeah, man, I'm excited about this topic. Paul is writing to the church it's not just for the Church of Corinth, but it's also for the church today and really looking forward to digging in and seeing how we can apply this text to our lives. Right now, as you mentioned, it is a spiritual reset and I know you're about to get into it here with the intro this morning to kind of preset what all we're going to get into. So I'm not going to steal any thunder there, but it is definitely something to tune in.
Speaker 1:Listen to the entire episode and you'll be glad you did, absolutely and it's going to be a little bit different because usually I think this is going to be the first episode where we're really looking at as far as the main text, being just one verse 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1 says this Since we have these promises beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of the body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
Speaker 1:This is powerful because this message right here is a call for us to clean up our lives, and we don't do that out of guilt, but we do it because of God's amazing promises and a reverence that we have for Him. I love where it says since we have these promises, we're going to get into what those promises are. But before we get into that, I do want to just say, while I agree that it is a powerful call to clean up our lives, this is speaking to the Christian. This is not to the person who has yet to experience Christ in their life. This is not to the person who's yet to secure their salvation right, because we do not have to do anything to clean up our lives prior to accepting Christ to transform our lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because we can never do it on our own. The only way we can clean up is with Christ in our life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you allude to it a lot when you talk about this on Sundays, when you say it's like taking a shower or getting cleaned up before you get in the shower.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it doesn't make sense. No one cleans off and then gets into the shower. We get into the shower to become clean.
Speaker 1:I just want to break down three specific steps that we can kind of live this verse out in our life as we go through the rest of this podcast. And that's going to be these three things and we'll get into them moving forward. But the first thing is this we need to root ourselves in God's promises. Again, we're going to get into what those promises are in just a minute, but we need to root ourselves in God's promises. That's got to be step one. We have to identify what is defiling us, what is bad or sinful in our life. We have to be sure that daily we're identifying the things that are wrong inside of us. And then the second thing, or the third thing we need to do is we need to pursue holiness with reverence. Yeah, all right. That last part of the text says we need to be bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. So those are the three things that I want to look at as we move forward in the text. What do you got going on, pastor Lee?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think if the listeners are taking notes the three words they can write down, which are the three steps promises, cleansing and holiness. And, pastor Jim, if we can, I'd like to begin with the cleansing and holiness piece first and just to throw this reference out there 2 Corinthians 6, verses 14 through half of the 16th verse. So 2 Corinthians 6, 14 through 16, says this Paul writes so 2 Corinthians 6, 14 through 16, says this Paul writes Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. So we begin with the main text, pastor Jim, being 2 Corinthians 7.1, but it pretty much is a continuation of what I just referenced in 2 Corinthians 6.14-16.
Speaker 2:So this could be a really hard thing for some people to kind of get a hold of and digest. It could be a really hard thing for some people to kind of get a hold of and digest. It could be a really hard thing for some people to do the actual tearing away and the separating from people who pull you down, who lead you back into your old lifestyle that can be really difficult to tear away from those people. Why? Because those are the people that you've done life with for so long prior to being saved, prior to saying, hey, I'm going to go to church, I'm going to live for Christ, I'm going to walk in the righteousness that God has for me to walk in through Christ. Those are the people that have been there through the ups, through the downs, through the thick through the thin. Those are the people that maybe had addiction along with your addiction. You walk through addictions together and you feel like you just cannot give up on them.
Speaker 2:So what does this text in 2 Corinthians 7-1 mean when it's calling me to separate, when it's calling me to walk in righteousness? What does it mean when it's calling me to do these three steps? Can I just say that pulling away from the people that have torn you down or held you down for so long from receiving victory in Christ? Can I say that tearing away, if that's what you want to call it, it doesn't mean that you're giving up on them. You just choose to not do what they're doing or hang out around them as they're acting out in their foolishness and their sin as well, as you now have the mission to present to them Jesus Christ that has saved your soul, and let them know that Jesus can change their lives, just like he changed ours. So once we get saved and we're walking with Jesus as Lord and Savior, we have to remember that the power of sin has been broken and we no longer have to obey any temptation.
Speaker 1:And sometimes I think that if we don't do that daily, it could creep up on us. So that's why I think that it's important for us every single day to identify the things that we have going on in our life and we ask the Holy Spirit to cleanse us of these things. Right, Paul talks about every defilement of body and spirit, and I'm glad that you brought up 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, because Paul goes pretty in-depth with this. For the body, that could mean things like sexual sin, unhealthy habits or anything that dishonors your body as God's temple. So you can think spirit, think pride, envy, bitterness, anything that's clogging up our hearts. Right, I can confess, and I'm willing to confess in front of you and all of the people listening, man, I've wrestled with frustration or patience, lack of patience, getting short with my family, sometimes when I'm stressed out or when things are just bombarding me from every direction. But that is a defilement that I need to consecrate myself to every single day. I got to deal with that. I got to deal with being cynical at times. I have to deal with being angry at times.
Speaker 1:The truth is as Paul defines it, that is, defilement of the Spirit. Psalms 139, 23, and 24 is an amazing prayer that helps me daily. Search me, O God, and know my heart, Try me and know my thoughts. And I think that if we try praying like that every single day and being cognizant of these things you know, maybe you're doing it with a journal or a trusted friend, or your wife or your spouse, your husband spot what's tripping you up every single day. And it's really like checking your car's engine light, you know, like if that thing comes on, we see the problem. We have to fix it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's talk about the piece about our friends and family that we cannot be equally yoked with. Let's talk about that for a minute, because again it doesn't. Man, I've had people say, well, I don't want to give up on so-and-so, you know, we've been best friends forever. Or hey, that's my family. How do I just walk out on them? And again, the Word of God is not calling us to do that. It changes our mission. So, rather than being destructive with them, we, now that we're saved in Christ, are trying to lead them out of destruction themselves on the road that they're heading down. So our mission changes. Right, we go from being failures to victors as we come to Christ, and we have to testify, we have to share testimony on what Christ has done with us. So it's not that we give up on these people. Again the mission changes and now we're trying to lead these people to Christ like someone has led us to Christ. So this is a big deal, because a believer's new pursuit in life, after being saved, it should be a life of holiness. This is why Jesus says that we must be born again. If we want to get to glory, if we want to spend eternity with God, we've got to be born again. So a life of holiness. This is all about making the right choices.
Speaker 2:Pastor Jim and I read something the other day and it said this it just it blew me away. It was so good. You don't need a better you, you simply need a new you.
Speaker 2:So many times we try to do life by our own personal strengths. Right, I'm going to get up, I'm going to be better today, right, even as Christians we can struggle with this as well. But in my own strength, if I'm not careful, I can get caught up in the flow of the day and try to be a better dad, try to be a better husband, try to be a better friend, a better brother in Christ. But I just want to say that none of that is going to be accomplished fully to the degree that it needs to as long as I'm doing it out of my own personal strength. Sooner or later I'm going to fail at every one of those positions because I'm set out and determined to do it my own way, my own plan, my own strength. So if you're out there today and you're thinking that you need a better you, we've all been there before, myself included. No, we don't need a better us. We need a new us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it kind of goes back to the beginning of the text when the Word says since we have these promises and speaking of what those promises are, we said we were going to get into it. Paul says since we have these promises, and speaking of what those promises are, we said we were going to get into it. Paul says since we have these promises and he was pointing to where you brought up, chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians, where God says I'm going to be their God, they're going to be my people, all right, and I will be a father to you. That's the game changer. That is at what point we say, okay, well, since we have that promise, the promise that God says I'm going to be with you, he's adopted us as his kids. We now have eternal life through Jesus.
Speaker 1:We're not the same, we are completely different. And if we try to rely on the old us with this new promise in mind, it doesn't work. The math don't math. We have to realize and surrender who we were, understand that our identity is now new and because it's new, our source of strength is Him. And once we identify that man, all of what you just said just like Paul says, since then we have those promises becomes easier and easier for us to do 2 Corinthians 7.1 says let us cleanse ourselves.
Speaker 2:Listen closely to what I'm about to say. Let us cleanse ourselves. Listen closely to what I'm about to say, friends, because this is huge. We don't clean up, as we referenced in the very beginning. We don't clean up first and then get saved. We clean up because we are saved. Amen, pastor Jim Amen, that's a good word. We clean up because we are saved.
Speaker 2:So many times I've heard people say I'll start coming to church when I get better, when I stop doing the bad things I'm doing, as if they feel they need to get right in order to come to God. And, my friends, it's like we referenced earlier that way of thanking is like thanking you need to clean up first before getting into the shower. It's crazy thoughts. It is your walk with Jesus Christ that cleanses you and we have to make decision every day that keeps us clean. We've got to make that decision. I'm going to walk with Jesus today and that's going to make me clean. You know and this is the command you know, 2 Corinthians 7, 1, let us cleanse ourselves. I got something to do with that Now. Yes, I cannot get clean without Jesus, but I have to choose. I have to choose to let Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God in me do a work in me. The temple of God is what our body is, is what Paul tells us. I've got to choose to want Christ to do a work in me, and then I also have personal responsibility that I want to remain clean. So no, I'm not going to go dabble with those people while they're doing that. I'm not going to go dabble in my old sin. I'm not going to go stand in front of temptation and just gawk at it with my eyes. I'm choosing to remain clean.
Speaker 2:Colossians 3, 12 through 14 says put on, then, as God's chosen ones. And I want to remind you today if you're a child of God, you're a chosen one, and those who haven't come to Christ that may be listening. God wants you to come to Christ and be part of the flock of God, and you too are a chosen one. So again, colossians 3, 12 through 14 says put on, then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. Put on compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
Speaker 2:Pastor Jim, before I throw it over to you, man, I just want to reference the fact that there are a lot of Christians that simply do not understand that they are God's chosen ones. They fall in the mud hole of sin, they fall in the mud hole of temptation, simply because they don't feel good enough, they don't feel worthy enough. And the truth is without Christ we're not. We're not, but we have too many Christians out there, and even if it was just one, that's too many. We've got too many Christians out there that don't understand that they are chosen by God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if that's you listening right now and you're saying, pastor, it's hard. It's hard to remember that I'm chosen by God, it's hard to remember that I've been transformed, because it's very easy to go back into what we're used to, what that just tells me I need to get used to something different. Yeah, and these promises from God, they should be our anchor to do that. It should give us the confidence, because when you say, man, it's really hard to do that all that tells me is that you're lacking the confidence to trust in the anchor which is God's promise. And so the anchor of God's promise to you is that it should give you confidence, pursuing to pursue the holiness, because God's already told us he's committed to us, he's going to told us he's committed to us, he's going to strengthen us, he's going to finish what he started in us.
Speaker 2:How beautiful is it what you just said? Like God is already committed to us. Yeah, I mean, he didn't send his son down here to die on the cross for no reason. Right, you talk about the ultimate commitment factor. Man, like I think Christians need to remember who they are, who they are and where they are, and what victory we have when we realize the God of heaven. And earth.
Speaker 1:He's committed to us. That's huge, yeah. And I don't look at the Bible as like it's about me, because it's absolutely not about me or anybody else. It's about God, period. But I look at the Bible like a letter from God, as a promise to stand by us no matter what, and it's that kind of assurance that the Word of God offers me that makes me want to, and it should make everybody want to, live up to what God's promises are God's promises, or God promises to do the same things, and they should motivate us to clean up our house spiritually. They should motivate us not to earn His love—we already have it—but it should motivate us to want to live and strive for righteousness, for holiness.
Speaker 1:So the third thing I want to talk about is this pursuit of holiness with reverence for God. Right, the verse that we are discussing ends with bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. That phrase, fear of God, it's not about being scared. You know, when I first came into my walk, I always thought, man, why do I have to be scared of God? I didn't get that. But it's not being scared like fearful. It's this awe, this reverence for His holiness and for His love.
Speaker 1:And holiness means growing to be more like Jesus day by day, and it happens through spiritual habits. We have to begin to do things that work towards that goal. Prayer, philippians 4, teaches us right Prayer brings peace. Studying Scripture, psalms 119, says to keep sin at bay. And community, like Hebrews says we encourage one another. So it's when we take the Word of God and we begin to apply it to our life that it helps us to move towards holiness, this day-by-day process of getting more and more righteous, not by our own strength, but only through the mercy and the grace of the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 2:I think, man, if there were two words that I would want the listeners to write down in their notes today, it would be new mission, because everything that you're saying is referencing to that term that I mentioned earlier on in this episode new mission. We've got a new mission, because everything that you're saying is referencing to that term that I mentioned earlier on in this episode new mission, we've got a new mission. Every day I wake up, which is what you were just referencing, right there. This is so good, right, I want to look more like God today than I did yesterday. Absolutely, I want to draw closer, and the closer we draw to God, the more we're going to look like God. You know, the more time you spend with someone, the more habits of those of that person that you can pick up right, the more you'll start sounding like them and maybe acting like them, talking like them. So, the more time we spend with God, the more we're going to look like God. I'd like to move on, if it's good with you, pastor Jim, to the promises. Yeah, um, if you're taking notes, reference this one down. It's 2 Corinthians 1, verse 20.
Speaker 2:Pastor Jim was just talking about promises, so I really want to push into this. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 20 says For all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory. All the promises of God find their yes in him, amen. And that's why it's so important to get into the word of God, so that we can see what the promises of God are for our lives. So, pastor Jim, as we get into the promises that 2 Corinthians 7-1 is referencing, those promises are actually found the reference is to just before that in the text in 2 Corinthians 6, 16 through 18. And this is what Paul writes regarding those promises. God said I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they should be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters.
Speaker 1:That sounds a whole lot like setting boundaries.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's another thing that we could write down, along with new mission, is new boundaries, new habits. New habits Because, as we come to Christ and we are choosing to do what he wants us to do, there are new parameters, there are new boundaries set, there are new instructions given to us through the word that we used to not follow and adhere to prior to coming to Christ.
Speaker 1:Because we have this reverence for God now. You know, 1 Peter says be holy, for I am holy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a reverence, it's a fear, a fear of God. Someone just reached out to me yesterday true story and they had a great question. They were like look, I'm really struggling with what the fear of God is in my own personal life. And this individual said he was so honest. He says am I just fearful of God because I don't want to go to hell, or am I fearful for God the way that I truly should be fearful for God? He said I'm struggling understanding the difference between the two. And I said well, look at it like this Now that I'm saved, I know I'm saved.
Speaker 2:I know I'm going to spend eternity with my father, so I do not not sin simply because I'm fearful that if I sin I'm going to hell. I know I'm not going to hell because I'm saved through grace and the finished work of Christ did on the cross for me. Fear of God for me, pastor Jim, is because I'm saved. Fear of God for me is I'm not going to sin because I don't want to fall short of the glory of God. Now, I know we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, but that fear is a healthy fear for me. It's a reverent fear for me, because I don't want to miss the mark.
Speaker 1:So I don't fear the consequence, right, I fear letting down, letting God down. That's where I'm at.
Speaker 2:Because when I sin, that's me being disobedient. When I sin, that's me doing opposite of what my Father tells me to do. So for the fear there for me is you're exactly right. I don't want to end up doing something that my Father said do not do. I have a fear, a healthy fear, a reverent fear with my Heavenly Father of this point. I don't want to do something that my Heavenly Father has told me not to do. And yes, there can be consequences to sin. You know there can be consequences. We see that all throughout Scripture. There can be consequences to sin, but praise God that we have an opportunity to repent and by the blood of Jesus we are forgiven. But what we cannot do is get into this habitual sin, because habitual sin, according to the Word of God, there is no sacrifice left for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think about my son. You know, as you were talking about, what it looks like to fear God in a healthy, reverent way. You know my son, if he—I don't ever want him to disobey me. I don't ever want him to do something that's wrong that I will have to correct. Obviously that's not something that I want, but I also think about it like this If he does do something that is disobedient, or if he does fall short in what I've asked him to do, the last response I want from him is to shake in the corner, scared of what I may do, what I would rather see. And again I'll repeat this I don't want him to fail. Obviously I don't want him to be disobedient, but a healthy fear of who I am as his dad should be slumped shoulders in a way that says man, I've let my dad down, I know I wasn't supposed to do that and I did it right. And there's a difference between letting me down and there's a difference between cowering in the corner because I'm going to crack the whip.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, the promise is mentioned in 2 Corinthians, chapter 6, 6 through 18. What I see in these promises is God saying to his people I will be your God, but remember you shall be my people, and there's a major responsibility there. Are we living life like God? Is our God and we are his people? Are we setting ourselves apart or are we still looking like the world? Have we died to self and sin, or do we still dip our toes into those old waters every once in a while because we've not yet separated ourselves from those old habits?
Speaker 1:He's already made us his children. So now what we need to do is live in a way that reflects him. When I mess up and trust me, I do I lean on the word where he says he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. God's grace is what keeps us moving forward, and because we have that, we should look different. So this week, take one step to cleanse your life. Pray just a little bit longer and pray like this God what is defiling my heart, Confess what comes up, Because confessing what James says, confessing to a friend, can bring healing right.
Speaker 1:We can replace one negative influence. Maybe we don't do some mindless scrolling. We'd be intentional about changing things in our life. Maybe we do something uplifting. Maybe it's listening to worship, Maybe listening to a solid Christian podcast I've heard of one, Beyond Sunday. You know, maybe you listen to that a few episodes of that. We need to hold on to God's promises, because that's your strength, that's your anchor, and remember that you're not alone and the Holy Spirit is working in and through you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to remind you all of what Paul wrote at the end of 2 Corinthians 7. That's been our theme verse for today, but towards the end of it, I just want to remind you that by doing these things, it brings holiness to completion in our lives. Think about that. The holiness of God can be completed in your life because of what Jesus Christ has done for you and what the Holy Spirit of God living in you is trying to do every moment of every day. Let's pray, father. I thank you for these listeners. I thank you for your word, god. I thank you that your Holy Spirit gives us the ability to walk in your word with power, might, strength. We thank you for the knowledge and the wisdom that you give us, father. So, lord, we just proclaim this day, we just proclaim it for you, we proclaim the name and the blood of Jesus over our lives and our ministries, and we ask all this in Jesus Christ's name and blood. Everybody said together Amen.
