Purity, Clears the Way — Shane Idleman

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Matthew chapter 21, verse 12. I encourage you to just read your Bibles this year. It'd be the best investment you ever made. And last week, if you were here, you remember we talked about the triumphal entry.

Jesus enters into Jerusalem, the king riding on a donkey. Then people are like, what? What was that all about? Well, go listen to last week's message. I explained everything in detail. And that was Jesus coming into the city of Jerusalem.

He's riding the donkey, the significance of that. We see him as king, we see Jesus as priest, we see him as prophet. And now we see a different dynamic taking place. Verse 12, then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.

And he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Let's stop there for a minute. And I had this whole chapter already out and outlined and I just hung out here for a little while.

I didn't wanna rush ahead because I think there's a lot to this. And it's an interesting story. Jesus is actually upset and he's angry and he's throwing over the tables of the money changers. He puts another gospel tells us he puts a cord together and he whips, he drives out people from the temple of God.

And that's a picture we often don't see of Jesus sometimes. But we have to remember that righteous anger can lead to positive action. Righteous indignation is what people would often say, being mad about something.

And really what was happening is they were taking advantage of the people. They were, and this would be a whole sermon on itself, but let me just give you the nuggets here. They were coming, people were coming to Jerusalem.

It was, remember last week, we talked about maybe a million people here to celebrate the Passover and they're coming. And if they don't have a sacrifice to give, they have to buy the sacrifice there. So the priests and the different leaders are saying, well, here you have this dove or this heifer or this she go to this ram or this whatever it was to be sacrificed, but it needs to be without spot, without blemish.

This is, in our language, it would be $100. They're like $100, that's normally $10. Well, this is the one you need. And they also had to exchange their money from other currency into the temple coin. What they would accept in Jerusalem.

So they were raising the rate, they were selling these products at enormous prices. And that's what it was, it was taking advantage of the people and that is not good. And that Jesus saw that and he said, my father's house, my house shall be called a house of prayer, not a den of thieves.

So that's the context there. It's interesting because righteous anger led him to do something. And righteous anger, a lot of times we don't take action until we get upset at something. Think about the abortion industry.

We're not called to blow up abortion clinics. We're called to pray and protest and that should drive us to something. You guys remember the name William Wilberforce? Who was very instrumental in stopping the slave trade in our nation, Great Britain, very instrumental.

And there's a good movie about it. It took 30 years and William Wilberforce was so and rightly so, he was so upset at what had happened and he took action. You look at people in our nation or in the church, they take action and there's great ministries here, helping homeless or helping those who are abused in a women's home or men's sober living home and we're so mad at what the addiction has done.

We're so mad and we take that anger and then we allow it to drive us to do something. So that's one positive thing with righteous indignation, righteous anger, is if we see people being oppressed or being hurt, it should drive us to do something.

And that's what, I mean, can you imagine Jesus walks in and they are just taking advantage of everything that he stood for and everything God stands for and manipulating the people, making tons of money off the sacrifice.

And the sacrifice, remember, poor people could only afford doves and that would be the sacrifice. And here's another sermon, I just have to give nuggets, but the sacrificial system was a way to make atonement for the sins of the people.

A lot of people don't understand that, Shane, why killing doves and I'm not God, I don't really know. I'm not gonna, you know, there's a lot of things that I see in the Old Testament, I'm like, hmm, I'm not sure I would have did that, but I'm not gonna go to hell over a mystery.

You know, I've said that before, God's sovereign, he knows a lot more than I do. The Bible, it's in the errant word of God. But in his providence and his sovereignty, he said that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.

So people would have to bring their sacrifice to cover the sins of their family. And it was a temporary covering, a foreshadowing of Christ and him coming and being the ultimate sacrifice. So we see people coming to make the sacrifice, to make the atonement for their sins, and then people are ripping them off, taking advantage of it, it just really upset Jesus.

And he turned over their money, these tables, he drove them out with a whip, and we see this anger. So that's the setting here. But there's something interesting, I wanna, I don't think we've touched on this too much any time when I've taught in other places, I know I haven't, but we have a kind of a saying here, and I've said often that context is king.

Anytime you see a scripture, you wanna put it in context, because everybody from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump can take things out of context. And our president can take things out of context, and about the gun lobby or different things, and the gay agenda can take things out of, do not judge me, it says do not judge.

Well no, but then you keep reading, it says remove the plank from your eye, and then you can judge rightly. So we have to put everything in context with scripture, everything. So Jesus, when he said my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves, he's actually saying it is written.

He's going way back, 500, 600 years back into Jeremiah's time, the prophet Jeremiah. So let's put this little nugget of truth in context and where it came from, because Jesus is quoting Jeremiah. So many times when people say, and I kind of chuckle, we don't really need the Old Testament now, well Jesus quoted the Old Testament often.

He quoted Jeremiah here, he quoted Isaiah, and when he said well did Isaiah say, you hypocrites, you stiff-necked people, you draw nigh unto me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. He quotes Deuteronomy, he quotes Psalms, he quotes the Old Testament, it's very healthy to find yourself in both old and new, they complement each other.

Actually my Bible at home right now, I've got one book, I've got a bookmarker in Kings, I've got a bookmarker in Psalms, I've got a bookmarker in the Gospels, and I have a bookmarker in Acts, Romans, Acts, and read, and just keep going through that old, so it penetrates your heart, and you see it in so many different ways.

Jeremiah’s Call to Amend Our Ways

So let's look at what Jesus is quoting. Jeremiah, chapter seven, he said this, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word.

So in other words, he's saying, Jeremiah's saying come to the gate of the Lord's house, it's almost like what I'm doing here, from the pulpit, you're proclaiming what God says. And hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates, and you worship the Lord.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Basically saying fix your ways, fix your doings, they are not pleasing to God.

If you change your ways, then God said, you can dwell in this place, meaning the land of Israel, he'll bless the land, he'll bless the harvest, he'll bless the rain, he'll bless everything, if you amend your ways and change your ways.

Do not trust in these lying words, God is saying this, do not trust. He's saying, Jeremiah, tell the people, do not trust in these lying words. What are the lying words? Well, people are saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.

And we probably go, what? What is he talking about there? That doesn't make any sense. Well, it does, if you put this, again, in context. The children of Israel had a sense of entitlement. They were children of Abraham.

God's chosen people have a sense of entitlement. And we have to be careful there, because that can happen in the church, too. You know, I've been raised in a Christian home, I've been Baptist for four generations, or whatever it is, and we have the sense of entitlement.

And God is basically saying, listen, you're believing in lying words, you're swearing in the temple, we're trusting in the temple. And that's what it was. They trusted in the temple of God to be their shelter.

If they would remember, even, I don't remember how long ago it was, but about 18 miles north of where they're at, there was a place called Shiloh that actually housed the Ark of the Covenant. And that's pretty impressive.

When the Ark of the Covenant was present, God, there would be victories, people would be blessed. And God still judged that area because of their sins, even though the Ark was there. So these people are saying the same thing, the temple of the Lord, in other words, we don't have to change anything.

We can still reject God, we can still worship Baal, we can do all these things, and we can just say, but the temple, the temple, the temple of the Lord, we're blessed of God, we're children of Abraham.

That's the setting. And I was reminded that Christianity without obedience is like a car without an engine. It might look nice, but it's not going anywhere. They trusted in the temple versus in God and changing their way.

So God says, amend your ways. If there is no shame or conviction about standing in God's holy place, unwilling to obey him, something is wrong. We see that in churches a lot. People come in flippantly and they don't realize that we're here worshiping God.

And it's almost like, well, I'm just gonna come in and do God a favor. I'm gonna check church off my checklist. I went to church this week. And we don't wanna amend our ways and we don't wanna change.

We think going to church and hearing shame convict me is all I need. And that's not. God says, we need to amend our ways. And if there's no shame, if we're continuing in sin and we can come into the house of God without any shame, there's something wrong.

But if you read modern psychology today, they'll say, oh, shame's not good. People don't need to be shamed. You need to build up self-esteem. You need to build up worth. And of course you do. You need to build up somebody's self-worth and build them up.

But shame can be very good in this sense, if you look up the real definition of shame. It's a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by wrong or foolish behavior. So if I feel shame over a wrong behavior, that shame can lead me to repentance.

That shame can lead me to amend my ways, Jeremiah. So it's very healthy. And that's what he's saying to the people. They would walk into the temple of God and their ways were not pleasing to God. But they thought they had a sense of entitlement.

And if you've been a Christian a while, you know that that can creep in sometimes. I've been a Christian 20 years or I've been a Christian 30 years and I can know all the stuff. I've read that book and we have the sense of entitlement.

And what God says, listen, amend your ways and obey me. I like what commentator F .B. Huey said. So far as God was concerned, the temple was a den of robbers. Bandits often took refuge in caves in the Judean hills for protection until the pursuers gave up searching for them.

They would then emerge to commit other crimes. The temple had become the refuge for the people to perform rituals they believed freed them to continue their wicked practices. However, they were not deceiving God.

So the people would go out. They would not change anything. They would not amend their ways. Then they would come to the temple thinking God was pleased. And this happens a lot. This is what, if you've been coming a while, you hear me talk often about religion versus relationship.

There's a big difference. What religion does is they don't amend their ways. They have religion. And I'm gonna say something here unapologetically. It's gonna get me a few emails, but that's okay. We see this big time in Roman Catholicism.

I know, I used to be an altar boy. Went to a private Catholic school, so I know. It can be all about religion. I'm gonna go and tell the priest everything I did bad and then I'm gonna start to do everything bad again.

It's a form of, it was almost like confess right then, but I'm not gonna amend my ways. Confess right then, I'm not gonna amend my ways. So you see a lot of that in Roman Catholic homes and Protestants, of course, and all different, but mainly in those religions that focus on religion.

Okay, get right with the priest, pray to a saint, ask Mary to forgive you, and then you go back into not changing your ways. In other words, we think, okay, I can sin this week as long as I go to confession.

I can sin this week as long as I go to confession. And then they sit there and they actually take Holy Communion without changing. And that's a strong rebuke here, where no matter what part of Christianity we are a part of, it's a very strong rebuke to look at our ways and say, okay, Lord, are my ways pleasing to you?

Purity Clears the Way

And the title of the message, I guess I should have gave this at the beginning, is Purity Clears the Way. Purity clears the way. And what I mean by purity, I mean, if we took an opinion poll right now, many of you are thinking different things.

You're thinking sexual purity, or you're thinking pure before God, holy, and all those things are right. But purity really is, it's having the heart right before God. It's cleaning out the junk in the heart and having the heart right before God and coming and being able to worship him.

I like what Henry Howard said, of itself, this is key, of itself, purity is not power, but it clears the way. See, in and of itself, purity is not the power. The power is in God. The power is in the Holy Spirit working through us.

But purity clears the way. It's almost like the analogy I gave about a year ago, I think, is the water hose. Have you ever, you know, when a water hose is just kinked? A few years ago, you guys remember, I was playing outside with my son in the summer and he had the water hose on full blast.

And nothing, maybe a drip or two, he said, Dad, what's going on? The water, what's going on? There's a little drip. I have it all the way on. I said, here's, there's three problems. That one, that one, and that one.

Go undo the hose. And once he did, he almost couldn't hold it. It's just everywhere, squirting everywhere. Why? The kink in the hose. See, that's what purity does. When you say, Lord, I want to be holy and righteous before you, not perfect.

And I want to make that distinction too. We don't teach perfectionism where you can actually be perfect before you die. We know that we, but there's a big difference between a struggle and a lifestyle.

There's a big difference between a heart that's set on doing right before God. And purity, if you will, releases that hose. So now the water, now the power of God's spirit can flow through a person. And that purity, from that purity, it flows.

And it flows, and it flows, and it flows. Think about people in ministry. I mean, if they're bound in sin, are they gonna, is the power of God gonna be flowing through them? Or are they gonna regret it, and it's gonna be difficult, ministry's challenging, and this, and I just hate my life, and there's no power of God, I've never seen people get saved.

It's because there's a kink in the hose, possibly. There's a big kink in the hose. So of itself, purity is not power, but it clears the way. In obedience to God's word, it restores fellowship with God.

It restores heartfelt worship. The word of God comes alive. Joy and peace return, and a humble sinner is transformed. So any time people are struggling with, like, say, depression, and anxiety, and worry, and this and that, I always start at the spiritual side first.

There's physical things, too, that can happen. But tell me about your relationship with the Lord. Are you a bank? Because obedience, the byproduct of obedience is joy and peace, and you can't wait to get to church.

You can't wait to worship the word of God. I can't wait to get up and read this, or later tonight, because purity opened that door, and now you're receptive, and you want that. But when there's not, purity is not flowing, like that water hose, everything's closed off.

I don't wanna really read the Bible. I don't really have a passion for the things of God. I'm going, and often, it's tied to obedience. Not all the time. I'm well aware there's situations that happen.

There's very saintly people that struggle with these things. But always look at obedience first. Am I in a right relationship with God? Remember, we talked about this in the summer, too, with marriage, a lot of marriage issues.

You, when people are having marriage problems, it's very simple. You can say, tell me about your prayer and devotional life. 10 times out of 10, it's nonexistent. You will not get a husband and wife who are powerfully seeking God, broken and humble before God, in their word, and praying, and then always, and then now, we're gonna go to divorce court later on.

I haven't seen it. Maybe somebody has, but I haven't seen it. Why, because purity opens that door, and how can two people filled with the spirit of God make that type of decision? But see, if we're not looking to obeying God's word, and I just love that scripture so much where James says, be hearers of the word, and doers, because if you're hearers only, you're deceiving yourself.

And this topic's interesting because it will not win me a popularity contest, right? You're not gonna please everybody in the church by talking about obedience to God's word because most people, a lot of people don't like that.

Jeremiah’s Warning Against False Security

So that's the setting in Jeremiah, but then Jeremiah keeps going. God says, for if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, in other words, be fair, be balanced, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place and in this land that I gave to your fathers forever.

Behold, you trust in lying words. You trust in lying words, words that cannot profit. So he's telling the people, if you just amend your ways, treat people, we know what that is, to love God with all of our heart, to treat people.

If you just amend your ways and stop listening to these lying words, and this is also the time where Jeremiah would bring in, he would tell people about the false prophets, what was the main role of the false prophet?

They would tell people, peace, peace, and safety, when there's no peace, there's no safety, they're rejecting God, they're rebelling against God, God's judgment is about to fall, and the false prophets would come in and say, no, no, no, that's not happening.

God loves you, you're children of Abraham. Just continue doing what you're doing. Jeremiah says, those are lying words. That's one way to tell a false from a true teacher, is they will tell you things that hurt sometimes.

A false teacher, and we have to be careful, not everybody that does this is a false prophet or a false teacher, they just might not be in God's word and they're just trying to encourage. But a lot of times, you can tell a false prophet or a false teacher by what they encourage.

If they tell America or us to continue in our sin, that God doesn't care, that's a false teacher, that's a false spokesman for God. If they're telling him, telling people don't, like they actually have pastors for Planned Parenthood, the pastors that support that, that taking the life of an innocent child.

And those are lying, deceptive words. And they say, nothing will befall you, church, God loves, yes, he does love us, and thank you, but we have to amend our ways. God says, don't listen to lying words.

All you, it's very simple, do the words we're following or does the advice we're following, does it align with truth? Well, I don't know, well, you better spend some time in the truth to know if it aligns with truth.

Remember, it's interesting, some of you already know this, but how do they, do you know how they teach counterfeit bank tellers to find counterfeit money? They have them look at the original all day long and study the original, look at the texture, look at the underlying, the colors, look at the imprint of the original, that's how they spot a counterfeit.

You think, well, they just show them tons of counterfeit. No, they show them the original. And that's when you can know if lying words, if something is leading you in the right direction, does it line up with God's word?

So God's saying, you're trusting in lying words. That's still the context that Jesus was talking in or speaking about. Will you steal, will you murder, will you commit adultery, will you swear falsely, will you burn incense to Baal and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations.

Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the Lord. So that's the context. Jesus is going way back into Jeremiah's time and paralleling it with this time where he's at.

You're gonna do, and sometimes we just miss all of this stuff, you're gonna steal. So we know what stealing is, right? Stealing time, stealing money, taking advantage of people, being lazy. I think stealing from the government, stealing from the state, stealing in any way is stealing.

People love to rip off the government, rip off the state, rip off the church, rip off. They're stealing, they're taking advantage of people. What about adultery? Oh, well, I'm all good on that. Really, can I check your mind for the last week?

Because Jesus says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. If you even lust after someone who's not your spouse, you're committing adultery in your heart. Oh, now we're in trouble. And if we're not putting up safeguards, we are walking around committing adultery in our heart.

And I wonder how many in Christian homes at night, what they watch on television, they go to sleep with those images. And they're not taking those thoughts captive. And this perversion that's just permeating our culture, the sexual sin.

What about swearing falsely? It's lying, it's deceiving, it's manipulating, it's gossiping, it's slandering. That's in the church. Shane, come on, not this church. Oh, yeah, it's in the church. Lying and deceiving and manipulating and gossiping and slandering.

And God says, here's his exact words. And then you come and you stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these things. God says, that's a lie. You're believing lying words.

Amend your ways because my house will be called a house of prayer, a house of holiness, a house of righteousness, not a den of thieves. Very powerful context. And then he talks also about bell worship.

Idolatry, False Blessings, and Cultural Corruption

And this is very interesting. They would actually worship cows. Golden imam, what happened with Aaron, right? There's another king, I don't remember his name. I don't know if it's Asa or Manasseh or any, one of those kings would actually build, he was scared that the children, when the northern and southern tribes of Israel split up, he was worried that that tribe would then go to the other side.

So he built them altars for bell worship. And what bell worship is, it's they're thanking this whatever for the fertile soil, fertile soil for the rains and the harvest. Oh, bell, thank you, bell, thank you.

And it struck me, and I had to put this down as a side note. Just because there's an open door or a blessing, we can't assume that God is opening the door or blessing us unless our ways align with his word.

And I see that many times. God's blessing me. No, he's not, you're just working hard. God's blessing me. No, you just have a great marketing campaign. And have you ever thought the enemy might bless you?

To get you, because what was happening, the rain is coming, the wheat is growing, the harvest is in, and they go and worship bell. The bell, and they would make this calf. I won't tell you all the stuff they did, but it was terrible, bell worship.

And they talk about sacrificing their child to Molech. They would also sacrifice their children to Baal, this false god, because he's bringing the rain and he's bringing the wheat and the harvest. How misled, how utterly misled is this group of people?

But be careful, because just because there's an open door or just, man, Shane, I've just got a raise. I'm making so much more money. God is blessing me. I know I'm about ready to leave my wife and I haven't been in church, but God is, no, he's not.

He's not. There's something called capitalism in America that's made a lot of people very wealthy. That in and of itself can make people wealthy. So I think we wanna be careful here, because we can assume that any open door or any blessing is from God, and that's not always the case.

We have to make sure that our life amends, our ways line up with scripture. Then we can be assured that God might be blessing or he might be taking us through a difficult season. But I've seen many people make the mistake and think that God is blessing them just because they get a promotion or they get a big settlement or they get a big, another note here, I put a lottery or a family member passed away or whatever it is.

They think, okay, God's blessing me, and not necessarily. It could just be a good marketing plan or it could be timing, it could be coincidence. It's just life. I mean, how many wealthy CEOs do we know of looking at Fortune 500 companies who aren't Christians?

So we have to be careful in this area, because that's what the people are doing. That's bell worship, is they're worshiping this false God because of the provision that the real, true, and living God was giving them.

Now, I want you, this is interesting, parallel this to today, back then. Today, sexual immorality, unless you've been locked in a closet, is an epidemic. From homosexuality to heterosexuality to every kind of sex, it's just an epidemic.

It is perversion. We are a nation out of control. We are a nation perverted. It's perversion, and the word perversion really means to take what is straight and narrow and right, and you pervert it, you twist it, and that's what people are doing.

We also see, do we see now the worship of creation over the creator? Everybody's worried about Mother Earth, not Father God. But I also believe Christians should be some of the most, we should recycle, we should take care of the planet, leave it to our children, of course.

But you don't worship these things, and the new age, and all, I mean, the same thing, we're worshiping the creation, not the creator. And then the final thing, child sacrifice. It's the same thing. Oh, Shane, now you've lost us.

No, I'm not joking. You could, if you could watch just for a minute, what a partial birth abortion involves, or a saline abortion, where they inject saline solution into the mother and actually burn the child to death.

What's the difference? There's no difference. There's no difference. This culture parallels that culture to a T. We are worshiping false gods in our society, in the church. We are not calling people out of that lifestyle.

We're actually encouraging it by our silence, often. And God is saying, now hear God again, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations.

No, you're not. That's called heresy. That's hypocritical. So it's a good wake-up call for the church that the heart of God is that we amend our ways. And I think, this is speculation, but I believe that the babies that were offered back then were unplanned pregnancies, due to the decadence of society.

I mean, I don't know how a mother could just give her child to Molech or Bell. But if that child was unwanted, huh. Sound familiar? What do you think, a planned parenthood, what do you think funds these organizations and these groups?

Unwanted, I didn't plan on this. Well, it's not the child's fault. See, what people forget is, the conception of the child is not sin. That's not sin. That's a living child. Now, sin might have caused that, but that's not sin.

That's not, oops, that's a mistake. That's a life. And so people come into the church, and I've spoken this before, if you've had an abortion, and I encouraged my girlfriend 24 years ago to do this, and it still haunts me today, wondering how old my child would be, and boy or girl.

So I don't take away, I don't try to make anybody feel convicted whatsoever, but I do want you to be challenged. I want all of us to realize that we are a nation adrift, that we are a church that needs to amend our ways, and we need to talk about difficult topics.

We need to say that's wrong, but then we also need to offer hope and healing. See, there's a flip side to this, too. There's hope and healing in that. God can deliver. God can set you free, but you gotta turn it over to him in either way.

Amend your ways. Purity clears the way. Interesting book I try to read once a year. It's called Surviving the Anointing. It's by Davin Ravenhill. Many of you probably recognize his dad, Leonard Ravenhill, and I emailed Davin this week, and he sent me a few dozen copies of this book, and I bought some for the church if you're interested, mainly for leadership.

It's really good. Surviving the Anointing, and what it talks about is when God anoints a person to ministry, to preach, to pastor, to lead a ministry, children's ministry, worship, there's an anointing.

I don't know if you know. That's not a weird word. Anointing just means it's a special call of God on a person's life to do God's will. They are anointed to do God's will, and to survive that anointing is very difficult because the enemy comes in at many different ways, and so he writes about that in this book, and he said this.

Holiness as Spiritual Health

Holiness, holiness is spiritual health, and I never really thought about that, but it was, because we think of physical health, right? A person's healthy, but holiness, purity, is spiritual health. If you wanna know how you're doing spiritually, how are you doing in the area of purity and holiness?

That's spiritual health, and then he went on to say, if you hate something, if you absolutely hate something, there's no longer any real temptation, and that's a problem with sin often is we don't hate it like God hates it.

We don't see it like he sees it. We see it as, oh, my little vice. You know, I need to work on that. I was raised that way. It's gonna be difficult. It's gonna be challenging, but this little vice, we'll end up destroying eventually because it grows and it grows and it grows, so that's what God says.

Amend your ways, and purity opens the way. It clears the way. Here's a few scriptures on that issue of purity. First John 3 .3, and everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure, so he's saying here, everyone who has this hope fixed on him, do you have your hope fixed in Jesus Christ?

I don't know. Group this size, I don't know all of you. I don't know if you have your hope fixed on Jesus Christ. If not, I would encourage you. The best thing you can do is repent of your sin and say, Lord, I need you.

God, I need you, and have God save you, and then because of that, because I have this hope fixed on him, I purify myself just as he is pure. See, it's not just let go and let God. It's not all God. It's not all me.

It's where God says you do these things. You say no, and I'll do the rest, basically. As we submit to that purity, as we submit to that holiness, God fills us with his spirit. Matthew 5 .8, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

This is interesting, too, because a person who makes purity part of their lifestyle, who wants to focus on holiness, wants to please God, they know God in a more powerful way than most Christians do. This is why they're more sensitive to the things of God.

This is why they're more in tune with the things of God. This is why they love worship, why they love their word, why they might seem peculiar, because there's a deeper relationship that goes with following God.