Make Room: A Heartfelt Plea for Holiness

In one paragraph

Pastor Ray picked up a multi-week journey through 2 Corinthians, working through the unit of 6:11 through 7:4 and connecting it to Old Testament passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. The central question was what it actually means to be "unequally yoked," and whether the familiar way of preaching that passage is really what Paul was after. The sermon moved between that hard call to holiness and...

Read together

1. Deuteronomy 22:6-12 read aloud as the passage picked up from the previous week, covering bird nests, parapets, mixed seed, mixed plowing animals, wool and linen, and tassels
2. Leviticus 19:15-19 read as the first telling of similar laws, including loving your neighbor and not mixing cattle breeds, seed kinds, or garment materials
3. 2 Corinthians 6:11-13 identified as where the previous week's sermon ended, Paul's open-hearted appeal to the Corinthians to widen their hearts
4. 2 Corinthians 6:14-16 the unequally yoked passage with five rhetorical questions about righteousness and lawlessness, light and darkness, Christ and Belial, believer and unbeliever, temple and idols
5. 2 Corinthians 7:1 strong imperative to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God
6. 2 Corinthians 7:2-4 the second heartfelt plea, Paul saying make room in your hearts, we wronged no one, I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction
7. Matthew 11:28-30 used as the benediction, Jesus inviting the weary to take his yoke and find rest because his yoke is easy and his burden is light

Talk about it

1. Bobby Daily said that taking a young woman in without prayer first was a mistake, and that it has to be a serious commitment where you share your life and your Lord with someone. What does that kind of commitment look like in practice, and what would it take for you to consider something like it?
2. Pastor Ray said that when we hear the Old Testament purity laws about mixed fabrics or mixed breeding, they sound completely bizarre to us today, but that they were God's way of setting apart a holy people meant to be a light to the nations. How do you think about the parts of Scripture that don't immediately make sense to you?
3. Pastor Ray argued that 'do not be unequally yoked' is not primarily about who you marry or go into business with, but about the affections and systems you tie yourself to, saying that the Corinthians were 'completely occupied by their own affections' for money, fame, sports, and other things. What affections or patterns in your own life might this be speaking to?
4. The Seinfeld clip showed a man who called himself a Christian but whose girlfriend had no idea he was one until she heard his radio presets. Pastor Ray said Putty had no holy portion that was different from Elaine's because he was doing all the same things she was. What do you think it looks like, practically, to live in a way that is noticeably different without just retreating into a holy huddle?
5. Pastor Ray closed with Jesus saying 'my yoke is easy and my burden is light,' and asked what it would be like to live a sinless life and how light that burden would feel. What would it actually mean for you this week to trade the weight of your current affections for that yoke?