S2 EP8: Blessed & Pure

Welcome to the Thirst with Hunger podcast with Pastor Sandy Edwards, where we destroy every obstacle that hinders people from knowing God. Here you'll be challenged, encouraged, and equipped to pursue his presence, walk in truth, and live with bold faith. Let's dive in.

Hello, hello, hello, And welcome back to another episode of the Thirst with Hunger podcast. I am so looking forward to digging deep into this episode today, but before we do, I just want to say that I am so excited about a few different things that are coming this month, and that is My book More Than a Song releases on August 31st, 2026, and I am so excited about it because it is the full entire story of how God has formed, has delivered, has healed me from things that I thought was impossible to heal from. Okay. I never thought I would be free. I never thought that my mind would be free. I never thought that my body would be free. And God has done it. I didn't think it would do anybody any justice for me to talk about all the things dealing with healing and all the things dealing with how God delivered me and choices I made and how those things affected my entire life. I didn't think it would do any justice to keep my mouth closed about the very thing that God has used to form what you all get to experience as Thirst With Hunger. I have sat with my manuscript probably much longer than I should have, and that is because I just thought— I was like, God, you know, Is there another way that I can share this? Is there another way that I could tell the details? Like, why do you want me to say it like that? Like, why do you want me to share it like this? And I'm all for laying down my life and loving not my own life even unto death, because we often forget the second part of that scripture in Revelation about they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony, and they love not their own lives. Even unto the death. And for me, I love not my own life, even unto the death. So that means if I have to expose certain parts of my life in order for other people to experience Christ, then that's what I will do. If that's what God is requiring, that's what I will do. And that's what I did. And I'm so excited to put this resource into your hands, and I'm so excited for what God is gonna do. with this offering that has been raised to him. And also, in other news, Holy Yearning, our 12-week self-paced course, is open to join the waitlist before it goes public. And so when you join the waitlist, you'll get first dibs on when it's open and all of that stuff, and it will be open permanently for good for anybody to take for anybody to engage with. We also have soul care sessions coming with me personally where you can work one-on-one with me, and I'm excited and looking forward to that. We also have our private community inside of Thirst with Hunger is launching. Okay, it is launching, launching, launching. If you want to learn more about Thirst with Hunger and all that we have going on Go to thirstwithhunger.com, go to thirstwithhunger.institute, become an email subscriber, and all of the things so you can stay plugged in to all that we have going on. And so we're going to hop right into today's topic about Matthew chapter 5, verse 8, and Mark chapter 7, verse 20.

23.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 8. And we've walked through Matthew chapter 5, verse 1 through 7, and we've talked about why did Jesus start here and how the Beatitudes are about us in our life that we live with Christ, how we live and function in our soul with Christ. Okay, and today's verse is very, very near and dear to my heart. It's another one that's just very special because I find that in the Christian church and in our Christian communities and things like that, when we talk about purity, we always talk about abstaining from sex before marriage, or we talk about modesty and how you dress. But again, before holiness becomes external, it has to be internal, right? Before purity becomes external, it has to be internal. Again, the soul and the spirit work together to make one whole person in Christ. So Matthew 5:8, it says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. For they shall see God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. See God. For some of us, that can be the most convicting sentence that we've read in scripture, or it can be one that sets you free.

Right.

And so Jesus does not leave this idea of what it means to be pure in heart undefined, right? He, he later tells us in Mark chapter 7, verse 20 through 23, about what purity in heart really means, and he lists out these things that hinder us from being pure in heart. And so in Mark chapter 7, we see Jesus paint this picture of the religious leaders. They had confronted Jesus because his disciples ate without hand washing, right? Without washing their hands. And their whole framework was that purity has to be external. The religious leaders of Jesus' day were trying to say that every spiritual thing must be external— what touches you, what you eat, And how you wash your hands and all of that stuff. And then Jesus, you know, dismantles this idea that purity is external by saying this in Mark 7:20-23. It says, and he said, what comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed Evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness— all these evil things come from within and defile a man. All these evil things come from within And defile a man. So here is Jesus saying, "Uh uh uh uh! You got it. You guys got it all wrong. You think that purity of heart should be represented on the outside. You think that what you do on the outside makes you more holy. You think that the sin you don't." exposed to others that you're committing in private is, is hidden, and it, it makes you more holy than other people because you don't wear those things on the outside. And that's what Jesus came against. So remember, as I've said in many different episodes that we've had here at Thirst with Hunger, that you really need to make sure you're reading the Bible as a whole, not cherry-picking scriptures. Because it's very easy to use Matthew 5:8 and say that purity in the external doesn't matter, right? And just to say, well, only if you're pure in heart you'll see God. But what Jesus is saying here, right, in Mark chapter 7, verse 20 through 23, what he's saying here is that what comes out of a man is what defiles him. Right? What's in your heart is what defiles you, not the external stuff. And this is why it's very dangerous to believe that the only thing that matters when it comes to your salvation is what you do externally. But it does no good for you to do good things externally when inwardly you are wicked, when inwardly you are full of deceit, when inwardly you have an evil eye. Inwardly you are full of blasphemy. Inwardly you are full of pride. Inwardly you are full of foolishness. Inwardly you are an adulterer. Inwardly you are a fornicator. Inwardly you are a murderer. You are a thief. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man. So not only do these things Defile you, but it's hard for you to see God. And I'm a person who I take what the scripture says for what it says. So if Matthew 5:8 tells me, and Jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, that means what I need to do when I see that, and if I discover in my life that it is hard for me to see God in any area, I need to check my level of purity, right? Because he says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. What's the requirement to see God? To be pure in heart. And pure in heart doesn't mean I'm without flaws. Again, I'm gonna say it again, pure in heart does not mean I am without flaws. Pure in heart means that I am running down the checklist that Jesus gives in Mark 7:20-23 to make sure that there are no evil thoughts, no adulteries, no fornications, right? No covetousness, no wickedness, no deceit, no lewdness, an evil eye, no blasphemy, no pride, no foolishness in me. So that I can see God. And if any of these things are in me, I now have a responsibility to repent so that I can see God. It's very simple. And the issue is that within the context of our Christian communities, we've been taught that it's not that simple, that I don't need to just repent, I need to—

Repent.

Throw pity parties over the fact that I discovered that I have evil thoughts and adulteries and fornications and all these other things going on in my heart, when all Jesus said to do was repent. And repent means to change your mind, to turn the other way, to run back towards the Lord. You can't see God if you don't repent. He made it very simple for us, but we are the ones who have been indoctrinated to believe that these things are complicated. When Jesus taught the disciples the Beatitudes, they turned around and lived it after he taught it to them. And you have to start looking and reading your Bible Asking yourself how they were able to live these things out after he taught them. He taught them this one sermon and they went and practiced it. They didn't get it right all the time, right? They, they weren't flawless, but they went and they practiced it, and nobody came and added to what Jesus said. Nobody came and made it more difficult for them to follow what Jesus said. They just simply did what Jesus told them to do and how he told them to live. Were they flawless? No, but they did their best by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit that dwelled on the inside of them and upon them for power and for works. To live how Jesus said to live. So when you read Matthew 5, verse 8, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, your next responsibility is, if you're finding it hard to see God, is going through the list that Jesus listed in Mark chapter 7, verse 20 through 23, and examining yourself to find out if there's any of this in you. Because if we sit it right next to this thing that we love to say, which is, I can't hear God, I can't hear God, it's so hard to hear God— well, then examine yourself with Mark chapter 7, verse 22 through 23. Because seeing God and hearing him require you to be pure in heart. They require you to be pure in heart. So maybe if you're having such a hard time hearing God, or if you're having such a hard time seeing God, you need to go through the checklist and ask the Lord. I'm talking about within your own self, within your own time with him, asking him. Do I have any evil thoughts? Have I committed adultery in any area of my life? Am I a fornicator? Do I have any covetousness in me? Do I have any wickedness in me? Am I full of deceit? Is there any pride in me? Is there any foolishness in me? And Jesus, he calls all of these things evil, and he says that these are the things that defile you. He named it specifically. He didn't leave questions. Every single one of those things happens on the inside of us. So blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I want us to slow down just a little bit and think about the word deceit in Mark 7:20-23. Think about that word deceit. It means crafty.

Cunning.

It dresses up something to look like something that it's not. And when Jesus is talking about purity, he's talking about something that is undivided, unmixed, one mind, soundness of mind.

Right.

Your heart doesn't become full of deceit by accident. Your heart becomes full of deceit by deceiving yourself first and then trying to manage your reputation externally in front of others. And this is the issue that Jesus had With the Pharisees is that they were so focused on trying to be pure on the outside. They thought that their works on the outside is what made them pure and holy before God, and Jesus came and shut it all down. So if we look at Mark chapter 7 and see how it moves, right? In that verse, evil thoughts lead to what? Deceit. Deceit then covers pride, and then pride covers whatever else is going on that's evil. And that could be envy, jealousy, covetousness. One little seed of deceit makes room for the rest. And we have to start understanding that none of the deceit, none of the lies, none of the pride requires you to do anything that is external to have it in your heart. And you can be doing all the right things on the outside. You can be going to church. You can be posting all the Christian scriptures and writing all of the Christian blogs and doing all the Christian things to do, right? You can be practicing the word of God in areas that you feel comfortable practicing the word of God and cherry-picking scriptures, and you could be doing all of that, right? But on the inside God can see your heart that is full of wickedness and covetousness and comparison and jealousy and envy and strife and pride. He sees it. And we love to say things like, God knows my heart, only God knows my heart. But the word of God tells us what our heart really is like without Christ. Jeremiah 17:9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Notice the language here— desperately wicked. You and I, without the power of the Holy Spirit, Without Christ, without the blood of Jesus, our hearts are desperately wicked. That means your heart in its natural state wants to pursue what? Wickedness. So this whole, he knows my heart— he does, and he knows that it's desperately wicked without him. This is why you cannot Try to be pure in heart on the external, because the external things don't have a soul. The external does not have a soul; only the internal does. And your soul is composed of your mind, your will, and your emotions. The external acts that you do do not have a soul. The internal works that you do have a soul, and it is where your soul is lived from. This is why people can live— and I've been there— people can live a double life and don't feel any conviction, because your external does not have a soul. It is not living. Your internal is. So you can do external works, you can do external exploits, you can do things that look like God, sound like God, act like God, but on the inside still be full of deceit and wickedness. Because your internal is where your life is lived, not the external. The only way that the external life Matches the internal life. It's when your soul and spirit work together to make one whole person in Christ. And the reason that the body of Christ has such a hard time with this is because we separate the two. We hide our internal life Because we feel like the external one is more holy. What we do on the outside is more holy, but they are both supposed to work together. They're both supposed to work together. If you're placing more emphasis on your external life than you are the internal soul salvation, That you are supposed to be working out with fear and trembling, then there's going to be a disconnect because they're supposed to work together. It's not enough to just say God knows your heart, and he knows it. He knows that without him you are desperately wicked. He knows that without him you will pursue every wicked thing. He knows that without him You will be deceived. It doesn't just say that your heart is desperately wicked in Jeremiah 17:9. It says that your heart is deceitful above all things. All things, not some. All things, that your heart is deceitful. Your heart is deceitful. Your heart is deceitful. above all things, meaning that if you want to be deceived and you already want to believe something, you will believe it. It is only because of Christ and the Holy Spirit that we can be led into all truth. Without Christ, your heart is desperately wicked. You will pursue wickedness. You will be full of covetousness. You will be wicked. You will Be jealous and full of envy. You will do the the thing that you're not supposed to do because again, your external works, your external works don't have a soul. They don't have a soul. They don't have a soul. They do not have a soul. Only your internal. Notice what Jesus says: Blessed are the pure in heart. Heart, heart, heart. He doesn't say blessed are the ones who know all the scriptures. He doesn't say blessed are the ones who go to church every Sunday. He doesn't say blessed are the ones who do all the right things. He doesn't say blessed are the ones who say all the right things. He doesn't say blessed are the ones who, who can recite and memorize all the scriptures. He doesn't say blessed are the ones who went to seminary school. He doesn't say blessed are the ones who went here and did this and did missionary trips and all of this other stuff. He doesn't say that. He said blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So yeah, your external works, they're all good. If you're doing all the things that, that God says to do and you're loving people and all of the stuff, that's great. But what God is more concerned about is, are you pure in heart? Because there are people who don't know Christ. Let me make it really plain for you. There are people who do not know Christ who are good people, and they love people, and they give to the poor, and they travel to third world countries, and they Give money and they build wells for, for fresh water and all of that stuff. There are people who don't know Christ, who don't live for Christ at all, don't know him at all, and they, they are good people and they give to the poor. But good people can go to hell too. If they're not saved, Jesus isn't Lord over their life. Good people can go to hell too. Good people can go to hell too. Blessed are the pure in heart, not blessed are the ones Who do all the right things externally? Your soul and your spirit are supposed to work together to make one whole person in Christ. You can lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie in public and put on a show, show, show, show, show, show, show, show. In public. But if your internal life is not first in agreement with God, in alignment with him, and pure in heart, it's going to be hard for you to see God. And you will have a hard time seeing the Lord. You will have a hard time pressing through. And I am not talking about suffering. Right? Because it's very easy to take what I'm saying and think that I'm saying that when you suffering, it's because you're not pure in heart. For some, that is true. Okay, for some, that is true. But what I am speaking about here is when you have all of these things that Jesus is talking about, Mark chapter 7:20-23, Mark chapter 7:20-23, when he lists out all of these things Is any of that in you? And that's why you're having a hard time seeing God. That's why you're having a hard time hearing God. That's why you're having a hard time receiving the breakthrough, because what God is after is these things that are in your heart. So if you got any of it in your heart, the first question isn't to ask, what am I doing wrong? The first question is to go to the word of God and find out If any of these things are in you, find out if any of these things are in you to repent for them so that you can see God. Repentance leads to purity in heart. Forgiveness leads to purity in heart. Being free of bitterness leads to purity in heart. So that you can see God, so that you can see God. So you can't try to make your heart pure. By doing good things, if your heart is deceitful, right? Jeremiah already said it. Because your heart is deceitful above all things, then that means the purity and the resolve has to come from outside of your own resources. It can't be something you reach within yourself and try to do on your own. In Ezekiel 36. Verse 26, it says, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Notice the very language that God is using here in his word in Ezekiel 36:26. I will give you a new heart. Why would we need a new heart if the heart that we had was good enough? If the heart that you had was not desperately wicked, and if the heart that you had was not deceitful above all things, why would God say that he's going to give you a new one? And if the spirit that you had Was the Holy Spirit. And if the spirit that you had was a spirit of God, then why would he say that he's going to put a new spirit within you? If the heart that you had and the spirit that you had was going to lead you into purity, then why would God say that he's going to give you a new heart? And he's going to put a new spirit within you. And notice the very next line. He says, "I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh." I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh. This means that. The heart that you had prior to Christ and the heart that some of us still wrestle with while we're in Christ is hardened. It is a hardened heart. And again, you can do external things with a hard heart. There are people who don't know Christ who do good external works. There are people who do know Christ That do good external works, but their heart is hardened. They give to the poor, but internally, in their relationship with God, they are full of pride, full of deceit. And as I said again, your external works do not have a soul, only the internal. This is why Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, not the ones who do good works. So God is the one, through Christ, who takes what deceit built and gives you something that was never, never gonna be something you can produce on your own. It's not about achieving morals. It's not about moral behavior. It's not about making your life look so good on the outside. This is why I'm not a fan of pretending and lying. Some of us will be free if we stop lying. Some of us will be free if we stop lying. Some of us will actually experience purity in heart if we stop lying. To ourselves, which is also deception, self-deception, where you lie to yourself about circumstances, situations, and try to make it seem like something that it's not. That's, that's lying. That's not purity in heart. That's wickedness. And some of us can be free from the darkness because we're strengthening the arms of the darkness by lying. That's participation in the darkness. When you lie, you're doing nothing but strengthening the darkness. So purity of heart is not about having good morals. It's about your internal life being in agreement with God, your heart being in agreement with God, having that heart of flesh before the Lord, being sensitive and open to his correction, open to his righteousness, open to his will, open to his way. So I asked the question today to get you in a— to help you get in a position to really be pure in heart before the Lord, not externally with other people, because I think we focus too much on trying to make sure we handle our relationships with other people right.

Right.

Some of us are good at handling our relationships with other people really well, but it's that internal life that will have your soul still landing in hell because you full of pride. And God doesn't want any of us to perish, but some of us, we're going to because we focus so much on the external that we not allowing God to deal with the internal. And the Bible doesn't say work out your own soul salvation. With fear and trembling, so that you can do all the great things in the world. It says in Philippians 2:12, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear And trembling, with fear and trembling, work it out. Work it out. Work out your own soul salvation with fear and trembling. With fear and trembling. And then Philippians 2:13, the very next line says, for it is God who works in you both to To will and to do for his good pleasure. For his good pleasure. For his good pleasure. For his good pleasure. So I want to ask you, where has deceit Made a home in you? Does deceit and wickedness of any kind have a home in you? Are you explaining the sin instead of confessing so that you may be healed? What does your internal life look like? What does your heart look like? What's really in your heart? Because we, we make these confessions and we say things like, I just want to be holy, I want to be holy, I want to be holy, I want to be holy. But how you gonna be holy when what's in your heart is full of wickedness? What's in your heart is full of covetousness. What's in your heart is full of jealousy, envy, and strife, and every evil work. How are you gonna be holy when when what's in your heart has made your heart hardened? And now's not the time to be pretending like it's not there. We actually have to make a decision to, to bring our hearts to Christ and do it over and over again. Allow him to examine our hearts over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Over and over again, every single day. Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties, and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. That needs to be our prayer every day. The Holy Spirit, one of his responsibilities is to lead us Into all, not some truth. All, not some. So if I'm really filled with the Holy Spirit, how how am I deceived? How is there any deceit in my heart if the Holy Spirit is also living within me? That means somewhere I'm not allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me into all truth. And all of us have a responsibility to examine ourselves in the Lord, not just the pastors and the leaders of your churches. Not just the pastors and the leaders online, and not just the people who teach and preach or lead in any capacity, but all of us. It doesn't say pastors, you are the only ones who have to work out your own soul salvation with fear and trembling in Philippians 2:13. 12, 13, and 14. It doesn't say that. It says work out your own soul salvation. That, that doesn't have an age requirement. It doesn't have an office requirement. It doesn't have a spiritual gift requirement. All of us are supposed to be working out our own soul salvation with fear and trembling. So may God, through his Holy Spirit, examine your heart. May you really allow the Lord to look deep into your heart and go through all the things that is happening in your heart to set you free, so that your soul and your spirit can work together to make you one whole person in Christ. God bless you.

Thank you for listening to the Thirst with Hunger podcast. We truly appreciate you joining us on this journey. Your support makes it all possible. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our channel, hit the like button, and leave a comment below with your thoughts.