Speaker 1: We are
Speaker 2: In our series, written in red, and we're talking about the revolutionary ideas of Jesus.
Speaker 2: Jesus is teaching the sermon on the Mount and he is beginning with these things that we call the beatitudes because every one of them begins with the word blessed are
Speaker 1: The we, uh, we,
Speaker 2: We, we know that Jesus has an audacious goal in with his life.
Speaker 2: His entire life's goal is to change the world forever.
Speaker 2: And his words, a leading the way we've said from the beginning, that words change worlds.
Speaker 2: And if you want to change the world that you live in, then change the words that you speak.
Speaker 2: And we've been talking through some of these words that Jesus spoken.
Speaker 2: I'm going to encourage you to read the words with me aloud today.
Speaker 2: We're going to join together in reading out all the be attitudes that we have covered thus far, and then we'll launch into, today's be attitude that we're going to break down.
Speaker 2: So Matthew chapter five, beginning in verse, number three, let's read together off the screens that said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 2: Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.
Speaker 2: Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.
Speaker 2: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.
Speaker 2: Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
Speaker 2: And then today we're going to talk about blessed are the pure in heart for, they shall see God,
Speaker 1: Praise God.
Speaker 2: We've been identifying terms.
Speaker 2: And so let's identify these terms.
Speaker 2: The word blessed here, hasn't changed from the very beginning to now, he's saying supremely blessed or happy or, or well off fortunate, will these people be blessed are the, and then he uses the term pure the word pure.
Speaker 2: There is the word we get cathartic from[inaudible] and the word cathartic means that something is good for us.
Speaker 2: It's it's helpful to us.
Speaker 2: In, in reality, it means to be cleaned out, to be, to, to flow like a river that has no obstructions to be pure.
Speaker 2: That it's unsoiled so blessed is the one who is unsoiled, who has physically or, or, um, um, conceptually clear and pure and flowing without any impurities in their life.
Speaker 2: And without any, any obstacles, stopping good things from flowing into their life and from their life.
Speaker 2: And then he says the word heart
Speaker 1: Pure in heart.
Speaker 1: And the word
Speaker 2: Heart is the word that we would get cardiac
Speaker 1: From it in our world.
Speaker 2: It means something to do with the physical heart.
Speaker 2: A cardiac experience would be one dealing with the physical heart, but in their world, they're talking about the center of one's being.
Speaker 2: So when in scripture, if they were to say something like, or if you were living in that time and they were to say something like, what is in your heart, they're not asking you how much plaque is built up in your arteries.
Speaker 2: They're asking you, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 2: What are, what is the trueness within you?
Speaker 2: What's what are you really thinking about that situation?
Speaker 2: What's what is in your heart?
Speaker 2: It's the center of thought.
Speaker 2: And then those who are pure in heart, what's the value that they receive, that Jesus is teaching us here.
Speaker 2: He says that they will see God.
Speaker 2: And this is not, this is talking about both seeing physically with one's eyes and also what we perceive, what we perceive.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you'll, you'll be talking to somebody and you'll see physically with your eyes, that they're smiling, that they looked happy.
Speaker 2: That everything seems good.
Speaker 2: You're hearing with your ears, that good things are happening there.
Speaker 2: They're not saying anything bad.
Speaker 2: They're saying good things.
Speaker 2: But when you walk away from the moment, I think something else is going on there.
Speaker 2: Something's not quite right.
Speaker 2: It's not that anything you saw with your eyes was wrong, but, but you've perceived that something isn't what it was suggested to be or what it appeared to be.
Speaker 2: Your perception is there.
Speaker 2: And so he is saying that those who are pure and heart will not only see God, but they will perceive God and the works of God in their life and around them.
Speaker 2: It, and it's in a unique sense.
Speaker 2: One that we don't have a, a clear English translation for it's the future continuous sense of the Greek language.
Speaker 2: And if we were to translate it more, literally it would say they shall be continuingly.
Speaker 2: Seeing God for themselves.
Speaker 2: They shall be continually seeing God for themselves.
Speaker 2: Those who are pure in heart will be continually seeing God for themselves.
Speaker 2: They will see God in the present.
Speaker 2: They will see God in the future.
Speaker 2: They are continually, it's an, it's an ever present reality that they will see God, but in order to get to that place in order to experience that we must be pure in heart.
Speaker 2: And this is a revolutionary concept in the time because everything about Israel at the time, everything about the Roman world at the time was all about living a double life.
Speaker 2: It was very common for people to be living a double life in order to get ahead, living by a double standard was kind of normal.
Speaker 2: If you will think about what Jesus talks about concerning the Pharisees, the Pharisees are a particular sect of Judaism, and they are a powerful group of people.
Speaker 2: Paul, the apostle was a Pharisee of Pharisees.
Speaker 2: He was kind of in the upper echelon of the fiercest tickle movement.
Speaker 2: And so here, here, Jesus is talking to Pharisees, who he has called at times, or will call at times whited, separate liquors, full of dead men's bones.
Speaker 2: What he means is they're really pretty on the outside, but on the inside, they're full of rot and they're full of negativity and they're not everything that they purport themselves to be.
Speaker 2: It's kind of, it's kind of nice on the outside, but kind of gross on the inside.
Speaker 2: That's what he's saying.
Speaker 2: And that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 2: They would pray on the outside on the street corner and say, aren't I I'm so thankful that you are so good to me.
Speaker 2: And that I'm so awesome.
Speaker 2: Lord, I'm paraphrasing that there is no word for the, there's no Greek word for awesome, that I'm aware of, but internally they were judgmental and hypocritical.
Speaker 2: And then you had the Sadducees, another sect of the Jewish world, and they were kind of the ruling party of Judaism.
Speaker 2: If you will.
Speaker 2: The chief priest was a Sadducee and many in the Sanhedrin, the ruling governing body of Judaism.
Speaker 2: They were Sadducees and they were a very powerful group of people.
Speaker 2: And they would say that they were anti Roman rule.
Speaker 2: They didn't like Roman rule.
Speaker 2: They didn't want to be ruled by Rome on one hand, but on the other hand, they would align themselves with Rome often in order to gain more power in order to gain more prestige.
Speaker 2: And so on one hand say, we want to be our own nation.
Speaker 2: We want to rule ourselves.
Speaker 2: We want to be our own people.
Speaker 2: But on the other hand, if it benefited them, they would align themselves with Rome and use Roman law to benefit themselves when they went even beyond the Jews because enrollment culture, double standards and, and so on were very natural.
Speaker 2: In fact, Rome was known for great corruption.
Speaker 2: Positions of government paid, literally nothing.
Speaker 2: You didn't get paid to be a governmental official for the most part in the Roman system, but Roman governors and the, those who ruled in Rome, those who held these positions would use those positions to, to enrich themselves on a regular basis.
Speaker 2: So they would spend great fortunes in order to get to these particular positions that paid no salaries.
Speaker 2: And they did it so that they could gain power.
Speaker 2: And by gaining power in their system, they would gain wealth.
Speaker 2: And that's, that was just normal in that day.
Speaker 2: May not be too far off from where we are today.
Speaker 2: They do what you gotta do to get ahead world and would crush down their, their, their morality.
Speaker 2: They would crush down their morals.
Speaker 2: They would do things that they may not even believe was right in order to just get ahead, because getting ahead was seen as right.
Speaker 2: And you think about some of the things we've already talked about, the level of cruelty that was in that world, that it was a very cruel world.
Speaker 2: And so people would do all kinds of manners of things against their, against their fellow man in order to enrich themselves or get themselves ahead.
Speaker 2: And here, Jesus is saying, no, it's the pure in heart that we'll see God, the pure in heart that we'll see God.
Speaker 2: Now we've been talking about grace that we've seen Jesus teaching throughout this entire lesson so far, and he's teaching grace throughout.
Speaker 2: And in this he's teaching grace achievement.
Speaker 2: You want to achieve something great.
Speaker 2: Be pure in heart, be pure in heart.
Speaker 2: And that went against everything that they would have known.
Speaker 2: And this is our big idea today, sincerely desire.
Speaker 2: What is right?
Speaker 2: And you'll receive what is best sincerely desire.
Speaker 2: What is right?
Speaker 2: And you'll receive what is best, because what is better than seeing God is better than seeing all mighty God at work in your life, having his presence in your life, having his power manifest through your life and having his potential laid out before your life.
Speaker 2: I don't care where you're at in life right now.
Speaker 2: I don't care how little you've done or how much you have done.
Speaker 2: If the Lord, God almighty is in your life than the potential of your life.
Speaker 2: Life is vast.
Speaker 2: It's vast everything.
Speaker 2: There, there is no limit to the potential that you have in your world right now, if God is working in you and through you, he can make you, he can make you greater than your natural strengths could ever achieve on their own.
Speaker 2: Can we say amen to that?
Speaker 2: Praise God.
Speaker 2: And so you get the best when you desire.
Speaker 2: What is right?
Speaker 2: Three thoughts for us today and thought, number one is this your intentions matter to God, your intentions.
Speaker 2: Matter to God.
Speaker 2: What's an intention.
Speaker 2: It's a, it's an aim.
Speaker 2: It's a desire.
Speaker 2: It's a plan.
Speaker 2: It's the thing that you are trying to accomplish as you are moving forward.
Speaker 2: Now throughout life, I have, I've said these words, I've tried to live these words and I've taught these words to my children.
Speaker 2: These words are do what is right, because it is right.
Speaker 2: It's a great motto to live by.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the only reason to do what's right is because it's the right thing to do.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it takes sacrifice.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's not the funnest thing to do.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's not going to bring great economic power because of it.
Speaker 2: But it's just the right thing to do, do it.
Speaker 2: But Jesus takes it to another level.
Speaker 2: When he says desire, what is right?
Speaker 2: Ooh, You see, my, my plan says, control your decisions or actions
Speaker 3: You want
Speaker 2: To do.
Speaker 2: What's wrong.
Speaker 2: Like Paul said, last week, you said, Hey, I know what's right.
Speaker 2: And yet I do what's wrong.
Speaker 2: Anyway, I know what's wrong.
Speaker 2: And yet I do it anyway.
Speaker 2: And, and what I'm saying is, Hey, control it.
Speaker 2: You, you know, what's right.
Speaker 2: So just do what is right by pure determination.
Speaker 2: And Jesus takes it to that next level and says, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: Don't just control your actions and your decisions, but control your desires and your intentions.
Speaker 2: Because if you control your desires and your intentions, you're not going to have to worry too much about your actions and your decisions because your intentions are what drives your actions, the things that you meant to do, or the things that you ultimately actually do.
Speaker 2: What's in your heart matters to God.
Speaker 2: The intentions of humanity have always mattered to God.
Speaker 2: Let's go all the way back to near the beginning of it all.
Speaker 2: It's after the fall of man and it's in Genesis chapter six, verse five, that the scripture tells us.
Speaker 2: And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
Speaker 2: And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil.
Speaker 2: Continually.
Speaker 2: Now that last phrase fascinates me.
Speaker 2: It fascinates me because it's well, it's a little bit of a tongue twister.
Speaker 2: Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Speaker 2: But what it's actually saying is the thoughts that he hasn't thought yet are already evil.
Speaker 3: How
Speaker 2: Can the thoughts that one hasn't thought yet already be evil?
Speaker 2: Continually?
Speaker 3: The only
Speaker 2: Way that can be is if the intention of the heart
Speaker 3: Is evil.
Speaker 2: And if that path that my heart is set upon is going to lead me to an evil conclusion, the intense and the thoughts of my heart.
Speaker 3: They are evil already.
Speaker 2: It's the intention behind the fault.
Speaker 2: And based upon this, God says to Noah, Hey, build an arc.
Speaker 2: I'm about to destroy all of humanity.
Speaker 2: And Noah gets to work building.
Speaker 2: God cared about the intention of the heart.
Speaker 2: Later on Abraham is traveling with his wife, Sarah and Sarah is beautiful.
Speaker 2: She's beautiful.
Speaker 2: And at this point she's close.
Speaker 2: If not 90 close to 90 years old, and she's still beautiful.
Speaker 2: She's so beautiful that Abraham says, you know, what's going to happen.
Speaker 2: We're going to get to this nation and everybody's going to see how pretty you are and they're going to want you.
Speaker 2: And so they're going to kill me to get you.
Speaker 2: And so for the second time in his life, he says to Sarah, when we get there, I'm going to introduce you as my sister, not as my wife, and maybe they won't
Speaker 3: Kill me in order to get you now.
Speaker 2: Sure enough.
Speaker 2: They get to the land.
Speaker 2: The King's name is a BIM aleck and a BIM, Alexi, Sarah.
Speaker 2: And he says, wow, she's pretty.
Speaker 2: And then he sees Abraham and says, wow, he's powerful.
Speaker 2: So if I marry this pretty lady, then I can have an Alliance with this powerful man.
Speaker 2: And so he takes Sarah to be his wife.
Speaker 2: And this looks like it's going right down the path that Abraham was afraid of, except Abraham's not going to die.
Speaker 2: Which Abraham is apparently happy about.
Speaker 2: But in a dream, God reveals the truth to a BIM aleck.
Speaker 2: And in the dream of[inaudible], God says to him like, this is not his wife, his sister, rather, this is his wife and a BIM like says, I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. Just like that.
Speaker 4: [inaudible]
Speaker 2: And then God said to him in the dream, yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart.
Speaker 2: And it was I who kept you from sending against me.
Speaker 2: Therefore I did not let you touch her.
Speaker 2: God said to him, like, I know that you didn't your intention.
Speaker 2: And this was right.
Speaker 2: And so I kept you from sin.
Speaker 2: This is a pagan King.
Speaker 2: This is not a Jehovah God following King.
Speaker 2: This is a pagan King.
Speaker 2: And because the intention of his heart was pure in this situation, God said, I'm not going to let you sin against me.
Speaker 2: I'm going to reveal to you where you've been wrong in a dream.
Speaker 2: And so God kept the BIM elect from sinning.
Speaker 2: Intentionality matters.
Speaker 2: Your intention matters.
Speaker 2: Your heart matters.
Speaker 2: Samuel, Samuel, the prophet, he's going to Jesse's house.
Speaker 2: God has said, listen, I'm going to taking Saul out of the King, out of the throne.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to put another person on the throne of Israel.
Speaker 2: And I want you to travel the Jessie's house.
Speaker 2: I don't want you to anoint the next King.
Speaker 2: So Samuel goes to Jesse's house and he's ready.
Speaker 2: He's got an oil ready.
Speaker 2: He's got, he's all.
Speaker 2: He's all, you know, he's ready to roll.
Speaker 2: And so he gets there and he says, Jesse, bring all your sons before me.
Speaker 2: And so Jesse does.
Speaker 2: And as the custom would dictate, he brings his first son ileal before him.
Speaker 2: It's his oldest and Samuel looks at Elee Abin i-lab is tall.
Speaker 2: And Ellie Abba's handsome.
Speaker 2: ULI AB is strong.
Speaker 2: And Samuel says, this has got to be the guy.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's got every sign of King ship on him right now.
Speaker 2: And, and, and God says, nah, this isn't the guy.
Speaker 2: And he says something that you and I have heard quoted.
Speaker 2: In fact, we're very grateful that God says this because the Lord said to Samuel don't judge by his appearance or height for, I have rejected him.
Speaker 2: The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them.
Speaker 2: People judge by outward appearance.
Speaker 2: But the Lord looks at the heart.
Speaker 2: Aren't you thankful that the Lord looks at your heart today and not your outward appearance.
Speaker 2: I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 2: He looks at the intention of our heart and when the heart was bad, judgment came.
Speaker 2: That's what we see in the flood.
Speaker 2: When the heart was good.
Speaker 2: In the case of Abimelech, there was a way of escape that was made.
Speaker 2: When choosing a leader, God didn't choose the one that looked like the leader.
Speaker 2: He chose one who later, he would say, this is a man after mine own heart.
Speaker 2: He's he's.
Speaker 2: He's one whose intentions are aligned with my intentions.
Speaker 2: His values are aligned with my values.
Speaker 2: Now you and I, all, we all know that David was a jacked up dude.
Speaker 2: And he made a lot of mistakes, but God said, listen, his intention was not to make the mistake.
Speaker 2: He did fail.
Speaker 2: But when he failed, I forgave him and each failure because his intention was good.
Speaker 2: Heart's intentions determine our response to correction.
Speaker 2: Remember all the way back to the first lesson.
Speaker 2: It says, the first work of the Holy spirit is conviction.
Speaker 2: It's where God says, Hey, you've done wrong.
Speaker 2: I'm getting your attention.
Speaker 2: You did wrong here.
Speaker 2: He's not condemning us.
Speaker 2: Condemnation would say, you are wrong and you can't get right.
Speaker 2: Conviction says you've done wrong.
Speaker 2: And here's how to get right.
Speaker 2: And remember when I just said that David messed up a lot of times.
Speaker 2: Well, every time that David was told, Hey, you messed up.
Speaker 2: We find David gone, forgive me, Lord, God, you find David falling on his knees and say, I have sinned.
Speaker 2: And I'm sorry, forgive me.
Speaker 2: He's consistently coming to God in repentance.
Speaker 2: And God has consistently forgiving him.
Speaker 2: It's how it works when our heart is right and honest, an honest mistake does not equal a permanent.
Speaker 2: And we are corrected through conviction.
Speaker 2: So you and I are walking along and we just, we do something that we shouldn't ought to done, which is a good Southern phrase that everybody should learn.
Speaker 2: And, and, and something just doesn't feel right in our heart until we go make that thing.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 2: When I was a kid, I was early teens or maybe just a pre in my pre-teens.
Speaker 2: Uh, there was a situation that happened at the church.
Speaker 2: And my Sunday school teacher said something that I challenged.
Speaker 2: I challenged him on it.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing I was right.
Speaker 2: I knew I was right.
Speaker 2: And he knew that I was right.
Speaker 2: And so I told him what I thought.
Speaker 2: I told him how, you know, what all to be.
Speaker 2: And, and that was, this was back in the day when we had Sunday morning services.
Speaker 2: And then he came back later for Sunday night services.
Speaker 2: And so that happened on Sunday morning during Sunday school.
Speaker 2: But all day long, something was just off.
Speaker 2: I just didn't feel right.
Speaker 2: Something was just eating at me.
Speaker 2: I just didn't.
Speaker 2: I didn't like the way I felt.
Speaker 2: I didn't like the way something was wrong.
Speaker 2: And I knew what it was.
Speaker 2: See, what I had said was right.
Speaker 2: Factually I was correct.
Speaker 2: And he was incorrect, but my attitude in the process was horrible.
Speaker 2: And so that night church is getting started and I just something's off in me.
Speaker 2: And I just can't seem to find peace with it.
Speaker 2: And, and I look around the crowd and look around the crowd until I see him.
Speaker 3: And I went to him and I said, I want, I'm gonna, I need to ask you for forgiveness.
Speaker 3: And he said, you know,
Speaker 2: I've been thinking about what you said this morning and you're,
Speaker 3: And I, when I know, I know I'm right, but my attitude is wrong.
Speaker 2: And I'm asking you to forgive me for my attitude.
Speaker 2: I could have even said the same thing
Speaker 3: With the right attitude.
Speaker 3: And I didn't have to say it in front of people.
Speaker 3: I could have gone to privately.
Speaker 3: And I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: He said, um, he said, um, I forgive you.
Speaker 2: And I'm going to ask you to forgive me for being wrong in
Speaker 3: That too.
Speaker 3: Now what's that
Speaker 2: That's conviction working in the heart of two people.
Speaker 2: And suddenly they come together and there's peace and there's harmony.
Speaker 2: And there's brotherly love.
Speaker 2: Even from somebody who's an adult.
Speaker 2: He could have been my father.
Speaker 2: I was friends with his children.
Speaker 2: And so he could have been my father.
Speaker 2: And yet he, he apologized humbly to me and I apologize humbly to him.
Speaker 2: Why?
Speaker 2: Because conviction was working in each,
Speaker 5: It corrected us
Speaker 2: An honest mistake.
Speaker 2: That's pointed out results in repentance while intentional sin results in a convenient excuse.
Speaker 2: The whole reason Samuel was at Jesse's house to anoint a new King is cause when Saul, the appointed King of Israel had made a mistake.
Speaker 2: He had done, he did something dumb.
Speaker 2: He did something he shouldn't have done.
Speaker 2: He was told to wait for Samuel.
Speaker 2: And he chose not to wait.
Speaker 2: And Samuel shows up and says, you know, you shouldn't have sacrificed.
Speaker 2: Those made those sacrifices yourself.
Speaker 2: You should have waited
Speaker 3: For me and saw,
Speaker 2: Instead of saying, I have sinned, I am sorry.
Speaker 3: Saul said,
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But see, you don't understand the whole thing.
Speaker 2: See, what had happened is these people were putting pressure over here and that situation was turning out like that.
Speaker 2: And this is over here.
Speaker 2: And he brought an excuse before the Lord, instead of repentance before the Lord, because he knew he had done wrong and he did not repent.
Speaker 2: He did not repent until God had already pronounced judgment on his life.
Speaker 3: And that brings us the thought number two, the reason
Speaker 2: Why God operates this way is because your heart leads the way your body won't go, where your heart hasn't gone.
Speaker 2: I'll say that again.
Speaker 2: Your body won't go where your heart hasn't gone.
Speaker 2: Jesus has a famous quote.
Speaker 2: Most of us have heard this.
Speaker 2: If you've been around the church world at all, for any length of time, Matthew six 21 for where your treasure is, there will there, your heart will be also what he's saying is if I find your treasure, I'll find your heart right there with it, wherever your treasure is there.
Speaker 2: Your heart is because your heart is going to direct
Speaker 3: Treasure.
Speaker 3: If you find,
Speaker 2: Find out what somebody truly cares about, you're going to find out what they're willing to spend money on, what they're willing to give resource to what they're willing to offer time for wherever your treasure is there.
Speaker 2: You'll also find the heart, but Jesus also links the intention of the heart to faithfulness in relationships, Matthew five 28.
Speaker 2: But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Speaker 2: He doesn't even say, if you commit adultery, he says, if you look at a woman with lustful intent, if you're the intention of your heart is to look at someone and, and bring self-gratification in one way or another,
Speaker 3: Then
Speaker 2: You've committed adultery in your heart.
Speaker 2: Now culture is working hard to remove all barriers from any kind of sexuality.
Speaker 2: And we're, we're really worried that the world is working hard to do that.
Speaker 2: We're saying that as long as people are consenting adults, almost anything is okay, and I'm being careful because I know we have children in the room, so I'm not going to say it as directly as I would normally say it.
Speaker 2: And we love the fact that we have children's room, but, but, but the, the, even the world draws kind of a dotted line.
Speaker 2: If you will, at this thing called adultery, we still say cheating is not good.
Speaker 2: Now maybe it may be, it's a personal choice.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a lifestyle concept, but it's still, it's still, you know, everything else is acceptable.
Speaker 2: That still has a dotted line of maybe we shouldn't go there, but Jesus says, now, if the intention of your heart is to look upon somebody with the, with the idea of bringing self gratification,
Speaker 3: That's wrong,
Speaker 2: You've already sinned.
Speaker 2: And if that is true and I can't argue with Jesus, then it knocks out all that other stuff all by itself.
Speaker 3: No
Speaker 2: That other stuff can be okay.
Speaker 2: If just looking with that heart intent is already sinful.
Speaker 2: Maybe this is why Solomon, the wise man wrote this to his kids.
Speaker 2: I'm reading an ad.
Speaker 2: The Young's literal translation.
Speaker 2: He says above every charge, keep thy heart for out of it are the outgoings of life or as your heart goes, so goes your life.
Speaker 2: There's never been an affair yet on planet earth.
Speaker 2: That didn't begin with a heart issue before it became a body issue.
Speaker 3: That is good preaching, pastor Micah, good job.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you just got to encourage yourself in the Lord.
Speaker 2: Hallelujah.
Speaker 2: Here's the problem that every one of us face, our hearts are not naturally pure.
Speaker 3: We do think bad thoughts.
Speaker 3: Some of you all are thinking bad thoughts right now.
Speaker 2: I wish he'd get off this subject.
Speaker 2: We do tend to look out for it
Speaker 3: Ourselves.
Speaker 3: What's what's in this for me.
Speaker 2: What, what do I get out of this situation?
Speaker 2: We do look at others with the intent of feeding selfish desires.
Speaker 2: Now we're talking about looking on a woman with lust, with the intent to lust, but it could be looking at someone with the intent.
Speaker 2: How can they, how can they bring me gain looking at somebody?
Speaker 2: How, what can I get out of them?
Speaker 2: Looking at somebody and saying, how can they benefit me while I give them the least amount for myself?
Speaker 3: It's the same principle.
Speaker 2: Jeremiah wrote this.
Speaker 2: He said, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Speaker 2: No one can really know it.
Speaker 2: You can't even understand your own heart.
Speaker 2: And yet Jesus says, it's the pure in heart that we'll see God.
Speaker 2: So once again, it seems like Jesus is asking us to hit the unhittable Mark, reach the unreachable goal in order to achieve this thing that we all desire, we all want, but it seems like there's no possible way that we could actually get there.
Speaker 2: And without the work of the Holy spirit, that's exactly what Jesus is doing.
Speaker 2: But with the work of the Holy spirit, you and I can have a pure heart.
Speaker 2: We can live within a pure heart, according to the scripture.
Speaker 2: And I can say amen to that.
Speaker 2: Myself.
Speaker 2: Peter gives us some powerful words of hope.
Speaker 2: See, Paul had returned from a missions trip and on this missions trip, a bunch of Gentiles had been saved.
Speaker 2: I'm grateful for that because I am a Gentile.
Speaker 2: Most of us in this room are Gentiles.
Speaker 2: And so a bunch of Gentiles had been saved.
Speaker 2: Now Paul comes back to Jerusalem and he's sitting with the elders and they're discussing whether or not these Gentiles have to Jewish law before they can be fully part of this new church.
Speaker 2: This, this movement called the way at the time.
Speaker 2: And one of the big things is if they've going to be part of it, they have to be circumcised.
Speaker 2: And so the Jewish elders are saying that the church elders are saying, Hey, listen, do we require these Gentiles to be circumcised before they can be fully part of this thing that we're part of called the church or the way.
Speaker 2: And, and there's a lot of contention going on back and forth.
Speaker 2: A lot of disagreement going on back and forth something.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: And some saying no way.
Speaker 2: Now Peter stands up Peter and Paul do not always get along in scripture.
Speaker 2: We have a, we have a space, a place in scripture where the Bible tells us that Paul gets in Peter's grill and says, you're being a hypocrite.
Speaker 2: And Peter backs down from Paul.
Speaker 2: And in this case, we see Peter stand up and defensive Paul, and this is what he writes.
Speaker 2: This gives you hope in me.
Speaker 2: Hope today acts 15, seven says Peter Rose up and said to them, God chose among us.
Speaker 2: That by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the words of the gospel.
Speaker 2: I believe.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 2: He's saying I'm the one who God used to first preach the new estimate, covenant of salvation to Gentiles.
Speaker 2: And they believed, and they were saved.
Speaker 2: You know, this happened.
Speaker 2: We were all on the same page with this back when I taught, preached to Cornelius.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 2: And so that's what he's saying to them.
Speaker 2: Then he says, verse eight.
Speaker 2: So God key phrase, who knows the heart.
Speaker 2: Maya said, nobody can know the heart fully wicked.
Speaker 2: No man can know it.
Speaker 2: Peter says, so God not man.
Speaker 2: Who knows the heart, acknowledge them, the tiles by giving them the Holy spirit, just like he did to us, the Jews who've been circumcised, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 2: And made no distinction between us and them.
Speaker 2: What did he do?
Speaker 2: He purified there heart by faith.
Speaker 2: The heart that was unpure, the heart that was deceitfully wicked.
Speaker 2: The heart that could do no good thing was purified by faith.
Speaker 2: When you were saved, when I was saved, your deceitful heart was purified by God.
Speaker 2: The heart that could never be worthy of seeing God was purified and made worthy to see God, that is what he did for you.
Speaker 2: That is what he did for me.
Speaker 2: The pure in heart are those who are walking in the work of the Holy spirit in their lives that are working, walking in the work of salvation in their lives.
Speaker 2: So a man Noah's own heart, but God does know his heart.
Speaker 2: He knows that it's desperately wicked.
Speaker 2: But when the Holy spirit comes into a life, the impure heart is purified.
Speaker 2: And before salvation, your heart lead you into destruction every time and all the time.
Speaker 2: But after salvation, your heart can lead you in the way in the path that is continually seeing
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 3: I praise the Lord for that today.
Speaker 3: That brings us to thought number three,
Speaker 2: That are pure heart leads to open eyes, leads to open eyes.
Speaker 3: When you live with a heart purified by the Holy spirit, you can
Speaker 2: Continually be seeing God in your work in your world, both with your physical eyes and with what you perceive
Speaker 3: The eyes
Speaker 2: Of your understanding.
Speaker 2: If I was going to use King James English, I would say the eyes of your understanding
Speaker 3: We're opened and you see him on display.
Speaker 3: You see him on display in nature.
Speaker 2: I love nature.
Speaker 2: I love being out in nature.
Speaker 2: I love looking out over vistas and seeing a display of nature.
Speaker 2: I even like it in my house where, you know, right now it's still cooler in the morning.
Speaker 2: So I'll turn on the heater and I'll turn on the fireplace.
Speaker 2: And then I open all the windows so that I can hear the birds.
Speaker 3: It's just a beautiful
Speaker 2: Sound.
Speaker 2: Everybody upstairs is cooking, but I'm feeling good.
Speaker 3: It's I just,
Speaker 2: I love the sound and the smells of the earth becoming a thawing out from the winter.
Speaker 2: And I can't wait to see the buds on the trees and I just love it.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 2: And I see God's hand at work in those things in daily interactions, you're going along with your day and something just aligns properly.
Speaker 2: I've had people testify, man.
Speaker 2: I was praying God, I'm late.
Speaker 2: I need a good parking spot.
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden I got a parking spot right by the door.
Speaker 2: Now, if that's the extent of God's work in your life, we need to talk,
Speaker 3: But
Speaker 2: I'm not discounting that work in your life.
Speaker 2: Sometimes God just does cool little things like that.
Speaker 2: I think he cares about those things.
Speaker 2: Daily interactions with somebody.
Speaker 2: Suddenly you have a moment with somebody where you're able to speak a word of faith or a word of encouragement into their world.
Speaker 2: And it changes something.
Speaker 2: How about business
Speaker 3: Business?
Speaker 3: When
Speaker 2: I've had people throughout business people throughout this whole pandemic, it tell me how things that should not have happened, did happen.
Speaker 2: And their business is going to be okay.
Speaker 2: They're going to survive because things that shouldn't have occurred did occur.
Speaker 2: And they just see God's hand at work in their life.
Speaker 2: I think about the organization truth at work.
Speaker 2: And I see guys and ladies that are business people around our community, getting together and not only learning how to do business as Christian business people, but also sharing testimonies of what God is doing and their business.
Speaker 2: It's a, it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: How about the common things like the life of a child ever see, ever hear a kid?
Speaker 2: Just lose it, laughing.
Speaker 2: You can't help, but smile.
Speaker 2: You can't help, but be joyful in it.
Speaker 2: I see the hand of God there.
Speaker 2: And even in the extraordinary things that could only be described as a miracle by our world.
Speaker 2: We're aware of his presence at work.
Speaker 2: When the Holy spirit is working in us, when there's a purity of heart, suddenly you become sensitized to his work in your life and around you.
Speaker 2: And so you have testimonies of his grace and his goodness and his power.
Speaker 2: They spring up around you in hard times, hard times come don't they, you can't get away from the fact that hard times will come, but you'll end up looking at those hard times and saying, look what the Lord has done.
Speaker 2: We used to sing a song when I was a kid.
Speaker 2: We'd say, look what the Lord has done.
Speaker 2: Doom doom do look what the Lord has done.
Speaker 2: He healed my body.
Speaker 2: He touched my mind.
Speaker 2: He saved me just in time and I'm going to praise his name.
Speaker 2: Oh, y'all not ready for it.
Speaker 4: [inaudible]
Speaker 2: Look what the Lord has done.
Speaker 2: And when your life is through, Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2: You're not going to see him.
Speaker 2: As you perceive, you're going to see him with your eyes.
Speaker 2: You're going to stand before him.
Speaker 2: And you're going to hear well done.
Speaker 2: My good had faithful servant inter there in, into the joy of the Lord.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the pure in heart
Speaker 2: In 1961, Russian cosmonaut, Yuri.
Speaker 2: He was the first person to circumnavigate the earth in space.
Speaker 2: And after circling the earth, this Russian astronaut said, I opened up the window and I looked, I looked and looked and I could not see God anywhere could not see him anywhere.
Speaker 2: But he really wasn't looking for God.
Speaker 2: In fact, he was making a statement for the communist state who in fact said that there was no God, the state was God.
Speaker 2: And so this brilliant scientist, this cosmonaut
Speaker 6: Could not see what little Louie could see.
Speaker 6: Little Louie was a friend of mine growing up.
Speaker 6: And he's still a friend of mine today, but we called him little Louie because his dad's name was Louis as well.
Speaker 6: And he was a junior and he, well, he was littler than his dad.
Speaker 6: So he was little Louie and little Louie had had a brain injury whenever he was young.
Speaker 6: And so he grew up, uh, maturing, not like everybody else.
Speaker 6: He couldn't see, like everybody else could see.
Speaker 6: He struggled with his vision.
Speaker 6: He struggled with his balance.
Speaker 6: Uh, he would never be able to live alone.
Speaker 6: He was always going to be cared for.
Speaker 6: And he, he, he kind of stopped maturing at a certain point in life.
Speaker 6: And so Louie got a lot of things wrong when we were kids, but he didn't always know that he got them wrong because his development was such one night.
Speaker 6: We were we're at prayer meeting on a Friday night.
Speaker 6: And he was sitting there with his mom and everybody was praying.
Speaker 6: Nobody was on the stage.
Speaker 6: Everybody's just out in the sanctuary praying.
Speaker 6: And his mom looked up and Louie was doing this.
Speaker 6: And she said, Louie, stop.
Speaker 6: I talked to his parents this week just to confirm that I had the story, right.
Speaker 6: She said, Louie stop.
Speaker 6: So he put his hand down a little while later, she looked up again and Louie was gone.
Speaker 6: She said, Louie, who are you wave at?
Speaker 6: He said, I'm waving at the guy on the plot, on the stage.
Speaker 6: And she looked up and she said, Louis, there isn't anybody up there.
Speaker 6: And Louie said, yes, there is.
Speaker 6: He's a tall guy.
Speaker 6: He's wearing a white robe.
Speaker 6: His name is Jesus.
Speaker 6: And he's waving and smiling at me.
Speaker 6: Movie was called blessed then by the majority of this world.
Speaker 6: But while URI was the enemy of many leading the world in space, exploration, technology and science, little Louie was looking into a world beyond what a space ship could ever discover.
Speaker 6: He was waving and smiling at the one who sits at the right hand of the father.
Speaker 6: The one who created everything that you re was discovered.
Speaker 6: Why?
Speaker 6: Because God doesn't look at what's on the outside of you and me, but blessed are the pure in heart for, they shall see God, would you bow your heads with, I don't know where you are right now in your relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 6: Maybe you've never allowed him to be your Lord and savior.
Speaker 6: That's the case.
Speaker 6: Then you need the Holy Spirit's work in your life to be able to do what we're talking about today.
Speaker 6: And I want to ask you, I'm pleading with you.
Speaker 6: I'm reaching for you.
Speaker 6: There is more to life than what you can see right now.
Speaker 6: You can't get there on your own.
Speaker 6: Your eyes cannot see your senses cannot perceive what is out there without the work of the Holy spirit in you.
Speaker 6: So we're going to pray right now.
Speaker 6: And the scripture tells us that we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, that we shall be saved.
Speaker 6: And we begin that journey with him by allowing him to be our Lord and savior.
Speaker 6: So I want to pray together.
Speaker 6: Everybody pray aloud so that nobody has to pray alone.
Speaker 6: I mean, if you've never allowed him to be your Lord and savior, do it right now and let the eyes of your understanding be enlightened so that you can see, see, you can see all that life has for you.
Speaker 6: Life in Christ.
Speaker 6: Jesus let's pray together.
Speaker 6: Lord Jesus.
Speaker 6: I love you.
Speaker 6: I believe that you live, that you died and that you Rose again for me.
Speaker 6: I believe that to you are the Lord and savior of my life.
Speaker 6: So today I repent of all my sin.
Speaker 6: Anything, that's this pleased you.
Speaker 6: I turn away from it and I turn to you be my Lord and savior.
Speaker 6: I accept you today.
Speaker 6: And from this day forward, I am your child and you are my God in Jesus name.
Speaker 6: Amen.
Speaker 6: Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 6: For what you're doing in this house right now.
Speaker 6: Thank you for lives.
Speaker 6: Being changed.
Speaker 6: Hearts being touched and eyes being opened.
Speaker 6: Thank you for allowing somebody judged less than by the world to see your face.
Speaker 6: Let us see your face and perceive your presence in our life.
Speaker 6: You're working on life today in Jesus' name.
Speaker 6: And if that's your prayer, would you just say amen?