WEBVTT 00:00:06.168 --> 00:00:11.336 Tonight we're talking on verse Matthew 5.8, that we've been in this series called Blessed. 00:00:11.336 --> 00:00:20.211 So we've been going through the Beatitudes, each one so Matthew 5.8 is blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. 00:00:20.211 --> 00:00:27.443 And over the past weeks we've been in this series called Blessed and so we've been hearing about being blessed. 00:00:27.443 --> 00:00:38.774 This kind of person is blessed and that kind of person is blessed, and so you know, it's really easy to get into our churchish, religious kind of thing doing. 00:00:38.774 --> 00:00:41.026 Well, this person is blessed and we get all religious about it. 00:00:41.026 --> 00:00:51.392 So I want to get very real and I want to ask you a very real question tonight have you ever felt like you just weren't spiritual enough to be blessed? 00:00:51.392 --> 00:01:00.868 I mean, if you just forget everybody else around you and just ask yourself do I really feel like I'm spiritual enough to be blessed? 00:01:00.868 --> 00:01:06.504 It's kind of like you're trying to have all the attitudes and the beatitudes and you just don't measure up. 00:01:06.504 --> 00:01:08.248 You know what I'm talking about. 00:01:08.248 --> 00:01:10.724 Am I the only one here that ever feels that way? 00:01:10.724 --> 00:01:21.311 Well, we're going to talk about that a little bit tonight from the perspective of one particular attitude, and that's in Matthew 5.8. 00:01:21.311 --> 00:01:24.326 And so let me kind of set the stage for this verse. 00:01:24.326 --> 00:01:58.147 The book of Matthew starts out with the genealogy of Jesus and then the birth, and then he just kind of leaves out a whole chunk of Jesus growing up, and the next time we hear about him in Matthew is he's being baptized by John the Baptist, and then he goes from there to the wilderness and he goes 40 days of fasting with temptation, and it's then that Jesus launches his ministry and he goes from down in the southern part of Israel up to the northern part, and the northern part was Galilee. 00:01:58.147 --> 00:02:04.472 And so Galilee was kind of like the other side of the tracks for Israel. 00:02:04.472 --> 00:02:14.554 It was this you know, that was where you found the poor, you found the working class, the people who were overlooked, the people who everybody else looked down on. 00:02:14.554 --> 00:02:20.413 You know, you might remember a verse where one of the Pharisees says does anything good ever come out of Nazareth? 00:02:20.413 --> 00:02:21.840 Well, nazareth was in Galilee. 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:23.326 That's that kind of attitude. 00:02:23.326 --> 00:02:26.382 Nazareth Well, nazareth was in Galilee. 00:02:26.382 --> 00:02:27.163 That's that kind of attitude. 00:02:27.163 --> 00:02:27.865 So that's where Jesus begins. 00:02:27.865 --> 00:02:30.169 His ministry is in this area called Galilee, up in north Israel. 00:02:31.532 --> 00:02:49.806 And the people who are hearing him, they're the common people, like I said, they're the working class, they're the disregard, they are not the religious elite, and Jesus has one central message that he's declaring to everybody, and you need to get this. 00:02:49.806 --> 00:02:55.449 This is Jesus' central message Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 00:02:55.449 --> 00:03:07.566 But to elaborate on that just a little bit repent, change your mind, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, it's here and now, it's not just in the future. 00:03:07.566 --> 00:03:14.151 Now, these people were not expecting to be included in anything that God was doing. 00:03:14.151 --> 00:03:15.133 These are the down and out. 00:03:15.133 --> 00:03:18.069 These are the one that everybody looks down on, and they know that they're not blessed. 00:03:18.069 --> 00:03:23.512 But Jesus turns to them and begins declaring who really is truly blessed. 00:03:23.512 --> 00:03:30.829 And so then he begins talking about the Beatitudes, and each Beatitude has three primary parts. 00:03:30.829 --> 00:03:34.281 So there's the declaration blessed are. 00:03:34.281 --> 00:03:38.248 There's the type of person the pure in heart. 00:03:38.248 --> 00:03:42.783 And then there's the promise or result, for they will see God. 00:03:42.783 --> 00:03:48.502 And so tonight we're focusing on blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 00:03:48.502 --> 00:03:57.731 Now, before we look at pure in heart or they will see God, we need to understand why Jesus' use of the word blessed probably shocked everybody. 00:04:01.140 --> 00:04:16.475 In the Jewish culture, blessing was tied to outward, visible signs, things like material wealth, good health, power and status, public righteousness, religious role, like Pharisees, sadducees, scribes, those type of people. 00:04:16.475 --> 00:04:23.834 If somebody looked successful or they looked very religiously successful, you know they were doing it right. 00:04:23.834 --> 00:04:26.521 The people assumed that God was clearly with them. 00:04:26.521 --> 00:04:28.608 God wasn't with anybody else. 00:04:28.608 --> 00:04:30.471 Those were the people who were blessed. 00:04:30.471 --> 00:04:35.166 Jesus was redefining what blessing was. 00:04:35.166 --> 00:04:46.394 Now the Greek word for blessing and I'm sure you've heard this in every other teaching to put it simply means happy. 00:04:46.394 --> 00:04:53.548 But you know you can have some nuances, some additional understanding to the word. 00:04:53.548 --> 00:05:06.940 So the reason that it's happy is because you're deeply favored by God, you're spiritually flourishing, you're possessing joy and peace, regardless of circumstances. 00:05:06.940 --> 00:05:12.853 Those are the kinds of things that are inherent in that word blessed, happy. 00:05:13.939 --> 00:05:15.964 And so Jesus is just flipping the script. 00:05:15.964 --> 00:05:20.423 He's saying blessing isn't based on what you have or how good you look externally. 00:05:20.423 --> 00:05:25.254 It's about who you're in relationship with and what's happening internally. 00:05:25.254 --> 00:05:29.204 Now, jesus wasn't just being kind. 00:05:29.204 --> 00:05:32.333 He wasn't just like okay, guys, you don't feel. 00:05:32.333 --> 00:05:34.105 I know you think bad about you. 00:05:34.105 --> 00:05:35.649 Let me just encourage you a little bit more. 00:05:35.649 --> 00:05:37.302 He wasn't just being kind. 00:05:37.302 --> 00:05:40.271 He was actually announcing the true values of the kingdom. 00:05:40.271 --> 00:05:43.545 In fact, that's what the whole Sermon on the Mount is about. 00:05:43.545 --> 00:05:47.646 What does it mean to be a citizen in the kingdom of God. 00:05:47.646 --> 00:05:51.880 That's the entire Sermon on the Mount, and this is just one little piece of it. 00:05:52.562 --> 00:05:57.942 And so the people who are hearing this, they're the ones who are down and out, spiritually overlooked. 00:05:57.942 --> 00:06:11.333 And Jesus is confronting that idea that blessing is earned or proven by success and instead the kingdom, in his kingdom, the poor in spirit are blessed, those who mourn are blessed, the pure in heart are blessed. 00:06:11.333 --> 00:06:17.773 Jesus was saying you think you're far from God, but you're the very ones that he calls blessed. 00:06:17.773 --> 00:06:24.312 And so that's the first part of the verse Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 00:06:24.312 --> 00:06:28.430 Jesus is describing the pure in heart as the people who are blessed. 00:06:28.430 --> 00:06:34.232 So what is this blessing that the pure in heart are going to get, that they're going to receive? 00:06:34.232 --> 00:06:36.687 Well, it says they will see God. 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:48.483 Now there's a lot of different words in Greek that can be translated as see, and the most literal definition for it is to see with the eyes, the physical act of seeing. 00:06:48.483 --> 00:06:53.586 But there's also a figurative definition to perceive and to understand. 00:06:53.586 --> 00:06:54.870 It's kind of like what we do in English. 00:06:54.870 --> 00:07:00.512 You know, I can explain something and I say do you see I'm not talking about. 00:07:00.512 --> 00:07:04.088 Can you see the words that have no form in front of you? 00:07:04.088 --> 00:07:16.935 It's not about do you understand and it's no different in Greek and there's even a spiritual connotation to it to recognize relationally, as in knowing, or experientially to experience. 00:07:16.935 --> 00:07:29.730 So in the context of this verse for they will see, god is not about literally, physically seeing, it's about understanding, knowing and experiencing. 00:07:29.730 --> 00:07:33.790 So that kind of changes that part around too. 00:07:33.790 --> 00:07:37.891 It's about understanding, knowing and experiencing it in the here and now. 00:07:38.379 --> 00:07:41.524 Remember Jesus' central message repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. 00:07:41.524 --> 00:07:45.190 It's here and now, for the kingdom of God is at hand, it's here and now. 00:07:45.190 --> 00:07:55.882 So Jesus is talking about a relational, spiritual and experientially knowing God, something that begins now and continues on forever. 00:07:55.882 --> 00:07:58.526 You know, in Revelation 22.4, it says we're going to see him face to face. 00:07:58.526 --> 00:08:00.670 But what does it mean for the here and now? 00:08:00.670 --> 00:08:03.274 Well, we get to experience his presence. 00:08:03.274 --> 00:08:08.694 We get to experience his guidance through situations sometimes and that can happen in a lot of different ways. 00:08:08.694 --> 00:08:13.004 We get to experience his conviction to keep us morally on the right path. 00:08:13.004 --> 00:08:23.249 We receive comfort from him and honestly, we can know him in prayer and in the word and in worship and obedience. 00:08:23.249 --> 00:08:32.773 There's so many different ways we get to encounter God and he's basically saying that we walk in intimate relationship with him. 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:36.629 So this whole thing, they shall see God. 00:08:36.629 --> 00:08:39.408 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 00:08:39.408 --> 00:08:52.015 The pure in heart get to know and experience God and have God as your companion and as your guide and as your God and as your servant. 00:08:52.015 --> 00:09:01.114 And because these are all characteristics, when you start looking through the Bible and you look at all the names of God that come out of his character, he was humble. 00:09:01.114 --> 00:09:03.826 He humbled himself even to the point of the cross. 00:09:03.826 --> 00:09:04.910 That's in Philippians. 00:09:04.910 --> 00:09:13.190 Jehovah Jireh, our provider, jehovah Rapha, our healer, all of these different names of God that we see through the Bible. 00:09:13.190 --> 00:09:16.789 They are descriptions of who we get to walk with. 00:09:21.144 --> 00:09:22.831 So now here's the key question. 00:09:22.831 --> 00:09:25.849 This is where I go from teaching to meddling a little bit. 00:09:25.849 --> 00:09:29.730 Do you really feel like you're experiencing God this way? 00:09:29.730 --> 00:09:35.471 Maybe you're thinking like I've done for or did for a long time. 00:09:35.471 --> 00:09:38.570 I keep being obedient, but I'm just not feeling it. 00:09:38.570 --> 00:09:42.005 I must not be blessed, I'm not doing something right. 00:09:42.005 --> 00:09:53.168 You know, there's some kind of standard that I'm not meeting because I'm not really sensing God in my life, so blessed are the pure in heart. 00:09:53.168 --> 00:09:54.466 What does that really mean? 00:09:54.466 --> 00:10:07.433 If pure in heart means I get to know and experience God in my everyday life in a very real way, then what does it mean to be pure in heart? 00:10:07.433 --> 00:10:18.851 Well, heart in this verse I mean, we know heart is the thing that pumps our blood, but in this context, the heart is talking about the center of our being. 00:10:18.851 --> 00:10:24.392 It's who we are, at our core, how we think, how we feel about things. 00:10:24.392 --> 00:10:28.791 It's our moral center, the place that we make our decisions from. 00:10:28.791 --> 00:10:34.110 It's how we decide whether we're going to choose right or choose wrong. 00:10:34.110 --> 00:10:41.291 You could say it's our mind, our will and our emotions all rolled up. 00:10:41.291 --> 00:10:43.514 That's the heart. 00:10:44.421 --> 00:10:48.672 So the word for pure, kotharos that's the Greek word. 00:10:48.672 --> 00:10:51.205 I'm probably mispronouncing it, but that's what it looks like to me. 00:10:51.205 --> 00:10:56.485 Kotharos means clean, unmixed or innocent. 00:10:56.485 --> 00:11:00.878 Blessed are the clean in heart which we would expect. 00:11:00.878 --> 00:11:02.283 It's translated pure, right. 00:11:02.283 --> 00:11:04.331 Pure means there's nothing, there's no bad stuff mixed in it, it's all expect. 00:11:04.331 --> 00:11:04.874 It's translated pure, right. 00:11:04.874 --> 00:11:08.125 Pure means there's no bad stuff mixed in it, it's all clean, it's all pure. 00:11:08.539 --> 00:11:28.793 And that's what the word pure, so clean in our very soul, clean down to the core of our being, and that is kind of a hard standard to measure up to and our temptation is to say, well, I get to experience as much of God as that bit. 00:11:28.793 --> 00:11:34.352 The level of pureness that I have is the level of how much I get to experience God. 00:11:34.352 --> 00:11:49.410 And one of the things that people that I am guilty of and people that I know are guilty of is we is, even though we give really good lip service to, oh, jesus has made me righteous, his blood has made me clean. 00:11:49.410 --> 00:11:53.063 I'm sinless In real, practical, down-to-earth life. 00:11:53.063 --> 00:11:56.937 We live this life thinking, oh, I've got to be better. 00:11:56.937 --> 00:11:59.601 I've got to be better because I want to experience God and man. 00:11:59.601 --> 00:12:01.966 I'm just not experiencing God, so I must not be measuring up. 00:12:01.966 --> 00:12:02.687 I got to do more. 00:12:02.687 --> 00:12:12.450 And it's this works mentality that holds us in this bondage of trying to always measure up and we lose our freedom in Christ to it. 00:12:12.450 --> 00:12:16.750 So I want to talk a little more about what pure means. 00:12:16.750 --> 00:12:27.322 It's not about reaching a standard, and there's some really good verses over in the book of John that help us to understand. 00:12:28.303 --> 00:12:36.196 In John 15, verse 3, I'll give you a little more about this. 00:12:36.196 --> 00:12:47.654 In John 15, jesus is talking to the disciples right before he goes to the cross, and the whole first half of John 15 is about abiding in Christ. 00:12:47.654 --> 00:12:52.671 He says Abide in me and I in you, for without me you can't do anything. 00:12:52.671 --> 00:12:56.509 And so the whole thing is about abiding in Christ. 00:12:56.509 --> 00:13:09.548 John 15, 3, he tells the disciples Now you are clean through the word that I've spoken to you, that word clean, katharos it's that same word that's used over pure in heart. 00:13:09.548 --> 00:13:13.725 So now you're clean, now you're pure through the word that I've spoken to you. 00:13:13.725 --> 00:13:16.331 Well, what word is he talking about? 00:13:16.331 --> 00:13:18.284 What is this magic word that makes them clean? 00:13:18.284 --> 00:13:23.524 It wasn't a snap, remember this is right before Jesus goes to the cross. 00:13:23.524 --> 00:13:29.025 That means there's three years prior that the disciples have been living with Jesus. 00:13:29.025 --> 00:13:41.325 They had been eating with Jesus, they had been talking with Jesus, they had heard Jesus teaching them personally, teaching the crowds, and Jesus was demonstrating the teaching. 00:13:41.325 --> 00:13:43.128 He was showing how to live it out. 00:13:43.128 --> 00:13:46.453 That's the word that he had been. 00:13:46.900 --> 00:13:48.648 And where did Jesus' teachings come from? 00:13:48.648 --> 00:13:50.916 Neil, you talk about this. 00:13:50.916 --> 00:13:54.024 Where did Jesus' teachings come from the Father? 00:13:54.024 --> 00:13:55.988 Via the Old Testament. 00:13:55.988 --> 00:14:09.296 Right, that was the scriptures that he always referred to, and even the structure of the Beatitudes is shown forth in the Psalms, that whole structure. 00:14:09.296 --> 00:14:13.552 And when you start looking at it it's pretty amazing, and I don't have time to chase that rabbit. 00:14:13.552 --> 00:14:22.173 Jesus is teaching out of the Old Testament, but he's not just teaching law out of the Old Testament. 00:14:22.173 --> 00:14:24.869 He's showing what life in the kingdom means. 00:14:25.900 --> 00:14:31.413 And in his teaching the disciples are being cleaned up. 00:14:31.413 --> 00:14:34.985 That's the word. 00:14:34.985 --> 00:14:38.028 So now, how does this apply to us? 00:14:38.028 --> 00:14:39.306 How did it do its cleaning? 00:14:40.402 --> 00:14:47.331 Well, john 15, 1 and 2 says I'm the true vine and my father is the vinedresser. 00:14:47.331 --> 00:14:56.692 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. 00:14:56.692 --> 00:15:01.812 Guess what the word for prunes is Kothros. 00:15:01.812 --> 00:15:08.613 It's the verb form of the same word for pure or clean. 00:15:08.613 --> 00:15:23.171 Basically, you say every branch that does bear fruit, he cleans it up, he cuts it back, he does what's necessary to make it even more fruitful, to increase the life in and through that branch. 00:15:23.171 --> 00:15:25.235 That's pure. 00:15:25.235 --> 00:15:32.572 It's not about whether the branch measures up to whether it can connect to the vine or not. 00:15:32.572 --> 00:15:42.851 No, it's connected to the vine and it just in being connected, then he is part of the vine that the Father takes care of and tends to. 00:15:42.851 --> 00:15:51.172 All the branch has to do is be connected and all the life from the vine flows into that branch. 00:15:51.172 --> 00:15:54.509 All the life that flows into the branch bears the fruit. 00:15:54.509 --> 00:15:59.104 It's not work, it's life. 00:16:00.126 --> 00:16:00.950 Do you hear the difference? 00:16:00.950 --> 00:16:09.808 Purity is not achieved through effort, it's achieved through abiding in Christ. 00:16:09.808 --> 00:16:14.591 We become pure by staying close, not by trying harder. 00:16:14.591 --> 00:16:20.210 So the real question is how do we abide in Christ? 00:16:20.210 --> 00:16:27.168 Well, we spend time in the Word, but you know what I was told from. 00:16:27.308 --> 00:16:29.966 I grew up on the cradle roll, if you have ever heard that term. 00:16:29.966 --> 00:16:37.240 From the time that I was born, as soon as I was old enough to be in church, I was in church Every Sunday morning, sunday night, wednesday night, all the time. 00:16:37.240 --> 00:16:49.376 You know my life, you know I was in the church youth group and I was told all through that time got to read your Bible every day, got to read your Bible every day, got to read your Bible and I would read my Bible and nothing. 00:16:49.376 --> 00:16:51.062 Okay, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. 00:16:51.062 --> 00:16:53.947 I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. 00:16:53.947 --> 00:16:58.586 There is a type of duty that we seem to think that we have to do to read the Bible. 00:16:58.586 --> 00:17:00.350 We need to read the Bible. 00:17:00.350 --> 00:17:01.212 That's very true. 00:17:01.212 --> 00:17:08.912 But we're not reading the Bible to fulfill and check a box, saying, okay, I did this, so now I measured up. 00:17:08.932 --> 00:17:12.061 No, the Bible is one of the ways that we encounter Jesus. 00:17:12.061 --> 00:17:14.891 That's why it's part of abiding. 00:17:14.891 --> 00:17:18.480 In fact, it's one of the foundational ways that we abide in Christ. 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:20.546 But it's not about checking off a box. 00:17:20.546 --> 00:17:24.673 It's about when we read the scripture. 00:17:24.673 --> 00:17:27.941 You know, oh God, let me encounter you today. 00:17:27.941 --> 00:17:32.810 In fact, I'll challenge you Every time you sit down to read your Bible. 00:17:32.810 --> 00:17:38.790 Don't try to make it happen, don't put any work into this at all, just pray this prayer God. 00:17:38.790 --> 00:17:44.311 Let me encounter you today, jesus, let me encounter you and don't elaborate. 00:17:44.311 --> 00:17:50.892 Make it simple and then don't try to do it. 00:17:50.892 --> 00:17:52.550 Let God do it. 00:17:52.550 --> 00:17:54.336 Okay. 00:17:54.336 --> 00:17:58.505 And prayer you know I grew up hearing. 00:17:58.505 --> 00:17:59.145 You got to pray. 00:17:59.145 --> 00:18:02.221 You need to pray If you're going to be close to Jesus. 00:18:02.221 --> 00:18:02.844 You got to pray. 00:18:02.844 --> 00:18:07.384 But prayer is not about checking off a box and measuring up. 00:18:07.384 --> 00:18:11.964 Prayer is about conversation with God. 00:18:11.964 --> 00:18:15.136 You know we don't. 00:18:16.359 --> 00:18:22.358 I grew up in, you know, and my grandparents were Christians too, and my grandfather, you know. 00:18:22.358 --> 00:18:23.742 In time we had a family get-together. 00:18:23.742 --> 00:18:36.163 He had a way of praying and it had these and thous in it and that's okay, and he was very real. 00:18:36.163 --> 00:18:38.622 That was just the language that he used. 00:18:38.622 --> 00:18:40.019 That's what he grew up with. 00:18:40.019 --> 00:18:46.402 It's not about how you say it, it's about what's in your heart. 00:18:46.402 --> 00:18:54.983 So many of us are so scared that God's going to strike us down if we actually admit what's in our heart, in our heart. 00:18:54.983 --> 00:19:06.000 When's the last time that you felt mad at God and you actually had a knockdown, drag out, fight, screaming at him, you know, hopefully away from everybody else, so they don't think you're crazy. 00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:07.563 But I mean, you really got real with God. 00:19:07.563 --> 00:19:12.759 You know, back in it's been about eight or nine years ago now. 00:19:13.540 --> 00:19:16.470 You know I was leading the men's ministry. 00:19:16.470 --> 00:19:18.315 I was doing things here at Trinity. 00:19:18.315 --> 00:19:21.962 I had for years and I finally got real with God. 00:19:21.962 --> 00:19:24.182 I said you know God, I'm doing all these things. 00:19:24.182 --> 00:19:31.585 I'm doing everything I want to do, everything I need to do, but I really don't feel like seeking after you. 00:19:31.585 --> 00:19:41.646 I enjoy all the stuff that's happening at church and my life, but I just don't feel like anything. 00:19:41.646 --> 00:19:44.440 And so I'm going to pray this. 00:19:44.440 --> 00:19:45.584 God, give me the want to. 00:19:45.584 --> 00:19:52.780 I stopped reading my Bible, I stopped praying otherwise, but I purposed in my heart every day. 00:19:52.780 --> 00:19:55.970 I was going to pray that one prayer God give me the want to. 00:19:55.970 --> 00:19:56.210 That was it. 00:19:56.210 --> 00:19:57.594 I was going to pray that one prayer God give me the want to. 00:19:57.594 --> 00:20:00.709 That was it. 00:20:00.709 --> 00:20:10.300 And somewhere along the line, not too much later, things started changing and I didn't even see it, and within a I don't know, it was a year and a half, two years. 00:20:10.300 --> 00:20:13.144 All of a sudden, it's like, wow, I got this want to. 00:20:13.144 --> 00:20:15.867 I had just been praying a simple prayer. 00:20:15.867 --> 00:20:17.190 I got real with God. 00:20:18.635 --> 00:20:22.967 We really have to stop pretending and get real with God. 00:20:22.967 --> 00:20:25.142 He already knows what's in our heart. 00:20:25.142 --> 00:20:31.122 The only thing that's stopping things between us and God is us, because we won't be real with Him. 00:20:31.122 --> 00:20:37.707 And so it's the same thing with prayer and with reading the Scripture. 00:20:37.707 --> 00:20:39.942 God, let me encounter you. 00:20:39.942 --> 00:20:46.220 Show me your glory, show me your healing, show me your provision. 00:20:46.220 --> 00:20:49.484 Lord, show me who you are, show me your character. 00:20:49.484 --> 00:20:54.484 Lord, just take this verse and just show me what this verse means. 00:20:54.484 --> 00:20:58.759 It's that simple, like be real. 00:21:00.655 --> 00:21:02.784 You know, another part of abiding is obeying. 00:21:02.784 --> 00:21:15.058 You can't If I say that I'm Tyler's friend but I don't ever do anything that he wants to do, am I really his friend? 00:21:15.058 --> 00:21:17.566 You know what I'm saying. 00:21:17.566 --> 00:21:20.321 It's the same thing with Jesus. 00:21:20.321 --> 00:21:24.982 He gives us what to do, he tells us, actually, what's going to be best for us. 00:21:24.982 --> 00:21:27.142 It's just a matter of obedience. 00:21:27.142 --> 00:21:28.621 That's part of abiding. 00:21:28.621 --> 00:21:33.865 All of these things are an attitude of staying in close relationship. 00:21:35.275 --> 00:21:41.641 You know, there's a monk I think it was a monk, brother Andrew who wrote a book called Practicing the Presence of God. 00:21:41.641 --> 00:21:44.771 Because as a monk, you think about this. 00:21:44.771 --> 00:21:49.184 A monk is a guy who goes off in a monastery for the purpose of knowing God and learning about God and all. 00:21:49.184 --> 00:21:53.546 And here's this monk and he says I don't think I really experienced the presence of God very much. 00:21:53.546 --> 00:21:59.925 And so he wrote this book about this, called Practicing the Presence of God. 00:21:59.925 --> 00:22:00.855 And here's what he did. 00:22:00.855 --> 00:22:06.366 He began reminding himself that God is with him every moment of the day. 00:22:06.366 --> 00:22:15.300 So when he'd sit down and he'd work in the garden, then he'd remind himself I'm picking carrots with Jesus, and if he's washing dishes, I'm washing dishes with Jesus. 00:22:15.300 --> 00:22:21.278 And as he went through his day, he just reminded himself I'm doing this with Jesus. 00:22:21.278 --> 00:22:25.326 It's not I will be with Jesus or I will know Jesus. 00:22:25.326 --> 00:22:28.077 I am with Jesus now, here. 00:22:28.077 --> 00:22:33.308 And it wasn't too long that he began to experience God in new ways. 00:22:35.194 --> 00:22:36.657 That's what abiding is. 00:22:36.657 --> 00:22:40.506 It's seeking relationship with jesus. 00:22:40.506 --> 00:22:49.518 And all the things we do is not because we're checking off boxes, it's not because we're measuring up, it's because we're seeking to know him. 00:22:49.518 --> 00:22:58.681 And if you want your life transformed, that's how it happens, because in the process of doing that, you know you. 00:22:58.681 --> 00:23:01.119 Oh, I struggle with this sin, oh, I can't overcome this. 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:04.458 Oh, man, I screwed up again In the process. 00:23:04.458 --> 00:23:08.807 If you are seeking Jesus, then the Father will clean those things up. 00:23:08.807 --> 00:23:11.561 The Father will take care of that. 00:23:11.561 --> 00:23:13.661 He's the vine dresser. 00:23:13.661 --> 00:23:18.863 Literally, from that verse, he's the farmer, but we're talking about vines, so he's the vine dresser. 00:23:18.863 --> 00:23:20.540 Literally from that verse, he's the farmer, but we're talking about vines, so he's the vine dresser. 00:23:20.540 --> 00:23:25.836 He's the one who'll take care of the pruning and everything that's needed there. 00:23:28.482 --> 00:23:35.040 The more we walk with Jesus, the more our hearts are purified and our vision and our experience of knowing God becomes clearer. 00:23:35.040 --> 00:23:43.125 So now, how do we put all this together and how do we sum it up in a quick and easy way to remember this? 00:23:43.125 --> 00:23:47.903 So the verse was Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 00:23:47.903 --> 00:24:00.458 But we can paraphrase that and say Blessed are those who are abiding in Christ, for they will know and experience God both now, in His kingdom and also forever in eternity. 00:24:00.458 --> 00:24:23.588 Say it again, for they will know and experience God both now and in His kingdom, and forever and eternity. 00:24:23.588 --> 00:24:24.683 The kingdom of God is now.