Blessed are the Pure in Heart

Welcome to Church at the Grove online.

My name is Russ, and it's excited.

I'm excited to have you with us as we continue our series The Good Life and we're in the Beatitudes.

And today we're talking about what it means to have a pure heart.

And I'm gonna be honest with you.

I had to ask the question, what does it mean to have a pure heart?

And I certainly had no clue when I was younger.

I didn't grow up going to church.

My grandmother took me to church with her, and she explained to me what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus.

She explained the gospel to me, and I remember having an awareness of the reality that this was something that I wanted.

It was something that was good for me.

It was something that I needed.

But I kind of uh blew it off.

And and because I really didn't understand what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus and pursue him with my heart.

And so I went through my teenage years and trying to gain approval from other people, trying to gain approval from my dad, that whole father wound thing.

And I I I I found pleasure in chasing girls and alcohol and just living wild.

And I pushed religion, I pushed Jesus to the side, and then at 18 I kind of got in trouble.

And some of you heard that story, and and my brother invited me to church, and all of a sudden, it's like my eyes were opened.

And not only was I introduced to Jesus, I was introduced to this concept and idea that I could pursue him, I could pursue the ultimate happiness and ultimate satisfaction.

And I don't, I didn't use this language, but I I found myself being caught up in the beauty of the gospel, the beauty of the Lord, and I wanted him more than anything else.

And I I realized that the direction I was headed was was um was not just this idea that I needed to be made good, but I realized that I needed to be made alive in Jesus.

And in that I found the beauty of the Lord.

I was transformed, and here's what the reality, I was transformed at a heart level.

It was not just outward, it was truly down deep inside my heart, and I wanted to chase after Jesus.

And I believe all of us can identify with this.

We as human beings, we all want something that's beyond us.

We all want something that's transcendent, we want something that's that's other than us.

And I believe we can identify with David, um the Old Testament uh character, um, the king of Israel, and and the the builder, uh the the the visionary for the temple, and and and and he wanted a place that would embody the presence and the beauty of the Lord.

He was caught up in that.

And I love this in Psalm 27:4, and this is this is David who also was a murderer and a and an adulterer.

Psalms 27:4

He says, the one thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire of his temple.

And so this the idea of the temple was a place where heaven and earth met.

And so we're new covenant believers.

We we we believe in the new covenant, and so uh the old covenant was about the God uh of the temple.

The presence of God was only limited to the temple, and so um we're not limited to that.

As new covenant believers, we are free to experience God outside of a location, outside of a temple.

We're free to go directly to the presence of Jesus.

And so that's that's part of that that beauty of the new covenant.

Um, we um as the community of God are able to experience the presence of God anywhere and everywhere we go.

And so we're able to gaze into the face of Jesus in a new and different way.

And so I love how the Apostle Paul explains this a little bit in 2 Corinthians 4, 6.

He says, For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And here's what he's saying.

He's saying, God looks like Jesus.

God looks like Jesus.

We're all chasing after something, and it's really Jesus that we're chasing after, the beauty of God through the face and the image of Jesus Christ.

And so after meeting Jesus at that point in my life, I still didn't get the whole meaning behind what it meant to have a relationship with Jesus.

I had experienced Jesus for the first time, but I didn't know what it meant to be caught up in him, to walk with him, to follow him, to understand the way of Jesus.

And so I knew it changed my way of thinking.

It gave me a new hope and a new purpose.

Um, but but it still was uh was just a little bit of church and and a little bit of happiness, and I still struggled with how to fit Jesus into my whole life.

Have you been there?

Are you still trying to make sense of how Jesus can become your everything or your one thing that will provide you happiness?

That's what I believe Jesus addresses in this beatitude.

In Matthew 5, 8.

Here's what Jesus says.

He says, blessed or happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

I love that.

He said, blessed are the pure in heart, or happy are the pure in heart.

This happiness that comes from divine grace.

It comes from an encounter with God through Jesus Christ.

And so Jesus says, happy are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God, or they will see God.

And so it's this idea that we get to actually see God.

Um, Jesus is meeting with his disciples, he's meeting with these people gathered on a hill.

I believe that there's kind of two categories.

There's those people who are bought in to the way of Jesus, and then there's the spiritually curious that are on the fringe who are checking Jesus out.

And Jesus is teaching these beatitudes or the harditudes.

Um, Dallas Willard says, and he says, the beatitudes are basically Jesus saying, hey, the kingdom of God has come near enough for you to live in it, and these are the house rules for the kingdom of God.

I love that.

It's a new perspective on life, it's a new way of thinking and living.

Happy are the pure in heart.

Now, what does it mean to have a pure heart?

What does it mean to understand purity of heart?

There's many philosophers who've who have spoken into this.

Thorin Kierkegaard is one of them.

He said to have a pure heart is to will one thing.

Um other philosophers talk about it being a singular purpose in your life.

And it's this idea that Christianity is not just a worldview, it's not just a belief system, it's so much more.

It's a person that you love.

It's an introduction to Jesus.

And so and so we need to know that.

The narrative of all of Scripture is beyond just religion, it's about a good God that relentlessly pursues the human heart.

He relentlessly pursues us as individuals.

And so the cross is the evidence of God's relentless pursuit.

It's the evidence of a good God who would, who, who saw that he couldn't, there was nothing he wouldn't do that was beyond pursuing us and beyond redeeming us, that he is a father who would who pretty much would pay any price to win back the human heart.

And so Jesus came and speaks, and he doesn't speak into the political world, he doesn't speak into the empire that oppresses his people.

He speaks to the human heart.

And here's what happens: it turns the world upside down.

Purity of heart has the ability to change the world.

And I love the power that is available to us through gaining a pure heart through Jesus.

And so the mission of Jesus was to change the human heart.

And so, why is this so hard?

Why is it so hard to understand this?

Why is it so hard to get this?

And there's there's different traps that we have.

And it's this idea that we try to gain purity by ourselves.

It's kind of like trying to pave over a sinkhole and then just pretending that the sinkhole is not there.

But we all know that over time, as there's traffic over that paved road, that eventually it's going to crumble and it's going to sink in.

And that's what happens when we try to gain access to God and we try to gain a pure heart through our own human attempts.

There's these traps, and one of the traps is moralism, or it's this idea of behavior modification.

It's this idea that you can get a new heart through being good enough.

It's this idea that Jesus addressed, and probably Jesus spoke into this trap more than any other trap because so many people were pursuing God through behavior modification.

And so it's this idea that we can give enough money and gain access to God, and we can live a good enough life, we can be a good enough neighbor, we can do good enough things and live good enough and gain a pure heart just through our moral behavior.

Going back to King David, um, King David, uh if anybody understood this, King David understood this, and so when he was anointed and chosen to be king, it was God looking at his heart.

1 Samuel 16, 7 says, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on his height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

For the Lord sees not as a man sees, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart.

And so this first trap is moralism, and I could camp out here, but but it's just this idea that we're gonna sink in our own human attempts to be good enough to get a pure heart from God.

The second trap is repression.

And repression is to pretend that we will nothing.

It's this idea that we pretend um that we will nothing.

It's this this idea that we're gonna live and keep all of our sin or all of our misgivings, uh, we're gonna keep them in the dark.

I think this is a a trap that most men fall in.

We don't, we don't, we keep uh we hiding, we hide our sin in the dark, we hide our our pornography in the dark, we hide our our attempts to gain purity from God in the dark, we we hide our uh our our lives in the dark, and I think most ladies are naturally vulnerable with one another, but us men, we want to we want to be big and strong, and we've got it all together, and so we repress, we we push all of our stuff into the dark, and we live in bondage to what is hidden in the dark, and this is where addiction, this is where um uh habits that are that are that are just destructive um stay in the dark.

And so that second trap is is repression.

The third trap is is idolatry.

And see, idolatry is to will the right thing among many things.

And it when we think of idolatry, we think of bowing and worshiping idols.

But we live in an American culture where we have so many different idols, and they're not, uh the bad thing is they're not um they're not plainly seen, um, uh, but but but that we pursue materialism, we pursue sports, we pursue relationships.

If we just marry the right person, um, we'll be okay.

It's it's this idea that idolatry is we decide we desire Jesus and we desire Jesus and something else.

It's money, status, a person.

And so Jesus isn't asking to be one among many.

He's not even asking to be first among many, many.

He's asking to be our all.

In being our all, he promises to purify us.

How do we receive a pure heart?

That's a great question.

How do we receive a pure heart?

We must respond in faith to our longing to encounter God.

There is all, I think there's within us all an ache.

An ache and a hurt, and it's this idea that we're pursuing something and we're longing for something, and Jesus is that something.

Your longing will lead to seeing Jesus and receiving what He has provided for us, and the fruit of a pure heart is getting Jesus.

Happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

And this in this beatitude, the promise is the power.

And so see God, and then you will change.

He will do the changing.

See, I believe we're all headed in one of two directions.

We're either headed to ruin or we're headed to restoration.

Uh uh Charles Spurgeon said the the impurity of our hearts is spiritual blindness, but the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3.18, and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

I I I I love how one uh person said it, we become what we behold.

And so when we're caught up into Jesus, we can become like Jesus and have that purity of heart.

And here's the gospel.

Let me give you a couple of uh truths that are that help us build on what this idea of it means to gain a pure heart.

Because we are impure, Jesus makes us pure.

Jesus made us pure.

When we encounter him, we are impure, but he makes us pure.

The writer of Hebrews says it this way: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus rose again, and then he ascended to the Father, and it says that like the priest in um in the purification of the temple, when he was done with his work, he sat down at the right hand of the Father.

He provides for our purity himself.

Because we are unrighteous, listen to this, because we are unrighteous, Jesus makes us righteous.

Back to the Apostle Paul, um, Romans 3, 21, he says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as, listen, as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So, so we are unrighteous, but Jesus makes us righteous.

In his ability to purify us, he brings us out of the dark, and out of unrighteousness, he brings us in a right relationship and a right standing or righteousness with the heavenly Father.

It is a gift.

It is by his grace, it is something he does that we can't do in and of ourselves.

And so, also this, because we are unholy, Jesus makes us holy.

And so God is holy, and we can't approach him unless we're made holy.

Well, Jesus, in his work, in his life, and his death, and his resurrection, he made us righteous, but he also makes us holy, which means we can approach God.

We can have this pure heart to approach the presence of God.

1 Corinthians 1, verse 30 and 31, Paul says, And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

1 Corinthians 1:30

So that, as it is written, let the one who boast boast in the Lord.

I love that.

He says, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

We boast in the Lord.

And so to conclude this, purity of heart is this.

It's to will one thing.

Let's go back to David.

I love the story of David.

David is an adulterer.

David is a murderer.

David fails in his attempt to live up to the standard that God has set, even though I think he had a heart for God, he needed God to make his heart pure.

And purity of heart is to will one thing.

And so when David understands redemption following all of his sin, when he cries out to God, create in me a new heart, a clean heart.

Restore unto me the joy of my salvation, I believe David understood with his freshness.

This is what it means to have a pure heart, to will one thing.

As a result of receiving a pure heart, the Holy Spirit begins to work in us.

He begins to partner with us.

We're able to flee sin.

We're able to say no to sin.

We're able to embrace confession.

We're able to seek forgiveness and receive forgiveness from God.

We seek communion and fellowship with other believers and we experience freedom.

We're able to find freedom through fellowship and the purposes that God has for us.

We're able to make a difference for Jesus.

We create space with God.

We create space with one another in community.

We embrace group life.

And so here's what here's the question I have.

Imagine what would happen if we seek God's will with a pure heart.

I think that we don't, it changes everything.

We seek a partner in marriage.

We seek a key relationship in our life, not to fulfill us and give us happiness.

We seek it out of a desire to make a difference for God.

We choose where we live, not because of the economy or what benefits us as a family.

We say, God, would you help us pick a place or pick a house or pick a location based on how we can fulfill the mission you've given us better and more completely?

We seek a desire for a job, not just so we can meet the needs of ourselves and our family, but we say, God, where can you put me in a vocation where I can fulfill the mission you've given us, where I can reveal Jesus to other people?

He gives us a pure heart, and we want to be on mission with him.

What would happen if we move Jesus to the center of every decision that we make in life?

That's what it means to have a pure heart.

So I want to encourage you.

Maybe you've heard about Jesus, but you you don't, you, he's often at a distance, and you say, I need a pure heart.

I want to pray with you in here just a second that you can pursue Jesus and He will give you a pure heart.

And listen, you can't will one thing yourself, but Jesus inside of you can will one thing.

He can give you a singular purpose in your life.

So if you've never been introduced to Jesus, let me encourage you to pray with me right now.

Father, would you join with me in praying for the people on the other side of the screen that desire a pure heart, the desire for themselves to will one thing.

God, would you come and live inside of them?

Would you come and change them?

And Father, would you give them the ability to turn from their sin, to repent, and to put their faith in Jesus Christ?

The Bible says you simply admit that you're a sinner and then believe and repent in Jesus and you confess Him as your Lord, that He will give you a pure heart.

If that's you this morning, I want to encourage you to text, start to follow to 9700.

And we have somebody that will follow up with you and encourage you and help you take your next steps.

And if you're part of a Church at the Grow family and you're part of the family God already, let me encourage you to just evaluate your heart and your life.

We have some hosts that are gonna give you some practical next steps in just a second.

And so I want to encourage you to understand everybody has a next step.

Everybody can follow Jesus and make a difference for Him.

So let me encourage you to follow the lead of these hosts and don't just sit there.

You take that next step.

And I want to encourage you, and if maybe your next step is to come back and join us next week as we can continue in this series the good life.

God bless you.