Where's Your Heart At?

Alright, we are continuing our series / / Could I Be Happier?

I want to encourage you, if you’re missed the last couple weeks, whether you are with us here in the building or online, go back, watch the last two weeks, because each week we are building ontop of the previous week, and to save having to recap or relay foundation, it’s all available for you on our website, www.cutlerbayworship.org, or on our facebook or youtube accounts, just search Cutler Bay Worship Center. One of the things I’ve been doing the last couple months now is listening to podcasts in the car rather than music. 10 minutes here, 20 there, and before I know it I’ve gone through a lot of really good content. If you miss a Sunday and you’re like, “I don’t have an hour of quiet to just sit and watch or listen to this...” I bet you do, maybe just not sitting on your couch! Obviously because it’s a video, make sure you’re listening and not watching while you’re driving!

So, I don’t want to recap every week, but the two most important things we’ve seen so far that we are carrying through in each week is WHY Jesus is saying these things, which is in my opinion all wrapped up in this idea of this kingdom manifesto - what we call the / / Sermon on the Mount. This is Jesus’ his political platform, so to speak. And more specifically we are reading this particular passage of scripture, Matthew 5:3-12, which is often called / / The Beatitudes, where Jesus makes 9 statements about being blessed. And so that’s the first thing we need to notice is that at the beginning of each of these 9 statements he uses the same word. We’ve been kind of going back and forth between two translations, primarily, the ESV and the NLT. The ESV starts each statement simply with / / Blessed are the... and the NLT says, / / God blesses those who… But either way what is the same here is the word bless, which is the greek word / / makarios.

One of the things I love about how Jesus taught was that if you’ve noticed, he is often reapproaching, or correcting how the religious leaders and Jewish people had interpreted or understood what the scripture had meant. With these scriptures here, he’s directly challenging their idea of what it truly means to be blessed.

And the reason I didn’t call this series, / / Could I be more blessed? is because blessed often brings this idea of a gift for good behavior. Most people say they are blessed when they have received something. “Oh that is such a blessing”, “I got so blessed...”

OR, what I think may have started as a way to encourage ourselves, but I think became a way to cover how we’re truly feeling and doing, is it became a response to the question, “How are you doing?” you’ll meet some Christians that will respond with, “Oh, I’m blessed and highly favored”… but we’re actually feeling pretty terrible.

That’s one of the things we saw Jesus tackling last week. He didn’t say, / / Blessed are those who cover up how they’re truly feeling because then they won’t have to deal with it… No, he said the exact opposite… / / Blessed are those mourn... don’t cover up how you’re feeling, because true happiness actually comes through our recognition and willingness to walk through our emotional state. Yes, we always want to claim victory in Christ, I’m not saying don’t do that, but if we deny how we are feeling, then we can not step into the comfort of Christ that He is offering.

Honestly, what else could he possibly mean when he says, / / Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted?

It’s better to embrace our emotional difficulty, the things we are dealing with inside, the emotional, raw, deep down, sometimes dirty and terrifying things we feel, SO THAT we can encounter the comfort of Jesus and as a result find true blessing, happiness, contentment in Him.

Without it, we end up just bottling things up, pushing them down, and either dying inside in hopes we save ourselves and those around us having to deal with it, OR we end up exploding on those around us that we love and making a mess. Neither of which sound very blessed OR what God wants for us.

So, Jesus is saying, to experience what it truly means to be blessed, you have to get real. The religious leaders were using this set of rules and ceremonial religion to produce a system of legalism, and Jesus called them out on it. Matthew 23:2,4 says, / / “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses… They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden...”

Well that doesn’t sound like what God intended, does it?

In some ways the law of Moses shows us we can never measure up. So, maybe in that way, sure, they are 100% right, it is an unbearable burden and demand we could never meet. BUT, what we can for sure be certain of is that God never intended anyone to use it to push other people down, or to claim blessing for themselves and watch others struggle with it. And that’s essentially what was happening here. This concept of makarios, to be blessed, we found favor with God because we were good, and look at us, can’t you tell we are blessed? Look at my life. #blessed.... ya, we still do it today.

We claim being blessed because of what we have received, rather than exemplifying through our lives that we are truly content, happy, connected with the incredible love and acceptance and covering of God in our lives regardless of what we’re going through. So we cover up how we’re really feeling, we mask it, don’t let people see it.

So, in these first two verses we’ve seen a direct challenge from Jesus to begin to think differently about what it means to be blessed.

Matthew 5:3-4, (ESV) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

/ / Blessed are the poor in spirit… Can you recognize your need for God, and that there will always be more, that to experience His wonderful presence in our lives we approach him with this attitude of begging, of recognizing we are poor in spirit, we desperately need God. Not in a, “Woe is me, I’m a terrible person...” mentality, but in the recognition of His supremacy and the wonder of who God is, we approach Him to experience more of Him.

And / / blessed are those who mourn… Can we really get in touch with our emotions, with our feelings, with what we are going through and how it is effecting us. How it is effecting our relationships. How it is effecting our lives. SO THAT, we can find comfort in Him. Not a willingness to sink deep into our emotions and let them rule us, but to come to a place where we are / / willing to feel so we can heal.

So, Jesus has asked two really important questions:

/ / Can you recognize your need for God?

Can you get in touch with your inner self?

Now we are going to do a little hop-skip-&-jump over the next few weeks. We’re not going to completely do them in order. Today we are going to look at vs 5, skip over vs 6 & 7, and then look at vs 8 today as well, and in these two verses in particular we are going to see another questions behind these statements that Jesus is asking in these two verses, Matthew 5:5,8, and that is, / / Where’s your heart at?

After asking do you recognize your need for God, and can you recognize you have things in your life you need to deal with, the next thing Jesus brings to this passage of scripture is, / / Let me show you how to best posture your heart.

Let’s read it this morning and we will read through the next 4 verses so you see what we’re skipping over, but don’t worry, we’ll be coming back to them in the coming weeks...

Matthew 5:5-8, / / Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

OK, so starting with vs 5, / / Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Meek isn’t a word we really use too much these days, so some other translations say it this way:

/ / God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. (NLT)

/ / Blessed are the gentle, for they will inherit the earth. (NASB)

/ / What blessing comes to you when gentleness lives in you! For you will inherit the earth. (TPT)

/ / You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are - no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. (MSG)

We’re going to keep asking the same questions we’ve been asking over the last couple weeks about these verses - / / Who // Why // How

First, we ask Who, / / who is Jesus speaking to? And as I said last week, I truly believe that this is less about a particular person or situation, and more an invitation to partake of something.

With vs 3 it was, / / Are you willing to be poor in spirit to be blessed? The invitation is to recognize your need for God.

vs 4 asked, / / Are you willing to truly connect with your emotions, with how you feel? The invitation is to be open, honest, raw and in touch with our emotional state.

Here in verse 5 the questions is again an invitation, If the meek are blessed, Jesus is asking this simple question, / / Are you willing to be meek? Or as other translations say it, / / Are you willing to be humble, lowly, gentle?

That’s the invitation. That’s the Who. So our next question is then Why, right? / / Why are we blessed, and the answer to that is, / / because we CHOOSE to be meek, humble, lowly, gentle.

But that means we need to look at what that all entails. / / What does it truly mean to be meek?

And I’m not even sure if I like the answer. But this word is only used 4 times in the entire New Testament scripture, and three of those times are in the book of Matthew either said by, or about Jesus.

Matthew 5:5, which we’ve just read.

Matthew 11:29 (ESV), in which Jesus says, / / Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

And Matthew 21:5, which is from the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, which we celebrate on Palm Sunday, the week before Easter and it is actually a quote of an old testament prophet by the name of Zechariah. And it says, / / "Tell the people of Jerusalem, ‘Look, your King is coming to you. He is humble, riding on a donkey - riding on a donkey’s colt.’”

And that was a scripture that was recognized as Jesus fulfilling old testament prophecy about the coming Messiah, the savior of Israel.

And then Peter uses it one time in his writing in 1 Peter 3:3-4, And he’s giving an encouragement to women and says, / / Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty or fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.

But it’s interesting, because I think these three verses, outside of its use in our main text, Blessed are the meek, actually give us insight into what Jesus is saying here in Matthew 5:5.

First, let’s look at / / the difference between humble and humble. Yes, you heard me right, because this word, meek, or often translated humble, can imply certain things based on how we understand the english word. Jesus didn’t need to deal with this because it would’ve been two different words used. The people he was talking to would have known what he meant by the word he used, but for us, humble can mean a couple different things.

When you look up the definition, humble has 2 different meanings:

/ / having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance.

This one means you’re not thinking too much of yourself. You’re level headed.

/ / of low social, administrative, or political rank.

But this one is very difference, this one is what we would use if we said of someone, “They came from humble beginnings.” What are we really saying, or implying here? That statement is purely talking about their financial, or maybe we say, their socio-economic or socio-geographic background. Essentially saying, they came from very little. Maybe you come from a poor family. “Humble beginnings. He came from a small town, his family had nothing, and now look, he’s a starting quarterback for the NLF...” It’s not necessarily a put down, although I suppose it could be, in a backhanded sort of way, but it’s really just a way of describing the physical circumstances of someone’s life.

Now, the reason this can change how we read this verse is actually well described in how Jesus talks of himself in Matthew 11:29. That verse says, / / Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart...

If we really wanted to confuse people we could translate that as, / / for I am humble and humble of heart.

The word gentle in Matthew 11:29 is the same word as meek in Matthew 5:5. And that is the first definition of the word humble.

It is the greek word / / praus and it means mild, by implication, humble, meek. Mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness.

Now, I would ask you if you have ever met someone that carries that kind of demeanor, gentleness of spirit, mild in their disposition… But if you are in this room, I don’t need to ask you that question because I know for a fact you already have met, and probably have been hugged by someone who I believe is the perfect example of what Jesus is encouraging us to be there.

If you’ve met Mama Su, you’ve encountered gentleness. Meekness. You have encounter the way that scripture is encouraging us to be humble. In my opinion she is just an absolutely great example to all of us of a godly meek person. Her heart and spirit are both gentle and kind. She’s not trying to be more than she is, and she’s comfortable being exactly who she is.

That’s what that word means. Humble, having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance. Don’t get that confused with a low self esteem, or talking yourself down. / / Being humble is not looking at yourself as less than, but it’s about looking at yourself rightly!

Knowing who you are, and living in that way to the best of your ability for the glory of God is the most humble thing you can do. You know who you are. And you’re not afraid to be that. And you’re not at competition with others to try and be something else. You’re not out to prove yourself, you’re just out to be you, and when you know who you are, and you walk in confidence like that, God can use you to be an incredible gift to the people around you.

At that point your hugs can change a person’s world!

And this is the word that Jesus is using to describe himself, right? He says, / / “I am gentle [praus] and lowly of heart.”

Now, here’s why I said I’m not sure I like the answer so much, but it’s more in the way that we think we understand what it means to be meek. Meek can bring this idea of weakness. Of being walked all over. And that’s because the english definition of / / meek includes, overly submissive or compliant; tame.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to be described as overly submissive and compliant. That almost sounds like I’m a push over… like I’ve got no conviction. Like I won’t stand up for myself or those I love. But was Jesus a push over? Of course not. By no stretch of the imagination was Jesus a pushover, or weak, or weak-willed. Absolutely not. So why call himself meek?

Because that’s the english word that best describes it, or humble, or gentle, but the greek word does not mean the same. This is why it helps to look at these things, because with 2 very different definitions in the english, we can very easily misunderstand what Jesus is trying to say when he says, Blessed are the meek...

Where we have an english definition that would make this verse sound like Jesus WANTS me to be a pushover, or let’s be honest, could you see how this verse might be used by those in authority to say, “You need to be submissive, look, Jesus says to be meek, and meek means to be submissive...”

But Jesus uses the word / / praus, which means means mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness in attitude or our approach to God. The other definition for / / meek is humbly patient or quiet in nature. Now THAT sounds more like praus, doesn’t it? It’s not talking about being weak, or a pushover, or overly submissive, or any negative way you might use humble or meek.

This is why I said we have to look at what it means to be humble vs. humble. Because with both of those words, meek and humble, they both have two definitions, one of which is exactly what Jesus is saying here, the other of which, if we we read it in that way will end up being something we don’t want to be, and it will feel weird saying, Blessed are the meek, or humble.

Jesus isn’t saying, Blessed are the pushovers, the spineless, the weak. And he’s also not saying, Blessed are those of low social rank, the financially poor, those who feel like they lost out because of their upbringing.

What he IS saying is, / / Blessed are those who CHOOSE to be mild in their disposition, or how they handle themselves, gentle of spirit, or how they relate and react to others, humble in heart, who know who they are and aren’t trying to be something else to try and be better than anyone else.

In Matthew 11:29, Jesus actually uses both of these words. Humble vs Humble. He says he is / / gentle [praus] and lowly of heart.

That word is the greek word / / tapeinos, and it means lowly, undistinguished, of no account - it can mean depressed and humiliated, cast down, of low degree, in a sense what people might call “low class”. But he’s not saying he is those things physically, he’s saying that is the posture of his heart.

This is where that word humble really works well. An approach of lowness. Not poor. but low. Think of how we read 1 Peter 5:6, / / So humble yourselves under the might power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor...

that is the same root word. It’s the greek word / / tapeinoo, which comes from tapeinos and means to make yourself low. To bring yourself down. You’re bowing down, you’re humbling yourself before God.

So, Jesus saying he’s lowly of heart is describing how he lives, how he leads, why we would want to come to him, he’s not a proud, demanding king, he’s a humble servant, a gentle spirit, a loving savior. An approachable heart.

This is what he’s saying in Matthew 11:28-30, / / “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble [gentle] and gentle [lowly] at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

The Message translation of that scripture is absolutely beautiful. Jesus says, / / “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Such a beautiful promise. This is what Jesus was speaking against when he said to the Pharisees that they put too much of a religious burden on people and didn’t lift a finger to help. Jesus is saying, come to me, rather than fighting to try and keep every letter of the law and burning yourselves out. Let me walk with you, lead you, guide you and take you to life. In that yes, you’ll keep the law, but you won’t have to do it on your own, and it won’t be a burden.

So, that is how we need to read Matthew 5:5 when Jesus says / / Blessed are the meek. It’s this invitation to lay down the burden of trying to be something you’re not. Lay down the frustration of trying to keep up with the joneses. Get rid of the burden of not being enough, and take on the approach of being accepted in His love no matter what, so that you can / / choose to be a gentle, kind, caring, approachable person!

Because / / when we feel accepted for who we are, we’re way more likely to accept people for who they are.

When we don’t feel like God is a mean judge waiting to condemn us, we will be less mean and judging toward others around us.

/ / Learning to be meek is learning to be like Jesus, and that’s not done by trying really hard, it’s done by learning to follow him and take HIS yoke upon us.

This is what Peter is trying to communicate to us with the 4th time this word, praus, is used in the New Testament scripture. 1 Peter 3:4 where Peter says, don’t make it about what you’re wearing and how much you have, or how good you look or trying to prove yourself by physical parameters, but be gentle in heart. / / …clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.

And even though he’s encouraging women there, and I would say probably because this is an area that women just naturally struggle with a bit more. How a guy is willing to leave the house vs. how a girl is willing to leave the house is usually different. But, let’s not forget, Jesus said that to all of us already in Matthew 11. He’s not telling women they have to be quiet and gentle, he’s encouraging them, in the same way that Jesus encouraged all of those who would follow him, that what is more important than what we have and how we look, is the posture of the heart.

And so then we get to the promise, or when we ask the question / / HOW are we blessed when we are meek, Jesus says in Matthew 5:5, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

That’s a pretty lofty promise, isn’t it? We have to remember here, what’s the overarching invitation of the life of Jesus? We read it last week, Jesus says in Mark 1:15, or you can read it in Matthew 4:17 as well, looking at timeline, he’s setting the groundwork here, he says, / / Repent of your sins and believe the Good News. Matthew says, Repent of your sins and turn to God.

And we looked at that last week, Jesus is essentially saying, are you willing to change how you think about what you’ve been doing, recognizing you’ve been doing it wrong, turn to God, or believe, make a commitment to follow a new, a better way, My way.

And what is the promise in that? What is the promise of inheritance when it comes to salvation? Eternal life, right? The promise in scripture is a new heaven, a new earth, eternal life as God is ruling and reigning in him.

So really, this is an invitation into the fullness of eternal life. He’s not saying, if you’re meek, gentle, quiet and peaceful that you’ll get a bunch of property and be rich. We’ve already established that’s not what he’s talking about when he says we will be blessed. We aren’t talking about material things. And one of the greatest blessings we can have is the assurance of our future in Christ Jesus.

The early church called it our Blessed Hope. Hope being a confident expectation of a positive outcome, and that hope being in Jesus Christ who IS our blessing, who is our place of contentment, peace, acceptance, love…regardless of what’s going on in our lives we are blessed because of Him, we are happier knowing we have a hope in Jesus Christ.

And remember what we have read in Mark 2:17, if you don’t think you need a doctor, you’ll never ask for one. When you think you’ve got this, you limit your ability to accept help. This idea of being meek, humble, of knowing who you are and not trying to be more, not trying to prove yourself, is, like I said in the beginning, a posture of the heart.

I’m good with who I am. And I can take that position knowing that I have this blessed hope of a future in Christ Jesus, an eternity with Him.

And the second verse we’re looking at this morning is Matthew 5:8, / / Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

The NLT says, God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

If you go on a bible comparison site like biblehub.com there are 3 translations that say clean of heart and every other one says pure of heart. The Message translation being of course very expressive and poetic in nature is written beautifully.

It says, / / “You’re blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.”

So, pure in heart...

The invitation is to / / who? Those who would desire to be pure in heart.

The word pure means clean, pure. If you want to look a bit further, then look at what the word pure really means - / / not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material, without any extraneous and unnecessary elements, free of any contamination.

Ok, so we’re asking the question, where’s your heart at? What is the posture of your heart? And in this invitation of Jesus, this statement he is making about those who would be blessed, or those who will experience a level of happy in their very inner core, this deep contentment, this deep down satisfaction, not because things are always going right, but because of our place IN Christ, he’s asking this question, / / “How much of your heart do I really have?”

This isn’t talking about actions. He didn’t say pure in action. Do you do the right thing? That’s not this. Don’t worry, we’re going to get to that, but that’s not this. This is very specifically targeted. / / Blessed are the pure in heart.

We talked about this a few weeks ago in our series on David, Hear My Cry. We looked at what / / St Augustine called the journey of sin, desire leads to contemplation which leads to consent. The reality that sin starts long before the act of sin. It starts in the heart. He said that what would start as a desire, things we want, often triggered by our senses, by our flesh in our seeing, hearing, smelling, it triggers something that we want and the opportunity then is to contemplate on that desire.

Contemplation becomes internal. This desire, which was simply on the outside - in the case of King David he saw Bathsheba taking a bath, he could’ve gone inside, he could have walked away, but he didn’t he internalized, he invited that feeling to linger, and thus brought him to the third stage of this journey of sin, he had his servants go get her and he slept with her. And there is the third stage of this journey of sin, consent.

Jesus tackles this very thing not very long after the scripture we are reading right now, in this Sermon on the Mount, His platform of how His Father’s kingdom works - He says in Matthew 5:27, / / “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Purity of the heart. Don’t just do right, but tackle doing right long before you ever fight with doing what is right.

Later in Matthew 15:19 Jesus will say, / / …from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you.

from the heart…

King Solomon, who wrote the book of Proverbs and is considered the wisest person to ever have lived wrote this in Proverbs 4:23, / / Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

The NIV says it this way, / / Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

And as always we can read this and think of it in two different ways. One way will try to convince you that it’s by your works that you encounter God. If you can prove to God that you’re pure of heart, or worse, you HAVE to prove to God that you’re pure of heart, because if you can’t, forget it. And that really makes this a reward for good behavior.

But the more and more I read scripture I see this beautiful invitation into how things work.

Let’s take this little statement, / / Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, and turn that around into a question and ask:

/ / Do you want to see God?

Now, let’s pause there for a second and answer the, / / How are we blessed? part of this. Blessed are the pure in heart, how? They will see God.

/ / What does that mean?

The word / / see is more than just with the eyes, but it is to behold, to perceive and to discern clearly. It means to have an experience with. Yes, it means to see with the eyes, but it also means to see with the mind, to perceive, which means to be aware of, it means to know, to become acquainted with by having an experience.

/ / To see God is to have an experience, to be made aware of, to become acquainted with God.

And so we could look at that as a gift for good behavior, you did the right thing, God blessed you with 5 minutes of his presence. OR, you can see it as the beautiful invitation into the reality of how this world works. / / This is an invitation to experience God through dedicating our hearts to Him.

I have seen more and more this desire in the world to remove any and all of the conditions contained within scripture because through a good revelation and understanding that God is love we came a not so good conclusion that if he is love than we can forget the rest, then there wouldn’t be conditions, because God’s love is unconditional.

And that is a grave mistake. Not that God’s love is not unconditional, in fact, it is, absolutely, 100% unconditional. John 3:16 clearly says, / / For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

That’s the promise. God loves the world. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. And every one you don’t like. Everyone you hate. Everyone you disagree with. Everyone you think is horrible, or believes wrong, or who you might want to call a sinner or whatever else. God loves them.

Our enemies. God loves them.

Our families. God loves them.

Atheists, those who don’t even believe in a God. God loves them.

Agnostics, those who believe maybe there’s a God but he doesn’t care about them. God loves them.

Satanists, those who dedicate all of themselves to the complete opposite way of God. God loves them.

There is no one God does not love.

Here’s where we’ve gone wrong - that does not mean that the experiences of God do not have conditions.

Even John 3:16 is split into two statements.

/ / For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son.

That’s the love statement. That’s unconditional. You betcha. 100%.

/ / ...so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

The gift, the offer, the experience of eternal life does not come through the love of God, it comes through us BELIEVING in Jesus Christ who came to express that love to us. Yes, His love is WHY he gave Jesus, but acceptance of that is HOW we receive eternal life.

2 Peter 3:9 says, / / [The Lord] does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

The bible says we are meant to be ready at all times for the return of Jesus Christ. But this verse gives us a clue as to why we maybe haven’t seen that happen yet. And it is found in the LOVE of God, but it is because of the condition of salvation. He wants people to make the choice to believe.

The Passion Translation says it this way… / / His “delay” simply reveals his loving patience toward you, because he does not want any to perish but all to come to repentance. The MSG says, / / He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.

Regardless of where you’re theology is on punishment and how the rest of eternity will play out for those who do not believe, I am 100% sure of this fact, that the redemption of God has nothing to do with our ability to do what is right, but everything to do with our willingness to recognize and accept that we can’t do right, and only through Jesus Christ can we be saved.

So, what’s Jesus saying in Matthew 5:8? He’s saying there’s a condition on experience, but that we don’t have to read it in a bad way, just simply read it for what it is. Again, start from the end, ask the question.

/ / Do you want to see God? To truly see Him, be aware of Him and become acquainted with Him through experience?

If the answer is no, then feel free to do whatever you want. Live by your own rules, by your own way.

But if the answer is yes, then Jesus is giving you a clear path forward.

/ / Seek purity in your heart. It’s a guaranteed path to seeing Him.

I can’t speak for you, but I sure can tell you my experience in life. The more I focus on God. The more I dedicate to Him, the more I give of myself, the more I experience of Him.

Matthew 10:39, / / If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for [Jesus], you will find it.

This has always been the promise.

The prophet Jeremiah, who lived 600 years before Jesus said any of this, said by the inspiration of God in Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV), / / You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord...

Again, with its beautiful style of writing the MSG says it this way, / / When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed. (MSG)

James, the brother of Jesus picks this up in his book as well and says in James 4:7-8, / / So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Jesus is inviting a singular loyalty, a singular commitment, a dedicated approach.

/ / Do you want to experience God?

If yes, then commit to pursuing purity in your heart. Not trying to be good on the outside without changing the heart, but pursuing purity of heart, and THAT will change any outward issues you are struggling with.

The key is not to try and be better. I don’t stay committed to my wife by trying really hard not to be attracted to other women. I stay committed to my wife by being all about my wife, and then nobody else matters.

The Flamingos had it right when they sang, I only have eyes for you...

Like I said, my experience has been the more I dedicate to God, the more my life is reoriented around Him and the more I experience him. And I’m not talking just about a moment of, “Wow, I felt God for a few seconds there.” But I look at my life and think, “Wow, things are going better. I have more peace, I have more patience, I have more self-control.... wait a second.... the fruit of the spirit is actually growing in my life....”

How? Because I’m spending time cultivating the garden of my heart. Because out of the heart flows everything we do!

Very quickly this morning, how do we do that? How do we stay pure of heart? Well, I think James gives us a good outline in the scripture we just read:

/ / 1. Humble yourself. That’s the get low version of that word. Come to God and recognize He is God and worthy of recognition.

/ / 2. Resist the devil. If you know it isn’t God, steer clear. If you know it’s not God’s best. walk away. If you have a check in your insides, like, “ya, I don’t think I should do this?” Don’t do it. Don’t be like David on the roof contemplating how great it would be to be with Bathsheba, get off the roof.

/ / 3. Draw close to God. Change your focus. Get your eyes off of yourself. Get your eyes off your situation. Get your eyes off what you think you want. Whether you are focusing too much on the difficulty or bad of the situation, or you’re focusing too much on what you wish you had… turn from that and focus on God. Grab your bible and reorient yourself. Sit in silence or in some worship music and pray. Invite the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life.

/ / 4. Wash your hands. This speaks to the physical aspects of what we’re doing that’s getting in the way of our relationship with God. If you know you have sin in your life. If you know you aren’t doing right, and you know why. Get rid of it. And repent, ask God to help you change. Stop letting what you know you should have in your life, remain in your life. Time to grow up. Time to make a commitment. Time to step up and repent - invite God to change how you see things!

/ / 5. Purify your heart. In the same way as wash your hands speaks to the physical aspects, this speaks to the heart aspect. What have you made room for in your heart that shouldn’t be there? Same thing, repent, ask God to remove any place you’ve given to anything other than him in your heart, and ask Him to make you clean. And then ask him to help you be loyal to him. James says, purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.

Remember how David handled the situation with Bathsheba, after it was all said and done, and the prophet Nathan went to him and confronted him about his sin. Remember we read / / Psalm 51, which says, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet went to him, after he had sinned with Bathsheba.

Yes, he poetically relays his anguish over it all, but what does he say to God, Psalm 51:10-12, / / Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

I can’t help but wonder if that’s what James had in mind when he wrote these verses.

But that’s it right there. The invitation of Matthew 5:8, to be pure of heart and see God can be walked through in this way:

/ / Humble yourself, you need God.

Resist the devil, decide God’s way is your goal.

Draw close to God, dedicate time and practice to Him.

Wash your hands, repent and get rid of sin in your life.

And purify your heart, repent and turn to God, be loyal to Him and Him alone.

Let’s pray...