2024-03-03 Pure in Heart

Well, we are continuing our series on the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. I mentioned this in the text message this past week, but if you have missed weeks in this series, I strongly encourage you to go back to our website or directly on youtube or facebook and catch up. What we are doing this year is laying some really important groundwork.

This is the Christian life. The slow and important journey of becoming like Christ. Yes, we are saved in a moment, and then we spend the rest of our days on this earth following the Master as he leads us in His way. That’s what this is.

I’ve heard this saying a few times recently, and it’s been very encouraging to me. When speaking of certain things within the Christian faith, let’s say, salvation - we define as very basically, by grace through faith. Meaning, grace is unmerited, undeserved favor, and faith is believing in Jesus Christ as the only way to be made right with God. And so this encouraging saying I’ve come across is someone adding, “it’s no less…” meaning, nothing less than this equals salvation. My pastor when I was growing up would always say, “The Cross + Nothing = Salvation” It’s no less than that. You can’t take anything from that equation.

But what I have been encouraged by with this saying, is that we can easily also say of salvation, “and nothing more”, because salvation does not require anything more if your theology is that you simply have to confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died and was raised to life again, conquering sin and death for all humanity. But, what I’ve realized is that adding “nothing more” can be misleading. I think I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but I came across some statistics that absolutely broke my heart. 95% of people who respond to an alter call, or an invitation for salvation within a year do not have a relationship with Jesus or go to church.

That’s scary. But it also says that we have focused too much on “nothing more” rather than “nothing less”. “Nothing more” is good, because it’s true, salvation is in nothing more than our faith in Christ and the Grace of God to redeem us through what Jesus did on the cross and his resurrection. BUT, the Christian life is so much more. And so we are better served by saying, “Nothing Less”, because that leaves room for the invitation of following Jesus. Listen, Jesus never said, “Say a prayer and you’re good.” He said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, my disciple, you must give up your own way, take up your cross and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.” (Matthew 16:23-24)

The problem with coming up to the altar and receiving the life of Christ for redemption, but not making your life about following the way of Jesus, is that without being spiritually formed by the life Jesus calls us to live, we will eventually just walk away, because the deep work of formation has not happened.

What does Paul say, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” (Romans 12:2)

Why would he have to say “don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world?”

Because the behavior and customs of this world are both what are already engrained in us, and what is constantly surrounding us. The enemy will do anything and everything to get you to be discouraged in your faith and start copying the behavior and customs of this world.

And we have to see the connection between what Jesus is preaching in the Sermon on the Mount, and what Paul is saying here in Romans 12:2.

Jesus, in Matthew 4:17 said, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

Remember, repent means to have a change of mind. What’s Paul saying, “Be transformed…” how? “By letting God change your mind.” What was Jesus doing in the Sermon on the Mount? Changing people’s mind, inviting them to repent and follow him into the way of living that invites the Kingdom of Heaven.

If we are ambassadors of the kingdom of God, it only works if we are doing what the Kingdom of God represents, living like the Kingdom of God dictates. What would we say of someone who is an ambassador of a nation, here in America to represent the King of England, let’s say, but they were living terribly. Breaking all of our rules, living like they don’t care about who they are or who they represent. Sure, they wear the name of ambassador, but their lives sure don’t look like it.

What would we say of a person like that? “You’re not a very good ambassador.” In fact, we might say, “You don’t really represent what England stands for at all. They are a proud and noble people and you are acting like a complete lunatic.”

So we are invited to have a change of mind, not to enter the kingdom, but to recognize that the kingdom is near. Why is it near? Because we’ve been invited to live like it is here, and in so doing, become ambassadors of a better way.

Ok, so this has become a pretty major theme in this series, the difference between what we will live in the Kingdom of God when Christ returns, and how we live now inviting the Kingdom of God to be present THROUGH our actions in a world where the Kingdom is not yet. Let’s read a great passage of scripture this morning further defining this. It’s from Luke 17 and if your bible has titles in it, it may say “The Coming of the Kingdom.”

Luke 17:20-37:

One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”

This is a great question, because remember, this is what John the Baptist was preaching, and this is what Jesus was preaching. Now, the difference is that the Pharisees were thinking in terms of a physical kingdom with an heir to the throne from the line of David who would vanquish their enemies and drive Rome out of their land and re-establish the throne and kingdom of Isreal. They were wrong, so Jesus tries to help them see more about what he’s talking about.

Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”

Then he said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see the day when the Son of Man returns, but you won’t see it. People will tell you, ‘Look there is the Son of Man,’ or ‘Here he is,’ but don’t go out and follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky one end to the other, so it will be on the day when the Son of Man comes. But first the Son of Man must suffer terribly and be rejected by this generation.

“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.

“And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business - eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building - until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day a person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. A person out in the filed must not return home. Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it. That night two people will be asleep in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour together at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.”

“Where will this happen, Lord?” the disciples asked.

Jesus replied, “Just as the gather of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.”

Ok, I’m not going all apocalyptic here, but there is some absolute gold in this passage of Scripture.

1. The Kingdom is Not Physical

Jesus’ first point is that the kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. But he’s also been saying that it is near. And then he says, “it is already among you.” - what’s he talking about?

In Luke 10, Jesus sends out 72 of his disciples to go out and minister in healing and all kinds of wonderful stuff. In his instructions he says this, Luke 10:8-9, “If you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.”

The ESV says, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

I like TPT it says, ‘God’s kingdom realm has arrived and is now within your reach!’

The AMP says, ‘The kingdom of God has come close to you.’

You have to see this. Jesus sends who? His disciples…or…what does Paul call us…the ambassadors of the kingdom, out into the world and says, “do these things, preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, cast out demons. And when you do these things, let them know that it was the Kingdom of God that just walked in front of them.”

Why? Because those who will rule and reign with him, that is all who believe, when he actually comes and sets up his kingdom when he returns, new heaven, new earth, are allowed to live like that now, impacting the world around them with the knowledge and power of the kingdom they represent.

2. The Kingdom is Yet to Come

Now, the next thing Jesus says is he compares the kingdom of God coming to his returning. He has already called himself the Son of Man back in Luke 5 and he’s there now, so when he says that the Son of Man has not yet come, he’s not talking about the first coming of the Messiah, he is that, he’s talking about his return to the earth, what Revelation 21 talks about, him setting up the kingdom, new heaven, new earth and all of that.

And he says, there is coming a day when you will LONG to see the Son of Man return…but you won’t.

But the words are very similar. Listen to how he describes the Kingdom of God, and the Son of Man.

Luke 17:21, You won’t be able to say, ‘here it is!’ or ‘it’s over there!’, because the kingdom is already among you.

Luke 17:23, People will tell you, ‘Look, there is the Son of Man,’ or ‘Here he is,’ but don’t follow them.

What’s he saying? He’s saying, “When I’m around, you experience the Kingdom, because I represent, embody, carry the authority of the kingdom…” And what’s he say in Luke 10? “When you’re around, people experience the Kingdom, because you represent, embody, carry the authority of the kingdom…”

But what he’s not saying is, “I’ve come to establish my kingdom now.” That is saved for a later time we do not know, but the invitation is clear. Live like you are going to live there, as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God, ministers of reconciliation to those who need God, inviting them to experience the Kingdom, give glory to God, and then themselves begin to live in the way of the kingdom.

3. Prepare for the Kingdom now

In probably his strongest point in this passage of scripture is what he says next. The passage ends with the disciples asking where all of this is going to happen. I find it interesting that they ask where, not when, but maybe that’s because the Pharisees had originally asked when.

But Jesus response this way, “Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.”

What signs is he talking about?

“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day…”

“And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot…”

What is the commonality between Noah and Lot’s time periods?

Absolute and utter human depravity. Right? Rampant sin everywhere. The world doing whatever it wanted. Humanity at its worst. To a point where God is ready to destroy everything. That’s the story, right? Whether you fully understand it, or understand the why, or the how, that’s the narrative.

Noah’s day was so corrupt that God decided to wipe all of humanity out with a flood.

Lot was living in a city called Sodom, and what happened, Abraham had to plead with God that if only they could find 5 righteous people in the city, God wouldn’t destroy it. And that wasn’t even possible - the crazy part is that Lot’s family was more than 5 people. He has to send angels into the city to get Lot and his family out and Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire and burning sulfur from the sky.

So, one of the things that I’ve been saying is that when Jesus comes on the scene, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, what we’re looking at this year, there’s a lot of, “You’ve heard this about the heart of God, or about the law, or about what was, or what your ancestors were told, but I am here to tell you…”

This is another moment.

The stories of Noah & Lot say the world was so bad that God offered no other way than to destroy it. But what’s Jesus saying? He responds with those stories to what question? “When will the Kingdom of God come?”

Essentially, what Jesus is saying is, “You’ve heard it said that God will come to destroy all of his enemies and reestablish the kingdom of Israel, but I tell you, Yes, the world will be as corrupt as it has ever been, humanity seems to not change in that way, but here is the heart of your Father in heaven, that is when he will send the Son of Man to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth, which is redemption, not punishment.”

Now, whatever that means for timeline and for the old world to disappear so the new world can come. That’s what John says in Revelation 21, he says he saw a new heaven and a new earth for the old heaven and old earth had disappeared. He talks about death and the grave being thrown into a lake of fire with all those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. He calls that the second death. And in all of its mystery, let’s just say this, that is yet to come.

But what is also yet to come is the coming of this kingdom. And if we think about how Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, I think it’s wise we do the same.

Our Father in Heaven, holy is your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

Yes, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, but our responsibility as followers of Jesus in the here and now is to pray for the representation of His kingdom to be seen and felt in this earth. Yes, even in the midst of the corruption, sin, depravity. We are meant to be ambassadors of what? reconciliation, making relationship right. Not condemnation or judgement.

And so Jesus finishes with this thought, repeating his words we’ve read in other scriptures, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.”

Meaning, give up your desire, and live the life of following Jesus.

So, where are we going today. Matthew 5:8, in the Beattitudes.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Ok, this is a big one in the way of living like Jesus, which is the whole point here.

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

The Message translation of this is written really 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.”

Let’s look at two definitions real quick.

First, the greek word used in Matthew 5:8 for pure is katharos, and it has three different avenues here:

physically - purified by fire, or like a vine cleansed by pruning the corrupt branches so it can bear fruit.

in a levitical sense - (law) clean, the use of which is not forbidden, or not called “unclean”

ethically - ok, so in the way it relates to moral principles - free from corrupt desire, from sin and guilt, free from every admixture of what is false, blameless, innocent, unstained with the guilt of anything

ok, so that’s a good baseline for this. And if we look at the english definition of the word pure, it is not mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material. without any extraneous and unnecessary elements, free of any contamination.

And what is Jesus saying should be pure? Our hearts. Blessed are the pure in heart.

So, we looked at the heart a few weeks ago when we read vs 5, Blessed are the meek… meek was humble, or lowly and gentle of heart.

And that was a very outward focused heart attitude, wasn’t it? How do you handle yourself, or how does your heart respond to other people? Are you humble, are you gentle, are you meek? Not for yourself, not for God, although we need to be humble before God, but in relation to people, how do you respond? An invitation to think of others.

This one goes more internal, about your life, and about your life before God. Blessed are the pure in heart.

In both of these, Matthew 5:5, 8, Jesus is essentially asking the question, “Where is your heart at?” How is your heart doing? What’s the condition of you heart. The first one, in regard to people, and this second one, in regard to self and to God.

Think of it this way, if pure means unmixed with anything that could contaminate it, cleaned, cleansed, all the bad is pruned or cut away, then Jesus is really asking here, “How much of your heart do I really have?”

How much of your heart does Jesus have?

I want to suggest three things to you this morning. First, your heart matters, second your actions, how you handle yourself, how you react or respond to situations in your life, will come from your heart, third, YOU are the one responsible for your heart and your actions.

1. Your Heart Matters

Proverbs 4:20-23 says, My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words. Don’t lose sight of them. Let them penetrate deep into your heart, for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Guard your heart.

Your heart matters. It’s important.

Proverbs 3:5 encourages us, Trust in the Lord with all your “heart”…

The great commandment is, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength…

it starts in the heart.

Now, obviously we are talking about more than the beating organ in your chest. In fact, we’re not talking about that at all. It’s all about your inner being. the word used in Proverbs does mean the heart, but it also says, “used very widely for the feelings, the will, and even the intellect; likewise for the center of anything.”

In the Old Testament that is a Hebrew word, but then if we look at Matthew 5:8, the greek word, kardia, sounds familiar, doesn’t it, and of course does mean the heart, the organ, but also “denotes the center of all physical and spiritual life, the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites. Of the middle or central or inmost part of anything.”

So essentially they mean the exact same thing here.

And what proverbs is saying is that we need to guard the innermost part of us, the part that feels, that wills us to act, that causes us to think, that place that all of our thought and passion and desire comes from, protect that with everything you’ve got.

2. Your Actions come from your Heart

Proverbs says protect your heart, why? Because out of your heart flow your actions.

This is something very interesting. I’m going to read a passage from the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet speaking to the nation of Israel, but hear this. Jeremiah 17:5-10,

This is what the Lord says:

“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

Ok, that’s a kind of intense piece, but notice there are three sections, and each one says something about the heart.

In the first section it connects those who only trust themselves as having turned their hearts away from God. We’ve read from Romans 1 lately, Paul talks about that, people who don’t recognize God and as such their thinking about him is corrupted.

The second section doesn’t mention the heart specifically, but says very clearly as a contrast to the first part, those who trust in the Lord are blessed. well, just go back to Proverbs, what does it mean to trust in the Lord? Trust in the Lord with all your …..heart.

That is how we trust in the Lord, with the heart, with our inner most being, with who we are, our feelings, our core being.

And then the last section, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.”

Now, that might be hard to read because our hearts were created by God, right? How can it be bad. AND there is a very strong narrative being pushed now about everyone being “basically good”. Humans are basically good.

Well, read Genesis. It takes all of 3 chapters for us to mess up paradise because what? Because the heart was corrupted.

“Did God really say?” says the serpent…

Eve’s response, “Well,…. I don’t know…Maybe…oh wow, is God hiding something from us? He is….let’s eat the fruit and find out what.”

The heart was deceived, and when deception is what you’ve learned, deception can be how you live.

The bible is clear, we have to guard our hearts, protect our hearts, watch over our hearts, give our hearts to God, trust in God with our hearts.

Last thing in that third section. It says, after saying the heart is the problem, “I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”

He’s talking about the heart, but then connects it to the actions. Action comes from the heart. Remember Proverbs 4:23, Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

The ESV says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Jesus said in Luke 6:43-45, “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasure of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.”

Ok, so what you SAY comes out of your heart. But not just what we say. Listen to this:

Matthew 15:10, 18-20, Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “Listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth… the words you speak come from the heart - that’s what defiles you.

Ok, so far the same thing as Luke 6, but then he goes a bit further and says this: For from the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander. These are what defile you.”

So not just what we say, what comes out of our mouth, but all of this action as well. So Jesus is saying that our hearts are important, because out of them flow good or evil, depending on what we have done to cultivate our hearts.

And so here’s the last part that we want to look at this morning.

3. You are Responsible for your Heart and your Actions

So, Jesus is teaching these beatitudes. We’ve been kind of playing with that word, the attitude to be….to be a follower, a disciple, a christian, a kingdom ambassador, a minister of reconciliation. And so here in Matthew 5:8 he’s saying, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Well, we’ve established that the heart isn’t just a feeling, right? You can’t produce good fruit from an evil heart, and you can’t produce evil fruit from a good heart, and out of the heart flow all kinds of evil thoughts, and actions, right?

So this is a call to an inward journey that will define our outward action.

Psalm 51 has become one of my favorites. If you know the story, King David had done some pretty bad stuff. His heart was betraying him. The whole thing starts with this one little verse that is just so telling. It’s 2 Samuel 11:1, it says, In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites…

David was supposed to be somewhere, but he decided to bypass his duty and stay home. Something is going on in his heart that has caused him to stay home. Maybe he thinks he’s done enough war, maybe he thinks he’s better than that, or doesn’t need to go himself. He can do what he wants, he’s the king. Whatever it is, he’s decided he doesn’t need to bother with his duties, he can do what he wants.

Well again, if you know the story, he’s up on his roof one day, sees a beautiful woman and abuses his power to force her to sleep with him. Now we don’t know if he physically forced her, but he’s the king, she probably does not feel like she can say no. This doesn’t necessarily show two people just slipping up and having an affair.

She gets pregnant.

David tries so hard to cover it up, but he can’t, so he ends up having her husband killed.

The story is some of the worst of humanity, worst of leadership stories, and this is where Psalm 51 comes in. See, in the story, the prophet Nathan comes to David and confronts him about the whole thing. God’s told Nathan what happened, what David did, and God’s not happy with David.

And I hadn’t noticed this until some point last year, but it’s made Psalm 51 mean a whole lot more. Many of the Psalms come with a title, who wrote it, and who it was written for, and sometimes, like in the case of Psalm 51, it has more of an explanation. This is what it says: For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

Ok, that’s the backdrop for this psalm. And this is what David writes:

It’s a beautiful Psalm, and I won’t read it all, for sake of time, but I want to read vs 1-3, 7 and then jump to 16 and 17…

Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.

Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.

Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.

For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering.

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.

You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

Scripture calls David a man after God’s own heart. But his story is pretty terrible at points. Here’s why I think that is. And this is of course my opinion - but this Psalm shows the reason why.

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit, you will not reject a broken and repentant heart.

Some people might get bent out of shape over thinking God wants to break us, but that’s not what it’s saying here. Sin has already broken David. He is living under the pressure and weight of his own actions that came from his heart. I read a book a while ago about the fact that we’ve maybe lost an important component in the Christian community, and that is a healthy sense of shame. That thought was very weird to me because the world that Kelley and I come from was very anti-shame. And the world we live in is very anti-shame. Especially if someone feels that you are ‘shaming’ them, for whatever reason.

But shame is a feeling of having done wrong.

Now, where it is unhealthy is when shame is put on someone in an unhealthy community and it is connected to condemnation. You did this, so you are this, and we will treat you differently, punish you, scold you...

BUT, when you feel shame in the context of a healthy environment, it can produce repentance and healing. More than the first half of Psalm 51 is David recognizing in his shame the depth of his failure before God and Bathsheba.

I said this last week, if nothing is ever wrong, then there is no need for repentance and forgiveness.

But we know that’s not the case, right? So we need some conviction, some recognition of wrong doing, and some remorse for that wrong doing. And I would say that’s what happened with David in Psalm 51, or leading up to writing it.

Nathan confronts him and he realizes all his wrong, and instead of hiding from it, instead of turning away, or getting defensive, he owns it, and allows the remorse to challenge him.

You ever have someone say they’re sorry, but you can just tell they don’t mean it?

The words of apology are there, but they just aren’t genuine?

God’s not looking for that.

David finishes with, You will not reject a broken and repentant heart.

Basically saying, “Allow yourself to feel some kinda way about the wrong you’ve done in your life. Let it move you to a place of repentance.”

We are responsible for our hearts. And we are responsible for the actions they produce.

But if we are willing to do the work of repentance and seek after God for forgiveness and holiness then we can right the path we are on. Like David, who did some of the worst stuff of humanity here, I mean, uses his authority to get a woman to sleep with him and then kills her husband and takes her as his own wife. I can’t imagine the counseling sessions out of that one.

“Ok, David, let’s Bathsheba speak…. So, you said he did what?”

So, why do this?

Why focus on having a pure and clean heart?

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

This is the goal, we want to see God. We want to be in His presence. We want to look at His face and be transformed. Again, David in Psalm 51 says, 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.

Another Psalm, also written by David. Psalm 24:3-4, Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? Only those whose hands and hearts are pure.

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.

Let me say this to you this morning. Grace is wonderful. It is. And God loves you. 100%. But we also can’t be afraid of being set right by God in our lives. We can’t be so attached to this idea of grace covering our wrong doing that we forget He is a holy God and we are called to be holy as he is holy.

Are we ever going to be perfect, not this side of heaven, but that doesn’t mean we don’t give our lives to the pursuit of holiness, of right living and of doing what He has said we should do. And the benefit, is being close to him.

I’ve been thinking of it this way lately. The closer I follow Jesus, the closer I am to Jesus. And the closer I am to Jesus, the more I will receive from being in His presence. I’m not perfect at it, but I do want to be better at it.

If I could give you an encouragement this morning it would be this:

Stop running from guilt and shame. It is ok to embrace the reality of our wrong doing. Just don’t stay there…

Turn to God, repent, show remorse, ask for forgiveness, recognize you did wrong and you don’t want to do wrong again.

Ask God to change your mind. Romans 12:2, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Make a commitment and make the effort to live a life of purity of heart before God. Do the work of being pure in heart. Commit yourself to a life of purity of heart so that your actions follow.

And out of that I know you will see God. Because the closer you follow him, the more you feel His presence.