Clear the Clutter: Start Fresh with a Clean Heart

A recap of the series so far

Middle of 8-week series looking at 8 choices that can change your life.

Week 1 was the reality choice: recognising that I am not God. I am powerless to control my tendency to sin and do the wrong thing. But God can. He has the power.

Week 2 the choice to let God in. To believe he exists, to believe that he loves me and that I matter to him, and that he can help me make the right choices.

Last week was the commitment choice - to actually let him change us.

So, as we come to the fourth choice, I have a question for us to consider:

We are made new in Christ, so how are we still bound to our sin?

When you give your life to Christ, the Bible says he brings you from death to life.

John 8:36 NLT

So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

Isn’t that great?

That’s good news!

But, I have a problem.

That’s not what life feels like.

There are still things in my life - over 40 years after giving my life to Christ! - that keep me from fulfilling my full potential in him.

There are things that bind me up.

Things that hold me back.

Things that restrict me.

Things that trip me up.

I am still - after all these years - beset by old ways of thinking, old patterns of behaviour, all those kinds of things.

There are times I still try to hide behind a mask because I’m afraid to let people see the real me.

Maybe you feel like that too?

We can be guilty of doing things with mixed motives

I love preaching.

I want everyone to hear to hear God’s Good News.

That’s why I preach here.

That’s why I have a sermon podcast - so that God’s Word can reach beyond these walls.

But if I’m honest, I also gain some contentment from the odd occasion when someone says I spoke well!

It’s a problem that affects all preachers!

John Bunyan was once told by someone that he had preached well that day.

He answered sadly, “The devil already told me that as I was coming down the pulpit steps”.

Those of us who work might well do so with the laudable aim of serving those we work for and with.

But what we are paid might well be a motive too!

The service and ministry we undertake here - whether it’s playing an instrument, singing, cooking meals, making coffee, counting money - whatever - do we do it solely for Christ, or do we do it for our own prestige too?

Do we come here each Sunday just to meet God?

Or is it an attempt at fulfilling a habit - a ritual that marks the days of the week for us - or do we do it for some kind of respectability?

Do we give to charity out of our generous heart to help them and their cause, or is it so we can pat ourselves on the back that we’ve done a good thing?

It can be daunting to examine our motives in this way.

So much so, that we may try to avoid doing it altogether and simply go about on autopilot!

Admit: I am often envious of Apostle Paul

Philippians 3:13–14 NLT

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Paul seems to have the single-mindedness that I often lack.

Didn’t say, I have 25 interests I dabble in, and Christianity is one of them.

Full focus.

Had other interests, but everything else in his life found place and significance from that full focus on that one thing.

“I focus on this one thing … I press on to reach the end of the race … for which God is calling me”.

God has called Paul to a goal, and anything that hinders or obstructs that goal must be got rid of.

Instead, I often find myself making the prayer of psalmist

Psalm 86:11 NLT

Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.

If I am honest, many things I do can be from mixed motives.

And yet Jesus says one of the choices I can make to change my life is to have a heart that is pure.

So, let’s have a look at how on earth this can be possible.

Matthew 5:1-12

Matthew 5:1–12 NLT

One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them. “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

MESSAGE NOTES

We are to be pure in heart, but if we’re honest, we’re not

Matthew 5:8 NLT

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

Pure - Greek = katharŏs (kath-ar-os´).

Originally meant clean - e.g. dirty clothes that could be washed clean.

Regularly used to describe corn that had been winnowed or sifted and cleansed of all chaff.

It was also used to describe an army that had been purged of all discontented, cowardly, unwilling, and inefficient soldiers, so that it was a force of simply first-class fighting men.

It also commonly appears akēratos (akir-as-tos) - which can be used for pure milk or wine that has not been watered down, or metal that has no alloy in it.

Blessed are those whose motives are always entirely unmixed, for they shall see God. (William Barclay)

Now, if you’re bing honest this morning, you’re probably thinking - just like me - I still don’t see how this is possible.

I still have so much sin and wrong in my life.

My heart is dirty.

My mind is dirty.

My hands are dirty.

My mouth is dirty.

How can I ever have a heart that is pure?

If you feel like that this morning, then it’s important for you to know:

God declares our hearts pure and then we cooperate with him in the process of growing them

If we wants hearts that our pure, then the first thing we must do if to throw ourselves on the grace of God.

A heart that is pure is not about how good we’ve been.

It’s about how good God is.

It is he who makes us pure.

It is he who gives us a new life.

It is he who raises us from the dead.

If we have a good character, it’s not based on us and what we’ve done, it’s based on his character.

We must ask him to plant a new and pure heart in us:

Psalm 51:10 NLT

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.

That must be our prayer.

And we must keep praying it!

It is not our good behaviour - it’s not those times when we make the right choices - that grows in us a heart that is pure.

It’s a pure heart implanted in us by God that enables us to make those right choices.

As we continually ask God to create a pure heart in us, the qualities of a such a heart will take root and grow within us.

God knows all about you

He knows you really do want to be free from all the wrong in your life.

He knows you’d love to be able to say, like Paul, I’m focusing only on the calling God has made on my life.

He knows that you want him to implant in you a heart that it pure.

All you have to do is to surrender to his work in you.

If you surrender to him, Jesus’ promise is that you will see God in your heart.

You will see him in your mind.

You will see him in your mouth.

You will see him in your hands and your feet.

You will see him in the way you live your life.

For most of us, it doesn’t happen overnight.

It’s a lifelong process.

That’s why we have to keep praying, Create in me a pure heart.

It’s God’s work.

He will do it in your heart.

Your role is to surrender to that work.

That was the message of the video we watched before this message.

When Michelangelo was asked how he created the statue of David from a chunk of marble, he said:

“I didn't, he was already in there. I just chipped away everything that wasn’t David.”

That’s what God longs to do in your life.

To chip away at anything that isn’t truly you.

All you have to do is to surrender to the chisel.

Are you ready to make this choice?

Are you ready to surrender?

Psalm 32:5 NLT

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Interlude

If you’re ready to make this choice this morning - for the first time or for the umpteenth time - I want you to remember three things:

God is kind

God is not angry with you.

His kindness will lead you to confession.

It will lead you to repentance.

Romans 8:1 NLT

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

God’s faithfulness

God promises that if you ask him to create a pure heart in you, if you surrender to him, then he will do it:

Philippians 1:6 NLT

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

The sculpture will be completed!

You will have a heart that is pure.

Nothing - not your sin, not your wrong choices, not your addictions, not your hang ups, not your problems - will stop God’s work in you.

You may be willing to give up on yourself.

You may be ashamed sometimes at how divided your heart is.

But God will not give up on you.

God’s Promises

Ezekiel 36:26 NLT

And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

God is at work in you.

I see it - over the past three years I have seen so many of you grow in faith.

He’s already started the process of implanting a heart that is pure in you.

You are in the process of becoming the person God made you to be.

All you have to do is to make the choice to surrender to that process.

And if you do, you’ll become unstuck.

SB 426 - Is it nothing to you?

Is it nothing to you that one day Jesus came All our sorrow and suffering to share? He came as the light of new hope for a world In the day of its darkest despair. Is it nothing to you that his cross speaks our shame? Is it nothing to you, for whose cleansing he came, That our guilt made his Calvary and pierced his hands through? Is it nothing to you? Is it nothing, nothing to you? 2 Is it nothing to you that one day Jesus gave, Gave in love of his measureless all? So richly he poured out his limitless life When he answered our pitiful call. 3 Is it nothing to you that one day Jesus died, That men mocked him and, heedless, passed by? No sorrow was e?er like the sorrow he bore When they scorned him and left him to die. 4 Is it nothing to you that today Jesus saves? Though we stand all condemned before God He carries our sin on his own loving heart, And he saves by his pardoning blood. Albert Mingay (1904-2002) © The General of The Salvation Army. Used By Permission. CCL Licence No. 135015 Copied from The Song Book of The Salvation Army Song Number 426