Pure in Heart

We are in the second week our of series entitled “Bless this Home”. What we’re doing in this four-week series is looking at what is known as the Beatitudes. The word “beatitudes” is not a Hebrew or Greek word. It is a Latin word meaning “blessedness”. In Matthew chapter 5, Jesus gave eight different characteristics of those who are blessed.

We looked at one of those characteristics last week. If you missed the message, you can listen to it by going to our YouTube channel or on our website. Last week, we looked at .

Matthew 5:6 CSB

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

This morning, we are going to look at another one of the Beatitudes and apply it to our family life. We want God to bless our homes. Many of our families might looked blessed on the outside, but on the inside we are struggling. Many homes are not blessed today and I believe, by the grace of God, that can change.

When I was growing up, we didn’t wear bike helmets. We didn’t wear elbow pad or knees pads. We played contact sports without mouth guards. We played football and hockey in the street. You get a concussion and just shake it off and get back in there. I remember breaking my arm at school. I wish it was a great story, but I was just playing school yard football and I ran into a tree. I heard the bones snap in my arm. I knew something wasn’t right, but my coach looked at it and said, “You’ll be alright. No big deal.” Then, he sent me to class. In class, my arm started to swell and they called my mom who drove me to the hospital. I had broken my right arm. Things we different years ago and I am not even that old.

Today, if you don’t put your kid in a padded suit before letting them go down a slide, people will look at you like you are the worst parent ever. We have to put head gear and elbow pads on them just to walk down the street. We will take all kinds of extreme measures to try to physically protect our kids, and yet, when you try to protect their impressionable hearts and minds; you are often called an overprotective parent. It seems insane to me. You are applauded for protecting them physically, but people make fun of you for protecting them morally.

As parents, our job is not just to protect our children and ourselves physically, but also, we need to get serious about protecting the purity of our hearts. We have a spiritual enemy who wants to rob our families of their purity. Our enemy desires to break in, to kill, steal, and destroy our purity.

Open your Bible to .

Matthew 5:8 CSB

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

The word “heart” in the Greek language is the word “cardio”. Jesus used the word “heart” as a metaphor. He wasn’t saying “Blessed are those who don’t have cholesterol in their hearts.” or “Blessed are those whose veins aren’t blocked.” He was using it as a metaphor to describe the emotions, feelings, and inner self.

His message was much broader than the application I am making today. When he said, “Blessed are the pure in heart”, he was talking about attitudes, motives, and thoughts toward others. He was talking about a lot more than we are going to talk about this morning. This morning, I am taking a more narrow focus. We are going to talk about the moral purity of our homes. This is about having our lives and our hearts firmly set on a pursuing purity.

I was watching the Netflix documentary, “I am a Killer”. It always surprises me. It shouldn’t, but it does. The interviewer sits down with the convicted murders’ friends and family. It almost never fails. A person will say, “I know what he did, but he’s got a good heart.” “I know he killed all those people, but he’s a good boy.”

We do this same thing. We believe it about ourselves and of other people. “Oh, he’s got a good heart.” You are dating a guy who isn’t a believer and you say, “No, he’s not a Christian, but he’s got a good heart.” No, he doesn’t. He lives in a van down by the river and he smokes weed for dinner. Although it is a common saying, it just isn’t true. It is not true about any of us. Here is the truth.

Without Christ, there is no such thing as a pure heart.

Jeremiah 17:9 CSB

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9–10 CSB

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it? 10 I, the Lord, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.

Our hearts are deceptive. Our hearts can’t be cured without a supernatural, God-sized intervention.

Ephesians 4:18–19 CSB

18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. 19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.

They are darkened in their understanding. They are separated from the life of God. Why? Their hearts are not good, they have hard hearts which are bent on impurity.

Have you ever walked into a dark room, like a move theater. It was really dark when you walked in, and it is almost like the dark hit you. After a few moments, you can see much better because your eyes became adjusted to the darkness.

As I thought about the effects of the darkness of our culture and how our hearts can deceive us. Verse 19 jumped out at me. It said, “They became calloused.” They became adjusted to the darkness and gave themselves over to more impurity. Could it be that in many of our homes, maybe even the majority of our homes, we aren’t being blessed because we have allowed impurities into our homes? We don’t even realize it because we have become accustomed to it. Have we lost our sensitivity?

Verse 19 sounds much like our culture today. Having become callous, losing our sensitivity, people, even Christians, are giving themselves over to all sorts of sensuality and indulging in every kind of impurity. Could it be that our homes are not blessed because our hearts have been darkened?

We would never give a baby a bottle with poison in it. We would never allow our children to swim in unsafe water, yet we will allow our daughters to go out with a hormone driven boy all alone on a date in a car at night unsupervised. Happens all the time. We will give our children unlimited access to mobile devices when they can get into anything and everything they want. Happens all the time and we call it normal. We allowed ourselves to be entertained by things that are just horrible and disgusting. We setup computers with no filters in private areas. We’ve been darkened in our understanding, and without even knowing it, we are losing our sensitivity. We are becoming calloused and are indulging in things that are not pure.

Remember last week, we had a key thought. We are going to be a Christ-centered home.

Be a Christ-centered home.

How do we do it? How can we be pure? The Psalmist asked the same question.

Psalm 119:9 CSB

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word.

Psalm 119:9–10 CSB

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word. 10 I have sought you with all my heart; don’t let me wander from your commands.

Psalm 119:9 CSB

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word.

What a great question to ask. How in the world, with all the temptations in the world, can we stay on the path of purity? Just follow your heart, right? You’ve got a good heart. No, don’t follow your heart. Your heart will deceive you. I have seen so many people follow their heart right into divorce court. I have seen so many young people follow their heart into addiction. People follow their hearts right into a world of hurt. How do you keep your way pure? By keeping God’s word.

Seek God with all your heart. Don’t stray from God’s commands. How can your family stay on the path of purity? Not by following your hearts. Live according to God’s word.

Keep yourself and your family pure by keeping God’s word.

Some of you are single. You aren’t married yet or you are in a stage of life where marriage is not a thing for you. Don’t think this exempts you from the message. You have you keep your life pure too. You don’t build a life of righteousness on a foundation of sin.

Maybe you and your family have gotten accustomed to the darkness. You don’t even see the ways that you’ve let impurity become a part of your life. How can you be a Christ-centered person? How can you have a Christ-centered home? How can we create a culture of purity in our lives and in our homes?

I can tell you. It is not going to happen by accident. You don’t stubble into purity. You are going to have to be purposeful. You are going to need to be intentional. Get your heart right by seeking God.

Get your heart right by seeking God.

It doesn’t matter if you are 18 or 88, you set the tone in the relationships around you. You can lead toward purity. Solomon gave us some great advice.

Proverbs 4:23 CSB

23 Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life.

Guard your heart. When you are looking at how you behave, what you allow in your homes and into your family, what you are influenced by, what you read and what you watch, what kind of entertainment you have, what kind of friends are closest to you, what kind of thoughts are feeding your mind, how do you decide what is right and what is not?

Well, here is what you do. Are you ready? Write this down. Get yourself a little cricket. Name him Jiminy and always let your conscience be your guide. Right? Nope.

1 Timothy 4:2 CSB

2 through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.

Your conscience can be seared. You can’t trust your conscience to always led you in the right direction. It can deceive you. All of us can be deceived. We have to get our heart right first by seeking God. Ask God to show you what is impure in your life. Ask him to reveal impure relationships and entertainment. Ask him to convict your of impure conversations and things in your home. Let him show you what needs to change as you move from where you are to where he wants you to be.

Parents, I want to talk to you for a moment because this is important. We need to learn to parent the heart of our children by parenting the “why” behind the “what”.

Parent the heart through the “why” behind the “what”.

Most of us parent actions. We want a certain behavior, but we forget about the heart. We can’t just settle for outward submission because outward conformity doesn’t equal inner change. Jesus hammered the Pharisees about this problem.

Matthew 23:27 CSB

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity.

They looked good on the outside, but were decayed and decrepit on the inside. Inside they were rotting. Inside they had a heart which was ten sizes too small. What does this look like? Well, if you have kids, you have seen it. One of them does something to the other one and you say, “Go apologize.” Fine. <STOMP, STOMP, STOMP>, “I’m sorry I hurt your feelings you big baby. They did what you asked, but did they mean it? Nope, their heart wasn’t right. We need to parent the heart through the “why” behind the “what”.

We need to parent the heart through the “why” behind the “what”.

Kids go to college at 18 and lose their minds. Why? Maybe it is because they didn’t understand the “why” behind the “what”. They have been doing something on the outside, but their hearts wanted to do their own thing. Parent their heart. Work to the purity of the heart.

Keep yourself and your family pure by keeping God’s word. Parent the heart through the “why” behind the “what”.

For all of us, we need to pursue perfect purity of the heart.

Pursue perfect purity of the heart.

I chose the word “pursue” is because we can’t achieve it on our own, but by the power of God, we need to pursue perfect purity. Does that sound like too high of standard? Pursuing perfect purity? Here is the thing. Anything less than perfect purity is not purity. I like the way the NIV version states this verse because of the emphasis it takes.

Ephesians 5:3 NIV

3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

“Not even a hint of...” Not even a little bit. Not even an itsy bitsy tinnie wennie little polkadot impurity. Would having sex before you are married be a little bit of impurity? Yup. Would having sex with someone who is not your spouse be a little bit of impurity? You betcha. Would looking lustfully at images on a screen be immoral? Yup. Not even a hint of sexual immorality. Not even a touch of impurity. No greed whatsoever. Why? These behaviors are improper for God’s holy people. We need to pursue perfect purity in our lives and in our homes.

WATER EXAMPLE

2 GLASSES OF WATER. ONE PUT A LITTLE BIT OF DIRT IN IT. HOW MUCH IMPURITY DO YOU WANT TO DRINK?

Matthew 5:8 CSB

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

Matt 5:

Some of you are feeling convicted today because you know what you have done and you feel so far off of purity. You are wondering if you can be made pure. The God of the Bible, Yahweh, is a miracle working God and he is still doing miracles today.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 36:26 CSB

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

God doesn’t just take our hearts and make it better. He can give us a new heart. He gives us a new heart with new desires. He removes our stoney hearts and give us hearts which are soft and tender to his word.

There is a standard of righteousness we cannot achieve on our own; it takes the power and goodness of God through Jesus Christ. This is why we need to have Christ-centered homes. We can live a life of purity. We can have homes and marriage which are pure before God, but we can’t do it through our own power. We need God working in us and through us. We need heart transplants. We need to change and be changed by the power of God.

Pray.

Father God, you have said we can be blessed when we are pure in heart. If we are pure in heart, we will see you. We will experience you in a new and real way. God, purify us so that we can see you in a way we have never seen before. Do a work in our hearts. Change us. Move in us and mold us through the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, we pray.

With your heads bowed and eyes closed, perhaps you are here this morning and you are feeling some conviction this morning. You realize you have allowed somethings into your life which shouldn’t be there. You have accepted somethings that aren’t good for you. You are tolerating some impurities in your life and in your family. This morning, you can make the decision to being to pursue perfect purity. You are going to pursue a deeper intimacy with God through the purity which allows you to see God is fresh, new, and real ways. Would you lift your hands, right now.

Father God, do a work in us. Allow us to see you in a new and real way as we pursue perfect purity in our lives, in our family, and in our marriages. Open our eyes to where we have allowed impurity in our lives and homes. Forgive us and empower us. Renew our hearts. Give a renewed desire to seek you passionately. In Jesus’ name.

You may put your hands down. Christians, continue to pray. Pray for those who are here today who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I realize, there are some who are here this morning and you need a heart transplant. Your life is full of sin and failures. No matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to change. Do you know why? You can’t change because you can’t do it on your own. You need God to do for you what you can’t do for yourself. You can’t get cleaned up first. You can’t make your own heart better before God.

The only way you are made right before God is not by working you way to him. The only way you can be changed, be saved, is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world, born of the virgin. He was without sin and he lived a perfect life before God. The Bible teaches us that he died on the cross and shed his blood to pay the price for our sins. He didn’t stay dead. On the third day, he rose from the grave, victorious over sin and death. The Scriptures teaches us that anyone who calls on Jesus’ name will be saved. You need forgiveness from your sins which only comes through Jesus. You need God’s grace on your life. Call on Jesus. He will hear your prayer, forgive your sin, save you, and give you new life.

If you recognize your need this morning, pray with me to express that you are trusting in God’s ability to forgive you and save you.

“Heavenly Father, forgive me for my sins, make me new. I ask Jesus to be my Savior and to be the Lord of my life, first in every way. My life is not my own, I give it to you. Thank you for new life. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

With heads bowed and eyes closed, if you just prayed that prayer for the first time, would you raise your hand?

Pray.

If you prayed to receive Jesus, please come to the front of this worship center and let us pray with you and celebrate your new life in Christ. If you want to pray for someone you know who needs to receive God’s gift of salvation, you come and get on your knees asking God to reach into that person’s life. Maybe you need to come in rededication of your life to God as we are on the verge of a new year. This is a time for you to respond to the call of the Holy Spirit in your life.