Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / The Sermon On The Mount
Raising The Bar With Your Heart 06/10/07
Sermon Series: Raising the bar: Living above mediocrity
Message: ‘Raising the bar with your heart’ Text: Matthew 5:8
Introduction: Listen in on an admission interview at a typical Christian college.
· What will you do after you gain admission to this college?
-I will work hard to get the best education I can.
· What will you do after you have earned your degree?
-I will work hard to find a good job.
· What will you do after that?
-I will provide for my family and live a happy life.
· What about after that?
-I will enjoy my retirement.
· And after that?
-No response.
That’s the life most college students, even Christian college students looks forward to…in fact, it’s what most people seek in life, regardless of age. And God’s Word has something to say about that.
Read: Phil. 3:19 ‘Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.’
· What’s wrong with wanting to go to college to get an education? Nothing!
· What’s wrong with getting a degree and looking for a good job? Nothing!
· What’s wrong with providing for your family and living a happy life? Nothing!
· What’s wrong with looking forward to retirement? Nothing!
· So what’s the problem? Everything! Because it leaves God out of the picture. There’s no passion for God, no desire to see God in their lives, …there’s no heart for God.
Many college students have that mentality because their parents have taught it to them…Christian and non Christian alike. It’s done by showing our children a divided heart for God by the choices we make in life. But more on that later.
· What am I living for?
· What do I want most in life?
These are the most significant questions anyone can ask themselves. These are the questions Jesus will speak to in our text this morning.
Read: Matt. 5:8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’
That’s it! That’s what the Christian looks forward to in life! To live in such a way that we see God in our lives. And when we see God in our lives the door to the heavenly storehouse of blessing is opened to us. And the key to opening that door…is a pure heart.
Transition: You see, the heart of the matter before us today… is the matter of the heart. Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5:8 (pg. 739 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you) It’s here that we will find that we raise the bar of spiritual expectations and action in our lives with our heart.
Read: Matt. 5:8
Key here is understanding what Jesus meant by a pure heart?
Pure has two principal meanings in Scripture: Untainted and Undivided. Let’s look at them more closely.
I. A pure heart is untainted.
The initial use of the word ‘pure’ in Scripture meant ‘clean’, ‘honest’, ‘clear’ or ‘untainted’. The word is used of soiled clothed that have been washed clean.
How is our heart cleansed?
· Initially our heart is cleansed, made pure, when we give it to Jesus. We can do noting to purify our hearts. It is a gift from God.
Read: Acts 15:9 ‘He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.’
But there’s more. Our heart continually is purified when we regularly confess our sin to God.
Read: 1 John 1:9 ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’
Transition: Blessed, approved by God are those whose hearts are cleansed, purified by the grace of God’s forgiveness. I pray you seek out his forgiveness often. But, there’s another, equally important part of what it means to have a pure heart.
II. A pure heart is undivided.
A pure heart is an undivided heart.
· It means having a heart that’s living for the sole purpose of knowing, following and serving God.
· It means having a heart that’s fully devoted to God.
· It means having a heart that is uncompromised by the world.
· It means doing all things to bring glory to God.
And because of this, I believe this beatitude is the one we have the hardest time following. Why? Because our hearts are divided.
Read: James 4:4 Remember the Apostle James is writing to Christians. ‘You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.’
An adulterous man is a married man whose heart is divided between two or more women. An adulterous Christians is someone whose heart is divided between competing loves:
Question: What are some of the tings that could compete for our love and affection?
· Recreation
· Career
· Power
· Wealth
· Health
· Children
· And oh yea, God
Yet God calls us… no commands us to have an undivided heart.
Read: Matt. 22:37 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
To do that, faithfully, means to make choices in life that are conisitent with loving God with all your heart. And we make choices every day.
Choices concerning
· How you spend your recreational time and how much time you spend recreating.
Choices concerning
· How you work to further your career and how much time you spend doing it.
Choices concerning
· When you say ‘yes’ and when you say ‘no’ to your children concerning the activities you allow them to participate in.
Sidebar: I need to make a few X-rated comments here that some of you perhaps won’t like… but need to hear.
· Parents, when you choose to allow your children to work regularly on Sundays…you are developing a divided heart in their lives.
· Parents when you choose to allow your children to attend parties and other questionable activities, especially when they keep them away from church activities, you are developing a divided heart in them.
· Parents when you choose the world over the church, over your relationship with God, you are developing a divided heart in your children…because they see it in you.
· Parents, when you live one way at church on Sunday and another when you are home and at work, you are developing a divided heart in your children…because they see it in you.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it as often as I need to…
The patterns and habits you allow your children to begin today will often stay with them throughout their lives.
· If your heart is wholly devoted to spiritual things, to seeking God and serving him faithfully, your children will see this and will often develop an undivided heart for God.
-Remember ‘Train you child in the ay that he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6)
· If your heart is torn between the things of the world and the things of God and you constantly make compromises to your faith, your children will see this and often develop a divided heart, one that makes compromises to their faith.
Parents…the choice is yours to make but understand that there are consequences.
Children, especially teens, can I have a minute. No one likes being called ‘two-faced’ do they? But is it possible God could be calling you that?
· He does, when you live one life here at church and in front of your parents and another in front of your friends or on MySpace or FaceBook.
· I’ve seen some things on those web sites put there by Christian teens, that make me blush, embarrassed and angry.
Teenager, you are responsible before God for the choices you make. Even what you say on MySpace and Facebook and when you are with your friends. Please, honor God by making choices that reveal a heart sold out for God and not one that’s divided and opposed to the things of God.
Look, I admit that one of the hardest thing in life is to maintain a singleness of heart devotion to God…there’s stuff, there’s busyness, there’s certain things and we just make compromises…
even small ones, but they create a divided heart in our lives and there will be consequences
How do you mend a divided heart? Ask God to reformat your ‘heart’ drive. DO as David did…Prayer..confess your sin and ask God for an undivided heart.
Read: Ps. 86:11 ‘Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.’
Transition: God answers prayer…amen? Let’s get a bit more specific and look at 6 steps to developing a pure heart.
III. How can I have a pure heart?
1. Admit your sin, you hearts impurity. Don’t try to hide or rationalize away your sin.
2. Ask God for a new heart. In Ezek. 36:26 ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.’
3. Pray for purity.
· Ask God for strength to fight the temptations to sin.
· Ask God to keep you focused on him and not on the things of the world…to make godly choices.
4. Draw close to God. Seek him out, worship him, fellowship with other Christians, read and study his Word. Serve him in ministry.
5. Avoid complaining and arguing. The Apostle Paul tells us that we are to do everything w/o complaining and arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure…’ (Phil 2:14-15)
6. Keep you eyes on Jesus. Don’t lose sight of your goal…to see God!
Transition: Not only is it a goal, it’s our greatest blessing as a Christian.
IV. The blessing of a pure heart.
Because nothing but the sight of God will satisfy the longings of the Christian’s heart. That’s what we are looking forward to
· Beyond going to college
· Beyond getting a degree
· Beyond getting a good job
· Beyond providing for your family and being happy
· Beyond enjoying retirement
· Beyond and above it all…
· We live to see God
Read: Rev. 22:3-4 ‘The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.’
But even greater than that…we when we have a pure heart, we will see God…NOW!
How?
ILL: Mario Rubio is rolling a burrito when she notices skillet burns on the tortilla resembling the face of Jesus. Shortly thereafter, 8000 curious pilgrims trek to the Rubios’ small house in rural New Mexico to see Jesus. Mrs Rubio leaves here home unlocked so that visitors can freely ender and examine the tortilla. (Newsweek, Aug. 14, 1978)
OK, not that way. How do we see God? When we have a pure, untainted, undivided heart…
· We see God in our choices
· We see God in our thoughts
· We see God in our actions
· We see God in the foundational moments and events in our life
· We see God as he moves in the world around us.
And when we see God
· We are transformed
· We gain courage
· We become useful to God
· We reveal to others a sense of God’s presence
· And we set the pattern for our children and others to follow
Conclusion
The Message, a modern paraphrase of the Bible translates Matt. 5:5 this way.
‘You are blessed when you get your inside world: your mind and heart, put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.’
If you’re not seeing God regularly in your life, perhaps it’s because you have a heart problem.
That’s why Proverbs 4:23 should be placed where you can see it everyday.
‘Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.’
Action: Have ushers had out cards.
Above all else…all else, guard your heart…guard your heart…for it is the wellspring of life.
· It is the heart that awakens us to our need for God.
· It is our heart that sounds an alarm when the choices we make and the life we live no longer line up with God’s plan for us.
If our heart is not healthy, if our heart is not whole, we need to invite God to do his work of
restoration... just as David did.
Read: Ps 139:23-24 ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’
I’m going to give you the opportunity to do as David did in just a few minutes.