Transcript Slide 1
Discovery 3: You Can Experience Purity. Purity ~ An Idea Whose Time Has Come Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. The Beatitudes are not things hoped for but things that are real – right now. (The Message) You're blessed when you get your inside world — your mind and heart — put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. 1. The Bible tells us that a pure heart is within reach. Only those with a pure heart may stand in His holy place! Psalm 24:3-4 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, David prayed for a pure heart. Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. The goal of the gospel is a pure heart. 1 Timothy 1:5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. You may call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Peter speaks of those who have a pure heart. 1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 2. So what is a pure heart? The Message The whole point of what we're urging is simply love ~ love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God. Here’s the essence of sin – a life centered on selfish interests; a life turned in on self. James calls believers who live with mixed selfish motives and desires – double-minded. James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Jesus is our example of a man who lived with a single purpose – a pure heart. Philippians 2:1-8 (The Message) Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of Himself that He had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, He set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, He lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death — and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. Psalm 51:7-12 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Psalm 51:7-12 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Matthew 5:8 Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”