[0:00] Father, as we come to your word now, we ask your blessing. Thank you for this great hymn we have just sung. Oh, Lord, may it be our testimony. May we just not, may it be our prayer that we want what he had.
[0:13] We want Jesus and the peace that surpasses all understanding. The peace of God and the grace of God through the Christ of God.
[0:24] Help us, oh, Lord. We are tormented, thrown about. Oh, may we have peace of soul because we know you.
[0:36] Speak to us now through your holy word and grant us grace to be grateful for you that you would speak to us in this book that you've caused to stand the test of time.
[0:50] Speak, oh, Lord, for your servants are listening. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, and save as your word goes forth, we ask. Through your unworthy servant, in Jesus' name.
[1:03] Amen. We're back to our passage in the Beatitudes. And this is part two of three. We have communion today, so I got to cut it short.
[1:13] So, I do not apologize. This is deep stuff, y'all. I am just, this one Beatitude, I didn't realize. I told you last week, this is deep.
[1:26] Verse 8. Okay, I'm going to read the rest. Blessed are the poor in spirit. That's how it begins. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Spiritual bankruptcy. Blessed are those who mourn.
[1:36] For they shall be comforted, mourning over our sin. Blessed are the meek. For they shall inherit the earth, submitting ourselves to the will of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
[1:48] For they shall be satisfied. We hunger and thirst for what we don't have. So we want to do right and live right before God. Blessed are the merciful. When all those other things are true of you, you can't help but show mercy to others.
[2:03] For they shall receive mercy. And blessed are the pure in heart. For they shall see God. They shall see God.
[2:17] May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of his word. That is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. Thank you once again. Dear Praise Team, thank you for leading us in such beautiful singing.
[2:30] May our hearts were moved greatly. Like many people in this city, and probably like many of you, I have allergies. In Miami, they weren't so bad.
[2:42] They really were. I was healed. And then I moved to Chattanooga. God called me to Chattanooga. And my family. But I got allergies. And they're coming out now in full force.
[2:55] I'm doubling up on the meds. Pray for me. You know, it feels like there is something in at least one of my eyes a good deal of the time.
[3:08] And so they water. Somebody knows what I'm talking about out there. You know, you get that itchy. Sometimes my left eye seems to be the culprit most of the time.
[3:19] It itches and it waters. But then it switches to my right eye. I don't even know how that happens. But the itching and the watering. And you know, when that happens, I can't see very well.
[3:32] My vision gets obscured by the mucus in my eyes. And it's a little fuzzy. That is what happens to Christians spiritually if we're not careful.
[3:47] You see, the culture surrounds us with its delights and commitments. For those of you who are Pilgrims Progress fans, Vanity Fair, right?
[3:58] And if allowed, we get spiritual allergens, spiritual pollen, spiritual ragweed in our spiritual eyes.
[4:17] Because we're no longer of the world. We've been saved out of it by Jesus. And so the world's values, what the world values, we're allergic to now.
[4:30] It's not who we are anymore. And so our spiritual eyes can get watery. And when that happens, our vision of Jesus gets a little fuzzy.
[4:47] We need clear vision. And God provides what we need to keep the eyes of our hearts pure.
[5:02] That is clear and focused. Do you want what he provides? Remember from last time we looked at this passage and We remember that it is God.
[5:21] Well, remember the heart is the heart of the matter, right? But it is God Who gifts us With a pure heart By pouring out his spirit On us Making us alive Spiritually So now we can respond to God And when he makes us alive Spiritually We see Christ For the first time We really See Christ And our Need Of Him And in that Seeing The spirit Who has made us alive God Gives us Gives us the ability now To believe the gospel It's the work of God God Gives us
[6:22] A new heart And we need it Because Jeremiah told us That the heart is deceitful Above all things And desperately sick Who can understand it?
[6:34] That is our condition Without Jesus And so God must give us A new heart A Pure Heart And he does it It's lovely God gives What he requires That's called grace Family That's called grace And that pure heart Remember for the last time Is an undivided heart Not double minded But single minded A heart devoted to God A heart that seeks God alone Rejecting the false gods Of our culture Refusing to compromise A heart that is sincere With right motives A heart that keeps his hands clean Doing what is right Because that heart is holy To the Lord For he Is holy But here's the problem
[7:35] That pure New heart Of ours Is constantly Being bombarded With the darkness Of our culture That is steeped In idols We know about that Because we lived there That was us So how do we keep Our hearts going In that right direction When we're always Being bombarded When the spiritual Allergens Of darkness Are always Floating around Grabbing hold of us At times When we At times When we At times When we At times How do we What do we do The king's people Pursue A pure heart Not just lay back And hope God Does something more He's done it But to demonstrate
[8:36] That you have A new heart A pure heart You end up Pursuing That purity More And more We're like addicts And we want That fix Because we've Been saturated And now Our body Chemistry Has changed Our brain And now We want it We crave What God Has given us He wanted more And more You have a pure Heart You say you Have a pure Heart You say you Have a new Heart But are you Pursuing A pure Heart as well Because the World holds Up the False Gods Continually Tim Keller In his book Counterfeit Gods Says something Here A sizable Quote Forgive me He says There are Two types Of idols The personal Idols Of our hearts
[9:37] Such as Romantic Love and Family Money Power Achievement Fitness And physical Beauty We look To them For hope Meaning And fulfillment That only God Can provide This is Personal The idols Of our hearts Are personal Idols of the Heart But then There's also Society Or societal Or cultural Idols Which can be More hidden Such as Individual Freedom I wrote To be Whatever one Chooses With no Constraints Self-discovery Personal Affiliate Again My own Addition Personal Comfort Fulfillment And I added Extreme Patriotism These idols Are invisible To us Because they Are the way That many People think Especially People in Our circles Because we
[10:37] Hang with People who Think like Us Those idols All of them Promise of Safety Peace Peace And happiness If only We will Base our Lives on Them Idols Always Tell you Give me Your heart Give me Your life I will Give you The good Life You see Idols Supposedly Tell us What life Is really About God telling you Give me Give me Give Come
[11:38] Come Come Come I got You I got You I will Protect You I will Give you What you What you Really need And what you Really want I'll do it I got You I got you All you Got to Do All you Got Just a Little bit Nothing Really big Just bow Before me Sound familiar What Satan Told Jesus In his Temptation I'll give you All the Kingdoms Of the World If you Worship me Just Just nod Your head Just give me A little A slight Genuflet I can't Get down So you Know Just Just a Little Idols Don't ask For a Lot Just a Little bit Of you Just a Little And then Once The doors Open Idols
[12:40] Move in You Opened The front Door Maybe a Crack And The Idols Pusses Foot In We Just Stopped By To Hang Out We Just Stopped By For a Little Bit Kind of Like Relatives Showing Up On Your Doorstep We Just Came By And Two Weeks Later They Still There You Don't Have Relatives Like That You See We Are Being Pressured To Conform Idolatry Always Says Be Like Everybody Why Are You Different That's How Pools On Your Heart Why Are You Different Look At Look At What's Wrong With Do You Really Want To Look Like An Idiot You Want Look Stupid Want Look Upside Down Idols Always Pressure Us To Conform Don't
[13:42] Go Against The Norm See That's Why Paul Wrote What He Wrote In Romans 12 You Know This Passage But This Is Why He Wrote It I Appeal To You Therefore Brothers By The Mercies Of God To Present Your Bodies As A Living Sacrifice Holy And Acceptable To God Which Is Your Spiritual Worship What Is True Spiritual Worship Oh Sure It Involves Singing And Giving And Praying But Paul Didn't Say That What Is Spiritual Worship To Him Giving Yourself To God Because You've Experienced Listen Because You Have Experienced His Mercies Plural Christ Death And Resurrection Gives Us Justification Sanctification Adoption Glorification All Those Incations All Those Big Words That Are In The Bible That Tell
[14:42] Us We Are Right With God And We Are In His Family The Mercies Of God Paul Said He Has Given Us Every Spiritual Blessing In The Heavenly Places In Christ Ephesians 1 3 Listen The Mercies Of God Are Amazing And Because Of That In Response To What He Is Giving You By Grace Paul Is Telling Us True Worship Is Not Biling Down To The Idols Anymore You've Been Given A Pure Heart True Worship Now Is Giving Yourself To Him But He Goes On You See It Up There Verse 2 Do Not Be Conformed To This World Well Idols Say Conform Conform And Paul Says No Do Not Be Conformed To This World This Culture This World System This Way Of Thinking And Living That Leaves God Out This Way Of Thinking And
[15:42] Living And Says That The God Of The Bible Is Not Important He Says Don't Be Conformed To That World You Were There Before You You Were There You You Lived There But You Have A New Heart A Pure Heart Now Don't Be Conformed But Instead Be Transformed Don't Be Conformed Be Transformed If I Remember If I Remember Correctly The Transformed Is A Passive In The Original Language Meaning It's What's Being Done To Us Okay Don't Be But Be Transformed Why How By The Renewal Of Your Mind That By Testing You May Discern What Is The Will Of God What Is Good And Acceptable And Perfect We Cannot Know The Will Of God He Is Saying Unless Our Mind That's We're Being Transformed By The Renewal Of Our Minds Now You Remember Last Time I Hope I
[16:42] Hope I Was Clear That The Mind Is Part Of The Heart Think Of It Like This Think Of The Heart Is The House Okay The House That's The Most Important Thing Is The House The Mind Is The Door The House Is More Important Than The Door But The Door Is The Legal Way Into The House You Come In Through A Window Unless You Lost The Keys You Were A Thief And A Robber The Way Into The Heart That's Why Paul Says It Twice In New Testament To Renew Our Minds Because The Way Into The Whatever Captures Your Mind Your Imaginations Your Thoughts Your Ideas Whatever Captures Your Mind
[17:42] Enters Your Heart So If Your Mind Is Captured By Things That Are Negative And Dark Pornography Let's Talk Clang Pornography Or Or Greed Or You Love To Be The Center Of Attention Gossip Whatever If Your Heart If Your Mind Is Captivated By These Things That Enters Your Heart It's Like Cancer Entering Into A Cell It Takes Over Proliferates Cancer Doesn't Just Want A Little Bit Of You Not A Little Bit Of Your Liver It Wants All Of Your Liver Cancer
[18:43] Spreads Sin Is Like Spiritual Cancer Idolatry Is Like Spiritual Cancer And The Enemy Is Very Good At Disguising It And He Wants You And Once It Gets It Begins To Spread And Your Heart Gets Inflamed Your Spiritual Heart Gets Inflamed Paul Is Telling Us That Only The Word Of God Is Powerful Enough To Transform Slash Purify Our Hearts Towards God Because What Can Renew Our Mind What Can Cause Us To Think God's Thoughts What Can Cause Us To Love What God Loves We Have To Have A New Way Of Thinking And Longing And Desiring We Need The Word Of God You Thought I Had Something
[19:43] Different To Tell You Didn't You I'm Not Trying To Impress You With New Knowledge I Got Nothing Okay But I Got The Word Of God Whatever Captures Your Mind Goes Into The Heart When The Word Of God Captures Your Mind It's Like Spiritual Allegra It Makes Your Body Not Respond To The Allergins Anymore The Word Of God Goes In And Begins To Do It's Work Helping Moving Into Your Heart So That You Begin To Love And Desire And Imagine And Dream About What God Says Psalm 119 9 Through 16 I Had To Give You The Whole Paragraph How Can A Young Man
[20:43] Or Young Woman Old Man Or Woman Keep His Or Way Pure Listen By Guarding It Not Pure Pure Heart Pure By Guarding It According To Your Word With My Whole Heart I Seek You Devotion Let Me Not Wander From Your Commandments I Have Stored Up Your Word In My Heart That I Might Not Sin Against You Blessed Are You Oh Lord Teach Me Your Statutes With My Lips I Declare All The Rules Of Your Mouth In The Way Of Your Testimonies I Delight As Much As In All Riches I Will Meditate On
[21:45] Your Precepts And Fix My Eyes On Your Ways I Will Delight In Your Statues I Will Not Forget Your Word Did You See It Guard Your Way Or Life Implies Your Heart Where Your Heart Goes That's The Way Your Life Will Follow So The Psalmist Says Guard It With God's Word His Commandments His Statutes His Rules His Testimony His Ways I Don't Know What else To Tell You Think Of The Word Of God As Guard Rails That Keep You On The Track That God Has Given You The Word Is This There Is No Substitute
[22:45] At All Nine None Ever No For This Book X Won't Do It Facebook Won't Do It Instagram Won't Do It I Forget The Other One I Think About You Know What It Is Only This Word Let Let Me Help Please I Respect The Disciplines But Psychology And Sociology Won't Do It Brothers And Sisters If We Don't Know The Word Of God We In Trouble That Means Our Minds Are Being Conformed And If Our Minds Are Being Conformed Our Hearts Are Being Tainted You Been Given A Pure Heart But But But But But But But The Proof Of It Is You Pursue Purity Of Heart By Coming To The Word Of God
[23:45] Frequently And I Don't Mean Daily Bread Frequent Word Of God Now Daily Bread Can Have Their Place Don't Get Me Wrong But The Daily Y'all Know What I'm Talking About The Daily Bread Okay I'm Just Checking Think of It This Way If You Were Hungry Would You Eat A Cracker I Mean That's Food It's A Cracker But You're Hungry Would You Eat One Cracker Or Would You Fix Yourself A Sandwich If We Were In Philly We Get A Hoagie Come On Bill Somebody Come On Tigers Get A Cheese Steak Ha There You Go Cause You Hungry When I Was A Kid We Called Them Belly Fillers Those Were The Steaks And The
[24:45] Hoagies That Were Supersized The Normal Size Is This Big A Belly Filler Goes Out Here No Cracker Gonna Do If I'm Hungry That's Gonna Make Me Mad Tease Deli Bread To Me Is Like A Cracker It's Something Dive Into The Book Read Chapters Of The Book Memorize The Book Thy Word Have I Hidden In My Heart That I Might Sin Against You Memorize The Book Meditate He Talked About Meditate That Means Think True Imagine What Would It Look Like If This Passage Came Alive In My Heart You Begin To Imagine You What Is God I'm Seeing God Here What Does He Look You Go To The Book And Let It Inflame You In De Good I'm Probably Pronounced
[25:46] His Name Wrong I Think He's Scottish He Says This In Hero Of Heroes As As We Read We We Know We Know We Learn About God But We Meet Up With The God Of Grace Who Reveals Himself Through His Pages You See You're Not Just Reading Child Of God Christian You're Not Just Reading For Information You're Reading For Relationship You're Not Just Reading You Know The Faith Prosperity They Talk About Principles Principles Principles God Is A Principle He's A Person A Being Supreme Being Father Son Holy Spirit When We Come To His Word We Are Engaging Him We Are Seeing Him You Know What You Say Reveals You What You Say Reveals Who You Are That's
[26:46] Why When You're Dating You Talk Guys Talk I Know I Know I Know It's Not See Guys Ladies You Understand Guys And We're Men We're Not Women It's Okay Men We Get Together We We Can Sit There Just Going Hit Each Other And We're Having A Good Time Ladies Y'all Get Together And Y'all Start Talking Constantly Talking And It's Great It's Just But Don't See We're Different But Men My Single Brothers And My Husbands You Too We've Got To Learn To Talk So Our Ladies Can Understand What Our Heart Is Your Words Reveal Your Heart Reveals Your Ideas Reveals Your Priorities
[27:46] The Same Is True For God God Gives Us His Word Because In His Word He Reveals His Priorities He Reveals His Character He Reveals His Heart He Reveals His Ideas He Reveals Himself So When We Come To The Word In Faith Trusting In God That Is We Draw Close To Him We See Him Our Hearts Are Strengthened And Purified So That We Can Follow He Does The Work You Don't Purify Your Own Heart You Come To God And Let Him Do The Heavy Lifting Only The Word Of God Is Sharp Enough Right Enough Unchanging Enough And Wise Enough To Reveal The Idols Of Our Hearts And Society Let
[28:47] The Word Of God As It Reveals God To You Critique The Culture Don't Hold Them Back Let The Word Critique The Culture Let The Word Critique Your Views Let The Word Critique Your Attitudes Let The Word Critique Your Thinking What The Let The Word Critique What You Love And What You Are Devoted To How You Live Let The Word Let The Word Of God Be The Judge Of What Is Right And Wrong Because If God Exists And I Know He Does And If He Has Revealed Himself In His Word And I Know He Has He Is The Only One Who Can Truly Tell You How To Live He's The Only One That Can Really Show You What's The Right Path
[29:47] To Take He's The Only One That Can Reveal To You What Life Is And Where Death Is He'll Show You It's The North Star Of What Is Right And Good And Beautiful And Just God Isn't Playing Hiding Seek With Us He Has Revealed Himself In His Word Written Word And In What We Call The Living Word The Son Of God He Has Revealed Himself Brothers And Sisters And If You're Not Sure If You're A Christian Yet Listen He Has Revealed Himself It Isn't Right That We Ask Him You Know Something What You've Said And Done Is Not Sufficient I You Gotta Show Me More God Doesn't Play By Our Rules He
[30:52] Says To Us You Must Play By Mine And Don't We Do That Too With Children Especially With Children You're Teaching Your Kids How To Play Checkers Come On You Know This Is True And Children When They Play Checkers They Want To Do All Kinds Of Things Okay But You Say No No No Baby These Are The Rules If You Want Them To Learn You Cannot Play By Your Children's Rules That's Not Parenting Come On Somebody If You Want Them To Learn You Cannot Play By Their Rules You Must Teach Them Your Rules In Particular The Rules The Testimonies The Law
[31:52] The Gospel So That They Can Learn How To Navigate Life Rightly Parenting Tip There They Can See That Coming So How Do We Do It How Do We To The Word In Our Hearts Okay I Want To End With This How And Cleanse You As Christ Has Blown Up In Your Life You Come To His Word With A Desire To Follow You're Not Looking For Loopholes Or Second Opinions
[32:52] Looking For The Truth Okay That's One Two Learn God's Word Through Preaching And Teaching Regularly Y'all You You Were sem Imagine good stuff on TV. That's not enough. You need to be present. I was in a cynical class this morning and they were asking questions, getting into small groups, hashing out the word, thinking it through, applying it. You need that. Because left to yourself, you're going to go crazy. We go off on tangents when we're by ourselves. Too long, too long. You got to be by yourself sometime, amen. But you start getting all crazy ideas. You need the body of Christ to help you. Is that right? No. Come here. Let's talk a little bit more. You need the preaching of the word because that's what God has ordained. The proclamation of the cross, the preaching of the cross, the preaching, the exposition, we call it, the exposing of the text, the exposing of the word of God so you can apply it to your lives. You need that on a regular basis. I don't apologize for saying that either. Third, read, study, and meditate upon God's word alone and in groups. You, you engage the word. Read, study, meditate, do it. It's not works righteousness. This is what the gospel does in you. It gives you a hunger for the word. If you're not hungry for the word, you should wonder if you know the gospel. And lastly, pray God's word back to him for his grace to follow. God loves to hear his word come back to him. Pray the word. Pray through the Psalms. Pray through the Lord's Prayer. Pray through the Ten Commandments. I've done this before in my life, and it's very fascinating to pray through the scripture. Pray through Ephesians 1. Pray through big Christians. Pray through. Apply it to yourself.
[35:19] Put your, put your, make it I. I am, you know, personalize as you pray. Make it part of you. You see, without this firm commitment to the Savior, His word, and the body of Christ, we will eventually start to conform. We will conform. Well, we have communion, so let me finish.
[35:50] Let the word purify your hearts as you come to God's word humbly. It's not easy. No one promised that. But many of the best things of life take effort.
[36:12] Imagine, this came to me this morning, imagine the fire department showed up at our door. It came in and said, okay, everybody out this door. There's a fire in the kitchen, and it's spreading.
[36:23] The hallway is full of smoke. Get everybody out. You got to go out this door. So everybody comes in. The kids, they bring everybody, they get in here, and we're all going out the front door. Here you go.
[36:34] We're all pressing out that one door, those two, those doors back there. And, and all of a sudden, here you are. You're pressing in the crowd. It's all knee-dip and thick, and you're pressing, and you realize something precious has been left. For me, one of my daughters, we left one at church one time.
[36:53] I realized one of my girls. I'm looking around. I don't see one of my girls, which I don't, whatever one, doesn't matter. Now, Sandy will probably be in front of me at this point, but we know we got to go back. But the crowd is pushing this way. It's pushing. We're knee, we can't, so we, we turn around, and we begin to go against the crowd. You ever been in a crowd like that, trying to go against the crowd? And you're trying to, and, and see, some people are going to be mad.
[37:27] You stepped on my foot. Let's get out the way. What's you, what's wrong with you? We're trying to get out of here and save our lives. Some people are going to be sympathetic. Oh, oh, I, I, I hope you find her. I just, I'm praying for you, but, but, but I can't go. And you're fighting through the crowd. It's not easy. The crowd is going this way. And you're fighting through the crowd. The other, you're going the wrong way, but it's the right way. That's us in this culture.
[38:06] Safety is this way, the world says. Go this way, and we're going with the world. Then Jesus shows up, Avery. He shows up in our lives, and he transforms us. He says, hold it. No, you've got to go this way, because this is where I am. I'm back here. But you, so you stop, because you know, you, you know Jesus now. You stop, and you turn around, and now you are fighting against the crowd. But, but this is even better. The gospel is better. Jesus is helping you. He's in you to fight through the crowd. Every step of the way, you're going to step on some toes. You're going to push a few people. You're going to trip and fall, because the crowd is too thick. But you get up, because he won't let you, because you, because he won't let you stay down. He picks you up and says, come on. And he's in you. He's pushing. He's energizing. And you're fighting through the crowd, because you've heard the word of God. You've heard the voice of Christ. And he says, follow me. This is the way to safety.
[39:16] Y'all in the crowd. I'm in the crowd. So whose voice are you listening to? Father, help us with your word. Help us, help us to purify our hearts as you, by allowing your word to do the work, your word and your spirit. Purify our hearts, Father, so that we love and want what you want. So we will hear your voice and follow you no matter what you say, whatever word you lead.
[39:47] Help us to follow you. Help us to love you and love what you love. The world has been teaching us for many years and is still encroaching. But thank you for giving us your spirit. We will not lose.
[40:05] Ultimately, we cannot lose. Lord, we may fall, but get us up. Lord, we may get sidetracked, but get us up. Keep us moving through the crowd until we reach the celestial city, until we come face to face with you, the living God. Thank you. Help us to guard our hearts, even as you guard our hearts in your word. Amen.