Happiness In An Unsettling World
Steele Creek Church, Eastfield Campus
Dr. Tom Bartlett – October 25, 2020
Matthew 5:8
Pure In Heart
OUTLINE
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Vs. 8)
Pure in Heart: “righteous inward & outward”
Jesus: happiness comes when you are the same on the inside as on the outside
TWO ASPECTES TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
• What you do
• Why you do it
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV)
God rewards those who honor Him
Learn to live for an audience of One!
HOW DO I KEEP MY HEART PURE?
The Steele Creek Strategy
EVERYDAY: (Daily: Word, prayer, worship)
• LET GOD’S WORD SEARCH YOUR HEART
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” Psalm 139:23 (ESV)
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)
• FOCUS ON THE RELATIONAL ASPECT OF PRAYER
But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:6 (ESV)
• GENUINELY WORSHIP GOD IN SPIRIT & TRUTH
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. John 4:23 (ESV)
MANUSCRIPT
Good morning and welcome to Steele Creek Church, Eastfield. If I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting you, I’m Tom Bartlett the campus here and I’m part of the men’s weekly group and Balentine Life Group.
I’m a creature of habit. When I shave, or make coffee or a ton of other mundane things, I always do them the same way. I have my routines and many of them I can’t even tell you why I do them, it’s just that I’ve always done it that way before. Some things in my life are automatic and some have a very pre-meditated approach.
I’ve noticed that certain unnamed people in my life can adopt some behavior patterns that are out of the norm at certain times. I mean, they start doing good things, like cleaning their room, or helping around the house or being overly friendly and kind to the point that I wonder, “what’s up, what do they want?” I find out later, that the overly kind gestures were a set-up for them to ask for something. Parents do you understand this sort of thing?
As I thought about this message this week, I was wondering about some of the thinking patterns and inner things of my life that you’ll never see, because I have some patterns there, too.
Still, if I’m not careful in my own life, I can wind up doing the right things for the wrong motives. The things I do instinctively are one thing, but the things I do hoping for a certain outcome are different.
I can serve others and do all the righteous activities I believe that I’m supposed to do, but do them for a completely wrong reason. Which by the way, always gets exposed! You cannot live outwardly one way and inwardly another and not eventually be exposed.
Even the great philosopher Socrates saw this, he said, “The shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them. "
I have a feeling that I’m not the only one who has ever dealt with this sort of thing. Ever have to reevaluate why you do what you do?
It’s an important question because it cuts to the heart of who we are and it reveals so much about ourselves.
• If you do good things for others for them to pay you, that’s understood,
• but if you do it out of the goodness of your heart that’s something altogether different.
• Now, if you do it as if it’s from the genuineness of a good heart but secretly want to get something from someone, that again is something completely different and when found out leaves us exposed for the impure motives we had.
In our series on the beatitudes, Jesus is teaching in a progressive format what it means to be a God-loving, Christ-follower.
• It all started with our recognition of our need for God and our spiritually bankrupt problem without God and weaves it way through the experiences of life and changes that God brings. Today we continue in Matthew 5:8 where Jesus teaches,
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Vs. 8)
We’ve already taught that the word used for blessing is in the plural and means much happiness.
What does Jesus mean here when referring to “Pure in heart” and the ability to see God?
He’s teaching that when your inside heart matches your outside actions, the power of God, the presence of God will be seen in and through you. There’s no greater joy than seeing God at work in the life of a Christ-follower.
Pure in Heart: “righteous inward & outward”
Jesus: happiness comes when you are the same on the inside
as on the outside
Now, as I stated before, motivations are an important part of the equation.
TWO ASPECTES TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
• What you do
Take all the good things you do. You help others, you give to those in need, you bring a coat for our coat drive, you deliver meals, you serve. That’s so important, but it’s not the most important aspect of your righteous-life. What’s most important? WHY YOU DO IT!
• Why you do it
o You see if I’m doing good things to impress you, eventually I’ll stop or you’ll see me as a phony.
o If I’m trying to win God’s favor by doing good things, I’ve completely missed what it means that Christ died for my sins. God already loves me and accepts me.
This is nothing new, Jesus warned against this sort of thing in the next chapter of Matthew, 6. He starts in verse 1 by saying,
“Beware”
Jesus is about to point out something that we all have to deal with and be aware of.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV)
Jesus lists the good things that people were doing in His day but He warns the people that they can be done for a purely selfish motivation. That pride can drive people to do these things instead of love.
Can you see that? One says “it’s all about me” the other says, “it’s all about you.” One is selfish the other selfless.
Selfish people who think life is all about them are the most miserable people on the planet and they will never see God in anything. For them, nothing is enough and they are never satisfied.
On the other hand, people who live, like Jesus, a selfless life find the deepest meaning and beauty in serving others as if they are serving and loving God.
Jesus says that when we make no big deal, we don’t parade our good works, we don’t write them down to show others, we simply do them as an expression of love to others, that God who sees in secret will reward in the open.
God rewards those who honor Him
The reality is that one day each of us will stand before God and give an account of the actions of our life and why we did them. I determined a long time ago, that I want to live my life for that day and instead of be a people pleaser, to live for an audience of one. Ultimately it doesn’t matter what you think of me, it matters what God thinks of me and I know I will stand before Him one day.
Learn to live for an audience of One!
So, the question comes, how do I guard my heart against this constant struggle to make it all about me? How do I keep my heart pure?
• Well let me ask you this question. If you found out that your favorite restaurant only cleaned their cooking utensils once a month or so, would you continue to eat there?
• If your auto mechanic put your dirty oil back in your car after draining it, would you still go to him?
• For the Christian, we have a moment by moment faith, like breathing we need God and if we’re not careful, we will allow other things to take the place of God and in essence allow our hearts to become all about ourselves and left corrupt.
HOW DO I KEEP MY HEART PURE?
The Steele Creek Strategy for spiritual maturity and a pure heart
EVERYDAY: (Daily: Word, prayer, worship)
• LET GOD’S WORD SEARCH YOUR HEART
King David had a special relationship with God that was expressed in writing. He speaks of the importance of God’s word and he relates it to a flashlight exposing anything impure in his life. In Psalm 139 he says,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” Psalm 139:23 (ESV)
How can God search? His active and living Word searches and exposes wrong attitudes and impure motives.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)
discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. – Why you do what you do!
Also, every day. . .
• FOCUS ON THE RELATIONAL ASPECT OF PRAYER
In the Christian faith, we have what no other faith system has, a loving, living Heavenly Father. If prayer is mundane, ritualistic and lifeless it becomes another “have to” and loses its real effect.
In other words, prayer needs to be relational since we’re paying to a real living God and that aspect alone will help us to realize that we live for His glory. Jesus taught the people the relational aspect of prayer when He said,
But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:6 (ESV)
The final suggestion I have for you has to do with the focus of your heart.
• GENUINELY WORSHIP GOD IN SPIRIT & TRUTH
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. John 4:23 (ESV)
We all worship! Period. Non-believers worship, humanists worship, atheists worship. WE ALL WORSHIP.
• But not all worship in Spirit, that is in connection with our creator,
• And not all worship in truth based on the reality of who God is.
EXAMPLE/ILLUSTRATION
Making amends – CR Recovery steps 8-9
One the most difficult but freeing things you will ever due is to clear your heart from all of the sticky situations of life. The times when you’ve hurt others and the times when they’ve hurt you.
Years ago, at our church in Wilkes County we started the Celebrate Recovery program. I was thinking I’d go through the program as an example to all the other people who needed it! Well, turns out I needed and it and we all need it.
As you progress in the program you will come to a step that leads you top clear all up all the broken relationships in your life. It’s called making amends. It means to go back and fix what’s broken.
From it came such peace for me as I followed this prescription.
CR is based on these beatitudes – step 8-9 - Evaluate all my relationships. Offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me and make amends for harm I’ve done to others when possible, except when to do so would harm them or others. (Steps 8 and 9)
I want to challenge you in light of todays message and next week on peace-making to begin this process.
PRAYER
