BLESS THIS HOME
wk-2 PURE IN HEART
PastorTimothy Porter
Text: Matthew 5:8
INTRODUCTION:
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the second week of our series called, "Bless This Home." I'm so glad to have all of you with us at THE BRIDGE!
What we're doing in this four-week teaching series is we are looking at what's known as the beatitudes.
That simply comes from a Latin word which means Blessedness.
In Mathew, chapter 5, Jesus showes us 8 different characteristics of those who are blessed.
Last week, we looked at "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness."
Matt 5: Beattitudes (Blessedness) Bless This Home. Purity in your family
? How many in here have Been robbed?
Men PROTECT: Physically
Women Protect the hearts moma bear
Enemy rob of purity.
What's interesting in our culture today is you're applauded for protecting your kids physically. Right?
I mean you put head gear on them and elbow pads before you send them out to check the mail today because we've got to keep them safe.
But yet, in our culture, when you try to protect their heart and their morals, you're often called an overprotective parent.
We're applauded for protecting them physically but people make fun of you when you try to protect them morally.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Matt 5:8
What We're going to find today is that God actually calls us to protect, not only the physical nature of our homes , but to protect the purity of our homes hearts.
Just as some of was robbed physically, I believe we have a spiritual enemy who wants to rob our families of their purity, to break in, to kill, steal and destroy their innocence and their trust.
Jesus gave us a very specific beatitude in Mathew, Chapter 5:8, our key verse for today.
He said, "Blessed are the" what? The whole church, let's all say it aloud. He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart." For when you are pure in heart, what will you see? He said, "For they will see God."
? The word "heart" in the Greek language is the word "cardio." We get our word cardiac from that word.
Jesus was using this as a metaphor. He wasn't saying, "Blessed are those that have a pure organ that pumps blood through the veins.
He was using it as a metaphor to describe the emotions and the feelings, and the inner self.
I need to say very clearly that his message is much broader than what mine will be today.
When he said, "Blessed are the pure in heart," he was talking about attitudes and motives and thoughts towards others.
He was talking about a lot more than what I'm going to talk about.
For our purposes, I want to narrow the scope down and talk about the moral purity and apply it to our homes.
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Now, in our world today, it's very common for us to believe in ourselves and in other people that,
"Oh, she's got a good heart. He's got a good heart.
" Young, single girls dating a guy, "Oh, he's not a Christian but he's got a good heart."
No, he's unemployed and he lives in his van, down by the river. He smokes weed for dinner. "But, oh, he's got a good heart."
The reality is this, although that's a common saying, it's simply just not true of any of us.
Here's the thought, if you're taking notes, we need to understand that
? WITHOUT CHRIST, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PURE HEART.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind… Jer 17:9-10
?The heart lies to us ...... It's decietful .... Don't tell your childern to follow their heat!?!?!? :o
In fact, in Ephesians 4, verse 18 and 19, the Apostle Paul said something really profound to the believers in Ephesus. He said this of those who were Gentiles, who had drifted from their faith, who were nonbelievers.
18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity… Ephesians 4:18-19
Darkened in understand—Walk into a theater—eyes adjust. Feed baby a bottle of poison, Swimming in a pool filled with acid.
?They are darkened in their understandings, they're separated from the life that God wants them to have because of their ignorance. They don't even realize it because their hearts have grown hard to the things that matter most; they're darkened in their understanding.
How many of you have ever walked into a movie theater that was really dark and you walked in, and you're like, "Oh!" It's almost like you're hit by the darkness.
Who knows what I am talking about? [show of hands]
It's like, "Don't spill the popcorn and the candy we smuggled into the theater. Be careful." Right? "Be careful."
Well, what happens after you're in there for a few minutes? Suddenly, you can see much better.
Why? Because your eyes adjust to the darkness.
Could it be that in the majority of our homes, that our families that we love are separated from the life of God because we've been darkened in our understanding?
Because of our ignorance and our hearts have hardened, and we don't even recognize that we're missing seeing the goodness of God because we've allowed so much impurity into our families, and we don't even know it.
Now, in our lives and our families, we love them, we want to protect them, we want to guard our marriages, we want to protect the next generation.
We would never do anything like give our little babies, "Hey, here's a bottle of poison, drink this little baby". We would never do that.
We would never tell our kids to go swimming in a pool full of acid. Right? We would never do that.
?But , we'll send our teenage daughters on some date with some hairy-legged, pubrity-filled boy that we've never met.
Right? That happens all the time.
?We'll give our 14-year-old boy unlimited access to a mobile device where they can get into anything and everything that we would never want them to see, and call that absolutely normal.
?And we would take our own hard-earned money and pay to be entertained by things that honestly must break the heart of God, and that's absolutely and completely normal in our world today.
Could it be that one of the reasons our homes are not blessed is because our hearts have been hardened? And we've been darkened in our understanding, and without even knowing it, we've lost all sensitivity, and we're now indulging in every kind of evil.
?What's going to be different in your lives?
Well, if you missed last week, we had a key thought that I want to revisit, and we will in the weeks to come. You may remember it, but we're going to have a mind shift, a different way of thinking.
Here's what we're going to be: We're saying that we are not just a Christian family. But what are we? We are a Christ-centered home.
Ps 119:9-10 9 How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
? How can our family stay on the path of purity? By living according to the word. We will seek you with all of our hearts; do not let us stray from our commands. Ps 119:9-10 (TPV for the family.)
I can do whatever I want, right. / What you today matters! / Don’t build a life of righteousness on foundation of sin.
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? CREATING A CULTURE OF PURITY
How can we practically create a culture of purity in our homes?
I can give you lots of different thoughts, but I want to give you three today.
Because, the first thing we need to understand is it's not going to happen by accident. Right?
You're not going to just get married and raise kids and 20 years later, go, "Well, doggone, they're holy.
I don't know how it happened. I mean, they are all pure. I mean, wow! What an accident."
It's got going to happen so let's "get intentional."
Three thoughts: The first thing is, let's start with ourselves.
1) GET YOUR OWN HEART RIGHT
I don't care if you're 18 or 88, I believe you set the tone and the tenor in the relationships around you. No matter where you are, you lead toward purity
In fact, Solomon said this in Proverbs 4:23
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Prov 4:23
So, when we're looking at how we behave, what do we allow into our families,
what do we want to be influenced by,
what do we want to read
what do we want to watch,
what kind of entertainment do we want to have,
what kind of friends are we going to allow closest to us,
what kinds of things are we going to feed our minds,
what kinds of thoughts do we want to have,
how do we decide what's right, and what's not right?
Well, a lot of people would say, "Let your conscience be your guide."
The problem is that scripture teaches our consciences can actually be sered.
In other words, we can't trust our consciences for everything. Because, like our hearts, we can deceive ourselves so easily.
Examples
Six & under Eat free— Bobby says I’m not six.
Some things are obvious—wife swapping. Read this book, Travel with opposite sex in business, who you Hang out with…
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Conscious guide—problem—conscious seared. Doesn’t bother me—maybe it should bother you. Being entertained by sin. (Funny, Racist) Rationalizing anything impure: Friends, Thoughts, Watch, Read, Games, Language I use, Attitudes
2) PARENT TO THE HEART
The second thing, if you're taking notes, and this is so, so, so important is
"Parent to the Heart."
When you're working with your kids / Gkids or Bridge kidz, parent to the heart. Most of us, we parent to the actions.
All we want is the behavior, but we forget to focus on the heart.
All through scripture, in the old testament when Samuel was anointing a king, he looked at David in 1Samuel 16:7 and said,
The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Sam 16:7
Jesus focused on heart and He still does today
In fact, Jesus was a fanatic about the heart. In the Old Testament, scripture taught, "Don't murder."
Then what did Jesus do? He talked to the heart. He said, "Hey, don't even hate. If you've hated, you've committed murder in your heart."
Old Testament said, "Don't commit adultery." Jesus taught to the heart. He said, "If you look lustfully at a woman, you've already committed adultery in your heart."
He hammered on the Pharisees who had the outward behavior right.
I mean, we've got to tip our hats to them and say, "You boys did it." On the outside, they looked good.
Jesus said, "The problem is the outside of your cup and dish is clean but inside, where the heart is, is filthy."
So, when we're working with our kids, we don't want to just settle for outward submission when there's still inward rebellion.
? Apologize: I’m sorry you got your feelings hurt you big baby.
Can’t hang with friends: Slam door—I hate you. - That's unacceptable
A party—resentful.
Right actions come from a right heart
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3) PURSUE PERFECT PURITY OF THE HEART
which is most important, in our homes as we want to be Christ-centered homes, we're going to pursue perfect purity of the heart.
We're going to pursue perfect purity of the heart.
The reason I chose the word "pursue" is because we can't achieve it on our own, but with the help of the power of God, we're going to pursue perfect purity.
Why perfect purity?
Isn't that raising the standard a little high?
Because anything less than perfect purity is not purity; anything less is not purity. We're going to pursue perfect purity of the heart in our homes.
?Anything less than perfect purity is impurity
Eph 5:3 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.
"There must not even be a hint of sexual immorality," not even a hint. Not even a little bitty insy winsy, not even a hint of sexual immorality.
Pause...............................................................
Pop quiz: Let me ask you some questions.
Would committing adultery with four people be a hint of sexual immorality? Yes or no? The answer is yes.
Would sleeping with 75 percent of the people you date before you're married -- would that be a hint of sexual immorality? Yes or no? Yes.
Would just looking lustfully at images on a screen, breaking our wife's heart, would that be considered a hint of sexual immorality? Yes.
If some hot girl walks by, you're in the gym, and you start worshiping God for what you just saw, "Glory to God on high. Praise you, God, for that. Mm-mm." Would that be a hint of sexual immorality?
According to Jesus, it actually would be. "Not even a hint."
We're pursuing perfect purity in our homes.
How much impurity, poison do you let in? Or allow in
Story of Mom putting ppop in my soup. b/c it was PG-13 Cheavy Chase movie and it had a few bad words and sceens in it - Little poop goes a long way.
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Blessed are the pure in heart why — See God.
What if we are impure? Defensive? Hard to get along with?
Ezek 36:26 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.
Ps 51:10 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me
“Parents need to understand why a life of purity is better for the family and they must teach it and demonstrate it in all they do.”
Listen, when you find purity by the Power of God, not just moral purity, but when God starts to change your heart, and you stop desiring what you once desired and start desiring what matters to him, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will" what? Say it with me. "For they will see God."
Imagine if you see God answer prayers and see God use you in the lives of others, and see God make a difference through you.
Then see God use your spiritual gifts and see and sense the presence of God with you, and see his power at work in your life, and see his goodness following you all the days, and see him working in all things to bring about good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.
When you're pure in heart, you can and will see the power of God in a way that you'd never even imagined.
