Pure In Heart Series

Pure In Heart

The Beautiful Attitudes of Jesus

CCCAG October 8th, 2017

Scripture-Matt 5:8

I want to begin our talk today with this thought-

We live in a society that has become solely focused on image.

Remember the advertising slogan for Canon cameras? The slogan was “image is everything.” We live in a culture that embraces that idea. We go to great lengths to project a certain image to those around us.

For example the word “makeover” has become a standard term in our vocabulary. Cosmetic surgery has become big business with both the very young and very old taking advantage of the ability to shape their look in all kinds of unique and even some cases grotesque fashion.

Social media

I heard about a product last week that took the idea of image in a direction I never expected.

Imagine you’re a guy who lives in city, but you want to project an image of an outdoors kind of guy. The type of guy that goes hunting, rides ATV’s, or takes his pickup truck out on the weekends on the backroads for some mudding.

I have the product for you- The product is called Spray On Mud. It is a can of pressurized mud which can be sprayed on your Truck or SUV to give the appearance that you’ve been off road. According to the company's website, spray-on mud can help give your friends, family and neighbors the impression you've just come back from a day's shooting, fishing or visiting friends who live on a farm.

You know, manly stuff where you don’t have to admit that you actually were driving around in town all day or visiting the mall with your wife and kids.

We will do strange things to make the outsides of our lives project a certain image even though the reality is something much different.

One of the images that many people flee from today is the idea and image of purity. The idea of purity in our culture is mocked, laughed at, and it’s ridiculed as showing that anyone that tries to live a pure life is out of touch, a nerd, or a wimp for not living life to its fullest.

I haven’t seen this movie, but I know that there is one titled, “40-Year Old Virgin”. The title is supposed to be funny in of itself because it speaks of a man in his 40’s that has never been with a woman. After all, anyone who is a virgin at 40 is to be at least pitied and not a true man with a lot of notches in his headboard.

Not surprisingly, the bible has a different viewpoint- purity is the condition we need to see God. The ability to see and fellowship with God is the whole point of human existence.

That’s why all of the beatitudes have been leading to this one- the idea of being pure in heart. If it was a musical number or a symphony, this 6th beautiful attitude that Jesus wants us to have would be the crescendo because of it’s goal- to see God.

Mat 5:3-8 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Prayer

Big idea- Every story has some type of conflict that needs to be resolved. If you were to summarize the bible’s chief conflict that has existed since Adam and Eve into a one word description, you would boil it down to the one word-

Purity

Consider with me-

The loss of purity is what made Adam and Eve make coverings for themselves.

The loss of purity is the chief aim of every sin the devil has ever devised

The loss of purity is what Jesus went to the cross to restore in us so we can be born again.

But this word has suffered some violence in our world, and even those of us who should know better probably have a tarnished view of what it means to be pure in God’s eyes, so let’s define it as Jesus meant it.

I. What is purity

The word Purity in Greek carries with it significant meaning that helps us understand the breath of what Jesus is saying here.

The Greek word Jesus uses for pure in this case is katharos. It’s the root word of the English word cathartic. In medicine, a cathartic medication is one that purges and cleans. In psychology, it means to have purged the negative emotions and obtained a clearness or peace about what was troubling you.