Flourishing in Purity
Flourishing in Purity
Sermon Summary:
In this powerful message, we’re invited to explore the true meaning of happiness through the lens of the Beatitudes, particularly focusing on ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.’ We’re challenged to consider what it means to have a pure heart – one that’s not just cleansed, but fundamentally changed and committed to God. This purity isn’t about perfection, but about allowing God to transform us from the inside out. The reward? We’ll see God – not just in eternity, but in our everyday lives. This message encourages us to look beyond surface-level happiness and seek the deep, abiding joy that comes from a heart aligned with God’s will. It’s a call to let God renovate our hearts, removing the ‘orange spots’ of sin and replacing them with His purity. As we embrace this transformation, we’re promised that we’ll begin to see God’s hand at work all around us, bringing a new level of awareness and appreciation for His constant presence in our lives.
Sermon Points:
Six Domains of Human Flourishing
- Happiness and Life Satisfaction
- Mental and Physical Health
- Meaning and Purpose
- Character and Virtue
- Close Social Relationships
- Material and Financial Stability
The Great Commission
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the end of the age.
-Matthew 28:19-29
Matthew’s Gospel contains 5 major “sermons” or “discourses” delivered by Jesus. Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God on earth. These sermons give definition and description of life in this new Kingdom.
Matthew 5-7: Citizens of the New Kingdom
Matthew 10: Missionaries of the New Kingdom
Matthew 13: Parables for the New Kingdom
Matthew 18: Community Life in the New Kingdom
Matthew 24-25: Eschatological Hope in the New Kingdom
The Sermon on the Mount is the declaration from Jesus about how followers of Jesus are to live now that the Kingdom of God has been established on earth.
“Blessed” is one English translation of the Greek word, makarios. The word can mean: blessed, fortunate, happy, and favored by God.
The heart is the “center of the human self” (Dallas Willard)
Pure Heart
Cleansed Heart
Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.
-Psalm 24:3-4
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence . . . You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of bones of the dead and everything unclean.
-Matthew 23:25, 27
Changed Heart
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
-Psalm 51:10
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified . . .
-Romans 10:10
Committed Heart
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
-Proverbs 3:5
The pure in heart will see God in eternity!
The pure in heart will see God in the everyday!
Key Takeaways:
- The heart is the center of the human self and the source of our actions
- True happiness comes from having a pure heart, which involves being cleansed, changed, and committed
- Seeing God is both a future promise and a present reality for those with pure hearts
- God is constantly at work, and a pure heart enables us to recognize His actions in our daily lives
- The church is embarking on a journey of flourishing together, rooted in Christ
Scripture References:
- Matthew 5:8 – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Stories:
- The pastor’s experience with home repairs as an analogy for addressing spiritual issues
- The story of the Grinch’s heart growing three sizes as an illustration of spiritual transformation
- Personal anecdotes about the pastor’s recent car purchase and how it relates to newfound awareness
- A series of “it just so happens” events leading to the church’s current focus on flourishing, presented as evidence of God’s hand at wor
Transcript
Well, can we say thank you to our worship ministry for leading us in worship today?
Anyway, we’re grateful for the time we’ve already had in worship.
We’ve had a beautiful, wonderful weekend together.
I want to say a word of thanks to our staff, the team that worked so hard to get us ready for this weekend, and we are truly grateful for that.
For how the Lord showed up and blessed our time together.
And we’ll talk more about that in a minute.
But I do want to say a word of welcome.
Y’all had a chance to meet Scott.
He was with us for the weekend.
And he’s back with us this morning.
But also our church is… has been willing to engage in a case study that Baylor has asked us to be a part of.
And we have a researcher case study analyst who’s with us as well.
So William and Scott, would y’all just stand up and wave to everybody?
We wanna thank y’all for being our guests.
We’re grateful y’all are here.
Thank you.
And thank you for what you’ve done for us already this weekend.
Well, y’all know that our theme for this year is flourishing together rooted in Christ.
And we have launched this three-year journey.
And officially this weekend.
And we’re excited about it a tad.
I guess anxious because we don’t know everything that it involves and what the Lord’s going to ask from us.
But what I would say is, as a church, we’re going to go ahead and put our yes on the altar and then we’ll let God ask the questions.
How’s that?
We’ll just go ahead and say yes about that.
So our answer is yes, and whatever the Lord asks of us, that’s what we’ll intend to do.
Now, y’all know that what we’ve introduced already are these six domains of human flourishing.
And Scott and Kate both addressed them in these last two days.
And many of you were here for the weekend, and you actually took the flourishing measure that… addresses each one of these domains.
There are two questions per domain, and we’re going to have a lot more conversation about all of that.
But as this year unfolds, what I’m going to be doing is addressing these domains on Sunday mornings, okay?
So we’re beginning with happiness and life satisfaction as one of the domains that’s a part of human flourishing.
So our theme for the winter is happiness is dot, dot, dot.
We’ve already begun this conversation, but today we’ll follow up really in earnest as we begin a study of the Beatitudes.
So if you have your copy of the New Testament, I’m entitled to this message, Flourishing in Purity.
Let’s look at Matthew 5, and we’re just going to single out two or three verses from the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount as we reflect upon having a pure heart today.
Matthew is telling us this story of the early ministry of Jesus.
He ends page 4 with this summary comment of what Jesus is doing.
Jesus is healing and he’s teaching and he’s making his way across Galilee.
And people from all over that part of the world are coming to hear him.
To experience what it is that he brings.
And then we come to page 5.
So we’re going to look at two or three verses.
And y’all know it’s our custom when we have a reading of the gospel to stand and honor the Lord Jesus.
So I invite you to stand if you’re able.
And let’s begin in verse 1.
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and he sat down.
His disciples came to him and he began to teach them.
And then we have this series of statements from him.
We’re going to skip down to verse 8.
Here’s where we’ll start today.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
So thank you.
You can be seated.
So Matthew’s gospel is a lengthy gospel, 28 pages.
So it’s a hearty work.
It’s not the first gospel written as best we know.
We think Mark’s the first gospel.
Scholars call that the priority of Mark.
BUT MATTHEW’S GOSPEL IS THE MOST JEWISH GOSPEL.
IT CONNECTS US TO THE OLD COVENANT IN A VERY POWERFUL, MEANINGFUL WAY.
YOU’LL FIND MATTHEW AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN SHARING SOMETHING THAT JESUS DID, SOMETHING THAT JESUS SAID, AND HE’LL SAY, AND THIS WAS DONE TO FULFILL WHAT THE PROPHET SAID.
SO HE CONNECTS THE NEW COVENANT AND THE OLD COVENANT, AND MATTHEW’S GOSPEL SERVES AS A BRIDGE FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW.
THAT’S WHY IT’S PLACED FIRST IN OUR BIBLES.
BUT YOU GET TO THE VERY END OF MATTHEW’S GOSPEL,
Page 28.
And there’s a very familiar passage at the very end where he issues what we refer to generally as the Great Commission.
And you remember the Great Commission.
Here’s what Jesus says.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And then he said this.
And teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded you.
And surely I’m with you always to the end of the age.
But that phrase, teaching them everything I’ve commanded you.
Now, let’s think about that for just a second.
What did Jesus teach his followers?
If we’re going to fulfill the Great Commission, we can’t just go.
We have to actually teach, teach the things that Jesus commanded.
Well, what did Jesus command?
Well, that’s where I want us to settle in this morning.
When you read Matthew’s gospel, his gospel contains five major sermons.
Sometimes they’re called discourses, and they’re delivered by Jesus.
Jesus has inaugurated the kingdom of God on earth, and these sermons give definition and description of life today.
IN THIS NEW KINGDOM.
AND SO WHEN YOU READ MATTHEW’S GOSPEL, THOSE OF YOU THAT HAVE A, SOME OF YOU HAVE A RED LETTER EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
THERE’S A LOT OF RED INK IN MATTHEW’S GOSPEL, AND IT USUALLY APPEARS IN CHUNKS BECAUSE HE HAS THESE HUGE PASSAGES WHERE WE HEAR THESE SERMONS FROM JESUS.
NOW, HOW MANY SERMONS DID JESUS PREACH IN THREE AND A HALF YEARS?
Who knows?
I’m going to say a lot.
Okay?
So we don’t have all of them.
But however, thanks to the gospel writers, we do have some.
And we’re not really sure how necessarily they were collected.
Were they all preached all at one time?
I would say I would just take them as they’re written.
But the point is Matthew decided to give us these five long passages.
I don’t know.
Have you all been watching The Chosen?
What do you think about Matthew on the chosen?
You know, have y’all been paying attention?
He’s interesting.
I mean, the way he’s depicted, you know.
But one of the things that you’ll notice in the chosen is he’s always writing stuff down. which I kind of think maybe that’s how it was because he would have been able to read and write.
He’s a tax collector.
He would have had to speak several languages because he had to deal with all the people.
And so it’s not, I think it’s not lost on me that he was some kind of a scribe.
So I shouldn’t be surprised that he has these lengthy sermons.
It’s one of the reasons that Matthew so often is the preacher’s favorite gospel because it’s got sermons in it, you know.
And, you know, and y’all all need, you need to get used to that because that’s what we’re doing in heaven.
You know, we’re going to be listening to sermons.
That’s what I’m thinking.
And some of us are going to be preaching.
Some of us are going to be listening.
But anyway, hey, you claim heaven how you want it, and I’m going to claim it the way I want it, all right?
So I’m just saying.
But when you look at these sermons, let me just run through them real quickly.
There’s five of them.
Matthew 5 through 7, that’s the Sermon on the Mount.
We’ll look at that in just a second.
In that sermon, Jesus is discussing the citizens of this new kingdom.
Matthew 10.
Matthew 10. the missionaries of this new kingdom.
Matthew 13, it’s almost like the undercover nature of the new kingdom, the parables.
Matthew 18, what life is going to be like in the community of the new kingdom.
And then Matthew 24 and 25, that’s the eschatological hope of this new community, the people who live in the new kingdom.
Now here’s what’s fascinating about how scholars interpret these sermons.
Some scholars say that these sermons are pathways to the kingdom of God.
In other words, here’s how you get in the kingdom of God.
Live this way.
Others say, well, most of the sermonic material in Matthew contains ideals that you’ll never ascribe to.
They’re just too far behind us.
It’s setting forth a certain type of behavior that nobody can live up to.
You have others who say, well, actually some of the material in Matthew is about the eschaton.
It’s about once the new kingdom of God is fully consummated, it’s really not for this age.
I would say all three of those are wrong.
That is not what these sermons are.
These sermons actually offer instructions for how the redeemed people of God are supposed to live because we’ve been radically changed by the gospel.
So these are real sermons where Jesus is saying, this is how you’re going to behave.
This is how you’re going to look.
This is how you’re going to treat others.
He’s not just offering an ideal.
He’s actually challenging us to live this way in the middle of the world in which you and I live that’s going to live very differently than people who’ve been radically converted to Christ.
And don’t you think people who’ve been radically converted to Christ ought to live differently than those who have not?
So, Matthew then builds this narrative around these five major teaching, preaching sections.
So, with all that said, let’s look at the Sermon on the Mount.
That’s where we are today.
We’re just going to hit the highlights, touch upon the Beatitudes.
Well, the Sermon on the Mount is the declaration from Jesus about how followers of Jesus are to live now that the kingdom of God has been established on earth.
Y’all know we refer to that around here as inaugurated eschatology.
In other words, we live in this present evil age, but we also live in the age to come.
The age to come is already here.
It’s intersected this present evil age.
And you and I are now citizens of this new kingdom.
And Jesus in this sermon establishes his authority unquestioned.
In fact, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount will say things like this.
You’ve heard it said… but I say unto you.
And when he says you’ve heard it said, he refers to Old Testament teachings that these people, many of them were familiar with.
And then Jesus will say, you’ve heard that, but here’s what I say to you.
He establishes his authority and he’s unashamed in it.
And he, then he gets to the end of this sermon.
If you still have your Bibles open or your phones or whatever, you get to the end of it in page seven.
And he says, now take all of this and build your life on it.
If you don’t, he says, then your life will be destroyed when all the winds come and the rains and the storms and all that.
If you’ll build your life on what I just taught you, you will thrive.
You might even, what’s a good word for thrive?
You might even flourish.
How about that?
Then look what happens.
Verse 28 of Matthew 7.
When Jesus finished saying these things, the Bible says the crowds were amazed.
Ekpleso is the Greek word.
There are several words in that semantic domain of amazed.
This is one of them.
It means to be struck.
That’s what the word means.
It means to be stopped in your tracks.
These people basically said nobody has ever preached like this.
They were amazed at what Jesus had to say.
I love that.
So with that said, let’s get to it this morning.
We’ve got a little work to do here on the Beatitudes.
So, y’all remember, we started last Sunday. with the conversation about happiness, we talked about the semantic domains.
Y’all remember that?
These word clusters that somehow build off of each other.
They’re uniquely related to each other in every language.
And that’s true in Hebrew and Greek.
The Old Testament in Hebrew, the New Testament in Greek.
And we have these clusters of words that are translated with various English words like cheer and joy and pleasure and happiness and merriment and laughter.
And remember how we talked about all those fit together in these semantic domains.
Well…
We’ve got one of those words today.
It’s the word blessed.
The word blessed is an English translation of the Greek word makarios.
Very common word in the New Testament.
However, that word can be translated variously in English.
As a matter of fact, it is.
In multiple translations in English, it’s translated as blessed, fortunate, blessed. happy, favored by God.
The idea is Jesus is laying out a roadmap, in my opinion, in the Beatitudes to true happiness.
If you really want to live a biblically based happy life, then here’s how to do it.
Here’s how it looks.
The idea is, is that God is blessing.
And then you and I are receiving the benefits of that blessing, and so we are favored by God.
We are blessed by God.
We are fortunate in His presence.
We are truly happy, if you will.
All of those are legitimate translations.
Now, you want to be careful when you’re translating anything from one language to another.
And wouldn’t we agree you want to be really careful if it happens to be the Bible?
Right?
Okay, we’re not just reading the newspaper here.
We’re talking about the Bible.
However, when we translate that word makarios into English, most scholars agree it is appropriate to use the word happy.
As long as you and I don’t interpret that as this common glib concept. of surfacy kind of reality that totally is dependent on everything around us.
You know, in other words, like your life is smooth sailing.
Remember we talked about that last week?
Everything’s great.
Your kids are yes sir, no sir, yes ma’am, no ma’am, and everything is great.
You have more money than month, and you’re in the best shape of your life.
If that’s what it takes to be happy, then you’re rarely going to be happy.
That’s not the biblical perspective on happiness.
Don’t hem that in.
Don’t sell happiness short from a biblical perspective.
Remember, we claimed it last week, and I shared with you all one of my goals in this series is to rehabilitate the word and the concept of happiness, to see it truly in its biblical vernacular.
It’s not glib.
It’s not flippant.
It’s actually sturdy.
It’s meaningful and it’s available to experience the happiness of God.
So with that said, here’s what I want us to do.
Let’s skip the first few Beatitudes and go to verse 8.
So why am I skipping through them and going to verse 8?
Because I want to get to the heart of the Beatitudes.
And that’s where this text takes us.
The heart.
The heart is the center of the human self.
That’s what Dallas Willard says.
I want you to think about that.
The heart is the center of the human self.
Dallas Willard has written a book called The Renovation of the Heart.
Well, we use that word a lot.
Well, what is the heart of a human being?
Well, I would contend that the heart of the human being is the will of
It’s the spirit of a human being.
I would use those words pretty much interchangeably.
It’s that seat of the will, that decision-making part of us, that place where we are free moral agents and we can choose to do good, we can choose to do evil.
That emerges out of our heart, if you will.
And so the heart is at the very core of a human being.
Willard and many others talk about that.
Human beings have thought.
They have feelings.
We have choices.
We have a body.
We live in a social context.
We have a soul.
The soul is the integrating system of it all, if you will.
But the heart is kind of the executive office of the human being.
It’s where these decisions are made about how you’re going to live and how you’re going to engage, if you will.
And so it’s at the very core of who a person is.
And so Jesus says, now, if you want to be blessed, if you want to be happy from a biblical perspective, he says, and guess what you’ve got to do?
You’ve got to address your heart.
You all know our grandkids, particularly the little ones, Adler and Gideon, we have those little… medical kits.
You know what I’m talking about?
The little toy medical kits.
And we got Doc McStuffins.
We treat all kind of animals and baby.
We got it going on at our house.
And they love to get the little, you know, the stethoscope.
You know what I’m talking about?
Because Poppy can do this.
So they love to get that little stethoscope and come up.
As they get closer to me, I start doing that.
And they’re like, Poppy, we can hear your heart, you know.
Well, if you want to be blessed, at the very center of this message, Jesus says this, check your heart.
So how’s your heart this morning?
Is it in good shape, if you will?
Somebody said yes.
I’m so glad.
Awesome.
How is your heart?
Well, here’s what this text says.
Jesus says, blessed are the what in heart?
Pure in heart.
So is that you?
Is that what you’d say about yourself?
You know, you can say a lot of things about me, but at the end of the day, I mean, I think I’m pretty pure hearted.
You might not say that about yourself, but we should be able to.
You can say it about others, can’t you?
Don’t you know some people that are just pure-hearted?
You know, I’ve been with y’all for almost 24 years, and I’ve been able to watch y’all live.
I’m going to tell you this.
One of the most pure-hearted people I’ve ever known is our beloved Pastor Emeritus, Dr. Charles Wade.
He’s a pure-hearted man.
He is an Israelite in whom there is no guile.
I called him out this morning in the first service because I watched him.
He never has a bad word to say about anybody.
There’s just something pure in him.
Don’t you love that?
Aren’t we grateful that we’ve been led by someone like him for so long?
Well, the Bible says blessed, happy, favored by God, blessed
Are you if you are pure in heart?
What does it mean to be pure in heart?
Don’t you want to be pure in heart?
Don’t you?
So what does it mean biblically?
Well, let’s talk about it.
First of all, it means to have a cleansed heart.
Catharos is the Greek word.
We get our English word catharsis from that word.
And it means to cleanse, to purify.
Well, the Bible has a lot to say about that actually.
For example, in Psalm 23, Psalm 24 rather, the Bible says, Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in His holy place?
The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.
Who doesn’t trust in an idol.
Who doesn’t swear by a false god.
In other words, that pure heart is incredibly important.
You know, Jesus had a lot to say about it.
He also had some harsh words to say while He was on this earth in His earthly ministry.
Unfortunately, most of His harsh words were reserved for religious leaders.
He had something to say to us.
In fact, Matthew 23, listen to what Jesus said to the religious leaders of his day.
He said, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they’re full of greed and self-indulgence.
You’re like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of bones of the dead and everything unclean.
You know, in the Jewish world in the first century, dead things were just off limits.
You didn’t touch them.
You stayed away. carried disease, full of impurities, both ritualistically as well as physically, and you just couldn’t have anything to do with anything dead.
And Jesus said, you know, I walk by these tombs that are so decorated on the outside where people just clean them, whitewash them, they take care of them.
You know, we do that, don’t we?
We go out to the cemetery, and if it’s our loved one, don’t we?
We’ll go out and make sure everything looks okay.
When I used to pastor country churches, we had what we called cemetery workings.
People would come from all over and clean up, make sure everything’s okay.
Go out there on Memorial Day and put flowers.
Well, they did that.
And Jesus said, you know, you Pharisees, y’all remind me of these tombs.
Man, they look great on the outside.
You’re dead on the inside.
What an indictment.
It’s a powerful word.
So the first brick on the paved road to happiness. is a cleansed heart.
Let me read you a quote from Dallas Willard from his book, Renovation of the Heart.
He says, “…the revolution of Jesus is in the first place and continuously a revolution of the human heart or spirit.
It did not and does not proceed by means of the formation of social institutions and laws, the outer forms of our existence, intending that these would then impose a good order of life upon people who come under their power.
Rather, His is a revolution of character.” which proceeds by changing people from the inside through ongoing personal relationship to God and Christ and to one another.
Dallas Willard says, here’s where the real work of Jesus is, inside you.
That’s what he’s doing.
He’s working in you.
You know why?
Because that’s where everything starts.
Because everything that emerges out of us,
We need to be cleansed.
You know, I don’t know what you call the opposite of a handyman, but that’s what I am.
Okay?
Our whole married life has been one of those little bones of contention because I’ve always tried to fix stuff.
And Cindy’s typical comment is, all you’re going to do is make it harder for the real person who’s come along and going to actually fix it.
So I don’t know why you even do it in the first place.
Leave it be, and it’ll be better and cheaper.
But for some reason, I just can’t help myself.
And I’m awful at it, and I get it.
And while I was listening to a guy the other day, he’s a pastor, and he was talking about that he and I have a lot in common.
And he said his wife wanted… a new shelf in the bathroom.
And he told me, he said, honey, it’s real simple.
It’s not a big deal.
I’ll attach it to the wall.
He did it.
Well, he kind of messed the wall up, so he needed to paint it.
So, he repainted everything.
He said about a month and a half later, a big orange spot came up on the wall.
And he told his wife, he said, can you believe how cheap this paint is nowadays?
It doesn’t even last a month and a half.
So, he repainted over the orange spot.
And he said about a month and a half later, another orange, the same place, orange spot got a little bigger.
And he said, can you believe how cheap this paint is?
So, he repainted it about a month and a half.
So, finally…
They were talking, and he said, you know, maybe I’ll just call somebody.
So he called a plumber.
Plumber comes out.
Well, sure enough, when he was putting the shelf in, he punctured the sewer line from the upstairs bathroom.
And the guy said, we just got to tear all this sheetrock out.
We got to get this fixed and, you know, just do everything.
He said, let me just paint over one more time and see if that’ll work, you know.
And when I heard that, I thought, is that not my culture?
Just paint over it, man.
It’ll be all right, you know.
Let me just tell you something.
Some of us need to get the sheetrock removed and get in there and get it fixed because some of us got a bunch of orange spots.
And you know why?
Because our hearts need to be cleansed.
The only one who can do that is Jesus.
Hallelujah.
He’s the only one.
You can’t do it yourself.
You know, because if you try to cleanse yourself, here’s the problem.
Your righteousness are like filthy rags.
That means your hands are dirty.
So when you touch your dirty heart, you think you’re cleaning it.
You’re just making it dirtier.
That’s just how it works.
The only one who can cleanse us is Jesus.
In fact, the Bible tells us that.
The Bible says in 1 John 1, doesn’t it?
If you will just confess your sins, right?
If you’ll let the Lord know, bring them into his presence, he’s faithful and just to do two things.
Forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
Those are two different things.
Forgiveness is instant.
Cleansing is a process.
He’ll forgive you instantly.
And that may take a while to clean you up.
But he’s really good at it.
And so if you want to have a pure heart, you and I have got to have a cleansed heart.
But that’s still not enough.
A clean heart is actually not enough.
We actually have to have a changed heart.
Because you see, we’re sinners.
We’re bent.
In a direction.
We need help.
And we need God’s intervention.
And so you know what the Scripture teaches us?
That God can do that.
He can change your heart.
Psalm 51 verse 10.
David says, Create in me a pure heart, O God.
Renew this steadfast spirit within me.
Why is it important for your heart to change?
Why is it important for your heart to be shaped?
Because the Bible says in Romans 10, It is with your heart that you believe and are justified.
Everything happens there in your heart.
So when you’re cleansed by Jesus… radically cleansed by him, a lifetime of following him now ensues.
And here’s what’s going to happen.
In the New Testament, it’s another Greek word.
It’s the word morphe.
You find it all over the New Testament.
It’s combined with other words.
And it means to form, to shape.
Sometimes it’s referred to as conformed.
Sometimes it’s referred to as transformed.
But the point is, here’s what Jesus is doing.
He’s reshaping our hearts.
He’s changing us so that we will be more like him.
And that is a lifetime process.
So we can be cleansed, but we’ve also got to be changed.
Do y’all remember when the Grinch stole Christmas?
Do y’all remember?
He went down and got it out of Whoville and took it up on the mountain.
Or so he thought.
And what happened on Christmas morning when he woke up?
What were they doing?
Singing.
And it was merry.
Very, actually.
Remember?
And then you know what Dr. Seuss said happened?
He says, and…
And what happened then?
Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch’s heart grew three sizes that day.
And then the true meaning of Christmas came through and the Grinch found strength of ten Grinches plus two.
Don’t you love that?
His heart grew three sizes one day.
That needs to happen to me and you.
Because it’s one thing to be cleansed.
It’s a whole other thing to be changed.
And we need to be changed.
There’s one other thing I’d say about that word, katharos, though, in Greek.
It doesn’t just mean cleansing and having a heart transplant, if you will.
It also means pure and unadulterated, which means it’s a committed heart.
When Jesus used this word, he’s actually calling on me and you to have a committed, undivided heart.
A heart that is loyal.
In other words…
A heart that’s all in.
You know, one of those passages that I learned very early, my grandmother taught me to memorize it.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Lean not on your own understanding.
Acknowledge him in all your ways and he’ll direct your paths.
In other words, you got to be all in and unadulterated, loyal.
So what’s the reward for a pure heart?
Well, don’t you love what the text says?
You’re blessed.
I love that.
You’re blessed.
You’re happy.
You’re fortunate.
You’ve gotten God’s favor.
But how much is it like God that that is just not enough?
He actually doubles it up.
Not only are you blessed, look what else it says, for you will see God.
Now, come on, y’all.
Any of y’all want to see God?
You say, now, wait a minute, Prince, you can’t see God.
If you see God, you’re going to die.
Well, he doesn’t mean that. standing face to face with God, you would die.
What he means is you’ll see the evidence of God.
You’ll see the hand of God.
You’ll see God at work.
Don’t y’all want to see God at work?
Let me tell you something.
Whether you see it or not, now come on now.
Whether you see it or not, guess what he’s doing?
He’s working.
He’s not waiting on you to see it.
Come on.
He’s working.
Whether we see it or not, but don’t you want to see it?
Well, you know, here’s what I’d say about it.
The pure in heart will see God in eternity.
Well, duh.
I mean, if you ask Jesus into your heart and you’re saved and you give your life to him, well, you’re given eternal life.
What did Jesus tell Nicodemus in John 3?
He said, you got to be born again if you want to see the kingdom of God.
So the new birth that he gives us, praise God, we’re going to live forever in eternity.
Amen.
Praise God.
Isn’t that worth celebrating?
We will see him in eternity.
But you know what, y’all?
I got to be honest.
I don’t want to wait.
I want to see him in the everyday.
I want to see him tomorrow.
How about you?
Well, the pure in heart will see God in the everyday.
That’s what I believe this means.
You will see him in the here and now.
Because, see, God’s at work right now.
And we walk right past it.
But when you are changed on the inside and your heart changes, is transformed, the eyes of faith become a reality.
And you and I begin to see.
You know, I’m having to haul these grandkids around everywhere, y’all.
And so my car was too little, so I called Charlie, my buddy down at Vandergriff, and told y’all, I said, Charlie, I just got to have a different vehicle.
I got to haul these grandkids.
I need a third seat.
Charlie said, okay.
I said, but I don’t want a big old SUV because I don’t want to have to park it.
I want a medium SUV that I can afford with a third seat.
So he told me, he said, well, you know, a 4Runner is a great size.
He said, but you know, Dennis, they don’t come with a third seat.
I said, well, okay.
About five minutes later, he called me back and said, hey, you’re not going to believe this, but right outside of my office on the showroom floor, there’s a 4Runner with three seats.
I said, I’m on my way.
Okay.
Well, I got down there, y’all. and it was white.
That sounded like a white car.
I mean, no disrespect to y’all’s white cars, but that sounded like a white car.
And so, Kennedy, who met me out in front, said, Pastor, what do you think?
I said, well, it’s white.
You know?
He said, yes, good looking.
I said, hmm.
Well, here’s the thing.
I’ve actually gotten used to it, and now I like it.
And guess what?
White cars are everywhere.
I can’t go anywhere without seeing white cars.
Every red light I pull up to, every stop sign, everybody’s driving a white car.
I never noticed until I got one.
Well, here’s the thing.
Once you get that sheetrock work done, and you get that sewer line repaired in your life, and your heart all of a sudden is clean and pure, you’re going to start seeing God’s hand at work everywhere, because I’m telling you right now, He’s at work everywhere.
And I’m grateful for that.
Because God wants you to see what he’s doing because it encourages you when you see him at work.
You know, we don’t go somewhere to see God.
We become someone who sees God.
That’s how it works.
That’s what the Beatitudes are about.
That’s the journey that we’re on.
You know, Augustine said, I don’t see so I can believe.
I believe so I can see.
Well, you know, I just got back from Sierra Leone.
Y’all know that.
And y’all, it was…
Yeah, powerful.
We just saw God’s hand at work in so many ways.
I wish you could have all been with us just to see the evidence of the hand of God.
I’m catching a plane here in just a few minutes and I’m on a flight to our other global center in Western Europe.
These college students just got back from there.
I’m headed there.
I’ll be there tomorrow.
I can’t wait.
I already know God’s at work there.
I want to see it.
But you know,
A good while ago, I started praying, and I told the Lord, I said, Lord, could you do something special?
Could you just show us something in Arlington?
Could you make yourself known to us, our church, in Arlington?
Well, well, well.
You know what we’ve just been through?
You see, you could look at it and say, well, it’s all circumstantial.
It’s all, I mean, come on.
Well, you know, it just so happens that over a decade ago, I landed on Psalm 1 and just allowed it to grip me.
So much so that we’ve lived in it, right?
We’ve talked about it.
We were renovating this room and I said, I want Psalm 1 written around the walls of this church.
Robert Hoffman sitting right there.
Y’all did it, right?
One of the guys on the master plan committee said, well, what if the next preacher doesn’t like Psalm 1?
I said, then don’t call him.
That’s a simple thing.
If you don’t like Psalm 1, there’s something wrong with you, is what I would say.
So there it is.
That idea of blessed.
We know that hurt people hurt people.
What do we say, though?
Blessed people.
Blessed people.
Come on, y’all.
In the Jesus way.
You know, following the Jesus way has been at the heart of who we are.
You know, it just so happens that I was on the Board of Regents at Baylor for nine years.
It just so happens I was on the Academic Affairs Committee.
It just so happens I heard a presentation from Byron Johnson, who I’d gotten to know at Baylor because of my time there on the board.
It just so happens that they were launching a study of flourishing.
On a global scale.
And the regents blessed it and celebrated it.
It just so happened that.
I have been praying for the Lord to give me just a refreshed look at what it is he wants me to communicate to you over this next season.
It just so happens that around that same time, this global flourishing study has launched.
It just so happens that in the middle of that, Byron informs me that there’s a group of these researchers who are on this team, 45 of them or so, that there’s a group that’s actually decided to study flourishing and the church.
It just so happens that he sent me this little booklet to read to share with our staff about flourishing in the church.
Are y’all still with me?
It just so happens that the team who’s doing all this research came in from all over America and met together for the very first time to look at the research they’ve been doing in the Global Flourishing Study.
They didn’t meet at Cambridge.
It just so happens they met in Waco this past week.
So that the author of this particular booklet just so happened to be in Waco and was flying out of DFW back home on Friday night.
It just so happens that somehow or another we got connected to Scott Hare who works for Baylor in this journey.
It just so happens that he’s a fellow pastor and he lives in Texas in San Antonio. connected us with Kate, and we had already planned months and months ago to have our retreat this weekend.
It just so happens they were all here just prior.
Come on, church.
Are y’all with me?
It just so happens that she was able to adjust her schedule and come here and speak to us on Friday night and then catch a plane and go home.
It just so happens Scott was able to be here to help connect us to all this.
It just so happens that now there’s a scientific study being done by Harvard that
Come on, y’all.
Harvard, okay?
I’m not talking about Auburn.
But there ain’t nothing wrong with Auburn.
Harvard and Baylor scientifically evaluating what a fruitful, productive Psalm 1, they’re not saying it this way, but I’m saying it, Psalm 1 person actually looks like from a scientific perspective.
And it just so happens that
A new book has been written that I’ve chosen to use in my brand new small group, whatever it’s going to look like.
And what’s it called?
After all these years of following the Jesus way, it’s called Practicing the Way.
It just so happens we finally came together and we had this meeting in our church after all these just so happens have happened.
And what I told God last night was, you’re just showing out now.
You’re just showing out.
That’s all you can say.
I mean…
I’m here to tell y’all, I’m from Alabama, so I’m going to say it the way we say it.
There ain’t no such thing as it just so happens.
I saw the hand of God and praise His name.
And when He shows up as He’s done this weekend, you just take your hands off of it and you call it holy because that’s what it is.
And so where all is it taking us?
I don’t know.
And I don’t care.
I’m going.
Y’all come on with me.
Y’all come on.
Let’s see what God is going to do.
We got a world out there that needs this so desperately.
They don’t even know it and they’re looking for it everywhere.
Let’s show them what it really looks like.
And let’s let them be drawn.
As the Bible say, if you’ll do all of this, let these works be on display.
God Almighty will get the glory from that.
He’ll draw these people to himself.
You know, C.S.
Lewis said, I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
And that’s how this feels to me.
It’s a moment in time.
Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to be a part of it.
Together, you and I, flourishing, learning, growing, bearing fruit, abiding in Christ, experiencing the abundant life.
You know what that sounds like to me?
Happiness.
Let’s experience the happiness that God offers us in Jesus.
May it be so.
Let’s pray together.
Father, we…