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this morning we are preaching through the Beatitudes on Sunday morning and this morning we're going to be again once again in Matthew chapter number five and I'd like you to open your Bibles there if you would you can also follow along on the screen behind me as long as the screen keeps on working but Matthew chapter 5 is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount and it covers three chapters Matthew 5 6 & 7 and But this is the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount as Christ is giving these Beatitudes, attitudes that you and I could put into practice in our own walk with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it says here in verse number 3 of Matthew 5, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so Persecuted they the prophets which were before you and again our text for this morning is Matthew 5 8 let's read it out loud together Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God everybody said thank you father for your word and how it speaks to us and how it's a challenge to us when we Look to uncover the truths and then to apply those truths to our own walk with you father I do pray that you would be pleased to meet with us this morning that your presence would be made manifest that your your hand would be felt as we attend attempt to worship you in spirit and in truth and Father, I do pray that we would understand these words that we're going to focus on this morning for a little while, and Father, as we gain understanding, that we'll also have a desire to put some things into practice in our own individual walk with you. And Lord, we do pray this morning that there be somebody here today who has yet to call upon Christ to be their own personal Lord and Savior, that today would be their day of salvation. Pray for your Holy Spirit to do His work in our midst, Father. Whatever we need, that we'll get that from High this morning. We're asking these things in Jesus name. Amen We prefer things that are pure like pure water pure air My mother, when we were children, only would let the kids use ivory soap because it was 99% pure. And so we had that going on all the time in our lives. And she was that way about it. She was very OCD about it, which I liked ivory soap because it floated. Can I have an amen, please? And so easy to find, didn't get lost in the bathwater. But we like pure water. And even if we're going to drink pure water, we want to drink it out of a clean glass, don't we? You know, we don't want to have a glass where there's some smudge on there. Remember about two years ago, we were eating in a restaurant here in Prescott and our waters came and my glass had a smear of lipstick on the outside. And I knew it wasn't my color, somebody say amen. And so I just asked him nicely if I could have a clean glass, please. And I think from that day forward, I have used a straw ever since. I just kind of said, I don't want to mess around with that any longer in my life. And so pure water, pure air. I mean, how many of you have allergies? Allergies here in Prescott are just, I mean, they're top shelf, aren't they? When the junipers start to put their pollen out in the air, my eyes get itchy, I can't breathe for a while, you know, your throat is scratchy, your voice goes away, all those different things. Then we have the other thing here in the area, the wildfires and the prescribed burns that put smoke into the air, and none of us enjoy inhaling that smoke on a regular basis. We know it's not good for us, and so we like pure air, don't we? And so we prefer pure things. We're drawn to pure things. And in many instances, we love pure things. The word pure, very simple, it means clean. It can mean innocent, unsoiled, without blemish. And for the purposes of this morning's thought, I want you to get the word or the idea of unmixed. Unmixed for the word pure the definition of the word pure this morning in the Word of God Blessed are the pure in heart For they shall see God. This is my personal favorite Beatitude personal favorite and there's reasons for that and we'll get into some of those this morning But I find it to be one of the more profound statements in the Beatitudes Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and it's Even though it's profound, it's so simplistic in its wording and its phraseology. Almost every word is a single syllable word. Pure, heart, see, God. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Very simplistic in its wording, but yet very profound in its truths and in its statement this morning. You know, whatever we're going to talk about this morning, whatever the case may be, there's some condition, some attitude of the heart that determines our view of God or how clearly we'll see God or how often we'll see God in our lives. It's a very important thought for a born-again believer to meditate upon. Blessed are the pure in heart. for they shall see God. And this pure or unmixed heart is a heart that is without duplicity. There's not an ulterior motive, there's not something secondary that's fueling the fire or pushing an agenda upon someone. This pure unmixed heart is a heart that is without duplicity, and here's the one you're not gonna like, also without hypocrisy. Never talk about hypocrisy from pulpit. It always gets on people in a great people it convicts people And you know, you've heard before this day, but well, I don't go to church because the church is full of hypocrites you've heard that before and so we're going to talk about what that means this morning and try to to Unveil that and help us to understand that all of us to some degree are hypocritical in life All of us are to some degree are hypocritical in life, to some degree. And we'll talk about varying degrees here in a moment. But anyway. without duplicity, without hypocrisy. Jesus taught us about the fact that the heart can be divided. It can go in two or more different directions. He talked about it a little bit, even in the Sermon on the Mount, about mankind's ability to serve two masters. And he said it can't be done with equality. He said this, no man can serve two masters For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And mammon here is riches or wealth, whatever you want to apply there, but he's just saying it's not possible to equally divide our heart between two different entities and say, well, I'm going to love them equally. God says, no, you can't do that. You're going to love the one more than the other. That's what's being said here. And if you say, well, I'm going to shift over and try to love this one more, he goes, well, yeah, then you're hating the other. So you're loving that one less now. So it's very possible to have a divided heart. This unmixed heart with no duplicity, no hypocrisy, you'll hear it sometimes in the Bible called singleness of heart, also could be brought down to the word integrity. Integrity. Integrity is a characteristic or an attribute. I really, I really like it. When I meet somebody who is of high character, I mean high moral character, and I feel like they have integrity, you're kind of drawn to them. You have a different level of initial trust with somebody who has integrity over those who might have some, quote, integrity issues. Make sense? Are you following me or not? And so this idea of being not duplicitous, not hypocritical, singles of heart, unmixed, pure heart has this connotation of integrity. We talk about integrity, we preach about integrity, the Bible speaks of integrity. I want to show you some verses from the Psalms because I want to use the psalmist for my Bible illustration this morning. The psalmist David, the Holy Spirit used him many times to mention the word integrity in his writings. It begins here in Psalm 25 and verse 21. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me. For I wait on thee and again the psalmist here is praying or is crying out speaking to God And he says I want the integrity That I have in the uprightness that I have all because of you and all through you God to help me to learn to wait on you to teach me patience and forbearance and long-suffering to allow me to wait for your answer and to wait for your hand of blessing and to wait for the door to open or the window to shut, whatever it might be in my Christian life. Integrity will help with my character and help me to wait on God. Or we can even say this, integrity actually gave us the ability to wait on God and to be patient with Him. And sometimes, saints, that's one of the hardest orders there is in the Christian life, is to learn to wait for God. Amen? Psalm 26, verse 1. Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity. I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide. And we're going to find out, well, he does slide. He does slide. He slides big time. He slides down, he gets into a spiral, but he says, when you do, judge me, Lord, would you judge me according to my integrity, to my wholeness, to my singleness of heart towards you, to my unmixed devotion and adoration in your direction. Over in Psalm 26 and verse 11, but as for me, I will walk in mine integrity. Redeem me and be merciful unto me. David's even saying this, you know, my Christian walk ought to have some semblance of integrity attached or associated to it. But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity. Redeem me and be merciful unto me. One more I want to show you before I move on. The Lord shall judge the people. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to mine integrity that is in me. And what's being brought out here in all these different statements about integrity is that David is saying, Lord, I know you, and you know me. They have a relationship. There's something going on here. And God loves David, and no doubt, David loves God. I mean, you can pick it up from all the writings of David, and you can see it much in the life of David. God was taken with David when David was going to be anointed to be the first real king of Israel. God said something about David that he didn't say about very many other people ever in the universe or in the human population. And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own what, saints? mine own heart which shall fulfill all my will. So David here is getting some really good reviews by the great God of heaven. He said, David, even though he's the youngest one in the family, even though his experience so far is he's a shepherd boy, he's never done anything kingly in his life, He said, there's something about David I want everybody on the planet to know. David is a man who's after my own heart, God says. And those are high remarks. That's a very positive review. This is something you'd like to hear from God one day in your existence, that you are a man or a woman after the heart of God. Wouldn't you, saints? And so David has this, and he's talking about integrity, and he's talking about walking with God and being judged that way, and all those different things. And God says, yep, there's David, the son of Jesse, the youngest one of the bunch, the runt of the family. But he's a man after mine on heart. Here's a question. I think you already know the answer, but here's the question. Was David perfect? Not so much, right? I mean, far from it. I mean, if you take the life of David, he did some of what we would call the big ones. Right? Adultery. Home wrecker. Conspiracy to commit murder. He didn't kill Uriah himself, but he made sure that Uriah didn't come back from war. Wrote a letter to Joab, right? So they put Uriah on the front lines, put him up in the heat of battle and then Uriah was killed and David thought that he was going to be able to get through and navigate this mess and it would all eventually blow over that people might forget, you know, because he was the king of Israel. I mean, if you look at it this way, he was a very powerful man on the planet during those times. He had the means, he had the resources, he had the alibis, he had people who would back him up, he had all those different things working, quote, for him. And I always think to myself, David might have very well have gotten away with all this stuff if God hadn't have been God. But God is God. But God is God and you can be sure that your sin will find you out, right? And God is not mocked. You know, be not deceived, God is not mocked. You know, whatever a man soweth, that shall he also what? There's always that law of the harvest that's so real and so true and so much in the forefront of our lives. as believers. And so what happens is that God uses a prophet or a seer named Nathan to bring the truth to David. That thou art the man conversation, David was called to the carpet. But yet, I want you to know this, that David was still a man of integrity, and he was still a man after God's own heart. Well, how can you even say that? Because when push came to shove, David was willing to get right with God again. He was willing to get right with God again. He understood that his transgressions, that his wicked behavior, that his sinful actions were not just against Bathsheba and Uriah and the people of Israel and his own household, but also against the great God of heaven. And Psalm 51.4 is that prayer of contrition, of getting right with God. You can go through it and read it this afternoon if you'd like to, but I want to pull out this one verse so you can see it this morning. Against thee, thee only have I sinned. Against who? Against God. Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. So you're saying that David was not a hypocrite. Not the kind of hypocrite you're thinking of. I said not the kind you're thinking of. because he was willing when it was brought out to not deny it, to not expect it to be swept under the rug because he was the king, the most powerful person in the country, who had wealth and riches and people and servants. He had power upon power in his life. But instead of pushing it under the rug or or hoping the storm would blow over, he got right with God. He admitted his wrongdoings. And I want you to know this morning, there's not a person in the room this morning, I know Tom covered it in Sunday School, you're gonna get it again, there's no one in the room this morning who is perfect. We all mess up. We're all just sinners saved by grace. We're not perfect ones, we're forgiven ones. Hallelujah. God's forgiveness in my life has been great and I owe him a debt of gratitude. I could never pay amen saints And the same thing is true for you. The same that same thing is true for every uh blood bought believer It's not hypocritical to sin. It's hypocritical to sin and then refuse to acknowledge the sin Amen If it's gonna be quiet i'll be quiet too, okay, here we go This integrity that God is talking about here, Christ is teaching about in the Beatitudes. Blessed are the pure in where, saints? It's something that happens down in the heart. And I know that most of you know this, but we're going to go over it again just very quickly. When the Bible speaks of the heart, It's generally not speaking to the organ, the blood pumping organ of our heart. It's about the inner being, the core of your makeup, the seat of your emotions. It's what's inside of you that makes you think the way you think or act the way you do or things of that nature. Our behavior is Oftentimes tied to our heart our heart is the the thing that's inside of us Oftentimes we will say they have a good heart now talk about their that their cardiac talk about the fact they're a good person. We like their personality. They have maybe some godliness or some righteousness or some integrity about them. I've told my wife before, and then you can use this, it's free. Tell her every once in a while that you love her with all your heart. That's everything that you are. It makes you who you are. At my house, it makes mama melt, okay? Amen. And Nelted mama is good mama. Somebody say amen. I don't want to go any further than that. But anyway, you could just use that for free. Amen. And let me know how it goes. Amen. It's good. She likes that. I like it. I like it when I can tell God that I love God with all my heart. We're supposed to love God with all of our heart and all of our mind and all of our soul. We're supposed to love God with all that we are for all that he is to us. Amen, saints. But our heart determines our character. And we're supposed to guard or to keep our heart. Proverbs 4.43 puts it like this. Keep thy heart. I heard Tom teach on keep this morning. Keep is a military term, isn't it? To set a guard or set watch over. Keep thy heart with all diligence. Why? For out of it are the issues of life. So the things that we let into our heart, right, determine what comes out of our heart. And what comes out of our heart really determines our character, our demeanor, the way that we carry ourselves. We can go on and on. Oftentimes our actions, our words, our thoughts, are no doubt directly linked to our heart. We even say as a Christian that when you trust Christ as your Savior, Christ gives you a new heart, a renewed heart, a born-again heart, a Godward heart, a work of God heart. We say those things. We lack the heart. We love the heart, don't we, saints? At Liberty Baptist Church, we love the heart. We love how the Bible elevates the heart. We love how the Bible addresses the heart. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. And we know, well, a lot of us know, and the rest of you are gonna know here in a minute, our hearts can get us into a whole lot of trouble. We don't hear preaching around here, at least as long as I'm able to control it and to put my hand over it, we don't say, oh yeah, you're a Christian, just go ahead and follow your heart. or let your conscience be your guide. We don't believe in those things because the Bible talks about the heart of mankind in very strict and very heavy terms. The heart, look at the saints, is deceitful, Above how many things? Above all things. And desperately wicked, who can know? This is what God says about the heart. We're going to continue this thought in a moment. But God says your heart is number one. It's deceitful of all things. Your heart will lie to you. That didn't go over well. Your heart will lie to you. Actually, people with good hearts lie to you. They'll say things like this, it's going to be okay. It may not be okay. Amen? And your idea of okay and his idea of okay might be as far as the east is from the west, somebody say amen. And so, you know, you've got to be careful about those kind of things. You know, the heart is deceitful above all things. Above all things. Was it Proverbs 28 verse 26? I believe this. Yeah, here it is. He that trusteth in his own heart... Look at this sentence. It's a what? That's painful, isn't it? That's not what Pastor Fluff himself says down the road. Amen? That's not what I've heard from watching The View all my life. Oh, I got you. I mean, I have to. This is fun this morning. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool, but whoso walketh wisely shall be delivered. Here, let me tell you about your heart. Your heart, you say, well, I know what's in my heart, Pastor. Your heart will let you know what it wants you to know. nothing more Your heart has the ability to cover the story to make it look a completely different shade than it really is Your heart is able to convince you of something that that may or may not be true That might be a fool's errand for a blood-bought believer. Your heart is able to do those things. It's it's it's deceitful above all things All things You say well The biggest liar I know is... Let's fill in the blank. The biggest liar I know is... Say, I heard it. I knew someone would say it. Somebody mentioned a politician's name. How about another one? The biggest liar I know is who? Who? Satan got mentioned there. He's the father of lies, isn't he? Right? The biggest liar I know is... My heart. I said my heart. My heart's able to lie above and beyond a politician's lies. Amen. My heart is able to convince me to do something that I know, that my moral standard says I know I should not do that. But yeah, you still dip your toe in the water every once in a while, don't you? Yeah. So we gotta understand our hearts are very good at framing a manufactured, fabricated truth that isn't truth at all. Are we okay so far? The heart is deceitful above all things. And we're not even done yet, right? This is just one verse. It's like COVID on us, right? It's like coming home, right? I can't breathe. And desperately wicked. Not only is your heart the most deceitful thing, it's also a desperately wicked thing. It's desperately wicked. You know, because these things are true, being deceitful and being wicked, again, beyond our imaginations and our conjurings, it's not easy for us to fix our own hearts. We're going to need some help. And I just want to just tell you this morning, the best help you can get, the most tempable help you'll ever get is from Jesus Christ himself. He's in the heart fixing business. I mean, he's not a heart surgeon like the guy down there at Johns Hopkins or over there at Banner Medical. He's a heart surgeon in this. He will fix that heart and give you... He'll take that heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh. He'll take the hardened heart and he'll soften it. He'll take the evil, corrupt, bad heart and turn it into a good heart. A heart that looks towards God, a heart that wants to begin to put these Beatitudes into practice. That's what Christ Jesus can do with your heart. That's what He did to my heart. The day I cried out on Him for salvation, He saved my ever-living soul and I have never been sorry. And He's still working on me. Amen. The heart is not easy to fix and many times the heart of the problem is a problem of the heart. The heart of the problem is a problem of the heart. Christ is again teaching we're still this is still a certain amount territory. No, it's not. No, it's not. Never mind He's talking Pharisees now and he said that he said that which cometh out of the man that defile of the man That's what Christ said what comes out of us is what defiles us what comes out of us is what corrupts us watch this for from within out of the heart of men for from within, I can say it, I can, out of the heart of men proceeds, look at this saints, evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, you say I don't know what that is, it's bad, you don't want it, an evil eye, Blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from where? Within, and defile the man. From the seat of our emotions, from the fabric and the fiber of our being. And again, you say, well, I know what's in my heart. I could never do this. I could never do that. I have learned this, and I hope it doesn't sound too cliche. Never say never. You don't know how low you might go. You don't know how degraded you might be. You don't know how depraved the human spirit is without the Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. You don't know. So here's what God says. I'm gonna read this one again real quick. The heart is deceitful above all things, and deathly wicked, who can know it? Watch this now, verse 10. This is, it gets a little better. I, the Lord, search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. God's gonna do that. God's the one. He said, I'm gonna search the heart. Here's what we gotta do. If we're going to be transparent and if we're going to be able to have a heart of integrity, we're going to say, here God, here's my heart. Search it. The thoughts. The actions that we'll just call them untoward. That you know you should have done but you did them anyway. The fight you started. Hard to believe that people fought this morning on the way to church. But they did. You know why they did? Because the heart. Because the heart. You know, there's people sitting here right now saying, I am not getting a thing out of this message this morning. You know why? Because the heart. Yeah, the heart. The heart of the problem. It's the problem with the heart. Amen? So, you say, well, what can I do? Well, you say, here God, here's my heart. Look at my heart, show me if there be any wicked way within me. Search me, oh God. Try my thoughts, try my ways. You know, here, have a look and see what you see. Because God can see things that you will never see. Why? Because he's God. That's as deep as I need to go into theology this morning. He's God and you're not. He sees things that, number one, we cannot see, and number two, probably just as telling, he sees things that we don't want to see about ourselves and about our hearts. So we're putting our hearts up for God's inspection, for his supernatural examination. And it says this, I try the reins. Talk about the reins that control a horse's movement. The turning to the right, the turning to the left, the stopping, the going, whatever. The speeding up, the slowing down. All the things that reins are able to do. on or to a horse. And God says, I try the reins. And when God says that he's trying the reins, it means this, is that his hand is softly on the reins, but it's not going to forcibly take over. We have to come to the point in our Christian life, we say, okay, God, here's my heart. I know you have your hand on my life. I'm starting to give this area over to you. Well, maybe it's your relationship life. Maybe it's your temper. Maybe it's your integrity. Maybe it's your ability to be honest. Maybe it's your parenting skills or your lack thereof. Come on, say, help me this morning. God says, I've got my hands softly on the reins. I'm just waiting for you to give me the nod. Remember teaching my, well, teaching my son, letting my son drive when he was very, very young. Any other dads in the room this morning? Not moms. Moms, tune me out, please. Four or five years old, on dad's lap. Are we getting somewhere now? Go ahead, Marcus, go ahead and grab the wheel. He's got the wheel. You know, if he had the wheel, if he could do what he wanted to do, we'd be doing 90s and 180s and 360s. Right? So my hand's down here on the bottom. Okay, we're not going to get stupid. Somebody say amen. Okay. All right. Marcus, gently, softly, gradually, go easy on this thing. Okay, Dad. I'm starting to get the hang of it now. I'm starting to understand what I can do. Then I can maybe let go, but not all the way let go. Are you with me or not? And so, what's happening? He's trusting me, I'm trusting him. There's a bomb there, there's a close, all the things are coming together. But I understand this, that I have to keep my hand close to the wheel so we don't have a wipeout. And the same thing is true. God has his hands on the reins and he wants to, he'll grab the reins as tightly as you allow him to have control. He wants to take over this area and that area, but we have to be willing to submit ourselves to him. And sometimes it's a very difficult thing to do. Everybody said. The first step, of course, is salvation. Believing that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Putting your faith completely in Him. Believing that Calvary's cross was all that had to be done. Knowing this, that when Christ said, it is finished, it was finished. It's still finished this morning. You put your faith completely in him you come to christ as savior now There's this growing process this purifying process and one of the verses in james puts it like this Draw an eye to god come close to god draw an eye to god and he will draw an eye to you Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, watch this, saints, and purify your hearts, ye what? Double-minded. You've got a mindset here towards God and a mindset over here towards the distractions of the world, the cares of this life, the job, the kids, the pets, the spouse, the car won't start, the cell phone doesn't have any minutes, the price of gas is too high. Groceries are astronomical. We can go on and on and on. We get this list of things, and God says, no, you need to stop being double-minded and learn to trust me. You need to stop putting your mind over here and doubting over there. You need to stop fretting about this and completely trust me. Tom began in Sunday school to talk about our thought life, and that's what the thought life is all about, having thoughts about God, toward God, for God. Amen. This house cleaning project, purifying the heart, getting rid of double-mindedness, but really trusting God. I mean, trusting God more than your government. Trusting God more than church leaders. Trusting God in all the cares and affairs of this life. And everybody said, amen. Teach me thy way, O Lord. I will walk in thy truth. I love this. Unite my heart to fear thy name. Bring my heart together. Take away the duplicity, and the hypocrisy, and the desire to do this, and the ability to go there. Take it away. God, with your great, omnipotent hand, bring my heart together, united as one, that my heart might look towards you, that my heart might worship towards you, that my heart might praise towards you, that my heart might cry out to you. Unite my heart to fear thy name. And let God do his work. Let me say that again. Let God do His work. It's amazing. I fought this for a long, long time in my Christian life. A lot of you know my story. I'm not going to go through the whole thing this morning, but I fought God's work. I fought God's hand. I didn't want the changes. Let's be honest. Some of the changes were just downright abrupt. And I didn't want those changes, so I fought them. And then when I was fighting God's changes, it made me angry. Angry towards who? My spouse, because she was the closest one to the fight. She was the one that, in my mind, she was the representation of God in my life. She's the one that got me in church. She's the one who was there the day I got saved. She was the one that told me we should pray before dinner. She's the one that told me, y'all start tithing, y'all start doing this, y'all start doing that. And so I would lash out at her when God was trying to change me and I was resisting Him. Somebody help me, please. Can you see how that could happen? It's real life right there, Saint. That's as transparent as I could possibly get with this group of believers about letting God do His work in your life and me, Pastor Hoffer, letting God do His work in my life. We're almost done. Judge me, O Lord. We did the first part of this verse earlier. For I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted also in the Lord. Therefore, I shall not slide. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Look at this, saints. Try my reins and my heart. Amen. You know, when God reveals a problem in your life, when God says, hey, Mark Hoffer, there's a glitch here that needs to be addressed, then purpose to work with God and not against God. It sure is easier to go with God than it is to go against God. You know, He's bigger than you, stronger than you, smarter than you. He's more God than you are too. Amen. He will. Purpose to work with Him. So the heart is coming together. We're the clay. He's the potter. He's forming and shaping and sometimes the shaping and forming is painful and it feels at times oppressive sometimes. I'll just be very honest with you. But God's doing His work and He knows what He's doing and He knows what the final product needs to be. He's purifying us. He's refining us. He's transforming us into the men and women of Christ Jesus that God wants you and I to become this morning. Does that make sense, saints? The heart's coming together. The heart's starting to be more tender towards God and more tender towards the lost, and the heart has become more approachable, and God can do His work in your life, and you're responding correctly to conviction and the challenge of God's Word. As those things are happening in your life, It's crazy, but you'll start to see God more. You'll see God more in your marriage. You'll see God more in your individual Christianity. You'll see God more in the workplace as you watch your demeanor and you control your tongue. You kind of hold back on the sarcasm. Somebody say amen. You know, it's so easy to speak our mind, because I'm telling you what, our mind is quick to tell us what to say, isn't it? Amen. Boy, sure, this is in trouble. Amen. You're starting to see Him more. And, of course, we see God, of course, in our salvation of what Christ is and who He is to us. And we see God. If you're a Bible reader, you see God on the page of Scripture, don't you? You see his word come to fruition. You see his work being made manifest You see his ways being exalted and uplifted in the in the pages are on the pages of the Bible You know, we see him and I hope you should have seen this before we see God in the answer to our prayers I'm so thankful for answer prayer. I'm so thankful to be a part of the church that believes in the power of prayer and You know, I stand here before you this morning because people prayed for me. People prayed for me, and I believe there are people still praying for me this morning. Amen. Yeah. We need more prayer in our Christian churches in 2024, coming into 2025. More prayer. We see Him in answered prayer. We see Him in the created world. This world I don't, hey, you could be a devout evolutionist this morning. This world is created in magnificent order. I mean, it just keeps on spinning, doesn't it? Amen. And the sun still, in our mind, rises in the east and sets in the west. Come on, saints. I mean, and we're still dealing with seasons, aren't we? Feels like winter got here a little early this year. But who knows? We might have a 65 degree in December. Just hang on to that thought, too. Amen. Remember, I prophesied that on November 17th, 2024. Amen. I mean, it's just amazing that these things still happen. And, you know, and we watch the animal world and how all that interacts and down to the most simplest bacteria and algae and their purpose on the planet to the most complex of God's creation and the most extraordinary of His beings. But what God has done, you know, how can you say there is no God? I see him in creation. I see him in the order of this universe. I see him maybe more specifically and more preciously in the minute details of my life. No one ever cared for me like Jesus. You know, my wife loves me. She does. She'll tell me, she says, Mark, I adore you. And that melts me. It does. It works real well. You adore me, now what do you want? Right? I mean, come on. but the minute details of life. Just like Kathy and I's meeting, it wasn't a chance meeting. She asked me to be there at that basketball game that night. And I thought, what is, was this some kind of cruel joke? Because she was like pretty and popular, and I wasn't pretty or popular. I'm still not very pretty or popular, somebody say to me. You know, so that was going on, but gosh, I didn't have a plan there. Amen? He sure had a plan. I didn't see it all coming. When I felt God knocking on my heart to answer the call to preach, And I went forward during a church service and I prayed. I probably cried a little bit too. I'm sure I was just shaken and just, I mean, I'm an introvert among introverts. And I just, I could not see how that could work out. And, you know, I go back to my seat and Kathy goes, well, what did you tell God? I said, I told God that I, I should have to preach. I said, I think I'm called to preach. And she goes, no, you're not. I said, is that what she said? No, you're not. And I said, well, why not? She said, because you'll be nervous. And she's right. I'm still nervous today. Still nervous. Amen. God did a whole lot of work, I mean a whole lot of work, and I resisted against a whole lot of his work during those times, but man, he sure did come through in amazing realities in my life. I mean, I cannot stand before you this morning and express how thankful I am for God caring about the minute details of my life. I mean, selling of houses, We sold a house to move to Oklahoma City. We put it on the market. It sold in a week. We sold a house to move back. It sold in less than 24 hours. We sold a house to give money to the building fund back in, I don't remember what year it was now, 2007. And I said, we need a lot of money real quick. And the realtor goes, I understand. She goes, before you hang up, I believe I already have a buyer for your home. I said, well, how fast can escrow go? Oh, it can go real fast if God's in it, she said. I said, well, I think He is, amen. You know, and I remember all those different details, and even getting this property, the different details that God brought together and sorted out that we could meet here every Sunday and every Wednesday for every special meeting by the glory and the blessed hand of God. And then God brings people. All the people He's brought into my life, I want to thank Him right now, audibly, for the people, Lord, that You have allowed to cross my path since I've been a Christian, since I've been the pastor here at Liberty Baptist Church. And there's some people here today that I may never see again. I don't know. Maybe you're here for the first time. I may never see you again. If you are here for the first time or if you're of that mindset, I'll never be here again. The most important thing I can tell you right now is this, you better take care of your eternity before it's eternally too late. Make a decision to trust Christ as your Savior. Don't mess around with that. The soul is nothing to be trifled with. Because after the body is dead and gone and in the grave, the soul lives on forever. And according to the authority of God's word, the soul will reside in one of two places. God's beautiful heaven or the devil's eternal torment known as hell. Those are the two choices. And the choice ought to be a no-brainer. It ought to be simple to come to Jesus, to put your faith and trust completely in Him for salvation. Amen. I know that we like to figure things out. We want to maybe get out the old-fashioned slide rule or the text instrument calculator that could do all those great crazy computations and calculations. I'm telling you this, it's all about a matter of faith. It's about a matter of faith, and God is speaking to your heart this morning, speaking to your faith this morning, not to your intellect, not to your academic prowess, not to the school of hard knocks you have been through. Somebody help me this morning. He's saying this, you are being dangled right now over hell's precipice, and you have to come to Jesus before it's eternally too late. or the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And I can guarantee you this, every pure hearted one who has trusted Christ as their Savior will one day open their eyes of faith and they'll behold Jesus, excuse me, forever and ever and ever in His beautiful heaven. Everybody say. Amen. Thank you, Father, for this time this morning. Thank you for your word. How it speaks to us. It's important. Lord, that we don't dismiss it. It's important that we don't minimize it. It's important that we don't disregard it because we're not familiar or we think that we know more than you know. Who could know more than the God who created us? Who could know more than the God who holds the universe together by his spoken word, by his omnipotent hand? Who could know more than the God who inspired the words that we read this morning and we tried to exposit this morning? Who could know more than you? And Father, you know our hearts this morning. You know our needs. Our hearts can deceive us. Our hearts can lead us astray. Our hearts can put us in the wrong direction. Cause us one day to look up and say, how did I get here? Father, we need to give our hearts to you for examination, for salvation. for the areas of our life where we don't want to let go of control to yield control to you today, to trust you in a greater way this morning than we did when we first walked in to this beautiful place. Father, we want to exalt you. We want to magnify you. We want to lift you up this morning. And Father, to ask you to please meet every need in your perfection, in your will, and in your way. We ask all these things. In Jesus name everybody said amen. It's all stand. We're going to have a song of response this morning near the cross I don't know what god's doing in your heart this morning. I hope he's doing something in your heart this morning if he is Give them the reins. Let them take control. Let us show you the next step in the best way. If you don't know Christ as your Savior, would you come this morning? Let us take the Bible and show you some great truth about salvation and have prayer with you that points you in the right direction when it comes to the eternality of your soul and where it will spend forever. You know your need. God knows your need. Please respond to Him now as we sing near the cross. Come ahead. ♪ Jesus, keep me near the cross ♪ ♪ Near the precious fountain ♪ ♪ Free to hold a healing stream ♪ ♪ Close on Calvary's mountain ♪ Beyond the river, near the cross, a trembling soul, love and mercy found me. There the bright and morning star me. In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the brink.
Are You a Pure One?
Series Beatitudes
Sermon ID | 1119242127157974 |
Duration | 55:35 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | Matthew 5:3-12 |
Language | English |
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