The Way To Growth In Christlikeness | Part-3 | Zac Poonen

we were looking at what are known as the beatitudes commonly in christendom matthew chapter five and like i said from the beginning when you turn to the new testament the first long message of jesus in the gospels is in matthew 5 6 and 7. and that comes right at the beginning and at the end of it as i said he said that if you listen to these words and you take all of them seriously and you obey them you'll build your house on the rock now everybody wants to build their house on the rock nobody wants to build their house on sand which says one day when the rain and the flood which is a picture of trial and judgment come it'll collapse i think the little trials that come along our life now if they make a shake it is probably a warning that we are not ready for the final trial and judgment so we must take these little it's not the final hurricane and flood it's only a few drops of rain that make us shake and then we need to ask ourselves am i building on rock or on sand and it's we don't have to wait till the final day to find out whether we are built on rock or science too late we need to know now in the little trials that come into our life are a way by which god shows us whether we are built whether we are building on rock or on sand and to build on rock is made very clear jesus said you hears these words in matthew 5 6 and 7 and obeys them every christian reads matthew 5 anyone who reads the new testament will come to matthew 5 pretty soon but the number of people who take it seriously i found from all these years i've been a christian for 60 years i found very very few people in my life even in cfc churches who take all these words seriously for example who equate anger with murder or who we quit adultery with lusting with the eyes very very few in my life or who believe that you must love your enemies just like you love your friends so it's very very few and that's why i find lots and lots of christians their life is shaky but the answer is here so let's take these things seriously we already considered what i call the nine right attitudes before we go to the nine wrong attitudes the nine right attitude we saw first of all is this sense of perpetual poverty and spirit where i know i'm needy all the time i have to go to god all the time to ask him to give me grace and help and give me his word and the other is a mourning for my sin asking the lord being to be merciful to me and mourning for my failures and then we looked at last time at meekness or gentleness and verse 6 matthew 5 6 hungering and thirsting for righteousness now when i began my life as a christian i thought of righteousness as holiness primarily it is in one sense it is but i've come to see that righteousness is more than that and one verse that changed my life or changed my understanding of that long ago was in 1 thessalonians is what is true holiness in 1 thessalonians and chapter 3 and verse 13. this is the word this is the verse that opened my eyes in this matter of what is real righteousness and holiness 1 thessalonians chapter 3 verse 13 is speaking about the lord causing us verse 12 and 13 you've got to read it together may the lord cause you 1 thessalonians 3 12 to increase and abound in love for one another and for all people so that he may establish your heart without blame in holiness so what is true holiness how can i be established without blame in holiness it is by my heart abounding in love so i saw that in god's eyes righteousness is love if i don't have love however holy i think i am if i don't love others however holy i am according to this verse i am not established without blame please remember this verse always may the lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another beginning in your own home towards your husband wife and then to your fellow believers in your own local church and then to others and to all people it says here so that god can establish my heart without any blame in holiness before god when jesus returns verse 13 so that has become my understanding of righteousness which has clarified my thinking because otherwise i think that oh well i don't get angry and i don't lust after women and i'm righteous with money and i am righteous and it's very easy to satisfy ourselves with that all that is essential part of righteousness but if i do all that and i don't know how to love one another according to that verse god cannot say i am without blame i am with blame still even though i've overcome my anger and even though i'm not lasting after women and even though i'm righteous with money that is i don't know how to love others so please keep that in mind dear brothers and always it begins in home in the home we ought to be witnesses in jerusalem first then judea and samaria so it's no use trying to love brothers and sisters in the church if you can't love your own wife or husband so that's where it begins so righteousness is there and i need to have a hunger and thirst for it a tremendous longing for my heart that's filled with love for everyone a tremendous longing to be absolutely righteous and pure in all areas in my speech and my thoughts and my attitudes motives in money matters and in love for one another and if i'm not becoming holier remember one thing that every person you and i and everyone listening to me this statement is true you are as holy as you really want to be deep down in your heart let me repeat that you are as holy today as you really want to be deep down in your heart if you are not more holy it's because deep down in your heart you don't want to be more holy you've got to face up to that if somebody else is really living a holier life than you more loving than you it's because deep down in his heart he has a greater desire for that than you have you can have that too if you have the same desire every person is as holy and as loving as he wants to be deep down in his heart and that's where the hunger and thirst comes so if we are not more righteous more loving the answer is that we don't really long for it deep down our heart maybe we're satisfied we're born again and we're attending a good church and we're not doing anything grossly evil and we we're satisfied with that and satisfaction is the best way to prevent spiritual growth a true disciple will be constantly hungering and thirsting for righteousness paul said in philippians 3 he says i forget what is behind and i press on for what is ahead forgetting all that is behind and pressing on to what is ahead in philippians 3 13 i pressed toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of god in christ jesus he saw christ calling him upward to a higher standard of holiness and a higher standard of love higher standard of purity higher standard of humility higher standard of everything and he says forgetting the things behind means not just my sins but forgetting how much progress i have made paul was hungering and thirsting after righteousness 30 years after he was born again and filled with the holy spirit that's a tremendous example that's why he says follow me as i follow christ he never stopped following christ he kept on pursuing every year just like we want our children to go to a higher class every year paul has a passion to go higher and higher that is hungering and thirsting after righteousness and i want to say again brothers and sisters if you hear this word and you don't do anything about it your house will be shaky i'll tell you that he who hears my words jesus said and does not do them he's like a man who's building his house on sand think of all these things as words that we hear of the lord speaking to us and it's a question of whether we obey it or not so we move on from there blessed next the next verse is verse 7 blessed are those who are merciful for they shall receive mercy now mercy is a very very important requirement because when jesus taught us the lord's prayer he gave us six requests there in matthew 6 we'll come to it later but i just want to point out one thing here one of those six requests is forgive us our sins but that's the one request which has a qualification the others are plain statements hell would be your name your kingdom come you will be done give us this day our daily bread don't deliver us into temptation but here is something forgive us our sins exactly as we have forgiven others there's a qualification to that request lord i don't want you to forgive me any better that i have forgiven others think of that statement what are you saying to god in the lord's prayer lord i don't want you to forgive me any more than i have forgiven everybody else in the world who has hurt me is that what you're praying to god that is the lord's prayer and when you say lord forgive me whether you say it or not whether you say it or not god is going to forgive you exactly like you forgive others because even if you don't qualify it that's how god accepts it when you say lord jesus forgive my sin he hears it as as he taught in the prayer forgive me exactly like i have forgiven my husband exactly like i've forgiven my wife for all the things they did against me exactly like i've forgiven my mother-in-law my brother-in-law for cheating me on my property exactly how i've forgiven my neighbor and my boss for firing me from my job and for being unrighteous and exactly i've forgiven all the others around me my neighbors and all the people in the church and everybody else who i think has done something wrong for me or somebody who did some harm to me 25 years ago lord i've forgiven that per the way i've forgiven that person who harmed my child so much a few years ago please forgive me exactly like i've forgiven that person do you know why many people don't enjoy the forgiveness and fellowship with god because they have not they are not merciful blessed are they merciful for they shall obtain mercy this is the one of the nine right attitudes to be merciful to others they will receive mercy the others will not receive mercy i could paraphrase it like this and matthew 5 7 those who are not merciful are cursed the opposite of blessed is cursed so let me take the reverse curse it are those who are not merciful to others because they will not receive mercy think of that when you read of any of these things think of the opposites those who do not show mercy to others see that's not an extreme statement it's something repeated many times in scripture jesus said in matthew 6 and verse 15 matthew 6 15 if you do not forgive others your father will not forgive your sins no matter how much you pray do you know the number of believers who have claimed the blood of jesus has cleansed me from all sin whose sins are not cleansed oh i claim 1 john 1 7 1 john 1 9 i've confessed my sins they have forgiven they are not forgiven brother because there's somebody you have not forgiven however much you claim 1 john 1 9 if you have not forgiven others according to matthew 6 15 god with your father he's not talking about the worldly people your father means he's you're his child will not forgive your transgressions and it says in james in chapter 2 james chapter 2 he speaks about the importance of mercy you know it says here you can keep the whole law james 2 10 that means you can do so many right things in your life but you stumble in one point have you read that verse james 2 10 you keep the whole law and you stumble in one point it is as good as your being guilty of committing all the sins in the law forbidden by the law that's quite a strong word if you meditate on it and then he speaks about one particular attitude judgment verse 13 will be merciless merciless means god will treat you as if you have disobeyed every commandment of his just like we read in verse 10 you stumble in one point he god look upon you as if you're guilty of having broken all his commandments so here's the one point you are not merciful to others judgment will be without any mercy to you because you've shown no mercy but if you have been merciful to others people have done tremendous evil to you spoken evil to you cheated you of money and property and whatever it is god's mercy will be in abundance exactly in proportion as you've been merciful to others because god's mercy it says in verse 13 of james 2 will triumph over his judgment here's this tremendous judgment that should come upon me for all the filthy sins i've committed all my life but god's mercy will crush that down because i was merciful to others this is so important i wonder if you realize the importance of it because i've seen so many believers that's one of the main things in their life is that they haven't forgiven somebody so much so that whenever people ask me to pray for them you know the bible says if someone is sick they should come to the elders of the church and ask the elder to pray and so i do that whenever people come to me but then it says that in james chapter 5 one thing it says if he has committed confess your sins in relation to healing from sickness and because if he has committed sins that will be forgiven and i come to see through the years that the main sin is an unforgiving attitude towards others which causes sickness to so many people even a slight little speck of it even if i have a slight sickness i ask the lord lord there may be physical cause for it i don't know but let me eliminate the spiritual causes first and i want to check my heart and say lord is there even a slight unmerciful attitude towards a single human being in the whole world i'm telling you about myself i check myself every single time whenever i feel something's not gone the way i expected it to be there may be 101 causes but let me eliminate this one first is there is wrong attitude in my heart towards any person because of what they did to me or said to me or said to my family or did to my family or any such thing when i keep i've eliminated that so much that now hardly anything comes to my mind because i worked on it and say lord i don't want that to be a hindrance of your blessing flowing upon my life health is the least part of god's blessing the anointing of god upon my life is a million times more important to me than physical health but i want to say this that whenever i pray for the sick i always ask them one question have you forgiven everybody think about it i say i don't want you to tell me but seek your heart before the lord because god's blessing of mercy is on those who are merciful turn with me to matthew 18 where jesus answered this question you know he said about if your brother sins go and show him his fault in matthew 18 and verse 15 and if you uh if he listens to you you're one your brother yeah and if he doesn't listen then of course you've got to still try and help him by getting two people other to speak to him but the aim is to win your brother matthew 18 15. don't ever forget that and then he when peter heard that he said lord okay i'm willing to do that but supposing he does it again and again and again and again and he does it seven times matthew 18 verse 21 he's responding to the lord's statement how often am i keep going to keep on forgiving him and jesus said 70 times 7 matthew 18 verse 22. in other words indefinitely and then another passage i think is in luke 17 where he says it must be every day so imagine forgiving your brother 70 490 times in a single day that means 20 times every hour and if it's every waking hour 40 times every hour that means he's sinning against you every minute and you keep forgiving him every minute he sins against you and you forgive next minute he sins against you forgive next minute your sins against you forgive 490 times a day what is the meaning of that it means forgive him perpetually have a perpetual attitude of forgiveness towards towards others and god will be abundantly merciful to you oh boy i tell you we need the mercy of god all the time in our life you know when uh there was a man called ephaphroditis let me show you that passage in philippians chapter 2. it's wonderful to compare scripture with scripture ephaphroditis was a wonderful servant of god but he became sick traveling so much traveling so much and serving this is a philippians and chapter 2 verse 25. if aphrodite is my brother my fellow worker and your messenger a fellow soldier for christ he was sick and it says here in verse 27 philippians 2 27 he was sick to the point of death it was a very serious sickness but he got healed and his healing is described as verse 27 god had mercy on him that's the description of his healing and he didn't die so what is healing according to philippians 2 27 god having mercy on us so when i want healing i think of that verse how will god have mercy on me and heal me i got to be merciful to others and the more abundantly i am merciful to others more abundantly god's mercy will be upon me and upon our children so dear brothers even if you're a selfish person be merciful to others that's the most selfish thing you can do be merciful to other people because god's blessing will be upon your life because that's not the reason why we should be merciful the ideal reason why we merciful is as christ as god has been merciful to me i must be merciful to others but i'm just taking the that this that even if you are selfish the best thing you can do is be merciful to others now turn with me so jesus continued from that statement to peter and said peter 70 times 7 and i want to explain that to you with the parable of a king matthew 18 verse 23 who wanted to settle accounts with his servants and there was one man who owed him 10 000 talents and the margin of my bible says that is 15 years salary 15 years salary of a worker can you work out how much your salary would be in 15 years that's here 10 000 talents and he falls down before the king and he says something which is absolutely i mean he says um i i'll pay it to you but that's a that's impossible he couldn't pay 15 years salary says he says in verse 26 have patience with me i'll repay you everything as if he could he couldn't repay till then where is he going to repay it so anyway the lord knew that and says the lord of the slave had compassion on him he was merciful to him verse 27 and forgave all his debt just with one sentence he just said have patience with me the king said forgiven and that man verse 28 went out and found a slave who owed him a hundred denarii a hundred daenery verse 28 is about three months wages i mean it's not ten dollars it's a little more than that but where is three months wages compared to 15 years wages and here because one day was one day's wage and 100 dinner i and he says yeah i can't let you go this is not just ten dollars this is three months salary forgetting that he had been forgiven 15 years salary he held this man by the throat and choked him and said pay back what you want that fellow said the same thing that this man said to the to his lord have patience with me i'll repay you he said no i won't forgive you and he put him in prison and that got reported to the lord to the king and the king called back that slave you read that in verse 32 and the king said you wicked slave do you know when you don't forgive others stop for a moment and think is there anybody you have not forgiven you may think you're a child of god do you know what god calls you you wicked man verse 32 wicked reminding almighty god calling you a wicked person that's serious i never want the lord to speak to me like that i always want him to speak things as my dear son my dear daughter not you wicked man but anyone who doesn't forgive others that's the story here the lord calls him a wicked person and not even a son you're a slave and you're a wicked slave and he says i forgive you all that you asked me to forgive you all the foolish serious sins you committed and this small thing that somebody else compared to what you've done against me it's very small what this guy did couldn't you have had mercy on him and the lord was moved with anger it's a terrible thing when god is angry with us most of the time god is not angry with his children he's sad but here's one place where it says he's really angry he's speaking about his own children just because they won't forgive others you know there are other sins we can commit god will not be angry not call you wicked he'll feel sorry okay okay i forgive you you lusted there or you god lost your temper a bit i'm sure you've confessed it it's forgiven but when you're not merciful to someone that's far more serious it's far more serious than lusting with your mind or watching pornography or i'm not saying those things are not serious they are serious but this is far more serious and he handed them over to the torturers verse 34 you know who the torturers are demons a demon cannot possess a child of god a demon can never come inside the heart of a believer unless that believer turns away from the lord and goes away and rebels against the lord and loses his salvation then he becomes like an unbeliever otherwise a demon can never enter a believer it's a false teaching propagated and a lot of charismatic christianity that demons enter believers propagated by some great bible teachers but they are teaching contrary to scripture christ and the demon can never dwell in the same heart impossible one has to go but here says that torturers torture this person and demons can harass a person from the outside job was a very righteous man and yet the devil could give him boils all over his body he couldn't get inside him but he could trouble him from the outside with god's permission of course and here it is with god's permission i'm handing you over to the torturers why not because you lusted after women not because you lost your temper at your wife not because you were a bit unrighteous with money those things are small compared to what you did right now you did not forgive others the way i forgive you i hope i've emphasized it sufficiently to show you what a serious thing it is not to forgive somebody it doesn't matter who it is it doesn't matter how much wrong that other person did against you you may say well if i keep on forgiving my mother-in-law she'll keep on taking advantage of me aha do you believe this promise of scripture which i have proved for 60 years one promise 1 corinthians 10 verse 13 god is faithful he will never allow me to be tempted or you to be tempted beyond our ability so just because you forgive somebody don't be afraid that they'll take advantage of you because god is in control of there he can even kill that person if the person is troubling you too much sure i don't have any doubt about that or you can stop people and there are people who've harassed me and troubled me in so many ways through the years but when a time came like the lord tells the waves of the sea to stop at the seashore and say thus far and no further you know how the waves come to the seashore and sometimes you see the waves coming and it looks as if it's going to go right over into the land no it comes to the seashore if you've gone to a beach you've seen that it comes like that you think it's going to come over you and it goes back and in the book of job you read the lord stops the sea saying thus far and no further and i'll tell you this if you're a child of god and you seek to obey his principles the lord will say thus far and no further thus far and no further that's what he'll always say he will not allow it to come any further he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability but when the temptation comes out of trial from whomever he'll give you some way of escape i don't know how that'll be in different situations in different ways but i've found that through the years he can stop anything he can stop people trying to kill you he can drop people trying to take you to court or harass you make you lose your money he can stop anything yeah there was one time in my life where people who hated me tried to blow up the car i was driving i didn't know it i was driving along and i don't want to go into the details but it didn't happen god protected me till i reached my home there's nothing god cannot save you from i don't want to give you all the details of that let let me assure you my dear brothers and sisters your life will be tremendously happy if you learn to be merciful to others i don't want to go on more on that i think i've said it now but it's very very very important okay we go to the next good attitude or right attitude uh matthew 5 and verse 8 matthew 5 and verse 8 blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god so what is purity of heart that's another thing we've already thought of righteousness in verse six this must be something more than righteousness righteousness is having a clear conscience that my heart i seek to love everyone i've sought to be merciful to others i've mild all those qualities are already there mourning for like sin now it talks about purity of heart it must be something more than what has already been covered and i believe that refers to see there's a there's only one person who's pure and that's jesus christ that means having a heart which has no place for anything other than christ there's no love in my heart for anyone other than christ or anything other than christ that is one of the conditions of discipleship so this is what purity of heart means let me turn to luke 14 on the conditions of discipleship to understand purity of heart if anyone loves father or mother more than me he's not worthy of me luke 14 26 or wife or children or brothers sisters see he used the word hatred there we've talked about this before but the point is this i've never stopped stressing it for years and years i preached that you cannot be a true disciple if you love your father or your mother or your wife or your child or your brother or sister or brothers and sisters in the church more than christ in fact your love for christ must be like the light of the sun and your love for all these other people must be the light of the stars yes there is love there the light of the stars but it disappears when the morning sun rises in other words in the presence of the love of christ my love for others disappears it's there but i can't see it because i can see holy jesus you know how you look at the sun and then you look around you can't see other things clearly because your eyes are so full of that blinding light that's what it means to be pure in heart where i love god supremely in other words there's no place in my heart for anything other than god anything someone something other than god is also in my heart somebody i love is also there and you say well how am i supposed to love my parents and my wife and children and all through christ when you love your parents through christ you'll never do anything wrong to please your parents a lot of people want to please their parents well they don't love god with all their hearts i want to please god and i'm willing to offend my parents if i have to please god i'm willing to offend my wife if necessary to please god now very few christians who live this life of discipleship and that's why the lord doesn't speak to them they don't get revelation their life are not effective in god's kingdom for other people they're not radical disciples there's half-hearted slipshod in their life and therefore they find that they don't find rivers of living water flowing out from them blessing people imagine when you stand before the lord one day and your god shows you rivers of life could have flowed out from you if you have loved me more than everybody else and you would have loved all those people much better i'll tell you something you love your wife much better if you put christ first and say lord i love you all my heart is filled with love for you you love your wife much better and you love your family much better definitely so put the lord first that's the meaning of a pure heart where there's no place and no place for possessions that's the other condition a man who doesn't give up all his possessions you know in the old testament the big sin was idolatry that god condemned more than anything else and christians have got idols in their heart many christians money is one of the biggest idols that christians worship money or god you cannot love both it is impossible you have to make a choice and sometime or the other if you make that choice and stick to it your life will be tremendously useful to god i believe god could use many of you far more than he's doing right now if you say lord there'll be no place for money in my heart you'll be there and i believe you'll provide for me whatever i need i've proved it for more than a half a century for more than 50 years you put god first you'll take care of all your needs so this is amazing what god can do when you are pure and hard and when your heart is full of god alone what happens is you are able to see his face more clearly and you'll be able to serve him more fully otherwise you'll only be serving people you know they say you must love people and serve them i agree but i say there's a lot of difference between serving people and serving god i don't want to serve people i want to serve god and that way i serve people much better than if i try to serve people themselves i don't know whether you have seen this i believe this this is related to blessed by the pure and heart because they shall see god that means if my heart is like this i'll be able to see god all the time i'll speak to him face to face like god said about moses i speak to moses face to face and that's what i want i want to be able to see god another meaning of this is that if my heart is pure i'll see god in every situation i'll never see judas iscariot coming to betray me no i'll see my heavenly father giving me a cup to drink like jesus did in gethsemane peter saw judas iscariot because he didn't see god there and he took out a sword to fight you know we take out a sword to fight because we don't see god in that situation we see judas we see the roman soldiers and we want to take out our sword and fight jesus said put your sword back he said the cup which my father has given me shall i not drink it even in that desperate situation he saw god because his heart was pure hanging on the cross forsaken by his father he saw god he said father forgive them they don't even know what they're doing a person who sees god will always react like that he'll never fight and if someone does come to hurt him and like malcus this that soldier that servant peter cut off his ear and jesus healed it immediately we'll do good to the fellow who's come to harm us when you see god that's how you are you'll be like god doing good to the fellow has come to harm you so that's the meaning of seeing god blessed are the pure in heart and if you are not seeing god in every situation if you find yourself facing a situation right now and you can't see god there you only see all the evil people trying to harm you the problem is not with those people the problem is you don't see god your heart is not pure there's some idolatry in your heart i see it like that lord if there's any situation in my life where i blame people and i don't see you it's because my heart is not pure if my heart were pure i would see you in every situation blessed are the pure in heart because they only see god wherever they look whatever situation they see god and they live before god's face and when they serve they serve seeing the face of god so let me give you this i was wanting to show you this passage in the old testament which is a very lovely passage if you turn to ezekiel turn with me to ezekiel and chapter 44. please turn to this verse this is a passage which the lord spoke to me nearly 60 years ago 55 years ago at least in ezekiel 44 he distinguishes between two groups of levites who were serving him the levites were the ones who went into the tabernacle into the temple to serve him but he says among them there are two categories like the lord will say today among believers there are two groups of people and he says the levites they were compromisers yeah they were called by god to serve him and there are people today who are so-called priest preachers pastors servants of god but they are compromisers in their life they serve for money they're very eager to get money from the people and they've gone astray from me it says in ezekiel 44 10 they went after their idols something other than god was in their heart christians who got idols money where can i get money from people to support me where can i get this help from that help they got idols in their heart they are worshiping an idol usually it's money where can i go to get more money they went astray ezekiel 44 10 because they went after idols but i will not check them out completely they shall still be verse 11 ministers in my sanctuary yeah some of these preachers god has still allowed them to preach in his churches and preach the truth i'm talking about evangelical christian preachers who love money and who don't have any victory over sin who yell at their wives at home and don't bring up their children right and wayward and so many other wrong things and yet they're there god has not thrown them out there shall be ministers in my sanctuary but they shall minister to the people not to me see it says here verse 13 they shall not come near to me no but they shall take care of my house my house means my people so that's one group of servants of the lord who cannot serve god they serve his people and then there's another group of people who are absolutely faithful that's mentioned in verse 15 but among this group of levites there's a group called the sons of zedoc who was one of the descendants of levi and those people they did not compromise when all the others went astray from me verse 15 they still stuck to the truth they did not follow the babylonian customs and traditions they stood true to me they will come near and minister to me god says there's a lot of difference between ministering to the lord and verse 14 ministering to his house or his people both are serving god both are evangelical christians doctrinally but some are serving god and some are serving his people and there's a lot of difference and those who are serving god they shall verse 16 they shall come near to me they shall keep my charge and the lord will anoint them and there are many many wonderful things he says concerning them so do you want to be just one of the ministers like levi or one of the sons of zedoc they shall see god it says they shall come before me and they shall see my face spiritually speaking that's what is true today blessed are the pure heart they shall see god and they you know they see god's face and does minister to people there's a lot of difference between serving god like that and serving his people when i serve god like that i will find my joy only in the lord not in circumstances because i'm looking at god's face and if i lose something earthly i say fine that's okay lord that's one of the things the lord has tested me on through the years when i've lost something financially or in an earthly way the lord asked me have you lost your joy and in the early days i remember i did lose my joy say oh lord a little bit i lost my joy there or if somebody gave me a gift the lord would ask me are you a little happy now a little happier than you were before i say i'm sorry lord i am a little happier but i shouldn't be i want to repent of that i want to repent of the happiness i got when somebody gave me a gift have you ever heard of that yeah when you get close to god you repent of things like that somebody gave me a gift i needed lord i'm sorry i found my joint that i would not want because the bible's command is philippians 4 4 rejoice in the lord alone and in my joy and if i'm pure in heart my heart is filled with love for god i will find my joy in god alone an increase in salary okay thank god that helps me to provide better for my family yeah that's fine but my joy in has not increased one bit with that little bit of money because god's providing my need okay god gave me a little more that's fine i'm thankful but my joy is in the lord in his presence psalm 16 11 there is fullness of joy have you read that verse it's a wonderful verse it's helped me tremendously throughout my life one mark of the pure in heart who see god in every situation is this psalm 16 11 in your presence i see god blessed are the pure not i see god there is fullness of joy so for myself as i've said many times i made this a rule in my life any time fullness of joy is not in my heart i say lord i'm not in your presence because in your presence there's fullness of joy and if something earthly can increase my joy how can that happen if a vessel is full it's full you can't add any more in it you pour a vessel full of water you cannot add you cannot add a drop of water to it that is fullness of joy so if i found fullness of joy in god's presence a little bit of money or a promotion here or somebody appreciating me here if it increases your joy it means your fullness joy was not in god's presence we got to be very ruthless with ourselves if you really want god's best my brothers and sisters take god's word seriously blessed are the pure and hard they will see god there's no idol in their heart their whole heart is full of god do you think this is a miserable life not at all the life described in the sermon on the mount is the life that jesus lived and he lived the most wonderful life that any human being ever lived on this earth and if you believe that you will long with all your heart to live like jesus lived to save her the same attitude to people that he had forgiveness mercy forgive people call you the devil or crucify you you say father forgive them the same attitude to material things that jesus had judas's character was stealing his money he called him friend it's okay but judas is carried and hanged himself that's another thing people who do that will destroy themselves but jesus heart was not disturbed he was not disturbed when he had to pay his taxes peter said hey i promised that you paid your tax and jesus didn't have the money with him he's okay my father will provide my father provided in a miraculous way through a fish so there's nothing a person who's found whose heart is full of god who's pure in heart he sees god there's absolutely no circumstance that can disturb him storm in the lake or people planning to kill him john 7 30 his hour had not yet come so they couldn't touch him it's a wonderful life be pure in heart say lord i want nothing in my heart but you i don't want a single part of my heart to be unmerciful to others unforgiving attitude or a single part of my heart to be occupied with something earthly some honor some position some advancement or some little joy i got through getting something earthly somebody helped me financially so i'm very happy brother you're not going to grow spiritually i'll tell you that be detached from all that it's an idol i will not i'm thankful for all that people do but it's not going to increase my vessel is already full of joy my heart is full of joy because in god's presence there is fullness of joy you can do help me in some way it's not going to add anything to this joy it's going to be there it's already full thank you brother for helping me but my joy was already full even before you gave me anything or even before you helped me my joy as well i'm deeply thankful for you i'm grateful for what you did but you're not going to increase my joy ask yourself whether your joy increases when somebody does something for you or saying you know some need of yours is met and this is where we find that many people who think they're very spiritual they're not spiritual at all they're downright carnal they've made the standards so low and that's why they think they're spiritual in god's presence there's fullness of joy blessed are the pure in heart they will see god in every situation they'll see god in that trial that comes and they'll see god in making a wave of escape from that trial they'll see god in that person who came to bless them and help them they'll see god everywhere not human beings praise the lord this is a wonderful life so let's remember these three things we thought about today blessed are the merciful blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness which is a heart filled with love for people blessed are the merciful those who are ready and always ready to forgive everyone and blessed are those who are pure in heart for they shall see god remember what i said first of all that this is what it means to be salt that has not lost its savor that's what he goes on to say in verse 13 lord i don't want to lose the saber these are the qualities that make sure that my salt has not lost its savor well maybe i've said a lot today and don't worry if you don't remember it all just pray that the holy spirit will bring to your mind at the appropriate time where you come short of something you heard today it's in your mind and god will bring it to your mind in the time of temptation just like in the temptation in the wilderness the holy spirit brought to jesus mind the appropriate verse for that temptation it's a wonderful thing i've seen that again and again in a particular temptation the holy spirit brings to my mind the appropriate verse i need at that time so say lord please help me to hear this appropriate word that i from all that i've heard today at the time that i'm tempted i want my heart to be occupied with you and to be in your presence all the time i want to have a pure heart i want to hunger and thirst for righteousness a heart filled with love for others and i want to be merciful just as you've been merciful to me let's pray our father in heaven thank you for your goodness thank you lord for your love and care for us help us to honor you and i pray that so much that has been so open today that will be deposited in people's memories it will not go away the birds of the air will not take it away and in the moment of need of everyone who's heard this it'll come back to their mind through the holy spirit i pray in jesus name amen you

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Id: NcX_fG8ptDw

Length: 52min 19sec (3139 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 09 2020