Kingdom Logic (Part 5) - Blessedness

Welcome to episode 243 of Grasp the Bible. In this episode, Pastor Drew continues our study entitled Kingdom Logic. Today we will cover:

· “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” — Matthew 5:8

· The meaning of pure in heart.

· When our spiritual center of life becomes Christ.

Key Takeaways:

· The Beatitudes are a self-portrait of Jesus and a portrait of us that is still being completed.

· Pure in heart — when who you are is changed by whose you are.

· God always provides for what He demands.

· Apart from Christ, you can do nothing.

Quotable:

· “The good life is not normal — it’s FaithFULL.”

· “Pure in heart — when our spiritual center of life becomes Christ!”

· “When who you are is changed by whose you are!”

· “Purity of heart cleanses the soul so God becomes visible!”

Application:

· First — realize we are unable to live holy without God.

· Second — we must stay in God’s Word.

· Third — walk in the will and way of the Holy Spirit.

· Fourth — pray, pray, pray.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Crash the Bibles podcast at Spring Baptist Church. Walk through selected books of the Bible verse by verse. So we'll spend time exploring biblical ideas and topics to help you understand and apply God's Word in your daily life. On this week's podcast, we'll be joined by Drew Boucher, the pastor to students here at Spring Baptist Church. This is our two hundred and forty-third episode. I'm Marty Richardson, one of your co-hosts. Thank you for joining us today. Pastor Dude, it's good to have you with us. Yeah, I'm excited to be here. Well, we are continuing on in your study in the Beatitudes, correct? Yes, sir. So which be attitude are we on today?

SPEAKER_00 0:34

We are on our next Beatitude, which is Matthew 5, verse 8, which is Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Man, that sounds pretty intense. Yeah. I want to see God. I do too. I do too. Well let's jump into today's study.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

We are talking about purity of heart. And we're talking about the desire to see God. And uh as I think about it, I I think about an illustration I use with our students. Normally I use it with dating, and and I I find that it it's it's it doesn't matter what it's about, but it's talking about our heart. And so see in this world we have a heart, right? And our heart, we sometimes try to give it away. He's laughing because I just made this right over here, okay? Yes. Because I was like, man, I should have done that. Alright, but then I did it. Alright. So, anyways, we have this heart, and I tell them when it comes to dating and different things, like, hey, you know, we we try to like give our heart away, but we do that with not dating too. We give our heart away to other things, and and a lot of times, you know, we get it back and it's crumpled up and and damaged. And and sometimes, you know, I tell them when we say the word, I love you, that it's like giving away a piece of our heart to somebody else, right? And that we need to save that word for somebody who we truly mean it for. But I also say that to us too, like when we idolize things and we put it above Christ, man, it's like giving a piece of our heart away. And see, the thing is, the more we give it away, the less our heart looks like who we are, right? And I obviously we still have our physical heart, but but what I tell students is no matter what the state of your heart is, right, the only one who can purify and make you clean and make you whole is Jesus. And so if you go to him, right, and you give him your heart, and you say, hey, it's yours, a transformation happens. Right? For salvation, he makes you a new creation, and then after salvation, sanctification, he keeps scrubbing it. He's using that, you know, magic eraser eraser to get lines off my kids' walls, right? But he's doing that to my heart. And see, the thing is, when you give your life to Jesus, that's what he does. He gives you a brand new heart. It's not the same anymore. And see, tonight as we talk about our heart, we're gonna see what he means by heart, what does he mean by purity, what does he mean by seeing God. But I wanted us to stop for a moment and just think about our heart and how we can choose who we give it to. See, I loved that song, the song Purify My Heart, because it talks about how I want the refiner's fire, but then I choose to have my heart purified. And that's a choice we have this evening. So join me in prayer, and then we'll dive into Matthew chapter 5 and we'll read our next Beatitude. Let's pray. Dear Jesus, we love you. Thank you for today. Thank you for uh all the provision upon provision upon provision that you give us in your word. God, for our sinfulness. God, even just reading through a book like Leviticus that just says, Hey, when you sin, do this, and then when you mess up doing that, I have a provision for you here. You know, just wash your hands, do this, you know, sacrifice this, and then when you mess up again, or if you do the sacrifice wrong, do this. And you just provided provision after provision after provision, and you still do, God. God, as we dive into your word, remove everything of me and speak to us from your word this evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, so here we go. Matthew chapter 5, verse 3 through 8. Alright, here's what we have first. Blessed I gotta turn it on. Blessed are the pure and heart are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall be full. Now, uh one of the commentaries I read, you know, we're used we're substituting the blessed life for the good life. Another commentary I read substitutes it for the happy life. And so the good life or the happy life, like we've talked about time and time again, is not normal, it's faithful. And in our faithfulness, we see all of these blessings that the Lord bestows upon us. And the fact is that even to be faithful, we needed the Lord. And so I love that. It's just provision after provision after provision. We can't be faithful without Jesus. And once we're faithful, we can't be more faithful without Jesus, right? And if you're faithful with Jesus, then guess what? He's gonna bless you so that you can be more faithful with Jesus, right? And so we see uh this compounding thing that happens, this provision after provision. And so just a reminder for us those first three express our need. God, I'm poor in spirit. I mourn over my sin. I'm meek, I'm ready to do your will, Lord. And then we get the remedy in the fourth one, which is blessed are those who hunger hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. And then we get to the next one that we talked about, and this one today. And this is when our faith starts to show. Last week we talked about blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. And this week we're talking about blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God. And see what we see now is that our inner condition, right, that meekness, that poor in spirit, that ready to be filled, now that we're being filled, is now happening and it's turning into an outward expression. And the first thing we saw was mercy, and now we see purity, right? This is now in expression. And yes, we're talking about our inward heart, but it's something in us that is changing because of the posture that we brought ourselves to before the Lord. And so, as we look at this, we then begin to see that, hey, this is a portrait of Jesus, a self-portrait of Jesus, and a portrait of us that He's completing. So, happy are the holy, the demand for holiness. See, there's always been this demand for holiness, God's perfect standard. And when we think about this demand for holiness, we have a holy and perfect God who will not be in the presence of sin. And so, just from the get-go, we were not in relationship with him when we were born. But God provides for what he demands. Here's what I love: God always provides for what he demands of us. He demanded holiness, he provided a way for holiness. He demanded us to believe in him, he provided the means, he was the means, he was the miracle bringer, he was this person, this stamp, this seal of approval from the Lord. No matter what he asks of us, he always provides for what he asks for us. So let's dive in now to see the meaning of pure in heart. So let's take it apart. First we have the word pure, okay? Now, this means refined or without blemish. It's from the Greek word catharos, which means clean, blameless, or unstained from guilt. Alright, so that's pure. Now we have heart. And this, yes, it does describe the physical heart. The word is cardiac, but it also describes who we actually are, right? They phrase it like this: the spiritual center of life, where who we are comes from. And so though we know it's not literally from our heart, that's what the expression talks about, who we are coming forth. So this means that it's the purifying of who we actually are. So that word pure is the word catharos, like we mentioned, was also used for things like the song we just sang, for refining, for fire, uh, refining by fire, or for pruning. That same word was used to talk about purifying. And the Bible uses those same images to show how the Lord purifies. So let's take a second to look at the refining and pruning that the Lord does. I wanted to follow that imagery for a second in God's word. And in Malachi chapter 3, verse 1 through C one through 3, we actually find the basis for uh that refining that we saw in our song just a moment ago. And here's what it says in verse 1. Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom you seek, right? Remember that for a minute. Whom you seek, right? In the Old Testament, so often they wanted to see God, right? And remember, what is the way to see God? Purity in heart. And we're gonna see that time and time again. I may forget to mention it, but don't miss that. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like fooler's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Now, here's what we see. We see that the Lord here, Jesus, he is going to be this refiner. So gold refining, how does it work? Well, first you mine for the ore, and then you have to separate the gold from the rest of the stuff that you got. And now, once you get it separated, now you put it under a hot, hot, hot fire. And slowly it melts and the impurities rise to the surface, and you can remove them. And that's the same thing with silver. Ore is mined and crushed, often separated from copper, lead, and gold, and then it's heated or smelted to remove impurities. But notice that here. We see that in scripture, right? Not all of the elements got refined, right? Only the gold and silver, right? And later on we're gonna see not all the branches get pruned, only the ones that are bearing fruit. And so there's this sifting process that happens. And those that are pure in heart, guess what? He's going to refine you and bring out and extract the good parts of you, those pure things that come from inside of you. And we're gonna talk about how the inside of you has changed, and that's why you're getting refined. So refining people. Look at what the purpose was. It said, We'll bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. We're being refined for the purpose of bringing offerings in righteousness to God. Our life is an offering to him. Our life is what we are offering to God, and we are being refined, so that offering keeps getting sweeter and richer and better. Now, refining was also referencing pruning. And when I think of pruning, I can't help but think back to John chapter 15. One of my favorite passages of scripture, because it talks about the dependence on God. And this is where we're going to see just the definition, where a definition of pruning and of refining and of purity goes from a definition to a lifestyle. And here's where we see here it says, I am the true vine, this is Jesus talking, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are cleaned because of the word that I have spoken to you. Pause right there for a minute. This context for this story, right, right before this in John chapter 13, which I'm actually going to reference later, he tells them that they are already clean by the word he has spoken to them. Now, you know, scholars, when they think of this, this is like his last closing remarks to his eleven. He says that in John chapter 13, right before the Passover, maybe while they're in the upper room, and right before Judas leaves, because he says, You are clean. Well, almost all of you, right? Then Judas leaves, and now he says, I've already told you you have been made clean. And he doesn't make that qualifier anymore. So now it's just the eleven. And so he's saying this to him, and he says, Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you. And now he tells them, Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. So we have these three characters. We have the vine, Jesus, we have the branches, us believers, and other branches that are not believers that get pruned, right? Or that get cut and thrown into the fire, it says. And then we have the vine dresser, God. And now, here's what we see: branches that bear fruit get pruned. For what purpose? To bear more fruit. Remember back to Malachi, right? They were refined so that they could present an offering to the Lord that was more pleasing than the offering they could have given. Right? And so now we can give an offering of our fruit, but I hope that my fruit tastes sweeter for the Lord a month from now than it does right now, because I've been refined and made more pure and I'm pursuing him more. Right? And I think we can all think back to seasons in our life where we said, God, I commit to you, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that, I'm not gonna do it. And then six months later, we're like, God, I commit to the same thing and this same thing, and I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna do that, right? And we remember what that's like. Well, what we need to understand here is that this is what we're talking about. There's a choice that we get to make. Are you going to live in Christ? Are you gonna abide in Christ? Find your nutrients for him. You know, I love, I think the phrase, the expression, home is where your heart is, kind of takes root for us in this passage, right? Where is your heart? Is it with the Lord? Are you abiding in him? Right? If home is where the heart is, then are is your heart abiding in Christ? And then we see bearing fruit comes from having the right stuff. I love the movie Space Jam. I haven't seen it in a long time because I'm an adult now, but I loved the movie Space Jam when I was a kid, right? Because I love basketball. And I remember they're they're they're losing to the Monstars, right? The Looney Tunes and Michael Jordan are losing to the monstars by a lot at halftime. I think it said like infinity to like two or something like that. And all of a sudden, Michael Jordan's like, hey, we gotta do this, right? And uh all of a sudden, they write on there Michael's secret stuff, and they start passing it out. It's just normal water that he's like written on, right? Maybe it was a Gatorade, maybe it was all an ad for Gatorade. I don't know. I'm just kidding. All right, so he's like, he they all start passing it around and drinking it, and then at the second half they come back and they win, right? But see, the secret stuff for us, right? The magic grow thing that gets your grass to grow, right? That gets your your your branch to bear fruit, whatever the whatever the case may be, whatever you know, topsoil you're gonna buy from Home Depot, what it really is, is the vine, where you get all your secret stuff. It's where you get uh all the nutrients you need to survive. And see, apart from Christ, there's no fruit. In fact, it says you can do nothing. And so from here we see that Christ needs to be the center, right? He needs to be the center, he needs to be central in your life. I I love the idea, you know, that Christ needs to be first, right? He needs to be first in our life. We hear that a lot. First doesn't mean just first, though. It means, right, the the ultimate, right? That's what we're talking about in this reference. So if it was just meant first, first is not a full enough definition for us. For example, right, if I take my wife, I think I've probably said this before, but I love this story, right? If I take my wife on this super extravagant date, you know, we we start off, we we we get in the car and we go to, you know, her favorite boutique in Oklahoma, The Rage, and I buy her like five new outfits, and you know, then we stop at her favorite coffee shop, we eat at this Italian place, and then we go to this huge cinema uh that we used to go on our first dates to, right? And and and then we we get their Nutella shake ice cream that she loves, and then we sit there, and then afterwards we're hanging out, we're playing putt-putt, we're doing all sorts of fun stuff together, and I look at her and I go, Lydia, you are my favorite wife. You just are. You're the first one, right? See, if I say she's first and my favorite, it leaves room for anything else, right? But no, like she's my only wife. And yes, I do love her as first priority in my life, but it's not first in terms of there's a second and a third, right? And so that's why I love central when we talk about where God should be. He should be center of our lives, because if he's center of my life, when I am married, then he impacts my marriage. If he's center of my life, then he impacts my way I parent. The what what I watch, what I listen to. He he impacts everything, not just when I want him to. When it's, hey, it's time for the first right now. And then tomorrow, second, third, fourth, fifth, and we're back at church on Sunday, God come back. All right? That's not what it is. And so when we think about this, we think that pure in heart, if I were to give us like a clean definition, it's when our spiritual center of life becomes Christ. When our spiritual center of life becomes Christ. And here's why I think this is because of this right here. When who you are is changed by whose you are, then who you are becomes pure in heart. When we begin to be changed by Jesus, then who we become is someone who is pure in heart. And so let's talk now about the practice of purity. What are some practical things? Well, first we need to acknowledge that it's only possible with Jesus, and that's what it tells us. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. It's like this. It's like setting up a sign, right? Like, have you ever walked into there's a couple different times, like if you go into H E B, they'll have like a line at the bathroom, like one of those like stanchion things, they pull across and it says, somebody's at work cleaning the bathroom right now, right? And you're like, all right, I can't use it right now, somebody's cleaning, right? Well, the other thing I've found is like If you're at LA Fitness, which is where I go, and you go in, it'll have a big sign, like huge sign. It says, you know, somebody's cleaning the bathroom. Basically, like, don't get dressed right now, don't wait, right? And so it's it's this huge sign. And so what we see here is that it's like a huge sign on our heart that says, Hey, Christ is at work right now. And so we need to acknowledge that before we go into our day. Hey, that I'm a work in progress, that Christ is working on me. And see, the way for purity, if I were to give us four things, like how we are to be pure. First, we realize we are unable to live holy without God. That's number one. Number two is we must stay in God's word. John 13, 3, which I referenced earlier, you are already clean because the word I have spoken to you. And that's where we also get the guarding of purity, right? Because you remember that reference in Psalms. How can a young man keep his way clean or pure or straight, right? By abiding according to his word. And so this is not only just like, hey, I gotta read my Bible, right? The Bible tells us uh in Ephesians that he has the full armor of God. This is a full court defense that we have to put up against sin, the flesh, and death and the devil in order to guard our heart, to guard uh our purity. And then we see, third, is to walk in the will and the way of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5 says, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. And fourth, there's too many references that I could list, talking about prayer, prayer, prayer, about how you come to the Lord and confess your sins and ask for forgiveness and repent and do it continuously and continuously and continuously. And next we see the evaluation of purity. How do I know if my heart is pure? I'm not talking about pure before God. That's not necessarily what we're talking about right now. We're talking about an expression of my faith. How do I purify my heart, make sure my intentions are pure in different areas of my life? Well, Jesus, he answered us right before we could even ask it. And in his Sermon on the Mount, one chapter later, in chapter six, we get this. He talks about our heart again. He says, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If you want to track the purity of your heart, look at what the treasure is that you're seeking after. Look at what the treasure is that you're receiving. Are you doing it for man's approval? Then you've got your treasure. Or are you doing it for the Lord's, where he's your treasure? The question is, where is your heart? And you'll find your heart wherever it's pursuing, whatever treasure it's pursuing. So next we see the result of purity. Obedience, one of the results is obedience and receipt of God's love even further. John 15, 10 says this. Remember, this is where we're talking about abiding in me. He says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that you, your joy, may be full. And so what we see here is that what issues from what comes from a heart that's abiding in the Lord is obedience, keeping his commandments. And guess what? He goes, hey, listen, you're not keeping my commandments so I can be like, hey, look at them. They're listening to me, right? No, you're keeping my commandments. Why does it say here? So that your joy may be complete, right? We didn't know how it was working. Sometimes we just need to put our head down and obey, right? We don't have to understand the philosophical, the way that it works, the way that, hey, me being obedient is really a gift from him to me because of the blessing he's gonna give me more. We don't have to understand that, but he explains it to us anyways. See, he gives us an opportunity to be obedient and receive his love even further. Another result of purity is that it turns into a love for God that leads to a love for others. See, he's here's what he says in verse 12 of chapter 15. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. This comes straight from that same passage. And in the end of it, in verse 17, he says, These things I command you so that you will love one another. See, from a pure heart, then we know how to love God more and we know how to love others more. And then we see we will be like him and we will see him. Here's what it says in 1 John 3 2. We know that when the Lord appears, when he appears, we shall be like him, because what we shall see him as he is. Now we get to that blessing that all of the Old Testament people, Moses and different people, who shall ascend the hill, I just want to see you, God. Here's what it says, for they shall see God. When we understand that, actually, when you take apart that word, if you look at the verbiage and the noun and how it's all put together, right? I don't even know exactly how to make sense of that quickly. But here's how you could phrase that phrase, for they shall see God. Here's what it says: they shall continuously see God for themselves. See, remember it's a future promise and a promise for right now. Because if you have eternal life, that started when you gave your life to Jesus. And so here on earth, you can see God. You may not see with your eyes God. Your heart becomes clean. Purity of heart cleanses the soul, so God becomes visible. I can't tell you how many times that when I have gotten right with God and I've confessed my sin, that I've been able to look at him and see the world around me and know he was moving and active in my life. And that can only be possible from a pure heart. Notice I didn't say a perfect heart, I said a pure heart. Because I'm not perfect and I won't be until he comes. Then I will be like him and will see him. But right now I have the promise that I can, what one day I will have in full, right now I can see in part. And I can see him moving and active in my world. And then I can pray, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. This is what David was asking for when he prayed for forgiveness after Bathsheba. He said, God, I confess my sins, create in me a new heart, O God, a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. And so for us today, when who you are is changed by whose you are, then who you are becomes pure in heart. So basically, moral of the story is abide in Christ and let Him refine you. And then look at all the blessings that impact you and the people around you when you become more pure in heart than you are today. Let's pray. Dear Jesus, we love you. Thank you for being the secret stuff that we need. God, apart from you, we can do nothing. Thank you for loving us, for dying on the cross for us. God, thank you for the beautiful imagery to make plain to the simple. God, that you're the vine and the branches. We can understand that. We can understand what it means to be refined by fire. And God, we love you so much. God, help us to realize that we're unable to live holy without you. Help us to be steadfast in our love for you and to stay in your word. Help us to walk with diligence and with discernment in the will and the way of the Holy Spirit. And God, let us not give up on the precious power of prayer. We love you so much. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Thank you for that. Now, every single week when we're together, we'd like to take a moment at the end of our teaching time and just sort of talk through the big idea, the key takeaway for today, and then some of the application around that. So, Pastor Drew, thank you for that word. Now, what is the key takeaway for today's lesson?

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Yeah, the the key takeaway for us is we kind of uh defined purity, and one of the ways we kind of define that is when our spiritual center of life becomes Christ. And another way I kind of express it is when who you are is changed by whose you are.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

That's pretty good. That's another t-shirt thing. You should start like Drew's t-shirt company. Yes, exactly. Well, state that again, and then give us the application for it.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

Yeah, when who you are is changed by whose you are. And I think that's where we see uh the promise in here. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So we started with this progression where we had our inward selves being changed, and now our outward selves are being changed, and it's because we're being filled with the righteousness of God. God is filling us. And so now we're able to show mercy and we're able to be pure in heart. And the reason why we're able to do that is both because we have seen God, we have seen what he's done, and we've trusted that based on what I know about who God is and what I've seen from evidence that I can see here, even though I haven't literally seen God, I've seen his hand, uh, I've chosen to trust and follow him. And because I have seen him and trusted him and seen what he's done and trusted what he's done, now I am learning to live and follow his will in my life. And that's what we mean by seeing God. One day I will see him in full, right? But right now I see him in part and I see what he's doing, and uh I and I can even see his will through my life, you know? And so w when I understand that, man, then that that's where that purity in heart comes from is that he's changing me, and now I'm following his will. And in terms of like what that looks like in application, is that it's obedience and receipt of God's love even further, and it's also love of God that leads to love for others, and so uh so basically it's just like we need to realize we are unable to live wholly without God. Um that's kind of where we started. And then second, we must stay in God's word, uh, because that's where we find purity, that's where we find how our heart should be shaped. That's where we find Jesus. And then uh third, we walk in his will in the way of the Holy Spirit, and that's where we begin to live out what we are seeing, we begin to trust it. And then fourth and all throughout is pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Yeah. It's it's kind of like the seagulls from uh finding Nemo, you know. Yeah, exactly. And but it's pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Yeah. Yes. And I I I think you hit on something that was so very good. A lot of you you you said it's the inward work coming to the outside. You know, it flows out to us. Sometimes people just want the behavioral modification of it, but they don't want the change from the inside. But it takes the change on the inside to keep the change on the outside going, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:58

Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, and so I I I love that because like when we think about, you know, I was actually just teaching our seniors in high school. We were talking about like how do we discover what God's will is for our life? Well, we have to start by being obedient to his revealed will, uh, you know, avoiding sin, uh, sharing the gospel, living for Christ, right? Like walking in purity, walking in all those different things, right? And it's that that obviously starts from the heart, right? But then they're asking all these big questions as seniors, where am I supposed to go to college? Who am I supposed to marry? All these big questions, and it's like, well, first, why would God answer and give you a specific will, right, that he does have for you that's made just for you, your perfect giftings, passions, abilities, he has a will for you to walk in, right? Specific to you. But why would he show that to you if he hasn't if you haven't if have been ignoring his revealed will that's found in his word, right? And so sometimes God is still so merciful and and gracious to us that even when we're disobedient, he shows us his will, you know, uh specific to us. Um, but I've just found that you can see his will daily when you're like in his word, abiding in him and trusting in him, and that's where you see it. If you abide in him, uh then you discover God's will.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Good word on that. And and I loved it, you know. You you were like, Why would God trust you with more if you don't do anything with the things he's already given you? And I just love that idea that you know teach people to be faithful in the small things, God will continually reveal things to you.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

Yeah, and it sounds like legalism that if you do this, then he'll do this, but we're not being obedient. Like those are a test of whether where our heart is, right? Yes. And so it's a heart thing that l appears in your actions and things like that. And so uh so don't get me wrong when I when I say like we have to do this and we have to do this. Yes, but really you have to be authentic with God and tell him, I'm struggling with this, I'm struggling with that, I need you for this, I need you for that, and then still get to work, but with that, hey, I need you, uh, and I can't do it without you.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Oh, good word. You know, to me it seems a little bit like we also have to remember that the stuff he's having, it's not legalism, but he what he's wanting to do is prepare you for what's next too. Yeah. You know, a lot of times he you need to be in his word and praying and doing all those things he's commanded us to do because that prepares us for the challenges of the next step of life. Yeah. Because sometimes we want to jump past the the preparation. It's like somebody wants to like go run a marathon, but they can't even run a mile. You know? Oh, great word on that. Anything as we wrap up?

SPEAKER_00 38:03

No, I I think that's it. I mean, another thing I think about is in John 15, you know, the passage that it's about uh I'm the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides me and I and you will bear much fruit. Well, in the middle there, it it talks about um for those who abide in him, ask whatever you want and it will be given to you, right? And so I think for us, if we're talking about discerning the will of God, right? I would say ninety-eight percent of the will of God is found in God's word. Yes, okay. There's two percent that the Holy Spirit is gonna reveal to you. I mean the Holy Spirit's revealing to you God's word as well, but like two percent, like God really point out to me like what is going on. Like Holy Spirit led, you know, uh all of it's Holy Spirit saturated, but Holy Spirit specific, right? Outside of the Bible. And then and then you have that little like 0.01%, right? Yes. Uh, you know, this it happens all the time though, where it's like, all right, God's word isn't against it. The Holy Spirit is not leading me one way or the other. And then now you get a chance to make a decision, and that's where you say, God, you know, here's what I'm gonna do, you know, and whatever you ask, right? And so it's kind of a cool, cool little thing there. It's like, hey, that that's a promise, right? It's like after you've gone here, is it against God's word? You know, it's kind of like things like, Well, where should I eat lunch today, you know? Yes. But but sometimes it can be bigger things as well. Um, decisions that we make that God will walk with you with, like, not you know, and it's just a promise that you're his child, right? And if you've kind of followed through and all those different things, then it's it's a cool little promise found in abiding in Christ.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

That's so good. And and he's you know, the great thing is he he does give us opportunities sometimes with choices to go, hey, you can make the choice your heart wants here.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Exactly. And and this way maybe easier or harder or harder or easier. But but yes, you're you're you're you're so right. And some of those are some of the greatest learning moments I've ever had where God said, you know, I kind of let you choose, and you sort of stepped in a mud puddle on that one. Yeah. And I go, Okay, Lord. You know, and then he's teaching me. God is so good to teach us, show us through the Holy Spirit, through his word, his will, like you said, when our hearts are focused on him. Absolutely. And it kind of just circles right back around to that purity of heart. Get rid of the pride, get rid of all the the haughtiness and all that, and focus in on who he is.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

And uh he's he is always faithful.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

That's good stuff, man. Anything else? I mean, that was pretty profound. No, I think that's it. Well, very good. Well, it's been a great time together, and we look forward to next week. As always, thank you for taking your time to be with us. We know that God's word will change your life, it's changed ours. We hope the same for you. Join us next week as we continue to grasp the Bible.