So what's one of the cleverest things you've ever seen? I mean, just one of those genius, creative things, you're like, man, that that is just so neat. Two of my Dearest friends, maybe about 10 years ago now, they they built this beautiful house on their property out in the country and behind their house they have this gigantic pond, it's it's almost like a lake and it is just gorgeous. Everything behind their house is just beautiful. And so instead of putting in windows when they built their house, they put in doors. Okay, these these big huge glass doors, but no hinges and and no door knobs. So from the kitchen, all the way through the kitchen, all the way through the den, all the way through the master bedroom on the back of the house. It's nothing but one big huge glass door after another. It's genius because you can you can just see out. It's it's phenomenal. I've never seen anything like it. I walked in, it's like, wow, look at all these big windows. And he's like, no, they're actually just doors. We just didn't put any hinges on it, none of them open. But but you can see out. And it was so much easier than having to figure out custom glass. Yeah, it was just so clever. It's it's one of the most clever things I've ever seen. But maybe one of the most creative and coolest things about their houses. Not just the doors they put all the way across the back, but they installed a gourmet ice machine in the kitchen underneath the counter. And it has sonic ice. Yeah, Because we all know from second hallucinations. Chapter five verse 13 this is the ice that will be in heaven. We we know this, right? We we understand there's there's nothing more beautiful than seeing the maximum light and the maximum view, the panorama of something amazing. It was just so clever. I'm just still 10 years later, just amazed. It's almost as clever as the folks that invented the tutu, right? I mean, those people, they know how to put two and two together, Happy Mother's Day, whether it's a clever or creative idea or whether it's a an average ho hum hum drum idea. All of us love the ability to see. We like being able to see. Especially when we can't see. We can't always see, right? Sometimes our our minds we're we're just in a brain cloud, right of of anger or or fear or worry or stress or aggravation, whatever it may be. And and we just can't see straight. And sometimes we can't see what's next, right? And if we're honest, we don't always want to see what's next. And we would rather just not see it. But then if we're really, really honest, we desperately want to see what's next. We want to have eyes to see. We won't to see. So is there a way for us to see? Well, is there a best way for us to see or what is the best way for us to see? We continue our series doors where we're looking at some of the most defining doors that you and I face every day in life. And this morning iris sermon is glass doors. We'll be looking in Matthew, Matthew chapter five verse eight And we find in Matthew five verse 8, we find Jesus teaching and he's teaching one day and he's teaching very specifically on how we can have the best view in life. He's teaching on on how we can see. So what does jesus say? Let's find out, Matthew 5: verse eight jesus says, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed and happy and content to be envied, fortunate are the pure and heart. But what does that mean? Well, Jesus isn't talking about the body organ that keeps us alive, Jesus is talking about our spiritual heart. Your spiritual heart describes the inner person of who you are, it's who you really are. Your inner heart. We're good. This is why we brought clay. It's like clay, we need you here just to watch the craziness. So so the inner heart, the spiritual heart, it's made up of knowledge, emotions, conduct and actions and thoughts and attitudes and lots of other things. It's the inside of who you are King Solomon was giving his kids some advice and he said this in proverbs four, Watch over your heart with all diligence for from your heart flow. The springs of life, every single issue in your life flows from your spiritual heart. Every single issue you face. Every single issue you deal with. It flows from your spiritual heart again as we said a moment ago, who you are on the inside is who you really are. Your spiritual heart is a big deal. Your conduct, your knowledge, your emotions, whatever is happening on the outside is a reflection of your conduct and your knowledge and your emotions on the inside. We, we tend to ignore that, we always say, well I'm acting this way because my spouse is being a jerk, you know, well I'm acting this way because my kids are being rebellious, you know, I'm acting this way because the lady doesn't know how to use the register at the store, I'm acting this way because the gas prices are up. No, you're acting this way and I'm acting this way because it's what's in your heart. Over and over again, jesus says this, so our hearts a big deal, you know what's happening on the outside reflects what's happening on the inside? And jesus said blessed and happy and content is the person with a pure heart, with the person that's clean on the inside, what does that mean? How do you get clean on the inside? Well you don't have to drink a tall Utah celery garlic, ginger, Garlic, Banana Smoothie three times a day to get your heart clean, okay, this is a completely different kind of clean. What jesus is talking about here is is the purity of your heart means that you have a single purpose. It means you're not double minded think of this way on our wedding day, uh there was a part where my brother in law was praying in the middle of the ceremony and then when he got through, he wasn't going to say amen and he and I had worked this out and then I sang a little song to my wife. She didn't know I was going to sing it kind of Acapulco there for, you know, for a minute and, and, and so, you know, I'm just saying this this little ditty that, that I had found and, and so I can imagine if in that moment, you know, I'm looking into Karen's eyes in the middle of irish ceremony, I'm singing this beautiful song and I'm thinking about little jenny piccalo from kindergarten that I had a crush on, right, okay, her name wasn't really jenny piccalo. I just, I don't remember her name, but but but that's a picture of a double minded heart, right? You know that, that I'm looking longingly, but I'm thinking about something else. The picture that jesus is painting when we talk about what it means to be pure in heart, is this, that you're not double minded that you're not looking for someone else or something else to worship the words, you're not, you're not looking into this moment saying, hey, I want a little more. You want me? Do you want this 1? Turn it off? No, you're good man. This is why, yeah, we, this is the whole thing. Some of y'all have been here, you know, when it's just the devil on sunday morning in the sound system, right? So we've had some little hiccups the last few weeks and we're like, Clay, we need you to come hang out at church sunday morning. So this is exactly what we're doing. So we're just cutting all those off. So, so we're going to do a little this, y'all hang loose, I'll get you to lunch, I promise, my sermon is actually shorter than normal, I think, thank thank thanks for the one applause Stephen, I appreciate that. That's great. That's good. A pure heart is so devoted to God that it doesn't look for something else. It's, it's focused. So in a sense, we're not really talking about being double minded as much as we're talking about being double hearted, you know, having one heart for God and then one heart for the Lord, one heart that says, we're going to do things God's ways. And, and then another heart that says we want to do things my way. And if we're honest, the more that goes back and forth. God's ways get lost. You know, we kind of see God's ways on christmas and easter and at funerals and on mother's Day, you know, but, but God's ways are not part of who we are on a regular basis. That's a double heartedness. We don't want to have a double heartedness because here's why having a double heart, it ain't good for you, it's not good for you to have a double heart. Think of it this way, kind of like eating chinese food, right? I mean when you're eating chinese food, it's amazing, right? You're, you're scarfing down that sesame chicken and it is fantastic and then, you know, time goes by and you just, you're stuffed, you know, you get to the door, you're looking across the parking lot and you're like, I'm not even going to make it over to my 83 cutlass supreme and get behind the wheel because I'm just, I'm so stuffed, you know, But then an hour later you're going through the drive thru and your cutlass at the hot dog king, right, getting a couple of chili dogs, some curly fries and a and a tall seller, tall Utah celery, smoothie, right, tall Utah celery as a kind of celery. That's why I keep saying that, it's just fun, you know, see we eat chinese food and we go, I'm so stuffed and an hour later we're eating again, that's kind of a picture of what it means to be double hard, see we come to church on sunday and we get a little dose of God and, and maybe we feed for a little bit on him, but then we leave and and we start feeding on the world, you know, an hour later we're hungry again. So, so we feed on the world and and then an hour later we're hungry again. So we get some more of the world and some more of the world and some more. And this process goes on and on and on until next sunday and then we come back to church and we nibble on the egg roll of Christianity for a little while longer. But but then we we move on and we we leave God's ways in the sanctuary, we leave God's ways at church and and maybe we'll go back to them here and there during the week. But for the most part we're still doing our way, we're doing things according to our way and we get hungry. Our souls get hungry. Our our our souls get thirsty and we want something more, but the world is not satisfying, but we just keep eating and keep eating. That's not what it means to be pure in heart. The word that jesus uses here for pure, it literally means unmixed. I think I've shared with you all before that when my kids were little, I'd be walking by and I'd open the refrigerator and get something to drink and I'd see whatever are are big thing of juice was and I was like, all right, I pull the thing out and stick it under the water thing and fill it up with water. You know, juice is expensive. You know, I mean, I'm filling that thing up. I had four orange Julius is running around my house. I mean, it was going like crazy. And so I would fill it up with water to thin out that juice make it last a little longer. And when the kids were little, no big deal, you know, they didn't really know the difference, but but as they got older, their brain and their taste buds started working a little better, you know? And they could tell when I had watered down the juice. See the reality is if we're not careful, we will water down the truth of God in our lives. Well, think about it, it'll sound good on sunday morning, maybe it'll sound good in the middle of the week, but it won't be pure, we will be mixing everything else in the world will be mixing it together and get this. If you leave on sunday or leave your devotion time or leave your midweek bible study or whatever your christian connections are. If you leave and you leave all of that truth there, then eventually you're going to start watering that truth down and the people around you are going to see that you're using mixed water and even if they don't see it, God will see it. And so to be pure in heart means that we understand that ultimately, if we want to be blessed and happy and content, we will need to have hearts that are unmixed that are pure and single, focused on God and a mixed heart may not always be mixed with the world. Sometimes a mixed heart is mixed with religion. Someone put it this way, Jesus did not say blessed and happy and content are the pure in ceremony. See we can be so religious that were actually watering down God's truth with our religion were feeding on religion, but we're not feeding on God. That'll make us hungry too. One day, Jesus said this to a crowd of religious leaders in Matthew 23 23. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, not really the inside of the hallmark greeting card, jesus is being pretty clear here. There's a paraphrase by Eugene Peterson called the message and and he goes on to to describe the rest of what Jesus said because Jesus confronted them on their religious legalism. This is how Peterson says it. You keep meticulous account books tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on things like fairness and compassion and commitment, the absolute basics, you carelessly take it or leave it. We can be very religious in this room and our religion can get flushed down the toilet by how we treat our waitress in an hour. See this is the truth of how Jesus spoke to the religious people, He goes on Peterson says, do you have any idea how silly you look writing a life story? That's wrong from start to finish? Nit picking over commas and semicolons. In other words, legalistic religious nit pickers will not be blessed and happy and content. They won't because there is no blessed happiness in that. It could be mixed in with the world, it could be mixed in with religion. And just to be clear, people who are nitpicky religious ceremonial people, it doesn't mean they hate God by no means. It just means they don't really want God to be in control. It means they need to be in control. That's the beauty of religion that draws us to God. And then the danger of religion is we leave God and run with religion on our own. Someone said, there's only two kinds of religion in the world, human achievement and divine accomplishment. In other words, one of those says, look what I've done, look what I've been doing, look what I'm known for. Look at the things that people have said are great at. Look, look at how I've built myself up as a pastor or a deacon or an elder or a teacher. Look at what I've done. Look at what I've done. The other way says, look at what God has done. Look at what God has done in my life, Look at what God is doing in my life? Look at the grace and the mercy and the power and the authority of God's kindness in my life. So which one sounds like the way you usually think, look what I've done or look what God's done. Your family, your friends, the people you work with, go to school with, go to church with. What do they hear most from us? Look at what I've done or look at what God's done. God gave a message to the prophet Jeremiah and Jeremiah 17 verse nine. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick, meaning your heart has the propensity to lie to you more than anything else in the universe. The heart is deceitful, doesn't sound like great news, but thankfully there's always more to the story with God. And a few chapters later, God continued the conversation with Jeremiah and said this in chapter 24 I will also give them a heart to know me for I am the Lord and they will be my people and I will be their God. No one is born right with God. No one, No 1 is born right with God And no one gets right with God through school, No one gets right with God through sports. No one gets right through God with with family or religion or anything else. The only way a person can be right with God is through God. God says that in and through the salvation of Jesus Christ, he will give a person a brand new heart, he will give a new heart, see you can't give yourself a spiritual heart transplant, you can't receive a spiritual heart from a christian donor. The only way you can get a true new spiritual heart is from God. And God doesn't just give a new heart. He gives a heart that loves him heart that knows him, a heart that longs to have a single purpose set on him. But but why is that good news? Why is it such great news for a person to have a heart that knows God and loves God. Here's why Jesus said what, blessed and happy and content and satisfied is the person who is pure in heart. This is the picture that jesus paints, pulling us into this truth, but why does that matter right now? And what does it produce? What he says next? Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God, you know what I love about looking at my friend's house, you know, being in their den or in their kitchen and just looking out through the back is because it's this gorgeous, huge panoramic view, I mean it's just fantastic. I love being able to to see. There's something about that moment. Well being pure in heart being singularly focused on God, It's like a million glass doors because it's constantly helping us see God, that's what Jesus says, It says, we're able to see God with a heart that is pure again, not with our eyes always okay, but with our heart always we can see God. We can see who he is. You see part of what it means to be a christian. Is that deep inside of you, your knowledge, your emotions, your conduct deep inside of those things. You are able to see God. You know that he is real, you know that he is good. You feel his power, you feel his grace, you feel his mercy, you feel his love not perfectly right because sometimes life is just hard and and it's dark and we can't see but the power of the gospel in our life, it does help us see jobs life had fallen apart. It wasn't just that he had a few bad experiences. His life became one of the most defining tragedies in history. But after all of that experience, this is what Job said, I have heard of you, God by the hearing of the ear. But now now my eye sees tragedy. Darkness heartache. But his response is now I knew about you heard the sermons, listen to the devotions, read read the new testament through, heard about you. But now in this moment when my life is falling apart, my heart is set on you. And I see I see I love this description of what it means to be pure in heart. People who are pure in heart read the newspaper and see the hand of God in history. I had to read the newspaper this week. People who are pure in heart read the newspaper and see the hand of God in history. They see God's smile when watching a grandfather walk in the park with a toddler, they look at the stars of heaven and the mountains and they see the handiwork of God everywhere they go. Those who are pure in heart can't help but see God. And the more they see him, the more pure their heart is and the more pure their heart is and the more they see him, Bless his heart. My dad's been in the, in the hospital all week, this week. He had pancreatitis for the second time in the last 12 weeks. Uh, bless him. He's hurting called me right before we got going, hey, the daughter just said that he's going to dismiss me and I was like, well I'm at church. So you're going to be hanging out in the hospital a little longer. But one of the things that I have noticed during this week of, of walking through these things and some other health challenges that we're facing with my dad in the days and weeks to come. One of the things I've seen is that we're kind of in the middle of stuff we can't see yet. We don't know what's happening next. We don't know what the next thing is, but there is something I can see, I can see God everywhere. I look, see the truth of God is everywhere. I look, I can't help but see the truth of God when my heart is set on him and one of the reasons that I can see the truth of God is because of my mom from the time that I was little reading the bible to me at the table every morning at breakfast before I went off to school, to making sure that I was at every single activity the church had, my mom has always been building glass doors for me so that I could see jesus and along those lines of activity at the church. One of our church moms sent the staff quote this week that I thought was really good. Maybe you've seen this, There is a 0.029, chance that your child will become a professional athlete. But there is a 100% chance that your child will stand before Jesus, so get them to church. That's that's how the quote was. I just say that it's a pitch. Look, we have a great plan for kids and youth this summer and even before summer, so we'd love to see your kids and your youth and your family as much as we possibly can. My mom was kind enough to make sure that I was at the church as much as I could possibly be and it's had a huge impact on my life. She was always creating those glass doors and my mom is getting a little older. Hey mom, I know you're watching so you know what I'm getting ready to say. You know aging makes things a little more complicated with parents and Children. Um you know, but we're making it, we're making it. But here's the thing about my mom, my mom is always so interested in you, she's so interested in this church, so interested in my ministry and her interest is a constant encouragement of what I do. So not just when I was growing up, but even now she is helping me see those glass doors and see the gospel and see jesus and as much as she possibly can direct me towards having a pure heart so I can see God that's the picture of what jesus is giving us with his words. But we all know life isn't perfect. Life isn't a lot of beautiful glass doors on the back of the house, right? Some of us have experienced this week that there wasn't a lot of light in some moments there was some darkness, there was some fear, there was some pain, there was some sadness and in those moments sometimes we need a little help. Right? Sometimes we need a lot of help in those moments. Christina Fox is a wife and mom of two sons. She wrote a prayer called a prayer for a worried mom's heart. It's for moms but really it's for any of us if if you will listen to the truth, I just want to share just a few things that she shared in her prayer. Lord I come to you with a heart heavy and full of so many worries and cares. I want to just curl up on your lap and find some peace from the chaos in my life. My worries, they feel my mind day and night. My stomach is in knots and I can hardly breathe. I feel like I am drained dry. The joy has been sucked right out of me. Anybody been there this week? She goes on, There are so many decisions to make. What if I make the wrong one? So many bad things loom on the horizon. What if I'm not prepared? Help me to focus my heart on you and not on the giants around me. And then she says this, you sent your son to carry my greatest burden at the cross. I know that you can handle all the trouble. All that troubles me today. Help me to trust the same grace that saved me at the cross to save me from all that weighs me down. What's weighing you down? I mean just right now, come on, it just hits your mind. What's weighing you down? Something with your spouse? Something with your kids. Something with your parents. Something with your health. Something with the country. Something with your money. What? What's what's weighing you down? Whatever it is, it's weighing you down. What the choir saying is not a cute song for church. The power of the cross matters with whatever is weighing you down it does, it dies. I had this little moment with my dad this week. We were waiting for a surgeon to come in and tell us about some possible future things. And I said dad, you do know I'm not a pastor because it's a nice job, right? He's like, yeah, I said no, no, no, really Dad, Dad, I believe at all. I believe it all. I'm not obsessed with all the things happening in the news because I know the news, the risen jesus and his promises, they are real. They matter. This isn't religion, this is our hope. This is the power when we are weighed down no matter what were weighed down with the power of the grace of God is there when we're way down. That prayer, that's from a mom that gets weighed down. It's a prayer from a mom for a mom. But really it's for any of us if we'll listen, it's a prayer from a mom who spends her life looking through the glass doors that jesus has built for us. The glass doors that jesus has put up throughout God's word and throughout the work of the Holy spirit to help us see the glory and the beauty and the power of God. But that prayer is also written by mom who day in and day out doesn't give up on the good days and bad days. The happy days and the sad days, the the terrible days and the terrific days, whatever the days are, she keeps looking to jesus and she keeps listening to jesus. And what did jesus say, Jesus said, blessed and happy and content and fortunate to be envied is the man or woman or the boy or girl who is pure and heart single, focused on God, because if they are, they will see God, they will.