James Merritt - A Heart for God
You know that two million people celebrated September 29th as a holiday, really. Yeah, it's called World Heart Day. In the year 2000, the World Heart Foundation started World Heart Day to raise awareness about heart disease. Whether you know this or not, heart disease is the leading killer of people all over the world. Now, not everybody dies of heart disease individually, but it is the leading cause of death for everyone collectively. The number-one cause of death in this room will be heart disease. That's true all around the world. Well, cardiologists now know that one of the most dangerous physical conditions, believe it or not, is what they call a dirty heart.
Now the medical term is what is called endocarditis. It's very rare. It's a life-threatening inflammation of the lining inside your heart chambers and your valves. And it's usually caused by germs that kind of get into your bloodstream, and they travel to the heart. And once they get inside the heart, the germs attach themselves to the lining. They get trapped in valves, and they start growing, and it causes a very dangerous infection. And if it's not treated, if it's not diagnosed, if it's not corrected, it can either damage your heart irreparably, or it can kill you. And the only cure is this strong dose of antibiotics that literally flushes out your heart. It literally cleanses the lining of your heart.
And you say, "Why are you talking about the heart"? Because God is even more concerned about your heart than you are. Except I don't mean that physical organ beating in your chest right now. I'm talking about the spiritual heart in your soul. If you're visiting for the first time, we're in a series that we've been calling "Get Used to Difference". It's on the Sermon on the Mount, and we've been in the Beatitudes. And the Beatitudes is0 basically God's blueprint for blessings because Jesus keeps saying to us over and over, "Do you want God's blessing on your life"? "Yes I do". "You really want God to bless your life"? "Yes I do". He says, "Okay, here's how you do it". Then He goes, "Blessed are, blessed are, blessed are..."
So now we come to a blessing that if the world ever needed this blessing, it's today, and it's now. And here's what Jesus said. He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God". I love to read the Greek New Testament, and I love the Greek language because so many of our words come from the Greek language. So for example, that word pure comes from the word, we get the words cathartic or catharsis from that. It means to cleanse. That's the word they use, "Blessed are those who are clean in their heart". It literally means to purify by cleansing from dirt and filth and contamination.
Now you say, "Well, why do we need that"? Because let me tell you something that's true about everybody in this room, everybody watching me right now. You may be a nice person. You may be a nice guy. And people may think you're just the greatest thing since two back-to-back national championships. I don't know. But I'll tell you something's true about you. You were born with a dirty heart. Your kids were born with a dirty heart. I love my wonderful grandkids, but I got news for you. They were born with a dirty heart. That's why a king by the name of David, a man after God's own heart, said this to God. He said, "Create in me a pure heart, O God". "Create in me. God, only you can do it". In other words, the idea of the heart that is pure is a heart that's pure in its motives, why it does what it does. It's pure in its thoughts, why it thinks what it thinks. It's pure in its desires, why it wants what it wants.
So let me give you a good word. Let me give you one word for pure in heart. Here's what it means. You ready? It's a word that frankly is in big, big, big need of today, and that word is integrity. Let's say that together, integrity. I don't have to tell you that when it comes to integrity and pure hearts, the demand is far outrunning the supply.
There's a lady by the name of Amy Rees Anderson, a very successful businesswoman. She wrote a short article in "Forbes" magazine, and it was so profound, I said, "Our people need to hear this". This is what she said. Listen to this. "We live in a world where integrity isn't talked about nearly enough. We live in a world where 'the ends justify the the means' has become acceptable school of thought for far too many. Salespeople over-promise and under-deliver, all in the name of making their quota for the month. Applicants exaggerate in job interviews because they desperately need a job. CEOs overstate their projected earnings because they don't want the board of directors to replace them. Customer service representatives cover up a mistake they made because they're afraid the client will leave them. Employees call in 'sick' because they don't have any more paid time off when they actually just need to get their Christmas shopping done".
All right, guilty laughs. "The list could go on and on, and in each case, the person committing the act of dishonesty tells themselves they had a perfectly valid reason why the end result justified their lack of integrity". Which brings us to that simple pithy little statement so pregnant with meaning. It's a reminder that with God, it's not what on the outside that counts. It's what on the inside that counts. And if you want to get to God, what we're gonna learn today from Jesus is this. The pathway to God is paved with purity. If you wanna get to God, the pathway to God is paved with purity. So what does Jesus tell us about a pure heart? "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God". What does that mean, and what was Jesus saying? Well, first of all, we are to pursue internal purity. We are to pursue internal purity.
Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure," now watch this, "in heart". "Blessed are the pure in heart". Let me tell you why that's such a big deal. When we talk about people, and we say nice things, it's because of what we see on the outside. We've all had somebody say, "Oh, I know him. He's a nice guy". "She's a sweet lady". "He's a good person". We're just going about what we see on the outside. Jesus is not talking about people who are pure on the outside. He's talking about people who are pure on the inside. You say, "Well, why is He doing that"? Because let me tell you a dirty little secret, no pun intended. It is very possible to be squeaky clean on the outside and be totally filthy on the inside. Everybody does it at one time or another.
Let me give you a great example right out of the New Testament. Best example really, they were walking billboards. They were called the Pharisees. If you lived 2,000 years ago, and you lived in, you were a Jew, and you'd been walking down the streets of Jerusalem., if somebody walked up to you, and they said, "Hey, can you tell me somebody who's a pure person? Can you tell me somebody that's just, I mean, you just would want your daughters to marry them? You would want to imitate them"? They would immediately said, "Oh absolutely. Just go look at a Pharisee. Man, they dot every T. They cross every I. They don't drink. They don't smoke. They don't hang around with the wrong crowd. They're always in the right place at the right time. They never miss church. They give money to the church. They stand on the street corners, and they pray. They got all these scriptures memorized".
That's what you would've said, but this is what Jesus said: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will also be clean". You see, the Pharisees, they were pure in their habits. They weren't pure in their heart. Oh, they made sure that they put on the show on the outside, but they didn't have what it takes on the inside. So let me just correct something that people misunderstand about Jesus. Jesus did not come into this world to correct our bad habits. He came to cleanse our dirty heart. That's why He came 'cause we were all born with a dirty heart.
Now you say, "Wait a minute. Why is God so focused on our heart? And why should we be so focused on our heart"? I'll tell you why. 'Cause our heart, that's where we really live. That's where our feelings live. That's where our emotions live. That's where our mind lives. That's where our will lives. That's why the wisest man who ever lived, a man named Solomon, said this. He said, "Above all else, above everything else, make this number one thing in your life. Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it". And that's really true because I know how you live your life 'cause I know how I live mine. We really don't live our life according to what we say we believe in our minds. We really live our lives based on what we really believe in our heart because the heart, the heart's kind of like the cockpit. The heart's kind of like the control center of our life.
You know, that's why salvation's not of the head. It is of the heart. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul said, "If you wanna have a relationship with God, here's what you've gotta do, and here's where you've gotta do it. You've gotta believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead". Hell is going to be full of people who believe in their head that Jesus was raised from the dead, but they never believed it in their heart. That's true. All our thoughts, all of our intents, all our desires, all of our actions, all of our beliefs, they flow from the fountain of the heart.
I committed my life, marriage-wise, to Teresa 47 years ago. I wasn't committed to her in my head. I was sold out to her in my heart. As I got in the car this morning to drive to work, I always send her a text every morning. I send her a text, "I just want you to know you have all of my heart". I call my wife what some of you guys probably call yours. I call her sweetheart. I don't call her sweet head. I call her sweetheart. I mean, I'm being very honest. If I knew the way she thinks about me in her head, sometimes I'd be dead. So she loves me with her heart.
Now let me tell you why this is so important. Let me tell you why Jesus was right on target. This is why... If you wanna know why the government is absolutely powerless to solve our biggest problems that we have right now, it is because the heart of all of our problems is the problem of our heart. We have a crime problem in this country. We have the largest incarceration population on the planet. There's not a day that goes by in the United States of America that somebody's not murdered, raped, lied to, cheated on, or stolen from.
Well, we've got legislation against every one of those things, but you know what legislation does? Legislation will punish them. It doesn't prevent them. It doesn't help. It's powerless. Why? Because here's what Jesus said. Jesus said, "But the things that come out of a person's mouth comes from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts: murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander". That's why prisons don't solve the problem. They contain the problem. They don't solve the problem because what inmates need, contrary to what popular thinking tells you, inmates don't need rehabilitation. They need salvation. They need spiritual reformation. They need a change in their heart.
Legislation will never solve our greatest problems. For example, we have legislation that outlaws discrimination, but it can't get rid of racism. We have legislation that can outlaw murder, but it can't get rid of hatred. We've got legislation that outlaws rape, but it can't get rid of lust because reformation is not the answer. I mean, how many times have we seen criminals released because of good behavior, and then 70 to 80% of them go out and go back to the bad behavior that threw them there to begin with? I mean, we do everything we can. Then 70% commit a crime. Listen to this, 70% of prisoners that get out for good behavior or get out on parole, 70% are back in jail within five years. You know why? We didn't deal with what was on the outside. We dealt with what was on the inside. We dealt with what was on the outside.
Jesus said it is a heart problem. That's why the only answer to our greatest problems is salvation, not legislation, because legislation tries to change us from the outside in. Salvation changes us from the inside out. So let me just kind of dip my toe in just a little bit of politics, and I'm gonna get right back out of it real quick. If we wanna start electing the right kind of leaders, and we wanna start putting the right kind of people in office, we better quit looking on what they are on the outside and look at what they are on the inside, or we're never gonna get anywhere 'cause it's not the most charismatic person that's always the best person. It's not always the slickest person that's always the best person. Character still counts.
Do you remember God gave Israel the king that they really needed? You remember when He did that? It's great story. So He tells the prophet Samuel, He says, "Look, the people want a king, and I want them to have the right king". So He says, "I want to choose the best king". So He says, "I want you to go to Bethlehem. I want you to find a man named Jesse," because one of his sons would be God's chosen king. So when he arrives in Bethlehem, and he finds Jesse, the first son that he sees was this kid named Eliab, and all he saw in Eliab was what was on the outside. Eliab was the high school quarterback. Eliab was the president of his class. Eliab was tall, dark, and handsome and muscular. Eliab had a 4.0 grade point average. And Eliab could have had any pick of the litter that he wanted. I mean, he was the total package. And this is what Samuel said.
Now listen to this. Samuel said, "Surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord. It's gotta be this guy". And apparently had you lined up all of Jesse's sons and put it to a vote, everybody would've voted for Eliab. But then the Lord said this to Samuel. He said, "Do not consider his appearance or his height. The Lord doesn't look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart". You see, when God looked at David, he didn't measure his height or his weight or his biceps or his chest size or his waistline. He measured his heart.
So while we're talking about generational discipleship, let me just say a word to parents just real quickly. Parents, more than anything else you should desire for your children, anything, more than that college degree, more than that corner office, more than that big paycheck, more than that championship ring, you know what you oughta desire for your kids more than anything else? "Lord, give my children a pure heart". We ought to desire inward purity. We ought to pursue it. That's what we ought to be after. But that does lead to something else because when you pursue inward purity, that means we are to practice external purity. When you pursue internal purity, you will practice external purity because the evidence of a pure heart are your hands. If your heart's pure, your life will be pure. If you're pure on the inside, you'll look pure on the outside.
That's why Jesus said this. He said, "Look, a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of". If you've ever lived, grew up in the country, and know anything about farming, farmers have a saying, and it's true, "What's down in the well comes up in the bucket". "What's down in the well comes up in the bucket". If you have a pure heart, you will look pure. You'll live pure.
Now, you won't have to force pure. It will just flow out of you. As a matter of fact, there's an Old Testament counterpart on which this beatitude is based. The same David we talked about a minute ago, he wrote in Psalm 24, these words. Listen to what he said. He said, "Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart". Now think about it. If God is completely pure, and you want to stand in the presence of God, there's only one shot you've got. You gotta be completely pure because a pure God cannot let impurity into His presence.
So David goes on to tell us this is what he means by a pure heart, "Who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god". In other words, here's what David said. A pure heart is a heart that's always true. Like a compass, it always points north. It's free from hypocrisy, doesn't try to deceive. It won't say one thing and then do another. It won't over-promise. It will not under-deliver. A pure heart will always do the right thing. It'll always do the good thing. It'll always do the God thing no matter what. And that's why I believe there is no greater need in the world right now than people with pure hearts. We need presidents and senators and congressmen and governors and judges with pure hearts. We need people, ordinary, run of the mill, dime-a-dozen, minimum wage, truck-driving people to have pure hearts.
Now, somebody, I don't know who wrote this, but this is just... Boy, I love stuff like this. I hope this will really kind of bring this home. I don't know who wrote it. Whoever did, man, I'd like to meet 'em. "The world needs men and women who cannot be bought, whose word is their bond, who put character above wealth, who will not lose their individuality in a crowd, who will be as honest in small things as in great things, who will make no compromise with wrong, who will not say they do it because everybody else does it, who are not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular, who can say, 'no,' with emphasis, although all the rest of the world says, 'Yes.'"
That's exactly what we need you guys to become, you ladies and young kids down here. That's the kind of kids we need. That's the kind of adults you need to grow into. That's the hard way. It's not easy. I'm gonna tell every one of you right now, if your desire is to always be popular, get the most votes, make sure that everybody speaks well of you, you won't take that route. But if you're gonna be pure in heart, if you're gonna have a heart after God, that's exactly what you have to do. But let me tell you why. Let me tell you why this is so important. Just imagine, just imagine one day, just one day, where everybody in the world, I mean everybody, every race, every color, every creed, every nationality, every ethnicity, every political party, just imagine everybody just for one day was pure in heart.
Just imagine. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart". If everybody was pure in heart, how blessed would our homes be, how blessed would our country be, how blessed would our world be, how blessed would our churches be. I mean, think about it. If everyone was pure in heart, you wouldn't need to lock your doors at night. For all you and you people out there who are real big into gun control, if everybody's pure in heart, you wouldn't need gun control. You wouldn't need a permit to carry a gun 'cause you wouldn't need a gun. If everybody was pure in heart, you wouldn't need contracts. You wouldn't need prisons. How blessed we would all be if we were all pure in heart.
But Jesus goes on to say, "Look, I know it's hard. I know it's not the easy way. I get it. But there is a benefit. There is an unbelievable reward to being pure in heart". Watch this. Jesus said, "If you will pursue inward purity, start with your heart first, guard your heart, search your heart..." By the way, I've said this to you before. I had a guy say to me the other day, and I've had many people say this, "You know, Dr. Merritt, I'll tell you, I know your heart, and I love it". I said, "No, no, no, stop it. You don't know my heart. You know how I know you don't know my heart? 'Cause I don't even know my own. You don't know your heart".
I've had people, "Well, if I know my heart..." I know your heart's dirty. Without Jesus, it's just filthy. I know your heart. The heart's deceitfully wicked. Nobody can know it, nobody. But every morning before God, I say, "God, today you search me, oh God, and know my heart. You try me and know my thoughts. You see if there be any wicked way in me. You lead me in the way everlasting". Because here's what God says. If you will pursue inward purity first, then you'll practice outer purity next. And when you pursue inward purity, and you practice outward purity, well, look what He says. He says, we are promised eternal purity because I told you the road to purity, the road to God's paved with purity.
Now again, I'm not gonna bait and switch. I'm not gonna pull any punches. It is the steeper road. It is the bumpier road. It is the harder road, but it's where the road ends that makes it by far the best road because watch what Jesus said. He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God". Simple question, simple question. Can you think of a greater blessing than to one day see God? Not with the eyes of faith, but I mean with the eyes of sight. Can you think of a greater blessing, a sweeter blessing than to see God face-to-face? 'Cause after all, if nothing is higher than God, it would mean that seeing God is the highest joy you could ever experience.
You know, Teresa, about three months ago, she called me into the bedroom one night. She said, "Hey, I'm putting together a bucket list". I said, "What do you mean"? She says, "There are things I wanna see". And I said, "Well, what do you wanna see? What do you wanna see"? I mean, I was hoping she says things simple like, "I'd like to go to Oakwood, Flowery Branch," you know, something like that. No, no, no, no. First thing on her list, she says, "I wanna see the northern lights". You gotta be kidding me. "I wanna see the northern lights. I wanna see the Grand Canyon. I wanna see Mount Rushmore. I wanna see Yellowstone". She got all these things, and we're gonna start knocking 'em off one by one. But I believe at the top of everybody's bucket list ought to be this one, "I wanna see God".
Can I ask you a question? Don't you wanna see God? The God that we worship, the God that we praise, the God that we say that we love, the God that so loved the world, the God that created this Earth, the God that put us here, the God that has a plan for our life, the God that created heaven for us to live in, don't you want see that God? Well you say, "Well, yeah, but what does that mean"? Here's what it means. It means you get into the very literal presence of God. And I don't think any of us, I don't think our mind can wrap around actually being in the literal presence of God because when you believe... Listen, you think about this. When you've got something you think is seriously wrong with you, I mean seriously wrong, you call the doctor's office, right?
And you say, "Hey, I wanna see," let's say, "Dr. Smith". "I wanna see Dr. Smith". Now if you've really got something you're really worried, you're really concerned about, you don't wanna see him from a distance. You don't wanna see a photograph of him. You really don't even wanna see him on a Zoom call. When you call, you're saying, "I want an appointment. I wanna be able to walk into his office, sit down with him face-to-face. I want his full attention. I wanna tell him my problem. I want him to tell me what he thinks I ought to do". That's what it means to finally see God. You are looking at Him, it's hard to believe, eye-to-eye and face-to-face. And you'll see Him as all He is in all of His glory.
You say, "Yeah, I wanna do that". Well, do you know what it takes? Do you know what it takes to see God? You say, "Well, yeah, it takes a pure heart". It takes more than that. You gotta wanna have a pure heart. You gotta want to see God. And see, at the end of the day, the people who will leave this Earth and only see God as their judge, not as their Father, not as their loving creator, they'll only see God as their judge and probably even that from a distance while He's sitting on a throne. The reason why they won't see God the way that He wanted them to see God is because they didn't really want to 'cause let me tell you something I know. I've learned this about human nature. We see what we really want to see. We do, we see what we really want to see.
Let me tell you a story. It's funny. There was a psychologist, and he was using this famous Rorschachs test. You know what a Rorschach test, right? It's where you throw inkblots on something, and you say, you know, you say, "So what do you see"? So he was trying to, you know, test whether, you know... They do this to see what kind of personality characteristics you have, you know, what kind of emotional stability you have. So this one guy walked in. He looked kind of crazy anyway. He kind sat down, and he says, "Okay, I'm here for the test". He says, "Okay," so he threw up the first inkblot, and it looked like a butterfly.
So the guy said, "Well, now what is the first word that comes to your mind when you see this"? And he said, "Sex". He said, "What"? "Yeah, sex". Okay, so he threw another inkblot on the paper. It looked like a football. "What's the first word you see comes to your mind"? He said, "Sex". Guy says, "Goodness gracious". He took one more inkblot, and it looked like rain falling from the sky. He said, "What's the first word that come to your mind when you see this"? He said, "Sex". Psychologist looked at him. He said, "Okay, I know what your problem is". "What's my problem"? He said, "You're obsessed with sex". Patient looked at him and said, "Me? You're the one that's writing all those dirty pictures".
Now, we see what we want to see, not always what we need to see, not always what we should. We see what we want to see, and see, here's what you really see. Can I tell you what you see every day? You see whatever is in your heart. Have you ever been around people, and they have the spiritual gift of criticism? You been around people like that? They see a black lining in every silver cloud. You know what I'm talking about? Do you know why people are like that, they're cynical? They see what they wanna see. Let me tell you something. You can ask my staff. Some of my staff's in here. They'll tell you. You wanna see my faults? Just hang around for a while. You'll see 'em, yeah, my hard spot. You look at me, and you look at one of two things. You can see, yep, there are inkblots there.
There are spots that don't belong in the picture. Or you can see the big picture. The point is we see what's in our heart. And here's what Jesus said. If you really wanna see God, you'll do it only with a pure heart with real integrity because that leads me to say the one last thing I want you to hear. And I really want these young people down here to listen to me, these students. Don't ever forget this. If doc goes out of the world, if I'm called home today, don't forget this one. Everybody with me? The most important part of your life is the part that only He sees. The most important part of your life, it's not what your parents see. It's not what your teacher sees. It's not what your coach sees. It's not what your girlfriend sees. It's not what I see.
The most important part of your life, the most important part of your life, the most important part of your life, is the part that only God sees. He knows whether or not your heart is pure. But here's the good news. If you cry out to Him, and you say, "Oh, God, give me a pure heart," He'll give you one. And when He does, you'll know Him, and you'll see Him for who He is now and who He is forever. So here's my question to you. Do you have a pure heart? "Well, you mean, do I go to..." No, I didn't ask what you do. I asked you what you have. "Well, I've never done..." I didn't ask what you do or what you don't do. Do you have a pure heart? Because to have a pure heart is not, first of all, what you do on the outside. It's who you know on the inside. And the only way you can have a pure heart is to know the only one who ever lived with a pure heart, and His name is Jesus.
That's why Jesus could die on a cross. That's why Jesus could pay for the sins of all the world, 'cause he had a completely, totally, 100%, 24/7 unfailing pure heart. And the pure heart that He has is the pure heart He could give you today. "You don't know what I've done". Again, it's not about what you do. It's about what you are. You see, too many people get the wrong idea. "God is real concerned with what I do". No, He's real concerned with what you are because when you are what you oughta be, then you'll do what you oughta do.
Jesus isn't looking for Pharisees. He's looking for followers. And if you're here today, and you've never committed your life to Christ, you've never realized your heart's dirty. You were born with a dirty heart. And without Jesus, you will die with a dirty heart, and you'll never see God, not the way you should see God, not the way He wants you to see Him. You will never see God because He cannot let impurity in His presence. When you finally realize, "I got a dirty heart, and the only doctor that can cure me is Dr. Jesus," and you just come to Him and say:
Lord, you know my heart. It's filthy. It's dirty. It's sinful. It's deceitful. It's lustful. It's corrupt. It's crooked. It's wrong. I'm asking you to do for me what only you can do right now. Create in me a pure heart. Come into my life. Save me. Forgive me of my sins. I repent of my dirty heart. I want you to clean out the lining of my dirty heart, and I want you to replace it with your Holy Spirit. I give all that I am to all that you are, thanking you for saving me. Thank you for giving me eternal life.