Introduction and Ice Breaker
Describe the biggest trouble you got in while in high school.
Themes to Consider
Insecurity of our times: In this world of financial, emotional, identity, and social insecurity nothing seems safe; everything feels like chaos.
BLESSED: It indicates flourishing. Whatever Jesus is trying to convey to us, it is not a static moral code meant to make us good in appearance or outward evaluation. IT IS MEANT TO LEAD US TO FLOURISHING - ABUNDANT LIFE
PURE HEART he is talking about a heart fully alive.
a heart beating wild with love
a heart not hardening in self-indulgence but breaking with kindness
a heart secure in the protection of the Father and basking in the promises of God
a heart that returns over and over again to well of living water in the person of Jesus
The HEART is our MIND, WILL, and EMOTIONS
JESUS HEART IS PURE
JESUS MAKES US PURE
IN UNION WITH JESUS WE CAN LIVE WITH PURE HEARTS
RENEWAL IS HARD TO IMAGINE
See Jesus
In Scripture
In Nature
In Community
In Worship
Discussion Questions
How was purity portrayed or demanded when you were growing up?
In what ways do you try to be pure in heart but fail?
Caleb asked us to rather than just trying harder, See Jesus and notice his purity. In scripture, in nature, in community, and in worship.
Which of these four are easier/more natural for you? Which of them would you like to explore more than you have before?
Guided Prayer
Silence / Remove distractions as much as you can and spend two minutes (time it, if helpful) in silence, noticing your body, your emotions and thoughts. Perhaps use a simple phrase to pray silently so that you stay focused.
Read / Read this portion of Psalm 51:10–12 (ESV) a few times and then pray it line upon line yourself.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Supplemental Content
The clean of heart move through life constantly choosing God, so that as they leave life, they receive the promise of this Beatitude: they enter the presence of their creator. The clean of heart, however, do not have to pass from the earth to have a vision of the divine. They see the Spirit of God in those close to them, in their friends, and in the people they meet on life’s pilgrimage. As followers of Jesus, those who live single-hearted can glimpse the Spirit of God in their opponents, even in those who may hate them and wish them evil. —Mother Teresa
A grand fissure exists between the outer and the inner life that only the love of God can heal. And for that healing to occur, we must admit our lack of integrity. In the words of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “the only way to have a pure heart is to realize you have an impure heart.”We must admit to God and to ourselves that we lift our souls to another, to that which is false and not true. Only then can we face the test honestly. This, of course, guarantees failure. With unclean hands and an impure heart, how can anyone pass the test and gain entrance to the mountain? We need a cure so powerful it heals us inside and out. —Jonathan K Dodson
Social trust is the confidence that other people will do what they ought to do most of the time. In a restaurant I trust you to serve untainted fish and you trust me not to skip out on the bill. Social trust is a generalized faith in the people of your community. It consists of smaller faiths. It begins with the assumption that we are interdependent, our destinies linked. It continues with the assumption that we share the same moral values. —David Brooks
For many people, it is impossible to think without simultaneously thinking about what other people would think about what you’re thinking. This is exhausting and deeply unsatisfying. As long as your self-conception is tied up in your perception of other people’s conception of you, you will never be free to occupy a personality with confidence; you’re always at the mercy of the next person’s dim opinion of you and your whole deal. —Fredrik deBoer
Every time that there is a story of faith, it is completely original. God's creative genius is endless. He never, fatigued and unable to maintain the rigors of creativity, resorts to mass-producing copies. Each life is a fresh canvas on which he uses lines and colors, shades and lights, textures and proportions that he has never used before. We see what is possible: anyone and everyone is able to live a zestful life that spills out of the stereotyped containers that a sin-inhibited society provides. Such lives fuse spontaneity and purpose and green the desiccated landscape with meaning. And we see how it is possible: by plunging into a life of faith, participating in what God initiates in each life, exploring what God is doing in each event. —Eugene Peterson
