The Blessed Heart: How Seeing Your Sin Helps You See God

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:00:00] That's a transition, right?
[00:00:11] Someone I myself to be But in my weakness I've come to believe I know I am as greater than the man Who I once dreamed of I don't wanna dance anymore, nostalgia

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:00:34] The voices in me dominate another day I wanna be the one who's by your side You know my love is not the jealous type It doesn't matter if we win or lose Fair Africa, no matter where you're coming from
[00:01:53] I'll be the one to let you choose Close but never hold you back Just like the banks to a river Feel like you are not enough I'm gonna break all your mirrors All this closes in
[00:02:14] To make the truth a little clearer Hold you close but never hold you back I'll be the banks for your river Every turn Oh, I might take control of the voice they can follow in the water and the wind.
[00:02:50] Get back to this type.
[00:02:53] Oh, no matter what you're trying to do, as long as I can flow along with you, I'll never hold you back.
[00:03:09] Just like the banks to the river, you are not enough.
[00:03:15] I'm gonna break all your mirrors to make the truth a little clearer.
[00:03:28] Hold you back.
[00:03:29] I'll be the banks for your ration.
[00:05:29] Conversation.
[00:05:33] Put me like you do.
[00:05:35] Like you do.
[00:05:53] As a church this morning, I'm Michael Flake, part of the pastoral team here, and a lot

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:11:22] of us, most of us, worshiping online this morning.
[00:11:24] We also have some people in the sanctuary worshiping, so good.
[00:11:28] Whether you're in the sanctuary or worshiping online, we love being together as a church family.
[00:11:35] If you're here in the sanctuary, there's a few of these little connect cards you'll see on the tables as you exit and enter.
[00:11:41] there's a qr code on there that'll help you find ways to get a little more involved in the life of story hill and if you're one of the regulars always good to have a few of those cards handy
[00:11:51] as you meet newer people if you're worshiping online look in the comments uh on either youtube or facebook and you should be able to find that same qr code link there well we're going to open
[00:12:03] our service with prayer uh typically when we open our service in in prayer i i or whoever does a bulk of the praying. Today, I'm going to ask you to do a bulk of the praying. There are always
[00:12:14] things we bring into this time, whether it's something about ourselves, those closest to us, our community, our country, our world. I know there's a lot of things that press upon us as we walk into this time. And so I thought we might take some time right now, instead of just fretting
[00:12:31] about those things or getting angry about those things. And I do both of those, but why don't we take those things to god whether it is a deep problem in our own life love for somebody else
[00:12:43] desire to see ourselves or someone else walking god's ways desire to love our neighbors near or on the other side of the world a desire that someone far from god would experience the love of jesus or that a vulnerable person would experience the love of jesus whatever weighs
[00:13:00] on you let's take those in our opening prayer and we'll conclude praying the lord's prayer together over those things let's pray together lord we praise you as the one who speaks with a still small voice and even on a morning that looks really different you are the same god and you
[00:13:24] call us as your people to have a unity in our spirit and a unity in our purpose and yet we live in a world where people seem to be trying to tear the fabric of society apart and we've participated
[00:13:42] in that. We have been quick to fall into us versus them thinking as well. But Lord, we come back to what you have called us to do, and that is to present our prayers and petitions to you. So may
[00:13:58] each person now just take a quiet moment to present that one or two things top of mind to our Father in heaven. Lord, transform us and transform your world. Teach us to live and to pray as Jesus taught
[00:14:39] us to pray. Join me in saying these words. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.
[00:14:47] Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
[00:15:01] but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen.
[00:15:08] Let's worship together.

[00:15:10] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:15:10] Good morning, Story Hill.
[00:15:14] Will you stand with us?
[00:15:19] And I would encourage, you know, maybe not a lot of people in here, but that's all the better a morning to truly understand the importance of your voice.
[00:15:29] And a conversation that I have with a lot of people sometimes is, oh, well, singing isn't my thing, or nobody wants to hear me sing.
[00:15:36] I want to hear you sing this morning.
[00:15:38] And whether you were itching to get out of your house or couldn't wait to stay cozied up in your house for worship today, I would encourage you to own your voice.
[00:15:49] Let it be heard in the room.
[00:15:51] Fair enough? Fair enough? All right.
[00:15:54] We'll start with We Will Glorify.

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:15:57] We will glorify the King of Kings.
[00:16:02] We will glorify the Lamb.

[00:16:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:16:07] We will have dinner with Him.

[00:22:22] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:22:22] he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an
[00:22:33] alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them.
[00:22:46] When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner.
[00:22:58] Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to tell you.
[00:23:03] Tell me, teacher, he said.
[00:23:05] Two people owed money to a certain moneylender.
[00:23:09] One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50.
[00:23:13] Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both.
[00:23:18] Now which of them will love him more?
[00:23:21] Simon replied, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.
[00:23:25] You have judged correctly, Jesus said.
[00:23:29] Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, Do you see this woman? I came into your house.
[00:23:35] You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
[00:23:41] you did not give me a kiss but this woman from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet you did not put oil on my head but she has poured perfume on my feet therefore I tell you her many sins have been forgiven as her
[00:23:59] great love has shown but whoever has been forgiven little loves little then Jesus said to her your sins are forgiven the other guests began to say among themselves. Who is this who even forgives sins? Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you.
[00:24:18] Go in peace.

[00:24:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:24:59] Ways that we have missed you this week and the ways that we're tempted to miss you this morning.

[00:28:09] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:28:09] Lord, I pray that you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, would meet us in the middle of that as you do.
[00:28:15] And you would continue your work in us, Lord, for your glory and our good.
[00:28:20] Receive the position of our hearts as worship this morning.
[00:28:24] In the name of Jesus, we come and we sing and we pray and we worship.
[00:28:30] Amen.
[00:28:31] You may have a seat.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:28:38] Amen.
[00:28:38] In case I missed you earlier, I'm Michael Flake, part of the pastoral team here.
[00:28:43] We love being together as a church family online, in the sanctuary, on snowy days, on warm days.
[00:28:50] We love being together as a church family.
[00:28:52] As I said earlier, look in the comments for the QR code and use that QR code or the one on the screen at the very least to get signed up for the weekly newsletter so that you can find ways to get plugged into the life of the church.
[00:29:06] We would love that.
[00:29:07] so this morning i'm going to talk about something that may seem a little strange when there's snow on the ground i want to talk about four summer registrations that have opened this week and i
[00:29:18] don't know any other way to talk about snow in summer than to reference my dear friend olaf so i found a little blanket at our house that has olaf on it if you don't know olaf he's the little
[00:29:29] snowman in frozen who really wants to know what happens to snow in summer and he's about to find out. So kids worshiping at home, when I finished telling you about an opportunity, I'm going to
[00:29:39] let you know that that opportunity happens in summer. And when I say in, you're going to pitch in summer. Okay. All right. Let's see if we can do this. So the first great registration that opened
[00:29:50] this week is for kids, uh, kids, uh, try again, youth camp. We should really get someone who knows what they're doing to do this. Yeah. Thank you. Youth camp. So youth camp is a great opportunity.
[00:30:02] If you are a middle schooler or high schooler, if you know a middle schooler or high schooler for this summer, we're going to get away.
[00:30:08] A great time to grow in your faith, but also to make new friends, deepen the friendships you have, have a lot of fun.
[00:30:14] That registration for youth summer camp is open and it will be happening in.
[00:30:20] Thank you very much. The second thing that is open this week is for our kids summer camps that we got stuff for little kids.
[00:30:28] Right. Camp Ollie. And then we have summer nights for our elementary school kiddos.
[00:30:32] again great opportunity for if you are a kiddo if you know a kiddo to in an age appropriate way learn more about jesus make some friends make a ton of memories and you can do that in thank you
[00:30:44] very much that i hear you through the screens you're doing great indian core and all the other kiddos thank you we practice this at home with my nine and seven year old you'll be glad to know
[00:30:54] you can find all these registration links in the comments or behind that qr code that you see on the screens in the sanctuary the third thing that's open this week is our mission trips for
[00:31:04] this upcoming summer we're going uh near we're going far two hours away multiple countries away if you've never had the opportunity to go on one of these trips and really watch god burst your bubble uh and serve together in a different environment in a way that you see god is at
[00:31:20] work outside of the world that where we normally live it's a beautiful thing those applications are live we were supposed to have the mission trip interest meeting last sunday that didn't work out. We're supposed to have it this Sunday. That didn't work out. We're going to have it next
[00:31:33] Sunday after both services in the little white house in front of the church building, but come learn more or submit your application to participate in one of those trips in very good.
[00:31:45] And the very last one is our ministry internship program. It's for our college age folks.
[00:31:50] It's a summer internship that we do every summer. We usually have eight summer ministry interns join our staff over the summer college-age folks especially those who've completed a semester or so of college and so you one you may be thinking about a career or a vocation in ministry or you
[00:32:07] may just want to grow personally and professionally the program really focuses on your own growth as a disciple and also leadership development faith development and what does it look like to serve in a congregational setting so that'll happen again this summer and those applications are
[00:32:23] live we would love for some of you or some of you to consider doing that in very good beautifully done so a lot of neat opportunities coming up this summer and we hope you will use those links or the
[00:32:37] the monday email to learn more about how you can be be part of those now if you're in the sanctuary going to give you a chance to turn to someone near you and tell them good morning if you're at home
[00:32:48] you also can turn to someone near you tell them good morning or take out your phone and send a text to somebody you haven't talked to in a while and just tell them you're thinking about them but
[00:32:57] take a moment tell someone good morning how glad you are to see them on this snowy day

[00:33:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:33:56] i'm sorry to interrupt you may grab a seat at home or at church and i'll be honest i got an email describing what michael was going to do during the community moment and was not sure how it was going
[00:34:09] going to work but he pulled it off so well done right right you did great you did great um glad it wasn't me but anyways i have the pleasure of introducing our guest speaker this morning mr
[00:34:20] noah satterfield noah come on up okay yeah noah is yes thank you welcome noah noah is a davidson college class of 2020 alum and then after that he did our residency which is a previous iteration of
[00:34:33] fellows and so he worked with youth ministry there and then has done a couple things since but he and his wife emily live down in jacksonville where noah the reverend noah satterfield is on young life staff down there and his wife is a resident at a hospital we we love them both
[00:34:50] dearly and are excited to have noah here to share with us this morning so noah the mic is yours

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:34:56] thanks oh you want me to take that back okay i got the mic already uh yeah good morning everyone welcome to storage hill church we're so glad you can join us in person and brave the snow
[00:35:06] uh jacksonville it was 65 when i left on friday so i'm still not used to what's happening to me outside right now my lips are chaps for the first time in years and it terrible um couldn't no
[00:35:18] chapstick either all the gas stations were closed it was crazy uh so again my name's noah uh i'm on young life staff down in jacksonville florida my wife is a resident at mayo clinic um again
[00:35:30] yeah not prepared for the snow my car got plowed in at the hotel this morning so it's gone um it's It's a Kia Soul, so it wasn't going to make it here anyways.
[00:35:39] If you don't know that car, it's the hamster box car.
[00:35:42] Not good.
[00:35:44] But before I moved to Florida, I was a youth ministry resident here at Story Hill, formerly Lake Forest Church Davidson.
[00:35:50] And I graduated from Davidson back in 2020 during the COVID years.
[00:35:55] It was a wild time for those, since there's a lot of college students here.
[00:35:58] I wrestled at Davidson.
[00:35:59] My wife played field hockey at Davidson.
[00:36:01] We met at Davidson where one of those people got married, moved to Charlotte, and now we live in Jacksonville. And me and my wife Emily called Story Hill our first church home and we're so grateful for everything the Story Hill community has done for us and I'm so thankful
[00:36:16] that I keep getting invited back for another chance to come and meet new friends and see old friends and give back to the church and the people that have helped me so much in my life. So whether
[00:36:27] you're cautious about Jesus, curious about Jesus, or committed to Jesus, there is room for you here.
[00:36:32] This is a safe place to learn, to grow, and to change. So if you don't have it all together, you'll fit right in. It's always so fun to get to say that when I get to come back. So let's pray.
[00:36:41] Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for the snowy days and just this place to be open, to have a space to come and learn about you and be with other people and worship and get to worship
[00:36:53] online if the snow is too scary. So Lord, just thank you for this place. Open our hearts, soften our hearts to hear something new about you and to just let you transform us to be more like you.
[00:37:03] Amen.
[00:37:05] So today we are continuing our sermon series called Blessed Are.
[00:37:09] There are a lot of voices in the world on Instagram, on TikTok, Threads, ChatGBT, Twitter, which is X now, you name it.
[00:37:17] There are so many voices in our minds telling us what matters most, who we should be and how we should live.
[00:37:23] So we're starting off this new year by amplifying the most important voice, the voice of Jesus.
[00:37:28] us, and we're doing this by looking at the Beatitudes, a section of one of Jesus' most famous speeches called the Sermon on the Mount. And the Beatitudes are statements that reorient our reality as Jesus reveals that there is blessing and goodness and life and rightness
[00:37:44] and things that we would never imagine. Jesus joins a virtue of God's kingdom to a promise of God's kingdom. And as we read and look at these Beatitudes together, we're asking ourselves to memorize one or two that we most connect with, that changes our perspective, that reorients and
[00:38:00] reframes our reality to see through the eyes of Jesus instead of being overwhelmed by the voices around us. So let's read the teachings of Jesus together. It says, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure
[00:38:31] in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who were persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Struggle with that one a little bit. Today we are focusing on the beatitude from Matthew 5.8.
[00:38:49] It says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. So what comes to mind when you hear the word pure. If you're anything like me, many things come to mind, whether it's pure bloods
[00:39:01] from Harry Potter, or purity culture, or external cleanliness, or Purell hand sanitizer. That last one may have been a little bit of a stretch, but it did come to mind. Thing about purity reminded me of a time when I was in organic chemistry at Davidson thinking I was going to go to med school.
[00:39:19] You can see that didn't work out. Worked out for Emily, though. But when I was in that class, we got to do all these experiments where after they were done, we had to do all this testing, like
[00:39:27] this huge machine and wall, I don't remember what it's called, to see if we made the right substance, to see if it was pure. And all I remember is doing them wrong every time, and the teacher asking me
[00:39:36] if I actually knew what I was doing in her class. And she was super annoyed. I can tell you after some more stories, but I did not do well in that class. But Jesus doesn't define purity as any of
[00:39:48] these things. Purity is not good behavior, moral success, religious performance, or a chemical reaction. Jesus tells us purity has to do with the heart, the center of our desire, our will, and motivation, the command center of the whole person. Jesus begins to reframe and shift our
[00:40:07] focus to our hearts, asking us not what we do, but who we are becoming. The focus shifts from the action of being pure to the condition of our hearts. And this isn't new. All through the Bible,
[00:40:19] we see the phrase pure in hearts, especially in the Psalms. Psalm 24 says this. It says, Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has
[00:40:29] clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.
[00:40:35] And Psalm 51, create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
[00:40:43] Jesus isn't asking us to figure out how to be pure, but he's trying to tell us what a pure heart looks like.
[00:40:48] Being pure in our heart is about having our desires, our motivation, our will, and our heart align with God's desires, with his heart, in all that we do.
[00:40:59] For Jesus, this is what we were made for, to desire what is good and beautiful and just, and above all, to desire God himself, who alone can satisfy our deepest longings and create that pure heart in us.
[00:41:12] So blessed are the pure in heart, the ones who are compelled to love because of love itself rather than pure gain. Blessed are the pure in heart, the ones who are radically transformed by the love and grace of Jesus. Blessed are the pure in heart, those who have an undivided focus and
[00:41:27] attention for the love of God and love of people that flows from the forgiveness they received.
[00:41:33] So like Michael said last week, the word blessed means that the people described in these Beatitudes are experiencing human forging at its potential, that something's going on in their life, that the state of their life has something about it
[00:41:46] that makes them in this ideal place to discover the power and reality of God's kingdom.
[00:41:52] And Jesus subverts our views of reality, telling us that it's not the powerful and the wealthy and the healthy that have a good life, but those that are in need, those that are broken, those that are hurting, and those that are pure in heart
[00:42:05] that have this good life.
[00:42:07] And to get a better sense of what Jesus is getting at when he says the pure in heart are blessed, that they will see God, we are going to look at the passage that we read this morning,
[00:42:15] a story of an unnamed woman with a bottle of perfume and a teacher of the Bible named Simon.
[00:42:20] So the story goes like this.
[00:42:22] It's in Luke 7.
[00:42:24] When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at a table.
[00:42:31] A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume as she stood behind him at his feet weeping she
[00:42:41] began to wet his feet with her tears then she wiped them with her hair kissed them and poured perfume on them when the pharisee who had invited them saw this he said to himself if this were a
[00:42:53] man were a prophet he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is that she is a sinner jesus answered him simon i have something to tell you tell me teacher he said two people
[00:43:05] owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him 500 denarii and the other 50. Neither of them had money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?
[00:43:17] Simon replied, I suppose the one who had a bigger debt forgiven. You have judged correctly, Jesus said. Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I came into your
[00:43:28] house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman from the time I entered has not stopped
[00:43:37] kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins has been forgiven as her great love has shown. But whoever is forgiven
[00:43:48] little loves little. Then Jesus said to her, your sins are forgiven. The other guests began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. So this is a story about two people, two hearts that respond and see Jesus
[00:44:05] in very different ways at a dinner party. You have Simon the Pharisee, the teacher of the Bible, who's hourly respectable but guarded and judgmental. And then we have the unnamed woman, publicly known as a sinner, all she's known as is as the woman who's a sinner, who's emotionally
[00:44:22] exposed and extravagantly devoted. She says nothing but her actions are what speak volume.
[00:44:28] As Jesus reveals what is happening beneath the surface, it becomes clear that this story isn't about who is clean or unclean, who is morally perfect versus not, who is performing to expectation, but about who recognizes their need for grace in the midst of their pain,
[00:44:45] their brokenness, and hurt. The woman sees Jesus clearly and responds with uncalculated love, while Simon keeps his distance and loves little. Jesus is showing us that this purity of heart isn't about appearances. It's about how we see Jesus and what our hearts do in his presence.
[00:45:03] And it's through the story of the unnamed woman and Simon's interaction with Jesus that we see what a pure heart looks like and how the pure heart looks at Jesus differently, becoming more like him. So we're going to explore the story together. Again, it starts like this. When one
[00:45:18] of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the
[00:45:28] Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair,
[00:45:38] kissed them, and poured perfume on them. So Jesus gets invited to a dinner party by a Pharisee, a teacher of the Bible. Now dinner parties back then were a little different than we're used to.
[00:45:50] We're used to maybe going to a friend's house to watch football and tailgate for the Super Bowl or having dinner with some friends and the guests are the ones that bring a bottle of wine or bring
[00:45:59] some flowers, but that's not what it was like in Jesus's time. Dinner parties were a spectacle to be watched. It was customary for people to come in and spectate the large dinner parties, especially those held by someone of dignity or respect like Simon, or when they invited an out-of-town teacher
[00:46:17] into their home. And opposite of what we expect, it's the host that was supposed to provide the gift and the hospitality. The host was supposed to greet their guests with a kiss, clean their feet,
[00:46:28] and oil their head before letting them into their house. And something seems to be missing from this story. Simon invites Jesus to his house, but does none of the host's duties. Just invites him and
[00:46:40] gets ready to put on a show. It would have been kind of like watching a UFC fight, especially when Jesus sat without being greeted properly by a rival teacher. Then something unexpected happens, something that violated all social norms. A woman comes out of the spectator seating to see Jesus,
[00:46:58] like a person walking in from the crowd to join the main event of the UFC fight night.
[00:47:03] And all we know of this woman is that she is a woman of the town who lived a sinful life.
[00:47:09] This is a turn of phrase that used to describe somebody who is either a prostitute or someone who lived a hard life that people viewed as less than themselves. She was a woman known for her
[00:47:19] brokenness, known for her hurt, not even her name. She was the woman of the town. And she blew social conventions out the door by interrupting a dinner party, pouring costly perfume at Jesus's feet, perfume that was worth a year's wage. I don't know what kind of perfume that would be like today,
[00:47:37] but you could think of it as using your most prized possession to greet Jesus.
[00:47:42] She washed his feet with her tears and kisses and dried them with her unbound hair, which was considered a disgrace for a Jewish woman to unbind her hair in front of other men.
[00:47:52] But she came not by accident, but with a purpose to see Jesus.
[00:47:58] And if you noticed in the story, she did what the host of the party was supposed to do.
[00:48:03] She oiled the guest, she cleaned his feet, and she greeted him with kisses.
[00:48:07] The unnamed broken woman was humiliating herself in front of everyone, but she didn't care as long as she was able to make an extravagant and incalculable display of affection and love for Jesus, for the one that she sees is something more. She had her eyes on one
[00:48:25] thing. She desired one thing above all and nothing else. All she wanted was to get to Jesus, to see him for who he truly is. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. The story continues
[00:48:38] like this. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner.
[00:48:50] Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to tell you. Tell me, teacher, Simon said. Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed them 500 denarii and the other 50. Neither of them had
[00:49:01] money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them loved him more? Simon replied, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven. You have judged correctly, Jesus said.
[00:49:12] So now we get to learn more about the host of the party, a man named Simon. Pharisees, these teachers of the Bible, separated themselves from the sinners and the broken, trying to uphold themselves to a
[00:49:24] higher standard and external purity that drew them away from the broke and lost. So when this sinful woman invaded the party, he questioned who Jesus was, asking himself if Jesus was who he says he
[00:49:36] was. This wouldn't be happening. He wouldn't be interacting with someone who is so broken and sinful. Then something crazy happens. Jesus answered the question that Simon thought to himself, which is, yeah, crazy. Jesus is just reading minds out here. Even when we don't think
[00:49:55] it, even when we're in maybe our darkest places in our mind, in the back of our minds, Jesus is there knowing us more fully and more deeply than anyone else. Jesus knows our hearts and our
[00:50:06] thoughts. Jesus knows who Simon is, and he knows who this woman is more than they do themselves.
[00:50:13] So Jesus answers Simon's doubt with a quick story about forgiveness, about those who have a higher debt will love the one who forgives more. And the story continues like this. Then Jesus turned towards the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not
[00:50:33] give me any water for my feet, but she wet my tears with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on
[00:50:44] my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven loves little. Whoever has been
[00:50:55] forgiven little loves little. So right after telling the story about forgiveness, Jesus starts to put it to work. He looks at the unnamed woman, the woman risking everything to get to Jesus, and tells her that she greeted him as Simon should have. The woman who is known for her
[00:51:12] sinfulness, known for her brokenness, known for her hurt and her pain, knew who she was.
[00:51:19] She knew the great debt that she was in. She was profoundly aware of her sinfulness and brokenness, and she was profoundly aware of who Jesus was and what he could do about it. While Simon did not
[00:51:30] think of himself as a sinner. He did not think he needed any help. He had his eyes focused on what Jesus was doing wrong and the brokenness of another person instead of what was going on in his own
[00:51:40] life and in his own heart. The woman knew the extent of her debt, and so she went to the only person that she knew that could take that debt away, to the God-man, Jesus, who she had heard
[00:51:52] stories about, the person who has gone around healing people from their pain and their hurt and forgiving them of their sin, helping them reorder their life, rebuilding their relationship with God, with one another, and with the world. She looked to the one who had the power to forgive
[00:52:07] instead of trying to find her own way out. The woman looks externally broken and unclean and impure, while Simon externally looks pure and put together. But it's the hearts that reveal what they really think of themselves, that the woman is pure in heart because she recognizes who she is.
[00:52:26] While she is sinful and broken, she is fully forgiven and able to love like God loves.
[00:52:32] While Simon is internally divided and self-righteous, having motivations that put himself on a pedestal rather than looking to what God desires.
[00:52:42] It's when we fully recognize our sinfulness and brokenness and pain and hurt that we see who God really is and what he can do.
[00:52:50] Those who see their sin most clearly often see God most clearly because forgiven hearts become loving hearts, just like the woman.
[00:52:58] And it's these pure in heart that see who God is.
[00:53:02] The story continues like this.
[00:53:05] Then Jesus said to her, your sins are forgiven.
[00:53:08] The other guests began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sin?
[00:53:13] Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you.
[00:53:16] Go in peace.
[00:53:17] The woman sees Jesus for who he truly is, and Jesus sees the woman for who she truly is.
[00:53:23] The woman experienced forgiveness of her sins, and for the first time, she was known as the woman in the town who is forgiven and loved by Jesus.
[00:53:31] No longer is she the woman whose sin, but the woman who gave it all to come to the feet of Jesus, to the feet of the one who loves her most fully, who loves you and me fully,
[00:53:42] no matter our past or what we've done.
[00:53:45] True faith is what happens when we look to Jesus and discover God's forgiveness, and the sign and proof of that faith is love.
[00:53:51] that blessed are the pure in heart, the ones who know who they truly are, how broken they are, and how in need they are, for they will see God and experience the love and forgiveness that only
[00:54:03] he can offer. Purity in heart isn't a spotless past, but an undivided heart, one that recognizes its need for grace, responds in incalculable and extravagant love, and sees Jesus for who he truly is and what he can do. It's through the radical faith and love and devotion of this nameless woman
[00:54:23] and the questions of Simon that we get a picture of what a pure heart really looks like.
[00:54:28] So point number one, number, number, number one, just like Michael Flake does. You only get that once though. I can't do it all the time. I'm not as cool as that. But point number one, the pure
[00:54:39] in heart have an undivided heart. The pure in heart looks to the heart, not to the external, but the internal. Pure in heart has to do with our inner life, the center of our desire, of our will,
[00:54:52] of our identity, of our motivation, the command center of our very being. Our heart has to deal with what we desire. So when we think of sin like the sinful woman, we can often think of the actions
[00:55:05] that we do that are wrong. But one of the ways that the Bible describes sin is disordered desires, that what we desire shapes who we are. And when we desire something more than we should,
[00:55:16] when our desires are out of order, our life and our actions can start to work out of a motivation to get that desire, whatever that desire may be, whether it's money or pleasure or good grades
[00:55:27] or being well or being known or being good at sports or whatever it may be in our life.
[00:55:33] This is what a divided heart looks like, a heart that has disordered desire that searches for meaning and for life in many different things that can be good but ultimately don't provide life and life to the full. It's like choice paralysis, that thing that happens when you
[00:55:50] have so many choices in front of you that you get overwhelmed and make no decision at all.
[00:55:54] When our hearts are disordered and divided, we get overwhelmed by the voices that are telling us what is good and right and end up missing out on the true life, like Simon, when he invited
[00:56:05] Jesus to his house for prestige rather than purpose. But the woman in the story, this unnamed woman, had a singular focus, had a singular motivation. Nothing else mattered to her but Jesus. Her eyes were fixed like tunnel vision on Jesus. She could see nothing else but the one
[00:56:23] who called her forgiven. All social and financial and cultural norms were thrown out the door to get to this one desire, to put someone on the throne of her heart that could change the course
[00:56:34] of her life. She was like one of those athletes in a flow state. It's like, if you don't know what a flow state is, and I'm going to try my best. It's when an athlete's like so locked in on their sport,
[00:56:45] you might have seen videos, that they don't look like they're trying. They're just doing the sport as it's supposed to be done, making it look effortless with all their focus on the sport and nothing else. It's like the sport and the person become like one thing. The woman in the
[00:56:59] story was in her flow state with her singular focus on getting to Jesus and giving him all that she had to offer. Her desires were beginning to become like the desires of the one she ran after,
[00:57:12] the desires of Jesus to love God and to love other people. But being in this state where all we desire in one thing is difficult, near impossible, our hearts are broken and are always willing to put something else or someone else on the throne of our heart in the place of
[00:57:27] Jesus, disordering good desires into something that sucked life out of us instead of giving us the life we thought. That's why this purity of heart is the result of a long, lifelong process of sifting through our desires, discarding or deprioritizing—tough word, shouldn't have put
[00:57:46] that in there—deprioritizing desires that don't lead to the ultimate source of life itself, to Jesus. So that leads to point number two. The pure in heart recognize their need for grace.
[00:58:00] The pure in heart recognize their need for grace.
[00:58:04] A pure heart is not a perfect heart.
[00:58:06] It's one that constantly chases after Jesus, aware of the desires that are out of order.
[00:58:13] The woman is able to love deeply because she knows her need deeply.
[00:58:17] She is not defending herself or pretending that she isn't broken.
[00:58:21] She knows that she is not able to fix her heart herself and needs someone else to be the center of her attention.
[00:58:27] She needs someone else to sit on the throne of her heart.
[00:58:31] Simon loves little.
[00:58:32] The Pharisee loves little because he believes he needs to be forgiven little.
[00:58:36] It's not that he's less broken than the woman.
[00:58:38] He just thinks that he doesn't have sin or brokenness that needs forgiveness like she does.
[00:58:44] But Jesus didn't come to forgive actions.
[00:58:46] He came to reclaim our hearts for himself.
[00:58:48] The parable of the debtors, the story that he tells in the middle, showed two people who were helpless to pay their debt back, but they were both fully forgiven. The story showed the one who knew their debt
[00:59:01] loved more because they knew how much they were truly forgiven. So the more we see our own sin, the more we recognize our own brokenness and how we are stuck in the middle of it,
[00:59:12] the more we will see God for who he is. And there's this diagram called the cross diagram.
[00:59:19] And on one axis, axis, axis, axis. I'm not a math guy. See, I failed Orgo. It was not good.
[00:59:25] Or it goes not even math and I can't get it right. But on one axis is our sin and brokenness and on the other axis is God's holiness and forgiveness. The more we recognize our disordered desires and
[00:59:37] brokenness, the more the gap between God's holiness and our sin gets. The more the need of God's forgiveness in our love and brokenness. And in the middle of these two axes is the cross.
[00:59:52] The more we recognize the gap between our sin and God's forgiveness, the bigger the cross becomes.
[00:59:59] Like the woman, those who see their sin, their disordered desires, and brokenness clearly often see God most clearly.
[01:00:07] So this leads to point number three.
[01:00:09] No math in this one.
[01:00:11] The pure in heart—I lied, actually.
[01:00:13] The pure in heart offer extravagant and uncalculated worship.
[01:00:18] A little bit of math.
[01:00:19] The woman had a singular focus on Jesus and recognized her need for grace and felt fully forgiven like the debtor in the story. So she worshiped in uncalculated ways. She didn't stop to consider what would happen when she ran to Jesus. Her worship was costly. She used a perfume
[01:00:38] that cost a year's wage. She unbound her hair in front of other people. She cried and interrupted in an event to get to the feet of Jesus and worship the one who changed her life. She did
[01:00:50] not calculate what was appropriate. She asked how she could fully love the one who saved her and grab what she had, an expensive perfume bottle, and she showed up as she was, broken, crying, hurting, and loved. A divided heart asked, how little can I give for this to still be a part
[01:01:08] of my life? When our desires are disordered and our eyes are on multiple things, on multiple ways to find life, it can be difficult to fully and radically worship, to give what we have without
[01:01:19] thinking of what it will cost us. But when our hearts are pure, are undivided, when we start to recognize our own brokenness, we start to ask, how can I fully love the one who loved me first?
[01:01:31] What do I have to bring to love Jesus well, to love other people well? The cost of worship and of love becomes an afterthought as our hearts run after Jesus instead of every other desire we
[01:01:43] may have. And having a pure heart isn't just having the singular focus, but having a right motivation behind what we do. The pure in heart don't come asking God what they can get out of
[01:01:56] the relationship, but ask how much they can give. The woman didn't run to Jesus with stipulations, but ran to Jesus with all she had, with the motivation to love the one who loved her first.
[01:02:09] The motivation and intention behind what we do is shaped by what we desire.
[01:02:13] If you follow Jesus, or one day come to follow Jesus, He starts to transform your hearts from the inside out, to become more and more like Him, to desire the things that He desires, to love God and to love other people.
[01:02:26] And when we operate out of this desire, out of this motivation and intention, we start to see God for who He truly is, worshiping in a way that we think would be unimaginable, running to Jesus with whatever we have,
[01:02:39] with whatever is most precious to us, giving it to him as we cry at his feet. Last point, bonus point, number four, no math, keeping that going. The pure in heart see Jesus for who he truly is. The pure in heart see Jesus
[01:02:56] for who he truly is. The promise of this beatitude, the promise that's attached, is that the pure in heart will see God. They see God for who he truly is, for the person who loves them and forgives
[01:03:10] them fully. For the one who offers them life and life to the full. The one who transforms us from the inside out, inviting us further in and pushing us further out as we learn to love God and love
[01:03:22] other people and always keeping Christ in the center. For the one who forgives first and invites us to come and find out what love is. But as we come to find out, having a heart like this is
[01:03:34] difficult. We are never the ones who can make our own hearts pure. It's almost impossible. I don't know about you, but it's so difficult to desire one thing above everything else. We're at church right now, and I'm thinking about what I'm going to eat for lunch after this, or if I'm going to
[01:03:51] get stuck in the snow, or if I remember how to drive in the snow. I'm from Ohio, but that was 10 years ago at this point. I'm more motivated about how I'm going to drive home to Florida on
[01:04:00] 177 instead of thinking about Jesus and what he's done in my life. It's so easy to let our hearts and our minds get overwhelmed by all the stimuli and voices around us. I was in my hotel last night
[01:04:12] because I got trapped and was on Instagram reels and doom scrolled for an hour, stuck in the snow in the Homewood Suites. It's so easy to let these voices and desires take over our hearts. Our hearts
[01:04:25] are always running after other things, always replacing Jesus with something else, good or bad.
[01:04:33] But Jesus doesn't leave us with broken and disordered hearts. God invaded his story himself in the person of Jesus, where he walked, he taught the Beatitudes, and he went to the cross, to his death, to take on sin himself, to take on the problem of our disordered and divided and unclean
[01:04:50] hearts. And it was at the cross, the place where we see God most clearly, that God creates a pure heart in us. There's a verse in Titus that says this, it says, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for
[01:05:03] us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify himself of people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Jesus willingly went to his death to redeem us, to free us from the debt that we
[01:05:16] can never pay, just like in the story, and to purify our hearts, to give us a way to let him sit on the throne of our hearts, to order our desires for us, to make him our focus, to where
[01:05:29] if we follow him or one day come to follow him, he starts to transform and reorient and reframe our lives to be more and more like his, to desire what he desires and to love how he loves. Being
[01:05:43] pure in heart is about having our desires, our motivation, our will, and our heart align with God's desires in all that we do. For Jesus, this is again what we were made for, to desire what is
[01:05:55] good, what is beautiful, and what is just, and to above all desire God himself, who alone can satisfy the deepest longings and create a pure heart in us. And then we can pray Psalm 51 again saying,
[01:06:08] create in me a pure heart, O God, so I can see you for who you are, so I can desire and love what you desire and love, so I can leave today loving God, loving other people, and in all things
[01:06:21] keeping Christ in the center. So the question we can ask ourselves as we leave today, as we stretch out in the snow, is what desires are disordered in your own heart? And where can we
[01:06:34] invite Jesus in to transform our hearts into forgiven, loving, pure, undivided hearts that see God for who he is by loving God and loving other people. Let's pray. I'll give you a moment to pray and to reflect, to talk to God. Lord, we ask again that you create in us a pure heart,
[01:07:28] O God, and help us see you for who you are, to help us reorder our desires, whatever those may be, to put you on the throne of our heart, to help us keep running and running after you,
[01:07:39] to have our hearts run after who you are so that we can keep seeing you for who you are and what you've done, that you call us fully forgiven and fully loved, that you create in us a pure heart, oh God.

[01:07:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[01:07:53] Amen.
[01:07:57] Will you stand with us as we respond with our voices and our offerings are just in our hearts.

[01:08:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[01:08:04] Our musicians and Noah who braved the snow

[01:18:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:18:01] to make this morning happen.
[01:18:02] We want each of them.
[01:18:06] We would love to pray for you.
[01:18:08] Because of the conditions today, you can email your prayer request, prayer at storyhill.org.
[01:18:14] We would love to pray for you.
[01:18:15] But receive the benediction as we've done today.
[01:18:18] Let's continue to look up, continue to look around so that together we might find life as we love God, love people.
[01:18:24] In all things, keep Christ in the center.
[01:18:26] Amen.
[01:18:28] We will see you next week.