Good morning and welcome in today. Today we are going to look at a passage of Scripture from the book of Matthew but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
A few years back we loaded up my old pickup and took a drive out to deadwood South Dakota. We had decided to camp but it was a week of torrential rain. It was so heavy that for the first few days out there we had to get a hotel room. Because of all the rain, the dry riverbeds started filling up with water.
The next morning we saw one of the shallow rivers loaded with all kinds of people, both young and old, bent over in the water.
I was curious and walked up to them to find out what they were doing. They each had tin plates scooping up parts of the riverbed and panning for gold.
I started up a conversation with one of the young men to see if they were finding anything. Sure enough they were. He pulled a small flask from his pocket and revealed two nice size nuggets of 24k pure gold that he had refined.
When something is pure it’s made of only one substance and is not mixed with anything else. Some examples are tin, diamonds and of course, purified gold.
Matthew 5:8 – Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
God wants us to purify our hearts like a refiner purifes Gold.
Zechariah 13:9 – And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.
When our hearts are perfectly cleansed through His grace, we can walk with Him and others in true charity. Our hearts become purified through His incredible mercy.
1 Peter 1:7 – That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
God wants our hearts to become perfectly pure and sincere. It brings with it true blessings From God.
Psalms 66:10 – For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
Malachi 3:1-3
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
We are to join together for church with others who truly are purehearted and sincere.
2 Timothy 2:22 – Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Have you ever heard the saying, he has a heart of gold? That is exactly what we attempting to achieve each day in the church by allowing ourselves to be refined in both our hearts and in our minds.
1 Timothy 1:5 – Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
The heart of God is a heart of gold, pure gold.
Think about those things for today and Lord willing we will talk some more tommorrow. Till then,bye bye everyone.❤
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Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 