Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God – A sermon on Matthew 5:8 by Rev. Colin Pretorius.

The story is told of a pastor who had a strange dream one night, a dream that really opened his eyes. In his dream he could see his own church worship service. It looked like a normal Sunday morning service but something very strange was happening.

The choir was singing. Well, actually their mouths were open, but no sound could be heard. The people in the congregation were also singing but again there was no sound. Then the preacher saw himself get up to preach but as he started preaching, again it was like someone had pressed the mute button – no sound came out of his mouth. There was no sound at all in that church until a little girl started singing “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

When he woke up the preacher was really confused and he came to the Lord in prayer asking “Lord, what was I dreaming? It just doesn’t make sense to me.” The Lord spoke to his heart and said,

“You’ve just seen a picture of what I see in your ministry and in your church every Sunday morning. People are singing and you are preaching…….but I hear nothing, because your heart is not focused on Me. You are all focused on yourself. The only one I heard in your church in your dream was the little girl. I heard her voice because she came to church today with the right motive: to love Me with all of her heart!”

Brothers and sisters, if Jesus were to show us a dream like this of our church, what would we see and hear? Are our hearts focused on the Lord?

The little girl is a picture for us of devotion to the Lord. It is a picture of a heart focused on God, it is a picture of purity of motive and of pureness of heart. And it is this pureness of heart of which Jesus speaks when He says:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

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