3Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
And who may stand in His holy place?
4He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood
And has not sworn deceitfully.
5He shall receive a blessing from the LORD
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6This is the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek Your face--even Jacob. Selah
Psalm 24
We need to be the generation of the Lord!
We need clean hands. We need pure hearts.
This is NOT EASY
The other day I was at one of the most intense worship gatherings ever. The Spirit came because the people in that room were seekers of the Lord Almighty.
We had someone exposit Psalm 24 into three points and everyone was AMENING to the following:
1)Coming Together in Unity – Psalms 133 – where the brethren gather together in unity God commands his blessing. Acts 2:1-2 - they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
We need to gather together to WORSHIP and to PRAY. We need to do nothing else but those two things when we meet seeking the face of the Lord together and waiting upon Him. That is what true fellowship is. It isn`t socialing. It isn`t doing fun activities together like cookng. (we have changed its meaning in today's culture so much that it isn't biblical)
2)Consecration – 1 Peter 1:14-16 - As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
We need to set ourselves APART. To be holy means to be separate. This means separating yourself from the junk of the media. Cut it out of your life! If your filling your mind with that stuff, its gonna affect your soul and your heart. The Holy Spirit is gonna be effectively quenched in your life because your already full of unholy junk. Consecrating ourselves also takes sacrifice. We need time to BE with the Lord in the place of worship. So this is going to mean spending less time with friends and being WISE with the time you do have. Don't waste it. Spend as much time with God as possible.
3)Consistency in Prayer – James 5:16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
This is key. Jesus spent soo much time praying and it is mentioned in the gospels countless times. When the apostles first started their ministry they prayed.
3 Brothers, choose seven of your men. They must be known as men who are wise and full of the Holy Spirit. We will turn this important work over to them. 4 Then we can give our attention to prayer and to teaching the word."
Acts 6:3-4
In fact they gave other work that was NOT prayer and teaching to other men.
Paul also says:
2 Spend a lot of time in prayer. Always be watchful and thankful.
Colossians 4:2
All the great men and woman of God in the past got on their knees and PRAYED.
Prayer shows your humilty and dependence on God. The more you pray the more you are showing your need for God. The less you pray the more you think you can do it on your own.
If you do these things and PERSEVERE in them God will start to use you
If you don't you can bear no fruit and you'll be wasting your time.
Because Jesus says:
5 "I am the vine. You are the branches. If anyone remains joined to me, and I to him, he will bear a lot of fruit. You can't do anything without me. 6 If anyone does not remain joined to me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and dries up. Branches like those are picked up. They are thrown into the fire and burned.
John 15:5-6
How are you remaining in Jesus if you aren't praying?
How are you remaining in Jesus if your living a life that isn't holy? If your hung up on girls or guys or school?
How are you remaining in Jesus if you don't gather to worship Him or want to worship Him?
There are many people who are serving God but they're not living holy lives.
There are many pastors serving God but they aren't praying.
There's no power when they speak, they're faith is weak and their teaching is border line heretical. They're scared to preach truth because they fear man and not God.
They fear because they do it on their own strength.
and we wonder why the church is so stagnant?
Don't be like the generation of our parents.
Seek God He will strengthen you and uphold you if you trust and obey Him!
