READ: PSALM
24:3-5
Not
everyone qualifies to come to table with the president of a nation. Usually
those invited to dine with him are highly placed individuals who are leaders in
their own right. God also has a table where He dines with some special people
who are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, holy and peculiar (1 Peter
2:9). Addressing the Canaanite woman who came to request deliverance for her
daughter who was grievously tormented of demons in Matthew 15:21-28, Jesus
replied, it is not good to give the children’s bread to dogs.
On God’s table is everything you will need now and in future. Everything is provided there. Those who come to the table will receive personal attention from the Lord. The question is: do you qualify to dine with the Lord? From our reading today, to eat with the Almighty you must have clean hands. According to Habakkuk 1:13, God’s eyes are so pure that they cannot tolerate sin. You cannot use the same hands with which you stole, forged receipts and manipulated official figures to dine with the Lord. You cannot bring the hands you actively engaged in fornication, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes to the Lord’s table. If you do, what the Lord would see on your hands are the sins you committed with them. Rather than receive a blessing, such people would receive a curse at the table (1 Corinthians 11:27-31).
Another qualification for partaking in the Lord’s table is that you must be pure in heart. Matthew 5:8 says only those people whose hearts are pure will see God. If your heart is occupied with filthy thoughts such as envy, bitterness, hatred, evil and lust, you cannot see God. How can you sit and dine with the person you cannot see? Apart from this you must not be living in and thinking of vanity because it has a way of drowning God’s love in your heart (1 John 2:15-17).
You must not live in deceit. To come to God’s table, you must be honest and truthful. John 14:6 says the One at the table is the Truth. The Truth cannot dine with deceivers and liars who are the children of the devil. Do you qualify to come to God’s dinner?
On God’s table is everything you will need now and in future. Everything is provided there. Those who come to the table will receive personal attention from the Lord. The question is: do you qualify to dine with the Lord? From our reading today, to eat with the Almighty you must have clean hands. According to Habakkuk 1:13, God’s eyes are so pure that they cannot tolerate sin. You cannot use the same hands with which you stole, forged receipts and manipulated official figures to dine with the Lord. You cannot bring the hands you actively engaged in fornication, drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes to the Lord’s table. If you do, what the Lord would see on your hands are the sins you committed with them. Rather than receive a blessing, such people would receive a curse at the table (1 Corinthians 11:27-31).
Another qualification for partaking in the Lord’s table is that you must be pure in heart. Matthew 5:8 says only those people whose hearts are pure will see God. If your heart is occupied with filthy thoughts such as envy, bitterness, hatred, evil and lust, you cannot see God. How can you sit and dine with the person you cannot see? Apart from this you must not be living in and thinking of vanity because it has a way of drowning God’s love in your heart (1 John 2:15-17).
You must not live in deceit. To come to God’s table, you must be honest and truthful. John 14:6 says the One at the table is the Truth. The Truth cannot dine with deceivers and liars who are the children of the devil. Do you qualify to come to God’s dinner?
MEMORIZE:
PSALM 24:3-4 –Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall stand in
His holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up
his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
