Generation that seeks God's face

prayer

Thankful to Nate and the valley worship leaders for giving me this opportunity to serve you all with the word of God. I want to release a word of encouragement to you the valley worship team John 12:32 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."

Psalm 24:3-6  

  Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? 

And who shall stand in his holy place? 

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, 

who does not lift his soul to what is false 

and does not swear deceitfully. 

5 He will receive blessing from the Lord 

and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 

6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, 

who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah 

Topic: Generation that seeks the face of God. 

“God seeks us as eagerly as we seek God” by Forrest Church 

Throughout the Bible we see God blesses individuals and their descendants as they seek Him and punish those who don’t seek him. Examples: Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Joshua, Caleb and then people who refuse to seek Cain, Saul, Lot and Ahab. our decision to seek God not only affects us, but also the generations after us.  

This is the psalm of David. we have no clarity whether David wrote this psalm, it was written to David or attributed to David. Let’s turn our attention to the passage. In the first verse the author is posing two question to the reader “who shall ascend the hill of the Lord.” According to the commentary the hill of the Lord means the place where the Lord manifest himself or His presence dwells. For example: in the OT, Israelites believe where the ark of the Covenant was there the presence of the Lord is. During this time the ark of the covenant was in Jerusalem which was considered as the Holy city on the hill. You might be asking what the ark of the covenant is. According to the AI “the Ark of the Covenant was a golden chest that contained the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments.  It was a symbol of God's presence and was central to worship in ancient Israel”. In short it is reminder to Israel about their covenants they made with God. Also, it’s the physical representation of the presence of God with them. It is a later foreshadow to Christ. Another question is “who shall stand in his holy place? “It shows us that our Lord is holy means set apart, perfect, righteous, and sinless. In his presence everything that is not holy will be consumed. That means we cannot stand in the presence of the Holy God, because of our sins. Sin separates us from God. But is there anyone grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross and His blood that cleanses from our sins. Also, made us a part of the family of God where we are his children. we don’t need to go to a certain place or at a certain time to meet God. But according to 1 Corinthians 3:16 we are the Temple of God and The Holy Spirit dwells in you. The Holy Spirit is 3rd person in the Trinity does not mean He is less in power or less rank than God the Father and God the Son. But He is equal in divinity and status with God the Father and the Son.

Let’s come back to our passage. The author answers his question by saying a person who has “clean hands and pure heart”, “who does not lift up his soul to what is false” and “does not swear deceitfully.” We are going to unpack each of these phrases individually. First, “clean hands and a pure heart”. To have a clean hand you need to have a pure heart. In Proverbs 4:23 “ Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." our actions reveals the intentions of our heart. To have a pure heart. First, be vulnerable before the Lord. Second. Allow the Holy Spirit to scan your heart and test your intentions. Third, willing to repent and forsake whatever the Holy Spirit brings to your attention. Fourth, being obedient to the Holy Spirit. Second phrase, “who does not give his soul to what is false” in NIV it says “idol”. Idols are not only limited to worshiping a graven image or statute. But anything or anyone whom you love or prioritize in your life over The Lord is an idol. It might be your job, careers, spouse, children, sports, hobbies, ministry, calling, anointing, gifts, friends, (lust), video games, worldly ideologies etc. God shares how he feels when his children or His people forsake him and turn to idols in Hosea. In Hosea, God commands the prophet to marry a prostitute. He obeys and marries her. She is disloyal, manipulating. constantly looking other places for love and belonging other than her husband. Despite whatever he does for her, which breaks his heart. The Lord identifies himself as the Husband and the nation of Israel is the prostitute . It is the same way God feels for his children in the new covenant.

The next phrase basically means avoiding making vain promises before the Lord that you can’t keep. King Solomon in Ecclesiastes says it is better to be silent in the presence of the Lord rather than making promises, because if you don’t keep the promise u invite curses in your life. The next verse mentions the reward for those people of practicing the above-mentioned steps you will receive blessings and second righteousness in other words you have a right relationship with God. Some other benefits that is not part of this verse, but we see throughout the Bible are their children are blessed, their lives are transformed despite their past, their wounds in the soul and heart are healed, they become more like God and less of themselves.  Then the author in the next verse says those who follow these steps are the generation that seeks his face. People who seek God’s face is serious about following him and getting to know Him personally. Like Moses who desire to see the glory of God , like Joshua who never wanted to leave the presence of the Lord, like David who wanted to seek God’s heart and like Mary in the NT who is the sister of Lazarus who longed to hear the words of Jesus and worshipped him by pouring an expansive perfume at the feet of Jesus, which is an act of worship. For them nothing in the world can satisfy only the presence of God. It’s the same today, nothing in this world can satisfy no amount of lust, money, friends, careers, spouse or children. I am a testimony to that because I thought I could find my satisfaction in worldly things like lust, sports and people. But it provides temporary high, but I was not satisfied. It is when I encountered the presence of Jesus I became truly satisfied. Only Jesus and him alone can satisfy you.

Then there is another group who only seek the hand of God. They only follow God to meet their needs. But don’t want to know him closely. These people treat God as a vending machine. They will never be satisfied no matter how many times God provided miraculously for their needs. They will not believe him. For example: these types of people are the Israelites who journeyed in the wilderness for 40 years and saw many great things that the Lord did. But they did not believe. also in the NT, these are the group of people in John 6 who demand signs to prove who Jesus says he is even when they witnessed the greatest miracle in the previous chapter.

Which generation would you like to be a part of a generation that seeks his face or his hands? 

I want to release a what the Lord is declaring over this generation. even though the world is getting darker each moment. The Lord is raising up a generation that seeks his face. This generation whom the Lord is rising up : loves Jesus more than anything in the world. They will be God -fearing, bold, unashamed, snatching many people from the fires of hell and also prepares themselves and others for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.I want to declare that God is not done with this generation. Amen!!!

Prayer  

the end