July 15, 2007

 Scriptures to look at:

            Revelation 3:20- “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

            Isaiah 55:1-5- ““Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—
The sure mercies of David.
Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,
A leader and commander for the people.
Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,
And nations who do not know you shall run to you,
Because of the LORD your God,
And the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”

 Imagine that you’re invited to eat with a king, what will you do? Most likely you will: tell everyone about it, think about what you’re going to wear, how to act, what to say, you’ll take the invitation and frame it, you’ll probably have butterflies in your stomach and always think about what’s going to happen because you’ve never been with a king.

Well, guess what? You have the King of kings standing, waiting at your door for you to open the door and dine with you. Jesus says in Revelation 3:20 “I stand at the door and knock.” The knock is your first invitation to dine with the King of kings.

If you have accepted the Lord then you have accepted the first invitation. When you become saved, you’ve just accepted the first invitation. Then, what you do and the kind of life you live after being saved determines whether you are accepting the rest of the invitation or not. Many of us have accepted the first invitation but have just stopped there. Jesus is at many of our front doors, but He’s not in and eating with us yet. We have opened up some doors for Him when we became saved, but we haven’t completely opened the main front door. We’ve dined with everyone else while the King of kings is still waiting to come in and eat with us.

Then Jesus continues to say in the same scripture, “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.” Hebrews 4:7 says, “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” This means that it is possible that He is talking but we’re not listening. He is at the door calling and talking after the knock but we’re probably hardening our hearts. 

After the first invitation Jesus says, all you who are hungry, who are thirsty, come and drink, for FREE!  He has already offered; the invitation in Isaiah 55 is always there. It is our responsibility to take the invitation and allow Jesus to enter so we could eat with Him.

What is in the table of a king? Well, a king owns everything he will ever need, so his chef would prepare everything. The king isn’t limited on what he could eat and neither are his guests because everything is there to choose from.

Now, what’s on God’s table? Everything you could ever think of for your spiritual growth or that would in any way benefit your spiritual life. We are all invited to this buffet every single day, anytime. It’s our responsibility to take the invitation and go dine with the King of kings. If you need the anointing, its there…the Word, eternal life, healing, prosperity, favor, wisdom, joy, peace… it’s all there. God has already placed everything you will ever need on the table, but He’s not going to pick up what you need and feed you. He already gave it all to you, so if it is healing you need, you have to pick up your hand, reach for it, grab it, and take it.

Psalm 23:5 says “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;” or “you serve me a six-course dinner right in front of my enemies” (the message). God is calling you to celebrate and have dinner with Him right in front of your enemies. Are you going to take that invitation?

John 7:37- there is living water on His table

Isaiah 55- there is milk, honey, bread etc

And is all for free!

 The sad thing is that most people have filled themselves up with junk food; so much junk that they have no room to dine with the King. All the healthy food is right there in front of them but they decide to go for the junk food. You are what you eat so if you fill yourself with junk food, then you'll end up with the consequences. However, if you fill yourself with healthy food, then you end up being healthy and fit. That's how it also is spiritually. If you feed your self with junk, such as tv, bad music, etc, you end up spiritually sick and weak. However, if you continue feeding yourself with the word of God and with everything that God offers you, you'll become spiritually healthy and fit. So it's up to you, either you accept the invitation and dine with Jesus and eat all the healthy food you want, or disregard the invitation and fill yourself up with junk.

There are requirements in order to dine with the King:

1)      To accept the Revelation 3:20 invitation. This means to accept Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior. This is the first step. Once we accept His invitation, we become His children. Jesus is always ready to feed you and provide you with any thing you need once you become His child. In Mark 7 we see a woman who comes to Jesus and asks Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. Then Jesus replies to her in verse 27 saying, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” So we need to have a father-son, or father-daughter relationship with Him, in order to dine with Him. We become His children once we make a decision to invite Him into our hearts.

We must also be in a covenant with God in order to dine with Him. All those who have a covenant with Him are invited.

(2 Samuel 9:1-8)

2)      Jesus said “if you hear my voice.” So we must also be able to hear His voice when He is calling you from the door.

3)      Then after we hear His voice we need to open the door because He says, “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them.”

Also remember that you must first be hungry in order to eat. We need a spiritual hunger, we need to be hungry for Him. Isaiah says "all of you who are hungry, thirsty, come and eat for free!" Why do you spend money for what's not really bread? Why spend your money on unnecessary things that will harm your spirit rather than eating spiritually healthy food for free?

*Dining with Jesus is not just a one time thing. The invitation is always open. It's also not one meal a day. It's there anytime, any where. Now it's your responsibility to hear Him, open the door for Him, and eat with Him!

 Preached by: Pastor Teddy
Written by: Rebka  Tekeste