Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
Notes
Transcript
Open up to Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
A survey was done back in the late 80’s. Back then…over 80% of the sermons were centered on ‘self’ instead of making God the center of the message.
that produces a self-centered church
that produces individuals who love themselves and those who are in “that church”
that produces a self-centeredness instead of a God-Centeredness
Let me read our text this morning and then pray over this message:
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.
When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.
PRAYER
You know what the most important thing is for many professing Christins today? SELF.
We see this in many ways don’t we?
We go here because of the children's ministry. They have a lot of friends that go there.
But does it matter what they teach?
You should be the spiritual leader of your home…not your kids.
We go here because we love the music…and the lights.
I just “feel something” there during worship...
We visited there but we didn’t like the music. Francis Chan “good because it wasn’t for you anyway”
SELF...
How about this one when it comes to self-centeredness...
All I want to know is what do I need to do to get to Heaven.
You know what the Christians in history cared more about? Holiness
They wanted to be more like the God they worshiped. And in order to be more like God we have to know more than “what do I need to do to go to Heaven”. If HOLINESS is what you worry most about then you need to know who God is to be more like Him.
Let me read to you a prayer from the Puritans: Its called “Consecration and Worship”
Lets look at verse 1:
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.
The wisest man to live, outside of Christ our Lord, says when you head to the temple to worship God…be careful…tread lightly. Know where you are going. Your’e not going to a buddies house, your’e not going to your bosses house, your’e not going to the White House. You are going to the house of God. Go with reverence.
You are going to hear from God’s Holy Word.
So how am I to guard my steps when I enter the house of God?
be quiet and listen.
You know why? Because you can’t learn if you do not listen. You can’t understand if you don’t listen.
A lot of you have heard me say this because I like saying it…but think of Jesus saying “he who has ears, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15; 13:9, 43; John 8:47). It is not that Christ is talking to a group of people and a lot of them don’t have ears on the side of their head…he is saying to His people, “listen”. His sheep hear his voice… “listen”.
The listeners are compared to this other group. This other group “offer sacrifice of fools”.
some think they are offering up their sick and lame animals for sacrifice. Not giving God what he deserves which is their best. Maybe they didn’t hear that part because they weren’t listening and thats why they are doing it because it says “for they do not know that they are doing evil”.
But I think that is hard to believe. I think it is more that they are not truly doing it with a heart of thankfulness…they are not doing it with a sincere heart to the Lord.
But they go to the alter babbling away with their sacrifice thinking that is what God wants more than their heart.
SO GUARD YOUR STEPS WHEN YOU GO TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD…and LISTEN to what His Word is telling you.
Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.
Before we speak…let us listen. Before we start rambling on to God of what we will do if he does this…or
if you do this God I’ll do this
we have to know where we have come, the house of God and we have to know who we are talking to...
God is in Heaven and you are on Earth.
God is SO far above us…the word is transcendent. He is so FAR ABOVE US. He is FAR SUPERIOR TO YOU AND ME.
He is infinity greater than any United States President and would we go to the Oval Office just bumping our gums away or would we have some respect as to who’s presence we were in?
Solomon is telling us that we should have some reverence when we are in God’s house.
GUARD YOUR STEPS WHEN YOU GO TO THE HOUSE OF GOD
LISTEN
BE NOT RASH WITH YOUR WORDS
KNOW WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO
LET YOUR WORDS BE FEW
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Solomon is speaking to worshipers at the Temple but don’t think that these teachings are not applicable to the church today.
Not only was Christ our perfect sacrifice he was also the Temple that was torn down and rebuilt in three days. Now it is through Him that we go to be in the presence of God. Because he has given us HIs Spirit we are also the Temple where God, the Holy Spirit, lives…in each of us who worship God in Spirit and in Truth.
But don’t forget…when we come to worship it is not about us…it is about God and we should listen before we speak. Listen to God’s Word.
When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.
So here is the history of this.
People would come to the temple and make vows to God.
God if you do this I will do this for you
If you give me this then I will give you this LORD
But when the temple messenger would come to them and remind them what they vowed to the temple of God they would come up with some excuse or say, “that was a mistake”, they didn’t mean to vow “that much”.
I mean, we do the same thing today don’t we? WE come to church and make vows to God:
think marriage right
think membership to a church body
leadership vows to uphold God’s word and teach God’s people
But we also make other vows to God sometimes:
Lord, if you give me that job I will give to the church
Lord, if you give me that new car…I will give homeless people rides to church
The point isn’t that we should not make vows to God…the point is we better keep them when we make them.
Don’t forget who you are making a vow to…God.
Look at vs 7 again
For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.
It seems when we start feeling desperate we start dreaming don’t we. When times get tough, we start “dreaming” and “talking”...
If I only had this I could do that for God
If he would give me this I would give alllll of this to God.
But this is Old Testament Trey, that doesn’t apply anymore…we are a NEW TESTAMENT Church.
Turn to Acts 4
There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it. The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him.
Solomon is talking about all of this going down at the Temple, at the House of God.
He is saying that the people come here with empty hearts speaking empty words. They say all this stuff, they bring sacrifices but it is all worthless and what… “VANITY”…MEANINGLESSNESS.
WHY?
BECAUSE they do not guard their steps when they come to the house of God.
They don’t LISTEN to God’s Word.
They forget who HE is and who they ARE. GOD is in Heaven and we are on earth, HE is FAR above us.
They start making hollow promises to God
And it is all because they don’t FEAR GOD.
In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when Mr. and Mrs. Beaver tell the four children that Aslan (the Christ-figure) is a lion, Susan replies:
“Ooh!… Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will, dearie, and make no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver.… “Who said anything about safe? ’Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Solomon is talking about Temple Worship in this section of God’s Word. These fools that Solomon is talking about became fools ultimately for two reasons:
they didn’t tread lightly when they came to the House of God and
the no longer feared God
because they were not focused on God.
That was a problem then and it is a problem in the church today. At the end of the day the problem is the absence of the fear of God. And if that is the problem in the church are we shocked that that is the problem in our community? In our nation?
Most people see God as a Moralistic Therapeutic Deist…
He tells you what is right and wrong (Moralist)
if you get in a bind you just call out to him and he will help you out (Therapeutic)
And He is “up there”…he is not involved in everything that is going on here on Earth…he just wound it up and whatever happens happens.
This is the number one Theology in America churches today…Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.
Here is what I hope we got out of these 7 verses this morning.
True Worship begins with us knowing Who God is and Who We Are…He is our Father in Heaven…but we must fear Him, we must revere Him. He is NOT SAFE…But He is Good, He is the King!