True Worship
Ecclesiastes: The Search For Meaning • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 43:00
0 ratings
· 31 viewsFiles
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
True Worship
True Worship
I want to know why are you here today?
Why did you take time out of your busy life to come to church this morning?
Is it b/c you’ve done it since you were a child?
Is it b/c you feel like it has to be done to check it off of your “good person” checklist?
Were you dragged here by a friend or family member?
Were you made to come b/c your parents forced you to come and you would rather be home watching YouTube or playing video games?
Did you come here expecting that by being here, God would somehow make your life better?
That if you attended church God would be impressed and give you what you desire?
Or did you show up to truly worship God?
Did you come to show gratitude toward the almighty savior for providing Salvation through his sacrifice?
I don’t know if you realize this or not, but God is concerned with how you worship him.
He is concerned with what we do when we gather together each week.
He is concerned and cares about what we say and how we approach him in worship.
And this is a reality that is demonstrated in both the Old and New Testament.
There are right ways and wrong ways to worship God.
And this morning, Solomon is going to help us to see that in Ecc 5:1-7.
He is going to lay out the fact that we need to come before God in both awe and reverence.
That God is worthy of our worship.
He is worthy of our praise.
And he is worthy of us offering it to him with a humble and grateful heart.
Up to this point in Ecc., Solomon has talked a lot about the things he has observed, but this morning’s Scripture is the first time that he presents us with an action to be taken.
He is now, as the Royal Preacher, commanding that we take the worshipping of the Lord seriously.
Worshiping God isn’t a game to be played.
Or a game to be won.
Rather worshiping God is a Grace that has been given to us.
And we should take it Seriously.
There should be thought and intentionality in our worship.
Now if your following along in Ecc, this pivot in Ecc 5, could seem out of place.
Why is Solomon all of a sudden talking about worship.
Why is he concerned with coming before the Lord.
He’s talked about his pursuit of pleasure, wealth, and possessions.
He’s talked about the seasons of life and the reality of God’s oversight in those seasons.
He’s talked about the need for friendships, relationships, and companionship.
But now he turns to Worship of God.
What’s going on here.
Well if we dig in deep we realize that Solomon has been talking about worship this whole time.
The pursuit of pleasures, wealth, and possessions is a form of worship.
It’s the Worship of Idols.
It the worship of false gods when your pursuit of something takes the top place in your life that’s what you worship.
Think about it this way, our journey through Ecc. has been like thumbing through a photo album or scrolling through Instagram.
Solomon has provided us with pictures and snip-its and snap-shots of life.
Of Activities. Of Grief. of Frustration.
Of pleasure. Of Pain. Of success.
Of the vanity of life without God and chasing after the emptiness the world has to offer.
And here he is providing us with the picture of the religious worshipper.
He is presenting us with true value when we rightly worship God.
The reality is we are all worshippers.
We all worship something.
And we either worship the King of Everything, or we worship emptiness.
Things that are vain, meaningless, or a pursuit of the Wind.
Now, real quick before we look at the text, I want to give you a little insight into the structure of the this section.
These verses are broken into 2 paragraphs and a conclusion.
The first paragraph are v.1-3
Second are v. 4-6
And the conclusion is v.7
These paragraph’s follow the same pattern.
The first like of the paragraph is a positive statement.
The second is a negative statement and
The third is a proverb.
With the conclusion coming in v. 7
All of this instruction is leading us toward the understanding and the conclusion in v. 7 which states.
“Therefore, Fear God.”
So as we look at and study these verses know that Solomon is pointing us toward the fear of the Lord.
That’s where we are going.
That’s where he is taking us.
If we Fear the Lord then our worship of him will not be frivolous.
It will not be empty.
It will not be oriented toward self.
Rather it will be oriented rightly toward God and his goodness, grace, love, compassion, and authority.
So before we dive into God’s word Let us pray.
1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Better to approach in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they ignorantly do wrong.
Prepare: Listen
Prepare: Listen
Like I said earlier, God cares about how we worship.
And Solomon knows this.
He urges us to be prepared when we come to worship God.
Back in Solomon’s time people would come to the temple as worship.
The Temple was the place where Heaven met earth.
Where God dwelled with his people.
So it was imperative that people take this worship seriously.
In fact, there are warnings about coming into the House of God in the Old Testament.
Now before the temple, when the Israelites were still wandering around in the wilderness, God instructed Moses and the Israelites to build a mobile temple.
This was called the Tabernacle.
And God was very specific about the ways the tabernacle was to be built and how people were to worship God in the midst of the tabernacle.
The tabernacle could only be entered into by the priests and they would have to be cleansed and follow God’s instruction or they would heap wrath upon themselves.
This happened very early on in Israel’s history.
Right after the construction of the tabernacle.
Aaron, Moses’ brother, felt the weight of God’s holiness and importance of God’s instruction when it came to his worship.
Aaron had two sons, Nadab and Abihu, who were going to help him take care of the tabernacle and be the mediators between God and Israel.
But Nadab and Abihu didn’t take God’s instructions to heart.
I’m going to read what happened.
1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his own firepan, put fire in it, placed incense on it, and presented unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them to do.
2 Then fire came from the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
3 Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has spoken: I will demonstrate my holiness to those who are near me, and I will reveal my glory before all the people.” And Aaron remained silent.
4 Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come here and carry your relatives away from the front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp.”
5 So they came forward and carried them in their tunics outside the camp, as Moses had said.
Did you catch that, Nadab and Abihu died b/c they disobeyed God.
They were penalized for dishonoring God’s Tabernacle.
Now this wasn’t a regular occurrence in the OT, but it did happen and it happened to prove a point.
Approaching God and worshiping God is done on his terms and not on our own terms.
We should worship him according to the ways he has instructed us to worship him.
Meaning that as we approach God for worship we need to watch our steps.
We need to guard our steps.
We need to prepare our hearts, minds, and souls to encounter and exalt the Living Lord.
This means that we need to proceed with reverence the worship of God.
Coming to worship shouldn’t be an after thought.
Rather it should be intentional.
We should contemplate and think about the worship that we want to offer.
Is it good, right, and holy? Or is it simply something that we do b/c we feel like we have to.
So what is how can we be better prepared for Sunday Morning worship?
I want to let you in on a secret. You don’t want to wait until Sunday Morning.
Sunday Morning corporate worship begins on Saturday.
Many times we overestimate our ability.
We believe that we can get up on Sunday morning get our kids ready and head out the door in time to arrive at worship with a few minutes to spare.
But the reality is that is hardly, if ever, the case.
Instead, we get frustrated b/c we can’t find our notebook or bible, little Johnny doesn’t know where his shirt is, Susie can’t find her dress shoes.
We overslept b/c we were up super late and now everyone is dragging and frustration is mounting.
I know this is true b/c I have lived this and I know so have you.
So we need to begin to prepare on Saturday for Worship service on Sunday.
Guard your heart.
Guard your steps.
In fact, take practical steps to make sure you can get out the door on time so that you don’t get frustrated and angry.
Set out clothes Saturday night.
Make a plan for breakfast.
Go to bed and get a good nights sleep.
So that when you come to worship together, you don’t have throw on the face of love and compassion after you just yelled at your kids in the backseat.
Our you are seething b/c you are late.
Look out for those stumbling blocks that cause your heart to not be prepared and to the best of your ability remove them Saturday Evening instead of kicking them Sunday Morning.
You see for the people that Solomon was preaching to the Temple was viewed as the actual home for God.
They knew that he wasn’t confined to the temple, but they believed and knew that when they approached the temple they were coming into a special place on earth.
They would imagine the story of Moses standing in front of the burning bush in Exodus.
The place he was standing was holy ground not to be defiled by the shoes on his feet.
Moses was standing somewhere sacred.
The Israelites believed that the temple was sacred and that it was important for them to approach Worship in a pure and prepared manner.
Things are different this side of the cross.
We no longer have to go to a temple or have a human mediator between us and God.
Jesus is our mediator.
He is our go between.
The perfect Son of God who’s blood was shed so that we can enter into the presence of God.
Boldly, confidently. But not arrogantly.
There is no longer a single temple of God.
But all believer’s are temples of God.
We are all walking temples.
There is nothing super special about these walls, this pulpit, this room.
Until, the church, that being the people of God gather here.
Monday-Saturday this is simply a room, but when the saint’s gather, and we worship God together this room becomes sacred.
Not because of the room, but b/c of what is taking place in the room.
Worship of the holy, perfect, infinite, matchless, King.
So we guard our steps when we go to the house of the Lord.
There is an assumption here in the phrase.
It’s the assumption that you are going to go to worship the King of the Universe.
Not only that, but the assumption that we are going to church, the “when” means that we should be creating a routine.
Some of you balk at the thought of routine.
And depending on what church background you come from this may be hard to hear.
Maybe you are so used to routine when it comes to church that you hate the thought of it.
Here’s what’s funny about that thought.
Your whole life is built around a series of routines.
You get up the same time during the week.
You brush your teeth at least once a day, hopefully.
You eat bfast, lunch, and dinner around the same time each day.
Your work days are roughly the same each day.
Routines work for us when we allow them to.
But for whatever reason there are many of us who don’t want Church to be part of the routine.
But what do routines do?
They build, develop, and shape our habits.
We should be in the habit of gathering together to worship.
Heb 10:24-25 “24 And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, 25 not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.”
Gathering together with other believers should be commonplace.
It should be part of our routine.
Being at church should be more normal than not being at church.
I don’t want anyone here to feel attacked.
This isn’t aimed at anyone specifically.
But if you believe that God is who he said he is.
Then I would assume that He is the most important person in your life.
And if he is the most important person in your life, why would you purposefully neglect to gather together with other people who love and worship him?
What better way can you think of to start your week than by worshiping the one who gave you life?
The one who gave himself for you?
We should desire to chase the consistency of Worshiping our Savior.
If you need to put worship on your schedule to help build the routine then do that.
If you need to pull kids out of other activities to worship, then do that.
Worship of God with other believers should be a priority for those who love God.
If you believe and trust in Jesus, you should want to go worship.
In fact, it’s a given that you will come to be with other believers.
And when we come to worship God we are to listen and obey.
That’s what the second half of v.1 means.
To approach in obedience, or some of you translations, may say to go near and listen, or to draw near and listen, or maybe even listen and obey.
As we worship we need to listen to what God is saying.
Both through the songs and through the preaching of the word.
Look it’s not Josh up here preaching at you, prayerfully it’s the Holy Spirit speaking through Josh and touching your heart and soul.
God listens to you, and we really love that.
But do you listen to God? Are you attentive and mindful of what God is telling you.
And I will tell you this, you can’t listen to God if you haven’t prepared your mind and heart.
If you are still thinking about what happened at work last week.
If you are still angry that you were late to church.
If you are harboring animosity toward someone in your family, a friend, or someone in worship with you.
We should lay aside all distractions when we come to worship.
The world is always trying to pull us in all different directions, but we need to make sure that when we Gather with the Body of Christ that our focus is here and now.
Listening to God.
Remember Solomon does not shy away from the realities of life in this fallen world.
He doesn’t sugar coat the messy world we live in.
And here in this opening verse he tells us that there will be people who come to the house of God and they are doing it not out of true and right worship, but rather out of religious obligation.
They are fools.
And these fools believe that by bringing their sacrifice that they are right with God that they are made clean.
That God’s okay with their sinful and wicked hearts.
These fools haven’t prepared their hearts. They haven’t thought about God.
they are simply trying to get a pass from God.
The fools haven’t been transformed by a relationship with God rather they are trying to manipulate God into loving them b/c of the sacrifice they bring.
But God isn’t about that life.
1 Sam 15:22 “22 Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.”
Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Listening is better than empty gifts.
The fool arises in churches today too.
They believe that b/c they give vast amounts of money or time to the church that God owes them something.
But rather than serving the Lord, they want the Lord to serve them.
Look at these amazing things that I give to God.
Therefore, I should have influence, power, and fame above all else.
I give to the church so that the pastor will say what I want him to say or preach about what I want him to preach.
I have known pastors that were pushed out of their positions b/c of someone in the congregation not liking what they said.
They were pushed out b/c someone was more concerned with “my church” than they were with the kingdom of God.
They are foolish.
And they are doing wrong.
But they are doing so, ignorantly.
They don’t even know that what they are doing violates God’s instructions.
They are bringing to bear their own heartless sacrifice.
So in order to contrast them we have prepare and be ready for worship.
We don’t want to ignorantly offend God with our worship.
We want to intellectually engage in the worship of God.
That is loving him with all our minds.
Prepared and wise attendance at church should teach us humility and to listen to God.
If we listen and we are humble we will steer clear of being fools and will be the wise ones who fear God.
That’s the long part of the sermon, so the next parts we should speed through pretty quickly.
Or we’ll see how the Spirit moves.
2 Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.
3 Just as dreams accompany much labor, so also a fool’s voice comes with many words.
Pray- Humbly
Pray- Humbly
There’s a running joke with some of my friends at some of the bible studies that I go to that I pray the short prayers.
So if there is ever food involved they always say, “Josh is going to pray.”
Here’s the reality, we don’t have to try and impress God with our verbose vocabulary.
The more words we say in prayer don’t suddenly make God stand up and say “Wow, how could I have overlooked their prayer.”
At the temple worship there were instances of this happening.
Where people would come to the temple and say many words in prayer in order to make them seem more righteous.
Listen to what Jesus says.
Matthew 6:7 “7 When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words.”
God does not hear you more or better with the amount of words you say.
Thinking that you can manipulate God through the use of many words is foolish.
and here Solomon wants to make that point abundantly clear.
God is in heaven. You are not.
Remember this idea that God is in heaven is playing on the truth that God is transcendent.
That he is outside the bounds of time, space, and matter.
That he is above everything.
And to think that you can get through to him b/c you speak the King’s English in a prayer or you say many words while praying is simply foolish.
Psalm 115:3 “3 Our God is in heaven and does whatever he pleases.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 “8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.” This is the Lord’s declaration. 9 “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Sometimes this is good to hear, though it may be harsh.
“We have nothing to offer God that he doesn’t already own or have power over. We have no position to bargain with or impress him.”
The creator of the universe needs nothing from you.
And it is right and proper to remember that.
It really does put us in our place when we recognize how mighty and powerful he is and how small and weak we are.
Here’s the reality we can be rash without our words.
We can say things that we really don’t mean.
WE tell lies, make rude comments, and lash out in anger.
But we should be more mindful of our words.
We should be slower to speak.
Not just in prayer before God, but in all our conversations.
James 1:19 “19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,”
Have you ever thought about the fact that every word we speak is spoken before the face of God.
That every harsh word.
Every time you lash out.
Every time you curse your neighbor.
All of those words are said before the face of God.
And this is true outside these walls and inside them.
Solomon is concerned with what we say, but his main concern is with what we say in our prayers.
Sometimes even our prayers can be prayer less.
We use empty and pious words that mean nothing hoping that God would hear us clearer.
Much like with the sacrifice, he wants you heart not your empty words.
You are not able to impress God with the words you use if you don’t have a sincere heart.
So it is better if you let your words be few.
A fools voice comes with many words.
Proverbs 17.28 “28 Even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent— discerning, when he seals his lips.”
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”-Abe Lincoln
Be mindful with the things you speak before God.
He is not your homeboy.
He is your heavenly father worthy of all your glory, honor, and praise.
Your stance before God when coming to him in prayer is important.
Don’t presume upon his goodness and grace.
Don’t be foolish when you pray.
Rather seek to honor God with your words and more so with your heart.
Don’t presume that you are in the position of control when you pray.
The purpose of prayer isn’t to change God’s mind it is to shape your heart.
So we have seen that God is concerned with our ability to listen to him.
He wants us to have a posture of humble prayer when we come before him, what else does Solomon want us to see.
He wants us to see that when we make a promise we need to keep it.
4 When you make a vow to God, don’t delay fulfilling it, because he does not delight in fools. Fulfill what you vow.
5 Better that you do not vow than that you vow and not fulfill it.
6 Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you, and do not say in the presence of the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands?
Follow Through
Follow Through
In the OT, people would make vows to God.
Much like some people do today.
If you do this ____, then I will do that ______.
If you heal me I will serve you.
If you save me, I will go into ministry.
If you give me, I will give back to you.
One example is in 1 Sam 1:11 “11 Making a vow, she pleaded, “Lord of Armies, if you will take notice of your servant’s affliction, remember and not forget me, and give your servant a son, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut.””.
Hannah is a barren woman who wants a son.
And she makes a vow to God that if he gives her a son she will give him over to
Now, there’s nothing inherently bad with these vows.
The problem comes when we don’t follow through with the vows that we make.
It is better to not offer to do something if you aren’t going to do it.
It is much easier to make a promise than it is to keep it.
Here’s the thing, nobody has to or had to make vows to God.
But they would.
And if they did, they needed to follow through with them.
And follow through immediately.
This is important b/c if we don’t follow through immediately on the vows it’s easy to rationalize and to make excuses for not doing what we said we would do.
Why b/c making a promise to God and not following through on the promise is sinful.
And it makes God angry?
Why would this make God angry?
B/c he is a promise keeping God.
And you are claiming to belong to him.
And then you are claiming to do something for him if he does something for you.
And when you don’t do that you are making a mockery of his name.
We don’t need to play games with God.
And trying to rationalize or justify the abandonment of a vow is playing a game you will never win.
If we keep promising God that we will do this or that, and the other thing and we never do then we are more guilty than ever.
And we are liars and untrustworthy.
So in order to guard yourself against this anger of God.
It’s better to not make a vow at all.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:37 “37 But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.”
Just do what you say you are going to do.
Live a holy and godly life chasing after him.
Seeking after him.
You don’t need to make promises to God, you simply need to follow him, pursue him, and love him.
When we don’t listen to God.
When we don’t pray humbly,
And when we don’t follow through with God it’s because we don’t fear God.
7 For many dreams bring futility; so do many words. Therefore, fear God.
Fear God
Fear God
Remember fearing God is the purpose and pursuit of Ecclesiastes.
We are to fear God.
Not be afraid of him.
But stand in awe and reverence before him.
Prov 1:7 “7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.”
Solomon has taken us on a journey from vanity to reverence in these first 5 chapters.
One theologian said that fearing God is “the grand fundamental of godliness.”
Fearing God is recognizing his majesty and might.
Recognizing that he is supreme and transcendent.
That he is creator and sustainer.
That he holds the power of life and death in his hands.
That he rules and reigns, has all authority and power over all the earth.
This quote popped up on my memories on facebook last week.
And if this doesn’t paint you a picture of why we should fear God, I don’t know what will.
All authority. He has authority over Satan and all demons, over all angels-good and evil-over the natural universe, natural objects and laws and forces: stars, galaxies, planets, meteorites; authority over all weather systems: winds, rains, lightning, thunder, hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, typhoons, cyclones; authority over all their effects: tidal waves, floods, fires; authority over all molecular and atomic reality: atoms, electrons, protons, neutrons, undiscovered subatomic particles, quantum physics, genetic structures, DNA, chromosomes; authority over all plants and animals great and small: whales and redwoods, giant squid and giant oaks, all fish, all wild beasts, all invisible animals and plants: bacteria, viruses, parasites, germs; authority over all the parts and functions of the human body: every beat of the heart, every breath of the diaphragm, every electrical jump across a million synapses in our brains; authority over all nations and governments: congresses and legislatures and presidents and kings and premiers and courts; authority over all armies and weapons and bombs and terrorists; authority over all industry and business and finance and currency; authority over all entertainment and amusement and leisure and media; over all education and research and science and discovery; authority over all crime and violence; over all families and neighborhoods; and over the church, and over every soul and every moment of every life that has been or ever will be lived.
And here’s the beautiful part about that.
Even though he has all authority over all of that he still cares about you.
He still wants to extend grace and mercy to you.
He wants a relationship with you.
He wants you to know him and see him rightly.
As the king of the universe who deserves your worship and praise.
As the sovereign Lord who died on the cross for your salvation.
He’s calling out to you. Will you answer him?
Will you fear him?
Are you listening?
Come and experience his grace.