Those songs are a sermon in and of themselves. Turn with me in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter five. As we come now to the fifth chapter of the words of the preacher, Solomon, here in Ecclesiastes, the preacher’s focus now turns to worship. In his search for purpose and meaning in life, He’s looked all around the world, all around his world, and he’s seen life the way that it really is.

He’s seen that the rhythm and design of creation cannot be harnessed for your own purpose and your own gain. And he’s seen that life under the sun, as he calls it, is filled with hardship and oppression and pain, and that working hard at life to get ahead or to build your own kingdom is empty. It’s vanity. Life comes and it goes and it moves on. So if you spend your whole life refusing to accept the fact that he keeps coming back to, the fact of our death, that one day we too will die. If you spend your whole life refusing to accept that and thinking that you can get ahead of the game if you only do the right things and work hard enough and do everything you can, or that you can leave a lasting impression on this world by what you do, as he says, you’re shepherding the wind. You’re wasting your time. Because your generation will come and go and so will the one after you and you won’t be remembered.

That’s the conclusion that he keeps coming back to. And what he keeps pointing us to is the fact that we are creatures and God is the creator. God is God and we are not. Or as he says in our passage this evening in chapter five, verse two, God is in heaven, but you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. Recognize who God is.

That’s what he keeps coming back to. And so after looking around all the things in this world under the sun, next the preacher looks to the house of God. Surely there with God’s people, he will find everything the way it ought to be, right? Well, that’s what we’ll find out tonight as he does begin here in chapter five with the house of God.

Earlier this year, we completed a sermon series on worship. And we saw that the Bible has a lot to say about worship, and we looked at a lot of different passages. But probably, most predominantly, the Old Testament informs us about worship in the words of Moses, and specifically in Deuteronomy. Moses’ last words to the nation he was leaving to go into the promised land without him.

In January, I’m traveling down to Uruguay to speak at a week-long conference for missionaries. And as I was sharing some ideas on what I could preach with the organizer of the conference, I mentioned that I had done a series through the book of Deuteronomy. It’s a six-sermon series that I need to preach, and that’s what my sermon series on Deuteronomy was. And he said, when I said that, oh, I’ve never heard a sermon series on Deuteronomy.

Well, how could I say no to that? So, Deuteronomy is coming at you, all in one week. So, pray for me and pray for them. As I go down, it’d be the second and third week of January of this upcoming couple months. But in Deuteronomy, among other things, it instructs us and Israel about worship. Not just our worship services either, not just what we do on Sundays, but our lives of worship. And we looked at a lot of those things.

As we know, the people of Israel, when they had come to the edge of the promised land, and they were ready to enter except one thing. God said Moses couldn’t go. And so Moses was going to die, and he had some last words to leave with this nation. And he told them a lot of things, but a lot of what he told them was how they were to worship God.

How it was they were to live and worship in their ceremonies, but most importantly, how they were to live for God. And one place that we find this really clearly is in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and you know this well, we’ve covered this many times, this is called the Shema because that’s the very first word of this verse. But Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 says, hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. So again, Moses’ instructions to the people on how to live. and how to flourish in this new land that God was giving them, how to live and flourish as a nation, where first and foremost, start with God.

Keep God in front of you. Keep God first and foremost in your minds. Keep him before your eyes. Remember your God. You need to start there. And we wonder why our nation is in the condition that it’s in. You want to make America great, you start with God. You want to make any nation great, you must start with who God is. There is one God, as Moses says. There is one God and he is undivided. Yahweh, our God, Yahweh is one. And because God is like that, he must be approached and worshiped by an undivided heart.

A heart that is not split between multiple affections, multiple things pulling you in different directions. No, Moses says, all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. In other words, all of you. That’s how you worship God. You live all your life for him. All of you, everything you are, everything you have, must be lived for God.

God is not pulled in different directions, and neither should we be when we come to worship him. And a life of love, as Moses says, love the Lord your God, which really is a life of faith. A life like that is not compartmentalized. It’s not a life that, well, Sunday’s for God, and then the rest of my life, my week, I can do what I want. As long as I keep coming back on Sunday, and giving that to God.

God is not looking for people who will give Him their heart and soul, but not their strength, or any of the elements He lists there. God doesn’t want you to mail your check into the church just to keep the finances up, but never darkening the doorways of the sanctuary. And He doesn’t want you to come and punch your worship time card on Sunday morning and keep up appearances and make it look like everything’s going great in my life, and then I go home and live for myself. God wants all of you, all that you are and all that you have. All of your life ought to be devoted to glorifying God in everything he has given you.

The preacher here in Ecclesiastes has some more wisdom to share when it comes to our worship, but it is very reflective of what Moses has to say to Israel. That’s where he looks next here in chapter five, is the house of God and the worship of God. And as he does, he offers wisdom for our worship in two aspects.

First, he talks about listening to God. That’s where he starts. Listen to God. And then he talks about, secondly, our talking to God, or how we Reflect our worship of God in the way that we speak. And so that’s the two elements We’ll look at tonight in these first seven verses of Ecclesiastes chapter 5 Listening to God and talking to God and listening to God is also where Moses started if you remember in Deuteronomy 6 for his commandment to the Israelites is here Oh Israel And that’s the first word there It starts with listening to God. Living for God starts with listening to God. Listen up, Israel. Hear, O Israel.

This is what you need to know first, who God is. That is why it then goes on to talk about the descriptive images in verses eight and nine of Deuteronomy 6 of tying God’s word on your hands and on your foreheads and writing them on the doorframes of your houses.

Do that in order to accomplish Getting God’s word into your heart. Do that in order to accomplish listening to who God is and what he has to say. Do whatever you can to help you listen to God. Listen so that you get what God says in through your ears and stuck into your mind so that you know it, so that it’s written on your heart as the psalmist says.

Then when that happens, that will inform who you are as a person. That will instruct how you live. But listen, let his commandments get into you, into the way that you look at the world. This is why we call it a biblical worldview. You can’t have a biblical worldview if you don’t know the Bible, if you don’t know what the Bible says. You’re not gonna know what God thinks about the world if you don’t know what God says about the world. In order to do that, you have to listen. Again, this is so crucial to what it is to live a godly life. We talk about that a lot. We want to live a godly life. We want to be godly. What does that mean?

To be godly means to be godlike, to be like God. You can’t be godlike if you don’t know what God is like. To know what God is like, you need to listen to what he says, and that’s found in his Word, he tells us who he is and what he is like and what he expects of us as his people in his word.

This is exactly why when someone comes to me for counsel, and many of you can testify to this, one of the first parts of counsel that I give you is, are you reading God’s word every day? Oh, you’re not? Well, no wonder you’re not living in a godly way. No wonder you’re having these struggles and troubles in sin if you’re not starting your days or filling your day or at least consistently listening to God. How do you expect to be godly when you don’t know what God is like because you’re not listening to what He has to say?

Listening to what God has said is our main spiritual discipline. Whether it’s through reading our own Bibles coming and hearing the preaching of the word or the public reading of scripture, whatever those things are, we need to listen to what God has said. And this is why God tells us several places in the Bible to listen.

And one of the reasons we need to be instructed in that is because we’re not very good at it. We like to want to look and speak and touch and do before we listen. And when it comes to having a relationship with God, we’re often out of order in how we do that. We’re often out of order in how we relate to Him.

When we think about our relationship with God, often our prayers are, God, these are the things I need, these are the things I want, and we go down the list. We’re speaking to God a lot, telling Him all sorts of things, but how much are we balancing that out or even Counterbalancing with listening. We ought to start with listening to God’s word, hearing what he has to say, and let that inform how you pray. As one guy put it, Ecclesiastes is one long meditation on the need to use our ears for God’s word alongside our eyes for God’s world.

And that’s the preacher’s ultimate conclusion at the end of this book. Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verse 13 says, the end of the matter, all has been heard. After Solomon has looked and tried and done everything, his conclusion, the end of the matter is fear God and keep his commandments because this is the end of the matter for all mankind. How is it that you find purpose and meaning in life? His quest in the book? Fear God and keep his commandments. How do you do that? You read his word and you obey it. You find his commandments in his word. You listen and obey, why?

Because he’s God. That’s what the fear God is talking about. We obey his commandments out of fear for God, which means we recognize who God is. And God is not me. God is God, and God is the one who has spoken, and it is my duty to listen to what he has said. So here in Ecclesiastes chapter five, again, the preacher is sort of re-preaching what Moses had to say to Israel, because in his day, Israel needed to hear it again. They still need to listen to God.

He’s preaching to us in the written word, even though we may not be able to understand the world around us as he has had trouble with, as he’s looked around the world and cannot find any rhyme or reason to the things that he sees, even when we can’t understand the world, We can read and understand the word. God has given us his word.

And we live in a fallen world. And understanding it, at least to our satisfaction, is often not possible. We look around and we see things that don’t make any sense. And we don’t understand why things are the way that they are. And you can’t always understand the world, but you can read the Bible. And God has given us instruction. as far as how we do understand the world in light of Him and in light of who we are.

And that’s where the preacher starts here. Number one, listening to God. So there in Ecclesiastes 5 verse 1, guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools for they do not know they are doing evil. Guard your steps when you enter the house of God. Or, be careful how you approach worship. Think about how you are approaching the worship of the God of the universe.

We must remember what we’re doing here. We need to remember what it is we’re doing when we come to worship God. We’re going to the house of God. We are entering into God’s presence. When we come to worship God, we should not do so casually, as if we’re dropping by a friend’s house for a visit. There’s something more important going on here when we come to worship our creator.

We are coming where God has promised to be present. Now, in the Old Testament, in the preacher’s setting, God promised to be present in particular physical places. It started with the tabernacle, and then he did the same thing with the temple, and he promised He would be there with the people, and so when they came to worship Him, they need to remember that. When you are coming to the place where God promised to be present, you need to treat it like that, like you are coming to meet with God.

And the construction of the tabernacle and the temple was actually designed to limit access to God. No one could personally enter into the holiest place of the tabernacle or temple. unless it was the priest, and he could only do it on certain days of the year. When he did, he could only do it when he was wearing the right things, doing it in the right manner, and again, at the right time. There was a specific way to do this.

Access to God was not just unlimited. It was actually very specific, how they could access God in that day. Then in the New Testament, Jesus is revealed as our high priest. who gives us access to God. And by His life and death and resurrection, He has provided that access to us for all who turn from their sin and trust in Him. And again, those who do trust Christ can come into direct access to God. We’re no longer dependent on any specific building or specific place.

We see in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 9, we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. And then 2 Corinthians chapter 6, for we are a sanctuary of the living God. Just as God said, I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they will be my people. But even though things are different now in the New Testament and access to God is different, that does not mean we can treat worship casually.

Worship should have the same reverence and fear that it always did. Whenever and wherever the church gathers for worship, that is where God is present. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there. And yes, that verse talks about church discipline specifically, but it talks about because we have the presence of God in us, when we are gathered together, specifically for worship, God is present. So, approach worship with that in mind. You are coming to where God is present. And if we believe that, if we believe that to be true, it ought to cause us to guard our steps, to think about how it is we are coming to worship. It simply means think about what it is you’re doing when you come to worship the almighty God of the universe. It is so easy to take that for granted, who we are worshiping.

Again, in the Old Testament, everything about the temple was designed for the worshiper to realize that worship was a serious business. That was the purpose for all of the strict guidelines and rules for them to follow. You remember Nadab and Abihu, when they didn’t want to follow God’s rules. He didn’t tolerate that very long. Worship was a serious business. Even the building itself, when they built the temple, it was a majestic building with a lot of ornate detail. And that was meant to communicate something about God. God is much bigger than you. Therefore, when you come to worship him, keep that in mind. It was meant to make you look up and see how small you were in the presence of God’s place. And this is why even in the ancient churches, The church buildings communicated that. They were big and tall and had high ceilings and they were made to make you feel small. The beauty and design in the buildings was meant to communicate something.

And it’s really a shame that that trend is disappearing in churches today. A lot of the new church buildings you see being built, I mean, they look like everything else. There’s a new church building I drive by all the time on the way here. It looks like the backside of a Target. You wouldn’t know it’s a church, and they have a couple letters on the side that’s their logo. It looks like a business. You wouldn’t know, unless you had intelligence about it, that it’s a church. It’s a church building. It’s hard to recognize what it is people are doing when they come there. When people come to worship, do they know what they’re doing? Does it communicate anything about who God is when you come to worship?

And not everything’s in the building. It’s not a hard and fast rule that we have to build churches a certain way, but the form communicates something. And again, it’s not all about the building, because you look at the preacher’s name. He is looking at this temple that was built this way, meant to communicate something.

And he’s seeing, you guys aren’t paying attention to what you’re doing when you come to worship. The design isn’t everything because when you come to worship carelessly as the people were doing, if you weren’t looking up and seeing how small you are and recognizing God in this, then you just started going through the motions and you started bringing your sacrifice and paying your dues and getting on with your life.

That’s often what happened in the worship of Israel. That’s what the preacher’s confronting here. when he tells them to guard their steps. You see a lot of the prophets confront the false worship of Israel because they weren’t listening to what God had said. You see this in Malachi. In Malachi chapter 1, there’s a few verses here. In verse 6, God’s speaking to his people. Malachi chapter 1 verse 6 says this, a son honors his father and a slave his master. That if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where’s the fear of me?

Oh, priests who despise my name, why do you … But you say, how have you despised your name? You are presenting defiled food upon my altar. And you say, how have we defiled you? In that you say the table of Yahweh is to be despised. But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? When you present the lame and the sick, is it not evil?

And then listen to what God says. Please, bring it to your governor. Would he accept you? or would you lift up your face, says Yahweh of hosts. You wouldn’t treat your earthly human officials this way. You show more respect for your human rulers than you do for God. You bring me the lame and sick and blind animals from your herd, the ones you were going to throw out anyways, and you think that qualifies for worship? No, they were supposed to bring the best and the first. to show their commitment and their priority that God is first in my life.

He says, you wouldn’t even bring this to the governor. You treat the governor better than you treat me. Further down, he’s confronting them again and he says, you also say, behold, how tiresome it is. You disdainfully sniff at it, says Yahweh of hosts.

You bring what was taken by robbery. What is lame and sick, and so you bring the offering. Should I accept it from your hand? But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king, says Yahweh of hosts, and my name is to be feared among the nations.

That’s how they were treating worship. It was something to check off. It wasn’t giving their first and their best. It was giving what was left over. what I didn’t really need anyways, and at least it’s a sacrifice, and that’ll appease God and keep Him happy. That’s what they were treating worship like. And you also say, behold how tiresome it is. Oh, this again. We gotta go worship again. We gotta go sacrifice again. Do we have to go to church again today? Oh, it’s Sunday again. Gotta get up early, get dressed up nice, go to church, Do you realize what we’re doing here? Do you realize who you’re coming to worship?

Again, God’s question, would you treat the governor that way? If you were going to the governor’s house, how would you think about that versus how you think about a Sunday morning? How do you treat it? What do you dress like? How would you dress to see the governor?

Now there’s no list of. Certain things you have to wear or not wear, but God’s making the comparison here. Do you treat me better than you treat the governor? Guard your steps as you go into the house of God. Think about what you’re doing when we come and worship. He says, draw near to listen.

Rather than to the sack, offer the sacrifice of fools. For they do not know they’re doing evil. He talks about the sacrifice of fools and them not knowing they’re doing evil. It’s because they’re not paying attention. They ought to know they’re doing evil because God had specific rules for his worship. And yet they come as though they don’t know or care.

This is talking about the kind of people who become so used to playing games with God that they no longer expect their religion to be anything else. They know I’m going to go through the motions. I’m gonna go check the box again today. It’s that day of the week. They play the part of religion. They come to church on Sunday and don’t give anything of respect to God the rest of the time. And the game has become normal to them. They don’t even know that they’re doing evil. I’ve done it before, and there’s been no lightning bolt from heaven to strike me down, so I guess it’s okay.

And they were supposed to offer God their best, their first and their best. Because offering Him their best showed He was their priority. And instead, they were offering what was convenient. They were worshiping out of convenience. Well, I’m getting rid of this lame and sick and blind one anyways. How convenient, I’ll just take that to the temple, sacrifice that one. That’s nice and convenient. That worked out well, but that’s not a sacrifice. That’s not giving something up for God. And we don’t live in the sacrificial system anymore, but the principle’s the same.

Do we worship out of convenience? Is God and the worship of Him our priority in our life? Again, do we approach our worship of Him out of convenience or out of our need to meet with Him? Our need to gather with His people and worship Him together? Our need to listen to Him through the corporate worship? Or do we treat worship out of convenience? Or do we come when it’s convenient, when I don’t have anything else going on, or nothing else that I’m committed to? Not a providential hindrance like a sickness or an emergency, but because there was something more important.

We need this. We need this worship, this coming to hear from God. We need to hear and obey what God has said as we meet. This is why we put such an emphasis on God’s word in our worship services, because this is what we’re doing. We are coming to hear from God. This is what worship is. and recognizing that we come to hear from God should cause us to prepare for worship intentionally.

Be ready for worship. Preparing for worship doesn’t start early on Sunday morning. It ought to start Saturday night. I know I have worship tomorrow, so I’m not going to stay up till two in the morning so that I can’t get out of bed. We prepare beforehand because this is a priority for us. Worship is a priority. for me. Pastor Tom Haskell has some helpful advice on preparing for worship like this. He says this, prayer is key. On Saturday night, pray and ask God to speak in worship the next morning. When you enter worship on Sunday morning, pray that he would give you a heart and mind receptive to hearing what he intends to say to you.

This simple discipline, taking time to ask the Lord to speak to you before you draw near to worship him, can revolutionize your participation in worship. Now this isn’t asking God to speak from the clouds, some distant voice. This is asking God to show me what your word has to say. Speak to me through your word as I come to worship.

Open my heart so that I am ready and willing and able to hear and understand what you have to say to me. So do we come prepared for worship? That’s part of guarding your steps as you come into the house of God. Do you come prepared to do what we’re doing here? The preacher continues in verses two and three.

Do not be hasty with your mouth or impulsive in your heart to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven, but you are on the earth. Therefore, let your words be few. For the dream comes through an abundant endeavor and the voice of a fool through abundant words. So don’t be too quick just to tell God what you think he wants to hear. To say the words and do the things.

Think about what we read on the screens every Sunday. Whether it’s the songs we sing, the confessions we read, the scripture we read. Are you just reading that hastily? Because you think that’s what God wants to hear? Or are you considering what it is that we are confessing together? Jesus speaks about vain repetitions in worship. Matthew chapter six, verses seven and eight.

He says, when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Don’t just say the words just to say them.

It doesn’t accomplish anything. It doesn’t earn any credit with God just because you said the words, repeated after me. Is your heart in it? Are you thinking about what it is we’re saying and what we’re reading and what comes out of your mouth? Don’t just pour out meaningless repetitions. Instead of listening to God’s word and having that inform what you say.

I like the way one commenter used this analogy when it comes to speaking to God, as the preacher is talking about here. He says this, when we pray, we tend to think it’s like talking to God through a spiritual microphone while God’s on the other end listening through a set of headphones. But in fact, when we pray, God is listening with a spiritual stethoscope. Just like a doctor who says, let me hear you breathe.

And He listens in to what we cannot see and so reveals truths about us that we do not know. God is in heaven. And when we speak to Him, He knows what’s in our hearts. So don’t think that repeating vain repetitions is going to accomplish anything with Him, because He knows your heart. His stethoscope is always working. He knows what’s in your heart, even though words are coming out of your mouth.

Don’t speak before you think, and when you speak, think about what’s coming out of your mouth. Don’t be careless in what you say. Again, this applies to songs we sing. We sing songs with some very deep theological truth in them, things that we confess, things that we say that we will do. Savior, like a shepherd, lead me, as we sang this morning. Do you mean that? Do you mean those words that you sang or are you going to go home on Monday and not follow him? Did you mean that when you said it? If not, then why did you say it?

Do not be hasty with your mouth or impulsive in your heart to bring up the matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven, but you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few.” The preacher is teaching us that we need God’s word more than he needs ours. We need his revelation about who he is and what he is like so that we fear him properly. Coming and repeating and singing and doing all the things that we do in worship, and we do them for a reason, but you coming to do them is not going to impress God because you did He knows your heart. Do you mean it? Is your heart in the worship that we do here in the Lord’s house? That’s the first aspect of worship that the preacher has us focus on, listening to God. And then he moves on to speaking to God.

Verses four through seven, this is what he says, when you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it. For he takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than you should vow and not pay. Do not allow your mouth to cause your flesh to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and wreak destruction on the work of your hands? For in many dreams and vanities are many words. Fear God.

Making official vows is probably not something we do very often, not in the sense that they made vows, vows that were binding, that had consequence to them. But there’s a very simple principle here that is part of living wisely and being godly. When you say you’ll do something, you do it. When you say you’re going to do something, keep your word.

Why? Because I’m a man of my word? Because that’s what a real man is like? No, because God’s like that. Because God is like that. And if you want to be godly, God keeps his word, so why shouldn’t you? When you say you’ll do something, do it. And God takes no pleasure in foolish chatter. That’s what he says here. God takes no pleasure in the fool when he makes promises that he has no intention to keep. If you say you’ll do it, then do it. In fact, he says it’s better not to make a vow in the first place.

Don’t promise something if you don’t think you can deliver. Don’t let your mouth make a sinner out of you. Not that you’re saying anything sinful necessarily, Don’t write checks that your feed can’t cash. Don’t say something that you can’t follow through on. Don’t let your mouth make a sinner out of you.

And have you ever thought about this? Why is it that we have vows or promises in the first place? Why is it that we have to make vows in the first place? Vows and oaths and swearing and all those things Exist because we are inherently untruthful We are we naturally Sand off the edges and leave out the undesirable details when we’re telling our story of what happened Or we embellish and we exaggerate for effect right and Because we know that we and everyone else is like that Certain things will prefix with, honestly, I’m telling the truth.

Seriously. No word of a lie, this is what really happened. Because we all assume that we’re all liars by nature. So when we want to avoid that assumption, we need to tell you that this time, I’m actually not lying. That’s what a vow is. If we were inherently truthful people, we wouldn’t need vows.

And when you stop and think about it and realize that God is in heaven and he knows our hearts, what do you think we look like with all of the vows and promises that we make and don’t keep? Yes, God makes vows and promises, but again, it’s because we aren’t like that. God always keeps his word. Whatever God says is a promise.

When we confess in our singing and in our prayers and what we read on Sundays, when we say all those things as though we’re making that proclamation or that vow that I want to live like this, God, because of who you are and all the things we sing, when we say that and then our life bears absolutely no resemblance to the truth that we just sang, what do you think we look like as people who make vows like that, and then don’t keep them. And this is what the preacher is saying to us. You think it’s bad to not do something that you should have done, how much worse is it to say you were going to do it and then not do it? Or it’s like a person who says, God, I’m really in a tight spot here. If you’ll come through for me this time, I promise I will serve you with my whole life. And then that crisis passes, They don’t do anything with it. Why? Because it was just words. It’s just one of those things you say.

Or maybe we’re like people that like to talk a good game and tell people about all the things that we could do or will do or might do. As one guy put it, talking about what you will do is a good low-cost way to enhance your reputation down at church.

Think of the similar tactic employed by Ananias and Sapphira. Talking about what you will do and then not following through. Didn’t work out too well for them. And here in Ecclesiastes, for the believer, this kind of attitude is very dangerous. Again, think about who you’re talking to. Think about who you’re worshiping. And if we’re thinking about the way that we sing and confess and all the things that come out of our mouth in our worship, think about who you’re saying that to.

Do you mean that? Is that coming from your heart? God is actually in heaven. That’s what it says here. God is in heaven. He has to remind you of that even in your worship. Even in what you’re saying and you’re singing and you’re reading, hey people, don’t forget God’s in heaven. He’s really there. You’re really speaking to him. Don’t forget that in your worship. Don’t forget what you’re doing. God is in heaven and as he said before, he will bring all these things into judgment. Every idle word will be brought into judgment. God sees and he hears and he knows everything.

And the preacher reminds us that the one undivided God wants an undivided worshiper. He wants all of our heart and all of our mind and all of our strength. And so a worshiper who is saying yes over here and no over there, who’s inconsistent in his speech and actions, that’s not what God’s looking for. He wants someone who is devoted to being a worshiper, someone who says what he means and means what he says.

Again, Jesus says in Matthew 5, verses 34 to 37, but I say to you, make no oath at all. This is the preacher’s conclusion. Better not to make an oath or a vow if you’re not going to keep it. Make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black, but let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no. It’s better that you should not vow than you should vow and not pay, the preacher says. Be careful with your word. Be careful with what you promise.

Believers who are just honest people, they don’t need to resort to vows and oaths A simple yes or no will do. It protects our integrity and the sincerity of our speech. Why not just live in a way that assumes you’ll actually be honest? What you see is what you get.

Honestly, we become people like this when we decide that because God knows, because God hears, because God is the one I am before. I’m not going to live off the fact that the person I’m talking to may not know whether I’m telling the truth or not, whether I’m going to keep my word or not. When I live my life before the face of God, as if he hears everything I say and commit to, when I live like that, that’s going to affect a lot of what I say and what I do. You may not know if I’m telling the truth, but God does.

God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. When I live with the reality of God in heaven who knows my heart like an open book, you know what that’s called? Fearing him. Living as though he is who he says he is. Living as though God, revealed in scripture, is there. And here’s what I say and do, and that’s what he ends with here in verse seven. For in many dreams and vanities are many words. A lot of people say a lot of things that don’t mean much.

His conclusion here, rather, fear God. Rather, fear God. Now that’s a motto for life. That’s a bumper sticker verse right there. Rather, fear God. When you’re tempted to ramble on about whatever you’re talking about and you have no intent of keeping your word, or when you want to make promises that you don’t know if you can keep or not, or you wanna tell stories that are a little inflated but nobody’s gonna know because they weren’t there, God was. Rather, fear God.

As God’s people, we must Not only enter into worship in the fear of God, but live our whole lives in the fear of God, as though God is really there. God is in heaven. He knows my heart. He hears every word that I say. That fear of him is the foundation of godly living, of godliness. It’s the ground of our worship. That’s what Psalm 89 says, Psalm 89 verses 6 and 7.

For who in the sky is comparable to Yahweh? Who among the sons of the mighty is like Yahweh? A God greatly dreaded in the counsel of the holy ones and fearsome of all those who are around him.” There’s nobody like God. He is feared. Our God is a holy God and worthy of our fear and trembling. And the only way that God can be truly worshiped is out of fear for him. The only way to worship God is through Jesus Christ. One of the best ways to keep a proper sense of fear in our worship, when we come to worship him together, one of the best ways to keep a proper sense of fear is to remember what it cost for me to be here.

Remember what it cost God for me to be one of his sheep, for me to be here on a Sunday worshiping him. Remember the seriousness of our sin and the holiness of our God. I should have been the one tortured and beaten and crucified, but I wasn’t. He did that for me.

We come to worship our fearsome God through trust in what he did for me. Remember, as Psalm 130 verse four says, but with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. That’s why he forgives us. so that we would fear him, we would live for him. And so when we come before him to worship him, we need to come in fear, rather fear God.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer. Our God, we thank you. Most of all, we thank you for who you are, for who you have revealed yourself to be. I pray that we would listen to you, that we would listen to what you have to say, and that would be first and foremost on our minds when we come to worship you. And then as we do that, that we would live as people who know there is a God in heaven, and that we are on the earth, and that we live in light of him. and most of all, that we would fear God. In all the things we do and all the choices we make and all the words that we say, we would remember, rather, fear God. We thank you and praise you and glorify you here tonight. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.