In the last couple of weeks, I have run across a couple of news articles that reflect some disturbing trends in worship here in the United States.
Earlier this week, many of you may have seen some of the results from a study performed by The Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., regarding religion in America. That survey found that those who identify themselves as Christians have decreased from 86% of Americans in 1990 to only 76% in 2008. During that same period, those who say that they have no religion have risen from 8.2% to 15% of the population.
A February 27 article from the website “Slate” titled, “Why American churchgoers like to shop around” also caught my attention. That article cited statistics from a Barna Group survey that revealed that one in seven adults changes churches each year, and another one in six attends a handful of churches on a rotating basis. Another survey by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life last year indicated that 44 percent of American adults have left their first religious affiliation for another. But what was most disturbing to me is that the article actually viewed this as a good thing:
Even if the American mania for shopping extends to our spiritual lives, church shopping still doesn’t get much respect. But while it may be frequently derided as an example of rampant spiritual consumerism, shopping around can be one of the good things about the way religion is practiced in America.
But apparently this trend toward worshipping God on our own terms isn’t anything new as we’ll see as we continue our journey through Ecclesiastes.
1 Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil. 2 Do not be rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few. 3 For a dream comes through much activity, And a fool’s voice is known by his many words. 4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed -- 5 Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. 6 Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands? 7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 (NKJV)
This is really a whole new focus for Qoheleth. He now turns his focus from life “under the sun” to the worship of God. And as he does so, he draws a very sharp distinction between those who worship God on their own terms and those who worship God on His terms.
He begins this section with a stern warning – we are to “walk prudently” when we go to the house of God. Other translations render that phrase “guard your steps” or “watch your step”. In other words, we need to be very careful with our worship. And then Qoheleth goes on to describe the contrast between those who he identifies as “fools” and those who are wise and guard their steps.
We’ve already seen Qoheleth use the term “fool” throughout this book, but we haven’t really stopped to consider what he means when he uses that term. In the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, the term “fool” has a much different meaning than what it has in our English language today. We typically think of a fool as a person a person with little or no judgment, common sense, or wisdom. But the Biblical definition of a fool is given to us in this passage.
The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.
Psalm 14:1 (NIV)
From a biblical perspective a fool is someone who says in his heart that there is no God and who then lives his life in a way that is consistent with that belief. What is really interesting to me is that Qoheleth points out that it is possible for those who are fools, for those who do not believe in God, to actually enter the house of God and attempt to worship. But, not surprisingly, that so-called worship is in vain.
The Bible is quite clear that worship is much more than just what we do here together on Sunday morning. Worship is a lifestyle. So the principles that I’m going to share with you this morning, while they certainly should guide what we do as we gather together for corporate worship, also need to be applied by all of us individually as we live out our lives before God on a day-to-day basis. In this passage, there are five contrasts that demonstrate…
HOW TO BE WISE IN OUR WORSHIP
1. The fool comes to talk; the wise man comes to listen
…and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.
The very first command that we find after the admonition to walk prudently is that when we go to the house of God to worship, we are to draw near to hear God.
The Bible is filled with commands to hear God:
• When Moses stood before the people to proclaim the words of God, he began with the charge, “Hear now, O Israel…” (Deuteronomy 4:1)
• When the prophets came before the people to speak the word of God, they frequently began with the admonition to hear the word of the Lord.
• Jesus often began His discourses by saying, “He who has ears, let him hear.”
• In Revelation, the letters to the seven churches end with this instruction: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The word that Qoheleth uses here means more than just hearing the words. The word conveys the idea of listening carefully and obeying what we hear. That’s why I strive every week as I preach to take God’s Word and make it relevant to your lives and provide you with some practical principles so that you can obey God’s Word. That’s why, as we’ve seen in our Thursday night classes, that the ultimate goal of reading and studying our Bibles is application, not just information.
But instead of coming to hear, the fool comes to talk. And in doing so, he ends up offering up what Qoheleth calls “the sacrifice of fools”. When I hear that phrase I can’t help but think of this familiar passage from the book of Hebrews:
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess his name.
Hebrews 13:5 (NIV)
The wise man comes to hear God and then respond to God with a sacrifice of praise that is focused on God and who He is and what He has done. The fool, on the other hand, focuses on himself and responds with the “sacrifice of fools” – talking about his concerns rather than God’s.
This principle ought to have a tremendous impact on our prayer lives. How many of us come before God with our prayer list that is filled up with all the things that I’m concerned about and we just start talking without ever taking time to listen to God first? How many of us in our prayer time, heed the words of the Psalmist:
Be still, and know that I am God...
Psalm 46:10
Silence is really uncomfortable for most of us. We live in a culture where we are constantly surrounded by noise – radio, TV, internet, mp3 players, telephones. It’s always interesting to me what happens when we include even a very short period of silence in our worship services and how evident it is that people get uncomfortable with that silence pretty quickly.
In your worship, both personal and corporate, are you willing to be silent and hear from God, or are you always anxious to talk before you listen?
2. The fool makes hasty judgments; the wise man is humble
2 Do not be rash with your mouth, And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.
Jesus demonstrated this principle quite clearly in the New Testament when he told this parable:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ’God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ’God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)
The Pharisee is a perfect example of one who was rash with his mouth and who spoke hastily before God. He was quick to use his words to point out the faults in others. It seems that some, just like the Pharisee think that somehow their own spirituality is heightened by pointing out the faults of others. But according to the Bible, just the opposite is true. Our spiritual maturity is actually increased when we make a humble and sober judgment of our own shortcomings. That’s what the tax collector did.
Paul affirms this principle in his letter to the church at Rome:
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Romans 12:3 (NIV)
In your worship, both personal and corporate, are you quick to make hasty judgments about others or do you come before God with a humble heart in order to deal with your own shortcomings?
3. The fool boasts; the wise man obeys
3 For a dream comes through much activity, And a fool’s voice is known by his many words.
Given the context, Qoheleth’s reference to dreams here seems to be referring to foolish dreaming or daydreaming, which is contrasted with sober self-evaluation. Perhaps Qoheleth was thinking of those who make radical resolutions in order to try and show other people how spiritual and pious they are. The example that immediately comes to mind is the words of Peter and the other disciples in the Garden right before Jesus was arrested:
Peter replied, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will." "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same.
Matthew 26:33-35 (NIV)
We all know how that worked out, don’t’ we? Peter ends up denying that he even knows Jesus three times before the morning comes and all the other disciples flee and hide.
These pious-sounding resolutions can take many forms. Some of them are similar to the ones made by the Pharisees who meticulously gave a tithe of even their spices, but failed to take care of their own families.
Or sometimes they can be much more innocent sounding. I’m constantly amazed at how those who have never been parents will make resolutions about raising children in order to sound more holy than those who already are raising children. They’ll things like:
- “I’ll never send my children to daycare”.
- “My teenager will never go to those kinds of movies.”
- “I’ll always have a devotional time with my children.”
The first thing I want to do is remind these people of the words of John Wilmot:
Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.
But even more importantly, we need to be very careful about making these kinds of boasts that are intended to draw attention to our own spirituality. If we really want to show that we love God, actions are much more important than our words:
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me…
John 14:21 (NIV)
The way that we demonstrate we really love God is not with our talk. Anyone can say that he loves God, but the real proof of our love for Him is whether we are willing to act on what we discover as we hear Him.
In your worship, both personal and corporate, are you quick to make boasts that are intended to show others just how spiritual you are or do you just quietly obey God?
4. The fool does not fulfill his vows; the wise man keeps his word
4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed -- 5 Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. 6 Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands?
Temple vows were a common part of Old Testament worship. Those vows often involved the promise to dedicate something to God in return for God granting a request made in prayer. Perhaps the best known example in the Bible is Hannah’s promise to give her son to God. And when Samuel was born Hannah made good on her promise.
But what Qoheleth observed, and what we also see today, is that many times when these kinds of vows are made and God answers the prayer, the person who made the vow fails to fulfill his promise. Perhaps the person never really intended to fulfill his vow from the very beginning. Perhaps the vow was made sincerely, but once the person had what he wanted, he didn’t see the need to keep up his end of the deal. Or perhaps, as Qoheleth alludes to, the person claims that he made the vow in error.
But this is a matter of integrity and the Bible is clear that God desires integrity in our worship. In both the Old and New Testaments we find an emphasis on the importance of keeping our word:
If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty of sin. But if you refrain from making a vow, you will not be guilty. Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the LORD your God with your own mouth.
Deuteronomy 23:21-23 (NIV)
Simply let your ’Yes’ be ’Yes,’ and your ’No,’ ’No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Matthew 5:37 (NIV)
Unfortunately, we live in a culture where the keeping of vows is not very highly valued. And even the church has been impacted by that. One of the reasons that we have a new members’ class for those who want to join this church is because we view church membership as a vow. And we want to make sure that those who are considering that vow know the commitment they are making and we expect them to take that vow seriously and keep it.
When we get married, we make vows before God to each other to continue to love each other regardless of the circumstances. And unfortunately, Christians aren’t much better than the rest of the world in keeping those vows. That’s why, especially in cases where there is no Biblical grounds for divorce, I always warn people against violating their marriage vows because once we violate our vows in one area of our lives it becomes much easier to do it in the rest of our lives.
In your worship, both personal and corporate, do you fail to fulfill the promises that you make to God or do you keep your word?
5. The fool focuses on self; the wise man fears God.
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.
This is one of those passages where the “box-art”, or the theme, for the passage is actually at the very end. There is no doubt that the “box-art” for this passage is “fear God.” That’s what this whole passage is all about. Although Qoheleth writes primarily in this passage about being careful with our words, those words merely reflect what is in our hearts, as Jesus makes quite clear:
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45 (NIV)
The wise man who fears God, who recognizes that God is in heaven and that we are on earth, will have few words when it comes to his worship. He will be so overwhelmed with the greatness of God that words will be inadequate to express his awe and wonder.
But the fool will be so focused on himself that his mouth will run over with excessive words. He won’t be able to stop talking about himself and all that is important to him. We all know people like that, don’t we? They love to hear the sound of their own voices. Everything is about them. They have to give you their take on everything under the sun. They have to make sure that they get in the last word.
Speaking of last words, this week I ran across some famous last words:
- Are you sure the power is off?
- I wonder where the mother bear is.
- I’ve seen this done on TV
- I can make the light before it changes
- Nice doggie
- Now watch this
We live in a culture that is increasingly focused on self. And as we saw at the beginning, the church is not immune to that. So we have a whole generation of church shoppers and church hoppers who go from church to church trying to satisfy their own needs. And the unfortunate result is that we as a culture have tried to conform God to who we want Him to be, rather than who He really is.
Patrick Morley, in his book Man in the Mirror, describes this cultural Christianity like this:
Cultural Christianity means to pursue the God we want instead of the God who is. It is the tendency to be shallow in our understanding of God, wanting Him to be more of a gentle grandfather type who spoils us and lets us have our own way. It is sensing a need for God, but on our own terms. It is wanting the God we have underlined in our Bibles without wanting the rest of Him, too. It is God relative instead of God absolute.”
As a result, we have people that come to church every week, not to hear from God, but rather to be entertained or made to feel better about themselves or to have some need in their lives addressed. And unfortunately many churches have adapted to this cultural Christianity by making their preaching more about us and less about God.
But my goal every week is to feed you a steady diet of God’s Word so that He can reveal Himself to you as He really is. And sometimes that may not be what you want to hear, but rather what you need to hear. My job is not to meet your needs, but to teach you about the God of the Bible who is the only one who can meet those needs. Anything less will only result in us trying to worship a God of our own imagination that looks more like us than the God of the Bible.
In your worship, both personal and corporate, is your focus on yourself and your desires, or are you focused on God and what He wants?
