Not Long ago there was 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.
In February 27 2009 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 a few years ago 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, this is a direct quote from the article: Quote “ 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.” End Quote. This article attempts to equate the fundamental idea of worshipping our God to the pursuit of finding the right pair of shoes or finding the store with the right price on a certain style of dress. What I am trying to tell you is that worship to God has become, in our society, no longer a matter of serving God on his terms but it has become a matter of God serving us on our terms. This spiritual consumerism, as referred to in the article quote, has caused many to look for a bargain basement Christianity with a half priced service to satisfy an extravagant top self kind of God. I recall some years ago when I was coming up there was a commercial for a certain cereal. The commercial consisted of a little boy and his older sibling and they were given a new cereal to try and they older sibling was skeptical about the cereal so he got his little brother to try it first. He said hey give it to Mikey, Mikey will eat anything. And Mikey ate it and liked it so they begin to eat it. Then I remember another commercial. There was a hungry cat and his owner opened a off brand kind of cat food and put it in front of the cat and the cat turned away. So the owner went and got another can of food that looked much different from the first can. It looked like the owner had cooked it himself and it was called Fancy Feast. See we want to treat God like mikey, he will take anything, but we want God to treat us like the fancy feast cat. I want the best. We don’t want the used car, we want the new car, we don’t want a man, we want THEE man, we don’t want him to ease the pain, we want him to take the sickness away, we don’t want a little money in the bank, we want to own the bank, we don’t just want a job, we want a career. In turn God tells us bring me the first fruits of your labor but instead we bring the fruits that are left after we celebrate our labor, he says Love me with all your heart and we love him with a few shattered pieces that somebody left behind, He tells us walk by faith and not by sight but we walk by sight and hope we can run in to our faith one day, He tells us seek ye first the kingdom of God and all of his righteousness and all these things will be added unto to you but instead we seek these things first and hope somewhere down the line his righteousness will be added to our efforts. In ecclesiastes The Preacher begins this wisdom literature by proclaiming all of human effort not focused on God is vanity. In chapter 5 the preacher seems to give attention to the fact that vanities can in influence the very precious worship of our God. If there is anything that is to be held as sacred, holy and God centered it ought to be our worship and service to God. Tommy Walker -
"How quickly we forget what it's all about. We can get so strategic that we worship so
our church will grow, not because He is worthy. But we're doing all this because God is
worthy and we want to worship Him." It is with that that thought of worship being all about us coming to God on his terms that we begin to unpack these passages
1. Our Approach to Worship vs.1-2
A. Be in Awe of him
In vs. 1 he warns to keep thy foot in the esv. It says Guard your steps. He makes it a point to express to us the imperative or the command from God to be mind full of the hallowedness of the ground we tread when we go worship. In Exodus 3:5 we are shown Moses encounter with God and God tells Moses to not come any further and to take his sandals off of his feet for the ground he stands on is Holy ground. The fact that the presence of God dwelt there in that place made that place like no other place on earth. No other place on earth could boast and say the manifestation of God is here. Gods command to take off his shoes tells us a few things. First that Gods ground is no place for self manufactured coverings. His sandals were made by Moses or someone else’s hands and because of that it wasn’t good enough to dwell were God is. Moses didn’t make his feet God did and only what God creates can dwell with him. Second the place where God dwells is the place of intimacy. Moses bare feet meant there was nothing in the way to come in contact to who God is revealing himself to be.
Henry Sloane Coffin -
"If there is one characteristic more than others that contemporary public worship needs to recapture it is this awe before the surpassingly great and gracious God."
B. Be attentive to God
What is this sacrifice of fools? Well just by looking at the text apparently it is the opposite of what is better which is to draw near to listen or hear. The sacrifice of fools is coming to give directives instead of coming to hear commands. To hear in the Hebrew means to come and receive but also to be obedient to what is said. We must understand that worship of God is not regulated to tones of voices or sounds of instruments but true worship stems from our admiration of God and our and how we live out that admiration is worship to him. Because of our admiration and fear we come to his house to hear how we are to worship him in everyday practical living. I don’t come to tell God how I will live but I come to enquire of him how to live.
2. Our Attitude in Worship vs. 2-6
A. Understand the seriousness of the fellowship
Our fellowship with God, though it may be personal, is not without warning. Now we are to tell God all our hearts desires and all of our problems because he knows them already, but we must be careful of what we say in his presence because he hears all things. In vs. 3 he says that a fools words are many and he implies in vs. 4 that he doesn’t take an account of what he says before God before he says it and in vs. 6 he says that his many words have lead him into sin and his sinful words runs him into the anger of God and God punishes by destroying the work of his hands. Many of mans greatest works have been destroyed because of mans foolish vows before God. Man said the Titanic was unsinkable, they said God couldn’t sink it and God showed them how foolish that vow was. When you vow to follow Christ with your life and fail to do so you make a foolish vow and God will grow angry and destroy the works of your hands. When you tell God if you get me out of this jam I promise I will go to church and you show up a few times and don’t come back until next Easter, you are making a foolish vow and God will destroy the works of your hands. When you vow to God I’m going to work in your auxiliary and you come a few times and quit you made a foolish vow and God will grow angry at your voice and he will destroy the works of your hands.
3. Our Attention in Worship vs. 7
A. The right choice
Although there may be all sorts of distractions around us trying to take our focus The preacher says ultimately fear God. In the beginning of Ecclesiastes he tells us that all things not focused on God is vanities so he concludes the book in the 12th ch. And the 13th vs. He says
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [is] the whole [duty] of man. That’s the whole duty of man. To Fear God and keep his commandments. If I keep his word I will live in reverential fear of God. David said in psalms 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. His commandments give me light down my dark paths for he said in psalms 119:105 Thy word [is] a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path When I feel down I’m picked up by his word for he said in psalms 1:2 But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. When I was sinking low in sin sailing far from the peaceful shore seeking to rise no more the captain of the sea sent me a word In Romans 5:6-9 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
[7] For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
[8] But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He died but it didn’t stop there his word told me in Acts 2:24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. He got up with all power but that’s not all his word tells me that there is a promise in Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you
