Reverent Worship - Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 Series

Ecclesiastes 5:1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Better to draw near in obedience (lit. draw near to listen) than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they ignorantly do wrong. 2 Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. (lit. do not be quick with your mouth or be impulsive with your heart to say a word before the face of God) God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. 3 For dreams result from much work and a fool’s voice from many words. 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? 7 For many dreams bring futility, so do many words. Therefore, fear God.

Introduction

Reverence

Of all the things my father taught me growing up, I think maybe the most valuable was teaching me to revere God. I remember once as a kid telling a joke that involved God. It did not mock God or make fun of God in any way – but God was mentioned in the joke. And I told it, hoping to get a big laugh, and instead Dad just said something like, “I don’t like jokes about God. It’s not reverent.” That hit me like a ton of bricks, and it forever changed the way I spoke about God. In our home God was never referred to as “the man upstairs” or “the big guy,” or any kind of wording that conveyed anything but deep reverence. Reverence for the Creator goes beyond just the normal respect we show to fellow human beings. It is fine to mention a fellow human being in a joke as long as it does not reflect poorly on them or belittle them. But with God it is different. It is not enough to just show that level of respect. When you mention God, it is irreverent to mention Him at all in a frivolous way.

Another person who helped set this attitude deep in my heart was John MacArthur. He made an offhanded comment in a sermon once that always stuck with me. He was talking about people who are overly-familiar in the way they talk about Jesus. They are so quick to utter the name Jesus, and they speak about Him the same way they would speak about a peer or a buddy. And he went on to point out that in Scripture you don’t see the name Jesus by itself very often. Most of the time it is surrounded by titles of honor…– the Lord Jesus, or the Lord Jesus Christ, or our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. He said, “I love using titles of honor for the Lord Jesus Christ.” I love that, too. I love it that the Scriptures have given us all those titles so that we can bring Him honor every time we mention His name.

Another thing that never, ever happened in our house growing up was anybody saying the phrase, “Oh my God!” We were taught very early that if you are going to mention God, you had better be actually talking about God. The phrase “Oh my God” means nothing. And it is irreverent to mention God in a sentence that means nothing.

For some of you all this might sound kind of silly. You might think, “Come on – these are just words. It’s just a saying – I don’t mean anything bad by it.” That is exactly the problem! Saying words that do not have meaning is a bad thing to do because words matter. Words are not small, insignificant things. They are huge, important things. And if you doubt that, just glance through the language of this section.

4 When you make a vow to God, don’t delay fulfilling it, because He has no pleasure in fools.

If we don’t follow the principles in this passage, we are acting like fools who bring no pleasure to God. Remember, our goal in this book is to enjoy life by pleasing God. So doing something that brings no pleasure to God will cut us off from our goal. Not only that, but look at verse 6. There is a possibility that God will be angry with our words and destroy the work of our hands.

Matthew 12:36 But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.