We'll be back in Romans starting next week, but I wanted from the onset even of in November to work on a message that we dive into the new year looking at this idea of worship, worthy worship from Ecclesiastes 5. I was going through Ecclesiastes with the teens this past year, so all fall into, or actually last spring, this fall, finishing up And so this is one of those messages that comes from that study. But looking at Ecclesiastes 5, 1-7, what it means to have worthy worship, how our hearts are in tune to what God has called us to do. Now growing up, I remember there were times, and I come from a family, maybe not everyone knows this, I come from a family of eight, so my parents, eight kids. I had one sister, so there's seven boys, one girl. I say every time, because people think they should feel sorry for her, they should not. She held her own, she had her own room. She had no hand-me-downs, so there was a lot of things she had going for her. And she was the second oldest and ruled the roost, so it was fine for her. I just wanted to get that out of the way. But I remember growing up, we would go visit certain places or certain people that were not necessarily on a kid's bucket list of fun or desirable things to do. And sometimes we were wise enough to mention that to our parents, that that wasn't our desire, which, by the way, got us nowhere. We would say it was either boring there, that never worked. And then one of the things that was the hardest, right, people would invite you over to eat. And sometimes we would say, well, we really don't like their food. or we knew too much about how they prepared the food, and that became bothersome to us as well. If you've met my parents, you know that none of that whining mattered to them. So, none of it, not at all. They would tell us this, you better act like you like it. And you better fool us. And you're gonna be there, and you're gonna make it happen. And we did, because we knew if we didn't, we would pay the price. I still remember my mom, my one older brother would complain about this one family and they would make yogurt a certain way and he would complain about it. And I think my mom, just on purpose, when they offered to take yogurt home, she would say yes. And then it would come home and that would be something you had to eat. I grew up where you ate what you were put in front of you, so there was no options there. But I say all that, right? Because there's times you go somewhere you don't want to be, And then sometimes you just pretend like you want to be there, because that's what you have to do. That's the image you have to portray out. And I use the story about being a kid, and if you're a parent, you know that. You tell your kids, you behave, you represent us well, you make sure you fool us, you do that. But sadly, what happens is we treat worship of God like a place or a person we would rather not visit. We view it as either boring or distasteful. Yet we feel compelled to do it, so we pretend to like it or care about it. There's a problem with that though, because unlike visiting someone and keeping up a good image that you like it, God does not want pretend worship. Solomon here in Ecclesiastes 5, 1 through 7 is addressing that exact issue. He's encouraging people to worship God and go to his house, yet he's cautioning all of us to do it in a manner worthy of God. because there is only one true undivided God, yet we only give Him our divided attention. Our greatest loves and deepest desires are directed elsewhere. But when it comes to worshiping Him, God wants all of us, not just the parts we're willing to commit to Him. You see, Solomon is addressing here, as Derek Kidner notes, the well-meaning person who likes a good saying and turns up cheerfully enough to worship, but who listens only with ears half open. Solomon wants to wake us up to worthy worship. Worthy worship of the one and only God. And so it begins before we ever get to church by looking at our approach to worship. Verse 1, it says, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. Keep your foot when you go to the house of God. He deals with our attitude toward God. When Moses saw the burning bush in the desert and turned to examine it, he was instructed by God to take off his shoes because he, speaking of Moses, was standing on holy ground. Exodus 3, 5 says, draw not nigh thither, put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moses saw a bush that was burning and was not being consumed, and so he went to look at this phenomenon to quench his curiosity. But that is not how you approach a holy God. You step towards him with an attitude of reverence and awe. You step toward him in godly fear because he is the holy God. Yet as Geisler notes, we've lost this kind of awesome feeling of God in our culture. We've lost our God-fearing nature. The prophet Isaiah writes about seeing God enthroned in the temple. And he says this in Isaiah 6, 1-5, it says, With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the post of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Can you imagine Isaiah there in the temple hearing holy, holy, holy and not having a sense of the awesomeness of God? Yet we seem to have no trouble approaching God with an attitude of casualness instead of one filled with awe and amazement like we should. Yet our attitude is not the only thing lacking or concerning. So after Solomon addresses that, he now deals with our action toward God. Be more ready, he says, to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. And now we realize that as we walk into worship, we have to watch our attitude, but then how we act is seen by God, not just as a casual thing, but as potentially sin. I remember years ago, an old high school classmate was flaunting her newfound type of worship. She had erased the need to focus on God's glory and adhere to his word. She now had freedom of expression and emotional fulfillment. at least in that moment. But she'd missed the whole point of what we should do in worship, because every action she talked about was about herself and expressing herself. But true worship cannot be done for self. That's a lie that Satan has told to humanity. Worthy worship acts in a way that honors and glorifies God. Worship is not giving what we want to God, but instead doing what God wants in worship. But we love, and we love to be doing anything to get things checked off the list so we can move on with our life and interest. But that's not the action God desires in worship. He wants us to hear. He says, be more ready to hear. Now the word hear, we tend to say, we listen, we see something in passing, it's going through. But the word hear means to heed or to obey. When the Bible says to hear something, it means to actually follow through with it, to obey what it says. You approach worship intending to hear the word of God with the purpose of acting in obedience about what is heard. The idea is you'll listen to God, not just hear words and walk out and say, oh, that's a nice service, I enjoyed it, I'm gonna get lunch and I'm gonna do whatever I want now. No, to truly hear when you come to worship and to hear is to hear God's Word and then go out and actually apply that Word to your life. We're called to have His commands seep into the way we see and respond to the world and all of life. Deuteronomy 6, 6 says, and these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart. To what purpose? It's to affect our makeup. God's Word is supposed to influence you in such a way that it changes your personality. It makes you something else. We live in a world of self-expression. Be you. Be your best you. Act however you want. Do whatever you want. That's not a biblical thought. That is not what God's people do. What God's people do is listen to what God has to say, and they actually have that change who they are. God has always intended for His Word to dramatically impact who we are and what we do at all times. The question is, do we enter worship with a real interest in listening to obey? The reason there is a sacrifice of fools is they enter worship with no real interest in listening. Their sacrifice is just mere ritual to get over with as soon as possible. How soon can this be done? How soon can I get to what I want to do? Let's be honest, how quickly is your mind wandering right now? Because we go on to what we want to do, because being here is a checkbox oftentimes. It is not our time to come and worship. And sadly, we don't recognize the sin in that, Solomon writes, for they consider not that they do evil. As one author notes, fools believe that their sacrifices will automatically cancel out their sins without the need for repentance. Worship is just a game. It's pretend. As we examine our worship, do we find that we are just playing games with God? Getting so comfortable with pretend worship that it feels right and normal. As Ryken notes, that type of worship is not only foolish, it is sin. For they consider not that they do evil. How often does your mind wander at church? Why is it hard to focus on worshiping our Lord and Savior? Well, we can blame the speaker, right? He's boring. He's ugly. He's slow. He's dim-witted. You don't get away with that. I may be all of those things, but no excuse for you. But think about that for a second. Why does our mind wander? I process that because how easy it is to sit there and it's easy for me, I'm talking the whole time, right? So my mind has to be engaged. I recognize how easy it is for our minds to wander. Why do we have that happen to us? Because we're, I think, approaching worship half-hearted or really with a heart divided. splitting worship between ourselves and God. And let's be fair, we don't split it even, and God deserves it all. We excuse ourselves by saying we're busy, or we're facing relationship issues, or I just had an argument, or I'm thinking through what I'm going to do this week, and I have a lot of pressure, I have a lot on my mind, and none of those things are going to change. It's not like suddenly you're going to have a free mind, that everything's going to be perfect, that we're set up for that perfect moment. But what Solomon is telling us is to watch out. Be careful, as one author notes. You need to know that approaching God can be dangerous if you're approaching Him thinking He couldn't care less what is really happening in your heart. Solomon is trying to tell us something, and that's God cares how you are in worship. It's not just that you came here and sat down He cares what you're doing. Hebrews 10.22 says, Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. I think one of the biggest and scariest illustrations of worship comes in Leviticus. There's a short biography about two of Aaron's sons. They've just been commissioned as priests, and they decide to burn strange fire before the Lord and are punished severely for it. Now, I know there's a lot of speculation that goes into it, but what we're told in Scripture is that they did something that God told them not to do. It's not that they started worshiping other gods or delved into making a golden calf. They just did things incorrectly. They chose to do something wrong. And it says in Leviticus 10, 1-2, and Nabad and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them is censor and put fire therein and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not went outside the bounds of what God wanted and there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord." Read that service, read that passage, think about that as you walk in a church and then ask this question, how are we approaching worship? God is zealous for proper And that's not about how we walk necessarily or how we dress, but worthy worship. He's not joking about it. But are we passionate for worthy worship? Solomon makes clear that worship is to be centered or entered with the right attitude and right actions. We're not here to just do and say whatever we want. That's something we have to get in our mind. We have a consumer mentality, a purchase mentality. I bought a ticket to the show. I want the show to give this to me, so to speak. There is a proper position in worship. Let's look at verses two and three. Here's more warning. It says, be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. Now Solomon is dealing with our respect toward God, for God is in heaven and thou upon the earth. Rykin notes this, he says, this is one of the Bible's best verses for putting us back in our place. And the fact is, we need to be put in our place. Isaiah 55, eight through nine says this, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way, sayeth the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. And we do well to remember that. We're often quick to tell God what we think he wants to hear. Often we tell God what we think others want to hear us saying while in church. So here we find the religious fool thinking he has all the answers and giving them out freely, and they have forgotten their position. To make his point, Solomon gives us a comparison. Verse 3 says this, For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. Dreams come with much busyness, with the cares of the world, and fools constantly are talking, which reveals their foolishness. We find here a mind that's preoccupied with work and life that ends up dreaming about work. And Solomon is addressing this idea of how, and I know it's easy. I've sat there and I've had my mind wander. So I'm not standing up here saying something that I don't feel immense conviction about. because it is so easy to let your mind move and wander around. It is very easy to be preoccupied with this world, and so everything presses in and pollutes the worship that's there. I remember years ago, it was a summer, I had a job, it wasn't my favorite job. I was responsible for setting down plants outside as the planting line was producing them. I preferred doing construction work, but this summer was my year to be the plant set-down boy. It was a summer that I had my worst dream, really a nightmare. And I almost apologize for sharing my dream with you because I tell everyone, I don't wanna hear what you dreamed at night to my family. I might be an ogre, but I really don't care what your mind did during the evening at all. I just don't wanna know. I'm a bad person. You can listen to my kids' dreams. I'm not saying they're dreams for their life. I mean, they're literal dreams. But I'm gonna share one of mine. I dreamed my way through a full eight hours of work. From 6 a.m. to 2.30 p.m., and right at quitting time in my dream, my alarm went off. Just in time for me to get up and do exactly what I dreamed about. Worst day of my life. Honestly, it's never been that since then. Because when your mind is filled and dreading work, it often does not shut down during sleep. And in the same way, a fool in worship cannot stop talking, and I'm gonna say, even in your own head. We struggle to stop engaging with all the things in our life. As President Lincoln, though, said, it's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt. And too often, we remove all doubt with our worship. Look, we would do well to remember our position in perspective to God and learn some reverent silence. And again, I'm not just talking about the words that may come out, but maybe the silent dialogue that takes place in our mind. He's in heaven and we're on earth, and we need to remember that. Too often we walk into worship and act like it is a concert or a ball game with Jesus next to us, lowering him to our level and then shattering like our view is as important as his. We tend to forget that he is the point of all worship. He is not a participant in it. So are you positioned correctly in your worship? Sadly, though, I think we've developed some bad habits, and so Solomon turns to address our erroneous tendencies in worship four through six, When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, he says, for he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry in thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands? And here Solomon starts with, and we start getting into the vows and that weighed heavier in that time and that economy, that dispensation. And so they understood this better. But here Solomon is dealing with our bartering with God. We're like kids who promised the world to get something from our parents. It's not that we're consciously attempting to lie. I want us to realize, I'm not saying you're lying on purpose to God. It's the reality that as kids, we have not given any thought to our promises beyond getting what we want. We're just trying to make the deal happen. And if you're a parent or a kid, you know this happens. The assumption is, though, when it comes to worship, that God will not hold us accountable to our words. He doesn't care, we think, and will just graciously recognize our inability to come through. It allows us to become very casual in our conversation and our follow through. In the context of worship, we just spit out religious words. When we sing, we sing to Him, we sing praises to Him, but when we call out, come let us return to the Lord, is that a cry of true passion of your heart, or are they just religious words that we are casting out there? We don't think how throwing those words out with no heart behind him, no thought behind him, no connection behind him, how that belittles and disrespects our sovereign God. We think his grace will cover it. We casually and selfishly grab hold of that. Yet as Kidner states, no amount of emphasis on grace can justify taking liberties with God, for the very concept of grace demands gratitude, and gratitude cannot be casual. We tend to be very casual in how we think and worship our Lord. And so Solomon then comes to deal with our backing out on God. You see, God wants a worshiper who is not saying yes, here and no over there. Sitting here and listening, nodding along and saying, yeah, it sounds good, walking out, maybe shake the preacher's hand, say, hey, that was a decent message and go on and then nothing matters. Yes, here, no out there. It's not just our words that we owe to God, it is our works. Deuteronomy 23, 21 says, but thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord, thou shalt not be slack to pay it. For the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it would be sin in thee. God is not interested in the quantity of our promises. He is interested in the sincerity of our promises. We need to overcome the tendencies to barter and back out in worship. We must realize that God sees our hearts and we must hold ourselves accountable because of that. We must evaluate our words and ensure that they are sincere. Even when others may not know, we must live in the reality that God does know. As Matthew 10, 28 states, and fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. thinking about who God is. And I put, are we willing to identify our casual tendencies in worship and make changes? You see, there's an ultimate goal in worship, and Solomon closes his case with a look at our response to worship. Look at verse seven. For in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also diverse vanities, but fear thou God. He deals now with our disposition toward God. And I want to zero in on fear thou God. We end where we began. Right attitude and right actions toward God. Summarizing that phrase, fear thou God. Psalm 89, 6-7 says this, for who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. He's to be feared by us. We lead with that. When we fear God in this way, we will come to worship with expectancy and awe. If we do not, then all we have are a lot of words and ultimate vanity. It says, for in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also diverse vanities. Vanity being smoke, wind, nothingness, gone. It's just, it's over. In short, reverence for God will make our worship truly awesome. Are we coming to the right response from worship? When we walk out of coming together, singing praises to Him, connecting with Him, do we walk away fearing God, seeing Him for who He is? He's not your buddy that walks around with you as your wingman. That is a unbiblical statement and thought. He's God, and He's to be feared and reverenced. I read a paraphrase or a poem of this passion in a book. I'm going to read it here, just kind of summarize it a little bit. It's this person wrote, how brazen and dishonest people are with their religion. They will go as far with it as it suits their needs. So they attend the services and sing the hymns and when they have to give a little money to the Lord. But do they live as one should do who's made a vow to God? Don't kid yourself. Among their friends, their faith is on the shelf. Remember, God knows everything. He knows our hearts when we before him bring our worship, and you can't fool him. So take a good look at yourself before you make your next appearance before the Lord. And go to listen, not to speak, for he will know just what you need. Why, any fool can spout a lovely prayer or sing a hymn about his faith. His words are mindless like a dream. Although to people looking on, they seem impressive. Not to God, for words are cheap, just like the dreams you have while you're asleep. God wants your heart, my son, not just a shell. Get right with him before you hem go. Christians, by definition, we are worshipers. It's not something we do, it's something we are. The sad reality though is we've become so self-engaged and casual that our worship is no longer real. It is just pretend. We come with our demands instead of an attitude to listen. We do what we want instead of what he commands. We elevate ourselves instead of lifting him high. We negotiate and fail to live up to our promises instead of weighing our words and guarding their sincerity. We tend to focus and talk about ourselves instead of responding in reverence and awe to our Lord and Savior. We tend to worship so we feel good, not so we elevate Him. So I wanna close with this question. When we go to worship, is it really worship? Is it worship as God has shown us? Or are we just pretending to be worshipers?