If you have your Bibles, then let's turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Those of you who have been following along with us, you're going to note we skipped an entire chapter. We've been trying to work our way through this book. We feel under the direction of God. But as we prepared this week, as we began working our way forward and trying to pray. It became clear, I'm a little stubborn at times, the Lord knows that, but it became clear that we needed to move to chapter five today and we'll leave that with him. I just pray that God would be with our time here together and that he would be honored. So let's read the first seven verses today of Ecclesiastes chapter five. Solomon writes, Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business and a fool's voice with many words. When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, And do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity. But God is the one you must fear." I'd like to speak to you today on rules of approaching God. rules for approaching God might sound strange to think about that, that there are such things. But I think the Bible does tell us clearly that there are rules, there are things, there are ways that we are encouraged to approach God. And the Bible tells us what those are, and there are many. There are more even than what we'll cover here today in these seven verses of Ecclesiastes chapter five. And before I begin, I might remark just briefly to never stake an entire theology on just a handful of verses and a set of verses. It's dangerous to do that. It will lead you in ways that perhaps won't be right. That's why it's important, by the way, to continually be in the word. continually hear God's Word proclaimed, to study it for yourself from beginning to end, to spend your life studying these 66 books because it is a balanced view that we need. And oftentimes, religion goes astray when we focus on one thing to the exclusion of something else. So I don't want you to think that I believe that this is the recipe for how you approach God, and this is the only and the singular recipe. But I do believe these are things that we ought to consider. I believe that Solomon tells us some things about how we are to approach God. If you're thinking rightly about your life, if you're thinking rightly about this life and eternity that God has said, Ecclesiastes has already told us, God's planted that idea in your heart that there is an eternity coming. That's just it's just in there. It's in your DNA, you might say. There's just an awareness. And I know people. quiet that. I know that they silence it. I know that the world is very successful at letting us scroll our Facebook feeds and our Twitter feeds and busy in the busyness of life to where we maybe don't think about it like we ought to. And I think there's far too little just sitting and thinking and contemplating today. Without getting too much of a curmudgeon title, I'll move along. But at the same time, I want you to think about the fact that inside of you There's an awareness that there's more to life than this world. That someone passes away and goes from this plane, they go somewhere. The body, the dust that we are now housed and encased in, it goes back to the earth from which it was created. But we know all cultures have an idea, a sense of an eternity past when we lay this clay down. So that's there. I'm going to take that as an assumption. And sometimes you have to just take something as an assumption before you can make up any ground. And I want to make up some important ground today about what it is to approach God, because if you're thinking rightly about your life, that's one of the most important questions you have to answer. How do I approach him? How do I come into his presence? How, what should my mind and heart, how, what condition should it be in as I approach God? Well, Solomon gives us some wonderful advice, not advice. I hate using that word when it comes to scripture. This isn't, Bible's not a book of advice. I have a little sign in my office that I've had for years. I don't remember what vacation we picked it up on, but it simply says God didn't call them the 10 suggestions. This is more than advice. It's rules in some sense. These are things that we ought to consider as we approach God. So as you think about your own approach of God with everything that I just said a moment ago, knowing that this is not an exhaustive list, I want you to think, though, consider, is this my mind and heart as I approach God? He begins by saying, guard your steps. Guard your steps. One of the things that's important for us to think about when we approach God is to be thoughtful, guarded and careful as we do so. We are not dealing with a mere human judge. We're not dealing with mere human authority when we approach God. We are dealing with the authority of all authorities, the Lord of all lords, the king of all kings. And as we approach him, it behooves us to be considerate and guarded as we go. And this word in the Hebrew, guarded, means a number of different things. But it's essentially the root of the word. It's about protecting. It's about being aware, being circumspect is another word that maybe we would identify with, to take heed. to approach God in an intentional way. I think one of the damaging things that we see or one of the evidences of an ungodly society that we see or even sometimes that we in our own heart and ungodly approach to God that we can take is something of a casual approach to God. an indifferent approach to God, an attitude of mind and heart that isn't rightly set when we consider who it is to whom we are presenting ourselves. God, who created heaven and earth, who gave you life, who sent his son to die for you and for me. And Solomon says as we approach him, This first rule that we want to pull out from this passage, it ought to be with a measure of guardedness and thoughtfulness and considerate. We should be thinking about who it is that we are standing before. Again, I think our society has become one that is led by much casualness and indifference to authority. Isn't that evident? Authority is something to be shunned, to be pushed away. Many, again, they just disdain authority of any kind, and they want chaos, it seems, rather than order and structure that is only possible when authority is rightly exercised. But this attitude, I think of a lack of appreciation for the authority which ultimately ends in God. I believe it has seeped into even the Christian quote-unquote mindset in our culture. I think this casual approach to God is something that hinders us when we truly approach Him. Because we approach him sometimes as though he is not who he is. And again, I know and I understand that this is not an exhaustive list. I'm aware and will perhaps treat in a moment the scripture where Paul says to approach God boldly. And we should. That God is our father and we should approach him that way. Absolutely. One hundred percent. Yet he is God. He is the one who called forth everything out of nothing. And again, some might quote even to me. They'll say, well, preacher, what about Hebrews 4, verses 15 and 16, that says this, for we do not have a high priest, speaking of Jesus, who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin, and this is what he says, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace and help in time of need. And someone might say, well, preacher, how do you reconcile these two things? You seem to be saying that we ought to go to God with this deep reverence and carefulness and cautiousness, or at least that's what Ecclesiastes seems to be saying. How do we match that up with what Paul said or the writer of Hebrews? I don't know that it was Paul. Whoever wrote Hebrews, they said that you can approach God boldly. Well, I think to say that the writer of Hebrews encourages a cavalier approach to God misses what he said, because what was it that we are to approach God boldly to obtain? Mercy and grace. mercy and grace, that's we ought to feel and be assured and know and be confident in this, that God will extend mercy and grace if we approach him. Do not doubt him. James says it in that way. And sometimes I think our approach to God is hindered because we don't go to him with that confidence, that expectation. But yet at the same time, that carefulness and that that soberness of the fact of who it is that we are approaching. How, when we rightly understand what it is that we are seeking, which is mercy and grace, how, when we can understand that and from whom we are seeking it, can we be blasé or casual in our approach to God? To think that he's just on our string. He's the one that is manipulated by us. He is the one that responds merely to us. But we must first, as we approach God, I want to encourage you to heed the writer here in Ecclesiastes. To be careful, to guard your steps, to take them intentionally and purposely, and know whom it is that you walk among. He goes on and he says, to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools. Second thing we want to point out, then, is that as we approach God, not only about ought to be careful and intentional and purposeful and reverent as we draw near to him, as we approach God, it ought to be. With the intention to listen. This is this is an important point, I think that's easy for us to miss to it's. I said or I wrote some time ago something about related to this, that sometimes when I finish preaching, I suspect Brother Terry and any other preachers felt this way. It's not unique to me. Sometimes when I finish preaching, I stop and I think I just wish they could have heard that from God the way I did. So when I hear when I say this to you, I hope that God speaks this to you the way he spoke it to me. the essential reality that as we approach God, we should be listening first and speaking second. But I think we do the opposite most of the time. I think we do. It's easy to approach God in prayer in such a way that we give him little room to get a word in edgewise. Sometimes I think that's that's real, that's true. Solomon, though, says, let your words be few here. But we come to God with our wants and our needs and we should. We should, I don't want to discourage that, but we come to God first with our heartaches, our brokenness and our questions. And almost put him on trial. With our questions and our words, but We don't come to him in such a way that we're ready to listen first. We want our wants and needs and heartaches and questions to come first. But again, Solomon says here, it is better to draw near to listen. Let me ask you a question that might sting a little. It stung a little when it occurred to me. When was the last time you took time in prayer just to listen? Not to say anything. Other than perhaps this, Lord, I am here and I am ready to listen. When was the last time in prayer where God spoke more than you did? When did you last set aside time to do nothing but listen for his voice in your heart? I believe that we don't make a practice of approaching God with a listening heart, I just I do, and I don't think we do it intentionally. Necessarily, I think we do it as just a matter of course, but if you do this and I would encourage you in your life to do this, if you don't know the Lord, I would encourage you and you don't know where to go. And you don't know what to do and you don't know what to say and you don't know how to save yourself and you don't know how to make this real in your heart. Or if you're saved already and you don't know what to do about a certain situation, you've got a decision to make in your life. You've got questions that you that you would like to have answered or you've got concerns and a burdened heart and a broken heart over something. I would encourage you. to make sure that you're setting aside enough time in your prayer life and prayer time to simply sit there and listen for the voice of God, to not speak so much as listen and hear. And I want to encourage you today that as you make that purposeful listening an important time of prayer, don't give up if you don't hear from him after a few minutes. Continue to listen, persevere in your prayer. And in that time of prayer, specifically here, that time of just listening, God, I'm here. God, I know I can't manipulate you. I know that you are not on my timetable. I don't know when it is going to be your will to speak to my heart and tell me what it is that I long to hear or what I need to hear more importantly. But I'm here. Remember your job. As a follower of God, if you know him, your job is to listen to him first and then follow. It's not the other way around, necessarily. Remember, he doesn't owe you anything. You're the beggar, not God. I'm the beggar, not God. I'm the needy one, not God. I'm the creature. He is the creator. It is Him that I must listen for and listen to. And remember as well that you can listen whether God chooses to speak or not. You can be listening. You can have your ear trained upon him. Your part is not to make God speak. Your part is to close yourself off from the world in such a way that when God does choose to speak, you are there and ready to hear what he has to say. But again, I think much of the time we don't go to God with this attitude. We don't approach him with this rule in mind. That I am here to listen first. As you go about your days. As you live your life, as you work at your workplace, as you go to school, if you're young, as you as you enjoy time with friends and family, as you go about your life. Are you listening for God? Is your heart listening always for God as you carry on your responsibilities? As you love your wife or your husband or you serve your family or your employer or your church. As you go through those and fulfill those obligations that you have been given. Are you listening? For God to speak. Are you always listening? Are you choosing to listen or are you choosing not to? So in this, again, we see that our priority in approaching God ought to be to listen first and then specifically, it's interesting, listen first. It's better to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools. And I'll tell you that any sacrifice given to God without listening to him first is probably a sacrifice of a foolish man. Before you give the sacrifice, God says, I want you to hear from me. This is an important distinction, I think, that many have lost today. Again, in this, we see this priority in approaching God, it ought to be to listen first and then offer whatever sacrifice that we've been called upon to give to God. Otherwise, as Solomon says here, we end up giving a sacrifice of fools, which is a sacrifice given to God without knowing whether or not he actually wants it. We give God sacrifices we see others give. That's where religion will step in and give you all kinds of things to do. And you can do those things of religious way of life and live a quote unquote Christian way of life, you can live that your whole life long, never listening for the voice of God in your heart, because there's all kinds of sacrifices that you can participate in. But God says, listen first. Listen first, hear from me first. There are a great many, I'm afraid, who unintentionally and unknowingly offer these sacrifices of the fool. It seems intuitive, though, to us that that God to approach him requires some sacrifice on our part. I mean, from from the Old Testament, we see that again and again and again, and God In his son, in the New Testament, he satisfied all of that. And so we don't have to go through that ceremonial law, the law of Leviticus. And I've been reading that over the past few weeks and months and all of those laws of the sin offering and the thanks offering and the praise offering and all of those things. We don't have to give those any more outwardly, but we have to sacrifice our hearts and listen to God in our hearts. And that, by the way, is a lot harder than any sacrifice of the Old Testament. Some people say it's easier now to live before God in the New Testament. Jesus has satisfied everything. I'll tell you, you can go through the law of Moses through those motions, and Israel did, did they not? And they were as far from God as they could possibly be. You can be in church every Sunday. You can be in your Bible every day. But that's not the question. That's not the first question. The first question is, am I listening for God? Am I hearing him? But it seems intuitive to us to perform some service to God, so we so we set about performing whatever services we've seen others perform, perhaps, or whether or not, again, we're really listening for God's word in our own hearts or not. Again, we go to church regularly. We repeat what others have said about God. We follow the pattern of other men and women in our lives for want of hearing from God ourselves. I'll say that again, we follow the pattern of other people in our lives for want of hearing from God ourselves. And it's good to have patterns to follow, it is. It's good to have godly people in your life that will be an example for you, but that's all they can be, is an example. They can't be this for you, only you. can hear God for you. Doesn't that just make sense? Only you can hear God for you. No one else can hear him for you. But the Spirit of God will speak. It's just I think sometimes we're far too impatient, unwilling to wait. But you can offer sacrifices, and you should. Don't misunderstand. Again, let's keep a balanced view. You ought to go to church. It's going to be one of the most helpful habits in all of your life that Sunday you're in church. I'm going to be old fashioned enough to say that it just is. But it's also not going to be enough. Especially and most importantly, and most directly here, if you go to church every week and yet you refuse or fail to listen for the voice of God. Now, you might say this is only a problem that we don't listen to God before we offer him sacrifice or go through some religious way of life. But Solomon doesn't make it that simple for us. He says it's a sin. To listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. This is a serious thing. This isn't just, hey, you ought to think about this. Maybe you ought to consider this. God's word calls it what it is when you think about it, by the way, because it feels a little harsh in our 2022 way of thinking in the Western world. We think God's a little bit harsh here. Well God, I'm offering you service. What's so upsetting to you about me offering you service though I'm not listening to you? But really when you think about it, isn't that extremely insulting to God to offer him service but not listen to him? to not hear from Him? When you think about it, surely this is sin, to attempt to approach God without first stopping long enough to hear from Him. And what He has to say is presumption at its highest form and in its most damaging way. It's presumption on our part. If you were in the presence of someone who'd spent their life their life studying some subject, and I tried to come up with some specific subject to relate here, and I'm not going to, but just some subject. Maybe it's an athlete who knows everything there is to know about a sport, a doctor that knows everything there is to know about their particular field of medicine, or a musician, everything there is to know about how to play the violin. And you were in their presence, and you were in conversation with them. Let me ask you this question. Would you speak about those things before you listen to what they had to say about it? Let me tell you, doctor, what what you ought to know about brain surgery. I'm in the presence of Ben Carson. I need to say, Ben, you know what? You know what? I read something the other day and I want to instruct you. How ridiculous, how silly and frankly, even though it wouldn't have been intended, perhaps how insulting. Here's a man who spent his life studying, perfecting his craft as best as he knew how, and I would deign to lecture him. You know, sometimes when we don't listen to God first and we give him service, it's like us saying, God, I know what to do. I got it. I'm gonna read my Bible. I'm gonna go to church. I'm gonna tithe. I'm not gonna swear. I'm gonna live a good life. I'm not gonna treat people poorly. I got it. But we don't listen. We don't listen to what he has to say first. It's presumption. You know, as well, I read this, and it was interesting to me. If you were in the presence of British royalty, do you know there's, you know, I'm an old Missourian who doesn't know that there's etiquette at my table, much less etiquette around the British family. I read about some of the etiquette of the British royals. And if you're in a conversation with a royal, you know what you're supposed to do? For one, you're only supposed to talk about what they talk about, and you're not really supposed to speak up, and you're not really ever supposed to change the subject. They change the subject. They lead the conversation. They're just human beings. But there's a reverence given to their position and an etiquette about which you're to follow when you're around them. How much more true is that of God? And let me ask you this question, maybe some more questions that might sting. How many times have you talked to God about one thing And then he talks to you about another that's more important for the time, and you change the subject. You change the subject. Yeah, but God, I want to talk about this. And God says, but no, that's not what I want to talk to you about. That's not really what you need. Don't change the subject when God speaks to your heart. Listen. Listen first. I believe this is one reason that the enemy, Satan, who is real, I believe it's one reason he has worked so tirelessly to make us so impatient. And he doesn't have to work real hard. It just comes to us naturally, these fallen minds and hearts. Sometimes we'd love to blame Satan for everything. I think we bear most of the brunt of that blame. But he does work in this. We think if God doesn't speak in a minute or two of quiet listening, then he must not have anything to say. How many of you as children, though, when you were in trouble with your parents, had to sit there and wait until they were ready to speak to you? Part of it was what they were doing, or a teacher in a classroom, just making a student wait. Sometimes that was all the punishment that they needed. Just stop and listen. But sometimes with God, if we if he doesn't speak to us right away, immediately we move on. I wonder how many answers to your prayers and mine go unheard because we simply were in a far greater hurry to hear God speak than God was to speak. He knows when we're ready to hear what it is he has to say. And I don't really believe that God wastes a lot of words. He said, don't cast your pearls before the swine. I believe sometimes he's not speaking to us, even though we might think we want to hear from him, because we're not really ready to hear what he has to say, because we've not really submitted our hearts fully to him. God, whatever you have to say to me, I will hear. Whatever it is, if it's the exact opposite of what I desire, I am ready to hear. I told you I went to Liberia one time on that airplane on getting ready to come home from that first trip. I loved meeting Brother Victor. I loved being with God's people there. I loved the work going on there. But I got on that airplane and I said, I am never coming back here. But I had to. Because you finally get to the place, God, whatever you want to say, whatever you want me to do, I will do. And then let him speak. Let him guide, let him give you that sense in your heart and in your spirit, because it won't be an audible voice. If it is that I'll go so far to say, I think that would be the exception to the rule. Remember, it's God who knows when you're ready to hear, and so just listen. Be the best listener to God that you could possibly be. Learn how to listen. Now, we need to move along. Verse two, be not rash with your mouth, he says, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. As we learn in the first eight verses of chapter three, there's a time for everything. There is a time for you to speak. There is. There's a time to be silent and a time to speak. There is a time for that. Solomon clarifies, I think, here that we ought to be listeners first. And so the time to speak then is after the time of listening. But there is a time to speak. And Solomon tells us when it is time for us to speak, we should be certain that we're not speaking rashly. It's the word that is used. And I think the American Standard Version here, the English Standard Version, I believe the King James Version, I believe they all use that word rashly. I believe. It's if you look it up again, that root in the Hebrew. It's to tremble inwardly. is literally what the root of this word means. To be anxious, to be alarmed or agitated is another word. to be agitated inwardly, to hasten, to be in a hurry, to be affrighted is another word we don't use very much today, but another word that might be used in explaining what Solomon is saying, to be in haste, to go speedily. So I'm reminded here of the times when Jesus taught his followers to count the cost of following him, to think and consider carefully what is required. That's what he tells us to do. And so this rule, as we approach God is that our words be few, be specifically chosen, that they not be rash. Jesus says in Luke chapter 14, verse 27, Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you desiring to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? There's the idea there of being not rash with his decision. not driven by agitation or emotionally driven only. And we read in Matthew, a scribe came up to Jesus and said to him, Teacher, I'll follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Don't be rash with your words to God. That's a rule that we need to put away in our minds and hearts as we approach God. May they not be rash words. One of the greatest dangers of rash speaking is that it's based only on rash believing. Rash speech is often driven by rash belief, a belief come by quickly in an agitated way, not one that's grounded in a true, solid, inward belief in God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, with the possible exception of tragedies in our life. Time is the greatest test of our faith that there is time. Greatest test. It's not to be a rash thing. I believe this idea needs to be reinforced today. One sign of true conversion is given to us in Scripture is an ongoing relationship with God after salvation. That this is an ongoing reality in our life. Now, our relationship with God, so don't misunderstand me here. Listen, our relationship with God mirrors in some ways our relationship with other human beings. Sometimes it's in a good place and sometimes it isn't. But there is a relationship nonetheless. Sometimes I approach God quickly and humbly and submissively. And it is a blessing to my heart and soul as he comes and dwells with me and gives me encouragement in times of trial and in times of heartache. And I can go to him and I can feel his presence and I can feel him say to me, it is well, it is turmoil now. And the storms of this life are gonna continue to toss you for a while, but you're going to a place where they never again will bother you. And I love those times. and that relationship that's there. But there are other times that I go to God and it is not that way. It is you've got some things to work on, my son. You're rebelling, you're not listening. You're doing all kinds of service, but you're not listening to me. Listen, how else can we believe in the security of the believer if we don't also believe in this ongoing relationship with God after salvation? Assurance of salvation involves what is going on in your heart in the present as much as what has gone on in the past. I do believe that. Where are you right now? Does God have your heart right now? Has God ever had your heart in the past? That's important. It's essential. There's a moment, a time when God fully has you and you submit to him and you repent of your sin and you exercise faith and you place your faith in Christ and that relationship begins. And you know it. How nonsensical would it be? for somebody to come to me and say, how's your relationship with Brother Todd Larkey? And I begin to express to them that relationship. He's a wonderful friend. He's helped our family and our church, and I love him dearly. And maybe my wife, how's your relationship with your wife? Well, I love her. And what's a common question? Well, how'd you meet? Where did you meet your wife? When did you meet? When was the first time? And I remember, she doesn't, I don't know that I've ever shared it. I remember looking at her from across the church. I remember hearing her pray, the first prayer I'd ever heard in the church as I visited there at Calvary. I didn't know what all God had in store, but I do remember when I met her. Why is it okay that we don't remember when we met God? Why is that okay? One moment I didn't have a relationship with him, And the next I did. Why is it OK to miss that, that essential thing? But that's not the only thing. I met somebody and when you met Gob, that began a relationship, it didn't end it, certainly. So I ask you today, where are you right now? You see, Satan knows that the greatest threat he faces in you, and I want you to listen here. I think God wants us to understand this. I know he wants me to, so maybe you're just victims of him speaking to me. Satan knows the greatest threat he faces with you and with me is when you or I get laser focused on the right here and the right now. That's when he gets the most nervous, I believe. As long as you are wrestling with the past or you are anxious about the future, the present condition of your heart is not fully discerned. It's not fully considered. And thus sin that should be repented of right now is set aside as you look to the past with regret or to the future with fear. All the while missing right now. What is eternity except for an unending right now? That's what God wants us to think about as we think about being children of God in this life, we ought to think about the fact that we have been raised to newness of life right now. When I was 11 years old, God saved my soul. I came to know him that day. He gave me a calmness and an assurance and a peace that I was his and he was mine. And from that day, I have walked with him far from perfectly. There have been difficult conversations with him. There have been far too many days where I have not listened first and tried to serve first and fallen flat on my face. There have been many days when I have done that. But there has always been that relationship. And most blessedly, there is one right now. Right now, I don't know what the future holds in this life. I don't know the additional heartaches that me and my family may have to face. I don't know what those are. I don't have the ability to go back in the past and go, I wish I hadn't said that. I wish I hadn't done that. All I can do is in the present, repent of whatever sin it is, make it right with God, make it right with the person and try to pick up and move along right now. Satan wants you thinking about the future in fear or even hope. He wants you looking back in the past with regret or fondness so that you're oblivious to the right now. Don't let him do it. God wants to speak to you right now. All this does, if we look to the future or the past, do you know all that does? If you're looking to the future in fear and worry, or you're looking in the past and regret, you know all that does? It's just a perpetual cycle. It feeds itself. By continually looking to the past with regret, your future self will look back on this present moment with, guess what? Regret. Regret over what? That you didn't engage in the right now. As long as you continually look to the future with fear, by continually looking at it with fear, you'll only build the house of fear that your future self will live in. God is the God of the past, he is God of the future, but where he is God to you and me most directly is in the present, right now. Satan's fine, by the way, for you to say, I'm going to make God my God next week. I'm going to follow him next week. But I've got this thing between now and then next year. And a common analogy, you know, when I when I get out of high school, because the peer pressure, there's just no way I can live like a child of God in high school. I mean, come on. But but when I get into college, I'm I'm gonna go to church, I'm gonna read my Bible, I'm gonna listen to God. And then you get to college, you say, you know what, college, that is bad, and we won't get on our soapbox there, but you talk about a den of wolves. And then you say, you know what, when I get married, and it's when I have kids, then it's when my kids are raised, and then it's when I have grandkids, and then you turn around and you go, wow, my life has passed me by. Right now, this present moment, Are you with God? And is he with you? This is the approach to God. If God is calling to you and I will, I will try to close my remarks here momentarily, but I want you to just stay with me for a little while longer. If God is calling to you and you've never submitted to him, do so today, right now. In this present moment. If he's calling you back to himself and you know him and have known him for many years, but you've strayed and you've gone a distance away from him and the sin that has separated you from him, he's presenting to you today because maybe by his grace and his help, maybe maybe you have finally for the first time in a while. Maybe you're listening and he has said something to you. Even if that hurts, you should rejoice because he's talking. You know, they say the opposite of love is not hate, it's apathy, indifference. Don't get concerned if God comes and chastises, corrects. Get concerned when you don't hear him. and pray, God speak, and I'm gonna stay here until you do. And I could stay all my life long and I'll never merit one word from you, but I'm here. And that's why Paul wrote, I think, or the Hebrew writer wrote, to approach God's throne boldly, because it's the only hope you have, is that he's gonna give you the mercy and the grace that you're looking for. Oh, how much do we as human beings lose the present blessings that God wants to give us because of regret for the past or fear for the future. I ask you to break that cycle in your life today. God can present, can be present with you today, even now, and I'll tell you that'll be enough. You say, yeah, but I've still got those problems I'm worried about in the future. Sure you do, but God's with you, and I assure you that will be enough to carry you. to whatever is ahead of you. His presence right now is what you ought to be seeking ever and always in every present moment you will experience that God would be with you in every one of those moments. How can you truly come to peace with the past if you are not at peace with God in the present? How can that be? You can't. I don't believe you can. In order to come to terms with God about your past, you've got to come to terms with God right now in your present. How can you release to God the fears of tomorrow without coming to him and being right with him in the now and in the present? I tell you today, much I believe much of the struggle of the Christian life is to be far more concerned with the present. Than with the past or the future. I think that's one of the struggles of this life. I need to move along this encouragement to avoid being rash in our communication. I just there's a lot that could be said here. I'll just try to go quickly. But I want you to hear this, this encouragement to be to avoid being rash in our communication with God. He he referenced both the mouth, what we actually say, what we speak out loud. Don't be rash with that when you approach God. Don't say things rashly. Say things that God has given to you. And it may be quickly. Don't misunderstand. The difference here is words spoken without consideration of God's word and his Holy Spirit as he would guide. But we're not just talking about an injunction on what we say with our mouths, but we are also encouraged to not speak rashly with our hearts. And I guess I would guess if you're anything like me, that's where it really gets real. The words I speak with my heart. I'd never speak them with my mouth, at least I think not. But by the way, just as a tip, those things you think about all the time, those words that run around in your heart all the time, they're going to come off your lips at some point. But this is specifically speaking the words that are spoken with our hearts. And if I had to guess, I'd say this is where most of us have a difficult time not speaking rash words to God. We struggle with controlling our tongues without a doubt, but the tongue of the heart is often let loose to speak rash words we would never dare speak out loud. But God hears them. Our world is already a world filled with violence and war, but I want you to think for a minute. What if all of a sudden, Elon Musk and Neuralink and other science that's trying to make this a thing, what if all of a sudden tomorrow you woke up and there was no thought that was unseen by everyone? You think it's violent and ugly now. What if the world could see the darkness of all of our hearts? How many relationships would be destroyed today because of words you've spoken only in your heart? But God hears every one. Think, though, again, of the smoldering ruins that many of those relationships that you have would be in if you did not govern your tongue until you were able to seek God's counsel to cool the anger, the jealousy, the frustration, and the confusion of your heart. But again, be warned, God is in heaven and we are on earth. And I think that's why Solomon said that. It feels like a little bit out of place in that phrase. God's in heaven and we're on earth. Yeah, what he's saying, those things you think in your heart, God's in heaven, he sees them, he knows them, nothing hidden. And I thought as we were driving here this morning, I thought, you know, not only have I said things in my heart, I've shouted them. In anger. In frustration and hurt. You want to know how much God loves you? He's heard every word you've ever spoken in your heart, and he still sent his son to die for you. It's incredible. It ought to be enough to throw us at the feet of Christ. We could quote other scriptures I want to finish today. Verse three is where we'll... try to finish. A fool's voice with many words. A dream comes with much business. A fool's voice with many words. The scripture tells us over and over and over again of the importance of being people of few words and people who listen first and speak second. I've listed probably 10 passages and I'm not going to take the time to read them. But over and over again are we told to be people of few words, careful words, chosen words. And in light of that, surely we cannot miss this lesson. May God make us, make us hearers first primarily and then speakers second and secondarily. For any that might hear this message who are a preacher, I want to ask you, or I want to tell you, you've got no hope of speaking for God if you aren't first listening to him. And I tell you that to my shame by experience. You're not going to have any hope speaking for God if you're not hearing from him. God says here to us and Ecclesiastes to not make a vow that we're not ready to commit to. I just my time is is is done. I know attention spans are what they are. I pray that God would continue to work the thoughts he's presented to us in your heart. To approach God carefully. Thoughtfully. Reverently. Fearfully. But the fear that we approach God with, it's clothed and it's housed in love. But fear is present, a reverent fear of this God who is far greater than we can comprehend. It's clothed in love if we know him. And so it is that father that we love and respect and admire and we love him. And love is the first and the primary thing that motivates us to obedience. Yet there is also something of a reverence. A mother that has cared all her life long for her children, there is a reverence for her. There's a reverence for authority when it is when it is held for the primary reason to be a blessing to people. It's why we get so upset with politicians. There's no love seemingly from them to us. There's only love for themselves. It's the only reason that it would explain much of their behavior. But authority, when it is held in love for those that it is over, brings within us a reverent love for that authority. And certainly God is the epitome of that. If God's dealing with your heart, he wants to communicate with you, I want to encourage you to listen. That's probably the main thing that I want you to hear, is to be listeners to God. Then offer your sacrifice. Don't miss it. You're supposed to sacrifice. You're supposed to serve God in your life. But are you listening for Him? Are you listening to Him? Have you heard from Him? Are you hearing from Him now? That's all that matters. That's all that matters. Let's have a song, if we could.