WALK THE TALK THROUGH REVERENCE OF GOD

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
“WALK THE TALK”. The Bible reminds us that in whatever we do in word and in deeds we do it for the glory of God. ( I Cor 10:31)
How can we honor God as he deserves to be honored? What are the ingredients of a true reverence for God. The passage we’ll dig into today will reveal two ways in which we should demonstrate reverence for God. King Solomon discusses these two ways to truly reverence God in Ecclesiastes 5:1-7.
In the first three verses of Ecclesiastes 5 you’ll notice that reverence for God is demonstrated in proper worship. We show our reverence for God by sensitively approaching Him in adoration. I want to give you three observations about proper worship in these verses. First, notice that proper worship only occurs when we prepare ourselves to worship God. You’ll see this in the first phrase:
Ø “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.”
The “ house of God” in Solomon’s day referred to the Jerusalem Temple, but since there is no temple today and the Spirit Himself dwells within our hearts this must be applied more broadly. I see it as meaning whenever and wherever we approach God in worship.
But what does it mean to “guard your steps?” The word for “guard” here means “to watch or to observe.” It has the idea of being careful, so in this case it means that we should make sure we are properly prepared to pay homage to a holy God.
How can you prepare to meet God?
ü One way is to arrive to chapel early for personal prayer.
ü Don’t always sit by your friends and
ü Don’t even bring your mail or study notes.
Proper worship not only requires preparation for worship, but it also happens only when we listen to God. Notice the end of verse one. We, re encouraged to:

Ø “Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, Who do not know they do wrong.”
The text says that fools unknowingly sin by offering up a meaningless “sacrifice.” Notice that this “sacrifice” is contrasted with “listening.” I think this indicates that the “sacrifice” probably refers to offering impulsive and meaningless words –words repeated so many times that they’ve lost their meaning.
The next verse continues this idea by encouraging us to weigh our words and thoughts carefully. It begins with a command:
“Do not be quick with your mouth,
Do not be hasty in your heart
To utter anything before God.”

Here’s a command not to be an obsessive talker or thinker. This normally has been applied to prayer like the kind of unthinking prayer Jesus referred to in Matthew 6:7 when he said, “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words,“ I won’t use vain repetition! The Pharisee pray to show off (hypocricy). They were diverting prayer from Glory of God to Glory of self.
It seems to me, though, that limiting this only to prayer is to narrow. Why can’t this also refer to singing? I remember once when my pastor’s wife asked me to pray for her concerning whether she should sing a particular song the next day at the Sunday morning service. Now I knew she sang beautifully, so I asked her she couldn’t sing it. “Look at the words,” she replied as she showed the song, “The lyrics say I’ m willing for God to take anything from my life in order to be like Jesus. That includes my husband and my children. I’m just so sure I can honestly say that.” I learned a tremendous lesson that day – that singing is higher from of speaking, so we should never sing anything which we would never speak. My pastor followed this concepts few weeks later while leading the song, “I Surrender All.” He encouraged everyone who couldn’t promise that to God not to sing. I was shocked how many refrained when they really considered the words.
The next phrase jabs us with the reason we should guard our tongue in worship:

Ø “God is in heaven And you are on earth.”
The reason for the command is because God is awesome and majestic while we’re puny in comparison. He dwells in heaven in unapproachable light, in impeccable holiness. We’re confined to but a tiny, rotating ball among the millions of planetary creations. How can we earthlings be so presumptuous as to barge our way mouth first into His awesome presence? In light of this Solomon advises:
“so let your words be few.”
We do well to have times when we listen by keeping our mouth shut. After all, who can listen while he’s babbling away? This is God’s intent in Psalm 46:10 where He says, “Be still and know that I m God.” I’ve found that’s a tough assignment, but one thing has helped.

The first two verses have shown us that true worship only occurs when we prepare ourselves and when we listen to God. In verse three we’ll see the third observation about proper worship – it happens only when we set aside our cares; otherwise we end up day dreaming:

Ø “As a dream come when there are many cares, So the speech of a fool when there many words.”
What we need is more care-less worship. Notice I said ‘care-less,” not “careless.” I confess to you that I really struggle with keeping my mind from wandering in prayer. I start off real well, but after ten or fifteen seconds I began thinking about an errand I need to do, an event which happened yesterday, or whatever. But last month I came across a suggestion to pray standing up! Hey, it works! By the way, did you know that there is not a single place in Scriptures where it mentions anyone sitting down while in prayer? Maybe you need to walk, stand or list your cares on a sheet of paper as they come to mind then forget about them to set aside your concerns in order to worship properly.

We’ve seen in these first three verses of Ecclesiastes 5 that our reverence for God is demonstrated in proper worship. This God – honoring worship occurs when we prepare ourselves. When we really listen to God, and when we set aside our cares. So reverence is shown in worship, but there’s a second key area in which our reverence should be obvious – our vows.

Verses 4-6 inform us that reverence for God is demonstrated in praying vows. If we truly respect God we must fulfill our promise. Notice verse4:
“When you make vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow.”

By “vow” Solomon means an unconditional, solemn promise to do or not do something. I’ve made four vows in my lifetime. My first vows was never to touch alcoholic drink; on the baptism day; on the wedding day.
That’s what I mean by a “vow.” Notice that each affirmation is voluntary. No one ever has to vow. That’s why verse five states:
“It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.”

Imagine the Jew confidently offering to the priest the required sacrifice for a vow at the Temple, only to later be tempted to break it. He rushes back to the priest, “Hey, I really shouldn’t have done that! It was just a small goof-up. Can you pull some strings to undo the vow?”
God says, “Don’t do that! You’re not required to make a vow in the first place, but don’t make it worse by going back to the one to whom you made the vow and reneg on your commitment!” God takes the breaking of vows very seriously – so seriously that when we treat them lightly He may very well discipline us by taking away some of our hard – earned goods. Look at the end of verse 6:
“Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands?”

Remember Ananias and Sapphira? They sold some land and promised God He could have the money. But when that money land in their hot little hands they had second thoughts about giving it all. “Let’s only give a portion of it, “they agreed together. God didn’t think too highly of their broken vow. He didn’t just “destroy the works of their hands,” though. He took their lives.
May be you have an outstanding debt to God in a particular area. You owe Him the time you promise to give Him. You owe the tithe or percentage of income you promised. You made another specific commitment to him to help keep your priorities straight while here at seminary. God has ways of disciplining his children who neglect payment of their pledge.
Rather than approaching God frivolously in worship or in stupid, unfulfilled vows, Solomon winds down with his conclusion in verse7:
“Therefore, stand in awe of God.”
Solomon’s conclusion is, in effect, that reverence for God means “cut the dreaming in worship, button the lips that make rash vows, and fear God,”Here Solomon summarizes what he’s been saying with a reminder that flippant worship and excessive talking both are futile, meaningless. This word for “meaningless” literally refers to a vapor. That’s about how much substance there is to not seriously worshipping Him or being rash and negligent in fulfilling our vows.
He exhorts us instead to fear God –to show awe in His presence not “blah” in His presence, to exalt Him not to exhaust Him with weary worship or wayward vows.

Each one of us has a tremendous need to reverence God.

“Lord God, we recognize that You are totally worthy of our awe-inspired, reverential worship. You are One who also considers our vows seriously. Help us to fulfill 100% of our commitments and to give you the respect You so deserve. Amen. “