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00:00 here sharing a video from the word of God. uh a little past last night uh
00:06 midnight last night and my daughter who is in uh Beijing now she texted me a
00:11 happy father's day which of course made me very happy but I couldn't sleep the whole night
00:19 and I think it was the best uh father's day wish from her uh because she has
00:25 been away for the past 3 months and uh coming back this Friday we are counting the days
00:31 as you may be aware we are now in the uh middle of a long series on the book
00:37 of Ecclesiastes and today is the sixth installment in the series with the uh
00:43 sermon title of worshiping in God's house. The text is taken from Ecclesiastes 5:es 1-7.
00:51 This is a a much shorter text compared to the 44 verses in chapters 1 and two
00:57 which I preached on uh when I was here uh in the middle of last month. Uh I
01:03 first thought that this was going to be a much easier sermon but because we just we only have seven verses. But as I
01:09 prepared the message uh uh I soon realized that it it was quite a task. It proved to be quite a challenge. And this
01:17 is because uh partly I will be u touching on some aspects of uh church
01:23 life that may make some of you a little uncomfortable. I will be addressing some points arising from uh these verses
01:31 pertaining to how we ought to conduct ourselves in church. If you do feel
01:36 uneasy, uh please remember that I don't mean it personally. I just want all of us to be aware of what the writer is
01:43 trying to teach us through today's text in the hope that our uh experience of
01:49 worship in the house of God will be more meaningful and more acceptable to him.
01:55 Now to be sure we we will not be talking about worship per se despite the title.
02:01 We will not uh be discussing if we should lift our hands up uh during worship, what kind of songs we should
02:07 sing, how much emotions should we display in our worship and other such
02:13 external aspects of worship. Rather we will be we will dwell in depth
02:18 uh on whether our hearts uh in the heart in our hearts the conditions are right
02:23 for worship and also whether this house of god is conducive for worship. So the
02:29 bulk of the sermon will be on our preparation uh for worship for worshiping the almighty god and setting
02:36 right the conditions uh for our worship of him. So before we begin, shall we commit this time to the Lord in prayer?
02:46 Our father in heaven, you are the great and awesome God. For it is in you we live and move and
02:54 have our being. Help us to approach you with a greater sense of reverence and
02:60 wonder of who you really are. Cause us to consider you with a heightened
03:05 awareness of your holiness and righteousness. As we study these verses from Ecclesiastes chapter 5, may your
03:12 spirit move in our midst to teach and mold us as we ask this in the Jesus'
03:17 name. Let me start by uh showing you a a video
03:22 clip uh as a kind of introduction. When I was preaching from Jonah chapter 2 early
03:28 this year, I showed you a short comedy produced in Nigeria uh featuring the
03:34 adorable little girl if you remember Emmanuela. This is another episode from that series uh which is equally funny.
03:41 The only stain in the video is that uh the word Jesus uh was used as uh as an
03:47 exclamation. Um so if you could just put that aside uh for a for a while and
03:53 enjoy this 3minut clip and I'll address that point you know later in the sermon. Can we have the video please?
04:02 [Music]
04:07 M said we should write a story of 2,000 words that end with goodbye.
04:13 Story of 2,000 words that end with goodbye. Yes. Which class?
04:18 Primary 2. Jesus. When does she expect primary two to get 2,000 words? I don't know. She says test.
04:26 [Music] 2,000 words is too much.
04:35 She said we should give to our parents. Let them help us and do if not we fail.
04:44 Oh yeah right. One day as I was coming back from school
04:50 one day as I was coming back from school I now saw police people blowing sirene
04:57 I now saw police people blowing sirene. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
05:05 Wow. [Music] [Laughter]
05:14 Uncle Ben. [Music]
05:19 Okay, don't worry. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
05:28 [Music] Then they now blow more sirene. Wow.
05:33 Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
05:41 Then the N started to blow more serene. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
05:50 Uncle Mark, let me add my own. And I saw a trailer. Honey.
05:57 Bobby B.
06:03 [Music]
06:11 Then the police people now continued blowing siren. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
06:19 [Music] Wow. Then the police people now continue
06:25 do five page. Wow. Okay.
06:35 Uncle, I've done plenty.
06:41 Then then the police people now stop the police people now stop their car
06:47 and dropped a police officer and dropped a police officer and told him goodbye
06:54 and told him goodbye. That is the end of the story. Thank you. You're welcome.
07:00 Okay, I think we start the video here. I had so much fun watching this.
07:08 Now, the point I wish to make, uh, this is not for fun. Actually, the point I wish to make is that just as we can have
07:15 a a 2,000word essay that hasn't got much content, we can also have a 2,000 member
07:23 church that is empty of spiritual substance. We can have all the trappings
07:28 of a church, the worship, the the prayers, the the sermons, the
07:34 fellowship, the ministries and so on. But it is still not much of a church.
07:39 You see, a church is only a church when God is at its its center,
07:45 where his agenda drives its activities. In many churches, God is not at the
07:50 center, but at the sight. Often God is merely an excuse for running church, for
07:57 doing church and man has become at the center. And this video reminded me of
08:03 the time when I was in uh school and there was this uh I remember there was this Bahasa Malaysia test and there was
08:09 a question uh which required me to make uh sentences using uh some words. The
08:16 trouble was is that I I didn't know the meaning of of one word. I can't remember what that word was. Uh, let's say it's
08:23 the word ABC. I was stuck, but that didn't stop me from trying. You want a sentence? So, I
08:30 give you a sentence. Remember Basel Malaysia test? And so, I wrote
08:38 [Music] ABC, which means I will refer to the
08:44 dictionary to find out the meaning of ABC. The teacher put a big cross and gave me
08:50 zero marks for my answer. When I protested to the to my ambassador teachers, he said, "Yes, you did make a
08:56 sentence, but you you didn't prove that you knew the meaning of the word." In other words, you missed the point of the
09:03 question. And today, if God were to do a an hypothetical audit of the churches we
09:10 have all over the world, including here in Malaysia, it's my belief that he will give very low marks, if not zero mark,
09:17 to many churches. out of the the seven churches in Revelation, only two were commanded. The
09:25 other five were chastised. I'm not saying if ABC belongs to to the first or the second group, but I'm not
09:31 saying if this church uh on on the on the screen is belongs to the first or second group. What I'm saying is that we
09:39 need to be very careful individually and collectively about how we do church less
09:45 we miss the point entirely. We must be careful not to let our church
09:51 become like the 2,000word essay that Immanuela wrote. Plenty of words but
09:57 devoid of real content. And so it's with these thoughts that we we want to approach our text and we
10:04 start to unpack the verses. Now when we examine the 12 chapters of
10:10 of uh Ecclesiastes as a whole, the one theme that stands out notably is that
10:15 the teacher when he surveys all that happened under the sun, whether work or
10:20 play or everything in between, he finds them to be utterly meaningless or as he puts it a chasing after the wind. in
10:29 painting the activities of life as meaningless. And he does it with much pessimism and and cynicism is the
10:36 teacher's way of forcing the readers to arrive at the at his conclusion which is
10:42 life is uh uh pretty meaningless without God. That life will only make sense if
10:48 God is at the center. If you take God out of the picture, you'll find life
10:53 pretty meaningless. And we have seen this in one shape or another over the past five sermons.
11:00 Then we come to Eccles Ecclesiastes 5. We find that the teacher suddenly talks about going to God's house or going to
11:08 worship in God's house as the title of today's sermon suggests. Verse one says, "Guard your steps when you are when you
11:15 go to the house of God." And many people find Ecclesiastes 5 to be to be somehow
11:20 somehow out of sync with the rest of the book. It sounds as if the writer has changed topic but the truth of the
11:27 matter is that our text today is very much a part of the overall flow of Ecclesiastes. If you were to read these
11:34 verses along the theme of the book, what the teacher is trying to say is that this business of going to the house of
11:40 God can be also rather meaningless. The term house of God in verse one here is
11:46 synonymous with the temple or in today's uh to in modern terms it refers to the
11:52 church as I mentioned in my last sermon the teacher in Ecclesiastes in all
11:57 likelihood is King Solomon and although not mentioned in the text I can almost
12:03 imagine Solomon sitting by the window in his palace in Jerusalem watching the Israelites uh going to the temple a
12:10 short distance away and this is what the temple might have looked like in those days. So as he sees
12:16 these multitudes heading uh towards the temple, as he considers what happened uh
12:22 at the temple, he finds the whole spectacle rather meaningless.
12:29 A modern version of this would be someone sitting in his yard in one of the houses uh near FBC and every Sunday
12:36 morning he watches us driving into the church compound and he wonders why are all these people going to church? In
12:43 fact, I want to ask you the same question. Why are you going why did you come to
12:50 church? Why do you wake up every Sunday morning and drive all the way here or
12:56 walk here if you are living nearby? What do you hope to find?
13:01 People come to church for all sorts of reasons. Some come to seek God.
13:07 Some come because they have struggles in life and they come to find some comfort. Some may be feeling a sense of emptiness
13:13 in their life and they come looking for some answers. Others may be coming uh merely out of
13:20 habit. There may be some who come in order to be seen. Is your purpose of coming to
13:26 church meaningful? So from this point of view, what the teacher is trying to do in the text is
13:32 to impart the real meaning of uh going to the house of God. So in studying this
13:38 portion of Ecclesiastes, we want to shape or rather reshape our attitude towards uh going to church. And this is
13:45 the underlying purpose of today's sermon. The structure of our text is text itself is rather straightforward.
13:51 The seven verses can be divided into three distinct parts. So here part one
13:56 teacher the teacher issues a general instruction about going to the house of God. As I mentioned at the start we want
14:02 to discuss how to make the conditions right for worshiping God in his house. And this first part includes the the
14:09 last line in verse 7 which is the anchor of the text. It says therefore fear God.
14:16 And juxtaposed between these two ends of the text, the teacher then gives two
14:21 specific instructions. In part two, he talks about how we should talk in the house of God. If the first part is about
14:28 guarding our steps, the second part is about guarding our speech. In the last
14:33 part, part three, the teacher touches on the issue of making vows. How we ought to take seriously the promises we make
14:41 before God. And when we examine the text as a whole, we notice the teacher's frequent use of
14:48 vocabulary relating to verbal communication, mouth, words, speech, say, etc. So, in
14:58 other words, he's very concerned about how we speak in the house of God. You may find all these rather unrelated to
15:04 the main topic of worshiping in God's house, but let me assure you that they are very much related as we shall see
15:10 shortly. Now to help you appreciate the structure of the text as we dive into the verses. Part one talks about the
15:17 sanctuary about going to the house of God and the key word here is reverence.
15:23 Part two reduce deals with our speech what we ought to say or not to say and the key word is restrain. Part three
15:30 focuses on making vows and keeping our promises and the key word is responsibility. I shall dwell on part
15:37 one in greater depth, but we'll also uh look at uh the other two parts briefly.
15:44 The teacher begins part one by saying count guard your steps when you go to the house of God. This is not to say
15:52 watch your steps when you go down the stairs in FBC less you fall down and injure yourself. Of course, if you are
15:58 frail and old, uh you better be careful when you walk. As hinted earlier, this has more to do
16:05 with preparing our hearts when we come into God's sanctuary. It's about our attitude when we walk into this
16:11 auditorium or put it this way, guard your spiritual steps when you go to the
16:17 house of God. As the teacher starts writing these verses, I imagine him
16:22 recalling uh the incident recorded in the Exodus where Moses had a direct encounter with God.
16:29 God appeared to him in the form of a burning bush. And Moses tried to go nearer to inspect this strange sight.
16:37 But before he could get any closer, God said to him in Exodus 3:5, "Do not come near. Take your sandals off your feet,
16:45 for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
16:50 But why the need for Moses to remove his sandals? You see, after a lot of
16:55 walking, our shoes become dirty and dusty. The
17:01 sandals which Moses wore therefore represented his sins. So as he stepped
17:06 into the presence of a holy God, taking off his footwear was to show that he was
17:11 a sinful person and nothing unclean can come near a holy God. But more
17:18 importantly, it was to symbolize his reverence and awe before a god of holiness. So as far as the teacher is
17:25 concerned, the temple is also holy ground because the presence of God
17:31 dwells inside the temple building in this place called the holy of holies. So
17:36 as he writes the the verses in in our text, I imagine the teacher weighing this issue of reverence for God or the
17:43 lack of. Now, do you believe that God is present
17:49 in our midst now, right now? If so, do you agree that this is also holy ground?
17:60 I wanted to use Exodus 3:5 as a backdrop to our text. I brought up the account of
18:05 the burning bush to illustrate how when we come to church, we come like Moses as
18:10 sinners before a God of holiness and righteousness who cannot stand even the slightest stain of sin in his people.
18:18 That's why the teacher instructs us to guard our steps when we come when we go
18:24 to the house of God. In other words, to be to be careful, be very careful when you go and worship
18:32 God. It is a very serious matter or to
18:37 use the popular Chinese term if you speak Chinese because which means
18:43 this is no laughing matter. We ought to come before the almighty God in fear and
18:48 trembling. Now to to impress upon you how serious this is. Only the high priest could
18:55 enter the holy of holies to commune with God on behalf of all Israelites. And he
19:00 and he did it once a year on the day of atonement. And the Holy of Holies is to the to the far right. I forget about the
19:07 rest of the picture. Just focus on the far right. This small little space
19:13 which is really an oxymoron small space. But the presence of the Almighty God is
19:19 there. It's behind a a thick curtain in which is is placed the ark of the
19:24 covenant. But before the high priest could enter this this small space called the holy of
19:30 holies and come into the presence of the almighty god, he must go through a
19:35 series of of purification rituals as detailed in uh Leviticus 16. Read
19:42 Leviticus 16 and you will you cannot help but get a sense that coming into
19:47 God's presence is a very serious matter that mustn't be taken lightly.
19:53 And legend has it that before the the high priest entered the Holy of Holies,
19:58 the other priest would tie a rope around his ankle. Why? Because if the high
20:04 priest had been negligent in his preparation and if he had been struck dead by the
20:10 glory of God's divine presence, the other priest could pull out his dead
20:15 body. Now, let me clarify that this is not described in scripture. Although in
20:21 Leviticus 16:2, God did tell Moses to tell Aaron the high priest that he
20:26 mustn't enter the holy of holies whenever he liked or however he liked or
20:32 else he would die. The rope around the ankle is not described in that chapter.
20:37 Nevertheless, it helps to illustrate how we we need to take God very seriously.
20:43 And because it's such a serious matter, we guard our steps. We must prepare ourselves solemnly when
20:49 we come to worship a holy God in his house. Now some of you may point out but I
20:55 thought you know this the question of sin has been settled by Jesus on the cross and you are right and that's why
21:01 nobody is struck dead during a worship service but ah ananas and safira were struck
21:10 dead in acts chapter 5 remember you think about that god must be taken very seriously
21:17 and to illustrate this further using a personal example and I say this on behalf of all the preachers in the pit
21:24 team. I'm talking about preparation here. You see, each preacher approaches
21:29 each sermon with much gravity. For each sermon, I say to myself,
21:39 and I undertake the task with fear and trembling. As my wife uh can attest, I would lock
21:46 myself up in my room for days as I struggle with the text and as I battle with the with the verses, seeking the
21:54 Holy Spirit's guidance and inspiration. And that's why each sermon is really a
21:59 burden. Sorry, Peter. Or should I say a a privileged burden.
22:06 There's no such thing as a happy burden. A privileged burden. And that's why whenever Dr. Peter sends out the pullpit
22:11 schedule and I see my name next to a title and a date. Don't imagine me exclaiming, "Oh yeah, I'm going to speak
22:17 again." It's more like, "Oh, no, not again.
22:22 I'm your reluctant preacher." But really, what I want to share is the
22:28 solemn need to prepare. Whether you're a preacher, whether you're just a worshipper, you prepare
22:35 when you come to the house of God. And from here I let me go deeper into part one of our text in order to draw up some
22:41 points of application. You know when I was meditating on this text I felt that it actually speaks
22:48 louder to us than to the Israelites in those days. It's more relevant to us
22:53 than to them surprisingly. Why so? Well to begin with we often remark that the
22:59 church is not the building. Okay. that the church is really the community of
23:05 God's people and the building is just a physical structure. Now, this is something that we all agree on. It is
23:11 theologically sound supported by verses in the in the New Testament. For example, if you recall the encounter
23:18 Jesus had with the Sam Samaritan woman in John chapter 4 and they were discussing whether God should be
23:23 worshiped on Mount Garazim where the Samaritans worship or in Jerusalem where the Jews worship.
23:30 Jesus reply was that the place would no longer uh be
23:36 important neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will
23:43 worship the father in spirit and truth. So in his answer Jesus was prophesying
23:50 the day when the spirit of God would descend and dwell in the hearts of all
23:55 believers. That is the day of Pentecost about a week after Jesus' ascension uh
24:01 to heaven. That event is recorded in Acts chapter 2. It was a pivotal point
24:07 in Bible history because it was the day when the church was born. What it means that is that for most of old testament
24:14 history, God chose to manifest his presence among his people in one
24:19 specific place in the holy of holies which I showed just now. But and before that, of course, it was
24:26 the tabernacle. And that went on for almost 1,500 years from the time of Moses until Jesus, except for a brief
24:33 period of time when the when Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
24:39 But from the from the day of Pentecost until now, the so-called New Testament era, God's presence have been residing
24:46 within all believers. And that's why he allowed the second temple to be destroyed by the Romans in
24:53 70 AD. So the temple is no more there. Go to Jerusalem. The temple is no more there.
24:59 And where is the temple now? In all of us. In all of us. On that basis, Paul
25:06 wrote, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you?"
25:11 And there is another aspect to this. And Jesus also said in the Matthew 18:20,
25:16 "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." Meaning, where two or three believers
25:22 meet together in his name, whether in the coffee shop or in the house, there you find God in their midst. And all
25:29 this is pretty mind-boggling if you think about it. God is present within us and among us. God's manifested presence
25:37 is not just in the church. But unfortunately there is a drawback to
25:44 this. Somehow at an subconscious level because
25:50 God is always within us and also among us we tend to lose our reverence for
25:56 him. Maybe this is a case of familiarity
26:01 breeding contempt, which means that close and constant association with something often leads
26:08 to a loss of appreciation for its true value. When you have too much of something,
26:15 you tend to take it for granted. In this respect, if we survey the Bible
26:21 from cover to cover, we find that the phrase fear of God or fear of the Lord
26:26 or some other similar terms, they occur at a far higher frequency in the Old
26:32 Testament than in the New Testament. When we scan through the pages of the
26:37 Old Testament, we detect among the Israelites a greater level of reverence for God. Of course, there were times
26:44 when the Israelites rebelled and sinned against God. But generally in the Old Testament
26:49 times, there was this fear of God. Now, to fear God doesn't mean to be terrified
26:54 of him, but to revere him. But in contrast, people today have a
26:60 lesser view of God, a more diminished opinion of him. as what our camp speaker
27:05 said. Even Christians in general do not show a such a high degree of of reverence for God. Especially over the
27:13 past 100 to 200 years, man has become bigger. God has become smaller. Again,
27:20 man has occupied the center. God is has been pushed to the side.
27:26 Now to prove my point, if you Google the term fear of God, this comes up.
27:36 It's a line of designer clothing. You may be shocked to the extent to
27:43 which God's name is being trivialized, used as a brand.
27:49 But are we really any much better? For example, how often we use words like oh
27:55 my god. Oh my goodness or gosh. Gosh means God.
28:03 When you say oh my goodness, goodness refers to God because only God is good.
28:08 And we use these terms loosely in our conversation without thinking, without realizing that we are showing a lack of
28:14 reverence for God. I hope none of you uh use the word Jesus
28:20 or G's as an explanation like what we heard in the video just now.
28:27 Now, do you remember me saying earlier that uh this sermon is a challenge because I will be discussing things that might make you uneasy. Well, let's let's
28:35 now talk about dressing when we come to church. Now, if you come to church wearing any one of these fear of God shirts or
28:43 trousers, uh, I I will pull you aside for a friendly chat.
28:49 But seriously, I I've always told my wife and the kids. Come Sunday morning when we go to for worship service, we go
28:56 in our Sunday best. Don't overdress because we're not going for a party or or a social function. something decent,
29:03 something nice, something formal because we're going to have an audience with the
29:09 King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. That means no slippers, no short pants,
29:16 no t-shirts. I know those of you wearing t-shirts, sorry for shining the spotlight at you.
29:23 Then you say, "Hey, Dr. P those wearing t-shirt. I don't want cam t-shirt." Okay.
29:31 And please don't start removing your t-shirts. Now what I'm saying is that imagine if
29:38 tomorrow you have an audience with a prime minister. Okay, sorry that may not be a good
29:44 example. Okay, suppose you have a audience with a sultan. Okay, Sultan of Sango. That's
29:51 better. I bet you would be neatly, smartly and formally dressed.
29:59 And point is this. Let your dressing when you come to church reflect your reverence for God.
30:06 And the key word in in part one as I as I told you this now is reverence. And sadly this reverence is missing in many
30:12 churches. And that's why I said this text speaks louder to us than those in Solomon's
30:19 time. Let's take another example from the text. The teacher further uh uh uh
30:25 says in verse one, go near to listen. In modern terms, could this mean come, you
30:33 know, come and sit in front? There are empty seats here. Come closer so that you can hear better
30:40 so that you can take in better what is what is being said, what is being preached in a way to show your your that
30:46 you're serious about coming to church and indirectly showing your reverence for God.
30:52 But today we have the so-called backbenches. Now those sitting at the back I said as
30:59 I said now don't take it personally. I'm merely stating what is written in the text go near to listen. But those at
31:07 the back uh may point out you know back in those days they didn't have microphones and lousp speakers and so
31:13 you had to go near to listen. But today we have this wonderful PA system so that those at the back can hear as clearly as
31:19 those in front. So has technology made this verse obsolete?
31:26 Let's see what the rest of the verse says. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools who do not
31:32 know that they do wrong. So the teacher is comparing going near to listen with
31:37 offering uh the the sacrifice of fools, fools who sin unknowingly. What kind of
31:42 comparison is that? And this needs a little explanation. The NLT translate this as it is evil to make mindless
31:51 offerings to God. You see what happens is when an Israelite goes to the temple,
31:57 he brings along an animal for sacrifice. The animal is placed I show this I show
32:02 you this now. Uh you look at the notice the altar to the far right. The animal is placed on the altar and and uh which
32:10 is in the courtyard outside the temple building. The worshipper then places his hand on the head of the animal
32:18 to symbolically transfer his sins to the to the creature which is then slaughtered and burned.
32:26 A very grotesin a lot of blood. But this sacrificial system was
32:32 instituted by God to remind his people of the seriousness of sin. God was telling his people, "Look, you are
32:37 coming to me with your sin and because of your sin, this innocent animal has to
32:42 die. It is paying the price for your sin, dying on your behalf."
32:48 If you were there offering the animal for sacrifice, seeing it slaughtered before your very eyes, you would likely
32:56 take God's laws more seriously, perhaps even vowing to repent and not to sin
33:01 anymore. And this sacrificial system that God set in place in the temple also serve as a
33:08 pointer to the sacrificial death of uh Jesus. Jesus the lamb of God who was killed on our behalf. But that's another
33:14 topic altogether. Anyway to continue many of the Israelites were doing this
33:20 mindlessly mindless offerings from the NLT or sacrifice of fools from the NIV. meaning
33:27 that they were doing it mechanically, carelessly or not seriously. There was
33:33 no repentance. That's why the teacher finds the whole thing rather meaningless.
33:38 And hence when the teacher says better to go near to listen rather than to off rather than to than to offer sacrifice
33:44 of fools, he's instructing us not to do things mechanically or mindlessly when
33:49 we come to church. So please don't come to church merely out of habit. come
33:54 because you want to worship a holy God in reverence and all to do to do it mechanically means to do to be
34:01 disrespectful to God. So go near to listen therefore has uh less to do with
34:07 distance than with attitude. Now we have spent a lot of time on part one because
34:13 so important we we have discussed at length the need to revere God when we come to his house. The last three words
34:20 in the text summarizes uh part one. Therefore, fear god. So if you un if you
34:25 understood this, you have taken this in, then part two and part three will be easier to digest. We can cover them relatively quickly. Now the rest of the
34:32 verses deal with what comes out of our mouth. If part one is about guarding our steps, part two is about guarding our
34:40 mouth. This may not seem to be related to the main thrust of the text, namely
34:45 uh reverence for God, but you will soon see it's clearly part of the overall flaw. As I said at the beginning, not
34:52 only should the conditions in our hearts be right for worship, the house of God should be also conducive for worship.
34:60 Now, if there is one thing that can upset the atmosphere in the house of God, making it unconducive for worship,
35:08 it is the tongue. An uncontrolled tongue, a loose tongue. And the teacher
35:14 understands this. The Bible warns us against the dangers of the tongue. James
35:20 3 5-6, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boast. Consider
35:26 what a great forest is set on fire by the small spark. The tongue also is a fire. A world of evil amongst the body,
35:34 the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire and is itself set on
35:42 fire by hell. The dangers of the tongue.
35:47 Psalm 64:23 describes how the tongue can also be like a weapon. They sharpen
35:53 their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows. And that's why it's easy to understand why the teacher
36:01 instructs us in verse two do not be quick with your mouth. Do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before
36:06 God. To be quick with our mouth and to be hasty in our hearts is to lose control of our tongue.
36:12 Be careful of what or how you speak in church. The key word here is restrain.
36:20 Actually, I don't have any issues with those who wear t-shirts to church or who
36:26 like to sit at the back. By all means, continue with your preferred attire and sitting positions. There are no
36:32 commandments against such things. It's just that I it's not something I would do. But I do have issues with people who
36:39 because of the poison from their mouth, they destroy the unity of the church and ruin the the spirit of community among
36:47 the people of God. And we have seen this many times. The result is is tension and and amnity
36:54 making it hard to worship God in reverence. That's why these are all these two parts are connected.
37:01 I shall make this point more practical. So after our service, we stream out of the auditorium and we proceed to the
37:08 garden cafe outside for fellowship over a cup of coffee or a meal. And it's
37:13 great to see many of you, more and more of you staying back for fellowship, chatting and and and catching up with
37:19 one another. It's a beautiful expression of our membership in God's family.
37:25 But I'm concerned about what you talk about.
37:31 Please don't talk about other people. The wife of uh President Roosevelt was
37:38 supposed to have said great mind discuss ideas,
37:45 average mind discuss events, small mind,
37:51 discuss people. If if you have nothing good to say about
37:58 somebody, don't say anything. Yeah. Often even a
38:04 seemingly neutral command can cause problems.
38:10 And remember this important advice. What we say is often or is easily
38:16 misunderstood, misconstrued or even distorted especially when it
38:21 gets transmitted from one to another one to another one until it reaches the year of the person and it gets all angry
38:27 because the thing has the message has been distorted. The Bible often exhorts us to be careful with our words. Psalm
38:33 141:3, "Set a guard over my mouth, Lord. Keep watch over the door of my lips."
38:41 Scripture also advises us instead to use our words as tools for the betterment of
38:46 the community of God's people. Paul writes in Colossians 4:6, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned
38:52 with salt." He also encourages us in the Ephesians 4:29. Do not let any unh wholesome talk
38:59 come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up building others up according to their needs that
39:05 it may benefit those who listen. At the end of verse two and also verse
39:11 three, uh the teacher further instructs us to let your words be few. Let your words be
39:18 few. Just now it was about the it was about the the the quality of your speech. Now it's about the volume
39:25 mean meaning cutting down on the amount of words coming out from your mouth. Although isn't talking about volume as
39:31 in loudness is also good to cut that down as well. In verse three, the teacher says the
39:36 same thing but in a different way. A dream comes when there are many cares, many words mark the speech of a fool. He
39:44 likens it to dreams and cares which is a bit hard to understand. Again, the NLT, always turn to the NLT. If you want some
39:50 clarification, uh the NLT makes it easier. It's it translate this verse as
39:55 uh too much activity gives you restless dreams. Too many words uh make you a
40:00 fool. Too many words uh make you a fool. Indeed, there are many people who like
40:06 to monopolize the conversation. You say one word, they reply with 10,000 words.
40:11 They they sound just like the police siren in the video. Wow. Wow. Wow.
40:17 And according to the teacher, if you talk too much, you come across as a fool.
40:24 Do you notice that smart people, they speak less?
40:29 Those who are not so clever, they talk a lot in a way to hide their stupidity.
40:37 Because we know this proverb, empty vessels make the most noise. And this
40:43 this quotation is even better. Wise men talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because
40:49 they have to say something. And also I found that insecure people,
40:56 they always have a lot to say. Confidence is silence.
41:02 Insecurities are loud. So if you talk a lot, it shows your insecurity. The the Bible teaches us to
41:10 speak less. James 1 19, everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.
41:15 And when we are in the house of God, the teacher gives the reason for reduced speech. In the middle of verse two,
41:21 because God is in heaven and you are on earth. Again, this is not about distance, it's about position. God is
41:26 God. We are merely humans. He is the creator. We were created. Now, to give you an analogy, when I was in the
41:32 corporate world, I used to sit in this management, this long management meetings. The CEO would sit at the head
41:38 of the table and he would chair the meeting. Imagine me talking more than my CEO. It will mean the end of my career.
41:45 I spoke only when I was spoken to, only when he asked me for an answer or command. Other than that, zip.
41:54 Similarly, when we uh when we in God's house where God is present, you agree, God is present, we speak less out of
42:02 reverence. It's no coincidence that God made us with two ears and only one mouth so that
42:11 we listen more and speak less. But some people come with two two months and one
42:16 year or no year.
42:22 Later when we journ outside for fellowship, it'll be interesting to see all of you drinking your coffee
42:27 silently.
42:32 Or imagine everyone you know saying, "Oh, you talk I listen." And the other
42:39 guy will say, "No, no, no. Do talk like listen that's not what I mean by all means have
42:46 a great conversation just remember to guard your mouth control your tongue and avoid empty talk let your speech be
42:54 wholesome and meaningful now we're running a bit late coming to the last part uh which is about making vows
43:00 before God and keeping them now I would like to think that uh we don't have much problem with this do we generally we are
43:08 people who keep about promises. Am I not right? You're all nodding the head. So, I can
43:15 skip this part, I think. Anyway, it's quite a straightforward uh uh part of
43:20 the text. The teacher says in verse four, when you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure
43:26 in fools. So, fulfill your vow. You see, God dislikes people who come in who come to him making all sorts of promises but
43:33 not keeping them. Some of you may say, "No, I don't remember making vows to God." Yes, you do. Perhaps not so often
43:40 when you got married, you said your uh your marriage vows before God. When you
43:46 got baptized and when you answered yes to the pastor's questions,
43:52 you made your vows before God. And also in your private prayers, you know, when you tell God that you will do this, you
43:58 will do that, those are also vows. And but how does this part fit into the
44:03 overall flow of the text? Well, if you break your promise to God, it means that you are treating him lightly, showing
44:10 disrespect, lacking reverence for him. That's why the teacher cautions us in verse 5, it's
44:16 better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. If you cannot keep your word, don't give it. Not only
44:24 is it bad to make a promise to God and not keeping it, the teacher also speaks against making a promise and then
44:32 to withdraw it later. Verse six, do not let your mouth lead you into sin. Do not protest to the the temple messenger, my
44:39 vow was a mistake. There are serious consequences to breaking your vows to God or even taking them back, which is
44:45 in the last line of um of verse six. Why should God be angry at you uh at what
44:51 you say and destroy the work of your hands? That comes across as a little bit strange. It sounds as like God will not
44:58 be angry and will not wipe out what you have achieved. Actually the opposite is intended. God will be angry at what you
45:05 say and he will destroy the work of your hands if you have been careless with your vows to him. This is what we call
45:12 in Malay bas reverse language. I'm sure you use it uh
45:17 occasionally. Say your your naughty son has been jumping on the bed and he and he falls down on the floor. The Caucasian parents
45:25 will run to him. Oh you poor thing. You know uh did you hurt yourself? The Asian parent will go jump some very good
45:34 you know. So it means that we read this uh end of verse six the tabal way.
45:40 Sometimes Bible has got this technique. You know what what is intended is the opposite. And this this quotation uh
45:47 summarizes uh part three of our text. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
45:53 When the key word is responsibility being responsible for the things you said you would do. You say would do. do
45:59 don't break a promise or in the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:37 let your yes be yes your no be no in conclusion earlier
46:07 I remarked that a church is not a church unless God is at its center when God is
46:13 at his center he is there as a holy and righteous God and he alone is to be worshiped with reverence and all and
46:20 that should be our attitude when we come into his house to worship him and as we do that we guard our steps and also
46:27 guard our mouth. Seven verses and it has taken us a while to unpack them. But
46:33 this is the word of the Lord. Shall we close in prayer? Our father in heaven, cause us to know
46:39 our place in relation to you, the thric. Holy God, help us to realize our
46:44 inadequacies and sinfulness as we approach you. Teach us to consider you with the deepest of reverence and esteem
46:51 when we come into your house. Instill in us the fear of you when we worship you.
46:56 For we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
