2004-10-24 Communion Dedication - Baldwin Christian Church

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

This message is directed at one person here today, and I am going to embarass him by mentioning his name (me).

To say that I was "led to these verses" isn't exactly true. The truth is that I was repeatedly kicked from behind until I landed in Ecclesiastes chapter 5.

1. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.

This is the first and most important thing: Let God be God. Everything falls into place after that. Let Him be in charge of your life, listen to Him.

2. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

3. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.

Sometimes life just gets so busy that I forget things (I don't have to be busy for that.), and when I lie down to sleep, my unfinished tasks and my unfulfilled promises suddenly burst into memory. It bothers me, and sometimes I have dreams about these things. Sometimes it's made worse because I tell someone that I'm going to do a job for them today, but then "the multitude of business" swamps out the whole day, and tries to erase the memory of the promises I've made, that is, until I lay down to sleep. When I tell you I'll do something, but I don't hold true to my word, I only make things worse when I try to explain it away to you with a multitude of words. The voice you're hearing is that of a fool. It's bad enough when you break a promise to someone, but...

4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it (don't procrastinate in fulfilling your promise to God); for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.

5. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

I'm a fool whenever I say, "Lord, if you'll just get me out of this jam, I promise that I will...", but after He answers my prayer, and the coast is clear, somehow I forget about the promise I made.

6. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

This is the old, "Oops, I made a mistake when I vowed this vow, vow." Wanna get back to ground zero, to start all over again? Lie to God's messenger.

7. For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

"Fear thou God." What does that mean to me?

It means, as it did back in verse one, that wherever two or more are gathered in His name, I should figuratively remove the shoes from my feet, and try not to trip or stumble the other guy. It means that my ears should be open to hear God, not to hear the praises of men. It means that the reason I'm here with you today is to consider that I'm a sinful man, and therefore my ears should be open to hear the Word God has for me today. It means that I should forget any sacrifices I've made, and remember the ONE that He has made. All my sacrifices and offerings combined are powerless to counter the weight of even one of my sins.

Fearing God, as it means in verses two and three, means that even if heaven is far above the earth, I know it's no far-away place. God hears me everytime I talk about something I don't know. Fear of God should cause me to speak only about things I actually know, and that should automatically make me a man of few words.

Fearing God, as in verses four and five, means that I believe it when God says something. When He says that He holds me accountable to the promises I make, then I should only make promises I can keep.

Fearing God means that, as in verse six, I have to tell the truth whenever I've broken a promise. My word means something, and I can't say that I made a mistake when I've already given my word.

Fearing God means that, as in verse seven, actions speak louder than words. There is an abundance of emptiness in my daydreams, and I can talk about something all day, but daydreams and talk never accomplished anything. James 1:22 ...be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. You see, I can think about the Word and talk about the Word, but if I don't actually do the Word, I've deceived myself. Empty talk, idle words, procrastination. God is real, and reality trumps fantasy everytime.

Fearing God means that when I sit down at His table, I give Him all my attention.

1 Peter 2:1-2

1. Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, (not holding true to my word)

2. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: