Don’t try to worship God with bitterness in your heart (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7)

So, how has Sunday morning been for you?  Any chance that the children were bickering, and you lost your cool?  Did your husband nag you for being late, and you snapped back?  Did you huff with your wife when she was sharp?  Maybe you drove to church in a silent car because no-one was speaking to each other.  Then you watch your spouse as they walk into the building and they are all smiles with everyone.  You think, ‘what a hypocrite!’  The truth is that they are just relieved to be talking to anyone other than you!

This morning we are thinking about how we come to worship.

We are to worship with a forgiving heart

Solomon tells us to ‘Guard your steps when you go to the house of God’ (1a). 

Solomon was talking about the temple in Jerusalem, where people made their sacrifices.  There is no direct modern-day equivalent.  The building in which we sit is not ‘the house of God’, it is simply a rain-shelter designed to facilitate our gatherings.  But the apostle Paul tells us that together as people in Christ we are God’s holy temple in the Lord (Ephesians 2:21).  We can apply these verses to our weekly gatherings. 

In the days before the temple was destroyed, Jesus taught that ‘if you are offering your gift at the altar and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.  First be reconciled to your brother, and then come offer your gift’ (Matthew 5:23-24).  We are to come to worship with a forgiving heart!

We are to come to worship to listen   

We are to ‘draw near to listen …’ (1b).  We come to be taught from God’s word.  But are we open to what might be said?  In one church where I worked someone told me not to talk too much about forgiveness because I did not understand the pain that community had endured.  We cannot censure God’s challenging word like that!

When the apostle Paul talks about God’s people being the house of God, he mentions the breaking down of cultural hostility (Ephesians 2:11-22).  This house of God is made up of people from over twenty-five nationalities.  There can be no place for racism or sectarianism amongst us. 

How would you feel if your daughter married a person with a different colour skin?  I hope it wouldn’t bother you in the slightest.  How do you use terms like Protestant or Catholic?  What is your attitude to people from the travelling community?   

When I was a young adult working with Protestants in Northern Ireland, I could not stand their attitude to my country.  My pig-headedness got me in arguments with other stubborn young men.  It took years to accept the challenge of acknowledging what God had done through northern Protestants.  I began to see that he was at work in their culture.  In particular, I began to appreciate the many Christian missionaries who had been sent from that part of this island all over the world.  Those of us who went to school in this country learned plenty about the evil that the English did on this island, but would you be willing to listen to an Englishman tell you how God has shown his favour to that land by sending some of the most amazing revivals and raising up some of the most significant preachers in the history of the church?

It is not just towards our brothers and sisters in Christ that we are to show cross-cultural love.  Paul says, ‘I have become all things to all people, that he might save some’ (1 Corinthians 9:22).  How should you identify with a Muslim in order to show love and speak about Jesus?  How do you feel when you see a woman in a burka?  How do you become a Nigerian to the Nigerians so that you might win some to Christ?  Or, if you are Nigerian, how do you identify with the Irish to win some of them to Christ?

We are to come to worship with sincerity

One of the things that causes conflict in my life is that I am too opinionated, and I talk to much.  The Bible tells us to guard our tongue.  James tells us that we are to be ‘quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to become angry’ (James 1:19).  In the Proverbs Solomon explains that ‘when words are many, sin is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent’ (Proverbs 10:19). 

We are not to spout off to people and we are not to spout off to God.  ‘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’ (2).

I am told that this verse emphasises the sincerity of our words before God.  One person wrote that, ‘we don’t pray into a spiritual microphone with God listening on a set of heavenly earphones.  He listens to us pray with a spiritual stethoscope’ (LeRoy Eims).  God cares about what is on our hearts as we speak to him.

But how do we grow in sincerity?  I think we grow in sincerity by both working from the inside out and the outside in.  The inside out as we ask God to change our hearts.  ‘Create a clean heart within me’, we pray.  The outside in as we realise that sincerity is not just about feeling but acting.  We are to speak to people and God with honesty.  We are to be willing to be vulnerable with them and him.  We are not to put on a show to impress them or him.  Be real!

We are to come to worship ready to act 

The scene of the remaining verses is that of the person who gets emotionally moved during the worship and then vows that he is going to respond with action.  He has vowed and must act on those vows immediately and not go back on his word.  Vow taking isn’t encouraged in the New Testament, but we have all made commitments to respond during worship.

Maybe you have heard a sermon on missions, and you have resolved to pray for a missionary.  Then go do it.  Maybe you heard a sermon on giving and you decided that you will give to a church or charity.  Then don’t delay.  Maybe you have felt challenged to love someone who has wronged you.  Then love your neighbour in a way that they can see.  Maybe you arrived here this morning not speaking to your family.  Make sure you go home at peace with them.

Conclusion

‘Guard your steps when you go to the house of God …’  The death and resurrection of Jesus has broken down the walls of hostility between us and God.  He has made us God’s household.  Now we are to break down the barriers between each of us and live at people.  We are also to reach out to those around us with this gospel of grace.

Chuck Colson was President Nixon’s hatchet man and went to jail for his dirty tricks.  But before he went to jail, he became a Christian.  As a Christian he found himself in an unusual brotherhood.  He met together with a group of Christian politicians, who were both Republicans and Democrats.  They had widely divergent opinions and some were his former enemies.

When one political opponent heard that Colson had become a Christian, he resisted meeting him.  ‘There isn’t anyone I dislike more than Chuck Colson.  I’m against everything he stands for …’  But a friend pointed out that this was hardly a Christlike answer.  So they met.  Colson told this man of his conversion, the man responded, ‘That’s all I need to know.  Chuck, you have accepted Jesus and He has forgiven you.  I do the same.  I love you as my brother in Christ.  I will stand with you …’

‘Guard your steps when you go to the house of God’ (1a).  ‘If you are offering your gift at the altar and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.  First be reconciled to your brother, and then come offer your gift’ (Matthew 5:23-24).