Aug 12 2018 Ecclesiastes 5 - People Leave the Church During a Crisis of Faith - Wisdom Addresses That!

Thank You Lord, for our morning and time together – and for those who give so graciously of their time that we might minister to one another and others. As we move forward, grant us your favor and blessings. Speak to our hearts – give us ears to listen, that our hearts would be softened to hear from you.

Ecclesiastes 5:1 Be careful what you do when you go to the temple of God; draw near to listen rather than to offer a sacrifice like fools, for they do not realize that they are doing wrong. 2 Do not be rash with your mouth or hasty in your heart to bring up a matter before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth! Therefore, let your words be few.

Initially, this sounds like good advice. There is lots of wisdom in what The Teacher says and lots to learn from it. The Teacher is wise, but there is a problem: The Teacher’s view of God is warped. Let’s look at his understanding of God. There are some good reasons to take this advice – but from his perspective, you don’t want to get on God’s bad side, so keep your mouth shut!

He goes on to give an analogy:

3 Just as dreams come when there are many cares, so the rash vow of a fool occurs when there are many words.

The NASB says – Dreams come with much effort – something like that. When you read it that way – if you have things you want to accomplish, it will take a lot of work -but that is not what the passage is actually saying.

When we stress and worry and overwork ourselves to keep everything together, we have dreams that disturb our sleep and that kind of living produces sleepless nights.

4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay in paying it.

We don’t use the term vow much except at weddings! IT is a promise to God…

For God takes no pleasure in fools: Pay what you vow! 5 It is better for you not to vow than to vow and not pay it. 6 Do not let your mouth cause you to sin, and do not tell the priest, "It was a mistake!" Why make God angry at you so that he would destroy the work of your hands?"

We don’t do stuff – like when we get in trouble – we all get in trouble in different ways – but when we are in trouble – we say – Get me out of this, God and I will be a missionary – or worse – a pastor! But then things change and you regain your senses and don’t become a pastor! The Teacher is saying – it is better to not make a vow at all instead of making God angry at you. That is his perspective.

7 Just as there is futility in many dreams, so also in many words. Therefore, fear God!

There is a healthy and an unhealthy fear of God. This is the unhealthy perspective - a few weeks ago we looked at the fear of God (beginning of wisdom).

The Teacher has a warped view of God. Our view of God is foundational –

For The Teacher, all that he has been taught about God and faith, by his parents, and Sunday school teachers, and pastors – not that he has any of those, but to make it relate to our world… - all that he has been taught did not match his life experience – and this creates a crisis of faith and tremendous despair.

There are so many people like this – who have had good Christian upbringings – and they move on – and say, wait a minute, it is not working – and there are people leaving the faith – chucking it all. And that is why the Wisdom of Ecclesiastes is so vital – this addresses that.

Be careful what you do when you go to the temple of God; draw near to listen rather than to offer a sacrifice like fools, for they do not realize that they are doing wrong.

Practically – how do we discover wisdom in this? This verse is so important. When we go to God in prayer – it all comes out. And there comes a time to pour out our hearts before God. And the wisdom here is to listen to God first – to discover what God might want and have for you in that moment. Draw near to listen first.

One guy shared at a retreat this week – when he is talking with someone who is going through a struggle – “Can I pray for you?” - and then – “I am going to be quiet for a little while – so don’t be uncomfortable – because I want us to listen to hear if God might be wanting to say something to either of us.”

We can do the same with our own lives. For some of us – silence drives us nuts – so something has to come out. “My soul waits in silence only” – The psalmist says.

How do we approach God?

What is our view of God when we approach Him?

The Teacher’s view was warped – one of this angry God out to get us.

Hebrews really deals with this issue:

Hebrews 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. (earlier he talks about all the sacrifices and guilt and shame…) 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Because God, in Jesus became one of us – went through all the temptations, struggles and difficulties that we go through…

16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

When we draw near to God, we draw near to someone who has been there, done that. He understands. When you are struggling with something – money, health, marriage, sin struggles. We know that the easy people to talk to are the ones who have the same struggles. They know what you are going through – Because God has been through it when He became Man.

Confidence to come to the throne of grace. Mercy. Compassion. Forgiveness. But I think sometimes we go to the throne of judgment, criticism, and disapproval. We think we have failed Him again. That is not the throne of Grace.

What do we receive? Mercy – not getting what we deserve. We deserve judgment. God doesn’t throw guilt on us because of Jesus. We receive grace – getting what we don’t deserve – love and forgiveness. This is a much better view of our approach to God – I challenge you to develop that view as much as you can.

One other aspect I’d like to look at regarding the Teacher’s view of God.

7:15 I have seen everything during my lifetime of futility; there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his wickedness. 16 Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself? 17 Do not be excessively wicked and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.

There is wisdom even in his wrong thinking here – try to find a balanced life – don’t go to the extremes. That is not our lesson.

20 Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning.

Mistake free living – trying to live mistake free – will get you in all kinds of trouble and ruin your life.

In the New Testament – the Apostle John says this:

1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

That is so powerful.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

This is the throne of grace – to just be able to say – yep, I just won’t make it in this perfect life – this overly righteous life – it is just not happening. Throughout my life, I am going to fail, but in that, God is faithful and righteous. The righteousness that matters is the righteousness of Christ – which we have received in place of our unrighteousness.

The Teacher is like the one given a coin in the New Testament – who thought that the master was angry and demanding so he did nothing.

When we are afraid to make mistakes in life, we do nothing. We just hold onto the coin so we don’t do anything wrong with it. Sometimes we live that way in our Christian walk

The excessively righteous – vs. 16 – who were they in the New Testament? The Pharisees. They knew that Israel was under judgment for not following the commands of God – so they put up safeguards around The Sabbath – adding all this stuff to try to prevent people from making mistakes – and it became known as the tradition of the elders. It failed miserably – we cannot gain God’s favor by our exceeding righteousness – we get God’s favor because God loved us.

Another lesson of the Pharisees – they became proud of their rules and regulations that focused on others and not themselves. Their overly righteous standards were placed on others.

Parents do this in raising children. When you expect your 2-3 year old to act like he is 13 – don’t do that.

Leaders do that to followers; pastors can do that to congregations. They can dump stuff on people when their dreams of what they imagine aren’t being met.

The key to true righteousness. I’m not saying we should not be righteous – Paul dealt with that in Romans 6.

Matthew 9:

23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Our religious rules will eventually prevent us from living for what is really on God’s heart. That is really important. The heart of God is mercy, justice, and faithfulness.

9: 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

For them, hanging out with tax collectors and sinners was the reason Israel was in the trouble it was in. They say – why does He do this? He will bring judgment on our nation!

12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

True righteousness is not us-oriented. It is others-oriented. Our tendency when we think of holiness is to think of ourselves. But the real way to become righteous is to give ourselves wholly to bringing Christ’s love to those who are excluded and broken – and when we live our lives that way – true righteousness happens inside of ourselves.

Let’s Pray…

Ecclesiastes 7:1 A good reputation is better than precious perfume; likewise, the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. 2 It is better to go to a funeral than a feast. For death is the destiny of every person, and the living should take this to heart. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter, because sober reflection is good for the heart. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of merrymaking. 5 It is better for a person to receive a rebuke from those who are wise than to listen to the song of fools. 6 For like the crackling of quick-burning thorns under a cooking pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This kind of folly also is useless. 7 Surely oppression can turn a wise person into a fool; likewise, a bribe corrupts the heart.

9 Do not let yourself be quickly provoked, for anger resides in the lap of fools. 10 Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these days?" for it is not wise to ask that. 11 Wisdom, like an inheritance, is a good thing; it benefits those who see the light of day. 12 For wisdom provides protection, just as money provides protection. But the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves the life of its owner. 13 Consider the work of God: For who can make straight what he has bent? 14 In times of prosperity be joyful, but in times of adversity consider this: God has made one as well as the other, so that no one can discover what the future holds.