PREPARATION FOR WORSHIP (ECCLESIASTES 5:1-7)

SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON Lesson Prepared by: krisha of Song of Solomon FB page Lesson Taken From: Ptr.Rick Ezell of First Baptist Greer Scheduled Teacher: Preacher Ronald Picar JUNE 03, 2018   MEMORY VERSE Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God and be more ready to hear, than to give sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Ecclesiastes 5:1

INTRODUCTION:

Who among here see the preparation more difficult than the actual? For example, in doing lessons for preaching, Sunday school or anything; is it the preparation needs more time and effort? Yes, it is! How about in worship, do we need preparation? Calling on God needs preparation. One would not rush into the President's office unannounced and unprepared, neither should we with God. This lesson provides the proper procedures for calling on God.

People in a bus and people on a pew (chairs in the church) have commonality.  All are on a journey. Most are well-behaved and presentable. Some take a nap, others enter in a mindless trace, and a few look out the window. Most, if not all, are satisfied with a predictable experience.

As you enter the church you see faces inside the church some are giggly, others are cranky (irritable). Most of them are content. Content to be there. Content to sit and look straight ahead and leave when the service is over. Content to endure (just endure the flow of the worship service). Content with the normal service. Content with a "nice" service but forget to meet the proper way in worshiping God.

The destination of worship is to meet God. As with any journey we need to make the proper preparations so that we experience God rather than endure worship. We want a memorable not normal trip. What does our travel check require? Travel demands preparation.

LESSON OUTLINE:

1)       GET READY TO MEET GOD (ECCLESIASTES 5:1)

Our first point is “GET READY TO MEET GOD.” How to make yourself ready? What are the things we prepare? Personal things: Our clothes we’re going to wear, shoes, bags, bible, pen & notebook. If you go with family, you need to prepare your food for lunch and some of here they eat their lunch in the church, so they need to bring food, water, toothbrushes and many more. They stay for the Gospel Service in the afternoon. Also, you need to prepare something for your ministry; it might be your lesson, visual aids, do the cleaning, call someone to confirm the scheduled special number, song leader and many more. This is one way to make yourself ready to meet God. We can see that preparation is worship and what if you come late and not prepared?

 Solomon wrote, "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God…" (Eccl. 5:1). One rendering of this verse is: "Keep thy foot when you go to the house of God…" The phrase “keep thy foot” means to proceed with reverence, tip toeing into the presence of God. We come with care and caution. We come with dignity and respect. We approach God with the same care as Moses when he encountered God in a burning bush and took off his shoes. He was on holy ground, and he knew it.

Let me encourage you to come to worship prepared to worship. Pray before you come so you will be ready to pray when you arrive. Sleep before you come so you will stay alert when you arrive. Read the Word before you come so your heart will be soft when you worship. Come hungry. Come willing. Come expecting God to speak. Come anticipating a memorable experience with the Creator of the universe.

2)       LISTEN TO GOD (ECCLESIASTES 5:1-2)

Last April 17, 2018, Southwest Flight 1380 had an emergency landing because the airplane had suffered damage on one of its engines. After They landed and an ambulance ready for the passengers who were hurt, and the emergency staff saw that the oxygen masks were not properly worn by the passengers. Why they wore the oxygen mask wrong?  When flying, the flight attendants share instructions before the plane takes flights. The attendants are explaining about how to use the seat belt, where the exits are, how to use the seat cushion as a flotation device, how to put on the oxygen mask if needed. Yet most of the people on the plane are talking, reading, looking out the window, getting stuff out of their carry-on luggage. They are doing everything but not listening. Those flight attendants know how God must feel, when his people come to church.

We show up to our houses of worship after a mad dash from home. When we arrive, we possibly say we met a traffic on the way to church. We turn into the sanctuary and find our seat. "Whew, no one took my seat this morning." We start looking around to see who is present. We proof the bulletin for misprints or errors then we go to restroom. The service has started and we still in the restroom. And before we know it the preacher is preaching, and we are wondering why we didn't sing any songs we preferred this morning. Before we know it, the serve is over, but minds were somewhere else. We were not listening.

Solomon offers further instructions for experiencing God in worship. “…and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice to the fools: for they consider not that they do evil. 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." (Eccl. 5:1b-2). God - who has one agenda to meet with us. When we come to meet with God we would be well advised to let him do the talking. God wants to communicate with us.

3)       HUMBLE YOURSELF BEFORE GOD (ECCLESIASTES 5:2)

Solomon continued, "For God is in heaven and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few" (Eccl. 5:2). In actuality, this is a statement of perspective (viewpoint), not distance. God is in the realm of the infinite. He hears the inaudible and sees the invisible. God penetrates that which is inaudible to human ears and peers into what's invisible to human eyes.

Here's the point: God is God and we aren't. God is in heaven and we are on earth. God is Lord and we are his slaves. As we prepare for worship, remember that we are to approach God in a stature of humility. We bow before him. We fall before him.

Like Isaiah when he experienced the presence of God, he bowed before God and said, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple" (Isa. 6:1). To see God reigning in power, wisdom, and love produces only one response: awe.

One of the great benefits of gaining a proper perspective (viewpoint) of God is that we not only gain a view of the throne of God, we gain a view from the throne of God. Once we have entered God's presence, we look down on our world from his perspective. We find that what we thought was a mountain was a molehill. What seemed great and mighty in the world's eyes turns out to be small and insignificant in God's eyes. On the other hand, when we thought we were weak, we became strong because we were in the presence of God. Or, what we thought was foolish actually became wise from God's vantage point.

Have you looked at every one of your personal struggles and frustrations from God's perspective?  Worship is a time when we come into God's presence, so we can see our difficulties and our rewards from his perspective. That can make all the difference in the world.

When we encounter the very presence of God we begin to see life from his perspective. When we worship we gain a view of the throne of God.

4)        MEAN WHAT YOU SAY TO GOD (ECCLESIASTES 5:4-5)

Solomon wrote, "When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou has vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than thou shouldest vow and not pay." (Eccl. 5:4-5). In other words, keep your word. Words may not mean much to us, but they mean a lot to God. In God's eyes, a promise is a promise. You vowed it, you keep it.

Consider for a moment the promises you made to God when you were in worship? "Oh, God, if you'll get me out of this predicament, I'll serve you." "Lord, if you'll just help me do this one thing, I'm going to start coming to church more often." "Yes, Lord I promise to give you ten percent of all my earnings." "I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful husband, in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live." "Lord, I rededicate my life to you. I promise to spend more time with my family." "I promise to remain morally pure for my marriage partner." "I pledge before this congregation with my baby in my arms to rear that child God's way." "Yes, Lord, I will be a missionary and give my life to you on the mission field." What promises with your time, your commitments, your life, your money have you made to God and not kept?

When we make a commitment to God, we must keep it because God believes it and doesn't forget it. Making commitments to God is like flying on an airplane, once in the air there's no turning back. We are committed. We can't change our mind. We can't say, "I don't really want to go. Can we turn back?"

When you go to worship, it would be better not to vow at all, than to fail to keep your word with God.

5)        TAKE GOD SERIOUSLY (ECCLESIASTES 5:7)

Solomon concluded this section, "For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God" (Eccl. 5:7). To fear God does not mean dread or terror; it means holy awe and respect. In other words, we take God seriously.

Pastor Rick Ezell wrote in his sermon blog, “I once saw a church sign that advertised one of its worship services with a statement that read: "Casual Worship 9:30 AM." I know that they were trying to communicate that their worship service was casual dress and informal. But from Solomon's writings, and, I believe, all of scripture teaches, that nothing is casual about worship. Far too often, we take God too lightly. We approach him in a trite (common) and casual fashion. We think of God as our buddy or our pal. But this is the eternal God of the universe who has a claim on our lives because he has placed eternity within our hearts. We're to approach him with respect and reverence.

Let's stop playing games with God. Make no mistake about it: God loves fun and laughter. He delights in people who have a sense of humor. But, worship is serious business. We approach God with respect and awe. Again, it's like flying on a plane. I remember one trip with a group of students long before the tragedy and subsequent restrictions of 9/11. One teenager in a good natured, playful way, as she was going through security, humorously said, "Do you really think I have a gun in my bag?" In a flash she was whisked away, searched (no gun), then scolded. She walked away from that experience, knowing that she would never walk through an airport security making jokes about guns. Like taking a flight in a plane is a serious trip, entering God's presence is not a joking matter. It is serious business.

(INSERT YOUR OWN TESTIMONY IF POSSIBLE)

CONCLUSION:

Worship is not an endurance contest, but a marvelous adventure into the presence of the God of the universe. It is not business as usual, but a wonder-filled ride into a new dimension of life. It is not a normal trip, but a memorable trip. And on that journey our reaction will not be simply, "nice service" or "nice trip," but rather in the words of a child who has flown in a plane for the first time, "AWESOME."