Sermon

“Serve God Acceptably with Reverence and Godly Fear" (Ecclesiastes 5:1-7)

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  1. Again, good Morning Post sating lahat.

  2. Happy New Year. Welcome to our first Lord's Day

  3. service in 2026 at New Advent season series, a book of

  4. Ecclesiastes atang tidal pona acting, preaching this morning

  5. is served God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.

  6. And this ceremony still written by Reverend Mark Chen.

  7. Beloved, life under the sun is hard.

  8. God does cruise the earth, a tapping apple doing suckers the

  9. Garden of Eden by the sweat of your brow.

  10. You shall eat of all of your labours until you die.

  11. Work will be hard, relationship will be hard, life will be

  12. frustrating, and that is the theme of the Book of

  13. Ecclesiastes. And we have seen the effects of

  14. sin under the sun because there is oppression, there is hard

  15. work, there is loneliness, and there is change or fickleness.

  16. We sin against others and others sin against us.

  17. There is deep disappointment in our lives and we don't need to

  18. be convinced that life is broken because all we need to do is to

  19. look around and we will know that life indeed is broken.

  20. However, Mahapatra, the problem with us is this that when we go

  21. through lives, trials, we behave and react in a sinful way.

  22. When there is oppression, our reaction is we retaliate

  23. sinfully. When there is exhausting work,

  24. we despair and when there are relationship problems, what we

  25. do is we gossip and we slander and we justify our misbehaviors.

  26. We tell ourselves in my I'm so lonely, so I I deserve this

  27. things, or I'm so angry I have to exact my vengeance to my

  28. enemies and I'm so disadvantaged so they owe me and why can't I

  29. misbehave? That's why this is the problem

  30. of Solomon in this part of the book of Ecclesiastes.

  31. He was bothered by how people have failed to honour and

  32. reverence God as they go through lives brokenness.

  33. He was concerned that believers make promises to follow God, but

  34. anyhow they sin when the going gets tough.

  35. He was also concerned that we promised to God to do something

  36. in exchange of help, but the moment we receive that help from

  37. God, we forget our promises. 7 Talk is cheap, and that's the

  38. vanity under the sun that bothered King Solomon.

  39. And isn't it ironic, Mahapatra, that we are so concerned about

  40. how unjust life is to us, how unjust life is under the sun,

  41. but we are not bother how unjust we are towards God?

  42. And that in itself is a greater vanity.

  43. Beloved, we are all weak. God saved us.

  44. He gave us manna on earth. He gave us water from the rock.

  45. He gave us quail from the heavens.

  46. He led us with His word, but we still don't trust Him in Israel.

  47. Even wanted to return to Egypt and not 40 days after they

  48. received the law, they have committed adultery by

  49. worshipping the golden calf. Chapati That when we face

  50. trials, we forget God. We complain of injustice, but we

  51. commit them against God. We don't honour him or serve him

  52. acceptably. And so in this part of

  53. Ecclesiastes, King Solomon reminds us with two rebukes.

  54. The first rebuke is we have this honoured A fearsome God, and the

  55. second rebuke is let us serve God with reverence and fear, but

  56. before that let us go to the Lord in prayer.

  57. Blessed Lord, who has caused the Holy Scripture to be written for

  58. our learning, please grant us. Please grant that we may hear,

  59. read, learn and inwardly digest them, that through the comfort

  60. of Your Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed

  61. hope of everlasting life which You have given us in our Saviour

  62. Jesus Christ. Amen.

  63. So now let's go to the Let's go to the first heading or the

  64. first rebuke. The first rebuke of King Solomon

  65. is that we have dishonoured A fearsome God.

  66. And it all starts in verse one, when King Solomon considered the

  67. worship of God. We'll look at the achievements

  68. of men, the seasons of life, the injustices, and the dark clouds

  69. under heaven. But now we are looking at the

  70. religious life of people, and in Ecclesiastes King Solomon says,

  71. guard your steps. When you go to the House of God,

  72. go near to listen, rather than to offer the sacrifices of fools

  73. who do not know that they root that they do wrong.

  74. So when Solomon saw what's happening in his Kingdom, he was

  75. deeply troubled. There was a vein and a vexing

  76. thing that is happening. The people had dishonoured God

  77. by treating him with contempt. He described the situation where

  78. they were going to the temple to worship, but instead of

  79. listening to God and giving him what he wanted, they offered the

  80. sacrifice of fools. In other words, the religious

  81. life of the people in the time of King Solomon is dishonorable

  82. to God and we can even call it as evil or wicked.

  83. And they didn't even consider that God was displeased and

  84. dishonoured by it. And this is a dangerous thing.

  85. Solomon told them to guard their steps when they went to the

  86. Temple, and we know by reading the Old Testament that the

  87. Temple is the focal point of the worship of the Israelites.

  88. But the question mark Kapatid is bakit K Lang Sabihin, King

  89. Solomon to guard your steps when you go to the temple.

  90. The temple is not dangerous. Isn't it was in the pub and

  91. temple? Is it a place of worship?

  92. It is a place of refuge or a place of peace, and you should

  93. guard your steps. It means that there is danger

  94. lurking in that place. Or was it Mark apartheid that

  95. King Solomon said that we should guard our steps when we go to

  96. the temple because God is a dangerous God?

  97. Well, actually that is the answer to the question.

  98. The reason we should guard our steps when we go to the temple

  99. of God is because we are worshipping A fearsome God and

  100. that is something that we have already forget in our

  101. generation. You see, worship is only safe

  102. when we worship a domesticated God, a God only of love, mercy,

  103. pardon is and forgiveness. A God that is made by our own

  104. imagination. It is a God that does not punish

  105. sin. It is a God who is like a

  106. grandfather managing chilla, nagging mabitleng, lagging Hindi

  107. Nagagalit. But, brothers and sisters, that

  108. is not the God of Ecclesiastes, and surely that is not the God

  109. of the Scriptures, because God is not domesticated.

  110. The God that we serve is a dangerous God.

  111. Palangpol inverse 6. It even says there that God can

  112. get angry with what you say. I'm some people don't Why should

  113. God be angry at what you say? So he said and God is a God that

  114. is capable of being angry. And in verse 7 it says that we

  115. are to fear God, and we see this throughout the Bible.

  116. So let's have a tour. In the Old Testament Nathan's

  117. Exodus, when Moses saw the burning Bush in Mount Sinai, he

  118. was told by God to remove his sandals because he is standing

  119. on holy ground. And then Nancy Moses guard para

  120. Israelites Pinakawalan among Egyptians.

  121. They met God in Mount Sinai as well, but they have to prepare

  122. for three days and they were not supposed to touch the foot of

  123. the mountain. A barrier was even placed

  124. between them and the mountain to protect them.

  125. And when it's already the turn of God to speak, lightning and

  126. fire blackened the mountain, and the people trembled.

  127. And when Moses asked to see God's face, Anupam Sabini got

  128. Sanya. Sanya is that you cannot see the

  129. face of God and live. And then we also have the

  130. prophet Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah had the

  131. vision of Christ in the temple, but when he saw Christ on the

  132. throne, he also saw angels surrounding Christ.

  133. And these angels look different because they have three sets of

  134. wings. With one pair they cover their

  135. eyes, with another pair they fly, and with another pair they

  136. cover their body. And these angels, even though

  137. they are glorious beings, they have to close their eyes, they

  138. have to cover their faces because they could not look at

  139. Christ, because Christ is a fearsome God.

  140. Now we can understand in the Old Testament that God is a fearsome

  141. God. But brothers and sisters, the

  142. God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does not change.

  143. So the God that we have seen in the Old Testament is the same

  144. God that we will see in the New Testament.

  145. That's why when Christ was on the Mount of Transfiguration,

  146. Nahita Pusha Nakayama disciples, when his face and his clothes

  147. gleamed with an unapproachable light, Manila is that they are

  148. covered with fear. They trembled at the sight of

  149. the glorified Christ. And when Christ comes at his

  150. second coming and description puts Kanyasa revelation this,

  151. that he will be riding a White Horse with all of his armies

  152. behind him, and in his mouth will be a sword.

  153. And with that sword he will destroy his enemies and rule

  154. with an iron sceptre. And the revelation says that he

  155. will conquer them in his wrath, because Christ is a fearsome

  156. God. And as Hebrews 12 says, we must

  157. serve him acceptably in reverence and godly fear,

  158. because our God is a consuming fire.

  159. That's why the people in the time of Solomon has to guard

  160. themselves or to guard their steps as they approach the

  161. Kingdom of God or the temple of God.

  162. Because the kind of God that we worship is not a domesticated

  163. God, that it's not the kind of God that we worship in the

  164. pigment of our imagination At backing up Uba, when we say that

  165. our God is a holy God, then he is also a dangerous God.

  166. Mahabadi. The reason why God is dangerous

  167. to us is because the people of God has dishonoured Him by the

  168. way they serve Him, by offering what Solomon called the

  169. sacrifices of fools. Yes, this can be done by the way

  170. we worship. We know the story of Nada in a

  171. bahu Nalaiku Banat Ancilla, who they were the sons of Iran.

  172. They were the first priest in the line of priests in the in

  173. the race of Levi and Makita. Punati accounts a Bible that

  174. they have worshipped God incorrectly in a way that they

  175. were never commanded. Specifically what they did is

  176. they offered an authorised fire in the temple of God, or they

  177. offered what we call a strange fire and this thing displeased

  178. God. And what God did is that he

  179. struck them inside the tent and they died there at backing up

  180. Benyon. It is because the God that they

  181. are worshipping is not a team God.

  182. He is a fearsome God, especially to those people who dishonour

  183. him. And us Reform Christians, when

  184. we think about this honourable worship, we immediately think

  185. about the form of worship or the liturgy.

  186. And at the back of our mind we have this boasting in ourselves

  187. that we say, well, we are not guilty of that because we as

  188. Reformed Christians, we follow the regulative principles of

  189. worship. Diploma in the Evangelical this

  190. Nung Gitara secular music, but we only sing hymns and psalms.

  191. You know, we are very good when it comes to worship.

  192. But, brothers and sisters, the kind of dishonorable service

  193. that Solomon was concerned about in his day was not about the

  194. form. It's not about the outward

  195. expression of worship, but it is something altogether common.

  196. In fact, it is much worse common because what we are talking

  197. about here is the attitude of the heart that even though we

  198. are correct in how we worship God in form, we can still make a

  199. mistake when we take God lightly.

  200. That is our problem that even though we follow the regulated

  201. principle of worship that we do all things in a proper way, If

  202. our heart is not right with God and we don't think, we don't

  203. take seriously the fearsome God in heaven, then we are nothing

  204. different with the people. In the time of King Solomon in

  205. Act 5, we will remember the story of Ananias in Safira

  206. Analysis of the era. They brought money to the

  207. apostles on your mark. Christians been in bed.

  208. Maluba in action proceed sport napping bentahan.

  209. I denied the apostle to be used for helping the poor or

  210. paramount operate on church. Ananias and Sapphira are right

  211. when they offered their money to the church, so their form is

  212. right. However, the problem is that

  213. they took God lightly by lying to his face.

  214. Because I'm Sabanilla and analysing Safira, I've been an

  215. amino Amari Arianne at and he became nominated dial.

  216. We are such generous Christians, but the truth is Hindi kahaniya

  217. ibinigay nila apostles and they lied to God and as a consequence

  218. God struck them dead. In verse 6, we are told that God

  219. can destroy all that we have achieved.

  220. And in the example of Ananias and Sapphira, it's not only that

  221. God took from them all that they have achieved, but God also took

  222. their lives. It's because they took Him

  223. lightly. They did not fear him, They

  224. thought that he was a domesticated God, but they knew

  225. in a hard way that they are wrong.

  226. And in Solomon's day, he saw how the people were taking God

  227. lightly by making promises but not keeping them.

  228. That's why Inverse 2 Asabi pudo on.

  229. Do not be quick with your mouth. Do not be hasty in your heart to

  230. utter anything before God because God is in heaven and you

  231. are on earth, so let your words be few.

  232. Now according to the context, Solomon has spoken about the

  233. frustrations of life. So Nathan Baguntaya nag Advent

  234. season series unless I see Elder Charlie at young preaching poor

  235. no time. Lyon is about the injustices of

  236. life, like oppression, hard work, loneliness and difficult

  237. seasons of life. We know that these things can do

  238. drive us over the edge. It can make us desperate and

  239. when we cannot accept the messiness of life, we make

  240. desperate promise to God so that God would help us.

  241. Well, we are serious when we make these promises, usually God

  242. you, we already forget the promises that we made.

  243. Like, for example, we will make hasty promises such as Lord

  244. Pagaling Mulanya Anako McCormack served Telugu Sayo.

  245. Ohh yeah. Lord Chabal Benjamin and

  246. Dadagdagan kayaking offerings or sometimes Hindi promise gay God,

  247. but we negotiate with him as if we are on the same level with

  248. God. You ever pulsating starting

  249. young adults, we ask God to send us a spouse perhaps in different

  250. we bargain with God and we say God banana wedding cake

  251. unbeliever. Now the classical Okaya, young

  252. Hindu, Christian, and in all this rush and hasty vows, it

  253. shows how weak we are and how faithless we are.

  254. The Hebrew word for the word rash, RASH, Hindi po rash,

  255. narashima Katya. But rash can be translated to

  256. the word anxious. So when we say that we make vows

  257. rashly, we are also saying that we are making vows anxiously.

  258. We are making promises to God out of worry and out of

  259. desperation. So we ask God to help us, to

  260. deliver us, and while asking God's help, we promise God that

  261. we will do these things, and we will do those things.

  262. But the moment we are delivered from our problems, we forget

  263. about our promises to God and not apathy.

  264. We we don't only make rash promises to God, but we also

  265. make hasty promises to God. And the Hebrew word translated

  266. as hasty also means impetuous or impatient union attitude, that

  267. we want things our way right here, right now.

  268. But Solomon reminds us in the book of Ecclesiastes that God is

  269. in heaven and we are here on earth, that we are small and he

  270. is great, that the earth is limited and heaven is infinite

  271. and God has a purpose in everything that we do.

  272. But we people are just like Job. We are anxious and we are

  273. impatient and we want things to happen our own way, right here,

  274. right now. That's why we make those hasty

  275. and rash vows before God. So Solomon rebuked them for

  276. this, honouring God by taking a fearsome God lightly.

  277. But Solomon does not stop there. Now we will go to the second

  278. rebuke. And the second rebuke is about

  279. us serving God with reverence and godly fear.

  280. In verse 4 it says that God has no pleasure with fools.

  281. Any fools do not fear God, as Proverbs says.

  282. Then therefore us Christians must Revere God and serve him,

  283. not like the fools. But the question is how?

  284. How are we going to do that? How are we going to prevent

  285. ourselves from this honouring God?

  286. And the answer to that, magkapatid, is that we should

  287. not break our vows. That is how we Revere and how we

  288. serve God. When we make promises to God,

  289. let's keep those promises. Let us not break our vows to

  290. God. Well, yes, there are some bows

  291. which are so rash and so foolish that if we kept them, the

  292. consequences are horrifying. Take, for example, the story of

  293. Jetta. So see Jepta.

  294. He was helped by God to win a battle.

  295. And because Jetta is overjoyed by the deliverance of God, if

  296. unhappiness ajos Sabina God you own them Lalabas sapping to

  297. Anakin Bahai, you offer Kayo as a sacrifice.

  298. And we know how tragic this story is because when Jetta went

  299. home, the first being that came out of the door of his house is

  300. his own daughter, Akkineni Langan, Young Ally and Kanyang

  301. Sariling Anna. Okay, God, well, God, God's

  302. people can sometimes make very rash vows and even sinful vows.

  303. And I will tell you, brothers and sisters, that we are not

  304. bound by those vows right now. Ali Kayaking, Anak, Alan Among

  305. obliged. Why not inside kindness and

  306. being penaten that you took eval?

  307. So there are rush and sinful vows, but if the vow or the

  308. promise that we made is not a sin, then that vow is legitimate

  309. at the party rabbinate. In that the vow is legitimate,

  310. then we are bound to keep them even though they are made out of

  311. desperation. So there are times that people

  312. come to regret certain promises that they make to God.

  313. And so how do we react? Sometimes we react as Lord.

  314. Sorry, indignant talaga gusto. I promise you I don't really

  315. mean it or I know I made a vow to serve God, but the

  316. circumstances are different now at Indiana Shayang is served.

  317. But verse 6 says suffer not thy mouth to cause the flesh to sin.

  318. Neither say thou before the Angel that it was an error.

  319. Solomon rebuked us by saying do not break your vows.

  320. Do not sin by excusing yourself, telling the Angel that the

  321. promises that you made was a mistake.

  322. The word Angel here This is a King James Version SB.

  323. The word Angel refers to the temple messenger, that is the

  324. one who communicate with God. In other words, it pertains to

  325. the priest because the Old Testament Israel, if someone

  326. wants to make a vow, they go to the temple and they tell their

  327. vow to the priest. Like for example priest Priest.

  328. I would like to make a vow to God.

  329. Nah cum papagali in London, 30% now honey nothing harvest this

  330. year instead of the usual 10% at the young priest.

  331. But there are instances where after the deliverance or after

  332. the healing was made by God, the person will tell the prisoner no

  333. sorry higher than 30% but happening 10% per annum.

  334. It became way God in the Cosina China estimate.

  335. And this mistake is not only made by Old Testament people,

  336. this also committed by us Christians today.

  337. For many of us, we think that Christianity is not what we have

  338. signed for. When you took your vow, when we

  339. made our profession of faith, some of us after taking that vow

  340. will say, sorry, I did not know that being Christian would be

  341. this hard, or I did not know that as a member of the church I

  342. have responsibility. Hello considerate pointing at an

  343. attendance or painting. Or that I'd be called to do my

  344. part. I did not know that when I

  345. became a Christian. I have to foresake all of my sin

  346. and therefore we say I think I made a mistake.

  347. But Solomon said do not pursue sake your promise.

  348. And why? Because in verse 6, if you say

  349. you won't keep your vow, then God will be angry.

  350. Because even though you do not take your words seriously, God

  351. takes our promises seriously because He is in heaven.

  352. He is the fearsome God. He is the all consuming fire.

  353. And when we break our promises, it shows that we do not fear

  354. Him, that we are dishonoring Him.

  355. It only shows that we have domesticated God in our minds,

  356. that we have forgotten the accounts like Ananias and

  357. Sapphira made-up and by who we think that these things do not

  358. happen anymore. But verse 6 also says that in

  359. his anger, out of our excuse and justifications, God may remove

  360. the works of our hands. Dearly beloved, while the

  361. accounts of Nedap and Abyu and an IAS and Safira seems

  362. incredulous to us today and we think that they will not happen,

  363. many of us have experienced another kind of chastisement and

  364. that is what we call the leanness of the soul.

  365. Hindi. Finding a boy or Hindi, but

  366. because we have forgotten our promises to God after we made

  367. our vow in this church. Add me.

  368. Allow us to have the things that we want, but after that, what

  369. will come to us is the leanness of the soul.

  370. It's that sense of dissatisfaction.

  371. It's that sense of spiritual dryness.

  372. Take for example the story of Elimelech and Naomi from the

  373. Book of Ruth. See Elimelech, Shyong, Asawa,

  374. Niru, Sinayo, Minneman, Shapu, young mother-in-law, Nakuru,

  375. Opponent. Famines are Bethlehem,

  376. consensual and Natera because they are being chastised by God,

  377. and Elimelech and Naomi, they don't want to bear the

  378. chastisement of God. So what they did is they lived

  379. in the land of Moab. The land of Moab is a Pagan

  380. land. It is a curse land and that is

  381. wrong that when you are being disciplined by God indicate

  382. dappa Thomas paranoid Hindi that's more.

  383. But after that, what happened next?

  384. Elimelech died and all of his sons died, and Naomi together

  385. with Ruth. They became destitute in the

  386. experience. The leanness of the soul.

  387. So we see God may give us what we want, but after that we'll

  388. come the dryness, the discontentment, the the

  389. dissatisfaction, the leanness of the soul.

  390. So let us not pretend that we know that God requires us to

  391. keep our promises. However magkapatid the good news

  392. is, even though God is a dangerous God.

  393. Now height Nayang going more with Mongolian and then

  394. afterwards he will give you the leanness of the soul.

  395. We know that if you are a true son of the OR daughter of God,

  396. he will give you the leanness for your own good because he

  397. sends it to us that we should return to him.

  398. Kayang apple Ki Naomi Naomi in in her destitution and guanya

  399. bumalik pusha Judah. And then another example is the

  400. story of the prodigal son. So in prodigal son dundin so

  401. wildin Kenya lahat nang mananya umalis nagpasa he, he had

  402. whatever he wants with his own hands.

  403. And then after that God gave him the leanness of the soul only to

  404. make him come back to his own father.

  405. So we see that God is still gracious even in these times of

  406. chastisement. But what is clear is that in

  407. each of these cases, these people experience the leanness

  408. of the soul because God is not attained God.

  409. So therefore let us keep our vows, because in verse 4, when

  410. you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it because He

  411. has no pleasure in fools. So fulfill your vow.

  412. So my rapid asked ourselves, what are the promises that we

  413. made to God so far? Because if we made a promise to

  414. God, we must keep them. Now we have another example, but

  415. this time this is a positive example.

  416. This is the example of Hannah so see Hannah Maharanis dinchang

  417. desperation dahil Hindi kana. So Hannah made a desperate but a

  418. calculated and serious foul at And God is that Combigan Shannon

  419. Josanna Ibibigay is to serve in the temple of his God all the

  420. days of his life. And when Hannah made his

  421. promise, he knew and he understand the holiness of God.

  422. And when she had bare a child, Pagkatapus Batana Lyon, she gave

  423. that child to the service of God, and that is the prophet

  424. Samuel. We can see here that her vow was

  425. accompanied by faith and reverence.

  426. And we should follow the example of Hannah so dearly beloved, the

  427. promises that you have made to God, the fair not to pay them.

  428. Let us not delay to fulfill them a stretch.

  429. Members. What did you promise at your

  430. baptism? And I been optimised as an

  431. adult. Surely there is a vow there.

  432. Or if you had your profession of faith in this church, well,

  433. nothing go anima promises Naginawa Nathan in the presence

  434. of God. Or if you are someone here, a

  435. guest who is contemplating to become a member of this church,

  436. undergoing inquiries class and soon enough you will have your

  437. professional fee. What is the promise that you

  438. will make in the presence of God marrying Kalimutan and Nathan

  439. Sabina? I do, but it's in the form of

  440. question and answer time, Abuba And the question goes something

  441. like this. Have you taken a firm resolution

  442. always to lead a Christian life, to for sake the world and its

  443. evil lost as is becoming a member of Christ and His Church,

  444. and to submit yourself to all Christian admonitions?

  445. That is the question that we answered during our professional

  446. free As you know, I'm so good. Nothing had I yes.

  447. And if our answer is yes, then we should keep our vowel.

  448. So when temptations come, let us not give in to that temptation

  449. so easily. When discouragement come, let us

  450. not let those discouragement overwhelm us.

  451. What problem? Igo goes.

  452. The national church ego goes. 19 Elders ego goes CRC and if you

  453. are at odds with one another Gunna Brahmi scared that we will

  454. love each other here. Parramatta away which?

  455. What should we do? We must forebear with each

  456. other. We must forgive.

  457. We must seek forgiveness container Camille, and we must

  458. do good to our fellow Christians.

  459. So let's ask ourselves, how are we serving one another in this

  460. church? Or how are we involved in the

  461. extension of the Kingdom of God? So let us not make our vows

  462. become in vain. Solomon concludes this section

  463. in verse 7, which says much dreaming and many words are

  464. meaningless, therefore fear God evident Mark Chin Neto Father,

  465. much stock is cheap. It is just like daydreaming.

  466. So fear God instead. So what are some applications

  467. for us in this preaching Canina an application, But let me

  468. consolidate them to you. Firstly, we need a mindset

  469. reset. In our reformed tradition, we

  470. have reverence for God, especially in our form of

  471. worship. Napa Chandana adding form of

  472. worship, not adding liturgy. We desire to exalt Him and not

  473. ourselves. We worship him rightly with our

  474. sons and our biblical hymns. Hymns.

  475. When we see an error in the way we do worship, we act

  476. fastidiously to get things right and we want to correct our

  477. doctrines. But if we do not have the right

  478. attitude in our hearts, then we are missing the point.

  479. The question that we should ask ourselves is that do we fear

  480. God? Do we fear God now?

  481. I said that we should reset our mind instead and not change our

  482. mind because we already have the mindset.

  483. Apple, we are following the right forms of worship.

  484. Okay? Nothing away is that our form of

  485. worship must be aligned with our hearts so that it's not only the

  486. form but also the the substance. So This is why while our worship

  487. may reflect the form of evidence, we may not have the

  488. expressed desire to leave carefully for him to live in

  489. awe, that is, He is a consuming fire that He is not

  490. domesticated. So may our form of worship in

  491. our hearts be right. Secondly, Magkapatid, we must

  492. humble ourselves because we are selfish.

  493. We are more concerned with the injustices that is done by this

  494. life to us, our oppression, our seasons of life, our

  495. disappointments in work and in our relationships.

  496. But how about the injustices that we have committed against

  497. God in the past, preaching that we had in the book of

  498. Ecclesiastes? What resonated in us is that

  499. life is unjust, but this preaching must resonate with us

  500. as well. And what he says is that we have

  501. become unjust to God as well because we have domesticated

  502. him. And so do we acknowledge that we

  503. do not fear God in the way that we should fear him.

  504. Because communal Ginagawa Nathan all along.

  505. That is a very big vanity that we are more concerned about

  506. ourselves than our God. And perhaps we feel the

  507. displeasure of God today, and perhaps we are experiencing the

  508. leanness of the soul. And if that is the case in us,

  509. then Matt, then what must we do? Thirdly, we need a greater

  510. resolve. Verse one said that people did

  511. not even consider it evil that they have dishonoured God.

  512. So now apartheid. If you know in yourself that you

  513. have this honoured God, then get right with Him.

  514. If you have vowed to live righteously, then pursue

  515. righteousness. Some of us may be in the deep

  516. sin right now, but let's remember that we can never get

  517. too far in sin. Kait Nagano Bakalim, you seen

  518. attacking Assad Lakhan, we can still turn to God and repent and

  519. he will still forgive us. Or perhaps we are at odds with

  520. each other, Meron dito Papansinan or makaway.

  521. Then what we should do? We should reconcile with each

  522. other. We must forgive a container

  523. company. We should ask for forgiveness

  524. because after all, we are all part of the body of Christ and

  525. perhaps we are experiencing the leanness of the soul because we

  526. have been this honouring God all along.

  527. But God is gracious even now to call us to repentance.

  528. So the question is, why should we not repent?

  529. If God is calling us to repent, then we should repent.

  530. And 4th. And lastly, let us never forget

  531. what Christ has done. Dearly beloved, God is not a

  532. domesticated God. I think I've already stressed

  533. that sufficiently in this preaching.

  534. He is a fearsome God, and that's why we serve Him acceptably with

  535. reverence and a godly fear, because He is a consuming fire.

  536. But even though God is consuming fire, that fire does not come

  537. upon us to destroy us today. And that is because Christ has

  538. already faced that fire for us. He has gone before us with His

  539. blood into the temple of God, holy and just to represent us.

  540. He has fulfilled all of His vows before God and that's why we do

  541. not come to the mountain of God that is darkened with fire and

  542. loud thunderings, but Christ has harsh those thunderings for us.

  543. Instead, we have come to Mount Zion, We have come to the city

  544. of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem where Christ

  545. and all of his angels are, where the souls of men have been made

  546. perfect. So brothers and sisters, we are

  547. privileged. We are privileged to be loved by

  548. God. And while He does not destroy us

  549. with His fire, He may be purging you right now to purify you.

  550. And why indiscipline at Manchester Wiseman?

  551. It is so that we can live as one of those whose souls have been

  552. cleansed. So if you are weary and tired

  553. because life is messy on earth and you have been cumbered with

  554. much sin, and you think to yourself, how can I?

  555. How can God upset me? If you think that I've broken so

  556. many laws, I've broken so many promises of God that I've made

  557. to Him. If you think that you are so

  558. dirty and so weak and unfaithful to God, if you think that you

  559. have focused so much on the injustices done to you rather

  560. than how you have committed injustice to God, then remember

  561. this. In Hebrews 12/3 it is said,

  562. Consider Him that endured such opposition from sinners against

  563. himself, so that you won't be wearied and faint in your

  564. hearts, because Christ was faithful for us, so that we may

  565. not be wary, that we may not be rash, hasty, or fame.

  566. So let us all be faithful. Let's all go to the Lord in

  567. prayer, our merciful God, who is pleased to condescend to speak

  568. to us through Your Word. Grant us all Your grace, that we

  569. may not be mere hearers of Your Word only, but doors as well.

  570. Peace. Give us the grace of your Holy

  571. Spirit that we may believe what we have been proclaimed, what

  572. has been proclaimed to us. May we bring glory and honour to

  573. Your name in all that we do as you conform us to the image of

  574. Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. All of this gracious Father, we

  575. ask in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.