This IS God's House and

This IS God's House and We ARE God's People

Ecclesiastes 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.

²Be 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.

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

⁴When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.

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

⁶Suffer 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?

⁷For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
Intro. When was the last time you were overwhelmed by visiting God's House? His House for us is often so routine, we forget the sacredness and special blessings we are afforded in being allowed to attend.
Watch Your step in God's House - vs. 1

Walk careful - consider where we tread
Walk true and right - God expects this
Walk forward - God wants our proper direction

Draw close TO HEAR (from God) instead of sacrifices - vs. 1

God's clues and jewels for you
God's direction for you
God's protective phrases

Hold your tongue - vs. 2-6

Our heart directs our mouth - 2a
We do not understand nor know all we think we do - 2b
God does not need our brags - 2
God does not need our uninformed observations - 2
God does not need vows that are hastily made -3

Not well thought out
Are usually hard to keep
Better not made than to not keep

Respect and fear God - vs. 7

In attitude - we need to have an awe of God
In action - our actions should show our respect for Him

In utterance - our mouth is a dead give away about our respect for God and His work

God is not impressed with many words and big dreams
He is impressed instead with our quiet service and our selfless endeavors to reach others for Him.

Gary Marcum - East 38th Street Free Will Baptist - 010701pm}