In this enlightening episode, we’re taken on a journey through Ecclesiastes 5, where we are reminded of the necessity to listen more to God than to speak to Him. David Hocking delves into the profound teachings of the Bible that emphasize the importance of integrity and a genuine response to God. We explore the difference between being busy with religious activities and cultivating a sincere relationship with the Divine. This episode encourages us to reflect on our own spiritual practices, challenging the notion of what true worship entails.
We need to listen more to what God says. To meditate in his word. Draw near to hear, said Solomon. Don’t be so quick to get involved in ministering when the heart is not there. It is more important to be before God what he wants you to be than to do a thousand things. Because you may be doing those things to prove to yourself that you’re really walking with God. I read the Bible, I pray, I give, I witness, I do all of that. Why? To prove that I’m a Christian? Or to prove that maybe God will now be well pleased with me? The worship of the heart, a relationship with God, listening to God, drawing near. So all of integrity flows out of a cautious response toward God.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is Hope for Today. Do you ever feel the pressure to prove your faith by staying busy for God and to make sure your life looks spiritual enough? Ecclesiastes chapter 5 slows us down and shifts the focus from what we do to how we stand before God. Today, David Hawking continues in Ecclesiastes 5 as God’s Word calls us from religious motion back to reverence, listening, and a heart that draws near to God. We’ll begin in just a moment. First… Okay, we’ve got the mailbag out here. And Matt, we have a note from Jenny. She wrote us a note actually back in December wishing us a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you, Jenny, for that.
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And what else does she have to say? Oh, it’s great. She says, Dear Pastor Hocking, thank you for your radio ministry hope for today and sharing your spiritual insights into the Word of God. It’s always a blessing, especially that it’s on the radio. I don’t watch much TV anymore. There’s nothing on it.
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You got a point there.
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May God continue to bless you and your ministry. Love, Jenny. Oh, I love that.
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Jenny, thank you so much for getting in touch. That just touches our heart and encourages Matt, myself, David, the whole Hope for Today team, sharing the gospel, preaching the word of God, because the gospel addresses the deepest, deepest need of the heart of mankind. And the Bible teaches us exactly how God wants us to live. That’s why this ministry is here. And if you have a note you’d like to send us, do get in touch. Stay tuned. We’ll tell you later how to do that. Now turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verses 1 through 7. And here’s David with day 2 of What Happened to Integrity?
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Part of verse 1. The need of worship, to draw near, to come to God, to worship Him. It realizes the nature of worship. It says, draw near to God. to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil. Now, the fool in the text is going to be somebody without integrity, who’s made a lot of promises and commitments to God that he or she has never kept. That’s the fool. Now, the fool is bringing a sacrifice. And let me tell you about this. There’s a play in the situation that’s not at all obvious in English. The word sacrifice in verse 1 is a particular word for sacrifice in the Jewish sacrificial system. This particular word, which is zeba in Hebrew, deals with the only sacrifice that you use as a meal. You know, out of the five sacrifices that Jews brought, one of them was called a burnt offering, and everything was consumed on the altar. It was a sign of my total dedication to God, like my whole life would be given to Him. So the whole sacrifice was burnt, and you didn’t eat any of the animal. But there was a sacrifice where you brought it and you also, after they killed the animal and roasted a little bit, you ate in it. And it became a festival of praise and joy and worship. It was a symbol of fellowship with God. That’s the word used here. What he’s saying is, it’s a sacrifice of fools. who lack integrity in their lives and draw near to God to present their sacrifice and then eat it in return, supposedly in fellowship with God and joy and praise to him. But in their hearts, they don’t mean what they say. In their hearts, they’ve made statements to God that they don’t intend to keep. They’ve made commitments that they’ve never followed through on. That is a fool, according to God. And that’s a part of what he’s going to discuss here in chapter 5. The sacrifice of a fool. It seems to me that that meal, as I look about it and study it in Jewish past history, that meal could easily degenerate into thoughtless festivity. And it happened many times. If the heart is not right with God, then a meal that was supposedly a sign of fellowship with God and His people could degenerate into folly and festivity that would take the heart away from God. There was no worship there. And you see, the person who understands integrity as he comes to God and responds to God realizes the nature of worship. He says you draw near to hear, to listen. Now in that word is also heed to obey. So there’s a matter of obedience also to God, especially in what we promise and commit to him. But the purpose of worship and the nature of worship is primarily to hear from God. And that’s what I think is wrong in our culture. We’re telling God a lot of things, asking him to do a lot of things, begging him to bless us and beg him to answer prayer, which all he has promised to do. But it’s the sense in which we come to God. There’s a lack of worship. There’s a lack of praise to God. There’s a lack of understanding who he is and of submitting to it. There’s no bowing the knee. There’s no submission. There’s no falling on our face. It’s gone. We’re too casual about it. We’re too familiar, and we don’t understand who the holy God is that we’re talking about. When people met him in his glorious presence, manifestations of his presence in the Old Testament, often the person was told, take your shoes off. The place you’re standing is on his holy ground. They were told things that reminded them of who they were and who God was. Today we’re too chummy about it. We’re too friendly. And yet he’s the friend of sinners. Thank God for it. Please don’t misunderstand anything I say today. There needs to be balance, doesn’t there? But I think our generation is so relational, based on our needs and our relationships with each other, we have forgot who God is. Integrity is a cautious response to God. It recognizes the need of worship and it realizes the nature of worship. Proverbs 15.8 says that the sacrifice of the wicked, if something’s wrong in your life, is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight. God is delighted when we talk to Him, but not when we come with a life filled with sin and a life that is not committed to the Lord. God calls that an abomination. But sacrifices of prayer, when we come to God, it’s like a Jew bringing a sacrifice to honor the Lord. And when we pray, we’re doing exactly the same thing. And when the prayer comes from an upright heart, when things are right inside of us, it’s a delight to the heart of God. God is honored with our sacrifice. Hosea 14.2 says, “…we will offer the sacrifices of our lips to God.” Hebrews 13, 15 in the New Testament says the same thing. Let’s bring the sacrifice of our lips to God, giving thanksgiving to him. The nature of worship. Turn please to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. Now all this that we’re talking about is setting the stage for discussing the problem of integrity. Integrity begins with that cautious response toward God that recognizes the need of worship. and also realizes the nature of worship. What is it? It’s listening more to God than it is talking to Him. Have you ever wondered why the Bible speaks so much about meditation? I’m not talking about the meditation of Hindu culture and Eastern religion. I’m talking about the meditation of the Bible that speaks about meditating upon the Word of God. In Psalm 1, 2, it says that our delight should be in the law of the Lord. And in his law, we should meditate day and night. Joshua was told when he’s going into the land of Canaan to conquer the 31 Canaanite kings, he’s told not to be afraid, to be courageous. But it said, this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate in it day and night. And if he did that, if he didn’t turn to the right or the left, or he did exactly what God said, he said, then you’ll have good success. You’ll be able to conquer the whole land. You ever wonder about meditation? Meditation simply means that you are listening to God rather than talking to God. The text in Ecclesiastes said, That when we come to the house of God, we come to hear, to listen. Which obviously then means obeying, heeding, hearkening to what we hear. But do we do that? Have we come today with a heart towards God to worship Him and to hear from Him? Meditating in God’s Word, what God says, and to go out listening to God? That is the worship of which God is speaking, listening to him. In John 4, verse 23, look at what Jesus said to a Samaritan woman about worship. Beginning at verse 21, Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you’ll neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. It won’t be a place. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is. When the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. I looked at that one day. I was thinking about what God seeks from us, what He wants from us. And it really hit me right between the eyes. The Father is literally continually seeking people to worship Him in spirit and truth. The heart of God is there. What God wants of us is there. The Father is seeking those to worship Him. Verse 24, why do we have to worship Him in spirit and truth? Because God is spirit. It does not say God is a spirit. It does not say God has a spirit. It says God is spirit. Man has a spirit given to him by God. God is spirit. Then it says, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. This is from the lips of our Lord two times tells us to worship in spirit and truth. When we come to hear God to meditate, we are listening to God’s word. I must worship him in truth. The truth of God’s word is one way that I am worshiping God by listening more to him than talking to him. I am to talk to Him, but even my talking to Him, my praying, should be according to what I saw in the Word. Example, 1 John 5, 14 says, we know we have the petitions we asked of Him. If we ask according to His will, I need to find out what God’s will is. What does God say about prayer? And then I can come to God and even pray more effectively. When I come to the house of God, Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, watch how you walk. Don’t give the sacrifice of fools. Be careful what you do. What God really wants is for you to come and hear, to listen to what he says, to worship him. That’s what he wants more than anything. Worship him in spirit. That’s not simply external, folks. It isn’t the mechanics. It isn’t the building. It isn’t the order of the service. It’s not candles, robes, lights, anything else. It’s not an organ. It’s not a piano. It’s not any of that. It is worshiping Him in spirit. And that’s dealing with where you are inside. We live and we exist because God breathed into our bodies the spirit of life and we became living souls. Man has a spirit and thus he has an ability to fellowship and worship with a God who made him. But if you’re not really a Christian, I’ll tell you what the problem is. Your spirit, according to the Bible, is dead or inoperative. It doesn’t function. It’s there, but it’s not working. We’re dead, spiritually dead, because of sin. But the moment we come to Christ and we get forgiven, the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit quickens or makes alive our spirit. So the ability to relate to God personally starts the moment you become a Christian. But to the extent that you do not worship and listen more to God and meditate in His Word, that’ll probably be the reason why you as a Christian do not enjoy the fellowship with God, or it seems so distant, so far away. We need to listen more to what God says. To meditate in his word. Draw near to hear, said Solomon. And don’t bring the sacrifice of fool. Don’t be so quick to get involved in ministering when the heart is not there. Don’t be so quick to do something rather than to be something. It is more important to be before God what he wants you to be than to do a thousand things. Because you may be doing those things to prove to yourself that you’re really walking with God. I read the Bible, I pray, I give, I witness, I do all of that. Why? To prove that I’m a Christian? Or to prove that maybe God will now be well pleased with me? No, the worship of the heart, a relationship with God, listening to God, drawing near. So all of integrity, in my opinion, flows out of a cautious response toward God. I need to make sure when no one else knows. in the secret place, in the private closet, in the room where no one else is around, I need to make sure that things are really right in my heart between myself and the Lord. Folks, let’s face it. We aren’t fooling an infinite God who knows all things. Hey, no matter what you have said, no matter what you have done, You’re not talking about true worship until the relationship with a believer is right between himself and the Lord. Cautious response toward God. Real worship occurs in the heart of the individual. Those who worship him must worship him in the realm of spirit and in the realm of his truth. And I ask you as I ask myself, is that going on in our hearts to God? You’re listening now to somebody try to interpret his word and may it motivate our hearts. But the real battle, folks, is out there when we’re alone. The real battle is in that quiet place. We may be driving on the freeway and there’s nobody else in the car. And our relationship between ourselves and God himself, our conversations, our response to him, tell a lot about whether or not we are truly worshiping God in our lives. It’s very important. Let’s come back to Ecclesiastes chapter 5. So we start with the fact that integrity, doing what you said you would do, is a cautious response toward God. It begins in your heart. Secondly, integrity is a controlled reluctance to speak before God. Integrity is a controlled reluctance To speak before God. Almost the opposite of what you would think. So many people are quick to talk about their relationship to God. Quick to talk about who God is. Quick to talk about what God does. But integrity is a controlled reluctance to speak before God. Look at this interesting passage in Ecclesiastes 5 and verse 2. It says, “…do not be rash with your mouth. Let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven and you on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes through much activity, and a fool’s voice is known by as many words.” A controlled reluctance to speak before God. being a little bit hesitant before you make any claims. And I think there are several things involved here. Number one, that means that you refrain from being too quick to speak, obviously. If I’ve got integrity in my life before God, then I’m going to watch being too quick to speak. James 1.19 says, Let every man be swift to hear and slow to speak. Integrity means that you know that you’re accountable to God for what you say, and so you have a controlled reluctance to speak. You hesitate to make sure that what you’re saying is truly correct. James 1.19, slow to speak. In Proverbs 18.13, it says, He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him. And that’s so easy to do. You’re talking with somebody and you know exactly what they’re going to say. And so, of course, to save time, we talk. How easy that is to do. God says it’s a folly and it’s a shame. Integrity starts with a cautious response toward God. You see how these are connected now. No wonder Solomon said, walk prudently, be careful, guard your foot. When you come, make sure you’re ready to hear rather than to speak. And then he tells us, hey, be careful not to speak too quickly. Don’t be rash with your mouth ever. Controlled reluctance. Not speaking too quickly. Proverbs 25.8 says, Do not go hastily to court, for what will you do in the end when your neighbor has put you to shame? That text deals with a wrong between you and your neighbor that you’re not really sure who did what. But you go quickly to court to try to get your pound of flesh. You act too quickly and you don’t examine the facts. And then in the end you get embarrassed because you find out that what you believe was not so. In Proverbs 29.20 it says, Do you see a man hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him. Don’t be too quick. Integrity, you see, refrains from being too quick to speak. But secondly, when we look at verse 2, it says, God is in heaven and you on earth. You see, integrity remembers the position of God and man, and that’s what controls you in speaking. So if the heart is truly worshiping God, then you remember the position of God and the position of man. God is in heaven, a reminder of his greatness, and you are on earth.
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Well, that’s David Hawking, and this is Hope for Today. David’s back to close out our study time shortly, so do stay right there. First, Matt Hawking is here, and we have a powerful study resource for you.
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Matt, let’s talk about that. Ecclesiastes is one of the most profound and needed messages for our culture today, written by the wisest man who ever lived.
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Solomon describes himself as the preacher, and his divinely inspired writing in the biblical text is a reflection on all that life offers. which is vanity without a relationship to God.
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Yeah, Solomon had it all. He had fame, wealth, wisdom, pleasures in abundance. But he grew to be utterly unsatisfied. Yeah, the accumulation of it all did not bring him happiness or peace. No, he learned the hard way what Jesus taught. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon, which is money, from Matthew 6, 24. Again, yeah. Mm-hmm.
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In our Ecclesiastes radio series and in his book, Is Life Worth Living?, David Hawking will show you Solomon’s divinely inspired reflections on these matters. You see, Solomon discovered, and this book and radio series will help you discover all of life as God intends.
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And if your life is rightly related to him, it will be abundantly worth living. And right now, we have an excellent value package for you that combines my dad’s book on Ecclesiastes, His Life Worth Living, plus the complete collections of David’s messages in our current Ecclesiastes radio series. And with this package, listeners will have the book, which is a powerful study guide, and the complete series saved and secured on audio for years to come.
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Order the Is Life Worth Living package. How much is it, Matt?
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$40.
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$40. You can order by phone or online today. Call 800-75-BIBLE in the U.S. or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. You can also order on our website, davidhawking.org. That’s davidhawking.org. And on the website, you’re going to find information about our current resources, broadcast, and Bible study materials designed to help you grow in your walk with the Lord. And if you’d like to write to us, we’d love to hear from you. You can write to share your prayer request, maybe a word of encouragement, or perhaps send a gift of support to help keep this ministry on the air and God’s Word going forth strong. Our address in the U.S., Hope for Today, Box 3927, Tustin, that’s T-U-S-T-I-N, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO7Oaks, Abbotsford, Abbotsford is A-B-B-O-T-S-F-O-R-D, bc v2s 8 p1 we counted a real privilege to pray for you and to lift up your needs before the lord and we’re very grateful for every note every prayer and every gift given in obedience to him thank you for standing with us and helping make it possible for god’s word to continue going forth clearly and without compromise that’s our heart that’s our mission and having you with us in ministry that’s very encouraging Well, once again, here’s David to bring our time in God’s Word to a close.
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My dear friends, we need integrity badly. According to Ecclesiastes 5, 1-7, integrity means that you’re hesitant to speak too quickly. A lot of people tell you everything real fast, everything they think of, and sometimes make a mistake. James 1-19 tells us, to be swift to hear but slow to speak. Proverbs tells us in chapter 18, if you answer a matter before you hear it, it’s folly and shame. So integrity is never too quick to speak. It has to think it through and ask the question, what would be the best for this person as to what God really wants? We need to understand that integrity controls everything in your life. If you promise to pay something and you don’t pay it back, that’s an issue of integrity. If you promise to your children that you’re going to do something, we’re going to have fun this weekend, whatever, and you don’t do it, and there’s no legitimate explanation other than that your job is more important than your family. That is going to hurt you. It’s going to come up to bite you later on. We need to have integrity in our family life, marriage with our children, integrity at church and with our friends and neighbors and also at work. Folks, don’t try to live without it. We need the Lord’s help desperately in this matter.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, thank you, David. And we have one quick request for you as we wrap up today’s program. We’d really love to know where and how you listen to Hope for Today. What station you tune in, how you listen to the program online, what time of the day, or whether you catch it on our website. as it helps us place this program where it will be the most effective. It also helps us to be good stewards of the financial resources God provides through his people. Airtime, space on the internet, it all costs money. And we want to make sure that every dollar is being used wisely, strategically, and for the greatest possible impact for the gospel. Thank you for joining us today. Well, coming up tomorrow, Ecclesiastes turns the light on our words, our promises, and our responsibility before God. What does it mean to be accountable? Not to people, but to the Lord himself. We’ll find out tomorrow as David brings us day three of What Happened to Integrity? We continue in Ecclesiastes 5 here on Hope for Today.
