Christian Living

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Where Are You Going
Consider What’s Important

Ecclesiastes 5:1-2
Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God, and be ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.

Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in Heaven, and thou upon the earth; therefore let thy words be few.

Exodus 3:5
And he said, draw nigh thither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Joshua 5:15
And the captain of the Lords host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoes from off thy foot; for the place where on thou standest is Holy; and Joshua did so.

Psalm 89:7
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

Isaiah 1:12 & 17-20
When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts.

Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow

Come now, let us reason together saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land

But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Three points we want to look exclusively at from these verses of scripture are:

1. Respect
2. Reverence
3. Repentance

Some time we the people of God forget where we are and whose presence we are standing in. We come to church with every other thing on our minds than what we come her for. We should come into his house with praise and thanksgiving, adoration and worship. Everything else should be left at the door. God sits in his Holy Throne for his people to come before him to glorify him with their sanctification, and all he gets is the first fruits of what’s going on in their lives naturally at that point. How disappointed he must feel. Our worship has become a gathering of the groups, as when we meet at mom and dad for dinner. What the latest shopping trip yielded, or what the next trip will bring, who was there at the house when we left, or what are we going to cook or eat when we do get out of here. Church is like a chore or maybe just an obligation to some of us.

Respect means to esteem, regard, or a proper estimation. A relation or reference to a particular thing or situation. An act of giving particular attention, consideration, high or special regard to someone considered worthy.

Sometime people deal with God with no respect. No respect for him, his sanctuary, or his people. In the world in which we live, people want only from God what they can get. God you move for me, but they don’t want to make no sacrifices. Their motives are not right concerning their lifestyle, the giving or the truth that demands change. Our spirit is not right concerning things relating to the church. Our responses is not that of God and when God’s Word come to challenge us, we close our hearts to him. We disrespect each other in God presence and we lie on each other. If someone hurt your feelings, you are put in a situation; do I retaliate or do I remember that I love God and what I respond to them with may cause me to sin. Because we disrespect God, the Devil causes us to destroy our own soul. How do we do this? Disobedience to God Word is sin and when we consider getting someone back, they may have did us wrong, but we sin because we know better. To him that know to do good and do it not it is sin. Our spirit can become guile and it will cause us to let our righteousness cause us to condemn a soul. You do not condemn people but you condemn sin in the flesh. Don’t let your righteousness be as the Pharisees and Saducees who lived without outer sin, but their hearts was sinful, full of dead man bones. They were full of envy, strife, jealousy, wrath, tradition, eyes that could not see Jesus nor; the Holy Ghost.

In Ezra 10:1-5, Ezra did four things before the House of God. He prayed, confessed, wept, and cast himself down.

For Thought:
1. What are you praying about?
(a). Are your prayers a selfish prayer?
(b). Is it a rehearsed prayer or one from the throne?

2. What are you confessing?
(a). Your sin?
(b). Others shortcomings?

3. What moves you in your prayer?
(a). Tears
(b). The spirit

4. Are you submitted in your prayer?
(a). Is self totally out of the way?
(b). Do the spirit have free course in your prayer?

5. What are you willing to change?
(a). Corporate unity – oneness of mind
(b). Admit and commit to change, make a covenant
(c). Be of good courage and do it

Reverence is awe, adoration, to venerate, acts and posture of rising up and suddenly prostrate the body in worship. It’s an attitude, act, or emotion of deep admiration and awe, worshipful recognition. Also it means to worship, to express reverence, homage, and obeisance. We reverence to wrong things. Matthews 6:33 tell us that we should seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things shall be added unto us. We worry about things and having them that someone may see and judge us to be prosperous in the earth. Things is good to have and God has richly blessed us that we have things, and yet we fail to thank him for them. Our priority is so messed up and out of order. We need to consider, (ponder, study, meditate, comtemplate, weigh, and evaluate. Examine the merit of, give attention to, take into account, regard, think about it or think it over, bear it in mind, reckon with, observe or make allowance for) what is important, (of great effect or consequence, momentous, having high rank or great authority, significant, consequential, critical, leading, prominent, notable, eminent, what have weight, significance, and distinction), to us in this life. We need to have a more reverent spirit toward the things of God. People try to put you in a certain category where they want you to be. Someone may be a liar, disrespectful, adulterer, and other things, and they want to tell them about themselves but are afraid too. They will try to say it to you as if you are the culprit to make you look bad so the other person may get the message. You have to stop them because although you are not guilty of any of this, someone may hear them and formulate a wrong opinion of you and will lie on you unbeknown to them that it is a lie. This is not reverence for you or the Spirit of God in you.

Then you have people when they come into God’s church, abuse the privilege of being allowed to come in his presence. They come in without a reverence for God at all. It’s just another thing that they do, go to church. There is no communion between them and God, between what is right and what is wrong. Abuse has no name, color, or age to it.

Ecclesiastes 5:1-2, keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of God, and be ready to hear, than give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. We come in God house, the place where we are standing is Holy Ground and we come in any kind of way, with far too much other garbage on our minds. We act like we are doing God a favor by being there. Many people cross the threshold with unclean spirits. They need deliverance but do not understand that deliverance is there for them. They think that they are all right and have it going on. How can we not be reverential, when we are before a reverent God? We have to be made to worship him. He demand that we worship him in spirit and truth, but we cannot because our spirit is not submitted to God. We are playing church. We are fooling our own selves to think that God is pleased with our foolishness. We get up and walk like we are in our living rooms and can move as we please. The scripture in Ecclesiastes specifically tells us to keep our feet when we enter in God’s house. And when we do all that we do, we don’t consider that we are doing evil. You are worse than the sinner out there. At least he is sinning, but his heart is not evil.

When we have a reverence for God, there is always something stirring in you to get the work of God done.

In Ezra 1:1-5 they were going to build God a house. These are the credentials of someone that wanted to build the house:

1. They had to know what God word said
2. They had to apply it to their heart
3. Let God stir his word up in you
4. You have got to move when spoken to

How do you know what God says in his Word:
(a). You have to study the Word
(b). Hear the Word

Apply the Word to your heart:
(a). Believe what the Word says
(b). Let it saturate in your inner man

God will stir his Word in you
(a) Stirring of the Spirit
(b). Raising of God’s Spirit

You have got to move
(a). God Spirit will cause a reaction
(b). You have to move, do something

Once you feel regret or sorrow for your sin, you will repent. This is repentance, a change of mind, such as to produce regret or even remorse on account of sin, but not necessarily change of heart as Judas. Change one’s purpose and life to which remission of sin is promised, a true sense of one’s own guilt and sinfulness, apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ. An actual hatred for sin and turning from it to God is a must. A persistent endeavor after a Holy life in a walking with God, in the way of his commandment is a sign of true repentance.

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