WELCOME
Good morning First Baptist. We welcome you to worship this morning. Be sure to remember your brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the week as you pray for them, and as the Holy Spirit brings their faces to your mind. Be sure to also connect with them in the ways that are possible. And if you have any questions or would like to talk to someone, please don’t hesitate to contact the church through the church telephone and leave a message. (519-733-4144)
Songs
Call to Worship
Good morning, church. We’re really glad you’re here today. Whether you’re here every week or joining us for the first time, you’ve stepped into a moment set apart to worship God, not just with our voices, but with our attention. This morning, we’re going to be invited into something a little different. Not louder. Not busier. But quieter. More attentive. Because sometimes the most meaningful thing we bring into worship is not what we say, but how present we are.
Hear these words from Psalm 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.” Not strive. Not perform. Not impress. Be still. So, as we continue in worship, let’s allow these words to shape our posture before God. Let’s worship Him with attentive hearts.
Songs
Prayer
CONFESSION:
Gracious God, we confess that we often fill our lives with noise. We speak quickly. We pray quickly. We move quickly. And in doing so, we miss You. Forgive us for the ways our worship has become routine, our prayers have become speeches, and our hearts have become distracted.
Forgive us for believing that saying more is the same as listening well. Teach us to be still before You. Teach us to be honest in Your presence. Teach us to listen. We bring these things before You now in quiet confession.
In Jesus Name, Amen.
WORDS OF ASSURANCE:
Scripture reminds us: “The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) That means, you don’t have to perform here. You are already received.
Don’t Settle: Finding a Meaningful Life
When Religion Becomes Noise
Today's Message: Pastor Marlee Page
An Illustration about Not Listening
Good morning, church.
Have you ever had a conversation where, partway through, you suddenly realize something? The other person isn’t actually listening. They’re nodding. They’re saying “uh-huh.” They’re even making eye contact. But you can tell. They’re just waiting for their turn to speak. You can feel the difference, can’t you? The words are happening. But connection isn’t.
And if you’re honest, you’ve probably been on the other side of that too. Someone is talking… and your mind is already forming your response. You’re thinking about what you’re going to say next. You’re preparing your words instead of receiving theirs. The conversation becomes noise. Not because anyone is yelling, but because no one is truly listening.
And Ecclesiastes 5 begins with the uncomfortable realization that sometimes our relationship with God can start to feel like that. We say the words. We sing the songs. We pray the prayers. But somewhere along the way, our faith can turn into noise. And Solomon speaks directly into that as he says: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen…”
Not to speak first. But to listen.
Let’s open Ecclesiastes 5 together.
Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 5
Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.
2 Do not be rash with your mouth,
And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.
For God is in heaven, and you on earth;
Therefore let your words be few.
3 For a dream comes through much activity,
And a fool’s voice is known by his many words.4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it;
For He has no pleasure in fools.
Pay what you have vowed—
5 Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.6 Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands? 7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity. But fear God.
The Vanity of Gain and Honor
8 If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them.
9 Moreover the profit of the land is for all; even the king is served from the field.
10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.11 When goods increase,
They increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
Except to see them with their eyes?12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet,
Whether he eats little or much;
But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.13 There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun:
Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.
14 But those riches perish through misfortune;
When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return,
To go as he came;
And he shall take nothing from his labor
Which he may carry away in his hand.16 And this also is a severe evil—
Just exactly as he came, so shall he go.
And what profit has he who has labored for the wind?
17 All his days he also eats in darkness,
And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger.18 Here is what I have seen: It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage. 19 As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, and given him power to eat of it, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. 20 For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart.
Ecclesiastes 5 opens with a phrase that can sound simple to us, but would have felt weighty to Solomon’s original audience: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools…” That word “guard” is the Hebrew word שָׁמַר — shāmar.
Shāmar does not mean “be careful” in a casual sense. It means: to watch over, to keep, to protect, to attend to with great care. It’s the word used for a shepherd watching over sheep or for someone protecting something precious from harm. To shāmar your steps means you don’t move casually. You don’t wander in distracted. You don’t arrive thoughtlessly. You arrive alert.
And in Solomon’s time, this would have been especially vivid. Because going to the “house of God” meant going to the temple, a place people traveled to intentionally, sometimes from far away, to encounter the presence of God. And so, you didn’t stumble into the temple like we might stroll into a building today. You prepared yourself. You paid attention. So, when Solomon says, “Guard your steps,” he’s saying: Pay attention to how you enter God’s presence. Be aware of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
And then he says something surprising. The most important thing you can bring into that space is not your words, but your willingness to listen.
The Temptation to Perform for God
Solomon’s warning us about something very subtle. He says: “Do not be quick with your mouth… do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.” And here’s what he’s getting at: Many times our prayers reveal that we believe God needs to hear from us more than we need to hear from Him.
Clearly, this is unwise and makes little sense because prayer is not meant to be a performance. Worship is not meant to be a speech. Solomon is teaching us the importance of proper worship, and proper worship, he says, involves a willingness to be silent before a holy God.
That runs against how we often approach prayer, doesn’t it? We feel the need to explain ourselves, to sound spiritual. To fill the awkward space of silence with words.
You know, centuries later, Jesus would address this same issue. In Gospel of Matthew 6:7, He says: “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.” Jesus is saying the same thing Solomon said.
God is not impressed by volume, He is not persuaded by length, He is not moved by how articulate we sound. Prayer is not about convincing God to listen – It’s about positioning ourselves to listen.
Sometimes, the more we talk, the less we actually hear. You know that’s true. This is where worship quietly becomes noise. Not loud noise, but crowded noise. So crowded with our own words, our own thoughts, our own explanations that we leave no room for God’s voice.
Solomon’s wisdom here is simple and uncomfortable: Before you speak to God, learn to sit before Him. Before you fill the silence, let the silence do its work because proper worship begins not with what we say but with how we attend it.
When Desire Drowns Out Listening- Ecclesiastes 5:10–17
As Solomon moves through this chapter, he shifts from talking about the temple to everyday life and what he describes in most of this chapter might not sound, at first, like it has anything to do with worship. He talks about money. “Whoever loves money never has enough.” He talks about possessions. “As goods increase, so do those who consume them. “ He talks about people who never feel like they have enough. “wealth hoarded to the harm of its owners,” But this is not a new topic. We’ve actually been here with Solomon in the preceding chapters. This is the same issue, just showing up in a different place.
Because what Solomon is revealing is this: A life that is driven by constant desire is a life that has no space left to listen.
“Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.” The problem here is not wealth itself, it’s the posture of the heart. When the posture of our hearts is one that is always wanting, always chasing, well, then it’s very difficult to be still. It ends up being a posture that is never quiet long enough to hear from God.
Solomon is painting a picture of someone who gains more and more, yet lives with:
- Anxiety
- Restlessness
- sleepless nights
- and an inability to enjoy what they have
Why? Because their life is shaped by self-focused desire, not God-centered attentiveness. They are so busy acquiring, protecting, and managing what they have, that they never slow down enough to receive what God is saying.
This is the connection Solomon wants us to see: The same heart that talks too much before God in the temple is the same heart that chases too much under the sun in daily life. Both are symptoms of the same issue. A life that is focused on “My needs, my plans, my desires, my pursuit…” Instead of: “God, what are You saying? What are You inviting me into?”
Notice what Solomon calls this, a “grievous evil.” Not because money is evil, but because a life consumed by desire leaves no room for listening. It crowds out the stillness where God’s voice is heard. Don’t be distracted here, the issue in these verses is not economics. It’s attentiveness. A heart that is always wanting more is a heart that cannot be quiet before God.
The Proper Perspective: Joy Comes from God, Not Circumstances – Ecclesiastes 5:18–20
After warning us about noisy religion after showing us how restless desire crowds out listening. Solomon ends this chapter with something beautiful and hopeful. He says, in effect: The person who truly listens to God learns how to enjoy life.
Listen to what he writes:
“This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink, and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor… for this is their lot.”
Solomon is not suddenly changing topics. He is showing us the result of proper worship. A person whose life is attentive to God does not escape hard work. They still labor “by the sweat of their brow.” but something is different. Their relationship with God transforms how they experience everything. They are able to receive life as gift. They are able to experience joy even in ordinary daily mundane work. This is a theme Solomon has touched on before, back in chapter 3, but here he deepens it.
Joy is not found by changing your circumstances. Joy is found by changing your posture toward God.
Verse 19 — Joy Is a Gift God Gives
Solomon says something very important: “When God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, this is a gift of God.”
Notice that the gift is not the possessions. The gift is the ability to enjoy them. Because many people have many things but cannot enjoy them. Why? Because their hearts are still restless. Still chasing. Still distracted. But the person who listens to God learns how to receive. They learn contentment. They learn gratitude. They learn how to enjoy what is in front of them.
A Tale of Two Perspectives
One writer described the end of William Randolph Hearst’s (He amassed a great fortune in the 20th century – would be worth Billions today) life like this: “Surrounded by enormous wealth and luxury, he spent his final days in a basement, replaying old films of his former Hollywood companion, trying to relive joy from the past.” He had everything. But he could not enjoy the present. Contrast that with something that Dallas Willard wrote: “Aging will become not a process of losing, but of gaining. As our physical body fades, our spiritual substance grows richer and deeper.” That is exactly what Solomon is describing. A life attentive to God grows deeper, fuller, richer over time.
This is why silence matters. This is why God-focused listening matters. Because when we learn to attend to God, He reshapes how we experience everything else. Work, possessions and even aging become enjoyable. Life becomes a gift instead of a race. This is the proper perspective.
And think about how this connects to the journey we’ve been on these past weeks:
- Week 1 — noticing restlessness
- Week 2 — releasing false sources of meaning
- Week 3 — trusting God in the seasons
- Week 4 — walking with others
- Week 5 — learning to be still before God.
And this is where Ecclesiastes gently brings us.
If joy is shaped not by what we have, not by what we say, but by how we attend to God then the invitation becomes very simple. Very quiet. Very personal. Ecclesiastes 5 invites us into a different rhythm with God. Slow down. Before you pray, pause. Before you speak, listen. Before you sing, become aware of who is actually present with you. Let your prayers be honest. Let your silence become sacred & holy. Because God does not need more words from you. He desires your attention.
This week, I encourage you to try something different. Instead of beginning your prayers by talking begin by listening. Sit quietly before God. And simply say: “Lord, I’m here.”
Dave has a prayer that he prays every morning and it ends with these words:
Do with me whatever you desire, Jesus. I ask for no reward but your glory and your love. Receive this offering of myself, and give me the grace, to say always and everywhere: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”
No performance. No pressure. Just presence. That’s all God wants, your presence. And your trust that His presence with you is enough. Don’t settle for noisy religion. Step into attentive worship, the kind of worship that will fill your life with joy.
Amen.
Prayer
Let’s pray together. God, we thank You that You meet us not in noise, but in stillness. You see how easily we rush through life, how easily we speak without listening, how easily we let distraction replace attention. Help us this week to slow down. To become aware of Your presence. To listen before we speak.
For those who feel overwhelmed, give them quiet. For those who feel restless, give them peace. For those who feel distant from You, draw them close. Shape our hearts to be attentive worshippers, people who find joy not in performance, but in Your presence.
We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Benediction
Go now in peace, guarding your steps and opening your ears. May God teach you to listen more than you speak, to walk humbly, and to live faithfully. May your words be few, your promises true, and your hearts filled with reverence and joy.
Go in God’s grace. Amen.