Gary Hamrick - Right Worship (01/22/2026)
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In Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Solomon warns that approaching the house of God carelessly or with empty words and unkept vows is meaningless vanity, like the sacrifice of fools. He urges worshipers to guard their steps, draw near to listen and obey rather than speak rashly, fulfill any promises made to God, and ultimately stand in awe of Him. True worship involves a reverential heart attitude—coming contemplatively, listening more than talking, keeping vows seriously, and giving rather than consuming—so that we honor the sovereign God in His presence.
Introduction to Ecclesiastes 5
We’re here in chapter 5 of Ecclesiastes, and Solomon writes about something else that he observes as meaningless. That is the main part that he uses throughout this book—38 times the Hebrew word is «hevel, ” meaning vapor, mist, or smoke. He talks about how life is difficult to grasp; sometimes it is „hevel"—it’s like mist, it’s like smoke. One of the things that he observes here in chapter 5 that he has a hard time grasping is the way that some people will come to the house of God and not worship God in the right way. Now, he’s actually going to depart from some of the more somber observations of the book of Ecclesiastes, and he’s actually going to write here with some pretty good insight. He’s going to talk about how meaningless it is that some people come to the house of God and don’t worship in the right way.
You see, in the Bible, the Bible communicates the importance, first of all, of worshiping the right God. And in Scripture we read about how, in those days—and not unlike our own days—there were and are false gods. So the first thing is, you have to worship the right God. But the second thing that’s important, that the Bible teaches—and this is kind of the direction that Solomon is going to go here in chapter 5—is you have to worship the right God the right way. And so he’s going to talk about those who come to the house of God and they don’t worship God in the right way, and that’s what he describes as being meaningless.
Now, when we talk about worship, don’t default to the first thing that we typically think of whenever we talk about worship in a church. We think about singing—that’s usually the default; that’s where we go when we talk about worship. Singing is a small part of the overall concept of worship. It might be a large part of what we do when we gather on Sundays and Wednesdays here at Cornerstone, but worship in general is much more than just singing. And so, for those of you taking notes, just so you know where we’re going with this study: worship in general is living a life of respect and devotion toward God. It is living a Godward life. And the very word «worship» is derived from an old English word that really literally means «worthship"—worthship. And so, in that sense, it is ascribing supreme worth and value to God in word and deed. So that’s what worship is all about, and Solomon is going to tell us in chapter 5 there’s a right way and a wrong way to do that.
Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
So look with me in chapter 5. I’m going to read the first seven verses, and then we’ll pray and unpack this chapter a little bit. Verse 1 says, «Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words. When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools. Fulfill your vows. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin, and do not protest to the temple messenger, 'My vow was a mistake.' Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.»
Opening Prayer
Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we do want to stand in awe of you. And as we open up our Bibles now and as we consider what Solomon wrote here, we pray that we would take these things personally for application, even for ourselves, even for our own worship experience—that we would be mindful of some of these things that he tells us here and that we would be challenged on a personal level. Lord, thank you for the opportunity we have to gather here freely to worship you, to fellowship, and to pray and to study your word. We don’t take that freedom for granted, and we love you, Lord, and we give you all praise, glory, and honor as we gather here together in your name, that you would be magnified and lifted up. And it’s in Jesus' name that we pray these things, and everyone said amen.
Context: The House of God
Well, in order for us to understand some context and some history to what Solomon is writing here in chapter 5, what does it mean in verse 1 when he speaks about going to the house of God? What exactly is the house of God? So let me give some context and some history to that phrase. The phrase «house of God» appears exactly 50 times throughout the Bible—46 times in the Old Testament, four times in the New Testament, and about another dozen times in reference to the house of God in some other form, where the Scripture verses talk about «this house» or sometimes God speaking through one of the prophets talks about «my house.» In general, when we’re talking about the house of God or God saying «my house, ” we’re talking about, in the context of the passage, the gathering place where the Jews would meet—primarily the temple—where they would gather together to worship God.
Now, prior to Solomon’s day, there was no temple. Before Solomon, there was a mobile sanctuary called a tabernacle. It was actually a tent on wheels that the Jewish people would relocate as they wandered, particularly through the wilderness wanderings from Egypt to the promised land. And then, after they even got to the promised land, they would set it up in order to have a temporary place of worship until the permanent place could be built. The permanent place would be built by Solomon. Solomon’s father, King David, would actually be inspired by the Lord to get the plans—the architectural drawings—for the temple of God, for the house of God. But David would not be the one to build it because his hands had shed blood in war, and so the privilege and responsibility fell to his son, King Solomon—the writer of Ecclesiastes—as the one who would lead the building project of the house of God.
The Bible tells us in the Old Testament that it took more than 183,000 men seven years to build the house of God. They would quarry the white Jerusalem limestone off-site. There was not to be the sound of a chisel or a hammer in the vicinity of the Temple Mount area because all of this was to be holy unto the Lord, so even the sound of work and labor was to be done off-site. But there, in close proximity to Jerusalem, was a huge quarry. They would quarry the limestone, they would hew it to be in the shape that they needed, and they would then haul it to Jerusalem. It’s unknown even to this day how some of these huge boulders of Jerusalem limestone were transported, but nevertheless they got it there. And that’s what the house of God was built with—white Jerusalem limestone. In addition, certain woods—the Bible says cedar wood, olive wood, and pine wood—and over the wood was overlaid gold, solid gold. It was a very magnificent structure, and it stood there in Jerusalem for about 400 years, but it was destroyed when the Babylonians came and besieged Jerusalem in 586 BC. It would later be rebuilt under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, and it would stand again until about 70 AD, when it would be destroyed by the Romans. So today there is no remnant of the house of God in Jerusalem—it hasn’t been there since 70 AD, when the Romans destroyed it. This is the house of God that Solomon is talking about.
Now, subsequent to the destruction of the temple of God, the Jewish people—it wasn’t like they stopped worshiping—it was that the place of worship became a smaller place. Depending on the community, where there were at least ten Jewish men or more, they would build a synagogue. It would be a synagogue, and the synagogue would be the typical place where the Torah, where the Scriptures, would be read and where God would be worshiped. The Christian equivalent of a synagogue is a church, where Christians—followers of Christ—gathered together. They worship God; they study the Scriptures. This church, our building right here, is the house of God. This is where God dwells.
Now listen—it’s not that God is restricted to a church building; it’s not that He’s confined to a church building, but He is here. I mean, Paul reminds us in Acts chapter 17, verse 24, that the Lord who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and does not dwell in temples made by hands. What he means by that is it’s not that God isn’t here—God is here—but God is not restricted to the confines of a building. Even Jesus talked about, in Matthew chapter 18, He says, „Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in your midst.“ So God is here, and God is with us. Paul would tell Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:17 about how God is the eternal, immortal, invisible God—so we can’t see God; He’s not tangible, He’s not visible—but He’s here. And this is His house. This is the equivalent of the house of God, where God shows up, where there’s two or three gathered here, and where we worship Him, we study the Word, and we grow together in our faith. When you come to church, you are coming into the house of God. And for that reason, it is important for us to learn from what Solomon writes here in chapter 5 so that we might approach God in the right way. There’s a protocol to worship, and that’s something here in chapter 5 that we should learn and apply to our own church experience.
Now, Solomon is not going to talk about outward stuff in regards to worship. He’s not going to talk about church worship styles; he’s not going to talk about dress; he’s not going to talk about high church versus low church—you know, high church is clerical robes and recitations, or low church is blue jeans and cafés. I mean, he’s not stumbling on any of that stuff because there’s some room there for those outward things. Those things are negotiable; there’s some liberty with those styles and what makes up a certain church feel. Okay, what he’s focusing on instead of the outward stuff is he’s focusing here on the inward. Now, the inward translates a lot to the outward appearance, but he’s focusing on the inward because God is far more concerned about the heart and the attitude of our minds than He is about the external. Everybody understand that, right? God—you know, man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.
Now, it isn’t that we just forget the outward appearance, because even our outward appearance we should make sure pleases God. But all those outward things about what makes a church unique or different is not as important as the heart of the worshiper as we come to God’s house and as we approach God. What is the heart aspect? What is the attitude that we should come into the house of God with regarding how we approach Him and show Him reverence and devotion with our lives?
1. Worship Is About a Reverential Attitude Toward God
So the first thing that Solomon says here in verse 1—have you looked at your Bibles? —the first thing that he says there in verse 1 is, „Guard your steps when you go to the house of God.“ Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Now, there’s a literal and there’s a figurative sense to this. Let me talk first about the literal meaning here. When he talks about guarding your steps to the house of God, one of the places that we go visit on our tours of Israel—many of you have been with me now over the last 20 years that I’ve been leading groups to Israel—one of the places that we stop is the southern steps that lead up to the Temple Mount. Now today, when you go to Israel, the gates that lead up to the Temple Mount from the southern steps have been barricaded. Back in Jesus' day, though, however, there were gates, and every worshiper would walk up the southern steps, through the gates, to go toward the house of God, to go to the Temple Mount area.
In 1967, they actually unearthed the southern steps that lead up to the Temple Mount, and so now it’s a place that we go—we actually have Bible study on the southern steps. They know exactly where the southern steps are because when they discovered them, they noticed that many of the steps were hewn out of the solid bedrock of Mount Moriah. Here’s a picture of it. So these are the actual steps that were hewn out of the bedrock of Mount Moriah that lead up to the Temple Mount, that lead up to the house of God. Worshipers would walk up these steps back in the day as they entered the temple area.
Now, what is unique and interesting about the southern steps in a literal sense here is, if you’ll notice with me, the dimensions of the southern steps: they staggered—short step, long step. You had a 12-inch step followed by a 35-inch step, and that’s the way that it would go all the way up to the temple area: short step, long step, short step, long step. The design was intentional. Here’s why: because the design forced the worshiper to move slowly up to the house of God. You can’t run up these steps because it interrupts your pace. When you have a short step of 12 inches and a long step of 35, it forces you—it interrupts your pace.
So the literal implication here is you need to come to the house of God contemplative—slow down and consider your life and consider where you’re going and into whose presence you are coming. The design of the steps was intended to force the worshiper to slow down: slow down, consider, contemplate where you’re going. Don’t be in a hurry; slow down your pace; think about God; think about your life in relation to God; and slow down your pace. Look, I don’t have to tell anybody here—this is Loudoun County; we live in a very busy, hurried area of our world. Most of us are very busy; we’re hurried; we’re usually rushing here, rushing there. The pace of life is very fast. We need to understand from the implication of the literal text here that the idea of coming to church, coming to the house of God, means we slow it down. We contemplate where we’re going, why we’re coming to the house of God. We examine our own hearts, and we come and approach God very worshipfully but very contemplatively. It should cause our steps to be interrupted; it should cause our pace to be slowed down when we come to the house of God so that when we enter into the house of God, where there is sin, there is confessing to God; where there is joy, there is rejoicing; where there is sorrow, there is praying—so that we come into God’s house not hurried, not rushed, but contemplative. We come in here at a pace that reminds us that we need to examine who we are in light of who the Lord is.
You know, too often—this is just my observation—too often I think the modern church today can be guilty of just having this mindset of a „buddy Christ"—you know, Jesus is my homeboy, Jesus my co-pilot, Jesus is my BFF, right? But is He your Lord? Do you hold Him in high reverence and esteem because He is the sovereign King of the universe? Do you slow your pace enough to consider into whose presence we are coming? This is the house of God. God is not restricted to this place, but God is here, and we need to be mindful that we’re entering into the presence of a majestic King.
You see, we’re living in a day where our culture has a low view of authority. It used to be that teachers, parents, coaches, police officers, elected officials generally had respect—respect for authority. Not so much these days. I’m not agreeing with it; I’m just saying the culture has trended away from really respecting authority. And if we’re not careful, the church is prone to carry that diminished view of authority into the house of God. And we need to stop, and we need to consider: God is holy; God is majestic; God is awesome in all His ways. And we are coming into His presence when we come to the house of God, and He deserves our utmost respect and reverence and worship. So consider your steps; guard your steps.
But then there’s a figurative meaning to this. Guarding your steps also means to watch the way that you walk. And in the Bible, there’s a lot of references to the way that we walk, and it doesn’t mean the literal walk—it means figuratively our spiritual walk. You see, the idea is we need to guard ourselves when we come to the house of God because we can’t be living one way on a Sunday and a different way during the rest of the week. We need to guard our steps because we need to live a consistent life without hypocrisy or duplicity so that when we come to the house of God, it’s not unlike the way that we are through the rest of the week.
You know, it’s not like when we come to church we get real serious with God for an hour or an hour and a half, and then we get to live however we jolly well want during the rest of the week. Guarding our steps is a way of life. It’s living out our faith in such a way that we’re pleasing God Saturday through the week, not just Sunday alone. It’s coming into the house of God knowing that there’s no hypocrisy about our lives because we’re guarding our steps as we live out our lives through the rest of the workweek.
You know, how hypocritical would it be for a guy to be cussing out his wife during the week and then using that same mouth on Sundays to worship God? How hypocritical would it be when we’re cut off in traffic to raise a hand and give the middle finger and then come to church on Sunday and raise the same hand in worship to God? This must not be so. When we come to the house of God, it’s a literal opportunity for us to slow down our pace, be contemplative, and a figurative opportunity for us to examine our lives and to see: is there any inconsistency between our faith and our Sunday worship? So we can come into the house of God realizing He is worthy of our praise, and there should be no difference between the way we are on Sunday and the way we are during the week.
2 John verse 6 says, «This is love, that we walk in obedience to his commands.» That’s guarding your steps. Paul prayed in Colossians 1:10 that you may «walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work.» So that’s what we’re called to be about. So when we come to the house of God, into whose presence we come, may we slow down the pace of our lives when we contemplate our own heart, and may we be sincere through the rest of the week as much as we are on Sundays.
So when you put together the idea of the literal and the figurative, guarding your steps—in general, number one for your note-takers—what Solomon is saying here is that worship is about a reverential attitude toward God. Worship is about a reverential attitude toward God. And let me just add—and this might get a little sensitive, so you might want to just kind of pull your feet in underneath your seat so I don’t step on your toes—but part of having a reverential attitude toward God in coming to the house of God is coming to the house of God on time. It’s coming to the house of God on time.
Now, I know that there are extenuating circumstances—I get that—and a house can get real crazy on a Sunday morning. And I think, in large part, you know, honestly, I think Satan is involved in some aspects of trying to ruin our Sunday morning on our way to church. You know, why is it on Sunday morning the dog always throws up, but not through the rest of the week? And you can’t find the baby’s pacifier, and you’re pulling your hair out trying, and then you’re arguing on the way to church. I think—I don’t want to blame everything on the devil—but I think Satan has some aspect of trying to ruin your Sunday morning so you’ll be discouraged or not want to go to church at all. And I get that there are extenuating circumstances.
But I think a lot of reasons we’re late to church is just because we’re lazy. Everybody still here? I mean, think about it—reason this with me. When you go to a ball game, you’re not late. I mean, people go three hours in advance to a ball game, and they’re tailgating in the parking lot three hours before the gate even opens. Now, I’m not suggesting, by the way, that you come to church, throw up in your trunk, and start handing out Budweiser and barbecuing ribs. I’m just saying that when you go to a ballgame, you make sure you have extra time. You’re going to get there early; you’re going to have some fun; you’re going to be there and get your seat; you’re going to be ready to go.
You know, if you were invited to dinner at some superstar’s house, you’d be there on time. You’d be there on time. If you have to catch a flight to an important place, you’re going to make sure you have extra time to get through security and the awkward pat-down and all of that, just so you can get on your seat and be ready to go. So why can’t we get to God’s house on time?
Now, I know, I know, I get it—some of you probably because you guys have bad parking around here. Okay, I get that; that’s a factor. We’re working on it—by the way, we bought back two acres that we had sold years ago, right in the corner of Tolbert, and it’s going through the process with the town of Leesburg. But it’s going to take a year to pave paradise and put up a parking lot—we’re going to take a year, not an hour; I wish. It’s going to take a year to get it through the process before we can make it a parking lot. But so we’re working on the parking.
But again, to be honest with you, listen: FedEx Field has bad parking too, but you manage to still get there, and you bake it into your time. So I just want to say, bake it into your Sunday morning experience: make sure you leave early enough to allow extra time for the parking, to allow extra time to check your kids into children’s ministry, so you can come contemplative, unhurried, into the house of God and find your seat and be ready to give God the praise that He deserves. All right, three people like that. All right, you’re clapping now, but let’s see next week—number two, because it’s time change next week.
2. Worship Is About Listening Much and Saying Little
So number two: worship is about listening much and saying little. If you look at the rest of verse 1 into verse 2—in verse 1 he says, «Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.» Go near to the house of God to listen. Now, he’s not saying don’t talk at all, like the house of God is a library, but the idea behind «listen» in the original Hebrew language is to take heed and obey—take heed and obey. That’s what the word «listen» means. It’s like when a coach or a teacher says, «All right, everybody listen up"—they don’t mean just tune in; they mean heed what I’m about to say and do what I’m about to say. That’s what Solomon is writing here: we need to go to the house of God, and we need to heed what God says, and we need to obey what God says, and we need to listen.
We need to listen. I don’t know if you thought about it that way, but when you come to the house of God and you listen, you are actually worshiping Him—true or false? You’re worshiping God right now—true. You know, as I’m teaching, as we’re going through the Word of God, I’m teaching, you’re listening—you’re actually worshiping God. You say, «Well, I’m not doing anything.» You’re listening, and I pray and I hope that as we listen, we also apply what we hear. But listening, instead of just mouthing off and saying rash things to God, is bringing worship to Him.
And so Solomon says draw near to listen. James 1:22 says not merely to listen to the word but do what it says; otherwise we deceive ourselves. And to put some things in perspective, Solomon adds in verse 2—look at verse 2—he says, «Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.» Translation: God is God; we’re not—so we need to shut up and listen. That’s what he’s saying here: let your words be few. God is in heaven; you’re on earth. And by the way, that’s not just a statement of distance; that’s a statement of reverence. God is in heaven; we’re on earth—it’s not just a statement of locality; it’s a statement of supremacy. God is over all; God is above all; God is supreme, superior Lord and King. We’re not. So we need to listen to Him who is; we need to hear what God has to say to us.
You’ll notice he goes on to say that we should listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools. That’s what he says there in verse 1. Now, what in the world is the sacrifice of fools? Well, he goes on in the following verses to explain what the sacrifice of fools is. Basically, the sacrifice of fools is the hasty speech of broken promises. He talks about how making vows that you don’t keep is the sacrifice of fools. Being rash with your words is the sacrifice of fools. Offering empty promises is the sacrifice of fools. And you can circle in your Bibles or highlight all the different times that he uses—in the verses I read at the top of our study—he uses about speech and communication. He talks about your mouth; he talks about «utter»; he talks about words; he talks about speech; and many times he talks about vows that we make. This is tremendous emphasis on empty promises and words and the rash things that we say.
In other words, one of the worst things that we can do in disrespecting God or dishonoring Him is to make a vow or a promise before God that we do not keep. If you want to worship God, say less; because when you make a promise or a vow before God, that honors Him—but it dishonors Him if we break the vow or don’t complete the promise. And this varies from, you know, extreme to—it can be something as simple as what I call the «dealmaker prayer.» Anybody ever prayed the dealmaker prayer? It’s like, «God, I’ll make a deal with you: if you do this for me, then I’ll do this for you.» You know, «Lord, if you get me this job, I’ll stop drinking.» And we make those kind of promises, and then we get the job and we celebrate with a drink. You know, and then it’s just like, what are you doing?
So it can be something like that, or it could be something as serious as making a vow before God to love, honor, and cherish in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, and cleaving to this person so long as I shall live. That’s making a vow to God. And a lot of people make that vow to God, and on average 50% break it. And why is it in the church that statistic is just as bad? Do Christians not understand the value of their words? I get it—when people who aren’t Christ’s followers say rash things and then they decide later they don’t want to keep the promise that they made—but for Christians who are Christ’s followers, we need to understand the sacredness of a vow; we need to understand the importance of a promise.
I get—again, there can be some biblical grounds for divorce, and I’m not here to shame people who have had divorces. There can be adultery; there can be desertion—the Bible gives only two clauses to biblical grounds for divorce. And I know that you can be divorced and try to do all you can to fight for your marriage, and things can still crumble. I’m not saying this to shame everybody because there are unique stories. But in general, we had better take the vows we make a lot more seriously than we do today. We treat a marriage vow like a change order at McDonald’s: «Well, I decided I don’t want the fish fillet anymore; I want the Big Mac.» Right? It’s not quite like that, friends. Or it’s not like upgrading the car: «You know, I’m just tired of this model that I’ve been driving for a while; her engine just don’t purr like it used to.» Well, maybe that’s because, bud, you don’t know how to start her engine. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Welcome back, Pastor Garrett. Yeah, thank you.
I’m just saying—but sometimes we say things and then we don’t end up keeping the vow that we make. And Psalm 15 verse 4 says that God honors the one who keeps his oath even when it hurts. And Deuteronomy 23:23 says, «Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the Lord your God with your own mouth.» When we draw near to God, we should draw near to do a lot more listening than talking. And when we do talk and when we do make a promise and make a vow and say something before God, we should honor that vow and make that promise good—because in that way it worships Him.
3. Worship Is About Giving
The third and final thing we’ll look at for today is: worship is about giving. Now, okay, I can hear it now: «Oh great, here comes the money talk.» No, no—I’m actually not going to go down that road, only insofar as one small reference, but it is a smaller picture to the larger idea of what the word «giving» means in terms of worship. When someone does not fulfill his or her vow, look at what Solomon adds in verse 6: he says God’s going to get angry. He says, so you better fulfill your vows; otherwise God will get angry and destroy the work of your hands. That’s what he says there in verse 6.
So should it surprise us now—what does he mean by destroying the work of your hands? Well, mark this verse down in the margin of your Bible right there: Deuteronomy 16:16. In Deuteronomy 16:16, God commanded that every worshiper who came to the house of God was not to come empty-handed—was not to come empty-handed. Now again, that can include an offering—yes, I do believe in the basic principle of tithing, giving 1/10 of your income joyfully, celebrating with God and God’s people what God has done because He’s lavished His goodness and given His blessings into our lives. And so the least we can do is return a portion of it as an expression of worship. That is an aspect. But don’t default with the word «giving» in thinking in terms of money, just like don’t default with worship and think it only means singing.
Giving is a disposition; it’s an attitude of the heart. It’s the idea: when you come to the house of God, it’s the one place where you’re not coming to get—you’re coming to give. You’re coming to offer; you’re coming to worship the Lord; you’re coming to surrender your thoughts, your heart, your sin; you’re coming to worship and celebrate Him because of your joys and the blessings; you’re coming to give Him your very lives. It’s all about giving because you’re only mirroring the One who was the greatest giver. See, because the Lord so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God is the biggest and best giver of all. And when we come into His house with the disposition, «I just want to be a giver; I just want to serve other people; I want to worship God—I’m here to give, not to get"—we’re mirroring the character of our Father in heaven.
Now, do I receive in the process of giving? Yes—because that’s the wonderful law of reciprocity with God. As you give, as you worship, as you surrender, as you offer your lives as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to God, God does a wonderful thing: He meets our attitude of giving with His giving into our own hearts and lives in wonderful, immeasurable ways. But that’s not the mentality I come to church with: «I’m going to get from God.» I come to the house of God not empty-handed. I come with a disposition: «I’m going to give to God; I’m going to serve other people.» In this way I will receive, but that’s not my ambition.
And here’s the reason why this is a challenge for us: because we live in a culture that is very consumer-oriented, consumer-driven. It’s all about me, what I want. We want our steak done right; we want our hair cut right; we want our car washed right; we want the stewardess to give us the extra snacks because it’s all about me, and we paid for this ticket or we bought this thing, and so we want good service. Now listen—I understand there’s an aspect to being sensitive to the consumer; I get that. And one of the worst things is bad service and rude people at business establishments, and there’s no excuse for that.
Last summer, our family—as a family vacation—vacationed together in North Carolina. So we had all three kids, their spouses, and our granddaughter—we didn’t have our second granddaughter yet—so nine of us went on vacation together. And I had the idea, «Why don’t we all drive together rather than carpooling?» Well, none of us had a car big enough for nine people, so I went to a car rental place at Dulles Airport and I prepaid for a 15-passenger van so we could all go together. Ask me what I was thinking—I don’t know. No, actually we had a great time, and as long as the drive—it was actually a good time.
But I show up at this car rental place—I’d prepaid online, credit card, everything—15-passenger van. So guess what I’m expecting when I show up at the car rental place: a 15-passenger van. I paid in advance; they’d had my credit card; they had pulled it out of my account for like a month in advance. So I show up at this car rental place—which will go unnamed, by the way—what do you call it when you keep a ledger at home for expenses and income every month? What is that called? A budget. Okay, budget. Okay, so back to the story.
So I went to this car rental place that’ll go unnamed, and I show up at the counter—it had been a long line, like 50 people; I was standing in a long line; I waited about 45 minutes just to get up to the counter. Okay, so I get up there, and here’s my name, here’s my driver’s license, here’s my credit card—I already had prepaid for this rental car. «Mr. Hamrick, sorry, we don’t have a 15-passenger van.» So I kind of—I prepaid for the whole thing. «We have a 12-passenger van; you can take that.» So I kind of—I prepaid for a 15-passenger van. «Mr. Hamrick, we only have a 12-passenger. Take it or leave it.» What? What did she just say?
I said, «I’m sorry?» I prepaid it. She said, «Mr. Hamrick, you see these 50 people behind you?» I said, «Yeah, I stood in that line for 45 minutes.» She said, «Any one of them would like your 12-passenger van if you don’t want it.» Can somebody keep sharp objects away from me right now? I don’t trust myself. «Well, we’ll give you 10% off because, you know, we don’t have the 15; we’ll give you 10% back and we’ll refund your credit card 10%.» I said, «Um, can I speak to the manager, please?» «Yes.» Hello—she was the manager.
So something like this—this is terrible service. She was being rude to me. And so like, what am I going to—okay, I’ll take the 12-passenger van. You know, we just wanted to spread out a little bit more, but okay, we’ll take it; we’ll make it work. Thank you very much. Let me sign. Okay, thank you for the keys.
So I’m thinking, what recourse do I have? She’s the manager; she’s been rude to me; I have no other recourse. Oh, there’s 50 people in the lobby. «Hey, everybody! Hey, everybody!» is what I did. «I’m never going to rent a car at fill-in-the-blank car rental place ever again. Bye-bye.» And the crowd was like, «You go, Pastor G!» No, no—that part didn’t happen. But I did think after I said that, like, there could be somebody from Cornerstone in this group right now, and maybe that wasn’t the most Christ-like thing to do. But I didn’t like it.
Honestly, and I know—I think, you know, good customer service is an important thing. But we got to be careful with all of that because we could be so particular about how we want things done—we can come into the house of God and we still think it’s about us. This is the one place you’re going to go where it’s not about us. Now look—I want to be very sensitive to this whole idea as well because, as the pastor here, I can tell you that it’s important to me; it’s important to our staff and all the many volunteers—many of you who serve—to make sure that everybody who comes in the door of God’s house has a good worship experience. That’s important.
So we want to make sure that the air conditioning and the heat is set at a comfortable level. If it snows, we want to make sure the sidewalks have been cleared off. When you come into the house of God, we want to make sure you’re greeted by a friendly person who’s smiling as you come through the doors, that your cup of coffee is decent, that the children’s ministry is safe, that the bathrooms are clean. That’s important. But please don’t take a personal enjoyment experience and translate that into personal entitlement like we’re used to in the rest of the world in our consumer-driven society. Because at the end of the day, coming to the house of God is not about any of us—it’s about the Lord; it’s about the Lord.
And so when we come into the house of God, we guard our steps; we come not hurried, and we contemplate our own walk with Christ. And if we come with sin, we confess it; if we come with joy, we rejoice; if we come with sorrow, we pray. And we’re careful that we listen and do what God says more than just utter rash vows. And we have the disposition, as Christ followers, that we’re coming to the house of God to give—because God is worthy of our worship and our praise and our offerings and our thanksgiving. And He wants our sins and our burdens, and we come to give and to serve others—that we might just have this ongoing disposition that it’s not about me; it’s about the Lord; it’s about others.
And as I come to the house of God, He does a wonderful thing in my own heart that I receive in the process—but that’s not my ambition. My ambition is to make it about the Lord and to honor Him and to worship Him in His house and to serve others in the process.
That’s why, at the end of all of this, Solomon summarizes it there at the end of verse 7 in your Bibles, and he says, «Therefore stand in awe of God.» Stand in awe of God.
Closing Prayer
Can we do that together now? Can we all stand together as we close in prayer?
Father in heaven, we come before you contemplative, examining our own hearts before you, unhurried, just glad to be in your house today. So we guard our steps when we come into your house; we slow down our pace; we think about who you are and who we are in relation to you. And we come fully ready—ready to surrender and to honor you and to revere you as majestic, as Lord, as sovereign, as King.
We pray, Father, that we would come more interested in listening, learning, and doing what you tell us through your word than we would come to offer empty promises. And we come, Lord, with a disposition of being givers—because you are the greatest giver of all. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
So we honor you and we exalt you with every fiber in our being because you are worthy of our praise. Help us, Lord, to consider these things every time we come to your house—that we might be ready to worship you and to acknowledge you and be devoted to you and revere you in all your ways.
And we thank you, Lord, for loving us and for sending your Son Jesus to die for us. And it’s in His precious, matchless name that we pray, and everybody said amen and amen.