George W. Bush was in church, with his family, as the Pastor, Mark Craig, preached to a rather interesting congregation, with most of the Bush family present.
The Pastor spoke about how George W. Bush was the first Governor in Texas to win back-to-back, four-year terms.
It was a beginning, not an end…. People are starved for faithfulness. He talked of the need for honesty in government.
He warned that leaders who cheat on their wives will cheat their country, will cheat their colleagues, will cheat themselves.
Pastor Craig said that America is starved for honest leaders.
Then He told his congregation;
“People are starved for leadership, starved for leaders who have ethical and moral courage. It is not enough to have an ethical compass to know right from wrong. America needs leaders who have the moral courage to do what is right for the right reason. It’s not always easy or convenient for leaders to step forward.”
George W. Bush’s mother latter, being the Mother, said to her son.
“He was talking to you,”
( modified from an email listed in TruthorFiction.com who credit George W. Bush’s book, “A CHARGE TO KEEP” (Morrow). It is in chapter 10 titled “The Big 4-0”, beginning on page 136.)
George W. Bush heard the message about keeping his commitment, to his God, to his wife, to his children, to his country.
The message made the difference in his life.
He found then that he had a charge to keep, promises to be kept, and mandates to pursue.
We all have our commitments. We have made many promises. Which ones are you keeping? Which ones are you ignoring?
As we look, once again, at the life and leadership of Joshua, we see what it means to keep our commitments.
This morning needs to be a day where we recommit ourselves to the promises that we have made.
To carry those promise out to the fullest of our ability and strength given by God.
Because, after all, we have our own charge to keep.
Joshua 10:18-19
18But the Israelites did not attack the towns, for their leaders had made a vow to the Lord, the God of Israel.
The people of Israel grumbled against their leaders because of the treaty. 19But the leaders replied, “We have sworn an oath in the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel. We cannot touch them.
Joshua was caught making a bad decision. He allowed the Israelites make a treaty with the Gibeonites based on deception. This was because he did not consult the Lord. (Verse 14-15)
However, he did make a commitment. A commitment that he intended to keep.
We see in 2 Samuel 21:1 that God intended for them to keep it as well, and what happens when they forgot to keep it.
Look with me at 2 Samuel 21:1:
1There was a famine during David’s reign that lasted for three years, so David asked the Lord about it. And the Lord said, “The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites.”
Saul’s family had killed some Gibeonites in his zeal for power
Joshua knew enough to know that the Lord expected him to keep his promise.
1. And we must keep our commitments because we make it to the Lord
The Israelites had made a peace treaty with the Gibeonites. They kept it because they made their commitments to God. And this was not an easy thing to do. We look of a last part of verse 18 and we see the people grumbling. But Joshua did not follow the polls, he followed what he knew to be true and that was to keep his promise. The overriding reason for them keeping this promise was nothing other than the fact that they gave their word. And, by giving their word, they made a binding agreement with the Lord. That was all the reason they needed for keeping their word. They had been deceived. They had been wronged. They had made a mistake. But they kept their word.
They had a charge to keep.
A cover story for World Magazine in 2002 featured a story about a couple,
Chad and Sara Prigge.
On June 11, 1999, at 1:00am, they awoke to the fire of a neighboring home. Two of the children, Jessica who was 9 and Joshua who was only 2 months old, survived. The parents died in the fire.
In August of 1998, Charlie Silk, the father, asked the Prigges to ask if they would be the children’s guardians if anything ever happened to them. And the Prigge’s agreed.
Although valid wills were found two days after the tragedy, the Department of Children and Families, placed Joshua with a young couple who had never seen the child before.
Jessica went to live with her biological father.
The Prigges, then sued for custody of Joshua, because of the parent’s desires.
Three years later, they stood before the Connecticut Supreme Court as they lost the custody of the child.
According to the court, the state had an overriding responsibility to look out for Joshua’s best interests, even if that meant ignoring the explicit instructions left by his parents.
The Prigges’ were unfit to be guardians because of their religious beliefs. Chad Prigge is an associate pastor at Truth Baptist Church.
The decision to pursue legal action didn’t come easily, but listen to this quote from World Magazine:
After two weeks of soul-searching, the couple decided they had to honor their commitment to the Silks, even if it would be a hardship on their own family. “It was a matter of our word. We’d promised them. And we wanted to provide Joshua with a home where the values were consistent with those of his parents.”
(In Loco Parentis, by Bob Jones, World Magazine, June 29, 2002, p.14-17)
Chad Prigge said, “it was a matter of our word.”
They made a commitment, by their word, and that was enough for them to fight for the children.
Your word should be enough. It doesn’t matter if it was a bad decision to make the commitment. You still made it.
I have heard frequent discussions of marriage and divorce. Many times, the reason for the divorce is incompatibility. That is to say that the marriage was a mistake. The two people simply married the wrong person. Therefore, it is OK to get a divorce, because it was a mistake in the first place. After all God wants the to be happy doesn’t he? Let me tell you this from the teachings of the word of God, God is less concerned about your happiness that he is about your obedience. And to be obedient means to keep your promises. It doesn’t matter if it was a mistake. Joshua and the Israelites clearly made a mistake. But they also made a promise. Therefore they had a charge to keep.
Many times when making our commitments, normally this involving small things, we wind up making so many commitments that we cannot keep our promises. We need to be careful with our word. When we give our word, we need to be certain that we will be able to fulfill it. And when know we can’t keep our word, we need to simply say “no”. The Bible says let your yes be yes and your no be no. All of us need to say no from time to time. But when we do say yes, we have a charge to keep.
It may have been many years of just a few days since you gave your life for Christ.
How are you doing on your commitment? You gave Christ your word that you would serve Him, that you would live for Him, and Him alone. Are you doing that? Are you keeping your word?
Don’t forget, You have a charge to keep.
As you seek to honor your commitments, how firmly do you have to hold on? “I mean, in this society, where cheating is upheld by a school board in Piper, Kansas. How firmly does God want us to hold on to our commitments?”
(That’s Outrageous, by Tucker Carlson, Reader’s Digest, July, 2002, p. 39)
2. We are to Honor the Commitment with Our Lives
We see in chapter 10 the degree to which Joshua honors his treaty. All the kings were afraid of Israel. When they began to hear about the treaty with Gibeon, five Amorite kings combined to attack Gibeon.
Verse 6.
6The men of Gibeon quickly sent messengers to Joshua at Gilgal, “Don’t abandon your servants now!” they pleaded. “Come quickly and save us! For all the Amorite kings who live in the hill country have come out against us with their armies.”
What did Joshua do to maintain his commitment?
Verse 7.
7So Joshua and the entire Israelite army left Gilgal and set out to rescue Gibeon.
There was no of discussion on this issue. The decision had been made, they were going to honor the treaty with Gibeon matter what.
Joshua committed the soldiers in the battle. Many could be lost, but he had a charge to keep. And that is how we are to hold on to our commitment.
When asking the question, “How firm do we hold to our commitments”, you have to look no farther than the founding of this country.
On July 4, 1776 50 men singed the Declaration of Independence. They each made a commitment to honor their new country.
Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured.
Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty.
At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson’s home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt.
John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.
(Kenneth L. Dodge, Resource, Sept./ Oct., 1992, p. 5.)
These men stood for their conviction and their commitments.
All of us need to stand just as strong as they did for the promise that they made.
Men. The Bible teaches us “to love our wives as Christ loved the church.” Christ died for the church. How are you doing on your wedding vows?
Our commitments, whether it is our marriages, whether it is an agreement to be a guardian of someone’s child, whether it is a business agreement, are meant to honored.
Don’t make them unless you are willing to die for them. But when you do, firmly hold on, even to the point of death.
As you hold on firmly to the commitments that you made, simply because you gave your word, God will honor that. In this next verse we will see that,
3. God will Honor those who Honor their commitments
As the Israelites went into battle the Lord said.
Verse eight.
8“Do not be afraid of them,” the Lord said to Joshua, “for I will give you victory over them. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.”
And then the Lord won the victory for Joshua.
We see in verse ten the Lord threw the Amorites into a panic. As they retreated, we see in verse 11, that God destroyed the Ammorites with a hailstorm.
And then look at verse 12-14.
12On the day the Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the Lord in front of all the people of Israel. He said, “Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.”
13So the sun and moon stood still until the Israelites had defeated their enemies.
Is this event not recorded in The Book of Jashar?? The sun stopped in the middle of the sky, and it did not set as on a normal day. 14The Lord fought for Israel that day. Never before or since has there been a day like that one, when the Lord answered such a request from a human being.
Is it important that God that you keep your promises? Yes it is.
Many times when preachers preach on that passage they spend most of their time defending the day that the son stopped. But ladies and gentlemen, the Bible is God’s Holy Word (that we can prove) and because the Bible told us this miracle happened, that is all of the proof that we need. It is more important that we see that when Joshua honored his commitment. Notice God blessed after they made the decision to fight. When Joshua made the decision to the commitment the Lord honored and blessed Joshua with a victory.
Several years ago, there was a group of men that began to meet in football stadiums around the country. They met to encourage other Men to be “Men of Integrity”. They are still meeting in stadiums. They are called Promise Keepers.
These men seek to obey what they call the “Seven Promises of the Promise Keeper”. They are:
1. to honoring Jesus Christ through worship, prayer and obedience
2. to pursuing vital relationships with a few other men
3. to practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity.
4. to building strong marriages and families
5. to supporting the mission of his church
6. to reaching beyond any racial and denominational barriers.
7. to influencing his world, being obedient to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.
What is their reward for keeping these promises?
On the Promise Keepers website some of the wives wrote in:
Denyse Soper from Calgary, wrote;
“My hubby went to his first PK meeting in Vancouver B.C. 2 years ago. Since that time, he has slowly grown more in his relationship with the Lord, which is a blessing to all of us. God has moved in him since that meeting. Just this past week he took total control of a situation happening in our home. I have always been the leader of our family and saw my husband as weak. With your help he has become a strong man in the Lord and in our home. We are beginning to truly live the life that God has been directing us to. I know that Promise Keepers take no credit, however, I need to encourage you to continue. You touch men and show them it is not weak – but strong – to follow the Lord’s leadings. Thank you!”
Another woman who didn’t leave her name, but was from San Antonio, TX, wrote this;
After many years of trying to balance fatherhood and late hours at work, my husband and I began to pray for guidance in his career. A few days before my daughter’s 3rd birthday, he decided that he was ready to step down from his management position in order to spend more time with his children — even if it meant taking a substantial cut in pay. We are praying that the Lord will find a new position for him that will allow him the time to better fulfill his role as a Christian husband and father. We don’t know what the future holds but we do trust God and know that He will come through for us.
I am so proud of my husband. He is awesome! He “walks the walk and talks the talk” as the saying goes. He truly is a “promise keeper” and we get to be the “promise reapers”.
(from www.promisekeepers.org)
Men. Wouldn’t it be a blessing to hear this from you wife?
These men are being blessed, simply because they are keeping their promises.
Several of you here this morning have been married almost…for…over! Fifty years. Wasn’t it worth the commitment? That you have someone to spend the last days of your life with?
I worry about this generation of so many divorces, and the church needs to be ready, who is going to walk these already lonely people through the last years of their life? Do you believe that they will be asking…what if I kept my promise?
God will honor us when we honor our commitments. It might not be exactly what we thought the blessing would be, but who would have guessed that the Lord would stop the world from spinning long enough to allow the Israelites to defeat the Amorites?
You will be honored when new honor your commitment. You will be honored when you keep your wedding vows. You will be honored when you keep your business contracts. You will be honored when you honor your commitment to serve in the church. You will be honored when you honor your promise to spend time with your children. You will be honored when you honor your commitment.
You have a charge to keep, so get with it.
This morning God asks you for a commitment. A commitment of your life to him. All of us are sinners. We are all doomed to spend eternity in hell for our sin, because it must be paid for. Jesus Christ, however, paid the penalty for us all. All we must do is to accept this gift, trust in him, and commit our lives to him.
You can make this commitment this morning. You come.