Rediscovering Faith Through Honoring Our Commitments

Chapters

• 0:33 New Year Resolutions and Vows
• 13:07 The Importance of Honoring Vows
• 29:02 Supporting 421 Ministry Through Various Channels

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:33

Glory to God, hallelujah, happy New Year. God is good, god is great. I'd like to welcome everybody to the show. This is your host, jd. You're listening to the 421 Show. Hey, you guys go check out our website hor421showbuzzsproutcom for all your latest information and content. Remember, tune in once a week with Bible Talk with Sister Deb Osborne. You can also find her show on our local radio station, on WIC 88.1, christian Radio Station, every Sunday at 5 pm and you can find her show and much, much more on the 421 Podcast. You can find that on Google, apple, spotify, whatever platform you choose to listen to, whatever platform you choose to listen to. Hey, and if you guys like to contact, you can contact her at Osborne Debra K at gmailcom. It's O-S-B-O-R-N-E-D-E-B-R-A-K at gmailcom. She would love to hear from you. You can find her on Facebook too, and her link is on the website. Send her a message. If you guys like to support the show, you can support it through paypal slash hor421 or you can go through our website at hor421showbuzzproutcom. You can subscribe like share, do the whole thing. Three dollars, ten dollars monthly. It all helps. All shows are recorded live, no post editing, recorded at the 421 studio. For contact information for all your studio needs. Email at hor421ministries at gmailcom. Phone number is 239-849-1502.

Speaker 1: 2:31

And again, happy New Year to everybody listening. Praise the Lord, glory to God. God is good. Yes, he is, folks man. Another year, well before the year ends, we had a president pass away. That's sad, carter. I hate to hear when anybody passes. Be honest with you, I don't care what age. He was pretty old, let's see. Happy, happy new year.

Speaker 1: 3:02

I guess I kind of want to talk to you guys about the new year. Everybody does it. I can honestly say I've never done it, but I have done it throughout the year and uh, so I mean, everybody makes a resolution, a revolution or resolution, however you want to say it. You know. You know, making a resolution and making a vow, we need to remember life and death lie in our tongues. You're like, oh no, well it is, it is an awe it to me it's serious. You know it's some serious stuff. You making a resolution and making a vow, you know pretty much the same thing. You know and I'm not all about that the new year resolution, and you know I'm going to lose weight and I'm going to do this because you know when we do that Well with myself, I know personally with myself, when I do stuff like that and I fail, you know it reflects on who I am, you know.

Speaker 1: 4:10

It reflects just not on that day, you know. Or if I do it, it reflects who I am throughout, you know, my life. Because if I can't keep that vow myself for me, what makes it? I'm going to keep any vow for god or man, and that's the way I look at it.

Speaker 1: 4:29

You know that you could say that's kind of hard to say, but you know, to me it's true. You know, if you can lie to yourself, you can lie to somebody else and that's pretty much what you're doing. If you're not, you know, uh, you know honoring it and and. But again, I don't feel that it's wrong to make a vow. You know, before I become a christian I was like this. It's something I carried over to christianity.

Speaker 1: 5:00

I believe it's universal truth, you know, know, um, yes is yes and no is no. You lie or you don't lie. And if you, if you can lie to yourself, you can, you can lie to others. You know, and I don't want that, you know I I've told myself enough that I can do things and I know. Good Well, I can't and I'm not trying to be not optimistic. You know there's a there's a time in place to be optimistic and then there's a time and place for reality. You know, if I'm not equipped to do certain things, I just cannot go in there. If I'm not equipped to go in there and operate on somebody, I'm not going to do it. It's just plain and simple. And I don't care how optimistic you are and you, you just you can't do it. You know.

Speaker 1: 5:47

You, you'd say whatever you want to say about me, you know, um, but, like I said, I really don't think there's there's anything wrong with making a resolution, you know, and if you can honor that, I believe that is a good thing. You know, I believe that speaks volume of who you are and how strong you are in Christ and how strong you are in yourself. You know, and, and how much power do you have over your flesh? You know, and I'll be honest with you, though there there is some things that I'm I'm weak at. The Lord knows them. I, I lay them before the lord and, and I don't excuse you know, I'm not absent from not committing to those vows or to those commitments or anything like that, because I still got to honor whatever I say I'm going to do.

Speaker 1: 6:39

And, uh, you know, growing up on the street, you know, everybody knows. You know when you're, when you're running with a crowd, you know, growing up on the street, you know, everybody knows you know when you're, when you're running with a crowd, you know you don't kiss and tell you're not a rat. You know so. So you know, you, you, you, you live up to the code. However you want to say it, you know. And and that same still goes with god, you know, god demands honor. He demands us to say what we're going to say.

Speaker 1: 7:09

You know this, this is, you know, somebody that writes everything that we do down in a book, and he's got several books. So when he pops open that book on that day of judgment, what is your book going to read? You didn't honor this vow, or this, this, this, this. He was a liar. True, so true.

Speaker 1: 7:32

You know, and I speak a lot for myself, though. You know I've made a lot of vows, I've broken a lot, uh, you know, and I've had to go back and and and redo a lot of you know, to make things right. You know, I've made vows to God, I've made vows to myself I've made to man and every time that I would break them I couldn't commit to them. I feel awful. You know it was like a sin and him to know it to do good, do it to not To him, it is a sin. So technically I sinned, you know, and and and all sinners will have their place in the lake of fire liars, adulterers, murderers, thieves, even people that can't commit a, you know, they can't commit to a vow. That's hard, that is a hard saying, but it is a true saying.

Speaker 1: 8:25

You know, and before you get all set, you know and stuff like that, you know, don't say I'm being too hard or anything like that. I'm just giving you what the Lord gave me and it's stuff that Lord's dealt with me. You know, and and I can't get up here and tell you something I've not personally went through you know I've done it. You know I've been there and I've done it, I've made vows I couldn't commit and one of them I can call Pacific, a Pacific vow. And this is one of my prayers that you know, I always pray and I pray, lord, please, if there's anything that I've forgotten, you know, any vows that that I haven't committed to, you know, please bring them back, because I don't want no sin not covered by the blood of God.

Speaker 1: 9:16

I mean, I don't it's. It's like if I have a knot with a brother. You know you're supposed to go and make that things right. I don't want anything in my life, I want everything. The more I get deeper in God, the more I want to be an open book to everybody, the more I want my life to be an open book and I don't want nothing hidden, any secrets. When I stand before God Cause you know, folks, I'm not perfect I'm not sitting up here trying to claim it, name it and be something that I'm not I fail all the time. You know, in in everybody, does everybody's falling short of the glory of god. I don't care who you are, what you say, you know you you're. You can play your pharisees and sagittaries, you, you could do all that. But when, when it all boils down to it, and you stand before God and he pops open that book and he says, ah, here it is.

Speaker 1: 10:11

But there was a vow that I had made and I, I recall this one specific vow and I'm going to share it with you guys today. And you know, and it is shameful, but I made a, I made a vow and I had some car trouble. And you, like everybody else, you know when trouble comes, lord, I'll do this, I'll do that. Well, you know what I did that. I said, lord, I need a new car. My car is pretty much dead, gone. Well, you know what he did it. He gave me a new car. What was that vow that I made before the lord?

Speaker 1: 10:46

I smoked heavy chain smoker. I was three packs a day, two packs on the light side. You know I I loved my cigarettes. You know that was the only thing that nobody could take from me, because that's who I was. I loved it. And still today I crave cigarettes. But you know what. Well, you get it. Now I quit.

Speaker 1: 11:08

But I didn't honor that vow with god and I didn't quit smoking. I picked it back up after telling the god that I would. So I did quit there for a few months. I guess you can say it was a month, I don't, I can't recall how long, but I did. And God did honor that, you know. And he said I'll do it. And he did it. I got a new car. I got it paid for, bought the whole nine yards and it was great.

Speaker 1: 11:36

But, um, before you guys get all set, I'm not going to sit there and I'm not going to speak against cigarettes.

Speaker 1: 11:42

You know, we've all seen, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. I promise there's something out there in your life that needs to be fixed, and you, you know, it just is what it is. But, like I said, he held me to that vow, you know, and I didn't quit smoking. So he held it to me, and you know, it was like every time I lit a cigarette, every time I lit a cigarette, I heard the word say you know, it was like every time I lit a cigarette, every time I lit a cigarette, I heard the word say you made a vow to me, james, and I did this for you remember, and it was constantly, you know, you remember, you remember and you remember, and it's like problems after problems I could not overcome, you know. And it, you know, I picked it up because, you know, my, my petition towards the Lord was vain for one, you know. But it was even worse, though, when I broke that vow that I made with God. There will be days that, like I said, I would have a cigarette lit and I could hear the spirit saying to me James, you remember, you know, and I see it now, I see it a lot clearer than you know then, cause, not honoring the vow clouded my judgment on making godly choices in my life.

Speaker 1: 13:07

Even the vow itself was vanity. You know I was vanity, vanity, vanity, says the preacher. All is vanity. You know, you know me wanting to have this or that. You know it's vain, you know it. You know we've all heard the scripture say, you know, it was the little foxes that destroy the vine. You know, and I ask myself a lot though. You know and I think about you know the reason, what, asked myself a lot though. You know and I think about you know the reason what led me up to my, my backsliding and walking away from Christ.

Speaker 1: 13:40

This could have been in my downfall. Well, you know, it was my downfall, it was part of my downfall, without doubt. You know it was part of backsliding from God. You know, we know backsliding doesn't happen overnight, but this action, but not keeping or obeying the vow, played a part in the process of me leaving God. It may not have happened like right away, but it did happen, you know, and not correcting the things that I needed to be corrected and moving on.

Speaker 1: 14:16

This is, you know, basically, what it's called is corruption. You know, the ground that God is, you know, building upon, is is now starting to be corrupt. You know, a cancer to the soul and and and it eat at you, really, really, really slow and see, and that's the devil's playground, I mean, or playbook. You know, if I had kept the vow, like I said, I would have moved on with God and, you know, and things would have been all right, I would have learned from the lesson and that would have been that. But I didn't, but I still did not honor the vow and, like I said, that's what led to me walking away completely from God.

Speaker 1: 14:59

I truly do believe that. You know, it was just, it was just a small, it was one of those evil fruits of my life. It just lingered there and lingered there and it just kind of you know, those evil fruits of the of the enemy it just, it corrupted everything else in my life and that's that is. That's some serious business, you know. And I still got my problems. You know, I'm still striving to make things right in my life and that I have wronged. I think we'll all do that until the day that we die, and then, when we can completely get it all taken care of, I believe that's when God says all right, then it's time to move on.

Speaker 1: 15:41

You know we cross over and you know I'm not perfect. I'm not going to sit here and try to claim to you that I'm not, that I am, and you know that's, that's myself talking, that's not God. You know, cause, you know, sometimes I feel like, you know, people might think that, you know I'm, I'm better than them, or that I I'm holier than now. I'm not, I'm just, I'm just like you or anybody else I've. You know I, I've fallen, probably more than most people, and you know, when Paul says I was a chief among sinners, I try to go back, and I don't try. The enemy does it to me. He puts all these stupid remembrances of my sins and I, honestly, can sit here and say I know what Paul meant when he says I was a chief among sinners, because I've done some pretty horrible things, and I think we've all done that, you know.

Speaker 1: 16:45

But what was crazy, though, is the very moment I gave my heart back to God. I heard his spirit say to me remember your vow. I'm not joking you. I'm sitting on the line, I you know, smoking my cigarette, drinking my coffee, getting ready to get things going throughout the day, getting ready to go to work, and I can hear the Lord say you remember my vow, and I did. It was just like boom. I remember it, just like it was yesterday. It's like I was watching a movie, you know, and Ecclesiastics 5, verses 4 through 5, or chapter 5, verses 4 through 5. When thou bowest the vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou has vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, that thou shouldest vow and not pay? Oh, that's so true, is it not? I got what I wanted, even though it was vain. God helped me. I learned a hard lesson from it and I'm still learning. I still am, you know.

Speaker 1: 17:57

Ask yourself this question why do we make vows? I know, with myself, like I said, you know it's vain, but 99% of my vows that I made are self, they're not God-related. Or or you know, it's because I want this or something troubled. It happened, you know, and I'm like, oh, I can't handle it. I need this. God, please do this. I'll do that. It's fine, this is.

Speaker 1: 18:25

I want to get out of trouble, you know, and I really don't want to buckle down and really kind of die to my flesh. You know, I find myself slowly down, or let's say I find myself slowly down in everything that I do, slowing. I'm sorry, I'm reading from my, my script here, folks, and I am sorry, you know, turning my head, but now that I see it and I understand it and God's opened my eyes, I'm slowly starting to see the whole picture, not at all, but the puzzle's really starting to come together and I'm starting to analyze everything, questioning everything. Why am I doing this? Why am I truly need this? You know, is this truly the will of god? And, and you know, do I really need this? You know, because you know, then the spirit says unto me every time god will supply all of my needs and tomorrow is not promised. You know, when we make vows, it should not be to our will, but it should be to the glory of God.

Speaker 1: 19:37

This is profound to me and I say this a lot. You know, if Christ had vowed to his flesh and not submitted to the will of God, we would have not seen salvation. You know the seriousness. This is heavy. You know, and I find it. You may already know all of this. You may be, you know, a scholar of all this and this is, you know, god showing me and teaching me, and God telling me that I should go out and tell others. You know, this is profound to me, this is deep waters, this is meat of the word.

Speaker 1: 20:21

I can honestly sit here and say I've not ever heard stuff like this preached in a pulpit, and if it has, I probably was so into my vein, my flesh. I didn't hear it, but see, that's what sin does, you know, and him to know it, to do good and do it that, not to him, it is a sin. You know, when you make a vow and you break it, that's sin. So I, you know I may not hurt it, you know, and the seriousness, like I said, is heavy. You know, and ask yourself this If God had took back the promises of salvation, where would you be today?

Speaker 1: 21:01

God honors everything that he says he would do. He has fulfilled every promise that he said he would do for me and I continually, without doubt, know he'll continually move in my life. But the key is, you know, will I honor him by honoring those vows, when we bend our knees and we ask God into our hearts. We made a vow that day God, I will honor you, serve you and do everything that you asked me to do. How many of you said that? And all he asked is said Lord, you know, just ask for forgiveness, the rest of it will come into play. All he asked you to do is follow his commandments. But no, we get in trouble and we say, lord, will you do this? Do that. He already says he would.

Speaker 1: 21:54

Why are we vowing? And, like I said, if you, you know, if you're vowing to yourself, then you don't commit to that, then you're pretty much same as a liar. And uh, that's the way I look at things. You know and, and I've lied, I've lied to myself, I've lied to God and I've lied to man, but God has forgiven me for all of that.

Speaker 1: 22:16

You know words are powerful. You know the word of God is what brought the world into existence. The word of God hangs on the cross. It brought hope to mankind. If God went back on his word, then we wouldn't have that hope. God wants to give us our heart's desires. He wants to give us our needs. He is our king, our father. He wants to help us when we're in trouble in our lives. We're to go to him and ask him for these things. We don't have to make promises or anything, just follow his word. That's all he asked for us to do. I mean, and I promise you and and I'm one of those that slowly learning this, but I'm just now getting it, it's sad, it's true. You know, and and uh, we don't have to vow to get them. Just you know and and uh, we don't have to vow to get them to still pay God's word. The rest will follow. I mean, god is good folks, you know, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that you know that he will. He'll honor it. Everything you know.

Speaker 1: 23:27

And, like I said, new year's is coming up. People make these revel. You know resolutions. Like I said, new year's is coming up. People make these revolutions. You know resolutions that they're. You know they're going to lose weight. You know they're going to do this and do that and make things a better world.

Speaker 1: 23:38

I just going to be blunt with you. Tomorrow's not promised. You can go out in your car here in a few hours and die. That's reality. That's the yeses and that's the no's, and there's no in between. If you're awake right now, it's because God gave you that day. He ain't gave you tomorrow yet. I don't think no man knows the day nor the hour when which their time comes. You can have a roundabout figure.

Speaker 1: 24:07

I believe God can tell you, and he has before. And you know, in the stories in the tell you, and he has before, and you know, in the stories in the bible he's giving people, you know, more time and he's told, but we only read that far and few in the bible. But for the majority of mankind we don't know when our time is, just like when his coming. We don't know when his time is. You know, because we did, we'd be living, living like heathens. It's just the truth, you know. And, uh, I thank God for everything that he has done for me. I thank him for the year that he's given.

Speaker 1: 24:40

I've grown extremely, you know, in the studio, you know I've had guests on the show and I've watched, uh, you know my podcast grow. I'm very thankful for it and I am excited if God does give me, you know, more days and and I'm excited to see the growth that God has got for for me in this ministry and I hope to continue to bless you and and others. You know in this and you know the whole, the whole thing about this podcast is is to bless you and and others. You know in this and you know the whole, the whole thing about this podcast is is to tell you the truth, because it's the truth that sets us free, you know, and that truth is the word of God and and it's it's the promises of God he vowed to us that. You know that if we put our trust in him, you know, no weapon formed against us shall prosper. That's a vow that he had made to us. We don't have to. All we have to do is just follow his commandments. The only vow that we have to make to follow is follow his commandments, and rest should be added unto us.

Speaker 1: 25:43

I'm learning that I'm slow. I was one of those short. I was one of those short bus kid driver. You know, uh, short bus kids. You know I guess you want to call it, but that's what God's got me telling you guys. Today is when the new year rolls around.

Speaker 1: 26:01

Don't lie to yourself, don't lie to God, don't lie to the others. You know, stay true to yourself and you'll stay true to the rest of your life. You know, stay true to yourself and you'll stay true to the rest of your life. I I, that, you know, and I I don't. I hate when people lie to me, you know. I hate when you know people try to manipulate the situation, try to make it better than what it is. You know, don't, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, don't do that. You know, and uh, God is good, you know, and trying to drag on the next three or four minutes here, cause I'm trying to make it a 30 minute program, but if you're not out there, and, uh, you don't know.

Speaker 1: 26:43

Christ, just call upon his name. And he said you shall be saved. You know, for God's a love the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish but should have everlasting life. That is a vow from God, that whosoever believeth on him shall have everlasting life. All you got to do is believe, and just believe that everything else that God says will be added to you. All you have to do is follow his word.

Speaker 1: 27:13

You know and I'm not getting on here, like I said, I'm, you know, speaking to myself right here. I'm not claiming to be this perfect Christian, but I am claiming to be a child of God, with problems. But God's working with me and and I want you guys to know that, that you know, and I want the reality to be, that you know that there's hope. See, I walked away from God, I walked over that blood, I walked away from it and, seeing there's no redemption for me, we'll see God's love come down in that room and he says James, I love you, I want to give you another chance and I took it, and I'm glad I did, because I wouldn't be here today. I would have been one of those that lifted their eyes in hell. I would have been one of those that enlarged hell, literally. And I thank God that he gave me another day, another hour, another minute, another second, because without God I wouldn't be here today. And I pray again. I mean, I asked again please, it don't matter where you're at, you know, sitting on a park bench, sitting in your car, sitting at your home on your couch, and you're listening. Give your heart to God, just cry out unto him and he'll save you. Let's be real, folks. You You're listening to 421 Show.

Speaker 1: 29:02

Hey, if you guys like to support the ministry, you can support it through PayPal. That is slash H-O-R 421 Show. Or you can go through our website at H-Oshowbuzzsproutcom. All shows are recorded live no post editing Recorded at the 421 studio. Contact information for all of your studio needs you can email at hor421ministrygmailcom. Phone number at 239-849-1502. This is your host, jd. You're listening to the 421 show, take care.