Keeping Hard Promises Can Be Worship | Pastor Will Hawk | October 26th, 2025

A ragged caravan, cracked wineskins, and a story that won’t let go: Joshua 9 shows what happens when clever deception meets unprayed decisions. We walk through the Gibeonite ruse, the leaders’ oath, and the shocking part—God holds Israel to a promise they never should have made. From there we map a crucial framework most of us feel but rarely name: the difference between a promise, a contract, and a covenant. One rests on honesty, one on justice, and one on relationship. To anchor it, we revisit God’s covenant with Abraham—God alone walking between the pieces—and see how that grace explains both the cross and our call to be people whose yes means yes.

The conversation turns practical fast. Israel discovers the lie within three days but refuses revenge because they swore before the Lord. Centuries later, a famine exposes Saul’s breach of that same covenant, proving that words echo across generations. We explore how this tension lands in modern life: marriage vows as a Spirit-sealed covenant, church membership as a pledge of spiritual family, and everyday commitments that shape character. Integrity is costly, but it can be worship—a way to honor God when keeping your word hurts more than breaking it. We offer concrete counsel on praying before you sign, inviting wise voices into big decisions, and guarding your speech so your future isn’t mortgaged by hasty promises.

If you’re craving a deeper, sturdier view of commitment—rooted in Scripture, honest about pain, and rich with hope—this one will steady your steps. Listen, reflect, and share with someone who needs courage to keep a hard promise today. If this helped you, follow the show, leave a review, and tell a friend what stood out most.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Scene In Joshua 9
• 3:16 The Gibeonite Deception Unfolds
• 7:31 The Missed Pause And Lack Of Prayer
• 12:06 Promise, Contract, And Covenant Explained
• 18:36 God’s Covenant With Abraham As Pattern
• 23:31 Fallout: Discovery Of The Lie
• 26:56 Bound By Oath Despite Deception
• 31:06 Consequences Echo 400 Years Later
• 35:16 Modern Covenants: Marriage And Membership
• 39:46 Integrity, Cost, And Practical Applications

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:47

All right, um, so Joshua 9 3. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys and wineskins worn out and torn and mended, with worn out patched sandals on their feet, and worn out clothes, and all their provisions were dry and crumbly. And they went to Joshua in the camp of Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us. Jumping to verse 14. So the men took some of their provisions, but did did not ask counsel from the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Thank you, Rob.

SPEAKER_02: 1:40

Much appreciated. All right, guys. So if you're if you've been playing along at home, what you've realized is we just went back in time. Uh we did Joshua 10 last week. We're doing Joshua 9 this week. We don't typically do that. Uh there are two reasons. One, I wanted you to kind of know what it was that happened that led to this text that we're gonna read. And the other one was I really wanted to teach chapter 10 with Thomas, and he's doing a wedding this weekend. And so we flopped them. There's not a huge theological reason for us to go out of order. However, what we see in Joshua chapter 9 is this really great narrative, and it has something to say about the words that come out of our mouths, and I think it has something to say about the commitments that we make. One of the great things about chapter nine is it is just a beautiful narrative story. So, what I kind of want you to imagine sometimes I try to tell you guys how I'm going to preach a text. This is a little bit less preaching and a little bit more teaching. Uh, this is a Sunday morning where maybe you can grow in your ability to study your Bible, understand your Bible, but it is also a Sunday where hopefully you feel like you're in Miss Chamberlain's first grade class, sitting on the rug when she brings out the huge storybook and she starts reading this story in front of you. That was my first grade teacher. I don't know who yours was. And you're just kind of, it's like you're just kind of cozying in, and it's story time. That really is how I think we ought to feel as we hop into Joshua chapter nine. So let me give you what I find to be one of the most fascinating but unknown stories in the Old Testament that has massive ramifications for us today. As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland, all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebisites heard of this, they gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel. This is what we talked about. This big battle that happened and the prayer that came forward, where Joshua has this small prayer offered in public that God honors, which is why we spent so much time on prayer last week. What comes next is what led up to those things. And here's how Joshua 9 breaks down. Thomas does this frequently, and I do not, but it was a gift last week. So I thought I would do it. In verses 1 to 13, there's going to be a lie, a fabrication of the truth. Then we're going to see a failure, a fallout, and what happens in the future from there. If you're a note taker, you'll see it on the bottom left of the slides as we continue on. All right, so verse 3. When the inhabitants of Gibeon, this is called the Gibeonite deception, in many of your Bibles, if there are subtitles above verse one, but when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho, march around, blow a couple of trumpets, and one of the greatest fortresses of the known world crumbles, when they heard what he had done to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning and they hatched up a little scheme. This is what they do. They look and they're like, by the way, if you remember from chapter 9, the Gibeonites were the most mighty of the six remaining kingdoms that we see. So when the other five realize the Gibeonites have gone to make a pact with Israel, that's why they get so irritated. It would be as though the military said, Hey, we're just not going to hang out with you. We're going to hang out with them. It's like, well, kind of, you're kind of a big deal. And they had the largest army, the greatest fighting men. That's the way the text treats it. And so they come up with this plan. We do not want to fight against the kind of people that walk around walls and then they fall down. We do not want to fight against the kind of people when they walk up to a river, God just rips it open and they walk through. We don't want to fight those kind of people. So let's make a covenant with them. Let's make a promise with them. But the Gibeonites also knew this. Israel was not allowed to befriend them. Israel was not allowed to bring them in. We've talked about this in the weeks ahead, but because inner marriage would definitely lead to idol worship, it would lead to the people of God having their hearts led astray. God basically looked at him and he said, This is not going to be good for you. You need a fresh start. It would have been like Noah opening the door and letting folks in. Joshua 9, verse 4. They on their part acted with cunning, and here's what they did. They went and made ready provisions and took worn out sacks for their donkeys and wineskins, worn out and torn and mended, with worn out and patched sandals on their feet and worn out clothes, and all their provisions were dry and crumbly. And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and they said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a distant country. So now make a covenant with us. If I take this passage and I break it out, I haven't changed any of the words. I put a couple of things in bold and I've changed the alignment. I want you to look at how hard that how much trouble they went to to make this lie work. They probably get the older looking donkeys. They go and get wineskins. Some of you will remember a parable that Jesus tells about the wineskins. They burst over time. They would have been made of leather. They went and got leather that was torn and tattered and dried out. They put on old clothing that has been intentionally torn and then restitched. Their chacos are busting apart and their clothes look horrible. When you look at their food, it's two, three, four weeks old. And this is how they show up to Joshua. And here's what they say. The men of Israel said to the Hivites, Perhaps you live among us. Then how can we make a covenant with you? Everybody just freeze for a minute. Look at verse 7 on your own. Just quietly read verse 7 to yourself. Sometimes in life we have this moment of pause. And we choose in that moment to either be a person of conviction that says, This is something seems a little off here. It might just be my emotions. Maybe I didn't have a great breakfast. Maybe the Holy Spirit is bringing something to my attention. And God gives us this sort of little emotional, spiritual, mental pause for us to decide what we're going to do. And we have to decide, am I going to just, ah, I don't want to overthink it. I've got a busy life, my schedule's full, it'd be more convenient. And I just want you to see verse seven. Because if verse seven goes a little bit differently, all of history changes. But they have this moment of pause. And it's important that the Bible captures this for us. What if these people aren't telling the truth? And Joshua and the leaders of Israel, they kind of look at each other and they're like, I mean, that Stanley Cup is really busted up. And that Tiva is torn in half. This car is bumping along like it's got two spark plugs in it. What are the odds that these people actually came from near? These people have been traveling for months to get to us. And in verse 7, they miss it because they don't do one thing that we pointed to last week. Why do you think Joshua was so good at praying in chapter 10? Because he really screwed it up in chapter 9. Really screwed it up in chapter 9. Perhaps you live among us. How could we make a covenant with you? And they said, they said to Joshua, we're your servants. And uh, we're your servants. And Joshua said, Who are you? Where do you come from? I I've got to I've got to at least ask a couple of questions here. And they said, Oh, well, we come from um uh a very distant place. Like they can't even name it, they can't even come up with a fake name from imaginary land, a very different country. Your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God. For we have heard a report of him. These people know their history. The Gibeonites are not dumb. They may be deceitful, but they are not dumb. We know what he did in Egypt. This would have been many years ago. We know what he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon, the king of Heshbon, to Ag the king of Bashan, who lived in Asheroth. So our elders and all, by the way, they're gonna add more in a minute. So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, Take provisions in your hand for the journey and go and meet them and say to them, We are your servants, come now and make a covenant with us. Here's our bread. It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food from the journey, on the day we set out to come to you. But now, behold, it's dry and crumbly. These wineskins, this Stanley Cup was brand new when I left. But now it's all busted up. These garments, the sandals of ours, they're all worn out from the long journey. So the men, this is referring to God's people, took of some of their provisions. Let's take a look, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. You want to know how to become a really good prayer? Screw it up once in a major way. Okay? It is not what I would advocate as the best way to do it, but this is one of the reasons I think Joshua's prayer is so miraculously answered in the following chapter. Because what ends up happening? Joshua made peace with them, and he made a covenant with them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them. They put so much effort into this lie. They portray to be something that they are not, and their deception works. God allows his people to be fooled, would be the subtitle here. Because of their lack of diligence, God absolutely allows it, even though they had this moment in verse 7 where they were like, Maybe you live among us. Here's a question for you as we move forward. Is there a difference? Promise, contract, covenant. Now, here's the reason I bring that up. The word here, there are three things that Joshua does. He makes peace, he enters into a covenant, and he swears to them. All three of these things are high-level promises. And so I just want you to think for a minute, how would you uh put discrepancy between these three words in your life? By the way, you did this when you were seven years old. You didn't know you were doing it, but you did it. I'll tell you how that worked out in a minute. What's the difference in a promise? What's the difference in a contract, and what's the difference in a covenant? Let me give you just a little bit of a biblical education on this. Let's hit pause from our story. A promise is you saying, I will. I will do something. By the way, you do this all the time. Some of us don't consider it to be a promise unless we end the sentence with, or we begin the sentence with, I promise, okay? Jesus doesn't work that way. Just so you know. Uh, if you're if you don't learn anything else from this morning, learn this. It doesn't work that way, okay? If you say, I will be there at two, okay, like you're telling somebody you're gonna be there at two. Now, we see this in Proverbs 12, 22, lying lips, an abomination. That's that's a word that the Bible does not use lightly. Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight. Now, when Jesus is doing the Sermon on the Mount, he makes this incredible teaching in Matthew chapter 5. I just want you to realize what God had given his people in Proverbs many, many years before. Jesus reiterates and then goes into depth in Matthew 5. Many of you have read this, but in the event that you need the reminder, here is what Jesus would think of our promises. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. Just notice these words. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it's the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it's the city of the great king. Don't take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be yes or no. Keep it simple, like your prayers, anything more than this comes from evil. When I say anything more, when God says anything more than this comes from evil, what's he pointing to? That if you say, I promise I'll be there, that you have sort of erred into sin and need to repent? No. What it's saying is, disciples, this is who he's talking to, some disciples, I want you to be the kind of people where you just say, I'll be there, I'll do this, I'll say this, I'll carry this, I will cover this. And nobody needs you to say anything else. Your character is of such high esteem and value. You have lived a life of integrity and faithfulness and rapport to the point that somebody would say, if Will says something, it's gonna happen. If Jonathan says something, it's going to pass. If Sarah says this, she means it when she says it. Now, here's what I mean when I say all of you did this when you were seven years old. Okay? How many of you already know where I'm going? Okay, a couple? All right. You're uh let's say it's second grade. Second grade, a month from now, Christmas is coming up. And you're sitting at a table with some of your classmates and you're talking about Christmas gifts, and you say, I'm getting a PlayStation 6 for Christmas. And the person in the deck desk next to you says, No, you're not. What do you say next? I you start with what? I promise. I promise. I'm getting one. I'm getting a PlayStation 6 for Christmas. You're not, okay? They only made two of them. You're not getting one of them. What do you say next? I swear. Okay, you remember this? Now some of you won't even repeat the next part because it hits home so hard. If they don't believe you when you said when you said, I swear, what comes next? I swear to God. Now, I I just want you to notice did some of you feel the drop when I said, I swear to God? Okay, even me saying it now causes this sort of why where does that come from? Why is it that when we invoke God's name, all of a sudden the whole tone changes? I promise I'm getting a PlayStation 6. Nobody cares. I swear. I swear to God. Why? Because whether you realize it or not, and and I'll be honest with you, my theology isn't wide enough or big enough or deep enough to explain this. I don't know if you have to be a Christian to feel this, or if it's written into the Imago Day, or if it is something that the Holy Spirit, when in your life, sort of activates. But when I feel that weight, it is telling me that there is a truth that has been written before time began, that when God's name is invoked, it changes everything. And I wanted you to feel that because that is what we see. You see, when we make a promise, what we're basically saying is, I will do something. And that promise is rooted simply in that person's honesty. If they're an honest person, you have a high degree of confidence. If they're not an honest person, you may question it. When we move down, it continues to expand the weight. If we want to look at a contract, one of my favorites is in Ruth. This is not Boaz purchasing Ruth. This is a land agreement, but notice the contractual language. Boaz had gone up to the gate and he sat down there. The gate was where business was done. Behold, the redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, Turn aside, friend, sit down here. He's the other person with a vested interest in this property. And he turned aside and sat down. He took ten men of the elders. Let's get a quorum so we can have a business presiding that is official. Sit down here. They sit down. Verse 3. He said to the Redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So the contract works this way. If you will, then I will, and I want you to watch it play out. So I thought I would tell you, and I would say, buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it, if you will not tell me that I may, this is a contract. This is Boaz saying in front of people, this is bigger than a promise. This is bigger than just based on our honesty. There are there are stipulations if one of us breaks this contract. Tell me that I may know, for there is no one beside you to redeem it, and I come after you. And he said, Hey, I'll take the land. Sounds like a good deal. And then Boaz says, Well, just one real quick thing. You don't know this, but there's this incredibly God-fearing, beautiful woman who has lived one of the most reputable lives of anyone on the planet. That is not the way he pitches Ruth. The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you will get Ruth the Moabite. Oh, goodness. You don't want that, do you, bud? Then the Redeemer said, I can't redeem it for myself. I'll impure my I don't want that. If it was just land, I would take it. I don't want the responsibility. And so a contract is struck. And to confirm the transaction, he took off his shoe and he gave it to him, and he lost one of his Sicconis that day. But he was good with it because it showed that forever we have agreed, the elders have seen this is a contract. If you will do this, then I will do that. This is rooted in justice. It feels bigger. When somebody breaks a promise to you, it hurts. When somebody breaks a contract, you thought you were going to get the house, and then somebody, it there should be this bigger feel because it feels like injustice was done. We had already agreed. We had sat down. We had made a plan because it was a contract. If you'll do this, then I'll do this. If I do this, then you'll do that. And it is rooted in justice. But Joshua doesn't strike with the Gibeonites a promise nor a contract. He gives them a covenant. A covenant is when we say to someone, I am yours and you are mine. This is bigger, this is deeper, this is wider, this is greater. We see this in Genesis 17. God says, I'm gonna establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you through their generations for an everlasting covenant brought up twice here to be God to you and your offspring after you. Now, I don't know if you remember this. Let me tell you a little story. I gave you a picture in the top right corner to be a memory jog. God looks at Abraham and he says, For no reason other than the simple fact that I love you, I'm gonna enter into a covenant with you. I'm not promising. I'm not just saying I'm gonna do this. I'm not entering into a contract. If you'll do this, then I'll do this. There's a sacrifice that is laid down and it's torn in half. Why? Because when you make a covenant, it's a bigger deal than a promise or a contract. You're not just saying I'm gonna do this if I am yours. You are mine. And what's supposed to happen is both parties walk between the sacrifice. It's a bigger deal than handing somebody your shoe. All right? And what does it mean? It means if I do not honor what I said I would honor when I told you I was yours and you are mine, may it be to me as it has been to the sacrifice. If I don't honor my covenant, I ought to be torn in half. Bonus points to the camp store. If somebody will be willing to tell me what happens next in this story. God walks right through it. Abraham does not walk through. A fire and a smoking pot, by the way, flame and smoke would have been how God presented himself. God tears it in half, and he says, Abraham, don't move. And God walks right through the broken sacrifice. Why? Because here's what God's saying I am yours and you are mine. And when you do not hold up your end of this, bigger than promise, bigger than contract, covenant, you're not gonna be the one who gets torn in half. I will. Genesis 17, the cross, it's on display. It's God looking at a people and saying, I love you so much. I want you to be mine, and I want to be yours, and I know you're not gonna live up to this. So when you don't, I will tear myself in half. And we see it in Genesis, and we see it in the Exodus, and we see it in Jeremiah, we see it all the way in the book of Revelation. This new covenant that God has made with his people. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. I am yours and you are mine, forever and all millennia, with no sin attached. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Christians in the room, this is the greatest of promises. Broken as you are, God holds together the covenant. If you are not a believer in this room and you are wondering what's unique about Christianity, all these religions talk about my sin and my brokenness. Here's what's different. In every other religion, you have to walk through the brokenness. In every other religion, you have to be torn in half. In Christianity, God says, I've got it. I've got it covered in a way you never would have been able to cover it. Do you want the gift of not being torn in half when you deserve to be? This is the difference. A covenant is I am yours and you are mine, and it is rooted in a relationship. And that brings us to the fallout. At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they, the Gibeonites, were their neighbors and lived among them. Anybody want to guess how far these people lived away? Anybody want to guess? 20 miles. Some of you drew drove further than that to get to church. Okay? 20 miles. That's it. By the way, you could walk it in about a day and a half, okay? The the fabrication they put on display was, if it wasn't so sinful, quite impressive, actually. And they pull it off. But God's people figure it out. Now, I don't need, please don't answer this one out loud. When someone lies to you, what do you want to do? Uh, it didn't repent. That's what you want to do after what you do, okay? What do you want to do? You want justice, right? Because that's what a contract is. You want them to be honest and you want them to hear the honesty of their dishonesty. That's a promise. But if somebody breaks a covenant, you told me you were mine and I was yours, and that is not what played out. What do you want to do? Well, I'll tell you what God's people wanted to do. The people of Israel sat out and reached their cities. They're like, it's going down. Everybody head to the Gibeonites. Let's go. We're gonna go deal with these folks. Now their cities were Gibeon, Cheraph, Beerath, and Kirajirim. But the people of Israel did not attack them. They're angry, they're hot, their faces are red, we've been fooled in the sight of the world. And they marched, by the way, it would have been uphill the entire way, 20 miles, to get there. But they did not attack them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them. They didn't just swear, they swore to God they wouldn't touch them. Then the congregation got irritated with Joshua and the elders. You see, they step in and they say, Look, we cannot bring about the wrath that we want to, because we didn't just promise them. We didn't just make a contract that we can breach and deal with the ramifications. We have looked them eye to eye and we have said, I am yours and you are mine. They wanted to absolutely destroy them, and here is the finality of it: the future. Joshua summoned them, and he said to them, Why did you deceive us, saying, We are very far from you and you dwell 20 miles away? Now, therefore, you are cursed. Some of you will never be anything but servants, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. How do you think the Gibeonites respond when somebody says, All right, since you did this, fine, we won't kill you. Fine, I am yours and you are mine. Which is why last week in chapter 10, they went to defend him. All they said here was, We won't kill you, but when you enter into a covenant, you enter into a relationship. And it doesn't matter how mad you are at your little brother, when the neighbor starts picking on him, you go and you deal with the neighbor because you are in relationship with him. And that's what happens here. He says, You're not gonna be anything but servants. Y'all are gonna get really good at cutting wood and drawing water because that is going to be your future. And they look at Joshua and they said, Look, because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, because it was certain that you would have destroyed all the inhabitants of the land from before you, we were afraid, and we did this thing. Now, I don't want to give like a pretty silver little lining to something that doesn't exist, but I will tell you this sounds an awful lot like faith to me. I am certain your God is who he says he is. I'm sure of it. We've heard the stories from Moses all the way forward. I just didn't want to die. You will find out that these people never fold themselves into God's people. You will find that they never turn from faith in a meaningful way. And now God's people have made a promise to do the very thing God told them not to do. Behold, we are in your hand, the Gibeonites say, Whatever seems good, whatever seems right in your sight to do to us, do it. So he did this to them, and he deli delivered them out of the hand of the people of Israel, and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord to this day in the place that he should choose. Let me give you two little applications as we look at this text. When you realize who you are and who God is, this word gets an awful lot easier to deal with. Some of you will never be anything but servants because you don't deserve to be anything more than servants. The more we know who God is, the more we realize who we are, the less we have a problem being servants for all of our days. Christian, that really should be your demeanor as you look at this text. There's not a lot to learn from the Gibeonites. They're liars and they're deceivers, but they're shrewd and they're thoughtful. And they realize I can either be on the wrong side of this God, or I can be on the non-wrathful side of this God. And if it means I'm cutting wood all of my days, so be it. Christians, this is the kind of freedom we put in the hands of the Lord. Whatever it is that you want from me, you have rescued me from death. If you want me to be a doorholder, I'll be a doorholder. Whatever it is that you want from me. But the second thing that I want you to ask yourself is this God chastises them for not seeking him before they made this covenant. They didn't pray. So the men did not ask counsel of the Lord. In another situation in Isaiah, we read God's opinion. Ah, stubborn children, declares the Lord, who carry out a plan but not mine, who make an alliance but not of my spirit. Why, when you know what I want you to do, do you do the opposite thing and think it's going to go well for you? But this is my question. How is God going to chastise them for keeping this new covenant? God told him, You cannot make a covenant with these people. You must destroy them. And now they make a covenant and they choose not to destroy them. How is God going to deal with his people? What do you think is going to happen here? Here's let me let me make it less theological. Does God want them to honor their Word when doing so cause them to break their word to God. What do you do here? You ever found yourself in a situation like this? You just talked a little bit too much and you should shut your mouth, and now you've talked your way into kind of a difficult situation. What is it that you're supposed to do? To find the answer to this question, you have to go four hundred years in the future. Check this out. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years. In case you don't know, that means a lot of people died. Okay? A famine back then for three years, people are dying. Year after year. It's consecutive. I have an issue with the next statement because it says, and David sought the face of the Lord. I don't know why he waited three years. I think that's like a week three type of a situation. But for whatever reason, after three years, David's like, oh yeah, prayer, it's kind of an important thing. I remember stories from Joshua. I don't know if that's exactly how it played out, but it seems like how it reads. And the Lord said, There is blood guilt on Saul and on his house. Because 400 years after this promise was made, they broke it. God expects them to honor their word, even when they made it in a way that he would not have preferred for them. Even when they do it in a way that is not their best. And what ends up happening here is seven family seven heads of Saul's family are killed. God puts a famine on his people for not honoring a covenant they made, even though making that covenant went against what God had wanted for them. This is for Christians and non-Christians. Your words today forecast your weather tomorrow in ways that you do not even understand. 400 years from now, if the Lord tarries, the things you say, I'm not even talking about the things you do, the things you say will have massive ramifications on the future of you and your family. And I don't want you to miss this. God expects his people to honor their word even when it wasn't his best option, even when they were deceived when they made it, even when everyone else would excuse them, even when a lot of time has passed, and even when other whoops, others turn out not to be who they said. I'll fix it for service too. How many covenants do you enter into in today's day and age? I can think of two. Uh Matthew, Catherine, or yeah. These are your vows. Uh Gracie and uh Zach are serving in kids' ministry. They'll be these are their vows. This is what it looks like to make a covenant in 2025. This and church membership. These are the covenants we live in, and I just want you to notice them. I take you to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, whether we're sick or whether we're healthy, to love and to cherish until death do us part. I give you my promise. It's not actually what it says. A lot of times nowadays people want to write their own vows, and I have to say, I'm cool with that, but you've got to give them to me first. Because my job as a pastor is to make sure it goes above. We'll watch whatever you want to watch on Netflix at night. It's gotta go beyond, we'll eat at the restaurants you like. All right, we'll always laugh together, right? No offense, it's garbage, it's a garbage voice. I swear to God. That is what elevates everything. And when you invoke God's name, it changes every promise you make. Why in Malachi is this guy covering the Lord's altar with tears? He's weeping and he's groaning because God no longer regards him. Verse 14. Why does he not? Because the Lord was witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you have been faithless. Though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. And if you feel like I'm adding to God's word, did he not make them one with a portion of the spirit in their union? When we stand and we say, to have and to hold from this day forward as God is my witness, what scripture is saying is he is putting his hand on that. He is attaching himself to this. He, like he did with Abraham, is attaching himself. If we look in Matthew, and the Pharisees come up to Jesus just to be difficult because they're punks of people. Jesus, divorce, how does it work? Can we divorce for any reason? He answered, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made a male and female? And he said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, hold fast to his wife, the two shall become one flesh. We talk about that all the time, but do you know what comes next? They're no longer two but one. God has joined them together. What sense does it make for man to separate something? God has joined. When we invoke the name of God, everything changes, which means God expects. This is, by the way, not a text on marriage, but there are only two ways that I can apply this deeply. When we make a commitment to one another in membership, which is not a silly little thing. We're saying, I'm yours and you're mine. I'm gonna cheer you on and I'm gonna weep with you. This is God saying we are family now. You don't share blood, but you share my spirit. And by the way, when you get married as a Christian, as God is my witness, you share in my spirit there as well. God expects his people to honor their word. God expects husbands to honor their word. He expects wives to honor their word even when it wasn't his best option. I married somebody that I thought it was a believer and they're not a believer. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. I'll be happy to grab coffee with you and talk through that if you would like. God expects people to honor their word even when they were deceived. He's not who he said he was. Yeah, well, none of us are. She's not who she said she was. Yeah, none of none of them are. Even when everybody else would excuse them and welcome to a world where that is true. Everybody will tell you to just go and be happy. It makes sense. If I was in your shoes, God expects his people to honor their word even when a lot of time has passed. It's been 40 years. Yeah, well, God held them accountable for a hundred years. Tell you what, your marriage gets to 401, I'll give you a pass. Even that's not true either. If somehow there's a uh methusela among us. Even when others turn out not to be who they said they were, and none of us are. Stokes, if you want to go ahead and come up and lead us in worship. Christians, if you're if you're a non-Christian, all I want you to hear today is that Jesus is willing to be ripped in half so that you can have a relationship with the Father. If you want to talk more about that, it is literally as simple as you praying, yeah, God, I accept that sacrifice. I need the forgiveness of my sins. And if you want help with that, any believing Christian in the pews would help you with that. And we'll have a couple of pastors on the back porch if you want to join us. But Christians, keeping a painful oath does not remove the pain. It's not as though if you say, I'm gonna keep it, six months later, it's gone. This was difficult for God's people for centuries. You being a person of integrity is as costly as it is expected. This is what God expects of you. And keeping a hard promise is not weakness, but worship. And if I could give you one tidbit, again, this is not on marriage. What I would really want you to do is think about your words. What I would really want you to do is before you sign the dotted line, pray. I would want you to invite, as Proverbs 15 says, counsel in. I would want you to think through your friends in your inner circles. Uh by the way, if you're a teenager in the room, if you're a young adult in the room, if you're pre-married in the room, you need to think about your friendships the way a lot of people think about their marriages because they're going to inform a lot. Be careful who you link yourself with, even with words like, I will always be there. We will BFF or whatever else it is. I want you to think through your friendships. I think this is a text for parents to train their kids. When we say something, we mean it. It doesn't matter if we promise or if we swear, we are Christians who are called to be people of integrity. I would want you to think about church life and literally being committed, not just saying, I stood up and now I'm a member, so let's just no, we are committed. We are a family. I would want you to know that when you are deceived, there is a way that you are expected to go forward. But I will tell you this this is the only choice you have on this side of heaven for it to go well. And if you will choose to allow, when you have been deceived, you keep a hard promise, not to see it as weakness, but as worship, all that happens is you move it around and you say, I am going to worship God in the brokenness of my poor decisions, their poor decisions, life not working out the way I want it to. I am gonna choose to worship. And in choosing to worship all of the hard things, you're still gonna feel weak, but it turns into something that can be a strength. This is not a sermon about divorce and remarriage, we can talk about that. This is a sermon about your words matter. Because the world's gonna tell you one thing, and I just want you to see God's word. He's gonna tell you something very, very different. So let's be a people who use our words. But when we do, let's be honest with them. And if we are struggling to keep our vows, if we are struggling to keep our oaths, if integrity is costly, just realize it can be worship as well, as we choose to honor God even in the brokenness and even in the weakness. Do with that as you may, and let the Holy Spirit lead us, and Stokes you can lead us from there.