________________________________________________________________________

It seems to be the trend today for human beings to break promises and to not take too much stock in each other's word. In our society, talk is cheap. Very few people will keep their word. I remember growing up in South Louisiana in a small town where your reputation was only as good as your word. The men that were respected were the ones that kept their word and promises. My father tried to teach me to be a man of my word. Dad is a man of his word. He has many times gone out of his way simply to be where he said that he would be or to pay someone back that had helped him. Growing up, men who made promises and didn't keep them had a hard time making business deals, and had a hard time having friends. People respected men of their word.

Unfortunately, you can't make deals based upon a man's word anymore. Look up the word "Lawyers" in the yellow pages and you will see what I mean. More unfortunately, that attitude tends to come over to the church. I've seen people be moved on by a spiritual experience or moved by a message and make a promise or vow to God, only to go back on their promise after the feeling had left or the moment had passed. I've known people to make God many promises on their death bed, and upon a miraculous recovery, not fulfill any of them, and actually be haunted by their unfulfilled vows to God. I have known men who have made foolish vows to God and fulfilled them and God has blessed them despite the foolishness of what they had promised. I have also known men to make a vow foolishly and go back upon it and receive the wrath of God -- not because of the importance of what they had vowed, but because they had made a promise to God and gone back upon it. I have definitely learned this: God takes a vow and a promise -- no matter how rash or foolish -- very seriously. More seriously than we realize.

In our text, Moses gave the guidelines of making a vow unto the Lord and stated that if you vowed something to the Lord, the Lord WILL require it! People may forget, but God will require it!

In Judges chapter 11, we find that the army of the Ammonites were oppressing Israel and the Spirit of God moved upon a man named Jephthah and anointed him with the strength to lead Israel to victory. With the anointing of God upon him, Jephthah decided to make a vow to God! In his zealousness and the afterglow of the anointing, he made a rash vow:

After God helped Jephthah to defeat the Ammonites, he returned home and the first thing to meet him was his only daughter. Grieved at his hasty vow, nevertheless Jephthah fulfilled his vow.

God never asked Jephthah for human sacrifice and it was not the perfect will of God, yet because Jephthah had made a vow to God, God required it. They were under law and it was much stricter in the literal sense, but God has allowed this scripture to be recorded to remind us that He takes vows and promises to Him very seriously. God never forgets a vow, no matter how rash or how hasty. From this story we need to realize how important prayer is and how much stock God puts into what we say when we pray. When you pray, you are not just killing time or fulfilling a righteous duty, but there is a God that actually is listening to every word that you say. You expect Him to take you seriously and God does, especially the vows and promises that you make. I'm not trying to scare you from making promises to God only to remind you that when you do, God holds you to them!

________________________________________________________________________

Jacob was another man who vowed a vow to God. Jacob had deceived his father into giving him the inheritance rather than his older brother Esau. When Esau found out that he had lost the birthright, Jacob had to run for his life. There, all alone in the wilderness, never to see his mother or father again, and literally running for his life, God met Jacob and Jacob was reassured by a wonderful spiritual experience. He dreamed that he saw a ladder ascending to heaven and angels coming up and down that ladder. In the dream, God made some promises to Jacob. Still warmed from the reassurance and afterglow of the experience, Jacob arose and made a vow to God:

Jacob then continued on to some distant relatives. I think that he full intended to fulfill his vow unto God. But things did not go as he had planned in his mind. First, there was the fact that Laban changed his wages and treated Jacob unkindly. Then there was the incident where Jacob had worked for 7 years without pay in order to marry Racheal, and Laban pulled the switcheroo with her ugly sister, Leah. In order to get Racheal, Jacob had to work another 7 years without pay. Third, there was the issue of living among people who worshipped idols and it really wasn't convenient to perform his vow. Then there was the return of Esau and the stress of meeting with the brother who had vowed to kill Jacob.

Jacob got busy and for at least 15 years, did not do one thing to fulfill or work toward his vow to God. It seemed Jacob had forgotten about it, his wives didn't even know anything about it, but God had not forgotten! One night, God spoke again to Jacob in a dream:

God reminded Jacob, that you have made a vow unto me! "Jacob, it's time to fulfill your vow!" Jacob had to leave his comfort level; he had to leave home; he had to act upon his vow. God never forgets!

In your relationship with God, there will come a time or it may have already come where you felt a special calling and moving of God's Spirit upon your life, and you vow a vow to God! Yet, like Jacob's, the vow that you made while totally dependent upon God and in the wilderness looks quite different when things haven't turned out exactly how you planned! You see, when you made that vow, three people heard it: God, your flesh, and the satanic forces. God requires it, your flesh abhors it, and Satan wants it to go unfulfilled so that he can heap condemnation upon you. After you make a vow, life will ALWAYS turn differently than you expected. Unfortunately, too many people forget the vow when the situation is not convenient! But God still requires it! For Jacob, it was 15 years later and God was still waiting. Jacob could grow no further in God until he began to make good on his vow!

________________________________________________________________________

When your life and plan for God to work in your life doesn't go quite as you had planned it, you join an elite group of people. Jacob comes to mind. So does a man named Job who knew that he hadn't sinned, but couldn't understand why everything had gone wrong. You join the ranks of Daniel who made a vow to God that he would serve him and pray to him and found himself carried away from Israel never to return again. His vow got him thrown into a den of lions. Yet his vow helped him keep his faith in God strong! I don't want you to think that you can get by without a vow to God. In fact the people that were the most anointed and used by God were men who had made a vow to God -- and then kept that vow even when things didn't go quite according to plan!

Think of Peter who brashly told Jesus that he would never forsake him! Think of Peter who Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom. Jesus entrusted the keys to the kingdom of Grace to a man who was willing to take a vow. Peter left his vow, but after repenting, began fulfilling it! For the rest of Peter's days after his denial, we find no other denials! Peter was a man driven by a vow! Despite persecution, despite growth in an unexpected area of the Gentiles, despite having to spend his last days in prison and then be crucified, Peter never wavered again on trusting Jesus Christ. Why? He was a man driven by a vow! When you realize the seriousness of your vow and your word and promise to God, it will keep you through the thin times! There are some low times that I have kept serving God, and kept on doing what was right, simply because of some vows that I made to God as a little child. At the time I didn't realize what I was really saying, but the vows were made and the vows kept me! Thank God that He holds us to His vows!

The most anointed and blessed men of Israel were those willing to take the Nazarite vow! These men lived by higher standards and by different codes of conduct than the other men! When they took a vow and kept it, God responded to their faithfulness by imparting some great strength or anointing. It was because of his vow, that Samson had great strength, and it was their vow that made both Samuel and John the Baptist so anointed and effective spiritual leaders! With the vow came a greater anointing! Peter and Paul both show as examples that we cannot shy away from the commitment of making a vow unto the Lord! The Nazarites are recorded to remind us that “yes, the vow is binding, but eventually God will require a promise, and with that vow will come great anointing and power!”

________________________________________________________________________

Psalm 65 is a special psalm for a unique reason. In it David mentions that he had a vow to God:

We are not told what the vow was or the exact words of it. It is never mentioned elsewhere in scripture, but when we see the life of David we see someone who was definitely driven by a vow that he had made unto God.

David was driven to serve God as a young man. Out alone, tending his father's sheep and feeling like a nobody and a reject. The illegitimate son of Jesse developed a prayer life and became a worshipper of God. There, alone on the slopes of Judea, somewhere David developed a relationship with God, and there some time in his youth, I believe David made his vow to God!

Perhaps we can see the content of the vow from David’s life. It probably contained a promise to worship God not matter what other said, for David certainly was passionate about his worship. Maybe it was to give back to God the blessings that was given to him, for David certainly was adamant about that. I believe that somewhere in the vow, David promised to not father an illegitimate son for Satan certainly targeted that part of it. Certainly, David had made a vow never to harm God’s chosen prophets and anointed people. Whatever the words actually spoken, no doubt David had a vow.

I believe that the vow was made before Samuel anointed David as King. When all of his brothers had passed before Samuel, God spoke that he looks upon the “heart of man” and not upon the outside. The anointing came after the vow! David certainly had every intention of fulfilling his vow! And God realized: “this is a man who is willing to make some promises to me, I can anoint him and use him!” The vow qualified David to the anointing and plan of God!

I’m sure David felt great about his vow unto God when he was called out of the fields and given a special anointing as king. I’m sure David felt great about having made the vow unto God when word came that he was to move into the palace and play music for King Saul. No doubt, in David’s mind everything was coming together. He would be in the palace everyday and it would be no time at all until God would exalt him to the throne. When old Goliath challenged the Israelite army, David had no fear in stepping out in faith and acting upon his vow and challenge the giant. I’m sure he felt great after his victory and everybody’s praises! This vow was going exactly how David had planned.

Then things changed. Saul became jealous and got into the habits of throwing spears at David. Saul refrained his son and good friend of David, Jonathon from having anything to do with David. Then David finally found himself running for his life from cave to cave and living like an animal in order to survive. He hadn’t planned upon this when he had vowed his vow! What was going on!?!

After you feel the anointing and after you have vowed your vow, then God will test you to see if you are a man of your word! If your vow means no more to you that with a change of circumstance, you will break it, then God knows that He cannot trust you with the position of great anointing! David had received his anointing because he had made the vow, but he would not reach a position of being able to use his anointing until he had proven that his vow was not an empty promise. God has to know that you will keep your word! David didn’t have Saul’s throne until he had the opportunity to take it for himself and with his own hands by killing Saul and refused, thus staying faithful to his vow!

Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac? Because Abraham had made a vow unto God that nothing was too great to ask! God wanted to know how serious his vow was! God was making sure that Abraham could handle the blessing!

If you have taken a vow and you feel like that things haven’t turned out quite the way that you expected, then you need to still be faithful to your vow! God is trying to test you to see if you will perform what you have spoken, even in an environment that is against your vow! Satan is wanting for you to fail so that he can destroy you with Condemnation! But pick up your vow! Begin to work toward fulfilling your vow! God is just getting you ready for your position where your anointing can be effective!

________________________________________________________________________

For the past few weeks I have been fascinated by Epaphroditus. I noticed him about a year ago in my personal reading time and I made a note to study him further. This past month, I did so. Epaphroditus is not a major character in the Bible and is only mentioned twice in Philippians chapters 2 and 4. All we know about Epaphroditus is found in a total of seven verses of scripture. But the portrait that they paint reveals a man driven by a vow unto God!

The name Epaphroditus means “devoted to the goddess Venus.” Epaphroditus was a Gentile and was not raised a Christian. In fact, as a baby, he had obviously been dedicated to the worship of an idol. Somewhere, the church that was formed at Philippi by the conversion of Lydia, the seller of purple, had come in contact with this young man and he had been converted to truth! Somewhere in this conversion the man Epaphroditus who had been devoted to Venus made a vow unto God and despite no other family mentioned, he decided to serve God and live for Jesus Christ.

The verses that we have recorded of his life are those that Paul writes as he sends Epaphroditus back to Philippi from Rome with the letter to the Philippians. Within these verses there are several points that leap out at me!

The most obvious verse that jumps out is chapter 2, verse 29. In Paul makes appeal to the church in Philippi to “receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation.” Obviously something had gone wrong in Philippi for Paul to ask for them to receive Epaphroditus willingly and to respect him. The second point that leaps out is that Epaphroditus had been gravely ill since he had been with Paul. Indeed, the church in Philippi knew about it so no doubt Epaphroditus had been sick before traveling to Paul with an offering from the church. The third point is that verse 25 refers to Epaphroditus to ministering to Paul’s “wants,” and verse 30 states that he risked his life for the “work of Christ.” That is a direct reference to preaching the Gospel!

From this fragmentary information, let me piece together the story Epaphroditus and his devotion to his vow.

After his conversion, Epaphroditus made a commitment to God to no longer be faithful to his past idols but to serve the Lord! From the tone of the letter, and his involvement with the offering being sent to Paul, we can discern that Epaphroditus was an anointed leader of a thriving church. Somewhere, though, things didn’t go quite like he had expected. There began to be problems of some sort. What they were we do not know, and actually that is more powerful because we can apply our situation into the story. The stress of the situation caused Epaphroditus to begin to be ill. It also caused him to act rashly and some people began to question him. It was a hurt Christian, both physically and spiritually who decided to volunteer to make the dangerous voyage to deliver the offering to Paul in jail.

Travel was risky in those days, and indeed it was not a good time of the year for travel. But Epaphroditus was a little desperate: maybe the time away would do him good, and surely the Apostle Paul’s prayer would heal him. However upon arriving in Rome, things were not quite like Epaphroditus expected. First, Paul was in jail awaiting his trial before Caesar for preaching about Jesus Christ. And now Paul was asking for Epaphroditus to go to the same areas in which he was arrested and preach the same message for him. To do so was to gravely put his life in danger.

Also, the Apostle Paul prayed and.... nothing happened. In fact, his illness grew worse and worse! To make matters worse the memories of home and his home church haunted him.

Epaphroditus had every reason to back down on his vow from serving God! His church had deserted him. He was living as a pauper, literally flirting with death by preaching the Gospel and carrying out the demands of a preacher in prison about to beheaded. His situation at home was not good, and God had not answered the request for healing and indeed, he had only gotten worse.

But Epaphroditus had made a vow! Every clue in scripture and history tells us that he stayed in Rome for several months, preaching the Gospel despite the pain of rejection and the danger, and the sickness that brought him close to death! Epaphroditus knew that he had found truth. Knew that he was serving the only true, living God, and he wasn’t about to back down from his vow!

True faith is when you are committed to God even when you don’t see the results. True faith is when you know that God is a healer and stay committed to serving Him even when the healing hasn’t come. True faith is when you are willing to lose everything for the work of Christ and are willing to, despite how the circumstances have turned out, you are willing to stay true to your vow that you made to God!

We know that Epaphroditus eventually recovered from his sickness. The word in the Greek does not mean a spiritual miracle but rather a long, natural recovery. God had chosen to allow Epaphroditus to suffer to see how serious his vow was! But recover he did. The problems that had been so heavy upon his mind must have worked out for we never find another mention of them in history or Paul’s letters. One thing is sure about Epaphroditus: in the lists of the men who had forsaken truth and left Paul in the hardships of his missions, Epaphroditus is NOT named! He had been willing to courageously endure the hardships of his storm and stand for God! Epaphroditus was willing to remain true to his vow! Whatever happened, God blessed him!

________________________________________________________________________

The main reason that Epaphroditus had kept his vow, is because he had an example of Paul being true to his vow to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles no matter what the cost. Paul had been severely mistreated in Philippi in trying to establish the church there:

It was in Philippi that Paul and Silas were wrongly beaten and thrown in jail. It there that they labored against the spirit of pride that kept men from responding to their message and even endangering their lives. While Paul kept preaching, there was a young man named Epaphroditus who was watching and learning the importance of a vow! He had seen Paul’s physical problems and seen how that God had refused to heal him and yet seen Paul keep preaching! Paul didn’t realize it, but Epaphroditus was making some vows of his own and something was being placed inside of him to keep them no matter what came!

When you perform your vow to God no matter what the circumstances that happen, not only do you prepare yourself for God’s blessings but you also reveal to someone else the importance of the vow. In fulfilling his vow, Epaphroditus also helped fulfill Paul’s even though he had reached a place where he thought he couldn’t!

God help us to have a vow like Epaphroditus!