Character Counts

Character Counts

Proverbs 22:1-6

November 1, 1998

Rev. Charles S. Mims

Proverbs 22:1 through Proverbs 22:6

¹A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.

²The rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all.

³A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.

⁴By humility and the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour, and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doth keep his soul shall be far from them.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

In the old cemetery at Winchester, Virginia, that starlit abbey of the Confederacy, there is a monument to the unknown Confederate dead. On it are cut these two lines:

Who they were, none knows,

What they were, all know.

In short, Character counts. Many of you may not be aware of it, but last week was National Character Week. Mr. Clinton singed this proclamation on October 16:

"Now, therefore, I, William Jefferson Clinton, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 18 through October 24, 1998, as National Character Counts Week. I call upon the people of the United States, government officials, educators, religious, community, and business leaders, and the States to commemorate this week with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs.

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-third."

(signed) William Jefferson Clinton Oct. 16, 1998

-New York Post, October 20, 1998

Character has been taking a beating for the past two decades in our country, but never more apparent has it been than in the past few months. It is ironic to me that a man who is totally devoid of character, and obviously does not comprehend the meaning of integrity could have the audacity to lend his signature to a document proclaiming National Character Week.

Over the past few weeks, the newscasters and political pundits have been trying to tell us that the "American People" say that Mr. Clinton's actions do not effect his ability to lead. We have been told that character isn't important, the economy is. We have been told that the President of our nation does not have to have high morals. I wish that the talking heads would quit using the phrase "The American People" because the words spewing forth from their mouth do not come from THIS American person. Because this morning I'm going to tell you, unequivocally, that character DOES count.

It counts to God, and it ought to count for us as well. Character not only counts in our nation's leader, it counts for those who sit in judgement of him in accordance to the laws of our country. Character counts for those who hold office in our state. Character counts for those who hold office in our county. Character counts for those who hold office in our cities. Character counts for those who hold office in our churches. Character counts for those of us leading our families. Character Counts!

According to our text this morning, a good name is to be greatly admired. We should protect that name, and keep our reputations spotless. It matters how we live lives. It matters the way we treat people. It matters the words that come out of our mouths. It matters.

Until character is brought back to the forefront in our nation, things will never improve. Things will continue down the slippery slope until we realize that character is important. We must once again expect such things as honesty and integrity from our leaders. We must expect fidelity in marriages. We must begin to expect teenagers to abstain from sex. We must begin to expect people to abstain from alcohol and drug abuse. Until we begin to expect people to live Godly lives, we can hardly fault them for not living it, now can we?

This places a great responsibility on us. We are tasked to insure that character counts. We must make it a priority in our lives. Let us look at three areas in which we can make a difference.

We Must Teach Right from Wrong

If we are going to make character count again in our nation, we must begin to teach right from wrong. There are some things that are right, and some things that are wrong. It is way past time that we stopped clouding the issues with shades of gray. We must begin in our homes teaching Biblical principles to family. Even if our children are grown and gone, we still must reinforce Biblical morality in the home. Verse 6 in our text says:

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

It is our responsibility to teach children that character counts. We must go back to the basics of our beliefs and unconditionally say that right is right and wrong is wrong. We must teach people that a sinful lifestyle is not appropriate behavior. It is past time for us to stop tolerating every alternative that comes down the pike. Our Bible is clear on issues of morality, and it is time that we as Christian's stop hiding behind political correctness and stop our tacit acceptance of the devil's influence. We accept things today that 20 years ago would have made someone an outcast. We allow moral indiscretions to be explained away without so much as a slap on the wrist. This morning I am saying to you that we must begin to draw a line in the sand. It is time we stood up and said with a resounding cry that enough is enough. We must put the world on notice that will not tolerate indecency any longer.

We Must Raise the Bar When It Comes to Character

In these trying times, we must convince people that our character is important, and once our character becomes tarnished it is difficult to remove the stain. Bill Gaither tells this story:

In his book, I Almost Missed the Sunset, Bill Gaither writes:

Gloria and I had been married a couple of years. We were teaching school in Alexandria, Indiana, where I had grown up, and we wanted a piece of land where we could build a house. I noticed the parcel south of town where cattle grazed, and I learned it belonged to a 92-year-old retired banker named Mr. Yule. He owned a lot of land in the area, and the word was he would sell none of it. He gave the same speech to everyone who inquired: "I promised the farmers they could use it for their cattle."

Gloria and I visited him at the bank. Although he was retired, he spent a couple of hours each morning in his office. He looked at us over the top of his bifocals.

I introduced myself and told him we were interested in a piece of his land. "Not selling," he said pleasantly. "Promised it to a farmer for grazing."

"I know, but we teach school here and thought maybe you'd be interested in selling it to someone planning to settle in the area."

He pursed his lips and stared at me. "What'd you say your name was?"

"Gaither. Bill Gaither."

"Hmmm. Any relation to Grover Gaither?"

"Yes, Sir. He was my granddad."

Mr. Yule put down his paper and removed his glasses. "Interesting. Grover Gaither was the best worker I ever had on my farm. Full day's work for a day's pay. So honest. What'd you say you wanted?"

I told him again.

"Let me do some thinking on it, then come back and see me."

I came back within the week, and Mr. Yule told me he had had the property appraised. I held my breath. "How does $3,800 sound? Would that be okay?"

If that was per acre, I would have to come up with nearly $60,000! "$3,800?" I repeated.

"Yup. Fifteen acres for $3,800."

I knew it had to be worth at least three times that. I readily accepted.

Nearly three decades later, my son and I strolled that beautiful, lush property that had once been pasture land. "Benjy," I said, "you've had this wonderful place to grow up through nothing that you've done, but because of the good name of a great-granddad you never met."

"A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold" (Prov 22:1).

-- Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching (Baker), from the editors of Leadership.

We must raise the bar. We need to begin to expect high moral character from people around us, beginning with our own selves. The expectations of the world have constantly been lowered, year after year, scandal after scandal. And the devil is running around with a great big grin on his face, happy as he can be because we are defeating ourselves. We need to raise expectations. Should we expect our politicians to be honest? YES! Should we expect our leaders to have high moral values? YES! Should we expect our ministers to have values? YES! Should we expect our brothers and sisters to live according to The Word? YES, YES, YES, YES! If we don't begin to expect it, it will never happen.

In 1984, Democrat Gary Hart was sweeping the nation as he ran for President. Even die hard Republicans were being pulled into Hart's campaign. Many Americans liked the ideas of this man and pledged to vote for him. Then it came out that he had an adulterous relationship with Donna Rice. He had consensual relations with a legal adult. When this became known, his campaign went down the tubes. Americans stood up and said that this sort of behavior was unacceptable in a candidate for President. Americans were outraged and incensed, and Gary Hart had to withdraw from the race in shame.

What a difference eight years made in our collective consciences. We truly became socially enlightened products of the 1990's when the same sorts of accusations were made against candidate for President, Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas. We clucked our tongues, wagged our heads, and said "Such a shame, I'm so glad it doesn't have anything to do with his ability to lead the nation." We watched him deny an affair that in 1998 he would admit to under oath, and we allowed ourselves to be convinced that character didn't matter. We watched him lie to us, telling us he had never been drafted when indeed he had, and when the truth came out, we put the blinders firmly on our eyes and refused to get upset about it. We have walked one more step down a long road to damnation and desolation. We saw in 1998 a fifty year old man break the sacred vows of marriage with a young woman who could be his own daughter, we watched this same man wag his finger in our faces and tell an out and out lie to us, we saw a taped depostion where he committed a felony by lying to a grand jury under oath. And what does the Christian community do? Do we stand up and say this is not right? Do we compell our lawmakers to make him resign? Do we unconditionally decry what has happened? NO! We rallied around this man and joined his attack against his accusers. Claiming the right to a private life and claiming that what he did was not so bad? We have been led down a path that is difficult to return from. We have been deluded to believe that character does not matter, and Satan is jumping for joy because he has won this battle. He has defeated us because we have lowered the bar of expectation. It is time we raised the bar. We must expect our leadership to be of sterling character.

Let me make it crystal clear. It is not Kenneth Starr who is attacking Mr. Clinton, it is not Paula Jones, Monica Lewinski, or the Republican Congress. It is not this preacher. It is the old deceiver himself, that wily, crafty old devil himself. Satan has found a weakness in not only Mr. Clinton, but has found a weakness within us as well, and is using it to his advantage. We must take the advantage away by removing the weakness. We must raise the bar and make it plain that, for us, CHARACTER COUNTS!

We Must Protect Our Character

As followers of Christ we are under an obligation to live a little bit different than everyone else. We are under a divine obligation to live a life beyond reproach. Our reputation is something we must cherish and protect with vigor. God has given us the foundation, we must build upon that foundation. In the Word of God we find a detailed blueprint on how to conduct our lives, the values we should have, and the character we should build. Our text this morning reminds us that our name is important, and what people think of us is important. If we live our lives in the same sinful, carnal ways that the world does, there is no incentive for them to come to know the Lord. When Christ enters our lives, we become sanctified vessels serving as the temple of the Lord. We must keep our temple spotless.

This morning I hope you have heard my plea. It is a plea to clean up our lives, and begin to expect moral behavior from ourselves and those around us. It is a plea to live like Jesus would. I hope you will take this admonition concerning character from the book of Proverbs and keep that in mind when you go to the polls on Tuesday morning to cast your vote. We must vote for leaders who meet our standards of morality, and remove from office those who don't. We can no longer sit back silently while this world goes straight into the pits of hell.

Allow me to close with this poem I ran across this week:

America the Beautiful or so you used to be

Land of the Pilgrims' pride, I'm glad they'll never see.

Babies piled in dumpsters, Abortion on demand,

Oh, sweet land of liberty, your house is on the sand.

Our children wander aimlessly poisoned by cocaine,

Choosing to indulge their lusts, when God has said abstain.

From sea to shining sea our Nation turns away

From the teaching of God's love and a need to always pray.

So many worldly pastors tell lies about our Rock,

Saying God is going broke so they can fleece the flock.

We've kept God in our temples, how callous we have grown,

When earth is but His footstool and Heaven is His throne.

We've voted in a government that's rotting at the core,

Appointing Godless judges who throw reason out the door,

Too soft to place a killer in a well deserved tomb,

But brave enough to kill a baby before he leaves the womb.

You think that God's not angry that our land's a moral slum?

How much longer will He wait before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God from whom we cannot hide?

What then is left for us to do, but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children will humbly turn and pray,

Seek His holy face and mend our evil way,

Then God will hear from Heaven and forgive us of our sins,

He'll heal our sickly land and those who live within.

But America the Beautiful if you don't then you will see,

A sad but Holy God withdraw His hand from thee.

--Author Unknown (Thank you David Zimmerman http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/5487/

May God encourage you this week to stand up and yell to the world that YES! Character DOES count!