Values That Last A Lifetime II, Valuing Integrity

I really appreciate the special that the gals did this morning. That was great. Thanks, gals. Wonderful. Take your outline out of the notes today, and as you're doing that, just a couple of things you may have missed this week. Listen to this. This week, on Tuesday night, there were over 400 people here for the Alive Again barbeque and outreach and time of sharing, and at least half, maybe more than that, were not from our church. It was a wonderful evening of just declaring hope in Christ in the ministry of Alive Again. And then last Friday night, just a couple nights ago, our youth led over 500 of us in a worship experience with all creative things, many of which they had done, songs they had written, just expressing their gifts. So this was a wonderful, fruitful week. I ran into a number of people who asked me, is this my first week back, which told me that they weren't here last week. So welcome back to those of you who have been gone. I've been here for a while. Where have you been? Missed you. And this is the nature of things this summer. One more little word of introduction here. I just anticipate, I kind of sense this, get a feel for it now, by September 9th and 10th, just get ready for the parking crunch. Because church is still growing quietly behind the scenes, and it's starting, you'll see it, and we'll have to deal pretty directly with those issues when they come, but it's exciting growth-related things. Let's look in this morning. We're continuing this series on values that last a lifetime. And I want to talk today about integrity. On my break, I watched a Learning Channel special entitled, The 10 Worst Technological Disasters of All Time. Your car was not one of them. But the number four was considered to be the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. You see, the ship was thought to be unsinkable, because it incorporated at that time innovative technology that compartmentalized the hull in 14 different compartments, so that even if one or two of the compartments flooded, the ship would still stay afloat. Well, as we all know, that's not what happened, and we're not exactly sure of the emotions of the people, but with the help of James Cameron and the people from the movie, we can have an idea. So watch this little clip, what might have happened when the captain found out the true condition of the Titanic. This is the most unfortunate, Captain. Water 14 feet above the keel in 10 minutes. In the forepeak, in all three holes, and in boardroom six. That's right, sir. When can we get underway? That's five compartments. She can stay afloat with the first four compartments breached, but not five. Not five. As she goes down by the head, the water will spill over the tops of the bulkheads at each deck, from one to the next, back and back. There's no stopping it. The pumps, if we open the doors... The pumps buy you time, but minutes only. From this moment, no matter what we do, Titanic will found her. But this ship can't sink. She's made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can, and she will. It is a mathematical certainty. How much time? An hour, two at most. I love the line, it's made of iron, sir. It will sink. 2,200 souls were on board that night. 1,522 of them perished when the integrity of the hull was damaged. It's interesting that James Cameron, the director of the film, later in an interview said that the Titanic was a metaphor of life for all of us, that we're all in a Titanic voyage of sorts. You may be sailing through some smooth waters and cruising along and things are just going great for you right now, feeling secure, but if the integrity of your life gets damaged or compromised, you can find things change very quickly. It's not an overstatement to say that integrity is a Titanic issue, that much of the potential of your life will be determined by how seriously you take this topic today. Someone told me after the first service that they've never heard a whole sermon on this subject. And I think that might not be too far from the truth. And the reason is, it's a difficult one to talk about. See, more and more believers are comfortable with the idea of compartmentalizing their life. I've got this section of my life, and it's my social life, and over here's my home life, and here's my work life, and here's my church life, and here's my sex life, and here's my spiritual life, and on and on we go. And two broad categories I see almost all believers struggle with is, broadly speaking, their spiritual life, you know, what they do in the church and with their quiet time and, you know, all those things, and over here's their secular life, the spiritual and the secular. The secular is the, quote, real world, you know, what I do in the workplace, what I do to make money, and how I get along, and survive, and all those kinds of things. And those two things sometimes just don't seem to connect, and so people are comfortable just separating them. There's not integration, and it's no wonder that many of those people live less than fulfilled lives. They're wondering, how does God fit into my real life, when in fact that's what God intended all along. It's that he is real life. He is the way, the truth, and the life, and you're to integrate those things into your spiritual life. Look at the definition on your outline. By definition, integrity is the quality or state of being complete, or undivided, or incorruptible. Being complete, being one, being whole. One author added this, he said, integrity is fundamentally the value we place on ourselves. It is our ability to make and keep commitments to ourselves. So if we say, for example, that our family is first, then that, by definition of integrity, means that we can't work successive 80-hour weeks on, and on, and on, and on, because that's not really blending the two together. If we say that we love God, and we bless him with our song, and our worship, that means that we wouldn't hang out with people who blaspheme his name, and just kind of carry God through the mud. If we say that we want to obey God in our lives, and yet, when the Lord asks something of us, we say, well, no, I don't think I'm really interested in that. That's not being a person of integrity. And we've just been through a five-year public debate about this one question, and we're still hearing it. Does my private life affect my public performance? Have you heard that phrase? Well, the answer is, absolutely, it does. And if you think otherwise, despite the silver-tongued words of the spin masters, you're in for a titanic struggle, because you have to integrate your life, or you won't stand. Just one other word of personal testimony here. I struggled some last night with this message, before I shared it, and afterwards. And here's what I finally figured out early this morning, that I struggled with, when I got up long before sunrise, and thought about this. The problem with this message is, it's too easy to apply it to your neighbor. It's too easy to think about what somebody, because you see, some of you feel real passionate, for example, about financial integrity. And so you'll think of, yeah, yeah, that's right. That's the way it needs to be. And at the same time, God might want to be speaking to you about the integrity of your behavior, when you're hanging out with your customers, and willing to drink just a little too much, in order just to fit in. And others of you might be really intense about, you know, integrity with your sexual life, and staying pure, but at the same time, you know, you're willing to come over here, and sort of just talk about people, and have no integrity toward your relationships. And you see, it's, we've got to realize, God has something to say in this message to me. I can tell you, He said some things to me, in preparing it. And I want to encourage you to ask Him, what is He saying to you? Don't worry about your neighbor. Don't see any elbows going. Don't want to see anyone's name next to one of these quotes. Let God speak to you. And there's this, I mean, there's illustrations all the time. Are there not? I mean, I'll just mention one by name, because it's been very public this week. It's been the local rescue mission, the Life Rescue Mission. Some of our people are even involved down there. And, you know, and yes, I was reading this over breakfast this morning, yesterday's paper. And here's a quote from Tun Silken, who's the chairman of what he said, you know. He said, he was answering this on the charges. He says, we take these charges seriously. He said, it's a matter, a question of integrity. And I commend him for taking them seriously, and dealing with them, and taking them on. And I just pray that they're fully restored. And I want to support them in that. You see, integrity is everywhere. It doesn't always come under that name, but it's everywhere, and it affects all of us. So let's look at this at a personal level. Let me give you four reasons why integrity matters. I hope you'll take these notes. First of all, it matters because it pleases God. You see, God by nature is one. The Bible says, Hero Israel, the Lord your God is, I'll try again, Hero Israel, the Lord your God is one God, even though he's presented himself in three forms, Father, Son, and Spirit. He's one God. And he wants us to know all throughout the Bible, he affirms the unity of his presence. He cannot lie, the Bible says, in him there is no variation or shadow due to change, James 1 17. The Bible says that God is absolute truth, and that he wants us to be one with him, John 17. Jesus said that they may be one even as we are one, and they may be one in us, and you in them. See, God is all about integration, and that's why he can demand of us integrity in our lives. Now, again, I want to say this. This is not to be a message of, like, heavy condemnation on people who are having a tough time with this. It's meant to be, however, a reminder that we don't have the luxury to pick and choose the parts of God that we want, folks. We have to live lives that are integrated fully in his revelation to us. Look at the first verse, it says, the Lord hates people with twisted hearts, but he delights in those who have integrity. Do you know somebody with a twisted heart? Remember what I said earlier? Well, I don't have a twisted heart. Have you ever thought this? Well, I can probably get away with it because no one's really going to know. No one's going to see. I mean, so what difference is this? It's just a little bit of a compromise. I can fudge and cheat a little bit because it's really, it's not a big deal. Listen, when no one else ever sees, God always does. And that can be a bit scary at times to know that God sees, the Bible says, he sees the things that we do in secret, Jesus said. And he rewards us accordingly. And that should be enough, that alone should be enough motivation that we say, God, go ahead and show me, shine the light where I need to to get my kind of cleaned up here because he delights, the Bible says, in integrity. He delights in it. Second, it affects others. It affects others and most importantly, it affects those who are closest to you. Look at the next verse, good people who live honest lives will be a blessing to their children. Make no mistake, friends, integrity affects our kids. Parents, have you ever been busted by your kids? Ever go up to the salad bar, buy one salad bar and pass out three plates? No, I've never done that. Yeah, ever go to a movie where it was like $7.50 for adults and $3.25 for kids? You know, and you look at your 12-year-old and say, hey, look, say you're almost 11. I mean, there's just a little bit over 11, right? I mean, you know, you can save half price. You make it up, but yeah, most all of us are from time to time when it's cost us something, we try to just sort of skim a little bit, haven't we? All of us have an inclination and it affects those that we love the most. I want to tell you something, my kids, I mean, they watch what I do to this day and we speak so much more by our lives and by our words. Remember this, it's always easy to impress a crowd from a distance. It's easy to impress clients from a distance and all that, but when you get up close to somebody, that's when they find out who you really are. And as John Maxwell says, if you want to influence someone, you have to get up close to them. So you need to let people get up there and say, hey, check me out. One reason why many people change jobs periodically is because people start to get too close and finding out what's really going on. One reason why the average pastor is just three years before the senior pastor goes on is because people get too close. So the pastor just picks up his bundle of sermons and goes on to another church and does it. One reason why people change partners every so often, even spouses, is because they just get a little too close. There's a fear of sinking because there's some holes in our integrity. So we want to bail out. And our nation, by the way, is in serious trouble because we have so compromised the values that we held as a nation through the generations. Third, our integrity matters because it brings others to God. You see, as Christians, we also have the added privilege of influencing others into the kingdom of God. Look at the next verse. Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. They will see your honorable behavior and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world. Now, that can sound like a little bit pie in the sky. I don't know that I've had too many people say, you know, my neighbor was watching me cut the grass and he came and said, you just seem so godly. Can I know you know, something about your faith? I haven't heard that, but can I tell you, I do know people who watch how folks connect. And I remember some years ago when there was a small group meeting in a house on the street where I live, and the home group would meet time after time after time. And one of the neighbors said, you know, I was just kind of wondering why I never got invited to your small group. I wanted to be included. Neighbors do notice things. We have an opportunity to influence people. And what is the most common criticism you hear about people in the church? That they are full of, the church is full of, there you go, hypocrites. Have you heard that? I hear it all the time. Maybe they just, is that something I just say to pastors? I hear it all the time. I don't go to church because it's full of hypocrites. I've heard that a thousand times. Know where that word comes from? It's a Greek word. In the early Greek theater, an actor would come out and play a role with a mask, then go change masks, same actor, and put on another role. Okay, different mask, different role. That actor was called a hypocritus, or hypocritus, if you want to say it in exact Greek. That's the word from which we get hypocrite. One who plays multiple roles. There are two reasons why people reject Jesus. One is they've never met a Christian, and the second is because they have. It's often a diluted, compromised testimony of a life that's lived in the name of Christ without integrity, that has hurt the cause of Christ. And there's no more vivid example of this than the very, very sad televangelist scandals of the late 80s. And if you were around then, you remember just how terrible it was. I mean, just story after story of money, and sex, and all the kinds of improper behaviors that just, you know, people used it as a reason just to push God away. But you know what? That was just a few people. I'm just about to tell you, I've discovered that folks watch what we do all the time. And it's not public necessarily, but they're still making judgments on whether or not they want to connect with the God you say you know, based on the way you live your life. They're watching you, and they're watching me. And it's not easy. It's not easy. Even little things that we do from time to time. I was in my cell group on Thursday night. We were just connecting. Actually, it was later on Friday, Friday evening. And one of the folks turned and said, well, hey, my son followed you through the neighborhood the other day. I said, you were really moving through that neighborhood, weren't you? I said, you know, it doesn't matter. I mean, just get used to it, folks. I have, I mean, I've taken all the bumper stickers, everything off my car. Doesn't matter. People watch what we do. But it's an opportunity on the positive side of things to influence them for God. And I could tell you lots of stories of how positively people have been affected. Finally, the reason why integrity matters is that it blesses you. Now, I want you to please circle that, because I don't want you to forget that living a life of integrity is the best way to live in the end. You got to hear that. I mean, this may sound like it's a challenge, but it's also a great blessing. Proverbs 11, 5 and 6. Moral character makes for smooth traveling, and evil life is a hard life. It was Mark Twain that said, integrity means you don't need a long memory. I like that. You understand why he's saying that? Because you don't have to wonder, what did I say to that person back then, and what did I do? Oh, and now I run into him again, and I wonder if they realize it. Integrity means I was the same here as I'll be here, and I'll be over here. And when the Bible says here that evil life is a hard life, I know some of you are thinking, well, you know what, I know some people who don't live very godly lives, and they just seem to get away with a lot, and get, you know, they've got a lot of success, and they've done really well for themselves, and I hear that a lot. Listen, I've discovered something after a number of years of living now. A lot of people put on a pretty good outer shell, but if they don't live for God, and they don't live with integrity inside, in their hearts, they are not happy people. In fact, life has become hard for them. Ever notice that evil is live, spelled backwards? When you're not living for God, you're moving toward evil. Just got to remember that. You live God's way, or you slip into the way, the twist with God's purposes and plans for your life. A life of integrity is a life that's at peace with God. And think of the confidence you get. Once you're living with integrity, you can say to someone, Hey, check me out. You know, look me up and down, and look through all my records, know who I am, because I'm not afraid to tell you who I am. Not that I've lived a perfect life, but I've not presented myself in a false way. I've lived in accordance with my beliefs, and when I failed, I've been able to admit that, and be forgiven, and go on again. What you see is what you get. That's why the Apostle Paul, you know, the first time I read through the epistles, I was a young Christian, freshman year in college. I remember closing up, I had a Philips translation of the Bible. I remember closing it up after reading through Thessalonians, I think it was. I'm thinking, this guy's almost arrogant. This guy just, I mean, he just said, you know, my coming to you would be a great blessing. I would say that. But the reason he said that was he was so confident in the work of God in him that he could say, look at me. Follow me as I follow Christ. I wish, I pray, I hope that many of us will say that. Follow me as I follow Christ. Well, how do I do this? Let me just touch these four things. Four ways to live a life of integrity, and I'm going to touch these quickly, but the first one's the most important because it's the greatest challenge. You can't do it. Turn to someone right now and look at them and say, you can't do it on your own. All right, you can't do it on your own. You can't. So I want to free you from the burden of thinking I'm adding some laws on to you. I'm not, but I'm saying this. In order to do it, you have to plug into the power of God. But living the life of integrity is a challenge. It will be. There'll be times that you're going to feel like you can't make it. I know that. I've been there. It was a few years ago. Our missionary family to Turkey, David and Betsy Hunter, they'd been there for a number of years. David was teaching and he was ministering and distributing literature and so on and holding meetings while he was teaching and influencing people for the gospel. And I remember clearly because it was the only time in 20 years that David called me and asked me what he thought I should do. The government said, you know what, if you keep doing what you're doing, we're gonna pull you out of the classroom, take away your teaching job, remove your livelihood from you and your family, and you know what, we might even throw you out of the country. And David had lived his whole life called as a missionary to Turkey. I remember when he called me and he said, you know, there's a whole lot at stake here. And I wasn't about to tell him what to do. I've learned that. It's between him and God. But I said to him, David, listen to God and then just follow your heart because I know you have a heart of integrity. Well, I didn't hear anything for a little bit and then he came back and emailed me and he said, I just decided I'm gonna go on and do what I believe God's told me to do and I'm gonna let the government do whatever they want. And the interesting thing was that the government backed off and they didn't throw him out and they didn't shut him up. But another door opened out of what he was in in such a public way, a little more behind-the-scenes kind of thing, so that the government got out of his face and allowed him to multiply his ministry. And now he and Betsy are in the most fruitful time they've ever been in. But it was a challenge. He had to take a stand, live with integrity. Where does that kind of power come from? Well, you can't just generate it. It comes from having a walk with God. Now, you don't have to be a super saint, but you need to be a consistent one. That's what I talked about last week. You need to walk in that love that comes from Christ on a regular basis. And unless you make a daily practice of being tapped into God's power, I don't think you'll stand for very long. That's why you need to lay hold of the promises. And look, look what the next verse says. The eyes of the Lord are looking throughout the whole earth to strengthen those who are fully committed to Him. If you're a person of integrity, God's looking. He's going to come right into your classroom, right into the place where you work, right into your family and give you the strength that you need. You just have to lay hold of the power. I can do some things through God who strengthens me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4 13. I don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. One of the reasons why integrity is so difficult to maintain is because there are satanic powers that are trying to bring you down. You need to live in the power of God. Look at that next verse. And this is, to me, this is sort of a capstone verse. That's why we picked that image of the arch with the capstone. God's divine power has given us everything, circle everything, we need for life and godliness. This power was given to us through knowing Jesus who called us by His own glory and integrity. You can stand and make, can I make one more suggestion? Have an integrity partner. Maybe it's your spouse. Maybe it's a good friend or a co-worker. But have an integrity partner that the moment you know you're facing a moment of integrity choices, you can call them and say, hey, would you stand with me? I love it when one of my elders calls and said, hey Jay, I don't want to take a lot of your time, but I'm facing a real tough one with my boss. And, you know, he's calling me to compromise on one of my reports so that we can look better and I can't do it. I don't, it might cost me my job. Would you stand with me in prayer? I love those kind of calls because those are men of integrity facing battles day by day. We need each other to do that. Second, always speak the truth. Always speak the truth. Proverbs 12, 22. The Lord hates liars, but is pleased with those who keep their word. Do you keep your word? Have you said you're going to do something? Do you keep your word? Without integrity, listen, without integrity, you really can't even have meaningful relationships. I have discovered this. Truth and trust go together. You want to have good relationships, you have to be a person of integrity and truth. One of the reasons why you should have some measure of encouragement here in our church is that so many of our pastors, our pastoral team have been here for 10, 12, 15, 18 or more years and that should tell you, listen, in that amount of time you get to know somebody pretty well, and they're committed. Not that we're perfect. We know one another's flaws and we know, oh boy, here they go. But on the other hand, as truth has been revealed, trust has grown and that should be a great encouragement to all of us. By the way, truth is not just about what you say. You know, I don't fabricate things. Truth can be, listen, lying can be just flattery. You can flatter someone and basically lie. You can break a promise and tell an untruth by just, I was gonna do this, but you know, it's not really convenient right now. Richard George said this, he said, perhaps my greatest sin at PTL, this was one of those scandals back in the late 80s, was consenting to some of the things that happened. It wasn't a deliberate decision. I just did nothing. I never verbalized my objections, never spoke for it, and was often not against it. I just did nothing. I wanted to be a good person, but I should have lovingly but firmly spoken up and asked, what's going on? Men and women can live lies. Teenagers can live a lie. Families can live the big lie. Institutions can live a lie. A church, a college, a ministry can be living the big lie, and we do nothing. We seemingly consent to it by the actions we do not take. So sometimes just being silent can validate a lie. Don't let that happen. Look at the next verse, speak rather the truth in love. Lovingly express the truth in all things, speaking truly, dealing truly, living truly. I just want to say this, the truth in love, those have to go together because the truth can be very hard on people at times. Never use it as a club. Use it in love to encourage others and you'll make an enormous difference if you take that courageous step. Thirdly, stand for what is right. Oftentimes, integrity involves an action. How would you like to have been in President Bush's shoes? Just not what last week when he had to make the decision about stem cell research. When you have all these people who say, well, these are all the important possible benefits to those who are, you know, struggling with neurologically related diseases, and then over here, you know, you have all the people that are really concerned about protecting unborn life and appropriately, so of course, and he's wrestling with that incredibly hard decision. See, sometimes you have to take a step that involves actions. And I have found this, people are not afraid to stand up for their rights, but they are afraid to stand up for what is right. And increasingly in our culture, listen, I have watched this now and it has grown dramatically in the last 10 years. There has been a marginalization of Christians and their convictions. And, you know, in the public square, it's just, you know, you just can't talk about some things anymore without being labeled as a, you know, a radical right person or some stereotypical label that just marginalizes your input. Loved ones, listen, it may be painful at times, but someone's got to speak up about truth. Because truth does matter. And someone needs to challenge the perspective of people in authority if it's not based on truth. You know, some people say, well, that's right for you. That truth is right for you. But it's not right for me. As far as I understand the revelation of God, all truth is God's truth. And if it's true for me and it's true for you, then it's true for you, too. And God's looking for people who will stand in those moments, stand for truth. And I pray that there'll be many among us that will say, hey, some things God says just are right and some are wrong. Tolerance is not a higher value than truth. I know this is heavy, but you know what? It's real life. And so when God says, your sexual preference is not a matter of age, then we know that's God's Word on the matter, and we have to stand on it. When he talks about life being conceived in the womb, in the very beginning, then that's God's, that's what he's speaking on the matter. And we have to understand these things. These are absolutes. How about this verse, if you're aspiring to be a leader? Love and truth form a good leader. Sound leadership is founded on loving integrity. Want to be a leader? Have to have integrity. Finally, pursue purity. I'm just kind of going through this rather quickly because I want to leave time and conclusion for response. You got to pursue purity. Look at Philippians 2.15. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them. How do you maintain integrity when the whole world seems to be drifting the other way? I just, I didn't leave room, I apologize, but turn your outline to the side. Write these three ways down, three ways to maintain integrity when the world's going the opposite way. Number one, this is particularly for the many young people in this service. Choose the right friends. 1 Corinthians 15.33 Bad associations corrupt good morals, and that's the truth. Choose your friends wisely. Don't just choose them based on your need to be accepted, but choose them based on whether or not they're going to help you grow closer to God or farther from his purposes. Your best friend should always be Jesus Christ, but then the next layer is very important. It'll influence you. It's true for all of us adults as well. It's always, we always think we can help pull them up and maybe we can, but you know what, when you're standing on the cliff and you got ten of them pulling you down, you can't pull them off. Second, value integrity more than image. First one, choose the right kind of friend. Second, value integrity more than image. We live in an extremely image conscious society, don't we? I mean, how things are pretty much based on how things look they are. It's not really what's going on, it's how it looks like things are going on. So people put on this external thing and this image is very huge. It doesn't matter if you're really having fun, as long as you look like you're having fun. Now that's why you can go to a big crowded room with lots of people who are lonely and desperate and drinking themselves into oblivion and call it happy hour. I mean, you know, because they look like they're having fun. As one author said, the greatest pretenses are built up not to hide our evil, but our emptiness. You get that? Our greatest pretenses are not, are built up not to hide our evil, but our emptiness. People aren't, you know, fundamentally all, you know, like terrorists, but they're people that are hurting and they're hiding it. They're a fear of rejection. Image is about money and nothing will tear at your integrity faster than the love of money. So be careful, guard against it. What do you want more, truth or things? That decision will determine a lot of what you decide is important. Finally on this, the third thing you do is to watch what you watch. Make no mistake, the I is the window into the soul. It's in the sermon on the mount and we live in a culture that's just bombarding us with images and parents, you have to help your kids with this, and you know, adults, we have to help one another with this. There's just so many things out there. Watch what you watch. Have some control on the media that you're exposed to. Because otherwise you, you know what, Proverbs 15 44, I don't have this on your outline, but you might want to jot it down because it's, it's very powerful and it's very true. A wise person is hungry for truth, but the fool feeds on trash. So how big a hole does it take to sink a boat? Well in the end, not a very big one at all. But on the other hand, the grace of Jesus, everyone hear me say this now, the grace of Jesus comes to fill