Integrity: Obedience to God
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Integrity
Integrity
What’s on the inside
Opening exercise.
Who is your hero?
My two heroes when I was 13 were Jordan and Emmitt Smith. Here’s why
Now go around you group and discuss your hero and why they are your hero right now.
What I learned about heroes
I don’t really know them. The more that I learn about them, the less hero like they become.
Why?
What they have done becomes not so special. (Jordan to Kobe to Lebron) (Smith and Sanders to Brady and Manning)
Who they are become highlighted.
Their character outweighs their fame
Tonights Topic is integrity.
What I have learned over time is that the most valuable people and heroes in my life, are people of great integrity. Scripture says:
3 The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
6 Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.
The question then becomes, what is integrity? Take a few moments and discuss with each other what you believe integrity means together.
1: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: INCORRUPTIBILITY
2: an unimpaired condition: SOUNDNESS
3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided: COMPLETENESS synonym see HONESTY
Hebrew use of the word in the OT reflect Perfectness, pureness, innocence, unscathed, without fault
Let’s consider those conditions in that of a Jenga Tower. when a Jenga tower starts out there is no way it simply falls over. The integrity of the structure is sound. Then as we start to move pieces. The integrity of the structure weakens. If we only look at the top, the tower grows and still looks strong. As pieces continue to be removed, the integrity of the tower begins to wobble. It is no longer incorruptable. It is no longer perfect. Problems begin to arise and we know it’s only a matter of time before it falls.
Our moral integrity is like that. It starts out with one simple thing that is not right. It does not appear to bad. In truth, nobody even notices. It is hidden from view and we try to keep it that way. At least that is what we think. There are still some, closest to us that see the every fault. But that one wrong thing turns into many bad things. The integrity of who we are begins to faulter. We put up curtains so that nobody can see our how bad things get. But do the curtains hide our mistakes? Of course not. It only makes us think nobody can see the problems. We try to justify our mistakes. We say, its not even bad. Nobody really cares. But in truth, people begin not to trust us because our integrity has fallen.
Question though, who determines whether what is right and wrong?
With this in mind I wanna tell you a story of two leaders of Israel. From the story, I want you to determine who was right and who was wrong.
Joshua the leader of Israel, after a battle had all the clans of Israel come stand before him one morning. He had all the men walk by him. As they were walking by he stopped one man and Joshua 7:19-21
Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.” And Achan answered Joshua, “Truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I did: when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
As we keep reading in Joshua we find out that Joshua had all of Israel stoned him and his family and burned them along with the items they took.
Now here comes a challenge. Who believes it was right for them to take what they had coveted?
Who believes its right that the man and his family were stoned because of it.
What if I told you that because this family took these things they coveted God turned his wrath on Israel in the previous fight and 36 men died? Does that make it right.
What if I told you the things that were taken were supposed to belong to God and by killing them, God turned his wrath away from Israel.
So let’s examine, who determine what is right and wrong again? God. It’s important to remember Isaiah 55:8–9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Sometimes our thoughts do not align with God’s. So how do we know what is right and wrong? How do we know what breaks down our integrity?
The answer to these questions are that our integrity is tied to our identity in Christ. As Christians, we are:
Followers/Disciples of Christ
Children of God
Ambassadors for Christ
Our integrity is then weakened when we are disobedient to God. When we sin, it is hurts our integrity. When claim the title of Christian, those around of have expectations that they place on us. These expectations are based off previous experiences with people, for better or worse. Expectations are also based on what we claim.
Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind. Is this a reasonable expectation? The Second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Is it fair to say that when we act outside these commandments it reflects poorly on our integrity? Does it damage the reflection of other Christians integrity. Fair or not, the world looks at one Christian’s action as that of all Christians.
So how do we know how to act to best reflect Christ. We study the Scriptures.
but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
Truthful lips endure forever,
but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
Deceit is in the heart of those who devise evil,
but those who plan peace have joy.
No ill befalls the righteous,
but the wicked are filled with trouble.
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,
but those who act faithfully are his delight.
A prudent man conceals knowledge,
but the heart of fools proclaims folly.
The hand of the diligent will rule,
while the slothful will be put to forced labor.
Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down,
but a good word makes him glad.
11 By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
12 But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.
I want to be real with you though. I am not perfect. I have made mistakes and sinned. I admit to you today that I still make mistakes and act wrong. I try to do better every day, but I still mess up. The apostle Paul stated Romans 7:15
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
rebuilding the tower
Let me tell you something though that is important. God uses our mistakes to his glory. He rebuilds us from our brokenness. He picks up the pieces of our life and washes it with his blood. The mistakes of our life are not hidden. Instead, he shows the world the mistakes that he has forgiven. We may