Session 1: Integrity is Strength
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Session 1
Session 1
“You lost your strength, Christian, the moment you depart from your integrity.” - CH Spurgeon
We get the word ‘integrity’ from the latin word integer meaning ‘intact’ or ‘whole’. So someone who has integrity, is someone who is intact, they are one, they are whole. They are not divided, they don’t compartmentalise their lives so that they are one person over here but a very different person over here.
Integrity is strength. In construction the integrity of a building is vital to it’s stability and safety. A building that lacks integrity is unsafe and liable to collapse. The same is true of a person who lacks integrity - they are unsafe, the are unstable and ultimately they are liable to collapse and cause a great deal of damage.
Firstly - I am a preacher, I am a pastor, I’m not a scholar and I don’t pretend to be, I’m not a leadership guru either. So I’m going to stick with what I know best this week - The Bible. I am going to be speaking to you as a pastor, sharing a number of timeless examples of integrity from the scriptures; I believe there are many applications that can be made to the here and now in your line of work, whatever that may be. So whatever your views may be, I am sure there will be something to take away for each of you.
Secondly - The aim of this conference is not to condemn, but to call higher. This is a gospel centred event, therefore it is a grace centred event. The gospel puts us all in the same boat; Romans 3:8
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
There is no one here today who is perfect, there’s nobody here who has always kept their integrity. There’s only one man who has ever been truly whole and His name is Jesus Christ. And he has not come to judge us but to reconcile us to God;
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
So if you’re here today and you know in you heart of hearts that you aren’t living in integrity, maybe you’re compromised in an area of your life - don’t hide, don’t fake it, resist the temptation to put the mask back on and be real instead. Come to Jesus today, He is full of grace and mercy, and ready to forgive you. Don’t go on living in the shadows of condemnation, that way lies destruction.
3 The integrity of the upright guides them,
but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.
The Bible contrasts integrity with ‘crookedness’. To be crooked is to be cunning, schemeing, dishonest, underhand.
9 Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,
but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.
And crookedness leads to destruction. This destruction is twofold; crookedness destroys others, and ultimately it destroys you.
So if crookedness destroys why do many people, and even church leaders think it’s acceptable to be dishonest and crooked in their dealings? According to recent academic research puublished by Grace and Light:
47% of church members in this city admitted to having falsified their age or other data.
The same percentage admitted to cheating in exams.
Nearly a quarter had used false measures in business.
Over 20% admitted to electoral or political fraud.
Roughly half of Church members in this city felt that the Church itseld was part of this problem rather than a solution to it!
Remember these are Church members!
So what drives people to behave like this? What would drive someone who identifies as a Christian to behave in such an un Christ like way? HERE ARE 5 REASONS:
Fear - of lack/of loss/of pain = Distrust of God’s promises. Sauls unlawful offering - 1 Sam 13:5-14
5 And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. 6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, 7 and some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
8 He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. 9 So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10 As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. 11 Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, 12 I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 13 And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”
The rise of pragmatism - ‘The ends justify the means’
An unhealthy ambition for ‘greatness’/Narcissism - Perception management/Carefully curating a public image in order to manipulate and control - which does not match the real you.
‘God helps those who help themselves’/A denial of God’s sovereignty and providence - Acts 17:26
26 From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,
You need to get what you want at any cost - David & Bathsheba
Ravi Zacharias - destruction came after his passing. What was destroyed?
His ministry and reputation
Trust
The lives of those abused by him
His family
The reputation of Christianity
24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
Is that what you want? Is that what you want for yourselves? For Jos? For Nigeria?
An nation can stand or fall based on the integrity of its leaders: Hophni & Phinehas. 1 Sam 2 - 4 . Hophni and Phinehas were the priests of Israel but they were not men of integrity, they were crooked. They stole from what was given to God, they womanised and they were violent. Their father Eli heard reports of their behaviour, he rebuked them but they paid no attention. Eli should have then removed them as priests, according to the law they should have been put to death for their corruption but Eli did nothing. This was part of God’s plan too:
25 If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.
Hophni and Phinehas must have thought they had gotten away with it - they must have thought ‘we can do whatever we like, God will do nothing!’
11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.
But the judgement of God did come, not only against the two priests Hophni and Phinehas, but also against their father and against the entire nation of Israel which they represented. Israel was defeated in Battle by the Philistines, Hophni and Phinehas were killed, the Ark of God was captured, Eli fell dead when he received the news and then Phinehas’s wife died too after hearing the news. She died while giving birth to a son who she called ‘Ichabod’ meaning ‘The glory has departed’.
So there are dire consequences for choosing to break integrity - personal, familial and national calamity.
There are dire consequences for empowering leaders who lack integrity - Eli. If we fail to call out corruption when we see it, we are not guiltless!
Our story?
So to finish - To have integrity is to be whole, to be the same person in private as you are in public. According to the Bible it means to walk in straight paths, rather than crooked ones. It means to tell the truth even if it costs you - it means no hidden agendas, no scheming, no manipulation, no lying.
God promises to reward those who choose this path.
7 The righteous who walks in his integrity—
blessed are his children after him!
9 Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,
but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.
The choice to walk in integrity has a cross generational impact. Not only does it mean that you will have security and be able to be at peace with yourself, it means that you children, the next generation will be blessed to. They will learn the strength of integrity from you!
Doctrine is useless if it is not accompanied by a holy life. It is worse than useless; it does positive harm. Something of “the image of Christ” must be seen and observed by others in our private life, and habits, and character, and doings.
– JC Ryle –
We will look in the next session at one of the great men of integrity in scripture. We’ll see that integrity is character deep - it’s not something you can fake. And we’ll see that integrity is worth nothing unless it is tested!