Sermon Tone Analysis

Four high school boys were late to their morning classes one-day.

They entered the classroom and solemnly told their teacher they were detained due to a flat tire.

The sympathetic teacher smiled and told them it was too bad they were late because they had missed a test that morning.

But she was willing to let them make it up.

She gave them each a piece of paper and a pencil and sent them to four corners of the room.

Then she told them they would pass if they could answer just one question: Which tire was flat?

Integrity

Public Persona

Zoom in a bit more (larger group of friends)

Zoom in a bit more (inner circle of friends)

Zoom in a bit more (best friend or eventually your spouse)

Zoom in more to in secret.

Why do you think you are trying to be secretive when cheating?

Because all you are doing is bringing your innermost person to the forefront publicly.

You have to tap into that person.

Integrity is one-ness.

It means integer.

Wholeness.

It means that

: !6

Same person all the way through.

Words, thoughts, deeds.

Boys at Amores--

Words we say—would you say those words in front of others?

Not just cheating.

But in everything.

We are good lawyers when it comes to our own sins, but great judges when it comes to others sins.

Some of you will be strong in the area of integrity with cheating but what about everything else?

The only way you will have integrity is through Jesus.

Jesus as example.

What would Jesus do?

What has Jesus done?

He brought all your secrets all the lack of integrity onto himself.

Grace.

Jesus writing in the sand.

Sin differently than others.

What you are in those secret places are who you really and truly are.

According to William Barclay in his commentary on Matthew: Here is a great eternal truth.

Life cannot be divided into compartments in some of which God is involved and in others of which he is not involved; there cannot be one kind of language in the Church and another kind of language in the shipyard or the factory or the office; there cannot be on e kind of standard of conduct in the Church and another kind of standard in the business world.

The fact is that God does not need to be invited into certain departments of life, and kept out of others.

He is everywhere, all through life and every activity of life.

He hears not only the words which are spoken in his name; he hears all words; and there cannot be any such thing as a form of words which evades bringing God into a transaction.

We will regard all promises as sacred, if we remember that all promises are made in the presence of God.