The Bridge: Our Mission Part 3

The Mission

At the Bridge we are Bold for Christ. We do life together and create REAL relationships. We act with INTEGRITY always. We are completely DEVOTED to God. We give in many ways through GENEROUS living. We are ENTHUSIASTIC to connect to you!

Bold

Real

Integrity

Devoted

Generous

Enthusiastic

Integrity

Integrity is one of the most important standards that we must maintain as Christians in today’s world. one of the great examples of integrity in our life times was none other than Billy Graham. he maintained a level of accountability in his life because he knew that it was necessary to be able to maintain his witness across the world. He knew that he had to stay morally void of questionable activity. Similarly when we see Pastors or religious leaders who fall short they are held to higher standards of accountability in their sin because of their position. This is one of the reasons we have passages of scripture like Titus 2:7-8

Titus 2:7–8 NIV

In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

This passage particular is mainly dealing with Paul’s instructions to Titus and his dealing with teaching and ministering to the young men of the church. It helps us set a standard of the expectations of all those in a position of ministry. It is essential that these high standards are maintained because of the need for holding ourselves above reproach.

As i shared this passage is particluarly addressed to Titus as a Pastor. However, i don’t think that it doesn’t give us merit to examine it from perspective of how all Christians should strive to maintain their example to others in the world. That is why passages like 1 Peter 2:12 als exisit.

1 Peter 2:12 NIV

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

This passage helps us see that living a life that is of high integrity extends to all Christians. This is why it is something that we value at the Bridge.

This is where we start this morning and as i was preparing i started thinking about the word integrity and what it means to me as an individual, as a pastor, and as a Christian. Let’s begin by looking at some of the definitions of the word Integrity

Definitions

The Quality of being honest and having strong moral principals. Moral uprightness

The state of being whole and undivided

Construction

The first thing i noticed when i read this definition was the word “morals”. This was a key word in understanding the very idea of integrity. I realized that we would have to expand upon that to really help us understand what it means to have integrity in today’s world.

The Second definition was also interesting to me because while it is speaking specifically to things in construction or electronics it still felt relevant. The idea of being whole and with out damage was a powerful image that i want to revisit in a little bit but first lets talk about Morality.

Definition of Morality

Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.

One of the greatest challenges to integrity that we face today is the understanding of Morality.

In 2016 Lifeway research did a study on a 1000 Americans and their view of Morality. This included both Evangelicals and non religious people. they all agreed on one thing

Morality is declining

81 % of Americans are concerned about declining moral behavior in our nation.

Some of this was attributed to the removal of laws about moral standards have been removed. Yet one of the most interesting statistics that came form that was also this.

63% of Americans agreed that Implementing laws to encourage people to act morally is NOT effective.

This is the framework that we live in. While this study is a couple years old I think that it still holds a lot of weight today. To really understand this we need to understand where many of us come to our moral understandings.

Parents — 64%

Religious Beliefs — 50%

Personal Feelings— 42%

Friends— 35%

Teachers— 26%

Media (books, movies, news etc.)—14%

Our society is shifting and moving in our understanding in morality each and everyday. Morality or at least how we view morality has shifted and many of us don’t even realize it.

Those older than 45 say right and wrong do not change

6 in 10

Those younger than 35 who say right and wrong do not change

4 in 10

That is a substantial shift between the generations. it gives us insight that Morality is becoming more fluid and changing. Morality used to be a stable concept in America. Yet, today we are faced with the reality that more and more people are growing up with an world view that sees morality as fluid and dependent on individual experiences and points of view. This can cause issues for us when we address what our integrity is. There will be times that the integrity of the Christian world view may not line up perfectly with those of the rest of the world. This is the challenge we face when we deal with ideas of integrity within a Christian frame work.

The House of our Integrity

If we return back to the definitions that we have of Integrity we see a strong analogy for us to examine when it comes to our integrity. Think about it every building has those key points that if they aren’t maintained they will compromise the whole building. In the basement of the Parsonage you know that we have this massive open room.

At certain points we have metal pools that run down from the ceiling to the floor. These poles are essential in supporting the metal beams that run across the house. What many people don’t know is that by only having the poles it changed the very nature of the rest of the house. With the poles and beam supporting the weight and at specific points it is normal in the upstairs to step on points of the floor and hear metal creek. This would be different if there were more wall below helping to distribute the weight and bear the load. Imagine though if we had some damage to one of those poles. It would make the whole house collapse. It is the same way with our integrity

It become essential then that we build our integrity in such a way that we eliminate as many weak points and build it up to be with a strong foundation so that when a storm comes we can withstand the onslaught that will come.

Remember what 1 Peter 2:12

1 Peter 2:12 NIV

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

That even when they try to accuse you of doing wrong your good deeds will shine through and you will still be able to have your house standing and share the witness that is the Gospel with them despite the unfounded attacks. The Christian's Good life even in the face of slander may result in someone’s salvation.

Now that we have a good understanding of how integrity and our morals influence us and the world around us we need to go back to the problem of the the fluidity of integrity.

How can we build Integrity today?

This is a challenging questions that we must answer. For many people it would be easy to say that we can adjust and learn from the culture and adapt based on the needs. The dominate culture dictates to us what is necessary for our integrity. That sounds simple it seems to make sense right?

Is it though? Is it really what is best?

The truth for us is that we have a source of morality and integrity that comes from something far greater than us. As Christians we must always keep our integrity closely linked to our faith and the supreme source of what is right and wrong in God.

What does that look like. If we want to look to the scriptures we must always remember what Jesus said in in Matthew 22:36-40.

Matthew 22:36–40 NIV

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I have come to realize that many of us make a great error when we read this passage. We often look at this passage and think that it removes all the other commands. But notice some key words there. All the law and the prophets hang on these commandments. Not that it eliminates them but they are built upon these two commands. That doesn’t eliminate the validity of the other commandments or laws that we find in the Bible. Instead it pushes us to think about all those commands from the lens of love for God and for our neighbor.

Is it only Love or is there More?

The commandments of God are serious and must be observed. They are still sins that we can account for and recognize and learn about from the word of God. There are still clear examples that God provides that aren’t trumped by love. We have to deal with these things. Discipline is necessary to be trained in the way that leads to righteousness. Love is not a get out of jail free card.

If we start to view love as the trump card we deny the dangerous reality of sin and the deep cost that was paid by Jesus on the cross to bring us back into relationship with God. Jesus didn’t die not only to show us his love for us but to heal the wounds that were caused by sin in humanity.

We must recognize that our moral authority and our integrity must always be founded in our relationship with God. The best way to be sure that we can do our best to follow after God is to be in constant prayer seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit, studying the word of God, Looking to those who have come before us, and our own experiences.

These are all things that we desire here at the bridge we want to be a people who live out what we know to be true in faith. As with the last two weeks we also realize that we are human and that we may fall short and this is where we rely on the grace of God to help bridge the gap. Yet, we must be in a constant state of turning to God and relying on him for our integrity and asking him to show how we can live our lives with more integrity so we can truly show all those around us who God is not only through our words but through our actions.