2021.03.07 Integrity Matters

Integrity Matters

Me

Have you ever been faced with a choice that tempts you to violate your own integrity? Me too. Of course, we all have. From the smallest of individuals, to the largest of organizations, these temptations are very real, and quite regular!

You may remember the flap a few years ago about World Vision...

World Vision is a global Christian humanitarian organization that's been helping address poverty issues one-child-at-a-time since 1950. A few years back (March, 2014) , they announced a change in their personnel policy … which would allow hiring of Christians in same sex marriages. The announcement read as if it was no big deal.

In 2 days, World Vision lost over 2000 sponsors, and quickly reversed course with a complete renunciation of the policy change and a gushing apology to their sponsors!

They discovered the cost of this change was too high … “Counting the cost” may be another sermon opportunity, but for today, I’ll stick with the topic of integrity.

In the 2 days in between World Visions’ announcement and their about-face, I had a few conversations online with folks who couldn’t believe people would pull their support from needy children in order to “make a theological statement.” What they failed to realize is that supporting the needy children in the first place was based on a “theological statement”. World Vision’s decision put the organization at odds with a majority of their supporters regarding a biblical issue that is hot and divisive (regardless of which side of that fence you stand on). Not only did they fail to count the cost, they failed to consider the integrity of their giver.

See, if I am giving to an organization that is a Christian organization like, say…St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, and they start making decisions that are in conflict with my understanding of core Christian beliefs, like, say … they start placing pictures of humans alongside pictures of Jesus ... Let’s say you came in today and found a display on the altar of pictures of Gandhi and Martin Luther King and George Washington and Einstein and Roosevelt and President Biden, and mixed in with all of those pictures was a painting of Jesus. Having visually communicated that Jesus is “one of the greats” rather than THE GREAT … I’d have to question whether I belonged here or not.

Jesus is NOT “one of the greats”. Jesus is THE GREAT! He is singular in his category, and any compromise of that is a deal breaker for my integrity as a Christian.

When I’m late coming home … thinking of an excuse as I’m driving home.

In 2001, I was working at a radio station that was listener supported … twice a year, we did radio-thons asking listeners to pledge and send money to support the station’s operations. Shortly before our Fall Share-A-Thon, I discovered that the money from this non-profit radio station was being mixed with a for-profit station that wasn’t able to survive on their own. The nonprofit station was owned by a church school. The other was owned by the pastor of that church. So, Mom & Pop were sending their money to the radio station, and it was making its way into this other station because the pastor couldn’t afford to operate it on his own. So, less than one month after September 11, I quit my job.

In my exit interview, the Station Manager (who was the pastor’s brother-in-law) asked me to stay. In the process of a 45 minute meeting, I caught him in 3 lies. I told him I couldn’t trust what he said. If you lied about these things, how many other things have you lied about that I didn’t catch?

I told him … and I’ll tell you ... I can have a lot of things taken away from me, but my integrity is mine, and the only way I can lose it is to give it up willingly! The blessings that poured into our life because of the decision to quit that job could make a whole other sermon, but know this: I stood up for what I knew was right, and God rewarded that decision several times over. That is integrity!

We

That’s kinda heady for any kids watching, so let me make it simpler:

Let’s say you’re in a store with your friends, and you see a friend start putting things in his pocket. As a kid, what do we tell you to do? TELL SOMEBODY!

Let’s say at work, you see someone start putting things in his pocket. As an adult, what do you do? DEPENDS!!! Depends on what it is … depends on who it is …

That’s not integrity. Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one’s watching. Regardless of the circumstances or the people involved … integrity drives us to ALWAYS do the right thing.

Is the right thing telling on the person?

Is the right thing to no longer associate with the person?

Is the right thing to act like you didn’t see anything?

In my life, I have seen wrong done, and I’ve responded in all three of those ways. That is not integrity!

A person with integrity is trustworthy because they are CONSISTENT!

God

slides

Proverbs 10:1–9 NASB

1 The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a father glad, But a foolish son is a grief to his mother. 2 Ill-gotten gains do not profit, But righteousness delivers from death. 3 The Lord will not allow the righteous to hunger, But He will reject the craving of the wicked. 4 Poor is he who works with a negligent hand, But the hand of the diligent makes rich. 5 He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, But he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully. 6 Blessings are on the head of the righteous, But the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. 7 The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot. 8 The wise of heart will receive commands, But a babbling fool will be ruined. 9 He who walks in integrity walks securely, But he who perverts his ways will be found out.

slide

Let me tell you what impact integrity lapses have on a person: Those who lack integrity live in perpetual fear that they’ll be discovered.

Our politicians lie so much, they spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to cover tracks so they are revealed.

Willy Voet was a Belgian physical therapist. He was a winner … he worked his way into a big name team of French cyclists. Willy was cheating. He was providing illegal drugs to help the team ride faster and longer. He carried this dark secret and worried about being arrested for almost 20 years! In 1998, he was finally arrested. In an interview afterward he said, “At the end, I was glad they caught me. I was glad it was over.”

Integrity Matters

You

Little Boy who cried wolf … what is the moral of the story?

Having no integrity has negative impact … on your community … and eventually ON YOU!

At UPS one night, another supervisor lied to me about something going on in their area. I warned him later that a single lie means that I can’t trust him at all. It means I can’t believe anything he says because I don’t know when he’s lying and when he’s telling the truth.

I treat my integrity as one of my most important possessions. I may be good at some things and terrible at some things. But I’m not a liar, and that means everyone knows what they’re dealing with when they deal with me. That gives us confidence to work together, then share the truth with each other.

We

Most of the times that we cut corners or don’t tell the whole truth it’s because we’re afraid of consequences.

But what is the consequence of dishonesty? What is the consequence of cutting corners? What is the consequence of crying wolf?

People don’t trust us!

They can’t believe everything we tell them, so they doubt everything we say.

Does the Church have that reputation? (YES!) That’s because church PEOPLE have that reputation!

We have the reputation of being just like the caricature of a used car salesman … we’ll say anything to seal the deal.

Like it or not, that IS the reputation of “church people” to the unchurched world.

So what can we do about that? We can’t undo the past, and I can’t control other people’s integrity.

I can start over, and so can you! If God calls us to a new birth … then He offers us a clean start.

To restore the Church’s reputation, we have to start by restoring our own reputations. If you don’t know something, say, “I don’t know!” If you’re not sure, say, “I think this.” If you did something wrong, OWN IT! Confess it, repent and sin no more!

Integrity does NOT mean you’re always right. Integrity demands that you always admit when you messed up or when you don’t know. Our unwillingness to do those two things is what hurts our relationships with each other and with the world.

If you want to share Jesus with other people … you need to be growing more like Him. So don’t cover up your shortcomings … own them … and you’ll earn other people’s respect because of your shocking (refreshing?) honesty.

THEN, you can share the truth of Jesus Christ with them. If they can’t trust your integrity, it doesn’t matter what you tell them about Jesus.

If they CAN trust your integrity, they’ll know they can trust what you tell them about Jesus.

It’s not easy … but it really is that simple!

Let your yes be yes … and your no be no.

[communion]