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John MacArthur said, “Our society is built on a framework of lies, leading one to wonder whether our social structure would survive if everyone were forced to speak the truth for even one day.” I want to re-paraphrase the sentence, “We are lack of integrity and it is hard to keep integrity even in a day.”
Some theologians invited a philosopher into the room and asked, “What is integrity?” The philosopher pondered the question. “Integrity,” he finally intoned, “is what you’re like when nobody else is around.” The panel thanked him, then ushered in the businessman and asked for his definition. “In my world,” the business man said, “Integrity means a person is as good as his word.” After thanking him, the panel invited a lawyer to join them. “What is integrity?” they asked. The attorney’s eyes cautiously scanned the room. He crept over to the door, opened it, looked outside to make sure nobody was listening, and then bolted it shut. He closed the windows and pulled down the shades. “Tell me,” he finally whispered, “What do you want it to mean?”
Today Intergrity is a dying quality and we do not like to talk about it
I. The definition of “Integrity”
Is to “firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values.”
It is related to the word honesty.
John 10: 25, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me.” What Jesus says here is, what I say and what I do testify as to who I am.
It is where word and deed are in agreement.
A heart and life of integrity is consistent in one honest direction. If a person of integrity begins a job, he finishes it. If he makes a promise, he keeps it. If he commits a huge mistake, he admits it. If he believes something, he supports that belief with his lifestyle. In this sense, he is whole and complete without a fractionalized life.
Most time we human beings see other people’s appearance, but God sees our heart. God sees integrity in our hearts.
1 Samuel 16:7: “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” We learn from this that integrity is not something that we can necessarily see. Samuel could not see it, but God could. So integrity is an issue of the heart that God sees.
Emotional Pressure.
Daniel was in a foreign country. Daniel was taken forcibly from his home to a foreign land in chains. We cannot imagine how he was feeling. The emotional stress from such an event would be overwhelming. Daniel had an emotional pressure that could threaten his integrity
Physical Pressure. Joseph was tempted. Clearest example of Joseph’s ability to maintain a highest degree of integrity was when he was tempted by Potiphar’s wife (Gen 39:6-20).
Spiritual Pressure.
John the Baptist could compromise to the King Herod Antipas by saying nicely to him about his marriage putting God aside and put the power and authority of the king first. Daniel was asked to eat, drink and do the things that God is not pleased.
· Surrender our faith.
One way to deal with the pressures to our beliefs is to surrender. Daniel could have sold out. Simply give up and bow to the peer pressure, circumstances, or whatever is compelling him to change his beliefs. Nobody would have blamed him because Daniel was out of town, out of state, and out of Israel.
Tell a lie
Another way he could have handled it was to lie about what he was doing. Keep the court official and the king in the dark and do everything behind their back. No one would have been the wiser. Just eat and drink what you want in keeping with God’s law but pretend to be obedient. Fake everyone out. The easy way out as well as dishonest. It would not have honored God while trying to honor God. Many are willing to tell a little white lie as long as the circumstances warrant the lie. We like to put sin in order of degrees. Some sins are worse than others in our eyes. It’s ok to break the little ones but not the big ones. God does not desire selective obedience nor does God recognize degrees of sin.
Keep Integrity
How did Daniel keep his integrity? In verse 8 it says, "But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way."
The cadet’s prayer is said at every Sunday chapel at West Point.. "Make us choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be contented with half truth when whole truth can be won. Endow us with courage that is born of loyalty to all that is noble and worthy, that scorns to compromise with vice & injustice and knows no fear when right and truth are in jeopardy."
Ps 78: 72, “David shepherded them with integrity o heart, with skill hands he led them.”
A husband wanted a boat more than anything. His wife kept refusing, but he bought one anyway. "I’ll tell you what," he told her, "In the spirit of compromise, why don’t you name the boat?" Being a good sport, she accepted. When her husband went to the dock for his maiden voyage, this is the name he saw painted on the side: "For Sale." I bet she kept her integrity!
It gives you protection
Psalm 25:21, “ May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you.”
Mark Twain said: “Speaking honestly is better. It takes a lot of stress out of our lives. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything, but if you don’t tell the truth, you have to remember what you said.”
It provides you with security. In other words, integrity gives you greater confidence in your life.
Last week I went to SEJ Minister’s conference for my continuing education. One of the workshops that I led was “Sabbath and Body.” At the end of the class, I asked participants to come out in front of the people and to break ¾ inches pinewood. All of them never experienced to break the board. However, 9 out of 10 broke the board. I am not bragging about myself, maybe little bit. But the participants built self-confidence by practicing what they learned. Likewise, when you keep your integrity before God, you will have greatest confidence in your life, which gives you security. Proverbs 10:9, “The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.”
It helps me to make the best decision
Proverbs 11:3, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
In a society without moral absolutes anything goes. When people can choose what is right and wrong without having a standard, how do you decide which way to go? Eventually you will get caught in your duplicity. It will come back to bite you. If you live in integrity, then your decisions are easier to make – your integrity guides you to have the best decision.
It provides me with hope for future. Hope for what? Hope that some day when you stand before God you will not be ashamed of how you lived and what God will say to you. Hope that you will be commended and not rebuked for your lifestyle and the testimony that you had while alive.
Ask God to test my heart (1 Chro 29:17)
Have any of you ever had an EKG? What is the purpose of it? It is to determine the health of the heart. To help find potential problems and to help diagnose future problems. It is a test of the condition of the heart. This physical testing of the heart is what God needs to do to us in a spiritual sense. God needs to come in and find out the condition of our heart and fix it before major problems take over!
1 Chronicles 29:17, “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you.”
You see, God is pleased with integrity and examines the heart to see if a person is full of integrity or full of bologna! What you believe in your heart will determine how you act when placed in a tempting situation.
A newlywed couple had left a black zippered case on the roof of their car as they sped away from the reception to begin their honeymoon. The case had all their wedding gift money in it - $12,000. By the time they reached their destination it was gone. Two days later the same newspaper carried headlines to a related story: “Finders Keepers? Not All Believe It!” David Yi, an unemployed suburban resident, had come upon a black bag with $12,000 in cash. In spite of his mounting bills and jobless state, he didn’t keep the money. Tracking the couple down, he returned the full amount. When asked why he turned it al in, he said, “I guess it doesn’t matter whether it’s $50 or $1,000 or $1 million. It doesn’t belong to you.” Upon investigation, the media discovered that David Yi acting as Good Samaritan was consistent with his overall character. David had found $50 the year before and turned it in as well. When offered jobs because of the exposure he received, Yi said he would only consider jobs he was qualified for. He felt accepting a managerial position for which he was unequipped was dishonest.
Psalm 26:2, “Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.”
Know the truth ( 2 Timothy 2:15) Throughout the Bible you will find the words: honesty, purity, truth, upright and complete all translated from the same words meaning integrity – they are all synonymous.
If, therefore, we are going to live lives of integrity we must know what integrity looks like. That comes from spending time in the Bible with God.
2 Timothy 2:15 - Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. (NASB)
Walk the walk and talk the talk
Walking in integrity means integrating
all of what God’s Word says into our daily activities. It means that I become a
doer of the word.
James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.”
"Deciding to integrate my heart’s value into my daily actions" ~ John Maxwell
Psalm 15:1-2, “O Lord, who may abide in Thy tent? Who may dwell on Thy holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart.”
Being faithful
Job 2:3 Job was a man who went through an awful lot but remained faithful. He lost his seven sons, three daughters, and all his possessions, and he was threatened his own life. His wife gave him a very hard time by saying, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2L4)
Abraham Lincoln had was known for his integrity because of the way he lived. At the age of twenty-four, Abraham Lincoln served as the postmaster of New Salem, Illinois, for which he was paid an annual salary of $55.70. Even then, twenty-four years before he entered the White House, the rail-splitter was showing the character that earned him the title of "Honest Abe." The New Salem post office was closed in 1836, but it was several years before an agent arrived from Shington to settle accounts with ex-postmaster Lincoln, who was a struggling lawyer not doing very well. The agent informed him that $17 was due the government. Lincoln crossed the room, opened an old trunk and took out a yellow cotton rag, bound with a string. Untying it, he spread out the cloth and there was the $17. He had been holding it untouched for all these years. "I never use any man’s money but my own," he said.
Refuse to be persuaded by others.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Everybody else is doing it?” This is one of those lame rationalizations that we use to justify our actions. To be a person of integrity means that you are willing to go against the crowd if the crowd is wrong. It means being willing to stand alone, if necessary, for what is right. It means peer-pressure is no pressure for you.
You see, it is not what other people think about you that counts. It is what God thinks of you that you will care about… whether that is today or at the end of your life, sooner or later you will agree with me that the only thing that counts is what God is going to think and say about you. And His word says this:
Job 8:20 - “Lo, God will not reject a man of integrity, nor will He support the evildoers.
The fact is that integrity has a much higher value than riches or fame:
Proverbs 19:1 - Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than he who is perverse in speech and is a fool.
Proverbs 28:6 - Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, than he who is crooked though he be rich.
But integrity must be worked at. Psalm 101:2 , “I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart.”
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?
Conclusion:
$20 bill illustration: ask, “Who would like this $20 bill?” Then crumple it up, step on it, roll it around and then hold it up again and ask, “Who still wants this $20 bill?” The value remains no matter what the item looks like n the outside – no matter how scarred, bruised or beaten, the value is still the same. That is integrity. Becoming a person of integrity means:
Chuck Swindoll said, "The swift wind of compromise is a lot more devastating than the sudden jolt of misfortune." It is not too late to begin living a life of integrity.
William Barclay said, "Jesus did not say discuss me; he said follow me." We do not make terms with Christ; we surrender to Christ. We do not compromise with Christ; we submit to Christ. Christianity does not mean being interested in Jesus Christ; it means taking the same oath as princes take to a king or queen in a coronation ceremony and saying, I am your liege man of life and limb, and faith and truth will I bear to you against all manner of folk. So help me God."
Psalms 7:8, “Let the Lord judge the peoples. Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness according to my integrity.”
Here, David is asking God to judge him according to his righteousness and his integrity. Ask yourself this question, if you were standing before God today, and you asked God to judge you according to your righteousness and your integrity, how would you do? Would God be proud of you, would you be proud of yourself, or would you be ashamed, do you think that you have a great deal of work left to build your integrity? Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen
6 So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did
not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master's wife
took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!"
8 But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern
himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my
care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld
nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a
wicked thing and sin against God?" 10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after
day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. NIV
Mark 6:14-29
14 King Herod heard about this, for Jesus' name had become well known. Some were
saying,"
John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous
powers are at work in him."
15 Others said, "He is Elijah."
And still others claimed, "He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long
ago."
16 But when Herod heard this, he said, "John, the man I beheaded, has been
raised from the dead!"
17 For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested, and he had him
bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip's
wife, whom he had married. 18 For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not
lawful for you to have your brother's wife." 19 So Herodias nursed a grudge
against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, 20 because Herod
feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When
Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.
21 Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his
high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. 22 When
the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner
guests.
The king said to the girl, "Ask me for anything you want, and I'll give it to
you." 23 And he promised her with an oath, "Whatever you ask I will give you, up
to half my kingdom."
24 She went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?"
"The head of John the Baptist," she answered.
25 At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: "I want you to give
me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter."
26 The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner
guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27 So he immediately sent an executioner
with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, 28
and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she
gave it to her mother. 29 On hearing of this, John's disciples came and took his
body and laid it in a tomb. NIV
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