Integrity

...about the other candidate. Right? And then, doing that, I guess, is supposed to raise their credibility. So then the other candidate starts making accusations about the first person. What tends to get questioned the most? Usually it's a person's character, their integrity, their ethics. Each of the accusations are true. We'll never know. But what we know is that the certainty of a person running to be a leader in this country is their integrity is going to be called into question. And it will deeply disturb and destroy our confidence in any leader when what they say to be true is it's not true. Right? So integrity is this vital quality that we expect from each other. It's critical in every part of our society. Young people, I guess all ages, but I mean, if you're a student, you expect your teacher is not going to be treated fairly by their employer. Right? Or you could say salespeople, they're not supposed to cheat us when we go to a store. But I would argue everybody here, if you look back over your life, you can find probably some example of someone being deceptive to you in those spaces. Do you believe everything that's claimed in an advertisement on TV or on the Internet? Of course not! But which are right? Which parts are correct? That's the challenge. There are a lot of factors that have contributed to making America. I think nothing has been more significant in the success of our country than the blessings that God has given to us. And certainly, if you look back, especially in the earlier times of our country, our nation's forefathers trusted in godly principles. And that has led to some of our success. In times past, the greatness of America was reflected, you could say, in the integrity of her people. And more and more, we have lost that moral strength that made our nation great. So I say that there's a gap in integrity in America. Is there evidence to prove it? Well, there's many, many surveys that have been done. What are you willing to do for $10 million? This, unfortunately, is a survey from 2012, and I would love to see this redone, to see what it would do, because I think the stats would even be different than they were when this was taken. But it's talked to the decline in morals and ethics over the years. 25% said they would abandon their entire family. 25% said they would abandon their church. 23% said they would become a prostitute for a week or more. And 7% said they would kill a stranger for $10 million. Stats like this lead us to ask what has happened to the passion for truth and honesty that once characterized our society? Because in our culture, what we're finding is this concept of integrity is getting increasingly rare, right? It's harder and harder to see. Researcher George Gallup found it—I'm sorry, he described that Americans have what he described as incongruent values or lifestyles. What does that mean? What that means is what we say as Americans and what we seek, want, or do are often two totally different things. In short, what we say and what we do are not consistent in our lives. Integrity, therefore, is critical. Today's topic is going to be to discuss integrity.

It's at the core of godly obedience. If you'll turn to Proverbs 11 and verse 3, Proverbs 11 and verse 3, the life that we live today we know is this training ground, right? For what God longs for for eternity with him. And if we're going to have that future rulership and relationship, then it's important that we pay close attention to our integrity, because that's what we're being evaluated on. Proverbs 11 and verse 3, the integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them. Okay, so God requires us to have integrity. Why? Well, I think rather than ask why God expects us to be honest, we probably ought to ask why are we so tolerant of dishonesty? Because that's probably the truest statement. I read a story that was interesting about Teddy Roosevelt. During his time as a rancher, one of his cow punchers lassoed a maverick steer when they were out on the range and then lit a fire to prepare the branding iron. Well, the part of the land they were on at that time was owned by a gentleman named Gregory Lang, who was one of Roosevelt's neighbors. And according to the cattleman's rules of the time, the steer therefore belonged to Lang. As the cowboy applied the brand, Roosevelt said, wait, it should be Lang's brand. That's all right, boss, the cowboy said. But you're putting on my brand. That's right. In reaction, Roosevelt demanded, drop that iron, get back to the ranch, and get out of here. I don't need you anymore. Any man who steals for me will steal from me. It's this great example of not tolerating dishonesty. But do we ever explain? Do we ever justify, you know, this is an acceptable excuse. This justifies whatever is taking place. If you'll turn next to Jeremiah 17, 9, this exceptionally well-known verse, we all have our reasonings, right? We all have our justifications. But at the end of the day, humans naturally accept. We rationalize dishonesty. And Jeremiah tells us here why. Jeremiah 17 and verse 9, The heart is deceitful, above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? So our hearts are evil. Our minds are easily influenced by Satan. And that influence is so strong that most people don't even like the truth if it reveals what we don't want to hear. Most of us can sympathize, therefore, with this story that I'm about to read to you. So this gentleman and his wife traveling on a business trip, and she contacted him while on her way flying home from Europe. And she said, How's my cat? Dead, he responded. Oh, honey, don't be so honest. Why didn't you break the news to me slowly? You've ruined my trip. What do you mean, he said? You could have told me that he was on the roof. And when I called you from Paris, you could have told me that he was acting sluggish. Then I called from London, you could have said he was sick. And when I called from New York, you could have said he was at the vet. Then when I arrived home, then you could have said he was dead.

Well, he had never been through protocols like this, but he was willing to learn. He said, Okay, I will try to do my best next time. And then she said, So honey, how's mom? And he was quiet. And he said, She's on the roof.

All right. So what exactly is integrity? The word integrity is defined as the possession and the steadfast adherence to high moral principles or professional standards, complete honesty and uprightness with no masking of intent.

Stephen Carter wrote a well-known book on integrity. And in that book, he said, The word integrity comes from the same Latin root as integer.

Historically, it has been understood to carry much the same meaning, the sense of wholeness. A person of integrity, like a whole number, an integer, is a whole person, a person somehow undivided.

Interesting way to look at that word, isn't it? Integrity is one of these things that's probably easier to identify than define, right? We know it when we see it.

We usually determine that a person has integrity to the extent that they act according to their values, right? What they claim, they do.

As with anything you research like this, there's fun quotes you find. So here's three of my thoughts I'd share with you.

First is integrity means you have more in the warehouse than in the showroom. That's a clever way of putting it.

Second one is wrong is wrong, even if everyone is doing it. Right is right, even if no one is doing it.

And finally, actions speak louder than bumper stickers. So there you go. There's.

But when a person is said to have integrity, we mean that they're operating in a way that causes them to seek the right way first.

And that's the behavior that God wants his children to exhibit. One of the greatest things that God looks for us as he's evaluating us as his children is, do we do that? Are we reflective of his nature, right?

And it can show up in a lot of ways. It could show up as an adult saying. Another thing I found when I was looking, this is that many online religious sources reference society being plagued with integrity deficit disorder.

Okay, so what does that mean?

Integrity comes from the inside out, right? It starts with our values. It starts with our ex-s and we push back against society for what we stand for.

Integrity deficit disorder comes from the outside in.

It's easy then to see how this influences around us, right? You can look at entertainment. You could look online. And you can see some that are totally about this outside in approach to life.

What makes you popular? What makes you look good? What makes you successful?

All of those type things. The focus on who has what, who's in, who's not, being cool.

And then it carries forward throughout. You see young people. There's people along the way who are more focused on the perks and the entitlements of a job compared to the actual mission of a job.

And they will focus on, well, others have this, so I should be allowed to have this.

Or they look at, basically have a limited moral compass, and the means justify the ends.

As long as you get to where you want to go, eh, it's just what I had to do.

You see this more and more in society these days. Yet we know, spiritually speaking, right? It's not the external things that matter. God is trying to teach us that true fulfillment comes from having our inside world put right.

That inner peace is what helps us to have peace even if we're having hard times.

But that's tough, right? When life gets challenging, when challenges come our way, then we're all faced with those times, and we feel these temptations. And we let down at times. And that's the times we kind of look at ourselves in the mirror, right?

Turn to Proverbs 28, verse 6. God places this high value on being a servant, being a servant with integrity.

And this next verse shows His thought about an outside in versus inside out way of approaching life.

Proverbs 28, verse 6. Better is the poor who walks in His integrity than one perverse in His ways, though He be rich.

So the proverb is this contrast to our outside in way of thinking in this world.

It's in contrast to being blinded by this integrity deficit disorder.

What God is saying is He places much more value on integrity than on material possessions.

It's a lot more important than the physical stuff that we may want or wish we had along the way.

So when we choose to live in integrity, I think it's important to realize that God promises some wonderful blessings to us if we do that. So let me share three of them just so you're aware. And for the first, if you'll turn to Psalms 25, verse 21.

A lot of people live in fear, right? They live in fear because of what has happened, what might happen, what could happen.

There have been just general forms of fear. Promise 1 is that God's Word tells us that integrity provides protection.

Let's read Psalms 25 and verse 21.

Integrity takes us past fear of today and that perspective because it gives us this perspective, a higher perspective to look to.

If we fear what life will throw our ways, then we'll live our entire life in fear.

But if we're waiting on God, then we can have peace knowing that our integrity and our uprightness will preserve us in the long run.

Doesn't mean there might not be some bumps in the short run.

Perspective. God promises to protect those with integrity.

So let's move on to the second point. God's Word tells us that integrity provides security.

If you'll turn to Proverbs 10 and verse 9.

So, we can look at the two. The first one, protection allows us to move away from living in fear.

Security allows us to live with confidence.

Proverbs 10 and verse 9, He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his way will become known.

So I think one of the areas of integrity is realizing honest people don't have to remember their last statement.

Mark Twain made this typical Mark Twain type quote, but Mark Twain once wrote, 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.

Very Mark Twain. But I mean, there's truth to the concept along the way.

When we are totally honest, we can walk securely, knowing we're not living an act.

For the third one, if you will turn to Proverbs 11 and verse 3. So one chapter for Proverbs 11 and verse 3.

So again, let's walk through it. The first promise of protection moves us from fear.

The second promise of security moves us to a state of confidence.

Promise three is God's word tells us that integrity provides us with guidance.

Proverbs 11 and verse 3. The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.

So integrity will help us make good decisions, right? It will help us make the right decisions.

And when you're facing these tough choices in life, we can look in the Bible.

The teachings in here about integrity are in general, and that'll help guide us.

So I think we all get the concept, right? We get the concept that integrity is a good thing. It guides our life. It will help us do the right thing. How we act, how we treat others, how we speak.

So why don't we do it all the time? Why is that such a challenge for us?

If acting through integrity is acting God's way, then why don't we always act Christian?

Well, I think the best place I know to look at that struggle is Romans 7, verse 14 through 25.

Paul is this interesting Bible character. He's one of those ones I'd like to meet.

I just try to get a visual of what that man would be like, but he comes across like this amazing spiritual giant who seems to have a self-control that's forged of steel.

I mean, if anyone could control themselves into living with integrity, it seems like that would be the guy.

And so this section of scripture we're going to read is soapering. It's actually encouraging in a very human way.

But I mean, it's both. Romans 7, starting in verse 14. Go forward now to verse 21.

So there are many of us here today, right. We have a lot of people who feel less than able to live a life of pure integrity. I feel less than able to speak on the topic. Because we all know our flaws, right? We know our areas we work through. We know what God says is right to do. And yet what we do isn't always exactly what we know we should do.

So what do we do with that? How do we play that into perspective? We just give up because we can't be perfect? Well, turn to Acts 13 verses 21 through 22, and let's consider and contrast the life of David. So David, fascinating person, right? His sins were major. I would argue the answer is in the next couple words.

Who will do all my will? See, the difference was David lived with integrity. He loved God. He really wanted to do right. And when he made mistakes, he was very humble and reflective of God. So every one of us can develop that same spiritual characteristic that made God love David. We can all grow in integrity. That's what kept him close to God.

If you'll turn next to Psalm 78 verse 72, integrity also helped David to be this strong leader. And this as a synopsis of what David's leadership style was. Psalm 78 verse 72. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the sculfiness of his hand. So that describes David's... the verse shows that to be successful as a leader, we both have to have integrity and skill. Right? So let's play that out. You've probably seen people who have amazing skills, but no integrity.

Right? People who are well educated, they're charming, but they lack integrity. What you usually find in time is corruption. Think of any thing you've seen in the news of your lifetime where things blow up. It's usually because of that. That's usually what plays through, but flip it. What if you have someone with great integrity, but they lack skills? What you're going to find is a person well thought of with good intentions, but very limited ability to get anything done effectively. So both are necessary to be a positive and effective leader, which is more important.

Turn to Psalms 15 verses 1 through 5. Without a doubt, David realized it was integrity. Integrity to God that God desired more than anything. Because God can give us skills. Right? Doesn't mean we don't develop skills and we shouldn't work on those. But God can help in those areas. The smartest, the most skillful people in the world have nothing compared to the knowledge of God. Psalms 15 and verse 1. Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle?

Who may dwell in your holy hills? He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart. He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friends, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the Lord.

He who swears to his own hurts and does not change. He who does not put out his money at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

What a great stance, what a great philosophy to live by. In China's later Han era, there was this politician that was very well known for his integrity. And his name was Yang Zen. After he was made to be a provisional governor, then this early patron of his, a gentleman named Wang Mi, came out of surprise to his house, and they began talking about the old times and sharing memories.

Then the gentleman brought out a large gold cup, and he presented it to Yang Zen. Well, he refused to accept it. Wang Mi persisted, and he said, there's no one here tonight but you and me, so no one will know. Then he showed his integrity. He says, you say that no one will know, but that isn't true. Heaven will know, and you and I will know.

And that mortified the other gentleman, and apparently over the course of this man's life, there were examples after example where he lived with integrity. So, unfortunately, we don't all exhibit that approach at all times in our life, right? Human nature is weak, and we tend to yield to temptations when we think no one can see us.

In fact, there's been plenty of evidence and proof that if there was no police force, many people wouldn't hesitate to steal. A well-proven fact over time. They feel guilt, right? But humans are weak, and they're prone to yield to temptations. So even when nobody witnesses our sins, we can't hide it from God, and we really can't hide it from our conscience either. To be a godly leader, we need to search our hearts. We need to strive to be people whose behavior is above reproach.

So with that as a setup, I'd like to finish along the way by looking at six keys to living with integrity. Six keys to living with integrity. The first is this. Integrity starts with us deciding to integrate. Integrity starts with us deciding to integrate.

See, integrity comes from the word integrate. So integrity is the ability to integrate the values of our hearts into our daily actions. And the key before anyone can exhibit integrity, therefore, is deciding. You have to choose to do that. No one is going to say, oops, I just fell into integrity.

It's not something that you accidentally stumble and discover that you have. It takes daily choices to decide. Throughout his administration, Abraham Lincoln was this president that was under fire. And especially in the Civil War years, there was just so much that was challenging him. And he knew he would make errors in office, but he resolved to never compromise his integrity. One of the things he wrote was, I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the range of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

I mentioned that Stephen Carter had written a book on integrity. He summarized integrity as having three points. What he concluded was integrity requires, first of all, discerning what is right and wrong, secondly, acting on what you've discerned, even at personal cost, and thirdly, saying openly that you're acting on your understanding of right and wrong. If you'll turn to Proverbs 20 and verse 7, I love the simplistic way of capturing integrity that he did. Because there's so much to that, right? That's what makes it brilliant. The more consistent a person is in knowing what they actually believe, articulating what they believe, and then conducting their life based on those beliefs, the more integrity they have.

And if people show that what they're doing is wrong, then they'll want to refine that and grow. Unfortunately, though, living with integrity isn't normal. As we talked about, cheating in schools is common. And what happens when you catch a child or you point that out? They're going to say, what's the big deal? Everyone's doing it, right?

That's the phrase that people say. It goes along the lines of something that Voltaire once wrote, where he said, no snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsibility. Let's go ahead and read Proverbs 20 and verse 7.

The righteous man walks in his integrity. His children are blessed after him. So the reality here is that if we live a life that represents integrity, it not just blesses us, it blesses our family. It blesses those around us. And I am certainly a person who's been blessed with that. I've been blessed with the last name that's recognized, less and less these days. But because of what my parents did for years and years in service and how they lived, and I know that doors have opened to me because of my parents. And I hope I've been able to continue that example and doors open for my son. But it's the same for you. If you live with integrity, it will extend out to your family and your relatives along the way if you decide to integrate integrity into your life. Let's move on to the second key to living with integrity, and that is always speak honesty. Always speak honesty. Picture a person standing before a judge and a jury as a witness. Right? So they place a hand on a Bible, one hand the error, and they say with God as their witness that they will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Their job is not to expand or dilute the truth, but as a witness, they're sharing the truth so that justice has a chance. If you'll turn to Acts 1 and verse 8, Acts 1, you could say, on trial, a court is perpetually in session, and we're always under oath. Because another difference to a witness on a stand is our testimony is to be a lot more than words. It's supposed to be based on our actions. It's never okay for a Christian to be deceptive. And 4, 2, because humans don't like the truth much. The truth is only ideal when it serves our purposes. That's human nature, right? At other times, the truth makes us squirm. So humans understand that honesty has consequences, so we see kids do that from the youngest age. And they have to be taught by their parents along the way and choose to live honestly, to live with integrity. Well, of course, it's not only for those reasons that people aren't honest.

Humans lie when we want people to admire us. You see that happen a great deal. We call it exaggerating. We call it stretching the truth, right? People even live in houses they can't afford and buy things. They run up debts they could never pay back, and they call it the American way, and God calls it a lie. Buys and live within our life, because that's living honestly.

Many years ago, a man conned his way into the orchestra of the Emperor of China, and he couldn't play a note. So whenever the group practiced, he pulled up his flute, and he moved his fingers, and he never made a sound. And he made a decent living for his family for a decent period of time. Well, one day the emperor requested a solo from every musician.

He didn't have time to learn the instrument at that point. So he got very nervous, and at first he pretended to be sick, but the royal physician wasn't buying it. And when the day came for him to do his solo performance, the imposter took poison and killed himself. That has led to a phrase that you all know that's very common in our English language. He refused to face the music. In Acts 5, the story of Ananias and Sapphira represents just how much people don't trust the truth, right?

They sold a plot of land. They had the right to sell a plot of land. They gave money to the apostles. The problem was, they said they gave the whole money to the apostles when they only gave half. They had every right to hold back some of the money, but the misrepresenting of the truth is what took their life. That's where the death came from. So the cure for deceit is simply this. We have to face the music. It's true for us, too.

We need to tell the truth. And some people spend their whole lives trying not to get caught for lies. Right? It's just an awful way to live. But the lies of Ananias and Sapphira resulted in their death. And the same is true for our lives. Lies cause some people to bury a marriage, or bury their conscience, or even part of their faith. But it's all because they won't tell the truth. Now, I'll give credit for some of the things in this chapter, or this point in particular, are from a really interesting book that Max Lucado wrote, called Just Like Jesus in a chapter of Nothing But the Truth.

And he highlighted parts of this, so I'll give him credit. But dishonesty is absolutely contrary to the character of God. So you know the verse well. Hebrews 6, 18 says, It is impossible for God to lie. But think on that.

It's not saying that God will not lie. It's not saying that he chooses not to lie. It's saying that he cannot lie. He simply will not...it cannot happen for him. And that's beautiful. He always speaks the truth. Put that into your life and the promises that God gives to you. If God makes a covenant, He is going to keep it. When He makes a statement, He means it. And when He proclaims the truth, we can believe it.

Because what He says is true. Now you contrast that and you get Satan, right? Who probably only tells the truth if it's in some scheme he has. Jesus described him as the father of lies. Even in the Garden of Eden, Satan didn't discourage Eve. He didn't seduce her or sneak up on her. He just lied to her. God said, you'll die if you eat the fruit. He'll surely not die. He lied to her. Are we more like God or are we more like Satan? Something to think on. If you'll turn to Ephesians 4, verses 14 through 15.

A simple definition of integrity is, you can count on me. I will keep my word. I'll be true. It basically captures integrity. It means we're not for sale at any price. And you can think about that when you don't live with integrity. You're almost being on sale. You're selling yourself to Satan. Integrity means we're honest in our speech and our actions.

Again, reflects. I was reflecting, putting these together, how strong is my integrity? Especially when situations are hard. Ephesians 4, verse 14. That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But, speaking the truth, and it doesn't stop there, in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ Jesus. So this adds a piece, right? Ephesians 4, 15 tells us that even when we're being honest, we must also share the truth in the context, in the spirit of love.

Okay. Haven't you known people whose words are accurate, but their goal is to hurt? I mean, they're almost giddy. They can hardly wait to tell that truth. Right? And there's the spirit about them that just doesn't sit well. What they say may be true, but the attitude of what they're doing isn't clothed with love. It's not clothed with kindness. It's not taking the high road. God's Word tells us to speak truth with the spirit of love.

So, for this point, again, like with all of them, examine yourselves, and if you find any situations where you're not being completely honest, then, as if you're not using the spirit of love, ask for forgiveness and start being honest today. One quote, closing up this point I read, was, The ripple of today's lie is tomorrow's wave and next year's flood. So, it grows. The third point, we must be reliable and trustworthy. We must be reliable and trustworthy. See, our calling is this very personal thing. We're to become the unique people God created us to be.

And that's the toughest challenge of all, right? Oscar Wendell Holmes once said, What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. We're our own biggest project.

For good or for bad? That's life. See, the point of Christian integrity is not that we live morally perfect. It's a great aspiration, but it's not humanly attainable. It's not that we should never make mistakes, but that we're always working toward correcting those things in us that are problems. We're to be an example of continual improvement. I read one part, which I thought was just a good way of putting it.

It said, our lives must show some tangible evidence that we're not only wrestling with our demons, but that we're corralling them. That struck me, because I think that's true. It's not just settling with going to God all the time and asking for forgiveness. But also reality is, at the end of the day, for us to be a collection of God's future family members, we must first be a community of forgiven but growing sinners.

We're supposed to be, yes, going to God for repentance, but then growing. And throughout our life, God will try our fidelity. He will try our constancy. That's why we go through things, because our integrity is being refined, is what's happened to her daughter. The way Christ responded to the woman was designed to test her. We'll start in Matthew 15, verse 21. Then Jesus went out from there and departed to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to him, saying, "'Haven of David, my daughter is severely demon-possessed.' But he answered her not a word." So she went to God, and she asked for a favor, insert like we do. Right? When we do this, we expect God to have mercy, to have compassion. And her approach from all we can show was polite, it was respectful, it was filled with integrity.

And we know Christ could have easily healed her. Instead, he tested her by showing her. Now, did that cause her to lose integrity? Let's keep going. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "'Send her away, for she cries out after us.'" Which tells you it didn't, it happened for a while. For that to be in here, she was following that group, pleading for a long time. But he answered and said, "'I will walk to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' Then she came and worshipped him, saying, "'Lord, help me.'" These are tough words.

This is a tough example in the Bible. If God or any person spoke that way to you, would you develop a bad attitude? Would you leave? Instead of responding negative or defensively, right? The woman worshipped him because she knew he wasn't a respecter of persons. So then did Jesus heal her? No. He continues to test her. Verse 26. But he answered and said, "'It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.'" All right, that's almost too much, right? And she said, "'Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table.' Then Jesus answered and said to her, "'Oh, woman, great is your faith.

Let it be to you as you desire.' And her daughter was healed from that very moment." So this woman was put to the test and acted with amazing integrity. How would you and I have acted in her place?

We hope we would have the high ground, right? But in life, we don't always get what we want. And when that happens, it's tempting. It's tempting to blame, to justify, to have a negative response and say, "'Well, I had it coming.'" Well, most of us, I think, would have been angry with Christ. Jesus almost called her a dog. But in contrast, we see her attitude. She remained faithful.

She remained humble. There was no anger or bitterness. And Christ deeply respected that and healed her and gave her the blessing that she'd longed for most. All right, let's consider another story. Do you all know the Titanic, right? Sunk on its maiden voyage from England to New York in, whatever, 1912. 1,500 people died, the biggest maritime disaster of its time.

Do you know what caused the crash? Initially, there was this thought that it hit an iceberg which opened this huge gash, which caused it to sink. Over time, there have been scientists and divers who've gone, and they realized that a series of slits, not this giant gash, sank the Titanic. When they went down and they were studying it using sound waves to probe the wreckage, they discovered the damage was surprisingly small. Instead of a huge gash, they found six relatively narrow slits, but across all six watertight holds. What do we take from that? Small damage, invisible to most, can sink not only a great ship, but a great reputation.

We can have seemingly little slits in our integrity. We need to look and evaluate that, right? We must be reliable and we must be trustworthy. All right, let's go on to the point four. Live consistently. We should live consistently.

It's wonderful. Will we make a good decision at a really, really tough time? But that does no good if we then follow up with a bunch of bad decisions on common trials. Another way of defining integrity is, I am the same at home as I am here. Are we consistent in how we live with integrity? So the Statue of Liberty was built in 1882. Why that's relevant is it was 21 years before the first air flight in 1903. Yet if you look at the top of the Statue of Liberty, that same level of detail can be seen that's on the rest of the statute, even though they never knew if anybody would ever see it. In his book Lyrics, Oscar Hammerstein reflected on this, and he said, when you are creating a work of art, or any other kind of work, finish the job off perfectly. You never know when a helicopter or some other instrument not at the moment invented may come along and find you out. Turn to Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23.

See, the point is consistency. We're to be consistent in our public life as we're in our private life, consistent with our spouse as we do when we're in front of somebody who we're wanting to impress. And in this next verse, Jesus mentions people approaching him on the Day of Judgment, and pointing out the things they did in his name. I'd like you to read this in your translation that you have on your laps, but I'm going to read this to you from the Message Transliteration. So it's not a word for word, but sometimes looking at these can put it in such direct words that they really are powerful. So let me read it to you from there.

Romans, our God-sponsored projects had everybody talking. And do you know what I'm going to say? You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourself important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here. It's a very powerful way of translating something we've read over and over many different times. Actions are important, but our motives, our intentions are what God is looking for. God is looking for consistent integrity. That's what we should be building. And I think of this, a great example on this one in the Bible to me is Daniel. You look at the people at the time in Babylon, right? And they were willing to bow down to wooden, to stone images. They did whatever, but it was out of fear, right, of what would happen if they didn't. Their true God was safety or fame or riches or power. But Daniel, none of these really mattered. When he went before Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar offered him all of that to translate the dream. And he basically said, you can keep it. And then he gave the meaning of the dream and he went on. He lived his life with integrity throughout. And I think the most important thing that you and I can do is to think along those lines of personally keeping our integrity intact. If you'll turn to Colossians 3, verses 23 through 24. Colossians 3, 23 through 24. Integrity must be this consistent thing that defines our character. That when people think about us, they see that. They recognize that. Colossians 3 and verse 23. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the rewards of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ. So, integrity is more than just avoiding being deceitful. It means doing everything consistently in a godly way. Let's go on to the fifth point, which is obey unconditionally. We must obey unconditionally. So let's flip that.

What would make your integrity conditional? Kind of goes back to that first thing of what you would do for $10 million. But it doesn't just have to be that. What could you experience that would seem so unfair that we would make you do the wrong thing? In the first of the five games of the postseason. And the coach wrote, we didn't know he was knowledgeable at that time. We didn't know it until a few weeks ago. Some people have said we should have just kept quiet about it, that it was just 45 seconds.

The player wasn't an impact player. But you've got what the rules say. I told my team that people forget the score of basketball games. They don't ever forget what you're made of. Now, I can tell you, if I was a player on that team, that would have been a very hard lesson to learn from, right?

But each of us are going to face this to go through. Do we maintain integrity unconditionally? What's the trigger that would justify something different? When I think of a Bible character who suffered greatly, Job comes to mind. Job went from being a very prosperous man, adored by his community, to a man stripped of everything, I guess, except his wife. God described Job as what? He described him as blameless, as upright, and as his servant. Well, Satan rationalized that he was only that way because he was spoiled.

And I would argue we need to be careful that we don't apply Satan's logic toward others. Do we sometimes question and doubt other people's motives and say, the only reason they do this is because they're getting something out of it? If you ever do that, be careful. You are absolutely playing Satan's game. So, you know the story. All matter of bad things started to come Job's way. He was wiped out from his livestock, his possessions, killed his children. But in spite of these calamities, Job remained faithful. Satan then came back, you know the story, and said, you're still protecting him.

He still got his health. So, he tested him even further. Well, suppose you lost your possessions. Suppose you lost your family. Suppose you lost your health. Would you give up or blame God? I mean, even Job's wife said, let go of your integrity.

Curse God and die. Have you ever wondered how you would react if you were Job? Boy, I pray none of us ever have to go through that. That just would be horrendous. But the key is that we must unconditionally trust God and his will in our lives. We may not face – all Job did, I hope we never do – but any suffering, no matter how big or little, is still a test.

And we're all about having our integrity grow. So, when we lose material possessions, it's difficult because what? They bring us a sense of security. They represent wealth or position in society. When we lose family members, whether through death or any other means, it's difficult because it takes away people we love, people who are part of our story, connected to us. They're people who help us remember our dreams and our family and our connections in the closest way. When we lose our health, just like Satan pointed out, it hits at the very core.

Health problems affect our moods, our outlooks on life. That's why we pray for people when they're struggling. It's not just for their healing, it's also for their strength, regardless if they're healed. Losing our health can force us to slow down or be unable to accomplish even the simplest of tasks. Losing things, no matter what they are, can easily make us bitter or angry.

Has that happened to you? But it didn't affect Job that way. And I think that's the beauty. Job kept his integrity in the face of suffering. And I think the reason he did that is because he obeyed unconditionally. He asked God questions. He had things he was learning, yes, for sure. But he never made his obedience conditional. So when we face sufferings, right, we need to step back and ask ourselves, first of all, is there a reason why we're suffering? If so, repent, change, stop what's happening. That's pretty straightforward. But if we're unable to identify a cause for our suffering, we need to be like Job and acknowledge that sometimes we're asked to take the bad as well as the good for God and still obey unconditionally.

Let's move on to the final point. Point 6. Show mercy in all relationships. See, integrity and being merciful are the foundation for a relationship to work. It's the foundation for what? A happy marriage? It's the foundation for a good business relationship? It's the foundation for being a good neighbor to the person next to you. One of the quotes I read that was, I thought, very effective on this one. It says, integrity has the power to build trust.

Trust is what fuels a relationship. And you can experience that, right? If you flip that thing around, if you ever was somebody who doesn't show you integrity, who you can't trust, they're not going to be your friend in any special way. So you can never have a strong relationship when trust is missing. All good relationships are going to stem from and they're going to build on the foundation of integrity. Integrity is showing respect and love toward others, toward things, toward oneself.

And if you think about that, you can actually flip that sentence, because you could say, since integrity is always expressed with love, right, then integrity is always acting with respect toward others, things, or ourselves. There's a formula there that works. If you'll turn to Colossians 4 in verse 6.

Colossians 4 in verse 6. Acting with love is acting with integrity. If we're to act Christ-like, if we're to be love like He is love, we should be living with integrity. And part of that is knowing when to speak and when to keep silent. We don't always pay enough attention to how to respond to others, which we see in this well-known verse. Colossians 4 in verse 6. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each other.

So, if we want God to show mercy and rescue us when we make mistakes, we must show that same mercy toward others. To have God on our side, we must walk in integrity. We must reflect Him, right, in His nature of grace and mercy. That's what's expected. If you'll turn next to Micah 6 in verse 8. Micah 6 in verse 8. So, I encourage you this week, when you feel frustrated, when you feel that need to lash out at somebody along the way, think about your integrity and the mercy you show toward others. Because a lot of life is spent focusing on the things that don't matter, superficial things. God wants us to see that there's a lot more for us to grow in. Our internal values, our internal character holds the most important part of what we're being plumbed into, what we're being grown into, what God is working for us. Why are you here at church? I think you could summarize that by saying we're here to become a person of integrity. We're all this project in the making, so we need to keep the right focus. You know Micah 6, 8 well. It says, He has shown you a man what is good, in what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. So as we finish today's message, I encourage you to look to Christ as the ultimate example of living with integrity. Because He taught the highest principles, right? He then lived His life in perfect conformity of those principles. He was the same to all people. He was the same on every occasion. He was honest, never hiding anything. Eventually that shocked people so much they killed Him. How did Jesus retain His integrity during hard times? I think selfish humans don't see blessings in the same places that people of integrity do. There's a lot of reasons you could say why Christ did, but one of them is He recontextualized suffering. Jesus knew that God's reality is much bigger than our physical creation, so He suffered on our behalf. Right? That we might be restored in salvation. So, again, look at that in your own life as you reflect on any challenges to test your ability to live with integrity. Lessons of the art there, you are the moment to change the who to be. So, I question you a pair of integrity. Things reflect our lives that people should trust completely as we are people of integrity.