Integrity + Humility = Unity

I enjoyed the special music. Kids did a great job. So glad you've worked so hard to develop your musical talents, your skills. God is certainly a God of variety, and he's the one behind everything that we see. Everything good, every good gift comes from God. Music is a beautiful gift, and very grateful that God gave at least some of us the ability to sing on tune or in tune, to also play musical instruments. So really appreciate all the hard work and the beautiful job that our young people did for us today.

Well, brethren, last time I spoke of a formula for producing unity in our own individual lives and also collectively as the United Church of God. I spoke primarily of the first part of the equation that we talked about a few weeks ago, and that was integrity. Again, as a reminder, integrity comes from the Latin word integer, which means untouched. It means whole. And the first definition that Webster's uses for integer is anything complete or whole in itself. So I mentioned that we are integers in the sense we're one whole person. We're not a half a person or one and a half people.

We're a whole person. And the second definition that is given of integer is any whole number or zero as distinguished from a fraction. So we're not divided. We're a whole being as an integer, or that isn't what an integer is. It's not a fraction. Now, the word integrity comes directly from this word. And Webster's gives three definitions, and all of them apply to us in terms of becoming men, women, and children of integrity.

First of all, it means to be complete or whole. Secondly, it means to have an unimpaired condition, again, wholeness or soundness. And thirdly, it speaks of being upright, honest, and sincere. So to be people of integrity, we need to be all of these things. And integrity to me, personally, is having the character to do the right thing, that which would be most pleasing to God at any given moment.

Of course, you have to know God's will, what He would want from us, and then deliver. That's real integrity. I also mentioned three things about integrity. In order to be people of integrity, we need to, first of all, strive to live by every word of God. We can't pick and choose. We have to live by every word of God. Secondly, we need to strive to make our word our bond, and be careful of how we speak, what we say.

And thirdly, we must establish priorities in our life based on God's word and also His will, and then become disciplined in living by those priorities. This is all part of being a person of integrity. The lack of integrity has caused an awful lot of chaos in this world. You know, there is a great lack of integrity in the world today. There's been a lot of chaos, a lot of confusion, a lot of destruction caused by a lack of integrity. I'm sure you've all heard of the Great Wall of China, a huge wall in China.

The people desired security from the barbaric hordes to the north, so they built the Great Wall of China. It was too high to climb over, it was too thick to break down, and it was too long to go around. The only problem was that during the first hundred years of the wall's existence, China was invaded three times. Was the wall a failure? Not really, for not once did the barbaric hordes climb over the wall, not once did they break it down, not once did they go around it.

So how then did they get into China? The answer lies in human nature. They simply bribed a gatekeeper and then marched right in through the gate. The fatal flaw in the Chinese defense was placing too much reliance on a wall and not putting enough effort into building character and integrity into the keeper of the gate.

Also in 1644, after two years of trying, the Manchus finally crossed the Great Wall by bribing an important general, Wusang Gu, to open the gates of the Shanghai Pass and allow the Manchus into China. Legend has it that it took three days for the huge Manchu army to pass through the Great Wall. So it was a lack of integrity that made this Great Wall of China fail, not the construction of the wall.

Today we're going to continue to consider this formula that I talked about last time for attaining unity. Remember that formula? If all of us in God's Church would have more integrity, coupled with true humility, then we would have more true unity in the body of Christ and in God's Church, also in our own individual lives. That formula does seem to hold up. In fact, this was a session that I led at the ministerial conference. We talked about this formula, and it was an interactive discussion.

And it seems to really hold up as long as there is true integrity and true humility, then there will be true unity. But of course, if we lack integrity or if we lack humility, then we're not going to have unity. So we had a lively discussion for about an hour on that topic.

In Proverbs 20, verse 7, it says, "...the just man walks in his integrity, his children are blessed after him." There are many blessings from being people of integrity, but is integrity enough to have unity? Think about this for a moment. Lucifer had a lot of integrity, didn't he? He was perfect, the Scripture says, until iniquity was found in him. So at first, he had integrity, but what was his problem? What caused Lucifer to sin against God? What caused the first division, the first split, you might say, with God?

Well, it was pride, wasn't it? We know the Scripture tells us it was pride. That was Lucifer's weakness. He was puffed up in pride against God. He wanted to take over God's throne. He wanted to rule over God. So his beauty and everything that was so wonderful about him went to his head, and it affected him. And instead of being humble and realizing that the Creator is much greater than the creation, he rose up against the Creator. So again, I submit integrity plus humility equals unity.

If Lucifer would have had humility, then he would have continued in his integrity. When pride enters into the equation, there is an automatic reduction in one's integrity. That's a part of integrity. A person of integrity also has humility. Integrity is the whole person, right? It covers everything. So to really have real integrity, we must also have humility. And when we don't have humility, then we're going to have problems. A person with true integrity is a humble person. So Lucifer was a created being. We know that. God created Lucifer. He was created perfect before humans were created. But as it says, iniquity was found in him.

And I guess it's almost true with anything. Lucifer was perfect until he wasn't. And sometimes we follow men who seem fine until they're not. Until they lead us down a wrong path. So we have to be very careful, obviously, as we walk. We have to put our trust in God. We have to place our faith in Him. And Him alone, really. And we have to follow others as they follow God and as they follow Christ. Otherwise, we'll get into trouble. A third of the angels followed Lucifer in his pride, in his vanity, and in his sin.

And there was a great division. There was a great split because of that. In order to really be able to effectively serve God and to serve God's people, one needs to serve in integrity and also in humility. Of course, when we do that, we will have great unity. If everyone would serve God in integrity, and in humility, there would be so much more unity in God's church. But what happens is we're not perfect, are we? So none of us are perfect like Christ. Christ was full of integrity. He never sinned. He was always perfect. He set the perfect example for us. He was a humble being as well. And we'll see a number of scriptures that speak to that in a moment.

So we obviously have to be on guard as God's people. We have to be on guard and make sure that we follow others as they follow Christ. And if they are deviating from godly principles and biblical principles, we should not follow them in their folly. Because it is foolishness and it is folly when people get away from God's truth and God's word. Webster says that humility is a modest or low view of one's own importance. It's the quality of being humble. Dictionary definitions often accentuate humility as a low self-regard or a sense of unworthiness, which is clearly not what I'm talking about. No, that's not the kind of humility that I'm talking about. I'm talking about a true humility where we're truly humble and we realize that as Job came to realize, God is the one that we look to. God is all-powerful, almighty. God is perfect Christ.

They are perfect. They are the examples that we are to follow. Everyone else will fall short of their example, so we have to be very careful as we follow others.

Obviously, God created us. He created us in His image. We have the potential of being very worthy.

In fact, I gave a sermon some time ago. In fact, it was three sermons about, are you worthy to keep the Passover? And we talked about that and what that really means.

And we are to be worthy to keep the Passover. Now, that doesn't mean we have to be perfect, but we do need to be repentant. And we do need to be humble people.

And that is a major aspect of repentance, is being humble.

Humility is, to me personally, putting the needs of others before our own personal interests. And that's the main thing about humility, is putting others' needs, putting God first, and putting the needs of others before our own selfish interests.

Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't take care of ourselves as well. I mean, there's a balance in all of this. We obviously need to take care of ourselves so we can continue to serve in greater ways in the future. Now, we know from the Scriptures that Noah was a humble servant of God, Noah humbly went about his task of building an ark while being ridiculed and being scorned.

Of course, the purpose was to save his family and to save the human race from extinction.

He believed God, he listened to God, and for many, many, many years, he built an ark. And no doubt, he was laughed at, scorned, ridiculed in so many different ways. But he continued a faithful, humble servant of God. There are many examples in the Bible. I'm going to mention a few. There are plenty of others. But Abraham, of course, was a humble servant of God. He was even willing to sacrifice his only son. I mean, his only son from his wife, Sarah. Obviously, he had Ishmael as well, but God, he thought, was requiring him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Of course, he believed God, and God had promised that the promises would go through Isaac. So, in faith, he was willing to humble himself and take the knife right above his own son. That would take a lot of humility to humble oneself, to do something like that. Isaac humbly submitted to his father as well. There's no evidence of him fighting back against his father. He was no doubt old enough to have put up a fight. But he was very submissive to his father. He also trusted his father.

And obviously, they are symbolic. There are types of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Abraham and Isaac are wonderful types of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Jacob finally learned humility. He wasn't the most humble person to begin with. He made a lot of mistakes. He sinned, paid the price for those sins. But he did finally learn humility after many hard knocks along life's path. Joseph was a young man, and evidently, he was somewhat proud as a young man. But he was humbled in prison.

He was humbled in a number of different ways. Falsely accused.

He would not sin against God. He chose to do the right thing in the midst of great temptation.

He set a wonderful example of humbling himself and not rising up against his own human master or against God. And, of course, he was exalted to second in command in Egypt.

He showed his humility also in how he dealt with his brothers, who had sold him into slavery.

He forgave them, and he worked with them very humbly, actually, even though he taught them a lesson or two. Along the way, they deserved it. They needed to realize what they had done more fully. Moses, it says, was the meekest man on earth. And Mr. Strauss mentioned Moses, of course, in the sermonette. It was a fine sermonette. I liked the concept. Moses was willing to sacrifice himself, and twice, as was pointed out, he stood up to God, not in a haughty way at all, or God would have probably taken care of him on the spot. No, he was humble in the way he approached God, but he was certainly able to get through to God, you might say, or God could see the wisdom and what he was saying. And he listened to Moses. So he was willing to sacrifice himself for the stiff-necked children of Israel. At one time, he said, blot me out of your book of life if you're going to snuff out all of these people. Even though they were a pain to him, I mean, in some ways, it would have been much easier to start all over. But Moses cared for the people. He loved the people.

He was very humble in that way. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 8, and let's read Moses' instruction to the children of Israel as they were about to enter the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy chapter 8. This is very enlightening here in regard to what we're talking about today.

Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 1.

Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the eternals swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness. They wandered around and around in the wilderness. They could have gone in in a matter of months into the Promised Land, but they had to pay a price for their pride, for their stiff-necked rebellion against God. So they wandered for 40 years.

You shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you. That's why God allowed this to happen, because they needed humbled to humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

So he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Eternal. That's a point we made last time. Your garments did not wear out. Your feet did not swell these 40 years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. God was punishing them and was also correcting them and striving to humble them and to test them in the wilderness.

You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Eternal, your God, to walk in his ways and to fear him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity. This is a land far different from the wilderness that they spent the last 40 years in, wandering because of their sin and rebellion against God. He says, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper so you can make instruments that can make your life easier from those metals. When you have eaten and are are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Eternal, your God, by not keeping his commandments, his judgments and his statutes which I command you today.

Last, when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land which there was no water who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know that he might humble you and that he might test you to do you good in the land that you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. Moses knew that there would be a tendency for them to forget about God when things got easier, when things got, you know, when they were blessed in so many ways with the abundance of the land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

So he knew that they would begin to look to themselves and you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers as it is this day then it shall be if you by any means forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish you shall die as a nation which the Lord destroys before you so you shall perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. So part of humbling ourselves is to be obedient to God to obey him to follow him to keep his commandments and reap the blessings of keeping God's commandments. The carnal nature, you know, the human heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately wicked and the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to God's law so you have to really work at it to to get focused properly and allow God's Spirit to work in you to stir you up to faithfulness and obedience. It's not an easy life. Being a true Christian is not easy. That's why the scripture says we have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. So if life's too easy for you then you need to stop and consider if you're really looking at life in the in the proper way. I mean God may be blessing you in all these physical ways and life is easy because you have plenty to eat, you have a fine home to live in, you may even have a swimming pool in your backyard to swim in and things are good and you know God's blessing you in so many different physical ways. But if you become disobedient to God and take his law for granted or take it lightly and you turn away from God and you begin to disobey him then there will be great consequences for that. So we need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We have to be careful what we do in our lives daily.

Ask ourselves are we truly humble before God? Are we humbling ourselves before him? Are we obedient?

Are we following his commandments not just in the letter but in the spirit of the law?

It's not easy to be a true Christian. If you find it very easy then perhaps you're missing something.

Now last week Stephen De Compo spoke of Job learning humility in the sermon that he gave last Sabbath. I think he entitled it Christianity 101 Start Cheer or something like this. Start here.

He has an accent. You may have noticed that. Anyway, it was a good sermon. I listened to it this week online. I don't know that it's posted for everyone yet but I have access to them earlier so I was able to listen to it. Job had a lot of integrity as he was the most righteous person on earth but he needed to learn how great God really is. He needed to learn some humility and how puny in comparison he was to God. You know the scripture says clearly we should not compare ourselves among ourselves because that can lead to a couple of different things. It can lead to a haughty spirit. We may think ourselves better than others or we may become jealous or we may become envious. So the scripture is clear that we should not compare ourselves with each other, with human beings, but we should consider the greatness of God. And when we compare ourselves to God's greatness, we will be humbled by that. None of us can do what God has done. None of us have a clue how to create a tree or a plant, a flower, a person, an animal. No, we're so limited. We can't create a universe. God is so awesome and powerful and mind-boggling in so many ways.

That we should compare ourselves to God and His greatness and realize that we can't even get close to what God can do.

Many other examples of humility can be found in the Bible. You know, we could spend all day talking about things. Things of Israel humbled themselves at times. Hezekiah humbled himself at times.

Manasseh, who was one of the most evil kings, humbled himself. There are examples in the Bible. Even King Nebuchadnezzar learned humility. Of course, if you were turned into an animal, a beast, for seven years and you were down on all fours eating grass, maybe that would humble you as well. No, God does have His ways of getting our attention if He needs to. Thankfully, God hasn't done that to too many people or to any of us, but He did to Nebuchadnezzar. All of these lessons are for our admonition. They're to warn us and to help us understand who God is and how we can serve Him better, how we can learn to please Him, how we can be men and women of integrity, and how we can learn to also humble ourselves and learn unity in the process. Because no greater unity than God, the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, or the Word, the Logos, the spokesman, and the one who became known as the Father. We'll talk more about that in the next sermon, the tremendous unity that we see in God. That's the kind of unity that we should strive to have as well. So there are many, many examples. When you read the Bible, consider what God is trying to teach you in regard to humility and learn to humble yourself. There are many scriptures that exalt humility as a wonderful virtue. We will go through some of them. Let's go to 1 Peter chapter 5 for a moment. 1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter chapter 5 verses 5 and 6. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders, yes, and all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility. 2 Peter chapter 5 verse 6.

2 Peter chapter 6.

3 James chapter 4 verse 10 talks about how we need to humble ourselves in God's sight.

James chapter 4.

James chapter 4 and verse 10.

Well, we should read starting in verse 6.

1 Corinthians chapter 6 says, Exodus chapter 6. Proverbs 15, verse 33, says, Before God will give us honor, we must have humility. Before we will be exalted and we will be glorified in His kingdom, we must learn to humble ourselves now. Just as He was testing Israel in the wilderness, He is testing you and He's testing me today in regard to humility. Are we a humble people? Proverbs 18, verse 12, says, Before destruction, the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility. So those who are haughty in heart will come to destruction, is what it's saying. If we allow pride to rule in our lives, then we are headed down the road to destruction.

On the other hand, if we're truly humble, then honor will be ours one day, if not now in God's kingdom for sure. And sometimes God even allows us to be honored to some degree, even in this life. If we truly are humble... Proverbs 22, verse 4, says, By humility and the fear of the eternal are riches and honor and life. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life. So there are true blessings that come because we have a humble nature. And then in Micah 6, verse 8, he has shown you, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you, but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. That's a question that's being asked. Are you learning this is basically what he's saying, that God has shown us what is good before him, what he requires of us, and that is to do justly, to love mercy and to be merciful ourselves, and to walk humbly with our God? That's what God requires of us.

In 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14, this is God to King Solomon. 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14, God to King Solomon, he says, If my people which are called by my name, the children of God, we are the children of God, if my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, because Israel was already going down that path to destruction. They were falling far short of the type of example that God wanted them to set as a chosen nation, as a special people. So he's talking to King Solomon, and he says, if they will humble themselves, if they will pray, if they will seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. But we know that the land of Israel, you know, it was basically destroyed by its enemies. And they were taken captive. They were taken into Babylon. They were taken into Assyria before that. And there was tremendous destruction upon the children of Israel, the children of God, because they did not heed this warning that God gave to King Solomon, that he passed along to them, of course. And then in 2 Chronicles 34, it shows that here's a king, King Josiah.

He says, because your heart was tender. Remember, Josiah began to rule at a very young age. I believe he was 8 years old when he began to rule. And he was one of the few kings that struck down the high places, and really was a righteous person. It says he did not turn to the right or to the left, but he was very pleasing to God.

He says, because your heart, King Josiah, was tender, and you did humble yourself before God, when you heard the words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbled yourself before me, and did rend your clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard you also sayeth the Lord, because they were under attack by their enemies. And Josiah sought God, and God delivered the children of Israel. There are examples in the Bible. You'll have to search those out for yourself, but they will give you strength to carry on when times are difficult. The better you know the Bible, the more quickly those things come to mind, and you remember those examples, and you remember that God is always faithful. And God always delivers his people who are true and faithful. It doesn't mean he won't let you suffer for a while, but in the end, he will deliver you. God will give you victory over Satan, he will give you victory over sin, he will exalt you in due time. So, think about this. What is the greatest example of humility in history? What is the very finest example of all throughout history? Hopefully we would all come to the same conclusion. It's when God the Father and the Word put into action the plan of salvation. It's when the Word who was God became flesh. And the Father who loved the Word for all eternity, and they were totally unified, and there was true love between them. Is that not the epitome of humble? When a Father gives his only Son to die for his people so that the family may be expanded. God's family may be expanded, but it would take the death of the one whom he loved so much throughout eternity. I mean, it's hard to wrap your mind around that. I mean, we can't really do it, but it's good to talk about it, because that's exactly what happened. The Father gave his only Son. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but should be given everlasting life, and be exalted and glorified in time. And then the Word became flesh. God became flesh!

Think about that for a moment. The Almighty God became flesh and dwelled among us. And he was scorned, and he was ridiculed, and he was humiliated. He was already humbled, and he was already humble, but they tried to humiliate him. They lashed out against him, and yet he did not revile. But he submitted to his Father's will perfectly. We'll talk more about that next time when we talk about unity. But we're talking about humility today, and the tremendous humility of the Word and of the Father. The Word became flesh. So God, who is Spirit, composed of Holy Spirit, Almighty in power, a Spirit not of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind, became corruptible flesh. This being in the God family became flesh. Let's read about it in Philippians 2. Let's consider the magnitude of the humility of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2, verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in... Well, we should read even before this. Let's start in verse 1. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if there's any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection is mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded. Paul is a wonderful pastor. He's instructing the Philippians... the people at Philippi, the Philippians, to be a certain way. He's telling them to be affectionate toward one another, to be merciful toward one another. He says, "...fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one cord, being of one mind, that nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit." The opposite of humility. "...let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." That's talking about real humility, true humility. "...let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." That gets back to what I said earlier about what true humility is all about, is putting the needs and the interests of others before your own interests and needs. He does say, "...look out not only for your own interests." We do have to do that to some degree, of course, but we should look out for others, and we should be willing to sacrifice for others. We are to be living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. "...let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, be single-minded, have the mind of Christ, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God." Now, the Bible doesn't say a lot about the Word and the relationship that the Word had with the Father before he became the Son, but both were God. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was almighty. He was all-powerful. Now, we know that sometime in the course of eternity, and perhaps it was... I mean, is there any beginning in eternity? Sometime he became subordinate in authority.

Sometime a decision was made. How it was made, the Scripture doesn't tell us. We don't know. But before angels were created, because they were created for mankind, and before mankind was created, a relationship was set up where the Father was greater in authority.

But are they not equal in terms of power and might? I mean, there's no competition going on between two almighty beings, because if there was, everything would be destroyed. Thankfully, God cannot sin. God is truly perfect and will not sin. Again, we'll talk more about that unity that we see in the Father, and the Son, and the Word next time.

But the point I'm making now is, was not God humble in how He dealt with mankind? Was not the Word humble in becoming flesh? Was not Jesus Christ humble in giving His life and laying it down for us?

Let's read it a little bit further. But the one who became Christ made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men, the almighty God now in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross, crucified on the stake, the cross.

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him the name which is above every name. The Father has highly exalted His Son. We should glorify the Son, and when we do, we glorify the Father. They're in perfect harmony and unity. They love each other fully and completely.

At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven, of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. When we glorify the Son, we glorify the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, Paul says, work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling, because Satan is a powerful being. He is a lion, and he will try to devour us in so many different ways.

This is a vital message. Integrity and humility equals unity.

And if we lack integrity, if we lack humility, then we will be separate from God. We will separate ourselves from God.

So work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing.

That's the instruction that God gives us. Paul says to the Philippians, I'm saying to you here in Dallas today, do all things without complaining and disputing.

All things.

That's not an easy task for a human being to do all things without murmuring, without complaining, without disputing. But that's what the Scripture says we are to do. So if you have a problem, you have to be careful how you handle it.

If you have a problem with someone, it doesn't matter who it is. It could be the minister. It could be your son or your daughter. With anyone. Be careful.

Do not murmur. Do not dispute.

Deal with it in integrity. That's what God's telling us to do. That is a very high standard. Is it not?

It is a high and a holy calling that we have. Never to be taken lightly. Never to be taken lightly.

So without complaining, without disputing that you may become blameless, is that not what we all want? To be blameless before God. And harmless. Children of God without fault. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. We are to be lights in this world, brethren. We must take things seriously if we are to be lights to the world. Holding fast the word of life so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ.

When Christ returns that I may rejoice that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoiced with you all. Paul was willing also to lay his life down. Paul did that. He laid his life down.

For the brethren, we should all be willing to do that for one another without murmuring, without disputing, without complaining. That's what true humility is. Are any of us there yet? I don't think so.

Also, remember in John 17, verse 5, Christ said, Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was. The glory that I had with you. When he was the Word, the Logos, the spokesman, the one that the Father delegated much of the creation to, nothing was made that was made except through Christ. The Word, the Logos, the spokesman. Much was delegated to the Word because there's no competition between the Father and the Son, or the Word. They're in perfect harmony. They're in perfect unity. We need to try to get that through our thick skulls. They operate differently than we do. They operate much differently than we do. We have to become like them. Remember, again, God so loved the world that He gave His Son for us. That should humble us to the very core that we can have eternal life because of Jesus Christ and His Father who devised such a glorious plan of salvation for us. The Father gave up the one He had always loved completely for eternity. Dwell on that this week, this next couple of weeks.

And also, remember in the sermon I gave recently on Saved by Grace that God grants us His grace and favor as one who bends or stoops in kindness to an inferior. Are we not inferior to the great God of heaven and earth? God is tremendously gracious to us. We are saved by grace.

God bends before us. He humbles Himself before us. Even though He's highly exalted, that is a true servant.

He favors us in spite of our shortcomings, in spite of our sins, in spite of our stiff-necked rebellion towards Him because we do complain sometimes. We do dispute. We do murmur. But we need to be repentant when we do those things. And we need to get ourselves in check quickly if we want to have unity in God's Church. Now, I really believe that as God's people, if we would learn this formula, integrity plus humility, we will have unity as we've never had it before.

And we need to start here as this congregation. And, frankly, I will commend you because things have gone well in many ways in the four years I've been here. And I do commend you, but I challenge you to do even better as God's people, to work together more flawlessly in the future, to be like-minded, to be like Jesus Christ, to put on the mind of Christ. Think on whatsoever things are good. Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are lovely. Don't be murmurs. Don't be disputors and complainers. Repent of that type of behavior. And learn to bring every thought into subjection until the obedience of Christ.

So, brethren, God has called us to be men, women, and children of integrity and of humility. If we are all practicing humility and integrity, there will be much greater unity in our own personal lives. Life will go better. And also, there will be more unity in God's church. And God will be more pleased with all of us. So dwell on these things. Think about integrity plus humility equals unity.