Integrity + Humility = Unity

I'd like to thank those who worked on the special music. Really appreciated that. We're certainly blessed to have God there for us, to always hold us when we need held, which is most of the time.

Well, I've improved quite a bit, haven't I?

I know many of you thought I was going to fall off the stage last week when I came up here with crutches.

I'm still not very good at using crutches, but I have improved quite a bit, so I'm hoping that my knee will continue to improve as much this week as it did last week. If so, I think I'm heading in the right direction. I appreciate all of your prayers for my knee. I was out jogging, and it started hurting all of a sudden.

But it's quite a bit better now. I can put some weight on it. I'm going to try to stand up this whole sermon.

If I need to, I've got a table set up here, but I think I'll be fine.

Rather than the last two times that I've spoken, I spoke of a formula for producing unity in our own individual lives, and also collectively, as this church congregation, as the Dallas-Fort Worth congregation, and also the greater United Church of God.

It actually works for all three. Individually, collectively here, as a church group, and then as a larger group, the United Church of God.

So if we could all foster this formula and really strive to live it ourselves, then I believe that we would have much greater unity in our individual lives, collectively here as a church group, and also in the United Church of God.

I suppose whatever I can do in the new role that I have, this is something that I'm going to strive to promote, is unity.

Because the more unity we have, the more pleasing we are to God, then I certainly believe God will look after us, He'll bless us, He'll take care of us, and we need not fear.

So I'm encouraged that I'll have that opportunity.

I talked about how integrity comes from the Latin word integer, which means untouched, it means whole, it means complete.

It talks about uprightness, or it's about uprightness, it's about honesty, it's about sincerity.

Someone who is a person of integrity has character, and they have the character to do the right thing, which would be most pleasing to God at any given moment. That's what real integrity is about. That's what I'm talking about.

Pleasing God at any given moment by making the decision that He would want you to make.

The lack of integrity has caused an awful lot of chaos in our own individual lives.

Sometimes, I'm sure, even here in the Dallas congregation and also in the United Church of God.

So it's very important that we learn integrity and that we all take responsibility to be men, women, and children of integrity.

Webster says that humility is a modest or low view of one's own importance. Not thinking too highly of themselves.

That doesn't mean that you can't be confident and grateful for the blessings that God has given you, or for the talents and abilities that He's given you and the things that you've achieved.

That's not what that's about, but putting too much importance on ourselves is a lack of humility.

So humility is the quality of being humble.

It is at times putting the needs of others before our own personal interests.

Certainly, there's nothing wrong with pursuing our own interests as long as they're appropriate, as long as they're good and right, but we should not do so to the detriment of others.

Humility is rightly submitting to others in an effort to gain peace, harmony, tranquility, and unity, but without compromising integrity.

We don't make peace at all costs. We don't compromise our integrity.

Pride was Lucifer's weakness. When pride enters into the equation, there is an automatic reduction in one's integrity.

Pride is not an element of true integrity. A person with true integrity is a humble person.

Last time we talked about the greatest examples of humility throughout history.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die for this world that the world through Him might be saved.

That is true humility to sacrifice your Son for the good of mankind.

The Father gave up the one that He had always loved completely for eternity for mankind's sake, and that the Father might extend or ultimately multiply His holy family.

Also, the Word, the one who is with the Father throughout eternity, became flesh. God became flesh.

I said that's the epitome of humble, God giving His Son and His Son willing to give His life.

God who is Spirit, composed of Holy Spirit, Almighty in power. God who became flesh and dwelt among us.

I mean, that's truly humbling, isn't it, to consider what God has done for us?

We also talked about Philippians 2 last time, and I took some time to go through many verses in Philippians 2.

Remember, verse 8 says, And God, being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death.

Remember, Christ said, Not my will, but your will be done to His Father, setting that example of integrity and humility for all of us.

And I also mention again that the Father bends or stoops in kindness to an inferior.

God is gracious. We are saved by grace because He stoops in kindness toward inferiors.

He favors us in spite of our shortcomings, in spite of our stiff-necked rebellion towards Him.

So again, if everyone would have more integrity, true integrity, coupled with true humility, we would certainly have a lot more unity in our own individual lives, as a church congregation, and ultimately, if every congregation around the country would be doing this, and every person would be doing this, we would have much greater unity in the body of Christ.

Today we'll focus on attaining true unity by having integrity and humility. So we're going to bring it all together today. In order to really, again, be able to effectively serve God and to serve God's people, we need to serve in integrity and in humility.

There's no way we won't have greater unity if that happens.

So notice this formula supported by God Himself in His instruction to a young King Solomon. Let's go to 2 Chronicles 7. Solomon was just crowned king. 2 Chronicles 7. I think we'll start in verse 14. 2 Chronicles 7. Verse 14. He says, If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, okay, that's part of the equation, if they will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, that means stop their wicked ways and become righteous, which is integrity, a second part of the equation. So we've got humility, we've got integrity. And then He says, Then I will hear from heaven, God will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. And there will be wholeness. And there will be oneness. There will be unity. If we can please God, then God will surely bless us in doing so. He says, Now my eyes will be open, and my ears attentive to prayer made in this place. So God is looking for us to come to Him humbly and then to live our lives with integrity, and He will give us tremendous unity. Notice what He says here. He says, For now I have chosen, I have chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever, and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually. As for you, if you walked before me as your father David walked, and we know David wasn't perfect, but David was repentant, and David was a man of integrity. He repented bitterly of the sin that he committed.

He humbled himself. In Psalm 51, we read that Psalm of Humility by David. He says, If you will do as your father David did, keep my commandments, my statutes, my judgments, verse 18, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying you shall not fail to have a man as a ruler in Israel. But if you turn away and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot them from my land, which I have given them. In this house, which I have sanctified for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And that is exactly what happened. Because Solomon did not have integrity.

He did not have the kind of integrity that he needed to have. He set a horrible example. He served other gods. He had, what, 900 wives and concubines total.

So that house was taken away and went into captivity. And you know the story. There was a tremendous price paid for that disobedience. He did not walk in the ways of his father David.

So we need to turn from our wicked ways and have integrity by humbling ourselves and submitting to God's will and desire for us, for each other, individually and again collectively, then God will forgive and God will heal the land or he'll heal the church. He'll heal us individually. He'll make us whole.

These are laws that are in the Bible. And if we would practice this in our lives, then we would certainly be blessed because God does bless his people who turn to him in faith, who turn to him in obedience, who turn to him in repentance, and who walk in a way that is pleasing to him.

Let's consider 2 Kings chapter— well, I'm not actually going to turn there, but you can write it down for your references. In 2 Kings chapter 22 and 23, and also 2 Chronicles chapter 34, it speaks of King Josiah, and how he was one of the few kings who was a good king and followed God. It says he didn't go to the right or the left. He followed God faithfully. He was only eight years old when he began to reign over the house of Judah. He tore down the high places. He rebuilt the temple. There were many reforms. God's law was brought back in. The law was read, and there was tremendous peace and prosperity during Josiah's reign because of his faithfulness, because of his integrity, because of his humility. In fact, in 2 Chronicles 34—and you can turn to verse 27— 2 Chronicles chapter 34 verse 27, God says, because your heart, King Josiah, was tender, and you did humble yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, because God was fed up by then, because of all the sins of the house of Judah. The house of Israel had already gone into captivity prior to the house of Judah being taken captive.

So he said, If you will humble yourself before me, because you humbled yourself before me, and did rend your clothes and wept before me, I have even heard you also says the Eternal. So God intervened, and wickedness did not come upon Josiah— or the falling of that house did not come during Josiah's time, because God protected Josiah and protected his people at that time. So there is unity. There is oneness when we please God and when we set right examples for one another. So what is unity? Basically, it's oneness. It's singleness. It's wholeness. And it's all about pleasing God. That's what unity is all about. If we can be one in pleasing God, if we can be single-hearted, single-minded in pleasing God, if we can be wholehearted in pleasing God, then God will certainly bless us in so many different ways. There are obviously a number of examples of unity in the Bible. We've talked about Josiah. King Hezekiah is another one. King Hezekiah humbled himself. Let's go to 2 Kings 18 and take a moment to look at the example of King Hezekiah. This is in 2 Kings 18. 2 Kings 18. Let's read in verse 5. 2 Kings 18. Verse 5. Speaking of Hezekiah, it says, He trusted in the eternal God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the eternal. He did not depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which the eternal had commanded Moses. The eternal was with him. He prospered wherever he went, and he rebelled against the king of Assyria. The king of Assyria had already taken the house of Judah into captivity, and they were vassals under the king of Assyria. So he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and did not serve him, because he knew that that would not be pleasing to God, to just go along as a vassal state to the pagan king of Assyria. So he rebelled against that idea. So it's okay to rebel if it's against someone who is against God. We should rebel when it's against God, but never against God should we rebel, only against those enemies of God who are trying to lead us down the wrong path. Then we should resist, and we should not follow, we should not comply in that case. So he did rebel against the king of Assyria, and he did not serve him. He subdued the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city. Now it came to pass, in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshiah, the son of Elah, the king of Israel, that Shamonizor, king of Israel, came up against Samaria and besieged it. Okay, this is talking about how the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria.

But again, the king Sennacherib of Assyria is basically boasting against the Eternal. He's basically saying that he's going to take them captive, just as he did the house of Israel. And the Rabshakah, you may remember this account, the Rabshakah disdains God, speaks against God, is very blatant about how these children of God are going to be taken captive by this pagan king.

In verse 28 of the same chapter, it says, Then the Rabshakah stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew and spoke, saying, Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria, this day, thus says the king, Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand.

Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Eternal, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Do not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, Make peace with me by a present, and come out to me, and every one of you eat from his own vine, and every one from his own tree, his fig tree, every one of you drink the waters of his own sister, and until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and so forth, that you may live and not die, but do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, The Eternal will deliver us. Don't listen to God. He has no power. Look what we've done to all the nations around. Don't be fools. Don't be idiots. Don't believe that God will deliver you. Verse 33, Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Servath and Iva? And Henna and Iva, indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? No, they've all been taken captive. Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Eternal should deliver Jerusalem from my hand? But the people held their peace and answered him not a word, for the king's commandment was, Do not answer him. Then Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of the Rab Shaka. And so it was when King Hezekiah heard it that he tore his clothes. He covered himself with sackcloth, and he went into the house of the Eternal. He humbled himself. He went into the house of the Eternal. He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos.

And they said to him, Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke and blasphemy, for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the Eternal your God will hear all the words of the Rab Shaka, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Eternal your God has heard, therefore lift up your prayer, for the remnant that is left. The servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said to them, Thus you shall say to your master, Thus says the Lord, Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard. Now this is real life. This actually happened. Now this isn't a story. It's not some made-up story. It's a true account of what actually happened in this case when King Sennacherib came after Hezekiah.

It says God's telling them not to be afraid because Assyria has blasphemed me. Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. Then the Rabshachar returned and so forth. I don't want to take too much time reading all this, but the bottom line is they found 185,000 Assyrians dead, soldiers were found dead in the camp, mysteriously.

They all died. So they laughed with their tails between their legs, and God did deliver the children of Israel because God was pleased with Hezekiah. Hezekiah obeyed God. He kept his commandments. He also made certain reforms. He also turned things around in Jerusalem and in the house of Judah. So it made a huge difference. God answered. I think it's... Well, I don't know. I'm not going to find it here. I thought I had it written down, but you can read about it. There were 185,000 soldiers that just mysteriously died. Obviously God killed them.

God took care of the problem, and they laughed. 86,000, I think it was. So I'm convinced that the Bible is true. What the Bible says is true. I'm convinced that Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ, the one who became Christ, the Word, the Logos, the spokesman, was the one working primarily with the children of Israel. He was the one interacting, relating with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, with David, and with Hezekiah. And he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And God the Father is certainly the same. He changes not when it comes to this sort of thing. God is always faithful. So we can count on God to do His part if we'll do ours. So again, the more integrity we have, the more humility we have, the greater unity we will have, the greater wholeness, the greater singleness, the greater blessings God will pour out upon us.

Now let's go to the New Testament for a moment and consider what God says in Ephesians 4, Ephesians 4 regarding unity. Because Paul gives us instruction. Paul was obviously pastor to many congregations. He wrote a number of letters more than anyone else. Ephesians 4, verse 1. He says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. So he's talking to those in Ephesus. Many of them were Gentiles.

No doubt there were some Jews as well, but primarily a Gentile group. He says, Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness.

Okay, that's humility. With all lowliness and gentleness. With long suffering, patience, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is the instruction that Paul gives the church here at Ephesus. He said, There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called, in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all.

So there is just one God that we serve, one Father, and of course the Lord Jesus Christ, who are completely unified. They are at one. They have the same mind. We've never seen any division whatsoever between the Father and the Word or the Son of God, completely unified, setting a perfect example of unity for us. So Paul is advocating for unity in the body of Christ.

If we go to verse 11, verse 11 of chapter 4, and he himself, speaking of Christ, the head of the church, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

That's our goal, is to come to this unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So it does start with each of us individually.

That's where unity starts.

We have to become unified ourselves. We have to become whole. We have to be healed.

We all have to be healed. So the closer we are to God and the more pleasing we are to Him, the more healing He will give us.

The more willing we are to humble ourselves and obey God and serve Him, set a right example for one another, there will be blessings that come along with that.

So our goal is again to have unity of the faith and also of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to become like Christ, to the measure and the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men to the cunning craftiness of deceitfulness or deceitful plotting. And we've seen some deceitful plotting over the years in God's church.

If we've had our eyes opened, if we're paying attention, we've seen this kind of thing. So these are words that they have meaning today and they have for the last couple thousand years since they were penned.

So he says, But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share. We all have a part to play. Everyone is an important part of God's church. There isn't a single person that isn't important in regard to being a member of the body of Christ. We all have our roles to play. We all have our parts to accomplish, to achieve.

What every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share. Now I'm realizing that it's important to have all parts of your knee working at the same time. If they don't work well, then the body suffers. There's pain, maybe even further injury because of that. So it's wonderful when every part is doing its job, every part of the body, physically and also spiritually, when everyone is doing their part, working together.

So again, this is what Paul is talking about, coming to this unity of the faith, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Obviously love is key to all of this. All things should be done in love. So being a person of integrity, we do this because we love God, we love His ways, we love His commandments, we love His laws.

So we're men, women and children of integrity. And also, God's word is all about humility. And following the example that our Father and our Savior Jesus Christ set, I'm not going to go to 1 Corinthians 12, but it talks a lot about unity in the body of Christ, again, every part doing its own share, to the edifying of the entire body.

Also, I do want to contrast what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1. Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians. He also wrote two letters to the Corinthians that we have preserved for us. In 1 Corinthians 1, he says, Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God and Sostomies our brother, to the church of God, which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Both theirs and ours, he says, Grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So he talks about spiritual gifts that are poured out on those at Corinth.

In verse 10, he says, Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, oneness, unity, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me, concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you.

Now I say this, that each of you says, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, or I am of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Now Paul's the one writing this. He says, I thank God that I baptized none of you, except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name.

He says, verse 17, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. So he goes on to point out the importance of working together and having singleness of purpose, singleness of mind, so that there would be no divisions in the body of Christ. And then if we go to chapter 3, Paul says, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, fleshly as to babes in Christ.

I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able. For you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, I am a Paul, and another, I am a Paulos, are you not carnal? Are you not fleshly? Are you not looking to men rather than looking to God? So I've mentioned this at the ministerial conference. A minister is trustworthy only until he isn't.

And if you see that he's no longer trustworthy or he's leading you in the wrong direction, then you ought not follow him. Okay, that's clearly what the Bible teaches us. We are accountable to make those decisions. So a minister should only be followed as he follows Christ.

And I have no doubt that we will be tested in this way again. It's bound to happen. People are being tested all the time by this sort of thing. So you may be tested in this way as well. So it's important that you learn your lesson and that you will only follow others as they follow Christ.

So that takes prayer, that takes fasting, it takes a closeness to God. It takes a discernment from God. It takes him to direct you and to guide you and to show you the truth. This isn't something that we should try to do all on our own. But we should seek understanding, seek wisdom, seek guidance at all times because we will be held accountable for the decisions that we make. Now, there is so much that could be said. You know, in the Bible, it shows various examples.

There's even an example of unity where the people gathered around Nimrod. Remember that? The Tower of Babel. And the results would not have been good if they had been allowed to continue in the unified effort that they were moving in that direction. So God intervened, he confused the languages at that time, he stopped that effort because it would have been destructive. And things would have gone much more quickly than God's plan allowed. So he stopped that kind of thing.

But it does show the power of unity. There is great power in unity, either for evil or for good. The Bible talks about various splits. You know, Adam and Eve, that was a split. They split from God. They were to obey God. They were to follow Him. They were not to eat of the knowledge of good and evil. So, I mean, that was a split.

Obviously, Lucifer was a split. He became Satan. A third of the angels followed him. And by the way, you know, I'm not giving this message because there's anything happening in the church, by the way. You know, there's nothing that I know of going on in the church at this time. We have unity. I mean, for the most part, we are very unified in the United Church of God. I mean, there's always something going on somewhere. But, you know, it's not anything widespread at all. It's just these are just principles that God's people should hear from time to time just to help ground them so they'll have a good foundation.

Mr. Kubik talked about foundation in his e-news, in the letter that he wrote about. He talked about the bridge that just collapsed just about two weeks ago. A bridge that had been there for 50 years, and 40-some people died when that bridge collapsed. The foundation became faulty. Now, it was great for, you know, for a long time, until it wasn't. It was great until it wasn't. And there were signs that things were not so good. They should have stopped traffic on that bridge.

Someone should have seen that it was too dangerous, but, you know, that didn't happen. So we have to do that in our own lives. We have to be able to see where there's danger in our own lives, especially spiritually, because that's the most important thing, that we are spiritually sound, that we are spiritually whole. You know, the Bible talks about, even in a sense, Abraham rebelled against God when he lied about his wife.

And that caused problems. There was a rift there. And there are so many different types of things that are in the Bible that we can see. Korah rebelled, Miriam and Aaron rebelled, Rehoboam, Jeroboam rebelled, and many of the kings of Israel rebelled against God and did not follow God. In fact, very few actually followed God. Very few of the kings. No one in the house of Israel, really, was a good king. It was only a few that were in the house of Israel that were decent examples.

So the Bible does clearly give us principles that we need to know and follow. In 1 Peter 2, there's a scripture that we should always keep in mind as well as we go through life, as we strive for unity in our own lives individually, as we strive for unity collectively here as a Dallas congregation, and also as the United Church of God. In 1 Peter 2, verse 20, Peter says, What credit is it when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?

But when you do good and you suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. If you rise up in rebellion, obviously that's not commendable. That's not commendable to God, because that will cause division in the body of Christ. And that will hamper and cause tremendous upset, confusion, and danger to the body of Christ. So if you suffer wrongfully and you take it patiently, then it says it is commendable. That is commendable before God.

And that's the kind of example that we should set if ever we are tested in that way. If we suffer wrongfully, if we haven't done anything wrong at all, but someone's out to get us, someone misunderstands, whatever it might be, if we suffer wrongfully and we take it patiently. And then it goes on to show Christ's example. For this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps.

Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth. Who when He was reviled did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. We've returned to Christ who looks after us, who died for us.

Christ bore our sins. He paid the penalty for our sins. We have been forgiven our sins. So we do have unity with God and with Christ as long as we are repentant. And we are striving to please and obey God and follow Him. Again, the Bible is very clear about consequences.

It shows us what happens when we break God's law and when we do those things that are not pleasing to God. And the history of our church, frankly, I don't think we should hide from the history of our church, our modern history. We should look at it realistically, and we should do better in the future.

At times there has been a lack of integrity and there has been a lack of humility among the leadership in God's church and also the membership in God's church. And we have suffered because of it. We have suffered loss of property. We have suffered loss in many different ways. We've suffered loss of people who became confused and didn't know what was happening. We've paid a price for a lack of humility and a lack of integrity. But in many ways we are stronger today as well because we've also gone through all of that. And hopefully we've learned a lesson so that we are smaller and yet stronger, and perhaps God will bless us in greater ways in the future. If we again turn to Him. So ask yourself, am I doing all I can to live at peace with one another? Am I doing all that I can to live at peace? Am I humbling myself or am I lashing back? Am I walking in integrity? Am I setting that sort of example? Walking in integrity and walking in humility leads to unity. It leads to unity in our families. When parents set a godly example of integrity and humility in dealing with their children, there are great rewards in that family. There are tremendous blessings in that family. When children are obedient to their parents and respectful, then there are tremendous blessings. When they walk in integrity and when they learn humility, there are tremendous blessings. The same is true at work. Things will go better at work if you have integrity and humility, and things will go better here in God's Church. If we set that right example of integrity and humility. So, one last scripture. Let's go to Psalm 133. This is a very encouraging three verses here in Psalm 133. It tells us what God is looking for in our lives. Psalm 133. This was a song of David. The subheading in my Bible says, blessed unity of the people of God. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head running down on the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments. That's symbolic of the Holy Spirit of God. Running down on the edge of his garments. It is like the dew of Ermon, descending upon the mountains of Zion, living waters.

Descending upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore. We have a song that we sing about this kind of unity and this blessing that God brings upon his people. So, God has truly called us to be men, women, and children of integrity and also of humility.

But the test is in how we live. We can talk about humility. We can talk about integrity all day long. But the proof is in how we live, the decisions that we make daily. If we're all practicing humility and integrity, there will be more unity in God's Church. And God is going to be much more pleased with all of us.

So, brethren, let's always remember this formula and let's strive to see it live out in our own lives, both individually and collectively as well in God's Church and here in this house. Remember, integrity plus humility equals unity.