"Strengthening Our Grip On Integrity
" Sermon Transcript for September 30, 2001 By Rev. Mike BeckScripture Reading: Acts 5:1-11; Philippians 2:15
This morning is the second of a five-part sermon series, "strengthening our grip" on some very practical life issues. The topics to be covered are there on the screen—priorities, integrity, family, attitudes, and aging. We looked last week at the matter of priorities that are so important because our priorities are going to lead to our decisions. Our decisions are going to lead to our actions. And the accumulative effect of our actions is going to determine our destiny. And we talked last week about the struggle we have with the "tyranny of the urgent". That "our greatest danger is in letting the urgent things that come up crowd out what’s truly important in life." And in strengthening our grip I gave these two suggestions: 1) that we stop and take inventory of how we are doing with the things that we give lip service to their importance but are they really fleshing out in our lives. And I want to stress again that for most of you you’re not going to do that unless you stop. You’ve got to get off the merry-go-round of life for a moment to truly be able to take inventory. 2) And we also talked about we’ve got to know when to say "no". Maybe even say "no" to some good things so that the best things don’t get neglected. And then I left you with this ordering of priorities: to let God be first in your life, followed by family, followed by health, followed by our job. Again, realizing for those who are still working, the job takes the biggest bulk of our time, but just don’t let it be the center of our existence and our reason for being. And I hope that God, through His Spirit, will use my words last week to help you and help me to reflect on our priorities.
Today’s message is one I would refer to as a rather strong, "convicting" message from the Word of God. We love to preach salvation and forgiveness and grace. And most of our preaching ought to be on those themes. But there are times in which we need to be reminded, "Thus sayeth the Lord". And it’s not a suggestion; it’s a command. And that’s the nature of this message today. I want to address something that if you pick up the newspaper and you just go about the business of living, you realize is sorely lacking in our day, the quality of "integrity".
Webster gives the following definitions to the word. He says, integrity is "a wholeness, an unimpaired condition, uprightness, truthfulness, sincerity." And as I share this morning I invite you and I invite me to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us of areas in our life where we need corrections to be more whole, more complete, more honest so that we might be men and women and youth whose life reflects our text for today in Philippians 2:15. That we would be "blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which we shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life." There was a night this week; I can’t remember which night it was. I was out late; looked up into the heavens, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The stars were shining with such brightness. In a crooked and depraved generation, God says to His people, "I want you in the midst of the depravity around you, to be like those stars – shining, holding out the Word of light.
Let’s look briefly at the story we read this morning from the Book of Acts. This story reminds us the Bible is painfully honest. It doesn’t leave out unpleasant stories. And this is kind of an unpleasant story. It’s a story of disastrous consequences for a couple with a lack of integrity. Let me give you a little context. In the early church, at times property was held in common. In other words, it was communal living. And in the midst of an infant church facing persecution and struggle, very, very high demands were placed on its members. This couple had sold a piece of property and they were to bring all that they got for it to the church. And then the church would make sure that their needs were taken care of. So Ananias and later Sapphira come before the leaders of the church. They present the money as if it’s the total amount. When Peter confronts them, they both lie. And, this is where the story gets unpleasant. They both fall dead when they are confronted with their disobedience and lack of integrity. That’s pretty rigid demands; pretty extreme punishment! But what I have seen of scripture is at the early stages of God revealing what is truly important, God sometimes uses some very strong object lessons to say to His people, "This isn’t a suggestion, it’s a command that you be people of integrity. You’re to be a holy people!"
If you remember my text of a couple of weeks ago, we were told to be "imitators of God". Whatever we see God doing is what we’re to be doing with a people whose standards are much, much higher than the situational ethics and the loose morals of the world around us. So I want to urge you today as children of God to be people of integrity. To be people of integrity in the workplace: to give an honest day’s work for a day’s pay. To not succumb to the deceitfulness and thievery that is present in the workplace environment. To our young people to be persons of integrity at school: to not buy-in to the lie that "everybody’s doing it". To not cheat on that exam or on that paper even though it will increase your class rank. I urge you to be people of integrity in your relationships with other people. If you are a business person: to be deeply honest in your relationships and your business dealings, to follow through on your word and promises that you have made. I want to urge you in the name of Jesus Christ to be persons of integrity in your home and in your marriage, to stand guard with the strictest devotion at the bridge of honesty and faithfulness in those relationships. I urge you, and this one’s the toughest one of all, to strive with God’s help to be persons of integrity in the inner sanctuaries of our minds. And I think all of us would admit, that’s the toughest. We may do all the actions right, but what’s going on in here. In a world in which moral filth and pornography, friends, they are more readily available to us than ever before. For every one of you who have a personal computer in your home or office, pornography and filth, you don’t have to be seen walking in to the triple x-rated bookstore anymore. All you’ve got to do is one computer mouse click and the right letters and you can call up some of the worse that life has to offer. We’ve got to be on guard as God’s people against that.
Let me suggest three ways that we can strengthen our grip on integrity. And they’re going to sound trite, but they are not.
Be Truthful and Honest. When I deal with a couple in pre-marital counseling, and I tell them I’m not trying to brag, but I say, "Do not ever let untruthfulness enter in to your relationship. Sometimes the truth hurts! But it doesn’t hurt near as bad as being found out in a lie." And I’ll tell them, "I’m not talking about surprise birthday parties." But I say, "In 31 years of marriage, Mickey has never lied to me and I have never lied to her. And, therefore, whenever one of us says something to the other it never even enters our mind that it’s anything but the truth." Some of you know first hand that when you get caught in a lie, then the next time you say something to the person in the back of their mind they’re thinking, "Well, you lied to me then, I wonder if I’m getting the truth this time around." And, friends, isn’t it true. We tell ourselves that "little lies" don’t matter. But isn’t it the accumulative affect of the "little things" that shape our character! When we tell an untruth in this little area and this little area, pretty soon it’s easier to do it in the big things. Be truthful and honest!
Learn to Recognize Danger: I’ll bet there’s not a person hearing my voice this morning who haven’t had some time in your life where you’ve said, "Well, I’m not going to sin, I’m just going to play around with it." You know what happens when you play around with matches. Often times you start a fire. And more often than not, when we dabble at the edge of sin, we’re going to fall off the cliff. We’ve got to avoid it! We’ve got to be like Joseph in the Old Testament, when Potiphar’s wife says, "Hang around for a little bit today, Joseph, lets have a good time!" And if you’ll remember, he ran as fast as he could run from her. We’ve got to do the same. And I want to urge you to be especially on guard in your life at two different times. One, when things are going bad. When you’re tired; when you’re frustrated; when you’re discouraged. You better be on guard during those times because it’s going to be a lot easier to fall into sin during those times. But here’s another time you’d better be on guard. A person once put it to me this way and I’ve found it to be true. The most dangerous day is the day after a great day. Let me repeat that. You need to hear it. The most dangerous day is often the day after a great day. Because the day after a great day we think we are invincible! And by golly, the enemy can sneak up on us and blind-side us and our world can go from top to bottom in an instant. Learn to recognize danger!
Surround Ourselves with Good: Remember it’s not just enough to resist evil, you’ve also got to surround yourself with good. There’s a parable that we don’t have time to explore this morning that speaks to that. Your friends are either going to raise you up or bring you down. Your reading material and your entertainment choices-- the old computer axiom ,"if it’s garbage in, it will be garbage out". That’s why we’ve got to take time to read God’s word and to pray. It’s not enough just to avoid the bad; you’ve got to fill yourself up with the good! Romans 12:2, in the Message translation puts it so well, and I want you to read it with me now. The words are there on the screen. "Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit in without even thinking! Instead, fix your attention on God. Then you’ll be changed from the inside out." That first part is so freshly put. That’s one of our great dangers as people of God! That we become so well adjusted to the culture, that we fit in without even thinking and then we are no longer salt and light. In Philippians 4:8 Paul tells us—read this with me as well: "Whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things." Look, look at the screen. There’s what you are to think about! What is pure, what is noble, what is right, what is lovely. Fill yourself with good things.
How are you doing this morning in this area of your personal integrity? Friends, where we have failed, we need to ask for forgiveness. God’s forgiveness is only a prayer away. And it’s not partial forgiveness; it’s full forgiveness. That’s why it’s good news we proclaim! But there are some who may need to ask for God’s strength to deal with the consequences of our lack of integrity. For always remember this, friends. Forgiveness is full and complete. But that does not mean that we are spared the consequences of living with our actions and their results. Some of you may need to pray God’s strength to help me, even as a forgiven person, to live with the consequences of my lack of integrity. We need to appropriate God’s power. You’re not going to live the life of integrity on your own strength. It’s going to take God’s power through the Holy Spirit at work in your life.
And I want to leave you with this thought. Friends, it is never too late to begin doing what is right. It’s never too late, to begin doing what is right. There’s nothing that can be done about yesterday. There is everything that can be done, with God’s help, about the decisions we’ll make today and tomorrow and the next day that will result in strengthening our grip on integrity. Hear again the challenge before us from God’s Word. And note the background Shelly put there. "Be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life." Let’s pray. "Oh God, there is not a one of us, the tired clergy, Reverend Mike, Reverend Dan, every member of the staff, every person hearing my voice, that don’t have room to grow in this area of being a person of integrity. Help us, through your Holy Spirit and the power contained therein, to be truthful and honest. Boldly honest, Lord, not only with others, but with ourselves. Help us, oh Lord, to flee from evil, to not play around with sin, and then, oh Lord, help us to fill our lives with good things. Because we really would like to shine like stars to our neighbor, to others at work, to those at school so that they might look at our lives and see something different and want to know the one who has made that difference in our lives. Help us, oh Lord, not only to be people who have heard the word, but persons who do it. And all of God’s people say, Amen."
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