“When Behavior Matches Your Belief”

FORGOTTEN VIRTUES SERIES

From series by www.Lifechurch.tv

Psalm 15:1-5

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Introduction: Today we are in week four of our 5-week series on the Forgotten Virtues. To recap briefly, we have looked at the virtues of Honor, Purity, and Loyalty. This morning we will be looking at the very important virtue of “INTEGRITY.” I believe this virtue is one that matters much to God.

Why is this such an important issue today? Let me give you a little illustration why… ILLUS. A little over a week ago I took my car to Jiffy Lube, and I left my car to have them change the oil. I live down the street from Jiffy Lube, and I could see that it was busy, and so instead of waiting for my car there, I walked home. About 45 minutes later I hadn’t gotten a call from them, so I decided to go back. It was nice to see that my car was finished. I paid what I owed, then went to my car. At first I didn’t notice this, but once I got home I noticed that they had left a socket wrench in my car. At first I thought: “It’s just an old tool, maybe I’ll just keep it. They won’t miss it, and I don’t feel like taking it back right now.” But then I realized that it wouldn’t be right to keep it, so a couple of hours later, when Tami and I went to pick-up the kids from school, Tami ran it up to them. Tami said the worker was very surprised that we had brought it back!! They couldn’t believe we had chosen to do this.

It is tragic that we live in a world that is more shocked by someone who does the right thing, who lives their life with integrity, than those who live with a lack of integrity. In fact, it’s almost as if people expect others to live without integrity, more than they expect them to live with integrity. We see this in the news all the time, people getting caught living a lie. We have even seen this with pastors who we find out are living a double life. Because we hear about it so often, we aren’t really surprised by it anymore.

I. Guided by integrity- (Proverbs 11:3; Psalm 139:23-24, 15:1-5)

a. What is integrity?- Let me try and give us a working definition of

integrity. What is integrity? It is when your behavior matches your beliefs; an integrated lifestyle. It is when what you say matches what you do; when your private life matches your public life.

You might have heard it said this way: It is what you do when no one else is looking!

It is different from reputation. Your reputation is who people think you are, whereas your integrity is who you really are. Proverbs 11:3 says- “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” Wouldn’t you agree that so many aspects of our society are being destroyed by the duplicitous behavior of leaders and those in our society who are living without integrity; they claim one thing, but do something else.

As God’s people, we should be concerned about living a life of integrity. We should want to be guided by integrity. We should regularly go to God, and say to God what the psalmist says in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” If we were to do this more often (ask God to search us and show us where we aren’t living a life of integrity), then we would be on our way to living a life of integrity. We should all want to be able to say at the end of our lives, I lived a life of integrity; meaning, that we did what we said we would do; your life in the end matched your belief.

b. Picture of integrity- Let’s look for a moment at a picture of

integrity. If there is any passage that captures a life of integrity, it is when David asks God a profound question in Psalm 15:1, “LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?” David is asking God who can come into His holy presence. And the answer is basically someone who has integrity. Psalm 15:2ff, “He whose walk is blameless, and who does what is righteous…” (Integrity)… “who speaks the truth from his heart..” (integrity)… “and has no slander on his tongue. Who does his neighbor no wrong, and casts no slur on his fellow man.” (integrity) “Who despises a vile man, but honors those who fear the Lord.” (integrity) “Who keeps his oath even when it hurts. Who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.” (integrity)

HE WHO LIVES A LIFE OF INTEGRITY WILL NEVER BE SHAKEN. When we follow the beliefs and teachings of the Bible, of God, we will never be shaken!

II. A Life of Integrity- (Psalm 15:1-5; Matthew 23:25-26)

a. Let’s look at the four benefits of a life of integrity that this psalm

teaches us:

1. Walk closely with God- As David said, “Who can dwell in

your sanctuary?.. He whose walk is blameless.” The person of integrity gets to walk with God; dwell closely with God, fellowship with a holy God. You might think of it this way: If I impart my values to my kids, and they live according to those biblical values, don’t you think that it will increase our intimacy? Versus my teaching them about biblical values, and them saying: “Forget you dad, we don’t like your values, we are going to do our own thing, we are going to live outside of your values.” I will still love them, but it is going to block our communion, and fellowship and intimacy.

The same is true of God: When you walk according to God’s values, you can walk with Him and enjoy His presence moment by moment.

2. You will have a built in guide. The Bible says that the

integrity of the upright guides them. You might find yourself in a situation that appears to be gray, and you wonder if you should do it or not. When you are a person of integrity, the Bible will help you to know black and white, right and wrong. The Holy Spirit will help you to KNOW whether to do it or not.

3. You will have a constant peace in your heart. When you

put your head on your pillow at night, do you have peace in how you lived your day? When you are upright, you don’t have to worry about something being found out. You have peace because you don’t have to worry about being caught, about something being exposed or discovered that you did.

The flipside is that I don’t know anyone who lays awake at night wondering: “I hope nobody finds out that I did the right thing today! I hope they don’t find out I did this right thing.” NO. You don’t worry when you live with integrity; instead you have peace. Your worry is exchanged for peace.

4. You will gain trust, respect, honor and influence- When

you live a life of integrity, you will gain trust, respect, honor and influence. If you want respect and honor in your family, then live with integrity. If you want to have influence in the lives of others, then live with integrity. When you have integrity people will follow you, they will honor you, they will listen to you, they will trust you, they will seek your advice.

The problem though is that too many people are hypocrites. They are not true to their word. The Greek word for hypocrite really means “an actor.” You might think of acting long ago, where actors would have masks on a stick. They would hold up one mask to play one character, then they would hold up another stick to become another character. By these masks they would change who they were. It wasn’t who they really were, but who they were pretending to be.

b. We all have times of hypocrisy in our lives, where we appear to be

one way, and we act another way…

EXAMPLE- I remember a number of years ago I took a group of youth to Mexico for a missions trip. On the way back we were in the long line to get back into California, and the cars were moving slowly, and there are all these people who are trying to sell you stuff: jewelry, gum, food…. And one little girl came up to my car and asked if I wanted to buy this chess set for $10. It was a really nice chess set; all carved out of some kind of marble like substance. And most people usually try to bargain at the border, so I started to try to get her down to $5. But she wouldn’t budge on the price. Even though I really liked the chess set, I didn’t want to pay the $10, so I offered her $6. Finally she came down to $8 and I bought it. After paying her the money, the youth in my car gave me a look that said: “Really, Chris, you were bargaining with that little girl, just to save $2?

The truth is, she and her family needed the $2 more than I did, and yet I didn’t want to pay what she asked for it. Regardless of whether others bargain for things, I could afford the $10, and I should have paid it out of the generosity of my heart!!

We all have these times of a lack of integrity, and we seem to justify it in our own way. GOD HATES IT, when we are hypocrites. In fact, if you think about when Jesus was here on this earth, you will see that He was far harder on hypocrites than he was on prostitutes, and people of all other kinds of vile sins.

Let me give you an example: Matthew 23:25-26… Jesus starts out with the words ‘woe to you.’ When Jesus starts out with these words you know it is not going to be good. He is saying that you are in big trouble. He is pronouncing judgment.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.”

Jesus is saying: “You look good, you look religious on the outside, but your heart is unclean; it is filthy.” And they don’t even see this filth inside of them. Integrity doesn’t start from the outside in, but from the inside out. Be pure on the inside, and it will manifest itself on the outside; in how you behave.

Woe to you who lack integrity; who are hypocrites. It is so easy to do, to put on this mask, because we want others to see us in the best light possible.

Conclusion: This leads us to this important question: What is your integrity worth? I’m not talking about what you would SAY it is worth. What does your life show? What do your actions show? For example, if you lie on a resume to get a better job, then you are saying that your integrity is worth the salary you will get. Or maybe you “took” a ream of paper from work to use at home. That is what your integrity is worth. Or you over bill a client thinking that the client can afford it.

Or maybe you or someone you know will really embellish a story to make yourself look better. These are all ways that we lessen our integrity! And up to this point we probably are not even fully aware that living in these ways is not a life of integrity.

The truth is, IF YOU HAVE INTEGRITY, THAT’S REALLY ALL THAT MATTERS, and if you don’t have integrity, that’s really all that matters.

What we need to do is be honest with ourselves and discover where we might lack integrity. And then seek to bring integrity back to all the areas of our lives.

You do this by first getting to know Jesus even more than you do now. You can’t live a life of integrity on your own. As you see Jesus’ example, you will be led to live with more integrity. And then follow what Jesus says in Matthew 5:37, “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” Be a person of your word. Do what you say you will do, and live according to the values you say you have in Jesus. You let your behavior line up with God’s values. Then you will bring back the virtue of integrity. Amen.

“In Life and Death”

FORGOTTEN VIRTUES SERIES

From series by www.Lifechurch.tv

Matthew 26:33-35; Samuel 15:19-21

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Introduction: In the last 2 weeks we have talked about the virtues of honor and purity. In the next 2 weeks we will talk about integrity and gratitude. But today, as we continue in our “Forgotten Virtues” series, we are going to talk about the virtue of LOYALTY. In a poll that was taken, the top virtue that people thought that was forgotten was loyalty. People believe that disloyalty is a problem in our world.

However, if you ask people if they are loyal, most will say they think they are. By show of hands, how many of you think that you are a loyal person? This is then where the tension lies, in that disloyalty is a significant problem, but nobody thinks of themselves as a disloyal person. “Disloyalty is very difficult to see in the mirror.” (Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor, LifeChurch.tv)

You might have heard the story of 2 boys who were investigating a cave when all of a sudden they heard a bear. The one boy started to run, whereas the other boy stopped and changed from his hiking boots to his tennis shoes. “What are you doing?” the first boy asked. “We have to outrun that bear.” To which the second boy said: “No I don’t, I just have to outrun you!”

We think that we are loyal, but when push comes to shove, we are only loyal to ourselves.

I. The act of being loyal- (Matthew 26:33-35; Proverbs 20:6; 2 Samuel 15:19-21)

a. Loyalty is proven, not proclaimed-Let me give you a prime biblical

example. The disciple Peter was given the name “The Rock” by Jesus. This was because Peter was going to be the rock that kept the church alive after Jesus left this earth. So, you would think that Peter would be a very loyal disciple. And Peter thought himself to be very loyal as well. Let me set up the scenario here: Jesus has served the Lord’s Supper to His disciples. Judas has left to go and betray Jesus. So the disciples were aware of this disloyalty. We pick it up in Matthew 26:33, where Peter speaks to Jesus, and says: “…, ‘Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.’” This is a bold statement….Peter is declaring his undying loyalty to Jesus.

But Jesus challenges Peter in this, when He responds in verse 34: “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” Not exactly the words Peter wanted to hear. He probably wondered how Jesus could doubt his loyalty. So Peter comes back with even stronger in verse 35: “But Peter declared, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ And all the other disciples said the same.”

And if you know the rest of the story, after Jesus is arrested, Peter is around a crowd, and on three separate occasions people point out Peter as a follower of Jesus, and on all 3 occasions Peter denies even knowing Jesus, much less being a follower of His!! After the third time the rooster crows, and if you read between the lines, you can sense that Peter realizes what he has done. He realizes that he had said he would be loyal, but he was disloyal to the most loyal one he had ever known, not one time, but three times! The Bible tells us that Peter went out and wept bitterly.

The truth is, true LOYALTY is proven, not proclaimed. You can say that you are loyal, but what shows that you are loyal is how you live out your life. As Proverbs 20:6 says, “Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is who is truly reliable?” As followers of Christ we have to understand that it is important to not just say that we are Christians, but show it in how we live.

EX. In 1945 Jackie Robinson started playing baseball for the Dodgers. What was significant about this was that Jackie Robinson was the first black player to play in the majors. Jackie played second base and his friend Pee Wee Reese, who was white, played shortstop. In one particular game in Cincinnati the crowd started to boo him and throw things at him, and say horrible things to him simply because of the color of his skin. Pee Reese threw down his glove, walked over to Jackie Robinson and put his arm around him. At this the crowd grew silent. Jackie Robinson later said that this act probably not only saved his career, but did more for him as a person than anyone could have ever known.

This act was so significant that they made it into a statue as an example of loyalty between 2 special friends! Loyalty is proven, not proclaimed.

b. A biblical example- There have been many great examples of

loyalty in the Bible, David and Jonathan being a well known one. But let me share with you anther act of loyalty that was shown to King David. This one is not as well known. We find it in 2 Samuel, chapter 15. The context is that his son Absalom committed a great crime by killing someone. Even though David was there for him, Absalom went on the run. When he returned some time later, he returned with an army to overthrow his own father, David. David had been faithful to him, but Absalom was disloyal to his father. So David is now on the run trying to stay alive. Along comes a man named Ittai, a mercenary, a hired soldier, who volunteers to fight for David. We hear again 2 Samuel 15:19-20, “The king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you come along with us? Go back and stay with King Absalom. You are a foreigner, an exile from your homeland. ²⁰ You came only yesterday. And today shall I make you wander about with us, when I do not know where I am going? Go back, and take your people with you. May the LORD show you kindness and faithfulness.” David is giving Ittai a free pass to not have to be involved in this terrible situation.

But listen to Ittai’s words to David in verse 21: “But Ittai replied to the king, “As surely as the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be.” Here we see Ittai not only proclaiming loyalty to King David, but he proves it as he fights faithfully beside King David. In fact he fought so valiantly and faithfully that later King David promotes him to oversee about a third of all the troops of David. David does this because of the loyalty Ittai had shown to him.

II. Being disloyal- (Malachi 2:15-16; Proverbs 17:17; Acts 2:42-45)

Let me do something a little different for a moment. I am going to help you

understand how to be more loyal, but sharing with you how you can be disloyal. I hope that by my doing this, I will ingrain into your minds what disloyalty looks like, and this will help you to refrain from being disloyal. Let’s look at 3 opportunities we have of being disloyal…

a. Disloyal to your spouse- A great place to start, if you want to be a disloyal

person, is to be disloyal to your spouse. Of course, to do this you have to reject what the Bible says in Malachi 2:15-16, “Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and remain loyal to the wife of your youth. The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the LORD, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the LORD Almighty.” Of course the way you are disloyal to your spouse is to commit adultery. About 40-60% of married people commit adultery! OR, if your spouse isn’t making you happy, then divorce.

So many people who have affairs or divorce their spouse do so because they are looking out for themselves. They might be unsatisfied with their relationship with their spouse, so they choose these options because they want to make sure that they are loyal to themselves. They just want to make sure they have what they think they want; what they deserve.

But there are more subtle and more creative ways to be disloyal to your spouse. For example, you might know a couple like this. The husband puts his wife down in public, but in a “joking” way. I was only joking, honey, he might say. And to get back at him the wife puts him down in front of the kids: “If only you were a better provider for our family like so and so.” OR, “If only you were a godly man.” We are disloyal when we put our spouse down.

Another way to be disloyal is by putting everything else ahead of our marriage. It could be our job, our hobby, our friends, our pursuit of material things. What happens is that we care about these things more than the one we have committed ourselves to in marriage!

b. Friends- A second group of people we can be disloyal to is our friends.

Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” Who can love at all times? Too hard to do, right? So why even try? To love someone when they are going through adversity takes sacrifice on my part.

If you want to be disloyal to your friend, gossip about them, or even listening to gossip about them and not correcting the gossip is disloyalty.

Another way to be disloyal is to lie to them. Maybe they ask you something, and you don’t want to hurt their feelings, so you lie to them. Your job is to make them feel good, not tell them the truth, right? So even if they are doing something wrong, you don’t confront them about something they are doing wrong. Don’t stand in their way when they are doing something destructive. And if you have an argument with them, and your friend hurts you, just walk away from the friendship. This is fairly popular in our society now. People don’t want to do the hard work that it takes to forgive and reconcile.

c. Christ’s Church- We can be disloyal to the universal Church, capital C,

or our local church. People who are disloyal to their church think that the people in the Bible were fanatical. They might say: “I want to be a part of a church, but not so much so that it interrupts my life, or takes me away from the things I really want to do.”

Acts 2:42-45 tells us, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” They were this community that did life together, cared about one another, and ministered to one another, and got deep into committed relationships. And all the believers had everything in common and helped those who were in need.

Then verse 46 says: “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts…” This is a daily commitment? I don’t have time for that. To be disloyal to the church, go to church sporadically. The average Christian in America goes to church one time a month. There is no commitment in this kind of attendance. And if you do go, go with a consumer mentality. How many people go to church with the attitude: what does it have for me? Instead of the attitude what do I have/ to give to Christ. How can I give myself over to worship?

And if you have a problem with something in the church, then just leave and don’t ever come back.

NOW IF THIS WAS HARD FOR YOU TO HEAR, KNOW THAT IT’S NOT EASY FOR ME TO PREACH. IT’S LIKE PREACHING ON OPPOSITE DAY! J

Why would I preach about how to be disloyal? Because we all think that we are loyal people. Disloyalty is hard to see in the mirror. So as I talked about how to be disloyal, maybe it spoke to us a little of how we have times of being disloyal.

III. A divided heart- (Romans 5:8; James 4:8-10)

The problem is that most of us are loyal…(Pause)…….TO OURSELVES. If

we are really honest, then we have to admit this. I know that first and foremost my choices revolve around ME. Let’s bring this subject into focus…

“All disloyalty is born out of a divided heart.” (Craig Groeschel, Senior Pastor, LifeChurch.tv)

Think about loyalty from God’s perspective. God created us to show us His love and to have an ongoing fellowship with us. And He was so loyal to us, we are told in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even when we are disloyal and faithless, He is faithful. God asks us for all of our hearts. As Jesus said in answer to the question what is the most important commandment?: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind, and strength.” That is commitment to God. That is loyalty.

If we were to be honest, we have to admit that we have not given God our WHOLE heart. I’d like to think that I have, but I know that I haven’t. If I look at the way I live, I have to admit I have a divided heart.

My hope is that after hearing today’s message, you will have an encounter with God and you will not be the same. James tells us in James 4:8-10, (Read slowly) “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. ⁹ Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” There is nothing that I can say that can create this desire in you. Only the Holy Spirit can humble you in this way so that you give yourself over to God fully.

To be fully committed to God means that when I do something that is not what God would have for me to do, or want in my life, then it should GRIEVE me. It should move me to tears that I have been disloyal to God in this way. Do you grieve when you sin?

I want to be loyal, but only if that means I get what I want too. We have a divided heart between God and the world.

Conclusion: So what does this mean for us? I imagine that first it means that you have to admit to yourself that you are not as loyal a person as you think. You have to look at your life, and discover how you are disloyal, and who you have been disloyal to. How have you been disloyal to your spouse? To your friends? To the church? To Christ?

How can you be a better, more loyal spouse? Or if you are not married, how can you help your married friends be more loyal to each other?

How can you be a more loyal friend? How can you be that friend who sticks with others through times of adversity?

How can you be more loyal to the church? Church is not a place to go to. We are called to BE THE CHURCH. It is a place to live out our faith with the gifts we have been given. It is not a place to go to when we feel like it, but to go so that we might worship God and encounter God, and let God change us.

And lastly, we need to be more loyal to Christ so that we are grieved when we see ourselves being disloyal to what God calls us to do and how God calls us to live.

I imagine this is a message that is difficult to hear, because it challenges us to the depth of our being. It makes us look at ourselves in the mirror and make some changes; mainly, the change to becoming more loyal to Christ. I hope you let the Holy Spirit speak to you through this message. I hope you leave encouraged by the fact that in Christ, you can become more loyal, and by making this commitment, bring back the virtue of loyalty. Amen.

“Pure in Heart and Mind”
FORGOTTEN VIRTUES SERIES
1 Corinthians 6:12-20; 2 Corinthians 7:1
From series by Lifechurch.tv
Sunday, March 20, 2011

Introduction: Last week we talked about the virtue of honor. We talked about how we are called to honor God in His holiness, and as part of honoring God we are called to honor others. We talked about how the top 3 ways we are to show honor is to honor our parents, those who are in authority over us, and our spiritual leaders. We honor God when we honor others, and when we honor others they often will begin to live their lives with more honor!
This week we continue our series in “The Forgotten Virtues” by looking at the virtue of purity.
Example: A number of years ago when I was the Director of Student Ministries at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Camarillo, we developed a game called Guerilla Warfare. This game was really just a glorified food fight outdoors. We had this big open field which allowed us to do this game and not have to worry about any clean-up. We divided the 50 high school kids into 2 teams, and then armed them with spaghetti, outmeal, juicy juice, tomatoes, and more, and then we set them loose. You can imagine the chaos, and screaming, and pandemonium that occurred! And when they were done, they were covered with food. They were so bad, that we simply hosed them off and sent them to the bathrooms to change into the other clothes they had bought.
Of course, we can understand that what they looked like, and smelled like after the game is not an example of purity. In fact, it is the opposite. In our world we are more and more aware of the germs that exist. There is hand sanitizer everywhere now: at check out stands; at hospitals; I have some under my lectern. We do not want to get sick, so we try to get rid of the germs that are passed on to us.
I believe it represents the impurity of our bodies that is caused by our sinfulness! Maybe before we were Christians we were worse sinners, but the consequences of sin are great. Today we want to talk about pursuing the mission of purity.

I. The Bride and the Bridegroom- (Isaiah 6:5; Ephesians 1:4; John 3:29a; Hebrews 12:2; 1 Peter 1:14-15; Romans 12:1-2; James 1:22; Proverbs 11:22)
a. Impurity- The prophet Isaiah had an understanding or his own
impurity, and a desire to be rid of it. Isaiah said in Isaiah 6:5, “‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.’” If we want to avoid the pollutants of spiritual impurity, then we need to work as hard at this as we do at trying to avoid getting sick.
When we know who we are, we know what to do. If we understand that we are Christians, then we come to know what we are to do. When we become Christians, we begin to have eyes to see things as God sees them. We begin to understand our sin and how our sin corrupts our lives. We are told by the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:4, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight...” As believers we are created new. I don’t know about you, but when I get something new I want to keep it clean. For example, when I got my car after my dad died, I was careful how close I parked to other cars because I didn’t want to get any scratches. Once you get some scratches, and maybe a ding, you start to care less about keeping it all clean.
Isn’t this all too true of our lives as well. As we become new Christians, we try and live a clean and pure life. But then as time goes on we don’t worry about it as much. BUT WE SHOULD. We should seek to be ‘holy and blameless’ in God’s sight! We have to keep the old self, dead in our lives. We are chosen by God, and we are loved.
The Bible also tells us that we are the bride of Christ. The calling for a bride is that she is on a mission to prepare herself and planning for her wedding. Our lives here on earth should be our preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ. A bride doesn’t go out and sleep around before her wedding. She keeps herself pure for her groom. So why would we allow things in our lives that make us impure?
John 3:29a tells us: “The bride belongs to the bridegroom…” Part of understanding who we are, is understanding that we are not our own. As believers we are not our own. We have been purchased by the blood of Christ. And now we are not the same. We have a call on our lives that is not our own. Our call is to be like Christ.
b. The standard of purity- Jesus Christ is the standard of purity. It is
not enough to compare ourselves to others around us. You might look at someone who is a greater sinner than you and rationalize that you are not so bad. No, we are to set our eyes on Jesus. As we are told in Hebrews 12:2, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith...” Jesus is the sanctifier and the purifier. We cannot make ourselves pure, only Jesus can do this.
1 Peter 1:14-15 tells us: “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.” We are called to be holy in all that we do. We might not be able to live up to this 100% of the time, but if I try, in Christ, I sure will do a better job of living a pure life than I will if I don’t focus on being pure in Christ.
EX. When I was in high school, I would go to youth group every week. And there was this girl there that told me one time that she thought I was perfect. She wasn’t joking when she said this; she said it with seriousness. Now of course, I knew that I wasn’t perfect, and anyone who knew me at all knew I wasn’t perfect. But maybe, just maybe, because I was trying to ‘be holy in all I did’ I came across as being more and more like Christ. That is pretty cool!!
We become righteous, because Christ makes us righteous by imparting His righteousness to us. But we can also do this by renewing our minds. Romans 12:1-2 tells us, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” As you renew your mind you don’t want to start contaminating it with filth.
Just waking up we can be bombarded with temptations. The computer, the TV, the billboards, the strip joints, the commercialization of our world. The impurity is all around us. We have to protect our purity. We have to guard our minds and hearts. Protect what we see and what we hear.
We are called to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. When we are told in James 1:22, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” We need to make sure we do just this; live out our faith!! When you read God’s word and hear God’s word, live it out. God’s word lived out is what makes life wonderful. This is the way we can be led to purity, by living according to God’s word. It is God’s word that reminds us of what hinders us, and what leads us to impurity, and then we can guard ourselves all the more and seek to be living a more pure life.
People will then see the righteousness of Christ manifested in our lives.
I know it can be a challenge. Maybe we want to be more successful. Maybe we want to be loved by others. Maybe we want to be more accepted. Maybe we think life will be more exciting when we live according to the world. Whatever it is, it leads us to compromise. But the truth is, when we compromise it is because we have taken our eyes off of Christ. We have forgotten we are preparing ourselves for the groom; Jesus Christ.
c. How we dress- Proverbs 11:22- “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is
a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.” Now men, don’t miss what this is saying. I believe this has an important word for women and men alike. Discretion is having good sense and good judgment. We need to wake up and realize we are following the world’s standards, and when we do this we are looking like a pig with a gold ring in its snout. This does not look good at all and does not fit. If you saw a gold ring in a pig’s snout you would think that it is a waste of a gold ring. The gold ring does not make the pig more beautiful. The same is true of us. When we do not show discretion, when we do not exercise common sense, when we do not live up to God’s standards, it is not fitting.
Let’s think about the clothes that we wear. Some clothes, we wear to make us look more sexy. Some clothes say “I’m hiding.” Some we wear to look cool as we wear all the latest styles. Some are worn to make us feel more important. Some clothes are saying “I’m easy.” But some clothes say, “I’m holy.” “I belong to God.”
We are to represent Christ, not just with how we behave, but how we dress. Now this tends to be an issue with women more than men, because the clothes for women have gotten shorter, and tighter, and sexier. But we have to ask ourselves if our dress is a temptation for others. Our clothes shouldn’t draw attention to ourselves. It is to be a part of how we live.

II. Pursuing God- (1 Corinthians 6:12-20; 1 Peter 2:15-16; Matthew 5:27-28)
Another important aspect of purity is pursuing God with how we honor God with our bodies. Our text this morning from 1 Corinthians speaks a powerful message to us. So let’s close up our time by picking apart this verse a little…
a. Not everything is beneficial- This passage starts off by telling us, “I have
the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial.” There are many things that we do that might not seem wrong, but it is not beneficial for me in living a life of purity. For example, it is a very common thing for friends to joke around with each other. I remember that I used to pride myself on my sarcasm, Sarcasm takes some thought, because you are joking when you are sarcastic, but you include a hint of truth in it. When I was in college I had a friend who he and I would always go back and forth with our sarcastic comments. Then one day I began to wonder if it was all joking around, or if there was indeed a hint of truth in his words. Some of the things he said to me began to hurt a little. And I wondered if anything I said hurt him. So we talked about it one day, and decided that we weren’t going to be sarcastic anymore. We decided to CHANGE HOW WE TALKED!
There was nothing particular that told us we had to change. It was in a sense okay to do, but not beneficial. In the end, we decided that it was not a “pure” way to converse and to express our thoughts.
What are the areas in your life that might seem to be okay, but as a Christian might be looked upon in a wrong manner by others?
To be pure means to rid yourselves of these actions!
b. Sexual immorality- Next Paul talks about sexual immorality. Paul hits
the hardest in this passage with this topic. Even back then sexual immorality was a great problem. This is really fitting for our world right now, because there is so much immorality that exists. Let us read again 1 Corinthians 6:13-20,
“The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
Paul’s battlecry here is: “Honor God with your body.” There were many in Paul’s time who believed that the body was sinful, and the spirit was holy. This was called “gnosticism.” Because of this thinking, they believed that they could do anything with their body and it didn’t matter, because if they kept their spirit pure they were okay.
EX. When I was in high school I had a friend who was Catholic, and we were talking one day about drugs and premarital sex. And he said to me that it didn’t matter what he did during the week, because come Sunday he would go to confession and confess his sins, and then he would be forgiven.
Peter warns us against this kind of thinking when he says to us in 1 Peter 2:15-16, “For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.” While we are given forgiveness through the blood of Christ, we are not to pursue sinful living, but rather pursue God. Just because the world is promiscuous does not mean that we have to be promiscuous.
Paul is not writing a theological treatise here. Paul is pleading from the heart for the Corinthians to see their lives in “holy” terms. Paul is trying to help them understand that they have been bought with a price; the price of the life of Jesus Christ. Because of this, he was telling them that they need to honor God with their bodies; which included their thoughts and fantasies.
Jesus Himself challenged us all the more when He said in Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Our eyes and our minds are part of our body!
I believe that to be a people of God, pure before God, we need to make sure that we are faithful to our spouse, and that we refrain from sexual relations until married, and that sexual relations is honored for what it was created to be, something special and beautiful between a man and his wife.

Conclusion: The wikipedia dictionary tells us that purity is “the absence of impurity or contaminants in a substance or abstinence from vices and/or abundance of virtue. When we think of things that are pure we might think of “pure” white snow. Snow that is fresh from the sky, not containing any impure elements. OR maybe we think of a little baby, who is free from the impurities of the world.
But once we have been touched by the impurities of our sinfulness, what are we to do to become pure? As we have talked about this morning, we have a wonderful savior, Jesus Christ, who gave His life for us, so that we could be forgiven. As we are told in 1 John 1;9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to fogive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all our iniquities.” In Christ, we can be made pure.
Let us not only understand this in our mind, but seek to live it out in our lives, as we seek to live a more pure life. Let us be pure in our minds, our dress, our relationships, our speech. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. And if we do this, we will indeed bring back the virtue of purity. Amen.

"Respect is Earned, Honor is Given"

FORGOTTEN VIRTUES SERIES

From Lifechurch.tv series

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Introduction: Today we start a series that will take us through our Lenten season called “The Forgotten Virtues.” It seems that in our world we see less and less of these virtues: honor, purity, loyalty, integrity, and gratitude. As we have done at times before, we will be partnering with Emmanuel Presbyterian Church, in Long Beach, and First Presbyterian Church in Garden Grove, whose churches also will be doing this same series. In fact, Rev. Cheryl Raine, from Garden Grove 1^st Pres. is the one who provided us with the wonderful Lenten devotionals to go along with this series.

This morning we will be looking at the virtue of honor: what is means to show honor, and what it means to have honor.

In many countries you have to behave in a certain way to show honor to the people. Maybe you have to take off your shoes before you go into their homes, or you have to bring a small gift of thanks. These actions show honor. An expert on these kinds of customs was asked what people of other countries are told to do when they come to the United States, and he answered that there is nothing that is expected from Americans of others. Maybe this is telling us that we are becoming a country that does not value honor!!

I. Jesus’ home town- (Mark 6:1-5)

a. Lack of honor shown- In Mark chapter 6 Jesus is returning to the

place where He had grown up. Up to this point Jesus had healed many people, turned water into wine, done many miracles. So the people had heard about Jesus and the works He had done. In this context Jesus is coming “home”, if you will, to the people who knew Him best and should have shown Him the greatest honor.

How exciting it should have been for this town to receive Jesus on this day. Here is one of their own, coming home to see His people, and you would think that they would be excited about what He had achieved and whom He was. But we are going to actually see the opposite happen. The people are not going to show Jesus honor, and this lack of honor and lack of faith will actually limit what Jesus does there!

A year prior to this Jesus was actually run out of town and they threatened to kill Him. And yet Jesus is choosing to come back to this setting.

Mark 6:1-2 tells us: “When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed. ‘Where did this man get these things?’ they asked. ‘What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? ³ Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at him. that Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath and He was wowing everyone with His teaching.”

They were wondering: Isn’t this that ordinary guy we knew growing up? How did He become such an amazing teacher? We see His sisters here…They think that Jesus is just an ordinary guy. Even though they were wowed by His teaching and wisdom, they were offended that He would come into the synagogue, on the Sabbath, and teach. They didn’t believe He belonged there. They didn’t honor Him for who He was, because they didn’t believe Him to be anything other than the carpenter’s son!

How does Jesus respond? We see this in Mark 6:4- “Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.’” Did you catch that? Jesus says that a prophet is ‘WITHOUT HONOR’ in his hometown. The Greek word used here is atimos, which means ‘to dishonor; to treat as common or ordinary.’ Let me give you an example of this. If you want a COMMON or ORDINARY marriage, then treat your spouse as common or ordinary. And we do that by no longer treating them as special. When we are dating we open the door, we buy them flowers and gifts. But then we get married, and we stop treating them as special. This is really showing DISHONOR to our spouse, and leads to a very common and ordinary marriage.

The flipside is honor. The Greek word for honor is time (pronounced tim-may) and means ‘to value, respect, or highly esteem; to treat as precious or valuable.’ Let me give you an example of this. Not too long ago Carol gave my son Tyler a basketball. Not just an ordinary basketball, but a Harlem Globetrotters basketball. This was special enough, but a couple of weeks ago our family went to see the Harlem Globetrotters play, and after the game Tyler got many of the players to sign the basketball. This basketball is not ordinary or common. Tyler would never use it to shoot hoops. He has an ordinary basketball for this. This basketball is honored by Tyler and special to Tyler! This ball is valued and esteemed by Tyler.

To honor someone is to believe the best in someone, whereas dishonor believes the worst in others. Honor lifts up, encourages, and builds up. Dishonor tears down. You might say that there are people that you can’t honor because they don’t deserve it. The truth is, Respect is earned, but Honor is given. You can honor someone just because of there place or position. You can’t treat them with honor even before they are “honorable,” and this honor shown will often lead them to become more honorable. It empowers and encourages.

Maybe our country is the way it is because we have been dishonoring each other for so long. Check out what dishonoring Jesus, does to Jesus.

b. The result of dishonor- Listen to Mark 6:5, “He could not do any

miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. ⁶ He was amazed at their lack of faith.” This is interesting. It doesn’t say wouldn’t do miracles. It says could not. I don’t fully understand this, but because of a lack of faith, and a lack of honor, it keeps Jesus from being able to do what He has done in many other places. It keeps Him from doing many miracles there. There is something tied together with faith, honor, and the work of God.

It is unfortunate that we have lost honor in our country. Who are we called to honor? Let me highlight the top three people that the Bible tells us we are to honor….

II. Who are we to honor?- (Exodus 20:12; Romans 13:7; 1 Timothy 5:17; Romans 12:10; Psalm 22:23)

a. Parents- Number 1 is that we are to honor our parents. Exodus

20:12 tells us, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” We are called to honor our parents. Tragically we can be one of the most dishonoring cultures to our parents. This has to break God’s heart! How often have we seen or heard kids mouth off to their parents? Say I hate you, I’m not listening to you. In my house, if I ask my children to do something, the only acceptable response is “Yes dad.” A number of years ago the only acceptable response would have been “yes sir.” Why? Because this shows HONOR!! This might sound old fashioned, but because we have strayed from it, we have seen kids lose sight of the honor they are to show to their parents.

b. Authority- Number 2 we are called to show honor to those who

have been put in authority over us. Romans 13:7 tells us, “Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.” When President Clinton was president, there were many who did not honor him. When President Bush was president there were others who didn’t honor him. Now there are many who don’t honor President Obama. But the point about honoring, is that it is about honoring those who are in authority, not necessarily the person. It is about honoring the position, and the authority that position holds.

Story: There is a story about a man who was at a gathering where President and Mrs. Bush happened to be at, and he was telling his neighbor how he was not a Bush supporter at all. But then the door opened, the flag came in followed by President and Mrs. Bush, and everyone stood, including this guy, and there were cheers and great emotion in response to this entrance. This response was not for President Bush the person, but for the position he held and the country he served!!

Those who are in sports need to honor their coaches. Those in school need to honor their teachers. Those who are working need to honor their boss. You may think you are smarter than your boss, but to be over others you first need to learn how to be under. You show this by honoring those whom God has put over you.

We are to honor those who are put in authority. As we show honor, they will lead with honor.

c. Number 3 we are told to honor our pastors and church leaders;

those who are directing us spiritually. 1 Timothy 5:17 says, “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.” There is an interesting phrase here that says they are to receive DOUBLE HONOR. Those who are called to this role are to receive special honor.

One of the important aspects of the Presbyterian church is how pastors are CALLED. In the Presbyterian church someone doesn’t just one day stand up and say, ‘I feel like I am called to be your pastor,’ and then start pastoring. NO. They might feel this call, but then it is supported first by a committee called ‘The Committee of Preparation for Ministry.’ This committee helps the local church to affirm and guide this call for this candidate. Ultimately, a person is not ordained to pastoral ministry until they have been CALLED by a church.

This position needs to be honored. I have to tell you that I do feel honored by you, and I am grateful for that. More than for the person I am, but for the call that God has given me here. It is wonderful to see that in other places as well. I have felt great honor from the Vietnamese Church who used to rent our chapel. And even now, at the end of our service, when I am at the door ready to great people, many from the Hispanic church come over to greet me and show me love and respect!!

Because of being honored in this way, it lifts me up and causes me to value this role all the more, and know that I have to seek God and God’s guidance in what I do, in what I teach, and in how I lead.

d. Romans 12:10 tells us: “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor

one another above yourselves.” Another way to say it is to ‘outdo’ one another in showing honor. How can you do this? By giving encouragement to those who serve you, and minister to you, you honor them. Spouses should seek to outdo one another in honoring their spouse. We, as the members of this body, should be seeking ways to honor one another; building each other up, not tearing each other down.

We have ELDERS who give of their time to help govern and serve this church. We have DEACONS who serve and lead in this church. We have people who teach our children and our youth. We have people who make blankets, who cook meals, who count the money, and on and on it goes. We need to outdo one another in showing honor to each other!!

But most of all we need to honor God. This God who has created us in His image, and given us salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. I honor the Son of God, the risen Christ, who has forgiven me and changed me into a new creation; for filling me with His Holy Spirit and for empowering me to do things I couldn’t do on my on. I honor Him for who He is.

Why is it that we are a culture without honor? The reason that our culture isn’t honoring, is because we are a culture that too often is not honoring of God. Psalm 22:23, “You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel.” The problem is that we are treating God as common. We’re too familiar with Him. He is the big guy upstairs.

Jesus is not a little baby in the manger. He is the soon coming, returning, ruling, reigning King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When He comes back, He is coming back with a sword. When we honor God we will honor others, because we are made valuable by His name. When we get that, that we are valuable by the name of Christ, we will reclaim honor and return to the forgotten value of honor.

III. Giving Honor to God- (Isaiah 29:13)

Story- Babe Ruth, the famous New York Yankees baseball player was said to have signed 7 homerun bats. The very first one was lost for decades. His agent had given it out, and that person disappeared from the public eye. On his death bed, the man who owned the bat had outlived all of his family, and so he gave this bat to his nurse who had cared for him for years. He told her that she was the closest thing he had to family, and he wanted her to have this bat that he had valued for so many years. She didn’t know much about baseball, but she knew it had some value. She kept it for the next 18 years under her bed. One day she decided she wanted to start a business, and so she thought this bat might have some value, where she could sell it and get some money to help her get started. She took it to a sports place and asked the man if it was worth anything. The guy’s eyes got all big, and he told her how it was the first of 7 bats Babe Ruth had signed. So she put it up for auction, and in 2006 it sold for……1.6 million dollars! She opened her guest lodge, and then took the remaining money and started a foundation to serve all the children that Babe Ruth wanted to serve at the end of his life. A reporter asked her why she did this with the remaining money, she told him that the bat was only valuable because Babe Ruth’s name was on it, and so the only reasonable thing she could do was to honor him in this way because he was what made it valuable.

We are only valuable because God makes us valuable (as we talked about last week), and the only reasonable thing we can do is to honor God with our lives. Unfortunately, for too many this is not true. We are told in Isaiah 29:13, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” God is the only one truly worthy of our honor and praise, and when we realize who we are because of what He did, we will see the value of others and give honor to them, because they were valuable enough for Jesus to give His life. In this way we will reclaim the forgotten virtue of honor, and the world can become more the place God meant it to be!

Conclusion: The wonderful irony about honor, is that as we give it to others, it more often than not leads them to become honorable. But above this, we are called to show honor by God, through the scriptures, and need to Honor God, by honoring those we are called to honor.

Illus. For Tyler’s baseball team I call the pitches for the pitchers during the game. What this means is that I am the one who decided whether the pitcher will throw a fastball, or a changeup, or a curveball. They don’t always agree with me, but I do it because I feel I have a good feel for the game, and the batter, and I believe if they follow my lead, then they will be successful in their pitching.

We might not always understand or agree with God, but I do believe that if we follow God’s lead, then we will be more successful in life. God calls us to honor our parents, the authority around us, our spiritual leaders, and most of all God. Let us seek to do this, and in doing this bring back honor to our city, state, and country. Amen.