“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.