A Matter of Integrity

would you mind standing today at all of our life church locations in the honor of reading god's word i want to read to you today from psalm chapter 15 when david asked some questions and he asked this he asked lord who may dwell in your sacred tent who may live on your holy mountain in other words who can experience the goodness and the presence and the peace of god who may dwell with you god and then he answers and he says the one whose walk is blameless who does what is who speaks the truth from their heart whose tongue utters no slander who does no wrong to a neighbor and cast no slur on others who may dwell in the presence of the lord he's talking about those who live and walk with integrity he says those who may dwell he says those who lend money to the poor without interest who does not accept a bribe against the innocent whoever does these things will never be shaken whoever walks uprightly in the fear of the lord whoever lives with integrity will not be shaken [Music] i read an article about a person who lost a wallet with a large sum of cash in it and a good samaritan found the wallet with all of the money and returned it to the person that lost it and the author of this article was shocked and the person who got his money back was shocked and all the commenters were shocked everybody called me i can't believe the guy returned so much money and i thought to myself isn't it tragic that we live in a world where people are more shocked by integrity than they are by the lack of integrity and maybe it shouldn't be a shock because every day when you open up a news app or when you read social media you find another leader another celebrity another politician another whoever who often falls and sometimes you even see it in a friend or a family member who claims one thing but lives another and that's why the title of today's message is a matter of integrity would you pray with me today father we ask that by the power of your word and your indwelling spirit that you would lead us to walk and to live in such a way that it honors you by the power of your spirit help us walk in your truth and glorify you showing your love god in all that we do we pray this in jesus name and everybody said amen amen why don't you look at someone next to you and say walk with integrity and go ahead and be seated you can type that in the chat if you want today walk with integrity walk with integrity let's talk about this really important issue today and to start i want to raise the question what is integrity and before we try to answer what integrity is let's first start with what integrity is not and i want to be really really clear and help you know that integrity is not perfection meaning if you do something wrong you know someone can't just say you lack integrity you know you're not perfect you're no good to live with integrity doesn't mean that you never make a mistake if that were the case then only jesus would be able to have integrity what we're looking for in a life of integrity is what we might call an integrated life in fact the word integrity comes from the root latin word integer which actually means whole it means complete it means one what would it look like in our life well too often in our lives many of us we are compartmentalized in how we live and what god wants us to be is he wants to us to be whole in how we live for example sometimes in life we might have a compartment where we say this is my professional life this is what i do at work i have another compartment in my life it's not my professional life but it's my family life and not only is there my family life but there's also my social life and there's another compartment that i would say is my spiritual life and then there's one place that no one is allowed to see but this is my private life and so often we might have a professional life that's separate from our spiritual life because we don't want to offend anyone in our professional life with our spiritual beliefs but when we get into our family life we keep our private life separate because we don't want our family to know what we do in private but when we go into our social life that's really different from what we do in our spiritual life which is profoundly different than we do in our private life and without even knowing it we live a very compartmentalized life that's not integrity integrity would be more holistic where as followers of jesus we want jesus to direct all of our lives that we're not broken into little compartments where this is what i say in front of one group and this is what i do in front of another group but instead we want to glorify jesus in all that we do jesus directs our actions in our professional life and jesus leads our relationships in our social life and jesus is the core of our family life we're not just a christian family but we're a family centered around the teachings of jesus christ jesus drives our private life it's not something that we're going to do when no one else sees instead of having a compartmentalized life we want to have an integrated life centered on the goodness the power the glory and the truth of jesus so what is integrity we might say it this way integrity is when your behavior matches your beliefs it's when what you show on the outside is a true reflection of what you believe on the inside and vice versa in fact proverbs chapter 10 verse 9 tells us this i love the promise of integrity that whoever walks in integrity walks securely but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out i don't know if you've ever done something wrong and you knew it and the great fear was man i hope they don't find out you're not walking securely you're wondering and hoping and praying that i don't get caught i have never one time ever walked in integrity done the right thing gone to bed going i hope they don't find out i did what was right i hope no one knows i did what was honoring to god because when we do the wrong thing it's stressful what is integrity it's when your private life is consistent with your public life we could say this way it's who you are when no one is looking it's different than reputation integrity is different than reputation reputation we could say is who others think you are but integrity is who you really are the integrity of the upright will guide them what is the opposite of integrity if our goal is an integrated life centered around jesus the opposite in many ways we could say is simply hypocrisy is to be a hypocrite one of the great criticisms of those of us who are christians is they're all just a bunch of hypocrites um where does that word come from well the greek word translated as hypocrite is the word hypocrates and if you've ever seen one of those greek plays where they have these ridiculous looking masks that's a hoopocrates what that is is there is a different person behind the mask but i'm showing you an exterior that is inconsistent with who i really am and what's fascinating is when you read in scripture you'll notice that jesus was actually harder on hypocrites than he was on prostitutes or adulterers any time you see him address a hypocrite he really came down on them not just for living in the wrong way but claiming what was right when they were actually living the wrong way in fact you can see this in matthew's gospel chapter 23 um verse 25 he said woe to you teachers of the law and pharisees and he says you hypocrites and watch what he said you clean the outside of the cup and dished in other words you're putting on an exterior shell you're acting one way for everybody else to see but inside they're full of greed and self-indulgence he said blind pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and dish then the outside also will be clean what was jesus saying in many ways he was saying it's not just what you show on the outside that really matters it's what's on the inside that matters we want an integrated life we want jesus christ the son of god the way the truth and the life the living water the bread of life the true vine we want him to direct and guide and empower every area of our life it's not compartmentalized it's integrated around the truth the glory the love the grace the power the direction of who jesus is it's not what's on the outside it's what is directing us from the inside i'll illustrate it this way there was a um very well-known homebuilder that worked for a massive company and this man built some of the finest homes year after year after year and had an incredible 40-year career building homes as anybody who's done something for 40 years toward the end of his career he was tired and ready to go be a papa and raise his grandkids and enjoy it so 35 years in he said five more years i'm retiring 36 years in four more years i'm retired three more years i'm retired two more years i'm retired one more year i'm retiring six more months i'm retiring five more and he telegraphed it to his whole company so they would know at his one month mark before retirement the owner of the company said to him could you build one more home for us and the guy was partially hurt partially offended he said for four decades i've been faithful to you i i've told you a long time ago that my time is coming to an end no i won't do one more and the owner said we've been good friends for a long time and you've been one of the best you know i wouldn't ask you to do this if it didn't mean a lot to me will you do one more home and the guy said fine i'll do one more but his heart wasn't in it and this guy who normally built the best of the best he cut corners like he'd never cut him before he got the job done fast he used products that were not as good he used cheaper sub contractors that didn't have the integrity on the outside of the house nobody would have ever known but he knew on the inside it was far from his best work at the end of the project the owner came up to him with a big smile on his face and said i want to tell you that we value your work more than you could ever imagine and if gratitude for 40 years of service we wanted to give you this as your way out here are the keys to your new home and the builder recognize what all of us will recognize one day and that is this you are building your own home every decision you make how you live what you say and what you do you're building your own home whether you choose to be generous with people or selfish in your relationships whether you do what's right or you cut corners whether you show honor and build others up or show dishonor and tear others down whether you extend grace or judge people harshly whether you tell the truth about what happened or tell the story in a way that it benefits you you are building your own house integrity it matters i'll talk to the parents for a moment and just help you understand you are you're building your legacy and what happens in your home matters more than you could ever imagine um in years of working in the church you know what i've discovered the fastest way to raise rebellious kids is to claim one thing but to live something different in the home the fastest way to turn your children against god and in the things of god is to claim the things of god publicly and live far from the things of god in your private life you're building your own home every day every decision every interaction you have with people we want to have not a compartmentalized life but an integrated life driven by the grace the truth the beauty the power and the love of jesus and so the question i want to ask you today is this what is your integrity worth what is your integrity worth because many of us we have a price right there's a point at which we may compromise and so i want to ask you what is your integrity worth another way of saying is what would your actions say that your integrity is worth for example if you lie on a resume to get a job how much do you make a year 30 grand 50 grand 150 grand whatever it is well that's what your integrity would be worth you're selling out for a certain price if you falsify an expense report or you embezzle something from your work what is your integrity worth your integrity might be worth a ream of paper that you took home for private use um if you cheat on an exam to get a better grade or if you exaggerate on the story so someone that may someone may like you what is your integrity worth maybe it's worth 29 bucks a month whatever it is because you steal your neighbor's wi-fi valued at 29 a month or maybe it's like 14.99 a month because you're using your friend's login to watch netflix all the time what's your integrity worth maybe it's like eight bucks because you'll lie about your kid's age to get a discount admission oh god don't strike me down don't strike me down kids you're just 14 you're just 14. i know you look like you've been shaving for three years but you're just 14. is this getting too real what's your integrity worth there was a time that my integrity was worth a golf ball a golf ball not just any golf ball but a blue golf ball from putt-putt you see i went to high school in a place called ardmore oklahoma and ardmore didn't have a big time putt-putt and so when our high school tennis team traveled to the big city to go to the state championships the night before the state championships we all went to putt-putt and if you've ever been to put-putt you know that at the end of the 18th hole when you put the ball in a hole it goes into putt-putt eternity the ball just vanishes and who knows where it goes but it just it's gone like forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and it's gone unless you have your friend put their foot over the hole and then you can put it and your ball just stays there for you to pick up put in your pocket and take back with you which is exactly what i did and i came back to my hotel room thinking everything was fine i remember laying against my bed with my feet on this old cheap hotel wall that had these cinder bricks just tossing my little blue ball up against it until my coach walked in the room cazzy walked up and caught my blue ball in the mid-air and he said where'd he get this ball so i got it from putt-putt and he looked at me and he said you're off the team you're not playing in the championship tomorrow and i fell apart he said i'm not gonna have any thief on my team and what he said felt dramatic but it wasn't that dramatic he said first you'll steal a golf ball then one day it'll be a car stereo that's back in the day when that people did steal those things okay i just dated me but believe me it happened alpine whatever you know ariel speedwagon and so and then he said you'll steal a car which i don't know if i would have actually become a car thief but he was right i lacked integrity and he said you're off the team you can't play the next day and i begged and begged and begged and begged what can i do i'll do anything he said well what you can do is you can go back to putt-putt and tell everybody there that you used to be a thief but you don't want to be a thief and you're really really sorry and ask for their forgiveness so we went back to putt-putt and i walked up to everyone that worked there and said i used to be a thief but i'm not a thief anymore i'm really really sorry i'm returning this ball and so my coach drove me back to the hotel and he didn't say anything except for one thing and what he said i'll never forget he said when you have integrity nothing else matters and when you don't have integrity nothing else matters and that's all they said that stuck with me um years later i started at tennis camp in fact that's sam i had a bunch of kids come to my camp and i played with a prince pro not the exact racket but very very close and i had all these kids that would come out and train with me and they were not any good which might tell you i wasn't a great coach but at the end of um each session i would play a game with them to 10 points and there's no way they're going to beat me i would let it get really really close because they had no chance whatsoever and i'd let it get to about eight all and then i'd finish the last two points off and i'd tell him if you beat me you get to keep my racket there's no way these kids were going to beat me they couldn't even get the ball on the court but i'd let it get really close i'd miss them like oh they ate all okay here we go oh my gosh it's going to be closed then pop i'd put one away and pop i'd pull away it'd be over i got to ate all and this kid hit the luckiest shot you've ever seen now for those of you that play tennis you'll know this will happen two three times in a match is the ball will hit the white part of the tape on the net and then it'll roll over and so at eight all he did that and it rolled over ain't nothing but a thing next two shots i'll just wax him poetically and it'll be over god is my witness not one time but two consecutive times this guy who couldn't hit the side of the empire state building the tape and the ball rolled over and all my little tennis camp full of kids went crazy he gets your racket he gets your rack and he gets here acted you got to understand this was in the mid 80s these rackets were probably 120 bucks back then i had two and you need two to play competitive tennis because when a string goes down you got to have another one my third one was a garage sale wooden racket that shouldn't be allowed anybody to play with ever and i couldn't afford to give my racket what do you do when you're on your way to play college tennis and you gave your word if you win you get my racket if you have integrity what else matters if you don't have integrity nothing else really matters psalm chapter 139 is where i want to invite you to spend a moment with me a very very powerful prayer that's incredibly difficult to pray and this is the prayer that i'm going to invite you to pray and it goes like this search me god and know my heart test me and know my anxious thoughts see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting search me god and know my heart is there any part of my life that's compartmentalized that isn't integrated around the truth and the goodness of jesus search my heart the reason this is a very difficult prayer to pray is because scripture teaches us that our heart is deceitful above all things that it's very very difficult to even see truth because our heart lies to us all the time and i'm going to ask you is there any area of your life that if you're open to the to the the prompting of the holy spirit might need some correction out of a compartmentalized life into an integrated one and there's three areas i would encourage you just to kind of examine to see if you might find an area you might first of all look where you're most defensive where are you most defensive because what i found for me is where i'm most defensive often reveals where i'm most vulnerable where are you most defensive no that wouldn't be me i would never ever do that ask yourself what you don't want others to know where is it that you're hiding something where you're keeping a private life away from others a third area to look is this ask yourself what you criticize in others where do you criticize others and i found that what you criticize the hardest is often a reflection of where you are the weakest search my heart god see if there is any offensive way in me i was preaching this very text years ago on the week that i had a big board meeting i used to serve on the board of a non-profit and on the board it was some of the most impressive leaders i've ever served with one of the gentlemen had um invented dsl one of them invented the credit card swipe one of them was the um author who sold more leadership books than anybody else in the world one of them was the probably top consultant if not top three consultants to fortune 500 ceos i was like the token pastor you know i'm the spiritual guy i'm gonna keep you on track okay serve jesus okay and so that was me that was the token pastor guy and they were all meeting in california but because of my schedule i couldn't and so i called in well this meeting went on and on and on and i got tired of being on the call so i thought well i'm going to just get a little workout in during this board meeting and so i went out into my gym and i just would put the phone on mute while i was doing back that day and then if they asked me a question i unmute it and act like i wasn't breathing heavily and then i'd put it back on mute and do more back well the problem is at some point i forgot to hit the mute button and in the middle of my heaviest set of doing lat pull-downs i'd pull down clay clank it was after the second clank i realized the call went dead silent i looked down and i was unmuted and so what did i do i immediately called out what was that noise are you all okay true story true story i just went all into my lie i'm just like are you okay i heard something [Applause] i was the only one not in the room with them and they heard something on the phone and i doubled down just so worried about you you guys okay they're like are you okay i'm fired five what was that noise i don't even know what it was pastor craig keeps them on track what do you do when god shows you that what you do on the outside is very different than what you claim on the inside i would encourage you to acknowledge any area search me god just pray and listen acknowledge any area where your actions are inconsistent with what god's word teaches maybe you exaggerate the story so that people will think better of you maybe you talk really bad about people to make you feel better maybe you gossip but you make it sound spiritual i'm just telling you so you can pray for her oh she needs jesus let me tell you what she did maybe it's your taxes you cut corners all the way around you can try not to pay what you really owe maybe you claim the spiritual life and you've got the secret hidden sin and i would encourage you just to acknowledge it before god search me know my heart test me see if there's any offensive is there any part of my life that's compartmentalized and i integrated with the love and the grace of jesus and then just confess it to god and let him let him cleanse you let him forgive you as he does if you confess your sins he's faithful and just he forgives all of your sins and cleanses you from all unrighteousness let him change you and that's what i did i said god i just lied and god prompted me to call every board member individually and tell them i'm so sorry i lied will you forgive me i called the first one said i just wanted to know him i lied he's like yeah we all kind of knew that and every call went the same way and i just told him i'm so sorry i was embarrassed and i asked you to forgive me and that was a really important call for me to make and all of you may have some moment in your life in ministry like that because here's what i found talent can get you to the top but only integrity will keep you at the top because when you have integrity nothing else matters and we don't have integrity nothing else matters so all the kids looked on what's our coach going to do is he going to do what he said and give his racket and i went through every thought in my mind and i remembered the lesson from my coach and so i did the right thing hand of the kid my racket said you better win with this thing and went on and played with only one racket until i could finally save up to get another one approximately 30 years went by and one week i preached a message and afterwards i went out and was greeting people in the lobby area and this guy came up to me and he was a wreck he'd all obviously been crying and he came up and he said i just prayed that prayer he invited me to pray and he told me the whole story his wife had left him and he was in bad shape and he said i committed my life to jesus and i just want to tell you thank you coach coach he said you don't remember me do you i said uh uh you do look familiar he said yeah i was there that day that that other guy beat you 10 to 8. he said none of us thought you'd actually give him your racket now remember you did that he said so when my life fell apart i asked what preachers do i know i knew you he said i figured if you told the truth then you'd probably tell the truth now i'm just glad he wasn't on that board call [Laughter] [Music] because if you have integrity that's what matters and if you don't have integrity man it really matters what's difficult is there's going to come times when you try to have the courage to do the right thing but you know the right thing could be very very challenging what i try to tell myself is this with god's help i'm going to do what's right and trust god with the results i'm going to do what's right and trust god with the results because i've discovered that your integrity is easier to keep than it is to recover it's tragic is tragic when people are more shocked by integrity than they are by the lack of it and so in the very same way that god shocked the world while we were still sinning he sent jesus while they were cursing at him jesus said father forgive them in the very same way may we as integrated followers of jesus continue to shock the world with love and with generosity and with grace and with integrity may they look on and say i may not even believe what they believe but man they sure believe it the way they give the way they love the way they serve maybe that jesus that drives them is a jesus that could save me not compartmentalized but integrated jesus jesus jesus jesus the son of god search my heart god see if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting so father we pray today that you do surgery on us and we recognize god that all of us probably have room for the holy spirit to do some work me at the top of the list so god search me search us god wherever we're inconsistent wherever we are the hypocrite we ask for you to forgive us god we thank you for your forgiveness we ask that you would direct our steps and in a way that only comes by your power help us to walk in the ways of the wise to walk with steps of integrity to please you in all that we do just that all of our churches and those of you who are walking on watching online who say yes search my heart god just show me i want to be open to what you say would you just lift up your hands right now to say yes i'm open to what god would show me i'm open to what god would show them you can type that in the chat i'm open god show me search my heart search my heart just type in the chat and we ask god that you show us and that you transform us and god that you would even forgive us wherever we've been wrong help us be centered around jesus in all that we do empowered by your spirit and showing your love direct our steps we ask god as you keep praying today at all of our churches or those of you watching online some of you may say oh my gosh i'm just a mess i'm a mess of a mess i remember as a kid and in college going to church and having the most compartmentalized life you've ever seen here's my friend life here's my party life here's my church life and there was no jesus in my life there was a head knowledge but no relationship what does god want for us he he would shock you with his love that he loves you so much no matter what you've done no matter how far from him you feel he loves you and he became one of you he was god in the flesh jesus the sinless son of god perfect in every way the one who became sin for us on the cross and died in our place and god raised him from the dead so that anybody this includes you it doesn't matter how bad your life has been anyone anyone anyone anyone who calls on the name of jesus your sins would be forgiven and you would be completely new today at all of our churches or those online who say yes i may i may be far from god i may have done something i'm really ashamed of the moment you confess to him god forgives your sins and you become new the old is gone and everything becomes new those today who say yes i want that i need forgiveness today i leave my old life and i surrender to jesus the name that is above every name i give my life to jesus the son of god the prince of peace the alpha the omega jesus today i leave my old life i give my life to jesus that's your prayer would you lift your hands high right now and say yes just lift them up right back over here and others of you today at all of our churches you say yes jesus i give you my life those of you online just type in the chat right now i'm giving my life to jesus just type that in the chat i'm giving my life to jesus and wherever you're watching today would you just pray aloud with those around you nobody prays alone just pray heavenly father forgive my sins save me jesus make me brand new fill me with your spirit so i can follow you you direct my life all of my life so i can show your love and walk in your ways in all that i do my life is not my own i give it all to you in jesus name i pray to somebody celebrate big welcome those born into god's family today

Channel: Life.Church

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Keywords: Craig Groeschel, Sermon, Life.Church, Lifechurch, life church, life church sermons, craig rochelle, groeschel craig, church sermons 2021, integrity, what is integrity, integrity explained, integrity meaning, do the right thing, what does integrity mean to you, what does integrity mean, integrity sermons, opposite of integrity, hypocrite, christian integrity sermon, christian integrity, a matter of integrity, reputation

Id: bc7NNocPNHc

Length: 37min 6sec (2226 seconds)

Published: Sun May 16 2021