Integrity / A Christian Is Faithful, 100%.

A wealthy businessman lay on his deathbed. His pastor came to visit and talked about Gods healing power and prayed for his parishioner.

When the pastor was done, the businessman said, "Preacher, if God heals me, I'l give the church a million dollars."

Miraculously, the businessman got better and within a few short weeks was out of the hospital.

Several months later, the pastor bumped into this businessman on the sidewalk and said,

You know, when you were in the hospital dying, you promised to give the church a million dollars if you got well. We have not received it as of yet.

The businessman replied, Did I say that? I guess that goes to show how sick I really was! (Pause)

Today we are going to explore a subject that touches each and every one of us.

Today as we get back with Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount, we are going to see what Jesus has to say about integrity.

In the our Gospel lesson Jesus Says: Let your Yes be Yes, and your No,be No; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Satan, is the evil one He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Who would like this $50 bill? [Then crumple it up, step on it, roll it around and then hold it up again and ask,] Who still wants this $50 bill?

The value remains no matter what the item looks like on the outside no matter how scarred, bruised or beaten, the value is still the same. That is integrity.

A person of integrity is validated by their words and their deeds.

If we are pure in heart we can be pure in action. Integrity is making my daily actions line up with my heart's values.

Mark Twain said: Speaking honestly is better. It takes a lot of stress out of our lives.

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything, but if you don' tell the truth you have to remember what you said.

Integrity provides me with Security with greater confidence. Proverbs 10:9 informs us ..... The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.

In a society without moral absolutes anything goes.

When people can choose what is right and wrong without having a standard, how do you decide which way to go?

A busload of politicians were headed to a convention but because of highway construction,

they had to take a detour down a rural road.

The driver was having problems with this windy, country lane and lost control of the bus.

It ran off the road and crashed into a tree in an old farmer's field.

The old farmer was driving to town when he noticed that that there was a gaping hole in his fence.

He went to investigate and saw what had happened.

He went back to his truck, got a shovel, and buried all the politicians.

Since the politicians never arrived at their destination, a state trooper was dispatched to locate them.

He backtracked their route, followed the country road, saw the wrecked bus in the field, and looked up the old farmer that owned the property.

The trooper asked the farmer where the politicians had gone. The farmer informed the trooper that he had buried all of them.

The trooper said, They were all dead? The old farmer replied, Well, some of them kept saying they weren't but you know how them politicians lie! (Pause)

Throughout the Scriptures you will find the words: honesty, purity, truth, upright and complete all translated from the same words meaning integrity they are all synonymous.

If we are going to live lives of integrity we must know what integrity looks like. That comes from spending time in the Scriptures with God.

Hear Paul's words to Timothy 2 Timothy 2:15 BIBLE Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. END

If we take the time to read and study the Bible and apply the truths that we read to our lives, then we can live lives of integrity.

Why?

Because the Bible is the only standard for living that is true and unchanging.

The Bible truly is our manual it is the B I B L E Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

Walking in integrity means integrating all of what God's Word says into our daily activities.

It means that I become a doer of the word.

Once there were two brothers who were very rich and very wicked.

Both of them lived lives of sinfulness and debauchery and used their wealth to cover up a lot of their wickedness.