Covenant Youth Mission
June 26, 1995
Personal Integrity
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”
- Henry David Thoreau
What is your plan for this life? What is the song in you? Is it still untapped?
Have you sought it out and written it down?
Have you begun to take any steps toward to getting it out into the world, or have you even thought about it at all?
What do you see yourself doing in the future? Do you have a job in mind, are you planning to live off the welfare system? Do you plan on getting married and having a family or are you going to get pregnant and be a single mom?
Most people imagine some sort of better future for themselves, but dreams do not come true on their own, you have a part to play.
A major key to you realizing your potential in life is personal integrity.
Read Ephesians 5:1-21
Ephesians 5:8-10
For you were once darkness; but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.
Definition:
Integrity – Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty
We are a society that has very little integrity. Most people seem to hold to a view that if you are not caught then you are not guilty of wrong-doing.
I am here to tell you tonight young people that there most definitely is a Christian code of conduct. We have received a gift of righteousness by faith that is to lead to holy living that glorifies God.
We need to be people of integrity.
1. Integrity in your relationship with God.
Numbers 23:19-20
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
God is not a man that He should lie; but you are a man so it’s alright if you lie? Is this an excuse? God has integrity but I am only human so I won’t worry about it?
John 8:42-47
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. 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. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."
Who is your father? What is your native language? Whose voice is your ear tuned to?
Our God and Father is a God of truth, His word is sure; it had better be because our salvation depends upon it.
He does not lie. He has perfect and total integrity.
Ephesians 5:1
Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-7
When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the temple messenger, "My vow was a mistake." Why should God be angry at what you say and destroy the work of your hands? Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.
2. Personal Integrity.
This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
- William Shakespeare
Be honest with yourself! Wow; that Shakespeare was brilliant, wasn’t he?
He wasn’t the first one to come up with the idea though.
Proverbs 11:3
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
Proverbs 19:1
Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a fool whose lips are perverse.
I cannot remember where I read this idea but I believe it was from one of John Maxwell’s books or maybe it was from one of his Injoy Life Club tapes.
Personal integrity works exactly like a bank account and we all need to be better stewards of those accounts. Here is how it works.
Each time you say something and then follow through by doing it, you make a deposit in your personal integrity account. Each time you say something and then don’t do it, you lie to yourself and that is a withdrawal from your P.I.A.
So you decide you need to get in shape. “I’m going to start eating healthier and working out.”
Every time you eat a healthy meal and go to the gym you are building your personal integrity. You feel great not only because eating healthy and exercising is good for you but also and I believe more importantly because you are being truthful with yourself.
You can work it in your mind that you “got injured” or it was “to hard with work” or you “couldn’t not eat junk through the holidays”, but you know and God knows that those are just lies and you are making withdrawals and soon you feel a sense of worthlessness that no child of God should be enduring.
Some people make so many withdrawals from their personal integrity accounts that they wind up integrity bankrupt and it starts spilling out into their dealings with others.
I guarantee that you know someone like this. Nothing they say can be trusted and it seems they don’t even realize that everybody knows they are full of it. You may even be that person.
The boss asks if you have the report ready, “Oh yeah it’s all set to go.” And then stay up all night trying to get it done.
Well it’s no big deal as long as it gets done right? Wrong, a lie is a lie and even if you don’t get caught on some level your spirit is aware of the kind of person you really are.
3. Integrity with others/society.
Proverbs 20:7
The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him.
When we lack integrity with others it shows up in little things, and tends to progress to larger things.
It’s no big deal, sneaking into an extra moving when you only paid for one.
It’s no big deal stealing from the office; the company makes lots of money, right?
It’s no big deal lying on the income tax forms, everybody does it, right?
It’s no big deal fooling around with the girlfriend, we’re careful and it doesn’t hurt anyone, right?
Nobody knows right?
WRONG!
God knows and you know.
It’s only no big deal if your life is no big deal, and in case you haven’t realized it yet, your life is a big deal.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
They get up when the alarm goes off, they work their eight hours, they pay the bills and go to sleep. They look forward all week to Friday night so they can hit the bar and try to forget the desperation their lives have degenerated into.
Do you want more? Is there a song in you that the world needs to hear?
Then decide right now to be a person of integrity!
