Intro: When it comes to honesty let me tell you a story about a young boy.
This story occured in Florida.
A young lady was soaking up the sun's rays on a Florida beach when a little boy in his swimming trunks, carrying a towel, came up to her and asked her:
• "Do you believe in God?"
• She was surprised by the question but replied, "Why, yes, I do."
• Then he asked her: "Do you go to church every Sunday?"
• Again, her answer was "Yes!"
• Then he asked: "Do you read your Bible and pray every day?"
• Again she said, "Yes!"
But by now her curiosity was very much aroused a little boy asking such personal question.
At last the lad with sigh of relief said, with obvious relief, "Will you hold my quarter while I go swimming?"
Likewise, God is looking for some honest people?
• People in whom he can trust?
• People who will be honest in all their dealings?
• People whose walk matches their talk?
• People who keep the promises they make?
• People whose word is their bond?
Will you be that person?
Illus: Sports Illustrated told a story of seven year old boy just starting to play the game of base ball.
The game was played in Wellington, Florida. In this story this seven-year-old first baseman, Tanner Munsey, fielded a ground ball and tried to tag a runner going from first to second base.
The umpire, Laura Benson, called the runner out.
But young Tanner immediately ran to her side and said, "Ma'am, I didn't tag the runner."
Umpire Benson reversed herself, sent the runner to second base, and Tanner's coach gave him the game ball for his honesty.
Two weeks later, Laura Benson was again the umpire and Tanner was playing shortstop when a similar play occurred.
This time Benson ruled that Tanner had missed the tag on a runner going to third base, and she called the runner safe.
Tanner looked at Benson and without saying a word, tossed the ball to the catcher and returned to his position.
Benson sensed something was wrong. "Did you tag the runner?" she asked Tanner.
Benson then called the runner out.
The opposing coaches protested until she explained what had happened two weeks earlier. "If a kid is that honest," she said, "I have to give it to him. This game is supposed to be for kids."
Will Tanner be as honest when he is thirty-seven as he is now when he is seven?
Who is honest?
Where are the Tanner Munseys in our world?
Does anyone tell the truth anymore?
Illus: A police officer pulls over a speeding car.
• The officer says, ‘ I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir.’
• The driver says, ‘Gee, officer I had it on cruise control at 60; perhaps your radar gun needs calibrating.’
• Not looking up from her knitting the wife says, ‘Now don’t be silly dear, you know this car doesn’t have cruise control!
• As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls , ‘Can’t you please keep quiet for once??!!’
• The wife smiles demurely and says, ‘You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did.’
• As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man looks at his wife again and says through clenched teeth, ‘Woman, can’t you keep quiet?!!!!!!’
• The officer frowns and says, ‘And I notice that you’re not wearing your seat belt, sir. That’s an automatic $75 fine.’
• The driver says, ‘Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket.’
• The wife says, ‘Now, dear, you know very well that you didn’t have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you’re driving.’
• And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, ‘WILL YOU PLEASE BE QUIET!!!!!’
• The officer looks over at the woman and asks, ‘Does your husband always talks to you this way, Ma’am?’ and she said, ‘Only when he’s been drinking’.
You’ve heard the saying, “honesty is the best policy!”
Let’s look at Honesty from some examples and from the scriptures.
First, let’s look at…
I. The importance of honesty
If we are truthful, we will admit that not lying can be a problem.
• There is the fib,
• The white lie,
• The half-truth,
• The clever deception,
• Misleading information,
• Stretching the truth,
• Exaggeration.
Who has not been startled to hear yourself say something that is an exaggeration without even thinking about it?
It is not that you began the conversation with the intention of saying something that was not true, but before you knew it you found yourself embellishing a story.
Illus: Paul Ekman, professor of psychology at the University of California Medical School and author of Telling Lies, has been studying lies for twenty years. His research has revealed that we don't even realize when we're lying.
• Have you ever been dishonest about the time you claimed you worked, or not given an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage?
• Have you ever cheated on a test?
• Have you ever lied to get out of trouble?
• Have you ever complimented someone when you didn’t mean it?
• Have you ever kept silent when you should have told the truth?
• Have you ever made yourself appear better than you are?
• Have you ever lied to gain an advantage or get your way?
• Have you ever misled someone to save face?
The truth I am talking about; it is not just truth-telling; it is truth-living.
Look at Jeremiah 5:1, "Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. "
Could Jeremiah find an honest person among us? Are you honest?
Illus: We ae told that the average person tells about thirteen lies per week? Now that is the average person. Some lie that much in a day!
Illus: The book, When America Told the Truth, claims that:
• That 30 percent of those consulted admitted that they would "cheat on their taxes - to a point,"
• A walloping 64 percent agreed with the statement, "I will lie when it suits me, so long as it doesn't cause any real damage."
Illus: USA Today cited a report that indicated that 58.4 percent of Americans have called in sick to get a day off from work.
So, let me ask you again, are you honest?
In the last twenty-four hours have you been completely honest?
Isn't it about time that we who call ourselves followers of Christ, the one who called himself "The Truth," become known for our honesty?
We have looked at THE TRUTH ABOUT HONESTY, but now let us look at…
II. An example of honesty
An interesting story occurs in 2 Kings 12. Joash was King of Judah. He noticed that the temple was in need of repair.
• The mortar was falling out between the bricks.
• The walls were crumbling.
• Water damage was evident all around.
• The gold and bronze was tarnished.
• There was trash and debris everywhere.
So he starts a fundraising program. He places a chest at the entrance door of the temple with an opening in the top so people could drop in their offerings for the temple repairs.
When the chest became full the money was given to the building superintendents so they could pay the carpenters, stonemasons, quarrymen, timber dealers, and stone merchants, and to buy the needed materials.
What do you think these building superintendents did with the money?
Like any profession, dishonest building superintendents given the honest superintendents a bad name.
• Some pocket the money.
• Others use the honest to pay old debts.
• Still others mismanage the funds trying to keep several projects going at once.
But how did the Joash's building superintendents handle the money?
Look at 2 Kings 12:15 Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to be bestowed on workmen: for they dealt faithfully.
No accounting was required from the men who received the money to pay those doing the work, since they worked with integrity
That's the kind of people I want around me in all of my dealings? Don't you?
We have looked at:
I. The importance of honesty
II. An example of honesty
But now let us look at…
III. Some observations about honesty
Let me make some observations about honesty, from this story.
A. Honesty is always the best policy
Illus: Coming home from work, a woman stopped at the corner deli to buy a chicken for supper. The butcher reached into a barrel, grabbed the last chicken he had, flung it on the scales behind the counter, and told the woman its weight.
She thought for a moment. "I really need a bit more chicken than that," she said. "Do you have any larger ones?"
Without a word, the butcher put the chicken back into the barrel, groped around as though finding another, pulled the same chicken out, and placed it on the scales. "This chicken weighs one pound more," he announced.
The woman pondered her options and then said, "Okay. I'll take them both."
Honesty is always the best policy.
Illus: Four students arrived late to take a test. "And what is your excuse?" inquired the teacher.”
"We had a flat tire," they all said in unison.
Without getting upset, the teacher asked the students to take their seats. "The test is but one question," said the teacher. "Which tire went flat?"
Honesty is still, and will always be, the best policy.
That is why the writer of Proverbs wrote, "Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue, only a moment" (Proverbs 12:19).
Honesty is the best policy.
B. Honesty makes you complete
To be honest is to be real, genuine, authentic, and bona fide.Honesty expresses a disposition to live in the light. Dishonesty is a disposition to live partly in the dark.
Notice again what the text says of these building superintendents, "They worked with integrity" (2 Kings 12:15) or "They acted in complete honesty".
The building superintendents of Joash were completely honest and that made them complete.
We all want to be whole, complete, men and women of integrity.
The words complete, whole, integrity all share a common value.
Integrity comes from the word integer. And we use it in reference to numbers. An integer is a whole number. Likewise, a person of integrity is a whole person, or a complete person.
And in the end that is what we want.
For in the end they don't say at your funeral or write on your tombstone how much money you made or your title at work, but what kind of person you were.
Illus: In his book Integrity, Ted Engstrom tells this story about Coach Cleveland Stroud and the Bulldogs of Rockdale County High School in Conyers, Georgia, it was their championship season: 21 wins and 5 losses on the way to the Georgia Boys Basketball Tournament last March, then a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the state finals.
But now the new glass trophy case outside the high school gymnasium is bare. Earlier this month the Georgia High School Association deprived Rockdale County of the championship after school officials said that a player who was scholastically ineligible had played 45 seconds in the first of the school's five postseason games.
"We didn't know he was ineligible at the time; we didn't know it until a few weeks ago," Mr. Stroud said.
"Some people have said we should have just kept quiet about it, that it was just 45 seconds and the player wasn't an impact player.”
But you've got to do what's honest and right and what the rules say.
“I told my team that people forget the scores of basketball games; they don't ever forget what you're made of."
Coach Cleveland Stroud, may your tribe increase.
C. Honesty pleases God
Yes, we should practice honesty because of the social ramifications.
But, we should also, and more importantly, practice honesty because it pleases God.
As children of the light, we should walk in the light of truthfulness and faithfulness. The Proverb 12:22 says, "Lying lips are detestable to the LORD, but faithful people are His delight"
As followers of Christ, we aren't honest because society tells us to be honest. Our society isn't honest. And, worse, even rewards those who get away with dishonesty.
It is evident in our government, our politicians, our judicial system, our businesses, our schools. The pervasive thought is if you can get away with it, more power to you. In other words, if you don't get caught, then dishonesty is okay.
As followers of Christ, we are honesty because we abide by a different standard and a different guide.
Our society says tolerance is the norm;
Christianity says truth is the norm.
Our society says there is no right and wrong, everything is subjective; Christianity says there is right and wrong, there are absolutes.
Society reduces truth to personal preference as long as you are sincere; Christianity says truth is truth regardless of your preference; you can be sincere, but sincerely wrong.
D. Honesty is best developed when taken seriously
Honesty is best cultivated, like most virtues, when exercised and developed in harmony with the other virtues. The more honesty is exercised, the more it becomes a settled disposition. In three words: take it seriously.
Take recognition of the fact that honesty is a fundamental ingredient for human exchange; it is a fundamental element for integrity; it is a fundamental requirement for followers of Christ.
I would challenge you to deliberately live an honest life for the next twenty-four hours. Would you do that?
That is for the next twenty-four hours refuse to lie, deceive, or shade the truth.
Say what you have to say, not what you ought to say. Make your word your bond.
Match you walk with your talk. Keep the promises you make.
This effort will not be easy. It will require your total effort and concentration.
Conclusion
One of my favorite baseball stories doesn't involve big-name stars or major league baseball. It's about kids, just starting to play the game. The story appeared a few years ago in Sports Illustrated.
The game was played in Wellington, Florida. In it, a seven-year-old first baseman, Tanner Munsey, fielded a ground ball and tried to tag a runner going from first to second base.
The umpire, Laura Benson, called the runner out, but young Tanner immediately ran to her side and said, "Ma'am, I didn't tag the runner." Umpire Benson reversed her, sent the runner to second base, and Tanner's coach gave him the game ball for his honesty.
Two weeks later, Laura Benson was again the umpire and Tanner was playing shortstop when a similar play occurred. This time Benson ruled that Tanner had missed the tag on a runner going to third base, and she called the runner safe. Tanner looked at Benson and, without saying a word, tossed the ball to the catcher and returned to his position. Benson sensed something was wrong. "Did you tag the runner?"
she asked Tanner.
His reply: "Yes."
Benson then called the runner out. The opposing coaches protested until she explained what had happened two weeks earlier. "If a kid is that honest," she said, "I have to give it to him. This game is supposed to be for kids."
Will Tanner be as honest when he is thirty-seven as he is now when he is seven?
Who is honest? Where are the Tanner Munseys in our world? Does anyone tell the truth anymore?
When it comes to honesty, we have looked at…
I. The importance of honesty
II. An example of honesty
III. Some observations about honesty
