Modeling Integrity
TEXT:1Samuel 7:2-13
Sunday, October 27, 2002
I have been here one year and two-thirds. That’s hard to believe. One of the hard decisions we made when we first came was to decide how to live. We knew the two options were to rent or to buy, so we thought we’d get to know the area and shop around for a place. The thought of moving twice was very unappealing to me. Also, the thought of having to pay rent for an apartment as well as a storage area besides having six people crammed into a little apartment was also not appealing. So we went on this whirlwind tour of places, and we came upon the house that we actually bought. Impressive to me was not simply the inspector’s report, although I think that’s really important, in which he said the fundamentals were excellent, but I was also impressed by how finished the house looked. I had just finished remodeling every room in our other home, and I was tired of painting and plastering and putting flooring down. I wanted to find a house that was just right for my children because you know little children will ruin things. I wanted them to feel welcome in the house and be able to play as children and not worry about something getting damaged, but I also wanted the house to be done enough so that I wouldn’t have to paint, paper and fix every room.
When I first walked into our home, the lights were all on and it looked beautiful–it was impressive. Then we moved in, and when the lights weren’t turned on and as we began to live in the house, we realized something–everything was just for show. The hand railing that was nicely painted had only just recently been painted and after a couple of times down the stairs, the paint came off. Most of the baseboards were not nailed down, they were simply newly painted and were laying flush up against the walls. The wallpaper actually had curled in every room but they super-glued it down, and after they left, it came unglued. The pictures on their walls had made the rooms look wonderful, but they had been hiding holes and tears in the wallpaper. Some of the rugs were discolored and when you moved the furniture, you discovered those spots. Most of the doors needed repainting because they had just slapped on a fast coat, and when the lights were off, you found that two-thirds of the door wasn’t painted. When you turned the lights on, the paint reflected the light and it looked beautiful.
The claim of “move-in condition” did not fit the reality of our experience. You could say, then, that our house lacked integrity, not structural integrity, but the integrity of the statement “move-in condition.”
This is what I want to talk about–the image of integrity. The Biblical image is the image of the scales. If you have been to the grocery store, you’ve probably looked at a can of beans or a bag of lettuce that says 16 oz. If you are interested sometimes you throw it on the scale and notice that it is 13 oz. It doesn’t match the claim. Exxon had a problem with this. They filled up gas tankers full of gas which is about 30,000 gallons, and when the gas was delivered to the gas stations, only 25,000 gallons came out and they couldn’t figure out why. They discovered they had filled the tank when the gasoline was warm and when it cooled down, it didn’t fill the entire tank. It lacked integrity. The amount on the one side did not match the claim on the other side.
It’s like the old cliché–what’s heavier, a pound of feathers or a pound of bricks? Of course, they’re both the same. That’s what integrity is–the claim fits the reality. We use this term to describe our cars. My car looks like it’s good and it’s full of steel. Under the paint, is there rust or is the car sound? We can use this to describe trees. The tree looks healthy, but it is only really healthy if it healthy in the roots, the trunk, the branches and the fruit. This can also describe our lives. Does the claim of our faith fit the reality of our lives? Does our profession match our behavior, or are our lives like my house. It looks good for those who are acquaintances and who simply pass by. We look good in church but if someone were to live with us and really get to know us, would what they find speak of integrity, that the claim matches the reality, or is there repair work that needs to be done. Do our lives have integrity?
How about our church? Does the experience of the visitor or the uninvolved member fit the experience of the leader or of those who are intimately involved in our church. Does the church have integrity? We can’t live without integrity. Employees of Enron and Tyco wish that their CEO’s had integrity. Talk to the employees of Arthur Anderson, PTL or Jimmy Swaggart ministries. The Catholic church is reeling over this one issue of integrity. In fact, we rely on the fact that when people sell us something, they have integrity so that the claim matches the reality.
We have been looking at what God longs for in his church. This is not my vision or the Session’s vision, but what God’s vision for his church is. One quality God desires for his people is integrity. Again, how sound is the house of our lives and the house that is the church? Does it have integrity or does it need repair? We will look at I Samuel 7:2-13 in which we see the cost of the lack of integrity, the benefits of integrity, and what to do when our lives are in need of repair. Before we read this, however, I’d like to talk about the context. Eli was the priest, and he was predominantly a good man although he had some flaws in his life. Eli had two sons who followed him in the priesthood. Scripture says they were wicked men because of the wrong things they did in their roles as priests. One role of the priest was offering sacrifices, and the priests took their portion of the meat by stabbing the meat blindly while it was boiling in a pot. In this way, God provided for them whatever he desired and whatever portion came out was theirs. Eli’s sons decided that they didn’t want to trust God for his supply, so they chose the choicest portions. They fished around in the pot and found the best pieces for themselves. Instead of giving God the best, they gave God the leftovers and took the best for themselves.
It is also said that Eli’s sons were fooling around with the women who served at the temple entrance. It was so bad, in fact, that it became common knowledge in the temple and there was grumbling about their behavior and what a shame it was. Eli learned of this behavior and confronted his sons about it who refused to listen to him. Probably the biggest problem was having confronted them, Eli decided that he wouldn’t fight their behavior and just let it slide. He did not hold his children accountable. In Chapter 5, God confronts him and says that because Eli honored his sons more than he honored God, Eli would lose the priesthood and he and his sons would die. This was not God’s desire, but it was simply a consequence of their behavior. It was the rust that ate holes in their lives. Even worse than that, in Chapter 6 it says the Ark of the Covenant was captured. God’s presence had left his people.
Chapter 7 begins with this sad description:
TEXT
For 20 years the people had no experience with God. For 20 years there was nothing happening in the temple. No word of the Lord had been spoken, no prophet had arisen. God was absolutely silent in their lives, and they failed to see what God was doing. God was absent, and I wonder how long has it been for you? When was the last time you felt God moving in your life or you heard God’s word as His word? How long has God been silent in your life?
I had an interesting phone call from a woman whom I didn’t know. She called out of the blue. She had gone to church and had never really understood it, but she had committed her life to Christ and she had been going to an “independent” church. Things were alive and exciting there and she had learned so much. She had actually received two physical healings which could be proved medically. Her husband was a Presbyterian, however, and he didn’t like this particular church. They were trying to find a church that they could both attend. She described her pastor as being open to these things, but there was nothing happening in her church and she couldn’t wait for something to happen. She wanted God to move. She was hungry for it and she was tired of waiting. She was looking for a church where God was moving and real so that she could experience Him.
I wondered in my heart and mind, “Is that White Clay? Is God moving, is God working, or is God silent?” How about our denomination? Has the hand of God left our denomination? Over the last 40 years we have lost 60% of our people. Has God’s blessing left this church? What would cause God’s blessing to be removed from his people?
Verse 2B-4: “And all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord. Samuel said to the whole house of Israel ‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the asherahs and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ So the Israelites put away their Baals and asherahs and served the Lord only.”
Put quite simply, their hearts had left God. In the story of the prodigal son, the son, having experienced all the goodness of being in his father’s house, decided that he wanted to experience something else. He wanted to see the world and live his life the way he wanted to, and he left his father’s house and all his blessings. That’s what Israel did to themselves. They had all God’s blessings, God’s words, God’s prophets, God’s teachings, and God’s spirit moving among them, delivering them and raising them to prominence, but Israel decided they were interested in what else was out there. They wanted to live their own lives and allowed two sins to enter in. One was idols, something that took the place of the living God. They also started to commit sexual sin, and that was part and parcel of the worship. They worshiped asherahs which were simply the gods of fertility. They did this without remorse. Worst of all, there was no one to tell them they were wrong. Even the priests remained silent. There was a lack of moral courage in that day.
I think it’s easy to see how this can happen and how easy it is to swim with the current. It is easy to make decisions that are popular versus what is right. It is easy to collect a paycheck and perform your job instead of to lead.
Look at the prophets. How did they die? Every one died at the hands of their own people. It is not easy to be a prophet.
Eli and his sons took the easy way out, and I fear that a lot of ministers do that themselves. As a result, the nation fell, the rust ate through holes, and God’s spirit left. It was said of Eli in I Samuel 3:1 that during Eli’s ministry the word of the Lord was rare. Does that describe your life? Does that describe our church? If so, then I encourage us all to examine our hearts and minds.
First, have you placed or have we placed anything above God in our lives? Is there a rival in your life for God. Are you listening to his voice, or are you listening to the voice of another?
Close your eyes a second and take this test: Imagine your life is a circle and Christ is a big C. Where is Christ in relationship to that circle? Is he on the outside of the circle meaning that you know about him and have heard good things about him. You have a knowledge of him, but he really hasn’t influenced your life at all. Perhaps the C is touching the edge of the circle meaning that you have acknowledged him or that you have been a member for awhile. He is a part of your life and he does influence some aspect of your life, but he is not center to it. He is not the one around whom everything spins. Or is Christ at the center, the hub, where he influences and informs every aspect of your life? If the C is not at the center, then you have done exactly what Israel did–you have placed something else on the throne of your life.
Consider your schedule. Do you schedule your life around God, prayer, worship and scripture study and everything else gets penciled in, or do you pencil in your life first and try to fit God, prayer, worship and Bible study in the empty spaces? Who is God in your life?
Are there particular sins that you have excused? Like Eli, you know they are there but you have simply kept quiet about them. Even in this text, the sin that is mentioned is sexual sin. It is amazing how all through scripture this theme crops up. This text was written in 1090 BC. In Joshua, we read the story of Rahab the prostitute. I Corinthians was written in 60-70 AD, and even today the predominant sin of the world is of a sexual nature. Does that describe you? Are there sexual sins in your life? Perhaps that’s not your weakness, but as you have read and listened to Ephesians 4:17, there are other sins that come to mind that really hit home in your life. What are they?
I know people who have said that they have never experienced God or heard God talk to them. They don’t know their purpose in life. They don’t know what to do in a given circumstance. If that describes you, I ask you when is the last time you prayed about it consistently over a period of time on a daily basis? When is the last time you seriously consulted God’s word on a decision you are about to make? When is the last time you have been in worship and worshiped from your heart, not from the bulletin? What sins are you overlooking? There is no greater power-killer in a Christian church than willful sin. There is no greater thing that will block God’s spirit and presence from people as we see here in this text than willful sin in people’s lives. It is hard to worship God when you are feeling guilty.
If these things describe you, what do you do? If you want an experience with God, if you want God to move in your life, and if you want to experience his blessings upon you and your church, look at the end of the story. It tells us that the people turned back to God and they had a revival and conversion. They didn’t even have time to prove their sincerity, and yet God blessed them and delivered them from their enemies the Philistines. Samuel puts up a stone that they called the Ebenezer stone, saying “Thus far has the Lord blessed.”
God desires to bless you, but he can’t do it with sin in your life and bad attitudes and things that are displeasing to him or if you are placing something else on the throne of your heart. What do we need to do? Let’s look at scripture: “If you return to the Lord with all your heart and rid yourselves of foreign gods and asherahs and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”
There are four things we need to do:
Return to the Lord with all your heart. Return to him with sincerity. In verses 5&6, Samuel said, “Assemble all the Israelites at Mizpah and I will intercede with the Lord for you. When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it before the Lord. On that day they fasted and confessed, ‘We have sinned against God.’” Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah. The description of the pouring out of water was a symbol of their tears. They wept before God because they were sincerely sorry. Does that describe your life, your heart and your soul? Are you willing to take Christ and put him at the center of your life? It’s like the prodigal returning home, longing to be with the father again. It takes something more than simply feeling sorry or feeling bad or feeling like you want to get closer to God. We need to prove that we are sorry by getting rid of the idols and the sins in our lives.
Acts 19: 17-19, “When it became known to the Jews in Greece living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to 50,000 drachmas. In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.” Notice that they de-throned the different idols in their lives. Perhaps you need to do that. Maybe there are magazines in your home that don’t belong there. Maybe there’s a cable package that you need to get rid of. Maybe there’s an Internet site that you need to put a filter on. Maybe you need to give up the second or third job that’s keeping you from your home and your family. Maybe you need to give up the right to be in control or to be the boss. Many people think that to be the boss is leadership. To be the boss of the home is to be the servant of all.
You need to take a practical step and commit yourself in a public way. Billy Graham always tells people to commit themselves publicly to God. Write it down or do it in the context of public worship. Meet with someone who can hold you accountable.
Lastly, get involved, serve him. Nothing represents the complete repentance of a person than to do things God’s way. It shows that you have made a complete 180 degree turn. If you want to experience God in your life, offer yourself in service. The richest experiences I have ever had, where I experienced God’s movement and presence, were all in the context of service, every one of them. The most radical ones were when I was in missionary service. When you put yourself on the line, you discover the hand of God who enables you to do all things in Christ who strengthens you. Ask God where he wants you to serve, and then serve there.
The Marine Corps says, “We are looking for a few good men.” I think that’s what God wants this morning. He is looking for a few good people who are willing to be Samuels and not Elis. Who do you want to be? Samuel or Eli? Do you want to experience the blessing of Samuel or the devastation of Eli. It’s our choice.
Let’s pray.
