Walking in Integrity
Today we are going to talk about walking in integrity. The word integrity is related to the English word integer. An integer is a whole number, as opposed to a fraction. A person of integrity is someone whose life is unified by the truth, they are not two faced. You are not living in a fractured way.
Os Guinness wrote a fascinating idea in his book “The Great Quest”. He tells the story of an African Christian discussing the concept of faith in hunting terms.
The European (or in our case, the American) idea of “belief” has devolved into an intellectual exercise that can be shown in the image of a hunter raising a rifle to shoot a deer from a distance. But the African way of thinking about our faith, which is the biblical way, is a much more visceral image of a lion pouncing on a stag. The lion’s whole being is required in the action; its sinews and muscles and bones are all vitally central to the task.
But of course, the hunter from a distance only needs to aim and then move his index finger half an inch… In America, we have been drawn to the hunter with the rifle approach. Let me move an index finger, stay at distance, involve only a small portion of my life in the task of following Christ. But we have been called to be like the lion. To engage with every fiber of our being, with everything within us. Which one are you?
Does integrity nick the small areas of your life that are convenient and easy? Or have you allowed Christ to challenge every bit of your life, fully embracing and engaging with every muscle, every bone, every part of you in the chase of becoming like Christ?
John Walton writes in his Old Testament Background Commentary: “This psalm records the vow of a king, as though he were taking an oath of office. This backdrop is evident from the reference to government ministers (v. 6) and the responsibility for the overall welfare of the holy city (v. 8).”
You are God’s holy dwelling. Just as this is recorded as the vow of a king ruling and taking an oath, we take an oath when we say yes to walking with Jesus. That oath is one of walking in integrity, walking in the ways of God and living by his standards. Are we walking in integrity? Or are we trying to walk in the world and walk in the kingdom?
Where do you set your eyes? (1-4)
Our eyes are a gate to what comes into our heart. Let me ask you a question this morning: what are you allowing into your heart? Our actions are downstream from our heart, whatever is in our heart is manifested in our actions. So how do things get into our hearts? Our eyes. Our ears. We need to protect our eye gate and our ear gate. What are we allowing through those gates?
We have a lot of options today for where we put our eyes. Inappropriate entertainment, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life… We can look to the wrong things to trust in like politicians, money or resources. We can look at wrong things for our value like earthly relationships, career position, what others think about us instead of what God thinks.
Our eyes have a tremendous impact on our integrity. In order to walk in integrity we need to look to the things of God and see them as pleasing and good. I think this is a big issue for some of us. Sometimes we believe that Godly things aren’t good. We think that God’s way can be oppressive, difficult, or less fun. That we are settling when we look to God’s ways.
This is the heart of what happens in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve saw God as a liar instead of the serpent as one. The first sin was not Adam and Eve eating the apple, it was to believe that God was a liar. It was believing that God wasn’t good, that he was holding out on them.
How do we fall into this? We live our own way. We live the way the world says to live, we are in a sense calling God a liar because we don’t believe him when he says he is enough. If we believed he was enough then we wouldn’t be sinning! Our eyes must be set upon him, and we must trust in his goodness and what he says to be true.
Since our sins are based on lies, Satan is a liar. One of Satan’s strategies is he keeps people in a doubting position where they focus more on their sin instead of their savior. He gets us to focus on our sin, our depression instead of our savior. So, look instead to Christ, the author and perfecter of your faith. The author of life and all that is good.
Who do you follow? (5-6)
Do you look upon the faithful or the faithless? Do you break bread with those who share the same values and passion for Jesus or do you have deep relationships with those who are lost?
A famous quote, “show me your closest friends and I will show you your future. The people you’re hanging out with today will shape the person you become tomorrow.” You are who you hang out with. You are who you follow.
We ought to follow the Lord Jesus first and foremost, he says pick up your cross and follow… me! I was listening to a sermon by John MacArthur this week and he said, “you can’t have a crown without a cross.” Following Jesus means dying to yourself and surrounding yourself with people who are also carrying their crosses.
Now, I don’t think we should cut off all people who aren’t saved, that would mean we aren’t evangelizing the lost. Matthew 28 is clear that evangelism is a command from Jesus to his followers. But Jesus also said a little leaven works through the whole dough. We cannot allow darkness to have deep fellowship with the light.
The book of Acts gives us a picture of the early church, a picture I hope to replicate in our church family. I want to see the power and the miracles of the early church, but I also want to see the deep fellowship and connection that they had. Acts 2:42 is the blueprint: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” This is God’s way. We walk with Christ together. Who are you following?
What do you practice? (7-8)
Eric Metaxas, Letter to the American Church: “People see precisely what we believe by how we behave.” If you were put on trial by your coworkers, neighbors, and friends, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? How hard of a case would it be to make?
Proverbs 4:23, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
How do you change what you practice? You change your heart. I often have said this, how do you get a rottweiler to give up its bone? You give him a steak. It is not until the beauty of Christ surpasses the beauty of the world and its offerings that we will change.
Your actions and what you practice are an indicator of where your heart is. The gospel is very clear, we are sinners who are broken and are in need of a savior. But we still wrestle in this fallen and broken world. There is a difference between struggling with sin and snuggling with it.”
My question to you is, are you snuggling or struggling? I remember little league baseball practice where I would do hitting practice. We set up a pitching machine and everybody else would field balls as someone hit. When you practice, you don’t get it right every time. Sometimes you miss a pitch, but you are swinging. You are engaged in the practice of becoming a better ball player.
Are you engaged in the practice of becoming a better follower of Christ? Or have you reached a certain level and stopped? I feel that might resonate with some of you. You know the Bible, you have great knowledge of the word, but no transformation of your life. D.L. Moody famously said this: “The Bible is not given for our information but for our transformation.” You ought to never stop transforming and becoming like Christ. Never stop running after him and chasing after his things and his purposes.
Will you stumble? Yes. Will you fall and stay there and continue on a path that leads to destruction? If you are a believer, you will not. You will stumble, you will engage, but you will not succumb to the enemy. You will get back up, see your savior, and run full stride towards him once again.
You might say, “Pastor, that sounds hypocritical.” The way that you can tell you aren’t a hypocrite is if you knew you used to be and still struggle not to be one. See, real hypocrites have no idea that they are hypocrites. They say they never have been a hypocrite and they aren’t one now. That’s how you know a hypocrite. C.S. Lewis says, “if you think you’re not conceited you are very conceited indeed.” The way you know you are developing integrity is when you see it as a new and constantly developing thing in you. It isn’t a perfect 100% change overnight.
Conclusion
Let’s wrap up here. We started by saying that we need to set our eyes on Christ and nowhere else. We won’t be tempted by the enemy to question God’s goodness, but we will believe he is good and look nowhere else for fulfillment and fullness.
Second, we looked at who we are following. Are you walking with those who are carrying a cross or are we walking with those carrying worldly desires. We are called to deep fellowship with believers, while still keeping an eye out for the lost.
And last, I asked you what you practice. Are you snuggling with sin or struggling with sin? Are you actively engaged in battling for freedom or just living a life where you say you are a believer but you have one foot in the world as well.
Psalm 15 says this: “who will dwell in your presence? He who speaks truth from the heart.” Do you want to dwell with God? You have to walk in integrity. I would submit to you to evaluate yourself: is God far from you because of your actions? Have you stretched out your hand and kept him at arms length due to the sin in your life? Sin separates you from God, but admitting that it is our sin and our actions can be a hard thing to do. Pride can prevent us from doing so. Allow the Spirit to reveal to you and speak to you honestly about this.
At the end of Paul’s life, in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 he declares, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” Can the same be said of you? Let’s pray.