Integrated Integrity

I wanted to start this morning out with a question - it sounds easy, but I think it’s a trickier question than you might expect. I want to ask, “How much does your integrity cost?” There’s an old story about Theodore Roosevelt before he was president, he spent some time as a rancher. And one of his cowboys lassoed a maverick steer, and was getting ready to brand the steer. Now the part of the range that they were on was claimed by Roosevelt’s neighbor Gregor Lang. According to the cattleman’s rule, the steer belonged to Lang. And as the cowhand was about to apply the brand, Roosevelt stopped him and said, “Wait, you’ve got the wrong brand. You need to use Lang’s brand.” And the cowboy responded, “Oh, that’s all right, boss.” Roosevelt said again, “but you’ve got my brand in your hand.” ‘That’s right” said the man. And so Roosevelt demanded, “Drop that iron, get back to the ranch, get your stuff and get out. I don’t need you anymore. A man who will steal FOR me, is a man who will steal FROM me.” How much does your integrity cost?

There was a poll that went out a few years back - and they asked the question, what would you be willing to do for 10 million dollars? And then they went through a list of potential things and the person would say, “yes - I’d do it for 10 million dollars or no I would not.” And according to this survey. I think we can put those results on the screen. 25% of people would abandon their entire family. 25% would abandon their church. 23% would become prostitutes for a week or more. 16% would leave their spouses. 10% of people, one in ten, said they would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free. 7% said they would kill a stranger and 3% would put their children up for adoption. Now I have five beautiful children that I love more than life itself - and I would never consider this, but just to clarify - is it 10 million per kid? And right there I felt like I had to make a joke because the truth is too horrifying to look at straight on. How much does our integrity cost? 

Today we are continuing our series called Brick By Brick - where we have been diving deep into the things we use to create a foundation to build healthy relationships on. I don’t know about you all - but these have been some intense topics! We’ve gotten into processing emotions and dealing with misunderstandings, origin stories and the things that happened in our past that make us who we are today. And these are so much more than self help topics - these are biblical rooted principles, going back thousands of years we find these concepts working out in the lives of the people of God. They’re not silver bullets - we’re not going to solve all our problems with these concepts, but rather they are bricks. Bricks we use to build a foundation for healthy relationships, because we know that healthy connections are not born, they are built. It takes work - blood, sweat, tears -  digging, cleaning out, putting in the time to lay that foundation. And today - we’re going to get into the importance of integrity in our lives. 

Now if you want to follow along in your bible, we’re going to be in the book of Nehemiah. And if you don’t know where that is in the bible - don’t worry, nobody else knows either! Nehemiah is one of the more obscure books, even if you’ve been to church every Sunday for your whole life maybe you’ve never been in the book of Nehemiah, so if it takes you a second to look it up - give yourself some grace on that. Nehemiah, chapter 5 - but while you’re looking that up, let me paint you a picture a little bit. We’ve been jumping around Israel’s history throughout this series - but today we’re actually towards the end of their history. They were slaves in Egypt, they wandered in the desert, they went into the promised land, then they set up the kingdom of Israel with Jerusalem as its capital. Then Israel gets defeated by an outside enemy. The Babylonian empire came, conquered Israel, then they took a big chunk of the people back to Babylon to be servants or slaves. They called this period the “exile” - HUGE bummer for Israel’s history. They lost their home, their land, the temple got destroyed, families got split up. It was a horrible season. But then, in the book of Nehemiah, some of them get to go home. Nehemiah is a cup bearer for the King in Babylon. Some guy named Artaxerxes. And back in chapter 2, Nehemiah is feeling sad about his home back in Israel and the king notices. So the King asks him about it, and Nehemiah tells him the truth, “i really want to go home” and so the king sends Nehemiah home to rebuild his homeland. The walls of Jerusalem are rubble, and so Nehemiah goes to oversee the rebuilding of the city. Like, we all love a good action movie with the big battle scenes and the heroes who win the day- you know, David and Goliath, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, or whatever - but the book of Nehemiah is the story of the rebuilding that happens after the major battles. Everybody loves to watch superman knock down a building in an epic struggle - but would it kill the guy to grab a broom and help sweep up some of this rubble? So that’s why Nehemiah isn’t the most well known book - because it’s all about the aftermath. Nehemiah goes back home, and starts the process of organizing the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Now, this project has all the problems of a modern construction project - there’s going to be delays, there’s going to be too many cooks in the kitchen, too many opinions on what it should look like - and there’s going to be problems with finances. If you’ve ever put an addition on your house, or had some work done in the basement or put up a barn - you know how it goes. Money talks, and its voice is LOUD. They’re trying to finance this construction build, but the people who came back to Jerusalem are struggling with money, with putting food on the table and providing for their families.

And so that’s the backdrop of chapter 5 of Nehemiah, and we dive in with verse 1 where it says, [read v.1-3]. These guys are complaining - we’ve got a lot of kids, grain is expensive, so we’re mortgaging our fields and our homes to pay the bills. I mean, I’ve complained about grocery prices a lot in my life - but praise God I’ve never had to mortgage my home to cover the cost of food! Yikes, but it gets worse. [read v.4-5]. These people are trying to rebuild their lives after a war, but they don’t have enough money. Not only that - but there was this practice in the ancient world, you see they didn’t have credit card debt, but you could sell your children into debt slavery, where they could work as servants until the bill was paid. And so these people are crying out, in verse 6, [read v.6-7]. So Nehemiah heard, and then he got angry. He pondered and then he accused. And there’s something really important going on here we need to highlight. Nehemiah is taking in information from the world around him, putting it up against a standard, and then reacting. Now we all do this, and maybe you don’t even realize it. Every single one of us has inside us a set of standards, principles - beliefs. And when we see something in this world that is in line with our standards - we are fine, we move on. But when something goes against that standard, against our beliefs - we react. This is the moment on a hot summer day when you walk past a car in full sunlight and you see a baby in the backseat, or a dog or something. You see something in the world, and it bumps up against your standard and you feel like you have to do something. Nehemiah sees something in this world that he knows in his core is wrong, and he has a reaction. But here’s the thing - that only happens if you know what your standards are. And here’s the key teaching - if we want to be people of integrity, the first step is to know what our standards are. 

And for Christians - this is fairly simple. Our standard comes from God. Following the way of Jesus, living in obedience to the teachings of God - that’s sort of the Christians whole deal. Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7 says that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…” Romans, chapter 2, verse 15 says, “So they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness…” One more - Hebrews, chapter 8, verse 10 tells us, [read it]. The principles of a Christian life, the values that we hold dear, they come from God. And most of the time the laws of God make sense to us, they resonate with us because God wrote them onto our hearts. That’s where we get this idea of a “conscience.” And it’s fascinating, because there’s a movement amongst modern atheists where they try to counter it - they try to say, “no, no - my morality comes from logic, from the enlightenment, from instincts that we developed over thousands of years that hold society together.” But then they did this thing - they actually have a case study. (By the way, this comes from a podcast by this guy Justin Brierley). Communist China has been very famously an atheist country for decades, and then the west, for better or worse has been strongly influenced by Christian practices. And what they found is that when you build morality on pure logic, like they did in China, - there’s no basis for human rights. Human value becomes subjective or utilitarian and it leads to some really messy conclusions. But in places where there is a strong Christian influence - we have this core idea that humans are created in the image of God which gives inherent dignity and inalienable rights. Logic is a wonderful thing - but it’s not strong enough to hold up human morality. God has written his law on our hearts, and that’s where our standard comes from.

So Nehemiah sees the poor people in his community struggling with finances while they are rebuilding their lives, and he has this gut reaction. It says, [read v.6-7]. He hears the outcry, ponders it in his head, and then jumps into action. When we see something in the world that goes against our standard - we have this urge to respond. We have this desire to bring life into alignment with our values. That’s what integrity is! At its core - integrity is nothing more than just getting the life you live on the outside to line up with the beliefs you have on the inside. But just for a second, I want to highlight the ponder process. If you have done the work, and clarified your values ahead of time - you just take the situation in front of you and measure it against your standards. I’m pretty sure that’s what Nehemiah was up to - he knew what was right and wrong as soon as he heard it. BUT, if you don’t know what your standards are ahead of time - there’s this little game we play called “I will believe whatever keeps me out of conflict with the person in front of me.” If you don’t know what you believe, if you don’t stand on a firm foundation - there’s a people pleasing button that turns on in our heads. I don’t know what I believe, and so I’ll just believe whatever the person in front of me is okay with. But here’s the thing - and we teach this to teenagers - the time to decide whether or not you are okay with underage drinking is not when someone hands you a cup. The time to decide whether or not you are okay with sex outside of marriage is not when someone is getting undressed on your couch. The time to decide whether or not you would steal from your employer is not the moment when you happen to notice that the safe is unlocked. If the first step to integrity is to know where our standards come from, the second step is to know what those standards are. Temptations are 10 times harder to deal with when you are pondering in the middle of that temptation. But if you have taken the time, given your values clarity ahead of time - when temptation arises, it’s actually a lot easier to respond.

Here’s a silly example - I know that stealing is wrong. I know that. It’s in the ten commandments, it’s one of the most famous rules in the entire bible. If you could name 3 of the ten commandments - it’s probably going to be, “don’t murder, don’t lie and don’t steal.” We remember those. Don’t steal. But, back in the 90’s we invented this new thing called pirating. And this is a little hard to explain to the younger generation - but before streaming, before Spotify or apple music, there was a method of illegally copying music and movies that we called pirating. It used to be so bad, do you remember this?, it used to be so bad that every time you started a movie there was this massive warning banner with a bright red background and white letters where the FBI would threaten you with jail time and a massive fine if you ever pirated. That’s how we started movies when I was a child. YOU WILL GO TO JAIL IF YOU PIRATE, and now enjoy: the little mermaid. And so I felt like the messaging was pretty clear - pirating is stealing and stealing is bad. But then one day, I heard a comedian make a joke about pirating. And he said, “You wouldn’t steal a car and so you shouldn’t steal music and movies. Absolutely - I would not steal a car. But if my neighbor offered to make me a copy of that car - I’m okay with that!” And it was like a lightbulb went off in my head - it’s not stealing, it’s copying. I had my loophole, and so for a while there - I got really good at pirating movies and tv shows and music. I used clever rationalization to get around what I knew was right and wrong. And then there was a moment when my wife came to me and said, “you know this isn’t right. You shouldn’t do this” and she was right. And so I gave up my pirating ways and praised God for putting a woman in my life who could speak hard truths and help me follow the way of Jesus. And I know it’s a silly example, but don’t we all do this to some degree? We spend a lot of time looking around for some rationalization that allows us to get around what we know is right. Oh, everybody flubs the numbers every now and then at work. It’s no big deal, everybody cheats a little bit in school. It’s not cheating on my wife to watch pornography, I just didn’t want to bother her, because I know she’s not in the mood. I have a friend who used to love to play this trick on people during halloween. He would dress as a really fake looking scarecrow. And he would sit with a bowl of candy on his lap with a sign that says “take one.” And then if someone took too many, he would jump up and scare the buhjeebers out of them. And he told me this story about one time when a little boy came right up, read the sign took one piece of candy and then went to the next house. But the dad who was with the boy, tried to encourage his son to take more candy. “Hey, go get another piece” And the little boy scolded his dad. My friends sitting there trying not to laugh. “No dad, it says take one.” And so the little boy moves on to the next house, but the dad comes up to the porch to grab a handful of candy. My buddy said he chased that guy down the road three houses.

Here’s my point with all this - your life is going to present you with thousands of opportunities to sell out your integrity. But if you know where your standard comes from, and what your standard is - you will be better equipped to be the man or woman of God that our Father in heaven has created you to be. Nehemiah knew that it was wrong for the wealthy people to take advantage of the poor people in this reconstruction project. And they knew it too, at the end of verse 8 it says, [read v.8b-12a]. He calls them out on it, and they respond. Okay, we shouldn’t have taken advantage - we’ll give the money back. And then Nehemiah gets appointed governor in verse 14 [read v.14-15]. The previous governors used their power to take advantage of the people, but Nehemiah says, “my standard is not what other people do.” He says, “out of reverence for God, I did not act like that.” You know, during the ministry of Jesus when he was on this earth he had this phrase he used all the time. He would say, “you have heard it said… but I say to you” - and basically that was his way of saying, “there’s the way the world does it, but my people will be different.” Christians, people who follow the way of Christ, we don’t get our standards from what everyone else is doing. Nehemiah says, “out of reverence for God, I did not act like that.” And so if you’re here this morning, and you’re just sort of checking out this whole Christianity thing - I want you to hear me on this, we don’t get our standards by what is normal, or by what most people do. And the honest truth is that it is HARDER to follow the way of Jesus. If you’re considering following Jesus as your lord and savior - understand that means we surrender it ALL to him. When I invite people to follow the way of Jesus - I’m not inviting you to an easier life. It is harder, but it is better. It is more work, but it is work worth doing. I’m not here to make you comfortable or happy, I’m here to challenge you to be holy. Because there is a God out there who has more for your life. If you want to be a follower of God, we raise the bar, we live at a higher standard. I used to water it down - to try and convince people. Following Jesus is great, you’ll be so happy and it’s going to be so wonderful. I was like a sleezy car salesman for Jesus. But if I’m going to have integrity as the leader of a church -  I want you to know what you’re signing up for. Jesus will save your life, but he’s also going to change it. He will encourage you and empower you, comfort you - but he’s also going to challenge you, and change you. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives, sets up shop in our hearts and transforms us into people of integrity. The road of integrity is hard to walk, but it is worth the journey. Nehemiah says, “out of reverence for God, I did not act like that.” 

I remember one time, I took a class at Calvin College. It’s a Christian school - and I was taking a religion class. And the professor was outlining how the final exam would go. She said, “you’ll have an hour and a half, and it’s not open book.” But this exam was going to be virtual. We were submitting it online, and one of my classmates raised his hand and said, “Wait, we’re not going to be in a classroom. How will you know the time limit or if we use books.” And she paused, like I genuinely don’t think it occurred to her. And she looks at the class and said, “Because your Christians, and we are people of integrity.” And I don’t know about my classmates - but boy that worked on me! I sat down to take my exam, I set up a timer, put my books away. Because she’s right - if we’re going to be a followers of Jesus, that needs to mean something - our lives are going to be different. We’re going to be people of integrity. 

Now like I said earlier, integrity is nothing more than just getting the life you live on the outside to line up with the beliefs you have on the inside - and so with that I have two challenges for you this week. This is what I want you to work on. First - I challenge you this week to clarify your principles. Don’t wait until you’re in the middle of temptation to decide what you believe about something. Draw your lines now. And as Christians we draw those lines based on the teachings of God. It’s not stone cold logic, it’s not fuzzy feelings - we search the word of God for guidance on how to follow the footsteps of Jesus. Clarify your standards ahead of time - and parents, if I can have a pastoral moment with you for a second. Clarify the lines with your children. Don’t leave it to the schools, don’t leave it to their friends or their tv shows or god-forbid their favorite personality on tiktok. I know they’re awkward conversations - but it’s important for kids to know where the lines are on drugs, alcohol, sex, masturbation, pornography, honesty, cheating, plagiarism - you are one of the strongest voices in helping your children draw the lines of integrity in their life. Please have those conversations. And if you’re looking for some guidance on all of that - please reach out. The way we approach kid ministry and student ministry is that we want to be church leaders partnering with parents. We want to help parents disciple their children. So my first challenge to you all is clarify your principles. 

My second challenge - live out your principles. Integrity is getting the outside to match the inside. So the first step is figuring out what should be on the inside, and the second step is living that out every single day. If you know that the bible says Christians should not lie, and you want to be a Christian - you have to stop lying. If you know that the bible says sex should be reserved for within the bounds of a committed marriage - you know how to live that life. If you know that Christians are people who speak the truth in love, but you’d rather speak the blunt truth aggressively - you know which path to choose. When the bible says that we need to work out our faith in fear and trembling - this is what it’s talking about. Plain and simple - figure out what your principles and God’s teachings are and then put them into practice in your life. And this isn’t a one time decision - we make these choices every single day to live a life of integrity where the choices we make on the outside match the principles we live with on the inside. 

Or maybe it’s simpler than that. I know there are people in this room, and certainly some joining us online who are just getting starting in their journey with Jesus. If you’re here today and the seeds of belief have taken root in your heart - if you are getting more and more convinced that this Jesus guy is actually the son of God and savior the world, worth all the challenge of following with your whole life - the next step might be baptism. Baptism is the part where we declare our faith. One of the phrases we use in church leadership is that baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace. It is the ultimate move of integrity to stand in front of brothers and sisters and say, “this is what I believe. This is who I am.” And that’s not a decision we come by lightly. I want you to consider the cost. I don’t want to inspire you to make a decision based on the adrenaline of the moment. If you’re considering baptism, taking that step to claim Jesus as your Lord, my challenge is the same for you - I want you to first clarify your beliefs on the inside, and then put them into practice on the outside. The life of integrity, of following Jesus, is not an easy road to follow. So I’m just going to put out the challenge, and if you are ready to take that step. Let us know. We have cards on the table in the back, you can scan the QR code and check the box at the Welcome Center - or to make it really easy, I put a paper sign up in the back. Integrity is nothing more than just getting the life you live on the outside to line up with the beliefs you have on the inside. So let me ask one more time - how much is your integrity worth? Let’s pray.