...integrity?
I've been listening to sermons during my drives to and from Cincinnati to visit my aunt. I came across a Christian radiostation by happenstance where I got to hear a sermon entitled "Whatever Happened to Integrity?"
Although short, this sermon really spoke to my heart and challenged me. And now I'm asking God to deepen my character when it comes to integrity. So He'll probably just snap His fingers and give me more integrity, right? Ha...I know better that that's not how God does things! I'll share my thoughts on that in a sec, but first I want to share some of the highlights of this sermon...
Turn with me if you will to 1Thesselonians 2:3-10
(Teehee, do I sound like a pastor? Julie would be so proud.)
First off, dictionary.com defines integrity as this:
Adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
The pastor in this sermon says the best definition of integrity he's ever heard is:
Drawing the line where God draws the line.
1. Integrity requires the absence of deception. (verse 3)
- Integrity and deceit CANNOT co-exist.
- Deception will be detected sooner or later!
- Integrity can stand up to testing.
- Integrity means you never crossed the line, never overstepped bounds.
Having integrity means having character. It means standing for truth. It means when the things you say and do are tested you come up blameless.
Do you tell little white lies here and there?
Do you bend the truth?
Do you exaggerate?
Do you minimize?
Do you cross the line that God has drawn?
For me...guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, and guilty. It's all some form of deceit, and remember, integrity and deceit cannot co-exhist.
Like I said, I want to have more of a character of integrity. I'm asking God to do a work in me, but He's certainly not going to just make it so. He has a history of making us walk through situations that creates the integrity in us. Like in Romans 5 where it says we rejoice in our sufferings because suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces hope. So in a nutshell one usually has to persevere though some form of suffering, because its through THAT that character is formed within us. Right?
I'll let you all know how it goes. :)
In the meantime, I just saw that this sermon has a Part 2! I better listen to it. :)
Do you tell little white lies here and there?
Do you bend the truth?
Do you exaggerate?
Do you minimize?
Do you cross the line that God has drawn?
For me...guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, and guilty. It's all some form of deceit, and remember, integrity and deceit cannot co-exhist.
Like I said, I want to have more of a character of integrity. I'm asking God to do a work in me, but He's certainly not going to just make it so. He has a history of making us walk through situations that creates the integrity in us. Like in Romans 5 where it says we rejoice in our sufferings because suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces hope. So in a nutshell one usually has to persevere though some form of suffering, because its through THAT that character is formed within us. Right?
I'll let you all know how it goes. :)
In the meantime, I just saw that this sermon has a Part 2! I better listen to it. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment