Built to Last: Living a Life of Integrity

Welcome to the Southwest Apostolic Church podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by the Southwest Apostolic Church,

located at 3161 South Rowena Street in Indianapolis, Indiana, 46241.

The podcast will feature preaching

from our pastor and from other ministers, so we hope you enjoy it.

Without further ado, let's get right into it. God bless.

On the base and on this Marine base where he was stationed, he was in the Navy,

but he was in the Navy had an airfield there. So he was working there.

And this base that he was on, they had a place you go, you take the road.

Oh, there he is. I didn't know he was here.

Praise the Lord. It's all good, man. It's all good.

But you cross the runways, you had to stop and watch for the airplanes.

And then you, they had a place out on, of course, it was on the island and you

go across the runways and you go around the back.

They had these like dunes and they had cabins back there for people could stay.

And it was right on the ocean.

And we went out there and got pictures and it was really, really a beautiful thing, but it was nice.

And Daniel got to meet President Obama when he was there.

Daniel said he kind of introduced him. He kind of got tongue-tied talking to

the president, kind of shook him up a little bit.

But I don't know why I said all that, but it's good to be in church anyway.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. All right. Tonight, we're going to continue with

our series. We're getting there.

Wisdom Storehouse, which is the book of Proverbs. These are 10 principles from

the book of Proverbs that you can build your life on.

And if you read your Bible, Jesus is interested in the fact, interested in us.

Let me say it like this. He's interested in how we build our life.

Because he said, I have come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.

So he wants us to have a good life. Do you know that?

It's just like you want your kids to have a good life. They don't listen to

you, but you'd like for them to have a good life, right?

And if they would listen to you, you'd save them a lot of trouble, wouldn't you? Amen.

But that's the way it is. So Jesus is interested. So we can find in his word

things, and especially we're looking at the book of Proverbs,

that you can build your life on.

Jesus said it like this. He said, a man that hears these sayings of mine.

Now, if you understand the Bible and understand who Jesus is,

it was more than just the sayings that he was giving in the New Testament. It was his word.

Hear these sayings of mine, the sayings of God, the word of God.

He said, a man that hears these sayings of mine and does them.

How many knows we've got to be more than just a hearer of the word?

We've got to be doers of the word.

Amen. That's the Bible. That's the Bible. Amen.

Faith without works is dead, the Bible says.

And sometimes people have a misunderstanding of faith, and they say all you have to do is believe.

Well, I want to tell you, if you really do believe, you will have some action behind it.

There will be some obedience behind it. It's like, I believe the light switch

will turn the lights on and off, but if I don't go flip the switch,

it ain't never going to do it.

So you got to have faith and works, and it all goes together.

Jesus said, a man that hears these sayings of mine and does them is like a man

that builds his house on the rock.

And the winds come, and the storms come, and the rains come.

But he says, the house on the rock stood still.

But the foolish man, he said, builds his house on the sand.

That's a man that hears the sayings of God, the Word of God,

and he doesn't build his house on it.

Can I encourage you tonight? Build your house on the Word of God.

Build your house on the principles of God and His Word.

And you'll be so glad. You might be young today, but you ain't always going to be young.

I said, we might be young today, but we're not always going to be young.

Can some of us older people say amen to that?

I look back now and I think, I worked at the Dairy Queen when I was 16, 17, and 18.

And I look back on that now and I think, that was half a century ago, 50 years ago.

It's hard to believe that you can go through life and you can look back and

say something happened 50 years ago.

I graduated high school in 1976.

That was 50 years ago.

Man. So you don't stay young. And you see people at an older age and they've made their decisions.

And I'm not saying this in a judgmental way. I'd look at some people's lives

and I understand that they've never been taught anything.

You know, some people aren't taught. Aren't you glad you'd be in the house of

God where you can be taught?

And young people need to appreciate what the church tries to teach you and what God tries to do for you.

Because one of these days, it's going to pay off if you do it the right way.

I believe that with all my heart. I believe it. I know it will.

So tonight, we're going to look about living a life of integrity.

And we're going to start with Proverbs 11, 3, and we're going to read the King James Version.

The integrity of the upright shall

guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them.

Proverbs 20 and 7, the just man walketh in his integrity, and his children are blessed after him.

And then finally, Proverbs 19 and 1 says,

better is the poor that walketh in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.

Let's pray one more time. Jesus, we love you tonight. Ask you to help us with

your word. God help us tonight. We love you.

Open up your word to us, O God. Help us in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. What would you do? You may be seated.

I read this to Sister Young. This comes, James Patterson and Peter Kim wrote

a book, The Day America Told the Truth, published in 1991.

What would you do for $10 million?

What are you willing to do for $10 million? $2.00. Two-thirds of Americans polled

would agree to at least one and some to several of the following statements.

25% of those polled would abandon their entire family for $10 million.

Some families, they probably take a lot less, praise God.

But they would abandon their family for 25%. 25% of people would abandon their church for $10 million.

Some would become prostitutes for a week or more, 23%. 16% would give up their

American citizenship for $10 million.

16% would leave their spouses.

10% would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free for $10 million.

Seven percent would kill a stranger for $10 million.

And three percent would put their children up for adoption.

How many knows there's more to life than money? Amen.

There's more to life than money. A man's character is the outward expression of his internal values.

All the character traits found in the Word of God, integrity is the most valuable.

If a man is faithful but lacks integrity, his faithfulness will fail.

If a man is honest but lacks integrity, his honesty will turn to dishonesty.

If a man is truthful but lacks integrity, then someday his truthfulness will turn to lies.

If a man professes to be ethical yet lacks integrity, when the day will come

that his ethics will become situational.

To live the life that is pleasing to God and ultimately look successful,

you've got to have integrity. Amen.

All the other characteristics are dependent on integrity.

Indeed, all other good character traits are dependent upon integrity to be of any value.

Proverbs 27, the just man walketh in his integrity, and his children are blessed

after him. What is integrity?

Webster's defines it as an unimpaired condition,

the quality or state of being complete or undivided. All right.

I was going to bring a water bottle and show you how important it is.

If you have a water bottle that has integrity, that means it is complete or undivided.

It'll hold water. But it only takes one little pinhole in that water bottle

for that bottle to lose its integrity.

The Bible says it's the little foxes that spoil the vines.

And sometimes the devil tries to tell us one little thing doesn't matter,

one little thing doesn't matter.

The world has the white lies.

But I want to tell you, it does matter. All that stuff matters in your life.

And, you know, the world is, we used to, a guy come into work one time and we

said, he looks kind of, kind of shifty.

And we've joked about, you know, let's send Shifty down there, whatever.

But the Bible and Scripture foundation for this lesson gives us an insight into what integrity is.

The Hebrew word here comes from a word meaning completeness,

moral innocence, perfection, simplicity, uprightness at a venture.

Every venture we undertake, we have to do it with integrity.

The integrity determines the outcome of the venture.

The same words used in the plural when it refers to part of the wardrobe of the high priest.

One part of his breastplate was called the thumbun, and it commonly is T-U-M-M-I-Y-M,

called the thumbun. I guess.

When it's properly translated, it's used as an emblem of complete truth.

The high priest had to walk in complete truth, which is his integrity.

He had to walk in integrity.

He had to have that urim and whatever they call that. I can't pronounce it right.

In our lives, if we expect, if we expect to know the will of God,

then we must also walk with integrity.

See, that breastplate and those stones, they would go to the high priest,

and he had rules, he had all these things, and they would go and they would

seek the counsel from God.

And you read about how they would, I guess they would have something happened

in these stones. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but he had to have that and

he had to be the priest that he was supposed to be.

So the breastplate of integrity or righteousness, just as the high priest was clothed.

To do service for God, we are to be clothed. Now let's look at Ephesians 6, 13, 17.

We talked about this just not too long ago.

Take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.

And having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girt about

with the truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod

with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

And above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench

all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the

sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

So real quick, we're going to take a look at this armor, the whole armor,

and see its use, and we'll understand that the breastplate is the most critical piece of that armor.

The helmet, the shield, the sword, the shoes, the girdle are all important.

But fighting without integrity can and will lead us to failure.

The first one is the Bible talks about is the girdle of truth.

It must be subjected, must be protected. We must be...

Need to slow down. It must be protected so that it is not damaged in the process.

The shoes of gospel of peace, we walk in peace with those around us,

the shield of faith, but without faith it is impossible to please him.

For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder

of them that seek him. Faith has a purpose.

Ephesians 6, 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, and wherewith you shall

be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked. Then you have the helmet of salvation.

The head is the seat of knowledge and authority.

Without this protection and assurance, we are prey to false teaching and deceptive.

Praise the Lord. We are prey to, what happened here?

No, I don't want to sign out. I want to go back to here, and I don't want to say that.

Hallelujah. Oh, God's good, ain't he good?

Woo, start sweating.

Okay. The sword of the spirit. Many of the elements of the Christian armor are

defensive and protective, but the sword is a weapon of warfare.

The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, is our best offense.

Now, here we go. The breastplate of righteousness.

The breastplate's position denotes its significance.

Okay. Where it's at is telling us the importance of it.

Okay. It was designed to cover the upper body.

It covered the vital organs, heart, lungs, which are the source and the substance of life.

Just as the breastplate of righteousness of the high priest symbolized absolute truth or integrity,

so also does the breastplate of righteousness symbolize integrity for us because

we have to guard our very existence with integrity.

How many knows the devil is out to steal, kill, and destroy?

We have to guard our existence with integrity.

Every thought, What word and deed and action must be governed by integrity?

Keeping it right. Doing it right. Praise the Lord.

And because it's like I said, if you build your house on the rock,

there's strength that comes with integrity.

When you know you're doing it right and you're doing your best to do it right,

that gives you a strength.

You're able to stand like the Bible says. You're able, you know, I was a kid.

I think I know I told this before, but I don't know who was here,

who wasn't. I was about 10 and we lived in these apartments out on the east

side and they weren't done with them yet.

Part of them, they were still building and we could go in there and they were

putting the phone lines in or something and they had a big cluster of these real thin wires. Okay.

And, uh, so we would, we got in there and started cutting them about that long

and got us a rubber band and we made, we bent them around and we had little shootouts.

We got in these empty apartments and started cutting them wires and started shooting each other.

Well, they found out about it, of course. And, and I confessed. Yeah, I did it.

And I forget how, how it unfolded. But this one boy, I said,

well, he did it too. And he said, I did not.

I said, well, you did too. You know, I was a dumb kid.

He was a lot bigger than I was. and his dad said this he

said if he's lying you go smack him

right in the nose and you know what I didn't get scared because I knew I was

telling the truth and I just stood there I was dumb enough to stand there and

look at him but when you're doing something right and you know you're doing

it right it gives you a certain strength that's what it's all about it's being able to stand man

you know if you're on if you're on the side of right you got power you got boldness to go with it.

Praise the Lord, because there's something about it. So maintaining the man

who walks in his integrity.

And let me say, don't feel bad if you think you're the only guy trying to do

it right, because you're not.

God's got people that are trying to do it right.

They're keeping the right logs. They're doing the right thing.

They're doing what they know to do, and they're trying to do it right.

They might not be perfect, but they're trying to do it right.

And let me say, if you know anybody that's trying to do it right,

you need to appreciate them.

You need to look, you need to esteem somebody that's trying to do it right.

Somebody say amen. Amen.

We're talking about God's ways now. We're not talking about the Trump ways.

We're not talking about the government ways. We're not talking about the world's

way. We're talking about God's way now. And we're talking about God's people.

God's people tell the truth. Amen. We might not be perfect, but we're trying

to do right. Somebody say amen.

So we maintain our integrity. The word integrity speaks literally of being sound or complete or whole.

The man who walks in his integrity...

Is a man who strives to live in perfect harmony with righteousness. He's trying to do right.

You know, and like the scripture said that we read earlier,

I'm going to go back there for a minute because better is the poor that walketh

in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool.

You're better off to tell the truth and do without than you are to lie to get

more gain, because it all pays off in the long run.

Doing right pays off. Amen. So, let me hurry up here. Praise the Lord. All right.

Guard our very existence. Okay, here we are.

God would not be pleased with any people who were less than totally and wholly committed to Him.

It is an example to us that it is impossible to wholly serve God without integrity.

When we allow our integrity to be compromised, we are distancing ourselves from God. Amen?

Amen. When you exist, when you accept, when you let your integrity,

scientists now say that a series of slits.

Not a giant gash sank the Titanic.

The opulent 900-foot cruise ship sank in 1912 on its first voyage from England to New York.

1,500 people died in the worst maritime disaster of the time.

The most widely held theory was that the ship hit an iceberg,

which opened a huge gash in the side of the liner.

But an international team of divers and scientists recently used sound waves to probe the wreckage.

Buried in the mud under two and a half miles of water, their discovery,

the damage was surprisingly small.

Instead of a huge gash, they found six relatively narrow slits across the six watertight holds.

Small damage, invisible to most, can seek not only the great ship, but a great reputation.

And let me say this, the most important thing you have is your reputation.

It's the most important thing. You want to be thought of as a man that tells the truth.

You want to be thought of as a man that'll keep his word.

You want to be thought of as a person that'll do what they say they'll do.

Somebody help me out and say amen here.

Amen. Then we're talking about this the way it is now. This is the way God wants it to be now.

Amen. This is not my philosophy. This is God's philosophy. I just want to be

in line with his philosophy. Don't you?

Amen. Man, I really have a desire to be in charge or in line with God's philosophy.

And I was in sales for 30 years. And I did my best. Oh, I bumped up against

some guys that didn't have a whole bunch of integrity.

Oh, I bumped into them. I was young. I didn't know.

Guy said, I want to buy a welder.

But he said, I want you to bill me for welding rods and welding wire.

So I don't have to pay property tax on that welder.

See, he could get an invoice for a bunch of welding rod and stuff, which is just burn up.

But the equipment, you know, he has to pay whatever the deal is.

I'm not sure how it all works, but there's property tax that he had to pay on

that welder, and he didn't want to pay it.

Now, a man with no integrity say, ah, we can handle that. We'll take care of

it for you. But a person that's trying to do right, you're going to have to say, I can't do that.

I can't do that. I think I know I told you this. I had a guy call me.

This was a big outfit. This was a nationwide outfit.

He said, well, it was not to disparage unions, but it was a union hall, okay?

And they had locals, and then they have the international union hall, okay?

And he called me, and he says, the international union is going to buy us two

of these welders at each local.

And they were about $4,000 apiece, okay? And he said, they're going to buy us

two of those. He said, the only problem is we've already got two of them.

Said, what I want you to do is sell me two of something else and bill me for two of those.

Don't think that people won't do that. They will do that.

And I didn't know what to do. I was young, you know, you see,

because when you're in sales, it's your job to sell stuff, not to tell people, no,

you know, you read about that and you hear about that in the movies and all

that about a guy that, you know, he has to compromise, but I did my best. I said, I can't do it.

I came up with the loophole. I said, why don't you just buy,

let them buy you two of them and then trade them in. He didn't want to do that.

So guess what? He didn't buy them from me anyway, but somebody did it.

Somebody did it because they took all the business. It was a nice account too.

They had probably 40, 50 tanks sitting there of gas and we sold them all that stuff.

And they took all that business away from me. But I'm going to tell you what,

you're better to be poor to walk in your integrity.

I don't, you know, God blessed me. I'm telling you, God was good to me.

And I'm going to tell you, when you take a stand for what's right,

God will bless you for it. God will bless you for it.

Know, I don't want to talk about me, but when I was in sales,

there people would call me, and I had a guy, Chad used to work at this company,

big company, and they bought every, they had a big welding shop,

bigger than this building here, huge, and for some reason, they kept calling

me, and ordering all this stuff,

one year, they spent almost half a million dollars just buying stuff.

Guy called me. He'd say, get me this, get me two of these, 10 of these,

five of these, two of these. He said, I'll get you a PO. I said, okay.

Okay. And it was, they even laughed about it at work because in the PO section

of the paper, I used to put just J-Y get for the PO and they talked about it at work.

J-Y get, that's the PO, just J-Y who'll get it later.

But I, you know, people, you know, they didn't have to buy it from me,

But I'm going to tell you, when you do it right and you get the favor of God,

they'll buy it from you, man.

They'll buy it from you. Then you can say, then you know God did it.

You didn't do it. You're just doing the right thing, and God blessed you.

And he did me. I'm going to tell you he did me. Praise the Lord. So it don't take a lot.

It's impossible to wholly serve God without integrity.

We have to allow our integrity to be. When we allow our integrity to be compromised,

we are distancing ourselves from the Lord.

Proverbs 4, 18, the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more

and more to a perfect day.

Our pathway as just men is to be a pathway seen as a shining light to those around us.

You want a reputation of a guy that's telling the truth. You don't want the

reputation as the scoundrel.

Let me say, I know our world has got a lot of corruption, but I want to tell

you what, there's a lot of people in high places that have integrity.

And I was, I hate to talk about me, but I just know that I was in this area.

See, we did business with, when you do business with people,

some people you can't do business with them because they don't have no integrity.

And when you, and the company that I worked for had a certain amount of integrity,

because people, I watched it over and over. People would rack up big bills.

People would buy stuff and rack up a big bill.

I'm talking $40,000, $50,000.

And he knew them, and they knew them, and they knew they would pay them.

He didn't have no trouble giving them the charge because they knew that they'd pay them.

Some people, you find out pretty soon who's going to pay you and who ain't.

You know good and well the guy says, I'll be there on Monday with my money,

and he don't show up. You know, but you know, you find out who it is.

So operate. I'm not going to get through this because this time's almost up

here, but we'll fly through it here.

But integrity is everything. And your reputation is everything.

Because if you lose your reputation, you are hurting yourself.

You're hurting your own self. And let me say, there's people,

they don't care about your reputation. All they want to do is to get their way.

Asked me to sell him a welder and build him something else. He wasn't worried

about my integrity. He's worried about his own tax bill.

I'm going to tell you what, let them worry about their tax bill.

You keep your integrity.

Amen. You do the right thing. You do your best to do the right thing and God

will bless you for it. I'm a living witness.

I am a living witness. I know that's the truth. Praise the Lord.

So keep your integrity. When we enter into business transaction,

It is not the philosophy of the world that should guide us.

Our business is to be conducted with integrity.

We honor our word. We pay our bills.

We make honest evaluations, and we speak the truth in love. Come on, somebody.

That's the way it is. All right. Amen.

If we live in the Spirit, we must walk in the Spirit. When we receive the baptism

of the Holy Ghost, we receive a new life and a new nature, and there are rewards to integrity.

All right. Let me fly through this real quick. Psalms 26, David gives us the

insight to the rewards and blessings of living a life of integrity.

When we study these, remember, now we could talk about David on other ways, but David, he messed up.

But I want to tell you, integrity, when you have integrity, you can admit you messed up.

The guy that doesn't have integrity, he's going to lie about messing up.

He's not going to admit to messing up.

Sometimes it's just good to admit when you're wrong. Sometimes you just say, yep, messed up, man.

Yep, didn't do the right thing there. I'm sorry. I apologize, and I'll make it right.

And let me say, your sins will find you out.

I was driving a truck. Give me your attention a few more minutes.

I was driving a truck, had a lift gate on the back.

And my boss said, I've got two deliveries need made. He said,

I want you to go to this one first.

And it was way away, and I drove right past the other one to get there.

And I was young, and I said, okay.

I knew good and well I wasn't going to that one first. I was going to get that other one on the way.

Oh, you ain't never done nothing like that, I guess. But I knew good and well

I wasn't going to go to that first and first. But I said, okay, and acted like I would.

Well, I got to that first stop that was supposed to be last stop,

and I started unloading them tanks, and that tailgate shorted out.

Started going, ee, ee, ee, ee.

That tailgate all messed up, and I was stuck at the place I wasn't supposed to be.

And I had to call in. Where are you at?

Well, I'm over here at Sonson. I know I didn't do it like I did I would, man. I got caught.

I caught. And the other people just wanted to make sure they got their stuff

or whatever, but be sure your sins will find you out.

And that little thing that you don't think is a big deal today could very well

swell up and come back and bite you. Somebody say, man.

So the reward is real fast, real fast. The first thing we notice that David

tells us, where are we at?

Proverbs 4.18, the path of a just man is the shining light, shineth more and more perfect day.

In Psalms 26, Let me hurry.

The kids are back already. I got about seven minutes. Seven minutes.

And let's see, Psalms 26. Okay, real quick, real quick.

I believe what I'm preaching tonight. Now listen to what David said.

Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity.

I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide.

Examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my reins in my heart, for thy loving kindness

is before my eyes, and I have walked in thy truth.

I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go with the disassemblers.

I have hated the congregation of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked.

I will wash mine hands in hennessy. I will compass thine altar,

O Lord, I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of thy wondrous works.

I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth.

Gather not my soul with sinners nor my

life with bloody men in whose hands is mischief and in their right hand is full

of bribes but as for me i will walk in my integrity redeem me and be merciful

unto me my foot standeth in an even place in the congregation will i bless the

lord that's the way you want to handle it right there.

Look at this. First thing we notice, David is willing and asks for God to judge him.

I'm walking in my integrity. God, go ahead and judge me.

You see, there's strength that goes with that. Secondly, because David had walked

in integrity, he states that he can trust in the Lord and that a life of integrity

will keep him from sliding.

Thirdly, he is not afraid to ask God to examine his heart.

Everybody that lives for God should be in a position if you have to pray every

day and say, God, look at me.

God, examine me. God, do your work in me because I want to be clean with you. Come on, help me out now.

Hey, man, we ain't talking about playing around now. We're talking about being right with God.

We're talking about building your life on the right thing, man.

We're talking about standing on something.

And I'm talking about you won't always be young. You'll be old one

of these days and i'll tell you you better to be an old man with

his integrity than an old man that don't have no integrity you

might not have as much money but i want to tell you that's not

that's a lie from the pit too the devil says you gotta slip and slide i'm gonna

tell you god can raise you up you don't have to slip and slide you let god raise

you up you don't have to slip and slide god can bless you i'm a living witness

to it i hate to keep saying that over and over but I'm just an old boy from

Brightwood. God's been good to me, man.

But I know by the grace of God, and I'm not better than anybody,

but I tried to do it right. I tried to do it right. All the year, I tried to do it right.

And God gave me transactions that I shouldn't have ever had.

My boss, just bear with me, okay? My boss came to me one day and he said,

this company over in Muncie wants to buy this cutting table, okay?

This table's 10 feet wide by 30 feet long, and they got these plasma cutters

on there, and they're cutting six-inch stainless steel, okay?

And what they do, this was a stainless place, they get these big nuttors,

stainless and they would lay it on this table. When they got it in,

it was just a big slab and they would square it up and then they'd run it through

the rollers and make sheet metal out of it.

And they wanted, they had an old table to cut this stuff and they wanted to retrofit it.

Okay. So my boss gives it to me and I'm thinking, well, this ain't never going to amount to nothing.

And they're not going to buy this from us, from me. So I go out there and I,

and we knew You know, my job was partly to know who to send people to and how

to get what they wanted done. So we knew of people that made these tables and stuff.

And so we were just the middleman. That's all.

And that guy, so I went down there. I got to tell you this real quick.

See, you got to know your place. You got to know.

So I take this guy, I tell this guy from this company to meet me in,

this was outside of Lexington, Danny. outside of Lexington, Kentucky.

That's where this company was. So I met these guys down there and they go to lunch.

One guy owns this company that builds these big tables, and these tables are

$250,000, okay, and that's what he does, and the other guy's an electrical engineer.

So we go eat lunch, and here's me, and I'm sitting there,

and they're talking about their houses and all this stuff, and they're talking

about all this stuff, and I told myself, the best thing for you to do,

Jim, is shut up and eat. Praise the Lord.

Just keep your mouth shut, eat, because they're talking about servo motors,

and they're talking about all kinds of stuff I don't know nothing about.

I just do my best to just shut up and eat. Praise the Lord.

Sometimes you got to know when to just shut up and let me eat.

They was buying the lunch anyway. I just got hurt.

So anyway, the bottom line is, when I had my cancer, and I was off work even,

and they ordered that thing.

And the terms were they had to give a third of it, and a third of the deal was

like a hundred and something.

And my boss was walking around showing everybody this check they sent in.

And you see, they had integrity and the company had it. They sent them a check

for $130,000 and they hadn't done nothing yet.

Saying they hadn't this was all just paper here's

the here's how much it cost you here's the terms we'll

get it going but we want a third of it down and they sent the

man a check for a hundred and some thousand dollars because they

trusted the company that they were dealing with i'm gonna tell you that's the

kind of guy you want to be now that's what you want i'm gonna tell you you can't

cut everybody a check for a hundred thousand dollars and expect to get what

you want because they're going to take that check and your house is going to

be half painted. Praise the Lord.

And here's what it is. I need a draw.

You know, they're going to need a draw. They'll come out and do a little work and then I need a draw.

And your gutters are half up, you know, or your plumbing's half run.

You don't want to be that guy. You want to be the guy that if they give you

the money, the job gets done. Come on, somebody help me out here tonight.

Trying to help us, man. He's saying, we're build your life on integrity, man.

You stand on, do your best. Now, people make mistakes.

We do dumb things sometimes, but you don't have to, and you don't have to bow

to the devil, and you don't have to bow to some slippery guy.

You don't have to bow to him, because there's people, they don't care about you.

They don't care about your integrity, but David said, David said, judge me, Lord.

Second, he walked in integrity. He said, he trusts in the Lord a life integrity

to keep him from sliding.

Thirdly, he's not afraid to ask God to examine his heart.

And next, he states the blessings he found that come in walking with integrity.

He said, the loving kindness of the Lord is ever before me.

That's what I want, don't you? I want the loving kindness of the Lord to be ever before me.

Praise the Lord. okay he said

he walks in truth he does not now listen david

said he does not sit with vain persons he

doesn't he nor does he fellowship with those who are deceitful he hates those

that do evil he does not spend time with the wicked he is pure and clean in

the presence of the lord he is thankful and proclaims the works of god he then

petitions god to keep him from evil influences,

Next, he declares his intention to continue walking in his integrity.

David said he hates those that do evil. He don't want to be around.

Now, he made a mistake. But it takes a lot of integrity to say you made a mistake and admit it.

I don't want to hang around. You read about the table of David and you read

about his cabinet and all that.

There wasn't a bunch of evil guys around him. There wasn't a bunch of wicked

guys sitting around his table.

I'm trying to do a kingdom here. Finally, he declares his life is planted on solid ground.

And because of that, he can wholeheartedly worship God.

That's what it's all about. When you got integrity and you're doing your best,

you come into the house of God.

There's nothing holding you back from praising God.

Amen. Let's go. God, touch me, help me do your thing on me, God,

because I know I'm trying.

The problem is sometimes you've got stuff in your life that you don't need to

have that keeps you from worshiping God like you should.

Amen. Somebody say amen to that.

So in closing, who else but David could portray this? The man that the Bible

says was after the heart of God.

One thing to read what David wrote in Psalms 26 about choosing to live a life

of integrity, something totally different to hear what God has to say about David's life.

In Psalms 78, 71, 72, it states, from following the youths great with young,

he brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.

So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guiding them by the

skillfulness of his hands.

God took that young man from guarding a bunch of sheep and made him a king for 40 years.

Now, I want to tell you, that's what God says about him in the word.

That's what I want God saying about me, don't you?

I said, that's what I want God saying about me. That guy did it right.

God-given talent and ability are to be commended, but to have those as the music

comes, but to have those and not have integrity is defiling.

David was a man that got equipped to lead the nation, but within his own heart,

David had to determine to exercise that talent and ability with integrity.

What a wonderful testimony that in his word, God declared that David utilized

both skill and integrity.

What is God saying about you and your life?

Integrity is more than not being deceitful or slipshod. It means doing everything

heartily as unto the Lord.

In his book, Lyrics, Oscar Hammerstein II points out one reason why a Christian,

a reason Christians have always known.

A year or so ago, on the cover of New York Herald Tribune magazine,

I saw a picture. this is interesting. Stay with me and we're going to close.

He said, a year or so ago, I saw a picture of the Statue of Liberty that was

taken from a helicopter and it showed the top of the statue's head.

Are you with me? The helicopter got up there and from the helicopter,

you could see the top of the Statue of Liberty's head.

Now you can't see the head from down on the ground and most people will never

see the top of that statue. But listen to what he said.

I was amazed at the detail. The sculpture had done a painstaking job with the lady's hair,

yet he must have been pretty sure that the only eyes that would ever see this

detail would be an uncritical eyes of the seagulls.

Not have dreamt that any man would ever fly over this head.

He was an artist enough, however, though, to finish off this part of the statue

with as much care as he had devoted to her face and her arms and the torch and

everything that people can see as they sail by.

See, there is something called integrity. There is something called artistic integrity.

Most people say, Chad, ain't nobody going to see it.

I tell Chad that all the time. He says, I said, ain't nobody going to see it.

Don't worry about it. Don't look around.

And Chad gets on me. Man, that ain't right. I said, ain't nobody ever going

to see it. Don't worry about it.

But you see, this guy had integrity. When he made the top of that head on that

Statue of Liberty, nobody ever going to see it.

But he knew good and well. He knew he could say, I did it the right way.

Isn't that valuable? So when you're creating a work of art or any other kind

of work, Brother Young, finish the job off perfect.

You never know when a helicopter or some other instrument not at the moment

invented may come along and find you out.

Do right, shall we? As we get a song tonight, anybody want to pray?

Anybody want to say, Lord, help me.

God, help me walk the way I should.

Help me do the right thing, God. Help me understand that it pays off, God.

And I'm not accusing anybody here, not doing, I'm not accusing anybody of anything.

I'm presenting the lesson, but I'm just encouraged.

See, that's my job to encourage you to do the right thing.

Can I tell you one other thing real quick? I had a guy call me,

been years ago. Brother Young, come on by.

Come on by, Brother Young. He said, I got a check for you for some ties. Oh, okay.

He didn't tell me how much it was, Brother Earl. He said, I got some.

I'll check. He said, come on, get it. I said, okay.

He said, yeah. He said, I did a little work on the side. And he said,

I made some money, but I didn't tell the IRS about it. And he said, I got it on the side.

And he said, you know, he said, that's between me and, you know,

he said, that'll just be between me and you. He said, it ain't none of their business.

Now, I don't know how much money he was talking about. I mean,

I found out, but so I hung up the phone. I called him back.

I said, so-and-so, I can't take those tithes from you. He said, why not?

I said, well, I'm supposed to be a pastor, and it's my job to tell people to do the right thing.

Now, how can I come over here and collect if, you know, just don't tell me, you know what I mean?

If he had just said, I got some ties for you and went and got it, I'd have went and got it.

Don't tell me that you're doing shady deals with the IRS. Cause then I got,

you know, I don't want to know that. I don't want to be no part of that.

Only, I think it was like 600 bucks or something, you know, but I didn't know

that. I want to tell you if it had been 10,000, it'd been the same answer.

And I'm not bragging. I'm just saying I'm trying to do the right thing here.

And I'm trying to tell you to do the right thing because I know just as well

as I'm standing here, it pays off with God.

Let's raise our hands right now and say, Lord baptize us.

Hallelujah. Yeah. I wish he hadn't ever told me that. And he said, well, why not?

Why can't you take it? And I said, well, I'm supposed to be a pastor and I'm

supposed to tell people to do the right thing.

And I wouldn't feel good if I felt like I was in league with you,

not doing the right thing by the, you know, and I felt stupid.

I mean, I felt bad and the devil makes you feel bad and you're dumb and it's not that big a deal.

And, you know, you go through all these emotions, but I thought I can't, I can't.

Let's raise our hands again. I feel the Holy Ghost right now.

Hallelujah, Jesus. God, this is a good church. This is good people.

God, implant this word in our hearts, Lord. Hallelujah.

Oh, hallelujah. Let this be a place of reputation, God.

Let the people at this church keep their word like they do, Lord.

Let them do the right thing, oh God. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Let this be a place of refuge. Let this be a place of integrity, Lord. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Let's get a song. Hallelujah. I feel the Lord right now.

See, we're on the rock. This teaching is on the rock, man.

This is God. This is what God wants in our lives, every one of us. Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus. Go ahead, Brother Ronnie and start whatever you feel.

Thank you for listening to our podcast. Southwest Apostolic Church is a place of refuge.

If we can help you, we'd be glad to do it. Pastor's cell number 317-469-3100.

If we can help you, we'd be glad to do it. God bless.