Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope with Rick Warren.
Speaker 2: We are so glad you're here with us.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to continue our series called The Keys
Speaker 1: to a Blessed Life, And in these messages, Rick walks
Speaker 1: through Jesus' Sermon on the Mount and shows us how
Speaker 1: to live a truly hopeful and purpose filled life. Today,
Speaker 1: we're back with part two of God blesses a heart
Speaker 1: of integrity.
Speaker 3: So how do you get it? How do you get integrity?
Speaker 3: What does it even look like?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: In Psalm chapter fifteen, the fifteenth Psalm, David gives us
Speaker 3: eight characteristics of what it means to walk or live
Speaker 3: with integrity. Let me read it to you Psalm fifteen
Speaker 3: one to five. Lord, who may stand in your sanctuary
Speaker 3: and who may live on your holy mountain?
Speaker 2: And what's he talking about here?
Speaker 3: This is a metaphor, he said, God, who gets to
Speaker 3: be close to you? You, That's what he's saying. Who gets
Speaker 3: to be your friend? All that thing stuff I just
Speaker 3: was talking about earlier. Who gets to live in your presence,
Speaker 3: Who gets to experience your power, who gets to understand
Speaker 3: your peace? Who gets to live your purpose?
Speaker 2: God?
Speaker 3: Who gets to be your friend. That's what he's saying.
Speaker 3: Who may stay in your sanctuary and live on your
Speaker 3: holy mountain. Here's the answer, the one who walks with integrity.
Speaker 3: Circle that walks with integrity. And then he gives us
Speaker 3: eight characteristics of a man who has integrity or a
Speaker 3: woman who has integrity, and here's what they are.
Speaker 2: A Number one.
Speaker 3: He speaks the truth from his heart. You don't lie
Speaker 3: when you have integrity. He refuses to slander others with
Speaker 3: his tongue. WHOA anytime you put down anybody else, you've.
Speaker 2: Just lost integrity.
Speaker 3: Anytime you slander anybody else for their politics, or their religion,
Speaker 3: or their lifestyle, or any other difference, cultural difference, whatever,
Speaker 3: he says, you've just lost your integrity. He refuses to
Speaker 3: slander others with his tongue. He won't listen to gossip.
Speaker 3: Oh now we're meddling, says. If you listen, not share it.
Speaker 3: But even if you just listen to it, you've lost
Speaker 3: your integrity. He will not cast a slur on his
Speaker 3: fellow man. Instead, he honors those who fear the Lord,
Speaker 3: and he keeps his promises even when it hurts. He
Speaker 3: lends his money freely without charging interest. In other words,
Speaker 3: he's very, very generous. That's a mark of integrity, and
Speaker 3: he cannot be bribed by money. Whoever does these things,
Speaker 3: these things will never be shaken. You won't have security
Speaker 3: in your life. You want to get rid of all
Speaker 3: the insecure in your life. Get integrity in your life.
Speaker 3: You want to have stability in your life, Get integered
Speaker 3: in your life. You want to have the confidence Tom
Speaker 3: was talking about. Then you've got to get integered in
Speaker 3: your life. When you lack integrity, you go through life insecure.
Speaker 3: The Bible says the man of integrity walks securely. And
Speaker 3: the whole reason you don't have security, the whole reason
Speaker 3: you feel insecure so much time, is because you lack integrity, wholeness, authenticity,
Speaker 3: and an unmixed motivation. What I want to do now
Speaker 3: is give you a little checklist. It's a pretty quick checklist.
Speaker 3: It's not going to take a lot of time for
Speaker 3: me to explain it. In fact, I don't have to
Speaker 3: illustrate it because once I say these things, you'll understand it.
Speaker 3: Integrity demands that every area of your life is treated
Speaker 3: with the same intensity that you say, I'm going to
Speaker 3: have the same commitment to excellence in my marriage as.
Speaker 2: I have in my career.
Speaker 3: I'm going to have the same commitment to excellence in
Speaker 3: my ministry and in my parenting as I do in
Speaker 3: making money. I'm going to have as much commitment to
Speaker 3: the right motivation as I do into doing the right thing.
Speaker 3: So let me just give you six of the common
Speaker 3: ways you can work on these this week from the Bible.
Speaker 3: Number one, you become a person of integrity by keeping
Speaker 3: your promises. By keeping your promises, people of integrity keep
Speaker 3: their word. If they say they'll do it, they'll do it.
Speaker 3: If they say they'll be there, they'll be there.
Speaker 2: They say you.
Speaker 3: Can count on it, You can count on it. People
Speaker 3: of integrity keep their promises. This is verbal integrity. And
Speaker 3: the Bible says in Proverbs twenty five, verse fourteen, people
Speaker 3: who promise things that they never give. He says, they're
Speaker 3: like clouds and wind that bring no rain. He said,
Speaker 3: they're worthless. There's been a hot bunch of hot air.
Speaker 3: This is vapor, and there's nothing to them. They don't
Speaker 3: bring wind, they don't bring rain, they don't bring any benefit.
Speaker 2: They're just all smoking mirrors.
Speaker 3: So my question to you is this, what promises have
Speaker 3: you made that you have not kept? And you need
Speaker 3: to keep them before integrity? Say, have you made some
Speaker 3: promises your kids? Broken promises are the number one cause
Speaker 3: of bitterness in children. The number one cause of bitterness
Speaker 3: broken promises that parents said. I said up, Mom, you
Speaker 3: said Dad, you said, they break the promise. Have you
Speaker 3: made a promise to your spouse about something you're going
Speaker 3: to change and you haven't done it. It's a broken promise.
Speaker 3: Have you made a promise to God, a spiritual promise,
Speaker 3: a vow and you haven't kept it. That is a
Speaker 3: lack of integrity. Now I know that what happens is
Speaker 3: we say, well, the circumstances have changed, doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: If you made a promise.
Speaker 3: You got to keep your word, even if it is
Speaker 3: not beneficial to you. Do you remember that Psalm FI
Speaker 3: we just read. Let me look at it again here
Speaker 3: on the screen. So I'm fifteen verse four. God blesses
Speaker 3: the one who walks with integrity, who keeps his promises
Speaker 3: even when it hurts, even when it cost you more.
Speaker 3: And you thought I was going to cost you. You
Speaker 3: keep your promise. I said, I'd sult to you for that.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna sell it to you for that, even though
Speaker 3: it's worth a whole lot more or whatever. You keep
Speaker 3: your promises even when it hurts. I remember when Matthew,
Speaker 3: my youngest son, was young, and he really struggled with
Speaker 3: panic attacks as part of his mental illness. Panic thanks
Speaker 3: are not mental illness, but he had that in addition too,
Speaker 3: and he struggled with a lot of fears in his life.
Speaker 3: And I really wanted him to go to camp, but
Speaker 3: he was afraid to go to church camp. And so
Speaker 3: I made a promise to my young son. I said,
Speaker 3: Matthew is sixth grade. So Matthew, if you'll go to camp,
Speaker 3: I promised to go with you, and then you can
Speaker 3: handle it. You won't be afraid. I'll be there with you.
Speaker 3: I'll be your camp counselor I'll go with you. And
Speaker 3: he decided he didn't want to go, so I went
Speaker 3: ahead and I took some other commitments that week. Then
Speaker 3: he decided he wanted to go. And I had made
Speaker 3: a commitment to speak to one hundred thousand men in
Speaker 3: a stadium of promise keepers in Atlanta. So I broke
Speaker 3: a promise to speak to the promise keepers, to keep
Speaker 3: a promise to my son, and I have never never
Speaker 3: regretted that. Now I would have had a whole lot
Speaker 3: more fun speaking to one hundred thousand men than being
Speaker 3: a camp counselor in sixth grade camp. You become a
Speaker 3: person of integrity by keeping your promises.
Speaker 2: Number two, you.
Speaker 3: Become a person of integrity by paying your bills.
Speaker 2: Now you may not think.
Speaker 3: This is a big deal, but it's a big deal
Speaker 3: to God. This is financial integrity. And the Bible says
Speaker 3: over and over and over and over again that the
Speaker 3: way you use your money is a test of your integrity.
Speaker 3: Do you spend more money than you make That is
Speaker 3: a lack of integrity. Do you get yourself in debt
Speaker 3: to things that you can't pay off, That is a
Speaker 3: lack of integrity. The Bible says, people of integrity pay
Speaker 3: their bills. It's like keeping your promises financially. Now, I'm
Speaker 3: not going to go into all the different ways, but
Speaker 3: let me just give you a couple. Here's a couple verses. First,
Speaker 3: you don't default on loans and you pay off your
Speaker 3: credit card. Psalm thirty seven to twenty one says the
Speaker 3: wicked man borrows and never pays back. And not only
Speaker 3: that this one's really meddling. Some of these are going
Speaker 3: to get a little personal here. You don't defraud the
Speaker 3: government of taxes. The Bible says in Romans thirteen, verse
Speaker 3: six and seven, the authorities working are working for God.
Speaker 2: Pay what you owe them.
Speaker 3: Pay your personal and property taxes. You say, but Rick,
Speaker 3: the government is wasting my money. Of course I know that, okay,
Speaker 3: And they don't. The government lacks integrity because they're spending
Speaker 3: far more than they take in. Okay, and they're doing
Speaker 3: deficit spending. But you don't get to do that if
Speaker 3: you have integrity. What they do with my taxes, they're
Speaker 3: going to be accountable to God for. But I am
Speaker 3: accountable to God to pay my taxes that do not
Speaker 3: cheat on them, because if I do, I lack integrity.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, to do that. Okay.
Speaker 3: Number three, you become a person of integrity by keeping
Speaker 3: your promises, paying your bills. And number three, this one's
Speaker 3: really meddling. By refusing to gossip. That's what the Bible says.
Speaker 3: This is relational integrity, and that is you don't talk
Speaker 3: one way with one group of people and then go
Speaker 3: talk about.
Speaker 2: Them behind their back.
Speaker 3: If you flatter somebody, and you butter them up and
Speaker 3: you like they're best friends, and then behind them you
Speaker 3: cut them off with the knees and you say one
Speaker 3: thing here and one thing there, and you gossip. The
Speaker 3: Bible says, you lack integrity. You don't have it, and
Speaker 3: you're not gonna have God's blessing on your life if
Speaker 3: you keep on gossiping like that, And the Bible says,
Speaker 3: if you listen to it. Did you know that accepting
Speaker 3: stolen goods gets the same criminal indictment as stealing it,
Speaker 3: and so accepting gossip is the same thing as offering
Speaker 3: it up.
Speaker 2: It's a wrong thing. Every time you.
Speaker 3: Gossip, you lose integrity. Do you talk about other people
Speaker 3: behind their back? Can you keep a secret? The Bible
Speaker 3: says this in Proverbs eleven, verse thirteen. A gossip can't
Speaker 3: be trusted with a secret, but somewhat of integrity won't
Speaker 3: violate a confidence.
Speaker 2: Do you know what we need today? We need men
Speaker 2: and women of.
Speaker 3: Integrity who know how to keep a secret and not
Speaker 3: put it on Facebook or blab it on Twitter, or
Speaker 3: pass it around on social media. You know, one of
Speaker 3: the rules of our small groups is what set in
Speaker 3: the group stays in the group. Why because everybody needs
Speaker 3: a safe place of a few friends where you can
Speaker 3: be real and be yourself and have not other everybody
Speaker 3: go publish it about you. Real friends walk into your
Speaker 3: life when everybody else walks out. And that's the purpose
Speaker 3: of a small group, one of the purposes. And so
Speaker 3: what set in the group stays in the group? Can
Speaker 3: you keep a confidence? Or as soon as somebody says, now,
Speaker 3: I've never told this to anybody, you.
Speaker 2: Immediately go tell it somebody else.
Speaker 3: If you do, you lack integrity. The Bible says this
Speaker 3: there on the screen Proverbs ten eighteen. Anyone who spreads gossip,
Speaker 3: God says you're a fool. Anyone who spreads gossip is
Speaker 3: a fool. It's a foolish, destructive thing to do, all right.
Speaker 3: Number four, I'm just going through these pretty quickly. Integrity
Speaker 3: is developed by keeping your promises, paying your bills, refusing
Speaker 3: the gossip. Number four, by faithfully tithing. Did you know
Speaker 3: that the Bible says that tithing is a test of integrity.
Speaker 3: One of the ways God tests my integrity is through tithing.
Speaker 3: Do I trust him with my finances? Do I put
Speaker 3: him first? Whatever? Wherever you put your money first is
Speaker 3: what's most important to you. Let me say it again,
Speaker 3: Wherever you put your money first is what's most important
Speaker 3: to you. And the Bible says that tithing is a
Speaker 3: test of integrity because Jesus said, wherever your heart is,
Speaker 3: wherever your treasure is, that's where your heart's going to be.
Speaker 3: So you can always know what's important to people by
Speaker 3: looking at it and where they spend their money. Here's
Speaker 3: what God says about this Malachi chapter three.
Speaker 2: Is it right.
Speaker 3: For a person to cheat God? Of course not yet.
Speaker 3: You are robbing me, says the Lord. How he asked me.
Speaker 3: You're spending my money by withholding your full tithe and offerings.
Speaker 3: Bring to me the full amount of your tithe to
Speaker 3: my house. Put me to the test, and you'll see
Speaker 3: that I will open the windows of heaven and pour
Speaker 3: out so much blessing on you that you won't even
Speaker 3: have enough room to receive it.
Speaker 2: All.
Speaker 3: This is a test, and this is a promise. It's
Speaker 3: the Pepsi challenge eirth Jesus, God says, I dare you
Speaker 3: to trust me on this?
Speaker 2: I dare you to trust me.
Speaker 3: Do you have the integrity to put me first in
Speaker 3: your finances. Number five, You become a person of integrity,
Speaker 3: keeping your promises, paying your bills, refusing the gossip, faithfully tithing,
Speaker 3: by doing your best at work. By doing your best
Speaker 3: at work, this is business integrity or vocational spiritual integrity.
Speaker 3: Tithing and relational integrity, not gossiping and financial integrity.
Speaker 2: Paying your bills.
Speaker 3: This is vocational integrity, of having integrity where you work.
Speaker 3: Do you do your best at work? Are you to
Speaker 3: just slough off when the boss isn't watching? See, some
Speaker 3: people only work hard when the boss is around, when
Speaker 3: the supervisor's around, and the rest of the time they're
Speaker 3: goofing off. They're playing around, they're standing in a watercolor gossiping.
Speaker 3: They're playing solitaire on the computer or reading some online magazine.
Speaker 3: They're they're taking supplies home to their house, ripping off
Speaker 3: the office. They're you know, taking breaks, coming in late,
Speaker 3: as long as they're not being noticed. You may have
Speaker 3: never realized what a serious sin God considers it for
Speaker 3: you to give a full day's work when you're paid
Speaker 3: a full day's wage. You don't have the right to
Speaker 3: goof off. He said, Well, everybody else is slacking off.
Speaker 3: Nobody else works hard in my office. Well, so what,
Speaker 3: they're not a follower of Christ, and maybe they don't
Speaker 3: care about integrity, and maybe they don't care about leaving
Speaker 3: a legacy rewards for eternity and personal stability.
Speaker 2: But you do.
Speaker 3: And so whether they work hard and well or not
Speaker 3: is irrelevant. Let me show you some just a few
Speaker 3: verses about this here in the screen. Proverbs eighteen, verse
Speaker 3: nine says this, slack habits and sloppy work are as
Speaker 3: bad as vandalism.
Speaker 2: That's what God says about it.
Speaker 3: He says, you know, if you're just goofing off and
Speaker 3: you do poor work and you don't really that's good
Speaker 3: enough for this. You know, nobody's gonna even notice. He said,
Speaker 3: that's like vandalism. Let me show you in the Living Bible.
Speaker 3: The Bible says this, a lazy employee is as destructive
Speaker 3: as a saboteur.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, we're really getting deep here.
Speaker 3: He's saying that if I am not given a full
Speaker 3: day's work for a full day's wage, I may hate
Speaker 3: my job. It doesn't matter if I hate it or not.
Speaker 3: I am actually vandalizing and I'm sabotaging somebody else's business
Speaker 3: if I'm not giving it my best. If I don't
Speaker 3: give it my best, then I lack integrity. Let me
Speaker 3: show you a couple other Versesphesian six six says this,
Speaker 3: don't work hard only when your master, that's your supervisor
Speaker 3: is watching, and then sure when he isn't looking, work
Speaker 3: hard and work with gladness, and that's enthusiasm all the time,
Speaker 3: even if you hate your job, as though working for Christ,
Speaker 3: doing the will of God with all your heart. It
Speaker 3: is God's will that you work hard and with gladness
Speaker 3: all the time, as if you were working for Christ.
Speaker 3: You see, if you're a believer, your boss is and
Speaker 3: your boss, your real boss is God. And whether anybody
Speaker 3: else sees it or not, you said, nobody's going to
Speaker 3: see whether I worked or not. God does, and he's
Speaker 3: your boss. Your boss isn't watching you all the time,
Speaker 3: but God is watching you all the time. And this
Speaker 3: is a test. It's a test of integrity. And as
Speaker 3: God's will that I not waste the time and the
Speaker 3: money and the resources of.
Speaker 2: The owner of the business or my employer. Let me
Speaker 2: show you another one.
Speaker 3: Colossums three twenty two says this, and don't just do
Speaker 3: the minimum that will get you by do your best.
Speaker 3: That's integrity. Are you doing your best at work? If not,
Speaker 3: you need to change. You need to what's called repent.
Speaker 3: I need to not just do the minimum. I need
Speaker 3: to give it my best shot, do your best. In fact,
Speaker 3: the next verse Colossians three twenty three, it's on your outline,
Speaker 3: says this, work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do
Speaker 3: as though you were working for the Lord.
Speaker 2: Said it twice.
Speaker 3: Anytime the Bible says something twice, you better pay attention. Okay,
Speaker 3: work hard and cheerfully is whatever you do as though
Speaker 3: you're working for the Lord rather than people.
Speaker 2: That is a mark of integrity.
Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Right now,
Speaker 1: here's Pastor Rick with a special message.
Speaker 3: Hi everybody, this is Pastor Rick. I would like to
Speaker 3: thank you. Thank you for being a part of our
Speaker 3: Daily Hope family. I don't get to say that often enough,
Speaker 3: but your generosity is helping us share the hope of
Speaker 3: Jesus with people here at home and literally all around
Speaker 3: the world, even in places where it's difficult and even
Speaker 3: dangerous to get the good news.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I recently heard from a woman named Eunice in Cameroon.
Speaker 3: Cameroon is a country in Central Africa, and she wrote
Speaker 3: to me. She said, Pastor Rick, I lost both of
Speaker 3: my son, both my son and my daughter in the war,
Speaker 3: and now I'm raising four grandchildren on my own. I
Speaker 3: was overwhelmed with grief. But then she says, but through
Speaker 3: the daily hope devotionals, I have found strength and comfort
Speaker 3: and peace in God's word. So thank you for helping
Speaker 3: me hold on to hope. Wow.
Speaker 2: That's powerful.
Speaker 3: That's powerful, and that happened because your giving is helping
Speaker 3: Eunus find the strength to carry on, to raise her
Speaker 3: grandchildren and to keep trusting God even through the deep
Speaker 3: loss of her kids. Now, right now, I wanted to
Speaker 3: tell you about this because we have a special opportunity.
Speaker 3: They're some generous friends who have offered a matching grant.
Speaker 3: What that means is whatever you give will be doubled, Okay,
Speaker 3: they'll match it. That means whatever you give today will
Speaker 3: go twice as far to reach even more people with
Speaker 3: God's word. So can I ask you a favor. I
Speaker 3: want to encourage you and give your best gift you
Speaker 3: can today. But together, let's keep bringing the hope of
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ to people like Eunus and to the billions
Speaker 3: of other people who still need to hear. There are
Speaker 3: still people who've never heard the name of Jesus. We
Speaker 3: want to keep expanding to get the message to the
Speaker 3: whole world. So help us out. Let me just close
Speaker 3: us saying I love you, I do I love you.
Speaker 3: I thank God for you, and I am so grateful
Speaker 3: that we are in this mission together.
Speaker 2: God bless you.
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