Honesty & Integrity

4 12. Second Corinthians 13:7, Paul says, "Now I pray to God that you do no evil." Nor that not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. In Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there's any praise, think on these things." And finally, 1 Thessalonians 4:12, "That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing." Today, we're going to begin a new series of lessons.

We've been studying uh the book of Acts. We've been looking at some of the apostolic distinctives, the things that uh were unique to the book of Acts, the early church, the things that they did. And so, we finished that series last week. So, we're going to start a new series, and I'm going to look at Christian principles in relationships. I know much of what we've studied in the past this class. We we've had some a lot of lessons that have, I guess, a pretty strong theological flavor. But, you know, God hasn't called us to be theo- theologians, has he? Uh he has called us, as we often say, to love him with all our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

Now, there's nothing wrong with theology, and I think we should have a good foundation in what we believe in the things. But, but sometimes we just have to stop and say, "Okay, let's be practical for a little bit and get down where we live." So, what he has called us to do is to love him, and that we must do. You know, maybe you can't explain sanctification or propitiation or redemption or the Godhead or all those things. You You know you believe in it, but maybe you don't know the particulars. But, we will need to look at how we relate to God and how we relate to one another in the world around us and how we are conduct ourselves in a way which glorifies God.

And so, that's what this series is going to focus on. In this lesson, we are going to look at the subjects of honesty and integrity. Honesty and integrity. In the Bible, honesty is a state of being honorable or truthful or upright or faithful fair in all of our dealings with others. It's an interesting verse uh when Joseph was in the Egypt and his brothers came before him. Of course, if you remember that story or know that story, he kind of put them to a test to really see if their hearts had changed and see uh since they had sold him into slavery in the first place.

And so, he kind of put them in a test. They didn't recognize him. And And he begins to tell them, "You're spies. You're You're coming here to to to spy out what we have here in Egypt." And they said, "No." They said, "We are true men. Thy servants are no spies. We are true men." The NASB translates true as honest. We are honest men. The Jewish Bible says we are upright men. And the Hebrew lexicon defines that word as right, just, honest, true, or veritable. So, that is the meanings behind that that word. We see this in the word of God.

Now, as far as integrity, it was said of David, "David, thy father there walked in integrity of heart and in uprightness." Now, most all modern translations maintain that word integrity. There's not a lot of dis- dispute about that. Uh that word from the Hebrew lexicon means a completeness, a fullness, an innocence, a simplicity, or an integrity. I think of integrity, I think of foundational things. You think about when a storm goes through and damages a structure, sometimes they'll look at it and say, "Well, the integrity of the building is still okay. So, it's not going to collapse. The strength is still there.

The The main things, the foundations, the important things are still okay. It maintained its integrity." And so, Webster defines integrity as an uncompromising adherence to a code of moral or ethical values. It defines it as utter sincerity, honesty, avoidance of deception, expediency, artificiality, no shallowness. In other words, no hypocrisy. It is what it is. And truly, both of those words should define us. We ought to be honest in everything that we do. And the integrity of us, the way we build our It should be there, strong and firm. God rewards honesty and integrity, and he will draw people to him.

Uh We will make the most impact on others when we are honest and when we live a life of integrity. We have a responsibility, church, to exhibit God's holiness to this world through honest and sincere living. You need to look at your church and understand. Look at your life and know, "This is an honest person. This is the one that believes what he says and says what he believes. This is one that that lives a sincere life, and and she does what God would have her to do." And so, the ultimate goal of a Christian, we understand, is to be like Jesus.

That's what we're trying to do. That's what lessons help us to do. That's what prayer time help us to do. Minister the word of God, getting into his presence. All of these are trying to are working to conform us, the Bible says, to the image of Jesus Christ. And so, if we're going to be like him, then we need to see what he is like. Now, here's what he's like. We serve a God who is true and is honest in everything he does. Everything about him is true. The Bible says this, "It is impossible for God to lie." Unfortunately for us, it's not impossible.

So, it's something we got to work on, right? Keeping ourselves honest. Paul wrote this. He said in Romans 3:4, "Yea, let God be true, but every man be a liar." Now, he's not saying you should go around and lie. What he is saying is if you say anything that is contrary to the word of God, you're a liar. If you're saying stuff that is in line with God's word, then that is what is true. And he said so, God's truth is what matters. And as we're being conformed to Jesus Christ, we need to know, and we need to get his truth in our hearts.

Again and again, we can read all throughout the scripture that God and his word are true. Psalmists said this in 33:4, "For the word of the Lord is right, and all his works are done in truth." John 17:17, Jesus said, "Sanctify them through thy word. Thy word is truth." Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:7, "By the word of truth, power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right and on the left." Talking about our salvation and what keeps us. In Ephesians 1:13, he said, "In whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

In whom also that after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." In Colossians 1:5, "For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, wherefore you have heard before in the word of truth of the gospel." I think what they're saying is over and over, this word of God is true. 1 Thessalonians 2:13, "For this cause also we thank God without ceasing, because you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you received it not as the word of men. So, you looked into the scripture and the word of God, and it wasn't just another words from another But, you received it as it is in truth, the word of God." 2 Timothy 2:15 encourages us, "Study to show thyselves approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." And then finally, James 1:18 says, "Of his own will, he begat us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creations." So, true and upright is his word that Jesus said this, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall not pass away." I got a feeling most people will not remember words that I have spoken in 5, 10 years, maybe 2 months after I'm gone.

Those words will be gone. But, the words Jesus spoke, they are true, and they will be forever. So, as children of God, we too should be truthful in everything that we do. Interestingly, when Jesus saw all those who weren't truthful, he called them out for what they were. He called them children of the devil. He said this in John 8:4, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning. He abode" And here's why. "He abode not in the truth, because there's no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it." So, we see this this dichotomy, this difference between those who walk in a walk in truth and those who want to follow something else.

There are many scriptures that let us know that God wants us to be honest in all that we do. There are many that we could point to. One very familiar, Exodus 20:16, one of the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." We usually condense that and say, "Thou shalt not lie." But, he's specifically saying, "Don't lie against someone else. Don't give a false witness. Don't say something that isn't true about someone else." And so, he he reminds us to be honest. The wise man Solomon continually talked about it. But, in Proverbs 11:1, he said a false balance which would be a lie, doing something that you're you're saying this is something and it's really not, he said is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.

In his list of things that are abominable to God, dishonesty and lying is actually included twice. He said, "These six things that the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination to him." This is Proverbs 6:16-19. He said he hates a proud look, he hates a lying tongue, he hates hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that are swift in the running to mischief, a false witness, so there's another lie, that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren. Now, obviously, we do not have time to list all the scriptures, but it's very apparent that God hates that which is not true.

He says, "The love true love what is true and hate what is evil. Love what is good." So, so where do lies and honest words come from? How does that where does it come from out of our lives? Jesus tells us exactly where they originate in Matthew 12:34-37. He's talking to the Pharisees, he said, "You're a generation of vipers." Jesus was never one to mince words. He said, "How can you being evil speak good things?" Now, these were the supposedly the religious leaders that were teaching the people and everything else, and he said, "You're evil. You're not doing what you should be doing." And so, how can you speak good things?

"For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." And because of that, a good man out of the good treasure of the heart, the good things that are there, brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you that every idle word that men speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words, thou shalt be justified, and by thy words, thou shalt be condemned. So, I think we we see the importance of honesty here. Now, he's talking about the heart, he said the these come from the heart.

That word heart refers to the soul or the mind. Obviously, it's not the thing beating inside our chest that keeps blood flowing. It's the soul or our mind. It is the fountain the the seat of our thoughts and our desires and our passions and all those things that are unique to humans. You can't talk about animal having heart in the same way you can a human. Yeah, they've got the thing beating in their chest to to keep blood flowing, but he's talking about their desires and their passions and their appetites and affections all and affections, all those things. In other words, it really begins right up here, doesn't it?

And knowing that, knowing that this is really where thoughts come from. This is really where honesty will begin or dishonesty begins. And so, Paul makes it very clear in that verse that we read, "Finally, brethren, here's what you need to think on. Think on things that are true. Concentrate on things that are true. Because if you concentrate on the false, that's what is going to come out of the man. If you concentrate on things that are true, those are the things that are going to come out. Whatsoever things are honest." So, there's very similar word to true, but things that are honest.

Whatsoever things are just. Whatsoever things are pure and lovely. Whatsoever things are good report. If there's any virtue, if there's any praise, think on these things. We need to watch the things that we think about. If we fill this with all kinds of evil and all kinds of ugliness and all kinds of sin and and all things that are dishonest and are not true and are not pure and not holy, if we run those things through our mind, it's going to come out. You got to be careful the things you read. You got to be careful the things you watch.

You got to be careful the things that you think on and the things that you look at. Got to be careful the links that you click. You got to be careful the social media you follow. There's just so much It's all about keeping, as we've been studying in our Wednesday nights on our mindfulness series, it's very important what we put in our hearts. Solomon said it this way in Proverbs 23:7, "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he." The things that are there will come out in our life. The Bible is correct, our thoughts make us what we are.

And right thinking is of inestimable value. We look at those in the Bible, and you could go on and on. You look at Cain, wrong thoughts. Thoughts against God and well, I don't like God's plan, and so he kills his brother. Disgraced Lot who decided to live in among the sinners rather than than choose the good things of God and tried to to be a part and to integrate himself into that culture. And Samson who thought constantly, even though he was supposed to be separate to God, continually breaking his vow in different ways. And and Saul who was anointed king, but yet decided that he was going to do things his own way and then become vengeful.

We think of Haman whose thoughts were so evil against the Jews and wanted to kill them. Or Judas who who so blatantly betrayed Jesus Christ. All of them thinking about other things other than what they were supposed to be doing. And and how different from someone like Abel who wanted to please God or or like Joseph who, even though he was in Egypt and in situation that that could have destroyed him, because of his honesty and integrity avoided that. Or or a Joshua that could stand and say, "Choose you this day whom you're going to serve, but as for me and my house, we are going to serve the the Lord." Or a Daniel who refused to eat the king's meats and refused to to bow to the idols and refused to stop praying to God that did stood for what he believed in.

And the Bible goes on and on, the apostles and Paul and others that show us that our thoughts will prove to be that highest virtue. You know, every thought that travels through our mind will leave its impression on our brain. Let's face it, it it happens when it's there. And if we think the same thought twice, that impression becomes a little more pronounced. And then when we really just concentrated about it and think about all the time, it eventually will find itself lodged in our thinking and in our thought processes. Abraham Lincoln, I I read the story one time, he was talking about someone said, "You're such a brilliant person.

You have such a brilliant mind. We're just, you know." And he said, "No, that's not true at all." He said, "My mind is like a piece of steel." He said, "It's very hard to scratch anything onto it, almost impossible. But once you get it there, it's almost impossible to rub it back out." I think we're all that way in some ways. One evil thought and and we all have things that go through our minds. But what matters is what we do with it. And so, when we look at the early church, we discover the the secret to its vitality and its strength and and reaching the world and all these different things came because they were living righteously.

Paul said, "If you then be risen with Christ, then seek those things which are above." So, that's the things we need to be concentrating on. He said, "Set your affection." So, that's those desires of your heart, those those things, that's the things that you're thinking about. He said, "You need to set it on things above, not on things of the earth." Notice he didn't say you get saved, those that are risen with Christ, you'll just automatically do it. No, you have to work at this, church. Set your affection on things that are above. And so, his appeal to those believers there in Colossae were is to all of us.

It's important if we're going to change our world positively for Jesus Christ. If we're going to change our lives, if we're going to be conformed to his image, we got to be careful what happens up here. If a person is righteous, clear his thoughts, if he is really following after word, his thoughts are going to be just. Unjust thoughts never yield to righteous conduct. When we know what is right, good thoughts will bear good fruit. And bad thoughts will ultimately bear evil fruit. If we think along the lines of scripture, we'll end up living that way. When we think other thoughts, we will go a different direction.

The 19th century novelist Charles Reade, I don't know if you've ever read any of his stuff, but he said this, "If you sow a thought, it reaps a word." In other words, eventually, you begin to seek it speak it. You begin to think about this and it comes out. And he said, "If you sow a word, you begin to talk about it, you will reap an action." So, pretty soon you're doing it. He said, "If you sow an action, and you do it enough, you're going to reap a habit. And if you sow a habit, you reap a character. That's what you become, people know you as.

Yeah, he always does that. She always participates in it, becomes your character. And here's the sad part, when you sow a character, not necessarily sad, it can be good. But once you sow that character, you will reap a destiny. It's going to determine eternity for us, how we live our life. And so, it all begins with our thinking. We must control our thoughts, and we must keep our hearts. There's at least two main principles about keeping our thought life to honest. There's a couple of them. One is we need to submit our thought life to the discipline of the Lord and to his word.

Paul said it this way, 2 Corinthians 10:5, "Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." I think he had to say that because we all have this same battleground. Thoughts come, thoughts go. But what you do with them is what makes a difference. And so he said, "Some thoughts you just have to bring them into captivity." You see something, something comes to mind, you read about something, you know about something, maybe it's even something you did years ago, maybe something that you did yesterday that you shouldn't have, whatever it is, and you begin to dwell on that, we need to bring that Lord, I need to think right thoughts.

That was an unholy thought, that was something I shouldn't be thinking about. I need to just stop it right now. Bring it into captivity. That's something you have God's not going to do that for you. He's going to say, "You can't think about that." And I'm going to take it away from you. No. You know, that's the thing about we humans. This thing never forgets, does it? Very so I mean, you know. Life tells you to do something and you Oh, yeah, I forgot. That's not what I'm talking about here. We never forget when we willfully entertain things that are wrong.

And they go through our lives or maybe even participate in those things. It's something Yeah, God will forgive us. We can repent of things, but this thing just wants to bring it back all the time. So bring those things into captivity to the obedience of Christ. How do we do that? We look at scripture and we say, "Here's how I need to be living. Here's what I need to be thinking about." The context of that statement is we all live in this human body. We all have this carry around with us this this carnal man, but we don't fight it in the flesh.

We He said, "We have spiritual weapons of our warfare. They're not carnal. They're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." He has given us his word. He's given us his spirit. He's given us prayer. He's given us ways to keep that thought where it needs to be. And until we submit our thought life to God, until we submit it to his word, our imaginations, if we're not careful, will control our life. And here's what we know, the devil, you know, he he he's cunning. Used to be a saying, you know, I'm old I was around in the '70s.

Thought about that this week. You know, some of us here have seen not one splashdown but two or three. It's like 50 years ago. Yeah, we were there. We saw that. But they also had this little thing, you saw it on posters, you saw it on bumper stickers, you saw it all over place said, "The devil made me do it." The devil didn't make you do anything. He can't. But what he can do, when he knows there's a weakness, when he knows there's a problem up here in your life, and he knows that you tend to think along those directions, he will put that in front of your face every chance he gets.

He'll do it through media, he'll do it through billboards, he'll do it through all kinds of things, and he will tempt to crowd your mind with things that are contrary to the word of God. So Paul warned us in Philippians 2:5, "Let this mind, this thought pattern, this mental outlook, this way we think, be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." We need the mind of Christ. Peter used a little bit different analogy, it's very similar though. He said it this way, "Wherefore gird up Paul said bring it into captivity, Peter said, "Gird up the lines of your the loins of your mind.

Be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Some things we just need to pull it in, if you will. Gird it up. Okay, I'm not going to think that way. Sometimes you just need to get your thoughts together and say, "This is what's right and I'm not going to concentrate on that." And so that's the first thing we need to do. Get a hold of what we concentrate on, what we think about, and submit to the right thing. The other thing we need to submit our thought life, and it's it's the other side of it, to the direction of the word of God.

Only when Jesus is Lord of our minds, when he is there and his word is set That's why David said, "Thy word have I hid in my heart." Why? "That I might not sin against thee." What is saying it takes the word of God to help us. Psalm 1 is is favorite Psalm of many of us. It's just six verses, but he he talks about those who have right thoughts, those that are doing what they should be, thinking the way they should, and those that are thinking how they should not. He said, "Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.

He doesn't stand in the way of the sinners or sits in the seat of the scornful." In other words, he he's avoiding the things, he's getting under control those things, not listening to voices that are otherwise or against the word of God, not standing there with it, not going along with sinful ways, not sitting in the seat of the scornful. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. So this is how he is bringing these things into captivity. He is getting the word of God into his life, and he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season, his leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

And then he turns around, he said, "The ungodly are not so. They are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in judgment nor the sinners in the congregation of the righteous." So they are not avoiding the counsel of the ungodly. They are not avoiding standing in the way of sinners. They are sitting in the seat of the scornful. He said, "They're not like that. And they will not stand." He said, "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous." So he knows what we're thinking. He knows how we live, but he also said, "The way of the ungodly shall perish." We need honesty here, integrity here, as we said, but it can't stay here.

It's got to work itself out in our actions. 1 Corinthians 13:7, that's one of the verses we read at the beginning. He said, "Now I pray to God that you do no evil." Now he didn't say think here, he's already adjust He's already talked about that. He said, "But not only should not think those evil things, don't do evil." And I think it's interesting he said, "Not that we should appear approved." He said, "I'm not asking you to do this so I look good as your pastor. I'm not saying you do that to to approve me." He said, "But that you should do which is honest." That's what's important.

It's important in your life. It does us little good to watch our thoughts and our words unless we also watch our actions and how we live our lives. You can think about the Bible a whole lot. I know of people that could quote it. I I once had a man walk in the church I attended up in Illinois, and he came in and he said, "I am the Apostle Paul." And he began to quote all kinds of scripture and uh I don't know what kind of drugs he was on either at the same time. But he did know his Bible.

You could tell from that he was not living for God. And so Jesus asked, "And why do you call me Lord, Lord?" So you come to church, you worship, you say you're Lord and sing about it, do all those things. And then he says, "And you do not that which I say." Your actions don't follow with what you're professing. Truth matters, church, we all live in a glass house, don't we? People are watching our lives. Told this little story some years ago, but I was riding the school bus. I was in high school. Lived out in the country, and so I'm riding the bus to school, and I don't know what I I do not remember, and I thought about I cannot I don't know what I was doing, but somebody else yelled across the bus, "Hey Roger, where's your cross today?" That shut you up real quick.

Cuz they knew what I professed, and they looked and said, "Well, whatever he is, that's not what he says." And so what we are within will eventually show on the outside. So we must actually be good if we want to do good. Jesus gave the parable, and we we sang about it in Sunday school, you know, the wise man builds his house upon the rock, and the rains come down, and you We talk about that. But Jesus said this, and here's what he said, "Yes, I will liken him to a wise man which builds his house upon the rock, the rains descend, the floods come down, the winds blew, beat on the house, and it fell not.

It's founded on a rock." And he said, "And the foolish man builds his house upon the sand, and and the rains come down, and and the house is gone." But we missed the first part of that. Jesus said, "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, that's the wise man." You can talk all day about build my house upon the rock, build my house upon the sand, but what he is saying is you're either doing what I said or you're not doing what I said. He said, "Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not is like he that builds his house up on the sand.

So, that was the crux of it. You either hear it and do it if you want to build on rock, or you hear it and don't do it, and you will be destroyed. And here's what we know. People will judge us by our actions, not our intentions. You know, good intentions don't get you far, do they? A thousand words will not leave as much a impression as one deed. You can talk all day about something, but then you go and do something contrary, and that's what people are going to remember. Action is the natural fruit of this inner direction, how we live our lives.

Told you we're going to be practical. Appropriate action should always follow those good intentions. We come to church and we hear the word of God and that stirs us and we pray and we say, "Lord, I'm I'm going to do this differently and I'm going to do whatever." And then we go out and do what we've always done. James gave an example in James 2:15. He said, "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of food, and the one of you say, 'Depart in peace. Be warm. Be filled.' And walk away." He said, "If you don't give them the things which are needed, what doth it profit?" You can say that all day long.

"Well, God bless you." Goodbye. Actions really do speak louder than words, don't they? We show our integrity not only by what we think, but by righteous action. And unrighteous action or inaction will earn us nothing but disrespect. You know, the devil's okay if you confess your faith, as long as you don't act on it and pra- practice it and do it. You could say all day, "God's good. God's great. You ought to serve God." And you're not doing it, it doesn't get very far. One person went as far as to say, "The tragedy among Christians is that the accompaniment of their lives is drowning out their song." In other words, they're singing one thing, but everything else around them and what they're doing is drowning out the truth of what they are saying.

The truth is that much disparity, if we're not careful, will lie between what we say and what we do. And that's why James said in 3:10, "My brethren, these things ought not so to be." It's not how we ought to live. Do it. Believe it. Say it. But live it. See, we need honesty and integrity in our lifestyle because actions really become a lifestyle. We're building our lives. We're We build it one day at a time. We build it in how we live. We build our character in the things that we do. And here's what Job said. It's It's a simple thought, but it's very profound.

In Job 14:19, he said, "The waters wear the stones." He's talking about just constant water flowing over a rock will eventually wear it. When I was young, my grandma gave me a rock that was about the size of a golf ball, and it was just as smooth as can be. She'd gotten it out of the Pacific Ocean just from rolling around, the water over and over and over, and it just made it round as can be, and smoothed it all off. What? Water? Water that you can run on your hand and just slips through and you think nothing of it, but over time, the same thing over and over, and you have a Grand Canyon.

And so, when we continually do the same things over and over, and we continually, maybe sometimes even fail in the same ways over and over, it will change. It will alter our life. It will make us become what it is pushing us towards. They form a habit, and those habits make up our character. And so, we build our lives each day with these habits that we formed. You know, humans are unique. Un- Unlike instinct, which which animals have, a person acquires most of what we do by habit, by what we choose to do over and over again. Yeah, there's certain instincts, you know, that we're born with, that babies are born with, whatever.

But most of what we do, we build over time. And we have the opportunity of choosing what habits we form, whether we're going to form good ones or bad ones. Good ones are important for success in our spiritual life. For example, you regular times of prayer, regular times of Bible reading, church attendance, all these things will help build our life. And those habits facilitate and promote. So So, we need to have a good habits. And we should live a life that is honest. We should make a concert conscience effort to make every action consistent with what we profess. That if I say it, that's what I'm going to do.

Too many are are are careless about consistent actions. If you find yourself, and and let me just throw this If you find yourself consistently failing or falling into the same trap of sin, we need to realize that if we're not careful, we are creating a habit of that sin, and that it's going to repeat itself unless we get control of it. And God will help us with that, but we have to put forth an effort. And while habits can be hard to break, by conscientiously avoiding those actions, by by thinking about that, habit can be overcome. Here's one thing I found helpful.

One thing you can do is to to control a habit is settle some things in your mind before a temptation comes. I'm not saying you won't be tempted, but some things we just need to settle in our minds. I am not going to allow my life to do that. I'm not going to put this in my life. And you will be tempted with that very thing, I can guarantee you, but when you say, "I am not," and you've made up my mind, if you've really done it and prayed about it and continually, "I will not do that," it will help keep you.

If we approach life's situations with the thought, "Well, I'll decide when the time comes," you're going to put yourself in a pretty bad position. Well, I never really thought about that, you know, and I'll I'll see if it ever happens to me, we'll see what happens. No. You better make up some things now. Settle them in your heart. Some people become content with their good habits, but they neglect to form inward habits, the other way around. Particularly good about I know how I ought to look to everyone, and so I build this facade, but I really haven't changed on the inside.

That's not good, either. Paul asked a question, "What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of the man which is in him?" We see people all the time, don't we, that that are putting forth some kind of persona. I want people to think this of me. I want them to think I'm this kind of person or that kind. And so, they live in a certain way and they do certain actions, and they do those things, but inside they're saying, "Well, I I can't let anybody see the cracks. I can't let anybody see something different." That's not what it's about.

It's about, "Lord, I want to please you," and then acting out those things that please him, living that. But it needs to start here, and then needs to come out in our life. Like habits of the flesh, habits of our mind come little by little as well. One thought at a time eventually will build that mindset. Continually reading the word of God, continually getting into it. We can have a an evil or we can have a pure mindset as we talked about when it do. So, three things that will help us live honestly. First, as we said, think right thoughts.

Paul wrote to the Romans, "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable perfect will of God." I find that verse interesting. That's That's Romans 12 and 2. We quote Romans 12:1 quite often, where it talks about the power of God working in our lives. But in verse 2, he says, "Don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing renewing of your mind." Verse 1, Paul's talking about the renewing of the spirit and the power of the Holy Ghost. It will help you, but it is up to you to transform this mind by doing this renewing.

You have to take the effort to get into the word of God. You have to take the effort to think godly things. Right thoughts come from putting the right material into your mind. But it's more than that. As we said, you can read the word, but you have to have it in your life. Hebrews 4:12 talks about to this. He said, "For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto others, but the word preached to them did not profit them because they didn't mix it with faith in what they heard." You've got to take the word of God, even the word of God you're hearing this morning, you got to mix it with some faith and say, "I'm going to live this out." I'm going to live this out.

Think right thoughts. Second thing, you need to be truthful in your private life. It's easy to put up that facade, but when nobody's around, you need to be the same person, right? A preacher once asked, I'm running out of time here. Once asked the question, "How do you like knowing that God is always with you?" Yeah, I love that. He's always there. Then he kind of turned it around. "How do you like knowing he's there when you're watching that thing that you shouldn't be watching?" "How do you like knowing that he's there when you're clicking where you shouldn't be clicking?

And how do you like being there when you're doing something you" Think about it. And finally, we need to live for others before others with integrity. Not with hypocrisy, integrity. That foundational thing. This is what I am. This is who I am. This is what I believe. And this is how I live my life. We should be as trustworthy and as good as our word. We should be people of integrity. First Timothy 3:7, we're over. He said he must have a good report of them which are without lest he fall into the reproach of the snare of the devil. And Jesus said it this way in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven." That's not hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy glorifies me. When I'm trying to please God, it will glorify him. Let's stand. Honesty and integrity is so important to the child of God. I don't want to give a bad witness to the things of God by saying one thing and living a different life. I want to please him. I want him to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." And the way that's going to happen is when what's in here is correct. And it's demonstrated by what's out there. Lord, help us to do that. We pray God that we would take this word, this simple word of God, do what is right, believe what is right, know what is right, keep our thought life pure, and we will live for you the way you desire, being conformed to your image.

Lord, that we will impact others and that we will touch other lives in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.