Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Strengthening Your Grip on Integrity │ Msg 616 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Strengthening Your Grip on Integrity │ Msg 616 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: Occasionally, I've had the honor to minister to high ranking
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  Speaker 1: military officers who are serving in the Pentagon. Those leaders
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  Speaker 1: are models of strong Christian commitment. During one discussion with them,
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  Speaker 1: the subject of integrity surfaced. I asked if in their ranks,
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  Speaker 1: a failure in character qualities was all that significant. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: they immediately responded their commitment to personal integrity impressed me
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  Speaker 1: because it was expressed spontaneously and sincerely and unanimously. I
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  Speaker 1: told them they would make great pastors. Suddenly, the group
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  Speaker 1: became awkwardly quiet. One of the men finally broke the silence.
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  Speaker 1: He said, the conversation touched a nerve since most of
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  Speaker 1: the officers in our group attended the same church, a church,
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  Speaker 1: he said, and I quote, with a history of biblical preaching,
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  Speaker 1: wonderful fellowship, and a healthy testimony in the community. Until
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  Speaker 1: at that point my stomach churned. I did not want
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  Speaker 1: to guess what he would say next, but he continued
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  Speaker 1: until our pastor had an affair, and he and the
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  Speaker 1: woman both walked away from their mates and their children. Tears,
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  Speaker 1: embarrassed looks, and slowly shaking heads revealed their bewilderment and
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  Speaker 1: their deep disappointment. Their burden weighed heavily on me. I
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  Speaker 1: felt embarrassed as well. I was humiliated to think that
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  Speaker 1: a standard of high moral character is of paramount importance
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  Speaker 1: among military officers, but within the ranks of the clergy
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  Speaker 1: my own colleagues, and impurity epidemic seems to be raging. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this isn't the time to mince words. We all need
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  Speaker 1: the reminder to pay attention to being faithful, no matter
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  Speaker 1: who you are or where you serve, whether in the military,
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  Speaker 1: the ministry, the marketplace, or in the home and neighborhood.
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  Speaker 1: I urge you today to be a person of integrity.
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  Speaker 1: I want to read for you two sections from two Psalms.
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  Speaker 1: The first is from Psalm seventy five the New Living
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  Speaker 1: Translation renders verses five through seven. This way, don't raise
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  Speaker 1: your fists in defiance at the heavens, or speak with
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  Speaker 1: such arrogance, For no one on Earth, from east or west,
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  Speaker 1: or even from the wilderness, should raise a defiant fist.
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  Speaker 1: It is God alone who judges. He decides who will
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  Speaker 1: rise and who will fall. And then over in Psalms
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  Speaker 1: seventy eight, the last three verses of that Psalm, verses
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  Speaker 1: seventy through seventy two.
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  Speaker 2: Read as follows.
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  Speaker 1: He chose his servant David, calling him from the sheep pens.
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  Speaker 1: He took David from tending the ewes and lambs and
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  Speaker 1: made him the shepherd of Jacob's descendants, God's own people Israel.
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  Speaker 1: He cared for them with a true heart and led
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  Speaker 1: them with skillful hands.
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  Speaker 2: This morning, I would like for you to do something
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  Speaker 2: very difficult. It may even be a little painful. It
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  Speaker 2: certainly will be uncomfortable, but it's something that you must
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  Speaker 2: do in order for you to understand fully what this
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  Speaker 2: message is all about. For some of you, it will
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  Speaker 2: be the very first time in your life you will
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  Speaker 2: have done this. For others, it will have happened before,
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  Speaker 2: but not to the extent it will happen today. Lest
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  Speaker 2: I sound like I'm speaking in riddles, let me say
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  Speaker 2: that what I'm asking you to do is not unlike
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  Speaker 2: what doctor Evan O'Neil kin, chief surgeon in New York City,
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  Speaker 2: a number of years ago, did At the age of sixty,
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  Speaker 2: he had been a surgeon for thirty seven years. Like
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  Speaker 2: most physicians of great experience, doctor Kin had become preoccupied
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  Speaker 2: with a particular facet of medicine. His strong feelings concerned
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  Speaker 2: the use of general anesthesia in major surgery. He believed
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  Speaker 2: that most major operations could and should be performed under
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  Speaker 2: local anesthetic. For his opinion, the hazards of a general
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  Speaker 2: anesthesia outweighed the risk of the surgery itself. For example,
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  Speaker 2: Cain cited the surgical candidate with a history of heart trouble.
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  Speaker 2: In some cases, a surgeon may be reticent to operate,
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  Speaker 2: fearing the effects of the anesthesia on the heart of
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  Speaker 2: that patient. And of course, there were those patients with
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  Speaker 2: specific anesthesia allergies who never awakened. Cain's medical mission was
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  Speaker 2: to prove to his colleagues once for all the viability
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  Speaker 2: of local anesthesia, and it would take a great deal
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  Speaker 2: of convincing. Many patients were understandably squeamish at the thought
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  Speaker 2: of being awake while it happens, quote unquote. Others feared
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  Speaker 2: the possibility of anesthesia wearing off in the middle of
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  Speaker 2: the surgery. To break down these psychological barriers, doctor Cain
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  Speaker 2: would have to find a volunteer who was very brave,
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  Speaker 2: a candidate for major surgery who would be willing to
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  Speaker 2: accept local anesthesia. In his distinguished thirty seven years in
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  Speaker 2: the medical field, Cain had performed nearly four thousand appendectomies,
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  Speaker 2: so this next appendectomy would be routine in every way
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  Speaker 2: except one. Doctor Kane's patient would remain awake throughout the
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  Speaker 2: surgical procedure under local anesthesia. The operation was scheduled for
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  Speaker 2: a Tuesday Tuesday morning, February fifteenth. The patient was prepped,
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  Speaker 2: wheeled into the operating room, and the local was administered.
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  Speaker 2: Cain began as he had thousands of times before, carefully
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  Speaker 2: dissecting superficial tissues and clamping blood vessels on his way.
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  Speaker 2: In locating the appendix, the sixty year old surgeon deftly
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  Speaker 2: pulled it up, excised it, and bent the stump under.
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  Speaker 2: Through it all, the patient experienced only minor discomfort. The
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  Speaker 2: operation concluded successfully. The patient rested well that night. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: in the following day his recovery was said to have
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  Speaker 2: progressed beyond that of the typical postoperative patient. On the
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  Speaker 2: afternoon of the seventeenth, only two days later, just following
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  Speaker 2: the surgery, the patient was released from the hospital to
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  Speaker 2: recuperate at home. Cain had proved his point the risks
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  Speaker 2: of general anesthesia could be avoided in major operations. The
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  Speaker 2: potential of local anesthesia had been fully realized thanks to
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  Speaker 2: the example of an innovative doctor and a very brave volunteer. Oh,
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  Speaker 2: I should mention that it took place in nineteen twenty one,
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  Speaker 2: and I should mention that doctor Evan O'Neil kine and
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  Speaker 2: the patient who volunteered had a great deal in common.
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  Speaker 2: They were the same man to Caine to prove the
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  Speaker 2: viability of local anesthesia, had operated on himself. That's what
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  Speaker 2: I want you to do today. Not physically. Not physically
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  Speaker 2: that's impossible here, but to do that upon yourself spiritually.
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  Speaker 2: Now you need the right instrument, and you have it
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  Speaker 2: if you have a Bible in your hand. It is
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  Speaker 2: a sharp, two edged scalpel, and it is able to
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  Speaker 2: pierce where no surgeon's scalpel can reach. It is able
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  Speaker 2: to penetrate right into the soul and the spirit of
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  Speaker 2: your inner person. What I want you to do is
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  Speaker 2: to carry out an exploratory surgical operation. Spiritually speaking, I'd
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  Speaker 2: like you to allow the spirit of God to take
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  Speaker 2: the scalpel of the Word of God and to open
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  Speaker 2: yourself up to reveal the truth of what's inside it's
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  Speaker 2: going to be uncomfortable, and in some cases it's going
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  Speaker 2: to bring a lot of pain. But I want you
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  Speaker 2: to see just how beneficial such a surgical procedure can
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  Speaker 2: be to carry this out. I'd like you to take
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  Speaker 2: two tests. Both tests are real in life, neither is pleasant.
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  Speaker 2: Both reveal the truth of what is inside. Reflecting back
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  Speaker 2: over this year, I would like for you to take
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  Speaker 2: first the test of adversity. And perhaps this describes your year.
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  Speaker 2: It may very well have been the most difficult year
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  Speaker 2: of your life. I know some personally who could say
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  Speaker 2: that without reservation, open the instrument that God is using
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  Speaker 2: today in our lives. To Proverbs chapter twenty four, and
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  Speaker 2: let's see that test as it's revealed in verse ten.
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  Speaker 2: And having seen it, let's allow the spirit of God
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  Speaker 2: to examine how we are in the midst of adversity.
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  Speaker 2: Twenty four to ten of Proverbs, Solomon writes, if you
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  Speaker 2: are slack in the day of distress, your strength is limited.
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  Speaker 2: If you carry a King James Bible, you are reading
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  Speaker 2: these words. If thou faintest in the day of adversity,
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  Speaker 2: thy strength is small. A major test on mankind is adversity.
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  Speaker 2: You can trip along through life, sort of chattering about
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  Speaker 2: things spiritually, you know, using a lot of the cliches,
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  Speaker 2: saying a lot of the right things, churchy talk. And
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  Speaker 2: suddenly adversity pulls the rug out from under you. It
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  Speaker 2: reveals the truth of all that stuff you had been saying.
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  Speaker 2: If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength
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  Speaker 2: really was very small. Jeremiah the prophet rights, if you
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  Speaker 2: have run with footman and they have wearied you, then
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  Speaker 2: how will you contend with the cavalry? And if in
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  Speaker 2: a land of peace in which you trusted you became weary?
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  Speaker 2: What will you do in the swelling of the Jordan?
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  Speaker 2: The Berkeley Bible says, how will you do in Jordan's jungle?
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  Speaker 2: In other words, if you didn't do very well in
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  Speaker 2: basic training, what will you do in the swamp and
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  Speaker 2: the jungle of life? And if you didn't carry on
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  Speaker 2: very well when things were peaceful and clean and you
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  Speaker 2: were well fed, what will you do when all hell
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  Speaker 2: breaks loose? Solomon says, if you faint when the day
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  Speaker 2: becomes adverse, your strength is small. And it happens fast,
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  Speaker 2: really fast. For some of you, adversities struck this year
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  Speaker 2: so rapidly it swept you off your feet and Sports illustrated.
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  Speaker 2: Some time ago, williermo Vilas, the tennis player from Buenos Aires,
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  Speaker 2: was interviewed, and from the externals, he looks like the
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  Speaker 2: most secure man you'd ever want to meet. He's handsome,
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  Speaker 2: he's winsome, he's popular. In fact, one woman in South
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  Speaker 2: America was heard to say, if I could just touch
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  Speaker 2: the hem of his garment, I could be well again.
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  Speaker 2: Williamovilas says, fervently. I think that many times one feels
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  Speaker 2: one's self to be secure and suddenly one world falls
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  Speaker 2: down like a pack of cards in a matter of seconds.
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  Speaker 2: That's true, isn't it? Illustration Balvano, Italy, November twenty third
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  Speaker 2: Illustration Mount Saint Helen's October nineteen eighty. Or staying overnight
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  Speaker 2: at the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas that fateful night,
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  Speaker 2: Or being an employee for twenty five years at Ford
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  Speaker 2: Motor Company only to have your plant permanently closed, as
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  Speaker 2: well as twelve others that will never open again, like
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  Speaker 2: a pack of cards. Your world falls down, like being
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  Speaker 2: a law abiding citizen in Afghanistan the day before or
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  Speaker 2: in Poland today. Currence of a hostage in Iran. Are
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  Speaker 2: the mother of small children in a nuclear radiation threatened area,
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  Speaker 2: like Mary Interline of Middletown, Pennsylvania, who said in an interview,
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  Speaker 2: I am scared to death. I have a two year
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  Speaker 2: old son, and every night when I pull his shades
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  Speaker 2: down at bedtime and look out the window and see
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  Speaker 2: the cooling towers, I nearly cry. I am in a panic.
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  Speaker 2: I have never considered myself a violent person, but I'm
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  Speaker 2: beginning to think I'm going crazy. I do believe I am.
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  Speaker 2: It's a crazy age. One wag said. Anybody who isn't
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  Speaker 2: schizophrenic these days isn't thinking clearly. Tough day which to live.
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  Speaker 2: It's hard to handle life when the rug comes out
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  Speaker 2: from under you, when the trap door pops open. It's
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  Speaker 2: hard to go on when your marriage fails and someone
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  Speaker 2: didn't keep his promise, and your child doesn't reach full
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  Speaker 2: age before he's taken from you, or your health is threatened.
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  Speaker 2: Are the doctor frowns when he looks at the X ray,
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  Speaker 2: or you don't have enough money to make your expenses.
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  Speaker 2: I've been reading a book called A Long Obedience in
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  Speaker 2: the same direction. In a Varsity Press publication by Eugene
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  Speaker 2: Peterson right in the middle of it. He says the
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  Speaker 2: finest statement about life, the simplest and most ancient of
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  Speaker 2: human truths, is that life is an arduous and tragic struggle.
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  Speaker 2: That what we call sanity has a great deal to
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  Speaker 2: do with competence earned by struggling for excellence, with compassion
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  Speaker 2: hard won by confronting conflict, and with modesty and patience
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  Speaker 2: acquired through silence and suffering. Now you're examining yourself. You're
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  Speaker 2: doing exploratory surgery on your condition. What's your condition today?
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  Speaker 2: How are you doing when adversity strikes? Turn from Proverbs
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  Speaker 2: back two books to the Book of Job, chapter four,
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  Speaker 2: and let me bring an illustration on the scene, so
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  Speaker 2: that all of us can identify not with a concept,
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  Speaker 2: but with a person we need that sometime is the man.
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  Speaker 2: Chapter four is the chapter, and it's Job's journal of suffering.
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  Speaker 2: No man that I've ever read in scripture or in
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  Speaker 2: all of time has suffered more than Job, save our
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  Speaker 2: savior Jesus Christ himself. Job has lost everything. Ten fresh
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  Speaker 2: graves on a windswept hill not too far from his
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  Speaker 2: home represents the loss of his ten children. Imagine it,
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  Speaker 2: one after another. By the time the calamity had passed
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  Speaker 2: to his home was gone. His treasure was gone, his
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  Speaker 2: live stock was gone, his crops were gone, his health
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  Speaker 2: was gone. He had nothing. He was a hard pressed soul,
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  Speaker 2: bruised by the blows of adversity. Some counselors came along.
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  Speaker 2: Put counselors in italics. Please. They came to give him counsel.
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  Speaker 2: They came to set him straight. They came to talk
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  Speaker 2: to him because they knew he was a man of
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  Speaker 2: a great deal of maturity. But they began to see
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  Speaker 2: him crack under the adversity. Chapter four is the counsel
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  Speaker 2: of Eliphaz, the temanite, who gingerly walks before Job, sees
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  Speaker 2: his body covered with boils, and says, if one ventures
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  Speaker 2: a word with you, will you become impatient? But who
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  Speaker 2: can refrain from speaking? Behold, you have admonished many, and
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  Speaker 2: you have strengthened weak hands. Your words have helped the
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  Speaker 2: tottering to stand, and you have strengthened feeble kneeds. That's true.
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  Speaker 2: Job had been a wise and faithful father, as well
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  Speaker 2: as a good man, who walked with God for years.
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  Speaker 2: He had the world of the tale. He had offered
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  Speaker 2: counsel and encouragement, and I am sure financial assistance. He
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  Speaker 2: had supported many of the week, And now suddenly, like
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  Speaker 2: Williamovila's pack of cards, his world has fallen apart. And
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  Speaker 2: Elafaz comes on tiptoe and he says Verse five. But
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  Speaker 2: now now it has come to you, and you are impatient.
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  Speaker 2: It touches you, and you are depressed. Literally, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I can't cluck my tongue at job. Nobody can. If
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  Speaker 2: you have suffered the blows of adversity, you understand what
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  Speaker 2: it means to feel impatient, even though you once walk
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  Speaker 2: closely with God. Hey, let's face it, it's hard to walk
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  Speaker 2: with God when things don't work out, when your world
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  Speaker 2: comes tumbling down, when love seems to escape and friends
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  Speaker 2: seem far away. The blows of adversity are hard to bear.
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  Speaker 2: If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength
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  Speaker 2: is small. You're examining yourself. How strong have you been
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  Speaker 2: in this year? How well have you endured the afflictions?
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  Speaker 2: Only you can gauge that. No one knows but you
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  Speaker 2: and God. Now there's another test. I said there were two.
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  Speaker 2: The first is adversity, and it's hard, but it's not
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  Speaker 2: the harder of the two, even though from the externals
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  Speaker 2: it looks like it is. The second test is prosperity. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: I'm convinced that adversity, though it is very, very hard,
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  Speaker 2: is not anything as difficult as prosperity. Carlisle, the Scottish essayist,
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  Speaker 2: once said, this adversity is hard on a man, but
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  Speaker 2: for everyone who can handle prosperity, there are a hundred
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  Speaker 2: who can handle adversity. Maybe this has been a prosperous
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  Speaker 2: year for you. Perhaps you have more now than any
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  Speaker 2: year in your life, and you now must admit life
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  Speaker 2: has become complicated. Prosperity doesn't simplify life. Suffering does. When
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  Speaker 2: suffering happens, then there's one basic goal, and that is survival.
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  Speaker 2: Just get by, just live another day, just keep the
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  Speaker 2: world off your shoulders. But when you have much, suddenly
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  Speaker 2: there is any enormous test on your integrity. So while
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  Speaker 2: you explore today, and while you carry out spiritual surgery
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  Speaker 2: on yourself, I want you to test the depth of
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  Speaker 2: your integrity, and it may be painful. Turn now to
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  Speaker 2: song number seventy five will allow the scalpel to dig
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  Speaker 2: deeply into our own lives. And to examine our response
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  Speaker 2: to prosperity. God's counsel is two direct warnings from these
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  Speaker 2: three verses out of Psalm seventy five. I'm referring to
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  Speaker 2: verses five, six, and seven. I want you to think
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  Speaker 2: about yourself for a few moments. I want you to
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  Speaker 2: analyze your response in this year to prosperity. Now, humanly speaking,
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  Speaker 2: the tendency is to become proud, arrogant, conceited, self sufficient.
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  Speaker 2: So the first warning, as expected is don't be conceited.
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  Speaker 2: Guard against that. Verse five. Do not lift up your
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  Speaker 2: horn on high. Do not speak with insolent pride. We
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  Speaker 2: would say in our day, don't toot your own horn.
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  Speaker 2: If your business is prospering, keep your mouth shut. If
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  Speaker 2: God has opened the floodgates a blessing and you are
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  Speaker 2: making more money now than you've ever made in your life, relax.
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  Speaker 2: Don't talk about it, don't flaunt it. Don't take advantage
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  Speaker 2: of someone else because they aren't on your level. If
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  Speaker 2: you're gifted athletically, don't keep looking for your clippings the
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  Speaker 2: next day after the game. Don't read your write ups
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  Speaker 2: over and over and over and over, so that your
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  Speaker 2: whole focus is on your success. He says, don't toot
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  Speaker 2: your own horn, don't speak with insolent pride. Want you
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  Speaker 2: to hold your place here for just a moment and
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  Speaker 2: look at a couple of parallel passages and proverbs. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: Proverbs chapter twenty seven has both of them, twenty seven,
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  Speaker 2: verse two and verse twenty one. Please turn Proverbs twenty
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  Speaker 2: seven to two is good counsel for those of you
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  Speaker 2: who are prosperous this year. Let another praise you, and
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  Speaker 2: not your own mouth, a stranger and not your own lips.
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  Speaker 2: Wise counsel. If there is to be praise accorded you,
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  Speaker 2: let it come from someone else. Don't drop hints, don't
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  Speaker 2: wait with baited breath to hear what someone is saying
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  Speaker 2: about you. Relax Verse twenty twenty one. That's it, Shane
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  Speaker 2: chapter The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold,
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  Speaker 2: and a man a woman, a person is tested by
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  Speaker 2: the praise accorded him. Not a good verse. The test
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  Speaker 2: of your integrity will come not when you are in
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  Speaker 2: adverse situations, but when you have become prosperous. Some of
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  Speaker 2: you are in the process of becoming very, very good
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  Speaker 2: at what you do. Some of you are already great,
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  Speaker 2: and by the grace of God, as time passes, you
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  Speaker 2: will become even greater, better adit, more adept, more efficient,
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  Speaker 2: more well known. Solomon says, that's a test. That's a
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  Speaker 2: test in your integrity. Back to Psalm number seventy five.
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  Speaker 2: The second piece of warning is verses six and seven.
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  Speaker 2: Not from the east, nor from the west, nor from
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  Speaker 2: the desert comes exaltation. God is the judge. He puts
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  Speaker 2: down one, he exalts another. Look at the last verse
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  Speaker 2: we read. He puts down one, he exalts another. The
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  Speaker 2: last time I spoke on this, I was speaking to
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  Speaker 2: the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were just about to play the
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: San Diego Chargers that night. If you follow football, you
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: know that they were already out of the playoffs. Sitting
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: in front of me were some of the strongest, toughest
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: men you'd ever want to meet. I warned him, not
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: all to sit on one side of the rumor it
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: would tilt man whose names are household words in the
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: sports world, and they had been exalted for four separate occasions,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: but now they had been brought low. Difficult to observe.
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: Those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. In
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: comparison with those that do. It is interesting to see
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: how much perspective God brings into your life, whether you
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: are at the top or approaching the bottom. These men
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: nodded with understanding when I read God is the judge.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: He puts down one and he exalts another. But it
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: isn't as always as notorious as a Super Bowl game.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: It is in the little things of life. It is
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: in decisions made in your business. It is in those
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: hunches that you carry through on and they work, and
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: they pay off, and by and by you begin to
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: amass a fortune in your name. So the second warning
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: is keep the right perspective, don't be conceited verse five,
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: Keep the right perspective Verses six and seven. And as
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: in the case of adversity, job was the illustration. In
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: the case of integrity, David is turn over a couple
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: of pages Psalm seventy eight, verse seventy. In the very
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: few moments that remained while you carry out the final
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: part of your exploratory surgery, I want you to compare
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: yourself with David who became the king. But don't think
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: of David now in robed royalty. I want you to
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: think of David as a little young teenager keeping his
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: father's sheep. I want you to think of him as
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: so insignificant that when Samuel came to pick the next king,
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: remember Saul successor that David's own father, Jesse, didn't remember
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: David as even having the potential of being the king.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: So after Samuel looked at all the sons of Jesse,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: all seven of them paraded in front of him, and
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: none of them qualified. God didn't prompt Samuel to put
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: his hand on any of them. Samuel says to the father,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: is this all you have? And he says no, By
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: the way, I've got one more. Wouldn't you love to
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: be David? Your father doesn't even bring you in when
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: they're running for king. He leaves you with the sheep.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: That's where you are. Oh oh yeah, I've got one
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: to run. He's out with the sheep, he's keeping the
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: woolies today. You want me to bring him in, Sure,
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: bring him in. And David comes in from watching the sheep,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: and the next thing he knows, he's got oil running
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: down his neck and people are talking things like king.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: You know what happens to David when that's all over,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: When all that applause is ended, and all the brothers
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: are going back their room thinking, oh man, he got
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: it and I didn't get it. I mean, he was
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: the next he was the king elect. You know what
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: he did. He went right back to the sheep. That's impressive.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: Why you and I would have been at may Company
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: trying on crowns or early afternoon anyway. And that's what's
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: what you do when you're on your way to being
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: the king. Not David, no way. Look at verse seventy
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: of chapter seventy eight and you'll see why God chose David.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Verse seventy says he chose David his servant. I love.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: That doesn't refer to him, as you know, an outstanding
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: young man. Doesn't say that he had set all kinds
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: of pole vault records. It doesn't say that he was
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: super strong like Samson. It says that David was a servant.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Let me tell you, the person with integrity has the
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: humility of a servant. You never since that he's something
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: on a stick. You sense that he or she has
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: the humility of a servant. He was faithful in the
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: little things. My friend, While you do surgery on yourself,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: ask yourself am I. You have a tough job to
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: carry out in your employment? Do you do it well
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: when no one is around? You have an assignment to
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: follow through on, and the deadline is do you keep
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: your word and meet the deadline? You make promises? Do
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: you fulfill your word? You owe money? Do you pay
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: the money on time? You have a lot of privacy,
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: and the privacy is entrusted to you. Do you behave
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: yourself morally? In your private life? You have an expense
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: account to fill out because you travel every month. Do
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: you keep it honest? You see, it breaks down to
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: just basic things as keeping sheep. He took him from
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: the sheep folds. I love that he took him from
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: caring for the pregnant ewes, for those young mother sheep
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: that were still followed by the little suckling lambs. David
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: was in there working with those sheep, and God said,
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: that's my kind of guy. That's the next one. That's
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: all successor. You see, he saw the heart of integrity
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: Verse seventy two. David shepherded them, that is, the people
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: of Israel, according to the integrity of his heart, honest,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: within no duplicity, A simple man, not simplistic, but a
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: simple man. God was big, and all of life was
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: a little. God was responsible for emotions and demotions, and
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: all of life passed before his sovereign eyes. God saw
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: in David the humility of a servant, He saw the
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: heart of a shepherd Verse seventy two, and he saw
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: hands of skill. He guided them with his skillful hands.
• 33:22
  Speaker 2: He got involved while you're doing surgery. I want to
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: ask you two questions, and they're same, they just follow
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: different stories. When I ask you about your involvement in
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: helping people. Andrew was riding on a subway. The seventeen
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: year old youth was mining his own business when he
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: was stabbed repeatedly in the stomach by attackers. Eleven riders
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: on the same car watched the stabbing, but not one
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: came to assist the young man. Even after the thugs
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: fled and the train had pulled out of the station.
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: As he lay in a pool of his own blood,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: not one of the eleven came to his side. Would
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: you have same question? A little less dramatic, but equally shocking.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Eleanor was shopping at Fifth Avenue, Busy Manhattan in New
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: York City. She tripped and broke her leg. Dazed and
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: anguished and in shock, she called out for help from
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: the sidewalk, not for two minutes, not for twenty minutes,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: but for forty minutes, forty minutes on the sidewalk in
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: New York City broad daylight, as business executives and shoppers
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: and students and merchants walked around her and stepped over her,
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: completely ignoring her cries. After literally hundreds had passed by,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: a cab driver, obviously irritated, pulled over, hauled her into
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: his taxi, and took her to a local hospital. Would
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: you have stopped? David seems to qualify because he got
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: them with skillful hands. He got in there and got dirty,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: He got involved. Integrity doesn't throw around a lot of
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: theoretical promises and toss him here and there and leave
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: people with expectations. Integrity says, I care enough to get involved.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: You can't meet the needs of the world. They are
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: multiplied millions of needs, but you can maybe meet one
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: or two in a month or two's time. Huh do you?
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: And I can't stop before? I'd say directly. Integrity also
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: means that when I sense something wrong is happening, I
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: stop it, or I get out of the way so
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: it doesn't disease me, it doesn't caused me the contagion
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: of wrong. I guess the best book I read this year.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: It was not a Christian book. It was a book
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: called The Mind of Watergate by Leo Rangel. The Compromise
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: of Integrity is a subtitle. It's a great book. Rangell
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: analyzes the mind of Nixon and his surrounding cronies during
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: the Watergate era and before it to point out, from
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: a psychiatrist's point of view, what was happening in the
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: man's head during the time that all of those things
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: were going on. Lifted from this book is a fine
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: dialogue between Senator Baker and a young man named Herbert L. Porter,
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: who was there during the early stages and was swept
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: into the sewer of the whole thing. And in this inquisition,
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: as it were, this question and answered dialogue, Baker tried
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: to pursue the concern for integrity. Baker, did you ever
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: have any qualms about what you were doing, mister Porter,
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: I'm probing into your state of mind. Porter, Uncomfortably. I
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: was not the one to stand up in a meeting
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: and say this should be stopped. I mean I kind
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: of drifted along, Baker at any time, did you ever
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: think of saying, I do not think this is quite right,
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: this is not quite the way it ought to be.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: Did you ever think of that? Porter? Yes, I did, Baker.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: What did you do about it? Porter? I did not
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: do anything, Baker? Why didn't you? Porter? After evidence of
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: much inner thought on his face in all honesty, probably
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: because of the fear of group pressure, of not being
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: a team player. Let's learn a lesson from Watergate. Let's
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: learn a lesson from jonestown. Let's learn never to be forgotten,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: lessons from those same situations that happen by the dozens
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: every year. If you have to do wrong to stay
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: on the team, you're on the wrong team. Get off
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: or clean it up? Oh Jack, I mean that's making waves.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Integrity makes waves, Integrity makes no mean no and yes
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: mean yes, and making up one's mind. Regardless of the
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: popular response, well, surgery is painful. This year was adverse
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: for some of you. It was prosperous for others. God
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: beautifully has arranged a plan to bring us to a
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: place of self examination on a regular basis. You know
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: that because the fog of ecclesiastical liturgy has covered over
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: the Lord's table. We've lost the simplicity of it. It
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: is designed to make us think child of God. God
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: doesn't parade the elements in front of us, so we
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: can gulp down a piece of cracker and drink down
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: some grape juice to go on our own merry way. No,
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: he says, that's what they did in Corinth for that
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: cause many of you are weak and sick, and some
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: of you have died. No, before you let that piece
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: of pastry touch your tongue, and before that liquid goes
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: down your throat, you be sure you examine yourself, and
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: then you may eat of that bread and drink of
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: that cup. When you observe the table of the Lord Jesus,
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: you are involved in the most serious and significant kind
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: of worship in all of life. It is the perfect
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: opportunity for any without Christ to receive him. It is
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: the perfect opportunity for there to be a cleansing of
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: the tumors of sin, for the Spirit of God excises
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: them one after another as they are laid out before
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: his scalpel. You see, you must operate on yourself, and
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: the Lord Jesus Christ promises that every one of those
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: things you bring before him that have no business in
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: your life, He will take away and forgive. You may
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: be bow together. We now enter this very serious time
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: of worship. We must enter with a prepared heart. No
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: one can come to this table with unwashed hands. It
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: is heresy. It is heresy to take the elements that
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: reflect the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: with a heart that is not clean before him. I
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: warmly and compassionately invite you, who come today with other
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, to receive him now and partake with us
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: as a brand new babe in the family and child
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: of God. I must warn you that you must be
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: sure you are clean having confessed to Him those things
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: he has pointed out to you in this message, before
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: you partake with others. I must add if you refuse
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: to do that, you must please let the elements pass
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: lest you drink judgment unto yourself. This will be a
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: time of quietness. We will later leave in absolute silence.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Our visiting will happen outside, but in the quietness and
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: darkness of this room it will worship and pray together
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: our Father, our God. We have been stimulated with the
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: truth of your word we have reflected on our adverse
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: times this year. We thank you for sustaining us in grace.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: We now turn in worship, and, having analyzed our own
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: level of integrity, we find ourselves in need of cleansing refreshment.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: We pray that you will do that.
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: We love you, we adore you. We lay our lives
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: before you, Father, because of Jesus Christ. In the name
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ the Lord, we pray Amen.
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: The preceding message, Strengthening your grip on Integrity was copyrighted
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty nineteen eighty one, nineteen eighty five, nineteen
• 44:15
  Speaker 3: eighty nine, nineteen ninety five, twenty fourteen, and twenty twenty four,
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty four
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: by Charles R. Swindall Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide.
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.