Every few years the U.S. Department of Defense publishes a short book called The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure. The book is filled with case studies of government employees acting badly, and it's used to train new government workers how not to behave on the job.
Recently, one case study focused on a federal employee who backed up his van to the office door at night and stole all of his department's computer equipment. A short time later he was arrested for trying to sell the equipment at his yard sale. He wasn't hard to catch: the computers were still plastered with barcodes and stickers that read “Property of the U.S Government.”
Another case study described two government executives, who apparently had never taken any vacation time. However, investigators noticed that they had taken lots of “religious compensatory time.” Yet those days never fell on a religious holiday from any known religion. Instead, they happened to coincide with the employees' golf outings. When asked if golf tournaments should be considered a religious holiday, one of the employees replied, “They could be for some people.” (Stephen J. Dunbar, “Government Employees Gone Wild: Full Transcript,” Freakonomics blog, 7-17-13; www.PreachingToday.com)
How could people be so dumb? The current editor of The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure suggests, “At the moment they didn't think of the ramifications.”
And yet, there is probably not a one of us who hasn’t done the same thing, something dumb without thinking of the ramifications. So what do you do when that happens? What do you do to regain your integrity? What do you do to regain trust among those you have let down?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 20, Genesis 20, where we see how Abraham regained his integrity after doing something really dumb.
Genesis 20:1 From there Abraham journeyed toward the territory of the Negeb and lived between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar. (ESV)
That’s the land of the Philistines.
Genesis 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. (ESV)
That is, He took her into his harem. Didn’t Abraham learn his lesson the first time? Several years before this, he lied about his wife in Egypt and nearly lost her. Now, he’s lying about his wife in Philistine territory. He’s scared, afraid that they will kill him for his wife, so he tells them, “She is my sister,” and loses her again! She about to become another man’s wife.
How could Abraham be so dumb? Well, he didn’t think of the ramifications! God had just told him, “Within a year, Sarah will give birth to a promised son” (Genesis 18:10). Now that “promise is put in jeopardy, traded away for personal safety” (Derek Kidner). It was a dumb move. My dear friends, please don’t make the same mistake.
DON’T LOSE YOUR INTEGRITY.
Don’t lie just to save your own skin. I like the way Will Rogers put it a long time ago: “Live so that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.” (Will Rogers, actor, writer, and speaker, 1879–1935; www.PreachingToday.com)
Peter Greer’s book, The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good, talks about Greg Mortenson, who became an instant celebrity after the publication of his bestselling book, Three Cups of Tea. Greg Mortenson had been a mountain climber, who started a charity to create educational opportunities for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Unfortunately, Mortenson's story had some major holes. For instance, at one point Mortenson writes a captivating story about being held hostage by the Taliban. He even had a photo to prove it. But it turns out the men in the photo, his alleged “captors,” were not the Taliban. One of the so-called “captors” was actually a renowned research director named Mansur Khan Mahsud, who said that Mortenson was a guest, not a hostage.
Mortenson, admits to some exaggeration in his story, arguing that he had to stretch the truth to help those in need. However, his embellishments led him to places he never wanted to go.
The media crucified Mortenson. Reporter Jon Krakauer claimed that Mortenson was using the organization as a “private ATM machine” to buy things like personal jets. An expose on 60 Minutes revealed that of the thirty schools in Mortenson's organization that they visited, about half were either no longer being funded or had been abandoned. Some were even used “to store spinach, or hay for livestock; others had not received any money from Mortenson's charity in years.”
Mortenson started with good intentions and a great idea, but after launching his organization he lost his moral bearings and betrayed the trust of many people. (Peter Greer, The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good, Bethany, 2013, pp. 68-69; www. PreachingToday.com)
Please, don’t let that happen to you! Don’t start off with good intentions and then lose your moral bearings. Don’t lose your integrity for any reason, even if it is for a “good cause,” because the price is always too high to pay. A lie will always cost you more than the truth ever will.
But you say, “Phil, I have already lost my integrity. I have already paid a high price for my dishonesty, betraying the trust of my family, my friends, or my co-workers. Is there anything I can do now to regain that trust? Is there any hope for me?” Well, I’ve got good news! Yes there is! You can…
FIND YOUR INTEGRITY AGAIN.
You can regain what you lost. You can, with God’s help, be restored to a position of honor again. Just look at what God did for Abraham.
Genesis 20:3 “But God” – two of the sweetest words in all of the Bible. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days… BUT GOD remembered Noah (Genesis 8:1). We were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. BUT GOD, who comforts the downcast, comforted us (2 Corinthians 7:6). We were dead in trespasses and sins… BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4). Here, Abraham makes a mess of things and loses his wife…
Genesis 20:3-7 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.” (ESV)
God Himself intervenes on Abraham’s behalf, and that is the only way Abraham escapes his predicament. You see, God made a promise to Abraham He must keep. He told Abraham, “Sarah will have a son within the year.” So God intervenes to persevere His own integrity. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
Abraham was faithless, but God remained faithful to His promise, and rescued both Abraham and Sarah, so they could have a son just like He promised. So it is with you and me. When we are faithless, God will remain faithful to His promises and save us, even when we cannot save ourselves.
But first, you must let God must REVEAL THE LIE. Let God bring your faithlessness out into the open. That’s how God begins the restoration process with Abraham. First, he reveals Abraham’s sin to Abimelech.
Just last year, Zogby conducted a large benchmark poll in which respondents identified “greed/materialism” as the number one “most urgent problem in American culture.” “Poverty/economic justice” finished in second place. The year before that (2014) a Vanity Fair poll found that 78 percent of Americans saw greed as a bad thing. And when the Economist asked their readers, “What is the deadliest sin?”, they ranked greed as number one.
However, though most people think greed is a terrible problem, most people don't think they are greedy. When the BBC conducted a poll on the seven deadly sins (anger, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride and sloth), greed was last on the list in answer to two questions: Which sin have you ever committed? and Which sin have you committed in the past month? Plenty of people admitted being lazy, proud, envious and angry. But greedy? Seventh out of seven, last on the list. Tim Keller, a pastor in New York, says, “Even though it is clear that the world is filled with greed and materialism, almost no one thinks it is true of them… Greed hides itself from the victim.” (Adapted from Ted Scofield, "Everybody Else's Problem, Pt. 2," Mockingbird blog (7-28-15)
So often, we’re not even aware we have a problem. That’s why first of all we need to let God reveal the problem. It needs to come out into the open before there can be any restoration.
Sandy and I enjoy watching Restaurant Impossible, Food Network’s reality show where Robert Irvine, a world-class chef comes into a failing restaurant and helps the owner turn it around. Inevitably, the restaurant is on the verge of closing and in desperate need of help, but the owner can’t figure out why.
That’s when Robert Irvine steps in and immediately identifies several problems. He’s sees the place is grimy with outdated décor, the food tastes terrible, and the staff is disorganized. Often, the owner himself is a poor manager, either too weak or too overbearing, which frequently is the root cause of all of the problems. When Robert Irvine asks the owners to rate the quality of their restaurant on a scale of 1 to 10, the owners often give themselves an 8 or a 9.
The entertaining part of the show is when Robert Irvine wakes them up to the reality of their failures. He confronts them with the filth in their dining rooms, the rotting food in their coolers, and the horrible taste of their food. Often, he orders about a half dozen items from their menu and ends up spitting out a lot of the food; it’s so bad. The owner can’t believe it and often has to be convinced about how bad things really are.
Then, and only then, can Robert Irvine help them turn things around. He first has to make them see their problem before he can help them restore their restaurant.
In the same way, God has to reveal the sin before He can restore our integrity. He has to make us see the problem before He can solve the problem. So let Him do it! Let God reveal the lie. Let Him bring the sin out into the open.
And then let God REBUKE THE LIE, as well. Let God call you to account. That’s what He does to Abraham through a godless king.
Genesis 20:8-10 So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told them all these things. And the men were very much afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done.” And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” (ESV)
Abraham stands condemned and rebuked by an unbeliever. Oh, how that must have hurt! Abimelech wants to know why Abraham did what he did. So…
Genesis 20:11-13 Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’ Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father though not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife. And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.” ’ ” (ESV)
Abraham basically tells him, “I was afraid you would kill me, so I told you a half-truth.” But we all know that a half-truth is a whole lie, and it must be accounted for.
God did it for Abraham, and God will do it for us as well. He will call us to give an account, and sometimes He’ll do it through an unbeliever.
Roger Barrier, in an issue of Men of Integrity magazine some time ago, talks about the time he left for Baylor University. At that time, his mother, who had always done his laundry, sewed a canvas duffel bag for him. “Put your dirty clothes in this every night,” she said. “At the end of the week, wash them at the Laundromat.”
Seven days later, Roger took his dirty clothes to the Laundromat. To save a little time, he threw the duffel bag in the washer, put in some laundry powder, inserted the proper change, and turned on the machine. Moments later, a loud “thump, thump, thump, thump” echoed through the Laundromat.
A pretty Baylor co-ed approached him with a grin. “I watched you load your washer. I think the clothes would get cleaner if you took them out of the bag.”
Later, when Roger’s relationship with God was hurting, he remembered his laundry episode. He realized the way he confessed sins – “Dear God, please forgive me for all the sins I've committed today” – He realized that was about as effective in cleansing them as his first attempt at washing clothes. Each sin needs individual attention. (Roger Barrier, Listening to the Voice of God, found in Men of Integrity, March/April 2006; www. PreachingToday.com)
Each sin must be accounted for, so keep short accounts with God. Deal with each one as God brings them to mind. Confess them to Him and to those you have wronged. It’s the only way you can find your lost integrity again. First, let God reveal the lie. Then let God rebuke the lie.
And finally, let God RESTORE THE LIAR. Let God renew your witness and your walk with Him. That’s what He did for Abraham.
Genesis 20:14-15 Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him. And Abimelech said, “Behold, my land is before you; dwell where it pleases you.” (ESV)
Abraham’s wife and his welcome are restored.
Genesis 20:16 To Sarah he said, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is a sign of your innocence in the eyes of all who are with you, and before everyone you are vindicated.” (ESV)
Literally, “it is for you a covering of the eyes.” In other words, the money was proof that Abimelech had not lifted Sarah’s veil to consummate the marriage. Sarah was now cleared before her family, her friends, and all her neighbors. Abraham’s witness was restored; but most importantly, his walk with the Lord was restored, as well.
Genesis 20:17-18 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. For the LORD had closed all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. (ESV)
Abraham talked to God, and God listened. His fellowship with God was restored. That’s an amazing thing! But even more amazing is the difference in the way God treated Abraham and Abimelech. Abraham was a believer who deliberately sinned by lying about his wife. Abimelech was an unbeliever who accidentally sinned by taking Abraham’s wife. But God plagued Abimelech’s household while He protected Abraham.
Doesn’t that just blow you away? Then, on top of that, God required that Abraham pray for Abimelech before Abimelech’s household was healed. Do you see what God is doing here? He is elevating Abraham again in the sight of Abimelech. He is restoring Abraham to a position of honor, even after he had dishonored himself.
My friend, God can do the same for you and me. He can restore our integrity. He can elevate us again to a place of honor even among those we have wronged. We just have to let Him do it. We just have to let Him do the painful work of revealing, rebuking and removing our sin.
Mike Huckabee tells the story of the time when his son, John Mark, was 4 years old. He was out playing in the back yard and got a splinter in his foot. He came in and held up his foot. He was crying, and he said, “I got a splinter in my foot!”
So Mike said “Sit on the couch. Let's look at it.”
Then, as John Mark held up his foot and Mike reached over to pull the splinter out (because he knew it would feel better), John Mark said what every kid says: “Don't touch it!”
Mike said, “What do you want me to do? Take a picture of it and mount it on the wall? I've got to touch it, Son. I don't levitate splinters out of your foot. There is no choice.”
“But it will hurt,” Mike’s son moaned.
To which Mike replied, “It might, but it won't hurt as long. It will sure feel a lot better when I get the splinter out.”
But that didn’t help little John Mark. So Janet, Mikes’ wife, held down the top of him while Mike tried to hold down the bottom of him and pull that splinter out. Little John Mark was kicking and screaming and jerking in all different directions, with Mike holding the tweezers, trying to pull out the splinter. He was afraid that he was going to jab those tweezers way up into little John Mark’s foot.
Mike wanted to say to him, “Son, don't you trust me? What do you think I'm going to do, cut your foot off? I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you, and if you don't let me help you, it's going to get worse not better. Trust me; I'm your father. I love you. I care about you. I do this only to help you. Be still. Relax.” (Mike Huckabee, “Practice of Patience,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 78; www.PreachingToday.com)
How many times do we do the same thing with our Heavenly Father? We tell Him, “I’m hurt; please help me.” So God reaches in to help us, and the first thing we say is, “God, don’t touch me! Don’t do that! It will hurt!” Yes, it will! When our lies are revealed and rebuked, it always hurts. But it’s the only way to find restoration and healing again.
Please, let God do it for you. Stop kicking and screaming, and let God reveal your sin to you in all its ugliness. Let Him rebuke you. And then let Him restore you wholly and completely, just like He did for Abraham.
One of the most beautiful wildflowers in Alaska is the Fireweed. The delicate, purple-pink blossoms have a number of uses. As a tea, Fireweed is good for upset stomachs, coughs, and asthma. Applied in other ways it treats bites, cuts, and eczema. The blossoms are also used to make flavorful jelly or honey.
Fireweed is so named, because it is the first plant to bloom after a fire. When the smoke clears, and the earth cools, these flowers emerge from the blackened earth. Fireweed covers the landscape like a stunning quilt, trading beauty for ashes. (Ted De Hass, Bedford, Iowa
That’s what God wants to do in your life if you let Him.
Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free. (J. Edwin Orr)
