Becoming Men Of Integrity
1 Samuel 21:1-9 Luke 13:31-35 11/8/2019
When you hear the word integrity, what other words come into your mind. Some words I think of are honesty, faithfulness, keeping your word, trustworthy, consistent, dependable, caring, righteous, justice and steadfast. Men we are living at a time when integrity has become harder and harder to maintain, and much more costly than ever before to hold on to.
Things that use to be in place to help us out are no longer there to support us, especially in our society. There was a time when a man was upheld for being faithful to his wife. Now Hollywood would have us believe every married man should have an affair.
There was a time, when we had to go to adult stores off the interstate or in the backroom of some stores to find pornography. But today it is just a click away on our i-phones, androids and computers and we unwittingly pass it on to our sons and daughters without realizing our kids start watching it on their tablets as young as eight years old.
There was a time when in our businesses we were expected to look out for the good of our employees, but today we find ways to rob them of their pensions or ways to fire them the day before they are entitled to certain benefits.
There was a time when things were much more black and white on what was wrong and what was right. But today many more decisions and actions have fallen into the gray area, because we have moved away from God’s word and there is no solid standard by which we can say” this is right and this is wrong.” Everybody wants to do what’s right in their own eyes.
More and more we have people trying to impose their views on us. They are insisting that we participate in their actions even though they violate our conscience, because we want to stand for the word of God. This past week a federal judge blocked a law that gave medical workers the right to refuse to participate in performing abortions or gender reassignment surgery.
Think about this for a moment. If a teenager believed they should go through life with one arm and wants one arm removed, what should be done to the parent or the doctor who says, if that’s what you believe let’s cut that arm off? What should happen to the doctor who objects to cutting off a healthy arm on both medical and religious grounds? Should the doctor be fired or face a monetary fine or lawsuit from the parents of the teen.
How is that so radically different from the teenager who believes themselves to be a member of the opposite sex. Should a doctor be able to refuse to cut off the teenagers penis or to cut off a pair of healthy breasts because of the doctor’s medical or religious beliefs. Yet for the doctor to maintain his or her integrity, he or she may be forced to comply or face a law suit for discrimination.
Our society has made the acceptance of all forms of sexual behavior as the standard for what it is to be a man of integrity. If you should say any form is contrary to the word of God you are hateful, bigoted, unloving, and unaccepting of others. Yet to me a man of integrity starts with seeing what does God have to say about a situation and lining yourself with the word of God.
We have seen first hand what drugs have done to our community. We are witnessing executions of our young people at an alarming rate often times with drug related incidents. Now people are ready to sell drugs legally in our community. It always starts out as medical marijuana but it quickly becomes recreational. All of a sudden Glenville, Hough, Miles and Collinwood are looking more and more like gold mines as places to flood with marijuana.
Can you explain to me, if it is our money that should be going to our families but will be going to the drug dealers, and our money that should be going to living healthier but will be going to the drug dealers, and our money that should be going to improving our homes and neighborhoods but will be going to the drug dealers, Why did an Ohio State Judge rule this past week, that it is illegal for the state to set aside 15% of the contracts for those growing and producing marijuana to be set aside from economically disadvantaged groups to remedy past and present racial discrimination?
“And while remedying the present effects of past discrimination can be a compelling interest, the state does not have a compelling interest in remedying societal discrimination" was Judge's Costello Reasoning.
Where are the men of integrity who will say this is wrong? They want you to call them dispensary licenses, but I want you to know they are still drug dealers growing and selling to stuff with state approval.
One of the great enemies of our integrity today comes not from outside but from within ourselves. It is the fear of the price we will have to pay individually. You must have courage and be willing to find your strength in the Lord if you want to live a life of integrity.
When we think of the life of David, and the part of his life in which he lost his integrity, most of us think of the adulterous affair he had with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah her husband. But David had an earlier episode in his life that revealed his integrity need to grow.
In our Scripture reading today, David went to Ahimelek the priest to ask for some help. Ahimelek felt a little uneasy, because it was unusual for David to travel alone. So he asked David, “why are you traveling alone?” David put his mind to rest by letting him know that he was on a secret mission from the king and his men were waiting to join him at a secret rendezvous spot.
David tells Ahimelek to give him 5 loaves of bread or anything he might have on hand. Ahimelek is willing to give the bread to David, provided the men are holy, because this is bread only the priest are allowed to eat. David insists his men are holy and because this mission is holy, today they are really, really holy. So Ahimelek gives him the bread. But a guy watching this is one of King Saul’s servants, Doeg the Edomite and David sees him.
David then tells Ahimelek, he was in such a hurry to get on with the King’s business that he didn’t even time to grab a weapon. He asks Ahimelek if he has any swords at hand. Ahimelek offers David the sword that David had used to cut off the head of the giant Goliath which had belonged to Goliath. David, tells him great that will work out just fine. David says thanks, good-bye, and takes off.
We look at this and say, what does integrity have to do with this passage. David goes to a friend, asks for help, the friend helps him and both move on with their lives. Sometimes you need to go further back on a timeline to understand what’s going on.
You ever hear somebody crying, and you say what’s wrong. They tell you, so and so hit me. Your anger flares up and you go after so and so only to discover the person doing the crying had left out some important facts. That crying person was using your sympathy to get something they were not entitled to receive.
Men if we are to become men of integrity we have to be careful how we use others to get what we want. Satan is going to tell us, what does it matter. Nobody is getting hurt. You deserve this after all that you have been through. Nobody is going to find out.
Yet Jesus is telling us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and greater love has no one than this, than that he should lay down his life for a friend. There is one promise in the bible that we rarely claim as our own, because it says if you don’t do what you said you were going to do, then no that your sin will find you out.
The problem with this whole story is that David is telling one lie after another. He is not on a mission from the king. He doesn’t have any men waiting for him who are living holy. The king had not given him a message so urgent he forgot to take a weapon. What had actually happened was there was a rumor going around that King Saul and David were not on good terms. That’s why Ahimelek was afraid when he saw David by himself.
But two days earlier, Saul had made it clear to everyone that he considered David a traitor who must be killed, and anyone helping David was an enemy of the king. When the king’s son Jonathan had tried to speak up for David’s integrity, King Saul tried to kill his own son Jonathan with a spear but missed
Ahimelek didn’t know anything about this latest incident when David arrived because there were no cell phones or facebook. He was under the impression, he was helping the King by giving David food, weapons, and counsel. He put his trust in David because he believed him to be a man of integrity.
David was a man of integrity but right now fear had taken hold of his life. His confidence was no longer in “God how can you still save and protect me?” and now it has become “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, even if that means lying and using other people.” All of us must recognize that we are going to find ourselves in this place of having to decide to rely on God or to take matters into our own hands.
Jesus faced this issue of death threat with another king, King Herod. King Herod had already cut off the head of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin who was thrown into prison for preaching a message Herod did not like. John was the one who told the nation get ready, get ready, because Jesus was coming.
A group of very important people came to Jesus and told him, you have got to get out of town’ and get out of town now because Herod is wanting to kill you. They thought fear would motivate Jesus to change his mission and his way of doing things. They could then say,” did you see how Jesus ran out of here like a scared dog.”
Jesus didn’t run out of town, he stood with what God told him to do.” Tell Herod, I’m casting out demons and healing people, and will keep on doing it until my job is finished.” Well we know the beating and suffering Jesus endured when Herod did finally catch up with him. Becoming a man of integrity always comes at a price.
When David left Ahimelek, he went into hiding and King Saul couldn’t find him. There was an evil spirit on King Saul. Saul called all his leaders together and asked them,” how come nobody is on my side in finding David. How come nobody feels sorry enough to tell me where my enemy is hiding so that he can kill me? How comes nobody wants a reward from me by telling me where David is?”
At this point Doeg the Edomite heard cha- ching, and lacking all integrity, he tells the king, “I saw David over in the town of Nob, and Ahimelek inquired of the Lord for him, gave him some bread, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” This was just what Saul wanted to hear. He sent for Ahimelek, and all the men in his family who were priest at Nob.
When Ahimelek arrives Saul tears into him. “Why have you joined in the conspiracy with David by giving him bread, and a sword, and inquiring of God for him so that he has rebelled against me and is hiding waiting for me to come along so that he can kill me.”
What would you have said if you were Ahimelek? “ Now wait a minute king. First of all that last thing I believed David to be a man of integrity. After all he’s your son-in’law, the captain of your bodyguard, highly respected in your house. Yes David came by, but that wasn’t the first time I inquired of God for him and you know that. I was just doing my job. Please don’t falsely accuse me in this matter. I don’t know anything about this whole affair concerning a conspiracy.”
Saul didn’t want to hear anything that did not line up with what he already believed. He pronounced judgment on the spot.” You Ahimelek, and your whole family will die.” Saul ordered the guards at his side to turn and kill the priests, because they knew David was fleeing, sided with him and that’s why they didn’t tell me.
Saul forgot one thing. The reason he had chosen these men as his personal guards is that they were men of integrity who were willing to do the right thing. They refused to obey the king because they felt a higher commitment to obeying God. They were not going to participate in killing the priest who were their representatives before God.
Their commitment to their God was higher than their commitment to their government. They knew they were risking their lives to disobey a deranged man who was already angry and upset.
I think each guard got some encouragement from the others. When they saw the others were not willing to yield, it gave them courage to keep on standing and refuse to carry out the king’s spoken law. Dr. King use to quote the early church father Augustine when he said, “an unjust law is no law at all.” We need to be prepared for the unjust laws that are being passed that will demand we disobey God to accept them.
Men if we are going to become Men Of Integrity, we have to meet with Men who hold our similar convictions so that we can talk and share both our success and failures with each other. The same is true in the body of Christ we need to meet with other believers in order to stand firm in the world today.
The only one willing to carry out King’s Saul’s command was Doeg the Edomite who did not follow God. He killed 85 of the lord’s priest that day. Do you think David had any idea that his wonderful little plan of lies would cost 85 innocent people their lives? Men when we choose to use others to get what we want, even though it may look like nothing happened to us, do we realize the damage that we may be unknowingly imposing on others.
Sure we were thinking of just a one night stand, but now there is a child wondering why she doesn’t know who her father is and she goes from boy to boy trying to fill out a void that one of us may have left behind.
Sure we thought we could put the money back in time before anyone found out, but now we’re facing jail time and separation from our family.
Sure we were convinced that we thought it was consensual but now we are facing a lawsuit and even possible a criminal trial. Do we ever think committing adultery can lead to the death of the one we pledged ourselves in marriage? When we put our integrity at risk, we are usually living for the moment and not for the long term.
Where is our integrity being challenged and what steps are we taking to curb it? Our love for Christ has to compel us at times to keep our mouth shut when we want to flirt, to go in a different direction when we’re headed to a place we can’t handle, or to keep moving when our channel surfing leads us to some bad places we ought to run from.
This one slip up on David’s integrity didn’t stop with the murder of 85 priests. Saul must have told Doeg to go the city of Nob and take whatever he wanted. Doeg went to the city of Nob and killed the men, women, children, infants, cattle, donkey and sheep.
When we lack integrity, we can become every bit as vicious as Doeg the Edomite. Because we all have a heart that is in need of redeeming and it can only be redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Even on the cross Jesus showed himself to be a man of integrity. He forgave those who had crucified him. Integrity He let a thief know, even though his life hadn’t been what it should have been, by putting his trust in Christ, he could go from the cross to paradise. Integrity
He made provisions to make sure his Mother was taken care of by telling John, to treat her as he would his own mother. Integrity. He trusted in the Father to bring him back from the dead. “Father into your hands, do I commit my spirit.”
I don’t know where you are on the Integrity Scale today, but I do know God can move you to the place you ought to be. Only one of Ahimelek’s family members survived and went and told David what had happened. David said, “I am responsible for the death of your whole family. David took responsibility for his actions and got back on track again.
Some of us may need to confess and take responsibility for what we have done. We may need to confess some words we spoke, or ask forgiveness from those we hurt, or turn away from something that has us in bondage. For the Scriptures tell us, “if way say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. The good news of the gospel is that God is willing to give us a fresh start.
Men, God is calling us to a lifetime of becoming a man of integrity. We don’t reach it until we finally get home. It’s not something we can accomplish on our own. It happens when we yield to the purposes of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
