We’ve spent the

first four months of the year studying the first core value of New Hope:

unconditional love.  We now know much

more fully what God’s love is, how it behaves, and how to walk in it.  As 1 Corinthians 13 teaches, this type of

love must be the motive behind all that we do or our lives will accomplish

nothing worthwhile.  Unconditional love

is the foundation.

This morning, we’re

going to build on this foundation and move into our next core value:

sacrificial integrity.

Integrity is the

state of being complete or undivided.  In

the Hebrew, it is the word tom.  There is

actually no word in the Greek language that directly translates to our English

word integrity.  However, the New

Testament root word used when translated to integrity is the same word for

true.

Integrity, when

referring to a life, is as person who is consistent in how they think, how they

speak, and how they act.  Integrity is a

thoroughness in consistency and a constancy in reliability.  Integrity is being consistently the same in

both our private life as well as our public life.  It is responding the same to circumstances

when no one is around just the same as when others are taking notice.

We expect integrity

in almost every aspect of our lives.

We wouldn’t accept

filling car’s tank to find that 10% of the fuel that we used was water as we

sputter down the road.  We get upset when

we can only hear bits and pieces of what the other person is saying on our phone

calls.  We get irritated when our

streaming videos stutter or look pixely.

If we bought a 10

pound bag of potatoes, we wouldn’t accept it if 1 pound of them were

rotted.  When we pay to have a job done,

we don’t want only half of the project completed on time and for the cost.  When we work a full week, we won’t accept

only two days of pay on our check; we want paid for every minute that we were

on the job.

We are quick to pick

up on a lack of integrity when we are on the receiving end of it.  We are quick to feel ripped off or uncared

for.  We’re quick to voice our complaint

and demand that our wrongs be made right.

However, do we hold

ourselves to our own standards?  Do we

refuse to accept a lack of integrity in our own lives, sacrificing to right our

wrongs, or do we instead provide excuses for those areas of lack?

Jesus taught in the

Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:33-37

33 “Again, you have

heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but

fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an

oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for

it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or

black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this

comes from the evil one.

Now when we think of

evil, we think of demons and of the devil and of wicked people with malicious

intent.  However, the word here

translated to “evil” one is the Greek word ponēros, which means full

of labors, annoyances, hardships and being pressed and harassed by labors.

When our lives lack

integrity, when our yes is not always yes and our no not always no, hardships

happen often.  When we say yes, but can’t

live up to our word, the pressure is on! 

This isn’t a life of freedom, but a life full of labors, annoyances, and

hardships.  It comes from the evil one

for sure!

Living a life of

integrity is good not only for our testimony about Jesus, but also for our own

benefit and health.  When we live with

integrity, not only are our lives better, but so are the lives of those around

us.

When we each

personally strive to live with integrity, something incredible takes

place!  As we each live with integrity,

we then naturally come together in unity. 

As God’s word proclaims:

Psalm 133:1

How good and

pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

Trying to be

diff