Character Matters // Integrity // Pastor Josh Evans

Amen. Amen.

Great music here today and I really appreciate all the work that goes into that each and every every week. Well, if you have your Bible, go to Psalm chapter number 15. Psalm chapter number 15 here today and I do appreciate your faithfulness to the house of God here today and I'm excited to be able to kick off a a brand new series with you entitled Character Matters.

In fact, can we all say that together on three? One, two, three, character matters and I want you to know it matters in everyone's life. There's not a person in this room today where character does not matter.

There's not a place that you can ever go where your personal godly character does not matter. I was reading a while back, I don't remember when I saw this, but it always stuck with me this statement that talent may get us to the top but character will keep you at the top. Talent may get you to the top but character is what's going to keep you at the top and I want you to know that that statement is a true statement and you can think back to your life and see where that is true. You probably can look back at a moment in your life where maybe somebody at the place that you worked to was really talented and gifted and good at what they did. They actually might have achieved some things in their career but eventually you found that they might not be in that position any longer because they lack personal character and they didn't have that to keep them in the position. They only had talent.

We've seen it at really close to home. You can say that there's also, you've probably heard of pastors where this has struggled and missionaries where they might have been really good at what they did and then there was some personal character some private lack of character in their life that might have taken them out of a position of where they once stood. You've probably seen this in school as well maybe a student who everyone thinks you know is this really talented but then maybe their lack of personal godly character takes them out of a position. All that being said that's why we've entitled this character matters and and I'll add this that godly character matters in your life.

Godly character is something that every single one of us needs to strive to achieve in our our life and here's why character is the the real you. You can fake people out on the outside can't we? We're good at doing that. We can make people think we're something when we're not. We can do that on social media. We can look like we have it all together and and then inwardly we are a a mess. You see character it's the real you it's how you react respond think behave when no one else is around you when no one is watching your character is what will shine through those moments and over the next several weeks we're going to look at different godly character traits that I think are are found some found some themes found throughout scripture that will help you in your your personal life and so today here's the one that we're going to look at here's the character trait and they're kind of similar but they are different is this we're going to look at the word integrity we're going to look at the the word integrity several years ago my wife and I've told this story here a while back when I was preaching here before I came pastor but you forget most things I say so hopefully you'll forget this one okay and but some of you might not remember this but several years ago I my wife she sent me to Walmart and so we go to Walmart and I was just me actually and and so she sends me and tells me something specific to get at Walmart and and she gave me a gift card to to get that well for me a lot of times because I don't use gift cards a lot a lot of times I forget to use the gift card does anybody struggle with that it's like you go somewhere and you go with the intent of using a gift card like you never go to this place and you go there and and you just swipe your credit card and then you forget you're like oh man I was supposed to use my gift card here or have you ever gone through your wallet at the end of the year and you have like 10 unused gift cards or more right it's just something that that we struggle with so so she sends me to Walmart it says don't forget to use your gift card and so I was like okay I got it I got it I mean it's like she doesn't trust me well I get up to to the cash register and and I'm all the way there and and and I remembered because you know I can be fairly obedient from time to time so I'm there and I get ready to scan my card and the lady's already rung up I can't remember what I was getting she already kind of rung it up there and and I said I got to use my gift card my wife reminded me so I looked in my I had stuck it in my jeans I looked in my pocket and it was not there I didn't have the gift card but I knew I walked in with the gift card and so I was faced with a dilemma it wasn't an expensive gift card I think it was like $15 right and so I was kind of faced with a dilemma like Walmart's a big place what are the odds that I walk around and I find this gift card um I was starting to go through scenarios in my brain of like how can I tell my wife that I lost this gift card when she specifically gave it to me and I couldn't come up with a scenario worth the pain that that would cause me and so I was like okay if you can give me a moment I'm gonna just kind of trace my steps back through Walmart and I'm gonna find this gift card okay and uh and so I was like determined so I go and I'm looking everywhere and I can't find it and my last resort was I was like what if I just go to customer service uh because Walmart customer service always there to help right and so you take that for whatever you want to take it as so I go and and uh and I'm like you know I'm gonna check things out there what are the odds I lost this gift card 30 minutes or so ago and and um and what are the odds that somebody turned it in because I mean come on if you find a gift card are you gonna turn it in it's kind of how I thought so I go over there and uh and I say hey I lost a gift card just a few minutes ago by any chance did someone turn a gift card in and and she said listen you are in luck and she said someone just came and said they found this on the floor and I said that that's my gift card and so and I remember telling her this I said man there are still some good people in the world today and we kind of laughed and I went and and paid for from whatever I was getting and here's the thing that I think that story just kind of resonated with me is this is that it's sad right it's sad that we are living in a day in a world where I think we are way more surprised by an act of integrity than we are a lack of integrity in fact I think we're living in a day and age where we're actually you know we expect people to not have integrity at this point just like I expected like what are the odds someone's walking through Walmart and they're going to turn in a gift card like there's come on nobody's going to take the time to do that and they're probably going to take it for themselves or they're going to leave it there or they're going to use it as a Christmas gift I don't know and whatever and I just was like I just felt like hey no one ever would would do that because we live in a society and in a world where we almost expect people to have a lack of integrity when we should be expecting for people to actually have integrity you say what exactly is integrity I want you to define it before we jump into God's word is this integrity is simply this so important you want to jot this down you can it is when your behavior when that matches what you believe it's when your behavior matches your your beliefs it's when there's an alignment between everything that you say and how you are off stage it's when there's a alignment between like what you say and how you live the best advice that I ever got I think when I was thinking about coming to this point coming to to pastor is somebody told me this a pastor down in Florida they said this here if I can give you any advice as becoming a senior pastor here's what he said he said you need to be the same person off stage that you are on stage that's what he said and he said this in fact he thinks that being who you are off stage is just as important as you who you are on stage you see we are really good at looking good in front of a lot of people we do that at work we do that at school we do that at church we do that everywhere else we do it on social media we try to portray to everyone that we have everything together and here's the thing we need to realize that our personal integrity is the real us and integrity is when our behavior and belief systems match ever talked to a stranger and invited them to church and and you said hey I'd love for you to come to church and and they're like hey I'm not a church person well why aren't you a church person and here's what they say this is probably the biggest conversation I've had with people they'll say there's too much hypocrites in church there's too many hypocrites over at that church I see those people when they're at the restaurant I see them when they are at work I see them over here and and they're not authentic basically they're saying this that church this is what some people in the outside world right or wrong I want you I'm not arguing that this is how people in the community think about church a lot of times they think there's people in church that do not have integrity that are hypocrites they do one thing or they say one thing and do another and I want you to understand the scripture talks a lot about personal integrity about personal integrity in fact proverbs 10 9 says this he that walketh uprightly or in a way that's pleasing to God he who walketh uprightly walketh surely in other words he that hath integrity and does things that are pleasing to God walk securely proverbs 11 3 the integrity of the upright shall guide them but the perverseness of transgressors shall destroy them proverbs 19 1 better is the poor man that walketh in his integrity that he that is then he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool proverbs 20 verse 7 the just man walketh in his integrity his children are blessed after him proverbs 28 6 better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness than he that is perverse in his ways though he be rich you see here's what proverbs is is sharing with us as he's saying this listen it's better to even be poor but have your personal godly integrity than it is to be rich and not have integrity the scripture talks a lot about is Psalms chapter 15 is where we're going to be today we have to live a life of integrity in fact David in Psalms 15 that's exactly what he talks about is this idea of of integrity and he says this in verse one of Psalm 15 Lord that is Jehovah who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill so David is is lifting up this Psalm to God and and he's asking this really good question he's saying Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle now in this day here's what the tabernacle was it was a tent and we know this many of you have grown up in church you understand what the tabernacle was but the tabernacle was the place that people went to experience the presence of God it was the place that people went when they wanted to hear God it was the place when they wanted to get near to God and they wanted to hear God speak to them and they wanted to gather and actually talk to God the tabernacles that place and so David is asking this question he's saying who shall abide in thy tabernacle and not only that he says who shall dwell in thy holy hill in other words what David is asking is he's saying this who can be around the presence of God who who can enter into the presence of God what what does that require is what he's asking verse two he answers this question and he says this he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness integrity speak of the truth in his heart integrity he that back biteth not with his tongue nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor integrity in whose eyes a vile person is condemned but he honoreth in that fear the Lord integrity he that swear to his own hurt and change if not he that putteth not out his money to usering or taketh reward against the innocent integrity he that doeth those things shall never be moved or never be shaken you see here he says that where God would meet with his people this tabernacle this place that you would go into the presence of God here here's what it looks like when we are going into his presence in other words chapter 15 is is sharing what people who walk with God are like in other words when you go and you get into the presence of God this is what Christ followers should look like in chapter 15 this is what when the community when you ask them about church this should be what they see from those within the church chapter 15 they should see all of these things in the life of of the believer and they shouldn't think that we say one thing on Sunday and do another thing on Monday therefore we must live a life of integrity we must be out there who we sing about in here that's what we need to be in front of the lost and dying world I think that that's what will change our community as much as anything else is for you and I to take this book and to apply this book and to actually like take everything that it says and try to look like Jesus as much as we possibly can that's what this lost and dying world needs more than anything else we must live a life of integrity you say say why should we do that I want to give you three things from this passage that I think will help us and help me as well and by the way before we jump into my outline I want you to understand something that every single person in this room including myself we all have gaps in our life that we need to improve on so I don't want you to sit here and think wow I'm the only one in this room who has something to work on or or I don't want you to sit here and think man that person over there really needs this we're going to talk real personal here in a moment about some of the things that he said that that integrity looks like and I don't want you because it's easy for us in church to sit there and be like man I hope that person and you nudge your spouse and you say hey can you look in the corner are they here today and and then they look and then you're like they're not here to be like oh I hope they're watching online because they really need this right we're the worst at doing that and and I don't want you to do that I want you to look at your life that's why I asked you earlier in the service to to open up your heart I want you to ask God to reveal gaps in your life where integrity where your behavior and beliefs don't necessarily line up and I want you to confess those things to to God here today here's what he says about integrity first integrity strengthens our relationship with God integrity can strengthen our relationship with God David is saying this that in verse one when he said Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell in thy holy hill and he jumps down in verses two through five and he looks at the personal life of those who are coming into the presence of God and he's saying this those who practice integrity are the ones who can find themselves in the presence of God David is saying that he longed to be in the tabernacle he wanted to live in the presence of God no no if you're not careful you can look at this and you can get your relationship with God a little bit a little bit dicey you can kind of look at it and say so you mean I can't come to God if there's anything wrong in my my life that actually poses a really good question I want you to think about about it this way with your with your children right and and we have things that that my wife and I drill home with our kids and and we try to have things that that we are known by right as a family but more importantly than being known as evans we want them to be known as followers of Jesus and so we go through some things that that we kind of drill home and from time to time from time to time I want you to know what we say to them and how they act doesn't always line up right it doesn't always line up but I want you to know this that my kids when they do wrong or they do something that is not pleasing to to us as the parents as the authority figures in that house my love for them does not change my feelings for them do not change in fact I feel the exact same way for them but there are times where they have to actually come to us and apologize for certain things that they have have done and sometimes in our life as followers of Jesus when we get saved you still sin right I still sin and there are moments that we have to come into the presence of God and ask for his forgiveness on that we have to ask for his cleansing in our our life I want you to understand something that that Jesus when he came to this earth and he died for you when he died for you and you trusted in Jesus what happened in that moment is that broke the penalty for your sin so therefore after you die you don't have to worry about the judgment that is to come you don't have to worry about the judgment that is to come because God dying for you he defeated hell for you he defeated death for you and so now you don't have to live with the fear of that judgment one day but him living this perfect life here on this earth he lived a righteous life that when we accept Jesus as our savior he imputes and gives us the righteousness of his very son Jesus that now the very life that Jesus lived is placed into our life so now through that life we can live like Jesus we can live like him let me say this that when you get into the presence of God integrity is what will follow after that that when you go to God and you approach God and you get into his presence and you experience his presence let me tell you this that as a result of that you will have a life that is full of integrity it doesn't mean you're going to be perfect but it does mean that integrity is going to be something that matters to you integrity number two it affects our whole life it affects our entire behavior it affects everything he mentions this in verses two through five he says this number one in verse two about our entire behavior he says this he says he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness walk uprightly means that you walk or live in a way that is pleasing to God you walk in a way that is pleasing to God in other words your behavior is pleasing in the sight of God when you're on the sidelines and your kids are playing on the ball field your behavior is pleasing to God that's where it gets real right right that's where it gets okay do we really practice what we preach on sunday or better yet when you're at a restaurant and uh and the waiter or waitress is taking forever and the service is just terrible are you gonna walk uprightly in that moment or how about this this one is where i hit home because i can be pretty patient at restaurants i can be pretty patient at ball games here's where i get upset if you want to know where your pastor is if i am driving on the road and somebody like goes in front of me like say you're on the interstate and you're driving at a pretty decent speed and somebody goes around me like they want to go faster than me and then they get in front of me and slow down like that makes me mad or if somebody cuts me off there has been time when i've gotten cut off in traffic and and i'm i'm not violent i want you to know that i don't want you to think some of you're like man is our pastor got a problem like you know you're gonna come up to me and refer me to counselors after this i get it but there there's times when you know i've gotten cut off in traffic and and i'll like i'll be like man that person i can't believe that they did that i'm gonna go as fast as i can so that i can get next to them and i just want to look at them that's all i want to do like like is that going to do absolutely anything no i just want them to know that i'm mad at them right that's all i care about but you see it's moments in our life like that where we're gonna decide we're gonna have to decide are we gonna walk uprightly and so david is saying this those who walk uprightly those who respond those who react those who act those who talk when you're watching a game do you talk in a way that's pleasing to god or how about this the things that you watch on tv the things that if we were to go to your house and look at your netflix and what you recently watched like think about it what are the things that that we do are we walking are we living in a way that is pleasing to god where our behavior is pleasing in his sight and our behavior is actually what we believe in this book he says walking uprightly and then he says those who work righteousness those who work righteousness when you see the word righteousness you can just think right living the those who are acting like jesus remember i said this earlier that when you trusted jesus as your savior the righteousness of god the son jesus christ his righteousness was placed into your life so now you have the ability to look like jesus inside of you it's not about you it's about who lives inside of you and through a relationship with jesus you can actually react like jesus you can respond like jesus you can behave like jesus you can talk like jesus when the world treats you wrong you can react like jesus and so he says integrity it affects our whole life we're going to live a blameless life we're going to live a blameless life those who walk uprightly those who work righteousness the second thing he talks about our behavior is this he says that those with integrity they're going to love truth they're going to love truth verse two look at what he says here at the end of it and speaketh the truth in his heart speaketh the truth in his heart by the way the word of god is true let me say this the word of god is true and so those who are are christ followers who are in the word of god who are in this book that is full of truth that truth should be coming out of you the truth of god's word should actually be reflected in the way that you you live and so david is saying this those who can come into the presence of god those who can enjoy that that connection and that relationship with god those are ones who are going to walk uprightly who are going to live right and work righteousness but those who speak the truth in their heart those who speak the truth in your heart let let me say this that truth is something that i feel in our day and age is really hard sometimes to find we live in a day and age that we believe every single thing we see on facebook right we just do if you post something on facebook we just believe it we we have no source you know it's just kind of like hey we just we believe it you know and so we just watch it or or better yet you know you believe anything that that you see sometimes we we live in in a world that that we just kind of believe things it's like that old game remember telephone that used to kind of play in youth group where you would sit in a big circle and and you would say something like a secret on one end and you would slowly whisper it all the way down and by the time it gets all the way to the last person it's kind of all jumbled up and it's kind of all jumbled up and it kind of it's not exactly the way that it was that is exactly how life is sometimes with church people right somebody told you something and so you went and told somebody else and that person went and told somebody else and by the time it gets back to pastor what they're telling me is so far-fetched that i'm kind of like really and then when i start looking into it it's like okay 30 of the story was actually true and the other was was actually just added on we live in a world that that we all think we know what's true and sometimes we just believe anything and what david's saying is this he's saying this and the word of god is true and we need to fill our mind with the word of god and if you're filling your mind with the bible with the scripture with the word of truth then what comes out of your mouth will be true because it's what's planted deep within your heart so integrity affects our whole life he says those who are integral who have integrity they're going to live a blameless life they're going to love truth number three they're going to love people look at what he says in verse three he that back biteth not with his tongue nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor taketh up a reproach against his against his neighbor he mentions backbiting here's what that means gossip you know i feel like more damage has probably been done within the church due to slander and gossip and criticism than probably anything else that that we we sometimes can't say a good things about other people we get together and and we have to downplay everybody else in order to elevate ourselves and that is a real problem and i think it's easy for us to get up here and and preach about heaven and preach about hell and preach about the gospel and all of those things and we can get a lot of amens but when you start talking about those within the church maybe that that backbite and slander one another with their words and with their tongue we get real quiet real fast look i've been around church my entire life and sometimes i think we can't have church fellowships without talking about everybody else and he's saying this that backbiting that gossip sharing things about one another that are for the purpose of hurting or putting somebody else down is sin that's not integrity that's not integrity and so he says in fact he says those who have integrity they actually love people they love people that that in fact they actually start to treat people the way that jesus treated them do you think in jesus day if social media was around do you think jesus would have jumped on social media and and like tweeted and facebook all these things and say man i can't believe what they did to me and now they're saying crucify me and talking bad about people no you know what jesus did in the midst of how everyone treated him in the midst of how ugly and cruel and hateful that everyone was to him you know what jesus did he said i'm going to the cross and i'm going to pay for the sin that everybody in this world has ever committed and i'm going to die for their sins so that those hateful people can actually spend eternity with me in heaven that's the way jesus treated people that hurt him listen i'm not saying that if you're a christian everyone's going to be perfect to you and everyone's going to be kind to you and everyone's going to be compassionate to you and everyone's going to be loving to you all i'm saying is this is that if you want to live a life of integrity it's going to affect the way you treat people it's going to affect the way you talk about people you need to believe the best about people don't get around people and don't talk about people on social media that's not the way to handle if you have a problem with somebody go to them face to face don't jump to social and just start sharing things about it that's not the way to handle it he says listen don't backbite he that backbite if not with his tongue nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor he's saying this that integrity it's going to affect your life it's going to affect the way that you live it's going to affect how you love truth it's going to affect that you love people those who practice integrity number four they honor righteousness they honor righteousness and whose first four in whose eyes a vile person is condemned but but he that honoreth them that fear the lord he that honoreth them that fear the lord in other words that you know they think highly of people who fear god i can remember when i was in fifth grade i went to a christian school and um and so when i was in the fifth grade i was starting to get in trouble at school a lot now i know for some of you that is extremely surprising and for my family it really was as well right and so i started getting sent to the principal's office a lot and so i started getting in trouble and it was nothing for really bad stuff i just i love to talk i just do i still do that's why i do it for a living right and i just i couldn't keep my mouth shut ever you know it's like the teachers like okay boys and girls and i'm the last one right and for some reason because my voice is so loud they could always hear me i could you know it's just is what it is i could never get away from it and so in fifth grade i started getting in trouble a little bit because i was quiet before that and uh so fifth grade i started like to you know talk and get into some trouble get sent to the principal's office and the principal at that time he um he sat me down in his office and i was fifth grade so i mean getting sent to the principal's office that's kind of scary a little bit so i'm sitting there so i'm listening real good you know that's when i can really shut up is when you get me in the principal's office so and he told me something that really stuck with me he said josh i can see that you like to make people laugh and i said you're not wrong i was like yeah you know i enjoy i'm the kind of a he said i was a class clown and all this kind of stuff i said that's good and he began to show me some people in in our high school that that kind of he saw when they were young that actually started like the way i was going and how they were constantly in trouble in high school and high school and getting into some things that they shouldn't and he said i remember he described it and he he kind of said some things that they were into and he said do you want to go down that path and obviously as any kid would say i said no it's not the path so he said well let me show you a different path and he pulled about three or four uh high school kids that really were walking correctly and uprightly and doing things that were pleasing to god and he said these are some kids that that made a decision years ago that they are going to live and please god with their life and he said which one do you want to be do you want to go after this life or do you want to go after this life and so i was faced with a decision and so so i told i was like obviously i want to go after that life you see here's what he was doing is he was actually teaching me that we should elevate to some degree those who are doing righteous for example if your kids they have what they would call idols or heroes right they might be an athlete they might be something people that they are kind of striving to be like and if you were to ask them who do you want to be like when you grow up that's a question for a lot of our kids they always are asked that or thought about that from to some degree and here's what david is saying is david is saying that we should should strive to be in our life like those that fear the lord not the ones that work wickedness but we should actually strive to be like the ones who do right i hate for your kids and for my kids that we live in a world where it is much cooler to do wrong than it is to do right i absolutely hate the fact that that's the world that we are living in that if you want to be popular if you want to be cool and and you want to just for people to like you you got to kind of live life on the edge you got to kind of be on this other side just a little bit for everyone to kind of accept you i wish that we celebrated righteous living and i wish we celebrated those who actually worked the works of righteousness and those who live uprightly because that's what we should be teaching our kids to strive for to live a life that is pleasing to god he says those with integrity they honor righteous people they they actually look up to them and then the last thing number five he says about our integrity how it affects every area of our life is that we should be generous and do good with our money we should be generous and do good with our money verse five he that putteth not out as money to usery in other words he's saying that those who use money for their own personal gain or those who kind of manipulate situations in order to get more money you know we just came through a series several weeks ago um or a little over a month ago now about about money and we don't like to talk about money a whole lot but i'll tell you this money god talks a whole lot about money because money and where your heart is are so close together where our treasure is there our heart will be also that's what jesus was saying and so it's important that we looked our our money and not be greedy because the scripture actually condemns greed and it elevates generosity if you look throughout scripture that there's always it's a negative thing to kind of this love of money and this wanting to be greedy and wanting to store up a lot of things for ourselves and it actually constantly teaches generosity it constantly teaches giving more that's what the scripture teaches about money and so david is saying this that that here that those who practice integrity they're going to be generous and they're going to do good with their money they're going to do good with their money for some of you integrity might be that you've never started giving and and that's the first step that you're going to be obedient and give god what he has asked us to give him and be faithful in it that's generous that's tough for us right we live in a world where i get it where where the world like is so expensive to live everything around us has gone up and up and up but let me just challenge you for just a moment that god's word has not changed and and he still asks christ followers to stay generous regardless of what's happening in our world around us yes our bills go up but he continues to stay faithful and you're giving in your tithes and offerings to the local church that's a part of our spiritual life that's a part of our spiritual life and that's a part of your personal integrity because let's just be real nobody knows about how we spend our money except for you and your family and remember integrity is kind of a private issue and so for some of us the first step for us to live and be in tech be live a life of integrity is we're going to start maybe you're not giving and we need to start giving and let me tell you i can i can bring up any of our older people because they tell me from time to time any if i if i'm talking about giving and i know i'm on the younger side of this i haven't experienced some of the life that they have but some of our older people they would love to get up here and just tell you that when they remain faithful even when it was hard to give and be faithful in their tithes and offerings that god always took care of them and let me tell you this he will always take care of you if you remain generous and do good with your money he says integrity it impacts every area of your life it impacts our our finances it impacts who you look up to he says you're going to look up to those who are righteous and those that fear god it impacts those how we treat people how we talk about people it impacts what you say and it being truthful and it impacts that you live a blameless life you see integrity it strengthens your relationship with god it impacts every area of your life and then number three and this one's a good one integrity stabilizes you it stabilizes us if you look at the end of verse four he that do with these things in other words what david's saying is he that practices integrity shall never be moved he that practices integrity shall never be moved you say what does that stability look like i think you can look at this in a couple different ways first of all i want you to know that your stability as a follower of jesus cannot be changed that that me i have access to god the father at all times and that relationship with him stays intact my fellowship with god cannot be altered but then stability here can also mean that whatever stage of life whatever is happening around us we can remain consistent because we have chosen to live a life that is integrity have you ever been driving out during like a real bad wind storm and so you're driving maybe you're going at a pretty decent speed and the wind gust will kind of take your vehicle you know i have a little car so when i'm driving and i'm going pretty fast and it's really windy outside sometimes that wind gust will take my car where my car will kind of just shake and i kind of you know you got the wheel but you kind of lose a little bit of control because the wind is so high and the wind is so strong that what's happening around me just kind of makes me go all sorts of places and if my wife's with me she just assumes that i'm swerving right what are you doing over there i'm like have you not noticed the trees they're it's windy right and uh and so sometimes when when we're out and about you know you're driving and the the wind gusts kind of gets you and things like that here's what i think david is saying and we can kind of land the plane here david is saying this that if you are willing to get into the presence of god every single day and you approach the throne of god and don't forget god is a holy righteous father he's a perfect father he's a perfect father and when you approach him and and you go into his his presence to see him and to spend time with him the more you spend time with him as a result of that this is the life that follows you're going to do good to people and to treat people the right way it's no different than what the apostle paul said in the new testament that those who know jesus will be known by the fruit that they bear it's the same principle here that if you are spending time in the presence of god you go into his tabernacle and you spend time in his holy hill and you're with him then as a result of that your entire life will be changed it will look more like jesus and then as the world around you moves as inflation rises or as the trials and persecution of your life changes all around us and it makes a lot of people kind of shaky you can remain steadfast you can remain consistent and you can remain stable why because you made a decision that you're going to spend time with god and out of that comes a completely different life a life of integrity a life that the people in our community they see you and they say they really live what they say don't you want that i i do i want that for our church i hate when i hear from people and some people do use that as an excuse but i hate when i hear that church is full of a bunch of hypocrites i don't want that to be known of our church so i want to ask you today what is your integrity worth to you what's your integrity worth you say man i i'm too popular if i get rid of this it's not worth it or no i i can't get the influence that i have if i take this away from my life or is it just pride in your life that you're not willing to give up something because of how other people view you and other people listen integrity is worth more than anything else and so whatever maybe god revealed a gap in your life maybe it's in the way you treat people or maybe it's in the way you spend your money maybe it's in the way you you live maybe it's a behavior or an attitude maybe it's the words that you speak maybe you're not in the book enough whatever gap that god revealed in your life today about your personal life let me tell you this that you can come to a father who will with open arms forgive you and still remain in fellowship with them that's the god that we serve so in a moment we're going to pray and i'm going to invite you to come if god spoke to you about anything in your life would you stand at this time our instruments are going to to start playing and listen every person in here struggles every person in here has a gap in their life where they need to confess here's all i want you to do nobody has to know what your gap was but if god spoke to you about anything in your life in your personal life i want you to come forward maybe it's in the way that you speak to people or speak about people maybe it's in the way you do your money maybe it's in your behavior have you noticed the gap where maybe your what you say and what you do does not always line up if god speaks to you the altar is open father speak to our hearts lord i pray for those who maybe you revealed something in their life a gap in their life god i pray that they would put aside everything else what anybody else in this world or this room would think about them and that they would come and they'd make it right before you and god that you would always welcome us with open arms speak to our hearts for it's in your name we pray amen as the music plays you come if god spoke to you about anything