Keeping Your Integrity Intact

If you keep enjoying God's blessings and ignoring him, one day you're going to stand in the courts of heaven before the great judge, and all these blessings that God has given you are going to serve as witnesses against you. Death touches everyone. It may be viewed as a faraway event, but the fact is that you are always a breath away from entering eternity. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way as he takes us for a deep dive into the book of Acts.

This is a series called Looking Up When Life's Got You Down. You can learn from the experiences of Paul about living the abundant Christian life, even when life doesn't feel so abundant. And do remember that Leading the Way is listener-supported, made possible in your neighborhood and in neighborhoods just like yours all around the world by God's provision through God's people.

Learn more at ltw.org. Here now is Dr. Michael Youssef with words on keeping your integrity intact. Have you ever thought about how a sports team, when they win the game, people will literally bow down and adore them, but when they lose the game, they want to stone them with tomatoes and rotten eggs.

Now I'm going to give you an answer to this question that I'm raising in your minds because I thought about this a great deal and I want you to listen to what I'm going to tell you. Men, women, young, old, one of the most dangerous things in life is to seek after popularity. Boys and girls in school who want to be popular and being popular becomes the most important thing in the school, often bring pain upon themselves and be disappointed and discouraged many a times. Parents who uphold popularity, they hold it up for their children as a goal in life, they will be disappointed and will pay a very heavy price. Pastors and ministers and Bible teachers and leaders of all stripes, I can tell you without a shadow of doubt that if popularity is the goal of your life, you will end up compromising and becoming ineffective in serving God. Why seeking after popularity can be so demoralizing?

Why can it be so dangerous and devastating? Because the crowd by nature is fickle, because the crowd by nature is forgetful, because the crowd by nature is mercurial, because the crowd by nature is changeable just like the wind, because the crowd by nature is unstable. And therefore, you cannot build your life goals on popularity. The famed journalist of just a year, Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune said years ago, and I quote, he said, Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, riches takes wings, and those who cheer you today will curse you tomorrow, only one thing endures. Character.

End of quote. My beloved friends, I want to tell you, the longer I live, the more I realize that integrity is a precious commodity. It is very fragile, but it's a precious commodity. And unless you protect it, unless you guard it, unless you feed it upon the Word of God, unless you have it anchored in Jesus Christ, unless you do that on a daily basis, moment by moment every single day, you soon will discover that your integrity building blocks begins to crumble and fall apart.

I'll make you a promise, hear me right. You cannot keep your integrity intact if being popular is your life's goal. King Saul gives us the best example of this. You know the Bible is full of examples, and yet somehow we keep repeating that same mistake over and over and over again that others have made. King Saul of Israel was a man who did not know how to protect his integrity, and that is why halfway through his kingly service he found that integrity's building blocks began to fall apart.

And this is how it happens, it happens with precision every time. Listen carefully my beloved friends, I want to tell you, it first begins with pride. When pride takes hold of us, we'll not let go.

Be careful of pride. You might call it ego, you might call it insecurity, you might call it this, we call it the other thing, but all it is is pride, pure and simple, and it is the one sin that's condemned by the Lord Jesus Christ. When pride took hold of King Saul's life, he began to believe his own press releases. He began to think that he did it all himself. He had forgotten to give God the glory, he had forgotten to give God all of the credit. And when pride takes over, the next step, the second step, is that he was blaming everybody around him for his disobedience to the Lord, and never himself. And he began to blame other people for your troubles instead of looking in the mirror. And then the third step is acting or role playing.

And that's precisely what Saul began to do. He began to role play repentance, he began to act as if he is repentant when he is not. Be careful of pretending to repent. That is more dangerous than not repenting. Be careful about role playing your spiritual life.

Be careful about thinking that you know everything about everything, so that you'll find yourself going through the motions. But on the inside, there is no change. How many times Saul, oh is that you David my son, I am sorry, but he wasn't really sorry at all. Now let me tell you something, if you are a person who has compromised your integrity, there is good news. There is good news. If you compromise your integrity for popularity, if you compromise your integrity for financial gain, if you compromise your integrity for desire to control those other people who are with you, there is good news. And the good news is that there are three steps, that just as there are three steps for those building blocks of integrity to crumble, there are three steps for those rebuilding of the building block of your integrity. Listen carefully, first of all admit, truly, genuinely admit your failure. Receive the forgiveness of God, no role playing. Truly repent from your heart. Secondly, find a good honest friend who's going to keep a secret. A good honest man or woman who is going to keep confidentiality. And then ask him or her to hold you accountable, to walk with you in your road to recovery. And then the third thing that you must do is you begin to set your goal in life. Not popularity, not financial gain, not domination, not power, but one thing and one thing alone and that is the glory of Jesus Christ. If you write that as your goal in life and you begin every single day to live up to that goal, I promise you the world might be falling apart, but you be standing strong. James Shurer once said, some of the most talented people are terrible leaders because they have a crippling need to be loved by everyone.

Why am I taking time to warn you and myself and warn everybody else who's listening to me? Is because Acts chapter 14 gives us an example of two men of God who overcame that insidious temptation. Acts chapter 14 shows us how two men of integrity were victorious over that insidious temptation.

How two men of commitment to Jesus Christ kept their eye on the ball and refused to be tempted or fall into that temptation of pride and popularity. Turn with me please to Acts 14. The first seven verses, Paul and Barnabas go to Iconium. And there in that city Paul preaches the gospel and they got the predictable response. Those who believe the gospel and therefore repented and rejoiced in the good news of the gospel. And then there were the religious leaders who incited the crowd in order to persecute Paul and Barnabas and throw them out of town. But beginning at verse 8 of Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas go down from Iconium to Lestra. And there they see the scribbled man from birth. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul heals the man who has been crippled from his birth and the pagan crowd goes berserk.

And there's no other way to describe it. They just went berserk. Now look at verse 11 of Acts 14.

Here's what they said. They said, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. And in a typical crowd reaction, in a typical mass hysteria, they said that Barnabas is Zeus and Paul is Hermes. And the next thing they were doing, the priests of Zeus and Hermes comes in, they bring a bunch of bulls and garlands. They were ready to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas and they were ready to bow and worship them. And they thought the gods have come among us.

The Bible tells us that because of the languish barrier for a few minutes, Paul did not understand what's going on and Barnabas did not know what's going on. And they thought they might be trying to give an offering unto the Lord, which would have been nice, but that's not what they were doing. And as soon as Paul and Barnabas discovered what they're trying to do, namely worship them and offer sacrifices to them, they tore their clothes is a sign of being horrified.

Out of horror, they tore their clothes. Now what is this all about? I want you to listen very carefully.

This is very important because you have to understand the background to what they're saying. Why did they call Barnabas Zeus? Why did they call Paul Hermes? And why do they want to worship them? Well, in the city of Leicester, there was a mythology and that mythology was recorded by a Roman poet by the name of Ovid.

He died in the year AD 17. The mythology goes something like this. The gods Zeus and Hermes once came to earth into the city of Leicester disguised as human beings. And when they arrived in Leicester, they asked for hospitality. They wanted accommodation. They wanted somebody to feed them, but they knocked on 1,000 doors.

Nobody will offer them hospitality. But there was a peasant man by the name of Philemon and his wife Bacchus who took those gods into their humble cottage. Poor as they were, they offered them all they had. And the myth goes on to say that later on, the gods rewarded Philemon and his wife by turning their humble cottage into a temple for Zeus and Hermes. But then they destroyed the rest of the population of Leicester through flood, all in revenge for not receiving accommodation. Meanwhile, this fictitious man Philemon and his wife became the first priests and priestesses in the temple of Zeus and Hermes.

Now, after Philemon's and his wife's death, they turned into two stately trees, two trees. So you can imagine this pagan population of Leicester, they thought Paul and Barnabas because they healed this crippled man from birth. You can imagine the reaction when they saw this man walking and talking when he has never done so. All they can think of is this.

It's going to happen again. And they said, man, we don't want to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors. We don't want to commit that sin again. So now we're going to offer these people not just hospitality, we're going to worship them because they are gods, they are Zeus and Hermes.

They're not going to only put them on a pedestal, they're going to worship them. Now let me ask you a question. I want you to think about this. What is the temptation that Paul and Barnabas were facing at that very moment? Think about it. What is that temptation?

I can tell you what it is. Let them have their fun. What's wrong with them having this experience? We will accept what they're doing and then we can tell them about Jesus. After we get some respect in this new city, we've been thrown out of every city. Here's an opportunity for us to get some respect, get some relief from the persecution.

Man, let's just get some respect. Then we can tell them about the gospel. Let's get some acceptance here from this society. And after we get accepted and they take us into their lives and into their homes and into their culture, then we can share the gospel with them. Well, there's no harm for letting them practice their cultural milieu, is there? Terrible temptation.

Terrible temptation. After all, we want to be relevant to them. You don't have to get drunk to be relevant to a drunk. Paul was indeed relevant.

There's no doubt about it. He was indeed relevant. He did not preach the same sermon that we saw in other times when he went into the synagogue and he talked to them about Moses and about Abraham and the God who delivered his people. He did not talk to them about the background. He did not talk to them about the prophecies in the Old Testament.

No, no, no, no, no. He knew these people have no background in the Old Testament whatsoever. They have no knowledge of the God of the Bible.

They have no knowledge of the God of the Hebrews. They knew that. They understood that. And therefore, they were relevant to them. Listen to Paul's testimony or sermon.

In fact, it's a summary of it. He understood in his mind, if you look at the passage, he understood that these people were worshiping nature. Therefore, he had to begin by talking about the God, the creator of nature. These people were worshiping creatures. And therefore, they had to begin by talking about the God who made all the creatures. These people were worshiping myth and unreality. And therefore, the apostle Paul was telling them about the real God who became a real man, who preached real good news, who died a real death. And he was resurrected, real resurrection. And he's coming back, really, really coming back to judge every human being. That's what Paul's message to the people of Lestra.

This was the sermon to the pagan audience. He never tried to get along. He never tried for personal gain and personal acceptance. Close his ears, shut his mouth. He never tried to mislead them. He never tried to get them to read the small fine print. No.

He spilled it out up front. And beloved friends, here's a message for today. Here's a message for those who worship nature. Here's a message to those who still follow the defunct theory of evolution. Here's a message for those who are self-gratification seekers. Here's a message to those who are self-worshipers.

Listen to it very carefully. You may need to preach it tomorrow morning to your neighbor or to your friend. And the message is this that comes from the Word of God. That every meal you eat, that every drop of water you drink, that every breath you draw, that every enjoyment of the sunshine that you experience, every enjoyment of good health that you have, every dollar that's in your pocket, every particle of air that you breathe, they are all a gift from the Creator God. That's half of the sermon.

Let me give you the other half. If you keep enjoying God's blessings and ignoring Him, if you keep on receiving God's gifts and acknowledge Him not, if you keep on taking from Him and taking from Him and give the credit to others, to science and to whatever it may be of yourself, one day you're going to stand in the courts of heaven before the great judge on that dreadful day and all these blessings that God has given you are going to serve as witnesses against you. But if you will turn to Him, if you acknowledge His Son the Lord Jesus Christ that He had died for you, if you worship Him alone, if your life is anchored in adoring Him, if you commit your life to Him and Him alone, then the story will change.

It will change radically. Then that on that supposedly dreadful day is not dreadful for you. Because on that day you will be justified. On that day you will be pronounced guiltless. On that day you will escape the judgment of God. On that day you will experience firsthand the forgiveness of God.

On that day you will be with Him in heaven. That is the message to our generation. But to prove the fickleness of the crowd, here in chapter 14 verse 19 of the book of Acts, the very people who wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas, calling them Zeus and Hermes, now they got so stirred up and stoned them almost to death. The same people. One day the Gallup poll said that their popularity is over 90% and the next day it plummeted to zero. And that is why my beloved friends, if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, you do not live by the popularity, Paul. You live by the authority of Jesus Christ.

You cannot live by the world's popularity index. Remember the crowd in Jerusalem one day said, Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. And then four days later they said, crucify Him, crucify Him, His blood is on us and our children. The very people who wanted to offer Paul and Barnabas a sacrifice and worship them wanted to kill them. The very people who wanted to deify Paul and Barnabas wanted to destroy them. In fact, look at verse 19 again, Acts 14, in fact they thought Paul was already dead. They stoned him so much and so hard that everybody laughed and said, well he died. He's already dead.

But Paul gets up and he leaves a trickling of blood from Leicester to the city of Derby. And there the Bible said, he preached again, he preached again. Let me ask you this question as I conclude. I pray that God the Holy Spirit will keep the question in your mind for the remainder of your life, not just the remainder of the day. What is the goal of your life? Is the goal of your life the glory of Jesus Christ? Is the goal of your life to bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ? If it is not, will you make that to be the goal of your life today? Will you?

Because I want to tell you, any other goal that is not anchored in this one will bring misery, will bring disappointment and will bring grief. But when your goal is anchored in the glory of Jesus Christ alone, if your goal is to bring honor to the name of Jesus Christ, the world would be falling apart all around you, but you'll stand on top of the world. Thank you for listening to Leading the Way, spreading the gospel for more than 30 years. Do you have spiritual questions?

No one to share those with? Well, a Leading the Way pastor would love to speak with you. Just start your conversation at ltw.org slash Jesus. In a world so desperately in need of truth and hope, Leading the Way is meeting the challenge. Through our Vision 2025 campaign, we are witnessing dramatic impact across new technologies and audiences. A key part of the Vision 2025 initiative is to reach the next generation for Christ. As a part of that effort, Leading the Way launched a podcast, Candid Conversations with Jonathan Youssef, which just celebrated its 100th episode.

Already, Candid Conversations is in the top 5% of podcasts worldwide and has listeners in 95 countries. With Candid Conversations, Jonathan Youssef and a guest each week bring a biblical worldview to popular topics, such as evangelism, sexuality, false teaching, apologetics, dating and marriage, and more. With each passing year, the world keeps changing, but our calling is the same. Leading the Way is right there on the cutting edge, adapting to the new tech and media landscape, using every tool to reach the world with the hope of Jesus. Contact us today to find out how you can join with Leading the Way's global outreach and become a part of what God is doing through this worldwide ministry. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world.