11/02/2025
joseph@wcchurch.com
Capturing a Spirit of Excellence-2
Adding Integrity
I. Review.
A. We started out this year by saying that God’s message to us is that this is to be a year to break through. I asked each of you to consider specific areas in your life that you need a breakthrough in. It could be your marriage, your family and kids, it could be your job, your finances or it could be your physical body. Some of us are believing God for breakthrough in multiple areas of our life.
*We are examining the greatest breakthroughs of promotion in the Bible: Joseph, who rose from a slave in prison to the second highest position in Egypt; Daniel, who rose from a captured slave to the second highest position in the Babylonian empire, and lastly, David, who rose from a shepherd boy to king.
*In these three stories we find the keys to rising to the great purpose that God has placed in each of us. Last month we looked at some of the tests we go through, now I want to look at some keys to add to our life to propel us to great promotion in life. And remember, promotion comes from the Lord.
*Our key verse in this series is Daniel 6:3 “Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and provincial governors, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm.”
*The key to promotion is cultivating an excellent spirit in us. And the great news is that none of were born with an excellent spirit. It is something we have to work on to grow in our life.
B. Last week we looked at the first key to growing a spirit of excellence: making God’s standards and values my standards and values.
Isaiah 55:9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
*God’s thoughts and ways are excellent and perfect. What God is telling us to do is to begin thinking like God, begin acting like God, because God is excellent in everything He does and everything He does is with great excellence. After God created the earth, He looked back and said:
Genesis 1:31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.
*So, since we are talking about capturing an excellent spirit, let’s at least define what excellence is.
C. A definition of excellence is the quality of being outstanding or extremely good. Excellence is the highest quality, a superior standard, an extreme and maximum quality. It is being the best.
A person of excellence is consistent in good behavior, manners and attitude towards people and responsibilities. A person of excellence stands out everywhere he goes.
>When you go to McDonalds, there is a definite standard for treating the customer. In fact, McDonalds is trying to make sure that we have no contact with the people that work there. They want you to use their touch screen computers to order and then your number comes up and you can take your order without ever talking to anybody. Their focus is on the speed at which they give you your order. We could call that efficient, but not excellent. Let me contrast that with Chick-Fil A. Is there a difference in the way that you are treated there? Chick-Fil A strives for excellence in the way they treat you. It is no surprise that the average Chick-Fil A store has almost twice as much profit as the average McDonalds and that is with Chick Fil A being open just six days a week.
*When we make God’s standards and values my standards and values, it means upgrading our standards to become the best and highest standards. God’s standards are the highest in quality.
*Last week I said that the kind of person you are is based on the things you've chosen to value. In other words, your convictions in life determine your conduct, and your conduct determines your character, and your character determines whether God will promote you in life.
D. One of the most important character traits to add to your life for excellence is integrity. The dictionary definition of integrity is “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”
*The book of Job shows us that one of the things that God looks at in our life is our integrity.
Job 2:3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
*A person of integrity lives by God’s morals and standards.
Psalm 15:1-4 Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord? Who may enter your presence on your holy hill? Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right, speaking the truth from sincere hearts. Those who refuse to gossip or harm their neighbors or speak evil of their friends. Those who despise flagrant sinners, and honor the faithful followers of the Lord, and keep their promises even when it hurts.
E. A person of excellence will always possess these two things, godly morals and integrity. You see, your gifts and abilities will promote you; but your character will keep you there.
>Let me ask you this question: in the Bible, who was stronger: Joseph or Samson?
Now Samson had all the muscle. Samson had all the physical strength. Samson could pick up the gate of the city (between 4 to 10 tons) and carry it on his back and take it to the hill outside the city. Samson killed a thousand men with his bare hands with a donkey’s jawbone. Samson was so powerful that he broke a temple to pieces with his bare hands.
*Samson was a real monster. Let’s contrast Samson with Joseph. Joseph had no muscle. He never killed a thousand men with his hands. He never destroyed a temple with his arms. And yet Joseph was stronger than Samson. Why? Because morality and integrity are stronger than talent.
*When we have morals and integrity, we don't take advantage of people below us. We don't violate family. We don't violate marriage. We respect people's opinions. In other words, excellence has a commitment to integrity and God’s morality.
*And we know in reality that morality is stronger than strength. Joseph was a greater man than Samson. How do we know that?
*Because Joseph’s master’s wife wanted Joseph to sleep with her. She came into the room when Joseph was coming out of the bath. She came in with nothing on and Joseph only had on a towel.
*Samson met a woman with everything on and he could not control his desires. Joseph was so strong on the inside that the story says he dropped the towel and ran naked away from the woman.
*That's the stronger man. As God’s children we commit ourselves to the strength of godly character and integrity. Integrity above personal satisfaction and gratification.
*We don’t get that kind of integrity by watching steamy television shows; we get those by spending time in God’s presence and by loving God’s word above all else.
*When God’s word fills your heart and mind, then they will control your behavior. What you believe manifests in how you behave.
Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
F. Integrity is the integration of your words with your behavior. What you say and what you do are supposed to be consistent if you are a person of integrity.
Matthew 23:3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach
*That means you keep your word.
Ephesians 4:22-25, 29 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor… Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
*God has commanded us to live in integrity.
**An excellent spirit is a spirit of what? Integrity. Integrity. Integrity is the integration of your word and behavior.
Why? Because people watch what you say and to see if it equals what you do before they trust you. Leaders, true leaders, are people who cause others to trust them because they say what they mean and they mean what they say.
>If you promise someone you're going to give them a call, give them the call. If you promise someone you're going to meet with them, then do all in your power to show up and be at that meeting.
*If you say you are going to do something, do it. If you promise something, follow through. Why? If you don’t honor your word, God will not honor your word.
>when I first started praying for the sick…
*Why aren’t we people of integrity? The two biggest excuses or lies we use are:
"Nobody will know about it," and "It won't hurt anybody." You're wrong on both counts. You're wrong.
>A man can say, "I can get away with this. My wife will never know. I can do this and it won't hurt my wife." Kids can say, "I can do this and it won't hurt my parents." An employee can say, "I can do this. It's a big company. It won't hurt anybody." You're wrong.
*So how do we live a life of integrity?
II. How to Live with Integrity.
A. Key #1: Always speak the truth.
*If you’re going to live in integrity, you always have to speak the truth. Even when it’s inconvenient, even when you don’t want to, even in a difficult situation. Because that’s what integrity demands.
Proverbs 12:22 “The Lord hates liars, but is pleased with those who keep their word.”
*Is lying a problem in America?
-According to a study by the University of Massachusetts, 60% of people can’t go 10 minutes without lying.
-Every week, Americans tell 11 lies.
-Children start lying at the age of 2, and by the age of 4 they can lie convincingly.
-On average, 6 lies are told to supervisors, partners, spouses and workmates every day.
-70% of all liars claim to be willing to do it again.
>So, do you keep your word? Do you keep your promises? Or are you always making excuses? “I couldn’t do that because of….” The Bible says that God loves people who keep their word. If you don’t know how to keep your word, you’re not going to have very many great relationships. Integrity is the foundation of all relationships. Why? If I don’t tell you the truth, you won’t trust me. And if you don’t trust me, we don’t have a relationship.
Proverbs 4:24 Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip.
B. Key #2: I have to stand for what’s right.
*Standing is often more than just speaking up. It often involves action. Sometimes you have to do something because integrity demands that you take action.
2 Corinthians 13:8 “Our responsibility is never to oppose the truth but to stand for the truth at all times.”
>We were silent when they took away prayer from school, silent when they took out the Bible, silent when they outlawed the 10 commandments, silent when they redefined marriage, silent when they started murdering babies, silent when they shut down churches during COVID, silent when they changed our school curriculums, silent when they had transgender men in dresses reading books to our kindergarteners, and silent when they allow boys to go into girl’s restrooms.
>Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor who left Germany in 1933 at age 27 to protest the Nazi regime’s introduction of anti-Jewish legislation. He could have stayed permanently in England, or later the U.S., but repeatedly returned home to oppose Hitler from within. Helping Jews to escape to Switzerland during the war, he also organized church-based resistance. Arrested in 1943, he was hung for treason in 1945 just days before the end of the Third Reich. He said this: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
C. Key #3: Stay clean.
Philippians 2:15 “You’re to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them.”
Keep your mind, your body, your motive pure. Stay clean.
*The mark of Joseph and Daniel’s life was purity. Joseph said no to sexual sin, Daniel said no to lowering his standards and eating food sacrificed to idols.
I love what Job said:
Job 31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman.
D. Key #4: Choose the right kind of friends.
*You will become like the people you spend the most time with, so they’d better be people of integrity. On top of that, I suggest that you spend time with Jesus Christ – reading His word. You’re going to become more like Him if you spend more time with Him.
*1 Corinthians 15:33 “Bad company corrupts good character.”
*In other words, if you want to soar with the eagles, you can’t run with the turkeys. Choose your friends wisely because people are either going to pull you up or pull you down.
E. Key #5: Value your integrity more than your image.
*That’s tough to do here where image is everything. It doesn’t matter if you’re successful as long as you look successful. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich as long as you appear to be rich. What you drive, where you shop, where you eat…
Proverbs 12:9 Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant than pretend to be somebody and have no food.
>In the movie Wall Street, one character said, “Greed is good!” and he would do anything to get more money.
*You have to decide in your life what is more important to you-truth or stuff. If you decide that truth is more important you will give up some things sometimes in order to tell the truth. If stuff become more important than truth, you’ll lie to make a profit, you’ll cheat on your income taxes, you’ll misuse company resources.
F. Key #6: Watch what you watch. In other words, filter what you allow in your mind. If you’re going to be a person of integrity, you’re going to have to monitor your media intake. There are a lot of things in the media today that do not represent integrity in any sense of the word. You can’t just allow any idea, any thought, any sound, any movie, any book, any magazine in your mind like it's just an open garbage container. You have to watch what you watch.
Psalm 101:2-3 “I will lead a life of integrity in my own home. I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar.” That’s a great scripture to paste over your tv, phone and computer.
Proverbs 15:14 New Living Translation “The wise person is hungry for the truth but the fool feeds on trash.”
*There is a lot of trash out there. It’s foolish to fill your mind with trash and then expect to be able to live a life of integrity. Inevitably it’s going to effect your behavior.
*I’ve heard all the excuses, but the bottom line is that God will not promote us if we have no integrity.
>guy in my church who let this very pretty but person with low morals stay with him at his house. Don’t worry pastor, I can handle the temptation. And he did, until Wednesday when I got the Pastor-I-have-sinned-call! There are just some things that we can’t handle-we need to run from!
Are you rationalizing things in your life by saying, “It’s no big deal.” Rationalizing is telling with your mind what your heart knows is wrong. It’s saying with your mind something is right when your heart knows it’s wrong.
Here’s the bottom line. If you want to become a person of integrity, you have to care about the small things in life. You have to care about the things in your private life that nobody sees. You have to care about details that are really important. You have to care about things that seem inconsequential if you’re going to have integrity. Integrity is what you are when nobody’s looking. Integrity is what you are in the dark. That’s character. That’s integrity.
Philippians 2:15-16 become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
*My challenge to you today is to commit to becoming a person of integrity in what the Bible calls “a crooked a perverse generation among whom you may shine as lights in a dark world.” If you live with integrity, you’re going to shine against the lot that’s going on in our society today. America is desperately in need of men and women of integrity, at work, in the schools, in our government, in our churches. Without integrity, the foundations are going to crumble. In fact, the Bible says that the earth is groaning as it waits for the sons and daughters of God to manifest.
Romans 8:19,22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time... For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
Do you want to please God? Do you want to influence other people for good? Do you want to make a difference with your life? Do you want God’s blessings and joy on your life? Then commit to becoming a person of integrity.
Let’s Pray.
