CHRISTIAN INTEGRITY #2

JNO. 15:18-21.
Persecution is not unusual, it happened to Jesus and It will happen to us if we are faithful. It happened to Daniel because he is a man whose first desire in life is serving God. Doing a great job because he wants God to be glorified by the life he lives for God. God blesses that kind of man and that makes evil men hate Daniel. They set out to discredit and destroy Daniel.
1. What did they do? DAN. 6: 4. What did they find? Nothing.
a. PROV. 20:6.
That says trustworthy people (Those you can count on all the time) are rare. They
are hard to Find.
VS. 7, The righteous man leads a blameless life. Why was Daniel blameless?
He is blameless because one word describes Daniel. INTEGRITY.
(1) That is the key word that underlines Daniel's life. Personal integrity. He had integrity.
(1) But, more than that. He had personal purity. Personal purity is the fountain source of Integrity.
(2) Because of Daniel’s personal purity he has integrity. Daniel is not corrupt or corruptible.
(1) Evil men trick the King into making a new law. A law that Daniel's pure, honest life would violate because it would cause him to dishonor God.
(2) Regardless of the consequences, Daniel will always obey God instead of obeying man.
2. What did Dan do? VS. 10. Daniel’s mark of integrity was his constant unchanging walk with
God. Isn’t that the way we are to be?
VS. 11-13; VS. 16.
The rest of the Story is found in DAN. 6:22-28. Honor and obey God and He will honor and exalt you.
How is Your integrity? Only You and God really know. Only you can do the surgery that will give you a righteous heart.
a. You are the one who makes the choice as to how extensive that spiritual surgery will be.
b. How deep will you go? How much are you willing to bear? That will be determined by your
Integrity.
c. You can go into denial, cover up, twist the facts. Rationalize, ignore and continue as you
are.
But if you really want to be the person of integrity God wants you to be, There is only one thing you can do.
a. Come to grips with the whole truth abt yourself and your life. Only then can Integrity really be
yours.
Come to God hiding nothing, totally open, vulnerable. “Just as I am without one Plea.”
(B) Without integrity you'll never know the victories that faith can really bring into your Life.
Close lesson with three admonitions from God’s holy, inspired, infallible word.
(2) Together they sum up Daniel's beautiful life of Integrity. The Life of Integrity God wants you to have. I PET. 3:13-17; 2:11-16; PHIP. 2:12-16a,
(3) ACTS 20:32

Spur - 3/11/2001 pm