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Series:
Vision - Where MHCC is heading in 2007 |
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As announced last week, we're going to use the month of January to talk
about our vision for this church - where God wants us to go next. Consider
today's message as sort of a prelude to that topic - not extra, not
superfluous, but a foundational truth upon which to build, and a message
that has application to your personal life and mine, over, above and way
before any application to church life and ministry.
Title: Your integrity: How much will you sell it for? -
the core of this message comes from Andy
Stanley, from a message I listened to over Christmas. AS is a gifted leader
and speaker and is the founding pastor of the amazing North Point Community
Church near Atlanta. The message I heard came from his Catalyst conference
in 2005.
A fact to begin with: At some point you WILL be tempted to compromise your integrity.
If we're going to think about church direction, new year's resolutions, positive movement and forward progress in our work, school, personal lives, dating relationships, family, finances, we'd better know that at some point... how much more when we're talking about the church?!
When you hear stories about leaders who fall: "How could anybody be so stupid?" Or, husbands who bail on their families, or people in business who hang their integrity for the sake of money or influence... and it's especially true with churches and leaders who already have achieved so much, who God is clearly using in a big way...
"If I had that much... I would be so squeaky clean...what happened???"
Some points from Stanley, worded for leaders. Some are applicable to you in
your life. Others are applicable as you watch or even take part in
leadership here.
Your giftedness has the potential to take you farther than your character can sustain you.
There is no correlation between giftedness and maturity. Leaders get into trouble when their integrity doesn't keep pace with the momentum created by their giftedness. There is no correlation between giftedness and maturity.
Our
commitment to integrity can be easily eroded by our love for progress.
Our love of progress, our love to see the Kingdom moving forward sets us
up to make small compromises.
The excuses we are most tempted to use: God promised it. I deserve it...
You've received a vision, confirmation,
and there is a sense (possibly true) that God has promised it. And THEN, it
is so easy to turn a blind eye to small breaches of integrity...I deserve it
because I've been faithful, underpaid, it has been difficult on my family...
When you dig around in the story of someone's compromise, well before the
public train wreck, there was a decision to compromise integrity based on
what God promised. Usually it is a compromise to blow through an obstacle.
Story about a ministry leader (Eddie Long) where the leader got tired of
trying to work through deacons who inhibited him, controlled the purse
strings.
"We're not just a church, we're an
international corporation," Long said. "We're not just a bumbling bunch of
preachers who can't talk and all we're doing is baptizing babies. I deal
with the White House. I deal with Tony Blair. I deal with presidents around
this world. I pastor a multimillion-dollar congregation...
"We touch a lot of people," Long said.
"This is a world-impacting ministry, and I personally get a little offended
when my integrity is questioned."
In the past, however, Long has claimed he
was the final decision-maker at New Birth. In a 1999 interview, he told the
Journal-Constitution how he became the unquestioned leader at his church.
After presiding over New Birth's explosive growth, he said he told his
congregation that a biblical leader shouldn't have to answer to a board.
Long said the board relinquished its authority over him with his
congregation's approval.
In his book "Taking Over," Long described the event in more detail. He wrote
that after seven years at New Birth, he was frustrated by its deacon board
because it was "gripping the purse strings" of the church and "telling the
man of God when to jump and how high." He said he received a revelation from
God, who encouraged him to get rid of the "ungodly governmental structure"
at New Birth.
"That was the day I became pastor," Long wrote. "Up until that time, I was the hired preacher . . . . "
Source: http://www.rickross.com/reference/general/general768.html
A leader trying to get things done being held back by people who didn't have
the vision - we've all been there and will.
Bottom line - your love of progress may be what sets you up to compromise -
not sex, not money, not power...
An OT account of a leader's integrity on the line...
1 Samuel 24 -David Spares Saul's Life
1 After Saul returned from
pursuing the Philistines (Stanley calls them "the Klingons of the OT), he
was told, "David is in the Desert of En Gedi."
2 So Saul took three thousand
chosen men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near
the Crags of the Wild Goats.
3
He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in
to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave.
4 The men said, "This is the day
the LORD spoke of when he said [a]
to you, 'I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you
wish.' "
David has already been chosen king. He has already been promised the throne. Sitting around the campfire at night, the story is repeated and each man "claims his share..." Now THIS! Is this a God thing or what?! A bloodless coup, and Saul's men would have followed. Saul walks in to the cave, David walks out holding Saul's head (like a Mel Gibson movie!). You couldn't add one single thing...
This had all the makings of a God thing. God had promised it. David deserved it (being chased around)
When opportunities line up with our prayers and passions it is difficult to exercise restraint. Bigger and better church, more money...this is what I've always dreamed of... It is so difficult to make good decisions in an emotionally saturated environment.
Opportunities must be weighed against
something other than the uniqueness of the circumstances. An open door
is not always an invitation from God. Nobody feels compelled to give you
an opportunity, so when they give it, don't be compelled to take it.
David weighed his opportunity against three things:
The Law of God
The Principles of God
The Wisdom of God
The Law of God
Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD."
It happens to be against the Law to kill the king...Why would God open such a door? Maybe God didn't open it.
The Principles of God
David's men - "This is what God wants.
You're going to let something as petty as this principle get in the way?
THIS is what we have followed you for!"
7 With these words David rebuked
his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and
went his way.
8 Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, "My lord the king!" When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. 9 He said to Saul, "Why do you listen when men say, 'David is bent on harming you'? 10 This day you have seen with your own eyes how the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, 'I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the LORD's anointed.' 11 See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. Now understand and recognize that I am not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. 12 May the LORD judge between you and me. And may the LORD avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. 13 As the old saying goes, 'From evildoers come evil deeds,' so my hand will not touch you.
David is saying: I have deliberately made a decision to not be like you. I'm going to wait for God to put me there.
When we face days like this, will discover just how confident we are in the power of our God, and if we violate our convictions, we will spend the rest of our lives wondering what he would have done, could have done.
Wisdom of God
In the emotional heat of the cave, in the passion of this amazing opportunity, the wisdom of God isn't apparent. But it is there. Consider...How wise is it for a wannabe king to murder the sitting king while he uses the bathroom? Is that the story you want to tell your grandkids? What generally happens to kings who become king by murdering the sitting king?
Andy Stanley's story about the deal with a concert promoter - amphitheater , all the parking, trade this property for a nice piece across the street and you use all the parking on Sunday morning and the theater itself on Easter! One elder - "Is this like a partnership? (Don't be yoked together...) Hasn't God already addressed this? But this is millions of dollars in free parking, land...
By God's grace and by the wisdom of one sane man, they avoided making a long term deal with unbelievers with an ENTIRELY different interest...and all just to speed things up.
a. Not everything that looks, feels, others suggest, circumstances align...that this is a God thing ain't necessarily so
b. The most direct route to what you want is rarely the best one. The temptations of Jesus: Satan saying to Jesus - isn't that what God wants? People to see your power, win over the kingdoms of this world? I can get you there. I can get you there quicker, TODAY even.
Application
Weigh every opportunity against the Law, principles and wisdom of God
Decide every day that you will not sacrifice integrity for progress
Give the right people an all-access pass to every leadership decision. Just because you're the leader doesn't mean that you're the smartest, best, most insightful person in the organization.
Being a leader doesn't exempt you from the need for wise counsel, it necessitates it!
The wisest man in the world wrote more on the need for wise counsel than anyone in the bible
1. We're only one decision away from sacrificing our integrity and influence
2. You never accomplish the will of God by violating the Law, ignoring the Principles or refusing the Wisdom
Weeks later, the end of Saul. GOD does it. "This is the time. I didn't need David to violate my Law, etc.
Morrison Hill Christian
Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN 37763 (865) 376-5205
