Maintaining Your Integrity

Posted: May 22, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: God, Integrity, Jesus, Rights, Sermons | Leave a comment

Imagine you see a man or woman holding a sign on a street corner, “_________________ has taken away my right…” What word would you fill that blank with? The government has taken away my right to say what I want to say or to travel. The school has taken away my right to pray. The courts have taken away my right to freely assemble. The doctor has taken away my right to drive. My parents have taken away my right to see my boyfriend, girlfriend or friends. 

What if we were to fill in the blank with the word “God has taken away my right.” What if I were to tell you that this is exactly what a guy by the name of Job said and he was one of the most righteous and religious persons to ever live. In fact, Job goes on to say, “the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter.” So who here wants to pull the cord and get off the bus of following God if that is how He treats His children? I’ve seen a bumper sticker around town that creates one of those LOL moments for me each time I see it, “Do you follow Jesus this closely?” You can’t see the bumper sticker unless you get very close. Maybe some of you feel so close to Jesus that you feel like you are going to rear end Him if He makes a quick stop? Others of you feel like Job and believe God is very distant and has taken away your right. What right? Your right to health and happiness. Your right to things going right. Your right to justice and things being fair. It seems God has taken off, left you in the dust and you can’t see Him! I believe we can find hope for wherever you are on that spectrum. Whether you feel close to God or you doubt there even is a God, there is hope. And part of that hope is to right-size your expectations. The only right that I can find in the Bible for believers is the right to be called children of God. Therefore, most of what we have are privileges, not rights. What we really need is hope!

To find this hope, we need to read Job 27. Job 27 is Job’s summation in the plural form meaning he is talking to all his “friends”[1] who have been trying to make a case against him that he is not innocent. Job was the richest and most righteous person in the Ancient Near East. He lived sometime between Noah and Abraham. In the story, Job spends his days not living out the payoffs of being a great business man, but by praying for his children and making sacrifices for them if they had sinned. One day, Satan, comes to put “God on trial.”[2] As God suffers attack, so do we! And in Job’s case, in one day Job lost everything – his business, his employees, his family and after that he lost his health. He also lost his peace of mind and his security of being able to count on what he thought was God’s justice. He even thought he lost his relationship with God. Anybody here who feels any of those things? However, Job never lost his integrity. And his integrity was so tied to his faith. Our faith will be tested and this begs the question: will we love God even when we can’t see His goodness? [3] Will we love God for God’s sake? So let’s read Job 27 to find out Job’s perspective and commitment to integrity. Read Job 27!

Do you have integrity? Before you think of this as a TED talk on having integrity, I’ll tell you it’s not. In fact, some of those TED talks say that integrity doesn’t work and actually leads to hypocrisy because nobody is perfect.[4] Which is true, but we still need to pursue being people of integrity and truth because our leader Jesus Christ is the Truth! This gives you a vertical reason to have integrity rather than just a horizontal one so that you can be trusted. But first let’s define integrity. I’ll start by asking you some questions. This first question may cause some of you to break out in hives. Let’s go back to Grade 6. What is an integer? An ‘integer’ is a whole number! What is an integral element? An ‘integral’ element is something essential for wholeness! And what does it mean to integrate? Let’s say we want each of you here today to be integrated into our church. “To ‘integrate’ means to make whole or complete by bringing together parts. When Job defends his integrity, we might say that he is really arguing for the wholeness or oneness of his righteous soul.”[5] Integrity means to be whole without any cracks in one’s character. Integrity enables a clean conscience. “A clean conscience is not one that is without guilt, but one that is without blame.”[6] Do you have integrity? 

None of us have absolute integrity this side of heaven. One man came close. That is Job! Look again at Job 27:1-2, “And Job again took up his discourse, and said: ‘As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter.’” Now has Job come to the right conclusion? Who directly made Job’s soul bitter? There are actually a number of persons. Satan was the first one who attacked Job and caused his soul to be bitter. Satan destroyed his family and business. But as I thought about it, there were more characters who embittered Job’s soul. Job’s wife also tried to embitter Job’s soul. Remember what Job’s wife said to him in Job 2:9 after she and Job lost their 10 children, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die.” When your spouse speaks into your life, those words are fast-tracked from our ears to our hearts because our spouse’s opinion matters so much. Our spouse’s words can build up and tear down more than anybody else’s. Job’s wife threatened to embitter his soul. Satan and Job’s wife planted seeds of discouragement and bitterness into Job’s soul, but there was a third group of people who embittered Job’s soul.  Third, there was Job’s friends Zophar, Bildad and Eliphaz. Some friends make you better. Job’s friends made him bitter. Their constant questioning and interrogation was like them squirting lemon juice in his soul. But there is one more person who made Job’s soul bitter. That is God! Job understood and believed correctly that God was in charge of the universe. And so all that was happening to Job had to pass through the hands of God. God had to sign off on Satan’s attacks, on Mrs. Job’s attacks and on Bildad’s, Eliphaz’s and Zophar’s attacks. Remember from chapter one that Satan had to ask permission to touch Job. And so we need to remember that God bears some responsibility for making Job’s soul bitter. We may not like that and it might even seem heretical at first. However, Job said it (repeatedly). It’s in the Bible! We may want to correct Job and explain that Job’s response to hardship was what made his soul bitter. But what if God truly did make Job’s soul bitter? What if God is doing something during this season of suffering in our lives that He doesn’t too often because we couldn’t handle it? What if we have put God in a box and He is busting through it? God allowed suffering during the time of Noah when there were no other righteous people. God allowed suffering during the time Abraham when he and his wife struggled with infertility. God allowed suffering during the time of Moses when he spent 40 years away from Egypt and then when he led the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses was constantly criticized, even by his own family. Or think about about how God allowed David to suffer by being on the run for years from his father-in-law, even though David was the loyal to Saul. And of course, God’s Son Jesus was the ultimate example of being allowed to suffer. God has allowed suffering billions of times in history to show us a different side of Himself. 

I’ve been married for 26 years this coming Wednesday. Life with Lori is awesome because I can’t figure her out, even though I try to understand her. She is still a mystery to me. In a similar way, God was shaking Job’s preconceived notions of how God was to act. And we learn that sometimes God makes life bitter for Job and us.  This may actually increase our understanding of suffering and at the same time increase our hope and faith. You see, if God has ultimately made our souls bitter, He also can make them sweet again. God is the ultimate lemonade maker. He turns those sour lemons into lemonade. His people have long eaten bitter herbs at Passover to remember their wilderness wanderings. Things taste sweeter because we know what bitter is. There is a whole category of alcoholic drinks called bitters. Some beer drinkers like more hops, which are measured in IBUs (International Bitter Units). Think about the times you were going through a bitter situation. You are still here. God took that divorce and caused you to delight in Him as your intimate companion. God took that physical ailment and caused you to enrich your prayer life like never before. God did not waste your cancer or COVID! God sustained you as you took cover during that storm. God took that disappointment after disappointment in order to pry up the attachments you have to the things on this earth. We learn new things about God and communicating to Him in both our thoughts and emotions.[7] And it’s in suffering that we learn to talk to God in new ways using our emotions. I am certainly not advocating we marinade in our bitterness and become sourpusses, puddleglums and eeyores infecting people with our melancholy. In that case, we must do as Ephesians 4:31 commands, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” However, we are also commanded in James 4:9 to “Be wretched, and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” How is it going with obeying that command? To be sad! But in our sadness, we must not sin. This is why our first action point is to maintain integrity through 1) do the right thing when God takes away our rights! We must do the right thing when God takes away our rights.

            Bitterness can be caused by things we have done and by things that have been done to us. If we are becoming bitter because of the wrong things we are doing and nothing we are doing is working out, then the best thing we can do is stop! Repent! Turn away from those wrong things and turn back to God. This will uproot the bitterness in our lives left from regret. And it will protect others. Weed out that garden of our soul that has been overrun by wickedness. Remember Hebrews 12:15 teaches us that if we don’t uproot this bitterness, it will defile others, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.” Do the right thing when God takes away our rights. He may be getting your attention and drawing you back to Himself by taking away your rights so that we cling less to the things of this world. He always treats us better than we deserve. Acknowledging this truth fights bitterness.

However, what if you are bitter because you are suffering for the right thing? God may have allowed you to be in a situation that feels like you are swimming in pickle juice. That was Job’s experience. And yet, it doesn’t seem to make sense. God knew the extent of Job’s integrity. God even bragged about it. Job 2:3records, “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to destroy him without reason.” Did you catch that last part, “although you incited Me against him to destroy him without reason”? God did have a reason. In fact, billions of reasons. Billions of people down through the centuries who have read or heard the story of Job, have been encouraged to keep going. And think about it, you and I are one of those reasons too! We are encouraged today to hold fast to God even when He seems to be slow in rescuing us. As Job says in Job 9:18, “He will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.” If you are not yet convinced that God causes bitterness in our lives, maybe it would help you to know the Hebrew word in Job that is used is “mara”? Remember that word is what Naomi said in Ruth 1:20 after losing her husband and sons, “Don’t call me Naomi, but Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.” Do the right thing when God takes away your rights.

Today, I have living proof. My sister will be here this weekend. She wouldn’t be if a young 16 year old girl who was unmarried and pregnant didn’t choose life. It was the 1970’s and her biological mother was sent across the country to have her baby. That 16 year old girl seemed to have lost her rights – at least the right to see her boyfriend. But she did the right thing when God took away her rights and I praise God that I have a sibling today because of her doing the right thing. You see, our family adopted Stephanie straight out of the hospital and she has been a tremendous blessing to us from day one.

Job committed to doing the right thing. Look at Job 27:3-6, “As long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not utter deceit. Far be it from me to say that you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.” You see, “The ultimate lie would be to abandon his integrity.”[8] He was not going to prove Bildad and the other friends right that Job had actually done wrong. Job believed, “I’ll be damned if you are right.”[9] And that wasn’t cursing, but a core belief of Job that he had to maintain his integrity or he would experience damnation. Do the right thing when God takes away your rights.

But don’t just do the right thing when God takes away your rights, secondly: 2) do the right thing when nobody else does right! After making his commitment to do the right thing, Job talks about the consequences of doing the wrong thing. This is what he says in Job 27:7-13, “Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times? I will teach you concerning the hand of God, what is with the Almighty I will not conceal. Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain? This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty.” Job is reminding his friends and himself that we need to do the right thing when nobody else does because the wages of sin is death. And sometime that payment is delayed. God will judge us someday! “Even though Job has pointed to many observable cases in which people commit evil and yet are not immediately punished, he still believes God is just.”[10] My friends, maybe you have a decision this week and it feels like everybody is telling you to do something when you know that what God wants is the opposite of their counsel. I implore you do the right thing when nobody else does right. God’s judgment is the only one that truly matters. Do you believe that?

To maintain our integrity, we must do the right thing when God takes away our rights and to maintain our integrity, we must do the right thing when nobody else does right, but the third way to maintain our integrity is to 3) Do the right thing when nothing is going right! This is the majority story in the Book of Job. Everything was going wrong. I’ve felt that this last little while. And yet, nothing seemingly going right is not the only narrative in Job. God will bring about redemption. He will restore Job. “Job believes God is a victorious warrior, but cannot affirm that God is fighting on his own behalf.”[11] At least at this point in the story! However, we can affirm that God is fighting on our behalf because of Jesus. Jesus fought for us by dying on a Cross for us and rising again. He is still fighting for you. The battle belongs to the Lord. And He will make things right, so let’s join Him in His work of making things right.One of the best examples of God making things right is the story of my sister’s birth family. I told you already about how her birth mom did the right thing when it seemed her rights were taken away (at least from 2022 standards). But God wasn’t finished. When Stephanie turned 19, my dad asked whether she wanted to reconnect with her birth family. Steph did and found her birth mom in Palm Springs, California. Her birth mom Heather had gone through a hard time with a number of failed relationships. Stephanie was protected from that by living in our stable family, other than having me as her annoying brother. Steph went on to meet her birth father, Rocky, living out in Western Canada. Fast forward to 2014 and Rocky invited Stephanie out for a family reunion. He asked her for a favour though and that was to have a picture of Stephanie, Heather and him altogether. You see, Heather had since moved back to Canada. Steph called Heather and told Heather that she will just meet Rocky at Starbuck’s. They met and cleared up a lot of things, especially the misunderstanding that they had broken up with each other when it was their families that broke them up. Their families did not do right in this situation with their deception. The ends never justify the means! But sitting in that Starbucks, Rocky said to Heather, “I never stopped loving you.” They started dating. Heather then came out to visit Steph and our family here in Ontario. And in my living room I got to thank Heather for doing the right thing and giving me a baby sister. Heather responded by telling her story and then asking me to officiate the wedding between Rocky and her. Now there were times when nothing was going right for Heather and Rocky, but God came into each of their lives and they gave their lives to Christ. This was just a Hallmark story, God made it a heavenly story! God can make right when it seems we’ve lost all our rights, when nobody is doing right and when nothing is going right. Do you believe that? This is the hope we need to cling to! 

[1] August Konkel, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 908.

[2] Quote from my wife Lori Stairs

[3] A great overview of Job can be found at Tim Mackie and Jon Collins, Job – The Bible Project: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/job/. Accessed February 11, 2022.

[4] Joe Sabini, “Simplifying Integrity and Humility,” TED Talk, January 2018 https://www.ted.com/talks/joe_sabini_simplifying_humility_and_integrity/transcript?language=en. Accessed May 19, 2022.

[5] Mike Mason, The Gospel According to Job (Wheaton: Crossway, 2002), 275.

[6] Mason, 279.

[7] I learned about this from Stephen Arterburn who wrote, “God gives us two ways to process and understand Him and the world around us: through our thoughts and through our emotions,” Midlife Manual for Men, (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2008), 50. 

[8] David J.A. Clines, Job 21-32 – Word Biblical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 650.

[9] Francis I. Anderson, Job – An Introduction & Commentary (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 1976), 220.

[10] Daniel J. Estes, Job – Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2013), 167.

[11] Eric Ortlund, Piercing Leviathan, (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2021), 53.