People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall.— Proverbs 10:9
O, for a heart to praise the Lord and for His goodness to us His children. We praise the Lord for loving us in the way He chose and we are grateful that You came and die for us. My brothers and sisters in the Lord and in the power of His might peace and blessings to you. Our Lord Patriarch and his family we praise God for you this morning for taking a stand for what is right and good in the sight of the Lord. You continue to watch over us and this church and so we this morning publicly ask that you bless him with a greater zeal and love for You.
Integrity is a high standard of living based on a personal code of morality that doesn’t succumb to the whim of the moment or the dictates of the majority. Integrity is to personal character what health is to the body or 20/20 vision is to the eyes. People of integrity are whole; their lives are put together. People with integrity have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. Their lives are open books. They say to a watching world, “Go ahead and look. My behaviour will match my beliefs. My walk will match my talk. My character will match my confession.”
Integrity is not reputation–what others think of us. It is not success–what we have accomplished, or how much members we have in church. Integrity embodies the sum total of our being and our actions. It originates in who we are as believers in Jesus Christ–accepted, valued, capable, and forgiven–but it expresses itself in the way we live and behave, no matter whether we are in church on Sunday or at work on Monday or in a lonely hotel room on Tuesday or suffering in a hospital bed on Thursday. There is no respect here but our actions that is called into question. O, God have mercy this morning as we stand before You.
Unfortunately, integrity is in short supply and seems to be diminishing everyday. All too frequently our integrity is discarded upon the altar of fame or fortune. Sadly, what we want to achieve is more important than what we are to be. Integrity is lost when we focus on expedience more than excellence, on progress more than purity, on riches more than righteousness.
People are watching. They watch to see if our behaviour matches our belief, if our walk matches our talk, and if our character matches our confession. In a word, they watch to see if we have integrity. We hide under the clothes we wear, but that is not enough to save us from the mess we are in. Does your life and actions match up with the word? Ask yourself the question and when your conscience dictates then go to God in prayer and talk to Him in secret.
Here is my question to you today. How secure is your walk? Others are watching.
Your servant and brother,
+ Sir Godfrey Gregg
Archbishop and Presiding Prelate
Administrator and Apostolic Head
Follow me on Twitter @ArchbishopGregg
@MysticPatriarch
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