Jun. 22, 2025

Grow Up! – Integrity

Primary Text:  Hebrews: 4:14-15                        

This Week’s Teaching:  

1)  Virtue

1 Corinthians 13:4-7:  Love… keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Proverbs 31:10-12 (NKJV):  Who can find a virtuous wife?  For her worth is far above rubies.  The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain.   She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.  

DQ 1) Define virtue and integrity.
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2)  The Great High Priest

Hebrews: 4:14-15:  Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.  

DQ 2) How is Jesus the perfect model of true virtue?

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3)  Iniquity

2 Samuel 11:2-5:  One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace.  From the roof he saw a woman bathing.  The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her.  The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”  Then David sent messengers to get her.  She came to him, and he slept with her….  The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

Matthew 26:14-16:  Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?”  So they counted out for him thirty silver coins.  From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Matthew 26:48-49:  Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.”  Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.  

DQ 3) What are the root causes of integrity failures in human beings?  

DQ 4) How do lust and pride contribute to immorality and dishonesty?

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2)  Truthful Integrity 

Genesis 39:2-10:  The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.  When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant.  Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned….  Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”  But he refused….  How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”  And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. 

1 Kings 22:6-23:  So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, “Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?”  “Go,” they answered, “for the Lord will give it into the king’s hand.”  But Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?”  The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the Lord, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad.  He is Micaiah son of Imlah….”  The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, “Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king.  Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably.”  But Micaiah said, “As surely as the Lord lives, I can tell him only what the Lord tells me….”  “So now the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours.  The Lord has decreed disaster for you.”  

DQ 5) How is knowing truth essential to living a life of integrity?

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5)  Humble Integrity

Micah 6:8:  He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Colossians 3:17:  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.  

DQ 6) Why is humility foundational to integrity?  

DQ 7) What are the fruits (outcomes) of a life of virtue?
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