Years ago Larry Walters was bored. So, this 33 year-old Los Angeles resident bought forty-five weather balloons and tied them to his lawn chair. He strapped himself into the chair with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a six-pact of beer, and a BB gun. He thought he could shoot the balloons one at a time anytime he wanted to land.

With the balloons filled with helium, friends released him. Larry was expecting to hover about 100 feet over his neighborhood. He never expected to soar to 11,000 feet, catch a jet stream, and drift into the traffic pattern of Los Angeles International Airport. For two hours, Larry caused planes to be in a holding pattern around the airport. I can hear the control tower telling pilots, “Remain holding your altitude at 20,000 feet. We have a man in a lawn chair at 11,000 feet. Keep your distance. He has a six-pack and a BB gun.”

When finally on the ground, and after cited by the police, reporters asked him why he did it. Larry talked about being tired of the same ol’ routine and said, “I just couldn’t sit there.”

Currently, one out of two marriages end in divorce. In 1960, one out of every ten households was absent of a dad. In 1986, it was one out of six. Today, the Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Super Bowl could all be filled with teenagers who are prostitutes and drug addicts. Sixty percent of all church-involved teenagers are sexually active. This year one million teenage boys will cause one million teenage girls to become pregnant, and half of those pregnancies will end in abortion. And, every seventy-eight seconds, a teenager will attempt suicide (Steve Farrar, Point Man­, 17-18). In my opinion, God is waiting for men to say, “I’m tired of this same ol’ routine, and I just can’t sit here any more.”

The family is under attack, and the future of the family is in jeopardy. As the God-ordained leaders of our homes, we men just can’t sit and let this happen. We must take seriously the one job God has given to us to make a difference. It is the job of “Living with Integrity.” Proverbs 11:3 states, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.” We survive, our families survive, and future generations survive if we succeed at one job—living with integrity. If we try to moonlight and live any other way, we will destroy our homes.

Living With Integrity

Every job needs a job description. A good job description needs a principal function and objectives. If our job is to live with integrity, then the principal function is to be accountable. According to Ephesians 5-6, a man lives with integrity by being accountable. The objectives of the job are to be accountable to God and accountable to others.

Accountable to God
Ephesians 5:1-2 addresses being accountable to God. It says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” As a verb, “imitator” means to act or mimic. As a noun, Scripture uses it in a positive way as one represents another.

Mark Thompson understood this. Recovering from a knife wound from an assault in his home, this Minnesota pastor couldn’t attend his son’s cross-country championship meet. He called his brother Merv and said, “I can’t be there to see Chris run. So, I want you to be there at the beginning of the race. Holler a lot . . . Then at the end, I want you to cheer loudly. And I want you to make your voice sound like mine.” Mark was saying to his brother the same thing God is saying to us: “Make your voice like mine, your eyes like mine, your thoughts like mine, and your arms like mine. It is your job to imitate me.”

Accountable to Others
Living with integrity not only means being accountable to God, to imitate Him, but it also means being accountable to others. Ephesians 5:25 specifically mentions husbands being accountable to their wives. It says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” A man of integrity loves his wife so deeply she knows he would die for her. Science and common sense tell us it is healthy if we love our wives this way and unhealthy if we don’t.

A study in the 1980’s proved that men who kissed their wives before going to work each day lived five years longer than those who didn’t. Kissing husbands had fewer automobile accidents, were 50 percent healthier, and earned 20-30 percent more than non-kissing husbands. Compare this to the fellow who didn’t kiss his wife in the morning and went to work with a bad attitude. When asked, “What’s wrong? Did you wake up grumpy this morning?” he said, “No, I just let her sleep.” If he keeps this up, he will not live long, and if his wife hears about it, he will not die of natural causes. The Bible says that men of integrity are accountable to their wives, to love them as Christ loved the church, and to sacrifice for them just as Christ sacrificed for the church.

Ephesians 6:4 also mentions that men of integrity are accountable to their children. It reads, “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” Just as you are to imitate Christ before your wife, you are to imitate Christ before your children. This will open their ears to your instructions, soften their hearts for your teachings, and validate your words by your example.

Ephesians 6:5-9 further commands us to be accountable as employers or employees. We are responsible to maintain integrity at work. Men of integrity never forget they are accountable to others. William Booth founded the Salvation Army in 1878. Its simple purpose was to meet the physical needs of England’s poor in order to tell them about Jesus. Before he left the Salvation Army, we are told he sent a one-word telegram to every member of the army. The one word was “Others.” He never forgot that living with integrity meant being accountable to God and accountable to others.

Wearing Integrity

Living with integrity is not easy. You have to be a strong man to do it because the requirements are so tough. There was a mission church meeting in a dance studio. One of the members brought his third-grade nephew to Sunday school for the first time. Yet, the boy refused to go to his class. Instead, he chose to go to his uncle’s adult class. This went on for weeks until the truth finally came out. The first Sunday the boy saw a rack of tutus in the corner of his classroom and feared they were the standard uniform for the class. Some men refuse to come to church. They refuse to live by the standards of scripture, fearing that such a lifestyle would put a tutu on their masculinity. Nothing could be further from the truth. It takes a strong man to wear what is necessary to live with integrity.

Ephesians 6:10-20 says a man must wear the armor of God if he expects to live a life of integrity. Having been shackled to a Roman soldier, Paul uses the experience to compare the soldier of Christ to the soldier of Caesar. His requisition for spiritual armor would be as follows. He would need a

Belt of Truth
Breastplate of Righteousness
Shoes of the Gospel
Shield of Faith
Helmet of Salvation
Sword of the Spirit
Prepared in Prayer

Since we are not used to seeing first-century armament, let me highlight the quality of each piece and explain why they are standard issue for any man who plans to wear integrity. A man of integrity must put on…

• Truth – “knowing what is right”
• Righteousness – “doing what is right”
• A Ready Gospel – “saying what is right”
• Faith – “believing what is right”
• Salvation – “experiencing what is right”
• Scripture – “learning what is right”
• Prayer – “asking what is right”

It takes a strong man to put these on each day. It also takes a smart man to realize that these qualities will not fit until the old ungodly qualities are taken off.

True integrity can’t be worn over qualities lacking integrity. The wrong qualities must be cut off in order for the right qualities to be put on. It takes a man with the strength of Don Wyman to do this. In July of 1993, Don was cutting oaks in Pennsylvania when a tree fell, crushing his leg and pinning him to the ground. No one could hear his cries for help. He knew if he stayed there much longer he would bleed to death. Using the starter cord from his chain saw and a wrench, Don put a tourniquet on the crushed leg. He then amputated his own leg below the knee using his pocketknife. After crawling to the car and driving to a farmer’s house, he received the care he needed.

In my opinion, Don Wyman is a man’s man. Jesus says to wear integrity you have to cut off items lacking integrity, and it takes a man’s man to do it. Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-30,

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

Jesus is talking figuratively about amputation and literally about integrity. The imagery is clear. If you are to be a man of integrity…

Cut your eyes away from pornography
Look for what is godly – Philippians 4:8

Cut your ears away from the crude jokes or stories
Listen for God’s still small voice – 1 Kings 19:11-12

Cut your hands away from stealing at work
Open your hands to give for God’s work – Luke 19:1-10

Cut your mouth away from swearing, lying, or belittling others
Use your mouth to save, strengthen and build up others – John 21:15-19

Cut your feet away from your priorities
Seek God’s first – Matthew 6:33

Cut your heart away from what you want
Submit to what God wants and you will be a man after God’s own heart
– Acts 13:22

In order to wear integrity you have to take off the thoughts, words, and actions that lack integrity. You will need to remember what George Munzing wrote, “If you sow a thought, you’ll reap an act. Sow an act, you’ll reap a habit. Sow a habit, you’ll reap a destiny.” Your destiny is determined by what you are willing to take off in order to put on integrity.

Benefits of Integrity

If your destiny is being forged by integrity, here are the benefits God says you can expect.

• Integrity will guide you. “The integrity of the upright guides them, . . .” – Proverbs 11:3
• Integrity will protect you. “May integrity and uprightness protect me.” – Psalm 25:21
• Integrity will measure you. “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity.” – Psalm 7:8
• Integrity will establish you. – “As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart, and uprightness, as David your father did, . . . I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, . . .” – 1 Kings 9:4-5
• Integrity pleases God. “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity.” – 1 Chronicles 29:17

These are benefits worth pursuing. But there is one not listed, though it is understood. Integrity makes a difference.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian executed for his faith by the Gestapo in World War II, understood this. Prior to his execution, he wondered what kind of church members God would need once the war was over. He wrote, “What the church will need, what our century will need, are not people of genius, not brilliant tacticians or strategists, but simple, straightforward, honest men and women.” He believed integrity would make the difference, and so did Abraham Lincoln.

In one of his memorable addresses, Abraham Lincoln reminds us of a proven fact. He said,

A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started. He is going to sit where you are sitting, and when you are gone he will attend to those things which you think are important. You may adopt all the policies you please, but how they will be carried out depends on him. He will assume control of your cities, states, and nations. He is going to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities, and corporations. All your books are going to be judged by him. The fate of humanity is in his hand. (Pulpit Helps, June 87, p.23).

If you are going to leave a legacy of integrity, you just can’t sit there any more. If you are going make a difference, you will need to get sick of the old routine. Make a difference by being different. That means,

… being accountable to God—imitate Him.
… being accountable to others—live godly before them.
… taking off the ungodly—strip away the crude
… putting on integrity—put on the new.
… standing and making a difference—the way God wants you to.