selected passages
July 31, 2022
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching”

~ C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), British writer and lay theologian

“The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.”

~ Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and T.V. host.

“The elegance of honesty needs no adornment.”

~ Mary Browne (1891-1971), American professional tennis player and an amateur golfer

“There’s this idea that to live out of conformity with how I feel is hypocrisy; but that’s a wrong definition of hypocrisy. To live out of conformity to what I believe is hypocrisy. To live in conformity with what I believe, in spite of what I feel, isn’t hypocrisy; it’s integrity.”

~ Erik Thoennes, contemporary pastor and professor

“I am learning that the best cure for hypocrisy is community. Hypocrisy is not so much the result of not living what I preach but much more of not confessing my inability to fully live up to my own words.”

~ Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), Dutch priest, professor and writer

“One of the most overlooked benefits of love is how God works through it to mature us. Part of why He puts us in each other’s lives is to create a tension in our lives, a redemptive pressure, that has potential to improve our character. If love and friendship aren’t leading us to grow in the virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, then love and friendship are malfunctioning in some way.”

~ Scott Sauls, contemporary pastor and writer

“If Jesus is a wonderful Savior in every way except where we are the most hypocritical, then He is no Savior for us.”

~ Ray Ortlund, contemporary author and minister

Sermon Passage

selected passages (ESV)

Proverbs 10:9
⁹ Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.

Proverbs 11:3
³ The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.

Proverbs 19:1
¹ Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

Psalm 16:5-8
⁵ The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. ⁶ The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. ⁷ I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. ⁸ I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Psalm 139:23, 24
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Matthew 5:33-37
³³ “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ ³⁴ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷ All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”