The Alternative

Dr. Tony Evans: Reputation is what everybody else thinks you are. But true character is something completely different. Integrity is you are on the inside what folks are saying about you on the outside.

Guest (Male): This is the Alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

The final step of a plumbing repair is to turn on the water to make sure nothing leaks. Today, Dr. Evans points out that God uses the same kind of pressure test to see if our character holds up when it's challenged. Let's join him as he explains.

Dr. Tony Evans: I want to say a word today about the issue of integrity, authenticity, being the real thing. Integrity is a big issue today. It’s an issue in business. Businesses are now concerned about getting people who are not going to rob them blind. It’s an issue in church leadership, people who are seeking to become what God says we ought to be.

It’s an issue for young people who are in desperate need of role models to guide them along the way. In fact, Proverbs chapter 20, verses 6 and 7 says that integrity is indeed hard to come by. It’s hard to find authentic people. And I don’t mean perfect people, for no one could apply. To have integrity doesn't mean that you never do anything wrong. But it does mean you call it what it is if it is wrong, and you seek to make it right.

Elijah has seen God’s hand as we have seen. God has been moving in his life, protecting him from Ahab, sending him to the brook to be refreshed, supplying his need through the widow of Zarephath, and then supernaturally using him to bring life and reconciliation to a family where the son had died. All of chapter 17 has occurred over a number of years. That one chapter is reflective of a number of years of activity.

We know when Elijah prayed that it would not rain, it did not rain for three and a half years. So there’s a three-and-a-half-year gap between when it stops raining and when it starts raining. Now Ahab is moving toward it raining again. So we know years have passed between chapter 17 and chapter 18, which explains why he’s living in the widow’s house. He has a long-term place of residency.

Remember the principle that when God is getting ready to move you from point A to point Z, He may not skip B and C. There are often interims between where God has you and where God’s taking you. Where God is taking Elijah is to Mount Carmel. That’s D-day. That’s the day when the gods will meet and everything is building up to the experience at Mount Carmel with Elijah and the prophets of Baal—quite an exciting rendition in the second half of chapter 18 of 1 Kings.

In the interim, however, we are introduced to one of Elijah’s compadres, one of his homeboys, a young man named Obadiah. Elijah, we’re told in the first verse of 18, after many days, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth.” God says it’s time. You never want to get ahead of God’s timing.

You only want to be ready when God is ready, lest you go ahead of Him and be out there by yourself. You don’t go to Ahab unless God is going to Ahab with you. There’s too much idolatry in Israel. So Elijah, as we have already seen, prepares to move, and he makes his way to Ahab. But then in verse 3, we’re introduced to Obadiah, who was over the household.

Notice the parenthetical statement in the second half of verse 3 and verse 4: Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly, for it came about when Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and provided them with bread and water. This introduces the concept of integrity. God is about to send rain on the earth. He is about to judge the prophets of Baal, and God has a man in the enemy’s house.

Everybody else in Israel feared Ahab and Jezebel greatly. But the author of Kings wants you to know that there was a man in the big house who was under a pagan government, under a pagan king, under a pagan queen, who feared the Lord not limitedly, not halfway, but he was deeply immersed in the fear of God. In other words, he was a godly man in a godless environment.

When we use the word integrity, what do we mean? We mean that you have a fear of God in you that causes you to seek to be what you say you are. Integrity means to be complete or whole. It means that you do the same things that you say. Integrity is different than reputation. Reputation is what everybody else thinks you are. Reputation has to do with what everybody else says that you are.

Integrity is what you are. Integrity goes deep because it goes to the inside. You can put on a facade and people think you have integrity, so they give you a reputation. Integrity is you are on the inside what folks are saying about you on the outside. Obadiah feared God greatly. Let’s talk about this word “fear” because fear is the foundation of integrity.

Fear has two sides to it. To be afraid is one side of fear—to tremble. The Bible says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” So integrity involves fear, and fear always involves being afraid. Now if that were the only side of fear, then integrity wouldn't be a very meaningful thing because who wants to walk around trembling all day?

The other side of fear is awe, or reverence, or looking up to with high regard. Many of us had fathers that we feared. We loved them, they loved us, but we knew when to stop playing with them because we did not want the consequences of the relationship, but we wanted the benefits of the relationship. That is fear. Fear simply is to take God seriously so that you know when you’re getting close to the line and don’t step over it.

You know when to back off. We’ve often said to our kids, “Don’t play with me.” What does that mean? You’ve gone too far. You’ve taken me for granted. The foundation of integrity is that you fear God. Growing up, there were certain things I was scared to do because it might get back to my father. If you grew up in a home where there were certain things you were scared to do because it might get back to your father, let me let you know something about your heavenly Father. It will get back to Him.

The Bible says that sin increases where the fear of God decreases. Some people wouldn't do certain things even if they knew people didn't see it because they knew God saw it. They feared God even if they didn't fear people. When you don’t fear people nor God, there’s not too much you won’t do. Not only did Obadiah fear God, but he feared God greatly.

If you want to be a man or woman of integrity, if you want to get stronger with your integrity, you must get deeper in your fear of God. Because Obadiah feared God, he was able to work in a secular environment and still be a godly person. Many of us say, “I can’t work here. There are too many ungodly people here, and they’re going to make me ungodly too.”

Ungodly people can only make you ungodly if you lose sight of the fear of God. When you have the fear of God, it really doesn't matter how evil they are because your standards are not controlled by them; they’re controlled by You. Don’t tell me sinners are making you sin. Sinners cannot make you sin. They can tempt you to sin, they can influence you to sin, but they cannot make you sin.

You sin because you choose to sin because Satan causes you to be blinded by the fear of God. When you go to work, or you’re in a family relationship and you know that they’re not going to do anything—you can come in at noon when you’re supposed to be there at eight, and nobody’s going to do anything—you’re going to start coming in at one and two because there is no fear. That means you know you don’t have to worry about anything.

To fear God, which is the foundation of integrity, is to know that God loves you but also to see the line that you can’t cross. That’s the balance. It is to take God seriously. The reality today why so many people give up their integrity and don’t even care about getting it back is because they don’t take God seriously. They don’t fear the Lord.

So they’re around non-Christians, so they imitate non-Christians, not their heavenly Father. They work for the Ahabs and the ungodly bosses and feel like they’ve got to use their language, hang out where they hang out, do what they do, because they’ve lost the fear of God.

Guest (Male): When Dr. Evans returns in a minute, he’ll talk about why there are no emotional emergencies for Christians of integrity. First though, I want to encourage you to take advantage of a valuable parenting resource package we’ve put together to follow up on our current study. It features Tony’s two-volume teaching series, Parenting on Purpose. Across these 13 messages, Dr. Evans shares practical biblical strategies for helping children develop character, conviction, and a faith that lasts beyond childhood.

And because parenting doesn't come with an instruction manual, we’re also including Tony’s trusted book, Raising Kingdom Kids. This popular resource has encouraged families by showing parents how to create a Kingdom-minded atmosphere where children can thrive spiritually. We’d love to send you both resources as our thank you gift when you support the Alternative ministry with a donation.

Just visit tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222 to make your request. That’s 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that contact information for you after part two of today’s lesson and this. Chronic illness, long hospital stays, questions with no clear answers. On the Unbound podcast, Dr. Tony Evans talks with New Testament scholar Dan Wallace about faith when suffering doesn't have a timeline.

Dan Wallace: I ended up going to hospital after hospital, and for the next five years, I kept coming back to the hospital.

Guest (Male): Real pain, real perspective.

Dan Wallace: Trials produce perseverance, perseverance produces character, character produces hope.

Guest (Male): Unbound with Dr. Tony Evans. Listen now. You can find the Unbound podcast on any of the major podcast platforms. Let’s get back to Dr. Evans now as he continues today’s lesson.

Dr. Tony Evans: Look at Daniel 6. He’s the great biblical illustration of integrity. We all know how great Daniel was. Daniel 6, of course, is the apex of his demonstration of integrity. He too is working in a godless environment where evil men are running the corporation—in this case, the government. Verse 1 says 120 satraps, governmental rulers, who were in charge of the whole kingdom.

Three of them were the managers of the rest, verse 2 says. They were put in place by the king to manage his affairs, just like Obadiah. Daniel rose to the top, verse 3 says, among the commissioners and the satraps, possessing an extraordinary spirit. Integrity always starts on the inside. It is never performance-based; it has to do with the attitude.

If you want to be a man or woman of integrity, what is your spirit like? Because if your spirit’s not right, you’re going to stop performing after a while. You have to have the right spirit, and it said he had an extraordinary spirit. What a great term. And the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom. Now even sinners can see an extraordinary spirit.

The rest of them said, “We’ve got to get rid of this guy.” The only problem is Daniel was faithful, verse 4 says. No negligence or corruption was to be found in him. These men said, “We cannot find any accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God.” Now that’s integrity. Integrity is when folks start looking for something against you, the only thing they can find is something related to your faith because they can’t find anything else.

So they come up with some trumped-up charges about him praying. I love verse 10 here. Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he enters his house. The roof chamber windows were open toward Jerusalem. He continued kneeling on his knees three times a day praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.

What’s the point? When you have integrity with God, you don’t have to panic. When you have been consistently walking with God, then enemies showing up is just another day’s work. Ahab hires a believer to run his affairs who is totally committed to God. Let me say a word about the commitment behind integrity. Look at verse 4: It came about when Jezebel destroyed the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and provided them with bread and water.

Look at the commitment of this man. He used a secular job for spiritual opportunity. He protected the righteous. Jezebel was killing Christians; he was saving Christians. Jezebel was killing prophets; he was delivering prophets. When you climb the ladder of success, wherever that ladder, whatever wall that ladder happens to be leaning against, don’t climb it by yourself.

Look out for other righteous people and become a fifth columnist. Spain marched in four columns. Whenever they were going to invade a nation, they had these four columns, and they would march in an invasion. Now they would be open for assault because you could see these four columns marching. But what the nation didn't know that they were invading was about the fifth column.

The fifth column were the people that were sent in to the country they were going to invade a year in advance. They were doctors who became doctors in that country, lawyers who became lawyers in that country. They were people who took up the professions, teachers who became teachers in that country. And what they were doing were being saboteurs. They were sabotaging the nation so when the rest of the columns showed up, stuff was in such a mess that they could not galvanize their forces.

You and I are to be fifth columnists. One day God is going to come down and He’s going to invade this stuff. In the meantime, He’s got you hooked up in those places to set up a righteous... Do you know how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got to be high-level people? The Bible says Daniel raised them up. They got to be high-level people because when Daniel got up there, he remembered there are some other prophets who need to be here too.

So the question that you must ask in your secular company is: what am I doing to promote righteousness here? Not simply: what am I doing to make money here? What am I doing that has eternal benefit to it? Not simply: what am I doing to get a better job? Nothing wrong with more money. Nothing wrong with a better job. But he understood there was a bigger Kingdom agenda.

Do you know many of the companies you work for are not the companies that own you? Many of you work for companies that are owned by somebody bigger. You thought the name of the company is the company that owned you, when it’s really a conglomerate that owns a whole lot of companies, and you’re just one of them. Your job may give you your check, but somebody else owns you.

Your job may give you your check, but sitting over you is the Kingdom of God. And God says while they may pay your salary, they don’t own you. They are owned and you are owned by a bigger corporate entity, and it’s called the Kingdom of God. All through the Bible, God had people tucked away in evil environments. He had a Moses in evil Egypt, a Daniel in evil Babylon.

He had an Esther in evil Persia. He’s had men and women all through the Bible who were tucked away for just in the nick of time, for eternal purposes. So he runs into Elijah as we bring this to a close. And Elijah tells him to go tell Ahab, “I’m here.” Now Obadiah doesn't want to hear that because Ahab has been looking all over for Elijah to kill him, to get rid of him.

Obadiah says, “Wait a minute, Lij. If I go tell Ahab you’re here, that means he knows that I’ve seen you. If he knows that I’ve seen you and let you get away—since I’m the administrator, I have the power to stop you right here, put you in handcuffs and deliver you—and I let you get away, he’s going to kill me. If I trust you that you’re not going anywhere and just go tell him you’re here, I’m going to be the one in trouble.”

He says, “Who knows but that God might lead you somewhere else before I get back?” Talking about "the Lord led me." Verse 12: And it will come about when I leave you that the spirit of the Lord will carry you where I do not know. It’s terrible when one Christian runs into another Christian. The second Christian makes a promise to the first Christian. The first Christian looks to the promise to be fulfilled, and then all of a sudden the Lord led the one who made the promise in another direction.

If you’re going to be a person of integrity, hang out with folk who have integrity. Make sure you find somebody who you can trust. Not perfect somebody—you’ll never find them. But people who are willing to admit that they’re wrong and make it right if they are wrong. People of integrity. Elijah says, “If I tell you I’m going to be here, I’m going to be here because my word is my bond.”

Yeah, we have to sign contracts because of all the legalities, but your word ought to be good enough. Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay. Hang out with folk who have integrity if you want to maintain yours because if Elijah was not a man of integrity, Obadiah would have been out there by himself. Put your life on the line for people you can trust.

So he goes and he tells the king and low and behold, Elijah is right where he said he would be. Now there may be some people here who’ve lost their integrity. You lost it on the job, you lost it with your family, you’ve lost it. Well, the good news is God can give it back. The Bible is full of folk who lost it. It’s better not to lose it. But if you do lose it, the grace of God can give it back.

Guest (Male): Dr. Evans will return in a moment with a final thought to wrap up today’s lesson on integrity. Well, as I mentioned earlier, this message comes from Tony’s two-volume series, Parenting on Purpose. For a limited time, when you make a donation and request this 13-message audio collection, we’ll also send you a complimentary copy of Raising Kingdom Kids.

These resources work together to provide practical help for parents who want to strengthen their families and raise children with a clear understanding of God’s truth. To get all the details, visit tonyevans.org today or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 where team members are ready to help anytime. That’s 1-800-800-3222.

Even though Christianity is a personal faith, it’s meant to be lived out in relationship, starting with the closest ones in your life. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans talks about how to cultivate a family-based faith. Right now though, he’s back with one final thought to wrap up our broadcast for today.

Dr. Tony Evans: One day a man pulled up to a chicken place and ordered six pieces of chicken. He paid for the chicken, he got the chicken in the box, and drove off. As he opened up the chicken box, he discovered this wad of money at the bottom of the box. Evidently the owner had tucked away some of his receipts for the day in the box and therefore had put the chicken in the wrong box.

He turned around, went back. He said, “Sir, I think this is yours.” He says, “I can’t believe it. You actually brought this money back and it wasn't yours? Everybody I know would have taken that money and gone. It was cash, it was untraceable, but you brought it back? Look, I can’t let this pass. I’m going to call the newspaper, I’m going to call the television. I want the world to know I have finally, finally found a man of integrity.”

I want you to ask yourself a question. Am I a man or woman of integrity? Do I have an extraordinary spirit? Do I fear God? Am I like Elijah—when I say I’m going to be somewhere, I’m going to be there unless some emergency keeps me? Is it my intent to keep my word, or have I been stealing the company blind, lying, portraying to be one thing and I’m somebody else?

Then you confess it as a sin: Lord, give me back my integrity. Give me back my reputation. Forgive me for where I have lied and not represented You in a sinful environment. I want to be Obadiah working in the secular world but who fears God greatly.