 Awesome, you ready to see that? Nice to see you guys this morning. Beautiful day. Father, we come before you this morning to thank you so much for your grace, for your mercy that you give to us. Father, for all these men coming here today, Father, Lord, we want to hear from you, Father, and what the Spirit is saying to the church. Lord, that we would continue to be dedicated to you, Lord. Pray for their wives, pray for those that are single, for their children, for their grandchildren, Lord God. And we thank you so much for David allowing us to be here, Father, and to open this church to have this men's conference, Lord God. I pray for all the speakers, Lord, that you touch them, anoint them, and be with them, Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, we pray, God, amen. Feel your Bible sent a book of Romans chapter 13. What's the matter? We all took chapter 13. Verse 11 to 14, title of my message is living a life of integrity, a life of integrity. You know, this is sometimes missing in the church, especially these days we're living in. I feel like when you look at men today and you look at the church as a whole all over the country, and probably all over the world, that something is missing and that is integrity. You know, we need to not only be aware of what's going on around us, but at the same time, we need to have the fear of God in our lives, the fear of God in our lives. And then the answer to look out to the horizon, we see a world and we see a church that not only has become like the world that we become the Corinthian church, a church that lives by carnality, not having the fear of God, not walking by the power of the Holy Spirit, and thinking that we can be blessed by God and live the way we wanna live. Let's read the text, chapter 13, 11. And do this knowing the time that now is high time to get up and awake, either asleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believe. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in revering our drunkenness, nor in lewdness, nor lust, not in strife, not in envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill his desires. Now we need to realize that the time is important, time is important, very important for each one of us individually. In this world we're not gonna live forever. And you see without time, man is not living according to the word of God. We know one day we're gonna be judged and surely we wanna stand before God and we wanna hear the voice of God saying that good and faithful servant come on in. That's really important for me. And yet without knowing the time today we live our lives without integrity. Integrity is so important for the child of God. We don't realize that any day could be not only your final day, but the day of judgment for each one of us individually. And one thing that I pray this morning that every one of us not only think about this, that we come to a place where we commit ourselves to that of integrity. Very important work. And this is why it's so critical not only for men's conferences, but it's critical, so important because some of you guys are husbands, you have wives, you have children. And yet think how the church today has come close to the world just as the world in divorce. No integrity. Married once, twice, thrice, three times. And then expecting the blessing of God when really a person really divorces without a biblical right, like the Bible teaches. Look at the first point here, verse 11, knowing the time again. And do this knowing the time that now it is high time to wake up out of sleep and how our salvation is nearer than when we first believe. You see, we are to be aware, time is very important to know exactly what time it is today. What time really is it today? The word knowing here in the Greek means to make sure that you know, do not there miss knowing. Don't miss knowing what's going on. Look around you. The word time means the critical, it's a critical period strategically, a special period of time that God has given to each one of us individually. The day of salvation is nearer than when we first believe how long you've been a Christian. Some of you here maybe a week, maybe two weeks, maybe a month, a year, maybe 30, 40 years, 50 years. One thing you want to make sure of, you want to finish well. You want to finish well the race that is set before us. So many already have not finished well. And the reason is because they have not submitted their life to the control of the Holy Spirit in our life, discipline, obedience. And yet it is time to really wake up of our sinful sleep. I look at the church and I look at the complacency in the church today, no fear of God. And yet he says time to awaken out of sleep, time to get up, to wake up, do what God's called you to do, he's tearing up your life so that you don't go to sleep spiritually in a way. Paul here gives us a strong exhortation to the church. He repeats himself to wake up because so many people in the church are slothful and sleeping spiritually. No fear of God. And yet it is a time not only to move, to be reading, to be praying, to be practicing what we preach, but the most important thing is being obedient and having integrity in our lives. The day of salvation, our redemption is near than when we first believed and came to Jesus Christ. By the way, this is the day that when salvation not only came to you and we were delivered from sin, the presence of evil and sin, we are not from the beginning of time are to walk by faith and believe in Jesus Christ and be obedient again. Obedience is so awesome. It is better to obey than to sacrifice, it says. So many times in your career, well I'm making a sacrifice to go to church to read my Bible, to do this. You know what? Don't do any more sacrifices. Be obedient. Think about getting up in the morning. You go to work or maybe you don't work. Maybe you sleep all day, I don't know about that. But you get up in the morning, you get ready to go to work. So you get up, your alarm goes off, you get up, get in the shower or maybe you don't shower. And then you get up eat breakfast or get coffee. I don't drink coffee, you get coffee, you drink your little coffee and then you get a meal and you eat in the breakfast. And then you get on your car, you head out to work. If you're a child, if you're a Christian, have you spent time with God in the morning by getting up just a little bit earlier and putting on the armor of God so when you go out to meet the enemy, you can defeat him by putting on the armor of God. When I was going to school, one of our teachers said, you know, if you really want to find out who you really are and you really have integrity, take seven pieces of paper and take one each day and take the time you get up in the morning to the time you go to bed. Every half hour, every hour, every two hours, write down everything you're doing in your life and don't cheat, don't lie. By the end of the week, you'll find out who your God is, who you serve. Some people serve money. Some people are serving sex. Some people are serving pride, it's one of the things in their lives. But everyone has a God, which is your God, which is my God. We need so much, not only daily, to be separated from the world. And we need to realize that the world will take us down. God has called you, called me out of the world. In the Gospel of Luke 21, 28, Luke says, now when these things, notice when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your hands or your heads because your redemption is drawing near. Look around what's going on in the world today. The world's pretty messed up. First Peter 1.5 says, who are kept by the power of God through faith to forth salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time? In this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been greeners, you have been green by various trials. Surely we go through trials, but it's only what? To get closer to the heart, to the heart of God. And then in Timothy, he says, verse two, for men will be lovers of themselves. Surely that is today. Notice lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to their parents, unthankful and holy, unloving, unforgiving slanders without self-control, brutal, despisers of good traders, headstrong, haughty lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And check this out, having a form of godliness that denying its power from such people, turn away. Don't hand God with them. They'll take you down. Second point, verse 12, knowing how to cast off the works of darkness. The night has far to span, the day is at hand, therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. You see, it is time for all of us, not only to cast out the darkness that we have in our lives, but to put on the armor of light. When you walk into a room that is dark, people say, well, how can I put on the light? Turn on the switch. The light comes on. The darkness disappears. When we came to Jesus Christ, we committed our lives by repenting, by faith receiving Him, being baptized by the Holy Spirit, which gives us the power not to sin against God. As the Holy Spirit checks us out, not perfection. Man, no way have we perfected yet that one day we will be perfected. We need to stop hiding the truth from people, walking in darkness by the way we live today. People are watching you. What do your neighbors think about you? The people you work with? Well, how about your own children? What do you think about you? Sometimes in Calvary where I'm at, you know, I have a building there that my window faces the parking lot. And as people are parking, I can see husbands and wives arguing in the parking lot and they have their children. And as they come through the doors, you know, they change. And those kids are going to Sunday school and the moment they leave the church, they arrive back fighting and arguing once again, what does that do to the children? It makes them turn away from God. If they don't see it in the home, then you have no integrity in your life. The Bible says in Romans chapter five, six and seven and eight that we need to what? Reckon the omen to be dead. We need to die to ourselves. We need to stop hiding the truth. We need to live the truth. Jesus said, I am the way. Notice the truth and the life. And when he called you and I, it's to make a stand so that we can become solved in light, fully, completely. John 319 says, and this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world. Notice that men love darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, excuse me. And does not come to the light less his works should be exposed. Ephesians five, 11 and have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness. But rather expose them for his shameful, even to speak of those things which are done in them in secret, in secret. God hears, God sees. You can't hide from God. The armor of lie differs from the clothing of darkness. There's a difference where we are to strip up the darkness so that we can live, pleasing God in everything that I say and do everything. What is the armor of light? Number one, the armor of light is righteousness. Righteousness. Second Corinthians six, four says, but in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God. In much patience, tribulation, in needs, stress, in strides, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleepiness, in fastings, by purity, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. It is the armor of God, Ephesians six, 10, putting on the armor of God. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his mind. Put on the whole armor of God that you may not be able to sit against the wiles of the, or the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, against rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, notice we're repeating that, that you may be able to withstand the evil day having done all to stand. Stand therefore, having gear your ways with truth, having put on the breast of righteousness and having shot your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, which you will be able to quench all of the fire darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Pray always all prayer and supplications in the Holy spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. This is what the word of God teaches. Third point is knowing how to walk in the light, verse 13. Let us walk properly as in the day, not in rivalry, drunkenness, not in luneness, not in lust, not in strive or envy. You see, this is a time to really look at your life to walk straight. The word honesty here means proper honorable, decent noble. That's what we ought to be in honesty. The Christian is to live a life of honesty, decency, and nobility in order to please God. He is to live in honor and honesty before God. And then he uses the word rioting. It means rebelling, carousing, partying, feasting, debauchery, indulgence, giving license to basic urges. And then he uses the word drunkenness. It means taking intoxicating drink, drugs, to affect the sense of the faculties, to become intoxicated for the purpose of lust and pleasure. You do that? You call yourself a Christian? And then the word chambering means sexual immorality, adultery, fornication, and premarital sex. The word wantonness means sensuality, running wild, less anxiousness, debauchery, homosexuality, lavishness, living, living, wild, parting in moral life. And how about strive? It means contentions, arguing, striving. And then the word ending means jealousy and begrudges other people. I mean, he gives you a whole list of the works of the flesh that a Christian is not supposed to be living and walking by that. And then let's say, fourthly, knowing how to walk in the light, verse 14, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the flesh to fulfill its desires of the lust, of the flesh. Now, I think it's really important that we understand one thing here. That many of us not only have accepted Christ, but a lot of times when you look at the cross of Jesus Christ, and one of the things where I look at the cross of Jesus Christ, it says this, if any man wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. When you look at the church today, how many truly are following the Lord? Following the Lord is to deny yourself, forget about yourself. Don't think about yourself all the time. Don't promote yourself all the time. He says, and then not only the now, but taking up the cross. What is the instrument of the cross? It's not something you wear on your neck. It's what, forgetting, not only forgetting about yourself, but what, dying to yourself. Dying to yourself, to your appetite, your desires. There are things that will destroy our lives, things that will not only move us away from the cross of Jesus Christ, but we will become hypocrites, actors, men with many faces, dependent on your mood, dependent on what you want to do in the world. You want to be sad or happy, or you want to be angry. And Jesus Christ told the Pharisees Christ and the Sadducees that they were hypocrites. He says, you say, but you don't do. And if we do that, what we're gonna do is push people away from Jesus Christ. Think of the world today that has no respect for the church. I'm not talking about a building, about people that have accepted Christ. When people look at us and they see us divorcing, they see us committing adultery and fornicating and drinking and taking drugs. They'll say, well, if the power of God doesn't work in them, it's not gonna work in my life. It has to work. And it can only work by true repentance, true repentance. Not wanting to show off, not wanting to be great, but humming ourselves before the Lord and take it as a blessing and a privilege that God will use our lives. To bring glory not to ourselves, but to Him. If people are constantly talking about you, something is wrong. They should talk about Jesus. They should give the glory to Jesus Christ. And the reason for that is because we have put on not only the Lord Jesus Christ, but the clothing that we wear now is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. As I came by faith to Jesus Christ. Every one of us are sinners. Every one of us have messed up our lives. And that's the reason Jesus Christ chose us and took our lives and He transformed us into His image. And when we came, we came because somebody shared with us. We saw a television program, heard a radio message or whatever it was. But God used that person or that incident to bring conviction to my heart, to your heart, to give us a choice either to accept Him, to reject Him, because God did not create puppets on the stream. He gave us a will, a will to decide. Should I be obedient? Should I be disobedient? Should I accept Him or deny Him? Should I go to heaven or should I go to hell? You make the choice. You make the choice. The Bible says in Matthew 25, 41 that God never made, God never made hell for anybody, but it was what? For the devil and his angels, Satan, the fallen star, that came here to destroy, to lie, to cheat, and to kill. We have to be aware, man, that we need to put on the Lord Jesus Christ fully and completely. The righteousness of Jesus Christ, secondly, we must make no provision for the flesh, for the flesh. Are you watching pornography? On your computers or TV, wherever it is at, cable TV. If you watch pornography, your marriage will break apart. It will not be right. Because you will expect your wife to perform in the filthiness that you're watching on television or on the internet. That what we forget is that God sees all things, hears all things, and we're grieving the Holy Spirit of God, which means we're bringing pain to the Holy Spirit because he's a person. He's a person. He's the one that convicted me. He's the one that convicts each one of us individually. And for me, it grieves me, it hurts me to see the body of Christ that we don't have a good reputation, but we have a bad reputation. And we're pushing people away from the truth because we cannot live for the truth and according to the truth. So they see us playing a role that's a phony role, it's not real. And you see the idea that we're not to give ourselves to the flesh or the loss of the flesh, and not to indulge or give license to the flesh, but to reckon the old man to be dead. Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 3.16 says, don't you know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him for the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Let no one deceive himself. Anyone of mine who seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. And in 1 Corinthians 5.3 or 5.9, I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexual immoral people, yet I certainly did not mean that with sexual immoral people of this world. He's not talking about the world. We gotta be in the world because we have to be like. He says, or excuse me, did not mean the sexual immoral people of the world or with covetous, extortioners, idolaters. Since then, you would have to need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunker or an extortioner, not even eat such person don't have breakfast, lunch or dinner with him. Did you know that every one of the epistles was written not to the world, but to the church? He speaks to the church. Listen to 1 Corinthians again, 6.9. Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived neither fornicators, idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God in such where some of you, that stands, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the spirit of our God, by the spirit of our God. And if God not only has touched your life, why are you allowing the flesh to rule over your life? Don't you see the cross of Jesus Christ? When you went to the garden, I just came back from Israel, when you went to the garden, and he went to the garden, what did he do? He humbled himself before the fathers and father, if this cup can pass, let it pass, but if not, I will be obedient to it. How about you? Are you willing to go to the garden of the cemetery and surrender your life to him? It's not easy, you guys. Not easy, it's not easy for me, not easy for anybody. But when I think of eternity, and I think what God has called me to do, surely I don't want to spit in his face. I want to do what God's called me to do. And that's to be a light, a light to this world, to become salt, because salt heals wounds. Salt creates a thirst, and are we creating a thirst? Are we becoming a healing process to people because they see the healing in our lives, in our lives, as we have submitted, surrender fully, completely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, fully, completely. It just breaks my heart. There's so many men, a bunch of whims, and they will not make a stand. You make a stand for the world, but you don't make a stand for Jesus Christ. What does the matter with you? The world will take you to hell, but if you're obedient, you'll be with Jesus forever. You need to understand, man, that there's nothing in this world that is worth to accomplish but only Jesus Christ. To come to His love and receive it, to receive His grace, to receive everything that He has for each one of us individually. So then when people talk to us, when people hear us, when people look at us, they're going to give glory and honor to Him because He changed us, He transformed us. And I get embarrassed many times when I see people call themselves a Christian, and yet there's nothing Christ-likeness in their lives, but the flesh dominates their lives. And by the way, in my conclusion, listen, the believer here, the believer is to endure, to endure with the Holy Spirit. And look 24, 40, 90, he says, Jesus, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tearing the city of Jerusalem into you are endured with the power of from on high, which is what the Holy Spirit. And then secondly, the believer is to put on the whole armor of God, but to be clothed with Jesus, Galatians 3, 27. For as many of you were baptized into Jesus Christ, he says, and have put on Christ Jesus, then let us walk. And then thirdly, the believer is to be clothed with Christ. Second Corinthians 5, 3, if indeed having been clothed, we have not been found naked, naked because of Jesus Christ. Fourthly, the believer is to be with a new man, become a new man, Colossians 3, 10. And I have put on the new man who is renewed in the knowledge according to the image of Jesus Christ who created him. And then lastly, the believer is to be clothed with the nature of God, Colossians 3, 12. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, and long suffering, long suffering. May God today speak to us, may God change us, may God transform us. May God baptize us with this Holy Spirit, that when we leave here this morning, we don't leave the same way we came here, but that we will be transformed to the power that he's given to us to become not only in the image of Jesus Christ, but to please the Lord, because we love him and because he loves us and because he wants to use our lives to bring glory and honor to his holy name. You wanna finish well, you guys. God bless you guys.