David, when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed, was not acting honestly or with integrity. He had listened to the enemies lies, allowed his own passions, his sinful nature, to take control, and was utterly deceitful.
Sin, if not repented of, will always bring deceit…..to hide the crime.
But listen to Psalm 51, which David spoke or sang when challenged with his sin. Listen to the honesty.

Read Psalm 51.

God can do what He wants to do in you, making you like Jesus,….only when your being honest and real.
No deception, no pretence, no masks, no hiding like Adam and Eve in the Garden.
Total honesty.

For there to be that honesty with God, there needs to be a desire for holiness. If you don’t want to be wholly the Lord’s, living for Him, you won’t know that intimacy with God. If you want to run life your way, do things in your own strength, not let go of control,…..you won’t know that intimacy with God. Because you will always be holding something back. The door to that room of your life, is shut on Jesus and everyone else.

Honesty is the starting point for what God wants to do in you. Some of you are already on that journey of complete honesty with the Lord, others of you are starting, …but some of you are resisting the Holy Spirit……as if your life depended on it…….IT DOES…..carry on resisting Jesus and you will die, turn to the Lord and submit to Him and you will live.

What good is it to hang on to self, to hang on to control, to hang on to pain, if you lose your very soul. It is in dying to self that we live, that we know the life of God….and that starts with honesty.

I hope you can already see that honesty with the Lord is essential to not only leadership, but to everyone.

But what about honesty with others ?

In terms of what you say to whom, there are obviously confidences, not everyone needs to know everything. Jesus had the three, the twelve, the seventy two and so on.

Everybody has different levels of relationship with different people.

Level 5 – Cliché conversation.
Level 4 – Reporting facts or information about others.
Level 3 – My ideas and judgements.
Level 2 – My feelings
Level 1 – Self revelation – nothing hidden.

It’s not appropriate to share how you feel a failure because of what your father told you as a child…with the postman…unless they’re your husband of course.
Verbal communication varies according to who we’re speaking to and the situation.

But who we are….shouldn’t change.
Be yourself…..be real…..but be yourself in Christ.
If by being yourself you go around all the time moaning, complaining, criticising, and wallowing in self pity….then you might be being yourself, but your not being in Christ.
The Lord wants us to be honest with Him so that He can deal with things.
Be real……but also be in Christ.
Be who you are….don’t try to be somebody else.
You are a unique person and have a unique role to carry out in God’s plans.
Don’t try to be someone your not.

Read Romans 12:1-8.

It’s as you die to self and offer yourself to God that things become clear and your gifting will become clear.
We are a body together, as each does it’s part.
What happens if a hand tries to be a foot, or a shoulder tries to be a finger ?
You have a role in the Church. Something God wants you to do which contributes to the success of the whole. It might be small or big. Obvious or in the background. But there is a way God wants you to be serving, which is important.
The way to discover that thing ?……yes you can try things out, explore, ask others, but ultimately it comes down to offering yourself completely to God, not conforming to this world and allowing God to transform your thinking. Then you’ll hear God’s voice, know God’s heart, and have the mind of Christ.
It comes back to surrender and service, giving yourself completely, not for God, but to God.
We can do lots of things for God, but if it isn’t what God has told us to do, we’re wasting time and actually in danger of judgement.

Integrity is being yourself in Christ. Being consistent, real.

A lot of teachers, just to survive at school, put on an act. They are different in class to what they are away from school….quite understandably.
But did you know a lot of Church Leaders do the same thing ?

Years back I did some itinerant work for a while helping struggling churches into growth.
As part of that I became confident to several Pastors as I was someone outside of their situation. Many Pastors, to protect themselves from people in their churches, pretend.
I’ve been in Church Leadership for long enough, that if I wanted to, I could come across as superpastor, superspiritual, always confident and together, with a superior air about me.
I know the words and tricks to use. But who gets the glory God or the leader ?
It’s not real……and it’s setting people up to failure and frustration.
If you try to emulate a Pastor doing that, you might as well try to be superman. It’s not real. Life is hard, walking Jesus way is hard, people have struggles…..and so do Pastors and leaders, because guess what…they’re people too.
If anytime I appear to be struggling, then I’m struggling. If I appear to be walking in faith and victory, then I probably am. What you see and hear is what you get.

Leaders need to be who they are and not try to be someone else.

Christians of the past were not perfect, although some books about them would almost give you that impression. Don’t continue to read a book that doesn’t have a ring of authenticity, of reality about it. Such books exalt man, not God.
Martin Luther for example wanted parts of the Bible removed and was anti-Semitic. Wesley had a wife who berated him and even on occasion heckled him when preaching. Francis of Assisi misunderstood a vision God gave him, and at the end of his life recognised that the way he had treated his body, his asceticism, was wrong.
Leaders are not special people, they are simply called by God to fulfil a particular role. Yes it’s a high calling to be a teacher or Pastor, and we will be judged more severely because of it…..but Leaders are human beings who want to serve God.
But a lot more would continue in leadership and succeed in what God has called them to, if they were honest before Him and behaved with integrity before others.
Part of being honest and real is recognising the need to be accountable, to handle any finances honestly and have checks in place, and so on.
Your actions and lifestyle obviously need to reflect what you believe. Leaders need to have a high standard of morality. But it is not the outward which is most important here, but rather what is inside.
Hypocrisy was one of the things Jesus accused the leaders of his day of.
Were they outwardly immoral, or inwardly corrupt ? Again it’s character that’s the priority.

Christian teaching is hard, because sometimes you teach something which you know you haven’t fully sorted out yet, and it’s important in the preparation to let God speak to you….before you speak to others.
If ever you’re preparing a sermon, talk, Sunday School, Bible Study, family devotions, whatever…..let God speak the message to your heart first, and respond.
But even though leaders aren’t perfect, God does expect a high standard from those who lead, because you are an example to others – husbands, parents, Church Leaders, government, police, teachers, and so on.
Any leadership role carries with it responsibility.
For the Christian that essentially means walking with God, close to Him.
Not seeking to live up to others expectations, a mistake easily made, but seeking to live listening to and being obedient to God.

I want to finish with us thinking about a most unlikely leader.
Why oh why did Jesus chose someone like Peter ?
Someone with foot in mouth disease - Impulsive, emotional, violent, outspoken.
And yet the name Jesus gave Him means ‘Rock’ – probably the opposite of what he felt like.
God knows best. God knows what we can become, He sees the potential in us that nobody else can see. God looks at the heart.

David’s brothers, all strapping and capable lads…..but God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, He looks at the heart. God’s not after natural leaders, He’s after those who recognise they need to lead supernaturally. It’s not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.

Going back to Peter.
What could be said to be two of the few visible virtues of Peter when he began to follow Jesus.
‘Away from me Lord for I am a sinful man’……I bet Jesus heart leapt within Him when He heard those words and He knew this was a good choice of His Father……….here was humility, and honesty….and that’s where it starts.

For you, today, and this week.