Galen Call's Sermon Library
"Why Character Matters" - July 19, 1998
Thank you, Mary Beth. Would you open your Bible with me, please, to Genesis the 39th chapter? So you think it's been hot here? Let me tell you, it's been really hot in Washington this summer. Some commentators in the media as well as professional politicians are telling us that it does not matter what a president does in his personal life so long as he governs well. They argue that private morality has nothing to do with one's public responsibility. That is absurd. I really believe that only half-wits could believe such silliness as that. And since I don't think most of these people are half-wits, I conclude that political bias has clouded their thinking. What credibility does any leader have who himself is immoral and who cannot be honest? How do citizens know that he governs well if a political leader is duplicitous and deceitful about his own personal affairs? What confidence can people place in any of his decisions if he is dishonest about some of them? And the bottom line in one sense is this, would you send your son or your daughter to fight a war under a commander who does not have personal integrity? I wouldn't, and yet we hear this silly mantra that character doesn't matter. Well, I'm here to say today, and I think most of you would join me in declaring that in fact, character does matter. And we see how important it is from our study in the life of Joseph. Joseph became a man of significance because he was a man of principle. Here in Genesis chapter 39, I'm going to begin reading in verse 1. Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, and pot of fire and Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, brought him from the, bought him rather from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there, and the Lord was with Joseph, and so he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his master of the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the Lord was with him, and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant, and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge, and it came about that from that time he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptians house on account of Joseph. Thus, the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned in the house and in the field. So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge, and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food, which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. The thing I want to write on your heart this morning is this, that personal integrity is essential to achieve positive significance. Will you just think about that for a moment with me? A personal integrity is essential to achieve positive significance. Now that's not only true for a president, it's true for a husband or a wife, for a father or mother. This statement is true of an employee or an employer, an executive or a blue-collar worker. It is true of a student, it is true of a teacher. It is true of a sales clerk, it is true of a preacher. Character matters. Personal integrity is essential to achieve positive significance. But why does character matter? What difference does it make? Well I want you to notice with me first from Joseph's life we learned that character promises promotion. Character promises promotion. That's why it's important. But you say that you know of instances where people without integrity have been successful. Well we all know of cases like that. You see character does not guarantee promotion, nor does the lack of it necessarily prevent it. You see a fallen world like we live in does not always value character. But God does. And He will promote the man or the woman who is concerned about integrity. God has created a moral universe for us to live in. And those who choose to live within His moral laws tend to succeed. In 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 6, well let me just back up into verse 5 from where He says all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. For God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. You see humility is a character quality that God is very concerned about in us. And so Peter says be humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God. He says you don't have to be afraid about adding this character quality of humility to your life. You are under the mighty hand of God and He goes on to say He may exalt you at the proper time. Humble yourselves that He may exalt you at the proper time. Jesus said whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. God is a moral principle in God's universe. When you and I are concerned about character in our lives, God will take care of our promotion and our success in His own way and His own time. I want you to look at the success that came to Joseph. You see Joseph was a man of positive significance in Egypt. Joseph was a blessing to pot of fire and ultimately to all of Egypt. Now I want to quickly say regarding his success that the word makes clear that it came because God was with him three times. It says that in the text that we've already read and it will say it again before the end of the chapter. God was with Joseph and blessed him and made him a blessing. The reason that God was with him and blessed him was this. Joseph was blessable. His life was in such a position before God that He was blessable. He is a man of sterling character as we saw last week in our study about life being unfair. Joseph did not complain about what had happened to him. We don't find him resisting the shackles of servanthood here. He responds positively. He responds with diligence and dependability and so God entrusted him with success. God knew that he could handle it. His character and his success became a testimony as we read to pot of fire. This Egyptian official who undoubtedly worshiped the gods of Egypt, which often included the Pharaoh himself, nonetheless had respect for the God of the Hebrews because of what he saw in Joseph. And so he gave Joseph even more responsibility. As a result of all of this, Potiphar's household was blessed because of Joseph's presence there. This is just a sliver of a fulfillment of Genesis 12, 3, where God says to Abraham that through his descendants he would bless the nations of the earth. God is going to do that to Egypt with the great grandson of Abraham. God says in 1 Samuel 2, "Those who honor me, I will honor." Folks, character matters because character tends to make us successful. It promotes our lives in a positive way and makes us significant for God's use. Our culture accepts the idea of promotion based upon reputation, or based upon deeds. But Christ assures us that real promotion is based upon character. And so he says, "I will exalt you in due time when I see that you are concerned about character." Character may be likened to a kite string. A kite string holds that kite in place against the current of the wind. And because of the resistance that it provides, the kite rises. But snap the string and what happens? The kite goes with the current and down. Character is like that kite string that provides resistance against the current of our day and that resistance causes us to rise. Character matters. There's a second reason that character matters that we see in the life of Joseph, it's in the next paragraph of our text, verses 7 through 12, it is this that character protects in pressure, notice. We've already read that Joseph was a handsome young man. And it says it came about that after these events, his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph. And she said, "Ligh with me," but he refused and said to his master's wife, "Behold, with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. And he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in the house than I. And he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?" And it came about as she spoke to Joseph day after day that he did not listen to her to lie beside her or to be with her. Now it happened one day and he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the household were there inside. And she caught him by the garment, saying, "Ligh with me." And he left his garment in her hand and fled and went outside. Character protects in pressure. Potiphar, by the way, was the head of the Secret Service to Pharaoh. Most who think their private sins between consenting adults must be okay need to observe Joseph's response in this situation. Consider the temptation that came to this young man. What he was tempted with would have appealed to his humanness. It was a man, it undoubtedly appealed to his sense for pleasure, though it would be momentary. It may have seemed reasonable to him as well as it may have seemed reasonable to Mrs. Potiphar. After all he was a slave. Potiphar owned him and therefore his wife owned him. He was their property. And so it could have been that Joseph would have reasoned this out. Well, she owns me, therefore I must do this. Notice about the temptation that it was persistent. It wasn't a one-time occasion. It was day after day after day. It finally intensified not only with a verbal invitation but with her laying her hands on his clothing. What was suggested could have been done in secret. There was no one else in the house. It could have been done privately between consenting adults. But in fact, Joseph sees that it's wrong for him to do this. It was wrong because she is married to Potiphar. It was wrong against his master and it was a sin in the sight of God. Someone has said character is what you are in the dark. It was very dark this day and Joseph's character turns the light on. I want you to consider Joseph's refusal, what courage this young man had. He refused to sacrifice his character for a moment of sinful pleasure. And I'll tell you something, the wall around him, the wall of character was built before this temptation came. That's why I say character is so important because it protects us in pressure. It's too late to build the wall when the temptation comes. The wall was already there. Proverbs 25, 28 says, "Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls." Joseph was a walled city. He was in control of his spirit. Joseph had already answered in his mind what he would do in case this temptation ever came. I am sure of that. He had already prepared himself to resist sexual temptation so that when it came persistently and reasonably and appealingly he could still say no, he could refuse. Joseph did what he ought to have done, he fled. The apostle Paul tells us that we are to flee the evil lusts of youth. We are to flee them. We are not to play with temptation, we are to flee temptation. Too many of us try to tempt temptation. What we must do is to stay away from places of temptation. Joseph refused because this was a sin against his master and would have human consequences. But overarching that was his concern that this was a great evil in the sight of God. Warren Wiersby quotes a Puritan preacher who said, "Joseph lost his coat, but he kept his character. His character protected him. The battle for his will was one before he ever encountered Mrs. Potiphar. Every stone that he built into his character became a wall that protected him here from this sin." This is important, it tends to promote us, it protects us from temptation. Third, as we see in the last paragraph of our chapter, "character perseveres in problems." Doing the right thing does not always bring praise. Sometimes when we do the right thing, it brings us troubles. But integrity will always bring us through that a winner. Notice what happens. When Mrs. Potiphar saw that Joseph had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, she called to the men of her household and said to them, "See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us, to make sport of us. He came into me to lie with me, and I screamed. I came about when he heard that I raised my voice and screamed, but he left his garment beside me and fled and went outside. She is lying through her teeth, of course. So she left his garment beside her until his master came home. Then she spoke to him with these words, "The Hebrew slave." Notice twice she calls him a Jew. There's a dig there, there's some bias there, this Hebrew. This Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came into me to make sport of me. And it happened as I raised my voice and screamed that he left his garment beside me and fled outside. And it came about when his master heard the words of his wife, which he spoke to him saying, "This is what your slave did to me." That his anger burned, and so Joseph's master took him and put him into the jail, a place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in jail. But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer, and the chief jailer committed to Joseph's charge, all the prisoners who were in the jail, so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper. Notice again that emphasis, the Lord was with Joseph. Character perseveres and problems, Joseph was the victim here of false accusation. He says, "Where there's smoke, there's fire." Somebody says, "Behind every accusation there's a kernel of truth." Well, those statements that we often hear are here-proven false. It's frightening to consider, actually, isn't it, what evil can be accomplished through a lie? James 3, verse 5, says regarding the misuse of the tongue, "Behold how great of forest is set aflame by such a small fire." Joseph was the victim of that small fire, but he was also a victor. He was a victor in his character. Notice he did not become resentful because of what happened. He did not defend himself, although he might have done so, and in not defending himself, he preserved the marriage, perhaps the life of Mrs. Potiphar. Notice that he did his duty while he was in the jail. He did it out of integrity, out of character, and the result of his character was so evident there that he persevered in his problems. In fact, he rose right to the top again because of character. Folks' character matters. I hope you can see that in our text. It promises promotion. It doesn't guarantee it, but when you and I are concerned about character, God will take care of exalting us in due time. Character protects in pressure. When the temptations come against us, it's like a wall that is there that strengthens and enables us to refuse temptation. Character causes us to persevere in our problems. So in the midst of our difficulties, our character causes us to rise again. How do you build character? Well, I want to compare building character to building a house. I think it's like building a house in certain respects. When you build a house, the first thing you have to do is find the blueprint. Yes, you have to find and then follow a blueprint. You have to understand what you want to build. The blueprint for character, certainly for every Christian, is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is made abundantly clear throughout the Bible, but just let me remind you of one text, Hebrews 12. He talks about the sin that so easily entangles us, we're to lay that aside, the weights were to put aside and run the race. He says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus is the one we're to look to. He is the blueprint. He is the image to which we must be conformed. That is a popular thing right now, especially for young people to wear a bracelet that has the initials WWJD on it. What would Jesus do? That is a very good question. I fear too often it becomes only a piece of jewelry, but it is significant. What would Jesus do? What is the blueprint for what Jesus would do in this case? Now, when I talk about building character, I want to make something very, very clear. We do not build our character in order to attain salvation. Salvation doesn't come to us by trying to be better people, by trying to be good, by trying to be like Jesus. You see, salvation is a free gift that God gives us by grace that we could never earn. Salvation is a gift that we receive. God has already paid for that gift. It comes to us as a gift from God, and our responsibility is to receive it by faith and invite Jesus Christ to come into our lives as our Savior and Lord. And here we're talking about something different. It's building character, particularly as a Christian. This work of building character comes out of salvation. And the first thing we have to do is find the blueprint. Find the blueprint. Jesus is our blueprint. Secondly, we need to take an inventory. If you're going to build a house, you need to see what you have already in place. And that's what you have to do when you think about building character. What is already there? Now with all of us, undoubtedly, when we take an honest inventory of ourselves, there's going to be great cause for honest confession and repentance. Because we have all placed into our characters things that ought not to be there, that are not useful for building the house according to the blueprint of Jesus. And so we need to acknowledge those things in our lives. We need to confess them as sin. We need to see where the wall is broken down, as it were. We need to flee some things in our lives. The second thing we need to do is to see what we have to work with as we go about this work of building character. Third, we need to get the right materials. You have to do that for a house. You have to order it from the lumberyard or from somewhere. Have it delivered so that you can build with it. What are the materials by which we build character? Well, obviously the first thing out of the shoot is the Word of God. We build with the Word of God. As we look into this book, it says in Corinthians, it has the very power to transform us into the image of the blueprint. The Word of God is one of the means of grace that God gives to us. But there's the fellowship also of the church. Being with other believers, being discipled within the context of Christ's body, we can get wisdom from godly books of authors. There is the building block of accountable relationships with other people, finding that one or two or three other persons that we can be very honest and transparent with. There is the building block of time with God in prayer. There's the building block of the consecration of our hearts, our possessions, our time, our money, our influence to God. That needs to be in place. These are the building materials. We need to get them in place. And then finally, we simply need to go to work. We need to go to work. It requires self-discipline to build character. It doesn't happen automatically. We exert our will toward that end, and then we must depend upon the energy of the Holy Spirit to keep us working in the right direction. We exert our will, then the Holy Spirit enables us. He moves us in the right direction. He gives us the energy to build character, and it's slow work. Building a house is slow. I talked to someone this week who's been building a house for several months. They were supposed to be in a month ago. That's the same old story you hear so often. It's going to be yet another month, and then we'll see. It's slow to build a house. There are complications in building a house. There's one board upon another, there's one brick after another. But eventually, eventually it's there. That's the way it is with character. You don't build character overnight. You can get a reputation overnight, but you're not going to get character overnight. It takes time and energy and hard work by the Spirit of God to do it. But does it make any difference? Oh, yes it does. The idea that character doesn't matter is a lie. It does matter. I believe that character is at the very root of a civilized society. Without personal character, civilization and order break down. This is what happened to the Roman Empire. General integrity was laid aside, and eventually the whole empire, as strong as it was, was undermined. Today we have sincere legislators, congresspeople, who are calling upon more laws to be made about this and about that, to try to get people to behave responsibly. Because no government can pass enough laws to preserve people who have no moral integrity. I want to repeat that. No government can pass enough laws to preserve people who have no moral integrity. Our Constitution, the basis of our democratic republic, has preserved us for more than 200 years. The Constitution, however, was predicated upon a citizenry committed to the morality that comes out of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. The Constitution, I want to repeat that, was predicated upon a citizenry committed to the morality that comes out of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. And without that basis, the Constitution ultimately will not work. Certainly our governmental system will break down entirely because of the lack of character in the people of America. That's why it is so dangerous for this lie to be repeated over and over again that character doesn't matter, yet it pulls everything that we hold sacred. Personal integrity lays a foundation for you personally to achieve positive significance. Old people can be significant without character. No question about that, but I'm talking about positive significance. Doing something that will benefit mankind, something that will bless people, for those of us who trust the God of Abraham, character is necessary so that we might be a blessing to the nations of the world. One final thought is this, that character is one thing that you build in this world that will carry you into the next. You will take your character with you when you expire, so friend it matters. Character matters. Write it on your heart and never forget it, let's pray. Our Father and our God, we humble ourselves in the face of a message like this because if we're honest and take that inventory, there are chinks in the armor of all of us. There are places where the stones in the wall either have not been put into place or have been knocked out. We all have work to do. And so we humble ourselves in confession and repentance. Let me pause right there in my prayer for a moment and give you an opportunity to talk to the Lord about whatever that may mean in your life. Where is the wall not in place? Father having talked with you about that, be it even briefly, many of us here today consecrate ourselves to get back to the blueprint, to begin employing the materials at hand and to work hard in the energy of the Holy Spirit to build the walls of our lives. I pray that we may be men and women like Joseph who can be a blessing because we're faithful. We are people of character in Christ's name, amen. Would you stand together with me please? I'd like to sing this to the verse or two of a closing song. I think you know the words as 371 if you need it, but I'd like for us to close our eyes and just pray it from our hearts as we sing. Have thine own way, Lord. Let God build you today. Let's pray as we sing. Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way, Thou art the putter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still. Lord, search us and try us. Writer than snow, make us as we humbly bow in your presence, and as we go I pray that you will write upon our hearts how important personal integrity is so that we might achieve the positive significance you want us to have in the world in Christ's name, amen. Amen. the Lord. in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen.