The Great Wall of China is a gigantic structure which cost an immense amount of money and labor. When it was finished, it appeared impregnable. But three times the enemy breached it – not by breaking it down or going around it. They did it by bribing the gatekeepers. • It was breached because of lack of character by those guarding it. Famous Japanese Proverb "The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour.” A person’s integrity can make or break an empire. Take ancient Israel for example. While the southern kingdom had a number of good Kings, the northern kingdom had bad king after bad king and the people were lost to history. Today we have scandals in Professional sports. America’s favorite past-time, baseball was besmirched by steroid use of many of the game’s most famous names. We watched Pitchers and home-run hitters break record after record from true sport legends, not by being great but by cheating. Cycling has seen its share of doping scandals. Lance Armstrong is being accused of doping and they have even discovered some riders used miniature electric motors, build secretly into the bike frames, that have helped other riders cheat.

People today find it commonplace to see people lie, cheat, steal, and have complete disregard for their reputation for a chance to get rich. As we witness this decline in morality it is important to take note and to take stock in our own behavior toward the Holy Righteous Character we are to be building in this life. Once upon a time, public discourse would be filled with famous quotes aimed at correcting the course of human events. To speak out on morality and Character. One of those often quoted was Winston Churchill. A quote from Winston Churchill Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense” After bolstering the British people to stand firm against the evil of the Nazi empire, he understood that human nature often leads us to take the path of least resistance. But on the topic of Character, the path is not defined by amount of effort it takes to travel, but the rightness of the cause. The title of the sermon today is: God’s Character in Us Let’s examine the importance of character today, and talk a bit on how God is seeking holy righteous character in us and how He is building it. One of our founding fathers, who wrote such works as “Common Sense” was Thomas Paine. Thomas Paine (1737-1809) US Founding Father. Reputation is what men and women think of us.

Character is what God and the angels know of us. ---- What are Good Character Traits? • Consideration • Courteousness • Honesty • Hard working • Trustworthy • Cleanliness • Punctuality • Reliability • Dedication • Right Leadership Can you imagine the importance of good character in selecting a captain of a Navel ship? Or judges, or even astronauts? The cream of the crop is selected. These people have to act without regard for self. It takes real character to do these things. These people aren’t just gifted people. Gifts and character are two different things. We need character to use our gifts in the best way possible. Good character involves consistently doing the right things for the right reasons. True character involves the capacity and willingness to find what is right, the will to CHOOSE the right way, and then the strength of will to resist all other actions and impulses and DO what is right. God is looking for us to reflect His character, as Christ did… Hebrews 1:3 (NKJV) 3who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 2 Peter 1:2-4(NKJV) 2Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Ecclesiastes 7:1 (NKJV) 1 A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth; Few people, in human history have a name that most would associate with good character. We are quoting some today for reference. Many people have names whose meaning is either unknown or unimportant to them, but this is not so for God. The Hebrew word for name means so much more than just a word to call something. 8034 ~ve shem {shame} Meaning: 1) name 1a) name 1b) reputation, fame, glory 1c) the Name (as designation of God) 1d) memorial, monument ---- Now a monument is meant to stand forever, and so should a good name. Proverbs 22:1 (NKJV) 1 A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. How many people that are on these reality shows would agree with Proverbs? Not many I believe. Today many people don’t care about keeping a good name in the site of others. Years ago, a good reputation was prized above all others.

Today I am going to give you: 7 REQUIREMENTS IN BUILDING GODLY CHARACTER: Without these, you cannot have Godly character. Each one plays a part. There are many required elements of Building Character but today we will focus on a perfect number of them. Our first requirement of building Godly Character is:

1. FREE MORAL AGENCY Winston Churchill was quotes as saying: We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out ---- I work with someone who likes to say when he puts his foot in his mouth that he “has the right to remain silent, but just not the ability”. God allows us to make choices each and every minute. • What we Eat • Amount we sleep • How we drive • What we think on • What we watch, etc etc He does not program us like he has programmed the animals. He allows us to choose. We have to want to be in His Kingdom. He will not force anyone to live there. We then have to wrestle with our human nature to decide what to do with our lives. Quote: Francis S. Collins: recently sworn in as Director of the National Institutes of Health and is an American physician-geneticist, noted for his discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project (HGP). In his book The Language of God, he wrote on Page 43. “…let us recognize that a large fraction of our suffering and that of our fellow human beings is brought about by what we do to one another. It is humankind, not God, that has invented knives, arrows, guns, bombs, and all manner of other instruments of torture used through the ages. “…we have somehow been given free will, the ability to do as we please. We use this ability frequently to disobey the Moral Law. And when we do so, we shouldn’t then blame God for the consequences.” (Page 43) It is God that gives us this choice to follow His Moral Law, or to follow selfish pursuits.

Deuteronomy 30:19 (NKJV) 19I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; Ben Light recently gave a sermon called “The Proverbs 31 Church” looking the traits that God wants for our women and stated the position as the future Bride of Christ we need as a church to be trying to emulate those values. Society today has taught women that looks are everything. The British Actress Jacqueline Bisset, no slouch to beauty herself wrote on the subject: “Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude, integrity, can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.” So our first requirement is free moral agency. We cannot gain Character by instinct. We must choose it for ourselves. Our second requirement is: 2. TIME There is no such thing as instant character. Character, like plants and people, must grow and develop over time. God has a 7000 year plan to grow character in the future spirit beings that will inhabit the universe. The lesson we can learn from the Angels is that given everything as they were, some gave into pride, anger, jealousy, and resentment. None of these are character traits of God. 30 years ago, the church of God was much larger than it is today.

Time has a way of beating us down. Many people start off just fine. Full of ideals. But as they grow over time and gain power and influence they can change and lose those ideals. Abraham Lincoln wrote: Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Psalms 90:9 - …; We finish our years like a sigh. 10 The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. …. 12 So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. So our second requirement is Time. Character, like diamonds and other precious stones, take time to produce. They also require extreme amounts of Pressure which leads us to our third requirement. 3. TRIALS Romans 5:3-4(NKJV) 3And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Helen Keller (1880 - 1968) Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. ----- If things always came too easy, what lessons would we learn?

1 Corinthians 3:11 - 15 (NKJV) 11For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 1 Peter 1:7 (NKJV) 7that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 4:12 - 13 (NKJV) 12Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; 13but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

Quote: Faith Baldwin ---- successful U.S. author "Character isn’t built on ease, success, a million dollars, or a happy life. Mainly through pain, sorrow and adversity are the bricks fashioned which can erect an enduring edifice." So we must in this life endure trials to build Godly Character. Moving to point number 4. Godly Character is build: 4. ON LITTLE THINGS We often think of grand gestures when we think of Godly Character. Certainly the acts of the Apostles as they followed after Christ were big things. But life is often a collection of little things, one upon the other. Together they make the mountain of our lives. Few people will ever reach the height of an Abraham Lincoln in this life, but even he said: Quote: Abraham Lincoln We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it. ---- Being too big to take offense is a little thing in the grand scheme of things, and yet it is so important. Luke 16:10 (NKJV) 10He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Matthew 25:21 (NKJV) 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ A quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson is this: Sow a thought, reap an act; Sow an act, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a character, reap a destiny.--- Ben M. Herbster – American Christian Minister "Just as an oak tree grows from a little acorn so does great character grow from a great many decisions that may at the time seem very minor” So our fourth requirement is that Godly Character is built upon the little things, because it’s the little things that add up to the whole of our character. The fifth requirement is that Godly Character requires: 5. HAVING RIGHT STANDARDS Right is always right. Wrong is always wrong. Human nature tries to convince us that our way is best, that we know all that we need to succeed and live a happy life. Turn over to Isaiah 55: Theodore Roosevelt "To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” Isaiah 55:7 - 9 (NKJV) 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. Matthew 4:4 (NKJV) 4But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

Isaiah 40:8 (NKJV) 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” Daniel Webster, an American statesmen and pre-Civil War Senator wrote: "If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon bronze, time will efface it; if we build temples, they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon our (lives), if we imbue them with just principles of action, with fear of wrong and love of' right, we engrave on those tables something which no time can obliterate, and which will brighten and brighten through all eternity.” So it takes having the right standards to guild us and helps us to build Godly Character. Our sixth requirement is that it: 6. TAKES SELF CONTROL Self-control is one of the most difficult things to maintain in this life. Human nature is always pulling at us. But self-control keeps us at the plow until the job is done. Self-control keeps us from activity that leads to destruction. Tomas Paine understood that when he said: Character is much easier kept than recovered. -------Thomas Paine (1737-1809). There is a popular idiom that states that “Everyone has their price”. That given the right compensation, anyone would trade their principles. Have you ever considered the idea that you may have a price? To be bought and give up our dignity, future, our good name? So many people clamor for their 15 minutes of fame; they would do almost anything for a shot at what they would consider the meaning of life. Some have killed for it, many have destroyed their lives for it.

Proverbs 16:32 (NKJV) 32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. Proverbs 25:28 (NKJV) 28 Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls. The struggle for self-control pictured in Romans 7. Here Paul talks about this ongoing battle to rise above the human nature that would sell out. Reading in the New Living Translation this passage really comes to life… Romans 7:14-25 NLT 14 The law is good, then. The trouble is not with the law but with me, because I am sold into slavery, with sin as my master. 15 I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. 16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. 17 But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things. 18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't. 19 When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. 20 But if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it.

21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God's law with all my heart. 23 But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. But we know that even though Paul struggled, as each of us do, every day, that he succeeded. Near the end of his Life, while he waited in chains for the end to come, he wrote Timothy and we can read that in: 2 Timothy 4:6-8 6 As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. 7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 8 And now the prize awaits me-- the crown of righteousness that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that great day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his glorious return. Famous 18th century German Writer Johann Wolfgang von Goeter "Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character." That takes self-control.

We toil in this life to build Godly character at great effort and without self-control we make no progress at all. Our last requirement 7. FOLLOW THE RIGHT EXAMPLE There are lots of people who have blazed tails and done great things and who have had strong character… One of those that are looked to even today lived only a few year on this earth. Anne Frank was caught up in the Holocaust with six million other people of Jewish decent and died at just 15 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March of 1945. Through her diary, we learned that even though her life was not in her own hands, he character was. Anne Frank The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. But, the only perfect example is Jesus Christ… 1 Peter 2:21 (NKJV) 21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 1 Peter 1:13 - 16 (NKJV) 13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” Our last quote today comes from Dear Abby: Abigail Van Buren. “The best index to a man’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back.”

So godly character requires: 1. Free moral agency 2. Time 3. Trials 4. It is built upon little things 5. Has the right standards 6. Takes self-control 7. It follows the right example Conclusion We started off listing many good character traits. I would like to end with a summary of some traits of Godly character: 1. Godly character emphasizes the importance of little things 2. It never goes as far as it can. 3. It does not gamble with sin. 4. It lives as though God never leaves the room. 5. Godly character goes first class. 6. It does not follow the crowd. 7. It takes tough assignments first. 8. It does it today. 9. Godly character takes correction willingly. 10. It does not panic under pressure. 11. It looks past the present and considers the end. 12. It is consistent. 13. Godly character rarely takes credit but often offers praise.