Elevate | Part 7 - Pastor Eric Parks | March 20, 2026

In Part 7, Pastor Eric Parks brings us a message on Integrity and how a Kingdom Man does the right thing even when no one else is watching.

Transcript

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Good morning, gentlemen. I know some of you are like, who is this guy with this hat on? Um just just I'm not trying to prove a point, alright? Um sometimes when we wear hats, we are uh I'm trying to hide the top of my head because the doctor gave me a bunch of stuff to put on my head because of my skin tone. Um me and the sun aren't agreeable. And so um, you're gonna have to deal with the hat this morning. Um hey, listen, if you haven't caught up on our sermons, it's really simple. And I would encourage you, this series, Elevate, is tied together. So every part of the series sort of um leads to the next part. You can go back to the podcast, there's a podcast online, and you can listen to every part. In particular, I think one of the most important messages we gave was last month. We talked about community, about um connecting with other men, and I think you know part of why we're here is to do that. Um, so uh I noticed this with my kids. How many of you have kids in the room? Anyone have kids, grandkids? All right. Have you ever noticed this with your kids? Um you ever notice what they do when they get in trouble? Anyone? You ever you ever notice, especially when they're little, I never had one of my kids run to me after they did something wrong. In fact, my kids had this distinct way of hiding. It's how I knew something was wrong. In fact, this was such a part of their life that um our middle son Gray, he was 17 years old. And um we have some distance between our children. Uh Harrison is our youngest. He was at the time was uh he might have been 11. And um we go into Denver, Chrissy and I say, hey, listen, Gray, you're 17. Um, we need you to watch Harry this weekend. It's our anniversary. We're gonna stay the night in downtown Denver. And uh so we go downtown Denver, and um what you need to know about our house is um, you know, I I sort of trust the boys, but I'm sort of like trust and verify sort of kind of guy. So um I got cameras all over the house. And uh and um I checked in on my phone uh while we were downtown Denver, and um everything looked pretty good. I was like, okay, everything's gonna be fine. Um next morning we drive back to the house, we had breakfast, Chrissy and I, and um, as soon as I walked in the house, guys, I knew something wasn't right. Because it was spic and spam. Because I mean, vacuumed. Gray had never vacuumed that house once, right? This is the kid that just leaves wrappers everywhere. And so I started looking around the house. I'm like, Chrissy, why is the house so clean? And then I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go back and look at this this camera footage because something doesn't smell right. This kid's hiding something. So I start going back through the through the cameras, and I see one little thing, a little blip. Two boys walking through the back of the house, and one of them's carrying a case of beer, and they're walking against the back of the house, and as soon as the back door opens, I can hear a party happening in my house. So I go to his little brother, who at the time is 11. This is Harrison. I go, hey, bud. Because I I couldn't find anything else on any of the cameras, and I got I found out why later. But I said, Harry, I sat him on the stairs, I go, listen, buddy, I know something happened in this house. I know your brother was up to no good. Harry looked at me just straight in the eye, man, and he's like, Dad, I have no idea what you're talking about. He would not sell out his brother. Um, well, come to find out Graham did have a big party and he had um angled all of the cameras just so that everybody could come in the house. And you know it's interesting. I I was thinking about how kids are, uh how oftentimes, man, when they do get in trouble, when they were little, even to then we we hide, uh we hide, and here's the truth. As we get older, this sort of instinct to sort of hide, almost like, hey dad, don't look my way, that that that's something we get better at as men sometimes. You know, where um we get better at hiding some of the things we don't want people to see in our lives. And here's the truth about all of us. If we're really honest, most of us have learned how to manage what people see. We've gotten good at presenting like the right version at the right time. But here's what you need to know, man. There is a version of you that exists beyond the image that you've curated. And so here's the question we're gonna look at. Guys, who are you when nobody's looking? For real. Who is the guy when nobody's looking? I'm not talking about the guy that's here in this room, not the version of you that shows up on Sunday. What I'm talking about today is your pastor is who is the guy at 11 p.m. when the house is quiet? Who is the guy when the business deal's on the table and nobody would ever know what you're about to do? Who's the guy when the door's closed and the screen is right there and there's nothing stopping you? Who's that guy? Because that's the man we're talking about. The man you are in secret is the man you actually are. So I want to look at a story to me that I think will help us understand how we navigate integrity. And it's found in the Old Testament in Daniel. Now, if you grew up in church, you know this story. It's called Daniel and the Lion's Den. It's found in Daniel chapter 6, and um, it's an interesting story. Now, you may not know this when we find Daniel, he actually isn't a teenager. In Daniel chapter 6, Daniel's probably about 80 years old. He's an older fella. Uh and we know this because he got taken into captivity when he was probably about 10 years old. We know that the Babylonian captivity was probably 70 years, so theologians go, man, this dude was probably 80 years old in Daniel chapter 6. So he's an old guy. He's survived empires. He was taken there from Jerusalem when he was a kid, and he's gotten really good at his job. He has something worth losing. You know what I mean? Any of you remember what it felt like when you had nothing to lose? And then you get your job and build your business and do what you have to do. You get a family, you have a house, you have a car, and you turn around, and now you have something to lose, right? You're like, I'd rather not lose all this. Well, this is Daniel. And uh in that time, for whatever reason, he did make some enemies. Sometimes it happens. And um, in Daniel chapter, in Daniel chapter 6, verse 4, the Bible tells us this these enemies, they could not find grounds for complaint or any fault. This is in Daniel, because he was faithful and there was no error or fault to be found in him. They couldn't find anything, because here's the truth about Daniel. What the Bible tells us is there wasn't anything to find. This dude just did what was right, right? He had built a life out of the shadows. And so so, in the story, because they couldn't find anything in his character, they decide to go after his convictions. They can't find anything in him that would get him in trouble, so they go after the convictions. And you know the story probably, but this is what happens. They talk the king to sign a law that if if anybody prays to anybody other than the king in the next 30 days that he get they get thrown in the lion's den, which is a cruel punishment, but that's what it was. Couldn't redo the law. And so in Daniel chapter 6, verse 10, when Daniel knew, now listen to what Daniel does. This is the kind of guy that he is. Listen to this. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, so he knows it, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem, not hiding at all. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks to God as he had done previously. He's like, Yeah, I'm still going to do the things that I have done regardless of what it costs me. Yeah, I read this story and it made me realize that oftentimes us as humans tend to go pray when we're in trouble. We petition. And that's not a bad thing. But do you notice that's not what this is? He is not hitting his knees in prayer because he's in trouble. He actually is praying because that's who he is. This isn't his response to crisis. This is just his practice. This is what he did in private. And so he just leaves the windows open. He goes, This is who I am, this is who I've always been, this is who I will always be. He didn't become the man under pressure. That pressure revealed who he already was. In Psalm, uh, we we know that the writer of Psalm is a man named David, said man after God's own heart. He asked this very interesting question about what does it mean to walk with God in Psalm 15.1. He says, This Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? He's saying, Listen, who gets to stand close to God? Who's the kind of man that walks with lasting authority and like genuine weight in the world? This is David's question, and he answers his own question in the next verse. Listen to what he says. He says, the one who whose walk is blameless, who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from their heart, whose tongue utters no slander, who does no wrong to his neighbors, casts no slur on others, who despises a vile person but honors those who fear the Lord. A man who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and does not change their mind, who lends money to the poor without interest, who does not accept bribes against the innocent. Whoever does these things will never be shaken. And this is a description of Daniel. A guy who couldn't be moved. A man that God calls blameless is a man who is consistent. Not perfect, just consistent. Look, here's what I've learned in my 53 years on this planet. And I need to say this perfection isn't the goal. Because perfection is sort of a fool's errand. You're never gonna always get it right. But here's what I have learned about the battles for our integrity. I've learned that most of those battles will probably not be fought in public. The battles for your integrity, who you really are when nobody's looking, they get fought at midnight in a hotel room. They get fought in your browser history. They get fought in the conversation you have about somebody when they're not in the room. They get fought in the money that you move when nobody's watching, the way that you treat your family when you're tired and there is no audience. The battle for your integrity is always fought in private. And these moments, they're not small. These moments are actually where your real life is either being built or it is being eroded. Gentlemen, integrity is not what you do when the stakes are high. It is what you do when the stakes feel invisible. That's integrity. And eventually, the gap between your public persona and that private man, it will become unsustainable if the gap is too far. It always does. You hear of people whose lives have crashed and burned because of a moral failing or a decision that they made, and we often go, how did they make that decision? Well, usually it isn't like they had a drive-by integrity fail. Do you know what I mean? It isn't like they tripped and fell and lost everything. It was a series of decisions made over time, little compromises. And the gap between who they were when nobody was looking and who that public person was, it got too big, it was too far, and it just came falling down. Listen, this is why we're meeting. Yes, certainly, it is about being at a table with other men and sharing life together, but it is so that we walk out the life that God had in mind for each and every one of us. We walk it out with integrity. We learn a path of integrity. Because we believe there is a different kind of man. Every single one of us. We gave this coin on the very first week. And if you don't have one, um, Jason can put one in your hand. But this is why we put a coin like this in your hand, because there's a different man. A man whose private life is actually better than his reputation. A man whose wife knows something about him the rest of the world doesn't. That he's the same guy in the kitchen at 9 p.m. as he is on the platform or in the boardroom at 9 a.m. That's why we're here. To elevate to that. Because that's a man worth becoming. I love the story because Daniel knows the law, he knows the penalty, he knows everybody's watching him. And he opens the window anyway. He's like, this is who I am. This is who I am in private, and I will take it public. And so I just want to say three things about this before we jump around the table together and really process integrity. This is what I learned in this passage. Number one, this is this uh Daniel had to practice. He had to practice. And this practice wasn't tied to pressure. Like you'll hear Pastor Doug on the weekend talk about his time with Jesus. You'll hear me talk about spiritual disciplines. Daniel prayed three times a day when nobody was looking. This is why these practices matter. That discipline existed before the crisis. And listen, if crisis hasn't come your way, gentlemen, it will come your way. Jesus said it this way: He said, In this life you will have trouble. The goal of this life, no matter what you've been taught by this culture or someone along the way, is not comfort. If that is the primary goal of your life, one, you will be disappointed because life isn't always comfortable. Have we learned that by now? Right? You learn, like, look, trouble comes our way. There is discomfort. We will have crisis. Stuff will happen with our wife, with our health, in our life, with our business. It happens. And how are we prepared for when it happens? It is the practices we do when there is no pressure on. I mean, that's Daniel, right? Second thing is this. He had a conviction that he was willing to pay for. Like he had a conviction. He actually believed in something. I've seen this. Many of you know I was in the marketplace for a number of years, right out of college. I was an energy trader and was around lots and lots of money. I've seen plenty of people who had convictions as long as it was free. It didn't cost them anything. But Daniel held this when it cost him his whole life. That kind of conviction, it doesn't form in a crisis. It forms in thousands of small decisions. Getting up every day, consistently, putting your face in this book, spending time with your father, making small decisions when there is no crisis prepares you for the time that the crisis comes. Look, I've learned this a long time ago, guys. I like you all. I think you're all pretty awesome. I really don't care what you think. Um, because there are going to be things that I say that some of you are like, well, golly, I don't like that guy. Today might be one of them. You know, I don't like what he has to say. I don't like the cowboy hat he's wearing, right? I've learned this a long time ago. I look, I I have just a few people I care about, what they think. I care what God thinks about me. I care deeply because I believe one day it's gonna be me, and none of you guys will be there with me. It's just me and him, and he's gonna ask me, hey, I gave you your one and only life. Eric, what did you do with it? And I don't want to have to sit on the corner of heaven for a long time for a lecture, right? I want to get in and I want him to say, good job, you did good with your life. And I care what my wife and my kids think. Because they see me every single day. They see me, they know. I can you you can think whatever you want about me. You might love me, you might not like me, but the truth is, my kids and my wife know me. And they matter. Look, the reality of our lives is we have to be accountable to something bigger than public opinion. Daniel wasn't trying to oppress people, he wasn't praying because the law required it. He prayed because he was in a genuine relationship with God. His integrity was not performance. And we build this one unseen decision at a time. And listen, let me tell you what I've learned about this. Sometimes standing for something, it is not glamorous. There are often times when there are no crowds cheering. The older I get, the less cheering there is. Anyone notice that, right? When you were a younger man and you did something good, someone would pat you on the back. You turn 40, and everybody's like, Yeah, just do the right thing, right? Show up at work, just be there, right? This is the truth. Like, there's very few people cheering for the right decisions. And that's Daniel. He's in a room doing what he'd always done, knowing it might get him killed. I can't hammer this home enough. If you don't remember anything that I've said, please hear this. You cannot stand alone publicly if you haven't already learned to stand alone privately. It's all about your private life, gentlemen. It's all about it. And I want to say this. If you're sitting here this morning and you're listening to this and you know there's been a gap in your private life and your public persona, maybe the private man and the public man have been two different people for a long time. I just want you to hear this. This call to integrity is not reserved for men who was all who have always gotten it right. In fact, in fact. Some men that I admire most are the men who have fallen and really messed it up and gotten up and decided, I'm now going to become the right kind of man. This is not reserved for perfection. It is an open invitation to every man who is willing to take the next right step. That's it. The next one. So I don't know. Whatever's happened in the past has happened in the past, it's the next right step. And the same God who kept Daniel in the lion's den is the God who meets you right where that gap is. So here's the good news you don't have to clean yourself up first. You just have to open the window. You have to start the practice. You have to make the next unseen decision, the right one. Because here's the truth, the man that you want to become, it still can be built. But it starts today one right step after the other. See, here's the truth, this is what we're trying to be. This is what we're forging. What we need in this world is men of integrity that choose to do the right thing. That know what Jesus said about life. And when we say rearrange our life, this is what we're talking about. A bunch of men that link arms. That we take care of our community. The Bible tells us in Psalms that we take care of the poor. We show up for kids that even aren't ours. Right? We step out and we serve an interest greater than our own. This is the call that Jesus asks us to serve. And this is what it means. I don't buy the lie that manhood is dead. And I'm not talking about some macho machismo manhood where you can beat up other guys. Because if that's the contest, I'm going to lose nine times out of ten, right? I'm talking about men on the inside that have a spine of steel, a really soft exterior. A soft exterior, but a spine of steel. It does the right thing when it calls for it. And it can be learned. Take it from someone who has failed on multiple occasions. And so that's our call. And that's what we're trying to build. And that's why I carry this coin around often. Because this is what I know. Is that the decisions that I made yesterday on my morning walk and my time with Jesus and the decisions that I made the day before that, and the decisions I made the day before that, they will compile because there will become a day when those private practices become really public. And that's the kind of man that I want to be. That's the kind of pastor that I want to be. What you deserve is someone who actually smokes what he sells. Probably a poor metaphor in Colorado. But this is why I served this place. Because the man I follow is that kind of man. Now, of course, Jesus is our model, but your pastor, Pastor Doug, is this kind of guy. It's the same guy who still shows up in the hospital, who shows up for people in their lives. That's why I love this church, is because it's built on people who do what is right. And that's our call, gentlemen. I don't want you to just come to church. I don't want you just to show up. I want you to be the person God intended when he thought you up. That's the goal. Make your life count. And start today because this is the question. It isn't whether your moment is coming, because it is. The question is whether you're building the man who will be ready when that time arrives. And is coming. So we're going to take a few minutes and process this together. And let me say a few words. The Bible tells us in Christ there is no condemnation. So the next few minutes, this isn't about anything other than what you are to be. But I will also say this. Sometimes we will have to face whatever it is that we have to face. And sometimes being a man is taking it. Is taking what you have to take. And for some of us, when we begin to make the right step, there's a cleanup effort on aisle nine. And part of becoming a man with the steel spine is learning how to clean up. I say this to my kids all the time: you don't always get it right, but you can make it right. You don't always get it right, but you can make it right. And this is what we're forging. Not perfect. Not perfect. But practiced. So let me pray for you. Father, I am praying for these men in this room who are here this morning. And that says something about each and every one of them. That they're sitting at this table with other men looking to be vulnerable and learn what it means to follow Jesus. And that says something about them. And I just pray in the next few minutes that it'll be holy ground at each table as we begin to forge what I think is the most important part of this whole thing. It is how do we become men after God's own heart? How do we become a description of Psalm 15 as David describes it? Men who live in this camp with you, Father. And may your Holy Spirit give us courage to be honest and to reconcile whatever it is we have to reconcile. May your Holy Spirit also draw us closer to you, Father, in these next few minutes, in these next few days, in these next few months. God, we're grateful that you always provide a path to redemption. May each and every one of us have have the courage to walk that every single day because we need it every single day. We pray this in Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen.