Taking
Stock of Your Life
Your
Personal Spiritual Inventory
Steve W. Reeves
INTRODUCTION:
A. At
the end of the year, it is common for businesses to take inventory. It’s a time
of
examination, taking stock, evaluation, and
assessment.
1. If you work in a business that takes a
yearly inventory, you know something about
the effort and long hours involved in
that process.
2. Inventory is not limited to retail
stores, businesses, and financial matters. All of us
need to take inventory of our lives.
a. You need to evaluate your physical
health. How are your vital signs? How is your
heart? Are you in good physical
condition?
b. Do you take inventory of your
finances? Leroy Brownlow said, “If your outgo is
more than your income, your upkeep
becomes your downfall.”
B. How
often do you take a spiritual inventory?
1. Is your relationship with God as strong
as it was a year ago?
2. Is your knowledge of the Word of God
greater than it was a year ago?
3. Are you as involved in God’s work as you
were a year ago?
4. Are you as connected and involved with
the body of Christ (the church) as you
were a year ago?
5. Are you practicing faithful stewardship
with all of life’s blessings?
C. I
hope this month will be one of taking stock of your life. Each week, we will
inventory
a different area of life. Today, I want to
talk about your personal spiritual growth.
1. This area of your life will affect every
area of your life. It will affect your
marriage,
your family, your physical wellness,
your job, your finances, and your friendships.
2. Most importantly, it will affect you
eternally. You may have a good physical
evaluation, but one day this physical
body will be gone. You may have a positive
balance in your bank accounts, but one
day it won’t mean a thing. Your spiritual life
means everything.
a. In 2 Corinthians 13:5, Paul wrote,
“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith;
examine yourselves! Or do you not
recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus
Christ is in you unless indeed you
fail the test?”
b. The writer of Hebrews admonished his audience,
“For though by this time you
ought to be teachers, you have need
again for someone to teach you the
elementary principles of the oracles
of God, and you have come to need milk and
not solid food. 13 For
everyone who partakes only of
milk is not accustomed to
the word of righteousness, for he is
an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature,
who because of practice have their
senses trained to discern good and evil”
(Hebrews 5:12-14).
Here
are six questions for your personal spiritual inventory:
I. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE?
A. Please notice the personal element of
this question.
1. What is your personal belief–not your
parents’, spouse’s, friends’, or preacher’s?
2. The
faith of others may help, comfort, and encourage you, but it cannot save you.
B. You must answer this question honestly.
1. Before his conversion to Christ, Paul
was passionately honest with what he
believed.
2. In 1 Timothy 1:12-13 he wrote, “I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord, who has
strengthened me, because He
considered me faithful, putting me into service,
13 even though I was
formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent
aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy
because I acted ignorantly in unbelief.”
3. Notice the change in 2 Timothy 1:12b,
“for I know whom I have believed and I am
convinced that He is able to guard
what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
4. Paul did not go around saying what he
thought others wanted to hear.
C. You must answer this question
specifically.
1. What do you believe about the
existence of God and creation?
2. What do you believe about the Bible?
3. What do you believe about the nature
of man?
4. What do you believe about Jesus? Is
He real? Was He really born miraculously
to a virgin? Did He really heal
people? Was He actually raised from the dead?
5. What do you believe about salvation?
Is it necessary? Are there other ways to be
saved than through Christ?
6. What do you believe about the church? Is
it really needed? Are all churches
alike? Is there something
distinctive about the church you read about in the
Bible? What are those distinguishing
marks? Does the church where you worship
contain those distinguishing marks?
7. What do you believe about prayer?
Does God really hear us when we pray?
Does He answer? What if His answer
is not the one we desire? Are you willing to
accept God’s “no’s”?
D. I have a friend named “Woody,” who is a
bridge inspector for the Arkansas
Highway Department. He and I were
driving across the I-40 bridge that crosses the
Mississippi River, when he told me he
had climbed all over the steel superstructure
of that bridge. On a regular basis, that
steel is inspected and tested to make sure
there are no cracks that could weaken
the bridge. Are there cracks in your faith that
need to be addressed?
II. WHAT ARE YOUR DOUBTS?
A. Every person has doubts of some type.
1. Job had doubts about his sufferings.
2. Peter doubted when he stepped out of
the boat onto the Sea of Galilee
(Matthew 14:28-30).
3. Thomas doubted when the other
disciples told him they had seen the risen Jesus
(John 20:25).
B. The real question is, “What do you do
with your doubts?”
1. Some people blame their doubts on
others. Do not allow the actions of others to
fuel your doubts. Courageously own
your doubts. Do not blame them on others.
2. Peter had his moment of doubt, but he
also had the courage to step out of the
boat. When Thomas was presented with
evidence, He passionately believed.
C. It is not wrong to talk about you
doubts. It is not wrong to investigate and seek
answers. Truth is never afraid of genuine
investigation.
III. WHAT IS GOD’S WILL FOR YOUR LIFE?
A. God has a “general” will for your life.
This is the will He has for every individual on
earth.
1. In the Old Testament, Micah addressed
the question of God’s will, “He has told
you, O man, what is good; and what
does the Lord require of you but to do
justice, to love kindness, and to
walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
2. Paul told the Thessalonians, “For
this is the will of God, your sanctification;
that is, that you abstain from
sexual immorality; that each of you know how to
possess his own vessel in
sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the
Gentiles who do not know God” (1
Thessalonians 4:3-5).
3. Jesus told a parable in Matthew
21:28-32 about a man with two sons. He told the
first son to go work in his
vineyard. He refused, but later changed his mind and
went.
The second son said he would, but did not go. Jesus asked, “Which one did
the father’s will?” The answer was
obvious. The first one did his father’s will.
4. Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slow
about His promise, as some count slowness,
but is patient toward you, not
wishing for any to perish but for all to come to
repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
B. God also has a specific will for your
life. How do you know what that will is?
1. Consider your talents (gifts). Read
Romans 14, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians
4. God has not created us alike. God
uses our different abilities for to bring about
the maturity of the church
(Ephesians 4:15-16).
2. Consider the opportunities God
presents to you. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were
on the second missionary journey
when they came to Troas. From there, Paul
intended to travel to Asia but was
forbidden by the Spirit. They came to Mysia
and wanted to go to Bithynia but
were forbidden by the Spirit. Little did
Paul
expect the vision of a man saying
“come over to Macedonia and help us.” This
opened the door for him to preach in
Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth.
3. What opportunities has God put before
you? What are you doing with them?
IV. WHAT IS THE DIRECTION OF YOUR LIFE?
A. You are going somewhere. When I was a
college student, one of my teachers
required us to read a book entitled, If
You Don’t Know Where You’re Going You’ll
Probably End Up Somewhere Else,
by David Campbell.
1. I later learned that title is a quote
from baseball great, Yogi Berra.
2. The book is about making good career
choices. It is available on Amazon.com.
B. Each of us is on a spiritual journey that
is divided into years, months, weeks, and
days. You are closer to the end of your
journey today than you have ever been. If
you do not change the direction you are
going, you will end up exactly where you
are headed.
1. If you are headed on the right path,
you need to stay on that path.
2. If you are traveling in the wrong
direction, you need to turn around.
V. WHAT ARE YOUR SPIRITUAL HABITS?
A. What are you doing to feed your soul?
1. Are you engaged in regular fellowship
with others? A man quit coming to
church. Another man went to check on
him. As they talked they sat in front of a
fireplace with a roaring fire. The
old man said, “I don’t need the church. I can get
along fine without it.” The other
man silently reached for the poker and moved a
piece of wood away from the flames.
As the two men sat and watched the flame
on that piece of wood began to
subside and eventually went out. It began to
smolder. He pushed it back to the
fire and the flame erupted once again. The
man said, “That, sir, is exactly
what happens to your spiritual life when you get
away from the church.”
a. There is not one of us here –
Elder, Deacon, preacher, teacher – who is strong
enough to survive spiritually
when we get away from the church. As Dr. Jack
McKinney used to say,
“Christians are like bananas. When you get away from
the bunch you get peeled.”
b. There is no one who will not
prosper when we have fellowship with others
and worship God.
2.
Do you practice other spiritual disciplines?
a. Is the word of God a part of your
daily life? Romans 10:17 reminds us that
“faith comes from hearing and
hearing by the word of God.” When Paul used
the term “word of God,” he did not use the word “logos” for word (John
1:1). He
used another word, “Rematos”
meaning “declaration.” The Bible is God’s
declaration.
b. Do you spend time with God in
prayer? What a blessing it is that our creator
wants us to communicate with
Him. He has even given us His Spirit to help us
when we pray so that we can
approach Him as, “Abba Father” (Romans 8:15,
26).
c. Did you catch what the writer of
Hebrews said in Hebrews 5:14? “But solid
food is for the mature, who
because of practice have their senses trained to
discern good and evil.” Just as
physical strength relies on the discipline of the
body, spiritual strength relies
on the discipline of the soul.
VI. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?
A. People in the book of Acts asked this
question.
1. Acts 2:37, “Men and brothers, what
shall we do?”
2. Acts 16:30, the Philippian jailor
asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
B. Do you know what the biggest room is in
your house? It’s the “room for
improvement.” Whether you’re nine or
ninety, there is room for improvement in your
spiritual life.
C. Peter concluded his second letter with
these words, “Grow in the grace and
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ”
(2 Peter 3:18).
1. To whom was Peter speaking?
Elders/Deacons/Church Leaders?
2. He was speaking to Christians
just like you.
3. One of the great principles of
life is that we’re either growing or we’re dying.
We are progressing or drifting
backwards.
CONCLUSION:
A. During World War II, an American submarine was
damaged and lost power. Rescuers
were sent to the scene. There was no radio
communication, so the divers had to tap
on the hull of the submarine and use Morse
code. They tapped out, “Are you alive?”
The reply came, “We are all alive.” The
divers said, “We will have you rescued soon.”
The reply came, “How long will it be?”
B. May
I ask you that question? As you take inventory of your spiritual life, how long
will
it be before you address these matters? Take
stock of your spiritual life and seek
God’s guidance and help today.
