December 31, 2006

Lesson: Colossians 3:12-17

Sermon Title: Inventory

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 INTRODUCTION:

  1. What do the following have in common?

    1. Quiz (1)

A young man named Marty applied for an engineering position at an Irish firm based in Dublin. An American applied for the same job and both applicants, having the same qualifications, were asked to take a test by the department manager.

Upon completion of the test, both men had only missed one of the questions. The manager went to Marty and said, "Thank you for your interest, but we've decided to give the American the job."

"And why would you be doing that?" asked Marty. "We both got 9 questions correct. This being Ireland and me being Irish I should get the job!"

"We have made our decision not on the correct answers, but on the question you missed."

"And just how would one incorrect answer be better than the other?"

"Simple," replied the manager. "On question 5, the American put down, 'I don't know.' You put down 'Nor do I.'"

    1. Here's a good one: (2)

Vacationing in Arizona, a group of British tourists spot a cowboy lying on the road with his ear to the ground.

"What's going on?" they ask.

"Two horses -- one gray, one chestnut -- are pulling a wagon carrying two men," the cowboy says. "One man is wearing a red shirt, the other a black shirt. They're heading east."

"Wow!" says one of the tourists. "You can tell all that just by listening to the ground?"

"No," says the cowboy. "They just ran over me."

    1. Andy Simmons, the Senior Editor for Readers Digest writes: (3)

I keep all of my New Year's resolutions, every single one. How do
I do it? Quite simple, really. After years of introspection and
many sessions with a Magic 8-Ball, I've developed a healthy
understanding of what I can and cannot do. Therefore, I keep my
resolutions realistic. For example, a few years ago I resolved to
gain five pounds. And I did. Last year I decided that I didn't
know enough curse words. Today my vocabulary is much richer. And as for 2007? This will be the year I don't clean up my garage.

  1. The stories contain people who are in need of a high level of self-examination.

    1. A missed question on a quiz that indicates he was cheating.

    2. People witnessing an accident, who are unable to tell that it is an accident.

    3. Tongue-in-cheek New Year's Resolutions, which reflect not so much the humor as the reluctance to create, accept, and follow through on resolutions.

  2. Each of these individuals or groups needs a personal inventory.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Inventory is a process that often takes place at the end of the year.

    1. It helps to know what you have in stock.

    2. These days it is much easier to maintain an inventory.

      1. This is because of the use of UPC codes.

      2. Your inventory may even be maintained by a company who has all your information on a computer.

    3. It is not much like the old days when I worked as a stock-boy and bagger for A&P (The Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company).

      1. Inventory was a tedious task.

      2. Inventories had to be done by sight and hand.

      3. Penn Clark, "What you think on will affect you," Think On These Things Web Site, records on inventory. (4)

There is an old Quaker story told about a king who asked for an inventory to be taken of all the flowers in his kingdom.

He sent out a census taker with a clipboard to count all his flowers. Then he realized that the information would be of little value to him unless he had something to compare it with. So he called for a second census taker. This one was asked to count all the weeds in the kingdom. Before long, the first census taker came back, floating into the king's chamber, draped in smiles and warmth. "King, whatever you do, don't ever transfer me or my family out of this kingdom. It has to be the most beautiful kingdom in the world. It is overrun with flowers."

Just then the door slammed and the second census taker came stomping in, threw down his clipboard and demanded an immediate transfer to another land. "King," he shouted, "this has got to be the worst kingdom in the world. It's overrun with weeds. I didn't even get past the drawbridge and I couldn't count all the weeds in this kingdom. I want out!"

      1. The conclusion is that in this life you are going to see what you are looking for.

        1. What you are looking for will affect your feelings and behavior.

          1. If you look for the things that are excellent and good, we will be encouraged to excel and be good.

          2. If you look for the junk, and you will feel and behave junky.

  1. You might come to believe that these thoughts are for those who are outside the church.

    1. But listen to what Gordon MacDonald has to say: (5)

Evangelicalism is an American religion, and America is all above the water line. It's all what you accomplish, what you own, what you look like, what people are saying about you...

We accredit people as successful and godly because of the appearance and scope of what they're into. So the message is very clear to younger men and women: It's not what's in your soul that counts....

Take inventory. Look at your schedule and ask, What time and energy are going toward the building of my soul as a dwelling place for God?

    1. Take an inventory.

      1. AA has a Twelve Step Program for taking inventory

        1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.

        2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

        3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

        4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

        5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

        6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

        7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

        8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

        9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

        10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

        11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

        12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

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  1. As important as these steps are for the alcoholic, there are steps for the Christian that are just as important.

    1. Steps in a reflective inventory are to be found in Colossians 3:12 through Colossians 3:17 (NRSVA)

      1. As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

        1. Compassion, Kindness, Humility, Meekness, and Patience?

        2. This is not a tall order.

        3. What Paul, and Jesus, ask of us is entirely possible.

Teri Thomas, writes in "Thursday Mail," National Capital Presbytery. (6)

"In August 5, 1999, there was an article in the National Geographic Traveler about a wilderness hiker who happened onto an abandoned outhouse on a trail. He decided to use the facility and found himself trapped inside by a faulty lock. His survival training did not cover the nutritional value of toilet paper. Thankfully, before too many days had passed, a second hiker came along and found the first stranded in the outhouse. What a frustrating and hopeless feeling that man must have experienced.

Teri Thomas was visiting a church and stopped in the women's room before leaving. There was a sign on the stall door which read, "Door is difficult - keep trying." Then she discovered that the lock sticks and requires some serious turning and jiggling before it opens. She thought it was an encouraging sign. It did reassure her that she didn't need to panic, she just needed to be patient and persistent.

      1. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

      2. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

      3. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.

      4. And be thankful.

      5. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom;

      6. With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.

      7. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. Actor Don Johnson (Miami Vice et al.), reflects on the meaning and purpose of taking a personal inventory. (7)

Now, as the years have passed, sometimes at breakneck speed, sometimes taking eons (usually the former), I find myself on the brink (dare I say it?) of middle age. I've realized that the quest for 'Who am I?' is a lifelong endeavor and is accompanied by a cute, little side preponderance - 'What have I become?' This last little item brings with it the responsibility to take inventory, and is (in my case at least) usually followed by, 'What am I going to do about it?'...

Clearly, we are people who want more. This is not intrinsically a negative, given the primordial instinct to achieve, to improve, to realize a need for personal betterment.... These days, however, that instinct for achieving has mutated our value system, twisting our strive-for-more consciousness to the excess, regardless of any cost. We go for more, not because it's good for us or because it expands our experience or minds, but because it's what we think we 'need' to be satisfied. More condos, more vehicles, more entertainment, more developments, more spending, more things, more waste.

So, who are we? I guess we're accumulators of more and more of the same. 'What have we become?'...If we still can find a place to sit and ponder, maybe we can all give some serious thought to our values and responsibilities as visitors on this precious planet. Together we'd surely find that there is more to life than having more.... 'What are we going to do about it?'...Daily solutions, attention to planning and zoning policies, re-evaluation of our needs and goals, and conservation of our natural glory. To this list I only add that we should pray.

  1. This is the last Sunday in 2006.\

    1. The next time we meet it will be 2007.

    2. This is time to take an inventory of our lives.

    3. Not in a maudlin way, but in a progressive and beneficial way.

    4. How have I, you, we been measuring up to the standard of Jesus the Christ?

      1. Do I want to improve?

      2. What do I need to do to improve?

  2. Listen to what Paul has to say in Colossians and it may help you achieve in 2007, a more satisfactory inventory.

1. martysjotd [martysjotd@hotmail.com]

2. Reader's Digest [RDHumor@email.rd.com], Submitted by John Gamba

3. Retrieved from: martysjotd [martysjotd@hotmail.com]

4. Penn Clark, "What you think on will affect you," Think On These Things Web Site, word-of-grace.com. Retrieved April 19, 2005.

5. Gordon MacDonald, quoted in Servant, Spring 1999, 9.

6. Teri Thomas, "Thursday Mail," National Capital Presbytery, August 5, 1999, 1.

7. Actor Don Johnson (Miami Vice et al.), as found in Don Henley and Dave Marsh, eds.,

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