Sermon: "Taking Inventory" - Pastor Brian Fuller

Hi, and welcome to the Sermon Podcast of First Baptist

Church Woodlawn in Woodlawn, Illinois. I'm Senior Pastor Brian Fuller,

and it is our desire to impact the world with

the Gospel of Jesus. We do so through small group ministry,

personal testimony, as well as corporate gatherings. You can find

us on Facebook, YouTube, and our website FBC Woodlawn dot org.

Join us now as we hear from God's word, and

today I want I'm going to entitle this message. I'm

taking a break from Romans for a couple of weeks

at least, just to kind of cleanse the palate, you know,

and go a little different direction, so to speak, for

a little bit. I'll come back to it. But the

title of today's sermon is taking inventory, and you'll get it.

You'll get it as we go along. And today we're

going to look at First John chapter three, verses nineteen

through twenty one, and we'll see the importance of taking

spiritual inventory in our life One John three, nineteen through

twenty one. By this we shall know that we are

of the truth and reassure our heart before Him. For

whenever our heart condemns us. God is greater than our

heart and he knows everything beloved. If our heart does

not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And Lord,

I thank you for today. I thank you for being

our heavenly father. I thank you for being our father

that loves us beyond measure and in a way that

we cannot comprehend. Lord, I pray that this word would

be delivered with clarity today, with accuracy, and that the

name of Jesus would be lifted high today and be

honored in Jesus' name. Amen. I have a background in retail.

I know most of you you know that, and coming

from a retail background, there's an understanding that that inventory

is important on a regular basis. Right that there is

there's daily inventory, there's weekly, there's monthly, and there's annual inventory,

and the most important one, as required by law, you

have to you have to take inventory of everything that

is in your store and that can be very painstaking process.

And through that process we were able to determine what

types of products sell better than others. And also through

that process of inventory, the profit and loss statements are

generated from that process and most of my I'm going

to age myself. Most of my retail experience is pre computer. Okay,

we hand roads like everything, product tags, special orders, you

name it. And if you've ever been in customer service before,

you remember those days probably and that it's a lot

different today. But even before computers, daily, weekly, and monthly

physical counts had to be done. Again, I was in

music retail so to know which titles of music needed

to be reduced or increased to meet demand. And if

you've kept up with music over the last forty fifty years,

you understand that they come in waves. Right, what's popular

one month. In a month is not going to be popular.

You might be left with just a bunch of stuff

on your shelves that just needs to be gotten rid of.

So thank God for returns, right, not stuck with a

lot of stuff. And I work in what I considered

considered the greatest era of music sales wise anyway, the

eighties and nineties. I was there when the very first

shipments of CDs arrived at the store and we freaked out.

And not, of course, not every title was released on

CD at first. You had you know, Michael Jackson, Thriller,

Hall and Oates, Foreigner, you know the good stuff was

some classical pieces, you know, was released on CD first

and back then a new album that was released on

vinyl or cassette and yes, even eight track was seven

dollars and twenty nine cents for a brand new album.

And when the CD came out, they were priced anywhere

from fifteen to eighteen dollars. There was not a set

price by the industry at that time, so different labels

set the their own prices, so fifteen to eighteen dollars

for a new CD. So it took a while for

people to catch on to the new digital CD format

because of the cost, right, and then of course you

had the players. The CD players, they were not cheap.

You couldn't run to Walmart and get one for forty

bucks on the end cap like you can today. You know,

they were specialty. So a CD player costs five six

hundred dollars, and so it was quite the process for

people to transition from vinyl to to CD. And of

course now that has all done this and today with

the resurgence of vinyl, Hallelujah, Praise Jesus, a new album,

a new piece of vinyl will cost you thirty to

forty dollars. Crazy but that's not why I'm here this morning,

as much as I would like to just spend the

next so many minutes talking about music retail of days

gone by. So I guess what I should do is

stay on track, come on, come on. But inventory is

looking looking where you've been, looking at where you you are,

to see if to see if you're if you're lining up,

taking stock if you will. And you can do that

with You can do that with your job, right, you

can do that with with your marriage, other goals that

you may have set in your life. It's important to

always be taking inventory. And in context today we're talking

about spiritual inventory in your life, in in my life,

where am I on this journey with Christ? And do

the things that I believe, the things that I say,

the things that I do, do they line up with

the Word of God. There is no greater personal inventory

process than that. In One John chapter three, he describes

this process of taking personal inventory. Does your life align

with the truth of God's Word? And in One John three,

verse nineteen, he says, by this, by this we shall

know that we are of the truth and reassure our

heart before him. By this, well, Brian, by what if

we back up a few verses in chapter three to

verse eleven. He says, for this is the message that

you have heard from the beginning, that we should love

one another. It's pretty simple. So do I take an inventory?

Do I possess the love of Jesus Christ for others?

Am I quick to judge? Or am I quick to love?

Am I quick to point out the faults of others?

Or am I quick to grow in grace and show

grace towards others? Because we all fall short. So it's

time to take inventory. And it's time to get rid

of what hinders your growth as a follower of Jesus.

And it's time to replace it with repentance and humility

and the kind of love that Jesus possessed. Rid yourself

of all the stuff on your shelves that's old stock.

Rid your shelves of the stuff that represented the old you,

and replace it with godly inventory. Christ. In you look

at Colossians chapter three. I want to look at a

number of verses here in Colossians three, first verses eight

through ten. This is what Paul says. But now, but

now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander,

and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to

one another, seeing that you have put off the old

self with its practices, and have put on the new self,

which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of

its creator jumped down to verse twelve. Put on then

new stock, new inventory. Put on then as God's chosen ones,

holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,

bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint

against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you,

so you also must forgive. And above these, put on love,

which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And in John,

the Gospel of John, chapter eight, Verses thirty one and

thirty two, these are the words of Jesus. He said,

if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,

and verse thirty two. And you will know the truth,

and the truth will set you free to know the

truth and be of the truth. We must abide in Jesus,

which abiding in Jesus means the same thing. It's synonymous

with abiding in his word. Where're abiding in his word,

we're abiding in Jesus. To abide means to linger, to

stay to reside, to stay there, stay in the truth,

Reside in the truth of God's Word, and let it

change you. Let the Word of God change you. Hebrews

four twelve. The Word of God is living and active.

It is sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to

the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and

of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

You cannot abide in the Word of God and not

be changed from old to new in every way. Amen.

If you're in the word of God, if you're abiding,

if you're abiding in Jesus, if you're abiding in the

Word of God in every way, from old to new,

you will change. So taking inventory is a good thing.

Taking inventory is a wise and healthy thing to do,

not only for retail stores, but for our spiritual life

as well. So if you take inventory in your store,

this is a great point. If you take inventory in

your store and realize that the product levels are good

and balanced according to demand, that's a good thing. Right.

Somebody's done their job to realize what's there is it

falls in line with what's needed to operate a profitable business.

And spiritually speaking, when our inventory is good when our

heart so are reassured before God. That's what John says

in verse nineteen. He says, by this, we shall know

that we are of the truth and reassure our heart

before Him. When we show grace and love towards others,

that's good inventory that leads to Christ's likeness. When we

do that, that reassures our heart before Him. And that's

where I want to be. I want that for you.

I want you to have good inventory in your life.

I want you to show the love of Christ to others,

his grace and his mercy, with patience towards others. That's

inventory that leads to Christ's likeness. And you may or

may not be like me. But I often find that

I condemn myself when I'm quick to judge others. When

I think about the actions of others and how much

they're not like mine, I'm very quick to when I

realize that that does not line up with scripture, I

realize that that's bad inventory. I'm very quick to condemn myself.

And that's one of the most effective tactics of the

enemy is to accuse us of our lack of effectiveness.

For God been there to get us to condemn ourselves

so that our focus remains on our own failings as

Christians instead of abiding in God's word. Now there's a

there's a difference here. I want you to. I want

you to. I want you to get this because the

Holy Spirit will bring conviction. If I'm living my life,

if I'm abiding in the Word of God, like I

good inventory, the Holy Spirit will bring conviction. Right. The

Holy Spirit will bring conviction to get my inventory levels right,

and I'm gonna be using that all day. But if

I'm not abiding in the Word of God, if the

spiritual inventory levels in my life are just are off base,

the enemy will accuse me, and so I will. I

will condemn myself not out of conviction from the Holy Spirit,

but from coming under an attack of the enemy. That

condemnation that the enemy brings you get that you've been

there every day every day. For me, if I find

myself not abiding in the Word of God and in

His press, the enemy can come upon me in a

way that just condemns me, and I fall for it

and I feel rotten. So it's it's important to understand

what the conviction of the Holy Spirit is as opposed

to the condemnation that the enemy brings. How can God

even love you when you do the things you do?

You ever heard that one from the enemy? Are you

even saved? We listen to verse twenty, John says, for

for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than

our heart, and he knows everything. Let me let me

affirm something to you once again that as a child

of God, as one who is saved, as one who

has called upon the name of Jesus, and you know

that you are saved, you are completely loved by him.

He is gracious and full of mercy for you, and

he will never leave you. He will never forsake you,

and he promises that he will be with you. He

will be with you until the end of the age

in spite of your failings. That should be comforting to us,

and I hope it is for you to know that

our salvation doesn't depend on how we feel day today. Amen.

I don't wake up in the morning wondering if I'm saved.

My salvation depends on the truth of God's word, that

we are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus alone. Amen,

I'm not hanging on by a thread I'm not hanging

on for my salvation. This is where He has me

in the palm of his hand, and he is able,

he is strong, he is mighty. The salvation of God

and me is the work of God, not me. It's

not anything I've done. It's not anything that I've done

to earn it, to work for it. Right. Salvation is

God's gift to you and to me. So don't ever

think that you're hanging on to your salvation by a thread,

because in Christ, your salvation is sure. Praise God. In

every way. God is greater than our heart. In every way,

it doesn't matter what you're going through, what you have

been through. God is greater than your heart. His salvation

forgives all of our sins, past, present and future. And

in those times that each one of us has experienced,

each each of those times of horrible regret in our lives,

we are covered by His complete and eternal love. Isn't

that great news? Isn't that great news? Verse twenty one. Beloved,

if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence

before God. If our heart does not condemn us, we

have confidence before God. So don't you love those moments?

And I hope you experience these because I know our

life is like this. Our life is like that, every

one of us emotional stuff, spiritual stuff, physical stuff. Every day,

all of our lives are like this, And if your

life isn't like this, then let's have a conversation because

I want you to preach sometime. Okay, all of us.

So don't ever feel like your life is out of

whack unlike everybody else's, because we all we're all there,

We're all there. But I love the moments in my

life where I am experiencing a season of my life

in Christ, when His peace is so strong that I

can enter into His presence with confidence, amen, not a

confidence in myself, but at that place, in that place

of intimacy with God that you can't help but be

drawn into a deeper relationship with him. Deep calls to

deep folks. There are there are deeper levels that you

can go with God through a relationship with Christ. And

I'm never like in my relationship with God as going higher.

I really don't. It's deeper. If you want to bury

for treasure, what do you do? You dig deep? You

dig as deep as you can. If that's where the

that's where the treasure is not only in the ground

but in the sea. But if you want treasure, if

you want the important stuff, if you want the valuable stuff,

you're digging deep a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's not

climbing higher, it's going deeper. I heard somebody say once

that that, uh, how do he say it? The door

is on the floor. The door to a deeper relationship

with God is on the floor. It's not a ladder,

It's a door on the floor. I might have messed

that up, but you get it. I love being drawn

into that deeper, that deeper relationship with God and certain

seasons in my life. And just as as John says,

we can dwell there, we can reside there, right, we

can linger there. David said in Psalm twenty three, I

will dwell in the House of the Lord forever. It's

a place that we can stay. He means all my days,

all my days, I will dwell, I will linger in

the House of the Lord in his presence. That's a

wow moment, folks, to dwell to linger. Husbands and wives,

I don't have to tell you that. When there is

peace in your marriage, when selflessness and kindness and emotional

generosity towards one another is on display. I want you

to hear this. The joy of intimacy increases and the

confidence in your marriage grows. Our relationship with God is similar.

When we are aligned with this word, and when we

display love for others, when we are selfless, when we

are generous, our confidence as a child of God increases,

all based on what He has done. So this morning,

take inventory. Take inventory. Ask God to reveal what it

is you lack in your spiritual shelf that needs to

be added. The chances are what needs to be added

or what I'm sorry, what needs to be taken away,

or what is Let me say it again, what is

lacking on your shelf is time in his presence and

sitting still with His word open in front of you,

and ask him what you have too much of on

the shelf needs to be removed so that what is

most important is on display, and that is love for

God and love for others. Take a little bit of

a different path here for a little bit. I mentioned

at the beginning of the sermon about last weekend, how

great last weekend was here at church. Daniel was here

and he preached Sunday morning about evangelism and the night

of worship and Daniel and his team coming back Monday night.

The presence of God was powerful. It was a powerful time.

And this message this morning is a direct direct result

of last weekend's events because when you hear the clear

cut gospel on our responsibility to preach the Gospel to

the lost, which we did last weekend, and then hear

about the practicality of evangelism as a way of life,

I was confronted by the Holy Spirit to take inventory

of my spiritual priorities. Daniel handed out a survey for

each of us to fill out as a gauge of

our personal evangelism activity. Right if you were here, you

remember that I was scared to death fill that thing

out to come face to face with the reality of

why we don't tell more people about Jesus. Question number

fourteen said this, what is your biggest hindrance in sharing

your faith? Oh my gosh, Lord, I don't want to

lie a time. I will never use the excuse that

I don't have enough time, and neither should you. Time

is never an excuse option B lack of training. I've

been a Christian almost fifty years, so to use the

excuse that there's been lack of evangelism training in my

life would be a lie, not an excuse. See no

unsaved people in my life. Now that cut to me

a little bit. You know, I don't have a lot

of unsaved people in my life, but I have some, right,

I have some. So that's not an excuse because I

do have some option. D was fear, I'll be honest,

fear is not really an issue. E. My heart is

not broken for the lost. I came face to face

with the reality that my heart, the heart of your pastor,

is not broken for the lost. And I have to

tell you that shame and embarrassment came over me that

I possessed little to no urgency or compassion to tell

others one on one the gospel of Jesus Christ I getting.

I can get caught up in the mystery. In the mystery,

sometimes it's a mystery, but it's the ministry of feeding

the sheep. It's my calling, my calling as a shepherd,

as a pastor, is to feed the sheep, to lead.

I can get so caught up in leading the sheep

that I neglect the one that is lost. And I

make no excuses. There are no excuses I have failed

in doing the work of an evangelist in my calling

as pastor. This is what I love to do. I

love seeing you during the week, and I will always

take the time to stop whatever I'm doing and spend

time with you. There are most days, most days when

Britney is here, she'll bring Kinsley to work with her,

and Kinsley does so well to play on her own.

And sometimes she'll come in my office. She'll just stand

in front of my desk and she'll ask me what

I'm doing, and she'll ask me random questions as a

five year old does. And sometimes she'll say, you want

to play with me? And there are some times I've

stopped what I'm doing, and there are some pictures around

somewhere of her pushing me down the hallway on my

office chair. And there are some days I said I'm sorry,

I can't right now. And I love I love, I

love Sunday mornings. My heart gets filled back up on Sundays.

And I'm not going to stand here and say that

that pastoring is is always easy. But pastoring gives me

more joy than than you will ever know or understand.

But we all have different callings and abilities as followers

of Jesus. No matter what your job is as followers

of Jesus, there is one thing that we are all

called to do, and that is to do the work

of an evangelist. Timothy was a young pastor that that

Paul was was mentoring and his calling, the calling on

Timothy was as a pastor, young pastor to the church,

and said content to Timothy chapter four. Paul's instruction to

Timothy was to preach the word, to reprove, rebuke, to

exhort with patience and teaching, to be sober minded, and

to endure suffering. That's the work of a pastor. And

the last words that he says in this passage he says,

and finally, do the work of an evangelist. So it

doesn't matter what your job is, doesn't matter what you're

calling is, whether you do factory work, office work, school work,

a pastor, each one of us is called to do

the work of an evangelist, to tell people with our mouth,

one on one, the good news of Jesus Christ, to repent,

to call on his name to be saved. I'll even

say too that yes, sharing your personal faith journey is

part of that conversation to tell others what God has

done in you. You've got a story, some a very

radical story of salvation in Christ, what you were saved from,

what you were delivered from the man that Jesus, one

of the men that Jesus healed. In scripture, it says,

all I can tell you is I was blind and

now I see. And that can mean so many, so

many different things. So be ready, be ready in season,

be ready out of season when it's convenient and and

it's not. But Brian, I don't know. I don't know

what to say. Then read the book, read the Book

of Acts, read the gospels, because you know what you

probably will. You'll probably screw up telling somebody about Jesus

from time to time. Yeah, it happens. Not always going

to come out the way you envision it in your mind.

But let God do the work. Let God do the work.

I want to finish this morning with Matthew Chapter nine,

verses thirty five through thirty eight. And Jesus went throughout

all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and

proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease

and every affliction. And when he saw the crowds, he

had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless,

like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples,

the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore,

pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send

out laborers into his harvest. And that's you and me.

Let's pray, Lord. I ask that my heart be stirred.

I pray, Lord, by a work of the Holy Spirit,

that my heart be stirred with compassion for the lost.

I pray Lord that as my priority is leading this church,

I would add the priority of reaching the lost, of

doing the work of an evangelist. Because Lord, I'm I'm

always in line with someone, I'm always walking alongside someone.

I'm always seeing somebody work in the yard when I

take a walk. How many times, Lord, do I walk

on by and kick myself because I didn't mention the

name of Jesus. Lord, I pray for myself that that

would change. I pray for each one in this room, Lord,

that that would change, because I know there's not one

person in this room that proclaims Jesus everywhere they go

in word in evangelism. So Lord, let us be about building.

Let us be about allowing You to build the Kingdom

of God through us by telling others about Jesus. Thank you, Lord,

I pray Holy Spirit, that you would work in a

way this morning, that in your kindness, in your in

your mercy and your love for us, Oh God, that

we would be convicted and reminded of our responsibility to

tell others about Jesus. Amen. Thank you for tuning in

to today's broadcast. We hope you are encouraged and challenged

by the preaching of God's word. You can reach us

by phone at six one eight three nine zero ten

forty six, contact us via Facebook or our website FBC

Woodlawn dot org. It's our prayer that you answer the

call of God on your life to follow him and

share your faith story with others. Goodbye for now, and

God bless you.