Self Inventory
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Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
[AMP] 28 But a person must [prayerfully] examine himself [and his relationship to Christ], and only when he has done so should he eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
28 Examine your motives, test your heart, come to this meal in holy awe.
Purging
Purging
Sometimes we have to pick a day and go through the refrigerator and throw out outdated things… We go through our closets and drawers and purge outdated clothing… Our garage… There comes a day when we must do a self inventory, a deep search, and purge out our inner selves. Things that clutter up our hearts. Things that have been overlooked for far too long.
Repentance
Repentance
Repentance is how we do a careful self inventory and purge our inner selves of things needed… It’s a room, if you will, that God allows us to go and search out the things of our hearts. A special prayer closet. Much like a confessional except we do not go to a man in a physical closet, rather we go to our Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ and Him alone so that His blood can atone for our sins...
Two things necessary for this purging to take place.
Two things necessary for this purging to take place.
Fear of the Lord
Sincere Love for the Lord
Fear
Fear
We do not speak of horror, or terror, but a deep reverence or awe of the LORD.
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: A good understanding have all they that do his commandments: His praise endureth for ever.
I have never see as much stupidity and foolishness in my lifetime as recent days...
Why, as a people we have lost our fear of the Lord.
23 But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
If you have children that you love. You provided every thing you could for them and left them a legacy, but they squandered it all, would we say what a bad parent???
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Hear me today, the Kingdom’s city limits aren’t going to be moved for our opinion!
A Rider on a white Horse
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
This what we see if we miss our ticket that has been bought and paid for by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Sincere Love
Sincere Love
We like talking about the unconditional love of Christ. How powerful it is! But what about our love for Him?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
God’s love is unconditional but our relationship with Him is a covenant and it has conditions. That is why the church is called the Bride of Christ. And in case you think our love doesn’t factor into our salvation in Him...
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Ellicott’s Commentary- “The love of many . . .--Better, of the many; the greater part of the true Israel who would be found in the Church of Christ; perhaps, also, the greater part of the nation as such. This was the natural result of the condition of things implied in the "lawlessness." The tendency of all such times, as seen in the histories of famines, and pestilences, and revolutions, is to intensify selfishness, both in the more excusable form of self-preservation, and in the darker form of self-aggrandisement. In the tendency to "forsake the assembling of themselves together" among the Hebrew Christians, we have, perhaps, one instance of the love waxing cold (Hebrews 10:25).”
Ellicott’s Commentary- “The love of many . . .--Better, of the many; the greater part of the true Israel who would be found in the Church of Christ; perhaps, also, the greater part of the nation as such. This was the natural result of the condition of things implied in the "lawlessness." The tendency of all such times, as seen in the histories of famines, and pestilences, and revolutions, is to intensify selfishness, both in the more excusable form of self-preservation, and in the darker form of self-aggrandisement. In the tendency to "forsake the assembling of themselves together" among the Hebrew Christians, we have, perhaps, one instance of the love waxing cold (Hebrews 10:25).”
My wife loves me unconditionally… No matter the condition. Richer or poorer. Sickness and health. Better or worse. Good times and bad… No matter the condition we find ourselves in, she loves me.
But, if I abuse her. If I commit adultery. If I lie and cheat. If I gamble away our resources. Spend it on toys or drugs instead of providing for her… You see our covenant relationship is conditional.
Confession
Confession
True confession is a dying out to self.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Physically, we have arrived to a place where people live longer. We don’t want to die… And the ones that only are about money in our Health system exploits that. They would like us Instead of taking medicine in Jesus name, we take it instead of Jesus name. We know why many miracles seem to happen every where but North America. We have options and choices. We want to live a comfortable life.
That survival instinct resides in our old man. The carnal, fleshly natured man. He wants to live. And he wants to be comfortable. This is where our self inventory comes into play...
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Prayer and Fasting= FAITH
Which dog will we feed.
When a fighter is preparing for a fight, he doesn’t live like everyone else, he lives like a fighter. The deny themselves lifestyle comforts. Prayer and Fasting is a way that we stay prepared to fight our adversary.
A confession to ourselves. A moment of brutal honesty with ourselves. And then a moment of the same brutal honesty with God. I promise He won’t blush when we bring our filthy garments to Him... But He will wash them!
CLOSING
CLOSING
A Change
A Change
An about face. A change of mind, will, heart, direction, desire. Which direction are we going today? More than words.