Lesson 10 — Spiritual Inventory Part 1 Luke 18:18-23   Principle 4: Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust.   “Happy are the pure in heart.” (Matthew 5:8)   Step 4: We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.   “Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.”   (Lamentations 3:40)     Tonight we begin the first of two lessons in which we will look at our spiritual inventory, using the spiritual evaluation.   This step begins the process of coming clean, where you openly examine and confess your faults to yourself, to God and to another person you trust.   Most of us don not like to look within ourselves for the same reason we do not like to open a letter that we know has bad news.  But remember what we talked about in Lesson 9: you need to keep your evaluation, our inventory, balanced.  It needs to include both the good and the bad within you.   God’s Word tells us, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test my thoughts.  Point out anything you find in me that makes you sad, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”  (Psalm 139:23-24 TLB).   Do you know that everyone has three different characters? 1. The character we exhibit. 2. The character we think we have. 3. The character we truly have.   No doubt each on has good qualities and bad.  Tonight we are going to look at some of the bad, some of our character shortcomings and sins that can block us from receiving all the joy that God has intended. We will work on four areas of our character tonight and four more at our next session.  These exercise will help you get started on you inventory as you search your hear.   1. Relationship with others   “Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. Don’t bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the Evil One.” (Matthew 6:12-13, TLB)   •Who has hurt you? (Go as far back as you can). How did they specifically hurt you? •Who are you holding a grudge against? (Seeking revenge?) •Who are you jealous of? (Past and present.) Why? •Who have you hurt? And how did you hurt them? •Who have you been critical of or gossiped about? Why? •How have you attempted to place the blame on someone else? (Be specific). •What new healthy relationships have you developed since you have been in recovery?   2. Priorities in life   “He will give them to you if you give him first place in your life and live as he wants you to.” (Matthew 6:33, TLB)   •What areas of your life have you been able to turn over to your Higher Power, Jesus Christ? •After acting on Principle 3, in what areas of your life are you still not putting God first? Why not? •What in your past is keeping you from seeking and following God’s will for your life? •Number the following list in order of your personal priorities. ◾___career ◾___family ◾___church ◾___Christ ◾___friendships ◾___money ◾___ministry ◾What are your personal goals for the next ninety days? (Keep it simple!)   3. Your Attitude   “Get rid of all bitterness, passion and anger. No more shouting or insults. No more hateful feelings of any sort.” (Ephesians 4:31, GNB)   •What areas in your life are you thankful for? •In the past, what things have you been ungrateful over? •What causes you to lose your temper? •To whom have you been sarcastic to in the past? (Give examples). •What in your past are you still worried about? •How has your attitude improved since you have been in recovery?         4. Your Integrity   “Do not lie to each other. You have left your old sinful life and the things you did before.” (Colossians 3:9, NCV)   •In the past, how have you exaggerated to make yourself look good? (Give examples). •Does your walk as a Christian match your talk? Are your actions the same at recovery meetings, church, home and work? •In what areas of your past have you used false humility to impress someone? •Have any of your past business dealings been dishonest? have you ever stolen things? •List the ways you have been able to get out of your denial (distorted/dishonest thinking) into God’s truth.                                         Do you know that everyone has three different characters? 1. The character we exhibit. 2. The character we think we have. 3. The character we truly have.   C. Riches and true discipleship.   1. (Luk 18:18-19) A rich young ruler comes to Jesus.   [18-19] Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”   a. The Character We Exhibit   b. Good Teacher: This was an impressive and perhaps surprising way to address Jesus. “Good Teacher” was a title never applied to other rabbis in Jesus’ day, because it implied being without sin and complete goodness. Jesus, and everyone else, recognized that Good Teacher was a unique title.     c. What good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? This question demonstrates that this man, like all people by nature, had an orientation towards earning eternal life. He wanted to know what good work or noble deed he should do to inherit eternal life.   2. (Luk 18:20-21) Jesus asks the ruler about his life.   [20-21] “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’“ And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”   a. The Character We Think We Have   b. All these things I have kept from my youth: It is fair to ask if this man really had kept these commandments. It is likely that he actually did keep them in a way that made him righteous in the eyes of men   3. (Luk 18:22-23) Jesus instructs the ruler.   [22-23] So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.   a. The Character We Truly Have   b. Jesus asked the ruler to give up his money because He could see money was an idol. He asked him to give it to the poor because He could see that he didn’t love others the way he should.   And this was his true character.   c. We may make two mistakes here.   The one is to believe this applies to everyone, when Jesus never made this a general command to all who would follow Him, but especially to this one rich man whose riches were clearly an obstacle to his discipleship.   The second mistake is to believe this applies to no one, when there are clearly those today for whom the best thing they could do for themselves spiritually is to radically forsake the materialism that is ruining them.   The principle remains: God may challenge and require an individual to give something up for the sake of His kingdom that He still allows to someone else. There are many who perish because they will not forsake what God tells them to forsake.

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