(Come up from front of church dragging trash bag and talking about how tired you are of carrying and dragging this bag of trash along with you every day all day long)
Max Lucado tells the story of a woman who is tired—she’s weary—and she flops down on a bench and drops her bag of trash between her feet.
A bag of garbage that she has been accumulating through the years and she has to take it with her everywhere she goes.
Everything aches, her hands, her feet, her neck, her back—all because of the bag that she is carrying.
Oh, to be rid of the trash. But she has to carry it with her. She can’t really remember her life without the trash bag. As a little girl, maybe.
A car drives past her and splashes mud on her bag and on the bottom of her jeans—but she’s too tired to do anything about it. A man gets out of another car with his own bag of trash—He slings it over his shoulder and heads for the office.
They don’t even look at one another as he passes by. A young mother walks by—holding her baby in one arm and a bag of trash in the other. An old man walks by—his bag of trash so long it hits the back of his legs. He glances at the woman and tries to give her a weak smile.
“I wonder what’s in HIS bag?” the woman thinks. “Regrets.”
She turns to see who spoke. It was another man—a man with a kind face—she looks for his bag, but doesn’t see it.
The old man disappears and this new man tells her, “As a young father, he worked many long hours and neglected his family. His children don’t love him and he has many regrets.”
She doesn’t respond—He asks her, “What’s in your bag?” She doesn’t answer him—she wouldn’t even look at him.
“Shame,” he says back to her. “Too many wasted hours and wasted dreams. Too many hours looking for love in all the wrong places—last year—last month—even last night. Shame.”
She waits for him to sort of “pass judgment” on her, but he doesn’t. “Tomorrow,--Friday—bring your trash to me tomorrow at the landfill.”
She goes home and that night tries to fitfully sleep, but sleep doesn’t come. She things about her childhood, as a young, pretty girl. She thinks of here wasted life, wasted dreams. She thinks about the strange man who asked her to bring her trash bag to the landfill.
She wakes up. It’s Friday morning. She grabs her bag of trash and sets out for the landfill. There are other people there, carrying bags of trash, headed in the same direction—toward the landfill.
The man next to her smells of alcohol. A teenage girl walks past her. The woman of shame speeds up to catch up with her.
The teenage girl looks at her and says before she can ask, “My bag is full of rage. Rage at my father, rage at my mother. I’m tired of all the anger. He said he’d take it all away.” The woman nods and they walk on together.
As they arrive at the landfill, they notice that it is tall with trash. There are hundreds of people walking ahead of them, all with their own bag of trash.
The air is silent and they hear a scream pierce the silence. All is quiet, and then they hear the scream again. As they get closer, they notice that it’s the man.
It’s the man they are supposed to meet there. As they draw near, they see why he is screaming. He kneels before each person, takes each person’s trash bag, and pours the contents on each one on himself. And the contents empty on him, and he cries out in pain and agony.
The smell is overpowering.
When the woman finally arrives in front of him, he asks, “May I have it? You can’t continue living with this. You weren’t meant to…” He pours all the shame on himself and cries out in anguish and agony.
He continues for a while, and they watch as he is buried under a mound of misery. He moans and then finally, he goes quiet—nothing—silence.
The people stand around—looking—as if they don’t know what to do. They want to leave, but something keeps them standing there—watching—waiting. They wonder about the man—who is he and what’s he done. They tell their stories about the man, their garbage.
It become night and they still wait. The sun comes up—now it’s Saturday. Still they stand around—still they wait. For some reason they just can’t leave. Night falls again. And then night gives way to day again. Now, it’s Sunday.
Some are still sleeping and they almost miss it. It’s the young girl who sees it first, the one with the rage.
“He’s standing,” she says. “He’s standing!”
They all turn. They see him—he’s standing—fresh and clean and new. No garbage!
What a marvelous picture of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Like Lucado, have you ever thought of the cross of Calvary, the mount of Calvary as a trash heap—as a place to dump your garbage? I have to admit—I’ve never thought of it that way.
A pastor friend of mine was telling me about a mission trip that he and a group took to Venezuela, and he talked about how they ended up at the Maracaibo City Dump. He said it wasn’t unlike most dumps one would see—except that it was HUGE—and there were people living off the contents of the dump. He said as they looked out over the vast expanse, it almost seemed to them that the dump site represented the sin in their lives.
It’s true that Jesus wants to take all the sin that you are struggling with on Himself. That sack of garbage that we have been carrying around for so long—that sin—Jesus wants to wash it all away for us—through the blood He shed on Calvary. He wants to wash away all of our sins—if we’ll just turn it over to Him. You see—He became sin for us!
You see if we don’t unload ourselves by turning over our garbage to Jesus, like the lady in Lucado’s story, we’ll just keep carrying it around, and it gets heavier, and it gets filled with more and more garbage until it becomes a burden to big for us to bear.
So the question I have for you this morning is this: “What’s in your trash bag?” If you like to watch TV shows like C.S.I., you know that they search for clues, they just go about anywhere. They may even go to the dumpster and sift through trash.
If someone were to look through the trash bag that you put out on the street for collection each week, what would they find? What things would they discover about you? What you like to eat—what you like to drink—what your favorite soap is—what you like to read. They would find out a lot about you by going through your trash bag.
Some of us this morning need to go through our trash bag and throw it out—get rid of it.
I’m praying that in our time together this morning you will allow Jesus Christ to take your trash bag—whatever it is—the guilt, the shame, the pride, the loneliness, the selfishness—Whatever it is—that you will allow Him to take that sack of trash and pour it over His head—and relieve you of the weight.
You see, you weren’t made to walk through life dragging those bags of garbage. Some of you this morning are broken. Some of you don’t know which way to turn. Some of you almost wish you weren’t even alive because you have been carrying that weight around with you for years—and you can’t find anyone to take it.
You tried to pass it off to other people—and maybe they listened casually as you told them about your burdens, but they didn’t really want it.
You see, nobody really wants your garbage—except one person—the Lord Jesus Christ. He would say to you and to me today—“Come to me with your garbage sacks. You’ve been toting them way too long. My yoke is easy—I can take all your garbage.”
The first sack of garbage you could give Jesus would be the one that represents your guilt and shame. Listen to what the Bible says in Jeremiah 3:25: “We lie down in our shame—and our reproach covers us for we have sinned against the Lord our God.” We have sinned against God! You know why you may feel guilty this morning? Because you are guilty! I’m guilty! The Bible says in Romans 3:23 that: “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!” The Bible didn’t say some or most of us. It said ALL of us have sinned. And until you come to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are guilty before God—you have shame before God.
But thanks goodness that He says in Hebrews 12:2 that we should: “look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
How thankful we should be this morning that we can dump our guilt and shame at the feet of Jesus. How grateful we should be this morning that the Bible says in Romans 8:1 that: “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” There is now no guilt, no shame—Jesus has taken our guilt—He has taken our shame. So if you’re here this morning and you’re burdened with guilt and shame—Give it to Jesus. He can handle it for you.
Another sack might represent worry or unbelief. Did you know that’s sin? Are you going to spend your life worrying about things? Worrying about family, finances—worrying about this or that?
Many of you had two neighbors move in next door to you and you didn’t even realize it. Two families—the “Whaddiff” and the “Howills.” They live on both sides of you—“What if this happens—what will I do?” And you worry about that. Or—“How will we ever survive this?” or “How will we ever make ends meet?” “How will we pay the bills?”
You’re living right in the middle of the “Whaddiffs” and the “Howills.” And you’re sinning—because your mind is divided. You’re either walking by faith or you’re walking through fear. “I just don’t know what’s going to happen?”
You don’t have to know what’s going to happen—you just need to know who’s in control of all that is happening—and that’s a Sovereign God. In Matthew 6:27-33 Jesus said: “Which one of you by worrying can add one cubit to his life’s span? And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you. O men of little faith.”
All these things will be taken care of. Seek first the kingdom of God! Get rid of the worry and unbelief.
Philippians 4:6-7 says: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Some of you are carrying around tons of worry today. You just have to dump it. Today! Give it to Jesus!
Now, if we had time this morning, there are other bags we could look at. Bags of loneliness, pain, resentment, revenge, unforgiveness, and failures. Sometimes we feel loneliness—we feel pain—sometimes we may feel resentment. Sometimes we may be unwilling to forgive someone for hurting us. Sometimes we may be burdened down by failure. We cant’ go through the entire list—but you know what your garbage is. You know what’s in your trash sack. Probably multiple things like in mine. But whatever it is, Jesus wants to take all of those things away from you—if you’ll just let Him.
And each of us probably has another one—a box that we don’t want anyone to see. The box is probably sealed tightly shut. We probably used duct tape to seal it. That box contains our secret sins—those things that NO ONE knows about—only us and God! And we don’t want anyone to know. We’d be too embarrassed! Listen to what the Bible says: “You have set your iniquities before Me, Your secret sins in the light of my countenance.” God see them and there’s no getting around it.
Listen to what He says in Matthew: “There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.” God knows!
But there is GOOD NEWS this morning. Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, we are blameless before God when we know His Son Jesus Christ.
Right now as we close we are going to take a few moments to take out the trash. There may be some things you’re dealing with this morning that you want to get rid of, once and for all. That’s what this altar is for. While we stand just have our hymn of invitation played, we are going to take time for each of you to examine your heart. You may come down to the altar and kneel or you may choose to pray right where you stand. But please, before you leave here today—Get your heart right with God and let Him take out the trash.
Would you stand and come as the Lord leads.
