Scripture: Philippians 3:1-14
Theme: Wastebasket Christianity
This is a simple message designed to help us continue to live out a year in which we grow more into the image of Our Savior and LORD. There are some things that we need to put into our Spiritual Wastebaskets – 1. Our Past Sins 2. The Sins of Others 3. Our Self-Sovereignty (Real Leadership is Followship)
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
What a joy it is to be together this Sunday morning!
I pray that you are enjoying this New Year.
I want to talk to you today about something that is very important for us to both have and use this year. It is something that we may not even be aware that we need. It is a Spiritual Wastebasket, Dust bin or Waste Container depending on what we call that thing that we put stuff in that we want to throw away.
Dust bins, Trash cans or Waste containers have been with us since the time of the Fall. They come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.
The most expensive one was made back in 2009 at a cost of 13, 750 dollars. It was made of steel and pressed with 24 karat gold leaf. It was to be the trash container for the stars. It was designed by Sylvie Fleury who created a limited edition of only 25 waste containers.
I wonder if anyone that bought one really has put a great deal of trash in it. I mean can you image putting five-day old pizza into a trashcan that cost almost 14,000.00?
If you like me then you probably don’t have one like that.
But it might surprise you that all around a city there are trash cans or what they label trash receptacles that cost well over 1,000.00 dollars. One is called the Streetscape classic trash receptable with Rain hood – it is a heavy duty, all steel, 35.5 gallon trash receptacle that cost only 1, 258.00 dollar each.
You can go up a little more in price and buy a Lakeside 4310 which is a 35 gallon container designed for your office area. It is also is made of metal, stainless steel and will only cost you $1, 872.50. Now, who would worry about 50 cents when you are looking at nearly 2,000-dollar price tag.
Or you could just keep an Amazon box and use it as a trash receptacle and be done with it. Just keep ordering from Amazon and each trash day just throw out the box with the trash. Easy peasy.
In our passage the Apostle Paul is quick to point out that there are some things in his life that he counted as rubbish. There are things that no longer have any value for the Apostle Paul and there are somethings that he has made it his mission to leave behind.
This morning, I want to share with you some of the things that I believe would help us a great deal if we would leave them behind. Things that we need to throw away in our spiritual trashcans and allow the Holy Spirit to haul them off to never be seen or heard from again.
I. Our Past Sins
You can always count on two things:
+There will be people in your life that have a great desire and enjoy reminding you of things that you have done wrong in your life. There are people that seem to remember every mistake and blunder that you have made and have no qualms about reminding you of them.
+The Devil relishes in reminding you of everything you have ever done wrong in your life – especially when you are either praying or feeling down. The Devil loves to remind people of the times in their lives when they have said the wrong thing, done the wrong thing or caused heartbreak around them.
But we need to understand this morning that when we accept Jesus as Our Savior and LORD that our sins are forgiven. Not forgiven for just a moment but forgiven for all eternity.
Listen to what the Bible tells us:
+Psalms 103:11-12
“For as high as the Heavens are above the earth, so great is His Steadfast love towards those who fear Him. As far as the East is from the West, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.”
+1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to work in this large Supermarket. It was down south where they didn’t know a lot about potatoes.
I remember coming to work one day and everyone there was wondering what that smell was coming from the Produce Department. They knew something was wrong, but they couldn’t pen point it.
I told them it was a rotten potato. At first, they didn’t believe me but after moving a few potatoes around in this large bin they knew that I was right. There were a few potatoes that had started to rot and if you have been around any rotten potatoes, you know what a horrible smell they can make.
We had to dig down and remove them.
It is the same way with our sins. Jesus has forgiven us of our sins and He doesn’t want them to simply hang around our lives and cause a stink. He doesn’t want our minds; our hearts and our souls be burdened down with past sins. All they will do is make us think stinky thoughts and feel stinky.
We need to fully allow Jesus to do what He has already done. If we have been forgiven for our sins – and we have if we have accepted Jesus as Our Savior and LORD, then we need to let all our sins go to the spiritual waste can forever and ever.
And when someone tries to bring back one of those old stinky sins into our lives then we need to walk away. And when the Devil tries to do the same thing, we need to remind him that he is a thief, a liar and a murderer and that we are a Child of God – forgiven, redeemed, anointed, accepted and approved.
Paul wrote these words to the people of Rome:
“We were buried therefore with Jesus by baptism into His death, in order that, just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
Instead of focusing on what we have done wrong in this life we need to allow the Holy Spirit to help us focus on being made into a fully functional and mature New Creation. We need to focus on being made as white as snow in Jesus’ name. We need to focus on how we can live the life of a forgiven and redeemed person.
II. We need to throw away other people’s sins
Not only do we need to allow the Holy Spirit to help us get rid of our own sins, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to help us get rid of other people’s sins, their mistakes, blunders.
We all have been lied to, verbally abused, gossiped about, misunderstood, and treated unfairly. We all have to some degree been marginalized, looked down on, abandoned, victimized, betrayed and the list could go on and on.
I am not saying that those who have hurt us, or others should be given a pass. No if someone has done something that has brought you pain and needs to be either disciplined or punished then that is outside of your hands. We have laws that when they are broken the violator must be made responsible.
We are not to just to let those who have committed murder, rape, theft etc… off the hook so to speak.
What I am trying to say is we need to learn how to allow the Holy Spirit bring a measure of peace in our lives by not meditating on what someone else has done to us or someone we love.
I know this is tricky. Do we just forgive and forget someone that has harmed us? Do we just forgive and forget someone who has cost us a job, who has taken hard earned money out of our pocket or has caused immeasurable pain in our lives?
Well, I can tell you right now, there are very few people under their own power can do that type of forgetting and forgiving.
But I can also tell you that in the name of Jesus we can get to a place where we can allow Jesus to take care of them and leave them in Jesus’ hands. We can get to a place where what they did to us – while it still may hurt and make us upset it no longer dictates our every waking moment. It no longer has the sting that it once had. It no longer rules our lives and our hearts.
That Bible is clear on this –
+Matthew 6:12 – ‘and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others who have trespassed against us.”
+Matthew 6:14 – “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father, forgive your trespasses.”
+Luke 17:3-4 – “If your brother or sister sins, rebuke them, and they repent, forgive them. If they sin against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day come back to you and says, I repent, then forgive them.”
This is not kindergarten Christianity.
This is not Microwave Christianity.
Trying to forgive and forget and forgiving even when you can’t forget is tough – for many people the only way they can do it is to work on it day after day after day.
Forgiveness is a choice – a choice that goes beyond a person’s feelings and emotions.
Forgiveness takes time.
Forgiveness can lead to reconciliation, but it always doesn’t lead to reconciliation.
Joseph in the Old Testament forgave His brothers, but it took some time and even after some time he had to continue to work on it.
I mean how would we feel if our family sold us off to become a slave somewhere and then lied to our parents that we had died at the hand of some animal?
Sometimes we must adopt a prayer like the one I recently found:
“Lord Jesus, thank you for caring about how much my heart and life have been hurt/damaged. You know the pain and suffering I have endured and felt because of _____________. Right now, in the name of Jesus I release all that pain into Your hands. You died on the cross and forgave me. I now choose to forgive _____________. I refuse to seek revenge. I refuse to become bitter and allow my spirit to become judgmental and condemning. Instead, I ask that you fill my heart with the fruit of Your Holy Spirit. I thank you for helping me forgive more and more each passing day.
III. Our Self-Sovereignty – Our Lordship
Learning how to put your past sins in your Spiritual Wastebasket is quite an accomplishment.
Learning how to put other’s sins in your Spiritual Wastebasket is quite an accomplishment.
Learning how to allow Jesus to be Lord of Your Life is quite a task indeed.
However, it is a task that all that follow Jesus are not only invited to do but are expected to do.
One of the most misunderstood aspects of Christianity is the idea of Christian Leadership. So often we try to adopt the world’s view of Leadership and forget the Biblical view of Leadership:
Leadership in the Bible is actually – FOLLOWSHIP.
+It is following the LORD
+It is following the leading of the Holy Spirit
Remember the words that Jesus said to those first disciples – FOLLOW ME.
He didn’t ask them to become leaders but followers.
In fact, the more you study Jesus in the New Testament you notice that His style of Leadership is actually Followship
+At His Baptism – He follows the Father’s leading in allowing John the Baptist to baptize Him
+Immediately following His Baptism – He follows the will of the Holy Spirit to go into the Wilderness for 40 days for prayer, fasting and testing.
+When He preaches His first sermon – He tells us that the Holy Spirit is upon Him and has anointed Him – in other words Jesus was going to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit – who would be telling Him what to say and what to do.
+Jesus tells us that His miracles were not His to give but His to do according to the Will of His Heavenly Father
“So, Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” – John 5:19
That is a major statement – whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
Philippians 2:5-11 is one of the most wonderful passages that we find in Paul’s writings – in that passage Paul tells us that Jesus did not do anything on His own – He was obedient to the Father to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus teaches us how to live – not as a self-sovereign people – not as independent units who think that they do not need one another or really need anyone.
Instead, Jesus calls us to be followers – followers of His, His Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls us to be stewards and not owners.
I know that there is something inside of us that rebels against such ideas and such a lifestyle.
There is something inside of us that want to rule ourselves – we want to be #1 in our lives – it is up to us to decide what to do, where to go and on and on.
But the reality is this – when we operate in our own flesh we will ultimately fail. When we decide that we are going to be in control no matter what then we have set ourselves up for ultimate failure and heartache.
We were created in the image of God. We were created to follow God – the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY who the Bible reminds us is Holy, Love and Righteousness. In other words there is no sin in God. There is no selfishness. There is no evil.
When we follow God – when we follow Jesus – when we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit we can always count on the fact that where they take us while it may be difficult it will lead to good things and ultimately everlasting life.
The Devil will tempt us like he has since the time of Adam and Eve that we can be gods ourselves. That we don’t need God – we are God.
Don’t listen to him – again, always remember that the Devil is a liar, he is a thief and he is a murderer.
He didn’t die for us. He doesn’t forgive our sins – in fact, he reminds us of our sins. He constantly condemns us and wants to lead us to our own destruction. That is just who he is – that has become his basic nature.
True Christian leadership is followship.
We are called to follow Jesus – the One who died for us, who loves us and who desires the very best for all of us. The one who helps us become Authentic and True and the One who leads us to becoming One with Him and with One Another.
Now, is it easy to follow Jesus all the time.
You know that answer.
Just read the New Testament – it is not always easy, but it is rewarding. It is not always easy but when we do it we find ourselves experiencing peace, joy, love, forgiveness to a degree that can at times overwhelm us.
This morning, grab your Spiritual Waste Can –
+Throw in your old sins – allow the Holy Spirit to haul all of them away – don’t let them come back and cause you to think less of yourself.
+Do your best to throw away other people’s sins – do your best to forgive others – ask the Lord to help you forgive others. Don’t allow their sins to steal your peace, your joy and your love. Don’t allow their sins to hinder you experiencing life to its fullness.
+Go ahead and put your self-sovereignty – your Lordship in that same waste basket. Go ahead and each day allow Jesus to truly be Lord and Savior of Your Life. Go ahead and each day become a follower of the True Leader of the Universe.
Remember, that we are called to be followers of Jesus – when He is the true Leader of His Church – the Church is in the best hands.
Invitation to the Lord’s Supper/Holy Communion
Sing - # 451 – Be Thou My Vision
