This Friday, Lynelle and I finally got to go golfing for the first time this year. And guess what? I beat her! I also got my 2nd par ever!
This got me thinking. What if I played against Tiger Woods (the best golf player in the world today) and beat him? What if he had an off day, and I had a great day? What if I beat him, and instead of telling everyone, I went home as if nothing happened?
Imagine that the most important thing that could possibly happen in your life happens, but afterward, nothing changes.
You graduate from college, but instead of going out and getting a job, you just go home and continue to live with Mom and Dad, getting an allowance, and years later at the age of 40, still having a curfew.
Graduation day comes and goes – and nothing changes.
You finally get that promotion. But instead of going to your new office with its corner window and beautiful view of Biscayne Bay, you go to your same old cubical down in the basement.
Promotion day comes and goes – and nothing changes.
You get married, and after the wedding service, the bride goes home to her parents and the groom goes home to his parents.
It’s ridiculous to think that these things might actually happen, because these are events that change things.
Imagine Jesus being crucified. He is put in a grave. Buried. But then he is resurrected. He comes to life. He lives again.
It would be ridiculous to think of living through Easter and then having nothing change.
What would have happened if after Christ’s resurrection, Peter had gone back to his fishing boat and lived out his life?
What would have happened if all of the disciples just went back to their old way of life?
What would have happened if none of the Gospels had been written.
The resurrection of Christ was not the type of event that you celebrate once, but doesn’t change your life.
It demands a change in your life.
The Resurrection of Christ validates everything that the Gospel claims about Christ, and it verifies everything that Christ requires of us.
You cannot come in here and celebrate Easter and then go out unchanged.
It is possible to come in here and celebrate Easter and then have nothing change. But that is like graduating college, and then staying at home, getting the allowance, and living under Mom and Dad’s curfew.
It’s absurd, but it happens.
Easter makes a difference.
So why do we live as it doesn’t make a difference? If Christ is truly raised from the dead, that should make all the difference in the world.
The topic of today’s sermon is Spring Cleaning—Getting Rid of Your Old Junk. I have with me a genuine article of junk. (SHOW T-SHIRT). Every once in a while, Lynelle will go through my clothes and try and throw stuff out. Now I know that no one here has ever done that with their spouses clothes, have they? But there comes a time when the Old junk has to go. Yet we hold onto it—for some of us it holds a special value. Sometimes its just a comfortable t-shirt, or shoes. Sometimes its an old memorabilia item that’s fallen apart. Maybe it’s a piece of junk that you picked up somewhere in hopes of one day restoring it.
But when it comes to our lives, we hold on to the junk of our previous lives. We hold onto the sins and pleasures of this world, and we don’t let go. And even though we say that the cross and the resurrection make all the difference in the world, we still hold on to that junk. That old familiar sin, the pride, the hate, the fear, the worry, the pessimism. It’s all junk, but we don’t let it go. We hold onto the junk, when we can live so much better in our lives.
Today, I want to look at a passage in Ephesians 4 which will show us what to do with our junk. Ephesians 4:17-24, so turn there in your bible’s if you would and follow along as I read aloud.
READ EPHESIANS 4:17-24
Let’s go back to verse 17. One translation puts it this way: “17With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused.”
A mother and her four-year-old son were looking through an old family photo album. The boy pointed at a picture of a handsome young man with dark, curly hair. He asked, "Who’s that?" She told him, "That’s your father." The boy looked confused. "Then who is that bald guy who lives with us now?"
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
They crave the old junk. They stock pile it in their lives. Why? It’s their thinking! Look at verse 17 again, “In the futility of their thinking.”
Paul would echo these thoughts in his letter to the Romans—“21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools”
The boss, who had caught Calvin gazing out the window, barked, "Why aren’t you working?" Without thinking, Calvin blurted, "Because I didn’t see you coming."
The futility of their thinking prompts them to indulge themselves. The futility of their thinking causes them to lust for more and more stuff. Yet they are never satisfied.
You ever wonder why they call it the rat race? Do you think you can win by keeping up with the Jones’s? Is there any point in collecting more and more junk in our lives, because that’s the way the world does it?
They have hardened their hearts—they think they know the right way of living. They accumulate the most stuff, they live the high life; they try and make their life look like one of the beer commercials on TV. They have adopted the attitude that Paul wrote about to the Corinthian church—“"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Junk—that’s what it is. That’s the life that we hold onto. We have taken the crucifixion and resurrection, and we say we believe in it, but rather than turn to the life we can have, we hold onto the junk we used to have and treasure. Hebrews 10 warns us about that kind of thinking. “26Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received a full knowledge of the truth (or, if we live like we used to—hold on to the old junk), there is no other sacrifice that will cover these sins. 27There will be nothing to look forward to but the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. 28Anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant as if it were common and unholy. Such people have insulted and enraged the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to his people.
30For we know the one who said,
"I will take vengeance.
I will repay those who deserve it."
He also said,
"The Lord will judge his own people."[5]
31It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
What is that junk going to get you, anyway? Pleasures last but a moment, and then we are off to pursue even more. We collect more and more junk in our lives, there’s no room for the good stuff. Why live that way?
You see, we were not taught that way. Christ doesn’t want us to live that way. Christ didn’t die on the cross for us to live like that. 20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
In other words, you were taught to live differently. You were taught that you don’t need that old junk in your life anymore. Get rid of it.
22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
That’s what we were taught—get rid of the old way of life—the old self, the former part of your life which is corrupted by its deceitful desires.
One translation puts it this way: 22Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything--and I do mean everything--connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it!
The simplest illustration of this great truth is given in John 11 , the resurrection of Lazarus. Our Lord’s friend, Lazarus, had been in the grave four days when Jesus and His disciples arrived at Bethany, and even Martha admitted that, by now, the decaying body would smell ( John 11:39 –"But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."). But Jesus spoke the word and Lazarus came forth alive, an illustration of John 5:24 . Notice our Lord’s next words, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go." ( John 11:44 ). Take off the graveclothes! Lazarus no longer belonged to the old dominion of death, for he was now alive. Why go about wearing graveclothes? Take off the old and put on the new!
Why do we want to go around with graveclothes on? Take it off! Put it off!
A freshman at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science fair. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment.
In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical “dihydrogen monoxide.” And for plenty of good reasons:
1. It can cause excessive sweating and vomiting
2. It is a major component of acid rain
3. It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state
4. Accidental inhalation can kill you
5. It contributes to erosion
6. It decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes
7. It has been found in tumors of terminal cancer
He asked fifty people if they supported a ban of the chemical.
Forty-three said yes and six were undecided. Only one knew that the chemical, “dihydrogen monoxide” was water. The title of his prize winning project was, “How Gullible are We?” He feels the conclusion is obvious.
Is it obvious to you? What about all the junk in your life? It’s time for some spring cleaning—it’s time to replace all of that junk. Get rid of it. It won’t cause you pleasure; it will only result in judgment and resentment.
