Sackitis
Eph 5:28, Matt 11:28-29
I. Ok, this is weird sermon week number two. The sermon that I preached last week is one that I can’t seem to get around preaching periodically, and it touches on a another subject that makes me feel I need to preach another weird sermon.
A. As much as I don’t like to repeat sermons, these are two subjects that I feel hold a lot of people back in their relationship with God, so if you will bare with me I’m going to have another go at it.
B. If you won’t bare with me I guess we can leave, because I don’t have anything else to say.
C. I want to talk about the burlap sack that we all carry around.
II. You have one, I have one, all of us humans have one.
A. A sack. A burlap sack. You might not have known you have one but you do.
B. You may not have been told about it, and it could be you don’t remember.
C. But, you were given a sack.
1. An itchy, scratchy burlap sack.
2. You needed the sack so you could carry the rocks.
3. Rocks, boulders, pebbles. All sizes. All shapes. All unwanted.
4. You didn’t ask for them, but you got ‘em. Don’t remember?
D. Some were rocks of rejection.
1. You were given one the time you didn’t make the team.
2. And, it wasn’t for lack of effort. You practiced hard.
3. You thought you were good enough for the team, but the coach didn’t. The instructor didn’t.
4. You thought you were good enough, but they said you weren’t.
5. They and how many others?
E. You don’t have to live long before you get a collection of stones for your sack.
1. Make a poor grade. Make a bad choice. Make a mess.
2. Get called a few names. Get mocked. Get abused. Get betrayed.
3. And the stones don’t stop with adolescence either.
4. And sack gets heavy. Heavy with rocks. Stones of rejection.
5. Some we don’t deserve, some we do.
III. Open your sack and take a look, you’ll see not all the stones are from rejections.
A. There is a second type of stone. The stone of regret.
1. Regret for the time you lost your temper.
2. Regret for the day you lost control.
3. Regret for the moment you lost your pride.
4. Regret for the years you lost your priorities.
5. And even regret for the hour you lost your innocence.
6. Regret for when you shouldn’t have and you did.
B. One stone after another, one guilty stone after another.
C. And the sack gets heavier and heavier, the sack gets harder and harder to carry.
1. Life gets more and more difficult, because we get tired, and we want to give up.
2. How can you have dreams for the future when all your energy is required to carry the past?
3. No wonder some people look miserable. The sack slows the pace.
4. The sack rubs the skin raw and makes us not want to move at all.
5. That helps explain the irritation on so many people’s faces, the sag in so many steps, the drag, in so many shoulders, the anger, the loss of control, the desperation in so many lives.
6. People get consumed with doing whatever it takes to get some relief.
D. So you take the sack to work.
1. You decide to work so hard you’ll forget about the sack.
2. You go in early and you stay late.
3. People are impressed, but when it’s time to go home, there’s the sack right by the door where you left it.
4. So, you try to drink away the rocks in the sack. You set the sack on the floor, sit on the stool.
5. The music gets loud and your head gets light.
6. But then it’s time to go and you look down and there’s the sack.
E. Some people drag their sack to therapy.
1. They sit on the couch with the sack at their feet and spill all their stones on the floor and name them one by one.
2. The therapist listens. They give some help.
3. But when the time is up, they’re obliged to gather the rocks and take them with them.
F. You get so desperate you try a weekend rendezvous.
1. A little excitement. A risky embrace. A night of stolen passion.
2. But then the weekend passes. Sunday’s sun sets and waiting for you on Monday’s doorstep is—you got it—your sack of regrets and rejections, and there is even another rock or two added.
G. You even try to hide from the sack and pretend it isn’t there but the pain won’t let you.
H. Some even take the sack to church.
1. Maybe religion will help.
2. But instead of removing a few stones, some well-meaning but misguided preacher may add to the load.
3. And you might leave the church with a few new rocks in your sack.
4. So many people slug their way through life, weighed down by the past.
5. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s hard to be thoughtful when you’re carrying a burlap sack full of regrets and rejections.
6. It’s hard to be supportive when you are affirmation-starved.
7. It’s hard to be forgiving when you feel guilty.
8. Paul had an interesting observation about the way we treat people. He said it about marriage, but the principle applies to all of life
(Eph 5:28 NIV) In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
I. . The man who loves his wife loves himself, and this is not limited to men, it could say, the woman who loves her husband loves herself.
J. You see there is a connection between the way you feel about yourself and the way you feel about others.
1. If you are at peace with yourself—if you like yourself—you will get along with other people.
2. The reverse is true too. If you don’t like yourself, if you are ashamed, embarrassed, guilty or angry, then you are not going to like others either.
IV. But then there is the real bad side of the sackitis.
A. When we carry around so many stones with us we tend to throw them at the ones we love. Unless the cycle is broken.
B. Which takes us to the question, How does a person get relief?
C. There is a place to find that answer, and as usual it is in the bible.
(Mat 11:28 - 29 NIV) "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
1. You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you.
2. And, some of you are saying. "I’ve tried that. I’ve read the Bible, I’ve sat on the pew—but I Haven’t found relief?
3. If that is the case, let me ask a question?
4. Could it be that you went to religion and didn’t go to God?
5. Could it be that you went to a church, but never really met Jesus face to face?
D. Notice what the verse says "COME TO ME,"
E. IT’S EASY TO GO TO THE WRONG PLACE, AND GOING TO THE WRONG PLACE BRINGS THE WRONG RESULTS.
F. Max Lucado tells this story
1. I’ve gone to the wrong place.
2. I was in Portland, Maine, catching a flight to Boston.
3. I went to the desk, checked my bag, got my ticket, and went to the gate.
4. I went past security, took my seat, and waited for the flight to be called.
5. I waited and waited and waited— Finally, I went up to the desk to ask the attendant and she looked at me and said,
6. "You’re at the wrong gate. "Now, what if I’d pouted and sighed, "Well, there must not be a flight to Boston. I’m stuck?
7. You would have said to me, "You’re not stuck.
8. You’re just at the wrong gate. Go down to the right gate and try again.
G. It’s not that you haven’t tried—you’ve tried for years to deal with your past.
1. Alcohol. Affairs. Workaholism. Religion.
2. Jesus says HE, He is the solution for weariness of soul.
3. We have to go the right place, to Him. THAT’S WHY HE SAYS "COME TO ME."
4. Be honest with Him, and we don’t like having to do that, because we have to make ourselves vulnerable.
5. We don’t like turning our rocks over to Him, because then we have to trust Him.
6. Admit to Jesus that you have soul secrets you’ve never dealt with and He might, want you to deal with them.
7. But, you know what? He already knows what they are.
8. He’s just waiting for you to ask him to help. Not ask Him to help and then grab your sack of Stones and then run and hide again.
9. He’s just waiting for you to give him your sack. Go ahead. You’ll be glad you did.
10. And the people who are close to you will be glad you did too.
11. You see its hard to throw rocks at the people around you when you have left your sack of rocks at the Cross and moved on.
12. It’s the least you can do for your friends, the least you can do for your family, and the best you can do for yourself.
H. Let go of the sack and let Jesus have your rocks. Get over Sackitis!
1. Go to the Cross! Look at the man hanging there.
2. Do you see the pain that He is going through?
3. Do you see the thorns on His head, the whip marks on His body, the nails in His hands and feet.
4. Do you see the pain of the sin of the whole world racking His body?
5. He’s going through that pain to save you, and make you right with God.
6. And, He’s going through that pain so you won’t have to carry that sack.
7. Set your sack down, leave it at the Cross, and pick up the load that Jesus wants you to have its light.
Matt 11:28-29 NIV"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you WILL find rest for your souls.
8. Oh, and don’t for get to read verse 30.
(Mat 11:30 NIV) For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
I. Don’t you think its time to put down that burden that keeps dragging you down?
J. Don’t you think its time to leave the past in the past, and let Jesus have your future?
K. Come and lay your burdens from the past at the altar, and leave them there.
L. You’ll be glad you did.
