Wastebasket Christianity

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.