Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording, including sermon titles, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these sermons. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copied and/or quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Pastor James May
IT’S TIME FOR A GARAGE SALE
Right now our church is in the process of collecting all sort of things for a garage sale that will be happening in just a few days. As I looked at the mound of “stuff” that is piling in the Fellowship Room, I could not help but think about the past use of some of those items and the fact that their days of usefulness to the present owner have ended. Things that once cost hard-earned dollars, and some that were not real cheap when they were new are now counted as nearly worthless.
There is one statement that I have heard so many times in conjunction with garage sales, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” It is upon that presumption, that someone will need what others don’t need, that we hold garage sales, in the hope of raising extra money for special projects from these discarded items instead of simply giving them away or casting them into the refuse heap.
I believe that we may learn some lessons from a few of the items that will soon go on sale. Each item has its own story of usefulness, then irrelevance, being cast aside and finally being either buried, burned, trashed or, perhaps, being bought once again to begin the same cycle all over again.
One item that I saw in the sale was a big easy chair. That chair seemed to speak out to me, cry out to me, help me, rescue me, I’m still useful and I can still be comfortable for someone to sit in. Sure it had a few signs of wear and tear, perhaps it didn’t match the décor of the previous owner’s home, and yes, it needed a little cleaning before it could be used again.
That chair was once a “comfort zone” for someone. I can just imagine how many hours would have been spent just sitting there in comfort while visiting with old friends and family or watching the TV. Then, for whatever the reason, it was a comfort zone no more.
Have you ever lived in a comfort zone in your walk with the Lord? Have you seen the time when you felt as though you had the devil by the tail and you were driving him? Then there were times when you had him by the tail and he was dragging you! We all experience comfort zones every once in a while. While being certain of your salvation is a wonderful thing and knowing that your relationship with Jesus is strong, we can’t afford to let our guard down – and that’s what is dangerous about being in a Comfort Zone.
So many of God’s people are saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and have been washed in the Blood of Jesus and yet there seems to be no “fire in their bones”.
The “Weeping Prophet”, Jeremiah said in chapter 20, verse 9, "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."
Jeremiah was saying this because he had determined that he had gone as far in God as he was willing to go. He had reached his limit on what he was willing to do for the Lord. He had began by prophesying against Israel that they would soon be taken into captivity in Babylon.
There is no doubt that his message was from the Lord. There is no doubt that God had ordained him to be preaching this message, spreading this warning and making every attempt to get Israel to fall on their face before God in repentance before it would be too late. Now you might say that, since God ordained the message and anointed the messenger and it was all done according to God’s plan to reach out to Israel, that God would bless the efforts of Jeremiah, and yet that was not to be the case.
Jeremiah was cast into stocks and beaten. He stayed there until the next day when they finally released him. Jeremiah had had enough! He determined to keep his mouth shut and let Israel do what they wanted. Everyone was watching what Jeremiah would do or say next and they were intent on catching him preaching that message again so that they could arrest or kill him.
Jeremiah 20:10, "For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him."
Even with all the threats and discouragement, Jeremiah couldn’t stay silent for long because the Word of the Lord was burning inside and he had to speak forth what God wanted at all costs.
That’s the kind of fire we need today! We have too many Christians who have been made the brunt of jokes, became the laughingstock on the job, and have lost the support of their own families. As a result they determine, like Jeremiah, to just live for Jesus but keep their convictions to themselves. They don’t talk about Jesus to other people anymore lest they face that same rejection all over again. They don’t talk about church anymore because they don’t like to listen to those who think that going to church more than once a week is not necessary. They don’t witness anymore because the last 99 people they witnessed to just turned a deaf ear and walked away as lost as ever.
All of the rejection has had the effect of putting out the “fire” in their hearts for Jesus and they have slipped back into their own little world of living for Jesus. They are sitting back in that big easy chair in their own home and just waiting for the Lord to come to take them on to Glory.
Folks we need to cast aside everyone of those easy chairs.
Illustration:
Some years ago, when I was involved in a certain sales business, one of the favorite slogans was, “Your easy chair can become your million dollar chair.” What that meant was that if we stayed in that easy chair day after day, then the million dollars that was out there for us would never be ours.
If you are ever going to do anything great for the Lord you must cast aside your Comfort Zone, get out of that easy chair, sell it at a garage sale if you have to, then get out and go to work. Get some fire in your bones! Get some fire in your spirit! Go and tell others about Jesus! Wouldn’t it be such a wonderful thing if Jesus would come and catch you away in the rapture just an instant after you had led someone new to the Lord! That won’t happen sitting in your Comfort Zone!
We must develop that same determination that Jeremiah developed. Even though he knew it would mean more persecution, Jeremiah realized that he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. It was time to strike while the iron was hot and while the Lord was with him.
Jeremiah 20:11-13, "But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause. Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers."
Jeremiah’s prophecy came true. It wasn’t very long until every one of those who had persecuted him were either dead or in captivity. Jeremiah had delivered his soul and he was counted blameless for his obedience to the Lord. He picked himself up by the “bootstraps” and kept on preaching until the Lord called him home.
Illustration:
There were many motivational speakers that spoke to us over the years as I attended numerous business conventions but there was one who seemed to always come to my mind more than the others by the name of Les Brown. He said something that has always stayed with me and it went something like this, “If you get knocked down, fall on your back so you keep swinging at the devil, until you can get up again.” Too many get knocked down and then just wallow in self-pity.
Illustration:
I think it was General George S. Patton who made this statement, “I don’t measure a man’s success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom.” It takes a fire in your bones to get up and get out of your easy chair and back into the fig!
Among the items being collected for our garage sale are lots of little things that I call “What Nots”. These things are just items that caught the eye of the beholder for a little while and hung around the house, sitting on a shelf or inside a cabinet, or on the dresser for a long while. At first they were cute to look upon. Then, after a period of time, we grew accustomed to them being there and just didn’t notice them anymore. Then after a longer period of time, they actually began to annoy us and to get in the way. That’s when we decided to get rid of them. Perhaps someone else will find them interesting enough to allow those “What Nots” to hang around their house for a while too.
I know a lot of Christians who have gathered a lot of “Spiritual What Nots” at well. They have collected their trophies of all the things that they have accomplished for the Lord and put them on display for the world to see. They go by and dust them off every once in a while so that they will look fresh. Unless someone really gets close enough to read the inscription we might think that those trophies of Christianity were brand new.
Then we have our Bible sitting around on the coffee table or open to the 23rd Psalm and sitting on a stand on the shelf. We might have a cross hanging on the wall or a picture of what some artist thought that Jesus would have looked like.
(By the way, there are no pictures of Jesus from his lifetime so every picture of Jesus is someone else’s interpretation of what he may have looked like, so you can make up your own picture and yours will likely be just as inaccurate as theirs is.) The real question is not what his mortal body looked like, but do you know his heart and do you have him living inside of you right now?
Some of us might have pictures that were taken when we were younger when we hung around with the Evangelist that passed through town, or some minister of the gospel who had a “popular ministry”, or some preacher that was well known on the TV. We just love to do some name-dropping and let everyone know the kind of people in our circle of friends.
The only “Friend” that you should really brag about is Jesus! Do you know him? Do you hang out with him? Do you count him as your best friend? Do you tell others about his name or do you only speak that name in vain when you can’t think of some other acceptable explicative?
If you have a lot of “What Nots” hanging around your life, perhaps its time to have a “Spiritual Garage Sale” and give them to the Lord or put them to real use. It’s time to earn some new trophies in your work for Jesus. It’s time to actually read and study the Word of God and not just display it. It’s time to let Jesus into your heart to stay, not leave him on the wall in the living room.
When we have our garage sale at the church in a few days we hope to sell all of this stuff so that we won’t have to store it, give it away or haul it off for some other poor soul to deal with. Everything that we have collected has been given to the work of the Lord for a good cause. When we sell it, we already know that we are going to get only pennies on a dollar, if that, for what all of it cost originally. Pennies on a dollar is better than nothing though and if we can sell enough of it then the total could be a great blessing.
But what about the “stuff” that hangs around your life spiritually; what about all the junk that separates you from totally obeying the Lord; and what about all the things in your life that are weighing you down and holding you back – what will God pay for all your spiritual garage sale junk?
I’m happy to report to you that God pays extremely high prices for every garage sale item that is removed from your heart and soul. In fact, he gives all that Heaven has! He has given his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the cross so that we could sell all our junk to God. God takes our lives that are so filled with junk, so overwhelmed by the powers of hell, so useless to the Kingdom of God, and worthless in the eyes of men, and washes us clean of all that stuff through the power of the Blood of the Lamb.
The Blood of Jesus washes it all away. God doesn’t store it somewhere to bring it up again. He washes it all away forever.
Psalms 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us."
God not only washes every bit of the junk out of our lives but then give us the greatest payment that we could ever receive. He gives us eternal life! He gives us a joint inheritance with Jesus Christ! He give us a wondrous future and a great hope that will last forever! My, what a price God pays for the things we sell out to him in our “Spiritual Garage Sale”!
Isn’t it time we cleaned out the corners of our hearts? Isn’t it time we unloaded a lot of the things that have been keeping us from moving on in the Lord? Isn’t it time we gave all our junk to God? It’s time for a Garage Sale, right now!
