Take Out The Trash

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Adult Children

“Take Out the Trash”

February 4, 2018

By Ed Young

When it comes to dysfunction and character defects, we all deal with them. They infiltrate our lives at a young age, only to manifest themselves years later. Too often, we reserve ourselves to the fact that we just have to deal with them. But God has something better for us! In this message, Pastor Ed Young shows us what it takes to get rid of the dysfunction in our lives. It’s all about learning how to take out the trash.

 

Transcript

 

ILLUS: Seeing this trash up here reminds me of moving up to Dallas/Fort Worth 27 years ago to kick off Fellowship.  Lisa and I drove up, I like to say, with 1 car, 1 kid, 1 dog.  We were in a rental house and we started this church with 30 families.  We had no idea it would turn into what it’s turned into but what an amazing journey.  Anyway, when we moved from our rent house to this new house we rented the ubiquitous U-Haul trailer.  We were excited about that.  So we were packing all this stuff in the U-Haul, throwing all the stuff in the U-Haul.  And there were like, I guess five or six bags, trash bags, full of clothes, I thought, left in our garage.  We had some people to help us move.  I was the last one there, sweating profusely.  So I’m looking at these clothes, I’m just tossing them.  I’m kind of angry, you know when you get tired, like uh!  Like that.  I’m just tossing them in the U-Haul.  And I’m tossing, I’m tossing, I’m tossing.  I failed to remember that one of the trash bags was full of a week of trash.  And we had had this massive chicken dinner the night before, feeding the people helping us, etc.  So I threw all of this in the back of the U-Haul, locked it up, drove the U-Haul to beautiful Irving, Texas.  We were living in a little neighborhood at the time, Hackberry Creek.  Drove up to our home in Hackberry Creek, parked the U-Haul trailer, it was on a Friday afternoon.  So we didn’t really start the moving process into our new house until the following Monday.  Because, you know, Saturday/Sunday I have to work so, you know.  That trash sat out there in the boiling sun in that U-Haul trailer for days.

So, we get up bright and early on Monday.  Lisa is so excited to move into the new house, so am I.  And I go to unlock the U-Haul trailer… <blowing sound effect>  and I’m talking about the smell singed the nostril hairs.  It like blew you back.  I thought, is there a dead body in there or something?

Trash stinks, doesn’t it?  It has an odor, it’s rotten.  I read this past week that American’s produce 4.3 pound of trash a day.  Think about that, a day. And if you eat healthy, if you eat gluten-free and organic and, I don’t know, Paleo or whatever, you do all that you will produce over 117,000 pounds of trash.  I’m talking about you!  You!  So turn to your neighbor and say, “You’re trashy, man.”  Yeah.  And that’s some serious trash talk, is it not?

So we hung out in the house in Irving.  Really loved it.  There’s no place like Irving.  All roads lead to Irving.  It’s amazing how many people I meet, “Oh yeah, I started in Irving,” or “I’m from Irving.”  Lee Harvey Oswald, Irving.  Jack Ruby, Irving.  The Dallas Cowboys used to be in Irving.  Man, I wish the Cowboys hadn’t moved all the way out there.  I mean that’s great, I love Arlington, but come on!  What happened to Dallas and Irving?  Where there is no vision, the Bible says, the people perish.

Anyway, the Bible also says be fruitful and multiply to Lisa and I began to multiply.  We had three more children, we had the twins in Irving.  Brought them home and all of that.  So when you have twins and especially when you have 3 kids in diapers under 3 years of age, when you have that you’re going to produce a lot of trash.  I mean, a bunch of trash.  Now the houses were pretty tight where we were on our street.  I could, like, reach out and touch the fence of my neighbor.  Well, many times at night I’d put it off, procrastinate guys, as far as taking out the trash.

One evening, though, I’ll never forget it.  I was taking out the trash and we had all of this trash.  I mean, it was just ridiculous.  I’m dragging the trash on the side yard to the street.  Our next door neighbors, great people, had this massive privacy fence and they had two gargantuan Rottweilers.  And there was about a 6” space underneath the fence.  So I’m just like dragging the trash at night, all of a sudden whoomp!  It felt like my arm was being jerked out of socket.  The dogs had grabbed the trash.  They were pulling our trash underneath the fence and I just let them have one bag.  I just said, take it.  So, I took the trash out to the curb – well, most of it – put it out and it was like, wow.  It became like, you had to be quick to evade those Rottweilers.

Could it be in this crowd that some of you have trash in your life?  Could it be that you, my friend, have some garbage?  Maybe some character trash, some stuff that’s stinking up your life.  I’m talking about pride.  I’m talking about envy.  I’m talking about anger.  I’m talking about lust.  I’m talking about gluttony.  I’m talking about greed.  I’m talking about slothfulness.  Just trash, man.  Trash, it’s not pretty, it’s ugly.

You know, we just generate character trash because we have this sin nature, the Bible says, this fallen and fallible condition.  We got it from the origin of our family of origin, Adam and Eve, and now, of course, we’ve grown up in a very dysfunctional place and a dysfunctional planet.  And we all produce trash.  But could it be that some of us are living in our own garbage dump?  Could it be that we’re rotting with rebellion?  That we’re just littering with lust and just piling up all of this trash of pride?

The Bible says, and let’s read this together at all of our campuses.  Whether you’re in Miami, North Port, Dallas/Fort Worth, Southlake Keller, where else do we have them?  Prosper, Allaso, wherever you are, online, I mean if you’re online and you’re watching it and maybe your husband’s in the other room, just read this out loud.  He’ll go, “What are you doing?”  1-2-3… Let’s do it again, 1-2-3.  Proverbs 15:14, A wise person is hungry for knowledge while the fool feeds on trash.”  Garbage in, garbage out.  What are you feeding on?  What am I feeding on?  Very convicting questions.

In this series we’ve been saying to one another that we’re riding this vehicle called Denial.  That’s right, it spells Denial.  We changed the lettering.  It was Denali, now it’s Denial.  Denial is a serious thing because we learn denial, many of us, in our family of origin.  Maybe you grew up in a divorce situation.  Maybe you grew up in an addiction situation.  Maybe you grew up with abuse.  You learned at a young age how to live in denial.  And now that you’re an adult child, we really know how to do the denial thing.  Many of us have set our lives up around denial.  Go back to the soils of the Garden, Adam and Eve, confronted with their trash.  What?  God, what are you saying?  Denial, denial, denial.  Denial is some powerful stuff.

So we learn it as kids and then we build our lives around it as adults because we’ve looked at each other and said children act like adults and adults act like children.  So this heavy denial stuff doesn’t really hit us until we’re adults.  And so often we never really look back at our lives individually.  We never really look back and go, “man, how did this divorce situation affect me?  I’ve got trust issues.  I’ve got abandonment issues.  I’ve got issues with affection.  I don’t trust anyone, really.  I don’t think there is such a thing as love.”  No wonder!  I understand, I get it.  Our world is in such turmoil.

Maybe you grew up where your father or mother was an addict in some way, shape or form, and you’ve reacted against that.  The pendulum has swung so far the other way and it’s caused a lot of resentment and anger in your life.  Emotionally you have this hair-trigger temper… boom!  Emotionally it’s like when I unlock that U-Haul trailer door – whoomp!  We just rage on people, man.  We’re all up in their grill!  And we see it all the time.  The freeway, the boardroom, the classroom , on the basketball court, on the football field.  Yes!

Then you have lust.  Take a child who has grown up in a dysfunctional family where you have divorce or maybe addiction or maybe abuse.  Many of them will be highly promiscuous, trading lust, trading in the highs of that sexual fantasy land and sexual conquest for what they deeply desire from God… depth and love and intimacy.

So I’ve said it.  I mean, I’m in denial, you’re in denial in certain areas.  And the funny thing about denial is – and I’ve been in denial and I’m sure I’m still in denial over certain areas of my life, but when you’re in denial you’re in denial about being in denial.  So if you think “I’m not in denial!”  Well, you’re probably in denial.

And we’ve said we’ve been driving this SUV through life and we’ve picked up a lot of baggage.  And we’ve talked about the importance of going through the baggage, going through the contents of our lives, of our dysfunctional duffel bag.  Then, we said, we have to come to a point where we say, “God, I can’t change.  I’m powerless to change.  I don’t have the sauce, the juice, to change.  But God, you’re all about change and you can only change me because of this exchange that took place.  You took my trash, my debris, on the cross, something I don’t merit.  You paid the price for it, and because of that I can exchange my garbage for your grace, my mess for your mercy. “

So, Jesus challenges us to get into the will, W-I-L-L barrow.  He challenges us to give our lives to him and our futures to him, and God has a great will for every single person.

Then we said last time, just a quick review, that many of us are stuck on character stumps and we talked about the importance of curling your toes over the bow of the boat, jumping in the water, the scary water, and finding those character stumps that are driving so much of this.

Well, this next step, the trash step, is one of the most crucial.  This is where we regularly need to take the trash out in our lives.  Trash pickup, at least once a week, right?

ILLUS: I jumped online and I thought some of this was kind of humorous.  This is what the city of Dallas says about sanitation services.   You don’t really think about it that much, I mean I don’t.  But it happens regularly.  They talk about garbage collection overview.  And then they talk about placement.  I mean, there are very, very specific, definitely a bunch of lawyers came up with this, about the placement of our trash bins.  And I’m sure I’ve messed up many, many times.  So make sure to know your position.  It’s like in the Super Bowl this afternoon, I mean those guys will know their position and I think many of us when it comes to taking the trash out, we’re out of position, OK?  So I don’t know, I just…

So, it talks about the collection frequency, talks about how the city will give us these beautiful rolling bins, you know you got to love those, and here’s what I think is funny.  Items not accepted… have you ever thought about that?  I mean, there are certain items that aren’t accepted.  It says, “Do not place hot ashes, yard debris, concrete rocks, or lazy husbands in the trash bin..”  What?  And then it says that we’re responsible for keeping our trash bin and trash clean. I love that.  We’re responsible for that.  But it is great, though, that we live in a nation that we have a city that collects trash.

But I want to ask you, are you taking out the trash?  One day Jesus, in John chapter 5, did something that was really, really unique.  He was always out of the box.  John 5:6, he was walking through the streets of J-town, Jerusalem, and we’ll be there very, very soon.  Don’t miss the Israel trip, next Thanksgiving.  That’s right, next Thanksgiving.  Don’t miss the Israel trip.  We’re going to see exactly where this took place, because I’ve been there before.  He’s walking through and he sees this pool, kind of this giant Jacuzzi thing, and there’s these crippled people, physically challenged people, lying around.  And he comes up to one guy who’s been crippled for 38 years and he leans down.  Now this is a weird question Jesus is asking.  He goes,

“Hey, man, do you really want to get healed?”

Now, think about that.  I’m sure his disciples were like, “What?  What?  <rewind side effect>  What?  What?  Jesus, you asked this guy who has been crippled for 38 years, ‘Do you really want to get healed, do you really want to change?’”

Why do you think Jesus asked this guy that question?  I’ll tell you why.  Because there’s a tendency in your life and mine to build our lives around our infirmity, to build our lives around our dysfunction.  Maybe he liked the fact that he didn’t have to get married.  Maybe he liked the fact that he could just barely survive.  Maybe he liked the fact that he could lie down by the Jacuzzi every day.  Maybe, who knows?  Maybe so!

So I want to turn and ask you the same question.  Do you really want to take out the trash?  Do you really want to change?  The first thing you have to say is, “God, I can’t change.  I can’t.”  Secondly, “You’re about change, God.”  Thirdly, I” get in this will barrow.  You have a purpose and a plan for my life, and today, God, I regularly want to take out the trash.”

Philippians 3:8, let’s read it together.  Yes, let’s read it together.  “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.  For his sake I have discarded everything else counting it all as garbage so that I can gain Christ.”

See, that’s the beautiful exchange.  If you want to talk about recycling, here we give Jesus our trash.  And man, I’ve got trash, and you have trash.  Four pounds of trash, 4.3 pounds of trash per day, but I’ve got a lot worse trash in my life than that and so do you.

Regularly, as a believer, I’ve got to be specific about the trash I’m dealing with.  Because remember, we’re going to be prolific when we’re specific.  I don’t just say – I mean here’s what I’ve said before, “Lord, wow, you know I’m trashy.  I have this trash.  Forgive me of my trash. I turn from my trash.  Amen.”

I mean, that’s a great prayer and all that, however, we’ve got to be specific.  So what I would challenge you to do is… OK, let’s say anger is your issue.  And maybe you have anger, gluttony, sloth, a lot of them.  Let’s just start with anger.  Maybe that’s the main one, anger.  Instead of saying, “Lord, wow, I get angry.  I’m sorry for that.  Forgive me, God.”  Again, he will, but I want you to be specific when you deal with anger.  Like this: “Father, today I’m going to be in a meeting from 9:00 a.m. until 10:30 a.m.  I’ll have a tendency to rage, to be defensive, to be arbitrary, to one-up people, to be mean-spirited, to condescend, to just get angry.  And over this little time period, God, give me your strength.  I’ll rely on it.  I can’t change.  Your power to push me through this.”

That is what I’m talking about and that’s what the Bible is dealing with.  The Bible says don’t start off in many different directions, focus!  You’ll be prolific when you’re specific.  Take out the trash.  What’s your issue?

“All right, Lord, I’m going to be around some people and when I’m around these people they cause my competitive nature to go nuts.  They cause my envy engines to rev up, and when I’m around here (maybe you’re a lady) and see the way she looks, the way she dresses, the kind of purse that she has, where she lives.. whatever.  I am tempted, God, to really get envious.  <hissing sound effect>  So, during the time period I’m around her (and if someone causes you that much consternation don’t hang around them very much anyway, but that’s a whole ‘nother story) give me the strength, God, to be content, to understand I’m unique, I’m beautiful, I’m one of a kind.”  That’s that specific prayer.

That’s why Jesus said, “Hey, don’t worry about tomorrow.  You’ve got enough stuff.  Ed, you’ve got enough junk, enough trash, enough rubbish, enough debris for today to handle.”

I like to say sushi-size your life.  I love sushi.  I bet I eat sushi a couple of times a week.  Hopefully I don’t have a tapeworm.  I saw the other day – this is really gross – they pulled a 5-foot long tapeworm out of a gentleman in California who ate sushi every day.  Don’t Google it.  It’ll make you…  I have a doctor friend of mine.  He took a tapeworm out of someone and I promise you – this is really gross.  If you’re squeamish just cover your ears.  He was just giving this guy a physical.  He had some stomach pain and he said, “OK, open your mouth and stick out your tongue.”  And when the guy stuck his tongue out he saw the little head of a ….  I’m not going to lie.  I’m in church.  If you don’t believe me ask Dr. Randy Perkins.  Those are his initials, Dr. Randall Perkins, leading-edge medicine.  He’s the titan of tapeworm-ology.  You have a tapeworm?  Go to Dr. Perkins.   I mean, he said it was massive.  Anyway, wow.

Yeah, sushi-size your life.  Be specific on those issues.  So some of us, this is weird, we like to live in a trash dump because we’ve lived there so long.  It kind of becomes part of who we are, part of our identity.  “I’m just that way.”  So, we’ve lived there for a long time and they become part of our identity.  “I’m just a lustful person.  I mean, I like the lust and I just you know drop those suggestive hints and log onto that.  And I go to that gentleman’s club.” Which is… that’s funny.  “Gentleman’s” club, isn’t that funny?  So gentleman who turn women into objects to be used for their sexual hit and they call it a gentleman’s club?  It doesn’t quite compute.

And then also, too, every defect has a payoff.  I mean, pride has a payoff for me.  When I’m prideful I’m like, “Whoa!  I’m the man!  You’re not.  I’m here, you’re not.”

And so much of social media is that.  We have to realize so much of social media is not even real.  So many of the bots fuel all of the crapola and junk that’s on there.  So much of it’s not real.  So many of the posts aren’t real, I hope you know that.  I mean you know that but do you really know that?  So see, what I’m driving at is not the effect of the trash, I’m driving at the cause.  You know, we’re great at the effect.  Oh, the trash stinks and it piles up!  I want to get you to think about the cause of it.  Because those 7 ugly sins: pride, envy, anger, lust, gluttony, greed, and slothfulness.

ILLUS: One time I was on a talk show (#humbled) and I thought about this on my way to church.  I’m on this talk show about this book I wrote called “Fatal Distractions.”  It’s out of print but I’m going to redo it.  It’s about the 7 deadly sins.  So I’m sitting there and they’re asking me questions about the book.  It’s my first book.  I did it years ago and I’m talking.  And here’s what the host asked me – I wanted to punch him.  “Name me the 7 deadly sins.”  Like that.  I mean, put me on the spot.  That’s brutal, isn’t it?  I mean, it’s not easy.  The camera’s rolling, and this was like a pretty big show.  “Oh, name the 7 deadly sins.”  I’m… I… again, anger.  Do you ever have these fantasy conversations with people?  This guy’s a little… you little… <snarling talk>  and I was, like, scrambling.

“Pride…”

“Yes.”

“Envy…”

“Good.”

“Anger, lust…”

“Got a few more.”

“Gluttony, greed, and slothfulness!”

“You got it!”  And then the fake laughter.  There was a little studio audience there but they crank up the laughter and then the applause.

I was thinking about that today coming here.  I’m still mad about that.  I’ve got an anger problem.  That was terrible, wasn’t it?  Can you recite the 7 deadly sins?  Which one sticks out?  Which one – boom!

You’ve had them for a long time.  They’re part of your identity.  “Well man, I’m just a greedy person.  I’m just competitive.  I just got to have more.  And hey, it’s great to have ambition.  That’s fine.  Jesus doesn’t want us to sit there and go, “well, I have no ambition.”  But greed is when we take it to a HNL, a ‘hole ‘notha level.  It’s when that drives us, we become selfish.  It’s the me-monster and the more-monster and it’s mine!  That’s when greed takes over.  Every defect, I’ll say it again, has a payoff.  Pride does, again.  I told you earlier.  I feel good when I’m prideful.  I feel good.  I’ve spoken before at conferences before full of pastors and I’ve thrown out numbers. And I thought, Ed, why did you say how big Fellowship Church was?  Well, to elevate me.  I’ve done that before.  I didn’t have to.  Everybody there was like – wow!  But most felt like, “Dang.  I’m not doing anything for God.”  Do I need to throw out numbers?  No.  Do I need to tell?  No.  I’ve done that before and it felt good, really.

“Our church is bigger than every church here!”  That’s what I’m thinking.  Whoa, man.   Pride.  It feels good, though, a little bit.  Come on, now!  Doesn’t it?  Doesn’t it?  Don’t be lying.

How about lust?  It feels good.  Foom!  That sexual hit, foom!  Wow!  I’m married but look at her!  Look at him!  And lay around and talk a little bit and go here and go there, yeah, this is great!  And go online and see the millions and millions of images that no one could compete with, no spouse anywhere in the world.  We objectify people and we use people and we look at people like animals.  And we’ve animalized humans and humanized animals.  The hypocrisy of it all.  It’s almost as hypocritical as the Grammys.  Did you see those?  That’s got t be the height of hypocrisy.   Hopefully you saw it.  Because here you have these women.  Now Hollywood is all about morals, yet they’re the ones that have thrown filth and trash at us for decades and decades and now – I’m all about this – but I mean, now they’re the moral police?  So then you have these ladies and they’re talking about the morality and about boundaries, and then the next act you have people grabbing their crotch talking about bitches and ho’s.  You want to talk about hypocrisy?  Are you kidding me?  You got the media, they’re always talking about accountability?  They have zero.  None.  When they talk to you, talk to me or someone else, they want to know all the stuff and take it out of context.  But when you ask them about their lives, when you ask them about their adultery, their divorce, their anger, their anger, their envy.  Oh no, no, no.  That’s not relevant.  Hypocrisy!  Is it just me?

See, we’re all hypocrites.  I’m a hypocrite.  You’re a hypocrite.  Because I’ve always said I want to do this but I’ve done the other.  Yet, when we get specific about this trash, I’m telling you, friends, that’s when freedom happens.  Because the thing that’s keeping you and me from the freedom that God wants is this trash.  So what I implore you to do is think about your life five years from now.  Think about your life 10 years from now.  OK, if you don’t deal with this trash, if I don’t deal with this trash regularly and strategically, where is my life going to be in five years?  If I keep this lust unchecked, where’s my marriage going to be?  Where are my kids going to be.  If I continue to concentrate on gluttony, which is an obsession with food or an obsession of not enough food, worshipping your body, worshipping food, worshipping GMO, worshipping organic eating, worshipping clean eating.  We have so many people, especially women, who struggle with eating disorders.  Anorexia, bulimia, where are you going to be if you continue to live in gluttony?  How about slothfulness?  The sloth says, “Oh, yeah, yeah!  Yesterday.  Oh yeah, yeah!  Tomorrow.”  How about now?  “Oh, no, no.  I’m just going to chill.  I’m just going to relax.”  It’s so interesting.

So here’s some homework.  Are you ready for some homework?  I know this is kind of negative.  I know you’re like, “Oh my gosh!”  It’s positive, though, because Jesus is in the recycling business.  He can take all of this trash and recycle it.  OK, here’s the review, because I’ve gone through a lot of points.

#1 – Tackle each character defect or each piece of trash one at a time.  Have you ever lost something in the trash?  I have, a cell phone recently.  You know what I did?  Went through the trash.  It’s gross.  Just… uh.

#2 – Focus on one victory at a time.  V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.  How many cheerleaders do we have here?  Any cheerleaders?  Former cheerleaders?  Oh, I know.  You’re afraid because you know if you think about it too much you’ll go, boom, boom, boom!  No.  I used to like that.  V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!  V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!  V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!  Focus on victories!  Celebrate wins!  Give yourselves a round of applause!  I made it through the business meeting without raging on somebody!  I was around that girl and she was showing off all of her bling and her figure and I made it through without being envious!  That’s what I’m talking about.  I had a Whataburger and I loved it!  Come on somebody!  You know how hilarious?

ILLUS: I had a checkup a couple of days ago with my cardiologist, and of course he said I’m doing great.  You know, I had heart surgery a while back, that’s a whole ‘nother subject.  He said, “Man, you’re doing great.  Tell me about your eating.”  And I said,

“We eat probably 5% clean, the other time we eat whatever we want.”

So it’s in moderation, man.  Don’t lose your mind over this “oh I’ve got to have an 8-pack.  I’ve got to have 8.3% body fat!”  I mean, great for you if you have those genetics.  I mean, everyone doesn’t have an 8-pack like me, but you need to have balance.  So focus on one victory at a time.

Also, rely on God’s power, not your willpower.  We’ve been going back to this verse over and over.  Philippians 2:13, let’s read it together, 1-2-3.  “For it is God who is at work within you giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose.”  So my willpower, yeah, a few things I can do OK.  But what we’re talking about here, trash?  Only God can do it.

Associate with people who will help you, not hinder you.  Associate with people who will help you, not hinder you.  You do not want to hang around with people too much who cause you to get trashy.  That’s why the Bible says in Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man or woman sharpens another.” 

When I interviewed therapists, when I read these papers, when I talked to people in small groups, even physicians, here’s what they said.  When it comes to dealing with the trash, the defects in our lives, the sin, it always is better in community.  That’s why I’m so excited.  I talked to several people this week, “I’m involved in a small group.  I went to that seminar.  I’ve been going to table talks.”  Awesome!  You meet the best people doing that!

Last thing. Pursue progress, not perfection.  The Bible says again in Philippians 1:6, “God, who began a good work within you, will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished.”

So God will, God will see you through.  So we’re not going to be perfect but our God is perfect, and God is taking care of our trash.

ILLUS: So remember, let me go back to my story.  You remember I had all this trash, you know, and you know I’m dragging it at night and these Rottweilers grab it.  And again, I gave them one of the trash bags.  Walk out into the street, you know.  And I’m pilling the trash up and everything, you know.  Pushing it around, OK.  Positioned it correctly.  Then I walked inside.  The next day I heard the rumbling <rumbling sound effect> of the garbage truck.  And I looked outside the window and the garbage truck stopped and then it went in reverse <backup sound effect> because we had so much trash.  And I looked, and to my amazement on the side of the truck it said this:  “Father and Son Sanitation Services, Taking Care of Trash in People’s Lives for 2,000 years.”

And I looked and the person driving it was Jesus.  And the guy on the back of the truck was Simon Peter!  So Jesus nodded to Simon Peter, Simon Peter opened up the bin and dumped all the trash in the truck.  Jesus looked at me, winked, and <truck sound effect>.

Jesus has taken care of our trash.  I’ll say it again.  Our Savior is in the sanitation business.  He died on the cross for our sin, for our garbage, for our rubbish, for our rot, and rose again.  And he’s saying, “Give me your trash.  I’ll recycle it and change your life.”  Life change here is happening.

I want you to meet a man whose life was trashed out until he met our Savior, who is in the sanitation business.

 

<life change story video plays>

 

Wow, there are so many Luises out there.  And I want to give you an opportunity, the same opportunity, that I gave Luis years ago.  I don’t care what kind of trash you have in your life, where you are, I want to include you in this prayer, this prayer of change.

 

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]