Week 1: Garbage Day

Let's start 2026 off with a very spiritual question - Anybody forget to take out the trash this week? It's the first week of the new year and only the fourth day - we're starting light. We'll get to the introspective stuff.

Anybody ALMOST miss the garbage truck - you're kind of waking up, bleary eyed - haven't put the coffee on yet, it's grey outside and then you hear the rumbling of the big truck and the beep, beep, beep like two houses down. That's a special kind of panic, isn't it - you rush out of your house, maybe in your pajamas if you're lucky - butt flap, flapping in the wind, bare feet, on the cold, wet rocky concrete, desperately dragging the trash can behind you yelling "Wait! Please! Wait!" Like you're trying to get on the last lifeboat on the Titanic.

Very dramatic - but it's true! How many of you have been there?!

Yeah - if you make it - big sigh of relief, right. Go back in the house huffing and puffing but at least you got the trash out. You ever hear the truck and the beeping, do all that and realize it's too late - the moment has already passed, they weren't two or three houses before you - they were already two or three houses after you? You get out there dragging the can - and the garbage truck is already turning the corner down the street. You just stand there listening to the distant beeping - you hear the song in your head "In the arms of the angels… drive away…" Each week, over 30,000 people with ADHD inexplicably miss trash pickup despite it being on the same day at the same time each week. And if you don't get sad, you get angry… looking like Yosemite Sam after a bunny got the best of him. Or you start getting clever. Maybe if I jog over a block, I can add my trash can and nobody will be the wiser - or look my neighbor has two empty trash bins… it's not like he needs two, I could just BORROW one for a week. Yeah, nothing exposes your soul quite like getting the garbage out AFTER the garbage truck has already passed your home.

Maybe some of you are wondering why we're spending so much time talking about "Garbage Day." Or as some of us refer to it - "Garrrrrbaagee Day." And for the two or three of you who recognize where this comes from - (chef's kiss) you have impeccable taste in movies. Come and tell me if you happen to know where this comes from, chances are we'll be fast friends - but here's the deal - Garbage Day… is fascinating… I don't think we think a lot about the emotions and the feelings behind what happens on garbage day. I said there's "relief" when we get the garbage out of here. There's sadness or frustration when we're stuck with the garbage. Some of us - we celebrate when the garbage is removed. And you say, "that's weird Josh - I never celebrated when the garbage truck took the trash." Oh really? I bet you have at least once. If you have ever "gotten risky" with the trash - by putting something in it that might not be on the list of acceptable items to go into the trash… e-waste, toxic waste, dead bodies, entire trees that you just stuffed into the bin hoping it would magically disappear instead of you having to chainsaw it and call for special removal. You ever go out after the truck comes and you see that it's all gone?! And what did you do? You celebrated! Maybe with a little chuckle - "I wasn't sure they were gonna take that." "Not my problem anymore!"

We celebrate throwing things away. And we should. We don't stand in the driveway, watching the trash go with a tear in our eye saying "thank you for your service." No. We shove stuff in the can yelling "Get. In. The. Bin!" And when it leaves, we dust off our hands and feel good about it. No apologies. No grief. No weird sense of attachment. I doubt many of us have chased down the street after the garbage truck trying to get back what we just threw away.

Now, I don't know what your track record is like with Garbage Day… but I'm willing to bet that most of us are pretty decent at throwing away the trash in our kitchens and bathrooms and in the bins outside of our house - but a lot of us, we're terrible at throwing away the garbage that pollutes our hearts. The garbage that contaminates our lives and clutters our thoughts and emotions.

Most of us have no problem letting go of a cracked phone case, the sock with no partner, that science experiment that's been living in the back of your fridge for the last two weeks… but we'll cling tightly to garbage like fear, bitterness, envy, anger, regret, unrealistic timelines and expectations, greed, old labels and past versions of ourselves that don't do us any good anymore.

I know I make this point often - but so did Jesus - Jesus said in John 10:10

I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly!John 10:10 (NASB)

Jesus wants us to have abundant life. He came so that we would have abundant life. He wants us to have a rich and satisfying life. A life filled with joy and purpose. A life where our burdens don't weigh us down.

But here is the sad and bitter truth - the spiritual garbage, the emotional garbage, the bad choices garbage, the bad advice garbage… it gets in the way of that abundant life. And the more of it we're keeping around, the less likely we are to live and experience life the way Jesus intended us to. If we're living like spiritual garbage hoarders, we will probably NOT experience abundant life. People wonder - I've been a Christ follower forever, I'm doing the Fifty Things that Jesus asked me to do - I'm part of a community of believers - why am I not experiencing abundant life? And maybe the answer is - because I missed garbage day. I need to take out the trash.

Sometimes the only way to love what God is giving you in this life, is to leave what you're clinging to - the things that don't matter, the things that are holding us back. Sometimes with abundant life, there is the addition that comes from subtraction. So this new series that we're starting for the first part of the year is called "Leave It to Love It." And each week, we're gonna spend some time looking at one or more things that we need to leave behind in order to love the abundant life that Jesus is giving us. So each Sunday morning or whenever you're watching this is going to be "Garbage Day."

Now I want you to hear what I said - It's going to be "Garbage Day." Not "Condemnation Day." Not "Shame Day." Not "Feel Bad About Your Life Day." That is the opposite of the point. Those things aren't helpful. Remember what we said earlier? Garbage Day brings relief. Garbage Day is something to celebrate. Because Garbage Day is when we get rid of the stinky, nasty, non-helpful stuff in our lives so we can make room for something NEW. And if you are a follower of Christ, Something new and good is coming. You better believe that.

So I was talking about being the equivalent of a spiritual hoarder… holding onto garbage in our lives that we need to let go of. And with that I want to look at a verse that is very famous, maybe a little controversial - it's one that some people don't know how to feel about. It comes from Matthew 16:25

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.Matthew 16:25

Now context is important. This happens after Jesus predicts his death. And he starts telling the disciples what's going to happen to Him. And Peter, loving Jesus, being Jesus' friend and disciples does not like that, so Peter takes Jesus aside - privately and scripture tells us

Peter took Him (Jesus) aside and began to reprimand Him for saying such things. "Heaven forbid, Lord," he said. "This will never happen to you!Matthew 16:22

Alright. Let's just picture this for a second. Can you imagine, for a second - taking Jesus aside to reprimand Him? "Hey,. Hey, Jesus. Let's step aside for a second. Don't say stuff like that. That's not gonna happen." "People get upset when you say things like that. They don't like to think about you and the cross - I know, you said you were coming back on the third day - but look, just maybe - let's soften the delivery a bit. Let's come up with a different plan." Okay - this comes from a good place. It does. It's because Peter loves Jesus. And Peter - in some ways, he can't help himself - because he knows what he knows. He knows the systems of the world. He knows the ways of the world. He knows own what he's used to. He knows strategies and what HE thinks is helpful. So don't be too hard on Peter for this - BUT

Jesus termed to Peter and said, "Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's.Matthew 16:23

Now - let's get something out of the way - Jesus calls Peter Satan… this does not mean that Peter was possessed by Satan or temporarily influenced by Satan. In our society based on thousands of years of amalgamations of information and sometimes well intentioned by misguided ideas - like Peter's, we can come up with some weird conclusions based on what you know or don't or what environment you were raised in. When Jesus calls Peter "Shatan" - we most often associate that name with the figure of the devil or Lucifer the fallen angel - and all of the images we think of thank to Hollywood, fire and brimstone preachers, but mostly the ancient Greeks. The word "Satana" in Greek means "adversary" or "one who opposes." The literal translation, as well as the Weymouth New Testament, which translated the New Testament into nineteenth century English, the H.T. Anderson New Testament which was compiled in 1866 translated based on the original Greek of the what is thought to be the earliest complete New Testament manuscript in existence, The Godbey New Testament, which was translated from the original Greek text, by a prominent evangelist in the 19th century who had a deep knowledge of the original language, Young's Literal Translation which is an extremely literal translation from first published in 1862 by a scholar proficient in ancient languages among several other translations all translate what Jesus says to Peter to something like - "get behind me, adversary. And while we see the capital S and we think "devil" it's important to know that "Satana" even with a capital S is actual a transliteration of the word "Shaitan" or "ha-shatan" which could mean be used to label a generic human opponent, adversary, accuser or challenger. It is sometimes used to label a "challenger of the divine" which is what Peter inadvertently becomes here. As time goes on - the word Satanas, our modern day "Satan" becomes more interchangeable with the personification of evil as in the devil - but in those days, the Greek's were more likely to use the term "diabolos" to refer to that. Now, there are some theologians and translators out there who think well maybe Jesus called Peter Satan as in "that Satan" because what Peter was basically proposing was a temptation not to go to the cross and give up His life for the sins of the world and that kind of mirrored the goal of the devil in the temptation in the wilderness in Matthew 4, Mark 1 and Luke 4 - but that requires some speculation on our part and there's no way to know until we get to Heaven, and I doubt that's gonna be a question that's on your lips when you're up there.

So "The More You Know" - I hope that was interesting and helpful to you - but all of that to say what's less important is that Jesus calls Peter "Satan" here and what's more important is the other thing He calls Him - The NLT has Jesus telling Peter

You are a dangerous trap to me.Matthew 16:23

Which is fine - it gets the point across, but it's missing the visual frame of reference that is in other more literal translations where Jesus says

You are a stumbling block to me.Matthew 16:23 (NIV) (BSB) (BLB) (NASB) (LSB) (AMP) (ASV) (ERV) (NET)

You're something to stumble over.

You ever have so much trash in an area that you stumble over it? You're safe in here. Confession is good for the soul. Maybe during a remodel or spring cleaning - maybe during your teenage years. I will admit something unflattering. During my teenage years, I would have a lot of stuff going on - drama, sports, school, fun, hobbies, acting, and stuff would get spread out all over my room. You had to float like David Copperfield to make it to the bed. You could maybe see one square inch of the floor. I have stumbled over my own garbage before. Oh that's embarrassing. Someone hears you falls, the house shakes, someone comes running to see what happened, finds you on the floor surrounded by garbage - "what happened here?" You would rather tell someone you were truck by the hand of God than admit that you tripped over a mountain of your own garbage. Guess what. For some of us that story is more than a metaphor.

See Jesus tells Peter that he's a stumbling block because

You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's." Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it,. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?Matthew 16:24-26

Now - I think, sometimes as Christ followers we do this thing where we focus on one idea related to the passage, but not necessarily all the ideas that relate to us. A lot of us - we read this passage - and we zero in on "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross and follow me." And we think - martyrdom. Because that's what happens to Jesus. And we think - well, eleven of the disciples would also face martyrdom. So Jesus is saying - you need to be willing to give up your life for me to save your soul. Well, yes… but… no… it's an interesting conclusion. Applied to the disciples that's true. Applied to every Christ follower that's ever walked the earth it's not. BUT this passage has a whole bunch of stuff that DOES RING TRUE for every Christ follower - again - context is key.

How verses are tied together is important. Let's break down a couple of ideas at a time - "You are seeing things from a human point of view, not from God's." Alright. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that sometimes our human point of view is garbage. Trash. Basura. Basura. Because it doesn't line up with how God sees things. Sometimes our human point of view is comprised of lies, half-truths, corruptions… but when we see God's point of view which is the truth -

and the truth will set you free.John 8:32

Jesus goes on to say before He says "take up your cross" He says "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way." Anybody have some human ways of thinking, ways that we've lived by that we're having trouble giving up? Anybody ever said to themselves - "I'm holding on to this fear so I don't get hurt again?" "I'm keeping this anger because it protects me." You think maybe that's our own ways that Jesus wants us to give up? The whole sentence is

If any of you wants to be buy follower, you must GIVE UP YOUR OWN WAY, TAKE UP YOUR CROSS and FOLLOW ME.Matthew 16:24

And again - I think when we hear cross - we think of what happened on the cross, not necessarily what the cross accomplished. We think cross = death. Okay but why did Jesus go to the cross? What did He accomplish on the cross? He took away - He removed the sins of the world. Unrighteousness human anger, greed, envy, wrath, lust, hatred, jealousy, racism, sexism, classism, selfishness, pride, haughtiness, He took all of those on Himself to put them to death. He permanently removed the spiritual penalties for all of those things. He TOOK THEM AWAY… Maybe when we follow Jesus and take up our cross, maybe we're meant to be more than willing to die for Him or alongside of Him… maybe we're meant to put to death the garbage in our lives, the sins in our lives that hold us back. Maybe we're meant to throw them in the spiritual trash truck to be dumped into the spiritual garbage heap. Jesus goes on to say

But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.Matthew 16:25

And this is another one of those verses that I want to give you a different translation on because of the visual symbolism - I think it helps. It helps me anyway, let's see if it helps you.

Whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.Matthew 16:25 (NASB)

Again - what if we're talking about more than just corporeal, mortal life and death… what if we're talking about life as we know it. The way we live our lives. The way WE understand life. Like Peter's human point of view.

See, I don't think most of us think we're saving our lives when we say thinks like "I'm clinging to my bitterness because I'm still hurting. Or because it helps me make sense of what happened." I don't think we think we're saving our lives when we say "I keep comparing myself to others because it motivates me." We think these parts of life that we're holding on to - these human perspectives - we think we're being careful… cautious… guarding our lives… But what if by "saving" these practices… "saving" these emotions… "saving" these ideas… what if those are what cause us to lose our life and more importantly our souls. And I don't just mean our eternal souls. We're so concerned about the other side of heaven, but you can be a Christ follower with your eternity secured by the works of Jesus Christ ask still have your soul go through hell while you're here on earth because of the garbage we're holding on to and not giving up.

Proverbs is one of my favorite books of the Bible. It's a book of wisdom and in it we read

There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.Proverbs 14:12 (NASB)

Some of the stuff we're holding on to for dear life… is what is actually ruining our life… and stopping us from experiencing ABUNDANT life… cause really - it's just garbage that we've grown familiar with and accustomed to. The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:31

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior.Ephesians 4:31

Get rid of it! Chuck it in the garbage! Don't manage it! Don't pray about it while still holding on to it! Get rid of it!

Jesus says in Mark 4:19 during His parable of the sower and the seeds -

The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God's word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.Mark 4:19

Stumbling blocks. Garbage. They get in the way and crowd out the goodness of the message of God. No fruit is produced so we wind up barren branches and not enjoying abundant life.

I want to give you one more verse here where I think we focus on one part and maybe not the other. Hebrews 12:1

Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.Hebrews 12:1

What stops us from experiencing abundant life and joy? Stumbling blocks… sin is a stumbling block - and that can be big stuff, but it can be little stuff too - so much of sin is just missing the mark - because we're not perfect - we're human. We're so used to the old ways of life and human points of view - but here's the other thing that stops us from experiencing joy and abundant life - the weights that slow us down. That's not necessarily sin. Can be. Doesn't have to be. It can be worries. Misplaced desires. Unending distractions. Comparison. Greed. Voices in our lives we shouldn't be listening to. Unrealistic expectations or timelines that we impose on ourselves or others. Those things aren't evil incarnate - they're just heavy… garbage we don't need to be carrying around because it weighs us down. It's hard to run the race that God has set before us if we're dragging garbage cans behind us while we're doing it.

Or if we're holding on to garbage fears that other people try to sell us. Soapbox moment from a student of the game for a second. Indulge me if you will, please. I've been a Christian for over forty years. In ministry in some capacity for over thirty years. A pastor for over twenty years. And there is so much garbage fear that the church world has been fed by charlatans and fear-mongers who are really just profiteers over the years. Anybody live through the Satanic Panic in the 80's? The dangers of D&D, "Turmoil In The Toybox?" Yeah. How many of you understand now that it was a whole lot of fear-mongering and hype and a big nothing-burger. But so many people got hurt by those witch hunts and sensational slanderism. And the church lost its credibility for being associated with it. How many of you lived through the dangers of heavy metal music - back-masking and all that nonsense? Yeah. I was sold so much fear over all that stuff when I was younger. How many of you, now decades removed the latest thing that would send us all straight to hell in a hand basket now realize it was a big nothing burger as well. No lasting impact. Just fear that we were sold that weighed us down. I could keep doing this. Through the year people have sold fear to the church as a way of saying that this would ruin your connection with God and send you on the highway to hell for everything from movies to music to Pokémon to Harry Potter and you know what - it was all just fear that people sold to the church and profited off of. After decades of experience both personal and secondhand - let me tell you what really kills our connection to Jesus. Let me tell you what really breaks up families. Let me tell you what really stops us from experiencing abundant life -

Not movies

Not music

Not comic books

Not role playing games

Not fantasy novels

Not imagined demons hiding behind every bush

Not the exaggerated or misinterpreted "persecution" that some evangelical Christians think they're facing - you're hilarious by the way. Real martyrs would like a word with you.

Not atheist entertainers or authors or comedians

Not alternative lifestyles

Not evolution or cultural anthropology or comparative religion being taught from Kindergarten to College

Not conspiracy theories that we waste our time on…

You wanna know what chokes the abundant life out of every portion of our lives?

Clutter. Garbage. If you don't believe me - go re-watch this message (conveniently available on our website or YouTube channel. Like or subscribe, leave a comment - even if it's nasty it helps the algorithm. Thanks for your help.) Go back and see what Jesus says in these verses that we talked about today. Go back and see what Paul said in what we shared today. What the author of Hebrews had to say. Better yet - go and read the Gospels. Read every word that Jesus said - and compare what He said to the list of things people want you to be afraid of. You won't find a lot of overlap and I hope that you come to the conclusion very quickly that those false fears… are garbage. I'll give you one more experiment - go and talk to someone who was away from God for a while, had a prodigal son moment let's say, people who were struggling, but they found abundant life… and see what it was that got in the way of their relationship with God and loving people LOVING people - not people who loved their own way - and what you will find 99.9% of the time is not the things on the list of fears that people try to scare you with my Christian brothers and sisters… no… 99.9% of the time you will hear about the clutter. The garbage. The weight. The worries. The seeing things from a human perspective instead of God's point of view. The stumbling blocks.

And that's why, for many of us it needs to be "Garbage Day." For some of us - it could be "Garbage Week" "Garbage Month" or maybe 2026 is "Garbage Year." I know it doesn't have strong marketing appeal - but it's better than "Raging Dumpster Fire of a Year" which many of us have lived because of the garbage in our lives.

Look - we're probably not gonna get rid of all of our garbage today. Not in one day. And I'm not asking you. But all I'm asking you to do… is to let go of it. Don't hold onto it anymore. If you're lugging it behind you. If you've got two giant hefty bags - some of you have five giant hefty bags waiting to burst, leaking trash out of them - but you're holding onto them because it's what you know - and it may be garbage but it's warm and hot's stinky and it's yours- I'm just asking you to be willing to let go of what you know. It's an act of trust. Not in me. I mean, I hope you trust me, but at the end of the day I'm up here for you to trust Jesus. And in 1 Peter 5:7 Peter writes -

Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.1 Peter 5:7

Today isn't about fixing everything - it's about handing your garbage over to Jesus, sorting through it with Him and identifying what doesn't belong in your life anymore. I don't know what's in your bins or bags. Maybe it's fear that's outlived it's usefulness. Anger that's poisoning your peace. Comparison that's stealing your joy. A timeline that's stressing you out that God never gave you. Or a label that Jesus already removed that you can't get rid of. Today is the day that you hand that stuff over to Jesus and say "I can't carry these burdens anymore." And Jesus said, "Good. I never asked you to in the first place." What Jesus said was,

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.Matthew 11:28-30

Thank you for letting me share with you today. Until next time, May God give you the courage to let go of what no longer brings life, the wisdom to carry only what love requires and the freedom to walk lighter in the manner of Jesus Christ. Go in peace… and don't forget to take the trash out. God bless you. Have a great week!