Yes, just come forward for the offering please turn your Bible through Genesis chapter 12 Genesis chapter 12 tonight
We're in Genesis chapter 12 Genesis chapter 12
The Bible reads now the Lord said had said unto Abram Abram
Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee
And I will make of thee a great nation
I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing and I will bless them that bless thee and curse
Him that cursed thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed
so Abram departed as Lord had spoken on him and Lot went with him and Abram was 70 and five years old and he
departed out of Hiron and Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot and Lot his brother's son and all their substance
they had gathered and souls that they had gotten from in Hiron and
they went forth to go into the land of Canaan and into the land of Canaan they came and Abram passed through the land
under the place of Sheikham and the plain of Moray and the Canaanite was then in the land and the Lord appeared unto
Abram and said unto thy seed will I give this land and there builded he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him and
he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel and
pitched his tent having Bethel on the west and
Haia on the east and there he builded an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord and Abram journeyed
going on still toward the south and there was a famine in the land and Abram went down into Egypt a soldier in there
So the famine was grievous in the land and it came to pass
When he was come near to the enter into Egypt that he said unto Sarai his wife behold now
I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon
Therefore it shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see thee and they shall say this is his wife and they will kill me
But they will save thee alive say I pray thee thou art my sister
That it may be well me with me for thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee
It came to pass that when Abram was coming to Egypt the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair
The princess also a Pharaoh saw her and commanded her before Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house
And he entreated Abram well for her sake and he had sheep and oxen and heasses and men servants and maids servants and
sheasses and camels and the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife and
Pharaoh called Abram and said what is this that thou hast done unto me?
Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why sayest thou she is thy sister?
So I might have taken her to be my wife now therefore behold thy wife take her and go thy way and
Pharaoh commanded his men concerning them and they sent him away and his wife and all that he had let's pray dear Lord God
Just thank you for this time
We have tonight Lord to hear the preaching of your word Lord just please bless this message the pastor is prepared tonight
Please fill him with the Holy Spirit Lord as he preaches unto us your word Lord. We pray this all in Jesus name. Amen
Amen, we're in Genesis chapter 12 this evening and the time our sermon tonight is baggage
I want to talk about your baggage my baggage our baggage that we bring in to
The Christian life and of course baggage is a term that we use to describe
Problems that you bring into the Christian life prior to being saved prior to being a Christian. Thank you, sir
He's bringing my baggage
So you guys can see you know problems that we bring into marriage problems that problems that we bring into
Relationships that we have, you know, whatever may be even into the Christian life where it affects our service for God
That's what we're gonna talk about this evening
These are things that can impede us from having good relationships having a great marriage being a great servant of God is
Baggage and this is stuff that we've accumulated
Whether from the world or maybe bad churches you've gone to maybe you're under bad leadership
Maybe you didn't grow up in a Christian home or maybe you did grow up in a Christian home
But they weren't the best of examples
Maybe you've brought some baggage from that maybe prior to being a Christian you were previously in another relationship
Okay, whether it was a boyfriend girlfriend or possibly maybe even a marriage that went awry
You didn't know any better and you know now you're bringing that baggage into your current relationships
This can affect you in a very negative manner
And I want to address what kind of baggage we can carry into the Christian life
And what are some things that we can do to get rid of it?
And of course I want to use the example of Abraham now here in Genesis 12
He's referred to as Abraham, but throughout the sermon I'll call him Abraham
Because of the fact that you know Abraham here in Genesis 12 takes baggage
Okay
He brings baggage from Egypt and ends up affecting his life and the life of those around him in a significant manner
Now let me just say this before I get into the actual sermon
You know we never want to think that just because people have baggage
They bring baggage into the Christian life, but somehow that disqualifies them from serving God that disqualifies them from being a godly wife
A godly husband someone who could be used greatly of God
We never want to have this attitude where it's just like well
You know this guy used to be a whoremonger and so therefore he's not gonna be able to serve God at a higher quality
He's gonna be ineffective for the Lord or maybe you were the whoremonger and you think to yourself
Well, I can never really be used of God because of the fact that you know, I slept around I fornicated I sinned
You know you we shouldn't have that type of attitude
Obviously if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away behold
All things are become new and not only that but you know, maybe maybe there's a woman in our church
You know who might have done the same maybe they fornicated maybe you're involved in relationships prior to being a Christian
We never want to have this attitude of like, oh because she was involved in these relationships somehow
That means that she's not gonna be a good wife later on that's foolishness that comes from the manosphere
That's a complete nonsensical
Philosophy that you get from people on the internet who don't know the Word of God and don't understand the forgiveness of sins
Who don't obviously don't have faith in the power of God's Word that is able to transform someone and they can move on with
Their lives and be a godly person. Okay
We don't think oh, yeah, if this woman's been sleeping around prior to Christ
Then you know, she's not gonna be a loyal wife when she gets married wrong wrong wrong
You have the Holy Spirit. You have the Word of God. You have a good godly church
You can move on with your life and you don't have to carry that baggage with you
Now obviously there's instances where we open doors to particular sins or actions
And you know what that might carry over with you for the rest of your life for sure
You know, there's certain things that we're just not gonna be able to get rid of things that we've seen things that we've experienced
Things that we've done and it's gonna stay with us in our souls until we meet Christ
right and
Here's the best way to explain that in my opinion and the reason I'm bringing this up is because it relates to this
I think of fat cells. Are you laughing fat cells? Okay. What are fat cells?
It's what you get when you eat too much get fat cells. Yeah, you get fat you get overweight and you know quite frankly
You know when you gain weight and you know you get these fat cells
All right
You can go on all kinds of diets and you can exercise and you can get rid of you know
You can lose a lot of weight. Okay, you can get significantly thinner and build muscle and you can do well
But let me just be honest with you though. I hate to break it to you fat cells stay with you for the rest of your life
Okay. Now you can burn the fat. It's possible to burn the fat
It's possible to lose the weight, but you have more of a propensity to gain that weight again later on in the future
Because the fat cells are already there you already created them. And so let's say you gain, you know
50 to 100 pounds after let's just say after marriage. Okay, I'm speaking about myself, right?
You know because I'm the only one all right, you know, you gain like a hundred pounds after marriage and then you lose those hundred pounds
Let me just tell you right now
It's a lot easier to gain those hundred pounds again later on and that's kind of how sin works
You know when you open yourself up to particular sin specific sins
You can get into a godly church get right with God
Read the Bible and live a godly life and not have to commit those sins ever again
But here's the thing is that there is a propensity or a temptation for you to get involved in those things again
Because you already open those doors you have those sin cells so to speak
Those fat cells will always be with you for the rest of your life
Which is why we need to make sure that we make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the luster of
we need to make sure that we're cautious that we are aware of our weaknesses and
Recognize that you know every man is drawn away of his own lust and enticed, right?
so therefore we need to make sure we keep the distance between us and temptation as
Far as possible because those fat cells are still there
I gotta remind myself because I'm about to get off the cut soon
You know and pizzas calling my name, you know raising canes and all the junk food is calling my name
I want a cake and all that and you know, it's easy for me to be like, well, you know a little cheat day
Never heard anybody. I don't know about cheat days. I know cheat weeks. It's cheap months for me, you know
And so it's we just got to be careful because you know, it's easy to just kind of revert back to that
But you know what the same principle applies to sin
You know
There's certain baggage that you carry with your with yourself into the Christian life into your marriage
and yeah, maybe it's been five ten fifteen years since you behaved in a specific manner that is not comely to Christianity and you're like
Well, I haven't done in a long time. Yeah, but hold on a second because you open that door though
You have more you're more vulnerable to that particular sin and those particular
Temptations than other people who have not committed those particular sins. Why because you got baggage, okay
And so the reality of baggage is that it will some of it will always remain with us
But we don't have to be weighed down by the baggage that we carry into the Christian life and quite frankly
A lot of it we can get rid of okay
Now let's let's start with the story here with Abraham, and I'm gonna give you some brief principles this evening
Regarding your baggage and my baggage. No one's perfect here. We all sin we all fall short
We've all had bad experiences maybe and by the way some of the baggage that I'm talking about tonight may not even be sin
Maybe it's just traumatic things that happen to your life
Maybe just bad experiences that you had in different churches that's causing you to think a certain way about this church
Maybe it's just you know people in your life that misconstrued your perception of life in general
And you're bringing that into the Christian life, and it's impeding you from succeeding from growing and being a good Christian
So number one let me give you a couple things here first and foremost
Baggage is sometimes inherited, but most of the time it's picked up now what I mean by baggage is sometimes inherited
Well you grew up in a home and quite frankly
I don't really need to know your parents personally to know what they're like
Why because I know you and you are a reflection of your parents
You are a reflection of all the good that they did, but you're also a reflection of their weaknesses as well
And so am I you understand you know those are the things that we've inherited
From our parents from our environment from the people around us, and we can't really do anything about that, right?
You know you maybe growing up in a home that was you know just inherently just lazy
Maybe they weren't hard workers. Maybe you weren't really diligent. That's something you kind of inherited
But you know what you don't have to remain that way though. It could be like well
You know cuz you never want to just throw up our hands and say well
You know what my daddy was lazy my grandfather was lazy my family's just plain lazy. That's why I'm lazy
Okay, then fix it because one thing that your daddy probably didn't have was Christianity or a bible-believing
Pastor that rips face on laziness and slothfulness to get you cleaned up and make you a hard worker
But you know what you have that so why don't you go ahead and fix that repent of that laziness
Repent of a slothfulness and actually fix your character, right? But here's the thing is that some baggages is inherited
You know we inherit the flaws of our parents we inherit the flaws that comes with the environment we grew up in
But let's just be honest most of the baggage that we that we carry is stuff that we picked up that we intentionally did right?
So Abraham is an example of this look at Genesis chapter 12 and let's look down at verse number five
It says now the Lord had sent into Abraham
Get thee out of that country and from thy kindred or verse one
Excuse me the Lord has sent into Abraham get thee out of that country and from that kindred from thy father's house unto a land
That I will show thee and I'll make of thee a great nation
I will bless thee and make thy name gray and thou shalt be a blessing
I will bless them that bless thee curse him that cursed at thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed
So God is giving this promise to Abraham. This is the you know, the beginning stages of him going into that promised land and
God is promising him that he's gonna use him in a great way
He has a bright future ahead of him, right says in verse 4
So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot went with him and Abraham was 75 years old when he departed out
Of heron, of course lot is his nephew, right?
So Lot gets to join him in his journey to fulfilling God's promise
So the blessings that Abraham gets Lot kind of also also gets by proxy, right?
Look at verse number five
It says in Abraham took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their substance that they had gathered and the souls that
They had gone in Haran and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan into the land of Canaan
They came so so far so good Abraham gets his promise by God. He gets his commission
He brings his wife. He brings his nephew and they get to inherit some of the blessings that comes upon Abraham
They get to enjoy themselves, right?
And you know what the principle that we can learn there is that you come into church. Guess what?
It's gonna affect your family to you living a godly life
That's gonna affect your children by proxy as well you being in church on Sundays going soul winning reading the Bible
Will affect your family to a certain degree in a positive way
They're gonna be able to inherit some of the blessings that you get for obeying God is what I'm saying
Right now look at verse 9 and Abraham journeyed going on still towards the south and there was a famine in the land
Now, what is a famine? It means there's a drought. There's no rain. Therefore. There's no crops. Therefore. There's no food
Therefore there is an epidemic of starvation and people don't have food. Obviously. There's a potential of death
There's a potential of just you know wasting your goods not having anything. This is what a famine is
Basically what it is is just a financial economic problem that someone is facing right that the nation is facing
It says there was a famine in the land and Abraham
Went down into Egypt to sojourn there sojourn there for the famine was grievous in the land now
Let me just explain something to you that Egypt in the Bible is a picture of the world and
Anytime you see Egypt being mentioned just remember that that is symbolically represents the world
Which is kind of interesting because it says that they went down to Egypt
So when you experience a famine in your personal life, here's the temptation to go to Egypt
But just remember you're always gonna go down never up you're going down and sometimes people become unreasonable
When they experience a particular financial crisis a particular problem of famine that oh man, we just gotta do something
We just we just got to go to Egypt. We'll just
Sojourn in Egypt for a little bit. What does it mean to soldier? Just just a brief journey a brief trip
okay, so Abraham's doing what he should have done just prayed him to the Lord and just said Lord I need you to provide for my
Needs in the midst of this famine and I you know, I can't leave Bethel. I can't leave Canaan land
I can't leave the house of God because I need to keep serving God
But instead he goes into Egypt now in the beginning he took Sarah's wife and law into Canaan, right?
But now we see that Abraham is making a bad decision by going into Egypt to feed his family
You know, that's the justification for it. Well, let me just get out of church for a couple of months
Let me just get out of church
Let me just sacrifice my Sundays a couple of months a cup for a couple of months because I need to feed my family
Okay, but you're going down. You're going down. It's gonna affect you in a negative manner
Now go to chapter 13 if you would chapter 13
So he goes there and we have the whole story with him, you know telling being a little weenie and telling his wife
Hey, say you're my sister and obviously they're half siblings, whatever, but he's not doing it
He's doing it because he's scared. He's a hey
They're gonna see that you are fair to look upon meaning that she's an attractive woman
And then he's like then they're gonna kill me. So just make sure you say that I'm your brother
Oh, man, what a what a brave courageous man, right?
And and let me just say this is that you know how I said that sometimes you inherit the baggage of your family
Well, you know his son ended up inheriting the same thing, right? Because he ended up doing the same exact thing
Like oh say that you're my sister
It's just such a weak thing to do goes there and he ends up getting getting sent away
Look at chapter 13 verse 1 and Abraham went up out of Egypt
he and his wife and all that he had and lot with him with him into the south and Abraham was very rich in cattle and
silver and
Gold now, obviously we know that this probably was not God's will God did not want Abraham to go into Egypt
He wanted him to stay in the promised land praying unto the Lord not leaning upon his own understanding
But then he returns from Egypt and you know what he actually recovers pretty well, right?
Like it didn't really affect him personally very in a negative manner, right?
And in fact, you know, he was able to make some money. He got some riches
He has some resources
Look at verse 3 says and he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel
Unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Haai unto the place of the altar
Which he had made there at the first and there Abraham called on the name of the Lord
So I believe this is like a picture of Abraham getting right with God, you know, he went to Egypt
He went to the world. He went there for the wrong reasons
But then you know, he decides to come back to Bethel and what does Bethel mean Bethel means the house of God
So this is like a Christian going to the world
Backsliding right backsliding going into the world to make money they come to their senses and they come back to the house of God
Hey, you know, this is Abraham. He's like, you know what? I need to call upon the name of the Lord again
I need to pray. I need to walk with God and you know what?
He's able to bounce back and you know what?
Let's just be honest
some of you in here if you ever decided to make a bad decision like that to go out into the world and to take
A break from church and go out into the world for financial reasons because you're in a financial crisis
Some bads happen in your life and you just make this drastic move to just leave church for a while. It's a possibility
I'm not saying do this
But there's a good possibility that if you came back you'd be able to bounce back you probably able to recover pretty well
I'm not saying I'm not promising that though
But I'm just saying there is a possibility and there have been
Instances where people backslid for a while their life was not destroyed. Maybe they felt guilty
They were grieved
But eventually they were able to bounce back and essentially return back to the Bethel to the house of God full force and just keep
Serving God again. That's an ideal situation, right?
and let me just say this is why it's important to stay in church and in the will of God because you might
Experience a relapse in faith and you might be able to bounce back
But you might bring some baggage with you though because here's one thing that chapter 12 did not tell us
When he went into Egypt when he took Sarah when he took law
He didn't just bring back Sarah and he didn't just bring back law. What did he bring back baggage called Hagar an Egyptian servant woman?
Right. You know, what's wrong with that, you know more the merrier. She's a servant
Yeah, but you know if you've read Genesis the whole you know, he ends up, you know
polygamy, okay, and
She ends up bearing Ishmael and of course Ishmael ends up representing the physical Jews the unbelieving Jews and ends up working together for good
As an illustration, right but that was not God's will and so Hagar ends up returning with Abraham
Back to Bethel and that is his baggage. You know what that causes problems for him
It causes problems for his wife and unfortunately it causes problems for Ishmael who didn't even have anything to do with it
See Ishmael's a good guy nothing wrong with Ishmael. Yeah, was he mocking Isaac a little bit? Sure
But I mean what kid doesn't mock other kids, right?
But you know, he suffers the consequences not because he picked up baggage
But because his father did his father went to Egypt brought back Hagar and that ends up being his mom, right?
He's born into that that household
He picks up Hagar from Egypt and really throws a wrench in his marriage go to chapter 16 and verse number one
Now, why does it throw a wrench in his marriage?
Well, the promise that God gives to Abraham is that his seed is gonna be like the stars of the sand of the sea, right?
and it but he's like really old and he hasn't had a son yet and he's kind of thinking to himself like, you know
So when is this sand of the sea coming because I don't even have one kid
I don't even have one son but God's like hey, I'm gonna give you a son. I'm gonna I'm gonna multiply you
I'm gonna bless you but Abraham is like getting up there in age. He's like in his 90s and he's like, you know
I believe the Bible. I don't want to stagger the promises of God, but there's no child yet
And by the way, this promise is not just for Abraham. It's also for Sarah Sarah also wants a child
Look at verse 1 of chapter 16
This is now Sarah Abraham's wife bear him no children and she had a handmaid and Egyptian
Whose name was Hagar and Sarah I said unto Abraham behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing
I pray thee go in unto my maid
It may be that I may obtain children by her and Abraham harken to the voice of Sarah
This guy didn't even put up a fight like he's like, okay, it's like bro. You could have like resisted a little bit
How about like no, let's just follow what the Lord says, you know, but no, well, what is Abraham doing?
You know, he goes into Egypt and what you put in here. He goes into Egypt and he brings Hagar with him, right?
Oh, you know, I've go to the sojourn in Egypt for a little bit. So what if Hagar comes?
It's not like she's gonna provide any burden some problems for us in the future
Well, now you've got a problem because Sarah has a lapse of faith and what happens in her lapse of faith?
She encourages her husband to marry Hagar so that they can come together have a child and Sarah could be like, oh, that's my child
No, it's not your child. That's Hagar's child and Abraham, of course, he's somewhat of a pushover
Okay, as noted by the fact that he wants to call her he wants her to call him
You know his brother her brother when they go into Egypt, but even here she's like hey marry her and he's just like got it
Say less verse 3 and Sarah Abrams wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian
After Abraham had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband Abraham to be his wife
And he went in unto Hagar and she conceived and when she saw that she was conceived
She had conceived her mistress was despised in her eyes and Sarah said unto Abraham my wrong be upon thee
I have given my maid into thy bosom and when she saw that she had conceived I was despised in her eyes
The Lord's judge between me and thee and Abraham said unto Sarah behold thy maid is in thine hand
Do to her as it please at thee and when Sarah dealt hardly with her she fled from her face
so they have this baby and
Hagar begins to despise Sarah Sarah realizes this was a really bad idea
Yeah, do you think like was there no other option? How about just waiting?
This is like the worst idea you could ever come up with Sarah
Are you see I mean I think though even even Abraham's idea of going to Egypt was better than this
So they have this child and then Sarah's just like oh, you know this happened
And so I'm not pleased with this and everyone's like oh, she's your mate. Do whatever you want with her
Yeah, that's your baggage Abraham. You're the one who brought her you're the one that led the family into Egypt
You brought that baggage back you have to deal with that baggage and you want that's your son, too
Obviously, it's not the promised child. He's not gonna inherit the promises
But we see later on that God will still bless Ishmael because you know, there's it's no fault fault of his own
It's his parents fault. It's his dad's fault. Okay, the option would have never been available had Abraham not down got down into Egypt
Hagar isn't necessarily a wicked person
She's just a baggage that Abraham brought from a bad decision that he made and you know what you better be careful
What decisions you make in the future because you might come back with the Hagar in your hands
You better be careful departing from the ways of the Lord getting out of church. Oh, it's only for a season
I'm only going to sojourn for a little bit
Yeah, but hold on a second
You might bring Hagar back with you though
And you know what when you bounce back when you get right with God you'll be able to sing the hymns
Read the Bible win souls to Christ enjoy church. Oh, but hold on a second. What's what we got here
Oh, this is Hagar Hagar is not going away
you know why because your actions have consequences and so journeying into Egypt and
Recovering from that is one thing but you know what it doesn't guarantee. You won't bring back some sort of baggage with you
What am I trying to do?
I'm trying to prevent you from getting off the paths of the Lord because you might just bring Hagar back with you
And that often has a ripple effect as we see with the life of Hagar and Ishmael Israel suffered
He was punished for it by his father and by his I don't know what you call Sarah his other you know stepmom
I don't know what you call, you know, but no in no fault of his own the option shouldn't have been available Abraham
but his lapse of faith caused him to make a bad decision that ultimately caused him to have baggage in his life that
Messed up his marriage and ruined the future of his future children as well
Look what it says go to Genesis chapter 21 chapter 21 if you would Genesis chapter 21 talk about baggage this evening
All of us have a little bit of this going on right here and every single day
We got to carry this with us now
There's some baggage that we don't have to keep carrying and I'm we're gonna talk about that later on some of you
You just got to get rid of your baggage and stop using that as a crutch to say why you can't serve God
Why you can't be good good to your husband why you can't love your wife
We need to just kind of throw that baggage aside and just start serving Christ and obeying the Bible
But there's some baggage we just can't get rid of because you just made a bad decision
Look at Genesis 21 verse 8 it says and the child grew and was weaned and Abraham made a great feast the same day
That Isaac was weaned and Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian
Which she had borne unto Abraham mocking wherefore she said it to Abraham cast out this bond woman and her son
for the son of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son even with Isaac and the thing was very
Grievous in Abraham's sight because of his son now obviously the New Testament teaches us the spiritual application to this
Because from a spiritual perspective it has nothing to do with the sermon from a spiritual perspective
The children of the promised child the spiritual children is us those who believed on Jesus Christ
Okay, and if we be Christ then we Abraham seed and heirs according to the promise Ishmael represents
Unbelieving Israel that comes from Hagar which according to Galatians chapter 4 it comes from Mount Sinai
The law the Old Testament. Okay, so when it says cast out this bond woman
It's relating it in the New Testament as being you know, these Israelites being cast out into outer darkness
They should be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth because they're not saved but in a literal sense this actually happened
Okay, look at verse 12 and God said unto Abraham
Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad and because of thy bond woman and all that Sarah had said
Unto thee hearken unto her voice for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. So Sarah's just like hey, you know
Ishmael keeps laughing at Poindexter and making fun of him or whatever
He's bullying him or something do something about it. And then she's like I want them to be gone
I want them out of here now quite frankly, you know Ishmael. Yeah, he was mocking me as a kid
It's really his fault, you know, just a kid and at the end of the day, he's really suffering the consequences of these actions
What does it show in us? It shows us that you know, yeah, you might be okay with having a little baggage
But you know when it really starts to weigh down on you is when your baggage starts to affect the people who you love
Because it says here that he was grieved over he was grieved over the fact that he had to send away Hagar
But also send away his son Ishmael because it's still a son
You know what you don't really know the severity of your actions until it starts affecting those around you
You don't really know how severe the consequences of your actions are they don't really hit home to you
Until they start affecting your children and the people around you that should prevent you from making a bad decision that could potentially result in
Baggage go to go back to chapter 13 if you would chapter 13. Well, man, I'm just gonna you know
I'm just gonna have some relationship with some girl or some guy on the world and maybe later on I'll win him to Christ
In the future. No, you're gonna bring back a Hagar and you know, hopefully Hagar get saved
But you know what even if she got saved the problems don't go away though. They don't go away
Salvation fixes the eternal punishment
But you know, there's some temporal problems that salvation does not take care of now gives you access to the answers
Necessary to alleviate you of some of those consequences, but not all of them
It brings baggage baggage that we have to deal with. Okay. Let me also say this
So we see that Abraham went to Egypt. He brought back Hagar. Okay, that's the baggage
He had to bring back but we also see that he caused others
Also to bring back some baggage as well
You see going to Egypt caused lot to develop Egyptian appetites that would later destroy his life Abraham recovered
Abraham went to Bethel even then obviously Abraham suffered some with Hagar and with Ishmael
But who suffered way more from that trip lot who's the one that developed some really bad appetites?
That ended up affecting him to the point where he's living amongst homos. He moves to San Francisco
He moves to Hollywood downtown LA and then he ends up losing his wife
He ends up committing incest with his daughters not because he wants to be because he's drunken
I mean he becomes a major byword in a proverb in the Bible
But you know why because when uncle Abraham wanted to go to Egypt uncle Abraham came back uncle Abraham
Recovered but Lot didn't recover and his baggage was bigger than Abraham's look at Genesis 13 verse 10
It says in Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plane of Jordan that it was well watered
Everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
Even as the garden of the Lord like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zor
So what do we see we see that lot when he was given the choice of where to go?
He's like oh, I want the place that looks like you know fagland
You know Sodom and Gomorrah reminds me of Egypt because they're the basically the same thing you know in the book of Revelation
This is the Israel right is known as spiritual Sodom and Egypt because they're basically one of the same right they're both godless places
And so when Lot is given an opportunity to move he's like oh, let me just get an apartment
I won't get it in San Francisco
I'll just get it in some place where I can see San Francisco because San Francisco reminds me of
Hollywood that's basically what happened. Why did this happen? I'll tell you why cuz he spent time in Egypt
And you know what lot isn't Abraham's son, but he's kind of operating as his son. Let me just tell you right now
Okay, listen to me very closely you decide to backslide you decide to go out into the world. You decide to get out of God's will
Let me just tell you something. You're gonna create appetites in your children. Did I just drop that? Oh, it's been like, okay cool
I was like was that has that always been there you're gonna create appetites in your children
Yeah, even in your spouse that you will regret later on because you know, you're able to recover from it
Maybe you know the Bible better
Maybe you're just you know what the Word of God says, you know, the principles of forgiveness and restoration
But you know what your people don't know those things and your children are gonna soak up the world like a sponge
This is what I tell you, you know parents if you're discouraged and you want a backslide and you just are tired of church
You're tired of the preaching. You're tired of Pastor Mejia. You're tired of serving God do it
Anyways, why cuz you've got kids who are watching you and you know what at least do it for them
Stop being so selfish and actually do it for the next generation
Why because I'm just telling you right now
The grief that's that's being caused you right now by being in church
By listening to preaching and living a godly life is a small price to pay
Compared to the price you're gonna pay for the appetites
You're gonna develop in your children around the world and you know what somewhere long down the road 10 15 years from now
When you want to get right with God you want to get back in church guess what your children are not wanted
They're not gonna want to get back in the church
You know one thing we can't do as Christians is develop a desire in people we can't do it
We cannot instill desire in people and you know one of the most grievous things for parents to suffer is
When their children don't want to serve God they want nothing to do with God
That's a grief especially if you're zealous and you are gonna hold for God and you're gonna hold for church and your kids
Just don't want nothing to do with the things of God
Well, you know you should have thought about that before you went into Egypt because guess what maybe you got rid of the baggage
But guess what poindexter got some new some got some baggage that you help and accumulate when you went into Egypt
So now he has this baggage of apathy. He doesn't want to go to church. He doesn't like soul winning hard preaching
Yeah, he doesn't like doctrine doesn't want to read his Bible and you're just like son
If you could just love God, he don't want to love God. Why because you took him to Egypt
He developed the appetite for Egypt. He developed the appetite for sauna
Now he just wants to look at Hollywood and San Francisco all day long, you know
All he wants to do is listen to Kendrick Lamar now. They're not like us. Yeah, I'm not like you
I will never be like you that's what they want
So here's an encouragement to you
If you're feeling apathetic if you're feeling cold towards the things of God make it till you make it for poindexter sake
For your children's sake for your spouse's sake and you know what go home get on your knees and pray to God say Lord
Help me to stay in the ways of the Lord forgive me for being apathetic towards the things of God forgive me
Because I don't want to go to church, but I'm gonna keep doing it anyways because I need to be an example to my children
I need to be an example to my spouse. I need to be example to my family
They're watching me and one bad move going into Egypt can cause my son my daughter my wife to bring back some baggage
You know what that baggage will then become your baggage. I mean, how embarrassing is it?
So what where you choose to go lot? I kind of like that little little area back there, you know
Sodom. Yeah, it's really nice. It's like you're not moving to Sodom. No, no, no, I'm not moving to Sodom
I just want to see Sodom. I just want to see Kendrick Lamar. I just want to see what the world has to offer
I'm not gonna actually go there
And this is what the Bible says in Acts chapter 7 regarding the children of Israel that in their hearts
They turn back into Egypt, but you know why their hearts even went back to Egypt in the first place because they brought Egypt back with them
They brought that baggage with them. So let me encourage you and look maybe you're like, well, I don't have kids
Okay, then do it for your spouse sake because you know
It's another grief that I've seen time and time again is spouses that are grieved over the fact that their spouse doesn't want to serve God
They don't want to come to church. They don't want to come to a Baptist Church. They don't want to come to this Baptist Church
They don't want to read the Bible. They don't want nothing to do with the things of God
and you know what that's a grief to a spouse who does want to serve God look at verse 11 it says then Lot chose him all
the plane of Jordan and Lot journeyed east and they separated themselves one from the other and
Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent towards Sodom
But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord
Exceedingly so notice here in chapter 13. He doesn't move directly into Sodom
He just putting his tent towards Sodom
So the last thing he sees before he goes to bed is Sodom and the first thing he sees when he wakes up is Sodom
And where does he end up living? Sodom. Will we do in moderation? Our followers would do in excess. Talk about baggage here
Look at chapter 13 again. Let's go back up go back up to verse 5
I'm gonna give you another point here earlier in the story. So, you know
Abraham made a bad choice bring he's got his own baggage that he has to worry about
But now he's kind of going back and forth with his nephew lot
This is prior to them separating look at verse 5 it says in lot also which went with Abraham
Had flocks and herds and tents and the land was not able to bear them that they might dwell together
for their substance was great so that they could not dwell together and there was a strife between the herdsman of Abraham's cattle and
The herdsman of lots cattle and the Canaanite the parasite dwelt in the land
So we see here that lot becomes a very successful industrious person as well. He's rich
He has substance and it's almost to a point where he's almost competing with Abraham, right?
And it seems what the text is saying here is that the lots employees are fighting with Abraham's employees
Okay, they're having strife. So what's the resolution? Look at verse 8 and Abraham said into law let there be no strife
I pray that between me and thee and between my herdmen and I heard men for we be brethren is not the whole land before
The separate thyself. I pray thee from me
If thou will take the left hand then I will go to the right or if that departs to the right hand
Then I will go to the left. So here's my next point and that is, you know baggage aside from emotional baggage trauma baggage
Baggage could just mean people as we see with Hagar, right? Law was Abraham's baggage though
He messed up with law and now he has this guy who has these worldly appetites
Which leads me to my third point and that is sometimes you need to part ways with your baggage
you know certain people that you invested in or
Your friends with family that you have and you know, they're just not good for you
There's certain people that you keep hanging around with people
Do you keep talking to people to you you have around your life and they're not good influences on you?
And you're just you're just constantly lugging that person around they're affecting you in a negative manner
You know what you need to do part ways with the baggage. See I'm not carrying you anymore
You're making me become a bad Christian. You're causing me to not serve the Lord at full capacity
We need to part ways law. Hey, and you know what you go left. I'll go right you go, right
I'll go left. We need to learn some separation in our Christian lives
And it's crazy that Christians are just okay with just lugging this baggage around of people that are bad influences
They affect your attitude when you come to church. They give you a bad countenance bad ideologies
But you just persist to keep them around you just want to keep paying out with it
You just want to hang out with them and it's like you're just lugging this heavy baggage of a bad influence in your life
Part ways with that thing say, you know what? We can't hang out anymore. Well, I don't want to be rude
Okay, then then then carry the baggage everywhere you go and just be hindered in your Christian life
You know
I don't need people in my life that are just holding me down and I learned early on in the Christian life
Because I had a lot of baggage bad influences in my life and it's just like you know what?
I don't want to carry this thing around. I'm embarrassed even know these people. Let's part ways
Why because if I keep this person around me
They're just gonna drag me down and make me an inferior Christian in my service for God and you know what?
Sometimes it's a friend, but let me say this sometimes. It's family sometimes. It's family
That's like that. You just want to keep them around folks be loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ
And if you have family that's hindering you from serving God you need to part ways with that baggage now by the way
This doesn't include like your your wife or your husband, right?
Sorry, you're stuck with that baggage Carrie lug that thing around everywhere you go, but I will say this though
Let me just say this. I don't think you should part ways with your spouse
I think that's wicked to do but if your spouse is just trying to cause you not to serve God you need to serve God
If your spouse is like, you know, I need you to stop going to church and just be with me
You need to go to church. You need to pray for a miracle for your spouse
But you need to still be in church is that all I want you to change your biblical convictions for me
No, I'll carry your baggage with me, but I'm gonna keep reading my Bible
I'm gonna keep serving God believe in what I believe and you know what?
I'd rather please God they capitulate and compromise in my marriage because God's blessing is not gonna be on that
So you can't part ways with your spouse in that man. Okay, I don't believe in that type of thing. I don't believe that
Married couple should ever separate for any reason whatsoever. Okay, I'm talking about the relationships that exist in your life
Do you have control over whether to be a run or not?
You know that girlfriend or boyfriend you have that sister you have that brother that cousin that uncle that family member
That always talks down on Christianity always mocks you for coming to church tries to stop you from serving God
That baggage needs to go. Hey law, you know what we keep striving. You need to go one way and I go the other
You know, that's what I'm thankful on Instagram
I have what I call the shadow realm the phantom zone
Excuse me, because I have people who want to argue with me all the time every single day
I just open up my messages are just like unread messages. You said what do you do? I don't read them
I don't want to talk to people who are interested in learning, you know, and every once in a while
You know, I'll rebuke someone and then they they go straight to the phantom zone
You just swipe and then you put them in the general section and I just never see them
You know, it's funny about that section. I can open it right now. Just people have been there for years
I'm talking for years and I could open it right now and it'll say messaged you an hour ago
And I haven't or I haven't read or open their messages in two years
But they're still messaging wanting to argue wanted to strive you think I want people like that around me. No way
So why don't you block them because you know, they can keep watching the reals. Amen. I just use them is what I do
You know, they're a tool. I don't need that kind of baggage and you know what people use
Instagram and these social media platforms for community. This is my community. There's no such thing as a community online
This is internet stuff. We don't really know each other on there
This is the actual community right here. Well, let me just say this, you know in a spiritual sense
You need to cast people to the phantom zone. Just get rid of that baggage. Say I don't want to deal with this person
I'm casting them away. I don't need to be with this person. I'm gonna be around this individual
That's what you need to do. And you know what? I don't think there's anybody here like that in church
But if there was you need to part ways with that person if Cody was just a really bad influence on me, right?
Let's say Cody is just man. He's just always angry always upset. He just has a bad attitude around me
If I keep hanging out with them, I'm gonna be like him right just eating Taco Bell criticizing everything
Eventually, I'm gonna have to be like Cody
You know, I can't hang out with you because you give me a bad attitude
So either fix your attitude or if you don't then we're parting ways
Because I need to make sure that my countenance isn't falling every time I come to church
You know when we come to church
We should fellowship with people talk to people and not just sit by ourselves across arms
This is church and if that's you you're someone's affecting your countenance someone's affecting your attitude
Something's affecting your spirit. You really need to do you need a part ways with that baggage. It's causing you to be that way
I want to be around people that are lively love serving God or zealous for the things of God. That's what I want
I don't need that baggage in my life Abraham had to cut ties look at verse 14
It says here and the Lord said into Abraham after that law was separated from him
Lift up now thine eyes and look for the place where thou art northward and southward and eastward and westward
For all the land which thou seest that thee will I give it into thy seat forever
What does it showing us it showed us that God ended up revealing where Abraham should go
After he parted ways with law, you know
Sometimes hinder Christians from actually serving God or finding that specific will is just the people you keep hanging around with
They're weighing you down. It's that baggage. You keep carrying those bad influences and often as soon as you get rid of that person
It's like the path just clears up. Sometimes you have to separate from people who are holding you back from serving the Lord
Okay, put Jesus Christ first the Bible tells us that through desire a man having separated in himself seek it and intermedal it with all
Wisdom and again, I'm not saying that you know, you just separate from every person in our church, you know
Obviously we want to be able to get along with people
Fellowship with people. I'm just telling you be aware of the baggage that you're carrying. You're like all life is just so hard
Okay, why don't you just like throw some of those bad influences off your back can't get rid of all the baggage
But there's some that you're just willingly intentionally caring because you're stubborn because you don't want to separate from your friends or family
But I'm let me also say this, you know part ways with this emotional baggage that people keep carrying around with them
Yeah, we're all bitter. I got resentment people did bad stuff to us and times past join the club
We've all been wronged. We've all suffered trauma. Boohoo
What else is new? Right? We've all been wronged. Don't let that affect you from serving God and you're just like yeah
But you just don't know if this person did to me 20 years ago
20 years ago 30 years ago and you know what again, there's certain baggage that we just can't get rid of but you know what?
sometimes
There's some emotional baggage in here
That just needs you just need to part ways with it by forgiving by reading the Bible more by having a biblical perspective
Go to Ephesians if you would Ephesians. Hey, some of us need to part ways with bitterness
You know someone in your life who just hurts you
Excessively and you know you think about this person all the time every day every week and you know what?
That person is living rent-free in your head and that's not fair to you
That's not fair to the Lord because it just renders you an ineffective Christian by carrying that baggage with you
You know, some of you may carry some baggage from a previous church. You would say hey, that's not fair to me
You judge me based off of your previous pastor. Don't compare me to that wimp
No, I'm just kidding don't compare me to that false prophet
But you know people are like that they come from a different church and they just kind of view this church
Through the lens of their previous church. Maybe you're always in trouble at that church
Maybe the pastor would always get on you at that church
It's not fair to me and the people are in this church for you to have that view you need to cast
You need to part ways with that baggage and say you know that was that church. This is first works Baptist Church
It's a clean slate. It's people who serve God. I cannot judge this church based upon my bad experiences in other churches
It's not fair to people around you
You know what you might be carrying baggage into your marriage, and you know you treat your spouse
Based upon the bad experiences you had with other relationships. That's not fair to your spouse
It's not fair to your spouse like oh man
I just think like my my wife or my husband is just always cheated on me or or they're just you know
They're gonna do something because you know a previous relationship or they cheated. That's not fair. That's not fair
Cast away that
Baggage part ways from it because it's not fair that the future relationships that you have
To be judged upon the previous relationships that you've had bad experiences bad relationships. Whatever may be that's not fair to them
Part ways my friend, you know part ways with bitterness part ways with resentment part ways with bad ideologies
Part ways with bad philosophies. Oh, man
It's just I think my husband is just I just think he's just gonna come down hard on me or something because my dad
Used to do that. That's not fair to your spouse
Don't judge your spouse based upon how you grew up with yours with your you know dad or mom and look an ideal
Situation an ideal world you would marry someone who's just like your father
Just like your mother who has those strong qualities and good golly qualities, but we don't live in a perfect world
So you can't get involved in that marriage and think to yourself
Oh, man, you're prior just like my dad you prior just like my wife or my mom you prior just like that
You're gonna do this you're gonna and you just can you just get rid of that baggage, you know
It's not fair to the people who are around you who love you who care for you
Who are investing their lives into your life who want to be a part of your life to just constantly have this baggage hanging over them
Like oh you're gonna pride this to me
You're probably gonna do this to me cuz everyone there in my life has done this to me all this time
They're doing and then your spouse is like I married you like what I've done. I burned the toast. I'm sorry
I just what do you want me? I you know, oh, I'm sorry. I I left the toilet seat up
You know some of us and look again, I don't come from a Christian home
I got saved when I was 21 21 years in the world and in a dysfunctional family
Okay, not with Christian values or principles, but you know when I got married
I had to just kind of forget that that life was ever even in existence
Because it's not fair to my wife Sarah for me to bring that into the marriage
I have to kind of forget that that life and look it was real at one time it happened
But you know what I don't live back there
You know what the past to you and I should be a place that we visit every once in a while
When we peer through the window and be like, huh, that's crazy and then just leave but you know some of us
You know, you know you do just you just live in that window. It's all you do me. I forget the windows there
That's embarrassing and just walk away from it. I don't want to go
I don't want to look in the past all the time
Why you know?
Why do I want to look at the past of all the trauma that took place in my life?
All the people who hurt me in my life all the bad things all the stupid bad decisions that I made when I was younger
I don't think about that because you know what you do when you look through that window. You're just picking up that bag
They're like, oh, yeah, that's right. I got that baggage. Hold on a second. Let me just go ahead and carry that real quick
Oh, yeah, let me just grab this other bag here. Forget that. I'll leave that there
This is one of the reasons why I don't really like to stay in contact with old friends
You know, I had an old old friend who contacted me. He's not a Christian contacted me because he saw my reels and he's like
Oh, you know, he just messaged me and we're messaging back and forth
Let me just be honest with you. The guy's a complete idiot
Godless blasphemer who thinks it's okay to mock Jesus Christ. You know, I did Phantom Zone care how long I've known it
I don't need that baggage in my life. I'm gonna see what someone criticizing my Savior Jesus Christ, son
I'm a Christian son. I'm a Baptist son. I hate homos son. I believe the word of God
I serve Christ with my life and as for me in my house, we shall serve the Lord and so go ahead and
Remove your baggage from me. I don't want nothing to do with it. See you later Phantom Zone
Why because I don't need that in my life and neither do you you know?
You need to be able to forgive people. You need to be able to move on with your life
You know if you've had issues with your parents just toss that baggage forgive and forget and just move on with your life
You got some unresolved baggage with an aunt and uncle a mom or dad. You know what?
Why don't you just be a good well-rounded Christian and forgive them and I know that's easier said than done. I get it folks
I understand that I get that there are certain things that happen in our lives that it's just hard to forgive
It's just hard to look back and just kind of just say why forgive?
But you know it can be done though
and when you compare it to all the goodness of God that we've experienced all how good and gracious and
Just merciful that God has been to us. It's easy to just cast away that baggage
It's when you don't think about the goodness of God that it's hard to cast away that baggage
When I think about like man, I'm saved I get to pastor a church
I have a wife I have kids and even if I didn't have those things
I have so many brothers and sisters of Christ who love me. I get to congregate with the church. Like get that out of my face
I don't need that. I don't need this baggage. Why am I carrying this around? Who's is this that I just picked someone's random bag up
Yeah, you are cast it away. Just forgive your mom. Forgive your dad. Forgive your family member. Just move on with your life
It's not worth being bitter for the rest of your life. You know, well, how do I just not think about it?
This is how you do it
You don't think about it and you think about other things
The reason you think about it is because you're thinking about it and I know that sounds redundant
But it's true though. The reason you're able to remember and recall trauma in your life is because you're always thinking about it
There's trauma that happened in me in my life
I know it happened, but I can't really recall the details because I don't think about it
I'm just not like no, I'm just you know, people bring stuff up who know me my family and I'm just like oh man
I completely forgot about that and I'm just like thanks for like opening that wound again. What do you do?
I just don't think about those things serve God read the Bible move on with my life
Look at Exodus 23 Exodus chapter 23. Let me also say this is that you know, obviously maybe you've opened up some doors
You've you've got some some baggage in your life
let me just say that you can progressively unpack the baggage little by little and
Begin loading it with the yoke of Christ
Good burdens that we carry and some burdens don't go away as my last point is gonna be spoiler alert
Oh dang, you put a lot of stuff in here. This is not my baggage
but you know what as
Christians sometimes we need to just deal with the baggage that we have and just start unloading it little by little
Okay, let's look at every look at Exodus 23 verse 27. Let's just go to verse 29
I will not drive them out from before thee in one year
Lest the lamb become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against thee this is referring to the nations
Whom the children of Israel were supposed to overcome. He's like I'm not gonna get rid of them in one year verse 30 by
Little and little while I drive them out from before thee until they'll be increased and inherit the lamb
So God says hey you got baggage. No problem. We'll unload it little by little not in one year not in one month
But we'll do it little by little
Progressively unload the baggage to the point where it's not even heavy anymore
And even if there's certain things in this bag that you're not gonna be able to get rid of it's just not the same anymore
So, you know what? How do you do it?
You just unload it by walking with God reading the Bible every single day, right?
Come to church have me scream at you for an hour. Just like I feel better now
You know, maybe you need some counseling and I don't do like just eternal counseling
It's just you know, there's some counseling like I'm willing to counsel people
I don't want to discourage you from getting counseling from you, but I never do ongoing counseling though
Okay, you know, I don't referee fights by the way, which is what people think counseling is get on him get on her
And I'm just like we're gonna take that
He said that to you that I don't do that, you know, if I ever feel like I'm referring I'm like counseling is done
We're not meeting anymore. I'm not a referee here. Counseling is just like these are the steps you need to do to make your situation better
And if you do it, it is gonna get better and then you don't really need counseling anymore. Hey, here's another way having godly influences and examples
What is this? Okay. I don't know if it's like rat poison or something, you know
Hey little by little just more you have these really good influences in your life. And after a while, this is gross
This is wet. Thanks, Ulysses. So he's just like you cast them away, you know, you have godly influences and examples
Here's one of the best way
This is one of the best ways to really unload the weight from the baggage. Listen to me personal
Responsibility is a good way to unload the bag instead of blaming everyone
Because of what happened to you your hurts your failures. This is what you do take personal
Responsibility and I'm not saying that the exclusion of holding other people responsible
But you know at the end of the day sometimes we just have to be like, you know what though?
It was my fault too though. I made a bad decision and Lord
It was my fault even though obviously some of these people bear the blame as well at the end of the day
So do I so do I and you'll realize that once you start taking personal responsibility
That's like the majority of the weight there. That's the majority of the weight. Stop ducking and dodging personal responsibility
Stop blaming others because you know what they're just living their lives. They don't even care. They're not taking personal responsibility
So why don't you just take personal responsibility? Oh, man
I didn't grow up in a home with the dad and this is why I'm like this so fix it fix it
Then just be a good just be a good Christian man. You'd be a good Christian father then I can't cuz I didn't really have a dad
Yes, you can you got the Bible a bunch of godly fatherly examples here. Yeah, well, this is why I'm lazy
No, you're lazy cuz you play video games all day. Next. I'm just so depressed
Yeah, you're depressed cuz you just eat junk food all day. You sleep in you play video games. You eat junk food
You live an unhealthy lifestyle. That's where you're depressed. It's not your dad's fault
Yeah, I'm just my dad was an alcoholic join the club who I mean whose dad wasn't an alcohol
Maybe some of your dad's were not but some people use that as a crutch. Well, I'm gonna be an alcoholic because it runs in my family
I'm a I'm diabetic cuz it runs in my family, you know, it might run in my family
But I refuse to be a diabetic though, you know alcoholism might run in my family, but I refuse to be an alcoholic ever wicked
Oh, man, but your family has so what part of the family of God? I got the Bible
I got one up on my family because I have the Word of God. I have knowledge
I have good golly people around me. I'm gonna stop blaming the people around me from my shortcomings and my failures
I need to take some personal responsibility
Yeah, but you don't come from a family of powerlifters. Yeah, but I do now no one goes to the gym in my family
That's okay. I'm gonna start going to the gym
I'm gonna start building some genetics for these for my for my kids. Amen take personal responsibility
Well, it's just that you know, my my the the men in my family is just kind of effeminate
Then you stop being the break that chain break the curse break the generational curse and look
Let me just explain something to you. It's really easy to do it. For example, you have the femininity that runs in your family
Let's just use that as an example. Maybe you're Filipino or something
All right, some sort of Asians Southeast Asian of sorts. Okay, and you're like, oh man, maybe that's just gonna make me feminine
This is what you do. Oh, I'm not gonna be feminine pretty easy. That's it. That's how you do it
So don't don't do it. Here's some practical ways to do it instead of eating your burger like this
You need it like this easy fix. That was easy. You're like, well, it's not that easy, you know runs in my family
Yeah, but you need to start running with God's family
You need to start allowing the Word of God to dictate the way you are your belief system your behaviors
You need your mind to be renewed
Stop using your genetic code as a handicap in the crush as to why you can't do certain things
Yeah, I just got these anger issues didn't stop your dad was angry. Okay, then you don't be angry then
Oh, it's not that easy. This is how easy it is Lord. Help me to not be an angry person
I'm gonna be slow to anger. Do you believe the Bible? I believe the Bible
Hey, you know what if if my if I come from a violent family
I'm not gonna say well, I'm gonna be violent because my family's always been violent
No, I'm just gonna be like no the Bible says this so therefore God will enable me not to not be a violent person
To have not have a short fuse not have a temper tantrum not be a lazy person
Whatever flaws your family has you don't have to have now. Are you predisposed to those things possibly?
But who cares we still have the Word of God. We have the Holy Spirit. We have the Bible
That's all we need. So just stop stop it
I just have a tendency to just let my wife lead me then stop it
My dad was led by my mom then don't do that stop just stop well how this is what you do say no
Folks and look here's the great thing about being a Christian
You can literally just start with the new slate and just say you know what she's not gonna do those things anymore
It's not the power of positive thinking it's the power of God because God is commanding you to do it
God commands you to behave a certain way. God commands you to think a certain way
God commands you to speak a certain way. God commands you to behave a certain way
So we have a duty to fulfill that
Responsibility, but look as you unload it then you're also loading the burden of Christ as well
So as you unload all these things you make sure you start filling yourself up with the burden the yoke of Christ
Because you know what it's a lot easier to take the load of the yoke of Christ care for the things of God
Than to be burdened with the baggage that you receive from the world from your family or whatever
The Bible says come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden
And I will give your rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart
And ye shall find rest into your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light
Christian life is burdensome. It's burdensome. There's a lot of burdens when you become a Christian for sure
Let me just tell you it's a lot easier though than these other burdens that come from the world your family
Whatever may be the burden is light though
You know, I rather worry about Christian things than to worry about the consequences of my sin
I'd rather worry about lost souls. I'd rather worry about how we're gonna fit all these people here on Easter Sunday
I'd rather stress out about that. I'd rather stress out about you know, the people are gonna come here
Are we gonna have enough soul owners to preach the gospel to everyone? Are we gonna have baptisms?
Are we gonna grow or what? You know, I'd rather worry about the things of God than to worry about some frivolous thing that happened 20 years ago
Why worry about those things? Forget that stuff. You're in Ephesians. Look at chapter 2 verse 11
This is wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called
Uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made of hands
then at the time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and
strangers from the covenants of promise
Having no hope in the world, excuse me, having no hope and without God in the world and I love these two words
But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ
Yeah, but you don't understand, you know, I went through the situation before yeah, but now though what about now?
Oh, you don't understand, you know, this person really hurt me did me wrong and I have so much. Yeah, but now though
You're like saved now. You don't understand. I come from a family. Yeah, but now though you have a church
You don't understand. I didn't grow up with my dad. Yeah, but now you have like all kinds of dads here
Oh, you don't understand. Like I just I never grew up with brothers or sisters. This is why I'm just you know
This way and I say that I'm autistic but now though, but now it's different. What other excuse you have?
Oh, you don't understand the reason I'm like this. Hold on a second, but now it's different. You're saved
You have the Bible you have the Holy Spirit and look I'm not saying that your problems are gonna be fixed
100% right off the bat. You're never gonna struggle. Obviously, we're always gonna carry some form of baggage
But hold on a second. Now, it's a little lighter though, but now it's just different. It's different
Here's my last point
You don't have to go there and let me just give you a reality check regarding baggage some baggage is permanent
That's how it is some baggage you just you know, you can exercise all these principles. They're not gonna go away
I hate to tell you that but it's true and look I'm telling myself
There's baggage that I have from my old life that I'm gonna carry with me for the rest of my life
That I have to suppress for the rest of my life that I have to make sure I don't instill into my children or
In my wife for the rest of my life. There's things that I'm gonna struggle with for the rest of my life
I'm not a drug addict or anything. Just you're all like what is he?
You know, I just throwing that out there, you know
There's certain things that we're just gonna struggle with for the rest of our lives
There's baggage that we have that we will carry forever. But you know what? That's okay. That's okay
Because the Bible tells us in second Corinthians chapter 12, you don't have to turn there
It tells us my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness
Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me
You know certain baggage you can't get rid of that's alright
It just means that God can show himself strong on your behalf that much the more he can use you even that much more
Because of your so-called handicaps that you have so I'm not preaching up here
Oh, you know just just throw away all your burdens
You'll never have burdens if you just do this and no there's some stuff that's just gonna stay there forever
But let me also say this you don't have to keep talking about it
Can we all just agree that we all got problems? We all got baggage and issues
You're a little weird. I'm a little weird. We all got a little trauma in our lives
Okay, but can we move on and talk about the things of God?
You don't have to keep talking about and let me just be real insensitive here and say that you're no one special
You're no one special. You know what? Neither am I because you know, we all want to be that special
Autistic Christian that oh man our environment worked against us. This is why I'm weird. This is what save it save it
Hey, save it. We all got I was gonna say we're all autistic
But you know, we all got a little bit of baggage. We all got a little bit of baggage
And you know what? It's a thorn in the flesh. So sometimes we'll never just quite frankly will never go away. That's okay
You know what? We can say the Lord will show himself strong on my behalf. He can use this for a greater good
He can cause me to be a blessing to someone else who's suffering with the same ailment
With the same problem because I can be an example into this person and show them how to get through this situation
With this thorn in my flesh that they can do it as well all things work together for good all things
So stop talking about it still mention it if you need to resolve it talk about it
But once it's resolved it's time to move on. It's time to just say all right. I'm tired of this bag like I'm
I don't want to talk about that. Hey, so what happened here? I don't even remember just some stuff happened in the past
I'm all about winning souls to Christ. I want to serve God with my life. I want to raise a godly family
I want to learn the Bible. I just want to be a really good Christian want to please God
You know, I had some bad things happen in my life, but it doesn't really matter though because this is what's done is done
And I'm not trying to live back there
You know, there's there's little window call the past and every once in a while go there just to kind of remind myself where God
Brought me from but I definitely don't live there though. I want to see the future. I want to like do things for God
I want to love my wife as Christ loved the church. I want to reverence my husband
I want to raise my children to nurture in the admonition of the Lord
And even if I can't don't do those things. I want to win people to Christ
I want to be a blessing in my church. I want to please God baggage. We all got it. Let's pray father
we thank you so much for your word and
Lord, thank you for the principles of the Bible to help us to cast away the burdens
And we know that we can cast our care upon you for you cares for us
And obviously I'm being very extreme in this sermon, but I understand that our people some of our people got heavy burdens
I know they do I know that they look forward to coming to church and sometimes it can get lonely when they go home
I get that and that's it. That's a burden that they have to carry but Lord
Thank God that they can carry it with a church behind them though. That's a huge difference
We need to count our blessings
Thank God that they can carry it and when they're going through a hard time they can call our brother sister in Christ in church
They can spend time with people they can be encouraged by the preaching of God's Word
They can be encouraged by the Psalms. They can be encouraged by the Holy Spirit
Imagine going through those things without the Lord help us as your people
To part ways with some of the baggage that we've carried from the past
We don't need to carry those things anymore and help us to fill our bags with the burdens of the ministry the burdens of lost people
The burdens of serving Christ that yoke is far more easier and far more light and I pray you bless this as we go on our way
Thank you so much for all that you do for us Lord. May you bless our services to come this this coming week
We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen
One friend he sits at grave to bed.