The guilty pair bowed out with care.
God gave his son to him.
His airing child he reconciled, imparted from his sin.
Oh, love of God, how rich and poor, how measureless and strong
From sky to sky, O love of God, how rich and cool, how measureless and strong, it shall forever more endure the saints and angels' song.
Great singing. As the ushers come forward for the offering, please turn your bibles through Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12.
Good evening tonight. We're in Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12.
The Bible reads now, the Lord said, had said on the Abram, Abram,
get the 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 curse at 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 seventy and five years old
And he departed out of Hyrun 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 Hyrun
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 Shaikim and the plane of More 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
buildeth 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 Hai
on the east, and there he buildeth an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of
the Lord.
Going on still toward the south, 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 enter into Egypt,
that he said unto Sarah, 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 with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee."
And it came to pass that when Abram was coming to Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
The princes also of 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 he-asses and men-servants and maid-servants, and she-asses 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 in his wife and all that he had.
Let's pray to the 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.
Look at where we're in Genesis chapter 12 this evening and the time we're serving 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 in front of me so you guys can see.
Problems that we bring into marriage,
problems that we bring into relationships that we have,
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 that 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 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.
Now, 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, that 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 going to 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 being Christ, he is a new creature all things are passed away. Behold all things are becoming new
And not only that, but you know, 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 going to 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 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?
But I don't wanna think, oh yeah,
if this woman's been sleeping around prior to Christ,
then 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 golly 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 going to be able to get rid of, things that we've seen, things that we've experienced,
things that we've done, and it's going to 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.
Why are you laughing?
Fat cells, okay?
What are fat cells? It's what you get when you eat too much.
Get fat cells you get 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 100 pounds after marriage,
and then you lose those 100 pounds.
Let me just tell you right now,
it's a lot easier to gain those 100 pounds again later on.
And that's kinda how sin works.
You know, when you open yourself up
to particular sins, 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 opened 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 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 got to remind myself because I'm about to get off the cut soon, you know, and pizza's 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
Little cheat day never heard, but 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 gotta 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 yourself
into the Christian life, into your marriage.
And yeah, maybe it's been five, 10, 15 years
since you behaved in a specific manner
that is not commonly to Christianity.
And you're like, well, I haven't done it in a long time.
Yeah, but hold on a second,
because you opened 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 it's 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 a 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 grow it up at a home
that was 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,
because we 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 the 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 Abram get the out of that country and from that kindred
Or verse one excuse me the Lord has sent into Abram get the out of that country and from that kindred from my father's house
Onto a land that I will show thee and I'll make of thee a great nation of a blessed theme and make thy name great and I shall be a blessing
And I will bless them to 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 beginning stages of him going into that promised land.
And God is promising him that he's going to use him in a great way.
He has a bright future ahead of him, right?
It says in verse 4,
So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and law went with him.
And Abram was 75 years old when he departed out of Hayran.
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 gets by proxy, right?
Look at verse number five.
It says, And 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 gotten in Heron, and they
went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and 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 too.
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 an Abram 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 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 Abram went down into Egypt to 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 it symbolically represents
the world, which is kind of interesting
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.
It's never up.
You're going down.
And sometimes people become unreasonable
when they experience a particular financial crisis,
a particular problem, a famine,
they're like, oh man, we just gotta do something.
We just gotta go to Egypt.
We'll just sojourn in Egypt for a little bit.
What does it mean to sojourn?
Just a brief journey, a brief trip, okay?
So Abram is doing what he should have done is just prayed unto 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 Abram 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 couple for a couple of months because I need to feed my family okay but you're going down
you're going down it's going to affect you in a negative manner now go to chapter 13 if you will
So, he goes there and we have the whole story with him,
you know, 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 like, 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 brave, courageous man, right?
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,
and he was like, oh, say that you're my sister.
It's just such a weak thing to do.
goes there, and he ends up getting sent away.
Look at chapter 13 verse 1,
and Abram went up out of Egypt,
he and his wife, and all that he had,
and with him into the south,
and Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and gold.
Now, obviously we know that this prior 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
He 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 Hayi, 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 what?
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.
And 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 take a break from church
and go out into the world for financial reasons
because you're in a financial crisis,
some bad's happened 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 it's a good possibility that if you came back
you'd be able to bounce back.
You'd probably be 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 to 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 Lot,
he didn't just bring back Sarah and he didn't just bring back Lot.
What did he bring back?
Baggage called Hagar.
An Egyptian servant woman right you know, what's wrong with that? You know more the Marrior she's a servant
Yeah, but you know if you've read Genesis though
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.
Something 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 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 going to be like the stars of the 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 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 wanna 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, it says,
Now, Sarah, Abraham's wife, bear him no children.
And she had a handmaid, an 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, and maybe
that I may obtain children by her.
And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarah.
This guy didn't even put up a fight.
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
Hey, what you putting here? He goes into Egypt and he brings Hagar with them, right?
Oh, what but 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 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, that'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.
3.
And Sarah Abram's wife took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years
in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.
And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived.
And when she saw that she had conceived,
her mistress was despised in her eyes.
And Sarah said unto Abram, 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 Abram said unto Sarah, behold, thy maid is in thy hand.
Do to her as it pleases 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 sitting?
I mean, I think the,
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 Abraham's like, oh, she's your maid,
do whatever you want with her.
Yeah, that's your baggage, Abraham.
You're the one who brought her you're the one who led the family into Egypt you brought that baggage back
You have to deal with that baggage and you know that's your son, too. Now 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 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 God 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 gonna soldier 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 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.
Ishmael suffered, he was punished for it,
by his father and by his,
I don't know what you call it,
Sarah, his other step-mom, I don't know what you call it.
You know, but no, in no fault of his own.
The options 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
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 we're going to talk about that later on.
Some of 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 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 and verse 8 it says in 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
She'll 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 airs 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 that should be weeping and wailing in the nation 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 the
Harkin unto her voice for an 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, but he's a kid.
It's really his fault, you know?
He's just a kid.
And at the end of the day,
he's really suffering the consequences of these actions.
What is it showing 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 it.
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 back to chapter 13 if you would.
Chapter 13.
Oh, 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 gets 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 it 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 in a month's 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 and 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
look at Genesis 13 verse 10 it says in law 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
You know Sodom and Gomorrah reminds me of Egypt because they're the basically the same thing
You know in the book of Revelation it says 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 someplace 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, because he spent time in Egypt.
You know what, Lot isn't Abraham's son,
but he's kind of operating as his son.
And let me just tell you right now, okay,
listen to me very closely.
You decide to backslide.
You decide to go on to 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, has that always been there?
You're gonna create appetites in your children,
yet 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, because 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 being caused to 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 appetizer you're gonna develop
in your children when they're out in the world.
And you know what?
Somewhere along down the road, 10, 15 years from now,
when you wanna get right with God,
you wanna get back in church,
guess what?
Your children are not gonna wanna 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 for parents to suffer is
When their children don't want to serve God and want nothing to do with God. That's a grief
Especially if you're zealous and you are gun-hole for God and you're gun-hole 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?
Point Dexter 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.
Ugh.
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 son of 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 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,
fake it till you make it
for point extra's 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 going to 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 an example to my
family that are 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 that so what were you choose to go a 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 saw them. No, no, I'm not moving to saw them. I just want to see saw them
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 seven
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's 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
Don't 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 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 dwelt in the cities of the plane 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.
What 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 five.
I'm gonna give you another point here,
earlier in the story.
So, you know, Abraham made a bad choice,
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,
And Lot also, which went with Abram,
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 herdmen of Abrams cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle and the Canaanite and 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 Lot's employees are fighting with Abraham's employees, okay?
They're having strife.
So what's the resolution look at verse 8 and Abram said into law let there be no strife
I pray that between me and thee and between my herd men and I heard men for we be brethren is not the whole land before thee
Separate thyself. I pray thee from me if that 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?
Lot 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 you have and you know what they're just not good for you
There's some 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 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.
Say, 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 hanging out with them
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 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 to 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.
And you just wanna 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 wife
or your husband, all right?
Sorry, you're stuck with that baggage.
Kerry, love 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 me what I believe and you know what I rather please God
that 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 manner, okay?
I don't believe in that type of thing.
I don't believe that married couples should ever separate
for any reason whatsoever, okay?
I'm talking about the relationships that exist in your life
that 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
just like unread messages.
You say, 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 go straight to the phantom zone.
You just swipe and you put them in the general section
and I just never see them.
You know what's funny about that section?
I can open it right now.
There's people who have been there for years.
I'm talking about for years.
And I can open it right now, and it'll say message you
an hour ago.
And I haven't read or opened their messages in two years,
but they're still messaging.
Wanting to argue, wanting to strive.
You think I want people like that around me?
No way.
You say, why don't you block them?
Because 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.
But let me just say this, you know, in a spiritual sense,
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 don't need to 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 par 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's 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
And you know what, 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, someone's affecting your countenance,
someone's affecting your attitude,
something's affecting your spirit,
you really need to do, you need to
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 unto Abraham,
after that law was separated from him,
lift up not thy eyes and look for the place
where thou art northward and southward and eastward
and westward, for all the land which thou seeest
to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever.
What is 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 himself seeketh and intermedaleth 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, oh, 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 carrying because you're stubborn,
because you don't want to separate from your friends or family.
But let me also say this, you know, partways with this emotional baggage
that people keep carrying around with them.
Yeah, we're all bitter. We all got resentment people did bad stuff to us in times past
Join the club
We've all been wronged. We've all suffered trauma
boo-hoo
What 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 what, 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
You know some of you may carry some baggage from a previous church. You would take hey, that's not fair to me
You judge me based off of your previous pastor don't compare me to that whip not skinny
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 so you know what, 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 treat your spouse based upon the bad experiences
that 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 my wife or my husband
is just always cheating on me or they're just,
you know, they're gonna do something
because you know, a previous relationship
or they cheated on, that's not fair!
That's not fair cast away that baggage
Part ways from it because it's not fair to 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, in an ideal situation, in 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're prior, just like my wife,
or my mom, you're prior, just like them,
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 wanna be a part of your life,
to just constantly have this baggage hanging over them,
like, oh, you're gonna pry this to me.
You're probably gonna do this to me,
because everyone there in my life has done this to me,
all this time they're doing this,
and then your spouse is like, I married you.
Like, what?
I burned the toast, I'm sorry.
I just, what do you want me, I, you know,
oh, I'm sorry, 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.
And you know what, the past to you and I
should be a place that we visit every once in a while
where we peer through the window and be like,
huh, that's crazy, and then just leave.
But you know what, some of us,
you know what you do, you just live in that window.
It's all you do.
Me?
I forget the windows there.
What is this?
Oh, that's embarrassing.
And just walk away from it.
I don't want to look at 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 want to think about that.
Because you know what you do when you look through that window you're just picking up that bag. You'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 how an old old friend who contacted me is not a Christian
Contacted me because he saw my reels and he was like, oh, you know, he just messaged me
We're messaging back and forth
Let me be honest with you the guys a complete idiot
Godless blasphemer who thinks it's okay to mock Jesus Christ, you know, I did phantom zone
Okay, how long I've done it. I don't need that baggage in my life
I don't 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 that's 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's 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 pass her 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 and 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 this this?
Did I just pick 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're like, 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 to 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, ugh.
Thanks for like opening that wound again
So 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 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.
Because there's burdens that we carry,
and some burdens don't go away
as my last point is gonna be, spoiler loader.
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 Exodus 23 verse 27.
29, I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the land 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 going to get rid of them in one year.
Verse 30, by little and little will I drive them out from before thee until they'll be
increased and inherit the land.
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?
You come to church, have me scream at you for an hour.
You're 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 me though.
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,
oh, you gonna take that?
Day, he said that to you.
I don't do that, you know.
If I ever feel like I'm refereeing,
I'm like, counseling's 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 rap 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 really
So he's just like you cast them away, you know, you have got the 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 what, 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.
Lord, it was my fault even though obviously some of these people bear the blame as well at the end of the day so to why?
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 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 because you play video games all day.
Next.
I'm just so depressed.
Yeah, you're depressed because 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.
I mean, whose dad wasn't an alcoholic?
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 because 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
It's 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 for my shortcomings and my failures. I need to take some personal
Responsibility. Yeah, but you don't come from a family of power lift is 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
Oh, it's just that, you know, the men in my family
are just kind of effeminate, then you stop being,
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 effeminacy that runs in your family.
Let's just use that as an example.
Maybe you're Filipino or something, all right?
Some sort of Asian, 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
It's pretty easy. That's it. That's how you do it. Stop. Just don't just don't do it
Here's some practical ways to do it instead of eating your burger like this
Either like this
Easy fix that was easy
You're like, well, it's not that easy.
You know, it 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
and a crush as to why you can't do certain things.
Yeah, I just got these anger issues, then 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. How am I going to be slow to anger?
You believe the Bible? I believe the Bible.
You know what? 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 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, wow, 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,
I'm just 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
Bible says come unto me all you that labor and are heavy-laden. I will give your rest
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me frying meek and lowly in heart and you should find rest into your souls
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light
The 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 it may be.
The burden is light though.
You know, I'd 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 are we gonna fit all these people
here on Easter Sunday?
I rather stress out about that.
I rather stress out about, you know, the people who are going to come here.
Are we going to have enough soldiers to preach the gospel to everyone?
Are we going to have baptisms?
Are we going to 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 where for remember the E 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
That 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
It's giving 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.
Yeah, yeah.
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, though.
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, which is 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.
You're all like, what is he, you know?
I'm 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 2 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, there's certain baggage you can't get rid of,
that's all right.
It just means that God can show himself strong
on your behalf that much 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 though
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 it
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 no 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
that sometimes will 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 anymore
You 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 alright. I'm tired of this bag
Like I'm I'm I don't want to talk about that. Hey, so what happened? I don't even remember just
Some stuff happened in the past
I'm all about waiting 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 what's done is done, and I'm not trying to live back there
You know there's there's little window called 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 and nurture
the admonition of the Lord.
And even if I can't do those things,
I want to win people to Christ.
I want to be a blessing of 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
that help us to cast away the burdens.
And we know that we can cast our care upon you
for you careth for us.
And obviously I'm being very extreme in this sermon,
but I understand that 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 a 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 brothers sister and 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
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 this things in Jesus name. Amen
Song number 355, what a friend we have in Jesus.
Song number 355.
Song number 355 on the first verse.
What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sins and griefs to bear.