Baggage You Don't Want
Notes
Transcript
Handout
If you have ever travelled, the main thing I think most people don’t like it all the baggage. We don’t travel light. Whenever you fly, you always have to go to baggage claim. In SA they lost Kathy’s luggage and we had to go buy clothes for her for the 2 weeks we were there.
Now, a lot of people who travel, there is a trend to carry on enough of their luggage to avoid having to go to baggage claim. Think about it. People will carry bags around to keep from having to go and claim their bags.
There are so many of us who don’t want to admit that we have baggage so we will just carry it around. We all have baggage. Too many of us are carrying around things that we should not be carrying around.
Where does it all come from?
Carry on Baggage
Carry on Baggage
Where does our baggage come from?
Where does our baggage come from?
What am I carrying around that should not be part of the trip?
Here is where it comes from.
Unfulfilled expectations
Unfulfilled expectations
You wanted something, but it didn’t happen. You are carrying the baggage of disappointment.
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.
You were disappointed with an outcome and now your heart is sick.
Too many Christians think that Jesus came to make this world better, but he came to rescue us from heaven. that’s not why he came.
We don’t tell our kids how hard its going to be. How many of you would have done better if your 4th grade teacher would have told you that 1/2 of you will live in poverty.
Sports… you strike out… that’s ok… NO. You have to hit the ball.
Untreated pain
Untreated pain
The culprit of untreated pain… we have all been trained to smile and put on our Sunday best. We say, Oh, it’s not big deal but it is a big deal.
14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.
We never deal properly with the pain.
Unresolved yesterdays
Unresolved yesterdays
Stuff is going to happen. That’s not the problem. The problem is when we don’t deal with it. You have to grieve loss, but if you medicate it and don’t go through it, you won’t get rid of it.
26 And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 for anger gives a foothold to the devil.
Resolve your anger quickly. You will sleep better if you take care of things when they come up.
Unhealthy view of yourself
Unhealthy view of yourself
We all struggle with this in some way.
HS - I was shy… not popular until half way through my Jr. year… not a Straight A person…
God sees a different view of you. If you only listen to yourself about yourself, you will walk around with some baggage.
3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
The real view of you… of me is not what we have done, but what God sees in us.
Un-repented sin
Un-repented sin
Not unconfessed sin… or even unforgiven sin. We confess our faults and God forgives, but we need to make a life change. We need to repent.
Repenting is changing what we do.
3 When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long. 4 Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Interlude
When you carry un-repented sin around, it will weight you down.
Checked Baggage
Checked Baggage
When you get to the airport, I love to check my bags. I hate going all over carrying bags. I love it when they check them all the way through to my destination.
Look at this…
3 We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.
stronghold - that one area that keeps tripping you up. What is that one thing for you?
Ochyroma (okh-oo’-ro-mah)
Ochyroma (okh-oo’-ro-mah)
A prisoner locked by deception . Living life by something that’s not true.
A prisoner locked by deception . Living life by something that’s not true.
Your baggage is not based on reality, it’s based on a lie. My self esteem is not based on reality, it’s based on a lie.
For the next few weeks, you will hear the truth about you from the Lord. Next week, we will learn how to get rid of guilt.
How do you fix strongholds?
5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
How are we going to do this?
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
You just have to believe it.
32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Let me start you off with three simple truths…
To start off with, no matter what you have done…
1. God still loves you
1. God still loves you
Too many Christians go around with an idea of God who is hard to please… He’s not.
If God had a refrigerator your picture would be on it. It’s like parenting or grand parenting.
God is not mad at you… he loves you. He may not like what you just did, but he is always there to help you.
16 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. 17 God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
No one loves you that much. If knowing you depended on me letting my child die… sorry. But God did it. He let his son die.
2. God can free you
2. God can free you
Some of you have bought into the lie that this is the way it’s going to be. Instead of working on being free, we compensate for the baggage we carry around.
You can be free. Even as you write this down… stuff is falling off.
1 With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. 2 A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.
When you came in here… that black cloud is falling off. When you worship that cloud is dissipating. Get in the presence of God.
3. God will restore me
3. God will restore me
He doesn’t just want to remove the junk… He wants to restore you back to manufacturers specifications. He wants to make you new.
20 You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth.
This is the WOG and it’s true.
ALTAR
Everything I have taught you tonight is based on one thing… a relationship with God through Jesus. You may have done things right… you may come to church regularly… but do you know him? You may have had a relationship with Jesus but during this pandemic you have slipped away…
Are you tired of living life the old way? Change is available… Who is ready? (lift hands)
Sinners prayer
Pray for those who just prayed that prayer. Help us to replace the lies of the devil with your truth in our lives.