(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair bow down with care. God gave his son to him. His very child he reconciled and parted from his sin. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels sung. When war in time shall pass away and earthly crones who through kingdoms fall. When men who fear refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains fall. The love so sure shall still endure all measureless and strong. Redeeming grace to Adam's grace the saints and angels sung. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels sung. Lest could we with thee the ocean filled and were the skies, the parks that made where every stock on earth a quill and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above would drain the ocean's dry. Nor could the scroll contain behold those stretched from sky to sky. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure the saints and angels sung. Great singing. As the ushers come forward for the offering, please turn your Bibles through Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. Genesis chapter 12. Good evening, tonight we're in Genesis chapter 12. The Bible reads, And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their substance they had gathered and souls that they had gotten from in Hyrum. 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 Shicham 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 Haai on the east. And there he built an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed going on still toward the south there was a famine in the land and Abram went down into Egypt to show sojourn there. So the famine was grievous in the land and it came to pass when he's 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 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 has done unto me why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why sayst 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. Okay we're in Genesis chapter 12 this evening and the time of my 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 in front of you know so you guys can see. You know problems that we bring into marriage problems the 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 going to 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 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 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. 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 going to 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 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 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 want to think oh yeah if this woman's been sleeping around prior to Christ then you know she's not going to 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 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 soul. 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 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 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 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 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 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 a little cheat day never hurt anybody I don't know about cheat days I don't know cheat weeks. It's cheat 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 5, 10, 15 years since you behaved in a specific manner that it's not comely 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 going to 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 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 because you never want to just throw up our hands and say well you know my daddy was lazy my grandfather was lazy my family is just plain lazy that's why I'm lazy okay then fix it because one thing that your daddy probably didn't have is 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 that slothfulness and actually fix your character right but here's the thing is that some baggage is 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 him to abraham get thee out of that country and from thy kindred or verse one excuse me the lord has sent him to abraham get thee out of that country and from thy kindred 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 shall be a blessing and i will bless them that bless thee curse him that cursed 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 going to use him in a great way he has a bright future ahead of him right it says in verse four so abraham departed as the lord had spoken unto him and law went with him and abraham was 75 years old when he departed out of haran of course lot is his nephew right so law gets to join him in his journey to fulfilling god's promise so the the blessings that abraham gets lot kind of also also gets by proxy right look at verse number five it says and abraham took sarah his wife and law his brother's son and all their substance that they had gathered and the souls that they had gotten in haran and they went forth to go into the land of canin into the land of canin 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 going to affect your family too you living a godly life that's going to 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 going to be able to inherit some of the blessings that you get for obeying god is what i'm saying right now look at verse nine 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 family 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 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 going to 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 of famine they're like oh man we just got to 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 sojourn just just a brief journey a brief trip okay this is what abraham is doing what he should have done is 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 canan 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 canan 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 going to 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 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 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 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 law 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 three 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 hai 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 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 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 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 do you bring back baggage called hagar an egyptian servant woman right you know well what's wrong with that you know more the merrier 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 burying 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 is 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 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 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 it says now sarah i 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 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 it's 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 dang what you put in here he goes into egypt and he brings hagar with him right oh what but you know i've gone to the sojourn in egypt for a little bit so what if hagar comes it's not like she's going to provide any burdensome 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 three and sarah abraham's wife took hagar her maid the egyptian after abraham had dwelt 10 years in the land of canan 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 was that 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 dwelt dealt hardly with her she fled from her face so they had 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 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 uh you know this happened and so i'm not pleased with this and everyone'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 that 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 going to inherit the promises but we see later on that god will still bless ishmael because you know there's it's still 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 gone got down into egypt hagar isn't necessarily a wicked person she's just the 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 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'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 ishmael suffered he was punished for it by his father and by his i don't know what you call sarah his other you know step mom i don't know what you call her you know but no and 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 uh 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 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 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 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 born 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 there 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 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 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 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 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 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 them to the point where he's living amongst homos he he moves to san francisco he moves to hollywood downtown l.a 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 and 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 law 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 basically the same thing you know in the book of revelations is the israel right is known as spiritual sodom in 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 because he spent time in egypt and 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 out into the world you decide to get out of god's will let me just tell you something you're going to create appetites in your children did i just drop that oh it's been like okay cool i was like what was that has that always been there you're going to create appetites in your children yea 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 going to soak up the world like a sponge this is what i tell you you know parents if you're discouraged and you want to backslide and you just are tired of church you're tired of the preaching you're tired of pastor mahia you're tired of serving god do it anyways why because you 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 wanting they're not going to 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 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 gung-ho for god and you're gung-ho 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 got some baggage that you helping to 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 he doesn't like doctrine doesn't want to read his bible and you're just like son if you could just love god and 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 fake it till you make it for poindexter'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 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 that so what where did you choose to go i kind of like that little little area back there you know so 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 going to actually go there and this is what the bible says in act 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'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 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 law chose him all the plane of jordan and law journeyed east and they separated themselves one from the other and abraham dwelt in the land of canan and law dwelled 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's 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 going to 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 five it says and 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 herd men of abraham's cattle and the herd men of lot's cattle and the canine 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 lot's employees are fighting with abraham's employees okay they're having strife so what's the resolution look at verse eight and abraham said into law let there be no strife i pray that between me and thee and between my herd men and thy herd men for we be brethren it is not the whole land before thee separate thyself i pray thee from me if thou will take the left hand then i will go to the right or if thou depart 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 into 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 they're just not good for you there's certain people that you keep hanging around with people do you keep talking to people that 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 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 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 going to 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 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 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 it's like oh i want you to change your biblical convictions for me no no no i'll carry your baggage with me but i'm going to keep reading my bible i'm going to keep serving god believing what i believe and you know what i'd rather please god than capitulate and compromise in my marriage because god's blessing is not going to 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 a married couple should ever separate for any reason whatsoever okay i'm talking about the relationships that are that exist in your life that you have control over whether to be around 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 why 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 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 what's funny about that section i can open it right now there's people have been there for years i'm talking for years and i can open it right now and it'll say messaged you an hour ago and i haven't 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 he said why don't you block them because you know they can keep watching the reels 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 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 him 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 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 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 thine eyes and look for the place where thou art northward and southward and eastward and westward for all the land which thou seest to thee will i give it into 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 passage 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 an intermetallist 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 caring because you're stubborn because you don't want to separate from your friends or family but 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 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 what 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 means you just need to part ways with it by forgiving by reading the bible more by having a biblical perspective yeah 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 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 my my my wife or my husband has just always cheated on me or or they're just you know they're going to do 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 that the future relationships that you have to be judged upon the previous relationships that you've had bad experiences bad relationships whatever it 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 going to 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 your with your 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 godly 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 probably just like my dad you part just like my wife or my mom you probably 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 want to be a part of your life to just constantly have this baggage hanging over them like oh you're gonna probably do this to me you're probably gonna do this to me because everyone's 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'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 where 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 you know what you do just you just live in that window that's all you do me i forget the windows there all right what is this oh 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 want to think about that because you know what you do when you look through that window you're just picking up that bag 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 was 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 i don't care how long i've done it i don't need that baggage in my life i don't see 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 and 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 uh an aunt an 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 pass for 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 in 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 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 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 right 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 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 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 the burdens that we carry and some burdens don't go away as my last point is going to 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 look at exodus 23 verse 27 ah 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 beast 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 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 are 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 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 you though but it 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 he's gonna take that he said that to you that i don't do that you know if i ever feel like i'm referee i'm like counseling's done we're not meeting anymore i'm not a referee here counseling is just like these these are the steps you need to do to make your situation better and if you do it it is going to 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 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 just fix it then just be a good just be a good christian man you'll be a good christian father then i can't because 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 why you're depressed it's not your dad's fault yeah i'm just saying my dad was an alcoholic join the club who i mean whose dad wasn't maybe some of your dads 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'm 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 godly 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 lifters 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 my my the the men in my family is just kind of effeminate then you stop being to 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 you eat 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 and a crutch 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 help me be slow to anger you believe the bible i believe the bible and 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 you're 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 the bible says come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for i am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto 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 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 are we going to 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 going to come here are we going to have enough soul owners 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 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 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 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 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 uh 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 going to be fixed 100 right off the bat you're never going to struggle obviously we're always going to 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 going to go away i hate to tell you that but it's true and look i'm i'm telling myself there's baggage that i have from my old life that i'm going to 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 going to struggle with for the rest of my life i'm not a drug addict or anything you're just you're always like what is he you know i'm just throwing that out there you know there's certain things that we're just going to 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 corinthian 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 with like 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 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 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 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 that sometimes we'll never just quite frankly we'll 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 if you need to resolve and 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'm i don't want to talk about that hey so what happened you know 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 i 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 a 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 love the church i want to reverence my husband i want to raise my children and nurture in 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 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 care 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 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 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 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 what a privilege you carry everything to god in prayer oh what peace we often forfeit oh what mean this thing we bear oh because we do not care we everything to god in prayer have we trials and temptations is there trouble anywhere we should never be discouraged take it to the we find a friend so faithful and jesus take it to the lord in prayer are we weak and heavy with the lord precious to thy friends forsake me take it to the morning prayer in his arms he'll take and shield me now we'll find a solace there great singing here on space