Speaker: Baggage

Matthew 11:28-30 | AMPC (28) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] (29) Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer 6:16] (30) For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good–not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

Jesus is telling us that we do not have to go through this life burdened down with a bunch of baggage. He wants us to take His burden which is light and find rest for our souls.

Pride is the deadliest enemy of the Christian today.

It is a simple truth that our flesh wants to be recognized, exalted and admired. It wants to be looked up to by other people.

We can see through the fall of Lucifer, why pride is called the father of all sin.

If we think about it, we realize the reason that anybody knowingly disobeys God is because he thinks he has a better idea than God does.

Pride is the only reason that division exists in the Body of Christ.

Pride says, “I am right and want to have things my way.”

Religion’s solution to pride is just as dangerous and that is self-abasement.

The truth is self-abasement is another form of pride.

Know that pride is self-exaltation but that true humility is not self-abasement.

Humility is exalting God through the accomplishments He produces in your life. Humility is making sure that God gets all of the glory, and you don’t try and partake in any of it.

Recognize that without God you cannot be or do anything but that in Christ there is absolutely nothing you can’t do.

If you want the presence of God in your life, then see to it that He gets the glory for all the good things that He works through you.

King Saul was a man mightily used by God; however, through pride he lost everything – his anointing, his position and eventually his life.

Saul was completely defeated, and his defeat came through the open door of deception into his life in the form of pride.

Saul wasn’t always full of pride.

1 Samuel 15:17 | NKJV (17) So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel?

Saul started out little in his own estimation and thus God could use him. As soon as he grew in his estimation of himself, his own pride defeated him.

Humility is the only thing that makes any of us useful in the plan and Kingdom of God.

If we allow pride to grow in our lives – as it did in Saul’s – God’s anointing will decrease. That is the point at which we risk losing the position that God has called us.

Let’s look at some identifying marks of pride in the life of King Saul:

1. Lies and Exaggerations

1 Samuel 13:3-4 | NKJV (3) And Jonathan attacked the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. Then Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear!” (4) Now all Israel heard it said that Saul had attacked a garrison of the Philistines, and that Israel had also become an abomination to the Philistines. And the people were called together to Saul at Gilgal.

We see here that Jonathan smote the Philistines, but Saul wanted all Israel to hear that he himself had defeated them.

We see here that Saul was insecure with his own identity and position with God. As a result, he lied to make himself look better in the eyes of the people.

We all have to deal with the tendency toward insecurity. It makes us want to exaggerate or even lie about ourselves to elevate ourselves in the eyes of others. You can’t treat this lightly – because it will grow. Recognize it and shut the door on it.

2. Impatience and Arrogance

1 Samuel 13:8-14 | NKJV (8) Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. (9) So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. (10) Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. (11) And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, (12) then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” (13) And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you. For now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. (14) But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”

We see here that in his impatience, Saul arrogantly tried to assume the office and anointing of another man, the prophet.

Saul became impatient while he was waiting for the plan of God to unfold. He did not want to wait and allow God to bring it to pass.

Don’t try to usurp someone else’s call, responsibility or anointing to attempt to get things moving more quickly for you, simply because you are unhappy with God’s timetable.

3. A Low Regard for God’s Word

1 Samuel 15:1-3 | NKJV (1) Samuel also said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the LORD. (2) Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. (3) Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ “

We see Saul had a low regard for the Word of God.

It may seem harsh what he was commanded to do but it is important to realize we don’t know everything He knows about a given situation. That is why we can’t lean to our own understanding.

We see Saul’s response:

1 Samuel 15:9 | NKJV (9) But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

Saul felt free to disregard the command of the Lord for the sake of gaining popularity with the people.

He rationalized a way out of doing what God had said to do, doing instead what he thought best.

4. Blame Shifting

1 Samuel 15:20-21 | NKJV (20) And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. (21) But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”

We see here that Saul began to blame-shift or refused to accept responsibility for his actions by pointing to something or somebody else as the reason for your situation.

We also saw this in the Garden with Adam blaming first his wife and then God..

Genesis 3:12 | NKJV (12) Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

As we examine our hearts for pride ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I so insecure in my own identity in Christ that I tend to lie and exaggerate to make myself look better?
2. Do I try to operate in other people’s callings or anointing because of impatience or because I think I can stand in someone else’s office?
3. Am I quick to obey God’s commands or do I make excuses for doing things my way?
4. When I experience the consequences of my mistakes, do I shift the blame elsewhere?

If you experience any of these tendencies, then pride may be at work in your life. Do something about it and don’t let it destroy your life as it did Saul’s.

1 Peter 5:6 | NKJV (6) Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,

1 Peter 5:5 | NKJV (5) Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

Learn to think of yourself as small, dependent on Him for everything, realizing that without Him we are nothing.

Always be mindful to shift all the credit to the Lord.

Matthew 11:28-30 | AMPC (28) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] (29) Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer 6:16] (30) For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good–not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

Jesus is telling us that we do not have to go through this life burdened down with a bunch of baggage. He wants us to take His burden which is light and find rest for our souls.

Many Christians labor under some sense that we must pay Him back for the wonderful things that He has done for us.

This unconscious desire to pay God back will become baggage to you if you do not deal with it. It will begin to affect every area of your life.

Ephesians 2:8-9 | TPT (8) For it was only through this wonderful grace that we believed in him. Nothing we did could ever earn this salvation, for it was the gracious gift from God that brought us to Christ! (9) So no one will ever be able to boast, for salvation is never a reward for good works or human striving.

The way that we repay the Lord for what He has done for us is to:

Psalms 116:12-13 | TPT (12) So now, what can I ever give back to God to repay him for the blessings he’s poured out on me? (13) I will lift up his cup of salvation and praise him extravagantly for all that he’s done for me.

1. Search the Word and find out who we are and what belongs to us in Christ
2. Walk in the fullness of all that He purchased for us.

Psalms 103:1-6 | NKJV (1) Bless the LORD, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! (2) Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: (3) Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, (4) Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, (5) Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (6) The LORD executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed.

David is doing some self-talk here just like we do today.

If David tells us to “forget not” all our benefits, then we must be prone to forget them.

Let’s look at what some of those benefits are:

1. He forgives all your iniquities. (v.3)

These are not just the occasional sin but the things that we have a problem with that we have not yet overcome in our lives. God’s promise is to help us fix what is going on in us.

Jesus and His blood have the power to change us and make us holy and pleasing to God.

Philippians 1:6 | TPT (6) I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!

If Jesus cannot turn people around, then Adam and his sin are stronger than Jesus. We know that this simply is not true!

2. He heals all your diseases. (v.3)

God heals of the “ills” of mankind and has done this through the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice.

Healing is yours: spirit, soul, and body!

3. He redeems your life from destruction. (v.4)

To redeem is a reference to the next of kin that buys back a relative’s property, to be an avenger and deliver someone.

The word “destruction” should be translated “the pit” of destruction.

Sometimes we can find ourselves in a pit, even of our own doing, but God will deliver us and bring us out of that pit.

4. He crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercies. (v.4)

This word “crown” does not necessarily mean a crown that you wear. The Hebrew word truly means in this context “to encircle around you”.

I truly believe that David is saying that God will encircle you with peace, love, mercy and compassion.

5. He satisfies our mouths with good things. (v.5)

Satisfy – to have enough or to full of

He will meet your everyday basic needs and satisfy you with good things.

6. He renews your youth and strength like an eagle’s. (v.5)

The eagle will throughout its life “molt” or lose it’s feathers starting from top to bottom in a process that can take six months but once complete the eagle has a brand new set of feathers. The old ones are gone and new ones are present.

This gives the eagle a new lease on life to carry on and similarly the Lord will do the same thing in us.

7. He makes things right for those who have been wronged.

Psalms 103:6 | NKJV (6) The LORD executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed.

Psalms 103:6 | ERV (6) The LORD does what is fair. He brings justice to all who have been hurt by others.

Psalms 103:6 | NLT (6) The LORD gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

Psalms 103:6 | CEV (6) For all who are mistreated, the LORD brings justice.

God will cause the wrongs in our lives to be made right sooner or later.

The reality is that these things do not just happen in our lives. We must find out about them and then believe and receive them into our lives.

The next time that you feel like you need to pay the Lord back for His wonderful grace and forgiveness, remind yourself of all the things He has done for you, put them in mind, talk about them and live them out in your life.

Matthew 11:28-30 | AMPC (28) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] (29) Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer 6:16] (30) For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good–not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

Jesus is telling us that we do not have to go through this life burdened down with a bunch of baggage. He wants us to take His burden which is light and find rest for our souls.

Matthew 6:25 | NKJV (25) “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

When you worry, worry becomes your life.

Little worries become big worries.

Matthew 6:26 | NKJV (26) Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

God has a system for you that birds don’t even have available to them yet God has a plan for them. If He has a plan for them, then He has a much greater plan for you.

Matthew 6:27 | NKJV (27) Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

Did you grow because you sat around and thought about growing?

We don’t sit around and think about growing. It is part of the normal process of life and will happen as we live out the process.

Worry is imagination abuse. Worry is destructive. Worry affects our spirit, soul and body.

God never intended for us to use our imaginations for worry.

Your imagination was given to you by God to empower you to be able to see good things that have not happened yet.

Genesis 15:5 | NIV (5) He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars–if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

God was trying to stimulate his imagination to get him to see what has not yet happened but will happen if Abraham continues to trust God.

Your imagination is a tool given to you by God to enable you to see the next good thing that is coming to you because of His goodness.

The only way to overcome these negative imaginations is with a fight.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 | KJV (4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; When we cast something down, we are saying that we are done with it and it is good for nothing.

In a war, you have to use a weapon. God’s Word is the effective weapon that God has given to us to tear down those imaginations.

Ephesians 6:17 | NKJV (17) And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

The word for “Word” here is not “logos.” It is “rhema” which is the spoken Word of God and implies speaking one part of the Word of God.

The word for “sword” in the Greek is actually the word for a smaller, more specific, more potentially dangerous sword that could accomplish something more specific.

Never underestimate the power of an individual scripture.

Notice that when Jesus resisted temptation, He could have rattled off many chapters of the Scriptures but each time He only mentioned one verse.

You need to arm yourself with battle verses to defend yourself.

Positive thinking alone with not defeat the negative thoughts that are going on in your mind.

You cannot overpower worry with another thought.

Many people are defeated because they give expression to every negative thing that comes across their minds.

The spoken Word of God is what brings those thoughts captive and casts them down because you are done with them.

If you deal with confusion:

John 10:27 | NKJV (27) My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

If you battle the thoughts of dying young: 

Psalms 91:16 | NKJV (16) With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”

If you struggle financially and always have:

Deuteronomy 28:8 | NKJV (8) “The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.

If you are concerned about your children

Isaiah 54:13 | NKJV (13) All your children shall be taught by the LORD, And great shall be the peace of your children.

Jeremiah 31:16-17 | NLT (16) But now this is what the LORD says: “Do not weep any longer, for I will reward you,” says the LORD. “Your children will come back to you from the distant land of the enemy. (17) There is hope for your future,” says the LORD. “Your children will come again to their own land.

If you struggle with fear:

2 Timothy 1:7 | NKJV (7) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

These are individual verses that become swords in your mouth.

Remember, worry is relentless and is very persistent. You and I must be more persistent than those thoughts.

In the beginning it will take great effort.

God’s Word will not only cleanse your mind, but it will train your mind.

The more you practice, the easier it is to do and the more quickly your mind responds.

Your mind will ultimately follow after what is coming out of your mouth. That is how God wired you.

Don’t let worry be a heavy burden on your back.

Matthew 11:28-30 | AMPC (28) Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] (29) Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer 6:16] (30) For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good–not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

If you could really see into the souls of people, you would see that type of baggage being carried around even by people that don’t realize they are carrying any baggage.

What we do in life is learn how to function with the baggage that we carry.

We cover up for them. We make devices and try to compensate for them.

Sometimes we can have a physical injury early in life and even though we may have recovered from it, we may now have limited flexibility or something like it and we learn in life to compensate or hide it.

We carry these things in life, and we try and skirt around situations and circumstances in life that may expose the baggage.

We know if we get into a certain set of circumstances, it may trigger some kind of reaction or response because of the baggage that will embarrass us, so we avoid those circumstances all together.

Why does the baggage show up?

Proverbs 25:19 | NKJV (19) Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble Is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint.

The time of trouble is pressure time. When you try and lean on this person in a time of trouble, they are not dependable. The bad tooth and foot out of joint were existing conditions that were only exposed during the pressure time.

Pressure does not create the flaw, it just exposes it.

If you don’t deal with the baggage, it will eventually come between you and the people who mean the most to you.

The baggage will begin to wear on you and affect your relationships.

It can be something that happened to you early in life and because we do not deal with those things, they will show up later in life at the most inopportune times when you least need them to surface.

It is important that we deal with these things because there are people that you have in your life right now that you may not have in your life later because these things come up and damage the relationship beyond repair.

How does Baggage Start?

Satan uses people to bruise other people, and this creates the baggage.

Ephesians 6:12a | NKJV (12) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood…

The devil uses people to hurt and bruise other people. When this happens, we carry this bruise.

Often, it is bruised people that turn around and inflict the same kind of damage on other people.

“Since I am a Born-Again believer, I thought that when I received Christ all of my baggage would go away.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 | NKJV (17) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

James 1:21 | AMPC (21) So get rid of all uncleanness and the rampant outgrowth of wickedness, and in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save (sozo – heal, preserve, make whole) your souls.

What Satan is really after in trying to bruise us is to make us hate God and then hate ourselves.

Satan wants to injure us in our souls so that we will carry that and then in turn hurt other people.

If you hate yourself, you are going to hurt other people.

Matthew 22:37-39 | NKJV (37) Jesus said to him, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like it: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’

When you begin to love yourself, you can truly begin to love others.

God put His Spirit on the inside of you so that you will not hate yourself. (Romans 5:5)

We can learn to let these things go.

God wants to set you free from these things.

The baggage is not in your innermost spirit, it is in your soul and your soul can be renewed and repaired.

Car Restoration Illustration: The engine and transmission is brand new but the body needs painting, the upholstery is ripped, the windows are cracked, etc. Little by little the shop begins to replace one thing a week until the car is totally renewed and restored.

Psalms 23:3 | NKJV (3) He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.

Psalms 23:3a | BBE (3) He gives new life to my soul…

You are going to find out that there are a whole lot of people that are just like you and carrying baggage.

In this series, we are going to talk about the process of getting rid of this baggage so that you can be free, and you will not harm your relationships.

Luke 4:18 | AMPC (18) The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity],

Jesus did not come to help you through your old life, but to give you a brand-new life.

Revelation 21:5 | NKJV (5) Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”