Leave your luggage at Home
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 185 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
intro
intro
Have you
One time my family was getting ready to go on a trip, and my dad had asked me to load the van. He said load the suitcases that are out by the door. There were 4 of us leaving together. So I saw 2 large suitcases, two duffle bags, and a smaller travel bag. So stacked the rolling suitcases, and grabbed the other bags and smaller bag, and in one trip to the car had loaded what I thought to be atleast half of the family’s bags, unfortunately when I got back to the door there were several more suitcases waiting for me. I asked Dad, was there someone else traveling with us, I thought I had just loaded atleast most of the suitcases. He replied, “no son, the ones you grabbed first were just your mother’s alone!”
My mother is notorious for many things, but one thing, that stands out to me, is that on trips, whether you are driving, or flying, she is going to have lots and lots of luggage. If your heading to FLORIDA, still need to pack sweaters, and if you are headed skiing in colorado, still need lots of hair care and make up. It is not that she uses everything she brings, but she wants to be prepared.
This morning, it is my desire to prepare us for a trip, but instead of packing all your belonging, I’m going to talk about doing just the opposite. I want to encourage you to prepare to leave it all behind! There will be No Luggage in Heaven.
Prayer
Its recorded in that Jesus is approached by a young wealthy man who was asked, “teacher what must I do to have eternal life.”
Isn’t that a question we seem to always be asking. Lord what hoop do I need to jump through? What busy work do I need to do to pass the class? Is there any extra credit that I can earn more favor?
Teacher what must I do?
When we are asking that question, we are asking the wrong question.
Lord what must I do to earn your love? Lord how can I do set myself a part.
I wonder how often God gets prayers such as this.
Now don’t hear me wrong, I am not suggesting how we live and how we respond to Christ’s calling in our lives does indeed matter and is a reflection of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. I am a believer, that what lives in you shines out of you. So with this understanding, I still believe, asking what good deed do I need to complete to earn eternal life is the wrong question.
As I often have in the past, I want to present to you two ditches, we as Christians, specifically SDA Christians can find ourselves falling into.
There is the crowd, who say “Because of the grace Jesus has extended to me, I can continue living in my sin, and none of you can judge me for it.” This is an unfortunate ditch to fall into because we completely miss the point of Christ’s sacrifice. When we claim, Christ’s grace and saving power, we pledge ourselves to live for him BECAUSE of what He did for us. Claiming his grace, and forgiveness is our acknowledgment of falling short and our need for his redemptive power. When we live in open sin, especially what we have been convicted of as sin, we are saying, I like the idea of Jesus loving me no matter what, but don’t embrace the change in our hearts Jesus is calling us to.....so ditch number 1 is believing we don’t need to embrace a Jesus filled changed life style.
ditch #2
There is also the crowd out there who believes at least to some degree that God’s love and salvation are in some way earned. This is a misunderstanding of sinful nature. While the earth has not been rid of sin, we cannot hide from that sinful nature that we are inclined to. If we could, why would the Bible tell us to die daily? We are to die away from that sin and embrace Jesus as our Lord and savior every single day. They may not know it or even admit, but when we think we have in some way earned our ticket to Heaven, by our deeds, your saying, “Jesus, what you did at the cross wasn’t necessary for me....maybe for the others, but not for me.’’ It’s falling for the same lie that Eve fell for, that “you can be like God.”
The problem of falling into these ditches, is most I encounter don’t believe they are in such a ditch don’t feel a need to make changes. That is what the devil wants. He wants us in ditches stuck there, not moving forward to Jesus.
It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city.
Ecc. 7
Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
other translations say, come out of both “extremes.”
When we say, “Lord, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” We are guilty one of two things, we are ignorant to baggage we are currently carrying with us, OR, We are desperately clinging to the baggage we are holding, afraid to give it up.
The rich young man, says “Lord what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
Jesus knowing which ditch this man belongs to, says “If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He was referring of course to the law of God as expressed in the ten commandments and the commandment to love your neighbor as you love yourself.
the young man responds, “all of these I have kept, what do I still lack?”
I keep saying his question was a bad one from the start. See although he came to the one who had all answers, he misunderstood that it wasn’t simply a matter of solving a problem or receiving directions. He came looking for an answer. He was talking to the answer. He was looking for an action verb, he needed a noun. He needed Jesus.
You see when I picture this scene, I picture a well dressed man, maybe accompanied by a servant or two carrying his luggage, or his personal acquired belongings. He’s clean cut. He is probably well liked. By the disciples own standards, they are probably thinking this young guy might add some class and sophistication to the group. He fits the mold. This may have been their thinking, when they pushed for Judas to walk as one of the 12. Judas also held similar credentials, but he also had issues of taking matters into his own hands and trusting his own instincts and emotions more than his master Jesus.
So when the wealthy young man, asks Jesus what good deed must i do to receive eternal life, Jesus knows the desires of this man’s heart much more than he knows himself. You see this man had a lot of luggage and baggage. Luggage in his hands and baggage in his spirit.
Have you ever met someone, and over time, you realize that person is carrying a lot of personal baggage? Maybe it is they are stricken with grief, maybe its guilt or shame, maybe it is being worn out from trying to appear perfect, maybe its anger, or bitterness, maybe it is lust or addiction.
When we have unhealthy baggage in our lives, Jesus has already given us the prescription.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
See, I believe the problem is even once we have identified our baggage, we treat it as indispensable luggage that we need to take with us. We rationalize with God, “Is it really necessary that I give this up or I leave this behind?” Its like exercising. We say, I want to get in shape, but then rationalize why we can spend thirty minutes working up a sweat. Its when we say, Lord I need a break from all the noise in our lives and yet we can’t put our phones down long enough to have an intimate moment with the Lord in prayer or reading in the Bible.
Sometimes we remove some baggage only to replace it with other baggage.
A few years ago I was in Alabama, visiting my teacher girlfriend (at the time) now my wife. She had to teach all day so while she was at her school I was with my grandmother who also conveniently lived in the area. My grandmother is a wonderful lady, and I love spending time with her. Since her husband, my grandfather had recently passed away she had not known what to do with all of his things, his clothes, and other such things. She also had a lot of clutter in her little house. So I volunteered to her that I could spend the next couple days helping her clean out the clutter. She enthusiastically agreed! And thus began a very tedious couple days.
For two days, it was “no no you can’t throw that away” “no no not that” And everything I dug up of my grandfather’s, if I didn’t want it or have use for it personally, She did not want to part with it.
My grandmother, I call her Nanna, loved the idea of decluttering her home, but mostly fought me to the nail as we removed item after item that had collected over the decades. Once we were done, we accomplished a lot! There was actual walking around room! The goodwill and the dumpster received quite the deposit.
But wouldn’t you know on my next visit, only a month or two later, all that space that had been created had gotten filled back up with more clutter. I basically looked at it and said, okay Nanna, have it your way! ;)
Jesus says let me chisel away that clutter in your life. Let me remove the anchors in your life and let me fill that void that is left. He says, rather than cling to your things, or better yet, rather than cling to your sin, He says cling to me, he says follow me!
Jesus responds to the young man,
Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
In other words, Jesus is saying, if its perfection you are really desiring, you haven’t achieved that, see that luggage you carry everywhere, go sell that away and give the money to the poor, and then come follow me!
Jesus is saying you have learned to live well on your own, but you have also learned to depend on yourself. I want you to come with me and I want you to depend on me!
All that stuff that you have acquired, I need you to leave that behind, because right now, your wealth is where you find your security, and I need that to be found in Me.
In this moment, Jesus is not attacking the wealthy. He is not asking everyone to cash in their roth IRA’s or their 401k’s and give it all away. But in this moment, in response, to this young man’s question who asks what he could do to earn eternal life. Jesus says, is there something in your life more precious to you then Me? Are you willing to give it up and leave it behind? Sell all you have and then come follow me!
Jesus is reemphasizing a point he had made previously, which is found in .
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Matthew
just a couple verses prior, Jesus expounds:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19
If it is not clear to you Jesus is making the point that there is nothing on this earth that we are taking with us to Heaven. When Jesus comes in the clouds, we won’t be running to our rooms to pack our bags. We are not going to have a carry on bag.
What is that old hymn we sing so often? ALL TO JESUS, I surrender, I surrender all! There must be nothing in our lives more precious to us then being with Jesus.
Your smartphones gone, your photo albums gone, your collector’s items. That coin collection that you have added to since you were a child, it is not coming with you. And you know what! Praise the Lord. Heaven would not be Heaven if it was filled with earthly treasures. I don’t want to pollute Heaven with my tokens of earth.
When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Matthew
You see while the young wealthy man, desired to be with Jesus, he wanted to keep his luggage. Maybe he thought he had already earned what Jesus offered. Maybe he thought he just needed to write a check. Maybe he thought he was a shu-in because of his great credentials. Jesus didn’t give him the answer he was looking for. He wanted this man to know he WAS the answer, and his salvation depended on Jesus, and not simply himself.
Jesus’ next statement is to the perplexed disciples.
And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 19:
This was an astonishing thing for the disciples because largely they attributed wealth as being blessed by God for good deeds. So they respond, if the blessed find difficulty being saved, who can be saved???
Jesus gives the most profound answer.
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:26
My friends all things are possible with Jesus. When we rely on Jesus, He likely won’t take you where you expect, but He will take you where you need to go.
There are ditches we wander off the path from. We wander because we are trying to do things ourselves. We can become legalistic, feeling salvation is something to be earned rather than something we can accept from Jesus.
There is the other ditch of believing that change isn’t involved. Jesus didn’t tell the rich young man, “don’t worry your good” He asked him to follow him and make a life change.
If you will surrender your daily walk to Jesus, I promise you my friends, Jesus will lead you where He wants you to go.
I’ll close with this story
tell Hindman, giving up UNC story
My friends Heaven doesn’t need your luggage, leave it at home! Follow Jesus!