Baggage Check

In the airport, at the airline counter, you will find a place to check your bags. Before you receive your boarding pass you have to check your bags. The airline representative will ask you how many bags you would like to check. The airline representative will ask you for your bags. They will ask you to put those bags on the scale. The airline representative will then weigh your bags to ensure they do not go over the maximum weight allowed per bag, which for most airlines is 50 pounds. As travelers, we are happy to freely give our bags to the airline representative and we eagerly trust them to get them to our final destinations. We trust them with our bags completely. We are not worried that they can’t handle the size or the weight of our bags. After we give them our bags we feel free. We understand we have more liberty to move about the airport and the plane. In the church, that ticket counter also represents the pastor and the pulpit. First of all, what is a bag or baggage? Simply put, baggage is those issues we do not process effectively. Everything we have experienced in life has affected us either negatively or positively. Those experiences (bags) either shape us or misshape us into the person we are today. Why is it, when we go to the airport, the person at the check-in counter asks us for our bags and we freely give them to him or her? We put them on the scale and then we begin to justify why the bags are so heavy, but the bottom line is we give the representatives our bags easily.   At church we hesitate when the Pastor make that call.  Jesus states in the book of Matthews 11:28-30 Come to Me, all you 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."  Jesus is asking you for your bags.  He said take HIS yoke upon you and learn from Him.  He says He is gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls in Him.  Aren’t you tired of carrying those bags around?  Jesus says His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  Give Jesus those bags.  At the airport, once we give them our bags, they give us our baggage tickets to help us claim our baggage when we get to our destination. At church, Jesus does not give us our baggage claim tickets, because He never ever wants you to pick up that bag (or those problems) again.  Beverly is sure that God has been her PILOT and has strategically guided her through the difficult trials, tribulations, and afflictions she has endured in her life. She went to church (the airport).  When Jesus (the representative) asked for the bags, she gave her bags to Him.  Minister Beverly did not give Him all of her bags at once.  Minister Beverly carried some bags for almost 20 years, because she was ashamed and felt guilty about what was in those bags. 

Minister Beverly realized Jesus died on the cross for her sins.  With His blood, He redeemed her.  Jesus wiped the slate clean with His death.  The wages of sin is death. Minister Beverly made a decision to no longer live a life of condemnation.  For almost 20 years, Minister Beverly was walking around carrying bags that she did not have to carry.  God wants to take you to a higher level in life.  Your bags are holding you down.  Aren’t they heavy?  Aren’t you tired of carrying them?  Jesus is saying Give Me your Bags!! Jesus said cast your bags onto Me, I will sustain you.  Jesus does not care how big and heavy your bags are.  He just wants you to give them to Him, so you can fly higher and faster to your destiny. Don’t continue to carry those bags.   Bags can also be seen as obstacles; this is someone or something that hinders you, or blocks your passage.  It keeps you from continuing on this journey called life.  Life is like an obstacle course.  You must know how to overcome (get rid of) those obstacles.  Look below at some great examples of obstacles or baggage, which are things that will hinder you from living a victorious life.