Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. This morning, I want to talk to you about an item that many of us are familiar with, that all of us are familiar with, and you see them behind me. And I want to talk to you about different types of bags.
this morning.
Now there are all different types of Bags this morning, and I'll just grab one because it has our Kerwin Church logo on here. Just all different kinds of bags in our lives. And you know, I was thinking about the different types of bags, the different uses for bags. You've got backpacks, and you've got fanny packs, which I have one of those up here this morning. It's my mom's.
I didn't actually have a fanny pack, but I really wanted a fanny pack for this for whatever reason. But backpacks, and fanny packs, and shoulder packs, and purses, and duffel bags. You've got luggage, you've got some with wheels, some without wheels. But we all know the purpose for bags. They make our lives more convenient, they make our lives easier a lot of times.
And I want to talk to you this morning about a subject that you and I are familiar with, and maybe every single one of us has an issue with, and that is the subject of baggage. Emotional baggage. And I wanted to start off by kind of defining to you what emotional baggage and what baggage is in our lives. And I got this, this is the Google definition. Of baggage here this morning, and it's emotional issues.
Stressors. Pain. difficulties Those are things that continue to take up space in our minds and affect our relationships with people. Right, so anything that you have in your life, any trauma, any hurt, any difficulties, any afflictions, anything that kind of takes up space rent-free in your mind, it continually begins to come back and to haunt you, that is emotional baggage this morning. And that's what we want to talk about.
And listen, we all deal with this.
Some of the baggage you can't help.
Some of the baggage is because of other people.
Some of the baggage we can help.
Some of it is our fault. But here's the true story this morning: every single one of us. has our own baggage journey. I'm gonna get some help up here. Brother Tim, if you'll come up here.
For just a second, and I want to illustrate this to you. And I know you all understand this, and I know that you can all visualize this this morning, but I wanted to talk about different types of baggage that we have. And we could illustrate it this way: it starts off at a very early age for us. What are you doing back here? You ain't wearing that?
I'm gonna put that one on you first. Where is it? This one right here, look at this fanny pack right here. Look at that. That's my mom's USA fanny pack.
I won't put that on you. But we all have baggage, and baggage starts off really early in our lives. You know, it could be a mean or a negative or a comment, even as kids. Maybe it's from a parent, maybe it's from a teacher, maybe it's from a friend on the playground that just says one little word, but it's hurtful. Right, and that creates some sort of baggage for us.
And what happens is, is we began to put this baggage on very I can't even get that loosened up, Tim. If you could do that, just put the baggage on for me. Just you do it for me. You begin to put this baggage on. And a lot of times, man, that baggage is there for years and years and years, and we think it's something trivial.
We think it's something that's not that big of a deal, but it hurts us, it cuts us, it scars us in some way.
Now we look at. Different things like, well, maybe, goodness gracious, as a teenager, right? We wake up and it's pictured in, we got a big old pimple right on the end of our nose. My goodness.
Well, now we've got self-esteem baggage, right? We start to notice, man, what do people think about me? What are people saying about me? What do people think about this? How are they looking at me?
How are they perceiving me? And that's more baggage that we put on, and this is starting to accumulate. Maybe we have some more severe baggage. Maybe it's, man, your parents split up when you were growing up. Maybe your parents divorced and you were left thinking, well, maybe this was my fault.
Maybe I could have done something different. Maybe I could have stopped this in some way. But what happens is, is more baggage gets put on us. And we begin to develop this kind of issue with different types of baggage. That's a small shoulder strap.
I'm so sorry about that. But these types of baggage, what about abuse? Right, whether. Whether it's physical, whether it's emotional, whether it's different types of abuses that you've suffered, this is all baggage. I'm going to give you a bigger one here because abuse seems like a pretty large baggage to carry.
And then we have other different types of baggage: we have guilt. The guilt of man, you know, I wish that I hadn't have said that. I wish that I hadn't done that. Maybe you had an argument with a loved one, and that loved one passed away before you ever got the opportunity to apologize to them. Maybe it was something with your parents, some issues there, but there's some guilt there: things that you should have said, things that you shouldn't have said, things that you shouldn't have done, things that you should have done.
But what happens is we harbor that on the inside and we begin to create more baggage for ourselves and we begin to get weighed down. What about regret? Right, what about regret in our lives? You know, what about Fear, worry, anxiety. How many of us deal with that?
Don't raise your hand, but fear and anxiety and worry and depression and all of these different types of things. That's just simply another bag that we have to carry around. And you're starting to get loaded down here. And listen, all of these things begin to mount up in our lives, and all of these different types of baggages. I've got a bunch of things written down here.
PTSD, we think of that with soldiers and things, but these are just traumatic flashbacks to things that have happened in our lives. And these are very serious things. These are very serious things that numerous people are dealing with this morning. And it's just one bag after another, after another. And then we have this happen in our lives, and we have this happen in our lives, and we have this happen.
And all of this baggage begins to accumulate in us. And I want to talk to you about this. What if we could this morning get some help from God's Word? Before we know it, in our lives, we are completely covered up with baggage and we're trying to serve the Lord, we're trying to do what's right, but we're struggling because we've got all this extra weight on us. I'm going to have you have a seat over there, Tim.
You don't have to keep them all on, but I'm going to use you here in a second. I'm going to make him sit up front this morning. Aren't you glad I didn't ask any of you to help me? But let's look at God's word. God's word helps us with this.
God's word will help us to unload this baggage here this morning. I want to transition to 1 Peter chapter number. Five this morning. 1 Peter chapter number 5. What about this baggage?
I don't want anybody to, I don't ever want to take for granted that just everyone knows who Peter is. I don't want to take for granted that you know the Bible and you know all the people that wrote it. And so, first Peter is a book that was written by the Apostle Peter, the same Peter that walked on water, the same Peter that served with Jesus for three years, the same Peter who was kind of the unquestioned leader of the disciples. They kind of did what Peter did. The same Peter that denied Jesus.
This is the same one. And Peter is writing to a group of Christians who are struggling. He's writing to a group of Christians who have persecution going on and they're fearful and they're worried and they're concerned and they don't know, man, what tomorrow holds. They're facing beatings and they're facing arrest and all kinds of different things. And we would say that they had some baggage of their own.
And so Peter is writing this letter as a letter of hope, but in the middle of this letter of hope, here's the conclusion of it. Peter gives us some reality. Because a lot of times, listen, we can all hope in things, but there's also reality. Right? We have to understand that is that Peter is writing and he's wanting to encourage and he's wanting to give hope.
But he says also, this is the reality of the way that things are. And so let's look at what Peter wrote here in 1 Peter chapter 5. Look at verse number six with me. Peter writes here at the conclusion of his letter: Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Verse 7, casting all your care upon him.
for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace. Who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
To him be glory and dominion forever. And ever. Amen. Let's pray this morning and we'll get into this. Father, I ask you to help me.
Lord, I ask you to use your word, Lord, as you promised you always would. Lord, I ask that you would help someone this morning with your word, not my words, your word, Lord. We love you. I thank you for the opportunity. In Jesus' name.
Amen. This passage right here can help us to understand. why we have baggage. This passage can help us to understand why we continue to Kind of go back to those old memories of hurts and traumas. This passage right here can tell us how to unload some of that baggage here this morning.
And I would say that every single one of us came in those doors right over there this morning with some type of baggage that we were never meant to carry. And so the Bible here can help us with that.
So I want you to see number one here this morning. We'll get right into this. Number one: baggage comes from the enemy. Baggage comes from the enemy. Look at verse number eight with me.
Peter writes: Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Listen, if you're a Christian this morning, if you're a saved individual this morning, if you've asked Jesus to come into your heart this morning, you have an enemy. Right, you may say, well, I don't feel like I have an enemy. I can't think of anybody in this world that would have anything against me. Listen, we're not talking about people here.
We're talking about an enemy that every single one of us have. And Peter says to these Christians that are trying to serve the Lord, they're trying not to die for the cause of Jesus Christ. And he says, you have an enemy. There's an enemy out there that is wanting to take you out. And guess what?
It wasn't the Roman government. Right? Because he not only tells us that we have an enemy, but he gives us the identity of that enemy. A lot of times we think that our enemy is people. Our enemy is the unsaved.
Our enemy is the world. It's the government. It's culture. It's whatever. That is not our enemy.
Listen, the baggage that you carry this morning is not because a person put it there. Right, there may be certain people that were used to put that baggage there and to help you have that hurt and trauma in your life, but your enemy is not a person, it's not your mom and dad, it's not your boss, it's not your mother-in-law, it's none of those things. Your enemy, Peter identifies, look at he says, For your adversary, what? The devil. If he doesn't tell us who the enemy is, then it's open to interpretation as to who my enemy is.
If he had just said, your enemy, your adversary, then it's open to say, well, that person's my enemy. No, he says, this is your enemy. To the Jewish people there that were struggling, he says, it's not the Roman Empire. It's not their government. Your enemy is Satan himself.
And I want you to notice here. This verse gets pretty dark. In a letter that is supposed to be about hope. Peter here gives a pretty dark statement. Look at it.
Be sober. Be vigilant. Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Why did Peter put this verse right in the middle of some verses on hope? Jesus, cast your cares on Jesus.
Humility, humble yourself. God's going to exalt you. Oh, by the way, the devil's trying to destroy you. Why does he put that here?
Well, a couple of reasons. Number one, it's because the Holy Spirit told him to. That's number one, and that should be enough. But here's number two: is because it's reality. This is real life.
This isn't a fairy tale. This isn't a fantasy that Satan is after you to destroy you. This is real life. He wants to destroy you. Listen, please don't ever listen to anyone that tells you the Christian life is an easy thing.
Right, and all of you have been long, have you been saved long enough to know the Christian life is not a cakewalk. It's not always easy. The easy thing doesn't always happen. There are struggles, there are difficulties, just like with everybody else's life.
So don't ever listen to a person that says, give your heart to Jesus and everything's gonna be great. Everything's going to be easy. It's not the case. And Peter knew that. Peter understood that.
He knew firsthand the baggage and the damage. that the enemy could cause. And I want you to notice something. Interesting in this verse, if you read it with me again, it says to be sober, to be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil. As a roaring light walketh about seeking who he can devour.
And so, I want you to notice something interesting here in this verse. I know it is God's job to protect us, I know it is God's job to provide for us and to fight our battles for us. I understand that, but that does not absolve us from the responsibility that Peter gave us here in this verse. He says to be sober, to be vigilant. That's not God's job, that's your job.
That is your job to be watchful. That is your job to make sure what goes into your mind and into your eyes and into your ears and the people that you hang out with and the people that you associate with, these toxic relationships that we stay in, that is your job to watch out for that. Just because verse number seven says, cast all your cares on Jesus, does not give us the green light to sit back and do nothing to protect our own selves. I love this quote by a man named General Oliver Cromwell. He was a general in the English army.
And here's what this says: trust in God, boys, and keep your powder dry. You say, what in the world does that mean? Essentially what this means, this phrase means to always be prepared to take action yourself. Always be prepared to defend yourself. against things.
The the the the allusion here is to gunpowder. The allusion here is to these soldiers would have gunpowder in their bags, and it was their responsibility to keep that gunpowder dry so when they needed it.
So he says, trust in God boys, but keep your powder dry. In other words, listen, trust in God to protect you, trust in God to provide for you, trust in God to fight your battles, but you be ready to keep yourself sober and vigilant and watchful. Right, we can think of this in terms of provision. Right? I trust God to provide for me.
I trust God's going to take care of me, but he also made it my responsibility to go out and to get a job and to make money and to earn money to take care of myself. Right, we understand that, right? And it's the same way God is going to protect us. He is going to fight our battles for us. But we've got to do our part.
We have got to take this responsibility seriously. Peter knew this teaching. Peter knew the consequences of not listening to this teaching. You know why Peter could write this? It's because he is speaking from a place of experience.
I want you to think about the Garden of Gethsemane. with me that night that Jesus is arrested, he's about to be crucified. And what did Jesus tell his disciples, watch and pray with me? He told them to watch and to pray. And Jesus is out pouring his heart out to God.
He's in the garden. He's sweating drops of blood. What are the disciples doing? Sleeping. God's got this.
He'll take care of it. No, they had a responsibility of their own. Look at verse number 38 of Matthew chapter number 26. Then saith he unto them, talking about Jesus, talking to his disciples, My soul is exceeding sorrowful. Even unto death, tarry ye here and watch with me.
It's the same idea. Look at verse number 41. Watch and pray. That you enter not into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
I would say that every single one of us wants to serve the Lord. We want to do what's right. We want to make sure that we're protected, but our flesh is weak. And we've got to do a better job of being sober, to be vigilant, to be watchful, making sure that we are protected as much as we can protect ourselves. And we know what happened with Peter.
Right, Jesus said, Stay up, watch, pray. I don't want you to enter into temptation, Peter. I don't want you to deny me. I know it's going to happen, but I want you to pray about it. Peter decides, I'm going to take a nap.
Guess what happened? When Jesus needed his disciples the most, they all left him. Peter knew the damage that not listening to this would do. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion. Walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
This this phrase here, seeking whom he may devour, is actually perfectly translated to looking for someone to devour. A lot of times we think that, man, the pastor's got this big old target on his back. Satan's painted a big old target on the pastor's back, and the family's back, and the staff's back, and the deacons back, and famous evangelists. They got a big target on their back, and you know, maybe some singers or whatever. And listen, that is true.
But you know what this verse right here says? That he is looking for someone to devour. You know who that someone is? It's you. Right.
Yeah, the pastor has a large target on his back, but guess who else has a target? You do. Your kids do. Your grandkids do. He's after anybody that will allow him to.
And you say, well, that kind of scares me. Good. That should scare us. That should put a healthy fear in us that Satan is real, he is our enemy, and he's after you. He's after every single one of us, and it is our job to be sober, to be watchful, to be vigilant.
A lot of times in our lives, we don't take this seriously. And we end up being a statistic to Satan himself. You ever watch those nature shows and the lions are stalking their prey? You know, never, never, actually I heard somebody say one time. That these lions, they don't kind of put a bullseye on the head alpha.
They don't want the strongest one there. They're just looking to eat. They don't care who it is. They don't care if it's one of the young ones. They don't care if it's one of the sickly ones.
They don't care if it's one of the distracted ones. All they want to do is eat. And let me say this to you this morning. Satan is looking for one thing in your life, and that's opportunity. He is looking for an opportunity for you to let down your guard, and he's going to devour you.
A lot of times we end up in our lives and listen Satan will lie to us He will tell us things. Listen, that's what baggage does in our lives. It lies to us. Baggage will tell you that God doesn't care about you. Baggage will tell you that he doesn't love you.
Baggage will tell you that, man, if he was concerned about me, all of this wouldn't have happened. And I'm telling you, that is an absolute lie of Satan. God does love you. God does care for you. We're going to talk about that here in just a second.
But a lot of times we're not focused. We're not vigilant. We're not watchful. And what happens? Before we know it, Satan has destroyed our lives.
He's destroyed our families. He's destroyed our relationships. He's destroyed our kids. He's destroyed our futures, all because. We weren't sober and vigilant and watchful.
I want you to notice number two this morning. Baggage comes from the enemy. Number two, we can resist. the enemy. That's exactly what verse number 9 tells us.
Look at this. Whom resist steadfast in the faith.
So we're talking about the enemy in verse 8. And then we get to verse 9. He says, whom resist steadfast. Who's he talking about? We resist the enemy steadfast how?
In our faith. Look at this: knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
Now, I don't wish any hardships on anybody. I don't get some kind of thrill from watching people suffer, but I will say this: is that when you're going through a certain thing and you're struggling with a certain thing, it is comforting to know when you meet somebody that, man, they've gone through that too. They've been through that same thing. There's something about not suffering all by yourself. And I listen, it comforts me to know that David struggled.
It comforts me to know that Abraham and Moses and Paul and Peter, they all struggled a little bit. Here's what Satan wants you to think. Is that if you're struggling, if something's going on, if there's some sort of an affliction going on, if you're struggling with this or struggling with that, he wants you to feel like you are all by yourself. He wants you to believe the lie that nobody's gonna understand. This I can't talk to anybody about this.
I can't go to church and talk to my Sunday school teacher. I can't go and talk to my youth pastor about this. Man, what in the world would they think about me? I can't go to the pastor. What in the world would he think?
He can't know that I'm struggling with this. He can't know that this is going on. He can't know that this is a part of my life. And what Satan wants you to feel is isolation, and that nobody understands, and that nobody's gone through this before. You're all by yourself.
God doesn't care. God doesn't love you. Listen, those are lies. I want you to participate in this with me this morning. And I'm not talking about big, huge things.
I'm talking about any little thing at all. How many of you this morning struggle in your life with something? All right, keep them up. Look around. It's everybody in this building.
You are not by yourself this morning. You are not struggling alone. You know who struggles more than anybody else here? My wife. Just kidding.
Me, me, I struggle more than anybody else in this building. You are not by yourself. Satan would love to isolate you because that creates baggage. And that creates. Distraction.
And remember, he's hunting you. He's after you. He's looking to feed. And if he can get you isolated, if he can get you distracted, that's an easy target. for him.
So how do we resist? How do we resist? One of the ways we resist is we realize, hey, we're not by ourselves. We're not talking about, it's exactly what that verse says here. Look at it, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren.
Everybody here struggles with something. And I want to say this: is that number one, that we resist with knowing that, hey, I'm not by myself, but we also resist with our faith. That's what he says here, whom resists steadfast in the faith. I love this. quote by William Barclay.
He said a man's faith Must be like a solid wall against which the attacks of the devil exalt themselves in vain. Our faith ought to be so strong in the Lord. We ought to have so much faith in God that He's going to take care of us and protect us, and we're doing our part. But it ought to be like a brick wall that Satan's just beating his head against. Nothing's getting through there.
We're not believing any of those lies. We're not listening to any of that junk. And I love this next part of this quote: it says, the devil is like any bully. And he must retreat when he has bravely resisted in the strength of Christ. You know the enemy this morning that we face has already been defeated?
He has no power whatsoever over you. He has no power at all. He has already been defeated, and all we have to do is to resist him. And the Bible says he's got to get out of town, he's got to run away, he's got to hide. I want you to notice number three this morning.
Humility is the key to losing our baggage. We want to get rid of that baggage in our life. All that baggage that we've put on over the years, from the time we were just a kid all the way till now, we want to get rid of that. Humility is the key. Look at verse number six.
Humble yourselves. Therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Humility is the key. What is humility? Unfortunately, in our culture today, humility is looked at as a weakness.
Humility is looked at in negative terms. Right, we gotta be proud people. We've got to stand up for ourselves. And you know what the definition of humility is? The definition of humility is a modest view of one's importance.
I'm not trying to burst anybody's bubble here this morning. But do you know that humility starts when you realize That the world does not revolve around you. It doesn't revolve around me. It doesn't revolve around my likes and my dislikes and my preferences and all that. The world doesn't revolve around that.
That's where humility starts. And what it's talking about here is: listen, we need to understand that to lose our baggage, we cannot do this all by ourselves. This takes divine help. This takes God's help. This is not just us trying to not think about that or trying to go to therapy.
Sorry, John and Karen, I know that's your business. We need divine help.
Now, listen, there's nothing wrong with therapy and all that, but what we have to understand is this is beyond human help to get rid of this. And the first thing is we've got to tell God: listen, I need help with this. Humility is the key. Now before we talk about Our last point this morning, I want to focus on number four, and that is the ultimate promise. Look at verse number 10 with me really quickly.
It says, but the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after, look at this, after that ye have suffered a while.
So, listen, that's going to happen. All of us will have some sort of affliction, some sort of suffering, some kind of trauma, some kind of baggage. All of that's going to happen. But after that, you've suffered for a while. Look at this.
Make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
Now, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this this morning. Our time is just about gone here today, but I want you to notice the four benefits. of suffering.
Alright, you said for what of suffering? For benefits. There is a benefit. To our suffering. If you're a Christian this morning, suffering that you did not bring on yourself, let me say it that way, and even the stuff we do bring on ourselves, God can use that.
But the four benefits. Of suffering.
So, I want you to see what he says first because he says in verse number 10, that you have suffered a while. After that, you've suffered a while. Here's what God does with that.
So, the first thing he says is make you perfect. This doesn't mean sinless. That doesn't mean that you never make a mistake. That would be wonderful. That would be great.
But here's what this word means. It means to restore. The greatest news that anyone can receive is the news of the free gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ. It is our desire for you to know him personally. Would you take a moment to hear this to-day?
Every man is born with a sin nature. Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No matter how hard we try, We're not good enough to obtain God's glory. or to get to heaven. Because of that sin carries the penalty of death.
Romans 6.23 says, For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life for the through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of our sin, or the payment of our sin, only equals death and separation from God. But it's only through God's gift salvation through Jesus Christ that we can accept Him as our Savior. Jesus Christ paid for your sin debt.
The Bible says in Romans 5:8, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. All you have to do is receive Christ. by faith as your Saviour. Romans 10.9 says That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13 continues, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
It's as simple as admitting that you're a sinner believing that Jesus is the only way. and calling upon his name. Bible says whosoever that's anyone can call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? There is no greater day than today to take care of this.
Would you accept Christ as your Saviour? If you have any questions, please give us a call at 336-993-5192 or visit our website at Crowin Baptist Church. Dot com. or visits that person at one of our three service times. We hope you have a great rest of your day.
God bless you. Mm-hmm.
