Life is not a destination; it’s more like a journey that is full of many exciting experiences and memories. When we travel, most of us take some form of baggage with us. During this teaching, we will learn to take the right baggage for our journey and stop packing things that weigh us down and hold us back.
All of us are carrying baggage. The question is:
Are we carrying baggage that we need for our life’s journey or are we carrying baggage that is holding us back from our life’s journey?
As I stated before, life is a journey not a destination. The challenge of thinking that life is a destination is that we are always trying to “arrive.”
Question: Have you ever met someone that felt they had “arrived?”
If so, you probably also noticed that these are people that aren’t the most enjoyable people to be around. Personally, I try not to associate with too many “know it alls. Think about it, if a person has arrived or knows all there is to know, where then can they go? What is left for them to learn?
Everyone in this room is a traveler on the journey of life. Jesus commanded us Christians in Matthew 28:19 to Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…
Have you ever traveled somewhere before? What type of baggage did you take with you? (perhaps a suitcase, a duffle bag, garment bag, golf bag, etc.)
Ever notice we typically pack less on shorter trips and more on longer trips? This is because we usually pack attempting to take just what we need for the trip and thus we pack our bags accordingly.
-If we go somewhere sunny we pack for sun (what if it rains)
-If we go somewhere for 2 weeks we take more baggage than we would for a weekend trip.
Let’s talk about the baggage we take for the journey of life. I’m talking about the baggage we take with us everyday, wherever we go. I have discovered that there are two types of baggage we carry with us on our life’s journey:
1. Baggage we need for the journey
2. Baggage we don’t need for the journey
I looked up the word “Baggage” in the dictionary and discovered two definitions:
1. Bags of a traveler
2. Impedimenta of a traveler
The common word here in these two definitions is the word, traveler. Let’s not forget, every one of us is a traveler. The uncommon word here is impedimenta.
The root word of impedimenta is the word, impede. Impede means to hinder, to obstruct. What baggage, hinderance, or obstruction is in the way of the journey called, “Your Life?” Maybe you are traveling with baggage like:
-Hurtful Words
-Depression
-Offense
-Discouragement
-Broken Relationships
-Bitterness
-Failure
-Shame
These are all types of baggage that is not needed for your life’s journey. If you are carrying any of this baggage, you have two options:
1. You can continue to carry the baggage
2. You can ask God to carry it for you.
These things are all impedimenta of a traveler. Baggage that impedes, encumbers, obstructs, or stands in the way of the type of life Jesus came to provide for us.
John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Listen, God does not want our lives to be burdened with heavy baggage!
Matthew 11:28-33 “Come to Me all you who 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.”
1Peter 5:7 the bible instructs us to cast our cares upon the Lord for He cares for us.
In the Greek, this word care means distraction. The same word is found in Mark 4:19
Mark 4:19 and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
God doesn’t want our lives to be distracted from the purpose He created us for! As Christians we exist to make disciples – devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Let’s look at what the first disciples took with them as Jesus sent them out to go make disciples.
Matthew 10:1-10 1He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil[a] spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. 2These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. 5These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’8Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,[b]drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; 10take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.
Note: I believe this is a precedent setting event. In other words: The way Jesus instructed the first disciples to start their journey is most likely the way Jesus wants us to start our journey. …No bag for the journey!
Starting our journey – We take no baggage
We, just like the first disciples, start our journey following Christ with no bags, baggage, no more heavy burdens, etc.
Jesus never said, nor is He saying to us, never take any bags with you. He simply wants us to understand that this is how our journey is supposed to start. (Totally reliant on God as our Source for everything.)
Along our journey – we began adding and taking certain things with us that we need for our journey.
Later in our journey – We pick up baggage (or impedimenta) we don’t need for our journey.
If you are still reading this, I ask you to do 2 things…
1. A baggage inventory
Take an internal inventory of what kind of baggage you are carrying around with you everywhere we go.
Maybe you are carrying some of the things I mentioned before…
-Hurtful Words
-Depression
-Offense
-Discouragement
-Broken Relationships
-Bitterness
-Failure
-Shame
… or something else
Now that you’ve taken inventory of your baggage, I am going to ask you to do a second thing…
2. A baggage check
I encourage you to check in the baggage you don’t need for your life’s journey. Check in that heavy baggage you no longer want to carry and give it to God.
God doesn’t want us to go through life carrying baggage that weighs us down and holds us back from reaching His designed destiny for our life.
