Mrs Stephanie Shipman
Pastors's Wife
Fairview Baptist Church
Kansas City, KS
Unpacking For Our Trip
Have you ever packed for a trip and when you arrived at your destination you realized that you had over packed? My motto is usually: “Better to be over prepared than not prepared at all.” However, some things are better left behind. Sadly, many of us pack unneeded items each day! We are carrying all these extra things that we don’t need. The Bible says:
Hebrews 12:1 “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
Our race is our Christian Life. Every day we are striving to become more of what God wants us to be and a lot of times we fail because of the weights and sin in our lives. I like to call them excess baggage and they weigh us down. For our trip through life we need to unpack so that we can become the Christian that our Heavenly Father wants us to be. Some things that we need to unpack are listed in Scripture:
Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”
The first thing we need to unpack is:
BITTERNESS
James 3:11 says, “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”
If you are carrying around bitterness (grudge or hatred) you can’t be sweet and be the example that Christ would want you to be.
Luke 6:45 “ A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
Next:
WRATH
Wrath is violent anger.
Proverbs 27:3-4a says, “A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty: but a fool’s wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous...”
And Thirdly:
ANGER
A violent passion of the mind excited by a real or supposed injury; usually accompanied with a
propensity to take vengeance, or to obtain satisfaction from the offending party.
Ecc 7:9 says, “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.”
These 2 pieces of baggage go hand in hand and the Bible says that we are fools if we carry them around.
Next we need to rid our luggage of:
CLAMOUR
Means to utter or proclaim insistently and noisily
Col 4:6 “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
That verse pretty much says it! Don’t be a brawling woman!
Lastly:
EVIL SPEAKING (blasphemy)
An indignity offered to God by words or writing; reproachful, contemptuous or irreverent words uttered impiously against Jehovah.
The Bible says in Psalms 34:13, “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.”
So— we have all of this baggage for our trip ( for our daily lives)... How can we face each day and go through life with all of this in our way? Let’s pretend each one of these is in a heavy suitcase. Now, try going through doorways and getting into your car carrying all of this baggage everywhere you go. That would be hard, Right? Just trying to manage a purse, diaper bag, & my church Bible bag are enough for me. Each day we must go to the “Check-IN” lane and leave our baggage. Our daily “Check In” is our personal time with the Lord. It is here, that we leave them with Christ and allow Him to be in control of our life. Christ says in Matthew that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Once you check-in, HE takes away that excess baggage and gives you a boarding pass. The boarding pass is light - it is the Fruit of the Spirit. THE FRUIT which posses all of these qualities: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
You see, these qualities will help you along the way face the struggles of each day! Drop off the weights that are pulling you down and you will see a difference in the way you handle life. Most importantly others will see you running your race with patience and grace.
What are you waiting for … get UNPACKING!
Have you ever packed for a trip and when you arrived at your destination you realized that you had over packed? My motto is usually: “Better to be over prepared than not prepared at all.” However, some things are better left behind. Sadly, many of us pack unneeded items each day! We are carrying all these extra things that we don’t need. The Bible says:
Hebrews 12:1 “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”
Our race is our Christian Life. Every day we are striving to become more of what God wants us to be and a lot of times we fail because of the weights and sin in our lives. I like to call them excess baggage and they weigh us down. For our trip through life we need to unpack so that we can become the Christian that our Heavenly Father wants us to be. Some things that we need to unpack are listed in Scripture:
Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”
The first thing we need to unpack is:
BITTERNESS
James 3:11 says, “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”
If you are carrying around bitterness (grudge or hatred) you can’t be sweet and be the example that Christ would want you to be.
Luke 6:45 “ A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good: and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
Next:
WRATH
Wrath is violent anger.
Proverbs 27:3-4a says, “A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty: but a fool’s wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous...”
And Thirdly:
ANGER
A violent passion of the mind excited by a real or supposed injury; usually accompanied with a
propensity to take vengeance, or to obtain satisfaction from the offending party.
Ecc 7:9 says, “Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.”
These 2 pieces of baggage go hand in hand and the Bible says that we are fools if we carry them around.
Next we need to rid our luggage of:
CLAMOUR
Means to utter or proclaim insistently and noisily
Col 4:6 “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”
That verse pretty much says it! Don’t be a brawling woman!
Lastly:
EVIL SPEAKING (blasphemy)
An indignity offered to God by words or writing; reproachful, contemptuous or irreverent words uttered impiously against Jehovah.
The Bible says in Psalms 34:13, “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.”
So— we have all of this baggage for our trip ( for our daily lives)... How can we face each day and go through life with all of this in our way? Let’s pretend each one of these is in a heavy suitcase. Now, try going through doorways and getting into your car carrying all of this baggage everywhere you go. That would be hard, Right? Just trying to manage a purse, diaper bag, & my church Bible bag are enough for me. Each day we must go to the “Check-IN” lane and leave our baggage. Our daily “Check In” is our personal time with the Lord. It is here, that we leave them with Christ and allow Him to be in control of our life. Christ says in Matthew that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Once you check-in, HE takes away that excess baggage and gives you a boarding pass. The boarding pass is light - it is the Fruit of the Spirit. THE FRUIT which posses all of these qualities: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.
You see, these qualities will help you along the way face the struggles of each day! Drop off the weights that are pulling you down and you will see a difference in the way you handle life. Most importantly others will see you running your race with patience and grace.
What are you waiting for … get UNPACKING!
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