I Believe in life we have many things that weigh us down and more times than not, they are things that we can easily let go of but we tend to hold on to them with dear life, weighing ourselves down so much that moving forward is non-existent and almost unachievable in our minds.
Today I want to share with you within my sermon how a few things in life that weighs us down and we carry the heaviness of them with us from day to day.
How many of you have noticed my back pack? I was so very blessed to have received this for Father’s Day last year but for today I want each of you to pretend with me if you will, that I have had this back pack my whole life and that you too carry one as well and have done so all throughout your lives.
You see, we go through our lives and seem to collect all sorts of things that weigh us down. For many of us, the things we pack into our lives can get pretty heavy.
One thing I believe we carry around with us that weighs us down is ….
I. Un-Forgiveness. (Place in bag)
In life we are faced with a multitude of occurrences that weigh us down in this area. We get upset with someone and have a difficult time in truly forgiving them because they wronged us. And we place our pride above what we are called to do as Christians.
Mark 11:25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
As a Christian, we are to be forgiving of others when we are wronged. How do we expect to be forgiven ourselves of the sin within our lives if we can’t forgive others?
(Place in the bag): When we don’t forgive, our bags become even heavier because of the sins we carry around and they all begin add up. A small white lie here, an adulterous thought there, a slip of the tongue, and we pack it all in and hold on to it because we can’t simply forgive others.
But we love to pick up the weight of un-forgiveness and carry it throughout our lives because when our pride is hurt we will gladly pack in un-forgiveness into our bags and tell ourselves that we will never forgive so and so for as long as we live.
And we even pretend that the weight of it isn’t heavy to us and we go on about our happy little lives carrying Un-forgiveness with us each and every day. We think by holding onto certain things that it will make us feel better about how we have been treated but nothing is further from the truth.
Carrying extra weight on your back with sooner or later get the best of you.
Illustration: I think back to my Army days. All those foot marches and all the pain associated with them. As a young private I packed pretty much everything I could before we went out. I wanted to make sure I had all the comforts to help make life easier. I made sure to have extra meals, snacks, and whenever else I could think of to help ease the time in the field. My ruck sack was huge, packed full and HEAVY! After lugging it around for about 5 or 10 miles, I would definitely feel the pain of the weight I was packing. It dug into my shoulders and blistered my feet.
It didn’t take me long to realize that some of the things in my ruck sack weren’t really necessary for the mission. I thought they would help but in reality they only weighed me down.
I learned to pack light and to sleep without a blanket, I learned to eat only what was needed to keep my mind and body active. I realized that many of the items I had packed were only going to weigh me down and hurt me rather than help me. Traveling light is much better than traveling with a heavy load.
Likewise, isn’t this what we do as well when we place the heaviness of un-forgiveness into our lives? We feel that we can’t survive without it and we pack it deep down into our bags and we go through life carting the heaviness around thinking the whole time that we are okay. But the truth is, that we are not okay, we are only hurting ourselves, others, and our relationship with God when we do not simply let go of the un-forgiveness in our hearts.
Another item I believe we place in our bags is,..
II. Un-confessed sins. (Place in Bag)
A. Un-confessed sin in our lives is like a small pebble in our shoe or a small splinter in our finger. Neither one is big enough to stop us, but they sure slow us down.
1. Have you ever tried to keep walking or running with a small pebble in your shoe? You can do it, but it hurts and it steals our concentration on what is important.
2. Un-confessed sins in our life do the same thing. They may not keep us from going to heaven, but they sure make getting there much more difficult.
5. Un-confessed sin is a robber of joy, a robber of peace, a robber of victory. It keeps us in shame and defeat. It adds weight on our backs that is un– necessary.
B. But there is a cure for the weight of un-confessed sin. We read in (I John 1:9) If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1. By un-confessed sin, I do not mean sins that at the end of the day you cannot remember you committed and cannot pray for forgiveness. My goodness, it would require me carrying around a notebook each day if this is what God meant by un-confessed sin.
2. No, un-confessed sin, is sin that we are very much aware of and hold onto, not willing to let it go. We find ourselves not only hiding it from others but we may even be justifying it .
3. This morning are you feeling the heaviness of un-confessed sin? Today is the day for you to open up your heart and allow the Holy Spirit to lighten your load.
- Another thing that I believe adds weight to us is,…..
II. Un-spoken prayers. (Place in Bag)
A. I wonder what great things God has in store for me if I would but ask. We read in Scripture, that we have not because we ask not.
1. (Place in Bag): We struggle with finances, our children, our grandchildren are a mess, Our boss is un-fair, Our Nation is headed for trouble, family members are sick, disaster is all around us and what is it that we do?
2. We pack it all in and carry the weight around with us.
3. Perhaps it is a feeling of unworthiness that keeps some of our prayers from being offered to God.
4. Maybe we are afraid God would give us what we pray for and we are not willing to make the changes necessary.
5. I don’t know why we keep unspoken prayers packed. I only know that in
Philippians 4:6 we read, 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
6. What prayer do you need to offer to God today to lighten your load?
7. When we hold unspoken prayers in, we allow them to build up and clutter our lives up with negativity. And negativity will only slow us down as it keeps our hearts in a heavy state.
8. We begin to feel un- loved, un- important, we begin to feel all alone in this world with no one on our side that is there for us to guide us and lift us up.
Matthew 11: 28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
1 Peter 5: 6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Conclusion: All your un-forgiveness, un-confessed sin, and un-spoken prayers will only weigh us down. So your choice is the simple, continue to break your back and lug it all around with you or simply take it off and give it to Jesus. (Take Back Pack off)
If you don’t allow Jesus to help, you will live a heavy miserable, lonely your life.You will find no rest for your soul. But, Jesus has already done what it take to receive rest for your soul.
He died a horrible death, taking the sin and guilt of everyone, destroying them once and for all. You can have your sin and the guilt taken away this day. You can let Jesus carry it to the cross for you. If you need to have this spiritual rest here’s what you must do:
Believe that Jesus is God’s Son; decide to change your ways, follow God’s path instead of your own. Remove the backpack of that is full of un-necessary weight and hand it over to Jesus today.
God wants us to come to him and lay our burdens to him and him alone. He wants us to have that faith in Him that He is the one we run to, He is the one that can take all the excess weight off of our shoulders and keep our lives moving forward.
