Holy Suitcases
Things Christians Carry With Them
Hebrews 6:9-12
Intro: Ray Stevens, a country singer who is also known for his comedy, had a hit song back in 1992. The name of the song was the Mississippi Squirrel. In the song he told the story of him carrying a squirrel to church. He had the squirrel in a box and when he tried to show his “good buddy Hugh” the squirrel, he jumped out of the box. The squirrel wreaked havoc in the church and his description of this escapade is very funny. As I thought of this I remembered back to the times when I was a little boy and would bring things to church with me. I also thought about our children here at the “Creek” and I am almost certain that you parents could tell me stories about things your children either have brought to church or were caught trying to bring into church. I look out and especially think of you parents or grandparents who have little boys. There just seems to be something about little boys and things that they put in their pockets. I’ll let you share with me after the service this morning.
. While children may carry things with them as they leave home, Christians should carry things with them as they go through life.
. When we leave church on Sunday morning, we should carry things with us that accompany our Salvation.
. I call these things our spiritual baggage.
. Things that should be in our Holy Suitcases as we go out into the world.
. As Christians, there is a way of life that we are taught through God’s word. There are characteristics or things that accompany our salvation.
. The writer of Hebrews lays out the things that should accompany those that are saved.
. Our scripture is Hebrews 6:9-12
. 9Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation.
10For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.
11Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.
12Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.
. Verse 9 is talking about the previous 5 verses that talked about hearing and experiencing the Gospel but not really receiving it. People that just tasted Christianity. We called them taste testers in our study two weeks ago.
. 9Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation.
. The writer states that even though he was laying out what these people were like, he didn’t believe that the readers of the letter were like that. He believed that they carried their holy baggage with them as Christians are supposed to do.
. He writes here that there are things that accompany our Salvation.
. The writer lists four things that accompany our Salvation.
. The first one is Assurance.
. We can carry an air and attitude of assurance that God is watching what we do and we should try to please Him.
. Look at verses 10&11 again:
10For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.
11Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.
. The writer says that we can be assured that God is watching what we are doing for him and others. When we stand before God one day, as we all will, He will remember the things we do for Him and our fellow man.
. Our society today is in full assault on this principle.
. How many have heard the saying “no good deed goes unpunished”.
. Instead of feeling good about ourselves and our service to God through others, we are told that if we do good, we will be punished.
. Feb. 26, two weeks ago, a nurse in the Glenwood Gardens assisted living home refused to give CPR to a dying woman.
. We have heard the communication between the ambulance dispatcher and the Nurse. The nurse called for an ambulance because the woman was not breathing and needed CPR to live.
. The nurse refused to give this life saving procedure because it was company policy not to administer CPR. Now I’m not privy as to why this company has these policies but if the root cause of this procedure was examined, my guess is that they were afraid of someone filing a lawsuit against them.
. They were afraid of being punished if something went wrong during their good deed of trying to save someone’s life.
. Unfortunately that’s what our secular world has come to.
. It shouldn’t be so for Christians though.
. God is with us and we are to help our fellow man as Christians.
. The world may not look at us very kindly but we can be assured that God will see what we do and will remember.
. As I stated last week in our sermon in Nehemiah, what we do has eternal consequences,
. For us and others, God is watching.
. Be assured that He is with you.
. Christians should carry an air of assurance with them because this assurance comes with their Salvation.
. The next thing we should place in our Holy Suitcase is a Love For God.
.Look at verse 10 again:
. 10For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.
. These things we do are how we show our love for God.
. Our love for God is the motivating factor in all we do.
. Everything we do should be tied for our love for God.
. In Matthew 22:37, Jesus plainly tells us about this.
. The religious leaders of the day had been trying to discredit Jesus by asking Him questions that they thought would show His ignorance of the law.
. One of them asked Him what the most important commandment was.
. What was the one thing that all believers must do?
. Where should our priorities be?
. Jesus answered them in Matthew 22:37:
. 37Jesus replied, “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind
.’38This is the first and greatest commandment.
. We are to love God with all that we are. With all that we have.
. The writer of Hebrews tells us that this comes with Salvation, a love for God.
. Christian, we can’t just love God on Sunday.
. We must love Him every day that is a by-product of our Salvation.
. You have heard me say many times that this Salvation is not just a Sunday morning thing.
. When we leave here on Sunday morning we carry our love for God with us in our spiritual Suitcase.
. I found a poem that illustrates what our love for God should look like.
. "I love you, Mother," said little John;
Then, forgetting his work, his cap went on,
And he was off to the garden swing,
Leaving his mother the wood to bring.
."I love you, Mother," said little Nell;
"I love you better than tongue can tell!"
Then she teased and pouted half the day,
Till Mother rejoiced when she went to play.
."I love you, Mother," said little Fran;
"Today I’ll help you all I can."
To the cradle then she did softly creep,
And rocked the baby till it fell asleep.
Then stepping softly, she took the broom
And swept the floor and dusted the room;
Busy and happy all day was she,
Helpful and cheerful as she could be.
"I love you, Mother," again they said,
Three little children going to bed.
How do you think that Mother guessed
Which of them really loved her best?
. Do we really love God or do we just play lip service to Him on Sunday morning.
. Do we spend time alone with Him in prayer?
. Do we read the Journal of His creation and revealing of himself to mankind that we call the Bible.
. We try to always figure out a way to spend time with those we love don’t we?
. When my children come home from college, I always try to adjust my schedule so that we can spend some time with each other.
. Do you adjust your schedule to spend time with the one you claim to love?
. A love of God accompanies our salvation and must be packed into our Holy Suitcase as we travel through life.
. Guess what the next point is in the sermon. That’s right, Love each other.
. We are to have in our Holy Suitcases a love for each other as we travel through life.
. Love of each other accompanies our Salvation.
. Look at verses 10&11:
. 10For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.
11Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true.
. We must love each other.
. It’s amazing how so much of scripture leads to these two commands of loving God and loving each other.
. I know you hear this again and again from me. All I can tell you is that this is what Gods Word say’s again and again. Love each other.
. Back to the passage in Matthew 22. After Jesus tells them that the greatest commandment was to love God, He told them that there was an equally important commandment.
. Matthew 22: 39A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
. Jesus says that when you do these two things you have done all that is necessary.
. These two things cover everything.
. The apostle John records more of what Jesus had to say about this.
. Jesus is giving His final farewell to His disciples. And He says this in John 13: 34&35.
. Look at these words of Jesus on the screen.
. 34So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
.35Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
. This is how we prove to the world that we are followers of Jesus Christ.
. It’s not all about us folks.
. Lou Gehrig was 1st baseman for the New York Yankees. He died on June 2, 1941, of A.L.S., later called "Lou Gehrig’s Disease." The doctors really didn’t know how to treat it. So he was in the hospital for a long time as they experimented with different drugs, trying to find one that would work.
Just before he died, Lou Gehrig called his friend, Bob Considine. He said, "Bob, I have great news. The boys in the lab have come up with a new serum, & they’re trying it on 10 of us. It seems to be working well on 9 out of 10." Bob Considine asked, "Is it working on you, Lou?"
Lou answered, "Well, no. But 9 out of 10, how do you like those odds?" He was really joyful because 9 out of 10 were being helped.
. We carry the love of others out into the world in our Holy Suitcases as we go through life.
. Lastly we see the results of carrying this Holy Suitcase with us as we go into the world.
. Spiritual Stimulation.
. Look at verse 12 with me:
. 12Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.
. The writer is telling us that if we will carry ourselves with the assurance that God is watching and approving of how we live.
. If we love God with all of our heart soul and mind.
. If we love each other.
. If we carry all these things in our Holy Suitcases, we will not become dull spiritually.
. You see we become dull and indifferent when we don’t do what is right, when we don’t love God and each other, we become spiritually dull.
. We fall out of fellowship with God and we are no longer effective Christian witnesses.
. The world can no longer see any difference between us and everybody else.
. Christians, There are things that come with our salvation that we must carry with us in the world in order to fulfill the mission that God has for mankind.
. What’s in your Holy Suitcase or do you even have one.
. Maybe you have one but it’s been empty for a while.
. God will help you fill it back up this morning.
. Maybe you don’t have a Holy Suitcase because you have never given your life to Jesus.
. You can leave here today with your very own Holy Suitcase.
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Things That accompany Salvation, Stephen Wright, sermon central
