Offloading All Your Excess Baggage

Jonah 1:1-17

  

Excess Baggage

There are so many things we heard about following our dreams and pursuing to reach our destiny.

To traverse every difficult path no matter what and with much perseverance, we will be able to reach the end of the trail.

We are excited to talk about getting to our destination.

But there are a lot of people who don’t enjoy their journey because they carry with them so much excess baggage in life that they don’t actually need.

Are we ready to let go of every excess luggage that we have?

Even if we set to reach our goals unless we throw out that excess baggage, we will not enjoy our journey because we carry the burden of things that are beyond
our ability to bear.

At the Airport

One of the typical scenes at the airport is people packing their luggage, trying to squeeze everything with all their might just to salvage something.

Just imagine how pressure and stressful it is when you’re catching a flight to your destination but the staff would not allow you until you pay the price.

The price is expensive and we need to choose.

To keep it or throw it.

It’s a decision to make. To be at the desired destination or be stuck at the airport.

The Story of Jonah

There was a prophet named Jonah who boards a ship at Koppa going to Tarshish. But on their journey, they encountered a strong storm that almost destroyed the boat. They prayed but the storm seemed don’t want to stop. They already have thrown out every cargo they could throw off but the ship is still sinking. So they decided to cast a lot and Jonah was picked.

Jonah told them his story and in short, they threw him away from the boat and the storm stopped.

Maybe today you’re encountering the same storm in your life. You have prayed a lot and tried to solve everything that you can but it seems it never stops.

The reason why it destroys us is that we keep with us the excess baggage.

Every excess baggage we have can sink the boat.

Every excess baggage in our life can destroy us and stop us from reaching our destination.

The crew tried to row the boats instead of throwing Jonah from the ship but it never stopped the storm.

Sometimes, even when we know what are those things that stopped us from our destiny, we try to manage it but the situation becomes worse.

Even if you have thrown everything unless you have not to get rid of what is destroying, it will not save the boat.

Even how mighty the ship can be if it carries beyond what it can carry, it will sink.

We need to point out what is that excess baggage in our life that makes us sinkable.

Any disobedience to God is an excess weight that we carry and it takes from us His grace and protection.

It’s the responsibility of the captain to check the capacity of the boat and how much wt it carries before leaving the boat.

Because any excess is dangerous.

It’s the usual reason for so many tragedies that happened in the past…carrying more passengers than it’s allowed to carry.

Our EXCESS BAGGAGE

What is that excess baggage we have?

All our negative thoughts and negative minds are excess baggage that we need to throw out to the sea.

It does not only destroy us but it prevents us from reaching the other side of our destiny, our goals, and our eternity.

Every anger, hatred, and sin that are in us drags us down to the bottom.

Its weight is so heavy that it slowly sinks us to a deeper depth.

We cannot journey with joy and peace of mind as long as we carry the weight of it.

LIFE DESIGN

Anything that is in excess is not good.

We are designed by God but we have our own weaknesses and limitations.

Yes, we are designed by God to be stronger, to be mighty people, to be an overcomer but with condition that we don’t entertain anything that will destroy us.

Even Superman, he was strong but he has his match.

We are not designed to keep with us anything that is not according to his purpose and design. Otherwise, it will certainly destroy us.

God commands us to think about what is good, noble, pure, righteous, anything that is praiseworthy and excellent.

Any negative thoughts that we entertain are a hole that will sink our boats.

Every feeling of un-contentment steals from us the joy and experience of having more than enough.

Every feeling of ungratefulness takes the opportunity to receive more.

Every inch of doubt destroys our faith and robs us of the opportunity to witness and experience the amazing power of God to transform the impossible into the possible.

Every hatred that we keep, suppress the sparks of love in our heart.

Every weight of sin keeps us further away from God’s promise of eternity.

ANYTHING EXCESS

In the natural, everything made by God is good and enough according to its purpose.

When he saved Noah and his family, He asked of him the only pair of animals and not more.

Why because everything that is in excess is not good.

The same principle in Engineering design, every foundation and member is being designed according to its capacity and the load it can carry.

To arrive at a sound and safe design, the designer will compute how many loads a member could carry according to its capacity otherwise, it would look for alternative materials to carry it or provide additional support.

Every member has their own stress to carry.

If the stress it receives is more than it could carry,  it will produce cracks. Stress over time can cause members to buckle and eventually destroys it.

If this is true with Engineering, it’s true with our spirituality.

You cannot carry stress more than you could carry.

You either get rid of the excess stress or find support to carry it for you; otherwise, this will torment you and will not help you over time.

But why carry so many unnecessary stresses in our life if we know that we could live without them?

Sometimes we try to carry it with our own strength but carrying it over time with our own strength becomes heavier.
DELETE AND UNINSTALL

Have you noticed that even our computers become so slow and don’t function exactly as per their design when their stores are full and with apps that are not required?

What we do. There is a button called DELETE.

Anything that we don’t need, we should delete.

It eats up your time, it eats up your space, and it eats up the opportunity for other good things that you can download.

In life, we need to delete anything unnecessary but we have to decide.

We need to delete the relationship that makes us unhappy.

Delete the job that doesn’t give you real joy and happiness.

Delete all the vices that ruin your money and health.

They are just excess baggage that eats your space/ time and resources.

You need to have the courage to push that delete button.
DELETE BUT TRASH

It takes courage to offload old friends if you know they take out from you the opportunity to grow.

If you have an extra relationship that could destroy your family, delete it.

In a computer, even when we delete it, there is still space allotted to keep the deleted items; yet it still occupies storage space.

Isn’t it true that many of us even though we already deleted many excess areas in our life, still keep space and room to store them to a point that we install them again when we decided to?

We cannot let it go.

To truly experience freedom, put it into trash and junk so that you have completely gotten rid of them.

ARE YOU THE EXCESS BAGGAGE?

We talk so much about extra luggage, but are we like Jonah whose excess baggage?

Sometimes we are the excess baggage to others. Instead of being blessings, we became the source of their agony, their sadness.

Maybe we are the reason that they commit sin.

Jesus said it is better for a man who makes other sins to be tied up with a grinding stone and be thrown out into the sea.

GIVE IT ALL TO HIM

Mt 11:28
Come to me all of you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest

1 Peter 5:7
Cast to Him all your anxiety for He cares for you.

Our sin is too much for us to bear, God carries the cross for us and bears the pain even to death for us.

God trims and takes out from us every single impurity in us to perfect us…

May you dare to throw all your excess baggage and let your happiness be full,

Mikesendon