Road Rules to Travel By

Last week, and we like to go into a season where I just kind of share what's on my heart each week. It's not really themed necessarily. Some weeks it might be a little deeper teaching, some it might be a little more practical. And then we'll have some other people come in and share their hearts as well. Some of our team here, some of our ministers here, and also ministers outside our church.

Some of our overseers will come in and share some things with us. And just looking forward to this, and we're calling it Summer of Salt. We do it every year, Summer of Salt. And we just want to share with you our hearts. And I love this time of year because it's like, we could just really ask the Holy Spirit, you know.

I'm not on a schedule or anything. I write some things down during the season. Oh yeah, I feel like God's telling me to speak on this or speak on that. And we can just flow through it. So today, I was really impressed to share some vacation kind of things.

Because vacation is starting, right? Everybody's thinking about their trips, and you're getting ready to go on these vacations. And most of you, if not all of you, are going to probably do some road trips. Maybe you're not taking a vacation this summer. That's okay.

I would encourage you to take some rest, take some time, and go on vacation. By the way, guys, I apologize for the heat in here today. I got drips of sweat coming down me right now. It is usually not like this, so we'll be talking to the hotel about that. So if you're here and you're new, I'm sorry, this is not normal.

But anyway, so a lot of you are planning vacations and things like that. And I want to talk about road rules today. I want to talk about road rules. Five tips to ensure you reach your destination safely. And the goal is to take this, it's not just a road trip.

It's fun to kind of connect this to a real road trip. But it's the road trip of life. Because we all want to get to that destination, right? We all have somewhere we want to go. But there's things that we have to do.

There's tips that we need to follow in order to get to that destination. So I want to give you those five rules. Because like John Cotron said, you know, y'all know that life is a highway, right? Life is a highway. How many rockers we have in here, man?

I used to jam to that song on the road. You know, just rocking that song. Well, it's true when he says, life is a road you travel on when there's one day here and one day gone. And it's true that you only get one life to live. And you only get that day.

When you have that day, that day comes and that day goes. And you can't go back to that day. So if we don't do that day right when we're in that day, then it's gone. It comes and goes. And here's the issue, though.

We are equipped with rear view mirrors. But we're not equipped with the reverse. We've got rear view mirrors. We look to our past. We know we can always look back, but we can't go back.

And once those days, once those weeks are gone, we can't go back and start over again. You can't go back and do a marriage again once you're out of that marriage. You can't go back and raise that child again. You can't go back. And we all have regrets because we all have these rear view mirrors where we're looking back to our past.

And so for some of us, we spend way too much, way too much time looking in the rear view mirror instead of looking down the road to where we're going. And like anybody, any practical person knows, right, you can't look in your rear view while you're driving, right, the whole time because you won't get to where you need to go. It could be disastrous. It could take you off the road. It could take you another way.

If you're looking in the rear view, you can't focus on the destination that God is taking you. So the road we take, we can only look forward. We can only go forward. We can only look down the road to that destination. And we all want to get to that place.

So whether you're a person of faith or not, and you're a Christian, or maybe you're kicking the tires, or you're trying to figure out this Jesus thing, we all, I think all of us can honestly say that we want to be in the right place one day. We want to hit that destination right. We all want to get to that destination that we all want to, that we're all striving to get to. And we have a general idea of where we want to go. So this message is very practical.

It's very practical. So if you're looking for like a deep Bible study or deep teaching today, it's not going to be that. And you can go back and look at some of the last, like this last series I did. I did a lot of scripture by scripture, verse by first teaching. And you can go back to that.

But today, I just want to give you five tips for the road. So let me give you the first one here. Don't travel by yourself. Don't travel by yourself because we are better together. We do, it's just better.

We are created for community. But we all have this sense of drifting towards isolation. We all tend to have those seasons in life, hurts and pains or whatever they are, you know, that where we are tempted, we are tempted to go into an isolated state, that we are tempted to disconnect from people. And here's what we need to do. We need to ignore that voice in our head.

We need to ignore that voice that tells us, I want to be alone. Because you don't, because in those seasons, we hear that voice very loud and clear. And we need to ignore the voice that we need to be with people. We need to ignore that temptation. And here's another thing.

Don't gravitate towards acceptance, okay? Don't just gravitate towards acceptance because acceptance is magnetic. Acceptance is magnetic. And this typically happens in those seasons of life in which we are going through transitions. When we're going through transitions, we're going through one season to a new season, we tend to look for people that accept us first, right?

We're going from, you know, middle school to high school, high school to college, college to the job world. We tend to think of this English language. We tend to – We tend to be able to – To gravitate towards people that accept us. Maybe you got out of a relationship and you're moving into another one. Or you went through a divorce and you hit pause for a couple of years.

And now you're considering dating again. Or you're moving from one job to the other. What do we do? We tend to look for acceptance. Because we're in a new place.

We're in a new season. Who accepts us first? We're always drawn to accept us. And the people that accept us first are those we tend to spend a season of life with. Those people that we accept first tend to spend a season of life with.

And isn't it true that the first group of people that reach out to you, when you're in a place that's unfamiliar, in a new place, are the people, whether you're changing jobs or you go from one city to another, or you go from a new church, one church to another, you're in a new church. Those people that reach out to you and say, Hey, why don't you come with, why don't you eat lunch with me? Why don't you do this? Those are the people that, because it feels good. It feels really good.

Especially when you're in a place where you're kind of lonely. Or you're in that new season of life. And before you know it, you're friends with these people. And then down the road you're like, I don't really have anything in common with these people value-wise. I don't know why I got here.

I'm not really like these people. So don't just gravitate towards acceptance. The people who we welcome into our inner circle, get this. The people who we welcome into our inner circle determine the direction and quality of our lives. So we have to be very, very, very careful, even if they accept us.

Even if they're good. And they can be good people. And they can be sincere people. We're not saying they're not good people. But they might not be the people for you.

Don't just gravitate towards acceptance. And don't do this either. Don't simply find people who just share your tastes. We tend to just want to gravitate towards people. Very similar to acceptance.

Like, oh man, they like the same food I like. They like the same hobbies I like. They do the same type of thing. They're from the same part of the country I'm from. We tend to just focus on those.

They like the same kind of music. They like the same kind of restaurants. Don't just simply find people who share your same interests and your same tastes. Instead, look for people. Get this.

Look for people who share your values. What is a value? A value is what you have predetermined is most important to you. What you have predetermined is most important to you. And when you find people that share the same values, there is a synergy that happens between values.

That they have your back and you have their back. And when you go from one season of life into another season of life, you are positioned around those things that are most important to you. And you stay the course going the direction you want to go. And it's important for you to determine who is in that inner circle. Because your friends determine the direction and quality of your life.

So, who we do life with is extremely, extremely important. Now, I'm not saying that anyone isn't important, right? And I'm not saying that anyone isn't less important. I'm just saying that it is extremely important that you invite the right people into your inner circle. They're good people.

So, let me give you some scripture here. Proverbs. Solomon wrote these Proverbs in chapter 13, verse 20. And if you're following along with us, you can go to the Bible app. I meant to mention that at the beginning.

But you can go to the Bible app. And you can pull up Bible.com or on your phone. And look for the Salt Church event. And you should find all these scriptures there.

You can take notes and things. Or if you're just a hand writer, you can go and do that too. But here's what it says. Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. So, walking with wise people automatically make you wise.

So, we want to make sure we're walking with wise people. Because what is wisdom? Wisdom is living as if life is connected. As if yesterday, the decisions I made yesterday affect today. And the decisions I make today affect tomorrow.

And they all run together. That's what wisdom is. It's living today as if it affects tomorrow. And we want to walk with the wise. And when we walk with the wise.

When we're with the wise. When we listen to the wise. When we're around the wise. We become wise. We become wise.

And so, the author is saying when you walk with the wise. People that connect each day on the road of life towards that right direction. You become wise with them. But they always give us a contrast. What I love about these, these, this literature.

This wisdom literature. Is that they always give you the negative. Like if you do something else. Then this is what's going to happen. And this is what he says.

But the companion of the fools will suffer harm. Now, what is a fool? A fool is a person that lives life now. That lives life based on their feelings. That lives life based on whatever they're getting now.

They're not thinking about tomorrow. They don't care about yesterday. It's about what I'm doing now. It's what, how I'm living now. And how it gets, gets me there now.

So, so, so. But, but, but the interesting thing about this part of scripture. It isn't that when you walk with a fool. You don't automatically become a fool. But walking with a fool doesn't make you a fool.

But it suffers the same consequences as a fool. So if you walk with fools. You suffer the same consequences as a fool. Even if you have the potential to be wise. Even if deep down you have the potential to be wise.

So travel with people who care about themselves. Who take care of themselves. And they will take care of you. You. So, don't travel alone.

The second point I want to make is, second tip is, don't pick up strangers. Okay, you remember that? Your parents saying that? Don't pick up strangers. Stay away from strangers.

Don't talk to strangers. Because they're strangers, right? Now, what is a stranger? What's the definition of a stranger? Someone that is strange, okay?

Someone that is strange. Now, we're all a little strange, right? We're all a little strange. So, let me just say it like this. A stranger is someone who is stranger than you, okay?

So, a bunch of strange people. And a stranger, you ever meet those people that never meet a stranger, you know? And then you tell them, well, you know, you need to be careful how you talk to people because they're strangers you shouldn't share. Well, I, you know, and then they respond, well, you know, they were a stranger until I met them. And now we're not strangers anymore because we talked, right?

And you have, but I think everybody knows what I'm talking about when they, after a while, when they're talking to somebody or they share something with somebody or they get to know somebody and they start to notice that this person probably is a stranger. Because they don't, it's somebody I'm not going to continue with. And once in a while, we have those. And we want to all be kind, right? We want to be kind people.

It's okay to talk to people. Don't be mean to people. Be kind. Be kind, but be careful. Be kind, but be careful.

Be kind to everyone, but be careful who you allow in your car traveling, in your inner circle traveling. And the healthier you are, the more helpful you will be to others. The healthier you are, the healthier, the more helpful you will be. But don't invite them in your inner circle because people who are closest to you affect you. The people that are closest to you affect you.

So here, let me just, let's dig into this just a little more before I go to the third point, okay? What is a stranger? And I want you to ask this question. I want you to, do you have strangers in your life and in your inner circle? And here's, here's what you, here's how you need to ask that.

Is there someone you do life with who makes you less healthy by being around them? Is there somebody in your life? Do you begin to doubt yourself when you're around them? Are they slowly and subtly chipping away at your values? Are they slowly and subtly just killing your values?

Or are they dismissing or disrespecting your values? Or are they, are you afraid of being yourself when you're around those people? Are you afraid of being yourself, but you find yourself quiet and different when you're around those people? And if you find that you aren't yourself, and you can answer yes to any of those, that's a stranger. That's a stranger.

Here's the deal. God loves them. You can't handle them. God loves those people. You can't handle them.

Maybe down the road you can handle them. But at this point in life, if any of these things are happening to you, you can't handle them. If they're bending and shaping the direction of your life, if they're making you be less than who you are, then God loves them because, you know, God loves everybody. And we use that excuse, well, we need to love everybody. We need to love everybody.

Yes, God loves them, but you can't handle them. And if you continue to be in that relationship, you might be not allowing someone else who can handle them to be able to step into that arena and help gravitate them back to that road. So, although you can't handle them, somebody else may be able to, but God loves them. And I know that it's difficult with relationships. I know that it's difficult when you have these friends, but do it for the sake of the other person who perhaps can come into their life and help and guide them for the sake of that friend that you have that you're concerned about but you can't handle.

Number three, and there's kind of two points in this, I guess. Choose a destination and grab someone else's map. Choose a destination and grab someone else's map. Let's start out with choosing a destination because everyone wants to end up somewhere in life, right? And the win is to end up somewhere on purpose, right?

We don't want to just end up, oh, how did I get here? We want to get there on purpose. And just as there's multiple stops on a road trip, there's multiple stops in life. There's multiple seasons in life. Just like we're trying to get, like if I'm going to my parents' house down in eastern North Carolina, I know that I've got to get from, you know, here to Highway 58, to Highway 58, to Highway 95, and then Highway 95 to 795.

And I know the whole way. I know the marks on the road. I know the path I have to take. I know how to get there. I know how to get there.

And there are multiple stops. And it's important in each season to determine where your destination is landing you. And we are conditioned to do this from a very young age. Think about it for a second. When you're in elementary school, what are you told?

Oh, I've got to get to middle school, right? Or get to junior high if you're aged a little bit. I was a junior high student. So that tells my age a little bit. To get to junior high.

From junior high to high school, you know, you've got to make the grade. You get to junior high to high school. And then high school, you're kind of pushing, I've got to get in college. I've got to get the right grades. I've got to fill out the things.

Or I've got to, you know, whatever life takes me next. And it's easy at that level to understand that you are in seasons of life. But once you get out of those seasons in life, it gets a little harder. It gets a little more complicated when you get out in the world. And then you don't see that.

It just gets muggy and mucky. And you don't have real direction. And you don't. So we need to be careful not to. To lose sight that there are seasons, even now in life, as we're out in the real world.

We are conditioned this way, but think of it this way. You might, just for example, some of you might be in singlehood right now. That your destination is different, you know? Or some of you might be in marriage, your beginning marriage, or you're further along in marriage, and your destination is different. Where you're going is different.

Or maybe you need, maybe you're divorced, or you're starting a relationship again, and you're looking, and whatever. You've got something, you've got a different place. Or maybe you're looking for a career move. Maybe that's your destination. You come into a new place, and a new job, and a new situation.

So we all are in different seasons in life. We all have different seasons in life, and those seasons we want to be prepared for. And here's the deal. Wishing won't get you to that destination. You want to get to on purpose, right?

Someone once said this. He said, direction, not intention, chooses your destination. Direction, not intention, chooses your destination. That's actually not the right quote, guys. That's the next quote, okay?

This was just something I pulled off the top of my head. Your destination is important, but direction, not intention. You can have all the intentions in the world to get somewhere, but if you're aiming towards Key West, and you're going north, you're never going to get there. You're going to bend up in Canada somewhere, right? This isn't Key West.

This isn't tropical. This isn't anything, right? Right? You've got to set seasons in life. And think of it this way.

You only get to do your 20s once. You only get to do your 30s once. You only get to do your 40s once. You only get to do these different seasons of life in once. And we can't go back because we have rear views, but we don't have a reverse.

So while we're in the seasons that we're in, set destinations. Set checkpoints. Go that direction. Here's another one. Here's another quote.

This is the one that can pop up now, okay? Discipline, not desire, determines our destiny. Unknown. I don't know who wrote this. I wish I could give them credit for this.

But discipline, not desire, determines your destiny. I'm disciplined enough in this season to make it to the next season. I'm disciplined enough now to make the right choices and to do the right things. And then make it to the next season. So decide now in this season so you don't end up where you don't want to be.

You can make those choices now. I love how Andy Stanley says it in his statement. He says, you make this list. A no for now, but not forever list. A no for now, but not forever list.

And I have a mentor, a ministry coach that I talk to often. And he shared this no for now, not forever kind of philosophy. He and his wife do this as well. It doesn't mean that the things that you want to do later are bad or anything. It's just that they're not for now.

Because you have to set your destination in those seasons. And he shared with me when he was in his 30s or in his 40s. And now he's well in his 60s. And just a man of wisdom and speaks to me on so many things in ministry. And helps and coaches me through things.

He said in that season of life, he is really, really close with John Maxwell. John Maxwell and him are like this. And John offered him a job. A job in ministry. And he said it was the hardest thing for me to do.

It was the most difficult thing for me to do. Because it was my dream job. It was everything I ever wanted. But I had to say no for that time. Because I had young kids.

I had a family. And I wanted to be home with my kids. In that season of life, he had to say no for now. But not forever. And now he's traveling.

Now he's ministering. Now he's doing growth workshops. He's doing leadership workshops with people. He's doing his dream now. But he realized that in that season, the most important thing that he needed to focus on was his children and his family.

So we need to put together. And I don't know what that list looks like for you. Maybe it's school. Maybe it's a job. Maybe it's a new relationship.

Maybe it's marriage you're in. Maybe it's your kids. Whatever that might be, we need to make a no for now and not forever list. What do we need to put aside now so that we can prioritize where our destination needs to be in this season? Not forever.

Because there will be another season where we can pursue more things. So we put those in the not for now list, you know, but not forever list. And then we focus on those in a later season. The second thing is, on this as a pre-point, use someone else's map, right? Someone else has been there, right?

Someone else has been there. And we think that we, you know, when we walk into this new season, when we walk into a new season, oh, we know it. But we don't. We just don't. We don't have any road map.

We've never done it. It reminds me of when Max was born. I had never had a child before. And we're in that hospital and the nurses are doing everything for us. It was so great.

We just got to hang out. They were feeding them. They were changing the diapers. They were changing the covers. They would do come in and out, check temperature and stuff.

And I remember that day when they walk us out to the car. And we've got that little carriage in our hand. You know, that car carrier. And we put it in the car. And the nurse says, well, bye-bye.

Enjoy Max. Have a great life. And you're like, you're not coming with me? I don't know how to do this. You know, I've got to take this child home.

Use someone else's map. And the best thing you can do is borrow someone else's map. Talk to someone else. And here's how you can do it. Don't ever ask anybody to be your mentor.

I don't think that really works. But here's what I would do. And I think this is really important. I would write down three questions that you want to ask somebody. And whatever season of life you're heading into, you want to find out information.

You need to nail somebody down and say, you know what? Send them an email. And say, you know, get their email. Get for information. Send them an email.

Maybe write down three questions. And say, hey, you know, I have these three questions. I'm going through this transition. I really want to know how to do this right. I want to know how to do this better.

I'm going through this transition of life. Could we meet for coffee? Could we meet for lunch? Could we meet and I'll pay and I just want to get your advice on this. Because here's the deal.

People don't know what they know until you ask them, right? We don't know what we know. I mean, I'm in my 40s and some of you in your 30s and 20s. If you just ask me, maybe I have some insights, right? I mean, and people, you know, that are older than me and have been through things before or further along in marriage or further along in ministry or further along in life.

I mean, they don't know until you ask them. They don't know what they know until you ask them. And I find it funny that when people ask me something, I'm like, wow, and I give them this insight. I'm like, I didn't even know I knew that. I didn't know I had that in me.

But this experience has helped me. Hey, Vernon Law, the baseball player, said this, experience is a hard teacher because it gives the test first and the lesson afterwards. And the only way to avoid this is to invite information from people before you go in. And so that's why we need people that are ahead of us. Borrow someone else's map.

Choose a destination. Borrow someone else's map. Here's what, here's a Bible for that. Proverbs 19, 20. Listen to counsel, okay?

Now, this is hard for guys. Listen, how many of the guys in here, we have a hard time listening to advice because we know, yeah, I have a hard time with that. And accept discipline. What does that mean? What does it mean to accept discipline?

It means to admit that you're wrong. We got to admit that we're wrong so that we may be what? Wise the rest of our days. We need to be ahead of where we're going. And here's the deal.

And when we get this down, even people who aren't as smart as you, even people who aren't as accomplished as you, even people who aren't as successful as you, and even people who aren't as educated as you can speak into your life. If you can get that right. Thank you, Solomon. Number four. Two more points left.

I know it's hot in here. Pay attention to the signs. Pay attention to the signs. But we like to ignore signs, you know, when we're riding down the road, right? We get frustrated and that stupid stoplight shouldn't be there.

I'm just going to keep going, right? That stop sign shouldn't be there. Nobody's around. I'm going to just keep going. That yield sign.

Who put that orange cone there? Get that out of the way. I'm going to park here anyway. I don't want to listen to this. But when somebody else does it, what do we say?

You idiot! What are you doing? And we fail to see the idiot in the mirror because we ignore the signs. Sometimes it's hard to see ourselves and the same is true in life. Proverbs 27, 12 says it like this.

The prudent see danger. The prudents see the signs. They see the signs and they take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. So what's going on with your friends? What's going on with your family?

What's going on with your kids? What's going on around you? What's going on professionally? What's going on financially? You need to think about those things.

It's most tempting to ignore signs. Let me say this. It's most tempting, it's absolutely most tempting to ignore signs relationally. Why? Because we just don't know what to do with it.

We don't know what to do with relationships. We don't know what to do with people because relationships are like combustible engines. Nothing improves with neglect. They just don't. But the reason we ignore signs relationally, we just don't know what to do because we can fix things.

You know, we can fix our internet, we can fix our cars, we can fix our houses, we can fix those. But for some reason, relationships are just so much harder and so much deeper. Let me just say this, and this is really hard. This is really hard. It's something I've had to accept and I'm sure you're going to have to accept.

If more than one person has brought something to your attention that you need to think about or work on, then that's probably a sign. If more than one person, if two or three people have brought something to your attention that you need to work on, or you need to think about, that's probably a sign. And have you ever moved a sign, you know? Oh, I can't believe this is here, you know? That's actually illegal, so I hope none of you have actually moved the sign.

But I know some of you have seen a sign on the sidewalk and probably say, I don't like this here. It's in a parking space. And you say, I'm going to park here anyway. I always park here. And I don't know why they have that cone there.

And I think somebody's doing that on purpose, right? And we do that. But we do that relationally too. We do that. If someone, you know, we say, have you ever used this phrase, don't ever say that to me again?

Don't ever bring that up again. Don't ever talk about that again. Because I'm fine. Everything's okay. You might be moving a sign.

You might be ignoring a sign that's there. If you keep ignoring signs, you will never arrive. And the simple keep going and they pay the penalty, right? The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. So the question is, do you want to pay the penalty and keep going?

Because there are penalties. You won't be able to get where you want to go. You won't be able to get to that destination if you don't look at the signs. Good road tip. Final road tip, and just landing this plane here.

Final road tip is don't carry unnecessary baggage. And if you want to get a little deeper teaching on this, you need to go back to the last three weeks and start and go through our Big Fat Mouth series. And we will talk a lot about this subject. But you need to unpack unnecessary baggage. I remember my first hiking trip.

I was seven years old. And we had, if any of you grew up in church, particularly Pentecostal circles, there was this group called Royal Rangers. And we had, if any of you grew up in a Mr. The Royal Rangers. Okay.

With God's help, I will do my best to serve God, my church, and my fellow man to live by the Ranger Code to make the golden rule my daily rule. See, I got that in my head. I can go through all the points on the Ranger Code. I can do all of that because we had to memorize all of that. But it was a Christian Boy Scouts.

And I remember going on this camping trip. It was my first time hiking, and it was only a three-mile hike. Some of you are like, oh my gosh, three miles? But for a little boy, yeah, that was a really, really long hike, you know? And I remember I packed my Game Boy.

I packed all this other stuff. You know, you had to have all of your essentials when you went packing. But as I was walking down the trail, I said, man, this is hard. I'm heavy. And it's like over my back.

And other, you know, we called them commanders, the leaders or whatever. And they're just like hopping along on their little boots and crawling up rocks and doing all that stuff. And we're just like, oh, you know, all those boys with our little gadgets and gidgets and stuff. And we didn't even have near the gadgets they have now. But we packed everything.

And what I realized and what they told me, you only pack the necessary items. Get rid of the unnecessary things when you're going on a long hiking trip. And on life, it's the same way. It will slow you down if you carry all this unnecessary baggage. What is unnecessary baggage?

It's unresolved and partially resolved issues in the past that keep showing up. It's unresolved or partially resolved issues that keep showing up. And it empowers the past to define the future and your destination. And the reason we have these things, the reason is we all have been hurt. We all have been left out.

We all have been ostracized from time to time. We've all been neglected from time to time. We all have those hurts, right? I mean, nobody's exempt from the hurts. But maybe you've missed out on a dream, you know, because of somebody that came in your life.

Maybe it was a marriage that failed and you had all these aspirations and things and it just didn't work out for you. And you were aiming somewhere and you didn't make it. Or maybe you had dreams and you decided to put those dreams on hold to help a parent that was sick or whatever it might be. And you're holding resentment over that. You're bitter with life because of that.

And it's hard to unpack those things. It really is hard because it's a part of your story. It's a part of your life. It's a piece of you. And it's hard to let those things go because you have those things.

It's a part of who you are. It's an integral part of your life. But the reason you want to leave those things behind is that you want others to do the same, right? You have people in your life that you wish that they would let go of those things. I love how Amanda Palmer says this.

If you don't deal with your demons, they go to the cellar of your soul and they lift weights. They get stronger. And the problem is that when we don't deal with our baggage, the further we move from that event, the bigger those things get inside ourselves. They start lifting weights. They start getting bigger.

And the consequences of that thing get so radical that we can't even distinguish and we lose sight of where that source comes from. We forget where that, we don't even know where it comes from, where that bitterness comes from, where that anger comes from, where that mouth comes from, where all that comes from. And this is why Ephesians says this, and Paul writes this to the church. He says, be angry, but don't sin. Be angry.

It's okay to be angry. We've been built with anger. But don't sin. Don't sin. Figure out how to separate your anger from the root cause of where maybe the anger comes from.

And then he says, don't let the sun go down while you are still angry and don't give the devil space. It means don't give the devil your baggage. Don't let him hold the handle of your luggage. Don't give it to him. What we do is give it to him.

Don't give him bitterness. Don't give him the resentment. Don't give him. Don't let him put fear in you. Don't let him put that baggage on you.

So my question for you is, do you have any demons down in your life that are lifting weights? That are getting bigger and getting stronger and it's pulling you away from your destination? It's weighing you down. Do you have any unnecessary baggage? The people that are closest to you know.

Did you know that? The people that are closest to you because they have to carry your baggage. Because they have to carry your weight. And they have to navigate it. And they have to talk about it.

And they have to walk around it. And they have to deal with your emotions. And they have to deal with your substance abuse. And they have to deal with your addictions. And they have to deal with your sensitivity.

They have to deal with those things. The people that are closest to you that love you the most have to deal with those things. But you have to unpack that stuff. And they want to help you unpack that stuff. That's why Ephesians says it like this in 4.

1. It says, verse 31, Get rid of bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, and slander along with every bit of malice. Because where does that come from again? It's that bitterness inside of us. And then he makes it so simple.

But it's so hard. But it's so simple. He says, forgive each other. Forgive each other. Here's the cure.

Forgive each other just as what? Christ forgave you. Why don't we forgive? We don't forgive because we don't think people deserve to be forgiven. But were you forgiven because you deserve to be forgiven?

Did Christ forgive you because you deserve to be forgiven? And when you are hurt and I'm hurt, what it does, it creates debt. It creates debt. It creates relational debt. And they owe me.

And what happens is their debt becomes our luggage. And the demons lift weights. The demons lift weights. And they can't. And they can't.

Pay you back. Number one, here's the reason they can't pay you back. This is the reason they can't they can't forgive you because they don't know they need to forgive you. They don't know. And then we're equipped with rear view mirrors and nobody has a reverse so we can't go back in the first place and fix those things.

They can't give you back your childhood. They can't give you back your marriage. They can't give you back that that thing that they took from you. They can't give you back your children. They can't give you back those things because we are equipped with rear views but we're not equipped with the reverse.

We cannot go back and we but we we cancel people's debts because what? Because we can cancel them because our Heavenly Father did that for us. That's why we cancel our debts. So we need to close those accounts. And over time, and I'm closing, okay?

And over time, when you close those debts, those voices become quieter and quieter. And they come, they fade in the background and they become weaker and weaker. And it's true that it's not fair because it's not. It's not fair, is it? It's not fair that they owe you.

But it's not about fair. My mom used to tell me that all the time when I was a kid. It's not about fair. It's about freedom. It's not about fair.

It's not about fair. It's not about what they owe me. It's about your freedom. So choose to forgive. Forgiveness is deciding.

Listen. Forgiveness is deciding. Forgiveness is deciding. That person that hurts you. Forgiveness is deciding.

I make that choice. You don't owe me. So let me just recap real quick. Don't travel by yourself. Don't pick up strangers.

Choose a destination. And grab someone else's map. Pay attention to the signs. And don't carry unnecessary baggage. And you are going to end up in this season of life.

And though we're all in different seasons, where you want to be to prepare you for the next season of life, which ultimately will carry you to the right destination. We can be purposeful in getting to where we need to be in this road, this highway called life. Let's pray. Why don't we pray? Father, thank you for this wisdom literature.

Thank you for these letters that you've given us. Because it has given us steps to be able to make the right decisions. To make the right choices in life. And help us, God. Help us, God.

To take what we've heard today. And really just follow what you have taught us. And that you would guide us. That you would put the right people around us, Lord. And we would be intentional about allowing the right people around us.

So that we can get where we want to in life. And that we would be willing to forgive others. As you have forgiven us, Lord. That we would be willing to reach out to people who have been beyond us. And grab what they have to help us down that road of life.

But God, I know there's people here today. I sense it in the room, God. That may not understand what it's like to be forgiven. Because they never received forgiveness from you. But you have forgiven them.

And with all heads bowed and all eyes closed. There are people here. If you're somebody here. That has not received the forgiveness of God. That our Heavenly Father.

Our Heavenly Father. Forgave us when we had something to owe Him. He said, I canceled the debt. And He wants to do that for you today. He sent His Son to cancel the debt.

To forgive you of your sins. So that you can have a relationship with Him. And He says, if you call on my name. If you believe in my Son. If you receive what I have for you.

You will be saved. So pray this with me. If that's you today. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. I'm not going to ask you to come to the front.

Unless you want to. We'll pray for you. That's wonderful. But just say this with me. Father, I believe that you are the Son of God.

I believe that I owe you so much. And it's a debt that I cannot repay. But I know. That through Jesus Christ. Your only Son.

The Son of God. You gave your life. That you gave your Son's life. You gave your one and only thing. That you loved so much.

So that I could have a relationship with you. So today. I receive you as my Lord and Savior. I receive you as my King. I give you my life.

I give you my road. I give you everything. Let's celebrate Jesus. For those who may have given their lives to Christ today. If you did give your life to Christ today.

Please don't hold it. Don't put it under a bushel. You know you sing that song when you were a kid. Hide it under a bushel. No.

I'm going to let it shine. Let us know. That you have given your life to Christ. We want to help you along that journey. There's some information at the table.

And we would love to help you along that way. We're going to end real quick. My wife is going to end the service real quick. And thank you for being patient with me. I know I was a little long winded today.

I have been the last few weeks. I apologize for that. And I love you all online. God bless you.