What's in your bag?

How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to feel the straps on your shoulders.

Now I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life. You start with the little things. The things on shelves and in drawers, the knick-knacks, the collectables. Feel the weight as that adds up. Then you start adding larger stuff, clothes, table-top appliances, lamps, linens, your TV.

The backpack should be getting pretty heavy now.

And so you go bigger. Your couch, bed, your kitchen table. Stuff it all in there. Your car, get that in there too. Your home, whether it’s a studio apartment or a five-bedroom house. I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now try to walk. It’s kind of hard, isn’t it? This is what we do to ourselves on a daily basis. We weigh ourselves down until we can’t even move.

Now, I’m going to set that backpack on fire. What do you want to take out of it? I mean really want to take out.

Now, you have a new backpack. Only this time, I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office, and then you move into the people that you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your cousins, your aunts, your uncles, your brothers, your sisters, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend or your girlfriend.

You get them into that backpack and don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to light it on fire. Just feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake – your relationships, all those negotiations and arguments, and secrets and compromises, are the heaviest components in your life. Do you feel the straps cutting into your shoulders? You don’t need to carry all that weight. So, why don’t you set that bag down for a moment?

You see, at the cross, Jesus gave us a way to put our bags down. But not only that, He made it possible for us to leave it at the cross. He calls us all. Come to the cross and lay it down. Give it to me. Let me take care of that for you.

So today, what’s in your bag? Will you leave it with Him?

Lead me to the cross

Where Your love poured out

Bring me to my knees

Lord I lay me down

Rid me of myself

I belong to You

Lead me, lead me to the cross

Lead me to the cross - Hillsong Worship