Amen. It's an honor to be with you tonight. If you'll take your Bibles, turn to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. I never thought that I would be preaching in this church knowing my high school days when they had a school here. I played at Tabernacle. Dr. Sattler, it got so rough between East Georgia Road and Tabernacle that Dr. Sattler told us we couldn't play any longer. And but it's good memories down here. I had some of my best games in that gym shooting and having a great time. And so there's great memories here. And then Brother Ellison, he's been my friend for a long time. I love him and his dear son. And so we both of his sons and his dear wife. And so we love the family. We love all of you. It's good to see friends here. from other places as well. Larry Joe told me that he came to hear me. He was going to wear a Clemson shirt, and I said, well, I would have changed my message to Romans chapter 1 if you'd have done that. But it's good to see family and friends here tonight. But I've never had a request for a message. I haven't preached this message, but one time in my life, it was about 10 or 12 years ago at a youth camp. And that morning, the Lord laid it on my heart in there in the cabin, and I went and preached it that morning. And Brother Ellison requested it, and whatever the pastor says to do, that's what I'm about. And if the Lord laid it on his heart, then I'm going to preach it. If it flubs, it's his fault. All right, no, I'm just kidding. But John chapter 10, I want to start reading in verse number 1. John chapter 10, Jesus speaking, he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Can I just stop right there and say, I'm glad I have a shepherd tonight. To him the porter openeth. And the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them. And the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. this parable, spake Jesus unto them, but they understood it not what things they were which he spake unto them. They didn't understand that they were the sheep. They didn't understand what they were talking about. So then Jesus says this. He said unto them, verse 7, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. I say hallelujah. I'm gonna read it again there. I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. There's no if so, hope so, maybe so about it. When you call on the name of Christ, He'll save you. and he'll keep you until the end of time. I'm glad one day I'm gonna step off on the shores of sweet deliverance and I'm gonna see Jesus face to face and it won't be because of anything I've done, it'll be because of everything that he's done. And I'm glad he keeps me. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. Now here is my text tonight, the point I want to focus on. And shall go in and out and find this one word you ought to circle, pasture. The word pasture here is meaning rest. And all throughout the Bible, God talks about going into or entering into this rest that we have in Christ. We are all, I'm preaching to the church tonight, though if there's someone lost here tonight, I hope this is the night you turn your life to Christ and get saved. But I'm here to encourage the church tonight and those that are saved, why? Because all over when I preach in churches and even in our own churches sometimes, and I go with teenagers, I go with senior citizens, but when you get around the people of God, it seems like this world has stolen their joy. It seems like there's no more shout in churches any longer. I brought my shouters with me. But no, there seems like nobody has the joy of their salvation. Do you realize tonight if you're bought by the precious blood of Christ that you cannot go to hell? As one old preacher said, you could swing out over hell on a rotten corn stalk and spit right in the devil's eye. You cannot go to hell tonight. We ought to all lift our hands tonight. Go ahead and try it. It won't hurt you a bit to raise your hand tonight and tell him thank you for salvation. I believe this rest that he's talking about. This is the shepherd speaking. This is the one talking about his sheep. But the reason we don't enter the sheep into the rest is I believe we carry baggage. We come in the church and we're not prepared. We're not prayed up. We haven't sought God's face. All we've looked at is Fox News or some other entity or we've looked at Twitter or Facebook all day and we've seen nothing but bad news after bad news after bad news. And we come in the church and we wonder if our 401k is going to make it, if my bank account is going to make it. But the last time I checked, the Bible said, Jesus said, I shall supply all your needs according to my riches in glory. And the last time I checked, my God is not broke. My God is not in debt. Nothing catches him by surprise. That need you have, that need I have, it didn't say, God didn't say, oh my, I didn't know that was gonna happen. No, God knew it was gonna happen 10,000 years before it happened. He's got a way out. He's got a way of escape. You ought to get loose tonight and just let God have His way. There's baggage. I brought baggage with me tonight. I know this is a crude illustration, but I want to prove a point to you. This is the way Christians come into church. Carrying baggage. They're coming in carrying baggage. Number one, they carry the baggage, and this baggage is the big one. It's twofold. And many preachers have missed it. But they carry around sin and sins. There's a difference. Many people say you have to repent of your sins. You don't. You repent of your sin. It's the debt that you owe. True repentance is when you make a turn around toward Christ. You make a turn to Him and repent of your unbelief. You can't repent of all your sins. You can't. You don't know all of them. The Bible says whatever is not of faith is sin. Can I just say I've sinned a lot today because a lot of times I don't have faith in what's next. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I'm glad I know who holds tomorrow. But most of us, the reason we can't enter into the rest that he's talking about, we can't get into the pasture that he's talking about, those green pastures that he leads us to, It said He's leading us. Is He leading you tonight? Well, you know what you ought to do? You ought to quit carrying around the baggage of sin. But I said it was twofold. There's also sins. Y'all realize we fail Him every day. I wish we could get to the point where we think, now spiritually, in His eyes, I am perfect. I am justified. Just as if I'd never sinned because of the precious blood that covers my life. But on this outside, this flesh, there's nothing good within me. As Paul said, O wretched man that I am, And that's why we have sins in our life. That's why there has to be a daily confession, not to some man that's dressing like mama. You don't need a priest today. If you're born again, you are the priest. You are the priesthood. But we have a high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, was tempted at all points like we are, yet without sin. Aren't you glad that we have somebody to go to? First John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he's faithful. I like that part of that verse. That means every time, on time, every time, He'll forgive your sins. He's faithful and He's just. He's right to do so. Hey, you may not forgive me for doing you wrong. I may not forgive you for doing me wrong. But there's one in heaven that's making intercession with the Father. And He forgives me every time, even when I do Him wrong. So you've got the baggage we carry of sin and sins. There's another bag. Sam, would you go get that purple bag? The next biggest. There's a bag of failure. When I say failure, I mean your past. I am convinced tonight, this is my opinion, I didn't read it from a book. This is SKJV, Sammy K Jr. version. I'm a King James man, by the way, so don't get panicky. But I believe Paul's thorn in the flesh was never his eyesight. I believe it was his past. You have to remember that Paul was once Saul. Had letters on the Damascus road to go kill men, women, and children. Murder them for being Christians. And then God changed his life on the Damascus road. Don't you ever think God can't use you because he used Paul? And Paul, yes, was qualified, but God qualified him. He was a murderer. He was a blasphemer. He said it of himself. And yet God changed his life on the Damascus road. But I believe even as a Christian, Paul said, there's a law that is within me inside. There's a law that I know on the inside. I love him. I'm paraphrasing, but I love him. I want to live right. I want to do right. But there's also a law on the outside of these members. And there's things I don't want to do, and I do them. And the things that I do want to do, I don't do those. And Paul said, oh, wretched man that I am. Can you imagine? I've been there. I don't know about you, but I got a past. I was saved at six, but I got a past. I've done things I'm not proud of. I've hurt people that I didn't want to hurt. And then you meet them later on in life, and they say, you're a Christian? You're a preacher? And then you can't win them to the Lord. And that'll get to you sometimes, because you've got to pass. But can I just tell you this? The Bible says, therefore, there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The reason some of us can't enter into that rest, the reason some of us can't worship, can't praise, can't raise a hand is because there's something you probably did today or last night or yesterday and you think, God, I can't raise my hand, I'm unworthy. No. You are unworthy to do, even be alive. But God made you worthy by the precious blood of Jesus. And I'm here to tell you, I don't care what you've done this week. I'm here to tell you, you can raise your hand. You can shout hallelujah. You can say amen. Stop carrying baggage around of your past because your past is gone. It's gone. It's forgiven. My dad's sitting over here. He had a rough past, but now he's been preaching for over 60 years, pastoring for 57. I'm here to tell you, somebody got victory over past, but sometimes I'll talk with him and he'll get teary-eyed talking about how foolish. When he used to wake up in a car with a fifth of liquor, not no. On Sundays he'd wake up from a hangover, but now since Jesus came in, he wakes up, gets to go to church, gets to go to Sunday school, gets to go preach, hey, gets to listen to singing. You better not take for granted you getting to come to church. Church is a wonderful thing. Church is ordained by God and purchased by God. You ought to thank God tonight. Somebody say amen right there, that you just love church. You ought to love it. But see, we can't worship like we want to because we got the baggage of our past. So we sit in a pew, quiet. We sit in a pew, miserable, when you don't have to. You don't have to. Sam, go get me that brown bag, the little one right there, flat. Hand that to me. All right. Now this is another one. This is gonna get you right here. It said failure. Another one's fear. Y'all remember Joseph? Joseph was, I mean, it's a beautiful picture of Christ. But you look at Joseph's life, he was a dreamer. His brother said, behold, the dreamer cometh. And see, many of us have dreams, aspirations in our life of what we want to do. Can I just say this? God can change your dreams and turn your life upside down. But see, many times we're not prepared. We're so afraid to step out and do anything for God. I don't know about Brandon, but I know at our church, We need teachers. We need choir members. We need people to work. Every church does. But many times we carry that baggage of fear because it goes along right along with failure. We think we're not worthy enough to serve. But can I just tell you this? Keep on dreaming. Keep on aspiring to do something for God. I tell young people everywhere, My son's sitting here. I want the best for him. I want him to succeed. But it's all in vain if he doesn't put Christ first. But if he'll put Christ first, God may change his way. Joseph ended up in the pit. Then he ended up in the prison. Both places, I guarantee you, Joseph said, God, is this where I'm supposed to be? But before long, he's in the palace. If you'll just wait on the Lord, the Bible says, He will renew your strength and you will mount up with wings as eagles. You will run and not faint. You will walk and not be weary. You just wait on the Lord and watch Him. I want you to give me another bag over there, Sam, that purple one underneath. I got a point proven here. Put that in my hands here. I'd carry it anyway. Oh, you hung. There you go. Hand me that. Y'all say this looks pretty silly, but you know what? That's the way Christians look coming into church, carrying all that baggage. I talked to you about the baggage of sin, the baggage of guilt, the baggage of failure, the baggage of fear. But can I just tell you this? Why don't you give me that other one, Sam, right there? But I want you to put that around my head. Put it in, just squeeze it. Now flip it around with the things in my back. There's one last bag. You say, that's choking you. Yeah, this bag will choke you. The bag I'm talking about is pride. Bible says, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. You know what's in this bag if I had Sam open it right now? It came out of my garage. I got old rags that we don't get rid of at the house so I can wipe the boat or the car down. They're filthy rags in this bag. You know what pride goes along with? It's called self-righteousness. It's looking down on somebody because they failed and you haven't. No, you just haven't got caught. Let's just be honest with one another and don't think I'm acting. This thing is literally choking me to death. But that's what pride will do. I want you to get the real picture. I'm sweating. I'm uncomfortable. Hey, I wore the best suit I could find tonight. I combed my hair, brushed my teeth. You can clean up the best way you have, but if you got pride around you, it'll choke you out. It'll choke you to death. And then you know what? You come into church and you're so proud. I'm not gonna shout. I'm not gonna do this. Why is she sitting beside me? I'm not. See, that's self-righteousness. Your righteousness are as filthy rags. That's what this bag's full of. But I'm glad that I'm not depending on my righteousness tonight. I'm depending on His righteousness. I'm here to tell you. Sam, take the cross and put it right there. I'm here to tell you, you say, how in the world What are we going to do, Brother Sammy? I got some of those things in my life, and they're choking me. They're messing me up. They're holding me back. I can't worship. Well, I got an answer for you. I brought it all the way from Calvary. There it is right there. It's the cross. And if you're ever going to get help, you know what you're going to have to do? You're going to have to first get a hold of that pride. Get a hold of that pride and throw it at the foot of the cross. Then you're going to have to take your sins. And then you're going to have to take your fear and throw them at the cross. And get them at the cross. I'm here to tell you. And then take all of that past that you've got, throw it at the cross. And guess what? Boy, I sure feel good now. I feel real good now that I've got rid of my baggage. You know what you ought to do tonight? You ought to purpose in your heart, I'm going to take everything I got that's weighing me down and I'm going to get it to the cross. You know what Jesus said? We've been carrying baggage. That ain't what Jesus told us to carry. And listen, I'm going to clear something up real quick. Simon did not carry the cross of Christ. He was compelled to. No man could handle His cross. But Jesus commanded us. He didn't say take up My cross and follow Me. He said take up your cross and follow Me. And any man that doesn't take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. That's what Jesus said. He said if any man will come after Me. Notice He didn't say before Me. All of us like to get before Christ. All of us like to go ahead of Him because we think we're in charge. But if you just humble yourself and get under the cross, guess what? You can carry your cross. You know what will happen though if you get under the cross? Can I warn you? If you carry your own cross, you'll get blood all over you. You'll get blood on you. You can't recognize with the cross without recognizing the blood of Jesus Christ. But it's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin. And that's a continual effect. That's not just a one-time thing that every day that blood continually keeps cleansing me of my sin. Hallelujah for the precious blood tonight! I'm thankful. But also, if you get under the cross, it won't just be about getting the blood on you, it'll get burdens off of you. All burdens are lifted at Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. I'm telling you, you take up your cross, those burdens, that baggage will lift. That baggage will move. I know that's a crude illustration of a cross, but even when I see that, it does something right there. Knowing that my Savior hung on the cross, Took every strop, took every mockery. They plucked his beard, they pierced his side, they put a crown of thorns on his head. All of that should have been for me. But he took my place. So why in the world would I ever want to walk in church with baggage on? I want to walk in church this Sunday morning, this Wednesday night with no baggage but blessings upon me. I want the cross in my life that when I walk and the pastor gets up and starts testifying, he don't even have to preach. He just mentions something. You ought to stand up and wave at your pastor. Fan him on. Tell him he's right. I'm here to tell you it'll change your life when you start, you lose that pride and you humble yourself and you start praising the Lord in church. I'm not trying to make us act silly. The Pentecostals have scared us so much that we're scared to do anything. But we had the Holy Ghost long before they did. I'm talking about no jibber jabber, no acting a fool. I'm talking about true worship. The Bible says that he seeketh such to worship. He's not looking for a three-piece suit with all the talent, an orator or anything. You know what He's looking for? People just like you. Just like me to worship Him. You walk in the doors of your church. You walk into the house. We talked about guilt and pride. There may be a teenager here, I don't know. You've messed up your life, you think. But can I just say this? You've never gone too far that Jesus cannot bring you back. I got a girl in my church. She got out of the youth group first. There's steps, by the way. She got out of youth group. Then she got with the wrong crowd. Got hooked on meth, alcohol. Messed her life up. Beautiful young girl. Well, one night we had a big youth thing at the ball field. And her mom came, because her sisters and brothers still came to youth. And her mom came walking down on the ball field and said, my daughter's in the car. I said, tell her to get out. She said, oh, no, she'd never get out. I walked up to the car, and she was just beaten up by sin. I said, hey, girl, what are you doing? You going to give me a hug? So I made her get out of the car. I gave her a hug. I said, you hungry? She shook her head. She was hungry. I said, come down here, we've got pizza and donuts and cake, come on. She said, I can't go down there. I said, why? She said, because everybody knows what I've been, I said, doesn't matter, you're with me. She got my arm and I walked her down and we ate and I talked with her, prayed with her, told her I missed her. Look, you can't unscramble eggs. Bad things happen to people. But what they're needing is somebody that'll put their arm around them. Somebody that they're carrying all kinds of baggage. Well, not long after that, she became pregnant. You know what my first words were? Not, how dare you? No, I said, congratulations. Because see, I don't believe in abortion. I believe abortion's murder. Somebody ought to say amen right there or we'll start a second sermon. Abortion's murder. I believe every life is conceived in the womb, and even the Bible bears fact to that, that while you were in the womb, I knew you. And even John leaped in his mother's womb. They're alive. I told her, congratulations. You say, you're okay in sin? No. I can't do nothing about it though, but I can love on them. You know what? Not long ago, that girl got her heart right. She's got that little baby in church every Sunday. Matter of fact, he's in my Sunday school class. I teach the young adult Mary class. But that little baby, I told him that he couldn't leave because, no lie, I'll get on something good. Tony's here and he can profess to this. It happened last week. I got on something good and everybody's sitting there like a knot on a log, not moving. And that little baby did. That's good. I said, go ahead, do it again. And he did. Hey, hey, I'm gonna keep that little boy around. But you know what I think? This is how big God's grace is. That old rough mama. It's back in church, that little baby, hearing the gospel, hearing that little preacher, could turn out to be one of the greatest preachers or missionaries ever. You say, boy, you've got to be... I do, because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. And I'm here to tell you, stop the baggage, lose the baggage, and get to the cross, and you'll find joy in your life, joy in your church, joy in your home. Let's all stand, every head bowed and every eye closed, and I'll clean up the mess in a moment. I'm not going to preach long. Don't have to. I want to leave you with a point where you realize tonight we all carry baggage. We don't enter into that rest, he says, And I like that last verse, the thief cometh not but to steal and to kill and to destroy. But look at what Jesus said here as I close. I am come that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly. You know what that means? That means happy. An abundant, happy, fulfilled life. Nobody's looking around, heads bowed, eyes closed. But maybe you got baggage here tonight. I wouldn't be so proud to say I'm not going down because they'll know I got some fear. I got failure. I got sin. Hey, why don't you quit worrying about people and why don't you get to this altar and tell God I'm dumping my baggage here tonight and I'm going to leave my baggage and I'm going to take home some joy tonight. I'm going to take home some happiness tonight. I'm going to forget the past and I'm going to focus on my future. People are coming. Can the pianist come and play something if she will? As the people come. Brother Brian, I'm going to turn it over to you if you will.