Anything to Declare?

Well, thank you again, Mr. McNamee. Good afternoon once again, everyone. It is so good to be home. It is so nice to be done on a plane. Oh, I cannot even tell you.

You know, some of these long flights. I actually got—I will say, sorry to change the subject— but I got a little nervous when Mr. Smith started giving his sermon today on the video because my topic and his are very similar today.

And I wasn't quite sure where he was headed, but what's funny is I didn't select that sermon. I actually put that off on somebody else. I was like, hey, so-and-so sick. Could you pick something? Great, thanks!

So, you know, funny how that ends up working out—how it ends up working out. But like I said, it is good to be back. It's good to be here with you all. It was nice to see the brethren in Eugene this morning, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to fellowship and to catch up with all of you guys here today.

Well, one of the distinct joys—and I put the word joy here in quotes—one of the distinct joys of international travel is dealing with and working through Customs and Border Protection agencies of the various countries that you visit.

Customs departments, as you well know, they have very important jobs, and it is a job that the customs agents—they take that job very, very seriously. Customs job—the job of a customs control area is to control the flow of goods into and out of the country.

So their job is to make absolutely certain that imports, exports, whether it comes in on your person, whatever you might be bringing with you, either for commercial sale or just because I liked it and I bought it and here we are, they have to make absolutely certain that those imports and those exports are regulated.

They have to make absolutely certain that those items, if any of them happen to be prohibited from coming into the country, that they are not allowed into the country.

You know, when it comes to various countries, each country has a little bit of a different list as to what's allowed and what's not allowed.

It's not a uniform list around the world.

There are different things allowed in some areas. Other things are allowed in other areas. Some items are strictly prohibited.

Other items may need to just be inspected before they do allow them in, and other items are just permitted with no problem at all.

Most of the time, when you go to these various places and when you go to these various countries, most of the time, the rules are pretty clear. They're pretty clear. Okay? It's right on your customs form, which you can't bring.

You know, it's right on the signage all throughout the whole entire area, which you're not allowed to bring in.

Most of the time, it makes perfect sense. They communicate it well as to what is exactly prohibited.

It's all over the forms. It's all over the signage. Usually, there is very little question as to what's allowed. For example, no explosives. Makes sense. No incendiary devices. No monkeys.

Okay? Believe it or not, you're not allowed to bring monkeys into various places. You can't bring live animals with you when you go without, you know, a variety of forms and things and whatever else.

But occasionally, you run into situations in some countries that have some pretty random prohibitions.

And if you're not careful, you can run up against those prohibitions unintentionally. You don't mean to.

But you didn't realize it. For example, in South Africa, where we just came from, as well as Mexico and India, you are not allowed to import matching shoes for commercial purposes.

So if you want to sell shoes in those countries, you can't import the left and the right that match.

You have to go through and you have to just import one of those shoes, which makes no sense at all. But those countries, they have their own they have their own shoe manufacturing, they have their own markets for those shoes.

They're just trying to ensure that you don't end up coming in and ultimately setting on one of those.

Now, we didn't have to wear mismatched shoes. I want to make that clear while we're in South Africa.

We didn't have to wear mismatched shoes. That was something that wasn't a requirement for us. It's only for commercial imports. You can't import pencils into the country of Tunisia.

You can't bring them. You're not allowed to bring pencils into Tunisia. I don't know why, but you can't.

You're not allowed to bring certain varieties of allergy medication to Japan, because Japan has very strict rules under their anti-stimulant drug laws that they don't allow certain kinds of allergy medication. In Nigeria, in Nigeria, you're prohibited from bringing plastic flowers, spaghetti noodles, toothpicks, suitcases, footwear, and ballpoint pens, which I have broken multiple times unknowingly.

In Fiji, you're not allowed to bring in holy water. In case you were wondering, you're not allowed to bring in holy water to Fiji. You actually can't take a full face mask to Saudi Arabia, like a Halloween mask that covers your entire face. You are not allowed to take a full face mask to Saudi Arabia. And in Guatemala, you are not allowed to bring whistles. Like whistles. You can't bring them with you, because there is a very high level of individuals in the country of Guatemala who impersonate police officers. And if you control the flow of the whistles, then you control the flow of who can and who cannot impersonate a police officer.

In Morocco, you're not allowed to bring in paper maps. And the reason being is because there's a border dispute in Morocco that has been ongoing for decades, and most of the paper maps in the world show that Morocco doesn't own the land that they think they own. You're not allowed to bring those maps into Morocco. That's not allowed. Now, we listen to all these internationally, and we go, that's silly! Look at all these crazy rules! Do you know that in the United States, you can't bring kinder eggs into the country? Who knows what a kinder egg is? Little chocolate Easter eggs with a plastic toy inside. Did you know that in the United States, those are prohibited from bringing into the country? They've been deemed to be a choking hazard, they are not sold, and they are prohibited from import in the United States. In fact, found this fun statistic, thousands of people have tried to smuggle them in over the years, and they confiscated over 30,000 kinder eggs in 2015 alone. 30,000 of the chocolate eggs that people tried to smuggle in. Not literally, they just bought them, and they brought them home with them, not realizing it. But if you get caught with these prohibited items at customs, the item can be taken, a person can be detained, they can be fined. Some instances, depending on the severity, depending on the item, you may be charged criminally for bringing those items in. One of the stories that came across in June of 2012, there were two men from Seattle that were detained for over two hours at the U.S. border checkpoint in Blaine, Washington. They took a trip to Vancouver, British Columbia. They were threatened with a $15,000 fine because upon searching them, they were discovered to have six kinder eggs in their possession, $2,500 fine per egg, and they did not declare them upon entry.

Customs and border protection can be fun. It can be a blast. But customs and border protection doesn't mess around. They do not mess around. If an item is prohibited, it is prohibited.

Period. End of sentence. And if you bring one of those prohibited items into the country, by definition, you are smuggling. And bad things happen. Bad things happen.

A number of years ago, I was returning from a trip to Nigeria, and I cleared customs. The customs area in some of these airports is massive. You know, you go to these various places. It's huge. A lot of them are main stopovers for a lot of the places as folks come back in, and are very, very busy crossings. And after being welcomed home by the passport agent, I was allowed through the little glass barrier that separates you from the rest of the thing, and I was allowed to go through and retrieve my bags before going into customs.

And I did what I always do. I jumped in the nothing to declare green line because I never purchase anything in Nigeria that violates customs. I just make it a principle because I don't want to mess with it. I don't want to deal with customs when I get home. I want to get on my plane. I want to go home. So I don't bring home fruits and vegetables. I don't buy fruits and vegetables.

I don't bring home plants, seeds. I don't bring home insects unless they crawled in my luggage unknowingly, which sometimes happens. I don't buy meat. I don't buy animal products in Nigeria. So I pull up to the customs agent, went through the regular rigmarole. He looked at my form. He looked at me, squaring my eyes, and he said, anything to declare.

And I looked him right back in his eyes very confidently, and I said, no, sir, it's good to be home. He said, welcome home. And he moved out of the way, waved me in. And as I was heading out the doors, I went and got everything all taken care of.

I'm heading out the doors to the baggage drop because I had a connecting flight. And another customs agent, there's a little guy at the podium right there as you're walking your way out, and he kind of stopped me and started chatting me up a little bit, and just started asking some questions. He said, how was your trip? I said, good, good. Looking forward to being home. So what'd you do while you were there? I said, bye. I visited some friends, did some sightseeing.

So what'd you bring home with you? Well, nothing really. I mean, I brought home some Guinness because Nigeria makes amazing Guinness. I brought home some Guinness. Oh, and I bought a dun dun. And he kind of looked at me like, what's a dun dun? Well, I brought it with me today. So this is a dun dun. This is a dun dun. It's a Nigerian talking drum. Okay, I thought it was kind of cool when I read about them and learned about them. But essentially what this thing does, just so you can hear it, so you squeeze the little things and you can change the pitch of the drum.

These are all tuned in, so you squeeze this and it tightens the head. Ultimately changes the pitch a little bit. I don't have a great place to put this. I'm gonna stick it there for now. Nope. Just throw it over my shoulder for now. So I was explaining this to this guy. I was telling him what this thing was. I was telling him, oh yeah, it's this Nigerian talking drum. You can only get them in West Africa. You can't find them anywhere else in the world. Only West Africa has these things. They're super cool and you can change the pitch and you can squeeze the bands.

I was telling him about the whole thing. And I was telling him the coolest thing about it, though. I mean, I'm telling him all about it. I'm sure he asked the question. He's like, man, I'm regretting I asked this question. But I told him, I said, you know, because all the indigenous languages in West Africa are tonal, so West African languages are tonal.

They have a low, a mid, and a high tone. You can actually, if you're talented enough, you can actually literally talk with this drum. You can send a message because you can approximate the pitch and approximate the tone and the prosody of the language, which is so cool.

You can send a message over a distance that sounds like speaking. Now, I can't. Anything I play is just gibberish, but people who are talented can. So I'm telling him all this and he's nodding along like, okay, cool. And then he kind of waits for me to finish and he goes, a drum, huh? I said, yeah, yeah, it's a drum. He said, what kind of head is on that drum? I said, I don't know, probably goat skin.

Probably goat skin, huh? And I said, yeah, and I said, you know, you are probably piecing together his line of questioning. At that point, I was so exhausted and I had this whole idea that, of course, I never buy anything that violates customs. Why would I ever do that? So I wasn't picking up on his line of questioning at all. And he looks at me and he goes, did you declare it? I said, declare what? Declare what? He goes, your drum. Did you declare it? I said, why would I declare it? He goes, because it's an animal product. I said, it's not an animal product. It's just goat skin. It's just goat skin. He smiled and he goes, in the little room.

So I went with him into the little room, and it was at that moment I realized I had made a terrible, terrible mistake. And so he had a good laugh about it. We both did. But he pointed me in the direction of the little room, and he went in with me there, where upon opening the door, there were two other uniformed individuals who were waiting, smiling as well. And together we unpacked every single item that I owned. And when I say unpacked everything, you guys, because I flagged their suspicion, they went through everything with a fine-toothed comb.

And I mean fine-toothed. Anything that could be opened was opened. They thankfully didn't open the Guinness, but anything that could be opened, they opened. They took the cap off my toothpaste, pulled the top off my deodorant. I mean, they went through everything. They checked my person, they cleared the suitcases, emptied the suitcases completely. Then they ran them through the x-ray machine to make sure that empty suitcases had nothing else. They unzipped the zippers inside. They went around the inside of the lining of the suit.

I mean, they went through the whole thing when it was all set. Now, spoilers, they let me bring it home, which my wife was really excited about. But she loves it. She loves the dun-dun. Shannon, you have to ask her about it, how much she loves the dun-dun. She really digs it. But thankfully, after all of that, they were satisfied, and they decided they were just going to now let me repack my earthly possessions.

So they left the room and left me with what looked like a hand grenade, went off in the middle of this room, and I packed everything back up. Thankfully, I was able to drop my bags, make my flight, and make it the rest of the way home.

Point being, these agents took their job very, very seriously. They were going to make absolutely certain that prohibited items were not allowed to enter, and even items that, like the drum, that were allowed but needed to be inspected would be inspected. They were not going to allow things to slide, and they were not going to allow something to get in that had no business being in the United States. And I think it's important to mention, as much as I, you know, jab at Customs and Border Protection a little bit on this, they're not doing it to be malicious.

They're not at all doing it to be malicious. There are very real issues as to why items might be prohibited. Very real issues as to why certain things are allowed and certain things are not. You know, diseases come in on animal skins. You know, untreated animal skins, you know, they have diseases that come in. You can bring invasive soil, you can bring invasive bugs, plants, all that stuff in. You can cause a whole mess of issues to the economy, to the agriculture, and to the security of the nation that you're returning to.

So they do it for a very real reason. Pencils in Tunisia? I got nothing on that one. I can't give you the reason for that. I have no idea why pencils would be prohibited in Tunisia. But what I can tell you is that rules... rules are rules, right? You're not getting in with a pencil when you go to Tunisia. The rules are rules. Let's go over to the book of Revelation here real quick.

This is where I started getting nervous when I saw Mr. Smith's topic. But the book of Revelation... in the book of Revelation, we see a description of a time in the future when the kingdom of God comes to earth. Okay, we see a time in which the New Jerusalem comes down. The glory of God, the glory of Christ is illuminating it as well. And in Revelation 22, we'll pick it up in verses 14 to 15, what we end up seeing is that there are some who will not be allowed in.

Again, kind of along the lines of what Mr. Smith was talking about today in the first video split, there will be some who are not permitted to enter in. Revelation 22 and verse 14... Revelation 22 and verse 14 reads as follows, it says, "...blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie." So Christ inspires John to record that in the coming kingdom of God, the New Jerusalem, those who do his commandments, those who live this way of life, those who obey their God, they will have the right to the tree of life, and ultimately they may enter the city.

Brethren, the kingdom of God has entrance requirements. It has entrance requirements. Very similar to a border crossing today, there are things which are allowed and there are things which are not allowed. It is not a come one, come all, come as you are. It's not a situation in which anything goes. God's point here, as we see this particular section of Revelation, is that he has a list of prohibited items, so to speak, and that list will be upheld. That list will be upheld.

So when your bag, so to speak, can be no prohibited items or you will be denied entry. There can be no prohibited items or you will be denied entry. Now at the time that we have left today, I'd like to explore this concept a little bit further. The title of the message is Anything to Declare. Anything to Declare?

Question mark. And when you've gone through these types of checkpoints in the past, for those of you that have done international travel, there are usually three questions that they ask you.

There are three big primary questions that they ask you.

You get off the plane, ultimately, and they kind of herd you through the process.

You know, the very first step in the process is the bathroom. The second step in the process is passport control. So as they're herding you off of the plane and as they're running you through things, the very first place that you end up going is passport control. And passport control, their job is to ensure that without a shadow of a doubt that you are exactly who you say you are.

That your identity is confirmed. That you are, in fact, someone who is supposed to be there. That you are, in fact, someone who has a valid visa to be able to enter that country.

Because without those documents, without your passport and without your visa, you are not going to be permitted to enter. You know, if you show up at a country that requires a visa for your country coming in and you don't have one, they're going to put you on the next flight home. You're going to spend some time in a little room before they put you on the next flight home, but they're going to put you on the next flight home. When you step up to the kiosk, the very first thing that the agent says to you, they hold their hands out and they say, passport? Give me your passport, please.

Let's turn over to Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. After they've taken your passport, they're going to ask a series of questions. They're going to go through and they're going to try to confirm and catch you in a lie if there's a lie. They ask, they pepper you with questions frequently, just one after another after another. They're looking for some hesitancy. They're looking for something that might give them the opportunity to dig a little bit deeper, but what they're trying to do is they're trying to establish your identity. They're trying to determine who you are. They're trying to determine what you are. Again, their job is to control the flow of goods. Their job is to control, to some degree, the flow of people into and out of a country. You might remember a story a few years ago. Cat Stevens—I can't remember his Islamic name—but Cat Stevens, the singer, after he converted to Islam, his name flagged on a do-not-fly list because he had the same name as someone in the Middle East who was on a terrorist no-fly list, and it wasn't him, but the name was the same, and so they were not allowing him to fly into and out of the country. It was a big to-do a few years ago about that. Customs prevents people that shouldn't be in the country from being in the country. You know, if you're somebody who's dangerous, if you're somebody who, you know, has caused issues in other countries, they try to ensure that you're not going to be there. Ephesians 1, and verse 3—Ephesians 1 and verse 3 reads as follows. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and that we should be without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the beloved.

Brethren, we have been given the permission to enter through Jesus Christ, through the beloved, through the acceptance of Him. In that process, we are bestowed favor, we're bestowed grace, we're accepted then in Jesus Christ, in the beloved. But what does that even mean? What does that really mean? Verse 7. Verse 7 of Ephesians 1 says, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. He goes on to say, In Him, verse 11, also we have obtained an inheritance.

In Him we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works in all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

So through Jesus Christ, we have been redeemed, we've been accepted, we've obtained an inheritance, we've been provided a seat at the table, so to speak. We've been given the ability to enter in as a result of those things. But what is it that seals that decision? What is it that ultimately provides for us a proof of identity, a proof of acceptance, a proof of us being able to enter in? What's the visa, so to speak, that gives us the ability to be there, that proves that we have a right to be there? Verse 13, Ephesians 1 and verse 13 says, In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. The Holy Spirit of God seals us, and it is that which is the guarantee of our inheritance, the guarantee of our citizenship, the guarantee of our right to be there, until it comes time to redeem us to Him spiritually and transform us to spirit beings. It is the indwelling of God's spirit, that little peace of God that dwells in us, that indicates our inheritance. It indicates that we belong there.

It illustrates our citizenship. It illustrates our identity. It's like that page on your passport that shows who you are and where you belong. It indicates to God who and what we are.

You turn with me, please, to John 1. John 1. The book of John, John did such a wonderful job of really describing so many things, just even in this first chapter of the book of John. But in John 1 and verse 12, we're going to see the importance of this. John 1 and verse 12. John 1 and verse 12 says, But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. So he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name. And then how were those individuals... how was that done? Verse 13, Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. It was that identity that has been provided to us.

It is that citizenship which has been provided to us. So what's the identity of those who have received Christ? Well, they're children of God. How are they children of God? Well, they're children of God through the begettle of his spirit. Through the begettle of the spirit of God. Not again, not begotten by blood, not begotten by the will of the flesh, but begotten instead by the will of God through his spirit. That indwelling of that spirit makes us begotten children of God. And his sons and daughters, it gives us citizenship in heaven. It gives us citizenship in that coming kingdom.

It provides us the visa, so to speak, to be permitted to enter. So that when we show up and we hand our passport over, so to speak, papers are in order. Welcome. Welcome home.

There are no shortcuts to that visa. There's no shortcuts. There's no shortcut to that passport.

You cannot buy it off of someone. You can't find a guy on a side street somewhere in Croatia selling passports out of the trunk of his car. There are no shortcuts to that visa.

There is one route to citizenship in the kingdom of God, and that is begettle. That is begettle through the spirit, through the covenant of baptism, through the door that is Jesus Christ, and the receipt of God's Spirit. That is the one route to that process. And that's just the starting point. That's just the starting point, because the reality is I'm a U.S. citizen, and as a U.S. citizen, if I show up at passport and I show up at Customs and Border Protection, and as a U.S. citizen, I have a giant bag full of prohibited items, and I'm like, oh, it's fine. I'm a U.S. citizen. Just let me through. It's never gonna happen, because my citizenship is just the starting point to the process of my ability to actually enter my origin and my home of origin in that sense. It's not enough to just be a citizen. There are rules, there are requirements, that even citizens have to follow. If I show up with 900 kinder eggs in my bag, because I'm about to open a kinder egg market, I'm gonna go to jail. They're not gonna let me in. They might let me in eventually, but I'm not going to enter with those items. They're gonna take those items away in a split second, and it'll be, again, after a long period of time in a small room with three or four people, uniformed best friends. But what has to happen is those items, those prohibited items, then, they have to be rectified. Those prohibited items have to be taken care of. So the next question that an agent is gonna ask you after they've asked for your passport, they're gonna ask you, do you have anything to declare? Anything to declare? And as someone who's entering the country, folks, that is your one chance to declare anything that might not meet the standard. That is your one chance. Because if you say no, and you have a prohibited item on you, and they discover it later, there are going to be penalties.

There are going to be penalties. You have one chance to declare that when that question is asked of you.

And it's not a bad idea sometimes to declare anything that you might be questionable about.

Have that opportunity just to say, hey, I'm not real sure about this, but would you check it and make sure it's good? And 95% of the time, they're like, it's not a big deal. You're fine. Okay, you're fine. But they do want you to declare them. You know, when we enter into the covenant of baptism, we repent of our sins. To that point, those sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. But reality is, because of our human nature, because conversion is a process, we still continue to make mistakes. We continue to struggle against our humanity. We continue to struggle as we yield ourselves to the spirit of God dwelling in us. It's a process. Conversion is a process.

But the importance of an ongoing attitude of repentance and an ongoing attitude of, we might even say, declarations, so to speak, of those items that God prohibits as we work to kind of rid our bags of those things is necessary. Let's go to Galatians 5. He referenced it. I said, don't stay in your lane, Mr. Smith. And then he said, no, we're not going to go there. He said, perfect. Well done, sir. Well done, sir. Galatians 5. You know, we recently went through Galatians 5 with the fruit of the spirit pretty in depth in the congregational studies over the last year.

But in Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul is giving the brethren in Galatia a contrast between the works of the flesh, ultimately those things that come from yielding themselves to the mind and the influence of Satan versus those things that are the fruit of the spirit, which come from yielding themselves to the spirit of God dwelling in them. And in Galatians 5 and verse 16, the Apostle Paul writes the following. He says, I say then, walk in the spirit. He says, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. He says the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. Again, a topic Paul talked about, Romans 7, as he talked about this battle that he had within himself, doing the things that he didn't want to do, but the things that he wanted to do he didn't do. Talking about this constant back and forth, he goes on in verse 18. He says, if you're led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Walking in the spirit, we might say, living in accordance with the prompting of God's spirit in us, maintaining that repentant attitude, working through that conversion process as our flesh pushes against the spirit of God and the spirit of God pushes back against that flesh. Over time, that enables us to put those works out of our life.

So Paul goes through in Galatians 5 and he enumerates these things. He goes through and he makes a list of the prohibited items. He makes a list of the things that if they're caught in our bag, we will not be allowed to enter. They are prohibited items. You look at the airport, they have a list of things. No fireworks, no aerosols, no lithium batteries, no lighter fluid, no firearms, no this, no that, whatever it might be. God has a set of prohibited items for his children as well that cannot and will not be allowed in. Verse 19 of Galatians 5. Verse 19 of Galatians 5 says, now the works of the flesh are evident which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. These items which are prohibited, these are prohibited items. Paul puts these right out here as things that we cannot be having in our lives, or things that we need to be removing from our bags, so to speak. Just because we're children of God, just because we have citizenship, just because we have that visa that lets us get in, we have God's Spirit, these items are not coming with us. They can't. They're prohibited.

They are not allowed in the kingdom of God. Just like you can't bring Kinder eggs into the U.S., you can't bring pencils into Tunisia, you can't bring monkeys into a variety of places.

We don't get to claim to God, well, that's just who I am, you're going to have to accept that. No, that's not the case. That's not who you are. You are a child of God. You are a citizen of this kingdom. And that means that there's a required transformation to become more like our father, to express his characteristics, to express who and what he is. Verse 22, we see Paul enumerate those things. These characteristics are enumerated here in verse 22. It says, the fruit of the Spirit is love. It is joy. It is peace. It is long suffering. It is kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And then it says, against such, there is no law. Brethren, there's no prohibition whatsoever on these items. Your bag can be full of these. It should be. It should be full of these things. You should have to sit on top of that suitcase with the extender unzipped.

Get it all in, because it's so full of these.

No problem with these at all. These are let right in. Go straight to the green line. Nothing to declare. Yes, sir. Welcome home, right? It's through our submission to God's Spirit that these fruit can be expressed. We sow to the Spirit. We reap to the Spirit. And as we progress in our calling, as we allow God's Spirit to continue working with us, it will lead to more and more of these items being packed in our bags and less and less of the either items that we might have in those same bags. One of the other questions that is typically asked at a border crossing is, did you pack your own bag? Did you pack your own bag? Because what customs wants to make certain is that you aren't bringing anything in that someone else might have packed. They want to know that you packed your bags. They want to know that you know exactly what is in them, that you're not smuggling items in from somebody else unknowingly. That some random person out at the entrance of the gate said, hey, come here! You walk over there, I have this box right here. I want you to put it in your bag and take it home with you. Okay? Don't look in the box. Just better for both of us if you don't look in the box. Just go, oh okay, I'm going to put it in my bag. No! Right? They want to make absolutely certain that you know exactly what's in your bag, that you didn't pick up anything from anybody else, that you didn't grab anything from anybody else. They want to know that you packed those things. As we kind of take a look at what needs to be packed, God's wondering if we packed our own bag as well. Did we go through and did we ensure that we packed these things, these fruit of the spirit that are listed? Did we take out and leave the prohibited items? Did we leave the lust of the flesh, the things that are not permitted? Did we take those things out and leave those back where we went and where we were coming from? The reality is nobody else can pack your bag for you. You are directly responsible for your bag and its contents. And you know that's true, whether or not you make it to passport control and somebody slips something in your bag or not.

You didn't even know they put something in your bag. If they discovered at passport control, you're going to jail. You are directly responsible for your bag and for its contents. And so, like I told the young people today, I told them if you haven't been listening up to this point, please pay attention going forward. And down in the teens, oh look up, you know, down in the thing today.

What that means for us as young people, what it means for us as young at heart people, is that your parents can't pack your bag for you. Your friends, they can't pack your bag for you.

You are responsible for packing your bag. And what that means is that this way of life, this calling which God has provided to us, you personally have to own it. You have to make it yours.

It can't be the faith of your parents. It can't be the faith of your friends. It can't be the faith of whomever. It has to be yours. Turn over to Ezekiel 18 real quick. I want you to see God's feeling on this principle with regards to personal responsibility and the importance that God has with personal responsibility. Ezekiel 18, and we're going to go ahead and pick it up in verse 20. Again, God ensures that people are personally responsible for their own actions, personally responsible for their own choices, their own words, the things they do, the things they say.

Ezekiel 18 in verse 20 says, the soul who sins shall die. It says the individual who commits the sin, the penalty is on their head. It's essentially what Ezekiel 18 20 is telling us. It says, the son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. So if the father commits a sin worthy of penalty, the son doesn't pay the penalty for that sin and vice versa.

It says, the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. So it's making the point that each individual is responsible for their own choices, for their own actions. Ultimately, you pack your own bag. You pack your own bag for better or worse. And when it comes time to open that thing up, and when it comes time to take a look in that bag and see what you packed, you packed your own bag. Right? Children do not bear the guilt of the sins of the parents. Parents don't bear the guilt of the children. I mean, to some degree, I guess parents have a responsibility to instruct their children, and there will be accountability for that. But the individual that sins, they bear their own guilt. They bear their own sins. They bear their own righteousness. You pack your own bags. So the question remains, how do we pack our bags? How do we pack those bags? What are the principles that we should keep in mind when it comes to the items that we're putting into it? I've got three scriptures I'd like to look at as we close today. Psalm 119 and verse 9 is the first one. Psalm 119 and verse 9, talking about, again, how do we pack these bags? How do we go through and pack them? Psalm 119 and verse 9.

Psalm 119 verse 9 says, how can a young man cleanse his way? How can a young man take care of and begin to clean up the things that they're working on? How can they go through and cleanse his way? It says, by taking heed according to your word, taking heed according to the word of God, that we pack in accordance with the instructions that God has provided us. That is how we cleanse our way. Proverbs 3 verses 5 through 6. Proverbs 3 verses 5 through 6.

Proverbs 3 verses 5 through 6 says, trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

Is there anything in your life that does not fall under the category of all of your ways?

Can you think of anything? Anything that doesn't apply to all of your ways?

All of your ways means exactly that. In all of your ways, in everything that you do, acknowledge God, acknowledge God, and he will direct your paths. He will instruct you with what you should be putting in those bags. He'll help you pack, right? He'll help you put the stuff in there, even. The last one is a set of examples. Ecclesiastes 12 verse 13. Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 13. If you turn over there, what we see in Ecclesiastes 12 is we see the conclusion of Solomon's reflection on life to some degree. We see the conclusion of what Solomon went through and all of the the conclusion to the book itself, right? The entirety of the book of Ecclesiastes closes in Ecclesiastes 12 and verses 13 and 14. It says, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Solomon concludes, fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's all. Man's entire purpose is wrapped up in these two things. Fear God and keep his commandments. And he says the reason, verse 14, for God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Those bags are going to get opened. They're going to get checked. What have we been packing? What are we putting in those bags? Now, I included this last one because Solomon tried throughout his life packing his bags with all the other things of life. Solomon packed his bags with food and wine and women, the various pleasures of this physical existence, and when it was all said and done, after he had gone through all of those things and he reflected back on a life of vanity, his conclusion is what we read in verses 13 and 14 of Ecclesiastes 12, that fear God and keep his commandments, for that is man's all. Brethren, we have to make sure and we have to be certain that we are packing the right things into our bag. That we are packing the right things into our bag, because there is a whole lot of stuff that Satan wants us to pack. There's a whole lot of stuff that Satan wants us to pack. He wants us to pack anger and wrath. He wants us to pack fornication.

He wants us to pack lewdness, idolatry, hatred, jealousy, lust, revelry. That's what Satan wants us to pack. He wants us to put that stuff in our bags and smuggle it right into the kingdom of God, or at least to try. But it will not be allowed in. It will not be allowed in.

The last concept I want to bring out about this is if any of you have ever traveled, you know this all too well. A bag only has so much room. A bag only has so much room.

You know, if you've ever had the extender opened up, you've had the lid, and you're literally sitting on that thing trying to get that thing to zip, and it's just not going to do it. There is only so much cubic space inside of a bag. And when it's full, it is full. Right? What is it full with? What is it full with? Because if our bag is packed with all these things that Satan wants us to pack our bag with, if our bag is packed with that wrath and fornication and idolatry and hatred and all those other things, brethren, there is not going to be any room to put in the things that God wants us to pack. We have to be ridding our bags of these things. We have to be ensuring that we are packing the right stuff. The kingdom of God has a standard. The kingdom of God has a standard, and God is unyielding on that standard. He's merciful. He is loving. Absolutely, He is. He cares for us. He works with us. But He is unyielding on the standard. The things that are listed in Galatians 5, 19 will not be allowed in. Plain and simple. There are certain items that will continue to be prohibited. Brethren, please be careful how you pack.