Romans 10:9-10 says, "if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

No one can believe for you. No one else's opinion matters. This is between you and God. Period.

And if you're carrying around a whole bunch of baggage because you think you aren't who you think you should be - that God didn't do right by you - dump it. Just put it all in those little plastic bins and walk through the screening machine and keep going - never look back.

If Jesus really is God. If He is your Savior. If He created the world and called everything into being with just a few words - then He certainly knows what He's doing when it comes to you.

Mark 8:36 says "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" There are far too many people who don't have time for God because they are so busy paying off their credit cards and mortgages - and yet at night in their silent cries of being overwhelmed and out of control they expect God to have time for them.

In Matthew 11 Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and over-burdened, and I will give you rest! For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

God gave you friends and family as a gift. They are to bring joy and encouragement to you as you make this journey through life. And ultimately they are the only things you get to take with you when you leave this earth. Everything else is going to disappear. Makes it kind of simple to figure out what God thinks is important.

If I came to church on Sunday with a backpack full of rocks and complained I had a backache - you would tell me to stop carrying the backpack full of rocks. You don't have to be a doctor or nurse to figure out what's causing my aches and pains.

But when someone comes and says, "I am carrying a huge load of things I cannot forget. A long list of people I will not forgive" - why don't we say, "it's time to learn to forgive and forget - let Jesus carry those burdens for you?"

Jesus made you His own in baptism - and every single day the Holy Spirit works in and through you to bring about miracle after miracle. Jesus said, "whoever wants to be My disciple has to take up His cross and follow Me." That's our carry-on - our cross - but the truth it, it carries us - we don't carry it.

You only need faith in Jesus to make this trip - everything else is overpacking. Trust in God - believe Him when He says everything you need is already yours in Christ. Your ticket says: final destination Heaven - no bags checked. Remember when I said my dream vacation is to just go to the airport and climb on the plane with no carry-on or suitcase and get everything I need when I arrive at my destination - if I don't get to do it while I'm here, that's exactly what I'll be doing when I go home to heaven. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus reaches through the waves and the wind as we start to sink and pulls us into His arms and sets us inside the boat. He sets us back into a community that watched us try to walk on water. He does not yell at us and say, "what were you thinking?" He knew what we were thinking. He knows us inside and out so it's not a surprise.

So why put us back among people that saw us make fools of ourselves? The church is not perfect, or even practically perfect. It is a community that gathers around The Cross and who in many and various ways have all cried out with Peter, "Lord, save me!" And across the spectrum of our faith and our doubt, Jesus does save. The greatest churches are not the largest or prettiest - the greatest are the ones who know the power of the Law and the Gospel and trust in the forgiveness of God.

The Canaanite woman doesn't try to justify herself or claim she is good enough or deserved anything - but she knew God was a "dog" person - the kind that "accidentally - on purpose" dropped scraps from the table.

Last week I said St. Paul was, "Bald-headed, bowlegged, strongly built, a man small in size, with meeting eyebrows and a rather large nose." We don't know what the Prophet Isaiah looked like - except his lips - sounds strange, but we know exactly what his lips looked like.

Isaiah got a divine invitation. A couple of angels showed up and escorted him to a temple where the candles were flickering, the incense was thick with holiness and the smoke stung both the eyes and nose. When Isaiah looked up - high above him, was the Creator of the heavens and the earth - and his robe filled the enormous temple. He was surrounded by winged creatures shouting back and forth to each other. And when Isaiah realized where he was, he cried out, "I am done for! I am foul mouthed and the people around me are foul-mouthed. I have seen God - and no one who sees Him can live." Then one of the angels touched his lips with a red hot coal taken from the fire and said, "it's okay now." God then asked, "who will go?" And with charred lips and a quiver in his voice Isaiah said, "Me, I'll go - send me!" God said "GO!"

The hardest part of Isaiah's ministry was after God said "GO!" - God said very few would listen to him. That must have been soul-crushing. To be THE prophet of God - sent to proclaim the good news - and almost no one would listen. God said he had to go anyway. A remnant would hear and be saved - and the rest would not be able to claim God hadn't given them one last chance. Isaiah spent the rest of his ministry looking into the eyes and souls of those he preached to - wondering whether they heard or not.

When we think about Easter's empty tomb it should lead us to ask, "If God could bring His Son back from death, what else could He do?" That is where our hope comes from as we realize God has a plan and purpose for us beyond just existing.

St. Paul suggests you remember your baptism - the day God called you back into His family and breathed life into you again. He may have been "bald-headed, bowlegged, strongly built, a man small in size, with meeting eyebrows, and a rather large nose" - but he knows what he is talking about. And more than anything he wants you to be so excited about the Gospel that your life is filled with "grammar totally out of whack, split infinitives, verbs and nouns exploding all over the place, dangling participles and incomplete sentences" because your life in Jesus is just like that Parable He told where you are out mowing the lawn and come across a suitcase full of the most precious things on earth with your name on it and a little note that says, "love Jesus" - and you get to be the most generous, loving, forgiving, life-filled person in the world - in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.