Bitterness

Hey, I'm really excited here. In a couple of weeks, we will

be launching our series on the Book of Revelation. And I've been studying the

Book of Revelation an awful lot the last few weeks. And here's what I've

learned so far about the Book of Revelation. Don't read it before you go

to bed and parents, it's not a good bedtime story for the kids.

So but anyways, we're excited about doing that. Well. Today is another

one off. And as I was praying, it felt like the Lord just

really led me to this message. So let us prepare our hearts and pray.

God, we give you pray today and we thank you. We thank

you for your goodness, We thank you for your mercy. Now help us

to receive from you today in the mighty, mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

I'm gonna start out with question today. How many of you has ever

had bitterness literally come back to bite you in a significant way? Anyone you

know where your bitterness really ended up hurting you more than to hurt anyone else.

And I know that often as we hold on to bitterness in the long

run, here's what happens. We damage our own soul, way more than

the person we are actually upset with. Let me tell you a story about

when I was first in youth ministry. I had a mentor that I had

spent hundreds of hours with, adored this man. He really poured his life

into me. And then I went off to my first youth ministry and a

couple of people came to me and said, hey, we were just at

a meeting and we heard your former mentor saying this and this and this about

you and really trashed my ministry, trashed me and said some things that were

really hurtful, And to be honest, I couldn't believe it because I'm like,

no, no, Me and this guy were great, great friends.

You don't understand, and I truly just couldn't believe it. So we were

at a mutual meeting at another pastor's house and we walked outside and we were

on the front porch and I said to him or on the driveway, and

I said, hey, listen, here's what I heard. I'm not convinced

it's true, but as a brother in Christ, I just want to share

with you that I heard that you were trashing me to a group of other

pastors, and he was very honest. He goes, you know what,

You're right, I did that, and then he proceeded to tell me what

he said about me, and he shared what he said about me to this

one group. And then as he was talking, I started to realize,

he's not talking about the same group that I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah,

it was another group. And so I stopped him and I said,

man, I was talking about this group, but you said something even worse

over here to me to this other group. And we talked for a while

and unpacked some things, and then we decided, like, hey, we're

brothers in let's forgive each other. And so we forgave each other. I

was young, and to be honest, even though I went through that thing

of saying I forgive you, when I went home, I start processing what

he said about me. And here's what happens. When you start processing what

other people say about you. It grows and it grows and it grows until

you're angry, and then eventually you're resentful. Then after that, eventually you

have entered into full blown bitterness. And I hated that I had this bitterness

in my heart and for a long time, I tell you what. Whenever

his name came up, I had this feeling about him. And then one

day my heart changed. I received this email that he sent out to a

big group of people about someone that he was very close to that got a

horrible diagnosis. And I also knew this person as well. And what bothered

me was that I was finding this out or an email where we used to

man, we had have just called each other and talked about it and grieved

together. And so I see this email and it just breaks my heart.

God breaks my heart, and I'm like, you know what, this is

so stupid me having this bitterness against my dear brother. So I wrote him

an email, a pretty long email back about how I wanted us to I

said, hey, when you shared with me, and then I listed all

the things he said bad about me in the email. When you said these

things about me, here's how I felt. I want to forgive you,

and I want us to have a clean slate, and I want us to

have a wonderful relationship. And I was like, man, this feels good.

So I hit reply. All so every pastor in our district, every

church member that we knew between us, all the grand idiocracy of these two

pastors being bitter at each other, acting like little school kids. I'm upset

you said this about me and you said this about me, And let me

tell you something. Our bitterness, okay, towards each other really bit us

both and it broke some skin. Okay, thankfully. I was about twenty

one years old, and people are like, yeah, he doesn't know what

he's doing. But what a moment. And I learned there that bitterness will

always hurt you more than it's gonna hurt the other person. And so today

we're gonna be looking at bitterness and I think it's a powerful message for us

considering this. That's your pastor. You are going to be traveling this summer.

You're gonna have some time off this summer, you're gonna go away,

And here's my goal. I want you to have a bitter free summer.

Let me tell you, there's nothing worse than being at a beach thinking about

somebody else. There's nothing worse than going out fish or doing something fun with

your family. And every time you get a moment of silence, you start

thinking about this other person. I want you to be freed up to enjoy

the blessings of God. This summer, and I do believe that all of

us at times struggle with bitterness. It's interesting that when you look at the

Bible, you just don't run across a chapter called the Benefits of being bitter.

You just don't run across that chapter. Matter of fact, what we

do find is some of the most strongly worded encouragements to get rid of it.

Okay, and let's be honest. If we were to describe our culture

today, would you agree with me that our culture one of the words that

we would say for our culture is we are a bitter culture. We are

a bitter culture. I have never seen so much hate and anger and so

much as people spewing out on the internet, our social media. People are

bitter in this country. And I can't remember. I know in my life

some of you who are a little bit older, you've shared with me about

the late sixties. But I'll say this, in my life, I've never

seen more division and hatred and bitterness. And this is not the way of

God or the way of God's people. This is not our way. And

let me tell you something. I believe that bitterness is probably one of the

most hidden sins that there is now some people would say lust, it's probably

the most hidden sin or pornography, and I would say, no novelf on

digital footprint. You might think that sin is hidden. But any of you

who've you seen the advertisement for the Ashley Madison doc on Netflix, here's what

we've learned. Nothing that you put out there is a secret. But bitterness.

Bitterness could be the great secret of our life. It takes some investigative

reporting to figure out if you're really bitterest somebody. It takes people can't tell

just by talking to you that you're bitter. You're holding on the bitterness against

someone. But here's the thing I need you to know today, even though

it might be hidden from others. God knows what's deep in your hearts.

God knows what's deep in your hearts. And that's why a holy spirit led

Paul to say this on anger and bitterness and a fourth chapter of Ephesians.

So let's look at this real quick. Ephesius chapter four, Starting in verse

seventeen, he says this, So I tell you this and insist on it

in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the gentiles do in

the futility of their thinking. You were taught with regard to your former way

of life. To put off your old self. We're just being corrupted by

succeitful desires to be made new and attitude of your minds, and to put

on a new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, here's what Paul saying. Paul saying, Hey, before you came

to Christ, you act like the rest of the world. You know,

we set whatever we wanted to say. If we were angry, we would

let that anger grow towards people. If we were bitter, we would let

that bitterness grow resent that we didn't care. We didn't care how we acted

because we were not led by the spirit. But he says, but those

of you who have fallen in love with Christ, those of you who have

accepted Jesus as your savior, you no longer live this way. You have

a new life, a new spirit. You're no longer that same person.

So he said, hey, listen, the way you used to act,

the things that you used to say, This is okay to feel this way

and act this way. You're done. It's over. Paul says, we

don't get to do that anymore. God has given you the Holy spirit.

So therefore, he says, and then he lists some sins that we were

to get rid of. Let's look at this verse twenty or verse thirty one.

It says, get rid of all bitterness. Now, pay attention to

this. What does that? What did I just say? Get rid of

some bitterness, part of your bitterness. Get rid of the bitterness that maybe

people can notice. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling

and slander, along with every form of malice. If Paul doesn't mince words

here, he's not playing around. He's not saying, well, you know,

if you get around to it, let's get rid of some bitterness.

Now, he says. Listen, if you have any bitterness in your life,

get rid of it. So let's dive into the heart of the matter.

You might be sitting here today and you might be wondering, well,

do I just dislike this person because they're annoying or do I actually struggle with

bitterness? And let me tell you as a bitterness expert today, a theologian

of bitterness, a marksman of hatred. I can go on and on because

I'm the type of person that you know, people say stuff to me,

and I'm in a role where I have to go, oh, thanks for

that wonderful suggestion. Yeah, I feel great after that, Thank you.

And then you got to go through and work through it. Because I found

that when I went in a fight or I win an argument, I really

lose in the long run, I lose my witness. So then I have

to battle these things on the inside. And so let me tell you the

marks of bitterness today. And if you have any of these going on in

your life, you're struggling with bitterness. Okay, artist is a telltale sign

the next time you're stugging with bitterness. If you have any of these,

you're in the bitter zones. So number one mark of a bitter person is

that they make a case for their bitterness. Okay, So when we're bitter

at somebody, we make a case to our friends or to ourselves, like

we say stuff like I deserve to be angry, or of course I'm ticked

off of them, or after what they did to me, isn't it only

natural that I would be upset with them? Or why would I wish them

well? Especially after what they done for me. I got all of these

quotes from James Robbers. These are things I've said to myself are to my

close friends over the years. And you know, when I catch myself thinking

or saying these things, I realize that I'm getting bitter. But I know

that I'm really really bitter when I move into the second phrase or phase,

which is criticized, criticized, criticized. See bitterness and objectivity, by the

way, they have a hard time coexisting. I'll say that again, bitterness

and objectivity have a hard time coexistent. And see, when we're bitter as

somebody, we're better somebody that the image I have in my head is is

that we're starving and we go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and we get a big

piece of chicken. And what do we do to a big piece of chicken?

We pick it apart, all the way down to the bones. And

when we are bitter at someone, what do we do? We pick them

apart. We pick them apart until there's nothing left. But they're carcass.

Let me tell you we do this. Have you ever been bitter at somebody

at work? Here's how it goes. When you're bitter at somebody for a

while, here's what we do. Our perception of them actually flips upside down.

We see everything they do in a flipped up side down way. For

instance, there'd being nice to people, the first thought that comes to your

head is huh h, I wonder what they want, or you know,

they're making a presentation. Instead of listening for the presentation to learn what you

can learn, you're looking for mistakes in the presentation, and when they screw

up, you're like, Eah, that's awesome, that's awesome. They can

put on a new outfit and you're like, oh, they're so vain.

They get a new haircut and you're like, oh, what a horrible haircut,

even though it's the same haircut you got. See, when we're bitter,

we criticize, criticize, criticize. When I was growing up, I

had a family member who doted on me as a child. I mean,

they spoiled me, they loved on me. They were awesome to me,

and I loved being around them, and every family event that I could be

around them, I would get so excited. And let me tell you,

this person made a huge mark on my life. But as I got older,

I had this other family member that whenever we got alone in the room,

they knew how much I loved this other family member, so they would

tell me a little story, maybe a thirty year old story, maybe a

forty year old story, that always put the person that I loved in a

bad light. And they went on and did this for many years. And

finally, one day, as I was talking to another family member, I

found out that the family member who was trashing the family member who doted on

me all the time, they had old beef with them, and they couldn't

stand that I adored them. They couldn't stay that I had a great relationship

with them, and they just wanted to bring this person down. And if

you want to knock somebody down, you will criticize, criticize, criticize,

all right, bitter people criticize. Lastly, here's a sign that you might

have bitterness in your life. You secretly revel in the pain of those who

have you know of, you know, people who have embittered you in your

life. You secretly revel in misfortunate. You know, when you find out

they lost their job, you're like, yes, are they're getting a divorce

And you're like, finally the spouse sees what I've seen all these years.

We have this bitterness and let me tell you something. We there's something in

us that if we have something against someone, we want them to go down.

Have you ever been driving on the highway and someone speeds by you and

acts like they're the only person on the highway and they're going like eighty or

ninety miles an hour one hundred? What's the first thing we say? Oh,

I wish there was a look at us. You're bitter, bitter,

bitter people look at us? We do that? No, what taught us

that? And then if we're fortunate enough, say we're driving to Florida down

the road, we might see them pulled over. And when they get pulled

over, do we say, Lord, bless them? I'm so sorry.

Lord. Oh God, I hope they have the money to pay this ticket,

I pray everybody. No, we're like, Lord, you see Lord,

you have eyes. Lord, you are real. The Lord is real.

The Lord. This is an evidence of creation, This is an evidence

that God exists. And we get so pumped because we're like you heard the

cries of your saints. We get excited. We get excited, man,

we re revel. So those are the signs of bitterness. So if you

have that towards anybody, where you criticize them. Are you revel when things

go bad? You might have bitterness. Now more importantly, today, I

want to show you the roadmap to bitterness, because somewhere on this roadmap this

is where you jump in and you gotta stop it. You gotta stop it

before you land in full blown bitterness. So what's the starting point of bitterness.

The starting point of bitterness is where we are wronged. Someone's wronged us,

someone's upset us, someone's made us upset about something. And by the

way, Paul recognizes, hey, this is just gonna be a part of

our life. All of us are gonna be wrong, all of us are

gonna be wounded. So it's not like only certain people are gonna have a

chance to get bitter. Here's the great thing, it's all play. Every

single one of you will have a chance to get bitter. So if you

are wrong, what happens it anger, says Paul says this. Later on

that Chaffter says, in your anger, do not sin. So Paul is

doing what he's assuming that we're all gonna get angry. We're all gonna get

angry. But by the way, being angry it's not a sin. What

did Jesus do whenever he walked into the temple and he saw the rich taking

advantage of the poor. What did Jesus do? It's awesome. He flips

tables. He's angry, he's angry. See, Paul's concern is not with

our anger. His concern is what do you do with your anger? Now?

That's why he continues on and he says his famous phrase. This is

a phrase that probably every single one of us have heard. He says,

do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Do not

let the sun go down while you're still angry, and do not give the

devil a foothold. So here's what Paul says. You're angry at somebody.

You got one day. Do that. You got one day be angry,

be mad. You got one day. Now, during this one day,

you have until the end of that day to start moving towards forgiveness and reconciliation

where your heart starts praying. You might not be there emotionally, but you

have got to start the work of forgiveness on that day, Okay, because

if not okay, Tex says, Satan gets a foothold, or a better

translation is an opportunity or a place in your life. See, don't get

the devil an opportunity of your life. Don't give the devil a place in

your life. Matter of fact, when we look at the Greek word topos

for that, given the devil a foothold in your life and actually presents us

with a theological picture. There's a theological picture of inviting Satan into your home

to take up residence. And here's what's Paul saying, Like, all right,

if you get angry and you don't towards forgiveness, here's what's going on.

You are literally inviting Satan into your household. You were inviting Satan to

take up residence in your soul. Okay, And so yeah, he's literally

the house guests from No, don't say it, don't say good catch,

good catch people. Now, I've always loved that saying, don't let the

sun go down on you while you're still angry, because it sounds so poetic.

Paul isn't being a poet here, Okay, He's actually borrowing this from

a rule in the Old Testament. Let's look at Juteromi twenty four. What

does he say here, You shall give him his wages on the same day.

Here it is before the sun sets. Okay, for he is poor,

and he counts on it lest he cry against you to the Lord,

and you be guilty of sin. And the Old Testament, if someone worked

for you by the end of the day, you had to pay them.

In other words, you had to settle your accounts by the end of the

day, before the sun set. Now Paul borrows this image for anger,

and he says, hey, you've got to settle your anger accounts before the

end of the day. Now, this is where we get that phrase.

A lot of you are in work spaces and what do we say, keep

short accounts. That's one of the phrases for our staff culture. Keep short

accounts. In other words, if you're upset at somebody, you gotta deal

with it, because if you don't deal with it quickly, it grows into

bitterness, resentment, and it goes on and on and on, and then

you have a bigger problem than what you started with. So now as we

continue down the road, Okay, you've been wronged, but if you don't

start towards forgiveness or reconciliation, guess what happens. You move from being wronged

and angered to the next stage. If you don't take care of this,

you will move from being wronged to wounded. Now this is important here.

Okay, Let's look at Hebrews strife for peace with everyone. See to it

that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. And then pay attention

to this, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and

by it many become defiled. Okay, here's what goes on. The bitter

root that grows up in us. It grows in the soil of a wounded

heart. This wounded heart is the perfect environment for bitterness to take root in

your life. Okay, So instead of handling that spiritually, we absorb the

hurt, because that's what roots do. Roots absorb, roots grow, and

roots store. So if you allow bitterness to come into your life, you're

gonna absorb this pain, but you're gonna store this pain. Now here's scripture

says. Scripture actually says we, as followers of Christ who have a new

life, a new holy spirit in us, we do not keep records of

wrong. It says, let it go, show grace, show mercy,

show compassion, show forgiveness. Love keeps no record of wrongs, But bitterness

keeps a detailed record of wrongs, and it grows and it grows, and

it grows and it grows. So someone's done something to me, and I

play it over and over in my mind and I absorb it and it grows

into this dangerous route. There's an old story about these two months and these

two monks that had actually taken a vow that throughout their whole life they were

never allowed to touch a woman in anyway. And I'm not talking just sexually.

I'm talking they weren't allowed to touch a woman at all, like shake

her hand, hug or nothing. And in this area there have been a

lot of flooding and because of some torrential rains, and to these two monks

were walking alongside the bank of the river and they come along and they see

this young lady and she is crying and she's upset, and they said,

what's going on and can we do anything to help you? And she says,

well, today's my wedding day. And this is a dress that my

family made and is a thing that took many months and it's a precious dress.

But the water's risen and if I go across this river. It's gonna

tear my wedding dress apart. And I don't know what to do. And

so the monks didn't know what to do. And then finally one of the

monks decided that he really believed that God would bless in this situation. So

he picked her up in the most godly way, and he carried her across

the river and put her down on the other side, and again she said,

thank you, thank you. She got emotional and she hugged him,

and then he went back to the other side and got back with the other

monk, and the other monk said to him, how dare you Our tradition

says we were to never touch a woman under any circumstance, and look what

you did. He says, Listen, I think that was the right thing

to do. He goes, No, we are to never ever touch a

woman. I can't believe you did that. Well, the next day,

this other monk was still angry about it, and at dinner time he said,

and I still can't believe you did. I don't know how you've done

that went against your vows. Well the following day that monk is still distraught.

He was beside himself and Finally he said to the first month, he

said, you know, I can't believe that you did this. So this

goes on for a couple of days where he's so angry at him, And

finally the monk that carried the woman across the river said this to him,

with all due respect, I set that woman down a couple of days ago.

You're still carrying her. How many of you are still carrying anger,

bitterness, and resentment that God told you to lay down a while ago.

How many of you are still carrying the things that God has told you to

let go of. And then, lastly, if you continue to hold on

to that, you're gonna live on the poisonous pathway. Let's look at Hebrews

twelve. What does it say here? It says, watch out that no

poisonous fruit of bitterness grows up to trouble you corrupt of many. In other

words, this root can become very poisonous. And this poisonous root, what

type of fruit will it have? Poisonous fruit? So you will start to

become a bitter person, an angry person, a jealous person, and all

of a sudden, your emotions will change over time because you become a bitter

person, and you will start being subject to others, and you will not

trust others. You will build a wall, a shield, and you will

be critical and you'll be different. And eventually, instead of just being bitter

and critical of this one person, we'll all get to watch you become a

bitter critical person in the church. Whenever I find a bitter critical person in

the church, almost almost to a tee, there is unresolved anger in their

life. There is someone they have not forgiven, and because they have not

forgiven them, we all pay the price of that unforgiveness. Let me share

with you as we close today, one of the most incredible stories of bitterness

that turn into poison that I've ever seen. And we find it in scripture.

We find it during the life of King David. And here's what we

see. That towards the end of King David's life, his son Absalom decided

that he wanted to become king, and so Absalom did something interesting. He

used to kind of hang out in front of David's house, the palace,

and he would just love on people and encourage people, and he got to

the point where he was everybody's favorite son. Everybody loved Absalon. Let's look

at this. It says Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who

came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of

the people of Israel. Absalom stole their hearts from his father, and he

became so popular that one day he decided to overthrow his father. He actually

did overthrow his father, the king. And here's what we see in this

next season. And we see David in about two thousand of his followers that

ran out of town and they had to leave their palace, their country,

their home. And let me tell you, this broke David's heart so much.

Check out the scripture. I think it's one of the saddest scriptures in

all the Bible. What does it say here? It says, but David

continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went. His head was

covered and he was barefoot. I don't think David's crying over losing his kingdom.

You know why, because David has been in a situation before. David's

crying because his son betrayed him, and David is a broken man. Here

here's the thing we need to understand. Is Absolom is not the only one

who betrayed David. Matter of fact, we find that David one of his

closest friends, a closest advisors, ahthro Fell, actually betrayed him as well,

and he sided with David's son to overthrow him. So here's what the

Bible says about a Hithrofel who betrayed David. Here's what it says about him.

Now, in those days, the advice of a hithro Fel gave was

like that of one who inquires of God. The Bible says that the Hithrofel

was a type of guy that when he spoke and gave advice to you,

it was as if it was from the very lips of God. He was

a man who considered a wise man a man who speaks for the Lord.

And it says that was how both David and Absalom regarded all of a Hithrofel's

advice. So now we have this guy who's a very wise man, but

all of a sudden he sides with Absolom and he starts giving Absolom advice.

And the first thing that he gives Absolom advice to do is to sleep with

David's concubines. And by the way, why because that's what embarrassed David.

And also he knew that the David wouldn't reconcile probably with his son after that,

because it embarrassed a family. And also and according to the Torah,

the thing that he advised Absolm to do was worthy of death. So,

by the way, this man who was wise, this man who spoke for

the Lord, this man who the Lord spoke to directly, all of a

sudden it starts giving horrible, horrible advice, unwise advice, nasty advice,

and then he gave him another piece of advices. We don't let's attack David's

camp at night, but let's just kill David. Something's really off here.

Okay. This is a man who sought the Lord, follow the Lord,

and Lord bless him of power, influence and wisdom. And now the hit

thro Fell is all of a sudden given a horrible, ungodly advice. What's

all? Something's off here big time. As we dig into scripture, we

learned the answer here. It is all right. Second Samuel, chapter twenty

three, What does it say, Ilium, son of a hit th Fell,

the Gillian kite. All right, So we find out that he his

son's name is Ilium. All right, So to you right now, not

a big deal. Whoop de do? Now let's read on. Okay,

we find his second Samuel Love and it says that David sent someone to find

out about her. The man said she is Bathsheba, the daughter of Ilium

and the wife of Uriah. The hit tight you get it, mistery solved.

Here connect the dots. A hit Throfell is Bathsheba's grandfather, and David

had embarrassed the family. David brought shame to the family. David one night

looked over, lusted at her, brought her into his house, had a

baby with her, and then sent out her husband and had him murder.

Here is David's close friend and adviser watching David take advantage of his granddaughter,

bring shame to the family name, and then had his granddaughter's husband murdered.

David repents and moves on. So for many, many years, the hit

Throfil continued to serve David faithfully, but something was going on. Bitterness grew

in his heart for years until Absalom was old enough to take over the kingdom,

and then he spoken too absolom here. Now here's the thing. He

didn't just want David to lose his throne. He wanted he wanted David to

be embarrassed. That's why he said, go sleep with his women, embarrass

him, make a mockery of the family. And here's what we see that

we find all this going on here. And let me tell you something.

Even the best movies couldn't even come up this a plot. And here we

see a man who was the best friend, who was an advisor, but

David's sinned against him, and instead of these two reconciling, we see him

become just a person who is just poisonous with their bitterness. Let me tell

you how the end of a Hitterfel's life ended up. He couldn't live with

the shame and embarrassment in a heythrophil ended his own life. Again. I

want to remind you, at the end of the day, if you are

bitter at somebody and you don't take care of it, at the end of

the day, you are going to be the one who pays the most for

it. And let me tell you something. I want to remind you what

Paul said. Paul says, we don't act that way anymore. We're new,

We have a holy spirit. In other words, God has only freed

you from sin, but he's freed you to love and forgive other people.

God has not only giveted you of grace, but he's given you the power

to give grace to others. God has not only changed your ways, but

God has a power to change other people's ways. God has not only caused

you to rise above hate, but he's given you the capacity to love those

that hate you. And God has not only has the power to bring healing,

but He's called you to be an agent of healing to others. In

other words, bitterness does not have to have power how over you. Anger

does not have to consume you. Resentment does not have to control your life.

God has freed you from sin, He's freed you from death, He's

freed you from fear. He's freed you from guilt, shame, and hatred,

and he's freed you from bitterness. So how do we get that bitter

taste out of our mouth? Four things real quick. First of all,

a lot of us have a hard time even realizing it's a sin. So

you have to first of all, recognize that it's a sin. So repent

of that too. You've got to cancel that debt. You got to forgive

the other person, and then you've got to collapse your vengeance plan. In

other words, that wanting bad for them, You got to collapse that.

And then you begin to pray for them. You call on God to bless

them. And once you start praying for them, God will break up that

bitterness in your soul. Now, I said that this weekend, I felt

like I was called to share this message, and I'll share with you that

recently, someone says something to me that undid everything that three years of counseling

took care of, and it was just a comment that rocked my world,

that brought me back to a place of shame and all this other stuff.

But I decided, like, I'm not going to live a life of bitterness.

I don't have to hate that person. I don't have to be bitter

at this person. So that first day I really struggled with it. I

really went to some dark places. But the next day I moved into forgiveness

and reconciliation and I started praying in the morning and the evening, and even

before I went to bed, God helped me forgive, help me forgive.

I even asked other people to pray with me. I made a vow.

No one knows who said this to me. I didn't share it with anyone,

but I said, I'm struggling with what someone said to me, Will

you pray? Took four days of wrestling, and on the fifth day,

I woke up and my heart had love for them again. And what I'm

telling you is bitterness can be overcome through prayer and forgiveness, but you have

to go to war with it. You have to go to war with it.

So my question to you today is this, are you ready to go

to war and battle bitterness. Let's all close our eyes and bow our heads.

And here's what I want you to do right now. I want you

to ask the Lord, which you probably don't even have to ask the Lord,

but because you know who it is. But what is that person that

you have resentment towards, anger towards. You just don't like them, You

don't like to be in their presence, you don't like to be around them.

Who is that person? And maybe it's because they did something bad to

one of your children, divorced them, cheated on them, or maybe it's

something they did about two years ago. What is that person that if you

ran into in a hallway you just don't want to talk to them. Get

that person in your mind. And here's what I want you to do.

I want you to, first of all, confess your sin on the part

that you've played. Begin with you. Secondly, forgive them now. I

ask the Holy Spirit to help you to help you love them. And I

know it feels right now like you're letting them get away with something. I

know it feels that way, but I want you to remember the cross right

now and all that Jesus did for you. And it says that Jesus died

on a cross even while we were sinners. He came after us while we

were sinners. So even though they have sinned against you, go ahead and

forgive them and release that bitterness, release that anger. Holy Spirit, we

just ask you to purify our hearts. The world says live this way,

but your word tells us to live another way. And through your Holy Spirit,

we can live in the power of the Spirit. So God, help

us to forgive, help us to love today, help us to walk out

of here, not slaves to bitterness, but freed up in the Mighty,

Mighty Dame of Jesus. Love all my brothers and sisters today who are praying

earnest right now. They're praying, and they're asking you to help them.

So, God, I pray that you will pour your spirit out, Pour

your spirit out,