What do you know about bitterness?
Could you define it?
Let me read you a little poem by
Madame Gunion.
She spent ten years of her life in
French prisons from night from 1695 to 1705.
Here's a song she wrote in prison and
As I read it, I want you to
ask yourself Could I write a poem?
Like this if I had to spend ten
years of my life in a prison She
said a Little bird am I shut from
the fills of air and in my cage
I sit and sing to him who placed
me there Well pleased a prisoner to be
Because my God it pleases thee Not have
I else to do I sing the whole
day long and he whom most I love
to please Doth listen to my song he
caught and bound my wandering wing, but still
he bends to hear me sing Thou hast
an ear to hear a heart to love
and bless and though my notes were ever
so rude Thou wouldest not hear the less
because thou knowest as they fall that same
sweet love Inspires them all my cage confines
me round abroad.
I cannot fly But though my wing is
closely bound my hearts at Liberty My prison
walls cannot control the flight the freedom of
the soul Oh, it is good to soar
these boats and bars above to him whose
purpose I adore whose providence I love and
in thy mighty will to find the joy
the freedom of the mind On eagles wings
is a program We trust that's designed to
encourage you to walk in freedom to fly
as it were on eagles wings Above the
roar and the distractions of life to walk
with Jesus to abide with Jesus Moment by
moment.
I'm afraid my friend That we have been
deceived many times in thinking that the Christian
life is just having our sins forgiven For
you see the Christian life involves more than
that The Christian life involves the atonement of
Jesus Christ at Calvary where he was crucified
for our sins He was buried and he
rose again and through that we received redemption
from our sins forgiveness for our sins But
also we received freedom in life For you
see at the cross Not only did Jesus
die But when you receive him as your
Savior you died and this is the teaching
of Scripture.
It's shared in Scriptures Romans 6 6 as
knowing this that our old man is crucified
with him that the body of sin Might
be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve
sin We still have the flesh but the
old man was crucified That happened at Calvary
when you came to Calvary you received Christ
as your Savior the old man was crucified
Now what happens when we forget that the
old man is crucified.
We forget that we are dead.
Remember Paul said I die daily I'll tell
you what happens the flesh is in control
and Something else happens the devil can be
given legal right to take control of your
life Take control of a situation if we
forget that we're dead in Christ My heart
is so stirred and my spirit is so
grieved over what I see going on in
our churches today I've been involved recently in
a church where there is strife where the
men of God are being separated and There
is sin in the camp whenever there is
split.
I told my wife Yesterday that anytime there's
division anytime.
There's a there's a split There's a division
in the body of Christ that there's been
demons involved This is the work of Satan
to divide I've been thinking about this one
area about bitterness and I'd like to take
just a few weeks maybe with you I
haven't shared this with you for probably almost
a year on bitterness But I just want
to take some time with you and talk
with you and share with you some things
about the scriptures See the thing that is
promoted so much today is that you have
rights if you're a believer you don't have
that Right to yourself you yielded your rights
at the cross I've been reading a little
bit about praying hide and I want to
share a little bit I want to share
a story with you about him But before
I do that, I want to give you
some background about bitterness and just show you
how devastating it is And it's tied in
with not forgiving directly tied in and there
can come into your life the tormentors from
Satan if you fail to forgive and you
become bitter and It's so devastating in our
churches that Satan has almost total control in
Some churches because of this area and I
care for you.
I pray for you I'm praying for you
now that God will be Lord in your
life and that you won't feel like you
have to play God in Your life or
in your church.
He is sovereign and he is able to
take care of things I remember many years
ago when I was reading the life of
Hudson Taylor and there's a big book on
him called God's man in China and I
read that thing through three times But one
of the things that that Hudson Taylor shared
was that he had learned to move men
by God through prayer So many times when
something comes on to into our life We
try to move it by the flesh by
our energy by manipulating people by getting the
pastor To go do our dirty work or
we try to get somebody else to go
do our dirty work against the pastor and
we Can become tools of Satan?
So I want to just take some time
to share with you this and it's very
important and you may be bitter and not
know It and that's why I'm going to
share with you.
I'm gonna share with you the consequences of
bitterness today I'm gonna go through that and
then I'm gonna share with you later on
some of the Indications that we're given that
we've given place to the devil through bitterness
then I want to share with you some
of the obvious traits of bitterness and then
also I want to talk to you about
evil words and actions and In this area
of our hearts and then also I want
to share with you a little bit about
bitterness in the heart How it can be
an evidence of actually not being saved Or
either an evidence of being in a terrible
backslidden state and you don't even know it
Then I want to share with you also
a little bit about discerning genuine unconditional love
and then I want to also share with
you a powerful story From a parable that
Jesus taught us how that if we would
not forgive We could be turned over to
the tormentors and I believe many of us
today are actually in torment We're in confusion
and we're being tormented and it's our own
fault because we will not release Others to
God to let them work.
We will not forgive them This is one
of the most devastating areas in the Christian
life.
And as I've been around among churches and
states All over the country many different places.
I'm not all over the country I haven't
been everywhere in the country, but many places
in and in other countries, too As I've
shared over the last 27 years of preaching.
I have been with people.
I About something that happened to me when
I was in the fifth grade About how
I was mistreated by a teacher Remember that
story maybe I ought to just take the
time I don't have a format all I
have is the Holy Spirit burning my heart
to share with you about this But when
I was in the fifth grade my dad
Used to cut my hair.
I'll say he used to that's when it
stopped But I remember we were out in
the storage shed and he put these little
plastic clippers on and he'd give me a
haircut Well, there's one time he took off
and he went right up the center of
my head and I heard this uh-oh
and He'd forgot to put the little plastic
clipper on and he gave me an inverted
mohawk And boy when I saw myself in
the mirror, I was sick now I had
trouble with this because I did not have
a good self-image.
I had been beaten down I had gone
through some things that had just about destroyed
my self-image and I was image I
and I was very self-conscious of myself,
by the way One of the clues of
not abiding in Christ is being self-conscious
He wants us to be conscious of him
not ourself when you're self-conscious.
This is when you get your feelings hurt
This is when you get insulted and this
is where you can become you can give
ground to Satan and become bitter.
But anyway We decided well, I might as
well cut it all off It looks too
bad that way.
So he did he cut it all off
and I wouldn't go to school They said
okay.
Well, you can wear a hat.
All right.
Well, I'll go to school find wear a
hat So I put a hat on one
of them old Airplane type hats had the
flappers on man.
I had my head all covered up wasn't
anybody gonna see anything I got there and
the teacher wanted me to take my hat
off and and I think mom and dad
explained to her what was Going on, but
she bugged me day after day to let
her see What was underneath that hat?
If I only one day I agreed on
the condition that she wouldn't laugh And so
we went out into the hall and I
and I wore that hat a month And
this is back at the beginning of it
I went out in the hall and I
took off that hat and I'll never forget
this because she just Laughed she burst out
laughing.
She thought it was so funny.
But do you know that my spirit was
crushed?
I was hurt and the reason that we
get hurt is because we're not dead in
our church experiences The reason we get hurt
we get our feelings all been out of
shape We get in a mat we get
mad in a meeting or whatever because we're
so alive and ourself has not gone to
the cross It's supposed to stay there to
where you can't hurt a dead man But
I was just a little kid and my
feelings were hurt.
She crushed me and you know what?
I could never trust her after that and
I remember many years later and I'm talking
about many years later She got cancer and
she died and the immediate thought that came
into my mind And this is when God
showed me that I had a bitter attitude
towards her the immediate thought that came into
my mind when she died was that ah
God has finally got you and That's when
the Spirit of God said what was that
thought in your mind and I had been
in the ministry many many years but when
I had that thought then God revealed to
me that I had a bitter spirit and
I had a bitter spirit against other people
in my life, too and Matter of fact
the 85 revival back when I was pastoring
in 85 this is the thing that God
dealt with me on was my bitterness and
I you know what I've learned since that's
been seven Years ago.
I have learned that I have to continually
deal with this area.
I think one of the deceitfulness Deceitful things
of Satan is that once we think we've
got an area we think we've got it
forever and That's it.
We can forget about it and go on
but that's not true Paul said I die
daily He he may have every day when
he got up had a routine that he
went through that he said I died to
this Lord I'm dead to this I'm dead
to that matter of fact Romans 11 tells
us or 6 11 says likewise Reckon you
also yourselves to be dead indeed and to
sin and I many times and I pray
Lord.
I'm dead to sin I'm dead to self
But he says reckon you set yourselves to
be dead indeed and to sin but alive
unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord There's
a resurrected Jesus living in my life Something
else that happened to me when I first
first started pastoring my my first church out
in Wyoming Many years ago I Went in
there.
It was there wasn't hardly enough people there
to have a church.
I think there's about three families They got
them together, and they they they formed a
little church They were the membership and and
I come in and I said They said
we can only pay you 150 a month,
and I said that's fine.
I'll get the rest from God and I
did and we were under some counsel and
direction from Some other fellowship of churches and
and the leader had recommended that I put
my my missionary support I rounded me up
some missionary support friends praying relatives and whatever
and that this would go into the church
and that they would pay me a salary
out of that and Raise my salary as
time went on or what happened was we
established the beginning salary and and it came
in and More support kept coming in and
more support and and the bottom line was
that the man that controlled the money the
money the purse strings Wouldn't let my salary
come up.
So I stayed at that 700 a month
for a long time but Something else came
up and that was the church savings account
Came up and up and up and I
remember it got up to three thousand dollars
And I kept thinking that three thousand dollars
is my missionary money Never did get it,
but God had to deal with me For
years years after that on being bitter about
that Who is in control of your life?
He would say to my spirit.
Well, you are who allowed that Well, you
did.
So who are you bitter against?
Well you Lord, why are you bitter against
me?
It began to get a little hot.
I remember after that church.
I Candidated out at another church and I
can't share details with you because it's in
this area and I wouldn't want to bring
Reproach on anybody in this area, but I
went into this church and I candidated there
for a week eight days And and I
resigned my other church and was doing some
work back up my folks home church doing
some work on a Their church remodeling and
carpenter work.
I like to do that I like to
work in my hand with my hands and
and so I took a week off Lost
a week of pay Went down and candidated
at this church for eight days preached several
times And then when we left we were
given a check for a hundred and eight
dollars 108 dollars we traveled Well, I think
around 1,500 miles to get to this
church preach sir week candidated and visited all
over and Got a check for a hundred
and eight dollars I'd lost three hundred and
something dollars During that same amount of time
ten days at a time because of traveling
and everything For not working and there again
the devil began to work on me.
Then he do that to you, too And
I had to come back to God and
say forgive me for being bitter Against you
you see bitterness isn't directed against a person
or a church or somebody else It's against
God and this is why Satan can be
given place in your life.
Listen to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 and
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby
you're sealed unto the day of redemption let
all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and evil speaking be put away from you
with all Malice now, let me share with
you some things about bitterness My time is
just seems like it's flying away.
Somebody talked to me a few weeks ago
about Going daily having a daily broadcast and
I said it'd be up to the Lord.
I'd have to have some release for time
and There are things here.
We don't share with you our needs very
much and we're not sharing them now But
if God would want to do that, it's
up to him Many times I've come just
I've almost given up on this program Not
because of the financial burden on me because
but because of this Weight of this on
my spirit of the one that is carrying
this program financially You don't know who it
is, but it's not me.
It's up to the Lord I I'm not
carrying the program God is but there's a
individual that has had the bulk of the
burden of carrying the finances of this program
and If I was to look at it
humanly, I say father.
It's not fair That someone that doesn't have
that much would carry so much and I
don't know why I hadn't thought about sharing
this but maybe you just want to might
want to pray pray for us Pray that
God would would be honored and glorified in
everything that's done.
I'm so tired of Having and seeing the
body in the work of Christ come under
this respect and disrepute because of begging ministries
These type of things are a sham We
as Christians have God backing us up and
I appreciate those of you so much that
send in Gifts from time to time and
help us out You don't know how many
times your gift has been so timely and
we don't look to you We look to
God and we ask God to bless you
And in all my years of preaching and
I started in 1965 was licensed to preach
in 1968 and in all my years I've
seen that very few times really have the
wealthy and I'm not against the wealthy But
very few times have I seen that the
wealthy have been the ones doing the bulk
of the work But it's been just poor
folks average folks those that didn't have a
lot that would give sacrificially Be very careful
with your money Remember your local church.
Remember your pastor be very careful with ministries
outside of the local church We are a
ministry that is supporting the local church I'm
accountable to a local church to a pastor.
I'm accountable to other men.
I believe That the church today is in
such a weakened state that many parachurch Organizations
have risen up and even this ministry Could
be considered that I'm not blind.
I realize that but because of the failure
of The local church to meet the needs
of the body This is why we have
organizations like the Navigators inner varsity and on
and on and on that have Bible study
ministries Evangelism ministries and now we're getting all
these counseling ministries and let me give you
some caution there Some of these things are
so expensive you can spend your life savings
and not still get an answer to your
prayer or to your need I'm I'm real
reluctant with ministries that charge Christians high rates,
especially I can understand needs being met But
we need to be careful about what God
is wanting to teach us now in this
area of bitterness Getting back to this Webster
defines bitterness as having a sharp generally disagreeable
taste Painful as a bitter experience severe as
bitter cold cruel stinging as bitter words Now
here's the biblical definition Ephesians 430 let all
bitterness be put away from you bitterness is
Resentment in the heart it is the attitude
that refuses to make reconciliation with others and
I add this to it and To accept
the sovereignty of God Let me say that
to you again bitterness is an attitude that
refuses to make reconciliation with others and to
accept the sovereignty of God and You know
what?
Ephesians 5 20 after 5 18 says be
not drunk with wine wherein success, but be
filled with the Spirit you go down Here's
the fruit of the Spirit in verse 19
singing to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs Singing and making melody in your
heart to the Lord in verse 20 giving
Thanks always for all things unto God and
the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ The first step on the way
to becoming bitter is not being filled with
the Spirit If you cannot give thanks in
the situation that you are in or the
situation you've gone through then you're a candidate
for Satan to work in Ephesians 4 27
says neither give place to the devil don't
give him legal ground if you're not thankful
in every situation You immediately move into a
dangerous area of giving ground to Satan Now
bitterness is a is a conforming process.
It's not a transforming process if I can
flip back over to Romans chapter 12 very
very quick.
The Bible tells us that we're not to
be conformed to this world We're not to
but we're to be transformed and I want
to share these three verses with you Paul
said in Romans 12 1 2 & 3
he said I beseech you Therefore brethren by
the mercies of God that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God
which is your reasonable service and Be not
conformed to this world.
Now, how does the world operate?
It works under the principle of revenge and
greed and selfishness and bitterness Well, that's the
program if you hurt me I'm gonna get
even with you why because I'm bitter Why
are you bitter because I don't forgive well,
why don't you forgive?
It's because I've got to have control in
life because I don't have a God that's
big enough to handle my problems And that's
why many Christians are bitter is because they
don't have a God that's big enough to
handle their problems My friend the God that
died on the cross for my sins that
was big enough to pay the penalty for
my sins is also big enough to handle
anybody that runs over me and When I
try to go straighten them out for running
over me then all kinds of problems come
about We have got it wrong when we
think that we have to take care of
ourselves That's a philosophy of the world.
Look out for number one.
Well, I'm gonna look out for number one
But number one happens to be Jesus and
I'm gonna praise him and in give thanks
for all things There's freedom now.
Let me go on Verse two.
He said and be not conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind keep meditating on Scripture By the
renewing of your mind that you may prove
what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God for I say Through the
grace given unto me to every man that
is among you not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think but
to think soberly according as God had dwelt
dealt to every man the measure of faith
and Bitterness enters into our hearts when we
get to dwelling on ourself poor old me
Look what I've done or we might take
up an offense somebody else for somebody else
and then troubles come or listen I times
about gone.
It just seems like it flies sometimes but
I'm gonna continue on this God has put
a burn in my heart in this area
when I'm out among people Sharing when I
see how how Satan has got in so
much into our lives It's burdening my heart
and I feel like God wants me to
share with you some on this area So
next week, we'll continue on this the Lord
willing until then.
Let me let me challenge you with this
remember that Jesus Christ is all you need
and I have to continually remember this myself,
but Also ask yourself this question is he
all I want Well until next time God
bless you and I trust that you'll trust
Christ as your Savior apply the blood To
your life the blood of the Lamb if
you haven't done so may God bless you
my friend