Compiled by: Herman Abrahams (Pastor), Cornerstone Faith Ministries, P.O. Box 740, Westridge 7802, Rep. of South Africa.
E-Mail: Mentorship2003@yahoo.co.uk
Note to the reader:
If you have been blessed with this sermon compilation, I would be honoured to receive an e-mail from you merely telling me where in the world you are based - I do not need any other information. This is merely so that I can have the pleasure of giving thanks to Almighty God for the fact that all over the globe, the ministry which he has entrusted to me, is blessing the body of Christ and helping to extend the Kingdom of God.
Thank you.
Herman Abrahams
Cape Town, South Africa.
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Credits:
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1. ‘Your Best Life Now’ By Joel Osteen, (Warner Faith), Chapter 18, ‘Don’t Let Bitterness Take Root.’
2. ‘The Healthy Christian Life’ By Frank Minirth, Paul Meier, Richard Meier & Don Hawkins (Baker Book House), Chapter 18, ‘The Dangers Of Unforgiving Bitterness.’
Dangers of Letting Bitterness Take Root - Detox Today
Hebrews 12:14-15
INTRODUCTION
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We all have unfair and unjust things happen to us; that’s a part of life. When we are hurt, we can choose to hold on to that pain and become bitter, or we can choose to let it go and trust God to make it up to us.
In some countries there are up to 75 % of people who are angry about something. Imagine that! Seven to eight out of every ten people you encounter today will be angry about something or with somebody.
1. ANGRY ABOUT SOMETHING
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Amongst us here this morning there will be those of you who are angry about something or other:
You could be angry about what someone said about you,
You are angry with your boss for not giving you the promotion you deserved,
You are angry with your wife for continually putting you down,
You could be angry with that firend who promised you the world and then broke up with you,
Maybe something happened to you when you were younger, somebody mistreated you, somebody took advantage of you.
… and you are angry … very angry !!
2. TO ENJOY LIFE …
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If you want to enjoy life and live it to the fullest, …
You must be quick to forgive.
Learn to let go of the hurts and pains of the past.
Don’t let bitterness take root in your life.
For your emotional and spiritual health, you must let bitterness go.
It doesn’t do any good to go around hating somebody.
It does’nt make any sense to stay angry for what somebody’s done to you in the past.
You can’t do anything about the past, but you can do something about the future.
Why don’t you forgive and trust God to make it up to you?
NIV- HEB 12:14-15
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile (or contaminate) many.
NLT - HEB 12:15
Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up (i) to trouble you, (ii) corrupting many.
3. BITTERNESS, A ROOT
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Notice, bitterness is described as a root. Think about that. You can’t see a root; it’s deep down under the ground. But you can be sure of this: A bitter root will produce bitter fruit. If we have bitterness on the inside, it’s going to affect every area of our lives.
Many people attempt to bury the hurt and pain deep in their hearts or in their subconscious minds. They harbor unforgiveness and resent¬ment, and then they wonder why they can’t really live in victory, why they can’t get along with other people, why they can’t be happy. They don’t realize it, but it’s because their own hearts are poisoned. The Bible says,
MATT 15:18-20
Mt 15:18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ Mt 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Mt 15:20 These are what make a man ‘unclean’;
In other words, if we have bitterness on the inside, it’s going to end up contaminating everything that comes out of us. It will contaminate our personalities and our attitudes, as well as how we treat other people.
REMEMBER: A bitter root will produce bitter fruit.
Many people are trying to improve their lives by dealing with the external fruit. They are attempting to rectify their bad habits, bad attitudes, bad tempers, or negative and sour personalities. They’re deal¬ing with the fruit of their lives, trying to change those things, and that is noble. But the truth is, unless they get to the root, they will never be able to change the fruit. Because as long as that bitter root is growing on the inside, that problem will persist and keep popping up time and again. You may be able to control your behavior for a while or keep a good attitude for a short period of time, but have you ever wondered why you can’t really get free? Why you can’t overcome that destructive habit?
You have to go deeper. You must discover why you are so angry, why you can’t get along with other people, why you are always so negative. If you’ll look deeply and get to the root, then you’ll be able to deal with the problem, overcome it, and truly begin to change.
4. WHAT’S COMING OUT OF YOU?
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Jn 7:38
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
A contaminated spring cannot produce fresh water
JAMES 3:9-12
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Jas 3:10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Jas 3:11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? Jas 3:12 My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
Be willing to change.
Forget the past - don’t let the poisons of the past continue to contaminate your life.
Illustration
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Years ago there was a terrible outbreak of disease in a tiny village in a remote part of Africa. Both children and adults were, getting sick and overcome with nausea. Several,weeks passed, and the sickness became widespread, and people started dying. Word of the disease reached the main city in that area, and experts were dispatched to try to figure out what was causing the problem. They soon .discovered that the water was contaminated. The village got its water supply from a mountain stream that was fed from a spring, so the experts de¬cided to trek upstream and hopefully find the source of the pollution. They traveled for days and finally came to the mouth of the stream. But on the surface, they found nothing wrong. Puzzled, they decided to send some divers down to search as closely to the spring’s opening as possible.
What the divers discovered shocked the experts. A large mother pig and her baby piglets were wedged right at the opening of the spring. Evidently they had fallen in, drowned, and somehow got stuck there. Now all that crystal clear, pure mountain springwater was being contaminated as it flowed past the decomposing remains of those dead pigs. In no time after the divers were able to extricate the dead pigs, the water began to flow clean and pure once again. [‘Your Best Life Now’ By Joel Osteen].
Don’t let the root of bitterness take hold in your life – deal with it !
Too often, instead of letting it go and giving it to God, we’ve held onto hurts.
We haven’t forgiven, and just as those pigs soured that crystal-clear water, our own lives have become contaminated.
5. “BLOWING UP” or “CLAMMING UP”
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Definition of anger – “Resentment turned inward’.
It’s like a cancer eating you up – if you’re not careful
With this resentment turned inwards one can do one of two things:
i). BLOW-UP (in anger)…
a. Minirth-Meier Clinic …. ‘To "blow up" is to mix good anger with a vengeance motive. That results in a new ingredient called hostility, which is a way of getting even thru physical abuse or by acting out fits of rage, (e.g. road rage) temper (such as slamming doors or driving the car in a reckless manner), thus showing our indignation.’
b. We also show our anger by our words, using words that put others down,
i. Name-calling,
ii. Shouting,
iii. Temper tantrums,
iv. Threats,
v. Sarcasm, and even a hos¬tile
vi. "Silent treatment."
c. We take the whip in our hand, so to speak, and pay back the offender. We want him to hurt as much (or more than) he hurt us.
Watch out - There’s a poisonous root of bitterness growing up to trouble you and to defile and contaminate many others.
Eph 4:31-32
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
ii). CLAM-UP …
a. The other extreme is to "clam up." This style involves saying nothing about our angry feelings and holding on to a grudge. Then our anger becomes bitterness. It affects our health. It can turn into depression and even lead to suicidal thoughts. All this grieves the Lord, since it blocks our fellowship with him…
NIV HEBREWS 12:14
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
b. The motive for hold¬ing a (clammed-up) grudge is the same as for open hostility — vengeance. We are saying, "I will not be kind to that person until I see that somehow he has suffered enough, I will ignore him, I will snub him."
Be alert for the dangers of vengeance and bitterness.
What is wrong with vengeance as a motive?
It is not our responsibility to take revenge or help God to punishing those who have offended us.
NIV ROMANS 12:17-19
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
[In other words, we should get out of the way so God can deal with the person]
Remember, your anger, your bitterness, may not even bother the other person in the least, but it will eat away at your own health, your emotional balance, and your spirit.
CONCLUSION
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ILLUSTRATION
A few decades ago, several American companies authorized by the U.S. government attempted to bury toxic waste products underground. They filled large metal containers with chemical waste and other life-threatening products, sealed the drums tightly, and buried them deep down below the topsoil. They thought that was the end of it. Within a short time, however, many of the containers began to leak and the toxic waste started seeping to the surface, causing all sorts of problems. In some locations, it killed off the vegetation and ruined the water supply. People had to move out of their homes. In one section near Niagara Falls, known as the Love Canal, an inordinate number of people began dying of cancer and other debilitating diseases. Many communities are still suffering the effects of toxic-waste burials to this day
What went wrong? They tried to bury something that was too toxic. It couldn’t be contained. They thought they could bury it, and be rid of it once and for all. But they didn’t realize that the materials they were attempting to bury were so powerful. They were too toxic for the containers to hold. They never dreamed that one day these contaminants would resurface, and they would have to eliminate them all over again. But this time, the toxic materials would be dispersed, and much more difficult to deal with. Had they disposed of them properly in the first place, they wouldn’t have had this terrible problem. [‘Your Best Life Now’ By Joel Osteen].
It’s the same with us. When somebody hurts us, somebody does us wrong, instead of letting it go and trusting God to make it up to us, we bury it deep down on the inside. We attempt to cram unforgiveness, re¬sentment, anger, and other destructive responses into our "leak-proof" containers. We seal those lids tightly. Then we put them aside and say, "Good. I’m not going to have to deal with that. I’m rid of it once and for all."
But unfortunately, just as that toxic waste tends to resurface, one day the things you have tamped into your subconscious or buried deeply in the recesses of your heart will rise to the surface and begin to contaminate your life. We can’t live with poison inside of us and not expect it to eventually do us harm.
Face it. You are not strong enough to contain the toxicity in your life. You need help from someone bigger and stronger than yourself. That’s why you need to give that bitterness, resentment, and other contaminants to God. (DE-TOX YOURSELF INTO THE LORD).
Forgiveness is the key to being free from toxic bitterness.
Forgive the people who hurt you.
Forgive the boss who did you wrong.
Forgive the friend who betrayed you.
Forgive the parent who mistreated you when you were younger.
Get rid of all that poison today. Don’t let the root of bitterness grow deeper and continue to contaminate your life. (end)
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