Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church, located in Kernersville, North Carolina. On a Sunday morning, go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12.
And um we're going to jump into another segment of our series. And today we're dealing with the subject help. I have become Bitter.
Now I know nobody in this building is. We're just trying to help you help others. And um I know it's uh something that we probably wouldn't want to necessarily admit. Um But if we're all honest I think according to this passage, there are some principles that tell me. that all of us have the roots of bitterness in our life.
All of us do. You can say, I'm just not a bitter person. And I could look at you and say, yes, you are, and then you'd start to become bitter at me. That's exactly how that would work. And we all have those roots.
And so. There's a lot of passages we could go to. I really weighed a number of things, but I feel like we just need to go here in these few verses because. Um if you really want to deal with it, this this explains to us How to deal with it, and we're going to get through it briefly this morning. Let me just say, real quickly, we don't know whether always, whatever, but it's supposed to rain tonight.
Pretty high percentage that it will rain this evening. And so, what we'd like to do tonight is, if you could and you're willing, we need a handful of men or young men. And we're going to have umbrellas ready, but if you're willing to just come take one for the team at the beginning and willing to take umbrellas out and help people in and out of the car, you know, we have the golf cart that you can hop in, but we need somebody to help somebody get from there to the golf cart from their car or just to get in. And let's try to do that. We have weighed as far as, and it might be just regular rain, but if it's heavy rain or whatever the case is, I know we all look for an excuse not to come Sunday night.
But, you know, we're starting a new series tonight, and we would love for you to love church enough and love God enough to come get some instruction this evening. And so we've thought about, hey, just moving it to Myers. We have a larger underpass to pull under there and just add as many chairs as we can in that. But we'll leave it in here this evening. But if we could get some that are willing to come early, we would love to have you here by 4:30 or a little bit after and just get some umbrellas and let's help people tonight if you.
Would. And so if you're willing, we know you're willing. I would ask for a show of hands, but I'm just not going to do that. And so, if you could show up, and you know, some of you teenage young men, if you're willing to help with that, it would be a great blessing to many of us. All right.
If it is raining hard, I do make a promise. We're going to get in here and get to church and be done and let you get back home and all that. But we do want you here if we can. Look at verse 14 of Hebrews chapter 12. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see.
The Lord. looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up. Trouble you. Appreciate Brother Frank reading it and wanted to just highlight these particular verses again. Let's pray.
Lord, I love you. Pray you'd bless our time this morning. In this sensitive subject. And Truth be known, all of us deep down need this today. And so I pray you would help us to.
Open our hearts and minds. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let me just say bitterness. According to the scripture, bitterness begins in the heart.
But it never stays there. Bitterness begins in the heart. But it just never stays there. Before we get into really the instruction of this passage, let me lay some groundwork if I can for you today. Why is this even important?
I want you to notice: number one, one of the problems is that bitterness spreads.
Now, according to verse 15, it says, lest any root of bitterness. What's interesting here, we're given a kind of a physical illustration. Even a farming illustration, you would say. of bitterness by comparing it to What I believe is implied here is a weed. Obviously, what this verse is talking about is not growing a good plant.
It's growing a bad plant, and that bad plant, the roots of that bad plant, can end up hurting good seed, good things in your life.
So, obviously, when it says here that any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, this is not talking about a good plant. This is talking about a plant that ruins other good plants.
So, what we're talking about is essentially what you and I would understand as a weed. And can I tell you something, many of you men that take pride in your yards, weeds spread fast. Weeds spread much faster than good grass. Weeds always end up where you don't want them. And one of the problems with bitterness is that bitterness begins to quickly spread.
Number two is that bitterness spoils. It says, lest any root of bitterness springing up. You know, that's what weeds do. They spring up and then they can choke good grass, good plants. They rob from the nutrients, they rob from the oxygen.
And we could go into the whole thing. I'm not going to do all that today. I think you understand. Bitterness can spoil. A good thing.
A weed can spoil a good thing. And so the problem, why we need to deal with this this morning is that it spreads and that it spoils. And notice thirdly, bitterness steals. It robs you of something. It says, verse 15: lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you.
Trouble you. And that's what weeds do. They spring up and they choke good plants and they bring trouble. They cut off, they take over. Bitterness takes over.
Bitterness consumes. It spoils. And that's one of the major problems. about this. It steals.
Lotus If I can explain this further, look at verse 16 and 17 of this passage. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance. Why is this even in the same breath here? We're talking about bitterness, and then, of course, it brings up fornication.
But can I tell you something? Esau didn't participate in fornication. It says, lest a profane person. What are we talking about here? Please understand the correlation with bitterness and Esau.
Many of you, if you know the story, here's Esau and Jacob. Esau was the oldest, he had a birthright. And what happens was that Isaac here had promised birthright to Esau, but Esau was hungry and Jacob fooled him and came to a moment of weakness. And Esau decided to give Jacob his birthright. And we know all the so if you look at this story, who was done wrong?
Esau was. Who was the victim here? Esau was. But who ended up really being hurt by the whole thing? Esau was.
Because he didn't handle it right. He didn't make the right decisions. And the correlation here with bitterness is many times with bitterness in our life: you are the one that was done wrong, and you are the one that was the victim, and you are the one that was treated unfairly. But if we don't deal with it correctly, you're going to be the one long-term who loses out on your birthright. If you've been saved, God's peace is a birthright.
God's joy is a birthright. He's given it to you. He's offered it to you. He's made it available. But if you don't get a hold of bitterness, it will steal that from you.
That's right. Are you with me so far? Say amen.
So let's dig into it and let me give you the path. to get out of this. Help. I've become bitter. I believe one of the first steps is just to admit it.
Just admit it. You might have victory for a week, a month, but Man, it comes right back, doesn't it?
So let's look at what the Bible teaches us. I can tell you stories, and that's not going to help you. I can tell you how I deal with it, and that's not going to help you because I still struggle with it.
So let's just jump into the Word of God here. Notice number one: the pursuit we must follow. Look at verse 14. The setting for this phrase and the instruction given about bitterness begins in verse 14. Follow peace with all men.
and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
So notice these two things that the Bible says we are to pursue. We are to pursue peace, that means with men, and we are to pursue holiness, that means with God.
So he says you need to pursue peace with men and you need to pursue holiness with God.
Now listen to me this morning. Bitterness often grows where peace and holiness are neglected. When you and I begin to quit pursuing peace with men and holiness with God, we have now become a breeding ground for bitterness. When I pursue the correct things, I protect myself from the wrong things. That's why God says, Be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.
See, we want to make that a passage about one thing. No, listen, the whole thing is: if I am pursuing the right thing, being filled with the Spirit, I won't pursue the wrong thing. being filled with something I shouldn't. Both are going to control you. And so what I ought to do is pursue.
Obviously being filled with the Spirit. When I pursue peace, it will protect me from anger. When I pursue holiness, it'll protect me from bitterness. When I pursue staying right with men and pursue staying right with God, it allows me to stay right.
Some of the main principles of this entire passage, please don't miss this. is the priority of what I pursue. It's good. And what are you after in your life? Please, please hear me.
Are you after retribution? Are you pursuing making sure you're treated fairly? Are you pursuing your rights? Are you pursuing your interest? What are you after?
What am I after? Are you after peace? Are you after holiness? Or you don't mind a good knockdown drag out as long as everybody knows exactly how I feel. Because I'm right.
Yeah, you sure are. The pursuit we must follow.
So, before we even get into bitterness, God says, listen, you're going to have to pursue. Peace. and holiness. And bitterness is the opposite of both.
Okay, number two: the problem we must face. Look at verse 15. looking diligently. This is going to be a problem.
Okay. This is going to take every bit of self-discipline you have, looking diligently lest any root. of bitterness springing. Up.
So what's the problem we're going to face here? Will roots hide below the surface before it harms above the surface? Yeah, right. Did you see it? It's on the screen.
Let me say it again. Roots hide below the surface before it harms above the surface. Roots are not something we see on the outside. We normally don't know it's there until we see the results of what it's done on the outside. Notice the verse does not say, listen to me.
Now, some of you years back, I got a lot of feedback from this passage. Positive feedback because there was just many that didn't really understand it. What does the verse say? It says, lest any root of bitterness springing up thereby defile you. The verse does not say, if it springs up.
This implies it's going to come up. Which implies all of us have roots. Inside of our heart. that will spring up. I've heard preaching that if you, listen, if you keep remembering something, then you've never really forgiven.
I don't agree with that. I just don't agree with that. I won't mention who, but we in the past six months had a preacher here. whose wife years ago was raped in a parking lot at Walmart. Years ago.
You wouldn't know it. He never mentioned it. She never mentioned it. You mean to tell me that if you ever even think of that, or you're reminded of that, that you've never really forgiven? Are you kidding me?
How could you ever forget that? We have this thing that you know what I haven't really forgiven if I just, if it keeps hitting my mind. Listen to me: if I just walked up to one of you today randomly and just punched you in the face. And then I said, oh, I'm so sorry. And let's just say for some reason you say, okay, I forgive you.
That means you're never going to remember that again? You're always going to remember that again. Every time you see me, you're like, yeah, that's the guy that... randomly punched me in the face. You're not going to forget offenses that are done to you.
It doesn't say if it springs up. God automatically assumes and tells you it's going to spring up in your life.
Some people say, you know, I don't agree with that. And God says in this verse, it's going to come up, it's going to be brought up. And I'm here to tell you: I don't care whether you agree with that or not, it is going to come up in your mind. Just remembering what somebody has done to you, listen to me, just remembering some wrong that somebody has done to you. You are never going to get that out of your mind.
But that is a root of bitterness that can spring up. And there's a lot of things that I can never forget that people have done to me. And just the fact that I can never forget it means Satan would love to use that root and he would love to bring it out in my life. I am not here to tell you how to prevent roots from Being in your life, you can't prevent that. People are going to do you wrong, circumstances are going to do you wrong, things are going to happen.
What God is saying is this: you've got to be willing to deal with it when it does, or it's going to hit above the surface and it's going to cause some great damage. It says. Lest any root of bitterness. Notice that, any root. That means this, look at me.
There's all kinds of things that can bring up roots in your life. Listen, you can go somewhere and just smell a smell, and it'll bring something to your mind. of something somebody's done to you. You're going to go somewhere and just see something in a store. You're going to go somewhere and just see something even on the TV.
You're going to see a person that looks exactly like the person that did you wrong. Satan's going to use any root of bitterness, and he wants to try to make it spring up like a weed and begin to consume your life. And that's the problem we must face. We have these roots. and they're gonna try to spring up.
Number three. I want you to see the pain. it can cause. All right, look at verse 15. Lest any root.
of bitterness springing up. Trouble who? Uh This word trouble is The Greek word Echna Cleo. What does it mean? It means to crowd in.
It means to annoy. It means to trouble. Like a weed. These roots of bitterness can spring up and they begin to crowd your life. There's almost no room for joy.
There's no room for happiness. There's no room for contentment because this bitterness begins to spread and it crowds and it troubles you. It begins to take over. It begins to consume. Bitterness will poison your mind.
Bitterness will oppress your spirit. Bitterness will steal your joy. Bitterness will not erase the past and it will not change the future, but it will trouble you now.
So here in this verse, bitterness troubles. You.
Now here's what's ironic. You and I have developed bitterness as a self-defense mechanism.
Somebody does me wrong, we get bitter. We're standing up for ourselves. The problem is that mechanism is not self-defense, it's self-destruction. Because we get hurt, now we get bitter. That's my self-defense.
Nope, not hurting that person at all. It's just troubling you. Which brings us to number four. I want you to notice the pollution it will create. It says, lest any root of bitterness springing up, notice this, first trouble you.
And thereby. Because it has troubled you, now it will begin to trouble. A lot of people. Thereby many. B Defiled.
So defiled means polluted. In the Greek. Listen to me. Bitterness doesn't stay bottled up. Bitterness doesn't just affect you.
Bitterness is a route or a root, you would say, that brings up springs up and spreads. Bitterness spreads to your home. Bitterness spreads to your relationships. Bitterness spreads to your church. Your job.
Your marriage I have literally counseled. Teenagers. who are bitter. because they've learned to be bitter. at home by a parent that is bitter.
It becomes a learned way of life. What they learn is this is how we deal. With problems. This is how we deal with injury. This is how we react.
when people do something that we think is wrong. to us. Defile. It's hard to describe. Or even to be able to estimate how many people bitterness will end up impacting in your life.
Is anybody grabbing what I'm saying today? Are you just quiet because you're bored, or are you quiet because of conviction? Don't say that. Don't tell me. I don't want to know.
Just going to assume conviction, okay? Bitterness can grow so fast it's impossible to track the damage to your life it's done.
So, what we see here is that bitterness troubles you. Then bitterness troubles those around you. and bitterness troubles those closest to you. Anybody noticed something so far? Who is bitterness not impacting?
The person that did it to you.
Now, if we put on our logical brains, it doesn't make a lot of sense, and we're going to look real dumb. But so let's not do that. Let me just put it this way. When you and I get bitter. We're hurt.
Everybody we love is hurt. Everybody around us is hurt, but the person that did it to us. is never hurt. They're never affected by this. Oh, they feel bad that you're bitter?
No. They don't care. If they cared, they wouldn't have done what they did. They're going on in life fine.
Okay, number five. By the way, Number five is the last one.
Some of you are getting less bitter already, aren't you? Don't get too excited. There's a lot of sub points under number five.
Okay, so. Number five, the prescription we must find. Only God's grace can uproot what resentment has planted. Only God's grace can uproot what bitterness has planted. Look at verse 15.
looking diligently lest any man fail of the what. As a Christian, you'll find that everything that is needed positively in your life is simply the grace of God. That's what it's going to take. It's the only alternative. It's the only thing that will ever work.
And that's the grace of God. But let me tell you the problem I have. I've heard this preached for years, and I'm sure I have preached this for years: that we get to this part and we just say, it's just going to take God's grace. You just need to access God's grace. Just claim God's grace.
What does this mean? That doesn't apply anything to me, step by step, of what that means in my life.
So, what I want to try to do is to help you today: we understand what the problem is, and we understand, you know, it's a root and it's going to spring up. And when it does, it's going to defile you, it's going to hurt you, it's going to hurt everybody around you, it's not going to change what happened to you, and it's not going to even hurt the person that did it to you. It's going to cause all the damage to you and the people in your world, the people at your job, the people in your Sunday school class. And we all know that.
So, if we're going to get rid of it and we're going to get over it and we're going to get victory over it, how do I do that, preacher?
Okay, it's the grace of God. But what does that mean? As a young person, I used to get tired in church of hearing preachers give me the answer without giving me the answer. I just got to be honest with you about that. It left me with 50 questions.
What does that mean to fail of the grace of God? What does it mean to fail of the grace of God? And how is it that I go about not failing in the grace of God?
So I'm going to try to help you today, okay? I want you to notice, number one, the definition of failing in the grace of God. What's the definition? What does this really mean when he says you're going to have to be careful, or you're going to fail in the grace of God? I want you to understand this: to fail in the grace of God simply means to come short of living in the strength and supply that grace provides.
To fail in the grace of God simply means to not access, to not enjoy what's already been given to you. The grace of God has given us all things. But to fail in the grace of God simply means, listen, it doesn't mean you lose your salvation. It means you live without the sufficiency of grace that is already available to you. It's like being spiritually bankrupt while heaven's bank account with your name on it is full and open.
It means you're living like you've got no money and in heaven you got all the money you'd ever need.
So to fail in the grace of God means The grace of God is available. But I'm not using it. Failing of grace is when we try to handle the hurt in our flesh. instead of depending on the Spirit of God. It's when we try to fix bitterness in our own willpower instead of letting God's grace wash it out.
2 Corinthians 12:9, look at this. My Grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect in weakness.
So it means this: that God's grace simply means that I realize I'm too weak to do this. And so I'm going to let his strength do it since my strength can't. Is that pretty clear? Say amen.
Okay. If you try to heal bitterness in your own strength, you're just going to harden harder and deeper. See, when you and I try to heal bitterness in our own strength, we can't do it. And so, what that tells us is this will never be done. I've tried and I can't get over it.
That's because you tried in your own strength. You tried making it make sense in your mind. And how many of you know God's ways are above our ways? When we depend on God's grace, His strength steps in. when our spirit gives out.
That's the definition. That's what it means. The bitterness will not just spring up. Remember, the roots are going to be there, but bitterness is going to spring up, take over your life. unless you depend on the grace of God.
Mm. Number two, second. I want you to see the demonstration. Grace in your life.
So, the definition of failing in the grace of God means that it's available, but I'm not using it.
So, how does this look in my life? If I am depending on the grace of God, if I don't fail in the grace of God, how does that show in my life? How do I know if I'm failing or not in it, preacher?
Okay, let me show you. This is what's gonna show up in your life. When you are depending on the grace of God. And let me just say this: this makes a lot of sense. This is how you access God's grace that has already been made available to you if you've been saved and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
This is what it looks like when it is working in you. Number one, Grace enables you to release. what you can't control. What this looks like in my life is that God's grace allows me to let go of what I cannot control. Bitterness is holding on to what hurts you.
Grace is handing it over to God. When you say, Lord, I can't carry this anymore, that's when his grace begins to take over. Romans 12:19, what does God say? Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
So you've got to understand: grace is you letting God have what is his. Vengeance is his. You think bitterness is you getting vengeance on somebody, and it's not. You're just bringing problems and trouble on you and everybody around you that you love. You are self-sabotaging your life.
And God says, listen, let me have it. Vengeance belongs to me. If you give it to me, I'll take care of it. You might not ever see it, and you might not know how, but God's going to take care of it.
So it means first, obviously, that I can let go of what I can't control. Number two. I want you to understand this, okay?
So we've seen the definition of failing in the grace of God. Number two, we want to see the demonstration. And remember what that means. Number one, obviously, grace enables you to release what you can't control. Number two, grace empowers you to forgive what you can't forget.
God never said we're supposed to forget it. God in His word, look at me, Kerwin, God in His word only promised that He would forget. Yeah, I am. Right. Thank you for listening today.
We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192. or via the web. at Kerwin Baptist Church.com.
Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin Broadcast today. God bless you.
