British dramatist Frederick Lonsdale was asked by Seymour Hicks to reconcile with a fellow member. The two had quarreled in the past and never restored their friendship. Hicks said to Lonsdale, you must do this. It's a very unkind thing and an unfriendly thing at such a time as now is New Year's Eve. Go and wish him a happy New Year. So Lonsdale grudgingly decided to cross the room and spoke to his enemy. He said, I want to wish you a happy New Year. But only one. But only one. Ouch, huh? But only one. You know, one of the things that hinders our walk with God and our own peace within our hearts is this thing of bitterness. Bitterness. It's been said that bitterness is like drinking poison hoping the other person dies. That's a very good description of it. It's when we are enraged and we want somebody to get it, if you will, but it's like us drinking poison because actually we're the one that ends up hurting in the end. And it can ravage the heart so deeply and affect us so powerfully that people will do things they never thought they'd ever do. Christian people aren't immune to this either. And Christian people can even do Christ-like things as a result. And trust me, I've seen that before. And we want to avoid that as much as possible. In fact, our text here is Paul writing to Christian people at the church of Ephesus. So you know that it's something that Christian people even deal with. Here in Ephesians 4, we'll pick it up in verse 29. It says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." Tonight, let's consider this thought of being bitten by bitterness. Bitten by bitterness. Let's pray first. Heavenly Father, tonight I just want to ask that You would help me to speak this message. No doubt, I think everybody here has probably been bitten by it before. And that venom maybe in some cases might even still be there or even raging right now. Father, I do pray that tonight could be just a means of getting an antidote to soften that bitterness and to remove it from the heart. or even if we need to just store it up in the back of our mind for the day we have those feelings. We pray that we could and would. Father, I do pray that this thing can certainly hinder revival, and we don't want to do that. God, help us tonight to examine our own hearts, and if need be, come clean so that we can have the peace we desire within. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. It was reported back in 2006 that thousands of Tasmanian devils have died from a rare type of cancer called devil facial tumor disease. Scientists discovered that the cancer began in the mouth of a single devil and spread through the bites of that devil. And Tasmanian devils bite each other around the mouth very frequently due to their nature. And this cancer spread through those bites. Over the course of several years, over 40% of the Tasmanian devil population died because of that cancer. You know, we as God's people sometimes, like these Tasmanian devils, carry a disease just as potent as the cancer that the Tasmanian devils had spread. This cancer we call bitterness. Bitterness. Often, if this has not been cured in our hearts, or if it is not dealt with properly, we will bite others and affect others with our soul sickness. Won't we? Bitterness is a sickness of the soul, but sadly, it's extremely contagious. Hebrews 12.15 says, Notice this root of bitterness that springs up, crops up in the heart, and it troubles us. You know, if we have animosity towards anybody right now, I'm sure you won't feel, and I know I don't feel, a whole lot of peace, do we? We don't feel a whole lot of joy, do we? We get a kind of a sour spirit and a sore heart, and it's something that drags us down, and it's a very burdensome thing to carry through your days. Some people carry it on for days and weeks and months and even years. You know, I was up at the campus here a couple weeks ago, and there was a lady that stopped by, and she was a staff person. And I began talking to her a little bit, and she said, well, me and God are kind of on the outs right now. And she kind of explained to me why and so forth. And I tried to give her some words of encouragement the best I could. I tried to explain certain things that she kind of had misunderstood, I guess. But she kind of like, she just started getting kind of indignant again. And I said, I just can't talk about this. And just kind of walked off. You know, there's people like that all the time that something has gotten within their craw, if you will, and it's just festered there and it's grown over, in some cases, a very long time. And that root of bitterness troubles them. Troubles them. Are you troubled tonight by something in your heart as a result of something that's happened to you or some things that will go through yet tonight? But there's something within your heart that's causing this troubling. You just can't dismiss it. It plagues your heart. It plagues your thoughts. It goes with you every single place that you go. That's bitterness. And it will trouble you. And it goes on and says, "...thereby many be defiled." Notice it doesn't stay singular, does it? Because bitter people have to get their bitterness out. And what do they do? They'll go from this person to that person, and they'll start just communicating their bitterness in some regards. And in some cases, they're really good, and they'll start defiling the minds and hearts of other people. I've seen this in action. It's a very ugly thing. That's why I say bitterness is extremely contagious. Bitterness troubles the soul, and these troubled souls will spread their bitterness to others. As the phrase goes, misery loves company, right? Misery loves company. And bitter people are very miserable people. And they want to share their bitterness with others. You say, why do they want to share their bitterness with others? Well, it helps bitter people justify holding on to their grudges. So-and-so agrees with me, and so-and-so agrees with me, and so-and-so agrees with me. So guess what? That helps justify their feelings of bitterness. But it doesn't take away the bitterness, does it? It never does. It won't. Because it's not solved that way. But again, it helps justify their anger, their bitter spirit. You know, the Bible tells us, though, very plainly, that this spirit, if you will, This is a very bad thing. Let's just put it that way. This is a very bad thing, a very negative thing. You know, Leviticus, back in the Old Testament even, God told the Jews in Leviticus 19.18, Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. I mean, this is back in the Old Testament. You are not to hold a grudge. against anybody. You are to love thy neighbor as thyself, whoever that neighbor might be. Who's your neighbor? Anybody, any other person other than you. Let's just put it that way. That does include the coworker. That does include the people next door. That does include some of the other people we run across. We are called not to be bitter, but to show compassion, if you will. James 5.9 says, grudge not one against another. Grudge not one against another. Do you have a grudge tonight against somebody? Can I say that's not a good thing to hold on to, is it? When we hold bitterness within our souls, the devil is allowed access into our lives. It's like a wide open screen door. And guess what? He will come charging in. And He'll plague a bitter person with thoughts, because He will constantly remind that person of the wrong, or whatever it is that they're bitter against. He will remind you. The minute you wake up in the morning, He will be there reminding you of it. As you walk through your day, He'll be walking right next to you, telling you why you need to remain bitter, and how you are justified in that bitterness. And as you go about your day, and as you come home, and you sit down, and some people, the only way to get rid of it is through outlets that are ungodly, right? That's why people get into things like overemphasizing the entertainment or the amusement, or they'll get into alcohol and drugs and things like that. Why? Because they're trying to silence the voice, but they can't. The devil will plague a bitter person until that bitterness is dealt with. And when he plagues the thoughts, guess what? That's when our emotions will flare up. That's how we get negative emotions, is through negative thoughts. And as we have negative emotions, that can lead to negative words and negative actions. Right? Take Joseph's brothers, for instance. Remember back in the Old Testament, Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob? His brothers had a problem with him. And notice how they were. They had negative thoughts towards him. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. It wasn't Joseph's fault. Now Jacob shouldn't have been favoring Joseph. Obviously, that's another sermon. But at the same time too, the brothers had no reason or right to hate Joseph. He didn't do anything. He was just being the person he was being. But they came to the point where they hated him. They had negative thoughts against him, which led to negative emotions, which led to negative actions, right? They wanted to kill him, They were merciful unto him, sold him into slavery instead. Good brothers, right? Brothers like that who need sisters, right? No, just kidding. My sister's not here tonight, so she couldn't have gotten that one. Then there was Cain. Cain. Remember Cain? He offered up a sacrifice. God didn't accept it because it wasn't the right one. Abel did the right thing. But Cain got bitter at his brother. It says here in 1 John 3.11 and 12, For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that ye should love one another, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's were righteous. His brother's righteous. He was jealous, he was envious. That led to bitterness, that led to, in this case, to murder. You know, when there's murder on any kind, it's because there's some kind of bitterness or anger in the heart that leads to it. I've never known anybody or never ever heard of anybody who was a happy person who killed people. I mean, have you? If they were laughing and smiling, it was because they were really mixed up up here. You know, I mean, they're really messed up up here. But you don't see that they were on they are often very angry bitter people that leads to those types of things You know in our country we have we have groups of people and organizations that are bent on bitterness that drives their drives their agenda and drives what they do and they'll break laws and do things and why because they're bitter and They are bitter people. Well, they're justifying their bitterness. No, they're not. Nobody ever is. Bitterness destroys. Love heals. Bitterness is something that needs to be uprooted quickly lest the roots grow deep. In our text, Paul is addressing some key thoughts on the subject of bitterness that is good for Christian people to know so that we can recognize it and resolve it as quickly as we can. You know, if we have a root, guess what? When the root's small, when it's a sapling, it's easy to pull out. If it grows and festers for a long time, it gets to like an oak tree, and that takes a lot of work to get out, doesn't it? It takes a lot of work to get out. Don't let it get that far. Because every one of us will be tempted to feel bitterness in our hearts. If you haven't already this week, or this past month, or this past year, it probably is going to come to you at some point. There's going to be times that we will be dealt this hand of where we will be tempted to be bitter and stay that way. Thus, we have to recognize it and resolve it as quickly as we can, lest that root overtakes us. And that root can take us to places we never thought we'd ever be. First off, let's talk about the characteristics. Much of Ephesians deals with the subject of spiritual warfare, as we call it, which is really nothing more than our dealings with the devil. That's what spiritual warfare is in a nutshell. And one major inroad for Satan is through, again, the unresolved anger that we have. Look at v. 26. It says, "...be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Look at v. 27, "...neither give place to the devil." When we have unresolved anger, we begin to open up the door for the devil to get in, as I mentioned here a moment ago. It is an open door for Satan to begin controlling our life. You say, well, how? When we are angry, he will be able to have a much easier time to sway us to do things and say things we wouldn't normally do when we're not angry. Now, the reason we feel anger is because of how we interpret information that is coming to our life. Information leads to certain thoughts, which again leads to certain emotions, which leads to our actions. And when people are bitter, they display these different characteristics here in our passage, because that's what's happened. They're looking at certain information, And then they start getting negative thoughts, which leads to negative emotions, which again leads to those negative actions. And one of several things that we see in our passage will crop up as a result of this bitterness. Number one, we see here the word wrath. Verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath. Wrath is violent anger that leads to some sort of action against someone. Bitter people often want vengeance upon those that have made them bitter, and they like to execute wrath. Now, we are not called to wrath, are we? We're called to the opposite. But that's what can happen. We see different groups clashing in our country today out of bitterness for each other. They are executing wrath. And there's only one person that can really execute wrath correctly, and that's God. And if you read the Bible, you notice that God doesn't really like exercising wrath. It's kind of the last resort. He gets no glory out of judging the wicked, if you will. He wants to show mercy and grace. That's what we're called to show too. But when we're bitter, guess what's going to come out? The wrath. The wrath. It will spread itself. Now, it mentions number two, all that all bitterness and wrath and anger. Anger. Anger, of course, is the emotion we feel within our hearts. And when we're angry, how do we feel? How do you feel when you're angry? I don't know about you, when I'm angry, I feel lousy. I feel absolutely lousy. I'm not always pleasant to be around if I'm angry. I'm sure you're not either. I've never met a happy angry person. Anybody anybody know anybody like that? I'd like to meet him. But I don't know anybody like that. When we're angry, you know, we you know, most of the time we people don't want to be around us. And we I think we can understand why but but we're miserable inside. You know that anger wears us out emotionally? Oh my soul, doesn't it ever? I guarantee a half an hour of anger will wipe you out for several hours. It really does. It just weighs on your personality. It weighs on your energy because it sucks the life out of you. It's a very unpleasant emotion. Number three, clamor is mentioned. Let all bitterness, wrath, and anger and clamor. Clamor, what is that? Clamor is loud, confused noise, like a loud complaint or a demand. When people are bitter, they cry out against something, vehement expression of negativity, if you will. You know, we yell and scream and holler, basically. Have you ever been upset to the point where you're like, Wow, a bunch of saints here, amen. Yeah, I've never done that either. Yeah. Clamour is when we're expressing ourselves very vocally, if you will, in a negative manner. Bitterness will lead to that. Of course, number four, evil speaking. That is saying things that are designed to inflict damage on another. to inflict damage. We're going in with the daggers, if you will. The Bible talks about teeth being sharp like that, and a tongue like a sword designed to cut, and so forth. And when we're bitter, corrupt communication can easily come out of our mouths. Number five, put away from you all malice. What's malice? It's a disposition to injure others without cause and getting personal gratification out of it. Personal gratification. Either, you know, we do something negative to somebody and we're kind of in our hearts or even maybe expressing, yeah, they deserved it. Yeah. You know, we get this gratification out of it. Boy, we're a mess, aren't we, sometimes. We are such a mess. It's funny, sometimes our own bitterness is worse than the fault that we're finding in others that are supposedly causing the bitterness. When a person has this kind of spirit, What happens if they're saved? The Holy Spirit of God is going to be grieved. Mentions that in verse 30 and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed under the day of redemption. You know the Holy Spirit of God does not reside on a bitter person. Not at all. He will be grieved. That's one of the reasons why you feel so yuck. Be glad you feel yuck inside. It's a good thing because it tells you at least God's. God's being grieved within us. And if we walk not in the Spirit, if we walk trying, you know, the Holy Spirit is not going to go anywhere with us. If we're not going to be walking in the Spirit, if the Holy Spirit isn't in control of us, what is? What is? Well, the flesh will be. And who is more than happy to influence our flesh to do wrong? Well, Satan will be. Satan will be. And he uses bitter people to accomplish his purposes. Why? Because those people aren't being controlled by the Spirit of God. They're being controlled by their flesh. If you go to Galatians chapter 5, you see what the works of the flesh are. This morning we saw the works of the heart and the works of the flesh. They're synonymous for the most part. Here in James 3 verses 14-16 it says, But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. Bitterness is you see a bitter envying and strife where that is there is confusion. There's always confusion when there's when there's in a circle of bitterness if you will. And there's every evil work. There is nothing righteous that comes out of it at all. Nothing of any good. You know, sometimes the bitter person wants justice, and they think that'll bring about good. It will not bring about good. Why? Because the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. That says that in the early chapter of James. Now, people who are bitter can be a little deceptive too. Because they don't always display an angry spirit. Especially if they have internalized it enough to where they could put on a happy face as they go about. But their actions which sometimes can be quite devious. I've seen some bitter people do some very devious things. Speak otherwise. I think a great example of somebody who was bitter and devious was Absalom. Absalom. Boy, this guy was something else. Go to 2 Samuel. I'll hold your place here in Ephesians. Absalom, the son of David, got real bitter at his father. Maybe there were some things David could have done differently, We cannot justify wrong behavior because of somebody else's wrong behavior. You know what I mean? We're not responsible for anybody else's bad behavior. We are responsible for ourselves. And if somebody else may do wrong, that doesn't give us an excuse to do wrong. Hence, Absalom is still guilty himself. But we see here that Absalom was a bitter man. And this is what he does with his bitterness. He gets very devious. Look at 2 Samuel 15. I'm sorry if I said first, 2 Samuel 15. It says, Well, he was motivated. He rose up early. And it was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, that Absalom called unto him and said, Of what city art thou? And he said, Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right, but there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. Absalom said moreover, Oh, that I were made judge in the land that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice. And it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do him the obstinance, he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment." So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. I mean, you talk about devious. You talk about a skunk. That was Absalom. Why? Because he was bitter. And he could put on the show, but he was putting on the show because he was plotting, he had a plan and a plot to destroy his dad. That was his whole idea. I mean, to the point where he wanted to see his dad dead. David didn't want to see Absalom dead, did he? It broke his heart. It was kind of a confused mess in there, but bitter people will do diabolical things with a smile on their face sometimes. They really will. Hence, bitterness is not something we want to hold. Now secondly, let's talk about the causes. I'll have to speed up here a little bit. What causes people to become bitter? Now, there might be a number of things, but I'll address a few things I think that are fairly pertinent with people who are bitter. Number one is unmet expectations. Unmet expectations. In other words, people get bitter at other people, or God, or God, because they expected something, and that expectation didn't come to pass. I expected God to bless me with this, and that hasn't happened at this point. I expected God to do this for me, and it didn't take place. I expected this person to come to my party, and they didn't. I expected this person to show me a little bit more respect, and they won't. I expected this person to recognize me and applaud me, and they didn't. I expected so-and-so to come through on this, and they didn't. I expected so-and-so to be kind, so-and-so to give me a smile, so-and-so to visit me, whatever it might be. It was some sort of expectation that you had on somebody or God, and it didn't happen. And guess what happens? We start getting these negative feelings of anger that turn to bitterness if not resolved. Expectations are often the instigators of relationships that go sour. Dr. S.M. Davis, I think he preached the message here called, Expectations Ruin Relationships. I think some of you may remember that message. It's a good message, a good thought. That all these expectations that we put on people, And when they don't come through for us, then we get bent out of joint and so forth. This is the very reason why marriages break out. This is the reason why people bolt out of churches. And this is the reason why people give up on others. It's because of these things of unmet expectations. It drives wedges into relationships all the time. And it causes bitterness. Because we fail to recognize this very pertinent truth from the Word of God. Barely every man at his best state is altogether vanity, say Allah. We expect people to hold the perfect standard. Oh, they say that they're Christians. Yeah, you'd be surprised what a Christian can do. Maybe what you've done, or I've done. We forget that people are people, and they do fail us. And people will fail you all the time. I'll guarantee you, if I haven't failed you yet, I will fail you at some point. May I have failed you multiple times, I don't know. Everybody will fail each other. You know, your spouse will fail you. Your kids are going to fail you. Other people in the church are going to fail you. What are you going to do about it? get bitter and blow off these relationships? Or say, you know what? As much as I want to receive mercy when I'm a stinker, I'm going to show mercy when they're a stinker. That's a choice that we have every time with an unmet expectation. Because if we don't recognize it, bitterness can fester real quick in the heart. I'll guarantee you, Satan likes to do anything he can to get Christians bickering and fighting and fussing. He really does. Number two, envy. People can get bitter at others because they are jealous that others have something that they want. Envy. It's a very ugly thing. You know, I mentioned Joseph and his brothers. a moment ago. And it says in Acts 7-9 why they were, what was their problem. Of course, it says, and the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him. It was envy that drove the bitterness of their brothers against Joseph. It was this envy inside of them. The bitterness they felt was the jealousy they had against Joseph because he was Jacob's favorite son. Paul even mentions while he was in prison that there were those who were preaching the gospel because of envy they had against him. It's a strange thing. Philippians 1.15 says, Some indeed preached Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. It's interesting. Why? Because there were people at that time, evidently preachers at that time, who were envious of Paul And now Paul's locked up in jail. He can't do much. And they're going out there and they're preaching with a mentality and an attitude of, yeah, we can get up on the Apostle Paul. Because they were jealous that he had some notoriety that he doesn't. I know of instances preachers are jealous of other preachers. It still goes on today. There's a well-known preacher that I'm familiar with and maybe some others too if I said his name, but I remember him saying this. He said, you know what, it's interesting, but there are some people that just absolutely hate my guts. Just hate my guts. Why? Because of envy. He has a lot more people than they probably do. Envy will cause people to say and do things because they are bitter, they don't have what somebody else has, and probably they think they deserve it. I deserve it. I deserve it. And of course, a lot of times they think the other person doesn't deserve it like they do. There was a guy in the in the Book of Acts. He was a convert in Samaria under the preaching of Philip. His name was Simon the Sorcerer. It mentions in that story how he watched the disciples, Peter and John and probably Philip too, doing some things in the power of the Holy Spirit. And Simon had been somebody who had kind of wowed people with his abilities and so forth. Well, he got saved, evidently. And he offered money to have the power that they had so that he could go around doing things. Why did he do that? Well, Peter was very blunt with him in Acts 8.23. He says, For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. That's what his problem was. Brother Clayton mentions that in churches sometimes. He says, I've seen this many times. People get the Simon the Sorcerer mentality. They want something or a position that somebody else has. And if they don't get it, they get bitter. And then they justify the bitterness and they'll start spreading discord amongst the brethren and do stuff like that just to uproot because they have because somebody has something they wanted or they thought that they deserved. And it causes problems. Envy will drive people to to that kind of bitterness and we don't want to we don't want to go there. Because somebody has something they want and think they deserve, and they are mad that the other person has it. Can I encourage you in this though? God's the promoter. Remember that. God promotes and God demotes. And God will only promote when we have the right attitude and mentality. He will demote if we don't. And that is something I have seen over the years happen to people, and it's a sad thing to take place. Number three, the cause of bitterness is hurts and wrongs. When people wrong us, or I should say people will wrong us, will offend us, will do things that hurt us. And if we don't deal with it properly, we will grow bitter. Our man, M. Nicoli, was a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He explains that Sigmund Freud died at the age of 83, a bitter and disillusioned man. Tragically, this Venetian physician, one of the most influential thinkers of our time, had little compassion for the common person. Freud wrote in 1918, I have found little that is good about human beings on the whole. In my experience, most of them are trash. No matter whether they publicly subscribe to this or that ethical doctrine, or to none at all, according to one of his writings. And Freud died friendless. It's well known that he had broken with each of his followers. For him, the end was bitter. It was bitter. Do we today have bitterness in our hearts because of unmet expectations? Maybe we are envious of somebody, or maybe just because we've had some hurts, or perceived hurts. Somebody well put it this way, no matter how long we nurse a grudge, it'll never get better. Think of it that way. No matter how long we nurse a grudge, it will never get better. So what do we do if we find ourselves bitten by bitterness? That's what we have to come to now as we talk about the cure. How do we deal with bitterness? Well, There's a very easy first step. But it's hard. Simple, but it's hard. We need to confess it. God, I am bitter at so and so. God, I am bitter at this group of people. God, I am bitter at these people because I because of XYZ whatever it is that you that's causing the bitterness. And we have to confess it as S I N. Sin. And repent. Told you it was simple. But it's not easy, is it? Because it might make us swallow real hard and say, I don't want to do that. Well, until we do that, we're going to struggle with bitterness and it's just going to get worse. We've got to confess and repent of it. Our bitterness is our sin. Not somebody else's. regardless of what they've done. It was our choice to allow anger to fester within our souls, and we are responsible for our reactions, not the actions or perceived actions of others. Remember, we are responsible for ourselves. And God holds us accountable for ourselves, not anybody else. God will deal with the other person, but He will deal with you, too, and me. That's what Peter told Simon the Sorcerer. AX 822 repent therefore this die. He calls it wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of 9 heart may be forgiven me. Repent. Confess. Until we do that, we cannot begin to heal number two. On top of that, we need to forgive. Our text clearly indicates that. Back in Ephesians it says, And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, notice forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. We really like the idea of God forgiving us unconditionally. We can be the greatest stinker in the world and we can go back to God with an attitude of repentance and God will forgive us abundantly. He does that all the time. He will do that all the time for us. Now, he expects us to do that as well. And we need to forgive. Forgiveness is our willingness, again, to let others off the hook. And forgiveness will break the bitter chain between us and another. Until that chain is broke, again, we will be connected to him no matter how much distance there is between us and them. And sometimes that's difficult. But we can do it with God's help. And God can help us with that as we as they talk about number three part of this here is to seek the grace of God. If bitterness has been in the heart for for quite a while. The devil will not give up that ground very easily. It's a stronghold, if you will, and the devil will attempt to rekindle the flames. It's at those moments in time you have to recognize that that's taking place and you have to go back to God asking him for help and grace to remove the feelings when they revive. Within our hearts because they will revive. You can say, I'm going to forgive somebody, I'm going to confess and forsake, but just a few hours or a few minutes even, if it's something that's been in there for quite a while, you might have to go back to God multiple amounts of times. Well, I don't have time to do that. You don't have time to be bitter either. Because the amount of time you go to God is going to be a lot less than the amount of time you and I waste on our lives being bitter. It's not the time to lash back out. It's not the time to go call up somebody on the phone or send them a text message or Facebook them or whatever we do. It's time to go communicate with God. Say, God, I am having a very hard time. I do not want to go this direction. God, help me stop and just stay put until it stops. Why? Because Romans 5.20 says, Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And when we have those struggles, the grace can abound. There's enough grace to help us overcome those things. Philippians 4 talks about, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. God can give you the grace to help you overcome those things. Hebrews 4.16 says, "...Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." And those times of bitterness within our soul are times of need, aren't they? They are grave times of need. And we can go back to God, and sometimes it's just we're so impatient. But you've got to remember, sometimes those things are in there good. It takes a little bit of work to get them out. just doesn't go away like that you gotta fight that battle for your heart because the other option is destructiveness will be destructive in your life in my life if we allow myself to fester and just go on forever we if we're having a problem with it then we gotta continually go to the grace of God and seeking it number four apply scriptural truths What do you mean by that? Such as what? Well, this is a real good one. Matthew 5, verses 43 and 44. You have heard that it has been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Love your enemies. Love those people that you hate right now. Start loving him. So that grits against everything in my body. That's probably a good thing. That means you're making progress in the right direction. Who you bitter against tonight? Do good to them. Well, they're going to throw it back in my face. Do good to them or they're going to throw it back in my face again. Too good to them. So that's hard. Yeah, it's not easy. But that's what God tells us to do. To bless them. Pray for them. You know, do you have somebody you're not happy with right now? Do you pray that God's mercy and goodness would be shown to them? So that's even hard to do. That's a good place to start. Put him on the top of your prayer list and start praying for him and saying, God, please show. Whoever it might be. Your goodness and your mercy. So that's hard. But it'll start uprooting and getting rid of the bitterness within your soul. Do right. Bless those that we have had bitterness against. Again, that will help combat the bitter feelings we have. And hence, we overcome evil with good. Go to Romans 12. Romans 12. It says in v. 19, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him." That would be loving your enemy, right? If he thirsts, give him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Now that might sound negative to us, but that was a very positive thing back in those days. It says, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. overcome evil with good. Fighting evil with evil only produces more evil. Fighting evil with good destroys evil. You know, if there is any rectifying that needs to take place, Because sometimes, you know, some of the things we experience, I mean, really, we've been hurt. I mean, there's legitimacy to that. God does say vengeance is His and He'll take care of it. But I am a prone to believe this, that God will wait to do that until we are able to handle it when He dishes it out. You know, or, you know, if we hear about, oh, so-and-so got it, you know, we're like, yeah, you know, that kind of mentality. God is going to wait until you and I are mature enough to handle it. Because he doesn't like us rejoicing at other people's downfall because he doesn't rejoice in it. He doesn't rejoice in it at all. But it says in Proverbs 24, verse 17 and 18, It's counterproductive. God's going to wait until we get our act right before He will work with them. At least to the point that we maybe know it or see it. Again, God is concerned more about our reaction than the actions. And that's part of our character development. And we can't go any higher for God until our character can handle it. If our character can't handle it, we are going to be stuck in the spot we're at until it matures and gets there. But it comes by making the right choices instead of the wrong ones. And this is one of those areas. Have we been bitten by bitterness tonight? It will haunt us until we destroy it through God's cure. And we can't escape it. Because it will follow us every which direction we go. But if we apply the cure, and I understand it might not be easy at first, But it will lessen the feelings in a shorter amount of time than just letting bitterness continually rule in our hearts. May we take the cure from the bite of bitterness.