Now, turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 15, please. This sermon is not part of the King James Bible series, or the pre-King James Bible series as of that. I really have to preface that, because most of it has been history before that. And we haven't got to the King James Bible yet. When we do, we'll be parking there for a very long time. That is a very extensive study that we're going to go through and teach you what miracle God wrought with the King James. Amen? And I believe that, by the way. I had, you know I believe that if you just listen to the last broadcast that I did when some guy came on there and told me my Bible was wrong, that Jesus, that's not God's name, that's not the name of, that Jesus is wrong. Well, he got an earful. He probably wasn't expecting. And then he thought I was gonna squeamishly back down because he pressed me and he was gonna play that you're not very nice guy. No, it's not very nice to tell people their Bible is fake. It's not very nice to tell them the inspired words of God have a problem and you're gonna fix it. I have a problem with that. I have a real problem with that because that's the book I live and die by. So if you're going to tell me that it's wrong, you better be able to prove it. And he couldn't, could he? All he could do is just run his mouth and tell me, well, in the originals, I said, OK, well, I want you to produce those for me. Please do that now. Please show me the originals that you have. I would love to see them. Could I see them? So you're asking me to replace my inspired Bible that God gave me with something you don't even have. What, do you think I'm an idiot? You think I'm a fool that I'm going to walk away from what God has showed me to believe something that's not even there? This is why we have no friends. This is why we make people mad. This is why I'm not invited to any big conferences and all that good stuff, because we just plain speech there with that, right? Like I have no, I have no patience for that. Because by the way, neither did Jesus. When Jesus dealt with them, when they questioned God, when they questioned the authority of God, and his authority, the authority of scripture, he nailed them. Yeah, they're just a bunch of religious Pharisees that are trying to get you to trade in your Bible for something they don't have. And then that's the old switcheroo, because then they tell you, well, we have, we don't believe in it either. It's still in its 28th remake, and it's still not perfect. We're just never going to achieve that. Okay, well go on with your fairy tale then. And we'll stick with the stuff right here. Amen. Alright, but that's not what this message is about. But that was opening and that was free. We won't charge you for that. But we will take donations. Alright. Exodus chapter 15. We're gonna deal with something that the Lord's really laid on my heart. It's something that I believe that we ought to be careful with. Something in the Christian life that can come up. and something in every person's life lost or saved, but especially the Christian's life in particular in this way. And we know that the Old Testament was written for our admonition, for our learning. So there's a few things there that we see and that we learn from. And one of those things, I titled this sermon, Call Me Mara, Bitter Believers. I wanna deal with the issue of bitterness. And to be careful that you don't allow yourself, or maybe you will see, that you've been bitter about some things. And that God will deal with your heart concerning that. And He will help you through that, and help us all through that to understand that. It's a good examination in the Scriptures to see what the Bible says about that. And the fact that Christians can get bitter is not a new thing. I mean, the scriptures, all over the scriptures, it shows that God's people, whether they were the Old Testament saints or the new ones, they could get bitter. Life circumstances and different things that happen can really deal, could really press upon our hearts. And if you're not careful, there's some things that'll happen in your life. I don't care if you're young or old. You could be 10 years old here. You could be 20 years old. You could be 80 years old. It doesn't matter how old you are. All of us have had things happen in our lives, and if we're not careful, if we've not handled them correctly, we can become very bitter. And the Bible has the answer for us. God's word has the answer for Christians to deal with this subject. Exodus chapter, we're gonna go there, then we're gonna go to Ruth, but Exodus 15, 23. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah. For they were bitter, therefore the name of it was called Marah. And I thought it was interesting that when you turn to Ruth chapter one, verse number 20, and Naomi has come back. And we're gonna explain this a little bit, so I'll save that for that. But in this verse, in Ruth chapter one, verse number 20, and she said unto them, call me not Naomi, call me Marah. For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. So she's going back to those bitter waters of Israel that they had, right? And she's saying, call me not Naomi, but call me Mara. Call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. That was her outlook. What she looked at in life was very bitter. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? Now in this we see that she did not handle her trials of life correctly. She allowed them to make her bitter. And if you're not careful, you'll do the same thing. You and I can do the exact same thing. We can allow the trials of our lives to make us bitter against God. It's not that uncommon. And it's not easy to hide. Let's pray. Father, please help us. Teach us, Holy Ghost, immerse us with your truth and understanding. Give us eyes to see the scriptures and ears to hear. Change us more and more to be like Christ. Save the lost, reprove, rebuke, and strengthen the saved children of God. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Naomi here, she requests a name for herself. She says, don't call me Naomi. Just call me bitter. Call me Mara. Just call me bitter. Bitterness is a very real thing. And many of God's people succumb to it. Naomi believed in the God of the Bible. She was an Israelite. But she had lost a lot. She had been through a lot, and it had made her very bitter. So bitter that she wished to be called that. Just call me that. That's what I am. At least she didn't lie about it. She just told the truth. I'm bitter. Her heart and her outlook on life was what flowed from her bitterness. She had a bitter heart. Years ago I preached a sermon, The Bitter Heart. I have a concern for Christians though, and that is that they are not bitter, that they do not allow life to turn them bitter. And I know some have already done that, and everything about life can be bitter to them. They have an outlook of life that is very bitter. In a figurative sense, that means extreme enmity, a grudge, hatred, or rather an excessive degree or implacableness of passions and emotions, as the bitterness of anger in Ephesians 4. Jeremiah 4.18. If you look at the scriptures, Jeremiah 4, 18 through 19, thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee. This is thy wickedness because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart. That bitterness, it's a spring that is deep inside the heart of a person. And everything that flows out of the heart then flows out of a stream of bitterness. And I'm talking to save people. I'm not talking to lost people. I might be, and you might get saved today. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking primarily to saved people. That's who I'm talking to. That's who the Lord is ministering to, the church. Amen? And yes, there are some that are lost among us. I understand that. But I'll tell you something. This thing of bitterness is something that can take a Christian very easily. My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at my very heart. Bitterness can be a, there can be a bitter cry and a howl and that bitterness, and we're gonna get to the reasons why of that, but I am pained at my very heart. That's called grief. And that's one of the number one reasons for bitterness, by the way. It's one of the reasons why people harden their heart when you try to give them instructions, they're just like, I know, I know. You try to talk to him, you try to explain. Oh, I know, I know. Sure you do. My bowels, my bowels, I am pained at my very heart. My heart maketh a noise in me. Yeah. That's a pain in the heart. You know, he's not talking about like a heart attack. He's talking about grief. Grief. Grief in the heart. When grief consumes the heart, there's a chance of becoming extremely bitter about it. Yeah, not handling grief correctly, which we'll get to, will cause that. But grief is really, it's something real. It's very real. Grief to the child of God is very real. Grief is a pain in the heart. It is in the heart. It hurts. When extreme sorrow comes over you, when extreme sorrow fills your heart, and it is grieving, and it pains, it hurts. He said that, my bowels, my bowels, I am pained at my very heart. My heart make the noise in me. I cannot hold my peace because thou hast heard, oh my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried for the whole land is spoiled. Suddenly are my tents spoiled and my curtains in. See, here's what he's saying here, what he's saying. is that his eye is affecting his heart, right? He's seeing what the destruction that's coming, and the grief has welled up in his heart so bad that it hurts. You ever grieve so bad that it hurts? I have. I had it for a long time, grieve so bad that it hurts. So much sorrow bound up in the heart that it hurts. It pains. In some ways, a heart attack would be better. It goes boom and then it's over, right? I mean, you have the effects of it, obviously, I'm not talking about that. But in the effects, but then it's a physical thing, right? But with grief tied up in the heart, that's the worst pain, that's the worst pain ever that you can have is grief in the heart. This bitterness is a sharpness, it's a severity of temper at times. bitterness, it points not to, one man says, not to a mordant speech merely, but to a sour, irritable, splenetic temperament, which places a man in an attitude of constant antagonism with his fellow man. Can't be at peace with anyone. Can't get along with anyone. Have to cause strife and discord with everyone. That comes from a bitter heart. It comes from, I'm not talking about contending for the faith. I'm talking, and by the way, you can use that as an excuse to be bitter too, if you're not careful. That's not for me to judge, that's for you to get along with God and judge. All of us. But the point is that we can do that and we can become very bitter and antagonistic about everything with our fellow man. It argues a want of love and consideration for others. You know, Hannah in 1 Samuel, so Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh. And after they had drunk, now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul. But she did the right thing with her bitterness of soul. And she prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. Some of you need to cry out to God. That's where you take that bitterness and grief of soul. You don't cause it to be a root of bitterness or a spring that wells up to defile many. You go to the Lord and you go to God until it's gone. That's where you pour that out unto the Lord. That's where it goes. It cannot go to man. It cannot be unleashed upon your family. It cannot be unleashed upon your friends, upon your brothers and sisters in Christ. It must be given to God. That's where you're to take that bitterness. Not to anyone else, but to the Lord. Cause that's who can take care of it. That's where you can dump it all off because Jesus paid for it already. That's where you can release it. That's where you can let it go with the Lord and you can, you can pour it out to God, not to your fellow man and not against your fellow man, but to the Lord. That's where it needs to go. We'll get to that in the end. Number one, this bitterness, it produces a victim mentality. It produces a victim mentality. You're a victim and everyone's out to get you. In the workforce, at the grocery store, at your own family members, your brothers and sisters in Christ. Everywhere, you become bitter. It's a spirit that produces a victim mentality. You actually think, well, and we know the world hates Christ. We understand that. I'm not talking about that. What I'm talking about is the fact that you see everything as a personal vendetta against you, that you were victimized by your circumstances. You and I are not victims of our circumstances. We are victors in Christ. You and I should never speak as though we are victims of anything in that sense. We should not live our lives as victims. We should not speak as victims. We should not speak like that. We should not talk like that. Children of the King ought not speak that way. They ought not speak in a way that shows that they believe they're a victim of something, that they're victimized, that they're in this world and they're absolutely victimized by it. No, I'm not. I'm a victor over it. My God can stop anything. He can do anything. I, I'm not a victim of anything. I'm not a victim of circumstances at work. Those are all reasons for you to go to your God and pray. Those aren't reasons for you to sit around and think that, that, that you're a victim when you deal with people and people deal with you and they're not very kind, right? Or whatever it is, it doesn't matter. Whatever the situation is that we go through, it doesn't matter. You're not a victim. God's people are far from victims. That's right, they've been promised that already. You ought not live your life as you're some kind of a victim. That's, by the way, a bitter spirit will cause you to do that. Naomi was a victim of circumstances. She just victimized herself and she just said, call me Mara. Call me bitter. You and I are not still little boys and girls fighting off abusive people. Amen. You're not fighting off an abusive mother, fighting off an abusive father, or fighting off abusive people in your life. That's not who you are. Amen. Don't act like it. You shouldn't act like it. You shouldn't act like children that are still afraid in that sense. Children that are still victimized. What it causes is you to not receive instructions, not to grow the way you should in the Lord. It shades your outlook on everything, and it flows right from the heart. Hebrews 12, 15, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up, trouble you. springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. In other words, if you spew what comes out of your, if what comes out of your heart is bitter, you're gonna spew that everywhere. And you're not only gonna affect you, you're gonna affect your home, you're gonna affect your children, you're gonna affect your testimony, you're gonna affect everyone around you, your church and everyone around you. It's a root of bitterness springing up. It springs from the heart. It's something that has to be changed in the heart. It's something that has to take a lot of time for you to go to God and get it right and pour your heart out to the Lord. It affects every relationship. All your responses to correction and instruction. It'll cause you not to have anyone to rule over you. You won't accept anything, any leadership, at all. By then you'll say, I accept God's leadership, but you ignore the design that God has for you. It's like a wife saying, well, I just believe God, and then she doesn't obey her husband. Well, it doesn't look like you believe God. Amen. It affects everyone. Bitterness both of spirit and of speech. It is opposed to being kind. Number two, bitterness is that outlook on life. It is the height of settled anger. It is opposite of kindness. Paul says, turn to Ephesians 4.31. Let's look at what he says here about that. Look what he says here. He says, let all bitterness. Well, now he's talking to Christians. Wait, no, we're all perfect. Look, we got a tie on and a shirt and tie and we don't, we don't do look at me. I can't believe I would have any of those problems. Right? Brother Scott. Yeah. Let all bitterness. and wrath, and anger. Look where bitterness is linked to. Let all bitterness, and he says, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. So he's showing you what's the opposite here. Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking are the, and with malice is the opposite of being kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. Even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Do you see the opposite? He's showing you one is to walk in the Spirit, the other one is to walk in the flesh. Right? That's the difference. You see that? Neither give place to the devil, he says in verse 27. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Well, how do you grieve the Holy Ghost? Well, look right here. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger. That's going to grieve the Spirit of God. Why? Because you're a child of God. You know, it always amazes me, you know, that God's people, they'll always go to the, well, I must not be saved card every time they have a spiritual issue. Why don't you go to, oh, I must not be right with God card. Why don't you ever go to that one? Why don't you ever go to the one like, maybe God's trying to speak to me about my attitude, my walk, my life, something I'm doing. Maybe God has unsettled me for a purpose and a reason because I'm not walking the way that I should. And maybe God is revealing to me that I ought to put some things away. Why isn't it ever that? Because that means I have, exactly, that means I have to work on it then. I actually have to admit it. Man, I got a problem with this. I got to get this right. Some of you, some of you have, have, have those struggles with the eternal security and those other things. They're not really eternal security struggles in my opinion. I think what most of them are is you're battling with the flesh. Because there's a war there. You wouldn't even care if the Spirit of God wasn't in you. Haven't you ever seen what those people do that live an absolute false profession and live like hell? They don't care. They're not worried like you are. They don't even care. They're like so confident in everything they do. Haven't you ever seen them? I got family members that have never walked with God, biggest perverts you ever met in your life, most wicked devils you could ever have. They set a profession of faith. They made a profession of faith, but they live like absolute wicked hell. And boy, I'll tell you what, they're more confident than you are. Why? Because God ain't working on them. He's working on you. And he's got a lot of work in you. Because we got a lot of issues. Amen. We have a lot of issues. If you came this morning for me to tell you how good we are, you got the wrong place. Because I'm not telling you how good we are. I'm telling you that we're a work in progress. And he's still working on me. And by the way, and I know full well as your pastor that bitterness is an issue. I know it because I can see it. I can see it with the instructions. I can see it when they're given. I can see the lack of reception for truth sometimes and personal instruction and guidance and a bristling at it. Amen. I don't have to mention it every time just because I see it. I make it a matter of prayer and I ask God to help you with it. Because I see it. I mean, I see it. It's like a light shining. Look at this. Because we're human. We have a fallen nature that we have to fight with. And it is a war. And for some reason, you think it's a picnic or a Disney vacation. And that there's not a war there. Well, I'm not naive to the war. It's a war. It's the greatest war you'll fight. It's the only war you're supposed to fight until you get home. The flesh versus the spirit. The spirit versus the flesh, right? That's the only war you have to fight. That's constant warfare until you go home. You're never gonna get out of it in that sense. Personally, now obviously the church and we have other battles that we face, but that's personally for you and I. Because by the way, you can't ever fight in the Lord's army if you're not dealing with you. That's why God deals with us first. He deals with you and I first. Because we've got to be in the battle, we've got to be in the fight. Let all bitterness be put away, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. So he's telling you what that is. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Bitterness, it is that secret grudge and a smothered displeasure against another. Bitterness may imply a secret lurking displeasure at another, or rather a confirmed impermanent one. Bitterness in a figurative term denoting that fretted. By the way, you know what's very common with people? If you had a horrible father, you don't like instruction. You just don't like instruction. You don't like anybody teaching you what you need to do. So you'll reject pastoral instruction. You'll reject pastoral counseling. Why? And by the way, you'll have ill thoughts about your father in heaven too. You'll think that God's abandoned you. You'll think that God's deserted you. You'll think that God doesn't love you. You'll think that God's not fair to you. You'll think all those things. Well, how do you know that? Because I've thought some of those things myself. That's how I know that. And I can see them all over the scriptures. What, you think you're the only one that's ever had ill thoughts about God and had to repent to them? Nobody likes to talk about that. You won't hear very many sermons on ill thoughts of God. Would you? You wouldn't hear very many of those, would you? But I'll tell you something, God's people are more guilty than having ill thoughts against God than the lost are. In some ways. Because God's been so good to you. And then you doubt His goodness to you. He's given you, you're sitting here right now because of the goodness of Almighty God. Do you get that? You and I are here right now because God loves us. Do you know there are people all over the world that wish to sit in an assembly like this? They desire it. They want it. Some of them can't do what we do. They can't just get up and go somewhere. They don't have that access, that opportunity. They don't get to freely move around like you do, so far, right now. They don't get to do that. But you know what, if you had a horrible relationship with your father like that, you don't like instruction. You don't like any authority. You don't like any of those things. You buck it. You know, there are some times when I try to give instructions to people, and one of the things I marvel at is they just can't say, okay preacher, thank you. I'll consider that. I'll pray about that. Thank you for letting me know. You know what I hear? I know. I know, and then a defense of oneself. Right? Now if your kids did that to you, If your children acted that way to you, you would instruct them, like, no, it's not I know. Because if I knew, then I wouldn't be doing it. Or if I knew, I'd be humble over it. I'd have a desire to change it, right? Bitterness. It denotes that fretted and irritable state of mind that keeps a man in perpetual animosity that inclines him to harsh and uncharitable opinions of men and things that make him sour, crabbed, and repulsive in his general demeanor. That brings a scowl over his face and infuses venom into the words of his tongue. That's a pretty good definition. That describes us sometimes, doesn't it? Ouch. Some of you are saying, not me. You just won't say it out loud. You know it does. The tongue can no man tame, right? It's an unruly thing. They're with Curse Wee Man and Bless Wee God. We'll get to the verse. But anyway, that's not the actual verse, but we'll get to it eventually here. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you. These are the intimately related evils. That bitterness, it's a sphere of sensations to that of the mind. It's sharp as an arrow, pungent to the taste, disagreeable and venomous. The poisonous water given to the woman suspected of adultery in Numbers 5.18 was bitter water. The word bitterness, therefore, in its figurative sense, it means that what is corroding as grief or anything which acts on the mind as poison does on the body or on the minds of others as venom does on their bodies. Man, that grief not dealt with properly will poison your mind. It'll, it'll, it'll jade you and poison you. Until you realize that God is over all, he's allowed things to happen in my life and blessed be the name of the Lord. Until you surrender and submit to that, you are going to be bitter. That's the way it is. You'll be bitter about your circumstances, bitter about what happens to you. It's the venom of a serpent that lies harmless in his fang, but all evil feelings are poisoned to the subject of them, said one, as well as venom to their object. The command, therefore, to lay aside all bitterness is a command to lay aside everything which corrodes our minds and wounds the feelings of others. Under this head are the particulars which follow that wrath, right? The mind itself is a seat of passions and desires, right? We understand that. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The heart is the seat of all emotions and affections. It is everything. And when someone is dealing with bitterness in the heart, you wonder why, why can't they receive instructions? Because they're bitter. Call me bitter. Call me Mara. Call me bitter. That's why. Paul is warning us in the book of Ephesians, he's warning them as a church that saved people have to let go of that bitterness. They have to let go of bitter thoughts and bitterness in your heart towards someone because it will defile many. Hebrews 12, 14, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. that root of bitterness right looking diligently that means a diligent search is done of my heart compared to the scriptures and and my actions and what i do and am i am i bitter am i angry and bitter am i holding on to bitterness of heart and mind Have I held on to such things? Am I being bitter in my heart towards someone or something because something happened to me, or some experiences that I've had, or the way I was raised, or my father and my mother, or anything else like that, or whatever the case may be? Am I holding on to that bitterness and letting it take me? It will consume you. It does everyone. And then you wonder why, some of you wonder why you're incapable of love in that sense at some point, that close, endearing love. Well, that's why. That's why you can't be affectionate. That's why you can't be that's why you're like a cold cactus. prickly. No one wants to hug a cactus. It hurts. Right? It hurts. I don't know. I've never hugged one, but I'm assuming it hurts. I don't want to give you any weird thoughts, but while I was in the desert, but I did not hug a cactus when I was in the desert. I don't think I saw one, did I? I did see one. Okay, my wife said I did see one. Yeah, okay, I did. I guess, I don't remember anything. Anyway. Bitterness will trouble the soul. It will trouble and destroy men and everyone around you. We don't realize how easy it is to be bitter about something or someone. There's a difference in a man that has a bitter spirit toward everyone and everything, and sometimes those who have a personal thing with somebody else. When a man is ate up with bitterness, it shows everywhere in his life. But a Christian man needs to guard himself against having bitterness towards others. It needs to be guarded. Usually, a lot of it stems from pride, though. Pride allows you to hold on to bitterness. It allows you to hold it and think that you're justified for those feelings that you have towards somebody. And by the way, that's the reason why you reject instruction. Because you look for reasons to reject instruction. You look for reasons why that preacher just can't be right about what he's saying. You reasoned it away in your mind why he can't be right. Why I shouldn't submit to that instruction, or why I shouldn't submit to that direction, or why I shouldn't be humble in this area, or why I shouldn't do that. Why I should try to find a way to reject that. Right. It generally stems from bitterness and pride that gets in there. Naomi was bitter against God, because all she thought God was going to do, He didn't do. You know, that's the course of some people, that they become bitter, because they have this fairytale dream of whatever it is they're going to do, that it's all going to work out like some really bad Disney movie, and everything's going to work out fantastically, and everything's going to be that same way, and everything's going to work out that same way, and then what happens? It doesn't work out that way. And God shatters those dreams and they crumble. And then you have to look at it and say, well, wow, that wasn't the way it was. There's some people that when they got married, they had all these ideas in their mind of what marriage was like, all these ideas of what it was going to be like. And then when it wasn't like that, then that root of bitterness started. It started inside of their heart, that little bit, and it starts with some discontentment towards something that didn't go your way. And then that discontentment grows, and then it grows bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and that bitterness gets stronger and stronger, and life becomes, it gives a taste that is not sweet. All your outlook of life is sour, and it's bitter. And you try to mask it with other things, but you really can't mask it, because it's just bitterness that creeps into the soul. It's just anger and bitterness that's there. Because God did something different than you thought he ought to do. That it wasn't, everything didn't work out the way that you thought it was going to work out. Everything, motherhood wasn't what you thought it was going to be. Fatherhood wasn't what you thought it was going to be. Being a godly husband wasn't what you thought it was going to be. All of those things were different. Right? And then bitterness is in the heart then, and it creeps up in that discontent because God told you no. Bitter people rarely have hope that any relationship will work out, that God will bring the prodigal home, that they can have long lasting peace in those situations. Bitterness is a lack of compassion for those who have wronged us or those who have hurt us. One of the number one reasons for bitterness in the heart is not dealing with that grief properly. Because if you do not deal with grief properly, you'll become bitter and angry people and it spews on everyone. No one is safe. The Bible says it springs from the heart. When vile speech comes out of our mouths towards people, our hateful speech towards others, it is from the heart that it comes. I can't believe I said that. I can. When it flows so easy from your heart. If it flows that easy, with no hesitation, that means it's welled up in your heart. I don't mean a slip of something. I'm talking about something that wells up so easy from your heart that it's so easy for you to spit that venom out at people. It's because it comes from the heart. You got some bitterness there. It's welled up inside of there and you need to break it forth with the Lord. You need to take it to the Lord and you need to let it all out to God. You need to let it all out to God. It's one of the reasons why Christians don't grow the way God wants them to is because they're bitter and hard. Maybe you've seen hard things or been through hard things, but you've become bitter and hard-hearted toward others. And your relationships are all very distant and not close with your own children because maybe you had a bad childhood. So in order for you not to be like that, you just stay away from them. You don't become affectionate, you don't become emotional, you don't become tied to them and close to them in a spiritual way or a physical way or, you know, that loving way that God has for you, that affection. So you kind of stay away from them. And children, by the way, let me tell you something. And this is as straight as I can get it with you. If you're not affectionate with your children, they'll go find it somewhere else in an improper way. I'm gonna say that again to you. If you're not affectionate with your children, they will go find it somewhere else in an improper way. Absolutely they will. Hands down. If they don't have a good, stable relationship of affection with their father and mother, and especially young ladies and young men as they're growing up and have that, if they don't have that stable relationship, if they don't have that affection and love from their father and what they need to have that's biblical and proper and right and loving and kind, if they don't have that, they'll go get it somewhere else. They just will. And it's sad. And it's wrong. I'm not saying it's right. But I'm telling you, we are made to love someone. God first, obviously. But I'm telling you that children and you as a person, God made you that way to have affections and emotions. You can't shut that off and act like a robot. I mean, you can try if you want to, but God made you to love. And God made you to love others. And there's a proper way to do that. There's a proper way of, you know, father and their children, the father and their wife, or mother and husband, or whatever the case may be. You understand what I mean? Those are all different, but God made you for that. And when you cannot be affectionate towards your children in a proper way like that, it means that you're bitter. That's why. That's why you can't do it. You're like, I'm just not like that. Well, you better start being like that. You need to repent of that and change. You think your daughter doesn't need proper affection from her father? You don't think she needs her daddy to grab her hand and pray with her? Put his arm around her and love her and care for her? And have a good talk with her once in a while? To speak to her? With her? To let her talk and share her heart? What's going on with her life? And your sons, if they don't need that, your sons don't need their father and their mother to be that way with them? Do you think you could just raise them up and take them to church and they're just going to automatically turn out? Like you don't have any responsibility in the matter? You don't have to open your heart to them? You don't have to have a broken heart for them? They are your work! I'm going to say, to hell with your job and everything else! It is, they are your work. They are your work until you go home. And you got to get to it, friend. We got to have broken hearts and contrite spirits and care about them. And if they're going to jump into the fire, they're going to have to jump over us first. And it won't be because I didn't love them, and it won't be because I wasn't affectionate towards them, and I didn't show them that care, and have those talks with them. I find the older my children get, the more I'm talking and communicating with them, and spending more time with them, in speech, and just sitting there and just having talks with them. Just finding out what's there, and watching their behavior, and learning about them, and saying, you know what, there's some things here that we gotta work on. I'll tell you what, and I'm gonna tell you something right now. I don't care how good a wife you have, and I got a good one, and you do too. I'll be the first to tell you that. I respect each and every lady here, whether they're wives or not, I appreciate them. I appreciate their godly stand and their walk with the Lord. But listen to me, that woman can't replace a father. And there are some times that your wife in the home needs corrected. There's times that she does things wrong and that you have to correct her. And sometimes she does things wrong with the children and you got to set her down and you got to explain to her that this is not good behavior. This is not right. This is not the example that we want to give. This is, this will teach our children in a negative light. So we need to work on this. It's called you being involved with the home. You watching that and seeing something and saying, you know what? I'm going to address that. I'm going to deal with that because I love them. Because I love my wife and I realize this is my work. This is my life's work. You understand that? You're a Christian above all else. You are a child of the King above all else and your duties go as follow. They go to your God number one and then they go to your family number two and then to your employer when it comes to the world and you know, I'm not talking about the church. I've obviously that's a Christian but but what I'm saying to you is this is that your duties are to your family first. You could be the greatest of professionals ever in your whole life, wherever you are, but you can be an absolute failure to your family. And what does it profit? What does it profit if I lose them all? What will it profit me if I do not put the work in that I need to? I wasn't even planning on staying on that that long, but I'm gonna keep going, but you just think on it. Think on it. Don't worry, there's more coming. We're gonna talk about behavior in the home and a few other things in the future here. Lord willing, as God gives liberty to do that. Because I love you, that's why. I care. I want us all to make it across the finish line. All of us. That means your children with you, with us, all of us. Now, we'll probably go before them, but that's okay. They can watch us cross the finish line, amen? But that's what my desire is. So if I say hard things to you, if I get in your business, I'm doing it on purpose, and I'm not apologizing for it. And if you don't like it, I don't care. Because you can tell me, butt out, preacher, and I'll say, okay, I will, but you had your warning. I told you, but I probably still won't butt out. I'll probably still dig a little bit. Why? Because I love you, and I got to answer to God, and you ain't that ugly. You don't scare me that much. I care about your children. I want them to make it. I care enough to poke. I care enough to say things like I care about what books you read and what you put before your children and what and what we all do and how we treat one another and how we, I care about all that. I care about how we, I don't want to discourage our children because we don't, we're just not very nice when it comes to each other. All those things, it matters. It matters to them. Remember that it matters and they're watching us. They're watching how we do things. Next, what are the causes of a bitter heart? The number one cause of a bitter heart is dealing with grief in an improper way. I know I've said this three times, but that's okay. I will put you in remembrance of these things, though you once knew them. The number one cause is you've been hurt. You've just been hurt. And being hurt will shade how you treat others. If you don't get it right with God, if you don't take it to the Lord, you'll treat others horribly because you've been hurt. By the way, you'll treat them in the same manner. You ought to ask yourself a question. Am I treating my children, my wife, my husband, my church family, whatever it is, doesn't matter. I mean, as far as specifics goes to everybody in general, but am I treating them the way that my father treated me? Like, do I, do I treat them like that? Or my mother or whoever didn't treat you properly? Am I treating them like that? Is that what's coming out of my, am I, is that how I'm treating them? Because if it is how I'm treating them, then guess what? It's not good. You didn't like it. It was bad for you. So you got to change it. You can't continue that. I don't care how you were raised. You have a Bible. You have the Word of God. How you were raised has nothing to do with you being new in Christ Jesus. Again, you're not a victim of how you were raised. You've been saved by the grace of God to walk in the fear of the Lord. You're not a victim of that. You get right with God and you do what God tells you to do. Not what your parents, you still obeying your dad that was doing things wrong? You still gonna follow that same mindset? You're gonna follow those same patterns? After you were saved from that? After you were delivered from that, you're gonna follow the same thing? You're gonna do the same thing? Walk the same way? I think not. You walk as a child of the king. in the glory and the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. One only needs to look at Naomi when we think about this, or Mara, call me bitter, for the Lord God has dealt with me after a bitter way. As we look in the book of Ruth, Naomi was very bitter, very bitter. Sometimes, some time of grief has come into your life, sometimes in you, and you have dealt with it after the wrong manner. And you've become bitter because of it. I've seen this bitterness rip up families. I've seen it carry through to the next generations and destroy them and make them bitter. And God's people must decide they will handle grief properly that comes their way. Biblically, you cannot control the grief that comes into your life. You can't. But as a child of God, you can deal with it after that proper manner. You can handle grief biblically, the way God's taught you in the word of God to deal with it, which we'll get to. There are some this morning that are hurting. Hurting a lot. They've been grieved. They have deep pain of heart for their condition, for the things that have happened to them. the life that they've had, the bitter trials that have come their way. And if you're not careful, it'll be that root of bitterness springing up that troubles you and therefore defiles many. Grief coming into your life is no excuse for you to be bitter. The root of bitterness is how you deal with that grief. You go right to it. Job is another of God's saints that lost all his family, which shows the death of a loved one causes grief, doesn't it? That could be things that cause grief. You look at Job chapter one, you can see all the loss, and we don't have time to go into that, but you can see all the loss that Job went through. Boy, that was a pain of heart, wasn't it? That got deep down in his heart. There could be grief of losing finances or a house or a job or a loved one. Our parent not raising you right causes grief in your life and pain and suffering in your heart. And if you hold on to that, you don't forgive and you don't let it go. It'll consume you. The neglect that one goes through will cause that bitter heart neglect. Maybe as a child, you were neglected and not taken care of the way you should have been, or neglect of a husband to a wife, or neglect of a wife to a husband, neglecting in those areas of responsibilities and of love. Those things can produce bitterness. How about this, Proverbs 17, 25? A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bear him. It grieves his father, but it bitters the mother. Because she bare him. She bore him. A wayward child can cause a bitter heart if you're not careful. We all have to guard ourselves that we deal with grief properly and that we're not guilty of being that way. If we don't examine ourselves in this, we doom our children with this same curse of bitterness. You think you won't be able to pass it on, but you will pass it on. You will, if you don't deal with it, if you don't get it right, if you don't lay it down. You know, all these charismatics talk about generational curses. And things like that. And I don't believe in any of that nonsense. That just because your father did something, you do. But I believe in generational bad behavior. So it's not a curse. It's your bad behavior that you have to change. You were raised like that. And you need to change that. Because now you're raised as a child of the king. So you don't have a right to be that way. You have to lay down that bitterness. You have to let it go. You have to be tender hearted and forgiving. And you'll realize, you'll realize how much of, if you contemplate how much of a sinner you are and how great of a savior you have, then you'll be able to forgive those that have wronged you. Now we understand they have to come to us and in the sense of if they, if they want forgiveness, but they don't have to come to you for you to let it go. You don't have to make, you don't have to live bitter about it. You and I are always to be ready to forgive. Like I'm not going to hold nothing against them. I'm just going to let God have it. Right? Like the Lord told me, you know, you go your way. You don't fight this battle. You just go your way. When I had men turn on me and do everything like that to me, you just go your way. You don't, you don't do that. You just let it, you let it go and you give it to me and you move on. Cause I'm telling you, no, you're not going to get revenge against these people. You're not going to defend yourself against these people. You are going to walk away and serve me. Amen. So I know what it's like when God says no. I know what it's like. Sin is the major cause for all grief. A man dies because of sin coming into the world. Not identifying sin as the problem with people or persons will cause bitterness of the heart to ruin you. You know, you look at it all as a personal vendetta, and even if it was, it's still sin. Do you understand that? You're looking at lost people of your past and you're expecting them to live like saved children of God. Well, that'll make you bitter because you're looking at these people that were lost, that they raised you so horribly because they didn't have the Lord. They didn't follow the scriptures. They didn't have the Bible. They don't have what you have. They didn't have that. They had dead false religion. So what did they do with it? Huh? They live like they had dead false religion. So I'm to understand that, and then I'm to have compassion for them and pray for them. I'm to pray for them. Why? Because they need it. They're in trouble. There is nothing that your feelings can harbor against them that will be as bad as what's coming for them if they don't get saved. Do you understand that? Do you want them to go to hell? Then let it go. Let it go. Do you want those people to go to hell? Do you want them to die and go to hell and suffer for all of eternity? Or do you want them to be saved by the grace of God? Well, they sure won't be if you have a bitter heart and you have bitter anger and wrath and malice and rage against them. They won't be saved. I mean, God can save them, yes, but not by your testimony, it won't be a big help. Right? And you're not praying for them. And God uses prayer. It's his ordained way. Right? So, are you praying for them? Are you praying for your enemies? Are you praying for those that despitefully use you? And persecute you? Because a man is a sinner, he fails. He fails his family, he fails his country, he fails his church. You have to understand that it's very simple. Life is very simple. Men are fallen creatures. They're sinners. And until they get saved by the grace of God, their lives won't change. And for you to expect them to, under the guise of what God has done in your heart, is number one, insanity, and number two, it leads to bitterness. Because you're expecting a different outcome, or they should be more sorry, or they should be more this, or they should be more that, and you're holding on to bitterness. You're expecting them to act like they're saved. And even if you do have saved people that wronged you, even if you do, you're expecting them to be perfect. You don't hold them to the same standard that you hold yourself. Because when you do things wrong, you want people to forgive you, right? You don't want anybody to hold anything against you. You don't want anybody to think ill thoughts towards you. You don't want anybody to hate you in their heart. Amen. Whatever afflictions and pain and suffering come your way, and grief, and not dealing with grief properly, it leads to that bitterness. What are the symptoms of that? A bitter heart is a complaining spirit. Complain. Job 7.11, therefore I will not refrain my mouth, I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. complaining spirit. If you're, you know, you, if you don't, if it's hard for you to find something to praise God for, but it's real easy for you to complain, it might be because you got bitterness. You got bitterness in your heart. So you look at this world and it's, everything is so sour to you. Not praise God, thank God for his goodness, thank God for all that he's done for me, for my family, for the job that I have, for the work that I'm able to do, for the health that God has given me, and everything else, but what flows from my heart is bitterness. To complain, that's a sign of a bitter heart. It's a symptom of a bitter heart. There are some people that can't help but complain about everything and everyone. Always looking for the bad in someone. Always looking for the mistakes in someone. Always maximizing on their errors. Do you look for the errors of your brethren? Do you just like, is it common for you that, well, yeah, they kind of stick out to me. Yeah, I'm sure they do. Because when your heart is bent towards that and bitter, you're looking for something wrong. You're just automatically looking for something wrong. Something to question, why? Because it's bitter. You're bitter. So you're looking for something wrong. And then that'll give you an excuse not to listen to what's being said, or your brother not to love them. Because after all, they're flawed in this way. Yeah, well, you're flawed in other ways. And if we all look at each other like that, then guess what? If we're all worried about each other's flaws like that, man, we ain't never gonna love anybody. Do you complain about everything and everyone? Well, some people that the Lord revealed, God's revealed, some people that they just like to complain. It's easy for them to complain, to roll off the tongue of complaints. And that's bitterness, it comes out. You know, you know, think about if you think about a bitter face, just suck on a lemon, you know, you're like, right? You got a bitterness there, right? That bitter, bitter herbs, right? The Bible talks about and the face that you'd make when my uncle George, he used to, he used to, um, do this thing. He's like, OK, son, you want to try this? I said, OK. And he cut up a piece of lemon, and he'd suck on it, and none of his facial expressions would change. He would just, he would do it like perfect. And then he's like, OK, you try it, and I'd be like. You know, I'm a little kid, my taste buds are like, ah, you know, and he, but he could do it like perfect every time and not move. He just blink his eye a little bit, just a little bit. I'll never forget that. But that's that bitterness, right? That bitter spirit, that bitterness inside that's there. Not easily to encourage others. There's fathers and mothers that are like that. You better be careful. You better be encouraging your children. It better not just be correction. They better be encouraged. You better be encouraging them on doing right when they do right, and having something good to say to them. If you're going to mete out instruction to them, you also should mete out good things to say to them as well. In modern vernacular, they call it positive reinforcement. The Bible just calls it encouragement. I don't care what you call it. What some psychologist calls it or whoever called it or named it or whatever, God calls it encouragement, right? It was in the Bible long before any of those nuts came to look at the Bible anyway. Well, they didn't look at it anyway, but until they tried to mock it and take away from it. But anyway, in a humanistic way, but it's just called encouragement. It's just being an encouragement to others, right? That's what it is. A person that is bitter, they have a problem loving. Look what Colossians 319 warns us of. Husbands, love your wives. and be not bitter against them. So then bitterness is the opposite of love. Yeah. When your heart is bitter, you're not loving. That doesn't mean you've never done anything good for them or provided for them. It means, are you loving them as Christ said to love them? As Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That's a sacrificial love. That is my heart opened to my wife. That is my wife's heart opened to me. Do you understand that? And to me alone, those two things, you're one flesh, right? So you two, you share, you open your hearts to each other 100% and what you don't take to God, obviously, which is, you know, different, but, but in those things of, of, of marriage that you, that you have each other's hearts, right? That's, that's important. But look what he says here. He said, he directs husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Because it's easy for a man to do. I've pastored people before that said, man, I don't know how to love my wife. I believe that. I've watched. Right? But you can start with Ephesians chapter 5. Why don't you start there? Right? Work your way through. Amen, and by the way, there's wives that don't know how to love their husbands. Well, unless they're perfect, I'm not gonna love them the way I should. Well, they ain't never gonna be perfect, and neither are you, princess. So you better come off down that throne, and take that crown off your head, and put a broom in your hand, and start being a servant. Amen. Cause neither one of you ever going to be perfect. You're not going to be. And if you're waiting for that, you're just in rebellion. That's just a rebellious spirit. By the way, man, I do not have time to do this. You, you let me hold on. I always got burn the burn the food. That's okay. Listen, If you don't love your, if you husbands and wives don't learn to love each other the way God wants you to, on that level of marriage, giving your heart one to another, your children are gonna be like little robots walking around with no personalities in life to them, or afraid to show their personalities and afraid to show their life. They don't really live. They do everything they're told to do, yeah, now. Now they do. But they won't later. See, our children need to see heartfelt love one for another. They need to see it between mom and dad. They need to see it between the father and mother and the children. They have to see that. They have to see that. They have to know that what you have for each other is real. They have to. They absolutely have to. They need to see, the mothers and fathers need to see affection one for another. They need to see affection towards the children. They need to see that. Why? Because how are they gonna judge what's real? You're the one that's supposed to be raising them for marriage. Right? You're the one that's raising them for that. 1 John 4.20 If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? A bitter heart does not think God is anywhere to be found, like Job 30.20 I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me. I stand up, and thou regardest me not. You have no personal comfort or feeling that God is hearing you because you're bitter. The Bible says that your prayers be not hindered as a couple, that you ought to love one another. You ought to live as joint heirs. A bitter heart is self-righteous. Turn to James chapter 3, verse number 14 through 18. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, where is it? It's in your heart. It's not anywhere else. It's in your heart. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. Ouch. Well, don't act like everything's great. What does he say about that? He says, this wisdom descendeth not from above. But it's earthly. To act that way is earthly. It's earthly. It's sensual. It's devilish. Ouch. Earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Many people mask their bitterness in Christian duties for the Lord. They'll put on the robe of service, all the while holding a bitter heart, they'll separate themselves being sensual. Look, you and I, we, the ground is all level at the cross, all right? You and I may have slight differences in this church of different things that we may believe or hold to or practice or something along that nature, but the bulk of it is not that much different. And by the way, none of us are better than the other. And if you take your pet doctrine and run with it and think you have a superiority over your brethren because of your pet doctrine, I'm going to tell you what you're doing. You're separating yourself being sensual. And you'll, by the way, you'll ride that horse right out of town too. I've seen it. You'll do it. You'll just get up and giddy up and get out. You'll take it right out with you and you'll, and thinking you're superior the whole time you're doing it. Amen. Because so and so is wrong about this and I'm not, so see ya. A bitter heart will entertain thoughts of death. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul? So bad Job cursed his day. That was a lot of stuff that came on him. Right? He cursed the day he was born. Some of you say, well, I've thought that way sometimes. Well, yeah, I know. And that's why I'm showing you. Because God, I know. You all think, hell damn nation, because I've thought that way. And I'm like, it's all over the scriptures. Have you ever read the Psalms? Yeah, but that applies to them, not me. Well, that's your problem. You don't believe it applies to you when you go through those things. Well, that's not me. I mean, that was them. Well, that's you. That's why it's written, for you. for your admonition, for your learning. It's there for you to understand. It's there for you to have hope. Well, how do I take hope? I take hope because Job's heart was so full of sorrow, and bitterness, and hurt, and pain, and agony, and God said, he's still my child. Oh, well, that would mean that I would take hope from that. Yeah, you would. Yeah, you would. Oh, but I don't take hope. I know, you ignore that. And that's where the hope comes from, but you're looking at it for some fuzzy feeling like you've got bad gas or you snorted something and you're going to feel good about it. I'm sorry, but that's what most Christians do. They ignore the word of God, the comforts from the scripture, and they act like they're waiting for some warm, fuzzy feeling to come over. Then God says, no, I wrote it all here for you. I wrote this on purpose for you. I gave these words to you. These are your comfort. in your affliction, the entrance of thy words. Yeah. Oh, okay. So you mean that's, that's where my comfort. Yeah. That's, that's where it's supposed to come from. Not bad gas or whatever else feelings, charismatic feelings that you're looking for to justify and to make you feel better. That's not, we trust God by faith and we take his promises. We take that book and we say, it's true. I believe you. It'll always come down to that. Do I believe God or do I believe anything else? Where's my comfort? Right there. That's where, not your feelings, right there, right? The book, that's where it comes from. It doesn't come from anywhere else. You're looking for it somewhere else and you're not gonna get it. You'll just get bitter, like T.D. Jake says, and it won't get better. Sorry, it was a funny video. If this was a broadcast, I'd be playing that right now. But it's not it's the pulpit. So Proverbs 1410, the heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger does not intermeddle with his joy. What is the cure? We're going to close here this realize that you're complaining against God's sovereignty. Whatever it is that has brought you to where you're at today, it was the Spirit of God. That doesn't mean God's the author of all the wrongdoing. It just means that God has brought you to this place. He's navigated you through it all. He's brought you through it all. And He didn't do it by accident. He did it on purpose. He kept you on purpose. You wouldn't be here if He didn't. Realize that sin is the real culprit of bitterness and the source of all grief. It just is. Sin. Either I don't want to let go of something that somebody hurt me with, and it's so deep-seated that it shades everything that I do. Turn to Job 42, please. The answer is to repent. Job 42, verse 1 through 6, Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Here I beseech thee, and I will speak. I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." This is Job's repentance over his bitterness and over his over everything else, over questioning God. Over questioning God bringing you, you know what? Do you realize that all the bad things that happen to you in your life, God has used to His glory in your life? I didn't say He was the author of them. I said He used them. He used them. Every single thing that has happened to you bad in your life, every single thing, God has used that in the child of God's life for His glory. and to be a blessing to you. It brought you to the place you are today. Some of you, if half of those things didn't happen, you wouldn't be here. You wouldn't. You wouldn't. And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. There's another example. of Hannah wanting a child, and she was in bitterness of soul, and she prayed unto the Lord, and she wept sore. Some of you just need to have some time, some good old-fashioned time with God, crying out to Him, and letting go of your bitterness, and letting God have it, and giving it over to God, so He can use you the way that He wants to, the way that He's intended to. But when you're bitter, when you have bitter ending and strife in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. You're lying. Because your heart is shaded, it's filled with bitterness and anger and wrath, and you're not able to accept the will of God for your life. You're not able to accept that God has brought you through these things, that God has done this. You're not able to. Some of you just need to cry out to God. If you've got that much anger and bitterness in you, you need to give it over to God. I don't know why you're holding onto it. That direction is not to lost people, it's to save people. Judgment must begin at the house of God. The way you directly treat your brothers and sisters in Christ, your children, your family, and everyone else, it's a condition of the heart. Now, not every time. I mean, there's things that happen that, you know, can be frustrating and we've got to get those things right. But when vile things come out and venom is spewed all over the place at people, that's a condition of the heart. You got some bitterness in there you need to take to God and you need to get rid of it. And he's the only one that can take it out of your heart. He's the only one. No one else can. No one else can take that out of your heart. No one else can clean your heart of that. But the Holy Ghost, God can do it. God'll clean your heart of it. The day that you and I call our bitterness sin and stop complaining and saying God is not good enough, you'll see victory. You'll say God's ways are always right. That the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. That he knows the way that I should go. And when I am tried, I shall come forth as gold." You'll believe that. You'll believe that, God. You really will believe it. I'm saying I understand you believe it doctrinally, but I mean practically. Do you understand that? There's things that you and I... I run this exercise with people. I learned this from Martin Lloyd-Jones in his book on spiritual depression, but it's very good. But here's what people do, though. And it's very true. Here's what they do with things. If I talk to you about a doctrine that you believe, there isn't one person here that I know of anyway. I mean, I can't speak for people that aren't members here, but those that are members, there isn't one person here that does not believe in the eternal security of the saint. We all believe that we are sealed with the Holy Ghost under the day of redemption. I don't know anybody that's ever told me anything contrary to that, okay? Here in this church, all right? So I can vouch for that and I understand that you believe that. However, in your mind, you will play out things that... that don't agree with that. You'll question your salvation. You'll question this. And if you apply doctrinally that application to your life, if you apply the true application of that, you would never, well, you'd never tell, I've told people before, if somebody asks you, what must I do to be saved? You'd say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be. I don't know anybody in here that wouldn't say that. Right? If they were contrite, and they were just like the Philippian jailer, you know, they're shaking in their boots, they're under conviction, they need to be saved. You would tell them that, right? You would tell them, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But you don't tell yourself that. That tis done, tis done, I've believed on the Son. Amen. Well, you have to. You can't preach to others and not apply it to your own heart and life. You must, you have to. Well, it's the same thing with this, in this case. You and I, we've got to lay aside all these things. We've got to lay them down. We can't complain. We've got to believe that God put us right where he wants us in the position he put us. And by the way, in closing, Ephesians 15, I think it's closing. Yeah, it is. Okay. It's definitely on the way to closing. I should say it that way. But we're almost there. Exodus 15. Don't worry, I'm not charging overtime for this. I'm really not. Ephesians chapter 15, verse number 23. I think that's the right one. Yep, here it is. And when they came to Marah, They could not drink of the waters of Mara, for they were bitter, therefore the name of it was called Mara. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made he for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them." It's Jesus that makes bitter waters sweet. That's it. That's right, the branch. He's the only one. If you got bitterness in your heart, you take it to Jesus, and he'll make bitter water sweet. I'll tell you what, all the bitter things that I went through in the last four years and five years, well, it's longer now, right? It's about six, seven years now. Six years that the Lord brought me through in those things, they're not bitter anymore. They're not bitter, they're sweet now. Amen? They're sweet now. There was a bitterness to them. But you know what? When you give it over to God and you say, Lord, it's yours, I'm yours. What are you going to do with me? You're going to do with me. I don't know what I can do about it. I just want to trust you. It makes the ride a lot easier if you just trust the one driving. Amen. You know that if you ride with Dave. Right? But isn't it true? If you trust the one that's driving, who's God, It'll make the ride a lot more pleasant, won't it? And by the way, some of you are going to go miserably to heaven, but you don't have to. You can just believe God, and you can go pleasantly. We're going to have our bumps and bruises along the way, and we're going to have sorrow. I'm not talking about that. But if you'll just trust the Lord through it, you'll have a lot more pleasant ride to heaven. You will. Amen. God promises it, doesn't he? Christ is that tree that makes the water sweet, doesn't he? The fairest of 10,000 to my soul. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Die to self that you may win Christ. Meditate on God's word in this. Philippians 4.8. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, this is the cure for bitterness too. It's what's your mind focused on. Some of you focus too much on hell. You need to be focusing on heaven. but you're looking at the burpings of hell around you and you're focused on them, the little volcanoes of hell that are on this earth, and you're focused on them and your mind gets taken by them and you get captivated by them, right? You're so focused on them that it discourages you, but that's not what you're supposed to focus on. Finally, my brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, Think on these things. Get your mind thinking on Jesus. And you'll be more like him. Amen. Allow yourself to be loved by others. And love others. This will make you vulnerable, but it'll make you able to be loved. The cry that you ought to have is, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me. And lead me to the way everlasting. God will show you. He'll give you the ability to repent of it, too. And let that bitterness and strife and envy in your heart to those things go. And just trust the Lord and believe Him. Amen? And to the unconverted, I would say this to you, if you're here. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backsliding shall reprove thee. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts. It will be a bitter thing on Judgment Day if you have not trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior. Trust Him now. Believe on Him. He's able to make all bitter waters sweet. He's able to make your life a blessing to others. Father in Heaven, Lord, we thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you for revealing this to us, Lord, in our hearts. And Lord, I just pray that you just guide us and Lord, I believe you're leading me just to take a few minutes here for people to reflect and just to pray right where they're at and just seek the Lord's face. and ask God to deal with their hearts, as you already have, I'm sure, and maybe you already have with them. Lord, we pray you'd save the lost, but we also pray that you'd strengthen the saved. Help us to see our errors in this. Father, Lord, we thank you. Thank you for your word that it pierces our hearts. But you love us, Lord. And you care for us. And you gave us an opportunity that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Help us to remember the lessons that we learned here. Help us to apply them to our hearts. Help us to repent of any bitterness. Strengthen us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.