into it, the more I'm reading, the more I'm studying, it just amazes me. You know, I think I'm going to go to one part of the scripture, but I'll be reading through my Bible and go, wait a second, that's, I've got to stop right here and park here for a little bit because, I mean, this is a great type of Christ. And, you know, I get a little worried that things are getting, you know, redundant or, you know, repetitive. And then, you know, the Lord kind of tells me, you know, well, what's, you know, why worry about, how can there be too much Jesus, all right? We find ourselves in a problem in the church today when there's not enough Jesus being preached, all right? There's more things preached about finances and how to have a successful life and, you know, more philosophy and psychology than there is this Bible. of the Jesus, right? There's no better topic to preach on than the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you're getting bored with it, you better get your heart right. Amen. More, more about Jesus, right? That's all we're getting into, just more about Jesus. You can't have enough of Him. And what we're going to see this morning is He's the answer to everything. And whatever your problem might be, the best place to start is Jesus Christ. Amen? Alright, so let's go ahead, we're in Exodus chapter 15, we'll begin reading in verse number 22. Alright, so on Wednesday we talked about the crossing of the Red Sea and how that is a type of salvation, New Testament salvation, alright, you're in bondage to the world, you're in bondage in Egypt, the only way to escape that bondage and escape the wrath of the devil is to go through the Red Sea, alright, we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. Brother Eddie brought up a great point after the message on Wednesday, went through all these things, and we talked about how it was a type of the second advent, but he said, he pointed out that all those Egyptians ended up floating in that Red Sea, right? They all died in that Red Sea. Kind of like a lake of hell, right? The lake of fire. It's a great type. If you don't make it through, if you don't get in that through Jesus Christ, you'll end up in that lake of fire. I've also were were passed that were in exodus chapter 15 are they're gonna sing a song of victory right we see in verse number once is then saying Moses and the children of Israel this song onto the Lord and space and I was singing to the Lord for a time The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. And we're not going to go through that whole song, but there'll be a lot of ties to the second advent there. But just think about it. They escape Egypt, right? That's a good thing. It's a picture of salvation. They make it through the Red Sea. God has delivered them from their enemies. This should be a great time. This should be a time of rejoicing, and it is. But it doesn't last very long, right? Here in verse number 22, It says, so Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. You're going to find yourself into some trouble without water. They call it the Law of Three. They say you can go three minutes without air. You can go three days without water. You can go three weeks without food. And of course, that's not a law. It's not set in stone, but that's a good unit of measure. That's a good starting point. So at three days without water, they're going to start finding themselves in some trouble. And verse 23 says, when they came to Merah, They could not drink the waters of Merah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Merah. 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 it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. And there he made them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them." Alright, so here we have this story or this example of these bitter waters of Merah were made sweet. From what? A tree. a tree was cast into it. Marah means bitterness. We see that in verse number 23, they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah for they were bitter, therefore the name of it was called Marah. That Marah means bitterness. You look over in Ruth chapter 1, you don't have to turn there, but you all know the story. is out of Israel right there in the land where they're not supposed to be, they should have never left, her husband dies, her two sons die, and her response to that in Ruth 120, it says, Why? For the Almighty had dealt very bitterly with me. So they're finding themselves in a place of bitterness. Why? Because they're dehydrated. They're dried out. They're lacking water. They need some of that water. And we're not gonna preach the water being Jesus here yet. That'll be the next chapter in chapter 16. I'm sorry, not 16, but over here in 17. 16 will be manna, we'll get into that this afternoon, along with that water from the rock, right? I mean, it's just chapter after chapter after chapter, all right? But they find themselves in a place of bitterness. And what I've learned in my life is that the cross is referenced as a tree. Curses man that hang him on a tree. Throughout the book of Acts you'll see that when Peter was preaching or Paul was preaching they told the Jews whom you hang on a tree. Jesus Christ was hanged on a tree. on the cross as a way of making bitter things sweet. In 1 Peter 2, verse 24, the Bible says, "...who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed." All right, so we see that the cross is the tree. So the picture here is you got something bitter. You have something that's undrinkable. It's really good for nothing, right? They couldn't even put that stuff in a pot, boil it, and make it good for water, drinkable water. They couldn't cook, they couldn't do anything with it because it was bitter. All right, there's a good lesson in that. The bitterness will keep you from a lot of stuff, right? Bitterness isn't good for anything. Bitterness is a poison that, it's a poison pill that you swallow thinking it's gonna kill somebody else. It's not a good thing. So when we, we're gonna look at some things. The Bible has a lot to say about bitterness, a lot about bitterness. And we see there's different things that cause bitterness or things that might, that'll get the bitterness rooted down in your heart. And the only way to make it sweet is getting to the cross. One of the first times you'll see bitterness show up, or bitter, is in Exodus chapter 1. It says they made their lives, talking about Egypt, and talking about the Jews, that they, Egypt, made their lives, the Jews, bitter with hard bondage. So we know that's a type of being lost, a type of being, you know, you're not saved, you're in the world, you're in that bondage of sin. That'll make you bitter. Life in Egypt is described as a bitter life, hard bondage. Even after salvation, you don't want to find yourself in Egypt. Why? Because it's bitter bondage. It's hard, hard bondage. It'll cause bitterness in your heart. The only way to escape the bitter waters of Egypt is found in the tree, in the cross, in Jesus Christ. You want to get saved? You better come to Calvary. You're saved, you've already been to Calvary, but somehow you've made it back to Egypt. What do you gotta do? Get back to the tree. The tree's the only thing that can make those waters sweet. Life is too short to be just caught up in bitterness all the time. And one of the things that'll cause bitterness is being in the wrong place. Being in the world, being in Egypt. I said it a few weeks ago, I think, or maybe last week, but the most miserable people on the Earth, on this planet, are prodigals. They know what's right, they're saved, they're still a son of the Father, but they're out in the pig pen, they're out in the world. Their conscience might be seared, they've quenched the Holy Spirit, but it's a miserable life, and it's shown in the pig pen. That's what life in Egypt ends up. When you leave the Father's house and go to the far country, you have the pig pen awaiting you. It might take a little bit of time, the pleasures of sin for a season, but behold, your sin will find you out. So the only way to escape that bitterness is to get back to the Father's house, where the tree is, where the cross is. Let's look at 1 Samuel 1. We won't turn to every one of these, but we'll look at a couple of them. 1 Samuel 1. You know what happens here, Hannah is upset, she's praying for her son, she doesn't have any children and her husband's other wife has plenty of children and she's her adversary and pokes at her and makes fun of her and it's a tough situation for Hannah. Any woman that wants to have a child but can't knows that hardship, knows that heartbreak of not being able to. And it can cause bitterness. Look at verse number 10. She, talking about Hannah, was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. You know, sometimes bitterness of the soul can be caused by difficult situations that come your way. You think of someone who went through something, someone who had their life turned upside down, it would be Job. All right? Job lost everything in a blink of an eye. All in a matter of just a short time, an hour, a couple hours, he lost his livelihood. He lost his family. All his children were killed. He lost everything. His wife told him, curse God and die. His friends come around to comfort him, and all they do is put more of a burden on him. He told them they were miserable comforters. All right? They didn't come to help at all. But when Job chapter 7 verse 11, Job says, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. What happened? He was going through some things. He had a tough situation. He was dealt a bad hand, right, for all you heathen card players out there. He was dealt a bad hand. Nothing that he did of himself, nothing caused this, but God allowed something bad to take place and bitterness set in. And he says, I'll complain in the bitterness of my soul. Sometimes complaining is an indication of bitterness. We'll see back in Exodus what had happened. They were murmuring against Moses. Complaining. Because they were at the bitter waters. They had nothing to drink. Bitterness will bring complaining. So it can be caused by difficult situations that come your way. The remedy is one thing. Crying out to God. Getting to the foot of Calvary. The answer is always the truth. The answer is always Jesus Christ. When you look, look back over there at Exodus to show you something. Exodus 15, what happens, they're at these bitter waters, and he cried unto the Lord. Who did? Moses. He cried unto the Lord. When you got bitterness in your heart, that's what you, you have to cry unto the Lord. That's what Hannah did. That's what Job's doing. Job said, I'm gonna complain in the bitterness of my soul. He's complaining to God, complaining to his friends. But calling out to God, that's what you gotta do. And a lot of times, the answer's right there in front of you. You just don't even realize it. Look, it says, he cried unto the Lord and the Lord showed him a tree. Well, you think that tree wasn't there and all of a sudden just popped up? No, that tree was always there. As they're looking at those bitter waters, you know, they're dipping their finger in and tasting it, going, oh, we can't drink that. That's bitter. That's not going to do nothing but hurt us. We can drink it and think it's going to help us, but it's going to ultimately end up killing us. If you end up lost at sea, you're on a raft and waiting for someone to come get you, don't drink the water. Don't drink that salt water. You'll think it's quenching your thirst, but it's going to dehydrate you and kill you before it won't do you any good. But a lot of times what happens, that tree's standing right there in front of us. You know, a lot of times we think we're lost without hope, we don't have any, you know, any way of getting out of the situation we are in, and God goes, look right there in front of you. There's a tree right there. Alright, the answer's right there. The whole time. It said, in verse 25, he cried unto the Lord, showed him a tree. Which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet there. There he made them a statute and ordinance and there he proved them. Now I don't know who cast that tree in there. I don't know if the Lord cast it in or if Moses cast it in. All right, you see it says he cast it in. Well if it was a big tree, I don't think Moses is picking that thing up and throwing it in the water. All right, it could have been a smaller tree. Moses might have had to cut it down and throw it in there. I'm not sure exactly what took place there. But I know that the tree was standing right in front of him the whole time, and he just was looking past it. A lot of times, the answer to your bitterness is right there in front of you, and you're just looking past it. Amen? In 2 Kings 14, 26, it says, the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter. So affliction can cause bitterness. Affliction and persecution from others. That's what it's talking about. That can cause bitter waters in your life. It can cause you to get bitter with the people that are talking about you or causing those afflictions. It can get you bitter with God. It's not an easy thing to deal with when people are persecuting you. When you're attacked, you want to attack back. It's natural to want to defend yourself. Self-defense. It's a natural rate. Well, we see here that what becomes natural to us is usually the wrong thing. Our flesh wants to retaliate, our flesh wants to make things right, but our example is Jesus Christ. In 1 Peter 2.23 it says, "...who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." So as they're nailing our Savior to the cross for doing nothing wrong, being afflicted, being persecuted, He didn't open up His mouth. He didn't say a word. He didn't set the record straight. He didn't say, yeah, they're doing this. I'm innocent. I'll go through it even though I'm innocent because I know you guys need a savior. You need a scapegoat. You need someone to take your sin from you. But I'm innocent. I didn't do anything wrong. I'm not guilty of what they're saying. He didn't say anything. He just, he took it. When he was reviled, he reviled not. On the cross, on the tree he did that. I don't think any of us have ever gone through any affliction like that. The Bible says even today is my complaint bitter. I told you Job was a complainer because he had bitterness. When I talk about bitterness, a lot of times bitterness is justified. I'm not saying that these things are ridiculous and you shouldn't be mad or upset. That's the thing. A lot of times your bitterness is very justified. When you look at it, you go, yes, I was done wrong. They did this, they did that, I didn't do anything. You know, that's a good reason to become bitter in our eyes, right? But what we see is complaining is a great indicator of bitterness. If you're still in Exodus 15, verse 24, it says the people murmured against Moses saying, what shall we drink, right? Murmuring and complaining is a great indicator of being bitter. Now, again, you can't find a single instance of Jesus complaining when He was on the cross. on the tree. He didn't complain about those that crucified Him. You know what He did? He prayed for them. Why don't we try doing that? You know what will help you with your bitterness instead of complaining about the people that are causing your bitterness? How about you pray for them? You know what the Lord did when He was on the cross? He didn't say, Father, kill He didn't say, do you see what they're doing to Him? He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Well, it's on the cross, on the tree. Bitterness is a terrible thing. The only cure is that cross. Jesus Christ is the only cure for that. I know most people can find a reason to complain. They'll find something. Well, it's raining today. Last week it was, man, or two weeks ago, it's not raining enough. My grass is all dried up. Everything's, we're in a drought. And then the Lord goes, okay, you want some rain? He sends a lot of rain. Go, oh Lord, not that much rain. Now there's, we're driving home and there's a cornfield right at the, where we're turning in to go, to get off of three. And every time there's some hard rain, there's a pool of water that settles in right there. The corn was looking great. I noticed yesterday that where that pool is, there's no more water. It's not there. It probably is now with all this rain. But all that corn is starting to die because it got flooded out. People complain about everything and anything. You know, yeah, this meal was great. We'd go out to a restaurant, the meal was great, but, you know, the service was just meh. I had, you know, my glass was empty for two minutes before she ever brought me my water or my soda. Or, yeah, that was a good steak, but it was just a little bit overdone. I asked for medium rare, and that was more medium, you know, it might have been medium rare-ish, but I wanted it more medium rare, you know. We'll find something to complain about. We'll make up some, you know, the french fries were a little dry. You act like I'm making this stuff up. You guys know you find the dumbest stuff to complain about just like I find the dumbest stuff to complain about. Anything and everything. You're waiting for summer to come around so you can do certain things. Man, it's too hot to be outside. And then as soon as the leaves start to fall, man, it's cold out here. I wish summer was here. I mean, we can't make up our minds. People will find all things to complain about, just easily find something. But you know what I've found? That a lot of times people have to be pleaded with to get them to praise God. You know what's a great indicator of bitterness? Complaining. You know what's a great indicator of sweetness? Praising. What's more easily coming out of your mouth? What's coming out more often, that bitter water or that sweet water? If you find yourself to be a complainer of all things, or many things, a lot of things, you better get to the cross. You know what helps? Getting back to Jesus, count your many blessings, name them one by one. You'll find all kinds of things to complain about, and complaining is a great indicator of bitterness. Now, look at Psalm 64. One of the things that stands out to me, reading the Old Testament, reading Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, you know, you're reading through before Israel ever makes it over to the promised land, they complain an awful lot. An awful lot. Weren't they complaining right before they crossed the Red Sea? Then you find them complaining right after they get across the Red Sea. God gives them some water, and then the next thing they complain about, well, we don't have any food. They don't, God sends manna from heaven and feeds them. And then the next chapter, you know what they're doing? Complaining that they don't have water again. I point that out because we find it ridiculous that God would provide for them over and over and over again and they don't seem to get it that they just can't grasp the fact that God's always been there and will always take care of them. And yet we do the same thing. We always find ourselves griping and complaining about silly stuff and all we gotta do is look back and see God's always taking care of us. He's always provided food and water and raiment just like He promised He would. But yet we still find ourselves just like those Jews in the wilderness complaining all the time. And what is it? Bitterness. Bitterness. You're not getting what you think you deserve. Psalm 64, look at verse number three. Who wet their tongues like a sword and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words." You know what a lot of times happen? People start talking about you, posting about you. You know, people won't talk about you these days because they're too afraid to do anything in front of your face. They do it, you know, on the internet. They get internet muscles, all right? So what we see, bitter words from people can really make your waters bitter, all right? Bitter words. He likens them to arrows, shooting their arrows, even bitter words. Bitter words have a way of stirring you up, don't they? People start talking about you. People start lying about you. Those bitter words can really just stick you like an arrow. When I think of Jesus on the cross, there were some bitter words thrown his way. Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. Man, what did that guy do? What did he do to deserve that? If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." I mean, all he did for them was feed them in the wilderness a couple times with, you know, two fishes and five barley loaves. He calmed the raging seas. He healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, raised the dead. Come down off the cross if you're the Son of God. He said, He trusted in God, let Him deliver him now if He will have him, for He said, I am the Son of God. Man, there were some bitter, bitter words, some arrows thrown at the Lord Jesus Christ on the tree. But you know what? He didn't get bitter. That's a hard thing. Don't let bitter words from stupid people get you down. All right? What do you do? When those things come your way, because it will happen, and you'll go, well, why would they say that? That's not even true. Those things weren't true about Christ. But when He was reviled, He reviled not. So what do you do when those arrows are shot at you? Get to the cross. I know it's simple, right? Every answer is get to the cross, get to Jesus, get closer to Him. But for some reason, bitterness seems to have just seeped its way into the church more than ever today, than it ever has been. People get out of church because they get bitter. They get bitter with God, they get bitter with the brethren, they get just bitter with everything. So they leave, they get out. Instead of getting to Jesus, getting more of Him, that's where bitter things are made sweet. Is that the truth? All right, look at, well, we're not gonna turn there, but Amos 8, 7 refers to the tribulation as a bitter day. A bitter day. Have you ever had a bitter day? Just a bad day, everything seems to go wrong? I know, you know, it's not a strange thing, but you know how you can reverse a bitter day, make it better? The problem is people don't want to get rid of their bitterness. They don't want to get better. They'd rather be bitter because it feels like you're getting back at the person. But you know how you can remedy a bad day, a bitter day? Get to the cross. Think about Jesus. Think about what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross, right? When the car's broken down, you're stuck on the side of the road, you know, everything's falling apart, there's not any money in the bank, the marriage is falling apart, the doctor called and gave you bad news. There's some bitter days. There's some things that can cause bad, bitter days. But what'll help you in those times? Just think about what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross. Like, yeah, I might be going through some things right now, but at least I'm not going to hell. At least I don't have to worry about that. This might be the very worst day of my life. And if everything were to end right now, there's a brighter day coming. Amen? Think about what the Lord's done for you. That'll help you. That'll help you in your bitterness. In Habakkuk 1-6, the Lord refers to the Chaldeans as a bitter and hasty nation. right, a bitter and hasty nation. In Psalm 33, 12 the Lord says, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. Now obviously this is Old Testament and it's a reference to Israel. They're His people. That is the only nation He concerns Himself with. God, when He speaks of Gentile nations, says they're as a drop in the bucket. They're less than nothing. He doesn't care about any nation except for Israel. But we're in the New Testament now, and God doesn't concern Himself with nations, He concerns Himself with individuals. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But I would say that the USA could probably be identified or linked, described as the Chaldeans were, as a bitter nation. I mean, do you pay attention to anything that's going on around here? I mean, people are, every day there's a protest about something. There's a complaint about something. Whatever's complaining, an indicator of bitterness, right? It's an outshowing of bitterness. So when we see just people are bitter about everything, the left is bitter at the right, the right's bitter at the left, the middle's bitter with both of them, right? Everyone's bitter about something. And we can just see just the frustration and the tension that's going on in our nation. The only cure for that bitterness is the cross. When Jesus Christ comes back and is King of Kings, Lord of Lords, sitting on His throne, the nations will be straightened out. God reverts back, it's a circle. God was concerned with the nations in the Old Testament, the New Testament is the individual, but after the rapture, God's going to turn His attention back to the nations. That's why we read in Matthew 25, the judgment of nations, you have sheeps and goats being separated. He gathers the nations together. Right now, he's not worried about it. He wants individuals. He wants people, he wants a person to get saved. The Bible says there's rejoicing in heaven over one sinner coming to repentance. Not a nation, one sinner. God, so, you know, we can use this Habakkuk 1-6 talking about the Chaldeans being a bitter nation, and there's a lot of bitter nations out there, but it'll all be fixed at the tree. When the tree is thrown in those waters, the bitter waters of this world system, when the tree is thrown into it, Jesus Christ, it'll all be fixed. All right, look at Romans chapter 3. Romans 3, verse number 14, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Cursing and bitterness. Bitter mouths are full of cursing. Bitter mouths are full of cursing. I pray that it doesn't describe anyone in here. An indicator of bitterness is complaining. It's also cursing. Alright, if that's you, you need the tree cast into your waters. You need more Jesus. More Jesus. It's never a bad thing. You know what that is? You're putting sweet water in something that's bitter, and if you just keep filtering that in, at some time, it'll filter out all the cursing and bitterness. It will. More Jesus. Amen? Look at Colossians chapter 3. Problem is people don't want more Jesus, they want more, you know, they want more strong meat taught to them instead of Jesus preached to them. Talking about Bible believers, all right? We want more about the deep. We want more about the gap. We want more about the things that no one else knows about. Why don't we just keep it simple? Let's preach Jesus, amen? Colossians 3 verse 19. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. So according to the Bible, husbands have a tendency of becoming bitter against their wives. So what do we do? We love them, like Christ loved the church, gave himself for them. Some men get bitter because of a nagging wife. You know what I know about being a man? Men don't like being told what to do. They don't. No, that's just a natural thing. Men wanna lead, naturally. And when there's a persistent, hey, what about, hey, can you, can you, can you, it rubs you the wrong way. Even though it might not be incorrect, right? You ever think if you would just do what you were supposed to do, there wouldn't be something to nag about? Oh boy. Alright, men don't like to be told what to do, Wayne. Alright, so if you did what you were supposed to do, or what you said you would do, there wouldn't be anything to nag about, would you? Hey, didn't you say you were going to, you know, yeah I did, but in my own time. I didn't mean tomorrow, I meant before I die. I just meant sometime it would get done, right? Wives can get bitter with their husbands too. I think that was a little obvious there. But we all have a tendency of getting, we can get bitter with one another. It happens when you're in close proximity with people a lot of times. You know what happens? I heard a sermon years ago, I heard a message on those five smooth stones that David pulled out of that brook, and he took the one and killed Goliath with. You know what, not all rocks, not all stones are smooth, but those five specific stones were smooth because they were, one, they were all nestled in together, all right? They were close proximity. There's friction that takes place when people are in close quarters, all right? When you need to relieve some of that friction, what do you do? You separate, all right? You get away from each other. But when it's always together, like a family, all right, there could be that friction. But what smoothened them out, you also had that water. always constantly going across them, and what did that do? It just jostled them around, and they were rubbing up against each other, but it ended up getting rid of all those rough spots, right? It made them smooth. So, you know, that, when in a close relationship with people, always being around people, there can be bitterness that happens. And most of the times, it's about stuff that doesn't even matter. It's little things. He didn't take the trash out again. She didn't wipe off the counter like she should have. There's crumbs here. He didn't cut the grass. You know what I've learned in being married 15 years? Don't sweat the small stuff. Sweating the small stuff will cause bitterness, because the little things will start adding up, right? Because then you'll go, you'll start listing them in your mind, and you'll think about all the bad stuff they do, or the stuff they nag, or whatever it might be. But if we would just get to the cross together, it would help that bitterness on both sides. Amen? Alright, James chapter 3 verse 14, but if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. So envying and strife is another great indicator of bitterness in your heart. The cross is a hard place to bicker. You know what you don't see at the cross? You don't see the apostles fighting with each other. You don't see Jesus getting on that. There's something about being near Jesus that kind of just takes care of those things. Why? Because the tree makes bitter things sweet. When Jesus is in the middle of it all, you're in a sweet place. In Proverbs chapter 14, verse 10, the Bible says, the heart knoweth his own bitterness. So you know exactly where your bitterness comes from. It might not be your marriage. Maybe it's from accusations or persecutions. Maybe it's from situations you're going through. There's all kinds of different things we just went through that can cause bitterness. And you know exactly what triggers you. You know what gets your stomach just starting to nod up and to get that bitterness boiling over. You know what trips your trigger. You know what gets you worked up with bitterness. So, what are you doing about it? James chapter 3 says, doth a fountain send forth the same place sweet water and bitter? So, if there's bitterness in there, there can't come out sweetness. Bitterness cancels out sweetness. It's not possible. for sweet to come out of something bitter. So where there's bitter waters, there cannot be sweet waters flowing from the same place. The only cure for bitter waters is a tree cast into those waters. Get Jesus Christ into the center of your bitterness and he can make it sweet. That's the answer. I know it's just the same, it's very repetitive. But how come we haven't got it fixed yet? How come we still struggle with these things? In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, the Bible says, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are created new, or become new. So, what happens? You want something new? You want some sweetness instead of bitterness? It's Jesus. He's the answer. Look at Revelation 8. Let me get this wrapped up. Revelation 8. Look at verse number 10. So this is during the tribulation. It says, the third angel sounded and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp. And it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood. And the third part of the waters became Wormwood. And many died of the waters because they were made bitter. I'll tell you this, without Jesus Christ, sweet things can become bitter. See, in the tribulation, there's a good amount of water, right? There's these rivers, there's these fountains of water that people can drink from, until wormwood crashes down into them, this bitter star, and it causes those waters to become bitter. Without Jesus Christ being the central focal point of whatever it is, whether it's a ministry, a church, a marriage, Without Jesus Christ being right there in the middle of it all, it can easily become bitter. Many churches were sweet at one time, until Jesus stopped being the main thing. Many marriages were sweet at one time, until Jesus was pushed to the side. Any other relationship, you might have had some friendships that were pretty good, they were sweet, they were good, but then when Jesus was kind of cast out of them, they became bitter. The same thing could be said just about anything. You take Jesus out of it, sweet things can easily become bitter. You know how we can ruin this church real quick? Stop making Jesus Christ the main thing. Let's make it about our ministries that we're doing and let's make it about the singing and let's make it about reaching or helping the poor or whatever it might be. Those aren't bad things. But if Jesus Christ isn't the number one focal point in those things, those sweet things can easily become bitter. I'll show you one more cool thing. Go to John chapter 12. I lied about Revelation. John 12. Yeah, Lyon Baptist. Fit the title. Fit the description. John chapter 12. So, what's happening here, this is Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, right? So, I would say at this point, Jerusalem is a pretty bitter place. All right, it's full of religion, right? You got all these Pharisees and Sadducees that are each practicing religion, not doing the things God told them to do, but doing it their way. It's full of religion, it's full of sin, and it's without any hope, right? They're just lost and on their way to hell. But when their hope comes riding into town, look what happens. Look at verse number 12. The next day, much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of a palm tree, they cast this tree into some bitter waters, they took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet him and cried, Hosanna, blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found the young ass sat there on, as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, thy king cometh sitting on an ass's colt. These things understood not his disciples at the first, But when Jesus was glorified, then remembered that these things were written of Him and that they had done these things unto Him. So here comes Jesus riding into town, they throw these branches of palm trees, they throw them down on the ground, not knowing that they were making a bitter way sweet. The way that Jerusalem was bitter. But Jesus Christ coming into town, if they would have received him then, he would have been crowned king of kings right there. But they rejected him, he's crucified, providing us a sweet way into heaven. Amen? All right. Father in heaven, Lord, we do thank you for your word. God, I pray that you help us rid ourselves of any bitterness that might be in our hearts. Lord, pray that we can recognize them. You said the heart knoweth its own bitterness, Lord. We know what areas that we need to work on. And what people might make us bitter, what situations are making us bitter, Lord, I pray that we can just draw closer to you and correct those things. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.