Well, we're going to take our Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12. This month we're kind of off, is what we're saying, even though every Sunday I'll be preaching somewhere. We'll stay in California, except for on the 24th I'm not preaching anywhere that I know of. And so we're home and it's good to be home. We've been traveling so much. I think I counted that we've been in 35 states this year and probably have traveled more than we've ever had before. I'm not sure. I don't want to keep records of all of that. I'm looking at this new year and where we're going to be at. We're going to be hitting the ground running. We're going to be in Oregon for several weeks, three weeks in January. Then in February we'll be in Nevada, California, and Arizona. In March, we'll be in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. And then April, we'll be in the Midwest for several weeks in Wisconsin, and Illinois, and Missouri, and Kansas. And then in May, we'll be in Florida. And then, I don't know what will happen after that. Well, we'll be traveling for the college. But around May, I think, we'll be able to have a bit of a break, I'm hoping. These next five months, I think we're only about two or three weeks that I'm looking at that are open, that are just, you know, for us to rest. And so pray for us. I appreciate your prayers for us, but we do want to be fresh and used to be. And when we were in a van, you know, the last first 10 years, you know, just open dates were there. And so we just take the time when they came, but now it's getting filled so much that we have realized that we're gonna have to set aside those dates and say, okay, this is blocked off, this is blocked off. And so please continue to pray for Megan and I as we serve the Lord in this ministry of evangelism. We're in Hebrews chapter 12 and we're gonna look at verse number 14. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number 14. It says, follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, He was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the privilege it is to be here this morning. Lord, thank you so much for Faith Baptist Tabernacle. Thank you, Lord, for the people that are here. I thank you, Lord, for what you did in that men's meeting, Lord, just a month ago. Lord, how you impacted eternity. Lord, how you used all of the work, the labor, and the prayers that were given. Lord, thank you for using us. Lord, thank you for working through us. Lord, thank you for this church that seeks to be a house of prayer, a people of prayer. Lord, I pray that you would, as we sang that song earlier, revive us again. Lord, I do pray that you would revive us again. Lord, I don't know where everybody's at here this morning, but you do, you know exactly where we're at. And so Lord, as we've opened up your word, I pray that once again, you'd open up our hearts, that you would speak to our hearts. Lord, You spoke to me this morning that I need to be listening to You. And I pray, Lord, that You would help us to have ears that would listen to what it is that You have for us. But Lord, help us not just to be hearers of Your Word, but doers as well. Help us to obey what it is that You have for us here this morning. Lord, draw us nearer to you by us being here today. Lord, I confess to you my utter helplessness and dependence upon you. Lord, I need your help in delivering this message. Lord, you know, and we all need your help in listening, obeying what it is that you have for us. So Lord, I pray that in these next few moments that we have together, that you would be exalted, that eternity would be impacted, that you would draw us nearer to you. Purge us, Lord. Take away the drossmas, or there would come forth a vessel for the finer. We pray for your honor and glory, in Jesus' name, amen. We see here in Hebrews chapter 12, this rooting out of bitterness, the root of bitterness. And certainly bitterness is something that affects all of us. I don't know of anybody here this morning that is bitter. I mean, you might say, well, pastor told you to preach on bitterness because he told you about all what I'm going through. No, he didn't say anything about it. I don't know who's bitter, who's not. As far as I know, nobody's bitter in this room right now. But I do know this, that all of us are gonna face this issue of bitterness. We've already faced it this year, and we are probably gonna face it before the end of the year is out, and we're gonna face it next year as well. And we need this text of Scripture to help us in our Christian walk. We see... Number one, the prevention of bitterness. Number two, the process of rooting bitterness. And then number three, the price of keeping bitterness. To stay free from bitterness, you must not fail of the grace of God. Number one, we see the prevention of this destructive bitterness. We see here in verse 14, follow peace with all men. Now the word follow means to make haste, to run swiftly after, in order to catch some person or something. It means to press on. It's used of one who runs the race swiftly in order to obtain the prize, obtain the goal. And so there is a sense of urgency about this word, to follow. It's a word of intensity and of purpose, to follow peace with all men. When's the last time you followed peace with someone? That you made sure that your relationship was okay between you and that other person? That you really wanted to make sure that you were right with them? Matthew 5.23 says, Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Then he makes this statement, Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way, thus that any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Here's a principle that we heard last year at the men's meeting that Brother Goetsch gave to us preachers. He said this, reconcile with people swiftly and with problems scripturally. Reconcile with people swiftly and with problems scripturally. When there is a, we're at odds with somebody, we ought not to let that fester. We ought to get that right, or as Barney Fife would say, you need to nip it in the bud. Stop it when it's small. We need to reconcile with people quickly. Ephesians chapter four, verse 26, be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Don't waste time. Don't let it fester and build and grow that root of bitterness. Romans 12 verse 18 says, If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Never allow an isolated incident or difference of opinion to be the cause of severing a meaningful relationship. Don't cut what you can untangle. Of course, you have all the Christmas lights and things, and it's all tangled up. You just go ahead and untangle all of those things. Don't just ruin it right then and there. Try to make sure that you're right with that other person. We all have things happen to us. Many years ago, I went to a, I need to get a haircut. And so I went to this barber shop and it just opened. It was a brand new special $5 haircut. And I'm like, all right, it's a great deal. I walk in and everybody in that, all the hairstylists, they were all Asian descent. And so she was talking to me. I didn't quite understand what she was saying. And I tried to communicate to her what I was wanting. And I sit down in the chair and it was just a few moments later that I realized that we did not communicate properly. because she had taken the buzzer and buzzed my head, shaved my head right in the middle, all the way down. She had never known that I've never had my head shaved, but within a few moments, my entire head was shaved. And I'm thinking, when that happened, immediately I was angry. I'm thinking, what in the world are you doing? I mean, I can't say to her, hey, can you put that back? You know, I can't say that. I mean, what has happened is done. You know, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm just going to have to wait. It's just going to take time for it to all grow back. Now, she didn't know that I didn't style my hair that way or didn't have hair. She didn't know any of that stuff and she was doing what she thought was what I wanted. Now, I didn't say anything to her. Immediately, God, as I was getting angry about that, immediately God spoke to my heart and said, now Tim, you can't control people's actions, but you can control your reaction. You know, she didn't know that she was doing that, that I didn't want that type of a haircut, and I never said anything. I even gave her a tip and never went back there again. I remember the next day, we came to church, and the wind was really blowing, and I remember coming through the side door, and I was going to fix my hair, but there was nothing there. And it was phantom hair. Some say that of losing a thumb or a limb, that you feel like there's something there, but it's not there. That's what I felt like with my hair. It wasn't there. And yet, it turned out to be a blessing because I began to have shorter haircuts, and I'm thankful for that. But when it comes to bitterness, we're going to have all kinds of things happen to us. where that seed of bitterness can fall upon the soil of our hearts. And we ought not to let that take root to get down into our hearts. We need to stop it immediately. Follow peace with all men. You see, following peace will protect you from bitterness. To make sure that everything's okay between you and someone else, And 1 Thessalonians 5.15 says, but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. The first part of that, see that none render evil for evil unto any man. 1 Corinthians 14 verse one, follow after charity. Matthew 5 verse nine, blessed are the peacemakers. Of course, peace comes from God. Romans 5.1 says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace through Christ, by whom we also have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. A big hindrance in revival is the matter of bitterness. D.L. Moody said, the greatest sin I see holding back the power of God than any other sin is the sin of unforgiveness. And Dr. Comfort in our evangelist class, he would say out of every revival meeting you preach at, at some point you need to hit on bitterness. He says, the number one sin I see in our churches is the sin of bitterness. And it's true throughout the decades, throughout the ages, we all deal with this type of a sin. I was reading in Jonathan Goforth's book, By My Spirit, and that really has challenged me. I want to go through it again. And so many times there was bitterness that was hindering and holding back the power of God. Now, it's hard to go and get things right with someone else. It's very humbling. It's hard to do those things. But when God leads in those areas and you're obedient to Him, oh, the blessings that flow. Psalm 1331, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. You know what a spirit-filled church looks like? It looks like love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance. That's what a spirit-filled church looks like. That's what it ought to be in my life, that's what it ought to be in your life, that we would have that kind of a church. And so we prevent bitterness by following after peace. But then he says, follow after holiness. He says, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Matthew five, verse eight, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Sin certainly blinds us, but holiness gives us vision. Holiness opens our eyes to see the one who is high and lifted up. 1 John 2 and verse 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness blinded, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whether he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. We don't have a proper view of our sin because we don't have a proper view of God. This sin has blinded our eyes to who He is. 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1, having therefore these precious promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. perfecting holiness and the fear of God. 2 Peter 3.11, seeing then that all these things should be dissolved, what manner of persons are ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? God has called us into holiness. Holiness is being separate from sin, but set apart unto God. And he has called us to this place of holiness. Without holiness in life, we cannot see the Lord. Our worship with Him is not acceptable. And we prevent bitterness by following peace, but then by following holiness, making sure that our own hearts are right with God, that there's nothing between our soul and the Savior. And he continues on, verse 15, he says, looking diligently, listening to man fail in the grace of God. We have this personal introspection. that we're going to look diligently in our own hearts. How are you doing really? When we had the men's meeting and Pastor bought that whiteboard and I told him, I said, he said, let's do the confession of sin, write down the different sins on the whiteboard as you talked about in that meeting that you had in North Carolina. And I said, there's no time at the men's meeting to do that. But then when Brother Smith wasn't able to make it for those two sessions, the Lord opened up the time for us to do that. to have that whiteboard and begin to write down the different sins that we have. And certainly there are many. I mentioned how that a pastor was going through his church and just such a burden for revival and something was hindering it. He got into his office and he began to ask God, you know, Lord, would you search my heart? Would you show me what sins are in my life? And he began to take out a piece of paper and filled up that whole first side and flipped it over and filled up that whole second side. And before long he had three, pages filled of sins that were between his soul and the Savior. He says, when he got those things right, he says, then God just opened up the floodgates in our church. The hindrance of revival was me. It wasn't the church people. And so often we overlook our sin and we don't just stop and have that introspection of looking diligently of where we're at. Psalm 139, 23 and 24, 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 in the way everlasting. He says in Psalm 26 verse two, examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my reins and my heart. Examine me, God, show me the sins that you see. I've likened things to an onion before, and Saturday morning of that men's meeting, I was praying, and we had our time of prayer, and the men are up there before the service and things, and many times I'll lead in that time of prayer that Saturday morning, and God just says, I don't want you to pray, I want somebody else to pray. And I didn't speak audibly, but he's pressing upon my heart, and I said, okay, Lord, who do you want to have come pray? And immediately I saw Pastor Doug Taylor. And so I went up to him, I said, Pastor Taylor, could you come up and pray? And so he got up and prayed, and God was all over that, just that time of prayer. He began to talk about in his prayer, he says, God, it's like peeling off an onion, where you just get one layer after another, after another, after another. You think that you're right with God, you think that everything's fine, there's nothing between our soul and Savior, but when have you just stopped and said, God, really search me? examine me, see what sin is in my life, begin to peel off that layer after layer. And in his prayer as he was praying that, he said, eventually it comes to nothing, which is what we really are before God. Without him, we can do nothing. And that prayer time, just his praying meant a lot to me, how God used that. So, Often we are quick to move on and not examine ourselves. So he says, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God. He says in Psalm 27 verse 11, teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in the plain path because of mine enemies. Oh, you get this bitterness, you get off on the wrong path. And so the psalmist says, no, help me to stay on the right path. Help me to stay on the righteous path. Psalm 5 verse 8, lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies. Make thy way straight before my face. And so the psalmist wants to stay on the right path because of the enemies. And we need to stay on the right path because so often we are confronted with this matter of bitterness. And so we prevent bitterness by following peace and holiness, by examining ourselves, by looking diligently. But then the big key right here, we have victory in the matter of bitterness because of the powerful armament of the grace of God. He says, lest any of you fail of the grace of God. The word fail means to come late or to be tardily. It's to be left behind in a race to fail to reach the goal. This is a constant pursuit that we ought to have. And at some point, if we, even in our Christian life, even those as I would consider myself a mature Christian, even in mature Christians, if we fail of the grace of God, we can fail to reach the goal, to obtain what God has for us. Many Christians I have known throughout my life and they've got let some bitterness get into their life and before long these mature spiritual Christians are now acting very immature and very carnal because they're failing in the grace of God. They've let bitterness come into their life. This is something that we must always be pursuing, must always have. We must lean on the grace of God throughout our entire life. Sometimes we say, I have learned to trust God. And now I'm thinking to myself, well, I haven't completed that course. I'm still in that course. And maybe I need to say at present tense, I am learning to trust God. Not that I've already obtained it. In this matter of the grace of God, we are continually needing this and learning and growing in this area. And so God's grace, what is it? It's unmerited favor. Someone gave the acronym, it's God's righteousness at Christ's expense, or God's riches at Christ's expense. And God gives grace unto the humble. You see, rehearsing your hurts will cultivate bitterness. You start mulling over all of those things, but rehearsing your blessings will cultivate gratitude. Failing to keep pace with what the grace of God can do in our lives will result in bitterness in us, and it will cause much trouble among many others. And bitterness is not a sin that anyone overcomes quickly without the power of the grace of God. You think of Paul and what God had him go through, the different trials and sufferings that he went through. And then he talks about the thorn of the flesh in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation that was given to me, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." He wanted to get out of it. He wanted this thorn of the flesh to be gone. But then he says in verse 90, and he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, and reproaches, and necessities, and persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong." We're gonna look back at our lives, and we're gonna see the times of hurts that we have experienced, and our response to them, and we'll see that those were defining moments in our lives. that that really was some precious times if we responded rightly. Those great hurts that we've had in our lives have been great opportunities for God's grace to exalt itself in our lives. I think of when John Bishop was here for our men's meeting and he was preaching and he's gone through many physical ailments and he was talking about a time when he had to have surgery. And I believe it was on his back, somewhere on his back. And he said, the doctor told him, he says, we can't put you out, we can't give you anything for this. He says, we're gonna have to cut you open as is because of your condition. And he says, doc, please don't do that. Please don't do that. And he says, John, you're going to die if we don't have this surgery. You've got to go through this surgery. And so he says, well, can I have my Donna, which is his wife, can I have her in the room with me? And he says, yes. And they gave him a towel to bite on. And he grabbed his wife's arm. And they began to perform that surgery. And he bruised his wife's arm just squeezing it so hard. And he says, I did not think I was going to make it through that surgery. But he says, God gave me the grace to make it through that surgery. And he said this to all of the men. He says, I don't know what God, what you may be going through, but God will give you the grace to help you get through whatever you're going through. And immediately I thought, I've got no problems. I'm fine. You know, after all that he's gone through and. And yet, God's grace is greater. Even in the midst of intense pain, I think of, I don't know what martyr it was, but I remember reading some years ago of a martyr that was being burned at the stake, and they asked him, they said, you know, when you get there and you're burned at the stake, would you just raise your hand if God is giving you dying grace? And as they began to light the fires and his body began to get on fire, he raised his hand to let all the other Christians know, God has given me dying grace. He's helped me to get through it. And I don't know what you're going through today. I don't know what kind of hurt you may have, but God's grace is greater. God's grace will enable you to get through whatever it may be. Romans chapter five and verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through the righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. It was in the book, The Bruised Reed, that Richard Sibbes said, we have this for a foundational truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. I love that. There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. There is more grace, I would say, in Christ than there is sin in us. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Whatever you and I may face, what we face in the past, we may face in the future, God's grace is greater. He is grace, there is more grace in Him than there is sin in us. And whatever we go through in our life pales in comparison to what Christ has gone through for us. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was at all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. You think about what Christ could have been bitter about. all the unfair trial, the mockery, and the scourging, and everything that he went through, the betraying. No matter what you and I have ever gone through, it pales in comparison what Christ went through for us. He says, therefore, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Oh yes, bitterness can be overcome. Bitterness can be rooted up and removed from our hearts. So we see the prevention of bitterness, but notice number two, the process of rooting bitterness. How does this start? It says here, let's say any root of bitterness bringing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. It starts undetected. It is below the ground. Proverbs 17 verse 14 says, the beginning of strife is of one that letteth out water, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. Again, bitterness, if not stopped at the root, it's gonna continue to grow. We must stop it when it first starts. Little sins can lead to big sins. Luke 16.10 says, he that is faithful now which is least is faithful also in much, but he that is unjust in least is unjust also in much. This is underground, this root, it's undetected. We don't see it growing and producing that fruit yet. Roots are beneath the surface of the ground, unseen and unnoticed. It often draws very little concern because the fruit is not yet being seen. We have two fruitless mulberry trees on the church property, one of the parsonage, and that thing grows the one of the parsonage tremendously. And I see some of those big roots. The house that I grew up in, in our neighborhood, just about three miles away where my mom and dad live, there's many fruitless mulberry trees that are around there. And I'm sure that the designers of that whole area regretted putting those in because of the root system. They've broken up so much concrete, so many pipes and things have been broken through because of the roots. You don't even see it. I remember one day my dad said, One day, my dad says, Tim, we're going to move the tree to the backyard. And I'm like, what? He says, yep, we're going to move the tree in the backyard. And what it was, we were moving the fence over. And so now the tree would be in the backyard. But eventually, we tore down that entire tree. And just getting into some of the root systems, some of those roots were as big as, I mean, a branch, I mean, this size. I mean, they're just huge roots that we didn't even know were there. And so this bitterness can come. You may not even know it right now, that there is some roots of bitterness that are seeding in your heart. And God wants to remove those out of your life. And so it's often, it starts small and it's often undetected. And so we see that this process comes so quickly. And then he says, thus any root of bitterness spring up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. So it comes so quickly, this process, but then notice number three, the price of keeping bitterness. The price, the price is that it troubles you and thereby many are defiled. bitterness sets you off on the wrong path. It corrupts your thinking. When you begin, it clouds your thinking. When you begin to become bitter, you don't think right about the situations, and it hurts you. I was working for Wells Fargo in a business office, and I was upstairs, working upstairs, and Cheryl Whiteside worked at the same place as I did as well. And I was upstairs, and I remember going to work early in the morning, and there was one lady, after I got off the elevator, Her name was Deb and every time like for just like this whole week as I started working upstairs here's Deb and there's another guy Leonard and Leonard's talking to her and they're kind of you know whispering and and she's kind of giggling a little bit and I'm thinking this isn't a good situation. And the next day I see the same thing again, and the next day I see the same thing again. I'm like, you know, this is, I know that Deb's married, and here's this guy, he's flirting with this woman at work, and this is a bad situation. Now, I'm not very bold by nature, but I'm like, man, I wonder if I should say anything. And then later on that week, my manager sent me to the mailroom where Leonard worked, and I went down there, and I saw Leonard's office, and his last name was the same name as Deb's. They were married, and I'm so thankful that I did not go to Leonard and say, Leonard, you need to stop flirting with your wife. You need to leave her alone. I mean, I can tell that she really loves you, and you need to stay away from your wife. I'm so glad. I was thinking wrongly about that situation. And when it comes to bitterness, we can, when you guys start getting bitterness in our lives, we start thinking wrongly about those situations. It corrupts our thinking. James chapter 4 and verse 14 says, But if ye have better aiming and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom is sent not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. This is the kind of wisdom we don't want at Faith Baptist Tabernacle. What kind of wisdom do we want? But it says, for envy and strife is there's confusion in every evil work, but the wisdom 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. Oh, this bitterness, it clouds our thinking and it troubles us, but then it troubles many. It says, and thereby many be defiled. Your sin affects others. Bitterness leads to many other sins. Hebrews 3 verse 12 says, take heed, brethren, lest there be any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God. Oh, many people have turned away from the faith because they let sin, they let bitterness into their lives, and they've rejected all of those other things. There's so many. I'm thinking of a guy who used to come here. graduating from a Bible college, and now, as best I know, he's on the streets. And the root of it all was bitterness. He failed of the grace of God. And this bitterness so contaminates not only us, but it contaminates others as well. And then it says here, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Bitterness sets you off on that wrong path and then you become profane. This is the opposite of holiness. You see, to Esau nothing was holy. Everything was common, everything was carnal, and there was nothing spiritual in Esau's life. And when Esau, though he got what he wanted, that morsel of meat, but when he got it, he didn't want what he had. He wanted to have, he realized he had exchanged it for that birthright. And Esau's bitterness was already there with his birthright, and then an even greater bitterness and hurt happened when he lost the blessing. And for Esau, nothing was sacred. He exchanged God's gift of righteousness for the gratification of his own desires. And he says here in verse... 17, for you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. The reason why he was rejected was because of pride. God resisted the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. He was not humble, he was prideful against God. Here he was non-religious. He did not have a heart for God, a heart for righteousness. He was trying to do things in his own strength. He leaned to his own understanding. Now, there are many reasons why he became to this place of bitterness. You have that seed of bitterness that will fall upon the soil of our heart, and that germination of that seed came from a previous generation. You know, his mom and dad, They took sides. His dad said, you know, I love Esau, and yet Rachel, she loved Jacob. And this generational sin that they had affected not only Rachel and Jacob, but also affected Esau. And so we see that the generational sin can be passed on. Maybe you've had a parent that had some bitterness, and now that bitterness has affected you. Just stop it right there. Don't pass it on to the next generation. One pastor said, in my 30 years of pastoring, the number one sin I see that gets passed on more than any other sin is a sin of bitterness. Like dominoes set in a line, family members fall down one by one, unless someone seeks the only remedy, that is Christ and His grace. And so be warm, beloved. If you come from a family history of bitterness, you will be influenced to respond in exactly the same way as those who have raised you. And so stop it right here. Don't become bitter, don't pass it on any longer. And so he, his parents helped cultivate that, but then, They began to depart from God's plan and sought to do their own plan. Esau, nor his father, accepted God's plan, that Jacob was going to be the leader and that Esau was going to serve him, that he was going to receive those things. But yet, Rebekah and Jacob also were ensuring that God's plan would work out, even to the point of deception. And this divided the parents, this divided Jacob and Esau and the boys to the parents. And so it's imperative that everyone accepts and cooperates with God's providential plan in our lives in order to avoid the root of bitterness. And again, this can only be done by the grace of God. And then that seed was also germinated because of provocation. Esau is the only person in this scenario that seemed to be doing what was right. He did what his father told him, and yet he is the one that would suffer the consequences of everyone else's wrong action. And this is a perfect formula for becoming bitter through the process of provocation. And maybe you haven't done anything wrong, but you've had all these other things happen that seem to be bad against you. Don't let that seed of bitterness fall upon your heart. Again, I remind you of Christ. Christ did no wrong, and yet he was treated so wrongly. And when you and I walk in forgiveness, and as Ephesians 4, 3, 2 says, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you, you are now displaying the character of Christ. And so you can walk in obedience, you can walk in victory over this matter of bitterness. And again, the carnality that was in that family. And when God's priorities become unimportant to us, or when our priorities become more important to us, then bitterness begins to foster. When our priorities become more important to us than God's, those seeds of bitterness will grow and they will affect us and will affect others around us. And so Esau, he had a trouble in following peace. He had trouble in following holiness. He had a trouble following him whom he could not see, which is the Lord. And it goes on in these different verses later on about Mount Zion and Sinai. and how the law is not going to help us in this matter of bitterness. Esau thought, well, I'll just do my own thing. I'm going to keep the law and I can live this life without God. I can live this without Christ. And grace is not found in keeping the law. No grace is found in Jesus Christ. The law of God was given to Moses, but it condemns our sin, but is unable to change our heart. It's not just an outward conformity, but it's that inward change that God wants. You see, it's not the, oh, I just need a new situation. I just need a new job. I just need to get to a new state. I just need to do all these other things. But yet, God wants to change us from within, not just the outward circumstances. And that's what Esau needed, and he was not able to find that place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears because he was looking at the wrong place. He was looking to himself, to his own understanding, and not to the grace of God. He failed of the grace of God. You see, we are saved by grace through faith. We get saved this way, that's the same way we're gonna live this Christian life, is that we're gonna live it by the grace of God through faith. Are you feeling of the grace of God? Do you have a hurt in your life? Are you letting that hurt turn into bitterness? Do you have that root of bitterness that's coming up in your life? Oh, don't let it stay there. God wants to revive us out of that. God wants to remove that bitterness from our lives. And His grace is certainly greater than our own sin. and we can have victory and obedience in this matter of bitterness and can root out this bitterness through God's grace.