September 25, 2025 • 54 mins
You have allowed a wound to fester into a root, and that root is now poisoning you and everyone around you. We will take the knife of the Word to the root of BITTERNESS, not just to stop the trouble it causes, but to keep you from failing to obtain the grace of God.
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
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Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
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If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, Subscribe, and Share
Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to these walls of bitterness. We're diving deep into
Hebrews chapter twelve, verse fifteen. I need you to grab
your Bible in your notebook. Pastor Tim is about to
bring the in compromising truth that's going to challenge you,
convict you, and transform you. Let's get into the word
of God.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My name is Tim Smith. I am the youngest child
Clara Jones. The city is back up as a musk.
We outside. Do me a favorite before we even get started.
Please like love and share. Please like love and share
a family. You know that's the only offering that I
will ever ask of you. I need you to offer
this teaching to whoever God places on your heart even
(00:37):
before we begin.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Just do me a favor.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Just pray a quick prayer, and just ask God, God,
who do you want me to share this teaching with?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And whoever God places on your heart. When we're done,
I want you to make sure you do that for me.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Listen, I'm so glad you're here right now, whether you
are driving, whether you are sitting at your desk, whether
you are working out and just chilling on the couch,
whether you're walking on it. I believe this is a
divine appointment for you. This is a message I believe
that God has for all of us. This episode that
we're going to talk about is for everyone who has
(01:12):
ever been hurt and has found it hard to let go.
Have you ever had one of those days where something
small completely sets you off, I mean, just completely derails
your day.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Let me give you an example. What happened with me
so earlier this week.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I'm in the grocery store, minding my own business. I
got my list in my hand. I'm on a straight
up mission. I want to go in here, get these
five items that I got on my list, and get
on the side of there.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So, I'm headed to the express lane and I see
the one that says fifteen items or less.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Perfect, no brainer.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Let me go on over here and get checked out,
get up out of here. But I'm not walking fast
enough because a woman with what looks like month's work
of groceries, she slips ahead of me into the lane.
And that's when I start to feel it, you know,
that feeling.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
That little irritation. It's bubbling up.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm starting to have a conversation with myself and my head.
I am prosecuting this woman in the court of my mind.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I've already found.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Her guilty event and considerate of thinking that fifteen items
or less don't apply to her. And it's such a
minor irritation, family, but that small thing, if I let it,
it can completely derail my entire day. It can shift
my attitude, It can sharpen my tongue, it can change
(02:44):
the way that I speak to the cashier, and it
really can even affect how I drive home. And it
was just this one tiny moment of frustration, and now
it becomes the lens through which I'll see the rest
of my day. This is why I want to talk
to you, because that little seed of irritation, if you
(03:07):
water it, if you give it sunlight, if you nurture it,
it becomes a plant. And if you let that plant grow,
it becomes a tree with roots that can crack the
foundation of your entire life. And so today I want
to unpack this. So we're going to talk about that
particular rout. We're here to do some spiritual landscaping. We're
(03:27):
here to talk about these walls of bitterness. So that,
as always I need you to do me a favorite.
Grab your bible, get something to write with get a notepad.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I need you to take detailed notes.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Shout out to Shannon, because we're about to go to work.
We're about to get into something that I believe that
God is going to speak a word to all of us.
The power word for today is up roots.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Up Root.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I know you didn't know you were going to have
to do some gardening today, but yes, we're going to
have to do some gardening. We'll have to get out
here and have a horticultural class. So when we're talking
about uproot, what are we talking about. To uproot means
to dig out from the very source, to remove completely.
It's where you leave no trace behind. So we're not
(04:16):
here to trim the leaves of your frustration. We're not
here to pick the food of your anger. We are
not here to just play with this thing. We are
here to uproot the entire system that is poison in
your life from below the surface. So your mission, should
you choose to squabble up is this. I want you
(04:36):
to identify the wall of bitterness that has built up
in your life, and then I want you to use
God's word to begin knocking that wall down. Break by brick,
We're going to be over in the Book of Hebrews,
one of my favorite books. Book of Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter twelve,
verse fifteen. Hebrews, Chapter twelve, verse fifteen. We're gonna chop
(04:59):
this verse. We're gonna break, make it apart, and we're
going to see what the Lord has to say to
us through Hebrews, Chapter twelve, verse fifteen. The word of
the Lord says this, And I want you to let
this sink in, really, let this marinate in your mind.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Hebrews twelve fifteen.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
See to it that no one fails to obtain the
grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up
and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. It
that the right of Hebrews is referring to is that
(05:36):
root of bitterness. And so when you look at this verse,
this verse is not a suggestion, it's a loaded verse.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
It's a command.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It's a spiritual emergency broadcast system for your soul. So
the writer of Hebrews screaming at us, and he's saying,
pay attention, look closely. Something is trying to steal what
is rightfully yours. Let's break this down. The verse stars
(06:05):
with a charge. See to it. What I find interesting
about that statement is that you won't read that anywhere.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Else in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
See to it that phrases active, that phrases vigilant. This
means that you are a watchman on the wall of
your own heart. You are on guard duty. And what
are you guarding against. The text gives us three catastrophic
failures that all stem from one single sinister root, and
(06:39):
that root is called bitterness. Wall number one. Let's identify
these walls. Wall number one, the wall of forfeited favor,
the wall of forfeited favor. Let's look at the first
part of that verse, what I call fifteen eight. See
to it that no one fails to obtain the grace
(07:02):
of God. Now, let's speak clear in talking about grace. Grace,
by definition, is God's unmerited favor.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
It's the free gift of God.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
You can't earn it, you can't work for it, you
can't buy it.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
It's free. It's something that God gives to all of us.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
In fact, over in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight lays
it out precisely. For by grace, you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own doing. It
is the gift of God. So with what Paul says
(07:43):
over in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, we see that
grace is truly a gift from God. So what we
see in Hebrews chapter twelve, verse fifteen, though, it implies
something very terrifying. And I need you to hear this
hebrew this chapter twelve, verse fifteen. Keep in mind what
you just read in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. But
(08:06):
the Hebrews chapter twelve, verse fifteen. The verse implies that
you can fail to obtain grace. How how can you
fail to get a free gift from God? It's simple
when you refuse to receive it. When you refuse to
receive God's grace. So imagine this. Imagine God is standing
(08:30):
in front of you, and he's holding out the most beautiful,
life altering gift that you could ever imagine.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
The gift that.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
He's offering you is grace. It's the greatest gift in
the world. It's love, its forgiveness, it's peace, it's restoration,
it's reconciliation, all rolled up into this beautiful gift. But
as he's presenting it to you, your hands are not
open to receive it. Your hands are clenched into fists.
(09:06):
And what are you holding on to so tightly that
you can't receive the gift of grace? And let's be honest.
Some of you are holding on to your hurt. Some
of you are holding on to your pain. Some of
you are holding on to your right to be angry.
(09:29):
Some of you are holding on to your bitterness. And
if you're taking notes, write this down. Bitterness makes you
a professional debt collector. That's what bitterness does, because you
have a leiger in your mind.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
You've written down the.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Names of your ex husband, your ex wife, and the
debt that they owe you for the pain of that divorce.
You've written down the name of your father who wasn't
there for you, or for the mother who wasn't emotionally
there for you, she was emotionally absent. And you're looking
(10:10):
at the debt that they owe you for a childhood
that you never had, that you never had. You felt
like your childhood, you felt like you've been robbed of
your childhood. And so you've been walking around and you
have been holding on to that bitterness. Here's here's the
(10:30):
here's the dangerous. You feel justified, you go to church,
lift your hands, praise God and all of that. But
you take that bitterness and you just set it over
to the side, and then when you come out of church,
you just pick it right back up and you keep
it moving. You've written down the name of that friend
who betrayed you, that sibling who got on your last nerves.
(10:55):
And you spend your days trying to collect debts, replay
the reels in your mind, you relitigate the case in
your mind.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
And while you are so busy being.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
A debt collector, you miss the debt cancelor. While you're
so focused on what they owe you, you fail to
obtain the grace that has canceled the insurmountable debt.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
That you owe to God.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Why because you're so determined to make them pay, You
so determined to make them pay, that you end up
paying the ultimate price. You forfeit favor. You fall short
of grace. Grace is standing at the door knocking, but
you can't even hear it over the sound of you
(11:48):
replaying in your head what has been done against you.
And if this wall or forfeited favor could speak, it
would whisper to you.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Don't let it go. You're right, they were wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Your pain is your identity, and if you forgive them,
who will you be? And it's sitting there and it's
patting you on your back, and so you hold on
to this bitterness because you feel like this is all
you have. This is the receipt of what they left
you with. So you're clutching these receipts of bitterness and
your bitterness. Can I tell you something, It's not your identity.
(12:26):
Your wound is not your name. What you've gone through
this valid. What you've experienced is real. But you have
to hear me. You can't trade a banquet table that's
overflowing with mercy for scraps or resentment. That's not a
fair exchange. You've exchanged the wide open sky of forgiveness.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
For prison tile.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And you will to de bars yourself and so break
by brick, grudge by grudge, you build these walls, and
these walls are suffocating you. We have to allow grace
to do the work on our heart. We have to
allow grace to do the work that we could never do. Remember,
(13:14):
the Bible says over I believe it's in Jeremiah, chapter seventeenth,
verse nine. It says that the heart is deceitful and
desperately wicked.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Who can know it?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
So every day that you choose bitterness, you are rejecting
the very grace that could set you free. You're not
just missing out on actively destroying your You're not just
missing out, You're actively destroying yourself from the inside out.
(13:46):
Please hear me, because this is a silent killer question
for you. What deck are you trying to collect? That
is keeping your hands too full to receive God's grace.
God wants to give you his grace, but you're carrying
all of this stuff. What they did, what they said.
(14:07):
You don't know, you don't understand. You weren't there.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
God was there for all of it, and he's still
offering you his grace. But you have to decide right here,
right now. I gotta let this bitterness go. I know
personally people who are bitter about things that happened thirty
forty years ago. I know personally people who walk around
(14:32):
like that, and they just have a negative connotation, a
negative mindset. No matter what good happens in their life,
they always default back to that bitterness. Because it's exactly
what the writer of Hebrew says It is a root
of bitterness. Please don't miss the language of what the
(14:53):
writer is saying. We're gonna continue breaking this. Now, let's
move on back. Let's move on to wall number two,
the wall of rooted resentment. Wall number two taking notes
the wall of rooted resentment. So now let's move to
the next part of this Verse's continue walking.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Through the verse.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Verse fifteen b that no root of bitterness springs up
and causes trouble. This right here, this is the source code.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Of the whole problem.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
The writer, in my estimation, uses a brilliant agricultural metaphor.
He calls it a root of bitterness. Let's get into this.
This is where we uproot the bitterness. Remember our power
word uproot. This is where you and I must uproot
and bitterness. Now, what do we know about roots. Let's
(15:47):
just look at this purely, just from an agricultural standpoint.
First of all, we know that roots grow in the dark.
You don't see roots growing, but roots grow in the dark.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
They're hidden.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Here's the connection to bitterness. Bitterness is not always the loud,
angry person yelling at everyone. No, oftentimes that person who's
walking in bitterness, they're quiet, they're smiling, and they're rehearsing
(16:22):
your murder in their mind.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's the silent treatment.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
It's the subtle razor sharp shade. It's the snarky comments.
It's the polite conversation that's dripping with poison that nobody
else can see. It's hidden, it's in the dark. Please understand.
Bitterness grows in the secret place of your heart. It
grows in the soil of your thoughts when nobody is looking,
(16:49):
and you think you're hiding it, But what's happening is
it's growing. Second thing we know about roots is this
roots and anchor, a plant. A root of bitterness anchors
you to your past. A root of bitterness keeps you
stuck in the moment of your greatest pain. A root
(17:11):
of bitterness reminds you that even though that divorce was
years ago, that root has you anchored to the day
the papers were signed, to the day when you walked
out of the courtroom.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Your father walked out years ago.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But that root has you anchored to when that screen
door slam behind him. You try and move forward, but
you're tethered. You're connected. You're rooted to that moment in time.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Because you refuse to cut the root.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
You can't even embrace your future because you're so anchored
to your bitterness. Third thing we know about roots is this,
and I think this is the most critical.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Roots absorbed nutrients. Hear me.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Roots absorb nutrients, and this is how they grow.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
The root of bitterness is a living thing.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
It needs to eat. And what does it feed on.
It feeds on your thoughts, It feeds.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
On your memories.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Every time you replay the offense, you're watering the root.
You're giving it nutrients. Every time you gossip, every time
you slander the person who hurts you, you're giving it fertilizer.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
You're feeding it.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Every time you scroll through that social media and you
looking for that you looking to see signs that they're failing,
you're giving that root sunshine. You've made bitterness an idle.
Let me tell you what the idol is. And idle
is anything you serve, anything you build your life around,
anything you sacrifice for. You have become the high priest
(18:55):
at the altar of your own pain. You put on
the robes of remembrance every morning, and so your daily
prayer isn't to God. Your daily prayer is actually a
recital of the charges against a person who hurts you.
You bring the sacrifice of your own joy, your own peace,
(19:16):
and you lay it on that altar hope, and the
smoke will somehow choke the person who isn't even there.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
This idol is.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Diabolical, and it demands your life, piece by peace, and
you willingly give it, and you call it justice, your officiating,
your own spiritual funeral, one memory at a time that
my friend is worship.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
This is the very heart of these walls of bitterness.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's a structure that's built on a foundation of pain,
and the root system is the plumbing that keeps it
flowing through your entire being, so it never stops.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
It's perpetual.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's just going from your head to your heart, your
head to your heart, your head to your heart.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Even just the name of the.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Person it drives you into a convulsion. Problems, Chapter four,
verse twenty three. Solomon says that he says, keep your
heart with all villages. In other words, you have to
guard your heart. You have to safeguard your heart. You
have to protect what comes in and what goes out.
(20:26):
Listen to what he says. He says, for from it
flows the springs of life. So now, if the heart
is the source of life, then the root of bitterness
in the heart makes it the source of death, because
no other way we can stack that up, because it
contaminates everything. And the spring is poison, spring is water,
(20:50):
it's refreshing, it's refreshment. But bitterness has contaminated the spring
and your heart. And if this wall of rooted resentment
could talk, it would mock you. It would say you
can't get rid of me. I'm a part of you.
I was there when they hurt you. I'm your defense mechanism.
(21:11):
I keep you safe.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Remember what they did.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And so this thing is continuously in your mind, doesn't
want you to forget. Please hear me what I'm saying.
This is for everybody. This is for all of us,
whether you in Nashville, Mississippi, Atlanta, La, Oakland, Shottown, you
walk in Champagne. About it, every single city where dreams
get broken and where hearts get shattered. That root of
(21:38):
bitterness is not your friend. That root of bitterness is
not your protector. It is a parasite that is killing
its host. So to call to action here for you,
and I is this because remember the root is growing
from the nutrients that you feeded. You have to starve
(21:59):
the root. You have to stop feeding your bitterness. You
must stop feeding your bitterness starting today. Vow in your mind,
make up in your heart that you will not allow
your mind to.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Be a buffet for your bitterness.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
So when the memory comes up, and it will, you
don't entertain it.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
You don't feed it.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
You don't set a place for it at the table
of your mind.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
You don't.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
The Bible says that we are to take those thoughts captives.
Listen to the language of scripture. This tells you how
much of a fight this really is. You have to
take that thought captive. You have to take that thought
as a prisoner, and you have to make that thought
obedient to Christ. It can't be, it won't be obedient
(22:55):
to you.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You have to make it obedient to Christ. And here's
a scripture for you.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And I need you to get this in your mind,
and I need you to get this in your spirit.
And it goes precisely with what I'm saying to you
right now. It's found over tewod Corinthians, chapter ten, verse five.
The apostle Paul write writes these words. He says, we
church he's talking to the church. We that's who we are.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the
(23:26):
knowledge of God. Here it is, and take every thought
captive to obey Christ.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Listen to me.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Family, Your mind is a battle feel It is not
a playground, is not Disney World. It is not a
debate club. Paul isn't giving you a self help tip here,
He's handing you your rules of engagement for spiritual warfare.
(23:57):
Paul says that we are to destroy arguments. Please lean
into the language that the apostle is using. If he's
telling you that you have to destroy these arguments, that
tells you how intense this really is. So imagine we
(24:18):
haven't been destroying these arguments, and so these arguments have
taken hostile, have taken territory in your mind. They've set
up shop in your mind. There are lies you started
to believe are true. If you believe the lie that
you'll never be good enough, then you'll never be good enough,
(24:41):
and that is an argument in your mind.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
You can't forgive them for what they did to you.
That's an argument.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
God can't use you after what you've done. That's a
lofty opinion and it's raised against the true knowledge of God.
So Paul says, your job, my job, Our job isn't
to consider these arguments, he said, Our job is to
destroy them. We don't sit up and debate with it.
(25:08):
We don't sit up, Hey, what you think? No, he says,
destroy it. You have to destroy these arguments in your
mind with the divine power that God has given me.
Then he gives us a tactical command. All the language
that's in the scripture is military language. He gives us
(25:30):
a tactical command. Take every thought captive. This is an
act of war. This is not passive. This is not
for the lazy. When a thought of bitterness, a thought
of lust, a thought of fear, a thought of despair
tries to set up camp in your mind, you don't
offer it a cup of tea.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
You don't debate it.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
You are the soldier at the gate of your mind,
and that thought is an enemy.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
You have to kick in the door of that thought.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
You have to throw a spiritual flash bang in the room,
and you have to put that thought in handcuffs. Paul says,
take it captive. You must take a captive. Yes, you you,
you must take a captive. You must interrogate that thought,
and you have to ask that thought by what authority
(26:25):
do you speak in my mind? Do you align with
the word of God? Do you bow to the lordship
of Jesus? And if the answer is no, you don't
just show at the door. You force it to its
knees and you make it obey Christ. That means that
thought of bitterness that says I hate them, you have
to capture that and you have to force that thought
(26:48):
to say I must forgive hear me as Christ forgave me.
That thought of despair that says it's impossible.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
You have to capture that thought, and you.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Have to force that thought to confess I can do
all things through Christ Jesus, who gives me strength.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Nothing gets to pass family. From this point forward, we've.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Just allowed thoughts to just roam free in our mind, unchecked.
When was the last time you thought about what you
were thinking about? It would surprise you how much the
Bible has to say about our mind. So you can't
allow these thoughts to roam free in your mind. Every
(27:33):
single thought is brought into submission.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Hear me.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
That's not positive thinking. That's not what I'm talking about.
This is spiritual dominance. That's what Paul is writing about.
Question for you, what.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Are you feeding your root of bitterness? Every day?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
What are you feeding your root of bitterness? Because it's growing,
because it's been with you for you years. So for
a root of bitterness to be with you for weeks, months, years,
that means you're the one who's feeding it.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
And you're going to.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Have to start feeding your mind the word of God
and take every thought captive. I hope you wrote that
verse down Wall number three, the wall of defiling damage,
the wall of defiling damage. This brings us to our
final devastating wall, and it's a devastating consequence. It's found
(28:37):
right there in the verse verse fifteen six. And by
it many become defiled. Oh snap, and by it men,
See it's not just you now see this thing has
spilled over.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
This is what the writer is trying to show us.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
See, if we just go back a bit and just
go ahead and take it captive, we won't get here.
But if we don't take it captive, then I want
you to look at the collateral damage.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That word defiled is loaded. It means to.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Be made spiritually and morally unclean, to be contaminated to
be polluted. This is the part where we realize that
our private bitterness has made a public impact. See, you
think your bitterness is your own business. You think it's
(29:34):
contained within the walls of your mind. You think it's
contained within your heart. No, the right of hebrew says no,
it's a contagion. The right of Hebrews is saying your
bitterness affects people.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Your bitterness has a body count. It's not just secondhand smoke.
It's a spiritual nerve agent. It's colorless, it's olderness, and
it seeks under every door. You walk into a room
and the temperature changes. You think you're hiding it behind
(30:12):
a smile, but your spirit of screen. People can feel it.
Your spouse feels the tension. Your kids learn anxiety as
a second language. Your coworkers they learn to avoid you.
You're not just carrying a wound. You have become the weapon.
The very thing that hurts you is now the thing
(30:35):
you use to hurt others.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
What's the old.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Saying, hurting people hurt people, And whether it's happening consciously
or not, the defilement is you. You're replicating the pain
you swore you never, cause that's the ultimate tragedy of bitterness.
(30:59):
It turns victims into villains. Who are the many? Look
at the verse again, who are the many? It is
your children, it's your relationships, your past relationships, your current relationship,
your new relationships. It's your church. One person where the
(31:22):
root of bitterness can split a church. One person with
a root of bitterness can disrupt the ministry, can spread
gossip and division like wildfire.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
I have seen it happen numerous times.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Bitterness leaks, and everyone around you is inhaling the fumes
of that leak. Ephesians, chapter four, verse twenty nine. Paul
gives us a perfect picture of this defilement and action.
Paul says this. He says, let no corrupting talk come
(32:03):
out of your mouths talking to the church, but only
such as is good for building up, as fits the
occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.
A bitter heart produces corrupting talk. Some people have rehearsed
(32:27):
the talk for so many years they don't even see
how bitter they are. They don't even hear the words
that are coming out of their mouths, because they have
this thing on the loop. All they had to do
is press play, and all of this stuff comes out,
and they never, for one second just stop to say, hey.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
What was my part in this? What did I do wrong?
And so what happens is you end.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Up rehearsing this over and over and over again, year
after year after year, and you.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Never move away from it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
You never open your heart to receive anything new, because
all of this bitterness is blocking anyone.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
From even getting close to you.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
So Paul uses a word that's so interesting in Ephesians,
chapter four, verse twenty nine. He says, corrupting. Corrupting means rotten.
That's what that word means. It's like spoiled fruit. You know,
anything spoiled. Guess what has a stitch. So this corrupting
(33:30):
talk doesn't just build up, It stinks and it tears down.
Corrupting talk doesn't give grace, It administers poison. Your words
have now become weapons. Your perspective has become skewed. You
see everything through.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
The dirty lens of your bitterness.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Can't celebrate nobody else's success. Why because your bitterness tells
you they don't deserve it. You can't offer genuine encouragement.
Why because your heart is full of cynicism. You are
defiling the atmosphere everywhere you go. These walls of bitterness
(34:19):
don't just imprison, they cast a shadow over everyone you love.
You have become a walking environmental hazard. I know people
that are so bitter, And when people that are familiar
with their bitterness, when they come around them, and when
(34:39):
they begin to spew out all of their negativity and
cynicism and bitterness, nobody opens their mouth and says a word.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
They just have to sit there and just hear this
over and over and over again.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
So you become a walking environmental hazard. You have a
spiritual hasmad suit on. And if this wall of defiling
damage could talk, it would laugh and say, look at you.
You thought this was just about you and them, But
now look, Your kids are nurture, are anxious, are nervous.
(35:15):
Your family feels like they're walking on eggshells. Your friends
are starting to back away from you. So this wall
is saying, listen, I'm not just in you anymore.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I'm in them too. I'm in them too.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Your bitterness has now jumped over and got into their spirit.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
This bitterness is spreading.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
The writer of Hebrew says many are defiled family.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
This has to stop right now. This has to stop.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
You have to see that your bitterness has casualties. Your
healing is not just for you. Your healing is for your children.
Your healing is for your spouse, Your healing is for
your friends, Your healing.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Is for your future.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
You have a responsibility to get well, not just for
your own sake, but for the sake of the many
that God has placed into your life. So your call
to action here behind this wall. I want you to
do a verbal fast. Nobody ever told you to do
this before a verbal fast, and this is what I
(36:37):
mean by this. For the next twenty four hours, you
will say nothing negative about the person or the situation
that you are bitter about.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
You will not complain. Check, you will not gossip.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Check, you will not make a sarcastic remark.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Check.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
You will follow the command of Ephesians Chapter four, verse
twenty nine, and let no corrupt words come out of
your mouth. You have to break the cycle of verbal defilement.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
I never knew this.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Was such an epidemic, such an epidemic until I just
started having conversations with different people from different walks of life,
and it's truly an epidemic, and we've normalized it, we've
spiritualized it, we've justified it, I believe, James says, or
(37:50):
maybe John, How can we know? James says, how can
we bless God and curse men? How can we curse
those who have been made in the image of God?
How can we love God whom we haven't seen and
hate our brother who we see every day? So the
(38:12):
question for you is.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
This, who are the many.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
That your bitterness is intentionally defiling? I talk to a
lot of different people when they leave ministries and they
go to another ministry, and they'll leave a ministry and
go to another ministry, and I talk to them, and
sometimes there's a bitterness. It's almost like their stamped with
(38:38):
this bitterness. And they'll leave one ministry and there's this
bitterness and they don't even realize until they start talking
and all of that bitterness starts to come out, and.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
In real time they don't even realize it.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
And sometimes it takes years to get over that because
what they're dealing with is church hurt. And I get it,
understand it. But you want to set yourself up for success.
The Bible says, pray for those who have despitefully hurt you,
used you.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Whatever the Bible says, pray for them.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
God said, vengeance is mine, said the Lord. He said,
I'll repay. But we don't even give God a chance
to intervene the step in why because we say, no, God,
I got it, And then what ends up happening. We'll
walk around for years with this bitterness, and every person
we get with spreading the contagion.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Here, come and let me tell you what they did
to me. Oh you don't know, Come here, let me
tell you. Now we have to learn.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
How to close our mouths and pray. This single root
of bitterness is sinister and just with this one verse,
we looked at three walls that it has built in
the lives of so many people. First, it builds the
(40:01):
wall of forfeited favor. You get so focused on the
debt that somebody owes you that you fail to receive
the grace that God is offering you. Your hands are
too full of grievances to accept his gifts of grace. Second,
we saw how this wall, how it builds the wall
(40:23):
of rooted resentment. The bitterness becomes a living system inside
of you. It's hidden in the dark, anchoring you to
your past and feeding on your thoughts until it becomes
an idol that you worship daily. Third, it builds the
wall of defiling damage. Your private pain becomes a public poison.
(40:47):
It leaks out and contaminates your relationships, your family, your community,
and it makes you a source of pollution instead of
a source of life. These are the walls of bil
and they have kept you captive for far too long.
They have promised you protection and they've only given you
(41:08):
a prison. Promise you justice, but they've only given you
misery and slup nights.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
So past tim how do we tear this down?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Well, we do it with the only too powerful enough
to vote to uproot the foundation and shatter the walls.
You want to know what that tool is. It's called forgiveness. Ouch.
Forgiveness is not a feeling. Forgiveness is a decision. If
(41:40):
you're waiting for your feelings to catch up, you're going
to be waiting a long time. Forgiveness is the conscious
choice to cancel a debt that you are old. It's
not saying what you did to me was okay. No,
it's saying what you did to me was so not
okay that it requires a supernatural response from me that
(42:07):
is empowered by God himself. I can't do it, but
the God in me can do it. And so I'm
going to hand this debt over to God because he
is the only righteous judge, and I'm going to trust
him to handle it.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
My job is not to be a debt collector. My
job is to be free. Your job is to be free.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
When you choose to forgive, you're not letting them off
the hook.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
You're taking yourself off their hook.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
The bitterness that has had his hook in you for years,
it has to lose its grip. And for me, this
is the genius of the Gospel. You know why because
my Bible tells me.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
If you just kind of walk over there to the
Romans Chapter five, verse eight, you want, you might want
to make.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
A note of this verse in your notes or in
your Bible.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
the ungodly. We didn't even ask for forgiveness. Wow, we
were sinning. While we were doing everything we were big
enough to do. He canceled a debt that we could
never pay. And because He did that for us, he
(43:29):
empowers us to do that for others, please hear me.
Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the chain of bitterness.
Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the chains of bitterness.
It's the sledgehammer that shatters these three walls.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
That we looked at.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
So it's time for us to start talking to God
about how big these walls are, and start talking to
these walls about how big God is. It's time that
we and adviction notice to bitterness. Because that root has
lived in the soil of your heart, rent free for
too long. It's time to uproot it once and for all.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Let me give you these three call the actions number.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
One, and I'm gonna explain each of them. Call the
action number one. Write it down, then tear it up.
Write it down, then tear it up. This is what
I mean. I want you to take a piece of paper,
write down the name or names of persons or people
(44:36):
who you are bitter towards right now. To write the
name down. I want you to write down the debt
they owe you. For some of you, you know what
it is. It's an apology. You want them to apologize.
And I know for some of you you would be
cool if they did that. But they're not going to
(44:57):
do it. So you need to write this down. You
need to get it all out, put it on paper,
look at it. And once you look at it, once
you read it, once you let it settle in your spirit.
Then I want you to take that paper and as
a prophetic act, I want you to tear that paper
into as many pieces as you can. I would say
(45:19):
burn it, but some of y'all might.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Burn your houses down. I don't want that for you.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
And as you're tearing up that paper, I want you
to say this out loud, I cancel this debt.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
As you're tearing it up, I cancel this debt in
the name of Jesus. I choose grace. I choose free.
Don't forfeit your grace. Saints, please don't forfeit your grace.
Number two, replace the narrative. Replace the narrative. That's what
(45:57):
I want you to do. Identify the primary negative thought
you rehearse about your hurt, the one that plays on
the loop. Now find a promise in scripture that directly
counters it. Is it the thought that you feel abandoned?
(46:19):
There was years in my life I felt abandoned. So
your scripture is going to be Hebrews chapter thirteen, verse five.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
God said, I.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Will never leave you nor Forsakeety is.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
It a thought of my life is ruined?
Speaker 2 (46:34):
How many times I've heard people say that my life
is over, My life is ruined because of a mistake,
because of a decision, because somebody did them wrong. Okay, cool,
Your scripture is going to be Romans chapter eight, verse
twenty eight. And we know that those who love God,
all things work together for good. Yeah, you need to
write that verse on a note card, and every time
(46:54):
that bitter thought comes back into your mind, you read
that verse out loud.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
I just with.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Someone over the phone this past Sunday who having some thoughts,
some bad thoughts, and I literally had them go to
the scriptures and made them write out the scripture and
read the scripture.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
And they will add a very very very low moment
in their life.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
And I appreciated their transparency because they were talking about
doing something harmful to themselves, to themselves and so a
day or two after that they were good.
Speaker 3 (47:38):
But see, this is what I need you to capture
in these moments.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Is crucial that you have the word of God to
combat these thoughts that are coming into your mind, because
if you just sit there and you rehearse it, and
you rehearse it, that weight is going to.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Feel heavier and heavier and heavier.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
The own weapon that Jesus used in Matthew chapter four
in the Wilderness Temptation, you know what it was, the
Word of God. They used a couple of Old Testament
scriptures back in the Book of Deuteronomy. So if it
was powerful enough for Jesus to use the word, why
(48:20):
do we run the social media and email and then
texting and calling and we're spreading it and we're spreading
it and we're spreading and now we've defiled many. No,
I need you to sit down, write that verse out.
I'm not asking you to do anything that I haven't
done for myself. And nobody taught me to do this.
I just did it because that's what God led me
(48:41):
to do. When I was at my lowest point, scriptures were.
Speaker 3 (48:46):
All over my apartment. Everywhere you look.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
You open up the refrigerator, I had a scripture inside
the refrigerator, scripture on the mirror, scripture on the wall, scripture.
As soon as I wake, I'm reading scriptures. And that
pulled me out of that suicidal season of my life.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
So you got to read the word of God.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
You have to reprogram your mind, your mind transformed by
the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
Romans, Chapter twelve, verse two. Somebody write that down to
take that.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
The word of God replaces the poison with the promise
of God.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
Number three. We're going a little long here because we
started a little late. Number three.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Bless your enemy, Bless your enemy. This is the nuclear
option right here. This is the advanced class. The Bible
commands us to bless those who curse us, and pray
for and pray for those who persecute us.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Remember the words of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
While he was hanging on the cross, bother forgive them,
for they know not what they do. Remember the prayer
of Stephen while he is being stoned, while those stones
are hitting his body, he looks up into the heavens.
He sees Jesus standing, and he says, Lord, lay not
discharge against them. So I challenge you, because ain't nobody
(50:11):
got you nailed to a cross, and nobody's stone in you.
Speaker 3 (50:15):
But I want to challenge you.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Pray one genuine prayer blessing for the person you are
bitter towards This is maturity right here, not God bless
them by hitting them with a bust. I don't want
you to pray that prayer. I want you to pray
a real prayer. God, I pray you would give them peace.
I pray you would reveal yourself to them. I pray
(50:38):
you would bless their family.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
If you do this, it will break the back of bitterness.
Speaker 2 (50:46):
It will break the back of bitterness in your life
faster than anything else, because it is the ultimate act
of spiritual warfare. So now, if this teaching has knocked
down at least these walls we've looked at in this lesson,
then I need you to share it Facebook family.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
I need you to like, I need you to comment,
I need you to share it.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
I need you to help us get this word out
because there are people living behind the walls of their
bitterness and we need to go and.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
Do a rescue mission.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
For those of you that are listening on the podcast,
God bless you and thank you so much. Those of
you that are on Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio. I
need you to subscribe, I need you to like, I
need you to follow, and I also need you to
share that podcast with your friends and family. New podcast
drops every Thursday morning at nine am. Let's pray, Father,
(51:42):
We honor you, We thank you God for your word.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
Wow, God, we got some work to do.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
And I thank you Father, because your word tells us
to lay aside every weight in every sin that so
easily trips us up.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
And God, this root of bitterness has tripped.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Us up God, for far too long, for most of
our lives, for some of us.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
God.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
But right now, God, we declare that we are casting
all of our cares on you because you care for us.
Speaker 3 (52:11):
God. And so God, we thank you for your grace. God.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
We thank you for your unmerited favor. We thank you
for your love. We thank you God that while we
were yet sinners, you sent your son to die for
our sins.
Speaker 3 (52:24):
God.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
So God, help us to model the life of Jesus.
Help us, God, to live by the example that he
set for us. Help us, God, not to just be
some church goers or some people that just.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Keep hearing the word and hearing the word. But God,
help us to grow up and mature and do the word. God.
It's time for us to work the word. It's time
for us.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
To see your miracles in our lives to see your
blessings in our lives.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
God in a real way. God.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
So Father, I thank you for this word. I thank
you for every man, for every woman that is listening.
I pray Father that this word will take root in there.
And I pray God that this word will bring forth fruit.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
That will remain.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
That is our prayer, God, our prayers to be fruit bearers,
not bitterness.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Root bearers.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
God, help us to bear fruit in the season of
our lives. So God, I cover homes, I cover families,
I cover relationships.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
God, and I pray God, as.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Your word declares, he who the Son sets free is free. Indeed,
help us to walk in our freedom. Help us to
walk in our liberty. We thank you, we love you,
we adore you, and it's in Jesus Mighty matchless name
that we do pray.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
Amen and amen on behalf of Pastor Tim Smith, thank
you for listening to these walls of bitterness. Please make
sure you share this teaching with your friends and family,
and remember, get into the word of God, and the
Word of God will get into you. Until next time, Peace,
Welcome to these walls of bitterness. We're diving deep into
Hebrews chapter twelve, verse fifteen. I need you to grab
your Bible in your notebook. Pastor Tim is about to
bring the in compromising truth that's going to challenge you,
convict you, and transform you. Let's get into the word
of God.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
My name is Tim Smith. I am the youngest child
Clara Jones. The city is back up as a musk.
We outside. Do me a favorite before we even get started.
Please like love and share. Please like love and share
a family. You know that's the only offering that I
will ever ask of you. I need you to offer
this teaching to whoever God places on your heart even
(00:37):
before we begin.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Just do me a favor.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Just pray a quick prayer, and just ask God, God,
who do you want me to share this teaching with?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
And whoever God places on your heart. When we're done,
I want you to make sure you do that for me.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Listen, I'm so glad you're here right now, whether you
are driving, whether you are sitting at your desk, whether
you are working out and just chilling on the couch,
whether you're walking on it. I believe this is a
divine appointment for you. This is a message I believe
that God has for all of us. This episode that
we're going to talk about is for everyone who has
(01:12):
ever been hurt and has found it hard to let go.
Have you ever had one of those days where something
small completely sets you off, I mean, just completely derails
your day.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Let me give you an example. What happened with me
so earlier this week.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I'm in the grocery store, minding my own business. I
got my list in my hand. I'm on a straight
up mission. I want to go in here, get these
five items that I got on my list, and get
on the side of there.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
So, I'm headed to the express lane and I see
the one that says fifteen items or less.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Perfect, no brainer.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Let me go on over here and get checked out,
get up out of here. But I'm not walking fast
enough because a woman with what looks like month's work
of groceries, she slips ahead of me into the lane.
And that's when I start to feel it, you know,
that feeling.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
That little irritation. It's bubbling up.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'm starting to have a conversation with myself and my head.
I am prosecuting this woman in the court of my mind.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I've already found.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Her guilty event and considerate of thinking that fifteen items
or less don't apply to her. And it's such a
minor irritation, family, but that small thing, if I let it,
it can completely derail my entire day. It can shift
my attitude, It can sharpen my tongue, it can change
(02:44):
the way that I speak to the cashier, and it
really can even affect how I drive home. And it
was just this one tiny moment of frustration, and now
it becomes the lens through which I'll see the rest
of my day. This is why I want to talk
to you, because that little seed of irritation, if you
(03:07):
water it, if you give it sunlight, if you nurture it,
it becomes a plant. And if you let that plant grow,
it becomes a tree with roots that can crack the
foundation of your entire life. And so today I want
to unpack this. So we're going to talk about that
particular rout. We're here to do some spiritual landscaping. We're
(03:27):
here to talk about these walls of bitterness. So that,
as always I need you to do me a favorite.
Grab your bible, get something to write with get a notepad.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I need you to take detailed notes.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Shout out to Shannon, because we're about to go to work.
We're about to get into something that I believe that
God is going to speak a word to all of us.
The power word for today is up roots.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Up Root.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I know you didn't know you were going to have
to do some gardening today, but yes, we're going to
have to do some gardening. We'll have to get out
here and have a horticultural class. So when we're talking
about uproot, what are we talking about. To uproot means
to dig out from the very source, to remove completely.
It's where you leave no trace behind. So we're not
(04:16):
here to trim the leaves of your frustration. We're not
here to pick the food of your anger. We are
not here to just play with this thing. We are
here to uproot the entire system that is poison in
your life from below the surface. So your mission, should
you choose to squabble up is this. I want you
(04:36):
to identify the wall of bitterness that has built up
in your life, and then I want you to use
God's word to begin knocking that wall down. Break by brick,
We're going to be over in the Book of Hebrews,
one of my favorite books. Book of Hebrews. Hebrews, chapter twelve,
verse fifteen. Hebrews, Chapter twelve, verse fifteen. We're gonna chop
(04:59):
this verse. We're gonna break, make it apart, and we're
going to see what the Lord has to say to
us through Hebrews, Chapter twelve, verse fifteen. The word of
the Lord says this, And I want you to let
this sink in, really, let this marinate in your mind.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Hebrews twelve fifteen.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
See to it that no one fails to obtain the
grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up
and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. It
that the right of Hebrews is referring to is that
(05:36):
root of bitterness. And so when you look at this verse,
this verse is not a suggestion, it's a loaded verse.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
It's a command.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It's a spiritual emergency broadcast system for your soul. So
the writer of Hebrews screaming at us, and he's saying,
pay attention, look closely. Something is trying to steal what
is rightfully yours. Let's break this down. The verse stars
(06:05):
with a charge. See to it. What I find interesting
about that statement is that you won't read that anywhere.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Else in the Bible.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
See to it that phrases active, that phrases vigilant. This
means that you are a watchman on the wall of
your own heart. You are on guard duty. And what
are you guarding against. The text gives us three catastrophic
failures that all stem from one single sinister root, and
(06:39):
that root is called bitterness. Wall number one. Let's identify
these walls. Wall number one, the wall of forfeited favor,
the wall of forfeited favor. Let's look at the first
part of that verse, what I call fifteen eight. See
to it that no one fails to obtain the grace
(07:02):
of God. Now, let's speak clear in talking about grace. Grace,
by definition, is God's unmerited favor.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
It's the free gift of God.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
You can't earn it, you can't work for it, you
can't buy it.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
It's free. It's something that God gives to all of us.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
In fact, over in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight lays
it out precisely. For by grace, you have been saved
through faith. And this is not your own doing. It
is the gift of God. So with what Paul says
(07:43):
over in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, we see that
grace is truly a gift from God. So what we
see in Hebrews chapter twelve, verse fifteen, though, it implies
something very terrifying. And I need you to hear this
hebrew this chapter twelve, verse fifteen. Keep in mind what
you just read in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. But
(08:06):
the Hebrews chapter twelve, verse fifteen. The verse implies that
you can fail to obtain grace. How how can you
fail to get a free gift from God? It's simple
when you refuse to receive it. When you refuse to
receive God's grace. So imagine this. Imagine God is standing
(08:30):
in front of you, and he's holding out the most beautiful,
life altering gift that you could ever imagine.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
The gift that.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
He's offering you is grace. It's the greatest gift in
the world. It's love, its forgiveness, it's peace, it's restoration,
it's reconciliation, all rolled up into this beautiful gift. But
as he's presenting it to you, your hands are not
open to receive it. Your hands are clenched into fists.
(09:06):
And what are you holding on to so tightly that
you can't receive the gift of grace? And let's be honest.
Some of you are holding on to your hurt. Some
of you are holding on to your pain. Some of
you are holding on to your right to be angry.
(09:29):
Some of you are holding on to your bitterness. And
if you're taking notes, write this down. Bitterness makes you
a professional debt collector. That's what bitterness does, because you
have a leiger in your mind.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
You've written down the.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Names of your ex husband, your ex wife, and the
debt that they owe you for the pain of that divorce.
You've written down the name of your father who wasn't
there for you, or for the mother who wasn't emotionally
there for you, she was emotionally absent. And you're looking
(10:10):
at the debt that they owe you for a childhood
that you never had, that you never had. You felt
like your childhood, you felt like you've been robbed of
your childhood. And so you've been walking around and you
have been holding on to that bitterness. Here's here's the
(10:30):
here's the dangerous. You feel justified, you go to church,
lift your hands, praise God and all of that. But
you take that bitterness and you just set it over
to the side, and then when you come out of church,
you just pick it right back up and you keep
it moving. You've written down the name of that friend
who betrayed you, that sibling who got on your last nerves.
(10:55):
And you spend your days trying to collect debts, replay
the reels in your mind, you relitigate the case in
your mind.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
And while you are so busy being.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
A debt collector, you miss the debt cancelor. While you're
so focused on what they owe you, you fail to
obtain the grace that has canceled the insurmountable debt.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
That you owe to God.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Why because you're so determined to make them pay, You
so determined to make them pay, that you end up
paying the ultimate price. You forfeit favor. You fall short
of grace. Grace is standing at the door knocking, but
you can't even hear it over the sound of you
(11:48):
replaying in your head what has been done against you.
And if this wall or forfeited favor could speak, it
would whisper to you.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Don't let it go. You're right, they were wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Your pain is your identity, and if you forgive them,
who will you be? And it's sitting there and it's
patting you on your back, and so you hold on
to this bitterness because you feel like this is all
you have. This is the receipt of what they left
you with. So you're clutching these receipts of bitterness and
your bitterness. Can I tell you something, It's not your identity.
(12:26):
Your wound is not your name. What you've gone through
this valid. What you've experienced is real. But you have
to hear me. You can't trade a banquet table that's
overflowing with mercy for scraps or resentment. That's not a
fair exchange. You've exchanged the wide open sky of forgiveness.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
For prison tile.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And you will to de bars yourself and so break
by brick, grudge by grudge, you build these walls, and
these walls are suffocating you. We have to allow grace
to do the work on our heart. We have to
allow grace to do the work that we could never do. Remember,
(13:14):
the Bible says over I believe it's in Jeremiah, chapter seventeenth,
verse nine. It says that the heart is deceitful and
desperately wicked.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Who can know it?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
So every day that you choose bitterness, you are rejecting
the very grace that could set you free. You're not
just missing out on actively destroying your You're not just
missing out, You're actively destroying yourself from the inside out.
(13:46):
Please hear me, because this is a silent killer question
for you. What deck are you trying to collect? That
is keeping your hands too full to receive God's grace.
God wants to give you his grace, but you're carrying
all of this stuff. What they did, what they said.
(14:07):
You don't know, you don't understand. You weren't there.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
God was there for all of it, and he's still
offering you his grace. But you have to decide right here,
right now. I gotta let this bitterness go. I know
personally people who are bitter about things that happened thirty
forty years ago. I know personally people who walk around
(14:32):
like that, and they just have a negative connotation, a
negative mindset. No matter what good happens in their life,
they always default back to that bitterness. Because it's exactly
what the writer of Hebrew says It is a root
of bitterness. Please don't miss the language of what the
(14:53):
writer is saying. We're gonna continue breaking this. Now, let's
move on back. Let's move on to wall number two,
the wall of rooted resentment. Wall number two taking notes
the wall of rooted resentment. So now let's move to
the next part of this Verse's continue walking.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Through the verse.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Verse fifteen b that no root of bitterness springs up
and causes trouble. This right here, this is the source code.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Of the whole problem.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
The writer, in my estimation, uses a brilliant agricultural metaphor.
He calls it a root of bitterness. Let's get into this.
This is where we uproot the bitterness. Remember our power
word uproot. This is where you and I must uproot
and bitterness. Now, what do we know about roots. Let's
(15:47):
just look at this purely, just from an agricultural standpoint.
First of all, we know that roots grow in the dark.
You don't see roots growing, but roots grow in the dark.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
They're hidden.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Here's the connection to bitterness. Bitterness is not always the loud,
angry person yelling at everyone. No, oftentimes that person who's
walking in bitterness, they're quiet, they're smiling, and they're rehearsing
(16:22):
your murder in their mind.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
It's the silent treatment.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
It's the subtle razor sharp shade. It's the snarky comments.
It's the polite conversation that's dripping with poison that nobody
else can see. It's hidden, it's in the dark. Please understand.
Bitterness grows in the secret place of your heart. It
grows in the soil of your thoughts when nobody is looking,
(16:49):
and you think you're hiding it, But what's happening is
it's growing. Second thing we know about roots is this
roots and anchor, a plant. A root of bitterness anchors
you to your past. A root of bitterness keeps you
stuck in the moment of your greatest pain. A root
(17:11):
of bitterness reminds you that even though that divorce was
years ago, that root has you anchored to the day
the papers were signed, to the day when you walked
out of the courtroom.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Your father walked out years ago.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
But that root has you anchored to when that screen
door slam behind him. You try and move forward, but
you're tethered. You're connected. You're rooted to that moment in time.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Because you refuse to cut the root.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
You can't even embrace your future because you're so anchored
to your bitterness. Third thing we know about roots is this,
and I think this is the most critical.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Roots absorbed nutrients. Hear me.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Roots absorb nutrients, and this is how they grow.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
The root of bitterness is a living thing.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
It needs to eat. And what does it feed on.
It feeds on your thoughts, It feeds.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
On your memories.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Every time you replay the offense, you're watering the root.
You're giving it nutrients. Every time you gossip, every time
you slander the person who hurts you, you're giving it fertilizer.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
You're feeding it.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Every time you scroll through that social media and you
looking for that you looking to see signs that they're failing,
you're giving that root sunshine. You've made bitterness an idle.
Let me tell you what the idol is. And idle
is anything you serve, anything you build your life around,
anything you sacrifice for. You have become the high priest
(18:55):
at the altar of your own pain. You put on
the robes of remembrance every morning, and so your daily
prayer isn't to God. Your daily prayer is actually a
recital of the charges against a person who hurts you.
You bring the sacrifice of your own joy, your own peace,
(19:16):
and you lay it on that altar hope, and the
smoke will somehow choke the person who isn't even there.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
This idol is.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Diabolical, and it demands your life, piece by peace, and
you willingly give it, and you call it justice, your officiating,
your own spiritual funeral, one memory at a time that
my friend is worship.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
This is the very heart of these walls of bitterness.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
It's a structure that's built on a foundation of pain,
and the root system is the plumbing that keeps it
flowing through your entire being, so it never stops.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
It's perpetual.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It's just going from your head to your heart, your
head to your heart, your head to your heart.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Even just the name of the.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Person it drives you into a convulsion. Problems, Chapter four,
verse twenty three. Solomon says that he says, keep your
heart with all villages. In other words, you have to
guard your heart. You have to safeguard your heart. You
have to protect what comes in and what goes out.
(20:26):
Listen to what he says. He says, for from it
flows the springs of life. So now, if the heart
is the source of life, then the root of bitterness
in the heart makes it the source of death, because
no other way we can stack that up, because it
contaminates everything. And the spring is poison, spring is water,
(20:50):
it's refreshing, it's refreshment. But bitterness has contaminated the spring
and your heart. And if this wall of rooted resentment
could talk, it would mock you. It would say you
can't get rid of me. I'm a part of you.
I was there when they hurt you. I'm your defense mechanism.
(21:11):
I keep you safe.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
Remember what they did.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And so this thing is continuously in your mind, doesn't
want you to forget. Please hear me what I'm saying.
This is for everybody. This is for all of us,
whether you in Nashville, Mississippi, Atlanta, La, Oakland, Shottown, you
walk in Champagne. About it, every single city where dreams
get broken and where hearts get shattered. That root of
(21:38):
bitterness is not your friend. That root of bitterness is
not your protector. It is a parasite that is killing
its host. So to call to action here for you,
and I is this because remember the root is growing
from the nutrients that you feeded. You have to starve
(21:59):
the root. You have to stop feeding your bitterness. You
must stop feeding your bitterness starting today. Vow in your mind,
make up in your heart that you will not allow
your mind to.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Be a buffet for your bitterness.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
So when the memory comes up, and it will, you
don't entertain it.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
You don't feed it.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
You don't set a place for it at the table
of your mind.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
You don't.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
The Bible says that we are to take those thoughts captives.
Listen to the language of scripture. This tells you how
much of a fight this really is. You have to
take that thought captive. You have to take that thought
as a prisoner, and you have to make that thought
obedient to Christ. It can't be, it won't be obedient
(22:55):
to you.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
You have to make it obedient to Christ. And here's
a scripture for you.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
And I need you to get this in your mind,
and I need you to get this in your spirit.
And it goes precisely with what I'm saying to you
right now. It's found over tewod Corinthians, chapter ten, verse five.
The apostle Paul write writes these words. He says, we
church he's talking to the church. We that's who we are.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the
(23:26):
knowledge of God. Here it is, and take every thought
captive to obey Christ.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Listen to me.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
Family, Your mind is a battle feel It is not
a playground, is not Disney World. It is not a
debate club. Paul isn't giving you a self help tip here,
He's handing you your rules of engagement for spiritual warfare.
(23:57):
Paul says that we are to destroy arguments. Please lean
into the language that the apostle is using. If he's
telling you that you have to destroy these arguments, that
tells you how intense this really is. So imagine we
(24:18):
haven't been destroying these arguments, and so these arguments have
taken hostile, have taken territory in your mind. They've set
up shop in your mind. There are lies you started
to believe are true. If you believe the lie that
you'll never be good enough, then you'll never be good enough,
(24:41):
and that is an argument in your mind.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
You can't forgive them for what they did to you.
That's an argument.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
God can't use you after what you've done. That's a
lofty opinion and it's raised against the true knowledge of God.
So Paul says, your job, my job, Our job isn't
to consider these arguments, he said, Our job is to
destroy them. We don't sit up and debate with it.
(25:08):
We don't sit up, Hey, what you think? No, he says,
destroy it. You have to destroy these arguments in your
mind with the divine power that God has given me.
Then he gives us a tactical command. All the language
that's in the scripture is military language. He gives us
(25:30):
a tactical command. Take every thought captive. This is an
act of war. This is not passive. This is not
for the lazy. When a thought of bitterness, a thought
of lust, a thought of fear, a thought of despair
tries to set up camp in your mind, you don't
offer it a cup of tea.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
You don't debate it.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
You are the soldier at the gate of your mind,
and that thought is an enemy.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
You have to kick in the door of that thought.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
You have to throw a spiritual flash bang in the room,
and you have to put that thought in handcuffs. Paul says,
take it captive. You must take a captive. Yes, you you,
you must take a captive. You must interrogate that thought,
and you have to ask that thought by what authority
(26:25):
do you speak in my mind? Do you align with
the word of God? Do you bow to the lordship
of Jesus? And if the answer is no, you don't
just show at the door. You force it to its
knees and you make it obey Christ. That means that
thought of bitterness that says I hate them, you have
to capture that and you have to force that thought
(26:48):
to say I must forgive hear me as Christ forgave me.
That thought of despair that says it's impossible.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
You have to capture that thought, and you.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Have to force that thought to confess I can do
all things through Christ Jesus, who gives me strength.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Nothing gets to pass family. From this point forward, we've.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Just allowed thoughts to just roam free in our mind, unchecked.
When was the last time you thought about what you
were thinking about? It would surprise you how much the
Bible has to say about our mind. So you can't
allow these thoughts to roam free in your mind. Every
(27:33):
single thought is brought into submission.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Hear me.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
That's not positive thinking. That's not what I'm talking about.
This is spiritual dominance. That's what Paul is writing about.
Question for you, what.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Are you feeding your root of bitterness? Every day?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
What are you feeding your root of bitterness? Because it's growing,
because it's been with you for you years. So for
a root of bitterness to be with you for weeks, months, years,
that means you're the one who's feeding it.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
And you're going to.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
Have to start feeding your mind the word of God
and take every thought captive. I hope you wrote that
verse down Wall number three, the wall of defiling damage,
the wall of defiling damage. This brings us to our
final devastating wall, and it's a devastating consequence. It's found
(28:37):
right there in the verse verse fifteen six. And by
it many become defiled. Oh snap, and by it men,
See it's not just you now see this thing has
spilled over.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
This is what the writer is trying to show us.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
See, if we just go back a bit and just
go ahead and take it captive, we won't get here.
But if we don't take it captive, then I want
you to look at the collateral damage.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
That word defiled is loaded. It means to.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Be made spiritually and morally unclean, to be contaminated to
be polluted. This is the part where we realize that
our private bitterness has made a public impact. See, you
think your bitterness is your own business. You think it's
(29:34):
contained within the walls of your mind. You think it's
contained within your heart. No, the right of hebrew says no,
it's a contagion. The right of Hebrews is saying your
bitterness affects people.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Your bitterness has a body count. It's not just secondhand smoke.
It's a spiritual nerve agent. It's colorless, it's olderness, and
it seeks under every door. You walk into a room
and the temperature changes. You think you're hiding it behind
(30:12):
a smile, but your spirit of screen. People can feel it.
Your spouse feels the tension. Your kids learn anxiety as
a second language. Your coworkers they learn to avoid you.
You're not just carrying a wound. You have become the weapon.
The very thing that hurts you is now the thing
(30:35):
you use to hurt others.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
What's the old.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Saying, hurting people hurt people, And whether it's happening consciously
or not, the defilement is you. You're replicating the pain
you swore you never, cause that's the ultimate tragedy of bitterness.
(30:59):
It turns victims into villains. Who are the many? Look
at the verse again, who are the many? It is
your children, it's your relationships, your past relationships, your current relationship,
your new relationships. It's your church. One person where the
(31:22):
root of bitterness can split a church. One person with
a root of bitterness can disrupt the ministry, can spread
gossip and division like wildfire.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
I have seen it happen numerous times.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Bitterness leaks, and everyone around you is inhaling the fumes
of that leak. Ephesians, chapter four, verse twenty nine. Paul
gives us a perfect picture of this defilement and action.
Paul says this. He says, let no corrupting talk come
(32:03):
out of your mouths talking to the church, but only
such as is good for building up, as fits the
occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.
A bitter heart produces corrupting talk. Some people have rehearsed
(32:27):
the talk for so many years they don't even see
how bitter they are. They don't even hear the words
that are coming out of their mouths, because they have
this thing on the loop. All they had to do
is press play, and all of this stuff comes out,
and they never, for one second just stop to say, hey.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
What was my part in this? What did I do wrong?
And so what happens is you end.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Up rehearsing this over and over and over again, year
after year after year, and you.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Never move away from it.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
You never open your heart to receive anything new, because
all of this bitterness is blocking anyone.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
From even getting close to you.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
So Paul uses a word that's so interesting in Ephesians,
chapter four, verse twenty nine. He says, corrupting. Corrupting means rotten.
That's what that word means. It's like spoiled fruit. You know,
anything spoiled. Guess what has a stitch. So this corrupting
(33:30):
talk doesn't just build up, It stinks and it tears down.
Corrupting talk doesn't give grace, It administers poison. Your words
have now become weapons. Your perspective has become skewed. You
see everything through.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
The dirty lens of your bitterness.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Can't celebrate nobody else's success. Why because your bitterness tells
you they don't deserve it. You can't offer genuine encouragement.
Why because your heart is full of cynicism. You are
defiling the atmosphere everywhere you go. These walls of bitterness
(34:19):
don't just imprison, they cast a shadow over everyone you love.
You have become a walking environmental hazard. I know people
that are so bitter, And when people that are familiar
with their bitterness, when they come around them, and when
(34:39):
they begin to spew out all of their negativity and
cynicism and bitterness, nobody opens their mouth and says a word.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
They just have to sit there and just hear this
over and over and over again.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
So you become a walking environmental hazard. You have a
spiritual hasmad suit on. And if this wall of defiling
damage could talk, it would laugh and say, look at you.
You thought this was just about you and them, But
now look, Your kids are nurture, are anxious, are nervous.
(35:15):
Your family feels like they're walking on eggshells. Your friends
are starting to back away from you. So this wall
is saying, listen, I'm not just in you anymore.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I'm in them too. I'm in them too.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Your bitterness has now jumped over and got into their spirit.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
This bitterness is spreading.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
The writer of Hebrew says many are defiled family.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
This has to stop right now. This has to stop.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
You have to see that your bitterness has casualties. Your
healing is not just for you. Your healing is for your children.
Your healing is for your spouse, Your healing is for
your friends, Your healing.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Is for your future.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
You have a responsibility to get well, not just for
your own sake, but for the sake of the many
that God has placed into your life. So your call
to action here behind this wall. I want you to
do a verbal fast. Nobody ever told you to do
this before a verbal fast, and this is what I
(36:37):
mean by this. For the next twenty four hours, you
will say nothing negative about the person or the situation
that you are bitter about.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
You will not complain. Check, you will not gossip.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Check, you will not make a sarcastic remark.
Speaker 3 (37:01):
Check.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
You will follow the command of Ephesians Chapter four, verse
twenty nine, and let no corrupt words come out of
your mouth. You have to break the cycle of verbal defilement.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
I never knew this.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Was such an epidemic, such an epidemic until I just
started having conversations with different people from different walks of life,
and it's truly an epidemic, and we've normalized it, we've
spiritualized it, we've justified it, I believe, James says, or
(37:50):
maybe John, How can we know? James says, how can
we bless God and curse men? How can we curse
those who have been made in the image of God?
How can we love God whom we haven't seen and
hate our brother who we see every day? So the
(38:12):
question for you is.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
This, who are the many.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
That your bitterness is intentionally defiling? I talk to a
lot of different people when they leave ministries and they
go to another ministry, and they'll leave a ministry and
go to another ministry, and I talk to them, and
sometimes there's a bitterness. It's almost like their stamped with
(38:38):
this bitterness. And they'll leave one ministry and there's this
bitterness and they don't even realize until they start talking
and all of that bitterness starts to come out, and.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
In real time they don't even realize it.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
And sometimes it takes years to get over that because
what they're dealing with is church hurt. And I get it,
understand it. But you want to set yourself up for success.
The Bible says, pray for those who have despitefully hurt you,
used you.
Speaker 3 (39:13):
Whatever the Bible says, pray for them.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
God said, vengeance is mine, said the Lord. He said,
I'll repay. But we don't even give God a chance
to intervene the step in why because we say, no, God,
I got it, And then what ends up happening. We'll
walk around for years with this bitterness, and every person
we get with spreading the contagion.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Here, come and let me tell you what they did
to me. Oh you don't know, Come here, let me
tell you. Now we have to learn.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
How to close our mouths and pray. This single root
of bitterness is sinister and just with this one verse,
we looked at three walls that it has built in
the lives of so many people. First, it builds the
(40:01):
wall of forfeited favor. You get so focused on the
debt that somebody owes you that you fail to receive
the grace that God is offering you. Your hands are
too full of grievances to accept his gifts of grace. Second,
we saw how this wall, how it builds the wall
(40:23):
of rooted resentment. The bitterness becomes a living system inside
of you. It's hidden in the dark, anchoring you to
your past and feeding on your thoughts until it becomes
an idol that you worship daily. Third, it builds the
wall of defiling damage. Your private pain becomes a public poison.
(40:47):
It leaks out and contaminates your relationships, your family, your community,
and it makes you a source of pollution instead of
a source of life. These are the walls of bil
and they have kept you captive for far too long.
They have promised you protection and they've only given you
(41:08):
a prison. Promise you justice, but they've only given you
misery and slup nights.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
So past tim how do we tear this down?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Well, we do it with the only too powerful enough
to vote to uproot the foundation and shatter the walls.
You want to know what that tool is. It's called forgiveness. Ouch.
Forgiveness is not a feeling. Forgiveness is a decision. If
(41:40):
you're waiting for your feelings to catch up, you're going
to be waiting a long time. Forgiveness is the conscious
choice to cancel a debt that you are old. It's
not saying what you did to me was okay. No,
it's saying what you did to me was so not
okay that it requires a supernatural response from me that
(42:07):
is empowered by God himself. I can't do it, but
the God in me can do it. And so I'm
going to hand this debt over to God because he
is the only righteous judge, and I'm going to trust
him to handle it.
Speaker 3 (42:23):
My job is not to be a debt collector. My
job is to be free. Your job is to be free.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
When you choose to forgive, you're not letting them off
the hook.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
You're taking yourself off their hook.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
The bitterness that has had his hook in you for years,
it has to lose its grip. And for me, this
is the genius of the Gospel. You know why because
my Bible tells me.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
If you just kind of walk over there to the
Romans Chapter five, verse eight, you want, you might want
to make.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
A note of this verse in your notes or in
your Bible.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
the ungodly. We didn't even ask for forgiveness. Wow, we
were sinning. While we were doing everything we were big
enough to do. He canceled a debt that we could
never pay. And because He did that for us, he
(43:29):
empowers us to do that for others, please hear me.
Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the chain of bitterness.
Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the chains of bitterness.
It's the sledgehammer that shatters these three walls.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
That we looked at.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
So it's time for us to start talking to God
about how big these walls are, and start talking to
these walls about how big God is. It's time that
we and adviction notice to bitterness. Because that root has
lived in the soil of your heart, rent free for
too long. It's time to uproot it once and for all.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Let me give you these three call the actions number.
Speaker 2 (44:15):
One, and I'm gonna explain each of them. Call the
action number one. Write it down, then tear it up.
Write it down, then tear it up. This is what
I mean. I want you to take a piece of paper,
write down the name or names of persons or people
(44:36):
who you are bitter towards right now. To write the
name down. I want you to write down the debt
they owe you. For some of you, you know what
it is. It's an apology. You want them to apologize.
And I know for some of you you would be
cool if they did that. But they're not going to
(44:57):
do it. So you need to write this down. You
need to get it all out, put it on paper,
look at it. And once you look at it, once
you read it, once you let it settle in your spirit.
Then I want you to take that paper and as
a prophetic act, I want you to tear that paper
into as many pieces as you can. I would say
(45:19):
burn it, but some of y'all might.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Burn your houses down. I don't want that for you.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
And as you're tearing up that paper, I want you
to say this out loud, I cancel this debt.
Speaker 3 (45:33):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
As you're tearing it up, I cancel this debt in
the name of Jesus. I choose grace. I choose free.
Don't forfeit your grace. Saints, please don't forfeit your grace.
Number two, replace the narrative. Replace the narrative. That's what
(45:57):
I want you to do. Identify the primary negative thought
you rehearse about your hurt, the one that plays on
the loop. Now find a promise in scripture that directly
counters it. Is it the thought that you feel abandoned?
(46:19):
There was years in my life I felt abandoned. So
your scripture is going to be Hebrews chapter thirteen, verse five.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
God said, I.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
Will never leave you nor Forsakeety is.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
It a thought of my life is ruined?
Speaker 2 (46:34):
How many times I've heard people say that my life
is over, My life is ruined because of a mistake,
because of a decision, because somebody did them wrong. Okay, cool,
Your scripture is going to be Romans chapter eight, verse
twenty eight. And we know that those who love God,
all things work together for good. Yeah, you need to
write that verse on a note card, and every time
(46:54):
that bitter thought comes back into your mind, you read
that verse out loud.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
I just with.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
Someone over the phone this past Sunday who having some thoughts,
some bad thoughts, and I literally had them go to
the scriptures and made them write out the scripture and
read the scripture.
Speaker 3 (47:18):
And they will add a very very very low moment
in their life.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
And I appreciated their transparency because they were talking about
doing something harmful to themselves, to themselves and so a
day or two after that they were good.
Speaker 3 (47:38):
But see, this is what I need you to capture
in these moments.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
Is crucial that you have the word of God to
combat these thoughts that are coming into your mind, because
if you just sit there and you rehearse it, and
you rehearse it, that weight is going to.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Feel heavier and heavier and heavier.
Speaker 2 (47:59):
The own weapon that Jesus used in Matthew chapter four
in the Wilderness Temptation, you know what it was, the
Word of God. They used a couple of Old Testament
scriptures back in the Book of Deuteronomy. So if it
was powerful enough for Jesus to use the word, why
(48:20):
do we run the social media and email and then
texting and calling and we're spreading it and we're spreading
it and we're spreading and now we've defiled many. No,
I need you to sit down, write that verse out.
I'm not asking you to do anything that I haven't
done for myself. And nobody taught me to do this.
I just did it because that's what God led me
(48:41):
to do. When I was at my lowest point, scriptures were.
Speaker 3 (48:46):
All over my apartment. Everywhere you look.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
You open up the refrigerator, I had a scripture inside
the refrigerator, scripture on the mirror, scripture on the wall, scripture.
As soon as I wake, I'm reading scriptures. And that
pulled me out of that suicidal season of my life.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
So you got to read the word of God.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
You have to reprogram your mind, your mind transformed by
the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
Romans, Chapter twelve, verse two. Somebody write that down to
take that.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
The word of God replaces the poison with the promise
of God.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
Number three. We're going a little long here because we
started a little late. Number three.
Speaker 2 (49:30):
Bless your enemy, Bless your enemy. This is the nuclear
option right here. This is the advanced class. The Bible
commands us to bless those who curse us, and pray
for and pray for those who persecute us.
Speaker 3 (49:49):
Remember the words of Jesus.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
While he was hanging on the cross, bother forgive them,
for they know not what they do. Remember the prayer
of Stephen while he is being stoned, while those stones
are hitting his body, he looks up into the heavens.
He sees Jesus standing, and he says, Lord, lay not
discharge against them. So I challenge you, because ain't nobody
(50:11):
got you nailed to a cross, and nobody's stone in you.
Speaker 3 (50:15):
But I want to challenge you.
Speaker 2 (50:17):
Pray one genuine prayer blessing for the person you are
bitter towards This is maturity right here, not God bless
them by hitting them with a bust. I don't want
you to pray that prayer. I want you to pray
a real prayer. God, I pray you would give them peace.
I pray you would reveal yourself to them. I pray
(50:38):
you would bless their family.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
If you do this, it will break the back of bitterness.
Speaker 2 (50:46):
It will break the back of bitterness in your life
faster than anything else, because it is the ultimate act
of spiritual warfare. So now, if this teaching has knocked
down at least these walls we've looked at in this lesson,
then I need you to share it Facebook family.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
I need you to like, I need you to comment,
I need you to share it.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
I need you to help us get this word out
because there are people living behind the walls of their
bitterness and we need to go and.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
Do a rescue mission.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
For those of you that are listening on the podcast,
God bless you and thank you so much. Those of
you that are on Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio. I
need you to subscribe, I need you to like, I
need you to follow, and I also need you to
share that podcast with your friends and family. New podcast
drops every Thursday morning at nine am. Let's pray, Father,
(51:42):
We honor you, We thank you God for your word.
Speaker 3 (51:47):
Wow, God, we got some work to do.
Speaker 2 (51:49):
And I thank you Father, because your word tells us
to lay aside every weight in every sin that so
easily trips us up.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
And God, this root of bitterness has tripped.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Us up God, for far too long, for most of
our lives, for some of us.
Speaker 3 (52:03):
God.
Speaker 2 (52:04):
But right now, God, we declare that we are casting
all of our cares on you because you care for us.
Speaker 3 (52:11):
God. And so God, we thank you for your grace. God.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
We thank you for your unmerited favor. We thank you
for your love. We thank you God that while we
were yet sinners, you sent your son to die for
our sins.
Speaker 3 (52:24):
God.
Speaker 2 (52:25):
So God, help us to model the life of Jesus.
Help us, God, to live by the example that he
set for us. Help us, God, not to just be
some church goers or some people that just.
Speaker 3 (52:37):
Keep hearing the word and hearing the word. But God,
help us to grow up and mature and do the word. God.
It's time for us to work the word. It's time
for us.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
To see your miracles in our lives to see your
blessings in our lives.
Speaker 3 (52:50):
God in a real way. God.
Speaker 2 (52:53):
So Father, I thank you for this word. I thank
you for every man, for every woman that is listening.
I pray Father that this word will take root in there.
And I pray God that this word will bring forth fruit.
Speaker 3 (53:06):
That will remain.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
That is our prayer, God, our prayers to be fruit bearers,
not bitterness.
Speaker 3 (53:15):
Root bearers.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
God, help us to bear fruit in the season of
our lives. So God, I cover homes, I cover families,
I cover relationships.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
God, and I pray God, as.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Your word declares, he who the Son sets free is free. Indeed,
help us to walk in our freedom. Help us to
walk in our liberty. We thank you, we love you,
we adore you, and it's in Jesus Mighty matchless name
that we do pray.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
Amen and amen on behalf of Pastor Tim Smith, thank
you for listening to these walls of bitterness. Please make
sure you share this teaching with your friends and family,
and remember, get into the word of God, and the
Word of God will get into you. Until next time, Peace,
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