“The ROOT Of the Problem!”
Scripture Text: Hebrews 12:14-17 “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord; (15) Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any ROOT of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; (16) lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. (17) For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”
=The title of the message to you today is, “The ROOT of the Problem.”
*A lot of times, for every difficulty there is a ROOT CAUSE for that difficulty. What is the ROOT CAUSE for this struggle in my life? Is there a ROOT cause for my constant illness? What is the ROOT cause for people who have trouble KEEPING a job? What is the ROOT cause for my anger? What is the ROOT cause of my fear? What is the ROOT cause for my constant depression and anxiety?
*This may sound a bit like a riddle to you, but today we are going to look at the ROOT of many ROOT causes!
Scripture Text: Hebrews 12:14-17 “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord; (15) Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any ROOT of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
*Today’s scripture tells us that the ROOT of BITTERNESS is the Cause of many troubles!
*The FRUIT of a Bitter ROOT can be many things… addiction, lust, immorality, anger, resentment, unforgiveness, envy…slander… malice…etc.
LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT A “root of bitterness,” - BITTER ROOT WILL DO…
1) - BITTER ROOTS CAUSE DECEPTION – We can’t SEE clearly when we are DECIEVED!
-2 Cor. 11:3 “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
*To understand this, we need to go back to the garden of Eden. NOW ‘deception’ always has a bit of ‘Truth’ in it. Satan said, “God knows that the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” - “God knows (Well yes, this is true because God knows everything), that the day you eat of it, (True, they already knew that the day they eat of it, that there would be consequences) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Here is The lie! Here, is the DECEPTION! They are ‘already like’ God… and they know GOOD! God is GOOD, and they got to speak to a GOOD God every day! The continuing DECEPTION IS THIS, “You will not surely die, for God knows the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” God knows something you don’t know! Good and evil!
-What is behind this lie, is that … God is WITHOLDING something from you! God is not DOING something for you that He should be doing! God is HOLDING BACK on you!
*What satan is attempting to do, is get Eve to be ‘Bitter’ against God! And you know why? Because the Original, original sin, (not adam & eves sin), but the original sin in SATAN is a ROOT of Bitterness toward God!
-Isaiah 14 tells us how satan fell! “How you are fallen from heaven O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! (13) For you have said in your heart; ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; (14) … I will be like the Most High.’ (15) Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit.” - He wanted to be like God! He felt that God was holding out on him, and he developed a ROOT of Bitterness toward God!!
*All sin.. goes BACK to a ROOT of Bitterness towards God. When we sin, in truth, we have been deceived, into believing, that God is holding out on you, that there is something BETTER out there for you than what you have!
=Paul says to the Galatian church, Gal.3:1 “O foolish Galatians! Who has BEWITCHED you (who has deceived you?) that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?”
=The word ‘Bewitched’ means to perform by magic! A trick by ‘slight of hand!’ In other words, ‘Look over here, while I do something over here!”- Look at what God IS NOT doing for you here, instead of looking at what God IS DOING for you here! The ROOT of Bitterness brings a deception, and you can’t SEE CLEARLY when you are deceived!!
2) Bitter Roots Defile & Cause TROUBLE! - Scripture Text: Hebrews 12:14-15 “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord; (15) Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any ROOT of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
=Root of Bitterness causes DEFILEMENT! The word defiled means, ‘Stained!’ Or DYED with a different color! Bitterness, stains! Bitterness DYES what is pure with an impure color! “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will SEE the Lord.” If bitterness defiles, and stains the heart making it impure, then, Pursuing peace, is the antidote, keeping the heart pure! -Matt.5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall SEE God.” Pursuing peace/forgiveness, both giving and receiving, is a Holy attitude. When you walk in bitterness, it says, no one will SEE the Lord! This seeing doesn’t mean SIGHT, but instead it means, the PRESENCE of the Lord! Without holiness, without pursuing peace, NO ONE will be in the Presence of the Lord! A lack of holiness is a critical obstacle to an intimate relationship with God!
=What is the ROOT cause of me not feeling the PRESENCE of the Lord? What is the ROOT cause of me feeling so DRY! The DRYNESS is a FRUIT of Bitterness! Not walking and pursuing Peace with all people!
Hebrews 12:15 “Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God;” – Being careful to not fall short of the Grace of God. – This may also be translated as, ‘failing to keep up with the Grace of God.’ The idea here is that the grace of God is MOVING ON! Past the pain and hurt of the past! We should MOVE ON also! If not, we fall SHORT of the Grace! We all short of the grace of God, when we allow BITTERNESS to drive us!
=BITTERNESS corrupts many, rooted in a sense of personal hurt! And many hold on to BITTERNESS with amazing stubbornness! What they must do is remember the GRACE extended to them, and start extending that grace towards others!
Scripture Text: Hebrews 12:16-17 “lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. (17) For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”
*Now, Hebrew 12 mentions Esau… So lets turn to Genesis chapter 25, to see exactly what part of the Esau story this pertains too…
=Gen.25:29-34 “Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. (30) And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.’ Therefore his name was called Edom. (means red). (31) But Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright as of this day.’ (32) And Esau said, ‘Look, I am about to die; (no he wasn’t), so what is this birthright to me?’ (33) Then Jacob said, ‘Swear to me as of this day.’ So he swore to him, and sold is birthright to Jacob. (34) And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.” He despised… his birthright, meaning he DIDN’T Value, his birthright! He gave it up for a bowl of soup! TWICE his inheritance, he gave up…for a bowl of lentil soup!!
*Jacob gave… and Esau ate….(Gen.25:34)
*Eve GAVE… and Adam ate…(Gen.3:6)
=We see how the ROOT of BITTERNESS went from Satan, to Adam and Eve… and the from Adam & Eve to Jacob and Esau… later the ROOT of BITTERNESS will effect Joseph and his brothers… and David and his brothers…we see it all through scripture. Satan believed God was holding out on him… Eve believed God was holding out on her… Adam believed God was holding out on him… EVERYONE was DECIEVED into believing that God was holding out on them!! They all were DECIEVED and BELIEVED in a lie, and as a result MOVED in a ROOT of BITTERNESS!
*Now, since we are STILL talking about Esau… let’s SEE how Esau MOVED in his ROOT of Bitterness…that evolved into a ROOT of Rejection toward his father.
=Gen.28:6-9 “Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him, gave him a charge saying, “You shall NOT take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” (7) and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. (8) Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. (9) So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abrahams son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.”
=Esau is walking in the ROOT of Bitterness… and he is trying to GET BACK at his father! One FRUIT of Bitterness is Resentment!
=Esau saw that Jacob obeyed his father… and Esau went and did the opposite! He’s got this ROOT of BITTERNESS towards his brother… he has a ROOT of Bitterness towards his Father.
-Heb.12:16-17 “lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.(17) For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.”
*Esau was DEPRESSED, brought on by himself, because he was BITTER!
=rejected = more than rejected by God, but the REJECTION; Discouragement, ‘He’ carried within himself, that allowed him to NOT RECEIVE the grace of God for himself!
=profane person = a worldly person DRIVEN by a carnal appetite! It’s not just food, it could be an appetite for lust… an appetite for greed… power…to be Malicious…to be REVENGEFUL!!
=Deut. 28, is known as the ‘Blessings & Cursing’s Chapter!’ It’s a chapter on consequences! “If you obey the voice of the LORD your God, and observe carefully all His commands, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth! Blessed you shall be in the city…and blessed you shall be in the country…” cursing = “But it shall come to pass, If you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God…that all these curses will come upon you…. Cursed you shall be in the city, and cursed you shall be in the country…your body and your produce…”
=Deut. 29:18 – “Lest there should be among you man, woman or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD your God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; and that there may not be among you a ROOT bearing BITTERNESS or wormwood.”
*We have in Hebrews the mention of a ROOT of Bitterness… here in the OT is the mention of a Bitter Root called Wormwood!
=Wormwood = is a root, a bitter root… that when it’s around water, it causes it to be bitter. This could possibly have been the ROOTS around Mara…
-There are many scriptures where WORMWOOD is mentioned. -Solomon said (Prov.5:4) About the immoral woman, ‘… but her end is bitter as wormwood…”
=Rev.8:10-11 “Then the third angel sounded; and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made BITTER.”
*Early in the 20th century, some doctors and medical experts tried making medicine out of WORMWOOD, but they found it made people SICK, and caused convulsions, hallucinations, mental deterioration, psychosis, from the TOXIC chemical associated with wormwood! Bitterness makes you sick… mentally and physically!
CLOSING
=Ques; How many people are DOING THINGS that are out of spite or bitterness to GET BACK at others, but it is really only hurting themselves?! Many people can BLAME and GET BACK at other people for their issues, but the ROOT of the ROOT is NOT the people you blame! The Root is that you are mad at God! You’re Bitter towards God! You are BITTER towards God, because He could have done something! You are mad at God because (you believe), He could have done something…stopped something… or not allowed something to happen! God could have intervened!
=Ruth 1:20 Naomi marries a man by the name of Elimelech. She gives birth to TWO sons. Her husband dies and she was left with her two sons. The sons marry, and about 10 years later, BOTH SONS die, and Naomi is devastated! She becomes BITTER and says to her mother-in-law, “Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very BITTERLY with me.” Look at what she is saying, “The Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.” What she is saying is, “God did this to me.” Think about this… our resentment, many times, it misdirected towards another person, when it is really towards God! ‘Why didn’t God stop this? Why didn’t God stop that person from abusing me?” “God You could have stopped them!” Why God, are You blessing that evil person? Why in the world would You bless a person like that, and NOT bless me?” “Why did you allow my business to fail God?” Why was I layed off?” “I serve and tithe!” “Why God did you allow that person to die? Why them? Why now?” These are all questions that reflect a Bitterness towards God!!
=Naomi means ‘Pleasant.’ So Naomi says don’t call me this, instead call me ‘Mara.’ Mara means Bitter!
*When the children of Israel were going through the wilderness, they came to some springs of water, and the waters were BITTER, so they called it ‘MARA.’ Later, God told Moses to take a tree and cast it into the waters, and the waters would become SWEET! (Exodus 15) Now our ‘Assumption’ is that they CUT down the tree… but it doesn’t say that! The tree was probably taken from the ground, with the ROOTS INTACT, and then CAST into the waters of Mara making it SWEET! This being more significant and symbolic, that the TREE with ITS ROOT, is Jesus! The ROOT and the Offspring of Jesse, being cast into the BITTER waters making it SWEET again! Jesus can CHANGE your BITTER waters to Sweet! But you have to bring Jesus in!
=Psalm 69:21 (Messianic Scripture) “they also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
=Matthew 27:34 (Prophetic fulfillment) - “they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink.”
=He tasted bitterness… but did NOT DRINK it! Here is a note for us! We will ALL TASTE Bitterness in our lives… but DON’T DRINK it! You have a CHOICE to Drink it!
CLOSING PRAYER FOR ROOT OF BITTERNESS TOWARDS GOD…ASKING JESUS, TO REMOVE IT! FORGIVENESS TOWARDS OTHERS… “Father, Forgive them, for they know not what they do!”
