The Three Thieves of Thanksgiving- Bitterness
CCCAG December 3rd, 2017
Sermon Text- Esther 2:21-3:6
When I was a teenager I was really into martial arts, and I hung with a group of guys that were always training, always sparring, always looking at new ways to fight and to perfect our fighting techniques.
All of us had pads, and a few of our parents even let us cut the grass in our backyards extra short in a spot to mark off the typical square that most competitive martial arts events take place in. It’s a little bigger than a boxing ring.
We would all put our pads on and agree to the rules of the day- typically only use half contact to the body, and very light contact to the face, and nothing other than sweeps to the legs as our parents would be a bit upset if we ended up in the ER every week. For the most part, we followed those rules.
I was by far the shortest of our group at 5’6”. One of my friends, Steve, was about 6 inches taller than I was, and had a significant reach advantage. All my friends learned that when they got into the ring with me, all they had to do was lunge punch me and I couldn’t counter because I still had 4-6 inches to go before my hands would even touch them. Steve did this to me all the time and loved showing off. We were sparring in front of our girlfriends one summer day and he was in full Steve mode- Showing off, doing the old rope a dope, and making me look bad in front of everyone.
Steve really started on the verbal abuse has he kept darting in with lunge punches to my forehead and making everyone else laugh. I then saw a weakness to his punch and how he telegraphed what he was about to do- his toe would slightly turn in right before he would lunge. So I waited for it- and the next time he came in, I ducked the right underneath it, and all I saw was his ribcage. The whole “half contact to the body rule” went right out the window.
I wound up a punch all the way from my toes and let it rip, lifting Steve right off the ground and knocking the wind right out of him.
As he rolled around on the ground gasping for air among the laughter of everyone else, he stumbled to his feet and said, “Ok, lets go”.
The next thing he threw was a front kick. He claimed he was aiming for my chest, but it only made it about half way up and the flat of his foot hit me right in the groin.
Yeah….now I was on the ground groaning feeling like I wanted to die.
Every guy in here just winced…
Life is like that though. Just when we think we scored a much-needed points, BAM- you are on the ground rolling around in pain.
When life starts to land kick after kick or punch after punch- it affects you, you start to expect it, and it affects how you see life and even how you view God. If we are not careful, a root forms in your spirit, and it produces bitterness within your soul.
Today we will be concluding our series on the three things that steal our joy or our ability to be a thankful person.
We saw how comparison leads to envy, envy to jealousy, and if left alone and allowed to flourish, changes us into a person filled with bitterness and anger.
In the Old Testament book of Esther, we read of a young Hebrew girl who was carried away to Babylon after the destruction of Jerusalem and is raised by her uncle Mordechai. Esther finds herself in a unique situation- the queen of Babylon has been exiled, and she enters a national beauty contest for to find a new queen and wins the heart of the King becomes his wife. While this is going on, Mordecai becomes one of the king’s officials, and uncovers a plot against the king, and that is where we pick up the story-
Esther 2:21
During the time Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate, Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, became angry and conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. 22 But Mordecai found out about the plot and told Queen Esther, who in turn reported it to the king, giving credit to Mordecai. 23 And when the report was investigated and found to be true, the two officials were impaled on poles. All this was recorded in the book of the annals in the presence of the king.
Chapter 3 After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. 2 All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
3 Then the royal officials at the king’s gate asked Mordecai, “Why do you disobey the king’s command?” 4 Day after day they spoke to him but he refused to comply. Therefore, they told Haman about it to see whether Mordecai’s behavior would be tolerated, for he had told them he was a Jew.
5 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. 6 Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.
Prayer
Big idea- Today we are going to look at the 3rd personality trait that steals our ability to the thankful, and that is bitterness. We started with comparison, then talked about envy and jealousy, and now will explore the end result of comparison and envy- bitterness.
Bitterness is defined as a bad outlook because of past circumstances. This outlook on life affects you this way-
Someone hurt you, therefore you will hurt others.
We see this today in the life of Haman- a very bitter man who lashed out against anyone who slighted him.
I. What was the Root of Haman’s bitterness
It’s root came from an act of Disobedience that occurred long before he was born.
Growing up in Xerxes Persia didn’t help either. But it’s true root was something that had happened to his family centuries ago that he carried around with him until this event described in the biblical text.
What was this root of bitterness?
In 1 Samuel 15, God tells King Saul to wipe out all of the Amalekites, men, women, livestock, the family dog- every living thing belonging to the Amalekites.
- Saul carries out the command, but not entirely, taking spoils for his men. Among the most sought after spoils would have been the women in the royal household of Amalek, one of whom was pregnant with Amaleke’s child.
- That son that Saul failed to destroy was the great grandfather of Haman.
- Haman is carrying a grudge against the Hebrew people that started hundreds of years before.
Haman had his reason for hating all Jews, and it was a pretty good one- Jewish people had wiped out his entire family and stolen a kingdom that would have been his eventually.
All of us can identify with that-
All of us have these kinds of hurts in our past. With some people, the mention of a name, or a situation will cause an intense feeling of loathing or anger, or even hatred to well up inside of us.
I had a former partner that every time we came across a patient with the name of Sara he couldn’t even look at her, much less be nice to her because that was the name of his ex-wife who had hurt him in the worse possible ways. He had such a visceral reaction to even the name that the only thing he was good for on the call was driving the ambulance to the hospital. It affected him so much that often the next day, he would be found drunk in a bar or even sleeping on the street and we would have to go and pick him up so the police wouldn’t come and get him.
He chose to hold onto that anger, that rage, that hurt, and it drove him to the consequence of bitterness, which is wallowing in it.
He died a few years ago- the same bitter person I knew him to be.
He did the same thing Haman did- wallow in his bitterness
II. Wallowing- a choice not a mandate
Anyone know anyone who wallows in their past hurts like that?
It has gotten really bad in our time. We have made it a media and political sport in our day.
Black people hate white people because of Slavery
Jews hate Germans because of the holocaust
Muslims hate Christians because of the crusades and the various wars we have fought in the middle east since September 11th, 2001.
Packer fans think Viking fans are losers….so on and so forth.
But that is what bitterness does. It’s an irrational holding onto past hurts that ends up consuming us, and we can’t view reality any other way then through this situation that has been holding us hostage.
I’ve said this many times, but it bears repeating- “Truth is reality as seen though God’s eyes”. When we chose to view situations, people, or even the reality we live in outside of how God views it, then we chose to believe a lie rather than pursue the truth in all things.
Joel Osteen gives a great illustration of what we are talking about-
Years ago there was a terrible outbreak of disease in a tiny village in a remote part of Africa. Both children and adults were, getting sick and overcome with nausea. Several, weeks passed, and the sickness became widespread, and people started dying. Word of the disease reached the main city in that area, and experts were dispatched to try to figure out what was causing the problem. They soon discovered that the water was contaminated. The village got its water supply from a mountain stream that was fed from a spring, so the experts decided to trek upstream into the mountains and hopefully find the source of the pollution. They traveled for days and finally came to the mouth of the stream. But on the surface, they found nothing wrong. Puzzled, they decided to send some divers down to search as closely to the spring’s opening as possible.
What the divers discovered shocked the experts. A large mother pig and her baby piglets were wedged right at the opening of the spring. Evidently, they had fallen in, drowned, and somehow got stuck there. Now all that crystal clear, pure mountain spring water was being contaminated as it flowed past the decomposing remains of those dead pigs. In no time after the divers were able to extricate the dead pigs, the water began to flow clean and pure once again.
I ask you this- what dead pigs are lurking in your past that is affecting your present.
What hurts have been done to you that you refuse to forgive and let go off- giving it to Christ and letting him heal you?
What mistakes have you made whose consequences have destroyed your spirit, and you wallow in despair and hopelessness.
Jesus didn’t save you just from eternal consequences of sin- He died and rose again to give you a new life, a new heart, a new spirit, and a new outlook- so you can understand the truth as He sees it.
Don’t be a Haman
Haman took great pleasure in his plans to bring Mordechai and the Jews destruction. However, his plans didn’t end well.
The king remembered that Mordecai saved his life, and wanted to honor him. He asked Haman the king should honor a man that has done the king a great service.
Haman, blinded by his bitter rage, ego, and pride thinks the king is talking about honoring him and comes up with an elaborate way for the king to honor him, including having a royal official lead him through the city on the king’s horse proclaiming this man is valued by the King.
The king is sold on the idea, and tells Haman to go and do that for Mordechai
Imagine a person consumed with bitterness and rage having to do that. The rest of Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews falls apart, and he ends up pleading with Queen Esther to spare him, and the bible says-
Est 7:8-10 And the king returned from the palace garden to the place where they were drinking wine, as Haman was falling on the couch where Esther was. And the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?”
As the word left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman's face. Then Harbona, one of the eunuchs in attendance on the king, said, “Moreover, the gallows that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, whose word saved the king, is standing at Haman's house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Hang him on that.” (10) So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the wrath of the king abated.
I want to speak to each one of us right now-
This is the end of everyone who refuses to repent of their bitterness- you will be hanged on a gallows of your own making.
If you name yourself a Christian, your LORD Jesus was very deliberate in his language when he said-
Mat 6:14-15 For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, (15) but if you do not forgive others their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins.
Holding onto your hate, your anger, or your hurt only empowers the person that harmed you and give the devil free reign to mess up your soul, and your entire life. You are plunging a knife into your own heart expecting it to kill them.
You are also killing any chance of God blessing you.
Bitterness is a death sentence in every way imaginable or possible.
WE are going to end today with looking at-
III. Freedom from the thieves of thanksgiving
The root of bitterness is unforgiveness.
First, you need to learn to forgive those who hurt you.
This is NOT something that you will be able to do on your own.
This is something that you will need the Holy Spirit’s help with.
Second, you need to forgive yourself for whatever part you may have had in what has hurt you, or for your unforgiveness.
Many people hang on to bitterness because they can’t accept the forgiveness that God offers us through Christ Jesus.
Altar Call- pray for everyone.
