“Uprooting Bitter Roots 2”
Introduction
Two weeks ago we began exploring a subject that affects every person in the world. Either you or someone you know has been paralyzed by this insidious infection at one time or another in your life or perhaps even now. It is so devastating that is one of the three community killers that God warns us as a Christina community to persistently be on guard against. The first was to guard against falling short of God’s enabling grace freely and abundantly supplies to those who humbly ask for it. The second is to passionately and persistently guard against bitter roots in ourselves and in our community that breaking the surface entangle the individual and disrupt the community.
1. Guard against falling short of God’s enabling grace
2. Guard against bitter roots
Seeing to it…that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
I. The character of bitterness
A. Definition
Bitterness describes the presence of negative thoughts and emotions in the soul toward someone I hold responsible for an actual or perceived offense intentionally or unintentionally inflicted upon me or someone I care about.
The core of bitterness is negative thoughts and emotions toward some else, myself or God.
These thoughts and emotions simmer in the soul; our inner life. Bitterness is an internal soul disease that eventually infects every other area of our life. It is an internal condition within my soul that begins with an unhealthy response to an actual or perceived offense.
Perceived danger and actual danger produce the same mental and emotional trauma.
I believe there is a burglar in the house.
Perceived offence and actual offence generate the same negative mental and emotional reaction
I overhear someone talking about me behind my back.
I thought I overheard someone talking about me behind my back.
The offense may have to do with some offensive action toward me.
The offense may have to do with some action or inaction I perceive to be offensive.
You demonstrated mercy – I demanded justice.
You are wrong. I am right.
The offense may have to do with a failure to fulfill some communicated or un-communicated expectation.
Someone failed to meet me at the agreed upon time and place. (4 hours late).
I expect my wife to greet me every night with a warm hug and hot meal.
Bitter thoughts and emotions are those emotions that bite, cut, sting, burn, rage, churn, simmer, accompanied by thoughts of rejection and retaliation. They revolve around me and my state of being. They have to do with my hurt and grievance not someone else’s health and growth.
Anger
Anger is a natural response to evil; to offense. Anger can exist with or without bitterness.
Anger without bitterness focuses on responding to evil by correction, restoration and overcoming evil with good. Godly anger focuses on how God feels about it. Godly anger motivates us to deal with the evil and restore right relationships and behavior. Anger infected with bitterness focuses on revenge, retaliation, punishment and payback. Bitter anger focuses on how I feel. Bitter anger drives me to focus on my pain and sever relationships.
So many families are torn apart by bitterness that rages for years.
B. Description of Bitterness
Wounds and bitterness are two different things. Offenses do not cause bitterness. Offenses cause wounds. Failure to properly treat wounds generates bitter infections.
Bitterness results from failure to properly respond to offenses. Everyone gets offended. Not everyone becomes bitter. Offenses do not cause bitterness. We intentionally choose to cultivate bitterness by our refusal to Biblically response to offenses.
I can't control what happens to me but I can control what happens in me.
I consciously choose to sow and cultivate negative thoughts and emotions. I intentionally choose to allow bitter thoughts and emotions to take root in my soul in the response to life's disappointing events and offenses. Bitterness is an attempt to either demand repayment or exact punish on the perceived offender so I can feel better.
BITTERNESS
Bitterness demands payment and imparts pain to the perceived offender.
I want the offender to repay me and to hurt like I hurt.
LOVE
Love dismisses debt and imparts favor to the perceived offender.
I want to release the offender and to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
C. Characteristics of bitterness drawn from Hebrews 12:15
1. Bitterness is a community issue
2. Bitterness is distasteful and poisonous
3. Bitterness begins underground
4. Bitterness eventually surfaces
5. Bitterness entangles us
6. Bitterness defiles others
II. The cause of bitterness
A. The cause of bitterness pinpointed
How is it that two people suffering the same offense respond so differently? One becomes bitter. The other grows from it and becomes better. It paralyzes one but empowers the other.
It all has to do with the condition of the soul. Bitterness thrives in the sour soil of a self-centered soul. According to James, the presence of selfish ambitions and jealousy is the seedbed for disorder and every evil thing in the community. Bitterness can only take root and survive in a self-centered soul soil. But what energizes jealousy and selfish ambition? James answered that question as well; he called it pride and unbelief.
Pride demands that life revolve around me; my comfort, my dreams and ambitions, my sense of well-being, my pleasure, my feelings. It's all about me! My way or the highway! Pride is the core seed of all sin. Pride energizes the bitter jealousy and selfish ambition that becomes the perfect soil for the cultivation of bitterness. Some plants like acidic soil. Bitterness thrives in acid soil of proud thinking.
Bitterness is my reaction when the world doesn't revolve around me and my needs.
Bitterness is my reaction when I am no longer the focus of attention.
The central cause of bitterness is pride.
Until I deal with pride I will NEVER effectively eradicate bitterness.
Every offense, every wound of life will become infected to the point where it not only vexes me but disrupts everyone around me. I become a lonely bitter person.
B. The cause of bitterness pictured (illustrated)
1. The polluted stream
When we allow the pollution of pride, selfish ambition, jealousy and bitterness in our soul, the very waters of refreshment that God pours into our life and intends for us to refresh those around us become poison.
2. Israel’s proud unbelief
God miraculously delivered the nation Israel out of centuries of bitter bondage. He eliminated both the offenses and the offenders. He completely drowned their tormentors in the Red Sea.
They held a huge praise service in which they offered praise for God's great deliverance.
"Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? "You stretched out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them. "In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation. Exo 15:11-13
If you thought that there would be no more cause for bitterness…
If you thought that the miraculous nature of God's loving care and supernatural deliverance filled them with faith and positive thoughts and emotions powerful enough to face anything, you would be absolutely wrong.
Just three days later, bitterness toward God inflamed by their proud unbelief consumed them.
For you see, bitterness has to do with what is going on in me not to me. They were still a proud and stiff-necked people who refused to fully entrust their future into God's loving care or their lives for God's eternal use. In their pride and unbelief, they refused to trust God with their life.
Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore it was named Marah. So the people grumbled at Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" Exodus 15:22-24
This wouldn't be the only time. Again and again their pride-driven bitter hearts spewed accusations against the very God who delivered them and promised to lead them to the Promised Land. More than once they were ready to stone Moses who consistently interceded for them with God. Bitter circumstances can only foster bitter thoughts and emotions when the soil of pride and unbelief remain unaddressed. Hebrews clearly identified why God denied that generation entrance into rest and peace.
And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Hebrews 3:17-19
3. Simon the Magician’s proud control Acts 8:9-23
It is not difficult to discern Simon’s problem with pride. He was top dog in the town; the star attraction. He was in control. His selfish ambition had taken him into Satan's camp to satisfy his lust for notoriety. But Philip came to town with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Even Simon got saved. A short time later the apostles came to town to minister to the freshly baptized believers.
Simon’s proud heart stirred up his bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. The apostles demonstrated a power he had never seen before. He lost his audience. The power of the Gospel to actually change lives rather than entertain them eclipsed Simon’s game. He lost his notoriety and became bitter. He was no longer in control. Bitter people are controlling people. In an effort to protect from pain and more bitterness they must control everything and everyone around them. Rather than trust God with his life, Simon took the course of his life in his own hands. His selfish ambition and jealousy drove him to seek to acquire the Holy Spirit’s power with money.
He was even spiritual about it. He wanted the power for a good thing. He wanted to help people. But Peter recognized the real intention of Simon’s heart. Peter isolated the driving force behind Simon's actions.
Wherever pride exists, bitterness exists. Wherever bitterness exists, pride exists.
Our selfish ambition driven by pride will always get frustrated by people and life.
Any expectation that life in this age or people in this age can bring ultimate fulfillment to our lives or that we, by our efforts, can achieve ultimate fulfillment is doomed to failure.
That frustration will turn to bitterness; negative thoughts and emotions that will eventually break out in negative words and actions. Our need for love and acceptance is a gigantic hole that only God can fill. Our longing for restored life on the renewed earth will only be realized in God’s time and through His transforming power. When we fail to entrust our lives into His hands…
We will become controlling; either to promote ourselves or protect ourselves.
We will become bitter because our effort to promote or protect ourselves always fails.
We will eventually direct that bitterness toward people, ourselves and God.
Jeremiah started out that way but didn't end that way.
4. Jeremiah
He (God) has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood. He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. So I say, "My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the LORD." Lam 3:15-18
Had Jeremiah continued on that course, he would have died a bitter old man.
He chose to cleanse his thinking and perspective which in turn renewed his feelings.
Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:20-26
You see, Jeremiah humbled himself. Jeremiah looked into his bitter soul and chose to once again entrust his well-being into the hands of a loving God whose compassions never fail; who is always faithful. He once again offered himself for God's eternal use.
Are you bitter at God today? God didn't fix it. He doesn't answer my prayers. Why did He allow that to happen to me? You see, we foster negative feelings toward those who don’t come through for us. God allowed us to run out of water. God allowed the enemy to overrun us.
God sent us into captivity. Satan himself is full of pride-driven bitterness. He spread his poison to everyone he touches.
Only one US president refused to take his oath of office with his hand on the Bible.
Why? An automobile accident took the life of his son shortly before he was inaugurated.
5. The infected wound
The danger of infection is so high that each cut in surgery is made with a new cutting instrument because the skin contains so many bacteria. It is not the wound but the bacteria on our skin that increases our danger of infection. When there are unaddressed bacteria in our soul, ANY wound will breed infection. When pride permeates our soul, any offense will nurture a destructive infection of bitterness. Real cause of bitterness is pride.
III. The consequences of bitterness
The consequences for cultivating are far reaching into the body, soul and spirit. Family, work, social life, personal life. It affects our thinking. Slow poison that destroys us and even those around us. People begin withdrawing. Our body is a meticulously balanced chemical wonder.
Hormones, enzymes, glands all designed to work in balance. When bitterness disrupts that balance, the body can no longer protect itself from disease and malfunction. Mental, emotional, physical and spiritual balance all depend upon a biblical outlook and a life of trust in God’s care.
APPLICATION
Since the rooting of bitterness mostly has to do with the current soil conditions of the soul, I wonder, is it well with your soul today? Is pride preventing you from receiving God’s enabling grace?
Is pride creating the ideal conditions for the cultivation and propagation of bitter roots?
? Submit therefore to God.
? Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
? Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
? Cleanse your hands, you sinners
? Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
? Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.
? Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.
Prayer to Purge Pride
Father, Your feelings concerning pride are clear. You resist the proud but grant enabling grace to the humble. Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to YOU; he will not be unpunished (Prov 16:5). Pride always precedes a fall. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise (Psa 51:17). I humbly admit my pride. I acknowledge that I have been focused more on myself that You. I have been more concerned about my agenda than Yours. I assumed I could ignore Your word and neglect Your ways without consequences. My failure to spend time talking with You only confirms my proud heart. I have not sought You with all my heart. I have not put You first. I have acted like I could get along by my own strength. It is clear I can’t. I submit to You and put You first in my life. I renounce the devil who I have allowed to use me for his purposes and distract me from Yours. I draw near to You with great anticipation of more deeply experiencing Your nearness to me. I acknowledge my failure to do what I should and my decisions to do what I shouldn’t stemming from my failure to continually keep You first in my life. I acknowledge the seriousness and sinfulness of trying to live life in this fallen world without intimate connection with You for direction and strength. It is obvious that my pride and self-centered thinking has hindered my relationship with You and those around me. I ask You to purify my heart and mind of all that is contrary to Your truth and I receive Your transforming word implanted in the soil of my soul. May Your truth keep the soil of my soil fertile for the growth of Your refreshing fruit in my life. I humble myself in Your awesome presence knowing that You alone can lift me up and cause me to stand faultless in Your presence now and for eternity.
