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Amen, so i'm going to preach a sermon this morning on the subject of bitterness entitled beware of bitterness You know bitterness is something in our lives that we want to Be on guard against and we should never think that we've got to this place in our life where bitterness cannot yet creep in again in our lives And turn us into a bitter person and bring about, you know, all the fruit of bitterness You know that we're going to talk about the fruit and the root of bitterness, you know bitterness has a root That we have to keep in check And if we leave it unchecked, it's going to bring certain fruits into our lives. It's going to manifest itself And you're there in hebrews chapter 12, um bookmark hebrews chapter 12, but go over to ephesians 4 We're going to look at hebrews 12 and ephesians 4 a couple times this morning So you might want to keep something in both passages But you know, what does it mean to be bitter? Basically being bitter is to be in a state of discontentment You know when somebody's bitter they're upset about you know, the way things have gone for them They're upset about maybe the condition of that they're in their circumstances Maybe something has happened to them or somebody's done something to them Said something to them and they hang on to that and they become discontent about the you know How things have turned out in their life and i'm speaking generally but you know, that's what bitterness is It's basically just if you boil it down to What it is is a state of discontentment. You're unsatisfied You're unhappy with the way things are and instead of just being at peace with it or letting it go you hang on to That you harbor resentment and then you become a bitter person It's a state of discontentment And I don't want to uh, you know get to give everyone this idea that all bitterness is is evil, you know Or that it's something that's bad. Like if we find somebody who's in anguish or somebody who's uh going through a hard time and maybe they have a little bit of a Of a cloud hanging over their head that would say oh, they're just a bitter person You know being bitter about things sometimes actually is a natural reaction. I'll just read to you a couple passages It says in job seven. I mean if anybody had an excuse to be bitter about things it was job I mean we see people get bitter at our lives over the dumbest things and they and they hang on to resentment and things and they destroy relationships in their lives For for over the sum of the smallest things, right? I mean joe he's losing his kids. He's lost his wealth. He's lost his his physical health All these things are taken away from him. So can you really blame him where he says in chapter 7 verse 7 verse 11? Therefore I will not refrain my mouth. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit I will complain in the bitterness of my soul I mean i'm not going to be one to I wouldn't want to walk up to To joe and say well you need to just let it go joe, you know, you need to just get over it you know he went through a lot and if in some, you know, that's a good lesson too, it's kind of a sub point but Whenever somebody's going through something hard in their life like really hard if they if they're complaining in the anguish of their spirit You know, we should just give that person grace Even if if you'd say well, you know, it's not right Maybe they should just kind of move on or maybe they maybe they're a little bit, you know, harsh Maybe they say something to us. Maybe they lash out in anger You know because they're going through some difficult trial in their life, you know, we don't have to you know Expect them to behave perfectly in every uh instance if they're going through You know anguish of spirit kind of like what joe was going through here now, of course everything joe said was right And uh, you know, we'll see later that joe wasn't somebody who held on to bitterness that he let it go But you could also think about hannah in first samuel chapter one, you know She was one that was barren and wanted a child And when she uh, it says that she was in bitterness of soul and prayed under the lord and wept sore Okay, so it's a natural reaction for people sometimes to be bitter, you know But really with the what I want to focus in on more this morning is the fact that some people you know They hang on to things and it makes them a bitter person They hang on to things that they probably shouldn't hang on to they they want to justify that they're bitter They want to justify that they're angry about some circumstance or situation in their life And really they they really don't have any justification for it at all, you know, and and to kind of give us an idea What does it mean to be have a bitter spirit or a bitter attitude? Well, just think about you know, when you bite into something bitter if you suck on a lemon that's very bitter You know, you hold that in your mouth, you know, you make a face right and start to get that lemon face And sometimes we'll even say that about people if they're in a bad mood They're like, what'd you have lemons for breakfast? You know, like, you know, you'll say something like that to that effect because they're making a bitter almost face, right? And that's kind of the same thing we can do spiritually, you know We can do that in our own lives, you know with our uh, the way we behave ourselves and conduct ourselves You know, sometimes people have something, you know, as the saying goes life gives them lemons, right and instead of just you know Making lemonade they take a big old bite out of lemon They just walk around the rest of their life. Just just bitter about what happened just about the lemon that they got in life Right and so you can kind of see how that's a an illustration to kind of give us an idea about what it means to be bitter, okay And this is the fruit of bitterness if you're there in uh, are you in ephesians? I have you go there ephesians chapter four It says in verse 31 let all bitterness now notice That bitterness is what leads this list Bitterness is you know, this is what's the the root of bitterness is what we're going to talk about So you have the root here in in verse 31 and then you have the fruit that it brings, you know I believe that you obviously you could have any one of these things without the other Right, but I believe that if you have bitterness in your life and in your heart if you harbor these feelings These other things are going to come. Uh, this is the fruit that bitterness is going to bear in your life Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice So you can kind of see how in this list bitterness is kind of the root here and what follows is the fruit of Bitterness, you know you have wrath which comes from it, you know, what what is wrath anger and action? It is basically what wrath is, you know, some people are are angry, right? But they but they learn to control that anger. They learn to keep that in they don't lash out Right, or maybe they even deal with it and get over it Whereas with wrath it's it's kind of like anger and action, you know, you think about when god You know in revelation, what does he do? He pours out his wrath God's been angry with the wicked every day and then when it comes time to judge he pours out his wrath Right, so it's it's his anger in action And if we harbor bitterness in our life, you know, our our anger is going to manifest itself in the form of wrath You know, we're going to start to be you know, do things to people say things to people hurt other people uh, you know, then you have anger, you know, which you know kind of is the Uh the same thing as wrath, but again, it's more of a passive, right? This is where you get the passive aggressive stuff This is where it's maybe they're not going to just lash out, but they're going to harbor They're going to hold on to some kind of anger or resentment think about clamor, right? This is another fruit of bitterness. We're talking about the you know, the root and the fruit of bitterness So you have bitterness is this root in your life that can bring these other things And you end up having wrath anger and what else clamor, you know clamor is not a real common word that we use But it's basically, you know a loud and persistent cry, you know people who get bitter about things in life They want everybody to know about it. They're persistent and they're loud about it You know, you always have that that relative at the at the family christmas whoever wants to pull you aside and just remind you everything that so-and-so did to them or Some sibling wants to remind some other sibling everything they said to them once or what they did to them Some you know friends do this if they're even friends anymore This is the you know, they want to they want to make sure everybody knows about it Not they're not just bitter and angry. They also want to be clamorous about it They want to make sure that they're loud and they're persistent. They're not going to let it go I mean think about you know, where we see this. This is like something you see a lot on facebook and social media, right? Where people get upset about something and then it just turns into this flame war online And people are just going back and forth and and really this is the fruit of bitterness in your life not being able to let Things go holding on to things keeping them in letting them make you sour You know, this is what it's going to bring in your life wrath anger clamor. What else evil speaking like evil speaking, you know Clamorous where you're kind of just letting everybody know you're just kind of spouting it out. You're loud. You're insistent You're persisting and just letting everybody and anybody who wants to hear about how bitter you are about something Let them know whereas evil speaking, you know, I think of that more like That would be something you might do more privately something you might take somebody aside And kind of whisper in their ear and talk about whoever it is You're bitter with or whatever you're bitter about instead of just spouting it out and you know for all the world to see You're going to do it in a more subtle way This is evil speaking where you're going to you know, talk trash on somebody but you're going to do it more privately But it's all coming from the same place. It's all coming from the fact that you know, we're harboring bitterness in our hearts And then you have you know malice there at the end, which is a really severe word I mean this is about you know, think of you know, maliciousness malice, right? This is where your your words and actions You know are are proactively seeking to harm somebody else That's how you you know, this is where bitterness leads in our life. This is why it's an important topic This is why we should pay attention what's being preached because if we harbor bitterness in our lives, you know Maybe we could put up with the anger and the wrath and the clamor and evil speaking, you know And think well that's not that big a deal, you know, everybody does it But the malice, you know that that's where this could lead potentially where you're actually Proactively seeking the harm of another person either through your words or through your actions, you know You're trying to get revenge You want to make them feel just as bitter about things as you are And you're going to do whatever it takes to make sure that they feel that way And paul is telling us here that we need to put these things away from us, you know So if we got saved and then just there was just no potential for us to ever become bitter again Then what senses this passage? Why does paul have to tell christians born again christians in ephysis to put away these things because if we're not careful You know bitterness can creep back into our lives It can be something that can come into our hearts because we all still have the flesh We're all going to have to you know, mingle with other people. We're all going to have relationships in our lives Those are all opportunities. Those are all you know potential Opportunities for you know bitterness to come into our lives and to manifest these fruits in our lives so that's kind of the the fruit there, but let's You know, we saw the root there of what it brings or the fruit rather, but he said to let it put away You know bitter people in the bible didn't stay bitter, you know, hannah her prayer was answered And it wasn't like she held on to that bitterness. Well, I would have been nice to have this baby sooner lord You know, she got over that like she didn't hang on to that, right? jobe, we know his latter end was blessed and it's not the bible doesn't record him going through the rest of his life just You know hanging on to the fact that his original 10 children died All that wealth he used to you know, people need to learn to let bitterness go. Let it go Okay, put it away from you. It's a there's a there's a purple purposefulness right there, right? It's a there's an intent behind that when he's telling us to let go when he's telling us to put it away Right, you have to be proactive in this this isn't something you can just God's just going to come in and cut bitterness out of your life and it's just going to magically, you know, go away You have to identify the fact and admit the fact that you might have bitterness in your heart and if that's the case, then you have to be proactive about Putting it away from you, you know, and there's ways that we do that. We'll talk about that a minute You know bitter people in the bible. They didn't stay that way. How do they put away bitterness from them? Well, they took their complaint to the lord right hannah she was bitter Well, what did she do? Did she go on facebook and just complain about her circumstance? Complain how it wasn't fair How you know, you know, uh, you know her uh, her husband's other wife is having kids and she's not Everybody else has this great big family and she doesn't is she bitter about that was was joe complaining about how you know He lost his job You know or he you know a lot of other worse things, you know No, he took their complaint to the only person who can do anything about it, which is god You know, that's the thing about you know Being glamorous about your bitterness and being in the evil speaking letting people know and complaining about it Is that the people around us very rarely can do anything about it to help you? You know and bitter people they're not looking for help They just want other people to feel bitter like them. Okay now i'm not saying we can't go look for sympathy We shouldn't be lend a sympathetic ear and comfort, you know other people and things like that. I understand that But sometimes that's not what people are looking for They just want you to know how mad they are how angry are they are? How upset they are and that there's nothing you can do to help them and they're just that's the way there's always going to be You know That is the way they're always going to be unless they learn to do like hannah did and like joe did and actually go To the lord for help actually seek him because he's the only one that can do anything about it You got to take your complaint to the lord. Are you I should add you go to hebrews chapter 12 If you're already bookmarked there hebrews chapter number 12, that's where we started this morning So we need to beware of bitterness in our lives because of the fruit that it'll bring And if we're going to be aware of bitterness Then you need to understand that there's always the potential of bitterness in your life because the root of bitterness is always there It's always there. Okay, and if you look at hebrews chapter 12 You kind of get this picture it says in verse 14 Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the lord Looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of god Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled lest there be any fornicator or profane person as esau Who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright? So he's warning us there that lest there be any root of bitterness springing up that troubles us You know and that tells me, you know, then this is believe this is talking more about the congregation at large, you know Unless there's some bitter individual like an esau who springs up among us and defiles many but you know We could apply this even to our own lives, you know personally, you know our own inward lives, you know There's always underneath the surface this root of bitterness that's always there I believe that that it's not something that's just been cut out and permanently removed It's something that is always present. We might not be a bitter person, you know We might not have these fruits manifesting in our lives, you know, the root of bitterness might not be flourishing It might not have you know germinated and taken root and taken off And now we've got this giant stock of bitterness in our life with all these big heavy branches just weighing down But you know, the root is always there. I believe that because of the fact that we always have the old man We always have the old man go to hebrew. You're in hebrews 12 keep something there But go over to galatians chapter 5 galatians chapter 5 You always have the old man present with you so the present the or excuse me the potential for business bitterness is always present as a root Because of the fact that we always have the flesh to deal with and we always have these relationships in our lives where? Things can go wrong things can go bad Circumstances or situations in life can cause us to become bitter about things in galatians chapter 5 He says in verse 19 now the works of the flesh are manifest Which are these adultery fornication and cleanness lasciviousness idolatry Witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife seditions heresies and what else? Envyings say what is the root of bitterness? Well, I believe it all comes from envy A lot of it has to come from envy. I think envy is when you know when I was thinking about this Envy is a source of bitterness for people I think it's a big root of bitterness for people people look at you know, the success of others What others are doing what others have and they begin to envy that and because they don't have that they they become bitter Instead of just be happy for that person instead of just congratulating them or encouraging them or thanking god for them You know, what do they do? They become envious and what that actually brings in their life is bitterness because envy is the root of bitterness If you want to go over to um I'll go back to hebrews chapter 12 The bible says a sound heart is the life of the flesh But envy the rottenness of the bones a sound heart Is the life of the flesh right? So there's that analogy of you know, how our heart You know it pumps it issues it it pumps blood throughout our body, right? But it's also it's this organ that we have inwardly. It's something that's within us, right? And it says that envy is the rottenness of bones so envy is kind of like a heart it's something that's within us, right? And it affects the whole person it affects the whole body just like your heart, you know A sound heart is going to keep you alive You know, it's going to keep your extremities fed with blood. It's going to keep oxygen coursing Uh, you know through your your circulatory system. It's going to keep you alive, right? It's something that's within and it's the life of the flesh Well, he likens bitter envy under this because it's something that is within us And affects the whole thing and affects us on a very deep level, right? It's the rottenness Of the bones, right now if you know bone cancer and things like that That's a very severe form of cancer, isn't it? You know skin cancer as bad as that is it's still something that if it's caught early Can usually just be removed with a scalpel some healing, you know takes place But a lot of times when people have gotten bone cancer It's been there under the radar for so long by the time it's diagnosed. It's too late to do anything about it So you think about how envy you know affects the bones. It's like this cancer that's just deep within us And it's just there under the surface and unless you know, we diagnose it and do something about it It's it can affect the whole body And you think about you know, the importance of the bones. It's what's holding up our structure It's who we are if those go bad, you know, if we break a leg or something like that, you know We're hobbled, you know, we are handicapped and this is what envy will do in our life because it is the root of bitterness You know envy and bitterness it creeps in it rots the bones It makes us unstable it affects our whole being and in fact it can destroy us We can end up spending our whole lives just being bitter at people angry at people and just never you know Doing anything but what fulfilling this lust of the flesh? You know the works of the flesh are manifest and it says that the work of the flesh is envy You know, it's our natural state to want to be envious of people You know, it's our natural state that the fallen man Wants to you know is prone to being bitter being uh being angry and upset about things So there's always this root that's present. There's always a root of bitterness That's just under the surface because we always have the flesh We always have the old man and that's why we have to beware of bitterness be ready to cut it out and identify it And here's the thing, you know Some people, you know, a lot of people in this room probably everybody i'm just going to assume everybody in here It's not a bitter person, right? And I mean if you ask me who in here is bitter I wouldn't know who to point to okay But here's the thing. We probably have all known bitter people, you know And I know this that there are people who they're not only bitter but they actually nurture Bitterness in their life because again, it's the work of the flesh right the natural man, you know What are the other works besides envying that are listed there you have adultery fornication uncleanness Those are things that people want to do because there is the pleasure of sin for a season, right? You know the fornicator the adulterer, you know, they don't just do that You know that sin because you know, they just they're they're they're uh, you know, they can't help themselves They want to do those things, you know, and these other works of the flesh are the same way You know envying is the same way being bitter like we like to be bitter sometimes don't we? We like to like, you know pick people apart and and and have a reason to be upset at somebody, you know You know real just base level, you know minor example. This would be You know traffic right this and i'm just confess my faults. All right Somebody you know, you could tell they want to come over but they haven't used their blinker And then they just cut you off and then it's like then you just spend the next 10 miles behind them just bitter Right and you and it's like, you know that you've probably done that to other people, you know You've probably been guilty of that and it's just hey, everyone's gonna make mistakes on the road And we're all just trying to stay alive But part of us kind of likes it helps pass the time helps the miles go by right Makes us feel alive get the blood pumping, you know, we're just thinking, you know how i'd like to just pull alongside them and you know, knock them off the road and You know and give them a piece of my mind and all this, right? But that isn't that kind of what our flesh is prone to do that It kind of likes it enjoys this envy this bitterness this wrath this mouse That's what the works of the flesh are that's what the flesh wants to do And here's the thing some people they're going to nurture bitterness in their life It's they're they're not only going to admit. Yeah, i'm bitter, you know, i'm angry upset I'm holding on to things they're actually going to take the time to nurture that bitterness in their life I always you know, I've thought about this. I think i've used this illustration in the past I don't know if anyone remembers but You know people, you know, if bitterness is being likened onto the root of bitterness. It's like a plant, right? And and we have to make sure that it doesn't spring up we have to keep that thing, you know Trimmed we gotta we gotta prune bitterness in our life some people they're gonna water that root They they they will they'll have you know, they'll have you over for dinner You know, they'll have you over As a guest in their house and then you'll go out and admire their garden They'll show you their you know award-winning roses and their tulips and their you know They got all these cool plants everywhere And then they're going to take you around the corner to their their most beloved possession their their their root of bitterness And how it's just lush and it's full and it's just grown and what are they doing? You know, they're they're bringing you over and letting you know how upset they are with this person or this situation What are they doing? They're trying to take a clipping off that plant and like here you go You go home and plant some bitterness in your life Maybe you can have a nice big, you know, fruitful plant of bitterness like I have right? That's what some people do in their lives. They water bitterness. They cultivate it They fertilize it and they show it off to other people. And in fact, they try to spread it around say here Here's some seeds go home and plant your own, you know Take this cutting and put in a little pot of water or a pot of dirt and you can have your own bitterness They like to spread it around. It's like a vine So that's why you know, he's liking this bitterness onto root Why because it's always there and if we're not careful if we're not if we do not take you know caught if we're not but if we are not, uh, you know, uh, Beware if we do not beware of bitterness i'm trying to say that in a way that makes sense grammatically If we're not careful about it, you know, it could spring up in our lives, too It's something we have to keep in check why because it's a work of the flesh It's always there a lot of times it starts with envy You know in this this is something that that people want to spread around How do they do this, uh, you know through slandering like the evil speaking right that we talked about earlier Whosoever privily slander at this neighbor him will I cut off him that happened high look and a proud heart Will I not suffer, you know, some people want to privately slander their neighbor to you and what they're where that's really coming from You ever had anybody do that to you? I mean i've had people come aside and say hey What if you want to talk smack about so-and-so? You know talk trash about so-and-so where is that coming from? That's coming from envy that's coming from bitterness It's not just because well, I don't have anything else to talk about You know, they just can't that's what they want to talk about. They want to privily slander their neighbor They want to You know spread that root of bitterness around in your life as well So, how do you handle that, you know, this is just kind of a side topic How do you handle the fact that when somebody comes to you and wants to talk smack about somebody? Well, the bible says in proverbs 25. This is a great verse to to keep in mind in verse 23 It says the north wind driveth away rain the north wind driveth away Rain now we know something about this down here in tucson, right? We've always seen those storms come out of the south right come out of mexico And we watch those clouds during the monsoon season. We think is it going to make it here? Is it going to get all the way up here? Are we going to get some rain right and then the north wind comes in and just drives it all the way We're like no come back Right, that's why I moved to the south side of town so I can get some of that, right? But that's kind of what the north wind does it drives away the rain, right? It makes that storm go away lets the sun come back out, right? That's the analogy that he's using here. He says the north wind driveth away rain So doth an angry countenance a back biting tongue So just like that north wind comes in and blows that rain out It says that a angry countenance comes in and what blows away a back biting tongue You know when someone comes to you wants to privately slander their neighbor just because they're envious they're bitter You know what? It's an angry countenance It's going to make them go away and i've known people that have taken note of this verse and used exactly this You know where someone comes and wants to talk trash about somebody and you just get that look like well I don't want to talk to you know, that person's my friend You know, I don't appreciate you talking about that. In fact, let's go talk to them. Oh, no, no, never mind And then they instantly know well don't ever try to back bite with this guy because he just gets mad What's it doing driving away? That that rain that's the north wind that angry countenance, you know, sometimes it's okay to put on your your mad face You know get a little angry if somebody's trying to back bite or privately slander Your neighbor to you because all they're trying to do it's not you know It's not that they're trying to warn you about some bad person or something like that They're trying to they're trying to give you their little cutting of bitterness for you to go home and think about well Well, it's so and so really like that, you know, so and so, you know and get you bitter about that person, too So that's a good Uh, you know application right of the sermon, but we have to we have to learn to prune this You know, uh this root in our life because this root will will spring up if we don't keep it in check You know and this could happen it could happen in any any setting, you know any relationship in our life? I mean you think about All the different relationships that you know, we all have, you know to some degree or another, you know You could think about you know between a husband and wife spouses, right? Is it possible that a husband and wife could get bitter at each other about something? I mean if there's any relationship where bitterness has potential to spring up between two people it's marriage because you know people are you know, uh different they have different ideas that come into marriage with Uh, you know different habits different things that they do And people can you know in marriage, you know, uh get bitter at one another just because they're you know, they don't get along they have some disagreement instead of just you know, submitting or you know Admitting that you were wrong or changing you just hang on right and it just turns into this You know the standoff in your marriage and what's going to happen is bitterness is going to is going to creep in It's going to take root and then it's going to bear fruit in that marriage in that relationship Because there's one relationship that we need to really make sure we're not getting bitter Against our spouses over something even if they what they did was wrong You say well, you know, she what she did was wrong what he did was wrong. You know what you might be right You know, maybe they were wrong. Maybe that maybe the decision your husband made was wrong But you know, that's not a reason for you to sit there and harbor resentment in your heart against him You know, we need to learn to forgive, you know, we need to like christ loved us All right We need to learn to forgive And to forget and not hold on to bitterness in our lives because it's going to bear fruit that we don't want anything to do With you know, it's going to turn into maliciousness. It's going to turn into clamor and evil speaking We don't want these things in our lives So that's one relationship you can think about, you know, uh children and parents, you know again You know parents are going to make mistakes parents aren't perfect news flash They're human, too You know, it's real easy for the kids to get mad at the parents over something they perceive as wrong And maybe they were even they even were wrong, but you know, you haven't even begun to walk a mile in your parents shoes So you better think about that before you get angry and resentful and bitter against them You know, it's amazing to me and the the longer i'm a parent how many times i'm noticing like well when I was a kid You know, I i'm doing what I was mad at my mother about my father about so well I remember you you've all kids have probably said this most kids, you know, well when i'm a parent i'm never gonna Right your parent does something to you or tells you or punishes you or tells you to do something Well when i'm a kid where i'm a parent i'm never gonna have my kids take out the trash I'm, never gonna give them a list of chores like Yeah, right That's like half the reason for having kids. No, i'm just kidding Get these slaves. Oh, did I say that? But isn't that true isn't it isn't it true that kids can look at their parents and get bitter at them and angry and resentful You know over the thing the decisions that they make right or wrong, you know That should not be the case because you know If you're looking for an opportunity to get bitter at people in your life, they they abound I don't care what relationship it is, you know, you go to work You want to get bitter out of your boss over some some decision he makes You know, you can do that because you know what your boss isn't perfect either. He's going to make mistakes He's going to do something wrong and you can go ahead and get better about it and hang on to it and be Resentful and and and so on and so forth and let bitterness just bear all this fruit in your life in any relationship You know that could happen in a church, you know, the preacher gets up and rips face, you know Steps on your toes preaches on your sin You know and and by the way you stick around long enough if the preacher is doing his job He's going to step on your toes eventually You know if he preaches the whole council of god, you know, because nobody's perfect again It all comes back to that doesn't it? Nobody's perfect and the preacher gets up and he's doing his job And he preaches the whole council of god eventually he's going to get on your sin Eventually, he's going to step on your toes and then you have a decision to make and say well Am I going to get bitter about that? Am I going to be angry and resentful? You know and this can happen in any relationship And a lot of times people, you know, maybe it just turns into like a you know, a a simmering, you know A resentment just kind of under the surface You know people can put on the smile and they can be nice and they can play nice But under the surface, there's this there's this root of bitterness. That's just it's just Festering it's growing and if we're not careful if we don't check that eventually it will blossom It will all come forth and it'll bear these fruits in our lives no matter what relationship it is So we have to learn to prune this root of bitterness, right? We need to beware of bitterness I understand that it's a root that it's there and it's something that has to be uprooted and replaced. Okay, and again It's always there. It's always potential that it's going to germinate here. It's going to germinate there It's going to spring up here and when we see that happening, you know We got to get out the spiritual shovel and dig that thing out And just be looking at the the garden of our life, you know The lawn of our life and just be looking for these weeds these roots of bitterness that want to spring up You know and and just take over in our lives Did I where did I have you go did I have you go anywhere you're in hebrews chapter 12, right? Go over to uh Well, just stay there the bible says in prou- psalms chapter 34 What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile depart from evil and do good And seek peace and pursue it, you know again if we're supposed to put You know, uh bitterness away from us if we're supposed to put these things away, you know That's kind of the the trimming of of the bitterness right getting rid of that But there's other things that we need to learn to cultivate in our lives There's other things that we have to replace that with We don't want to just have this this barren, you know, uh garden in our life, you know We want to get the yeah We want to get the weeds of bitterness out But we want to plant other things there. We want other things to take root There are things that we do want to grow there are things that we do want to You know blossom in our lives, but those are things and those are things that we have to what pursue, right? That's what he said there depart from evil and do good Seek peace and pursue it so it's not just this, you know Passiveness in the christian life where we just depart from evil and that's it There's a departure and then there's a pursuit, you know, you have to leave one and pursue the other Depart from the evil and pursue the good seek the peace And we should be people that seek peace in our life, you know in all in all of our relationships now I understand, you know, it's not peace at all costs Sometimes we have to draw a line in the sand and call a spade a spade And and pick sides and so on and so forth. I get that that has to happen You know, I wonder how how many times you know We think that's the case when it's really not when it's really just we're going to be bitter and angry resentful because we want to be We could pursue peace. We could seek peace with all men But we're not going to do it because we prefer to be bitter. Are you in hebrews 12? Verse 14 it says Follow peace with all men, you know, it's something that has to be pursued. It's something that has to be followed You know and peace is kind of the opposite of bitterness. It's the opposite of resentment It's the opposite of malice, right? that was that root of bitterness in infusions 4 was that was the you know, Bitterness was what began it all and it ended with malice and there's all these other things in between You know maliciousness and being malice is, you know seeking the harm of somebody else, you know Peace would be the opposite of that And that is something we should follow in our life We should follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the lord. We need to follow peace So we need to follow after these things which make for peace and which things Wherewith we may edify what another it says in romans chapter 14 If you want to go over to uh Ephesians 4 again, we're going to end there But the bible says in second simothy chapter 2 flee also youthful lusts, but righteousness, but excuse me But follow righteousness faith charity peace with them that call on the lord out of a pure heart Look, there's some things we should follow after there are some things we should pursue There are some things that we do want to cultivate in our lives peace Righteousness faith charity with them that call the poor of the lord with a pure heart You know We want to be at peace with people as much as we can and we don't want to harbor resentment and anger Look if somebody does you wrong, it's best to just let it go If somebody you know harms you in your life, it's best to just let it go Instead of you know, forgiving them, you know, well, they didn't ask for forgiveness forgive them. Anyway Forgive them anyway and don't let you know bitterness take root in your life You know peace is something that has to be pursued peace is something that has to be followed And you're there in ephesians chapter 4 look at verse 1, you know And I every time I feel like i'm preaching this verse a lot lately in this last year I feel like this is a verse I keep going back to and I don't like sounding like a broken record But if there's anything this last year has taught us in this country and in this world and even in our church Is that you know, peace is something that has to be pursued And if we're going to do that, we cannot get bitter at people. We cannot hang on to resentment It says in verse one. I therefore the I therefore the prisoner of the lord beseech you That you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called With all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace So the bond of peace the unity of the spirit is something that has to be endeavored to keep it's not going to keep itself It's not just going to happen on its own You know, we it's something that has to be endeavored to be kept, you know Getting the root of bitterness in your life You know, you can't just call the you know the you can't just hire the gardener to come in and spray the weeds everyone's like you had it out and Put the gloves on and get the little rake out and go at it You know, maybe we got to get the chainsaw out, you know, maybe in our life bitterness is just taken off So it's gotten so far gone, you know, we actually have to cut a tree down So to speak we got to get a chainsaw We got to we got to limit up get a bucket in there and haul it off and burn it And then we got to work on the stump get a pickaxe that maybe some dynamite blow that thing up You know, we got to work on this, you know this because that's where it leads It's better to get out there and and weed the garden when they're this big Where you can just bend over and kind of pick them out, right? Like when I moved into the our house here, you know out in the front yard underneath the tree We had these little other little stickers coming up They're about that big and I thought to myself I got to take care of that You know, I don't want to be that guy on the block where he just lets everything go You know, I want to be the guy that has a nice lawn, you know I'm not saying ask me some immaculate ornate thing, but i'm not going to be People drive by and go wow. He's really letting the place go They're about this tall now Right, i'm thinking I got to get some pruning shears. I got to get out there and eventually if i'm not careful You know I'm gonna have to get a pickaxe out and i'm gonna have to really go to work and then You know, but that i'm using as an illustration, you know, that's the way it is with bitterness in our life If we want to be at peace with one another if we don't want to be bitter towards other people It's something that has to be endeavored to keep it's something that we have to pursue And a big part of that is making sure that the bitterness isn't there to begin with And again, this is an ideal right endeavoring to keep the unity in this in the in the spirit of the bond of peace It's something that is an ideal you remember we think of psalms 133, right? Behold how good and pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity you know and and it seems to me like That's kind of a special thing, you know brethren aren't always going to dwell together in unity. Not everybody's going to get along Sometimes there's going to be divisions and factions and splinterings and things like that And I get that to some degree but within the local church, you know within this church within our personal relationships You know unless there's a real clear-cut reason why we need to just cut people out of our lives or separate You know, we should endeavor to keep the the you know, the uh, the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace It's something that's to be pursued And it's an ideal ideally, you know, all brethren would dwell together in unity, but that's just that's an ideal That's why it says how good and how pleasant how good is it? You know and it tells me that's not something that happens all the time You know bitterness is something that we need to Cut out of our life, you know bitterness and bitter people are basically dead weight You know things that are going to weigh us down They're things going to keep us from doing the things we ought to do because again, you know, it's it's it's talking about Pursuing these things right to follow after To endeavor to keep these things these are things that have to be followed pursued, you know There's a there's a we're always trying to keep up with that We're always trying to move forward in these areas And if we have bitterness in our lives if we have bitter people in our lives Those things are dead weight and they're going to hold us back, you know, and we want to pursue these things We want to have peace. That's the ideal that's what we're striving for. It's what we're endeavoring for You know and if everybody does kind of a self-check if everybody in the church if you know If both partners in the marriage if everybody in the family if everybody at the company if every person Took responsibility for themselves and their own heart and just made sure that there was no root of bitterness springing up Then we could have that pleasant, you know, uh unity, you know We could then we could say behold how good it is When we dwell together in unity, but that's something that we all as individuals have to pursue You know and and cutting out, you know, this root of bitterness our life is going to help us do that Let's go and pray