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All right, so in Acts chapter 8 we're going to just look at one particular story in Acts chapter 8 and that is the story of Simon the sorcerer, but first let me just give you a little bit of an introduction. So we're starting a new Series this morning called sins of the heart and the first the the first Episode or not episode the first installment of this series is going to be on bitterness and the subject of bitterness now sins of the heart and The reason for the series is because sins of the heart are something that obviously, you know They start within yourself and you may think that okay, you know the state of my heart and you know The things that I feel inside my heart It doesn't affect anyone else but me and nobody can really tell and all these types of things But I really want to show you especially with this first sermon this morning that the sins of the heart can man They manifest in yourself they come out and they can spread to others and then they can also cause great risk To you and that's mainly we're gonna focus on that this morning is the sins of the heart and the risk that it poses To yourself and those around you All right so the first sin the first sin of the heart that we're going to talk about in this series is the sin of Bitterness and we'll look at this story in Acts chapter 8 in a in a few minutes But you know, what is bitterness, you know when you think about you know bitterness, you know The definition of bitterness is to be you know to be angry or resentful So you have you know an anger inside you and resentment inside you towards? You know something or someone many times turn to Deuteronomy chapter 29 the Bible actually Compares bitterness many times and uses this back and forth comparison to a certain plant To a certain plant and if you look at Deuteronomy chapter 29 You know the Bible says in verse number 16 It says for you know how we have dealt we have dwelt in the land of Egypt and how we came through the nations which he passed by and you Have seen their abominations and their idols wood and stone silver and gold which were among them less There should be among you a man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turneth away this day from our the Lord our God To go and serve the gods of these nations lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and Wormwood so gall is this this plant that that it's it's a bitter plant that the Bible uses to Compare, you know physical, you know bitterness of the taste to the bitterness of people's heart All right now turn back to Acts chapter 8 if you kept your place there in Acts chapter 8, you know, this is an interesting Story here. You have you know a sorcerer named Simon This guy gets saved and then you know something happens where he does something and it shows you that even though he got saved You know, he had something seriously wrong with his heart. So getting saved doesn't immediately just fix All your heart issues all your character issues so that you know, there goes your excuse me There goes your lordship salvation, you know right there. So this guy the Bible says that he believed he got saved This is a saved man, but he still has some major problems going on with him if you look down at verse number 22 You know, he basically sees the disciples doing all these miracles and he was used to practice sorcery So he's like hey, I want this power I want to be able to do that too and in Acts chapter 8 in verse number 22 You know Peter says to him repent therefore of thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart May be forgiven thee so we see that the problem is starting. It started in Simon's heart. All right, and then in verse number 23 the Bible says for I perceive that thou art in the gall of Bitterness here. You see that connection of that plant to the state of Simon's part and in the bond of Iniquity so the reason that the plant analogy works so well is is you know leads right into my first point on bitterness And it's this bitterness can take root in you It can take root in your life. Look bitterness itself is not a physical sin Right. I mean, it's just it's something that's inside you that grows Inside you which is why the bitter plant of gall is such a great analogy it just takes root inside you and another plant they use is Worm wood and we used to have actually worm wood in North Dakota. It's a terrible plant It's a terrible plant because it gets this huge taproot then if you don't kill the plant right away it turned this plant Turns I mean there's a reason they call it worm wood because this plant no animals will not eat it You know the sheep wouldn't even eat it and Sheep eat everything right? So this plant gets this huge root and it's almost impossible to pull out You can't pull it out. You know, it'll just break off at the ground and it'll grow up the next year So it takes it takes literal route To in the ground to the point where you can't pull it up. You can't weed it. You can't get it out Right. So I mean these are just great analogies that the Bible uses as far as the Condition of our heart of bitterness it takes root in you and it grows in you and then Another thing about worm wood and gall is it spreads if you don't get rid of it right away. You have it everywhere Okay notice in Deuteronomy chapter 29 if you're still there, let me reread Verse number 18. It says lest there should be among you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turneth away This day again the heart From the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these nations lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and Wormwood so if it's not taken care of it will manifest and grow and once it takes root in you It will spread To others. Okay, so it's a serious thing. I mean, these are serious. These are serious things This it starts just in your heart, but it roots down in you Which means it's going to be harder and harder and harder to get rid of Once it's got root in you and then it will spread to others, which is even worse, right? My second point is this bitterness will grow into actual physical sin and Spread to others doing the same to them turn to Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 and then keep your place there We're gonna spend some time in Ephesians chapter 4 Ephesians chapter 4 look down at verse number 31 the Bible says let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and Evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind to one another tender-hearted Forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you so bitterness will lead to evil speaking Which is actual sin turn to Luke chapter 6 Turn to Luke chapter 6 So you say it just starts in your heart, but then it will come out in other ways In Luke chapter 6 look at verse number 45 and The Bible says this and this this is such a great verse it has such great truth in it a good man out of the treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good an Evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil for the abundant out of the abundance of the heart the mouth Speaketh so here's the problem with you know Heart issues heart issues will always come out and most times All the time eventually what's in your heart will come out of your mouth All the time and I mean people you know what people are gonna know What's in your heart? That's the bottom line, and you know that's why we've said you know eventually we'll get to know people We'll find out pretty much who everyone is But if you want to be known and respected as someone who's not full of bitterness You have to fix your heart if you have that in your heart. You know just I mean Just by things people say by small things even even by things people don't say you know you can tell that there might be Bitterness there you can see their heart through the things that they say that's with everybody. That's what good things and Bad things you can tell someone's heart. You know a good example is just you know a workplace There is always every single workplace that I've ever been there is always this bitter guy in the workplace Every single time I don't know why that if it's a rule that they have to hire somebody like this But he's always there Right he's always there. He's he's the guy that's always walking around. He's always complaining about everybody He's he's complaining about the boss. He's complaining about the company I mean the company that pays him the company that he works for the company that is Supporting his family or whatever. I mean this guy is always There you know and I've said it many times Stay away from this guy you say I'm not bitter. I'm not well guess what? Bitterness spreads and it could spread to you You know all sudden if you're sitting here listening to this stuff all day long. Maybe you start to think yeah You know maybe that maybe I am being wronged And maybe that isn't the way it should be and maybe this and maybe that But number one first of all you're gonna be labeled with him if he's constantly talking to you And everybody knows that he's bitter because everyone knows because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speakers everybody knows who that guy is Everybody Especially the owner of the company and the boss they know who that guy is why they keep them around I don't know. They're probably trying to get rid of them somehow You don't want to be labeled with that guy But the worst thing is is that it could make you bitter that root could that could seed in you and grow start taking root In you as well. It's very dangerous stay away from that guy You know what I mean we could just talk about the opposite. You know the power of Having you know a positive attitude towards things you know you know that so many people are successful at so many different things Just because they have a positive attitude It doesn't mean that it doesn't necessarily mean that things always go well for them. It doesn't necessarily mean that look they see opportunity where others see calamity and Those people are very very successful They take they look they take a disaster something at work a piece of machinery or whatever Has broken and it just it could be a disaster to somebody and they take that as a challenge and as a hey You know if we handle this we can handle anything They attack problems in that way that is The power of you know look the power of a positive thinking is like a famous book We've written. I don't know how many years ago, but it's like this the power of positive thinking look It's another book where the Bible had at first. They just stole a Bible idea All right bitterness will take root in you so will positive thinking take a root in you as well and guess what if bitterness Will manifest manifest itself in your actions through your speaking guess what else will? having a positive outlook on things Taking taking a positive view of even negative situations and guess what that will spread to others as well You can spread Positive thinking when something goes horribly wrong at work or things are not going well in your family You can spread positive thinking by saying hey You know what we're gonna take this and and if we can get through this we can get through anything We're gonna take this and this is how we're gonna make it positive in our family and all these types of things look The Bible had at first and the Bible is not ever getting credit for these things Look that can spread to others. Just like bitterness can spread to others so solving bitterness you say I'm I'm bitter I'm bitter. How do I fix it? So well first of all it's not the easiest thing to do, but if it was easy everybody would do it right The first thing is this Well, let me just just say this in general point a before we get into the real point Choosing to be positive is just that it's a choice To two men or two people could be in the same exact situation the same exact negative situation where where one of them looks at it in a positive way and the other looks at it in a negative way and gets Bitter over it and gets lets it hurt them and hurt the people around them, okay, so first of all that's just a choice You just have to make that choice Period you have to make the choice that I'm just gonna take this This way I'm gonna take things in a positive way and maybe you know you have to practice that a little bit Maybe you have to get good at it. Maybe it just doesn't come natural to you, and that's fine But you can get good at it. You can choose to look at things in a positive way look I mean think about this whole thing with what we've had to do with church and all these different things I Mean look a positive way to look at this is Number one These are defining moments for us I mean I look at situations like what we've gone through for the last three or four weeks. These are defining moments These are defining moments for you individually these are defining moments for for me You know am I gonna fold up am I gonna you know how am I gonna handle this you know? What are we gonna do going forward these are defining moments? That's a positive thing You know I mean if we're just you know everything's easy and everything's not I mean, how would I ever know how I would handle us. I mean this is my first time Leading a church. How would I ever know if things never got a little bit? You know difficult. How would I ever know? But now I know now I know how we will all react and now I know you know How I will react and I mean this is how you learn and grow In situations like this when you're pressed when you're challenged is when you learn and grow Right something that's that's a really really positive thing think about yourselves, too You know these are defining moments in your life When people you know come and they they push on you How will you react? Because you can sit there and say a man can sit there and say if somebody did this I'm gonna do this But you don't really know until it happens right you don't really know until it happens All right so that look all that to say this choosing to be positive is a choice that you make and You can choose it every single time, and I'm not saying that you know everyone's I'm certainly not perfect I certainly don't choose to be positive every single time that I should choose to be positive that I mean That would be I'd be lying to you if I told you that but you can get better at it You can get good at it all right. It's a choice So make that choice the second one turn back to Ephesians chapter 4 is That we need to in cases of bitterness Being caused in our hearts from other people or relationships with other people We need to learn to forgive others Look at Ephesians chapter 4 in verse number 25, and this is something where you're like. Oh, yeah, forgive people yeah I know it's easy to say, but it's hard for most people to do It's hard for most people to do look at verse number 25 of Ephesians chapter 4 The Bible says we're for putting away lying speaking every man truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another Be he angry and sin not let not the Sun go down upon your wrath Now you say how do I do that? That's saying you know put your issues to bed learn forgiveness and You know solve it quickly is what that is saying Get it over with don't let it root in you and turn into this bitterness you say someone wronged me And they don't deserve forgiveness You say you know look at verse number 32 you say they haven't even they wronged me, and they haven't even apologized yet you say look at verse number 32 and Be ye kind one another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you so look That's a pretty good comparison right there on what we need to do right look sometimes Many times forgiveness is just gonna have to be a one-way street That's it. I mean I said it to a young man yesterday. I said look You deserve did you deserve what you just got? You know do we did we deserve to be forgiven did we deserve to be saved That's why it's such a great comparison because we didn't deserve our salvation. We didn't we don't deserve eternal life I don't care What kind of Christian you end up being if you run this race you know dead sprint until you die? You still don't deserve it So to say to your brother You don't deserve that I forgive you because you haven't paid me back or done whatever or said you're sorry It doesn't fit the model It doesn't fit the model forgiveness many times just has to be a one-way street, and that once again is a choice It's a choice that you make You say it's hard. Yeah, it's not the easiest thing in the world All right finally You need to turn to Matthew chapter 18 Let's talk about some risk management the final thing about bitterness and forgiveness Especially in solving bitterness is that you need to understand that there is personal risk to you If you do not solve your bitterness if you do not forgive your brother look at Matthew chapter 18 And look at verse number 21. We'll read through this parable Peter asked Jesus a question And the Bible says in verse number 21 then Peter came unto him and said Lord How off shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him till seven times So Peter's asking you know Peter's picturing in his head this guy that just that you know that's your brother That's a fellow church member saved whatever that just keeps wronging you again and again and again And Peter asked you know how many times how often do I how long do I put up with this? Is what Peter is asking Jesus and Jesus says and I say unto thee and Not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven so Jesus is basically saying now That doesn't mean you know take seventy times seven and start counting that means you just keep forgiving This is what that means okay? There should be no last time now. That's That's difficult That's not easy to do you got some guy who just keeps wronging you keeps wronging you That's gonna be difficult to do we'll talk about that kind of management a little bit later Let's continue the story here and Jesus then tells him this he says therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king Which would take account of his servants, and we had begun to reckon one was brought to him which owed him 10,000 talents but for as much as he had not to pay as Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children and all that he Had and payment to be made the servant therefore fell down and worshiped him saying Lord Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion and Loosed him and forgave him the debt But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence so this is a hundred pence versus ten thousand talents, and I don't know what the Conversion of pence to talents are but talents are a lot more than there's several Pence probably several hundred pence in a talent right but the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants Which owed him a hundred pence and laid hands on him and took him by the throat saying? Pay me that thou owest and his fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying have patience with me And I will pay thee all and he would not But went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt so he was forgiven 10,000 talents and this guy owes him like a buck and He just throws the guy in prison and has zero mercy on him Verse 31 so when his fellow servants saw what was done They were very sorry and came and told their Lord all that was done Then his Lord after that he had called him said unto him. Oh that wicked servant I forgave thee all that debt because thou desires me Shouldest now that ought shouldest not thou also have compassion on thy fellow servant Even as I had pity on thee and his Lord was wroth and delivered him unto the tormentors Till he should pay all that was due him so likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts Forgive not everyone as brother and their trespasses Alright, so now obviously this is not talking about you losing your salvation. Otherwise the rest of the Bible would make no sense What this is talking about is a very clear picture of you Receiving salvation that you did not receive it was just your slate was wiped clean as far as your salvation goes and then you just Holding these piddly things over your brother's head and not forgiving those things That's what this is talking about and the Bible is saying that you If you do that, you will endure the chastisement of God for that if you do that because God has forgiven you everything and The Bible says that you will you know by that type of not forget not God not forgiving you You will not be in good standing with God and you will you will take punishment for it on this earth Look at Matthew 6 verse 15. I'll just read it for you It's just one verse but if he forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses meaning You know forgiving you being in a right standing with God not forgiveness regarding to salvation But being in a right standing with God, you won't be right with God turn to Hebrews chapter 12 Turn to Hebrews chapter 12 And look at verse number 14 So if you want to be in a right standing with God and you want to you know When you make mistakes you want God to come down light on you and forgive that and not Chastise that mistake that you've made because look, I mean, I'm not planning on it But I'm gonna be making some mistakes in the rest of my life. I'm not all sudden not a sinner anymore I'm still sinning. I'm still you know doing things I mean, I'm not trying to but I mean I'm gonna make mistakes and you're gonna remain a sinner You're gonna have the flesh with you until you die So if you want God to beat you with a club every single time you make a mistake in your life Be unforgiving to others. That's what the Bible is saying here So if you want God to go easy on you and forgive you then you know be merciful be Forgiving to others look at Hebrews 12 verse 14. The Bible says follow peace with all men look Forgiving men makes peace That's how you make peace with them and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God lest any root of what? bitterness Springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled boy. That's a good verse That by that basically says that if you don't you don't make peace with your brother That bitterness is gonna root up in you and you're gonna defile Many people around you. I mean, this is serious stuff. This is serious stuff God's gonna punish you and Bitterness is gonna rise up in you and you're gonna destroy people around you that that's what's gonna happen So we caught we see this bitterness look it's a it's a sin It's not a sin that you just carry around that nobody knows and it only hurts you right it spreads to others Turn to Jeremiah chapter 8 look God Can be bitter towards us he says Look at Jeremiah chapter 8 You Jeremiah chapter 8 look at verse number 14 Jeremiah chapter 8 in verse number 14 The Bible says why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves and let us enter into the defense cities and let us be silent there For the Lord the the Lord our God have put us to silence and given us water of gall to drink Because we have sinned against the Lord the Bible is saying here that that God is Is executing because of them they have sinned against the Lord. God is executing bitterness onto them God's bitter with them. He's giving them bitter water to drink that gall water of gold now. Here's what's interesting, you know, we're talking About your heart today. We're talking about bitterness in your heart, you know We need to understand that our relationships with our brothers and sisters. They don't just affect them They don't just affect them turn to first John chapter 2 You say if I have just a bad relationship with this guy in the church It's just it just means that you know him and I, you know, he's just not gonna you know, be my friend and you know there's just That that's all it is. No, there's it's a big deal in the Bible It's a big deal. There's personal risk to you Look at 1st John chapter 2 You don't want God bitter at you 1st John chapter 2 look at verse number 9 We see that this relationship in your brother With your brother is pushed very hard in the Bible with some very strong language Look at 1st John chapter 2 in verse number 9 The Bible says he that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even unto now He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him but he that hateth his brother is in darkness and Walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goeth because that darkness hath blinded his eyes I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake So once again and verse number 12 He's using the fact that Christ has forgiven you in comparison to your relationship with your brother Okay, and and brothers and sisters it both applies, all right, so letting bitterness Manifest itself in you can even lead to hatred of your brother Are you starting to see why God says Not to let the Sun go down on this thing. I Mean, there's a time factor here, right when you have a plant that's gonna grow and a root that's gonna take root That's why he says don't let your the Sun go down on it time matters You know when you get in Some kind of argument or disagreement or whatever with your brother with your spouse Time is of the essence the Bible says because that root can start growing, right? This is why marriages that fail they don't fail like in a week They fail like It's been going on if you talk to people it's been going on for 10 years or 15 years These problems in those roots are just they're just taking root and they're just growing So you have to kill that? Plant before it turns into hate because look hating your brother Is serious Consequences to you and I mean I cannot over emphasize this if you end up in a situation Where you let bitterness take control of your life and you end up hating your brother the Bible says you'll be in darkness The Bible says that what happens to you when when you're blinded you're in the dark Right, and then what happens if you try to walk around or you try to go places you will stumble the Bible says I Don't want to stumble look at 1st John chapter 4 Look at 1st John chapter 4 look at verse number 20 It gets even worse The Bible says in 1st John 4 20 That if you let this bitterness turn into hatred of a brother you understand a brother like a fellow believer Including your spouse your wife your husband anybody that's a believer if you let this bitterness grow into this root that Makes you actually hate Someone else who is saved the Bible says in Wicked verse number 20 in 1st John 4 if a man say I love God and hate his brother. He is a liar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he had not seen? So the Bible calls you a liar, but mainly the main point is here. The Bible says you literally cannot love God If you hate your brother So, I mean that doesn't mean you're not saved, you know, you know the Bible says, you know If you love me keep my commandments, but the Bible says that if you say you love God and you have hatred towards a brother You're a liar. So you can't truly love God. So do you think that that is going to help or hinder your Christian life If you end up in a situation where you were getting you were letting this root turn into hatred of a brother look These are real consequences folks These are there's real Risk here and this is why personally look this is why me personally. This is my choice. You guys make your own I Air on the side of caution when I am labeling people reprobates always because look It's not because I want you to think I'm a nice guy is I don't want these things to happen to me Because if look you're gonna see people in churches do crazy stuff and maybe be you know Do wicked things? But I mean, I'm just gonna err on the side of caution that that's myself because there's personal risk to me If I don't you see So there's look there's no benefit like if brother, you know So-and-so and I you know getting a you know, we have a falling out or whatever, you know, and then you know He's like I'm a reprobate and I'm like you're a reprobate or whatever. It's not like I can take his salvation away There's no benefit right? I can't take someone's salvation away. I mean if they're saved they're saved There's nothing I can say that's gonna make not saved And but if I'm wrong, it means I'm in danger personally of judgment so I And if I'm right and they are a reprobate Then you know, there's still no benefit. I Mean, I can't make you a reprobate You know, you cannot affect someone else's salvation, even though as much as maybe you would like to it sometimes. I mean, hopefully not but You only endanger yourself You only endanger yourself. So I err on the side of caution there. All right, so Bitterness Bitterness can turn into bad bad things for us Actions for us into real sin for us and it can spread to those around us. Right? I mean look think about You know, it just how do we move past it? How do you move past forgiveness? Like a brother has wronged me turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 6 1st Corinthians chapter 6 You Look at verse number 7 Well, just let's just use it. Let's just use an example How can we move past it? Right? Look at 1st Corinthians chapter 6 in verse number 7, so we don't get to these terrible Extremes that we were just talking about right 1st Corinthians chapter 6 look at verse number 7 The Bible says now therefore there is utterly fault among you because you go to law One with another why do you not rather take wrong? Why would you not rather suffer suffer yourselves to be defrauded turn to Psalm 37? So like just use a simple example like somebody borrows 20 bucks from you and then they don't pay you back, right then you go to Psalm 37 verse 21 and You're just like the wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth So you're like this guy's wicked, I mean he borrowed money from me he didn't pay me back You know what? Maybe he did maybe he's wrong. Maybe all that. But look the Bible says in 1st Corinthians 6 for you So there's two sides of this right Psalm 37 is talking about the guy that borrowed the money and didn't pay it back But 1st Corinthians chapter 6 is talking about you The guy that borrowed the money and you're just supposed to just let it go just suffer yourself to be defrauded, right? I mean look it doesn't mean it doesn't mean you have to keep borrowing them money. I Mean, it doesn't mean you have to just keep doing it again and again and again, right because some people, you know We're probably you know, somebody like that would probably keep asking Look, I was telling this isn't really part of the sermon, but I was telling my wife the other night that there's a there's a new law now where you don't have to pay your mortgage for six months and You can just there's no penalties or anything. And I was like man, you know that that'd be nice To not have to pay my mortgage for but look that's not right because Psalm 37 says, you know the way I mean I made a deal I made a deal that said if I borrow this money, I will pay this on this day every month But what the government says to me that I'm allowed to do does not trump what this says I mean that's like the whole thing of today, right? I mean just because the government says it's legal For me to not have to pay that doesn't mean that you know, it's it's moral right So anyway that back to the the sermon This is a very simple example on someone borrowing you money and not paying but you're supposed to just let it go Forgive it the whole key to forgiveness is that and you know That's the point of this sermon is that a lot of your times a lot of times in your life You'll be in a relationship with somebody and you will just not be able to control how they act You will not be able to control how a certain brother or sister acts you can't control, you know their Character you can't control that. I mean you could try but it's probably not going to work But what you can do is you can fix your heart You cannot let bitterness take root in you. You can forgive that right you can control Look, I hate to break it to you Even in this church you are going to be dealing with imperfect people your whole life so you have to find a way to Handle that without letting it destroy you without letting it root itself in you and you know, literally, you know change Who you are and change? You know who your family is So you need to recognize, you know bitterness when it sets in look If You are the kind of person who you and your wife or just you or whatever constantly talks Bitterly and talks, you know bad about people all the time. Guess what your kids are gonna start doing They're gonna start talking bad about people and just being super bitter towards you. It will it will spread Like a like a virus to them Too soon to joke about that But it will spread to them You will start getting little cynical little bitter six-year-olds in your house a little bitter eight-year-olds because you know brother Ryan said the other day you'd be shocked what they hear and understand and They will learn it from you. It will spread to them. So that's very serious. If you're a parent, especially men You can spread it to your wife Women you can spread it to your husband If you're just constantly negative and bitter all the time, you know Maybe you both get in it together and start going round and round what you should do in your marriage is you should check each other That that's a good marriage where you know Maybe your wife is a little bitter this week and she's like this person this person just be like, yeah, you know, but you know there they Here's the positive upside of that and all this and you can bring each other back or when you're bitter one week your wife Can bring you back She can she can edify you in that way help each other, right? We're not going to be all you know batting 400 all the time Just help each other out. You know, that's that's what you're there to do So you have control over the state of your own heart. That's the whole purpose of this series is that you do have control over the state of your heart and the Bible warns us about these things and You can fix it on your end. Okay, let's bow our heads and have a word prayer. Dear Heavenly Father We thank you for the Bible. We thank you for today. We thank you for just a Sunday morning at church Lord We thank you for the the beautiful weather outside We just thank you for always looking after us Lord. We know that Your hand is is on this situation and Lord We just we hope that we ask that you just help us in our relationships with each other Help us recognize if there's ever a root of bitterness, you know getting Engrained in our hearts so we can recognize it Lord and just take The clear action that you gave us to take in the Bible where we love you And we thank you for your word in Jesus name we pray You