Conquering Bitterness

Pastor Stan Mons

---

Sermon Transcription:

Every single person that decides to follow Jesus, you're going to need this. This is the bare minimum of what you need if you are going to follow Jesus. Now, if you missed the first one and you're with us online, you want to watch it back. The first one was titled Breaking the Cycle. You can contact us through the contact page and get all the notes for that teaching, and you'll be able to get the notes for this one as well. Just contact us, and you'll be able to follow along.

Today, conquering bitterness. Conquering bitterness. Now, for those that have heard me teach on bitterness before, I have not thrown out that teaching, but that's a very extensive, very deep, three or fourpart teaching. And this is really, if I would say to myself, I have one chance to have a conversation with you about bitterness, what would I say? What would be the essentials for a disciple on this topic? Conquering bitterness.

Our focal scripture is Hebrews 12: 15. It reads this: See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. That no root of bitterness spring up and causes trouble. And by it many become defiled. Now, as we go into bitterness, you may have a picture in your head of what it looks like to be bitter. And maybe you have a person in your head because you think they are really bitter. But in every case, by the end of this teaching tonight, I think you're going to have a clear picture for yourself of how the enemy, the devil, the enemy of your soul, seeks to draw you into bitterness. And you may be surprised about some of the ways that he seeks to do that in your life, how subtle that may be sometimes. But the word that we just read in Hebrews 12:15 has a couple of very key things in there. I'm just going to read it to you again. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.

Let's go into point one as we discover how we can live a life conquering bitterness. There's a fill-in- thelank right there. You and I are responsible. You and I are responsible to see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. You and I are responsible. The word tells us not to go to prayer and to expect a miraculous move of God. The word doesn't tell us that God has to intervene by sending an angel or to send a specific prophetic message upon the pastor's heart so that you can be delivered at the altar in a moment of prayer. Now the word tells you, as you read it, God speaking to you as you read it. See to it. In other words, this is your assignment. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness spring up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.

You and I are responsible to see to it. 2 Corinthians 5: 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. This is not the judgment about whether or not you're going to heaven. This is the judgment. You have to show up at this judgment because you believed in Jesus and you were going to heaven. Now you get to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, who is going to judge his bride. And the word tells you that each one, not those in ministry, not the pastors. No. So that each one, you could fill in your own name. So that Mary, so that Stan, so that Sophia may receive what is due for what he or she has done in the body, whether good or evil. Here's what we learn. You and I are responsible for what we allow to go on in this body.

The word of God tells us that you and I are responsible to see to it that bitterness doesn't cause trouble in your life and in the lives around you. And the word of God tells you that you and I are responsible for what we allow to go on in this body.

We're going to stand before Jesus, and he's going to judge us according to what went on in this body, what was done in the body, whether good or evil. You are responsible. Matthew 12 verse 35 and 36. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good. And the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give an account for every careless word they speak. You and I are responsible for what we have spoken. We are responsible. And because we are responsible to deal with this bitterness issue, because you will learn that a lot of these things, what goes on in the body, what comes out of the body, what you speak, a lot of this is strongly affected by living a lifestyle of forgiveness or living a lifestyle of bitterness. And you need to understand when you're going to look at this essential discipleship topic of bitterness that you are responsible no matter why you may be struggling with bitterness.

You may find out today that you struggle with bitterness, and you would have never thought up until this moment, you would have never thought that this is going to actually speak to you. And you may find out that you are actually possibly struggling with a little root of bitterness that is trying to spring up in your life. To realize today that you are responsible to deal with that root and that you are going to be held responsible for the trouble that that root caused. The trouble it causes in the way you speak about some people. You're going to be held responsible. The Lord is not going to say, "Well, bad things were done to you." I understand. You're going to be held responsible.

Point two, here's the signs. We're going to look at some signs of a root that may be struggling in your heart to get out and spring up in your life. It is the I did everything right. I did everything right. How could they? I'll read it to you from the word. An example, Matthew 15 verse 1, 2, and then 10, 11, and 12. Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, "Why do your disciples break the traditions of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat." And he called the people to him and said to them, "Hear and understand. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person." Then the disciples came and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying, Jesus, did you miss it or did you realize I know you're God, but you may have missed this one. Did you realize you offended the Pharisees and you offended the scribes when you told them what is really important to God. Not what goes in that defiles, but what comes out from your lips."

It is the whole I did everything right problem. Here we have the scribes and the Pharisees. They have worked so hard to do what is right. And there they see a couple of those disciples that follow after Jesus go and they don't wash their hands in the ceremonial way. They don't honor the Sabbath that we've done and they just get to follow after this Jesus who claims to be a rabbi, maybe even a prophet. Some even say he's the son of God. These kind of people get to be his disciples. I did everything right. Jesus, how can you let your discip you a good teacher? You say some catchy stuff. We don't know how to come back at you, but but look at your discip Look at what you let follow you. Look at how they behave. I did everything right. And they get to follow God just like that. And the disciples came and said to him, "Do you know the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying? Did you know that bitterness sprung up in their heart?" The moment they realized that, Jesus, you did not tell them to give up as much as you've asked me to give up. That you didn't tell them to lay down as much as I've laid down for you. Did you know that a offense jumped up in the heart?

Another sign of a root in our heart is when you go out of your way to be noticed. When you go out of your way to be noticed. Now, it doesn't matter if you do this at school or on the job or at home or in church in the ministry. Going out of your way to be noticed. The opposite of placing your life in the hands of God, saying, "He has promised he will order my steps. He can make me appear before kings and judges. He can open any door that needs opening." But I am going to do my little few fleshly things, use my elbows a little bit, because if I get noticed by the right people at the right time, then doors will open for me or for my call or for my job or for my financial advantage. Going out of your way to be noticed is a sign of a root of bitterness.

Let me read it to you from Acts chapter 8 verse 18-23. Now when Simon, this Simon used to be a devil worshipper. He used to be a magician that messed with other spirits, church. So this guy had a pretty cool testimony. He got he got saved saved.

Okay, but watch what happens now. When Simon saw that the spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." So here we have a man who gets saved, who is running with the OG apostles, and he gets to minister kind of alongside of them, be a part of the group and see some amazing things go down, and he just wants to be noticed.

He just, he he used to be noticed. The word tells us in the verses before this that Simon always used to be noticed because he was a magician, and the people were in awe of him, and he wanted it back. He wanted to be noticed again by people. What really happened was Simon had become offended with his place. He was offended with the fact that others were leading, and others were being noticed and being used by the Lord. And he was offended with the fact that he was right there in the background, being the helpful second. He was offended with that. And he was willing to go out of his way to become noticed again. Nobody was laying hands on Simon. Nobody was giving the spirit to Simon. But he had these new believers. The apostles were laying hands and people were receiving the spirit. And Simon says, "You everybody, you're forgetting about me. Let me draw some attention to myself. I would like to be noticed." And he takes a step forward. And he gets shut down. And Peter says, "The reason that you do not have part of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the reason that you're not going to be a part of what is going on right here and right now is because you have a root of bitterness in your heart."

Offended with your place, offended with the fact that God has not opened your employer's eye to your faithfulness or to your abilities, or your pastor to your ministerial giftings. You can be bitter with God's process of hiding you. Imagine Moses, best education at his time in Egypt, at the court of Pharaoh. And he was Jewish, perfectly groomed to be able to lead his people possibly out of slavery. And he tries to, you know, begin to do something about a situation. It blows up in his face. He ends up in the desert for 40 years with sheep. 40 years. Imagine Moses taking offense with God and allowing a root of bitterness to come up. 40 years of waiting before God said, "Okay, now you're weak enough. Now I can begin to use you."

Imagine Moses going back to Egypt and trying to make it happen in his own strength. It would have blown up not only in his face, in the faces of the people of God. You can be bitter with God's process.

That doesn't mean you're yelling at everybody you run into. That doesn't mean you're grouchy all the time. It just means that you go out of your way to be noticed because you're done waiting on God. You're done trusting God. You're done with his lordship. You want to be noticed.

You can be bitter with God's timeline. You can be bitter with the way God picks people.

And you can think you're struggling with pride. And all along, when when somebody speaks about Jesus, you feel that you could have done it better. When somebody sings about Jesus, you feel you could have easily matched that. When somebody plays their instrument, you feel you could also do that. And at the job, I cannot believe that guy got a raise. I at least I think I even do better, but I at least do as good.

You can grow bitter with the way that God picks people. And now you want to you are willing to start going out of your way to become noticed because you're uncontent with your situation. And if anybody would just notice me, it would surely be changed because I'm great. You can be bitter with the ways of God's kingdom. Few wise, few noble been chosen. But it pleased God to choose the weak and the despised, the rejected things of this world to confound the strong.

You can be bitter with that. The word bitter in the Greek and the New Testament really means poisoned. It means poison or poisoned. That's what it means. That's what that word means.

And I want you to think about that for a moment because this word bitter is is really a a taste, a sense that we can experience. We can understand what the word bitter means because we can even taste it. And then the Bible time and time again starts to talk about bitter people, that you can become bitter at heart, that you can have bitter grief, that your attitude, your entire being can become embittered.

So the Lord takes something that we can really understand because we can taste bitterness. And we often you can only have a tiny bit of it because you're going to want to spit that out. Amen. I think the Lord is teaching something. But he takes that word of such an intense taste that we can only handle almost nothing of. As a matter of fact, when I taste something bitter, I automatically want to spit it out because usually when it has gone bitter, it's gone bad. Amen.

And the Lord begins to use this word bitterness, poisoned, rotten, all throughout the scriptures.

And then Jesus uses that same word poison also in the Old Testament. Let me read to you Psalm 69: 21. Jesus speaking through the prophet. "But instead they give me poison for food. They offer me sour wine for my thirst." Now you and I know that when Jesus was on the cross that this all took place. But that's what he calls it. They gave me poison for food. Offer me sour wine for my thirst.

Matthew 27: 34. They offered him wine to drink mixed with gale, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. Wine with gall would have been incredibly bitter wine. It was a kind of wine that was mixed with other stuff that would almost put you in a trance. It would it would numb you, and it would allow the torture to go on longer. But it numbed the pain so that you could get through it more easily. Now, there's a couple of sides to that. Jesus didn't want the pain numbed. He wanted to be in his right mind. But at the same time, he also would not drink that bitterness. There's no coincidence that throughout the word he makes it very clear that bitter is a taste not to be enjoyed, and bitter is something that can happen in the heart. And then he reads Ephesians 4:31- 32, or rather we read it. Let all bitterness, same word if you look in the original text, poison, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice, talking bad about people.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

You know what the word says? The father tells you and I to forgive in the same way that Jesus forgave. Now, nobody needs your forgiveness to become forgiven before the father. Amen.

And at the same time, God demands from followers that they forgive in the same way as Christ forgave you. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God. In other words, in the same way that God in Christ forgave you. You see Jesus refuse this bitter wine, that wine that would really be numbing what is going on. And that happens. What? That is what happens when you ingest bitterness. When you ingest bitterness, you become numb to the reality of what is actually going on with you spiritually. You become numb to it.

You ingest bitterness, unforgiveness, offenses. You hold on to it and you make it a part of your heart because you think, if I do this, I'm going to get hurt less. I'm going to keep the wrong people at a distance. Then they can't hurt me anymore. When you ingest bitterness, you are going to be numb to what is really going on. But you are ingesting poison. It's been said many, many times, holding offense or holding bitterness against somebody is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to die. But you are ingesting poison. And Jesus refuses at the cross this bitter wine. Even at the cross, the height, if you will, of his suffering unjustly, he will not ingest this bitter poison. He refuses the wine. He says, "I cannot let this in. Don't let it into my body." And you are the body of Christ. You are the body of Christ on this earth. And he has shown us this picture that even in the midst of suffering, unfairness, unjust suffering, you cannot ingest this bitterness. It can never be made a part of the body of Christ.

Be kind to one another, he says, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Now, here are some, I'm going to give you the list, and I put a little dash in front of each point. And I want to invite you to put a little X or a check mark in front of the ones that make you go, "Oops." Here are telltale signs of bitterness. It is hard for you to be happy for other people, and especially people that wrong you. If it is hard for you to be happy when good things happen to bad people. If it is hard for you to be happy for the person that gossips about you when something undeservingly good happens to them. If it's hard for you, then you are jealous, rooted in bitterness. It's hard for you to be happy for others. The next one. It's hard for you to build deep friendships. If you notice that every two years you kind of switch best friend, then the constant in that story is probably you.

That means it is hard for you to build deep friendship. That is probably because you're not very open. As soon as we try to go deep, you talk about topics but not your heart. You talk about doctrine but not your personal relationship with Jesus. That feels a little vulnerable, a little threatening. And after a short relationship, people cannot go deeper with you. And people crave good, deep relationship. And they seem to stop putting in effort in being your friend. And you blame them for it. But in all reality, even people that want to be a good friend to you, they can't because you're not very open. You struggle with outbursts of anger and irritability. In other words, your pissiness catches you off guard. It kind of comes out like that sometimes and stabs at somebody. And you're kind of embarrassed for how that came out, cuz that was kind of not the right time, not the right moment. And you're easily irritable. People just frustrate me.

Next one. You put up emotional walls when you are around people. And this is how you know that you do it. You get a little tired of people when you are around people. That's a tiring exercise for you. Three, four hours and you are exhausted. It's like real work. That's not normal. Not everybody has that.

That means that when you step out of your cocoon of isolation in front of people, that you begin to perform and you begin to put on emotional boundaries, emotional walls, emotional projection, because you are not at peace within yourself. The sign is that you get tired from being around people. The next one, feeling disappointment, sadness, and sometimes thoughts of depression. That's a sign of bitterness. Bitterness causes you to feel sad. Even though nothing is really wrong, nothing's really going on, but you just feel sad. Bitterness causes you to feel disappointed even though nobody did nothing. Bitterness causes you to struggle with depressing thoughts continually because you are not under the protection of the forgiveness of God. There's only very few ways that you can believe in Jesus and still go to hell. And unforgiveness in your heart is one of them. When you have unforgiveness in your heart, you are not forgiven before the father. No matter how much you believe in Jesus, it is something he demands of us to forgive as we are forgiven.

You also withdraw from people. Isolation. Love to be alone. Do things by myself. Not having to work around other people. The next one, negative thoughts about people. This is a real thing.

When you have bitterness in your heart, you just, these pe there's just the moment you look at them, the negative thoughts come. The moment you see them, the thoughts of what they did in the past, they are right here on the forefront of your mind. You look at them through the glasses of all of their wrongs. And you cannot help it. You don't look at them as a beautiful, beloved, awesome, incredible daughter or son of the king. No, you look at them and you cannot help but have the memories clearly at the forefront of your mind. Negative thoughts about people made in God's likeness. The next one, you regularly get into verbal conflicts. You're argumentative. You are easily agitated. You're easily arguing. You're easily fighting with your mouth. Sign of bitterness.

Snapping at people. Kind of touched on that already. Distrust. Huge one. Distrust towards people. When you have distrust towards people, you doubt people's motives and intentions. Well, they're saying that, but do they really mean that? And do they really, is there, are their intentions pure? That's an automatic question in your heart. What about their motives and intention? You doubt them, and you do not want to surrender control. An example of that is a police officer is supposed to be in control over your and my life in measure so that we don't go down the road speeding when we want and turning through red lights to the left. All of that, the police officer supposed to have control over our life so that we live a certain way.

When you have distrust in your heart, you don't want that other person to have control over certain parts of your life because you don't trust. You can have that towards a pastor. You can have that towards a parent. You can have that towards a spouse.

I don't want them to have a measure of they're just controlling. They shouldn't. Nobody should have control over me at all. Nothing. I should be God, and nobody should bother me. But the word of God tells us to submit to one another. That means we give away control to one another because God put good family around us filled with his spirit. And he does that so that your life does not spin out of control. But distrust makes you to not want to surrender control.

And then the last one, resentment. Resentment means feeling hurt, feeling betrayed, and it leads to holding on to anger. It feels safer towards the offender, the person that has hurt you or wounded you or disappointed you. It is safer to hold on to your anger so that you remember to never trust that person again or else I may get hurt again. It feels safer to hold on to your anger than to let go.

Letting go feels dangerous because they may just do it again. That's when you are having resentment in your heart. You don't want to let go of anger because you feel hurt and betrayed.

Bitterness. Bitterness needs to be uprooted. Point three, it needs to be uprooted. And you can conquer bitterness. It matters not how long, how deep, how wide the enemy has touched your life and tricked you into swallowing poison, expecting the other person to feel the pain, the hurt, and even the death of what they have done to you. It needs to be uprooted out of your heart. That poison has to come out of your heart. It has to be removed out of your heart so that you don't walk around with a poisoned heart. And you can conquer bitterness. Let me read to you Matthew 5:43- 48. You have heard the law that says, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good. And he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

You can conquer bitterness. But remember the very first scripture that we read together. Place the responsibility in your corner. See to it that no one falls short. See to it that no root of bitterness springs up—first of all in your own heart, secondly in the hearts of those that love you and are around you. But we have this incredible scripture. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. What does that mean? He's talking about love your neighbor. That's how he starts off. You've heard a lot that says love your neighbor and hate your enemy. He's not saying love your neighbor and hate your enemy. You are called to love your neighbor, God above everything else. He says you are to be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect. In what way? The Father perfectly forgave through the cross of Jesus Christ. And he demands that we love in the same way the people that hurt us and forgive them perfectly. You cannot forgive 99%. It has to be perfect. It has to be a wholehearted letting go.

Here's what Matthew 6: 14 and 15 says: If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins. Here he's speaking to people that are called to be believers in Jesus, followers of Jesus. He's not speaking to the unbelievers, not speaking to the person that hates God. And he says, "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, that's bitterness, refusing forgiveness. I'm not letting it go. Your Father will not forgive your sins." It has to be uprooted out of your heart. But you have to see to that. You have to see to that. How do I do that? How do I do it? CPR. First one, choosing. Choosing forgiveness. You don't have to feel like forgiving. You don't have to be done hurting. You are not saying, "It wasn't that bad what you did." You are choosing forgiveness.

The second one, P, is payment. Payment must become acceptable to you. This is where the rubber meets the road. Choosing forgiveness means you decide to pay for the pain caused by someone else. Payment must become acceptable to you. This is where a lot of self-righteous people get all jumbled up and stuck in their offenses because it's not fair. It's not fair that I have to pay for the pain caused by someone else's evil, unspeakable, at times, actions. Choosing forgiveness means you decide to pay for the pain caused by someone else. Church, by paying the price for forgiveness, you conquer bitterness. It doesn't matter how long you've walked around with bitterness. By the time that you come to yourself and you say, "Oh, Spirit of God, how wrong have I been? I'm going to be responsible for what I've done in this body. I'm going to be responsible for what came out of my mouth. I need to forgive those that have wronged me. I have to be perfect in this, as my Father in heaven is perfect." By paying the price for forgiveness, you conquer bitterness. And when bitterness is conquered, that's where your healing journey will begin. You will never begin your healing journey of the hurts that are very real and unfairly done to you.

You will never begin your healing journey until you pay the price for forgiveness that needs to be extended to someone else. And when that bitterness is conquered by forgiveness, your healing journey will begin. Healing is easy when we have paid the price for forgiveness. And then our releasing—choosing forgiveness, payment must become acceptable—releasing then is now possible. You release the offender, the wrong doer, the person that hurt you. You release the offender from all responsibility for damages caused by their actions. You can now begin to treat them as forgiven. The glasses come off—the glasses of all of their past wrongs that you were wearing, whether you liked it or not. When you saw them, you remembered them. When you looked at them, you could see the things they had said about you, done to you remembered all of it.

When you have chosen forgiveness, when you have decided to be the one that is going to pay the price for their forgiveness, now you can release them from any responsibility they ever had towards you or towards the damages that their actions have caused. Now you are free to begin to treat this person as forgiven, to begin to treat them the way the Father treats them because of Jesus—to treat them forgiven. Now every single one here should have received a little worksheet in your pack of notes, right here on the top. It is titled “Persons Who Have Hurt Me.” And as Ella picks up the background music, we're going to take a couple of minutes where I'm going to pray, and I want to invite you to pray for a moment, and then I want you to wait on the Holy Spirit, hold a pen in your hand, hold that piece of paper, and go down that list: family, friends, teachers, employers, employees, believing brothers or sisters, God, disappointments maybe that you've believed God for and things went wrong, yourself, even other things the Holy Spirit may bring up, or other people.

As I pray over you, I want to invite you to listen for the Holy Spirit to see if He brings any thoughts to your mind, any persons to your mind, any incidents to your mind that are still little roots of bitterness that are trying to sprout up in your heart, that are trying to convince you to swallow poison, hoping the other person will die, will be wounded, and hurt. Lord, as we meditate on this topic—persons that have hurt me—Lord, I pray that you bring to our heart and bring to our mind the people that have hurt us, and the hurt is not healed yet. The hurt is still carried around in our body. And because of our bitterness, our unwillingness to treat that person as if they have never done anything wrong, as if they have no responsibility towards us. They don't have to be apologetic. They don't have to be sorry. They don't have to be better.

Lord, if there's anything in our heart against anyone in your kingdom, anyone in this world, Holy Spirit, would you bring to our mind the person that has hurt us, the way that they have hurt us, Lord, that today we may decide to see to it [music] that the poison is rooted out of our heart, that the poison is removed out of the body of Christ Jesus. As you, the moment you tasted it, you denounced that bitter drink, that bitter wine. Lord Jesus, teach us, Lord God, to reject the bitterness and to accept the pain of paying for other people's sins so that the relationship may be restored.

Lord Jesus, as you gave your life and accepted the pain to pay for the wrongs we had done, in doing so, Jesus, the Father was able to begin to treat us forgiven. And you invite us, Jesus, to do the same for those that have wronged us—to accept full payment, to accept that we will have to go through all of the pain, having to pay for their wrongs unfairly, unjustly. But because Jesus has shown us to go this road, to see divine, miraculous restoration come about in relationship—first of all between us and the Father, and second, between us and other people.

Jesus, would you bring up the people that we have to forgive, that we have to release today and say, "I will no longer treat you as if you've done everything wrong towards me. I'm going to treat you forgiven. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to seek good for you." Hallelujah.

I want to take a moment to pray together with you, this prayer of choosing forgiveness towards these people and also this prayer of releasing people. And remember, this is not “okay, I'm going to let them go, you go your way, I go my way.” This is releasing people in the sense that you no longer treat this person as if they are responsible for the things that hurt you, for the things that wronged you. You'll only trust do this if you trust Jesus. If you have a hard time releasing wrongdoers, that means you have distrust in your heart towards the God who says, “I will defend you. I will protect you. I will make a way for you where there is no way.” But if today you say, I can hear and see something in my heart of what God is trying to do in my life with these discipleship essentials—overcoming bitterness.

I want to pray with you, and I'm going to pray it with you just once. But if you have multiple people on your list, you're going to have a moment where quietly in your heart you can talk this through with the Lord. Here's how I want you to do it. I'm going to use my wife as an example—not because she's wronged me, but because I don't want to pick on anybody else.

Jesus, I choose to forgive Inna for saying something behind my back. I am willing to pay for the pain and the consequences that Enoch caused me. I conquer bitterness in your name, Jesus by forgiving and releasing Inna from all responsibility. Amen. Would you take a moment and go down your list and forgive, and would you release every person that has come to your mind? They've hurt you. They've wronged you. And yes, they were wrong, but it's not your job to poison them and to hope they feel the pain of what they've done. That we surrender to the Lord. The Lord in His ways is able to deal with people.

It is our job, our responsibility, to see to it that no root of bitterness gets to live in my heart. The rest we leave up to our Lord. Would you take a moment? Hallelujah. Amen. Lord, I thank you, God, for bringing up every root that, Lord, you're asking us to take care of. Lord, you are asking us to become followers of Jesus, to pay the painful price for the sins of others as He did in a grand and perfect way. Lord, you are asking us to, in a very small way, pay for the wrongs that have been committed to us—the wrongs we have witnessed, the wrongs we've endured. And Lord, I thank you that the promise is so clear that when we forgive, that resurrection power awaits, Lord, that you will cause us to begin to walk in the miraculous. You will cause us to begin to walk in newness of life, restoration, the power of your Spirit upon even this earthly body.

Lord God, help us to trust you and to choose forgiveness, to pay the price, Lord God, and to release those, Lord God, that have wronged us, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's go to point four: here are the signs that the root is removed in your life. As you heard earlier this evening from the Word of God, when you withhold forgiveness, the Father also withholds forgiveness. This is one of those very few things that God is incredibly black and white with. And Jesus makes it known in various places in Scripture with all kinds of stories that this is not optional. If you're going to believe on Him and follow Him, here are signs in your life that you've dealt with it: the root is now removed out of your life. The first one: right standing in your relationship with God. In other words, you are experiencing your forgiveness again. Some of us, we experience the forgiveness that we have in Christ Jesus when we first come to the Lord, and it is like we could all of a sudden breathe, and we have never really been breathing before. We can all of a sudden see color in this world, and it's like everything has been dim before we got to know God. And peace is upon our heart, and then that feeling starts to fade away.

Now there can be multiple reasons, but one of them most surely is holding on to unforgiveness.

And when we forgive perfectly, we begin to experience not just intellect, not just choosing to believe with the heart. The Holy Spirit of God begins to minister [music] clearly salvation to our heart. He begins to help us understand from God's perspective what He has done, how He feels about you. It's very personal. It's very intimate. He's going to do it in the place of prayer. He's going to do it when you read your Bible at home. It's again a personal relationship that has come back alive. Right standing in your relationship with God. You're going to experience it. The next point: your relationships are going to be restored. You're going to see it all over your life. You're not going to put in much effort. You don't have to go and make things happen. Relationships seem to be restored. People seem to be coming back into your life. Old relationships seem to be revived. New ones are easily started. People feel safe around you.

They want to do relationships with you. It's easy to start a good, deep relationship with you. People don't move on from you. They love to be around you. They feel safe around you.

The next one is innocence. Oh, can God give you an innocent mind? Hallelujah. In your heart and in your thought, He will make you innocent again. You won't be suspicious of people. You won't be thinking about people's motives. You won't be worried about people's intentions. You will be able to take everything and everyone at face value. And if they were lying and they had wrong intentions, so be it. I am called to treat them forgiven. I'm called to treat them like they speak the truth. I'm called to treat them with honor and dignity, for they are made in the likeness of my heavenly Father. As far as it goes for me, I am called to live peaceably with all. And the Word tells me to be innocent in all things, not suspicious, to be innocent, to assume the best, give everyone the benefit of the doubt. The Lord will give you a heart and a mind that can do that again without thinking for people.

The next one: compassion. Feeling things in your heart for people that you may not even know, caring for people, caring for what they're going through. You don't have to pretend to care. It's not a caring that you do for your spouse or for your sibling. It's a not being able to drive through Portland without shedding tears for all the suffering, the homelessness, the pain, the loneliness, the drug abuse, all the things that people go through. When your heart is compassionate again, what breaks God's heart begins to break your heart again. What God wants to make time for, you need to make time for again, because you have been filled with compassion. It's a miracle that takes place when we forgive as Jesus forgave, as we trust Him. The next one: healing from the hurts that you have experienced. This is a huge one. A lot of people hold on to offenses or bitterness because they walk around with so much pain, and they hold on to offenses trying to keep people at a distance because they don't want to get hurt again. But by putting up that wall, they keep the hurt inside that wall, and they have to live with it for the rest of their life.

The only way for you to experience divine, miraculous healing from sins that have been committed towards you, that have hurt you, that have wounded you—in some cases, they've contributed to your heart dying in various ways—the only way that you can have complete healing is when you forgive. When the root of bitterness has been [music] taken out of your life, and you have paid the price for forgiveness, released people, and blessed them. The biggest of all, though—it's a blank line in your notes, I believe—the biggest of all is love. Love. I will read to you Psalm 35:11–14. It's a heart of love. In a generation that is ruthless, fierce witnesses rise up, liars all around. Fierce witnesses rise up. They ask me things that I do not know. They put me on the spot. They're trying to tear me down. They're trying to make me look bad. They have bad intentions, and they catch me off guard because I'm innocent. They put me on the spot. They rise up. They ask me things that I do not know. They reward me evil for good, to the sorrow of my soul. I'm getting hurt out there.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. In other words, I had compassion towards what they were going through. It wouldn't let me go. I humbled myself with fasting. I wanted them to be delivered out of their situation, to the extent that I took time out of my day and out of my comfort to see their deliverance, and my prayer would return to my own heart. The prayer wouldn't leave me alone; it would return to my own heart. And then verse 14: I paced about as though they were my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one who mourns for his mother. The psalmist is saying, "I was full of love. I couldn't help it. People were hurting and mean, and they had bad intentions, but I was overflowing with love. It was coming out, and it was coming out in my actions." And I'm trying to explain by words how it was burning in my heart, but I was filled with love.

Church, I'm telling you now, in these last days, what God has called you to do in your generation is love others as yourself and God above all things. You cannot overflow with love towards your enemies. You can't overflow with love towards those that rise up against you, put you on the spot, make you look bad, ask you things that you do not know, reward you evil for good, backtalk even though you're trying to be kind to them, cause sorrow in your soul, and yet stand without effort. Do you understand that this is what God miraculously will do in your heart? It won't cause you effort. Your heart will bleed for them. You will love these people. You will not have to grudgingly try and be a good Christian and pray for these bad people. Your heart will bleed for them. You will love them. You will not be able to leave the place of prayer until they are blessed or delivered, but you will not be able to continue and enjoy the comfort and the blessing of the presence of God that you have until you see them touched and delivered because you are filled by the Spirit of God, filled with love.

Because you said, "I will pay the price for those that hurt me because of Jesus," and I trust Him dearly. Jesus told me to follow Him. He told me to deny the bitterness and to not let it touch my lips and to not ingest it, but to suffer the pain and to choose the price for forgiveness for others. And I can sense God's heart for these people now. I can feel God's love for these people now because something miraculous happens, church, when you follow Jesus with all of your heart. When I, like Jesus, choose to pay—in my small way, of course—but when I, like Jesus, choose to pay the price for the sins of others, the Spirit, just like He did for Jesus on the third day, will also come and provide miraculous resurrection power in your life. Things that should have died because of all these wounds and all these hurts—they become the most alive. They become the biggest miracle. They become the most powerful in your life.

But there has to be a moment where we say, "Father, despite all of the pain, all of the wrong, all of the sin, I'm going to trust you. I'm going to pay the price. And unless you raise me up from what feels like it's going to be my death, unless you raise me up, I'm going to go down under this price. It's too big. It's too heavy. But I'm choosing to pay it so that others may have forgiveness." Church, when you begin to follow Jesus, the Father will pour everything into your life that this world needs. It's not for you. This world will begin to see a love inside of you that makes no sense—a forgiveness, a care, a compassion inside of you that this world, that your evil friends or family members, or whoever may have hurt you, they know that they didn't deserve it, but they also know this could never be coming from you. It's the kind of love and compassion that can win people to Christ, that can move people to begin to believe that God must be moving in this generation.

You are called to love your enemies—not tolerate, not allow them to live in their corner. You're called to love. You're called to be up at night, full of love, not being able to do anything else but pray because you're so full of love for this person or for their situation. I will read verse 14 again: I paced about as though he were my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily as one who mourns for his mother. Church, that's the picture of the man that has said, "Lord, I would love for that cup to pass me, just like Jesus said, but Your will be done. If You want me to extend forgiveness, I'll pay the price." This is the testimony of that man, that woman. It's a man and a woman that has been resurrected from the dead. There's a power now that cannot be shaken. There's a love that doesn't run out. There's a newness of life that cannot be taken away. But you don't get there without going through the death of paying the price for sins you did not commit. And if you trust Jesus enough to say, "Yes, Lord, Your will be done," He will make you into a man, a woman that can love this generation.

-Pastor Stan Mons