Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 18, 2025 | Getting Over It - Getting Over Bitterness
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Good morning, TBC.
- 0:02SPEAKER_00: My name is Jeremy McGrath.
- 0:04SPEAKER_00: I'm the student ministry pastor here.
- 0:06SPEAKER_00: And the other day, I can't remember who this was, but I think this was one of my nephews.
- 0:12SPEAKER_00: I was telling them about, you know, my work here, and then I'm the student ministry pastor.
- 0:17SPEAKER_00: And uh and I think one of my nephews asked, he's like, So when are you gonna become a real pastor?
- 0:24SPEAKER_00: Like, that's fair.
- 0:26SPEAKER_00: Uh no, but I I really do uh love the work that I get to do here with you guys and specifically your students.
- 0:33SPEAKER_00: Um it's a great honor, a great role that I take very seriously.
- 0:38SPEAKER_00: Um but today I'm with you guys, and we are gonna be continuing in this series, Getting Over It, uh, that Pastor Connor started a couple weeks ago.
- 0:49SPEAKER_00: And I think that this uh this term getting over it is most appropriate when it comes to the topic we're discussing today.
- 0:58SPEAKER_00: If you were to hear the term get over it, or your friend told you this, most likely they'd be referring to maybe some grudge or some issue that you just can't let go of, that you need to just get over.
- 1:11SPEAKER_00: Right?
- 1:13SPEAKER_00: And today we are going to be discussing why it is good and biblical to get over or give up resentment and bitterness.
- 1:24SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I don't want to be kind of glib or trivialize our resentment and bitterness that some of us hold within us.
- 1:33SPEAKER_00: Because some of us have experienced real deep and lasting hurt and harm from others.
- 1:40SPEAKER_00: And so this is not just a get over it kind of situation, but a situation where we're gonna need to look into Scripture and find the true and abiding antidote to something that's so deeply rooted within many of us.
- 1:56SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 1:57SPEAKER_00: And so today I'm gonna do my best to cover this topic of bitterness and resentment, and we're titling it the one, two, three, this sermon, the one, two, three of resentment and bitterness.
- 2:07SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at the one biblical definition of bitterness and resentment, and this is a little misleading because bitterness and resentment are two different things.
- 2:15SPEAKER_00: Bitterness is kind of the more umbrella emotion, and then resentment is a kind of bitterness.
- 2:21SPEAKER_00: But just for the sake of ease, we're going to be kind of using them synonymously throughout this sermon.
- 2:26SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at the biblical definition.
- 2:28SPEAKER_00: Second, we're going to look at two cures to bitterness and resentment that the Bible prescribe.
- 2:35SPEAKER_00: And then we are going to look at the three reasons to get over bitterness and resentment.
- 2:42SPEAKER_00: Now, many of you guys know that downstairs when I'm with the students and I get to this point in the sermon, I'd like to ask all of you guys, are y'all with me?
- 2:49SPEAKER_00: And you respond with a hearty oh yeah.
- 2:51SPEAKER_00: So let's try that right now.
- 2:52SPEAKER_00: Are y'all with me?
- 2:54SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's give this a shot.
- 2:56SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna look first at uh the definition of bitterness according to scripture.
- 3:01SPEAKER_00: And this one's tough because uh the Bible doesn't talk a lot about specifically bitterness and resentment, and when it does, it doesn't define it.
- 3:09SPEAKER_00: But when we take scripture holistically and look at all of these verses that talk about things like malice and anger, long-lasting anger and bitter jealousy, we begin to put together a picture of what the Bible or how the Bible views bitterness and resentment.
- 3:25SPEAKER_00: And so here's the definition we're rocking with today.
- 3:28SPEAKER_00: Bitterness and resentment are feelings of anger that lead to ill will towards the perceived offender.
- 3:35SPEAKER_00: Resentment tends towards outward expression of evil and often results in division, quarreling, strife, and a failure to show love.
- 3:47SPEAKER_00: So, a couple things to pull out here.
- 3:48SPEAKER_00: I think the very beginning of this definition is what we'd expect.
- 3:52SPEAKER_00: What most of us think when we think of bitterness or resentment.
- 3:55SPEAKER_00: When someone's harmed us or we think they've harmed us, and we chew on it for a really long time and we're angry about it, and then we we kind of start having some ill will towards them.
- 4:04SPEAKER_00: We wish maybe that they would trip and fall on their face or that they would lose that job, right?
- 4:08SPEAKER_00: That's just something right inside of us.
- 4:10SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of the thing we all understand and accept.
- 4:12SPEAKER_00: But biblically, almost every time that resentment and bitterness is in view, the Bible is also discussing how this internal reality manifests outwardly.
- 4:25SPEAKER_00: Most of us, I think, when we think of bitterness and resentment, just think of that person who's chewing on something and you never know, right, that they're actually holding a grudge against you.
- 4:34SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says, no, no, no, no, in most cases, your resentment and bitterness will cause you to act in ways that are not befitting of a son or daughter of God.
- 4:47SPEAKER_00: And I think if we really thought about this, we'd begin to see how this is true, even if it's just in subtle ways.
- 4:53SPEAKER_00: Like, think about how sometimes bitterness can keep us from responding to the offender's text.
- 4:59SPEAKER_00: Or maybe maybe just giving them like a really short and brief response.
- 5:03SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 5:04SPEAKER_00: How many times has bitterness um caused you to feel justified in not inviting them to that thing, not inviting them to that party, because they don't deserve to go?
- 5:13SPEAKER_00: How many times have we casually turned other people against this person through gossiping about them and just calling it venting, right?
- 5:22SPEAKER_00: And so even if that person doesn't know that you are resentful or bitter towards them, often our bitterness or resentment does come out in some fashion in the way that we treat them or discuss them with the people around us.
- 5:36SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
- 5:37SPEAKER_00: And this is kind of what the Bible is concerned about when it comes to bitterness and resentment.
- 5:43SPEAKER_00: And so whether it's big or small, obvious or in the background, our bitterness and resentment will often come out to play in some way.
- 5:50SPEAKER_00: Now, who can we be bitter against?
- 5:53SPEAKER_00: There's kind of three categories.
- 5:55SPEAKER_00: We can be bitter against ourselves, we can be bitter against God, and most obviously, we can be bitter against other people, the people in our life.
- 6:04SPEAKER_00: And just for the sake of time today, we are only going to be dealing with bitterness and resentment as it relates to our interpersonal relationships with each other.
- 6:13SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 6:13SPEAKER_00: But I would love, maybe in the podcast, we'll discuss bitterness and resentment towards God and towards ourselves.
- 6:19SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 6:20SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we kind of have a brief understanding of what bitterness and resentment is, the definition we're working with, and that we're specifically looking at how bitter we can be bitter and resentful towards the people around us.
- 6:31SPEAKER_00: So let's move to the second point: two ways to heal bitterness and resentment.
- 6:37SPEAKER_00: Two ways to heal bitterness and resentment.
- 6:40SPEAKER_00: Now, before we can talk about the ways to heal, we need to talk about the different reasons we become bitter.
- 6:48SPEAKER_00: And there are multiple different reasons, but we're gonna talk about two that I think cover most of them.
- 6:55SPEAKER_00: Most of the reasons we get bitter.
- 6:57SPEAKER_00: Kind of the two buckets.
- 6:58SPEAKER_00: We get bitter because of flesh wounds, and we get better bitter because of grievous wounds.
- 7:04SPEAKER_00: What do I mean here?
- 7:04SPEAKER_00: Um, how many how many of you guys have seen uh Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
- 7:09SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, a couple of us.
- 7:10SPEAKER_00: I actually still have not seen it, but it's made a huge impact on my life.
- 7:14SPEAKER_00: I know like a bunch of the quotes from it, and I a bunch of the scenes, and I still haven't seen it.
- 7:18SPEAKER_00: But you know that scene where the black knight, some of you haven't seen it, he gets both arms cut off, and what does he say?
- 7:24SPEAKER_00: Tiss a scratch.
- 7:25SPEAKER_00: Nothing but a flesh wound, right?
- 7:27SPEAKER_00: Uh so I'm not referring to that.
- 7:29SPEAKER_00: I'm not referring to like, you know, some some grievous wound or just flesh wound that will heal, even though that's not gonna heal.
- 7:35SPEAKER_00: That's the funny part.
- 7:36SPEAKER_00: That's definitely a grievous wound.
- 7:37SPEAKER_00: But more, I'm referring to uh uh how the Bible often uses the word flesh or sarks in the New Testament.
- 7:44SPEAKER_00: And when it when it refers to flesh, it refers to the desires within us that are evil, that are against God's plan for us, the selfishness, the desire to harm others or to get ahead of others, the desire to reject God's plan for our life.
- 8:03SPEAKER_00: This is what the Bible often refers to as our fleshly desires.
- 8:07SPEAKER_00: And so when we're considering flesh wounds and how we can get bitter over flesh wounds, we're talking about the kinds of wounds where our sinful desires are stomped on or unfulfilled.
- 8:19SPEAKER_00: They're stomped on or unfulfilled.
- 8:21SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about kind of two of these categories real quick.
- 8:25SPEAKER_00: First, we can receive a flesh wound when we uh have our sin uncovered.
- 8:31SPEAKER_00: Uh, when a friend comes to you and says, Man, I feel like I see this thing in your life, and this is the wrong direction, or you're you're harming this person, or you're not pursuing this the right way.
- 8:45SPEAKER_00: And often the Bible's very clear our sin does not like being exposed.
- 8:49SPEAKER_00: And so we begin to defend and we begin to reject and push away, or even attack the person who came at us.
- 8:57SPEAKER_00: Why?
- 8:57SPEAKER_00: Because our sin was exposed and we received a flesh wound.
- 9:01SPEAKER_00: But there's another kind, not just when our sin gets exposed, but like I mentioned earlier, when our desires are trampled or unfulfilled.
- 9:11SPEAKER_00: In James 4, 1, 2 through 8, James says, What causes fights and quarrels among you, brothers?
- 9:18SPEAKER_00: Doesn't it come from your desires, those fleshly desires, that battle within you?
- 9:23SPEAKER_00: You desire but do not have, so you kill, you covet, but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.
- 9:30SPEAKER_00: And so let's talk about in the practical sense.
- 9:32SPEAKER_00: What does this look like?
- 9:34SPEAKER_00: These things that cause us to be resentful when our desires don't get fulfilled.
- 9:37SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe a friend gets a beautiful house that you always wanted.
- 9:41SPEAKER_00: Or your friend gets a position on the football team or a spot in the play that you wanted to have, and so you grow bitter and resentful with jealousy.
- 9:48SPEAKER_00: Jealousy can be a kind of resentment, okay?
- 9:52SPEAKER_00: Maybe your spouse does not thank you profusely for the meal that you prepared.
- 9:56SPEAKER_00: If we're being honest, husbands, this is the one that we get a little more offended about because it's once in a blue moon, some of us that will, you know, maybe make the meal.
- 10:03SPEAKER_00: So we want to be thanked for that, but when we're not, we get upset and resentful.
- 10:07SPEAKER_00: Maybe you lose repeatedly to another team.
- 10:10SPEAKER_00: And every time you see them celebrate, your resentment grows.
- 10:14SPEAKER_00: You continually get passed up for promotion that you think you deserve.
- 10:19SPEAKER_00: Uh you believe, here's one, here's a big one we see in our society today.
- 10:23SPEAKER_00: You believe you deserve love from this guy or girl because of who you are and how you act, but it's not reciprocated.
- 10:31SPEAKER_00: And so you begin to grow resentful towards that person.
- 10:34SPEAKER_00: And in all of these cases, there is real hurt and harm, but this person that you're growing resentful or bitter towards is not worthy of that resentment.
- 10:46SPEAKER_00: They did not truly sin against you.
- 10:48SPEAKER_00: Rather, your fleshly desire was unresolved, and so it caused you to begin to hate or resent.
- 10:56SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll give you one from my life.
- 10:58SPEAKER_00: Here's a silly one.
- 10:59SPEAKER_00: You guys know how, like, people with a PhD, you call them Doctor, Dr.
- 11:03SPEAKER_00: Smith.
- 11:04SPEAKER_00: Okay, right.
- 11:05SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't have my doctorates, but I almost have my master's.
- 11:09SPEAKER_00: And so I like to, we just got our summer interns in, and I like to have the interns call me Master McGrath.
- 11:16SPEAKER_00: I think that's only fair.
- 11:18SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know what?
- 11:20SPEAKER_00: Only one of them, Mr.
- 11:21SPEAKER_00: Levi Will, actually calls me Master McGrath.
- 11:24SPEAKER_00: This is Pastor Doug's son.
- 11:25SPEAKER_00: Um so all of the other interns are gonna feel the wrath of Master McGrath, let me tell you.
- 11:31SPEAKER_00: Or maybe, I guess maybe Levi's the suck up, so I guess maybe he needs to feel the wrath.
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
- 11:36SPEAKER_00: Um okay, but regardless, this is what we're talking about when we're discussing kind of these fleshly wounds.
- 11:43SPEAKER_00: Actually, we're gonna stay.
- 11:44SPEAKER_00: We're gonna stay here.
- 11:45SPEAKER_00: But what about grievous wounds?
- 11:46SPEAKER_00: What's the difference between fleshly wounds and grievous wounds?
- 11:49SPEAKER_00: Well, grievous wounds is when someone does sin against you, um, when someone does you wrong.
- 11:55SPEAKER_00: Over and over and over again.
- 11:58SPEAKER_00: And it causes deep and bitter resentment towards this person.
- 12:02SPEAKER_00: Someone lies to you, bullies you, gossips or slanders you, breaks promise after promise, cheats on you, abuses you, steals from you, intentionally disrespects you, punishes or penalizes you unfairly, or perhaps even a parent who neglects you or otherwise fails in their parental duties, the list can go on and on.
- 12:21SPEAKER_00: But I want you what I want you to notice about a lot of these cases that we've been bringing up is that bitterness and resentment most often grow after repeated abuse, after repeated harm.
- 12:35SPEAKER_00: Sometimes resentment can grow just from a single action, like a spouse who's cheated on you just once.
- 12:42SPEAKER_00: That's still really hard to deal with.
- 12:45SPEAKER_00: But most of the time, resentment is going to be a slow process of this person just screwing you over time after time after time.
- 12:53SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 12:55SPEAKER_00: So these are the two different kinds of buckets that we have in focus, fleshly wounds and grievous wounds.
- 13:00SPEAKER_00: And like I said, they require two different antidotes, actually.
- 13:03SPEAKER_00: It's not the same antidote according to Scripture.
- 13:06SPEAKER_00: What about fleshly wounds?
- 13:08SPEAKER_00: What's the antidote here?
- 13:09SPEAKER_00: Um, well, Colossians 3 5 says, put to death your earthly desires, which is idolatry.
- 13:18SPEAKER_00: The antidote?
- 13:20SPEAKER_00: To when someone tramples on our fleshly desires or they're unfulfilled.
- 13:24SPEAKER_00: Man, it's not their problem.
- 13:26SPEAKER_00: It's not their fault.
- 13:27SPEAKER_00: There's something inside us that needs to die.
- 13:31SPEAKER_00: And it's not even necessarily that our desire is wrong, like we talked about, the desire for a new job.
- 13:35SPEAKER_00: That's a good desire.
- 13:38SPEAKER_00: But man, when it causes us to be resentful, it's showing that something is wrong about our desire.
- 13:44SPEAKER_00: And specifically, I'm glad that Paul does this in Colossians.
- 13:46SPEAKER_00: He says what's wrong with that desire is it has become idolatry.
- 13:50SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
- 13:52SPEAKER_00: Idolatry.
- 13:53SPEAKER_00: Well, idolatry is when we put something above God or is more important than God.
- 14:00SPEAKER_00: But I want to add something to this definition that I think is important for understanding resentment and bitterness.
- 14:04SPEAKER_00: Idolatry, I think, can also be not believing God that he can do something good with our life after our desire is taken away or unfulfilled.
- 14:14SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 14:15SPEAKER_00: So if we go back to that job promotion idea, if we don't get that job promotion, we don't believe God that our life can be good or that he can make something good with it.
- 14:27SPEAKER_00: Or that life is worth living.
- 14:31SPEAKER_00: Or we desire, again, just that job over pursuing God in the first place, it's become an idol.
- 14:36SPEAKER_00: And this can be with bad desires like greed, it could be with good desires like even with our children, having our children, protecting our children.
- 14:44SPEAKER_00: But if they become an idol, then they become actually a fleshly desire, good or bad.
- 14:51SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of want to leave you with this as we're going through this topic.
- 14:55SPEAKER_00: When our desires turn into what we require, when our desires turn into what we require, this idolatry can lead to resentment when desires are unfulfilled.
- 15:07SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 15:08SPEAKER_00: So whether it's an evil desire or a good desire, man, we should never get at the point where it's required.
- 15:14SPEAKER_00: I must have this in my life, or I cannot be satisfied.
- 15:19SPEAKER_00: I cannot find peace.
- 15:21SPEAKER_00: I cannot find rest in the Lord.
- 15:23SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying it's easy, but a heart that is obstinate and says I cannot, is a heart that most likely has turned idolatrous.
- 15:34SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to hone in on this idea of how to heal flesh wounds a little bit more.
- 15:42SPEAKER_00: Because I think if I were to ask most of you in this audience, if you have bitterness and resentment in your life, is it due to a flesh wound?
- 15:49SPEAKER_00: Or is it due to a grievous wound?
- 15:51SPEAKER_00: Most of you would say grievous wound.
- 15:53SPEAKER_00: I was genuinely sinned against.
- 15:55SPEAKER_00: I was genuinely harmed.
- 16:00SPEAKER_00: But is that the case?
- 16:01SPEAKER_00: Are there so little flesh wounds out there?
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: Are they going extinct?
- 16:06SPEAKER_00: Are they a rare species?
- 16:07SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
- 16:09SPEAKER_00: So why is it that our flesh wounds are so hard to identify and we make them into grievous wounds?
- 16:16SPEAKER_00: Well, there's a couple reasons I'm gonna consider with you.
- 16:18SPEAKER_00: First is that situations are messy.
- 16:20SPEAKER_00: Situations are messy.
- 16:23SPEAKER_00: Perhaps your boss has passed you up many, many times for that job promotion, and you know he did it out of spite.
- 16:29SPEAKER_00: In fact, he told you.
- 16:30SPEAKER_00: He said, I don't like you, and I'm gonna work hard to make sure you don't get this job.
- 16:34SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 16:35SPEAKER_00: That's a real grievous wound.
- 16:36SPEAKER_00: But what if your pride and jealousy within your heart, your fleshly desire, is making that resentment worse than it otherwise would be?
- 16:45SPEAKER_00: You see, situations can be messy.
- 16:47SPEAKER_00: We can have both a grievous wound and a flesh wound, but often we focus on the grievous aspect and ignore the fleshly aspect.
- 16:54SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
- 16:55SPEAKER_00: Second, I think bitterness over time skews our perception of reality.
- 17:01SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you guys were with us, uh, we covered a lot of the Old Testament books within the last year, and we covered the story of Israel.
- 17:09SPEAKER_00: Israel, who was enslaved in Egypt for centuries, gets rescued by God, and they were going to enter the promised land, but they did some bad things, and so God made them wander in the wilderness.
- 17:20SPEAKER_00: But while he was doing that, he provided for them.
- 17:23SPEAKER_00: He gave them manna from heaven every day, he gave them water to drink, he protected them from their enemies, but they were growing bitter because they did not enter the promised land.
- 17:33SPEAKER_00: But you know what their bitterness started to do to them is they started to misremember.
- 17:38SPEAKER_00: They started to reflect back on their time in slavery, and they're like, oh man, wasn't it so good back then?
- 17:44SPEAKER_00: We got to eat meat and melons and all kinds of exotic food, and our bellies were always full.
- 17:49SPEAKER_00: Wasn't it great to be slaves?
- 17:53SPEAKER_00: And the Bible portrays this as a clear skewing of their past, a misremembering of what actually happened.
- 18:02SPEAKER_00: And this is something that bitterness tends to do in all of us, where we misremember or have a skewed perception.
- 18:10SPEAKER_00: Think of that person maybe that you currently are bitter or resentful towards.
- 18:14SPEAKER_00: If you remember back to the original offense, like maybe maybe this person didn't show you love in this particular way.
- 18:22SPEAKER_00: But as time has gone on, you now start to maybe generalize a little bit and you say, they always act that way.
- 18:28SPEAKER_00: They've never loved me, they've never cared about me.
- 18:33SPEAKER_00: This is always their motivation.
- 18:36SPEAKER_00: And we begin to generalize or or misremember or skew or only see the bad so that it discolors our perception of who that person is and actually makes us more resentful.
- 18:48SPEAKER_00: And as we do this, it can start to feel more, we can feel more justified because this person is truly just super evil and beyond help.
- 18:57SPEAKER_00: And so, of course, we should feel resentful.
- 19:00SPEAKER_00: Second, bitterness can raise expectations.
- 19:05SPEAKER_00: Bitterness can raise expectations.
- 19:07SPEAKER_00: Um, I'll give you a case example.
- 19:08SPEAKER_00: This is not someone in particular I know, but I I just seen stuff like this happen.
- 19:13SPEAKER_00: Imagine you're a parent and you're watching your two kids play, or your kid play with another kid out in the backyard at some party, okay?
- 19:21SPEAKER_00: And then you see the other kid just wind up and boom, slap your kid right across the face, okay?
- 19:27SPEAKER_00: And what do you do?
- 19:28SPEAKER_00: Well, you run over and you separate them and you say, hey, don't do that to the other kid, and then a little late, the other mom or dad runs over and says, I'm so, so sorry.
- 19:38SPEAKER_00: You know, I just went away for a second.
- 19:40SPEAKER_00: I I apologize.
- 19:42SPEAKER_00: And you accept the apology, but then you walk away and you begin saying, Man, what a horrible parent they are.
- 19:49SPEAKER_00: Just leaving their kid, like you should have eyes on your kid at all times.
- 19:53SPEAKER_00: I I cannot believe they did that.
- 19:57SPEAKER_00: And what I want to draw out there is, is that a realistic expectation?
- 20:01SPEAKER_00: And is that an expectation you have for yourself?
- 20:04SPEAKER_00: Do you have eyes on your kid 24-7?
- 20:08SPEAKER_00: Has your kid ever, even accidentally just for a moment, escaped your notice and broke something or hurt another kid or had an accident?
- 20:16SPEAKER_00: Right?
- 20:17SPEAKER_00: And so it lacks mercy and elevates the expectation we have for someone else because we are angry and we want to feel justified with our anger, so we raise the expectation we have for the person.
- 20:29SPEAKER_00: Fourth, bitterness, and I think this is the most important, is that bitterness often can assume the worst.
- 20:36SPEAKER_00: If curiosity killed the cat, assumptions kill the relationship.
- 20:41SPEAKER_00: I um I had a professor who uh I I love and to this day still love back in my undergrad, and he was the head of our department for my major, and I needed an internship uh that year.
- 20:56SPEAKER_00: He knew about this, and and he reached out to me via email one day and he said, Hey Jeremy, uh, I'm excited to tell you that we have an internship opportunity for you within the major for the department.
- 21:08SPEAKER_00: Uh we only offer one position, and I I'd love if you would accept it.
- 21:12SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, though, it is unpaid.
- 21:14SPEAKER_00: And now at this time, I was going to ROTC and I was working three jobs to pay for school.
- 21:19SPEAKER_00: I literally needed to do that to be able to afford to continue to go to school.
- 21:23SPEAKER_00: And so I was very honored and flattered, but I wrote back and I said, Hey, thank you.
- 21:28SPEAKER_00: Thank you for offering this position to me.
- 21:30SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it.
- 21:31SPEAKER_00: I would love to do it.
- 21:32SPEAKER_00: But my situation right now, my financial situation wouldn't allow me to, because I'd have to take time off of some of my jobs to dedicate to this internship.
- 21:41SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, if for some reason there's an opportunity for this to become a paid internship, love to take it.
- 21:47SPEAKER_00: Um but if not, totally understand, you know, and uh and I'd love for you to give it to somebody else.
- 21:54SPEAKER_00: He shoots me back an email, and it is one of the most scathing emails I've ever received.
- 21:59SPEAKER_00: I was Shocked.
- 22:01SPEAKER_00: And the gist of the email was, how dare you?
- 22:05SPEAKER_00: How prideful and arrogant are you that you think you could ask for this internship to be paid when your peers before you did it unpaid?
- 22:17SPEAKER_00: What a privileged kid you are.
- 22:19SPEAKER_00: And literally just going on and on attacking.
- 22:22SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, I said something wrong in my initial email.
- 22:25SPEAKER_00: I like, we screwed up, we miscommunicated.
- 22:27SPEAKER_00: Let me let me solve this.
- 22:28SPEAKER_00: And so I email them back like, hey, I'm gonna run over to your office.
- 22:31SPEAKER_00: I just want to talk through this real quick.
- 22:32SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget this.
- 22:34SPEAKER_00: I go in and I sit down and I say, hey, uh, Professor, man, I think we're just missing each other.
- 22:39SPEAKER_00: I think there was some miscommunication or misunderstanding.
- 22:41SPEAKER_00: I just want to clear things up because I'm really grateful that you thought of me.
- 22:45SPEAKER_00: Uh that there's just, you know, this financial issue.
- 22:47SPEAKER_00: And he looks at me and he says, There was no mistake.
- 22:50SPEAKER_00: There was no misunderstanding.
- 22:52SPEAKER_00: I know exactly what's going on.
- 22:54SPEAKER_00: And then essentially just repeated everything that he had said in that email.
- 22:58SPEAKER_00: Now, a couple days later, his wife, who is also one of my professors, apparently heard about this situation and, in his own words, set him straight.
- 23:05SPEAKER_00: Um, and he uh he he created another position for me that was paid, and we we still have a we had a great relationship after that, but still do.
- 23:15SPEAKER_00: Um now I I don't think uh the professor was bitter or or resentful at me, and that's why he snapped at me.
- 23:22SPEAKER_00: But what I do think happened is he made some assumptions about my motivation, about who I was, about how I was approaching this conversation, and that caused him to become angry and potentially could have caused him to become resentful and bitter.
- 23:41SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, for many of us who are resentful and bitter, when we are chewing on it for over and over and over again, we begin to make assumptions about who that person is, why they did what they did, the root behind it.
- 23:57SPEAKER_00: When we don't really know.
- 24:00SPEAKER_00: And I'd urge you guys, even if you know this person really well, it's a family member or a longtime friend, please, please do not assume.
- 24:09SPEAKER_00: It's gonna hurt you, it's gonna hurt the relationship, and it's unfair to the other person.
- 24:14SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 24:15SPEAKER_00: So that's why fleshly wounds often are not recognized within us, uh, because of these four reasons.
- 24:21SPEAKER_00: There's more, but I just wanted to cover those.
- 24:23SPEAKER_00: But let's let's tackle grievous wounds.
- 24:26SPEAKER_00: What's the solution for grievous wounds when people have really harmed us?
- 24:30SPEAKER_00: Well, as you would expect, it's forgiveness.
- 24:34SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4.32, Paul says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.
- 24:46SPEAKER_00: But I want to pause here.
- 24:48SPEAKER_00: Because as a student ministry pastor, and just working in ministry for a long time, I have sat with people who have hurts that destroy me, that break my heart.
- 25:06SPEAKER_00: And I know many of you in this room have wounds and hurt from the people in your life that I could not even imagine.
- 25:14SPEAKER_00: And my heart breaks for you.
- 25:17SPEAKER_00: And more than that, I hate what was done to you.
- 25:22SPEAKER_00: But more importantly, what I think, God also hates what was done to you.
- 25:26SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing that I really need you to hear is God does not want you to take that burden of the hurt and the resentment on your shoulders.
- 25:37SPEAKER_00: God wants you to give that to Him.
- 25:40SPEAKER_00: Because He wants to pursue justice and He will.
- 25:43SPEAKER_00: But He doesn't want you to carry that burden.
- 25:47SPEAKER_00: But some of you might say at this point, Jeremy, I I get it, but I just cannot forgive.
- 25:53SPEAKER_00: I don't have it within me.
- 25:55SPEAKER_00: I can't do it.
- 25:56SPEAKER_00: Every time I try to think about it, my heart just gets repulsed by the idea of forgiving this person.
- 26:03SPEAKER_00: It just seems so wrong.
- 26:04SPEAKER_00: I can't do it.
- 26:07SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you can't.
- 26:09SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you a story that might give you some hope.
- 26:13SPEAKER_00: A lot of you guys have heard of Corey Tenboon who was attempting to rescue Jews in Nazi Germany with her sister, but was found out and arrested and thrown into a concentration camp.
- 26:27SPEAKER_00: Now her sister died, but she survived.
- 26:31SPEAKER_00: And in 1947, just two years after the war had ended, she was doing a tour throughout Germany preaching about forgiveness to the very people who had put her in that concentration camp.
- 26:44SPEAKER_00: But one day after one of her speeches, uh, people are filing out, and this one man comes up to her, and she realizes it's one of the guards from her concentration camp.
- 26:58SPEAKER_00: And he goes up to her and he says, Thank you for your speech on forgiveness.
- 27:04SPEAKER_00: And I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well, Fralin.
- 27:12SPEAKER_00: Again, his hand came out.
- 27:14SPEAKER_00: Will you forgive me?
- 27:18SPEAKER_00: Now Corey says, I stood there.
- 27:20SPEAKER_00: I whose sins had every day been forgiven by the Lord, and I could not.
- 27:25SPEAKER_00: Betsy had died, her sister, in that place.
- 27:29SPEAKER_00: How could this erase her slow, terrible death simply for asking?
- 27:36SPEAKER_00: She added, it could not have been many seconds that this guard stood there, hand held out to me.
- 27:44SPEAKER_00: But it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever to do.
- 27:49SPEAKER_00: Jesus, help me, I prayed silently.
- 27:51SPEAKER_00: I cannot lift my hand, but I want to.
- 27:55SPEAKER_00: Let me do that much.
- 27:57SPEAKER_00: You supply the feeling.
- 28:00SPEAKER_00: She said this in her heart, and so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me.
- 28:09SPEAKER_00: And as I did, an incredible thing took place.
- 28:12SPEAKER_00: The current started in my shoulder and raced down my arm and sprang into our joined hands.
- 28:17SPEAKER_00: And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes, and she exclaimed, I forgive you, brother.
- 28:26SPEAKER_00: I cried with all my heart.
- 28:30SPEAKER_00: For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner.
- 28:35SPEAKER_00: And at that moment I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.
- 28:41SPEAKER_00: So again, how can you forgive?
- 28:44SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you can't.
- 28:47SPEAKER_00: But you have a God who can.
- 28:51SPEAKER_00: And so I ask you to lean on him and beseech him when forgiveness is presented before you, that you might in his power and his love and his mercy do something that right now you feel like you can't do.
- 29:08SPEAKER_00: But we're at a point in the sermon where I think it's very fair to ask, but why should I do any of this?
- 29:14SPEAKER_00: Why should I forgive?
- 29:17SPEAKER_00: I don't want to, even if God could help me to, I don't want to.
- 29:22SPEAKER_00: Is there a good reason for me to actually forgive and give up or get over resentment and bitterness?
- 29:29SPEAKER_00: Well, that leads to the final point here.
- 29:31SPEAKER_00: The three reasons to give up bitterness.
- 29:35SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna go through these quick.
- 29:38SPEAKER_00: The first, and even if you're not a Christian here today, I think you could buy into this one, is that it is the best thing for you to give up resentment and bitterness.
- 29:49SPEAKER_00: Neurolaunch, which is an organization started by psychologists and neuroscientists, published an article that said this unresolved bitterness can lead to chronic stress, anxiety, and even depression.
- 30:02SPEAKER_00: As the weight of the unresolved resentment takes its toll on your mental health, but the impact doesn't stop there.
- 30:09SPEAKER_00: It's hard to connect authentically with others if you are resentful.
- 30:14SPEAKER_00: We might become defensive, quick to perceive slights, the assumptions we were talking about, or push people away to protect ourselves from further hurt.
- 30:24SPEAKER_00: This can lead to social isolation and a cycle of loneliness that further exacerbates our negative emotions.
- 30:31SPEAKER_00: But not only this, they also mention that bitterness and resentment is linked to physical issues of cardiovascular problems and weakened immune systems.
- 30:40SPEAKER_00: Resentment and bitterness doesn't just hurt your emotional and relational state, it literally starts to wear on your body.
- 30:48SPEAKER_00: And the Bible recognizes this too.
- 30:51SPEAKER_00: In Proverbs 14, 30, it says, a heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy, again, another form of resentment, rots the bones.
- 31:00SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in Mark 7 that a sinful heart within a man defiles him.
- 31:09SPEAKER_00: And so it's the best thing for us.
- 31:11SPEAKER_00: But I would say it's actually not the best reason for us to give up bitterness and resentment.
- 31:18SPEAKER_00: And it's actually not the best reason the Bible gives.
- 31:21SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
- 31:24SPEAKER_00: There's this strange phenomenon happening within probably the last five to ten years in the West.
- 31:30SPEAKER_00: And it's this phenomenon where uh adult children are cutting off their parents completely from their lives, going zero contact.
- 31:42SPEAKER_00: And uh this is especially concerning with in in today's time, because that's always been a thing, but psychologists have noted that it's starting to grow.
- 31:52SPEAKER_00: Uh an article by Psychology Today noted that 26% of American adults they are completely estranged from their fathers and have cut them off, and then 6% from their mothers.
- 32:03SPEAKER_00: And I want to be clear, sometimes this is necessary, absolutely.
- 32:08SPEAKER_00: But these psychologists and therapists are noting that the necessary cases, while they're still happening, there are a lot more cases that are happening that are not necessary.
- 32:19SPEAKER_00: They've noted that there are a lot of kids, adult kids, who maybe struggle with some hurt in the past or have some issues with their parents in the present, and instead of bearing with their parents and trying to manage conflict, they run.
- 32:36SPEAKER_00: And so to cope feels easier for some of them to run as opposed to deal with truly a messy and a hard situation.
- 32:46SPEAKER_00: And this is something we see in all areas of our society now, right?
- 32:49SPEAKER_00: I'm sure some of you started even thinking of others.
- 32:52SPEAKER_00: Facebook and Instagram and social media blocking people we don't like or who offend us immediately.
- 32:57SPEAKER_00: Maybe even in churches.
- 32:58SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of us have left a church because of a perceived slight immediately.
- 33:03SPEAKER_00: And we've been church hopping for a while because, man, there seems to be a lot of offensive people in these churches.
- 33:09SPEAKER_00: That's kind of true.
- 33:10SPEAKER_00: Because people aren't perfect.
- 33:13SPEAKER_00: But why is this a big deal?
- 33:16SPEAKER_00: Why does it matter?
- 33:18SPEAKER_00: Why don't we just cut out the people who harm us in our life and who are hard to deal with?
- 33:24SPEAKER_00: You know, I mentioned that there were two verses the Bible gives.
- 33:30SPEAKER_00: Talk about how we should give up anger and jealousy and bitterness and envy and resentment because of how it affects us.
- 33:39SPEAKER_00: There are innumerable verses that talk about how we should give up those things because it destroys the unity we are supposed to pursue with each other.
- 33:53SPEAKER_00: The Bible is even more concerned about the unity we have as brothers and sisters than even about the emotional state that we are experiencing, although it is concerned about that.
- 34:04SPEAKER_00: Right?
- 34:06SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus' last prayer in John 17, right before he's about to go to the cross, he's like, I'm gonna pray for my apostles, I'm gonna pray for my people one more time.
- 34:15SPEAKER_00: And he could have prayed for anything, and the one thing he prayed for, you know what it was?
- 34:18SPEAKER_00: That they would be one, that they would be united as I and God are one.
- 34:25SPEAKER_00: That's what he prayed for us.
- 34:28SPEAKER_00: But so many of us are so willing to just sever that relationship at the drop of the hat because it's easier.
- 34:37SPEAKER_00: But Jesus calls us to bear with one another.
- 34:41SPEAKER_00: He calls us to bear with one another.
- 34:43SPEAKER_00: And here's something, man, I really want you guys to get this, especially if you're new here and you're wondering what this whole Christian thing is about.
- 34:49SPEAKER_00: The Christian faith is not an individual self-help journey primarily.
- 34:54SPEAKER_00: You will be helped, you will be restored, you will be made new, but that's not the primary story of the Christian walk.
- 35:02SPEAKER_00: It is a story of God reconciling us, renewing the relationship between us and Him, and also with each other.
- 35:10SPEAKER_00: And if we miss that aspect of the Christian walk, the reconciliation of the forgiving and coming back together and bearing with one another, I think we're missing the gospel.
- 35:23SPEAKER_00: Which leads to that third reason here that we're called to forgive, that gospel people live like their gospel king.
- 35:33SPEAKER_00: If you're not a Christian here this morning, I pray that you would listen in here because your struggle with resentment and bitterness is actually deeply connected to the root of our faith, to the gospel.
- 35:47SPEAKER_00: The gospel is that as people, collectively, individually, we have decided we are gonna live for ourselves.
- 35:55SPEAKER_00: Sometimes with good things, but a lot of times with bad things.
- 35:58SPEAKER_00: We're gonna, if we need to, sometimes we'll harm those around us.
- 36:01SPEAKER_00: We're gonna live selfishly, we're gonna reject God's plan and God's way for us, and we're gonna go our own way.
- 36:06SPEAKER_00: And God, throughout all of Scripture, has been running after us with open arms and saying, I have forgiveness right here.
- 36:14SPEAKER_00: You can take it, you can be restored to me.
- 36:18SPEAKER_00: But you need to repent, you need to turn from your ways, and we wouldn't do it.
- 36:23SPEAKER_00: Yet he kept running over and over again until finally he recognized we weren't going to do it on our own.
- 36:28SPEAKER_00: And so he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross for our sin.
- 36:35SPEAKER_00: So that we wouldn't have to pay the punishment of all of the evil things that we had done.
- 36:40SPEAKER_00: But guys, get this it's not just so that we can go to heaven.
- 36:44SPEAKER_00: You know why he did it all?
- 36:52SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 5.19 says that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ and not counting people's sins against them.
- 37:01SPEAKER_00: And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
- 37:06SPEAKER_00: He sent his son to die, not just so he could be like, all right, you're good, get out of here, not counting your sin against you, because he wanted to restore that relationship and make it new.
- 37:17SPEAKER_00: He wanted you to come before him and say, Yes, Lord, I recognize my sin.
- 37:22SPEAKER_00: I know it is wrong and it's estranging me from you, I give it up.
- 37:26SPEAKER_00: I need salvation from you.
- 37:28SPEAKER_00: And I want to be restored.
- 37:31SPEAKER_00: But guys, how as gospel people can we share our faith and share the good news if we are unwilling to forgive and seek reconciliation with the people in our life?
- 37:49SPEAKER_00: How can we say, let me tell you this good news of a God who is always with open arms presenting forgiveness as a gift when I am so unwilling to extend it myself?
- 38:06SPEAKER_00: What God asks of us is to live like Him.
- 38:11SPEAKER_00: And guys, some people in your life who you harbor some resentment, who we harbor some resentment and bitterness towards, when we extend that offer of forgiveness, they're not gonna take it.
- 38:22SPEAKER_00: But we always hold it out.
- 38:24SPEAKER_00: And in the meantime, we promise them we are gonna get rid of resentment, we are gonna treat them with love, we are gonna seek peace, we are gonna pray for them, and most importantly, we are going to give judgment to the hand of the Lord.
- 38:38SPEAKER_00: Because he will avenge.
- 38:42SPEAKER_00: And so, what do we do with all of this, guys?
- 38:45SPEAKER_00: What are some things that we can take and just begin chipping away at our bitterness and resentment as we leave this place?
- 38:52SPEAKER_00: Let's talk briefly about application, then I want to close.
- 38:56SPEAKER_00: The first thing I'd urge you guys to do is ask a friend or a mentor, where am I off?
- 39:02SPEAKER_00: No, really, where am I off here?
- 39:06SPEAKER_00: Get together with somebody and tell someone your story.
- 39:09SPEAKER_00: Tell someone, man, this is how I've been hurt, and this is how I'm dealing with it, and this is how I view it, and this is what I'm doing about it.
- 39:16SPEAKER_00: But don't just tell them, because we all do that with our friends.
- 39:19SPEAKER_00: And our friends, because they're good people and they don't want to offend and they see the real hurt, they're like, man, I can't believe they did that to you.
- 39:25SPEAKER_00: That is so horrible.
- 39:27SPEAKER_00: They're so in the wrong.
- 39:28SPEAKER_00: But that's not helpful.
- 39:31SPEAKER_00: Please, if you're a friend, yes, mourn with them and express your sadness about how hurt they are.
- 39:37SPEAKER_00: But but if you're the person bringing this resentment to a friend, say, but I want you to be honest with me.
- 39:43SPEAKER_00: Tell me where you see bitterness ruling my life.
- 39:46SPEAKER_00: Tell me where I'm off.
- 39:48SPEAKER_00: Tell me how I have a skewed perception of this person and how my approach is just not the right approach, the biblical approach, okay?
- 39:55SPEAKER_00: Number two, take your thoughts captive.
- 40:00SPEAKER_00: Bitterness and resentment, again, we we compared it to chewing earlier.
- 40:05SPEAKER_00: We just chew on it and it permeates our life, and we just mull over it in our head.
- 40:10SPEAKER_00: But when we see ourselves doing this and thinking ill about this person and just getting so angry, just take that thought captive and replace it.
- 40:19SPEAKER_00: Replace it with what Paul says in Philippians is true, is noble, is good, is right, is beautiful.
- 40:26SPEAKER_00: Okay?
- 40:28SPEAKER_00: Number three, very similar, practice thankfulness.
- 40:32SPEAKER_00: You know, um, it's easy to get really upset if you only have a dollar and a dollar is taken from you.
- 40:41SPEAKER_00: You probably get a little less upset though if you were a millionaire and a dollar was taken from you.
- 40:47SPEAKER_00: And guys, we're all millionaires in Christ.
- 40:51SPEAKER_00: No matter how you've been harmed or hurt, how grievously we have innumerable blessings and things to be thankful for.
- 40:59SPEAKER_00: God says we are more than conquerors.
- 41:01SPEAKER_00: We have a mansion that God's making for us in heaven.
- 41:04SPEAKER_00: We get to reign eternally with Him, and nothing can separate us from His love.
- 41:08SPEAKER_00: Man, if we dwell on the things that we have in Christ, it will start to diminish the hurt that we've received, even if just slightly.
- 41:19SPEAKER_00: Number four, adjust expectations.
- 41:23SPEAKER_00: We already talked a little bit about this one.
- 41:25SPEAKER_00: But I think maybe some of us in this room are resentful or bitter, and we've never told anyone our expectations for them.
- 41:33SPEAKER_00: Perhaps we're really just upset with a spouse for not doing the things we desire them to do, but we're too afraid to tell them.
- 41:42SPEAKER_00: And so instead we just let resentment grow.
- 41:44SPEAKER_00: Or a friend who we just want to speak to us in a slightly different way, but we're afraid to offend them, and so we let resentment grow.
- 41:53SPEAKER_00: And so tell people your expectations, but then perhaps again, maybe we need to adjust our expectations and not hold people to such high standards that we wouldn't hold ourselves to.
- 42:06SPEAKER_00: So, guys, resentment hurts you, it prevents unity in the body of God, and it does not reflect an appreciation of what our Savior has done for us.
- 42:16SPEAKER_00: So, today, get over it.
- 42:19SPEAKER_00: Give vengeance to the Lord, live as gospel people with hands held wide with an offer of forgiveness, and let your heart be healed from the poison of resentment.
- 42:31SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
- 42:32SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for your word.
- 42:36SPEAKER_00: Um, I thank you that you care holistically for us.
- 42:40SPEAKER_00: That you're not a God who just came, died on the cross for our sin, checked us off the box, and said, All right, good luck.
- 42:49SPEAKER_00: Instead, Lord, you came to change every part of us to be more beautiful, to be more perfect, to be more whole.
- 42:59SPEAKER_00: And Lord, that is not just an individual on the individual level, but Lord, you desire for us to be whole and at peace and community with each other.
- 43:08SPEAKER_00: You desire to create a gospel kingdom where Christians are giving mercy and forgiveness and are reconciling and are working through the mess.
- 43:17SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, I pray that you would give us a higher tolerance to work through the mess, because we are not perfect people.
- 43:24SPEAKER_00: And even with our best intentions and our best efforts, we harm and we hurt.
- 43:30SPEAKER_00: And so I pray for repentance for those who have harmed, and I pray for healing and reconciliation for those who have been harmed.
- 43:39SPEAKER_00: We pray all of this in your name, Lord.
- 43:41SPEAKER_00: Amen.
- 43:42SPEAKER_00: Amen.
- 43:43SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys.
- 43:44SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.