Sermon 2 October 2016 By Bruce McCallum

2. A bitter spirit will keep you from being a
better person.
Don’t get bitter, get better.

12. “Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it.
Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it.
Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it.
Bitterness sickens life; love heals it.
Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.”
(Harry Emerson Fosdick)

13. “Acrid bitterness inevitably seeps into the
lives of people who harbor grudges and
suppress anger, bitterness is always a
poison. It keeps your pain alive instead of
letting you deal with it and get beyond it.
Bitterness sentences you to relive
the hurt over and over.”
(Lee Strobel)

14. “Bitterness is like drinking rat poison and
waiting for the rat to die.” (John Ortberg)
“Bitterness: anger that forgot where it came
from.” (Alain De Botton)

15. Symptoms of a bitter person
1. Do negative feelings immediately overcome you
causing you to put on a hypocritical happy face?
2. Do you intentionally turn away to ignore and avoid
him or her?
3. Does the mere mention of his or her name leave a
“bitter taste in your mouth”?
4. Does thinking about him or her “make you sick”-give
you a bitter stomach?
5. Do you have a similar negative reaction when you
just hear his or her name mentioned?

16. 6. Do you resent his or her success–hearing any good
report about him or her?
7. Do you secretly desire misfortune or failure–or
worse–to come his or her way?
8. Does the person who offended or hurt you come to
mind often?
9. Do you mentally argue with them–i.e. dream or
daydream about “putting him or her in their
place”?
10. Do you feel the need or do you see a tendency to
talk to others about the failures or shortcomings of
those who have hurt or offended you?

17. Hebrews 12:14-15 (NIV)
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be
holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to
it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter
root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
Hebrews 12:14-15 (MSG)
Work at getting along with each other and with God.
Otherwise you'll never get so much as a glimpse of God.
15 Make sure no one gets left out of God's generosity.
Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A
thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no
time.

18. Hebrews 12:14-15 (AMP)
Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue
that consecration and holiness without which no
one will [ever] see the Lord. 15 Exercise foresight
and be on the watch to look [after one another], to
see that no one falls back from and fails to secure
God’s grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual
blessing), in order that no root of resentment
(rancor, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and
causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many
become contaminated and defiled by it—

19. Deuteronomy 29:18-19 (NIV)
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe
among you today whose heart turns away from the
LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those
nations; make sure there is no root among you that
produces such bitter poison. 19 When such a person
hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing
on himself and therefore thinks, "I will be safe, even
though I persist in going my own way." This will
bring disaster on the watered land as well as
the dry.

20. Deuteronomy 29:18-19 (MSG)
“Don't let down your guard lest even now, today,
someone—man or woman, clan or tribe—gets
sidetracked from God, our God, and gets involved
with the no-gods of the nations; lest some
poisonous weed sprout and spread among you, 19 a
person who hears the words of the Covenant-oath
but exempts himself, thinking, "I'll live just the way
I please, thank you," and ends up ruining life for
everybody.”

21. Don’t get bitter, get better
1. Let God be God.
2. Let Grace and Mercy cover it.
3. Let Good replace it.

22. Hebrews 12:14-15 (NIV)
Make every effort to live in peace with all
men and to be holy; without holiness no one
will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one
misses the grace of God and that no bitter
root grows up to cause trouble and defile
many.

23. Don’t get bitter, get better
1. Let God be God.
2. Let Grace and Mercy cover it.
3. Let Good replace it.

24. Ephesians 4:31-32 (NIV)
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger,
brawling and slander, along with every form
of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to
one another, forgiving each other, just as in
Christ God forgave you.

25. Don’t get bitter, get better
1. Let God be God.
2. Let Grace and Mercy cover it.
3. Let Good replace it.

26. ‘I forgive you’ – Worcester bomb survivor
2016-09-26, 08:08, Iavan Pijoos, News24