Loving by Avoiding Bitterness
Loving the World Under Your Roof
By Steve Viars
Bible Text:Hebrews 12:15
Preached On: Sunday, June 19, 2016
Faith Church
5526 State Road 26 E
Lafayette, IN 47905
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In the Old Testament one of the fascinating periods of history occurred during the lives of Elijah and Elisha, two powerful prophets whose ministries often stood in contrast to the ungodly kings who reigned in Israel at the time. If you have ever studied their lives in First and Second Kings you know scripture contains all sorts of amazing stories of their exploits. Like, for example, the day in Second Kings, four, when Elijah came to Gilgal during the time of a famine, and he's talking to the sons of the prophets, kind of like our seminary, and he tells one of the servants, "Put on the large pot and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."
In other words, cook dinner. Cook dinner. A pretty straightforward request, huh? Until we read this next, then one went into the field to gather herbs, and he found a wild vine, of course he did, and he gathered from it, his lap full of wild gourds, and came and sliced them into the pot of stew, for they didn't know what they were. You might want to subtitle that, and that is why we don't let the men cook. My apologies to all the male chefs out there, but before you send me a card, an email about that, look at what happened next. They poured it out for the men to eat, and as they were eating of the stew they cried out and said, "Oh, man of God, that there's death in the pot." That's the ultimate bad restaurant review right there.
If you go by a restaurant and everybody is crying out, "There's death in the pot," you might want to back out and slowly head over to McDonald's or something. In the very next verse scripture tells us that Elijah threw in some meal, and God then miraculously and graciously protected them from what appears to have been a poisonous substance that had been inadvertently added to the stew. Of course, the overall message is the power of those living for God like Elijah and Elisha and how the Lord would use them even in just a minor event like that, in contrast to the many of Israel's leaders who were disobeying the Lord and his commands and therefore were powerless. That's the main point.
The story also illustrates another very important Biblical truth. Just a little bit of something bad can have a ruinous effect. Isn't that right? Just a little bit of something bad can have a ruinous effect, like Paul told the Corinthians, just a little bit of leaven, just a little bit of leaven levels the entire lump of dough. This morning we're going to continue our study of loving the world under your roof, and we're thinking about a characteristic that's, well, it's not in your stew pot. It's not in your bread loaf, but it might be in your house. It might be at your dinner table. It may have ridden with you in your car to the church house this morning. It might be sitting in your pew. It may even be in your heart or the heart of somebody in your family.
The scripture compares it to a root that could spring up and defile many. We're talking about the issue of bitterness and God would want us to understand the significant danger of allowing this sin to be present along with a sufficient cure to rid us of this threat forever. With that in mind please open your Bible now to Hebrews chapter twelve. Hebrews, chapter twelve, that's on page a hundred and seventy-six of the back section of the Bible under the chair in front of you if you need it this morning. Hebrews chapter twelve or page a hundred and seventy-six of the back section of the Bible under the chair in front of you.
I really appreciate the great work that the [inaudible 00:04:06] did at Faith East last week and that Pastor Green and some others did at Faith West. Just if you're trying to stay on top of the schedule, that's going to flip next Sunday. The [inaudible 00:04:19] will be talking about loving your spouse live at Faith West next Sunday, and Pastor Green will be interviewing three couples live next Sunday at Faith East about loving your children. I hope you're enjoying the variety of this particular schedule this summer even if it's a bit challenging just to stay on top of. Who is going to be where? That's where it is and it's all available on our website if you need some backstop for that.
Our privilege and responsibility this morning for both of our campuses is to think about being loving enough to avoid bitterness, loving by avoiding bitterness. If there is poison in the pot, if there is leaven in the loaf, let's figure out how to identify it and get it out, huh? Yeah. Absolutely. With the help and the enablement of our redeemer. Let's start in Hebrews chapter twelve and follow the argument that is building to the discussion of bitterness. Hebrews 12:3, "For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart," because if you don't do that you will be bitter.
You've not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in the striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord or you'll be bitter, nor faint when you are reproved by him, for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines. Hang on to that for a mine, and he scourges every son whom he receives. It's for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons, for what son is there whom his son does not discipline, but if you're without discipline of which all have become partakers, then your illegitimate children, and not sons.
Furthermore we had earthly fathers to discipline us. I hope you did or else my job is harder, and we respected them. Shall we not much more rather be subject to the father of spirits and live, for they disciplined us for a short time as seemed to best to them. He disciplines us for our good so that we may share his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful. True that, huh? But sorrowful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness, therefore strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.
Listen to this, pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. Now, here's our key text, see to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness, there it is, springing up causes trouble and by it many are defiled starting with those under your roof. That there be no immoral, here's an interesting Old Testament, no immoral or a godless person like Esau, what? Who sold his own birthright for a single meal, for you know that even afterwards when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found, wow, listen to this, he found no place for repentance though he sought it with tears.
We're talking this morning about living by avoiding bitterness, and from these verses let's look for four principles to help us rid our lives and rid our relationships, and, yes, rid our church of any destructive trace of bitterness. It starts right here by understanding the definition, and what does God's word mean when it raises this topic? What is it that we are being warned against in this passage? Even in our English language we know some of what the word means even there, designating or having a sharp or unpleasant taste, acrid, or causing or showing sorrow or discomfort, pain, grievous, or here characterized by strong feelings of hatred or resentment or cynicism, whichever one of those words or phrases especially captures it for you.
I think we all know what it's like to be around a person who is bitter. Right? Dare I say it this early in the discussion, we all know what it is like when we're being bitter ourselves. All that is enhanced when you think about this word in the Biblical languages. The word in the Old Testament that is translated bitter often comes from the Hebrew root, mar or marah, and what's helpful to understand here is that in the Old Testament the idea is not just something that is unpleasant, but now we're talking about something that has poisoned us, that is deadly or injurious, harmful. There's even the idea of being fierce like a bear that's been robbed of its own cubs. There's bitter and then there's bitter with a capital B, huh?
You're not letting any of that under your roof are you? The New Testament word if often pikria meaning animosity or anger or harshness, a deep disappointment, a deep resentment. Just like eating something bitter leaves a bad taste in your mouth, this is the kind of event or experience that leaves a bad taste in your soul because of the way you responded. We can also develop our understanding by thinking about the verses right around this concept. What do we see in the flow of thought, the argument of this particular text? It involves coming short of the grace of God. Just think for a minute about that.
Living in such a way that you are coming short of the grace of God. Now a good question to ask of verse fifteen would be is this referring to a person who is a believer in Christ or not, and if you've studied the Book of Hebrews before, you know that there are many places especially the warning passages where you have to ask that very question. Here I think that it's speaking primarily of an unbeliever and the point is it's possible for a person to not genuinely know Christ, and what will keep him from admitting his sin and placing his faith and trust in Christ alone for his salvation is the bitterness of his own heart and in that sense he ultimately, eternally has fallen short of the grace of God.
There's plenty for a believer to learn here. Even though that's probably the emphasis of that text, there's plenty for a believer to learn about the process of bitterness, because it's equally possible for a believer in Jesus Christ in a particular situation to respond in a way that generates bitterness, and in that particular area of his or her life, in that event, in that period of time, he or she, do you hear it, they've come short of the grace of God. You can either run to the throne of grace or you can fall in the pit of bitterness. Which have you done recently?
What also is in the neighborhood of this text? It often involves a lack of peace with people. Pursue peace with all men the writer says. One of the ways you can diagnose the likely presence of bitterness is to watch the way that individual relates to others, and if there's a trail of broken and estranged relationships, that is the lack of Biblical peace with others. Mark it down, bitterness is probably not far behind. Why? Because that person is having difficulty. Bitter people, they cannot evaluate situations correctly. Do you understand that? They're invariably viewing present conversations and present decisions and present events through the lens of a bitter heart, and there is this incessant turmoil in their relationship with others.
It might appreciate to be about a particular issue. In fact they might even have convinced themselves, "No. It's about this thing." No. It's really about a bitter heart that becomes the lens through which everything is evaluated and there is no peace with other people. I don't want this to become overly negative. It doesn't need to. Plow it the other way. Remember the poison in the pot story from the Old Testament where God miraculously intervened. Part of the lesson for the original recipients of the Book of Hebrews who were being, understand the context, were being attempted to desert Christ and his church because of the pressures that they were facing and living for him, and going back to the temple.
The argument for them was the gospel is powerful enough and Jesus is sufficient enough to sustain you with joy and delight even in the most trying of circumstances. That's why you can place your faith in him, and you can continue to find your delight in him even when it's hard so that in turn you can pursue peace with others in a loving and compassionate way. You don't have to live a bitter life. That's the point of that. I can't say enough about how thankful we are for the teenagers in our church who have been serving all week by organizing vacation Bible schools in three of the most economically challenged areas of our town, so they have been working in the [Vinton 00:14:36] neighborhoods this week, and at Point West this week, and in Lower Lincoln this week.
The whole strategy was initiated by them to take vacation Bible school to some of these neighborhoods and build as many compassionate relationships as they possibly could with children in these neighborhoods, and then in turn this coming week, invite those young people to come out to Faith East where we'll have our, shall we say, big VBS this coming week, and what I love about that, and you ought to love that by the way, and what we love about that is that it was initiated by the teens themselves. What I'm saying right now is think about pursue peace with all men and don't be bitter. Think about that. Think about that picture. I love that picture right there.
Bitter young people don't love like this. That's the point. When you don't allow the poison of bitterness in the pot, the stew that can be served is absolutely delicious and a delight to everybody who partakes. I'm very thankful for pastor Johnny, very thankful for all of the tremendous youth workers, but we also recognize there are a lot of great moms and great dads who are doing everything possible to avoid bitterness in their homes and their hearts, and the product of that, you have young people who are pursuing peace with all men regardless of their ethnicity, regardless of their economic background. Why? Why? Because they don't have bitterness springing up and defiling many.
Back to the negative side of the equation in this passage. Bitterness is often a sign of spiritual immaturity. Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification, there it is, the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. Now here it is. Here it is. For the person who is honestly willing to evaluate his or her heart on this issue. Are you? If you trace your way backwards you will often find this, that God allowed something unpleasant in your life or someone unpleasant in your life. It was a test by him. It was an opportunity for spiritual growth. It was a sanctification hurdle. That's what it was.
If you responded poorly in anger or jealously or resentment or revenge, at that point you stopped growing spiritually and started developing a root of bitterness, and when and where growth stops, bitterness starts. They cannot mutually coexist. It's often a sign of spiritual immaturity. It also may include weariness because of living in a hostile world. "Say, have you seen the news recently?" A little bit. Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, speaking of our savior. When we stop acknowledging and appreciating God's sovereignty in our lives, think about that for a minute.
The fact that he's our rightful king. He has the right to bring anything or anyone into our lives that he desires. He's the one who is in charge. When we stop acknowledging and appreciating that truth, we are ripe for the development of bitterness. You become weary. May involve a wrong response to God's corrective discipline in your life. You read it as we were going through the text, a major theme, how one of the evidences that a person has God as his father is chastisement and discipline. Thank you Lord for that news. If we really want to grow and we want to serve the Lord and accomplish his purposes then we have to understand, often that comes in the crucible of trial and challenge and difficulty.
When that happens it's not evidence that God has deserted us. It's evidence that God loves us as sons, and he has a plan and a purpose for all he allows to happen. It's one thing for us to say that in the air conditioned auditorium of a church, huh? It's something else to live that out in the rough and tumble of everyday life. Listen, now, too many people aren't just bitter at circumstances or bitter at people, they're even bitter at, dare I say it, they're bitter at God himself. That's why we're told in verse six, don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him.