The Trap Of Bitterness By Pastor Paul Enenche
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SUNDAY SERVICE – 10TH MAY 2020
ANCHOR SCRIPTURE(S): HEBREWS 12:15
MESSAGE TOPIC: THE TRAP OF BITTERNESS
BY: DR. PAUL ENENCHE
MESSAGE OBJECTIVES:
- Understanding bitterness
- Understanding the roots of bitterness
- Understanding the disaster of bitterness
- Understanding the escape route from bitterness
Bitterness is a major challenge in life’s journey that takes only the grace of God to escape it.
WHAT IS BITTERNESS?
- Bitterness is the feeling or showing of anger, hurt or resentment because of bad experience or the sense of unjust treatment
- Bitterness is the combination attitudes of unforgiveness and deep displeasure because of someone’s wrong deed
Also Read: The Faithful God By Paul Enenche
THE ROOTS OF BITTERNESS:
- Unforgiveness from human wrong deed or wickedness (Matt. 18:7; Luke 17:1-2)
1a. For as long as you live in the world, offences must come (Matt. 18:7; Luke 17:1-2)
At times it is the deliberate plan of the enemy to decrease the quality of your life on earth
1b. If you have any level of spirituality, you will be offended with the aim of ruining your spirituality through bitterness
1c. If you have any meaningful destiny you will be offended, with the aim of aborting the future - Resentment from envy and jealousy (Matt. 27:15-18; Acts 7:9; 13:44-45; 17:5)
That will either make you a focus of attack or if this envy is from you it will make you bitter - Frustration from confrontations, temptations or delayed expectations (Job 7:11)
When people are frustrated due to confrontations, temptations or delayed expectations the sweetness of the spirit disappears
THE DISASTER OF BITTERNESS:
- Bitterness troubles the system (Heb. 12:15; Matt. 18:34-35)
The seed of bitterness will produce the fruit of trouble
Feelings of bitterness, anger and depression release some hormones in the system and these hormones of devastating hormones that produce psychosomatic symptoms in the body - Bitterness attracts fruitlessness (1Sam. 1:9-10, 14-19)
Bitterness antagonizes fruitlessness
What is happening in your mind affects what can come out of your life - Bitterness leads to wickedness and ends in curses (2Sam. 3:26-29; 1Kings 2:5-6)
If you don’t want to be wicked tomorrow don’t be bitter today; if you are bitter today you will be wicked tomorrow and if you are wicked tomorrow you will end with curses in the future - Bitterness brings death (Job 21:25; Isa. 38:15, 17)
Bitterness expedites death - Bitterness forbids pleasure (Job 21:25)
Bitterness forbids fulfilment and satisfaction in life - Bitterness brings bondage (Acts 8:21-23; Matt. 18:34-35)
There are some yokes and chains in people’s lives that can only be released when people remove bitterness from their lives - Bitterness aborts destiny – it holds your life down in the past (Phil. 3:13; Gen. 50:19-21)
Until you forget the things that are behind you, you can never access the things that are before you.
Nobody can be fruitful in the future who hasn’t forgotten the offences of the past - Bitterness antagonizes answer to prayers (Mark 11:25)
- Bitterness establishes your guilt before God (Mark 11:25-26; Matt. 6:14-15)
Until you are unable to forgive others, you remain unforgiven before God - Bitterness disconnects people from the Presence of God (Isa. 59:1-2)
If you do not forgive, you remain unforgiven so your sins remain with you and if your sins remain with you, you are separated from the Presence of God in time and in eternity.
REALMS OF BITTERNESS:
- Bitterness with people
- Bitterness with self
- Bitterness with God
A. BITTERNESS WITH PEOPLE – WHY YOU MUST RELEASE THE PEOPLE:
i. It hurts your life and your destiny far more than the offender
ii. You are forgiven by God only when you have forgiven others
iii. The offender is God’s responsibility to handle in judgment (Luke 17:1-2; Rom. 12:19)
iv. Human action can never frustrate Divine purpose, in fact it may facilitate it (Gen. 50:20-21; 1Cor. 2:7-8)
v. God’s grace is sufficient for all situations, including the grace to forgive (2Cor. 12:9)
B. BITTERNESS WITH SELF – WHY YOU MUST RELEASE YOURSELF:
i. You may have experienced failure but you are not a failure (Micah 7:8)
ii. You may have done terrible things in the past but you are not a terrible person.
- God made you in His image (Gen. 1:27-28)
- God made you in the image of His Son (1John 1:7)
iii. You cannot walk backwards into the future – there is no future in the past (Phil. 3:13)
iv. Don’t waste the present regretting over the past and worrying over the future (Matt. 6:34)
v. The best way to compensate for a regrettable past is to over-deliver in the present and in the future
C. BITTERNESS WITH GOD (JOB 9:18; 10:1-3) – WHY YOU MUST RELEASE YOUR BITTERNESS AGAINST GOD:
i. God did not create you to waste you – you were created because you were needed (Jer. 1:5; Ps. 139:14-15)
ii. God has great plans for your life on earth (Jer. 29:11)
iii. God is not responsible for any adversity in your life (John 10:10)
iv. God is faithful, He is reliable and dependable (Ps. 89:33-35)
Identify God’s faithfulness in your life so far
v. You cannot be angry with your Helper and see His help – moreover, it is important to note that the anger of man can never initiate the action of God (Jam. 1:20)
Repent of that heart disposition towards God
vi. Upgrade your faith in the faithfulness of God (Heb. 11:6)
vii. Identify action steps that you need to put forth that will make you see more of the faithfulness of God (Mark 5:28)
PRAYER:
Father, I receive the grace to do what I have been told – to release people, to be at peace with myself and to be at peace with You, in Jesus’ Name.
PROPHETIC DECLARATIONS:
- Everyone struggling with the yoke of bitterness, that yoke is broken now!
- Every yoke or bondage that arrived with that bitterness, be it arthritis, hypertension, cancer it is cursed to its roots NOW!
- You are released, your destiny is released, your future is released in Jesus Name!
- Supernatural supplies are being released in Jesus’ Name!
