Pastor Robert Morris - Root Cause - Bitter Roots

I want you to turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12 open your Bibles to Hebrews 12 and then if you want to put a marker at Genesis 25 so we're going to begin in Hebrews 12 and then we'll turn to Genesis 25 later the message I am extremely excited about this series I don't know if you were here last weekend but it was a very good message if you weren't here it was very good the reason I say that is because good messages surprised me too so I'm excited same with today so we're in a series called root cause well what's what's the root cause of this fruit in my life some people constantly have financial struggles is there a root cause of your financial struggles other than simply maybe not managing well or or a low-paying job or something like that what's the root cause some people go from one bad relationship to another what's the root cause of that some people make bad decisions some people have health issues some people just lose jobs and they never seem to be able to hold a steady job is there a root cause some people have continuous problems with addiction or fear or insecurity or anger is there a root cause of the anger that you have well I'm going to share with you today what I believe is the root cause of all root causes that's how good this message is this is phenomenal and here the title of this message is bitter roots bitter roots now before you simply think about bitterness and unforgiveness let me explain this goes much farther than that and much deeper than this and this is probably the root that's named several places in the Bible that is the root of many roots the fruit of a bitter root can be many different fruits addiction pornography lust my immorality anger unforgiveness resentment hate envy jealousy and so so many fruits can be caused by this one root so let me show it to you in the Bible Hebrews chapter 12 look at verse 14 it says pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord looking carefully or walking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled many become defiled think about when a root of bitterness destroys a family all the people that are defiled then lest there be verse 16 any fornicator or profane person like Esau that's very important we'll come back to Esau because it's the one that it names it has this root of bitterness who for one morsel of food sold his birthright so I want to show you and talk about bitter roots today so let me give you three things about bitter roots here's number one bitter roots deceive bitter roots cause deception we can't see clearly we're deceived when we have a bitter root same Corinthians 11:3 Paul said but I fear lest some how is the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity the city that is in Christ so he's going back to the original human sin with Adam and Eve and he says I fear the same thing is going to happen to you you're going to you're going to be deceived well I want to look at that sin for a moment Satan comes to to Eve and he says to her God knows that in the day you eat your eyes will be open you will be like God knowing good and evil I want you to think about what he said because deception has a little bit of truth in it you know he says God knows well obviously God knows God knows everything God knows the day you eat well God had already told them the day you eat there'll be consequences so he was telling the truth the day you eat something's gonna change in your life he says the day you eat your eyes will be open well it happened their eyes were opened but their eyes were opened to something that God never intended their eyes to be open to and that was fear and shame and evil God knows that your your eyes will be opened and you'll be like him okay here is the sad thing about that lie they were already like you they were created in his likeness now that's what Satan is doing is saying if you'll do this you'll have something that you don't have but as a believer we've already been given all things that pertain to life and godliness and been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places okay so your eyes to be open knowing good okay let me expose that like they already knew good they talked with him every day his name is God well we get our our English word God from the Latin word good did you take one Oh out of good and you have God that's where that's where we get the English pronunciation of God so they already knew good here here was the deception you know also know evil and God didn't want him to know evil so let me let me go to what's behind this lie what's behind this lie is God isn't doing something for you that he should be doing God's holding out on you he's trying to get her to be bitter toward God and you know why listen carefully to me the original sin not of Adam and Eve but remember Satan sinned before Adam and Eve ever sinned and he's the author of all sin take the original sin in Satan is a root of bitterness toward God when you go to Isaiah 14 and talks about how Satan fell he wanted to be like God he felt God was holding out on him and he developed a root of bitterness listen to me all sin I'm telling you goes back to root of bitterness toward God if you fall into any immoral sin you you but you have believed you've been deceived that God's holding out on you that there's something out there that's better for you than what you have it all goes back to this root of bitterness and it's toward God it's the original sin now there in this passage in Hebrews there three times we see the word lest L est lest and that's really where my three points come from here the first time verse 15 he says lest anyone fall short of the grace of God now there are two ways that we fall short of the grace of God and there are two extremes one is lasciviousness and one's legalism lasciviousness means of evil and evil living and it for us it means when we fall short the grace of God for believers or unbelievers it means we can live any way we want and there will be no consequences that that's for a believer that be trotting underfoot the blood of Christ just living any way you want verse 14 says pursue peace with all people and holiness pursue holiness pursue peace and pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord this word see very interesting because it doesn't just mean to look it means to see in person in other words to be in the presence of so here's what he say without holiness you'll never be in the presence of God now we know we receive holiness by grace through faith but we also her to walk holy so even as a believer if we're not walking holy we will sense the presence of God we will come into his presence so one way is lasciviousness it's an extreme the other way is legalism now we try to earn our relationship with God we try to do something and neither these are both extremes in the body pressed Paul said to the Galatians who's been witched you who has deceived you bewitch this Greek word totally in the Bible one this one time it means to the sea with magic magic is a deception that look over here while I do something over here that's what Satan tries to do is look at this that God's not doing for you instead of what God is doing for you it's trying to deceive you I met with a couple one times we talked about this deception that comes with a root of bitterness and for 20 years they had lived close to the poverty level he'd been fired from job to job to job gone from job to job they had been they've gone through bankruptcy they lost a house they always drove clunker cars always had that they were always dependent upon people giving to them people helping them you know trying to where they were always in need of something the church needed to help them more people need to help him more wasn't their fault you know all this stuff so I met with him beginning to talk to him about it and they said to me they said well God gave us a word told us spoke to us when we first got married that we were all he was always going to have us live from hand to mouth that this is God's will for our life because he told us that this would keep us humble and dependent upon him and in my tactful way I said that's a life that's a lie because it doesn't line up with Scripture that's not what the scripture says I begin to show them what scripture says and please please hear me there is a a prosperity gospel that's wrong but there's also a poverty gospel that's wrong there they're both again and there are two extremes and by the way the prosperity gospel and the poverty gospel neither our gospel neither our good news God does it's not prosperity or poverty it's the provision gospel God wants to provide for you so you can be a blessing to others as well and so I begin to show them in in Scripture that they had believed alike now here's what came out in about three to four counseling sessions they begin to admit that they were angry at God and they resented God they had a root of bitterness toward God because God was blessing others but he wouldn't bless them that somehow his plan for them see Satan came in and and deceived him and then they had a root of bitterness so bitter roots deceived here's number two bitter roots defile bitter roots defile verse 15 Hebrews 12 are shifting says lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble and by this many become defiled let me tell you what this this word defiled means in the Greek it means stained it actually means to die D ye not death as in physical death not D ie but D ye to die with another color now you think about how sin stains us how there's a stain of sin what one lady said me one time how could I ever ever feel good in this life with my past that's what she said she said how could I ever ever have a have happiness with my past in other words what she was saying was every time I look backward there's a stain here's the only problem with that again it's a deception because the blood of Jesus cleanses every stain every saint though your sins be is crimson there should be as white as snow white as wool so here's a stain there now this is says like Esau and the problem is that many people believe that this Hebrews 12 passage is referring to the famous story about Jacob and Esau but it's actually referring to a little-known story about Esau Jacob and Esau most people believe this is referring to when Jacob dressed up put animal skin on and pretended to be Esau put the the smell of wild game because he saw was a hunter and and Esau was very hairy and he did it because his father Isaac was old and couldn't see very well and he pretended to be Esau he said are you Esau your voice sounds like Jacob but you feel like Esau and you smell like Esau and Jacob lied and said I am Esau and the father Isaac blessed him that's what most people think this is referring to that's not what it's referring to if you go to Genesis 25 if you put you a marker there I'll show you that we can actually read the passage that Hebrews 12 is referring to Genesis 25 beginning in verse 29 says now Jacob cooked a stew and Esau came in from the field and he was weary and Esau said to Jacob please feed me with the same red stew and just I just want you to notice the word red it comes into play back in a moment for he says for I'm weary therefore his name was called Edom Edom means red but Jacob said sell me your birthright as of this day and Esau said look I'm not to die so what is this birthright to me now he wasn't about to die he was just tired then Jacob said swear to me this day so he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob and Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils and then he ate and drank arose and went his way just when his way like nothing had happened thus Esau despised his birthright another way to say that is hidden value he didn't value it he gave it up for a bola of soup stew his birthright there which is twice the inheritance twice the inheritance he gave up his inheritance for for a bowl of stew how foolish okay I want you to notice I talked about Adam and Eve a moment ago and again this root of bitterness that began was Satan went through Adam and Eve now it's in Jacob nice aw you know you see the fruit of bitterness in Joseph and his brothers you see the fruit of bitterness in David and his brothers you see it all through Scripture but here it is rejected Esau but I want to show you how how similar this is because when I read this verse I immediately thought of another verse uh Genesis 25 verse 34 that we just read says Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils then he ate I want you notice that underline these words gave an eighth Jacob gave and Esau ate Jacob gave and he saw ate okay remember this Genesis 3:6 Eve she also gave to her us and with her and he ate it's just it's just too close for me to overlook Jacob gave and he saw eight he gave an Adam eight okay here's the problem they they both all four of these people believe the lie about God that there was something that God was not you know Jacob believed that God was holding out on him because he didn't have the blessing the birthright that Esau had Esau believed that that God was holding out on him because Jacob seemed to be the favorite child this happens a lot with siblings evil Eve God was holding on to her adam believed God was holding out on him and because they all believed the root of ITER's kept and then I want to show you just one passage of how Esau is continually trying to get back at his father and get back at Jacob this this root of resentment that is in his life just a few pages over from chapter 25 in Genesis Genesis 28 verse 6 says Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to padam padam put on iran to take himself a wife from there and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge saying you shall not take away from the daughters of canaan and that Jacob had obeyed his father is Moses what Esau saw and in not gone and had gone to put on Iran also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac so Esau went to Ishmael and took mihail off the daughter of Ishmael Abraham's son the sister of Nebo Joff that didn't women in the Bible have sexy names you ever notice that just just sexy I'm telling just I'm sorry shouldn't say sexy from from the pulpit to be his wife in addition to the wives he had now he had already taken uh two eyes from the from the daughters of Canaan he'd already done he did that right after he sold his birthright by the way okay here's what I want you seen this passage you see how he's trying to get back at his father when he saw that Jacob did something to please his father he just wouldn't develops it he's got this root of bitterness toward his father he's got his route of bitterness toward toward his brother how many people are doing things and and these these these were heathen these were unbelievers and heathen worshipers that continued to pull him away from God how many people do things out of spite or out of bitterness or out of resentment towards someone but actually it's detrimental to you it's destroying you that please hear me this root of bitterness forget about all the people you're mad at I'm telling you listen to me carefully I'm telling you many of you're mad at God because God could have done something God should have done something uh Naomi you know loses her husband and her two sons in a famine and and then she says this to Ruth her daughter-in-law Ruth chapter 1 verse 20 but she said to them do not call me Naomi call me Mara for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me notice this phrase for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me let me just say what she's saying God did this to me God did this saying when you think about this I resentment many times isn't as much toward the person as it is toward God because why didn't God stop this why did God allow me to go through this I know God didn't cause it but he could have stopped it why didn't God stop the abuse what what why didn't God do something when this person did this wrong to me why didn't God judge that person they think about Esau and Jacob Jacob goes on to be blessed by God is it hard when someone does you wrong and then God blesses them and God blesses them and by the way let me just answer that question you say well why would God bless someone who did who does who did me wrong same reason God blesses you and you did others wrong because he's a merciful God I can remember literally one time I saw a guy and it bothered me cuz I knew he'd been wrong and God was blessing when I said God why in the world would you bless him he said cuz I bless you I bless you and you've been wrong so it the root of bitterness is toward God but please hear my my burden for this message I don't think there's a few of us here that need the root of bitterness pulled out of us I think most of us do I think most of us could go back to some instances in our lives in our childhood where a root of bitterness took hold another resentment and anger toward God God why did my marriage young while you do something about it why did this loved one die why do you do something about it why did I go through this wide my business fail why didn't you do something about it and here's what we we save it's it's a mistake I actually read this yesterday from a it's very sad situation but from a woman who lost a child and she set up I'm really having a deal with my feelings toward God and I feel fill fill for up please I don't want to make light of that at all it's a very very difficult situation but but she's under a deception because she said I'm I have to deal with my feelings toward God because I know God is sovereign and he could have stopped it okay that is not what the word sovereign means sovereign doesn't mean that God can do anything he wants to it means that God is the supreme ruler of the universe but God can never act outside of his character and let me tell you something God did in his sovereignty he decided he didn't want robots so he gave us a way he cried listen his image in his likeness and because we have a will we've screwed it all up and because we've screwed it all up there's now sin in the world and there's death and their sickness and so when we say what God could have done something no you need to understand he couldn't because he decided to let us make choices please please I'm telling you that things happen in our lives that because we live in a fallen world and if we're not careful that line of thinking causes a root of bitterness toward God and that root of bitterness it's a sin and Romans says it this way CN brings all manner of evil Romans seven eight all manner of evil comes into our life because of sin this word Maura she said don't call me Naomi that means Plesac by the way call me Maura Maura was the Hebrew word for bitter when the children Israel are going through the wilderness they came to some Springs of water and the water was bitter so they named the place Mara and God told Moses he said you see that tree over there he said take that tree and throw it in the water and heat Moses did and the water became sweet now our assumption is that he cut down the tree but that never says he cut down the tree he said throw the tree and let me tell you what's part of the tree the roots I think this is a symbol symbolizing Jesus is the root you bring Jesus into the screen of your life and he can change the water of your life from sour and from bitter to sweet you've got to bring Jesus in though so it deceives it defiles and here's third bitter roots depressed bitter roots depressed I think I think bitter is number one cause for depression anger and resentment toward God number one cause for depression Hebrews 12 verse 16 says lest here's the third lest in this passage lest int there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau who for one morsel of food one morsel of food a bowl of stew sold his birthright now once you notice verse 17 for you know that afterward when he wanted to inherit the blessing he was rejected and it's more not that he was rejected by God but that he carried this sense of rejection with him that allowed him not to receive them the grace of God in his life he continued to carry this this rejection this depression this discouragement with him for he found no place for repentance though he sought it diligently with tears this word it says lest there be a fornicator and I'm going to talk a little more about the immorality that comes out of this even in my own testimony because this is one the Scriptures God showed me of why I had such deep immorality in my life but it says or a profane person okay this word profane means a worldly person or person driven by appetite I don't think about just food now just appetite for lust appetite for greed whatever the appetite is for just driven by appetites years ago I heard pastor Olin Griffing share a story about I believe this passage but I just remember the story about if a person had been given a all-expense-paid around-the-world trip went to the airport and be wise waiting on the plane orders the hamburger but the hamburger takes longer to prepare and so they make the call you know last call if you're going to get on the plane you have to get on now and and the person instead of getting on the plane for this all-expense around the world trip all-expenses-paid waits and eats the hammer sets an airport meets the hammer who for just momentary pleasure gives up all this Colin please please please think about this any list fornication specifically but think about how many people for just a momentary pleasure have given up their families have given up their business has have given up their destiny for just a momentary pleasure and listen to what he says causes it a root of bitterness believing that God's holding out on you that he's not giving you all that that he has for you this some root of bitterness I told you last weekend how much I love the Old Testament that I think that anything that you could show me in the new I can show you in the old okay many many people Hebrews 12 you know of course there's the story that it's based on from the old but I think this is the only place where it talks about the root of bitterness in the Bible let me take you back a little bit Deuteronomy 28 is referred to as the blessings and curses chapter because it lists you you probably read it at some point reading through the Bible it says God says if you obey me all these blessings will come on you blessed shall you be in the city blessed shall you be in the country blessed shall be the fruit of your body blessed should be the work of your hands blessed shall you be coming in and blessed show you be going out and then he says if you don't obey me start in verse 15 these purses come Lunia and cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the field and all these different things okay the word cursed I want you understand I want to give you a different word for curse so you understand its consequence what God is saying is he's not trying to make us feel bad or curse us he's saying if you follow me these consequences these good consequences are going to happen in your life if you don't follow my ways these bad consequences going down he's trying to tell you that and so on in chapter 29 Moses is is repeating this and he's saying please let me tell you why God is what why God gave us this word these these precepts to follow so we're coming in a little bit like conversation but Deuteronomy 29 verse 18 he's saying God gave us this so that there may not be among you man or woman our family or tribe whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of these nations and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood and I'll explain word wormwood and mint but just just notice here he's got we've got way back in Hebrews 12 on a root of bitterness and then he uses this wormwood okay let me tell you a little about wormwood wormwood is a root that's a bitter root that when it's around water it causes the water to be bitter not good water to drink it could have been the the roots around Mara those Springs that were bad we don't know for sure but wormwood is actually in many places throughout the Bible I just don't have time to show you all of a matter of fact Solomon says in Proverbs if you go after the immoral woman it's like wormwood in your life it's it produces a poison that will kill you okay so but wormwood again let me so many scriptures but let me just show you just a couple of scriptures and by the way CS Lewis in his apologetic Screwtape Letters some of you may have read that an apologetic is like written in story for to help unbelievers understand the Bible and so CS Lewis writes Screwtape Letters Screwtape was this demon that wrote letters to his nephew demon and the nephew demons name was wormwood and this is where he got it from obviously was from Scripture let me show you a scripture on wormwood revelation 8 verses 10 and 11 says then the third angel sounded and a great star which represents a fallen angel fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell in the third of the rivers and on the springs of water the name of the star the name of this fallen angel is wormwood a third of the waters became wormwood and many men died from the water because it was made bitter they actually began trying to use a wormwood around the 20th century in medicines and herbs and they found out it made people sick and it calls this as there's a drug in it called absinthe II and it said this is a direct quote it says it was considered dangerous to health because it caused convulsions hallucinations mental deterioration and psychosis these symptoms are caused by a toxic chemical present in wormwood okay so he God says in Deuteronomy let me take you back he said I'm telling you my precepts so that there won't be a root of bitterness or wormwood a poison in your system I'm telling you this and its bitterness okay let me show you just one more reference on wormwood and then tie it into how we're going to close the message Jeremiah 9:15 God's talking about bringing judgment on them because they walked away from him therefore thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel behold I will feed them this people with wormwood and give them water of gall to drink now gall is bitter again it's bitter what's what it means I'm gonna give them bitter water to drink here's the reason I'm bringing that up I'm going to read you a messianic Scripture again to remind you of messianic scriptures of Scripture in the Old Testament that is prophetic about the Messiah and every messianic Scripture in the Old Testament Jesus fulfilled psalm 69 verse 21 says they also gave me gall bitterness for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and here in Matthew 27 34 is the fulfillment of that they gave him sour wine mingled with gall to drink but when he tasted it he would not drink now remember Jesus was tempted with all temptations okay here's the temptation of bitterness but the amazing thing you have to understand is he didn't drink it please hear me we're all going to taste it we're all going to taste bitterness in this life you have a choice whether you're going to drink it you have a choice I went when I when the church began to grow a lot and begin to become known in America and around the world and we begin to be a leader in the body of Christ the lead church and the books that I written begin to go around and help a lot of churches and there was a very quick success that happened with the church that changed my life and I know how to handle it I didn't know how to handle the the busyness the speaking invitations things like that and my daughter she's 24 now she was in that 13 14 15 year old very impressionable age of life and I really failed her during that time and he caused a root of bitterness in her and she began to get angry at me and angry at God and angry at the church because she in her own words she said the church stole my dad took my dad and film at the church worldwide and she began to live a double life and we didn't know about it but we knew something's wrong her attitudes her character but she began to live in sin and so I begin to realize as I was praying for her when she was about 18 years old 19 years old a thing I began to realize that I was responsible for a lot of it and I needed to repent and so one day I got with her and I took a long time and I told her how sorry I was and I cried and she cried and I said sugar it's my fault the resentment that you feel is valid the bitterness that you feel you can choose to forgive me or not but it'll destroy your life but I want you to know I'm the one that's wrong and I'm so sorry for a neglecting you during this time of your life and we cried and she forgave me and I watched I watched God pull a root of bitterness out of her and within just a few weeks of that she repented and now she many of you know she speaks a very large conferences and helps other especially young women get rid of this root of bitterness here's what I want to say to you you say well what if the person that hurt me you went to her and you asked for forgiveness but the person that hurt me he's never gonna ask for forgiveness what I do well you do what Jesus did it's possible that when they gave him gall tried to get him to be bitter that this was the last temptation of Christ you know what Jesus did not only did he not drink it but he said Father forgive them they didn't ask his forgiveness but he made a choice to forgive and not be bitter you have that same choice I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and I want you just to take a moment however campus every if you're in an overflow room and I know some are I want you just just just close your eyes for a moment just just close your eyes because this is important I think God will direct this message to every person's heart in some way or another but is there something that happened to you that you know has caused resentment in your life it's caused hurt it's caused bitterness and you need to forgive there's a person you need to forgive you may need to forgive yourself I hated me years and years and years to forgive myself for the pain that I inflicted on my family when I got involved in immorality it took me years to forgive myself you may need to forgive God you say well that sounds strange to me the word forgive means release you release God say God I know that this had happened to me I'm not I'm not going to hold you responsible for this anymore I know it wasn't you that did this to me so when you take a moment and let God pull the root of bitterness out of your heart let me pull it out right now and we want to pray for you we want to help you in the last two services last three services that the altars were just full and it's very important when God does something like this in your heart scripture says where two or three agree where two or three agree in my name it'll be done I'm there and it'll be done so I'm saying to you if you if if if God has really put his hand on something maybe you've never come forward for prayer maybe you're not a member of Gateway Church that doesn't matter that doesn't matter this is a a members-only place please hear that but if you need prayer for any area of your life as said every campus as soon as we stand up we have one more worship song that service isn't over till this song is over as soon as you stand up you just stand up slip to the aisle come to the front of the campus or the or the overflow room where you are and there'll be a leader there to pray with someone who loves you who's trained and you'll be able to help you agree with you so if you need prayer for any area of your life no matter which campus you're kidding as soon as we stand up you just stand up step out and come right Holy Spirit I pray you'll draw every person that needs any prayer at every campus in Jesus name Amen I was 19 years old when I gave my life to the Lord and everything changed I didn't have any desire to go back to that old life I wanted to walk with the Lord and learn more about him and some people helped me to learn the Bible and to learn how to pray and to learn about my new life in Christ and that's what we want to do for you I am so excited that you've given your life to the Lord he's forgiven all of your sins and you're on your way to heaven but we need to learn some things now about the Bible about prayer about some basics of the Christian life so that you can be victorious and live for the Lord like I know you want to so we've designed a class called fresh start and I want to encourage you to sign up for this class because we want to help you grow in your walk with the Lord now I love you and I'm so proud of you

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Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway Church, Pastor Robert, Robert Morris, Southlake, Texas, DFW, Lord, God, Jesus, Christ, Church, Root Cause, Bitter Roots, bitter, bitterness, forgiveness

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Length: 39min 5sec (2345 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 13 2014