The Burden of Bitterness - Bishop Rudolph Mckissick, Jr.

Ruth chapter 1 beginning at verse 19 so the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem where they arrived in Bethlehem the whole town was stirred because of them and the women exclaimed can this be Naomi don't call me Naomi she told they've called me Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter and went away fool but the Lord has brought me back empty why call me Naomi the Lord has afflicted me the almighty has brought misfortune upon me amen you may be seated in the very presence of our God I want to preach tonight as the spiritual guide with this thought in our minds the burden of bitterness the burden of bitterness I start this this sermonic missive off with a statement that nobody in here is really probably going to like and that is you will not live this life without experiencing some hardships dr. Cosby has already said in spite of what the pimp preaches a prosperity tell you Jesus said in the word in this life that you may not you might not it's possible not it's hypothetical but you shall have tribulations it is unavoidable and the reality is some things will come into your life some things will happen in your life you will not pray it away you will not bind it away you will have tribulations you can experience things for which there is no explanation sickness layoffs ending of a marriage racist or misogynistic boss xenophobic professor backstabbers it happens without warning you will have hardships but the good news tonight is while you will have hardships hardships don't have to have you I've come to discover Marcus that there is a difference between a setback and a set up and sometimes watch this the setback or the set up can happen in the same situation because what determines whether or not a situation is a setback or a set up is how you handle the set it is not the trouble that determines whether or not I am setback or come up it is how I handle it and the reality is nothing should ever be a setback because you win some know you learn some but you lose none let me say that again you win some you learn some but you never lose any touch it even tell you never I know that's right it's how you handle it as a matter of fact there are people who are worse off than you but went through less than you Jesus it's not always the severity of the situation but the tenacity of the faith of the person who's going through the situation people who have no faith but claim they walk through the Lord can go through less but end up worse it's learning how to manage what I wish I could have avoided going to the doctor and hearing you've got cancer opening up your child's phone and seeing what you didn't teach them coming home to a spouse who says they don't want to be married anymore being called in at work to tell being told you're being laid you off let me tell you something about life I know y'all ain't gonna like this intruder you're probably gonna like the whole sermon but y'all be all right let me tell you something about life I don't care how much you love Jesus I don't care how many tongues you speak in I don't care how much all y'all get rub the oil on your forehead how many times you fall out with a white sheet over your body how many conferences you go to let me tell you about life something can come into your life at some point that makes absolutely no sense I wish I really wish I could just tell you that trust in Jesus and life will never throw you a curve ball but the reality is stuff happens and I know that ain't a deep and profound theological explanation for some of the hell that some of y'all are catching but stuff happens it makes no sense logically it makes no sense analytically we pray that it doesn't happen but when we go through things we can become better or we can become bitter and Naomi to me is an example of how you have to learn how to manage life with the hand you've been dealt there have been three funerals for Naomi it involved her husband and her two sons there were actually two daughters-in-law there was or pup and then the one all of us know about Ruth and when they only leaves more after return home she advises both of them to not follow her one of them the one that was Orpah listened and went back home after all they were both young they were young enough to start their life over but Ruth looks at her and begins to speak those words that we oftentimes say at weddings I don't know why we said it weddings because there's what in the wedding context but we say entreat me not to leave thee for where you large our large your God will be my god and Ruth decides to go back with her and where our text takes up they are at the edge of the town and the people in the town recognize Naomi they called her by her name and she cuts them off and sells them stop calling me that call me Maura this is very true think I knew I'd have two scholars that I was preaching in front of dr. Hank Cosby it's interesting me y'all because this is the only instance in the Bible where a name change goes from good to bad [Applause] every other name change goes from bad to good her name Naomi MIT Pleasant it meant sweet but Maura means bitter she says don't call me that because the way my life has gone my life has been anything but sweet from now on call me bitter and I wrestled y'all whether not to preach this tonight I really did I wrestled I've been going for a year this is my comeback and I wrestled whether to preach this because I knew this is the kind of sermon ain't nobody gonna say Amen stand up in class cuz you don't want your neighbor to think you the one going through bitterness I wrestled and I wrestled because I was like Lord this ain't the kind of sermon they want to hear and then the Holy Spirit worked because he had Marcus do won't he do it cuz I knew I wasn't gonna get none of that tonight and I wrestled and wrestled and wrestled and wrestle but the Lord said to me son I need you to preach this tonight because there are people in the church masquerading like things are well when deep down inside they are being eaten alive with the spirit of bitterness bitterness is an inward condition it will manifest itself in various ways losing your temper high blood pressure irritability sleeplessness obsession with getting even depression isolation pervasive pessimism look straight ahead and when bitterness is not properly handled it will not only impact you but it will impact everybody around you because bitterness when not dealt with leads to brokenness and when you are broken you break everything around you ok I'm not coming through let me be Freddie Haynes for one minute we had a hurricane last year and one day Kim and I was sitting in the kitchen and I noticed the ceiling was dripping water ceiling was dripping water I mean it was dripping turn brown I called the roof was over and the ceiling people over ever and they came and before they could do anything the ceiling started talking to me the ceilin said Shakespeare said their sermons in stones come and get some sense from a ceiling the ceiling said Mac I'm mad with you I said why are you mad with me the ceiling said cuz you are accusing me of something that really ain't my fault I said what you mean you trippin all this water down on my hardwood floor you trippin all this water all on my kitchen table in the Nook he said that's the problem you keep blaming me for this I'm not the thing that's broken it's the roof I said well if it's the roof how come you are the one that's trippin he said because whoo when something is broken it leaks down on whatever is close to it y'all didn't hear what I just said that's why you got to be careful hanging out with broke folk because when they are broken in their spirit they will leak on you and everybody will think you're the problem when in reality you ain't a problem it's who's leaking on you the reason some of your children ain't right it's cuz you're the roof leaking on them the reason some of your marriage it right it's because you're the riskier crotch alder got now you've got to deal with bitterness cuz bitterness is a broken roof leaking on a ceiling and I came tonight to help somebody get delivered you've got to relinquish bitterness because when you relinquish bitterness you give an open invitation for the Holy Spirit to give you peace and joy saying all this stuff but you got to protect your peace and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your heart y'all didn't get it that word guard in the Greek is a military term that implies they're soldiers all around your peace whose only assignment is to protect your mind so you don't lose your peace so stop walking around here I'm protecting my peace it ain't your job to protect your peace it's God's job to protect your peace but when you get better you sing God's angels on a break so you can act like you wanna act with your mind [Applause] breacher do a deal with bitterness cus I can't shout through this one tonight preach I get you messin with me and I feel the tension in the room oh I feel it I've been preaching a long time I feel the tension in the room because the devil has had a holy awe for so long and he made the mistake of letting you get to church tonight and some of y'all that are honest enough to know you've been bitter you ought to serve notice on the devil that in the next 40 minutes he's had his last day of making you hold on to something that ain't destroy and nobody buddy tonight is the night where you get delivered let me show you how let me show you how his first thing don't stay stuck because of what you don't know if you would go back and read this chapter from the beginning my late home elects professor dr. Myles Rome Jones you say some of the best preaching ain't what's on the line is what's between the line when we introduced to Naomi watch this we are introduced to her after her husband and sons have died the two sons have died husband has died and the Bible never says Freddie why they die we don't know why they die we have no answers all we know is they die come here the reality of life is that we must often live with unanswered questions preached boy see sometimes faith is trusting God's answer while living in the tension of ambiguity is I'm trusting you even though I don't even understand what you up to I'm trusting you even though I don't have an answer for why you allowed me to go through what I'm going through naomi has no answers she's getting no revelation here's the problem our discomfort with ambiguity always pushes us to find answers because we think we can't be at peace until we have answers and bitterness always analyzes when it can't find answers look at the text she said God did this to me God put me in this predicament God please get that bitter her always seeks blame [Applause] [Music] god that's gonna get rough in here tonight bitter always seeks who they can blame to make herself and Naomi God you did this to me she stuck with why's anybody in here got some wise why did my child get on drugs and you're bitter with God why did my husband say he don't want me no more and you're better why did my friend who I trusted with information tell it to everybody Jesus why did they fire me when I've been lawyer for 15 years why when I never smoked did they find a mass on my lungs and now you're bitter but here's the thing God never gives her an answer because God gives you what you need not what you prefer I said it too fast y'all didn't get it God gives you what you need not what you prefer if you needed the answers you would have gotten them in order for God to move you forward so if God doesn't give you answers that means he'll give you what you need to keep going in spite of what you've been going through don't you let your curiosity get in the way of your convictions don't you let the ambiguity get in the way of your favor there are a whole lot of things I don't have answers to I have a lot of unanswered why's but what I do know is that God is still God God is still faithful and God will keep me in perfect peace that's his promise stop giving attention of how God's gonna do it and just believe that God's gonna do it I mean after all there's some things you trust you don't have all the answers to think of how many things around your work perfectly you'll have no idea how they work you put the key in the ignition of your car you don't need to know how the engine works to get the car to drive when you get on a plane you may not be able to understand all the laws of lift thrust gravity and drag but you trust it under the discretion of the pilot it's gonna get you where you need to go when it comes to your laptop there are many components running only an engineer can understand but you still use it not knowing how it works doesn't stop you from using it for full benefit well the same is true for faith you don't need to know how gods don't get you through this you just need to believe that gods don't get you through this so don't minimize God about what you can't figure out I want you to help somebody real quick I know you still they figured out why you went through that but don't bring God down to the level of what you don't understand I don't understand that gods don't get me through it it never makes sense God's gonna get me through it do I have any testimonies tonight who can say I still don't understand [Applause] stop seeking blame and start seeking peace because when you blame you make an idol out of the person that hurt you you just determined that they were God enough to dictate your moves and your attitude his second thing I think this ain't gonna be long his same thing you have to end the pretend to start to mend [Applause] if you say one more time you got to end the pretend to start to mend James Baldwin put it this way you can't fix what you won't face there is somebody deliverance is gonna be in this point right here there is this unspoken rule in religion um here is the unspoken rule in religion pretend fake it till you make it [Applause] we say all this stuff that's cute but ain't correct reason some of y'all are on somebody's couch right now it's cuz you almost lost your mind trying to fake health for folk that don't even like you [Applause] there's this unwritten rule yeah my deliver tonight like God is in control when you won't even believe he is I know y'all ain't ready for this give the impression everything is okay in your life when you know it ain't pretend you believe when you know you got doubt Joe imperfections maintain the image of a perfect marriage who with healthy well-adjusted children who with in reality you know your family is just as dysfunctional as everybody else we're all God is gonna get ugly now put a fake life on Facebook to try to make everybody believe that your life ain't it's messed up as it really is some of y'all live a facebook fantasy but a jacked up reality cuz you convince you got to pretend [Applause] [Music] so you taking pictures like you in first class when you walk into the back of the play as if where you sit makes you who you are Jordan got quiet now always posting when you got own name brand as if making somebody else's advertisement makes you who you are we pretend and the charge has helped us with this by turning worship into pep rallies and worship leaders become praise bullies where they bully you into lifting your hands and you will feel like lifting them they bully you in the scream and all you want to do is crap and you faking it because everybody around you is doing it and you've been taught don't let folk know what you going through [Applause] [Music] here's what I've learned pretending perpetuates the illusion of relationships watch this by connecting us based on who we are not what you mean people who pretend have pretend relationships you know got everybody convinced you close to somebody and you ain't even got their number I'm showing up that leave that alone because I'll start talking for real you got everybody convinced that's all closer than y'all really are pretending are you hearing me here's what I like about Ruth when they say that's Naomi Ruth oh say yeah child that's me yeah Ruth that's not uh Naomi rather does not pretend like all is well she tells them don't call me there ain't no sense in me pretending I can't rebuke this she says don't call me about how you knew me call me about what you don't know about me my life has turned bitter that's what you have to be careful how you treat folk cuz you don't know what they've been through in the time you ain't been with them yeah don't nobody want to talk to me now you you want them to come to church and shout and run up and down and everything but you have no clue everything they've been through and I just what this is gonna be the craziest stand up I need some folk tonight who can be honest my life is hell I don't even like they don't like me crazy presidents boss I'm bitter she said I left him and I'm empty and it's College some of y'all in here tonight you ain't mad with a spouse you ain't mad with a co-worker you ain't mad with a boss you ain't mad with your pastor you mad with God because you thought because some preacher told you that if you just started speaking in tongues or threw some money on an altar that's some kind of way God's sovereignty is impotent against your machinations that if you just thought shouting when the praises go up the blessings come down and you shouted and went back home and the parental blessing ain't there and the burden is still living and you're mad tonight but Naomi refuses to pretend and I know the Bible says in all things give thanks bless the Lord at all times but when life knocks the hell out of you and it comes out of nowhere and catches you off guard all them little scriptures that sound good while nothing is going on see y'all they trying to keep it real tonight hold them little scriptures that sound good when there's somebody else going through it for some reason they just don't seem to fit right down through in here I know I'm supposed to name it I know I'm supposed to quoted I know I'm supposed to declare it but when you have to say it wasn't supposed to be like this it wasn't supposed to turn out like this I didn't sign up for this where did this come from life hits you would stop and sometimes you try to do the right thing you try to live the right way you tried to be holy you tried to pray about it and it still got jacked up how many years you've been celibate and you still ran into a fool god I don't feel like this right now [Applause] look at your neighbor and tell them stop pretending I'll see how quiet y'all are y'all don't know y'all don't want to get delivered look at your neighbor and tell them you ain't got to fake around me tell them to stop pretending I got the Kleenex if you need them I'll rub your back if you need it stop pretending but here's the shout go through knowing you gonna get through y'all day happy I'll come back to y'all later I said go through knowing you gonna get through y'all ain't happy I'll go all the way over go through knowing you can't get through come on grab your neighbors hand real quick ain't got but one more grab your neighbor look up dead in the face and tell em neighbor I don't know what you going through can I prove it unit X I am done that's all I came to tell y'all is this last thing that there's a testimony in your adversity yes I know you go get through it Marcus when I read this in the New International Version I go lie I hollow because I wrote this in a bitter season I wrote this son right after my last surgery I've been coming here long enough y'all know I've been through spinal fusion prostate cancer focal paralysis doctor telling me I wouldn't make it knee replacement and I ain't even 55 then all of a sudden again last year God put me through something else Eugene I'm trying to figure out what the hell is going on and I was bitter I won't preach it no more truth of the matter is I am II wanna go to church no more I stopped listening to church music I started listening to gangster rap with all the cuss words in them see y'all can't handle preachers transparency I felt like going back to smoking weed cuz I did it good I felt like going back to drinking cut his salt because I did it good see I cried some of y'all didn't I was mad and died so god help me write this sermon and I saw this in the New International Version and when I saw what Naomi said and she didn't even realize what she said and if y'all did this churches over she's had it in verse 21 but she said it running past it but she missed what she said here it is five words the Lord brought me back if you ain't go get your shout I can't help you look at it one more time she said alone [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] [Applause] refrigerator broke down was crazy [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] holy do it for you tonight but he's got a deliverance for you

Channel: Friendship-West Baptist Church

Views: 105,588

Rating: 4.7961783 out of 5

Keywords: Friendship-West Baptist Church, FWBC, Dallas, Oak Cliff, Friendship West, Dr. Haynes, Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, III., Church, Baptist, Haynes, Christian, Community, 2020, Vision, Christ, God, Holy

Id: hEz8dYB-Bmo

Length: 38min 6sec (2286 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 12 2019