Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

The Bomb under the Bed

Topics: Anger; Bitterness; Confession; Hindrances; Repentance; Shame

References: ; ;

During World War II, Zinaida Bragantsova of Ukraine was sitting by the window sewing.

Suddenly she heard a whistling noise.

Then she was struck by a blast of wind.

When she came to, her sewing machine was gone, and there was a hole in the floor.

She told people there was a bomb in the floor, but she couldn’t get any officials to check out the situation.

So she moved her bed over the hole and lived with it for the next forty-three years.

Then, one day, phone cable was being laid in the area and demolition experts were called in to probe for buried explosives.

“Where’s your bomb, Grandma?” asked the smiling army lieutenant of Bragantsova.

“No doubt, under your bed?”

“Under my bed,” Bragantsova responded dryly.

Sure enough, they found a five-hundred-pound bomb.

After evacuating two thousand people from surrounding buildings, the bomb squad detonated the bomb.

Bragantsova moved to a new apartment.

Many people live as if they have a bomb under their bed.

They cover up a terrible secret, a great hurt, a seething anger while everyone goes on about their business.

But no one is truly safe until the bomb is uncovered and removed.

—Lee Eclov, “Danger of Bitterness,” PreachingToday.com

Larson, C. B., & Ten Elshof, P. (2008).

1001 illustrations that connect (pp.

406–407).

Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

What Makes People Satisfied?

What really makes people satisfied with their lives?

Amazingly, the secret may lie in a person’s ability to handlelife’s blows without blame or bitterness.

These are the conclusions of a study of 173 men who have been followed since they graduated from Harvard University in the early 1940s.

The study, reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry, noted that one potent predictor of well-being was the ability to handle emotional crisis maturely.

26-27

Today in the Word, November 2, 1993

Galaxie Software.

(2002).

10,000 Sermon Illustrations.

Biblical Studies Press.

Bitter hearts are characterized by resentment, lack of joy, cynical attitude…it is the heart that lets the pain of the past or present dictate how he/she will experience the future.

Let’s go back to where the bitterness began to develop.

Exodus 15:24-16:

Bitterness examined

Debunking Bitterness

The mindset of entitlement “I deserve better”

Exodus 15:

Sometimes God’s great acts of deliverance take a path through the wilderness.

The tendency to blame “It is your fault”

Exodus 16:2-3

Exodus 16:

In complaining against Moses, the were expressing their bitter hearts toward God.

Getting out of the Rut

Recognize the Rut

Forgive others

God will work out the future…

Revelation 21:

Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

Virtually every writer who has weighed in on the subject of bitterness has discussed its ultimate remedy in terms of forgiveness.

Psychology Today

Bitterness is unforgiveness fermented.

The more we hold onto past hurts the more we become drunk on our pain and the experience can rob us of the joy we can find in anything.

But what if your bitterness is toward God?

Repent

Remember his deliverance and remember the manna…

Confess

Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun.

To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king.

The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself.

The skeleton at the feast is you.

—Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking (Harper, 1993)

Larson, C. B., & Ten Elshof, P. (2008).

1001 illustrations that connect (p.

493).

Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

Bitterness is that state of mind that willfully holds on to angry feelings, ready to take offense, able to break out in anger at any moment.

The person who is bitter is often resentful, cynical, harsh, cold, relentless, and unpleasant to be around.

Any expression of these characteristics is sin against God; they are of the flesh, not of His Spirit ().

warns us to “see to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

“Bitterness is unforgiveness fermented.”

(Gregory Popcak)

Bitterness is unforgiveness fermented.

The more we hold onto past hurts the more we become drunk on our pain and the experience can rob us of the joy we can find in anything.

Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2013/11/overcoming-bitterness-5-steps-for-healing-the-hurt-that-wont-go-away/#AmEToUCSiXtPXF4L.99

Bitterness occurs when we feel someone has taken something from us that we are powerless to get back.

We hold on to the hurt in an attempt to remind ourselves and others of the injustice we’ve experienced in the hopes that someone will save us and restore what we’ve lost.

Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2013/11/overcoming-bitterness-5-steps-for-healing-the-hurt-that-wont-go-away/#AmEToUCSiXtPXF4L.99

Bitterness causes us to shun God’s grace in favor of obsessing over the wound.

If you are holding on to bitterness I encourage you to take it to confession.

Please don’t be insulted by the suggestion.

I know that you are the victim and you have a right to your pain

Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithonthecouch/2013/11/overcoming-bitterness-5-steps-for-healing-the-hurt-that-wont-go-away/#AmEToUCSiXtPXF4L.99

Virtually every writer who has weighed in on the subject of bitterness has discussed its ultimate remedy in terms of forgiveness.

For forgiveness alone enables you to let go of grievances, grudges, rancor and resentment.

It’s the single most potent antidote for the venomous desire for retributive justice poisoning your system .

Psychology today

I like to say it’s like taking poison and hoping your enemy will die.-

Joyce Meyer