Letting Go of Resentment

Catchy Introduction

Everyone has a scars—these scars have stories

Not emotional scars—physical

Use “impatient and got myself in deeper trouble”

I have one on my wrist I get asked a lot about

Define resentment

Brother and I playing football

After he pushed me down and I got wrist scar I got mad

Impatient, anger, offended, resentment

Every chance I got I tired to push him back

Until I made a move which landed my knee on a rock—creating another scar

I learned—resentment only hurts—in that case literally it hurt

Introduction

We are continuing

Continuing in series—Travel Light—Letting Go of Resentment

If we haven’t meet—Chris

Past 2 weeks Kevin—who at Maron Co. Campus—covered letting go of:

Disappointment

Regret

It’s no secret—throughout the year we carry emotional, spiritual and mental baggage

Main verse for this series—this is Jesus speaking

, Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light .” (NLT)

Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.

A yoke was used to put 2 oxen together to plow a field

Jesus is saying, “You’re tired? I will give you rest”

This does not mean we won’t have to work—travel

When we do travel—Jesus helps us to let go and make the travel lighter than it would be w/o him

There is no carrying this on your own

There are times where God asks us to let go

Today God is asking you to let go of your resentment

Teaching

I want to introduce you to someone in the birth story of Jesus—not talked about

Anna—2 verses on her—found in

In the OT—law that says if a woman’s first child is a boy—he must be dedicated to God

Mary, Joseph and Jesus go to temple

At the same time they are there—Anna is also at the temple

New Living Translation Chapter 2

36 Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. 37 Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.

Some translations say “she was a widow for 86 years”

Either way—she was a widow for a long time

Anna—a Godly woman—prophet—served as a mouthpiece for God

7 years into her marriage—tragedy strikes and her husband dies

She’s left as a widow for years—being was not easy at this point in history

It’s not easy no matter what time we may be in

In this culture—they were overlooked, shunned, shamed

Often times had very little money, power, couldn’t get a job

It was a hard life

I think when we read “Anna, a prophet” we forget that Anna was a real person

With real feelings, emotions, thoughts, hardships

Anytime we read from Matt/—we forget everyone in Jesus’ birth story is a real person

This includes Anna

She lost her husband—a person she loved, admired, long for after 7 years

Raise hand if you’ve been married 7 years or more

It could have totally been totally possible for resentment to grow in Anna’s life

For her to get offended, angry, hold a grudge

I think I would grow resentful if something that tragic happened to me

You can hold resentment towards a collection of things:

God, Others, Yourself, Life Circumstances

Whenever something tragic and surprising happens—who do you think people hold resentment towards?

God

In talking to young students, adults—knowing how I operate

God is often times the person we hold most responsible for how our lives are going

We say things like—”He could have stopped it—healed—praying but he’s making me wait”

We all wonder one question—why God, why?

WHY DOESN’T HE?!

The “why” can very quickly turn into resentment (a grudge, anger, bitterness)

This bitterness, anger, un-forgiveness can develop in the same fashion in these other areas

New Living Translation Chapter 21

4 Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, 5 and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”

The Israelites were saved from slavery in Egypt—were on their way to the promise land

Resentment started to develop towards God and others (Moses)

They grew impatient—you will find the more resentment in your life—the less patients you have

You grow impatient with the person you once loved—impatient with life—the back and forth

They also began to speak against God/Moses—they began to complain

As resentment grows so will our complaining

I’ve noticed this in my life—the more bitter I get the more I complain about God, others, life

Because of Israel’s impatience and complaining—let’s see what happens

New Living Translation Chapter 21

6 So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died.

This is not the end of the story—stop here for now

Resentment only hurt them—it lead them away from God

Resentment will only hurt you

Hold unto un-forgiveness, bitterness, anger only hurts

It can kill patience and start a fire in your mouth

Application

How do we let go of resentment?

Each week Kevin has given us one word to hold onto

Disappointment = trust

Regret = refocus

To let go of resentment we have to forgive

Letting go is not easy

New Living Translation Chapter 18

An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city.

Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars.

Forgiving is difficult—the longer wait, the harder it gets

There is a DirectTv commercial where diecttv is trying to get people to upgrade from cable

You may have seen this before—here it is

Not forgiving someone can make our life look a lot like this commercial

Un-forgiveness leads to bitterness—bad choices—further away from God—further from God, further from other people—further from people, further from serving—further from serving, further from calling

Do not live far from your calling to serve—upgrade to forgiveness

Yes it is difficult

God tells us to forgive and he practices it

I’m not trying to be trite—it is the truth

I want to read to you the rest of that story we started earlier

New Living Translation Chapter 21

7 Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8 Then the LORD told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” 9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

God forgave them and healing was the result

You forgive—healing will be the result

It may not be in the other person’s life—it

I want you to know—Forgiveness is not:

1. Forgetting

Pretending it didn’t happen, sweeping it under the rug, saying it wasn’t wrong

2. Fair (natural)

Not natural

Natural would be to strike back—to hurt that person more

We often say, you get what you deserve—I want to thank God that he does not operate like us

He does not give us what we deserve

New Living Translation Psalm 103

He does not punish us for all our sins;

he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.

11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him

is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

12 He has removed our sins as far from us

as the east is from the west.

Forgiveness is giving others what God gave you

This is how you let go of resentment

Conclusion

There are people in here who have been resentful for a long time

Towards God, spouse, parents, kid, life

I want to end by reading you the rest of Anna’s story

New Living Translation Chapter 2

She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. 38 She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

If Anna had any resentment—she let it go—the end of her story was not “my husband died”

The end of her story was “I worshipped God day and night—I told people about Jesus”

What are you going to let the end of your story be?

Resentment? a life of pain and bitterness

Forgiveness? a life of healing

STAND

Worship team/prayer team

My desire for you is 1 or 2 things

1. To start following Jesus—God has forgiven you for what you have done

He wants you to follow him so that you can embrace the life he has for you

Come and tell one of these prayer people—they will introduce me

2. To let go of resentment

If you need to go forgive someone—do it—this afternoon, don’t wait

If you need prayer and encouragement to make it through—come and get it

PRAY