The Destructive Power Of Bitterness – Part II

Bitterness is an attitude that refuses to forgive

offenses.

We forgive others on the basis of God forgiving us.

If we can discover how God forgives us, then we

are able to understand how we are to forgive others.

Psalm 14: 3 (KJV) They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Matthew 7:3 (KJV) And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam (telephone pole) that is in thine own eye?

Identify offenses you have committed against your family, against your friends, against other believers, or against God.

Confess those offenses to God.

Receive God's forgiveness based on Christ's debt for you.

FORGIVENESS IS THE BEST REVENGE.

God sees us in his son as already perfect. We are complete in him.

Colossians 2:10 (KJV) And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.

2 Peter 1: 3 (KJV) According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

#1 Spiritual growth has nothing to do with God's favor.

Romans 5:6 (KJV) For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Romans 5:7 (KJV) For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

Romans 5:8 (KJV) But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:9 (KJV) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Romans 5:10 (KJV) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

#2 Spiritual growth has nothing to do with time.

#3 Spiritual growth has nothing to do with knowledge.

#4 Facts, dates, information, and intelligence cannot be equated with spiritual maturity.

Truth that fails to change your life and behavior may in fact be hurtful, hardening you, instead of bringing you into full maturity.

If you're going to forgive folks, you have to be mature.

#5 Spiritual growth has nothing to do with activity.

Matthew 7:21 (KJV) Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 7:22 (KJV) Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Matthew 7:23 (KJV) 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Matthew 7:24 (KJV) Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock.

#6 Spiritual growth has nothing to do with prosperity.

Spiritual growth is simply matching up our practices with our position.

Ephesians 2:6 (KJV) And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Without you finding yourself in your Bible, you will never grow to where God will have you to be.

Hebrews 4:12 (KJV) For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

1 Peter 1:23 (KJV) Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.

Philippians 2: 16 (KJV) Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

1 Peter 1:24 (KJV) For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.

Jeremiah 15:16 (KJV) Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.

Romans 12: 2 (KJV) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Only through filling our minds with the word and being in obedience to its principles can those patterns be changed.

2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV) But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The spirit of God transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ. We learned to depend upon His word.

John 14:27 (KJV) says Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.