Summary: <p> June 24, 2012</p> <p> Rich began with a story of a Ugandan man who had everything taken away from him by the government. When a missionary came to him to tell him the God loved him and sent his son Jesus to die for him, the man became so angry and threw him out because he had experienced so much pain in his life. This man had good reason to be bitter! But what happens to us when we harbor bitterness? Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” The Greet root for “bitterness: is “pikria” which means to cut or sharp. The writer is saying here that when bitterness is allowed to grow in us, it will cut away at us.</p> <p> In the story of Absalom, Rich gives us a portrait of a bitter soul. Absalom had a few sources of bitterness – his own father’s moral failure and the disillusionment that came with seeing his father as a hypocrite and his sister’s rape. Rich takes some time to tease out the broken way that Tamar’s rape was dealt with by her father and addresses the topic of sexual abuse in our culture today.</p> <p> Absalom displays this bitterness first in seeking revenge. His anger turns violent as he plots to have his half-brother who raped his sister murdered. Rich talks about good and bad anger and how unchecked sinful anger can destroy us. Next we see Absalom’s bitterness displayed in rage by setting the field on fire when his father leaves him in limbo. God does not leave us in limbo though; he finds a way to reconcile us to himself. In 2 Samuel 14:14 it I says, “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways to that a banished person does not remain banished from him.”</p> <p> To heal from bitterness, we need to receive the grace of Jesus Christ. Matthew 6:14-15 says that if we forgive others when they sin against us, God will forgive us and if we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us. Giving up our hold on the sins done against us will bring us freedom to receive the forgiveness for our own sins against our Father in heaven.</p> <p> <a href="/_media/uploads/files/watch_and_listen/Follow-upBibleStudies/2012/Derailed/20120624%20derailed%20by%20bitterness%20lessons%20from%20the%20life%20of%20absalom.pdf" target="_blank">Follow-up Bible Study</a></p> <p> <a href="/_media/uploads/files/watch_and_listen/SmallGroupDiscussionGuides/2012/Derailed/June_24_2012_Derailed_by_Bitterness.pdf" target="_blank">Sermon Discussion Guide</a></p>
