Roots Bear Fruit: The Root of Bitterness

Last week we talked about the R in Roots, those 4 things were: Rejection, Rebellion, Religion, and Redemption

The first 3 things: Rejection, Rebellion, and Religion can and will produce some not so good fruit in our lives

Redemption will produce some really good fruit, because Redemption is Rooted in the Redeemer Jesus Christ, Who is the True Vine

John 15: 8 8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. 

In the first week that we started this series, we talked about Jesus being the Root of All things Good in our Lives

And today I want to talk about what I believe could be the Root cause of Bad roots in our lives, that leads to bad fruit, The Root of Bitterness.

The Fruit of a Bitter Root can be many different things: Addiction, Lust, Immorality, Anger, Unforgiveness, Resentment, Hate, Envy, Jealousy, and the list could go on…So many fruits that can come from a bitter root.

Hebrews 12: 14-16
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

Bitter Roots Deceive

Bitter Roots cause deception in our lives……..in other words, we do not see clearly when we have a bitter root.

2 Corinthians 11: 3
But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Satan comes to Eve, and he says to her, “God knows that in the day that you eat, talking about the Tree they were not suppose to eat from, that your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing Good and Evil”

2 Peter 1: 1-4
1 Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has GIVEN to us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, 4 by which have been GIVEN to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 

In Hebrews 12, where we just read, it says “lest” 3 times and we will talk about all 3

Hebrews 12:15
looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God

There are 2 ways that we fall short of the Grace of God, and really they are 2 extremes: One is called lasciviousness and the other is called legalism.

Bitter Roots Defile

Hebrews 12:15
lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.

The word defiled in the Greek is Miaino (me-ah-ee-no) which means to stain.

Genesis 25: 29-34
29 Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom….(Edom means red) 31 But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” 32 And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” (He wasn’t about to die, He was tired.) 33 Then Jacob said,,“Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 25: 34
And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way

Genesis 3: 6
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 

Genesis 28: 6-9
6 Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Padan Aram. 8 Also Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac. 9 So Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife in addition to the wives he had.

Bitter Roots Depress

Bitterness is intertwined with Rejection, Anger, and Resentment and they all lead to Depression 

Hebrews 12: 16 (the last lest)
16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

Hebrews 12: 17
For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

Deuteronomy 29: 18
so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood;

Proverbs 5: 3-4
3 For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey,And her mouth is smoother than oil; 4  But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

Revelation 8: 10-11 (this is describing the end times)
10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star(which represents a fallen angel) fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.

Jeremiah 9: 15
therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. 

Psalm 69: 21
They also gave me gall (Bitterness) for my food,And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Matthew 27: 33-34
33 And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull, 34 they gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink.