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Short Clip
Lesson Two: Bitterness = the key is not to let it root and spread.
A. Remember God’s plan:
1. HE HAS ORDERING LIFE’S EVENTS Psalm 105:16-20 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he broke the whole staff of bread. 17 He sent a man before them, [even] Joseph, [who] was sold for a servant: 18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: 19 Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. 20 The king sent and loosed him; [even] the ruler of the people, and let him go free. (KJV)
2. HE IS WORKING EACH EVENT OUT FOR HIS GOOD [Resist self-pity] Genesis 50:19-20 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for [am] I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; [but] God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as [it is] this day, to save many people alive. (KJV)
3. HE HAS WARNED OF THE DEADLY EFFECTS OF BITTERNESS Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and thereby many be defiled; (KJV)
4. HE HAS PROVIDED THE WEED KILLER TO GET RID OF BITTERNESS Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (KJV) Hebrews 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. (KJV)
B. Respond God’s way:
1. BE FORGIVING
a) Joseph by the Spirit of God had learned the truth of forgiveness. Thomas Watson the great Puritan once said, “A man can as well go to Hell for not forgiving as for not believing”. CHS said “Unless you have forgiven others, you read your own death warrant when you repeat the Lord’s Prayer.” And again C.S. Lewis said: “No part of His teaching is clearer: and there are no exceptions to it. He does not say we are to forgive other people’s sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we shall be forgiven none of our own.” We demonstrate whether or not we have been forgiven by whether or not we forgive. So if I refuse to forgive, there can be only one reason, and that is I have never understood the grace of Christ. I am outside of grace, I am unforgiven. Of course, this is not for those who struggle to forgive, it is for those who have no desire to forgive.
2. BE FORGETFUL Genesis 41:51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, [said he], hath made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house. (KJV)
3. BE FRUITFUL Genesis 41:52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. (KJV)
And if not, what then? Look at Matthew 18
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