The Apostles Table | Tue.Jan.11.20 | "BITTERNESS, RESENTMENT & UNFORGIVENESS" | DR. MIKE WOODS

We bless your name, Lord. We bless your name, Lord. We bless your name, Jesus. We bless your name. Yes, God. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. We bless you, Lord. We bless you, Lord. My Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, how we love you, God. God, how we love you, God. How we love you, God. How we love you, God. Jesus, our King, our God, our friend. We worship and adore you, God. We worship and adore you, God. We give you all the glory. We give you all the glory. We give all the glory. Peace. Peace to your people, God. Peace, peace. Oh God, we give you a man's eye. God. Yes, God, we bless your name. We honor your name, Father. Be glorified, God. Hallelujah. Be lifted high. You get all the glory. Yes, God. You get all the honor. You get all the praise, Jesus. Y'all come in, please. Glory. Up. He's the glory and lifter of your head. Some— I don't know who this is for, but I'm worshiping for somebody. I'm praying for somebody right now. You've been carrying a burden. Glory to the name of God. But even as I worship, even as we pray today, oh, whether you're live or by replay, I don't know who it's for, but God is lifting the burden. You know, I saw, I saw, I just saw in the realm of the spirit. Glory to God. How when you go to the gym and you're getting ready to lift a lot of weight, you put that weight belt on. Glory to God. Hallelujah. To reinforce your back because you're about to lift a lot of weight. God just walked into your life, and what I saw, he's put on his weight belt. Glory to God. And he's getting ready to lift off of you. Oh God, the stuff you've been carrying, he's about to lift off of you. Oh, taba. I dare you receive it right now. He's lifting the weight. Come on, sir. I understand the challenge now with this stream. Glory to God. We've tried about 10 times before now, but the enemy is a liar. Somebody— oh, Oh God, somebody's getting a breakthrough right now. There's a breakthrough happening in your finances right now. There's a breakthrough happening in your body. I'm commanding sickness to go. I'm commanding the burden to be removed. I'm commanding now the yoke to be destroyed. And I decree and declare now. Mansa. Although the enemy formed that weapon, I'm decreeing now that the weapon will not work. The weapon will not prosper. Oh God, we give you glory. Somebody will receive your breakthrough now. God is bringing Oh God, God is bringing somebody into the fullness of who they really are. Come on, receive it now. Come on, receive it now. You want to cry out to God right where you are? Cry out! Oh, oh, oh, God, we give you glory! We give you honor, God. We give you all the praise, Jesus. We give you all the praise, Jesus. Come on, stay with me. You're coming in here, please share this. There's an anointing on this stream. That's why the fight in the beginning, but I don't know, man, nothing so easy should be so hard. But I'm telling you right now, the devil is a man, and we decree and declare that the devil is a liar in your home, in your children, in your life. Bless your name, oh God. Bless your name, oh God. Y'all say hello, let me know you're here. Glory to God. Hallelujah. And I need you to do me a favor and share this stream. Share this. We bless your name, God. We bless your name, God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Y'all say hello, let me know you're here. Please share, please share. Thank you, Kendra. God bless you. I love you. Thank you. Yes, Lord, we glorify you, God. We glorify you, God. We glorify you now. We glorify you now. Thank you Lord! We bless your name, we bless your name, we bless your name, we bless your name God, we bless your name God. Yes Lord, yes Lord! So Father, again we thank you for your anointing that destroys yokes and removes burdens. Father, I'm asking you today, hallelujah, to let this word go out clearly and accurately, Lord. And every person that needs to hear it, let them hear. What the Spirit of the Living God would say to his people, to the church, to those that need deliverance. For your word said you sent the word and it healed them. So I'm asking you now to bring healing and deliverance to your people through this, your word. And we give you praise for it now. We give you all the glory and all the honor shall be thine, in Jesus' name. Amen and thank God. Hallelujah. Thank you for the light, God, and illumination and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost. We give you praise for it now in Jesus' name. All right guys, welcome. We're gonna get this done. The enemy so mad at this word, man, I'm telling you right now. He don't see this thing come forth. But we thank the Lord. Glory to God that it's going to go forth, and it's going to go forth with power. Glory to God. And it's going to go forth with great joy. Hallelujah. And I'm, I'm super excited, uh, because I know what God is doing, and I know that the enemy really don't want to see the fullness of what God's trying to perform in our lives manifest. So he throws everything he possibly can at us. But I'm telling you right now, the devil is defeated and God is exalted. Hear me when I say that. The devil is defeated and God is exalted above every situation. Y'all, excuse me. So let's get into this. Glory to God. I want to talk, uh, just a few moments today. I should be finishing up with this, but the Lord knows timing is everything. And, and you guys that are watching live or by replay, I need you to share this because somebody needs this. I want to talk about bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. Bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. Glory to God. That's what we want to discuss. That's what we want to talk about today— bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. Glory to God. Now the first thing I want you to do, praise God, is go with me if you would. Go with me if you would, praise God, to 2 Peter 1, and we're going to start reading right here. And I want to read, um, verse number 4, which is going to be the substratum. I'll give you a few scriptures today, uh, that I believe will be very helpful in this. But this, this, this text found in 1st— 2 Peter, I'm sorry, chapter 1 and verse number 4, praise God, is again the substratum, the foundation of where we're trying to go. So y'all stay with me because I'm telling you, there's something great ahead for us. And the Holy Spirit again personally declared that 2021 would be a year of amazing, the year of amazing, amazing breakthroughs, amazing healings, amazing manifestations. God's gonna astonish you. He's gonna blow your mind. He absolutely wants to do this. But however, some of the times, um in, in many seasons of our life, some of the things that hinder us, guys, is not so much of the fact that, you know, what was told to us was false or that God didn't want to do it. Sometimes we're in our own way. And, um, it's very important, hear me, that we get out come on, of our own way. And I, I can tell you the times in my life, Jesus, well, I have been in my way so much, all right? And I just had to learn if I was going to be productive, if I was going to be effective, I had to learn how to get out my own way. And these 3 things that I'm talking about today are 3 areas where people are so in their own way that deception has them believe that they don't even walk in these. So I want to make you clear today on how bitterness works, how resentment works, how unforgiveness works, and how dangerous these things are to the manifestation of God's promises in your life. Let's read 2 Peter. Somebody type that on the screen. Chapter 1. Verse number 4, the Bible says, is whereby are given unto us exceeding. And that word exceeding means beyond. You know, are you serious right now? That word exceeding means beyond. It means, watch this, far above that which we know to be normal or natural. Exceed, far beyond, far above. What we know to be natural. So he's given us exceeding great and precious promises. So there are some promises over our lives as the children of God— hear me— that exceed what we can phantom in our natural ability to imagine. So there's something so super, so beyond, so great that's over our life that we can't process it with our cognitive intellect. Our human intellect cannot process this. It exceeds it. And, and I want every person listening to me right now to grasp this. What— and I'm— this is the Bible, man. I didn't make this up. What God has for you if you are his child. It exceeds what you can cognitively comprehend in your intellectual capacity as a human. It exceeds it. Hear me, it exceeds it. It's bigger. And the moment you start limiting the promises over your life to what you can comprehend naturally, You create— you placed a huge limitation on your future and what God wants to do for you. Hear me, people. Lord, I wish I had some help in this place. Glory to God. So I, I want you to grab this. The Bible says exceeding great and precious promises, that by these— hear this— you and I that might be partakers. Oh, partakers! Good God Almighty, of the divine nature. Let me break that down real quick. So the word partakers is two words: par and takers. Okay, so par— watch this— par is literally a golf word. Okay, so The word par is a measurement that measures accuracy from start to finish on a hole in golf. Alright, so let me give you an example. You can have a par 3 on a golf course. I play a lot of golf. I understand this so much. Glory to God. My goal when I step up to a tee on a par 3 is to get the ball in the hole in 3 strokes or less. Hear me? So I got 3 swings to get that ball in the hole. I got at least 12 golf clubs in my bag that's gonna help me achieve that. I gotta pick the right club, I gotta swing right, I gotta keep my head down. And if I do these things and focus, I'll get to the hole in 3 strokes, thus that's a par 3. Now my goal is to get under par, which would be a birdie, but we're talking about pars. And say this with me, say pars are good in golf and in life, because a par means you made it in the right amount of time and you did it exactly the way it was measured for you to do it. You didn't get there too early, you didn't get there too late, you got there perfectly. And the average golfer is, is not like me. They, they, they don't— they're not going to score many times under par. The average weekend golfer is going to end up having a lot of over pars, which means that they, on that par 3, they might have got there in 5 strokes or 6 strokes, or God forbid, some people 9 strokes. I haven't seen it. Glory to God. My friend Emmanuel Michael, I golf with all the time, uh, he's a master of 9 over. Glory to God. But at the end of the day, you gotta work through life where you want to get to the place you want to be a partaker. Now, taker means— watch this— it literally means to take hold of what's yours. So a partaker means to become one with something that belongs to you in the right measurement, in the right way, without illegally pursuing it any other way. So the Bible says here he wants us to be partakers of the divine nature. So we ought to be accurately aligned, in sync with the divinity of God. Oh my God. And the Bible said, because we have escaped the corruption that is in this world through lust. So the scriptures say here, I cannot partake of what God has for me, the year of amazing, God's precious promises over my life, if I am corrupted by the world through lust. And watch this. Many times when people hear lust, they always think about sex. But lust, man, you can lust to be bitter, and you could live in that lustful state where you just lust to be bitter and to hate people and to resent them and to, to not forgive someone you need to release. And many times, because you're holding on to that, you're missing the plan of God. This man. So you got to learn to forgive quickly. Let's start right here. Forgiveness is a gift. Forgive. It, it has nothing to do with other person. It's a gift that you give for someone else, whether they change, whether they release you. You have to make the— whether they keep doing what they're doing. You have to make the choice to forgive, give them the gift of release, and you keep it moving. Whether you choose to keep walking with them in some capacity or not, you gotta choose, friends, to forgive them. You gotta choose— hear me, oh my God— to let them go. Hear me when I'm speaking to you, y'all. You got to choose to let them go. All right, so here we go. Um, faith, which is what it takes to receive the great and precious promises of God, does not work— hear me, it does not work— when you're holding on to bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. It just don't, all right? And you gotta learn to let people go. Let me prove it to you. Go to Mark 11:22, and we're gonna read through verse 26. Jesus said this, watch this. The Bible says, Mark 11:22, y'all write it on you, on the screen, 22 through 26. The scripture says And Jesus answering said unto them, have faith in God. All right. For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that thou shall have those things which he said shall come to pass, he shall have whatever he said. Now wait a minute, how many times have you said something and you didn't get it. See, I'm a spiritual scientist. I believe the word. So if I'm doing something the word tell me to do and it's not working for me, that spiritual scientist inside of me is going to start doing the work to find out, wait a minute now, I know God is real, I know God can't lie, So it's got to be something with me that's not allowing this to come to pass in my life. Come on now, how many times have you spoken something, you, you did something that you knew you were supposed to do and it did not work? The work now to find out why you said it but you didn't get it. You spoke to the mountain but the mountain— y'all not talking to me here. Or, oh my God, So why didn't it work? What— where is the flaw? Is it God? No, never in God. Never, never, never, never, never. It's always something in us, because again, we got precious and great promises over our life, and these promises are intentional. God wants these promises to come to pass. Hear me. Hear me, hear me. Let me, let me move up a little bit just so you hear me. He wants these promises, but they're not going to come to pass if you're not operating in the principles correctly. And they're definitely not going to come to pass if you got bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness in your heart. Luke 24: Therefore I say unto you, what things you have, you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall receive them. Let me ask you a question. Last time you prayed and it didn't work, you prayed the word, you went through all of the process this, but it didn't work, did you believe? And if you believe, did you have something in your life that could have possibly blocked this blessing? Were you in your own way? Because I'm telling right now, this stuff works. Faith works. The word works. God can't lie. I've seen him do it too many times. I'm telling— I've seen him heal. I've seen him deliver. I've seen miracles that most people will never see. But I'm grateful for that because I know that when something doesn't work, it's me. Because I've seen it work too many times, and every time I research it, it was something with me that I needed to fix. And I'm gonna help you with it today. Many a times it was some bitterness. Some resentment and some unforgiving. Let me say this right here, you prophets, prophets, prophets, squinting your eyes, prophesying, saying, oh, the Lord said this and the Lord said that. You with your bitter, resentful, unforgiving self, don't prophesy to another person with bitterness in your heart. Yeah, you prophet, you, your heart is toxic and you're prophesying and spitting this mess out over other people, and you resentful and you bitter and you hurt. How about this? Shut up, okay? And get the bitterness out of your heart. Oh yeah, I feel better. Yeah, I feel better. Yeah, I do. Uh, listen, get out your heart and stop spewing that poison over the lives of people. Oh my God, you, you can't counsel someone about something you're bound in. Belzebub— hear me— cannot cast out Belzebub. You have no power to deal with it because you ain't dealt with it in you yet. Lord Jesus, can I get some help? Oh my God, are y'all here? Y'all here? Am I froze again? Somebody said, Lord, please let him freeze. No, ain't gonna let me freeze. Y'all need to hear this. Let me keep reading. Glory to God. Verse 25: And when you stand praying, watch this, forgive. Forgive. When you stand praying, the first thing he said do, if you need to let somebody go, if you need to forgive somebody is forgive. He said ask for something. He said when you stand praying, the first thing you need to do is forgive. And if you have an ought against any, that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you of your trespasses. Watch this. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you of your— my God— trespasses. Are y'all hearing me? You got to forgive quickly and you got to let them go so you can get what you need from God. It's a gift. Forgiveness is a gift. Oh God, let me give you an example. Let's look at Joseph. Joseph. Let's look at Joseph. Let's look at Joseph. In Genesis 50. Y'all write that on your screen, y'all. Joseph, Genesis 50. I'm going to look at verse 15. The Bible said, and when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did to him. Verse 16, and they sent a message on Joseph saying, thy father did command before he died, saying, so, yeah, you see, and Joseph, forgive, I pray now, the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did unto you evil. And now I pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father. And Joseph wept when they spake to him. Wait a minute now, so these are the same guys, listen, that sold Joseph into slavery caused him to end up in prison, caused it— dug a pit for him to be in, caused him to have to fight with Potiphar's wife. Come on. And, and these jokers gonna cause him go to jail, cause him be a slave. And you think about that a minute now. Has anybody got you locked up? Has anybody— come on— dug a pit for you? Probably so. You know, a lot have been dug for me. My God, hallelujah. But I forgive every person, and with the shovel in their hand, I, I don't— forgave folk and they still digging, and I'm still forgiving because that's how you got to walk with God. Oh boy, listen, Joseph wept. Watch it, let me just read. And verse 18 says, and his brethren also went and fell down before his face and said, behold, we are your servants. And Job said to them, fear not, for I am in the place of God. I'm where I'm supposed to be. No, he said, I'm in the place of God. When people ask you, how could you forgive them for doing that? Oh, I'm in the place of God. See, when you're really in a place with God You can act like God acts. You can do the things he would do in a situation because you're in a place with God. Boy, I'm teaching better. Y'all saying amen. Watch this. But as for you, you, you thought evil against me, he said, but God meant it unto good to bring— oh my God— to bring it to pass as it is this day. To save much people alive. That's what Joseph said. I had to go through this. I had to go to prison. I had to deal with Potiphar's wife. Y'all had to put me in a pit, but look at me now. I'm sitting up here in this palace, and I'm in a position that I can see all people saved and passionately in love with Jesus. Watch this. If what you went through with that person got you where you needed to be, thank God for it and forgive them. Joseph said, look, man, I got y'all. You are forgiven. And he did it quickly, and he gave them a position in his kingdom. How many of y'all do that? Oh my God, how many y'all for real? Because again, you can't forgive— oh, this is proof— you can't forgive with a penalty. You can't forgive me and then penalize me. I can't forgive you and then put a penalty on it. I— you can't hurt me and then I say I forgive you, but then I never allow you to be in my presence. I never spend time with you. I never talk to you. I treat you like a stepchild. That's not forgiveness. I forgave you with a penalty. Some of you got spouses that say they forgive you, but they forgive you with a penalty. You messed up, you stopped cheating, you stopped doing what you're doing, but now they make you sleep in another room still after a year. Oh my God, you can't forgive with penalty. You got to cast that thing in the Sea of Forgetfulness to remember it no more, just like God would do. See, that only is— it's for grown folks right here when you're in a place with God. Some of you got loved ones you need to let go, man. You're hindering the blessing of God. Oh my God, let's keep moving, let's keep moving. So let's go to 2 Timothy 4. Let's go to 2 Timothy 4. Let me show you something real quick. Verse 16, 2 Timothy 4:16. Let me read it, let me read it, let me read it, let me read it. It says, at my first answer, no man stood with me. Me, but all forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Wait a minute, Paul was at his first trial, on trial for his life. The people that were walking with him— this is the Apostle, the man of God— and this is how Negroes do, Caucasians, however, humans, this is how they do you. They'll walk with you, watch this, and the moment something happens that displeases them They can remember everything but all the good you did for them, or maybe one encounter. I have people, glory to God, that walked out of my life. I paid their bills, I done kept their marriages together, glory to God, through the anointing on my life for counsel and prophetic, the prophetic anointing. I, I've seen their finances go from them being— have nothing, not even have a car, no credit, no house— to having cars, house. But the moment I started going through a trial, I couldn't find them people. They were first— some of the first people to leave. But I forgave them. They probably think they needed no forgiveness, but, but you did. You did, okay? Uh, you, you did, all right? You did, okay? So I forgave you. Uh, Paul, these people left him high and dry, but the Bible said, don't— God, he said, don't lay it to their charge. Let me let them go. Because you see, in this text, he, he made up his mind that he wasn't going to let this thing affect his future. So people who harbor bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness, they become masters of elaborating on grudges, bad attitudes, and what they resent about what somebody did to them. They ain't gonna just let people go. They gonna harp on what somebody did as long as they can. But you hindering your future, man. You know, you got these attitudes that come up out of your mouth even when somebody else mentioned that person. You got a problem, man. Yo, I love God. God would never look at your past to determine your future. Future. Other people will— other people will hold a grudge against your past. And watch this, what they don't realize is they're jeopardizing their own future with you because you're still growing, you're still increasing, and on many levels you're running circles around them financially, spiritually, emotionally, in your family. And they still holding on to what you did in the past. God has moved on and they haven't. It's a sign of spiritual immaturity. Listen, when you can't move on, it's a sign of spiritual immaturity, ladies and gentlemen. I'm just telling you right now, you got to be able to move on. Lord have mercy, help us in this place today, Jesus. God has moved on. The person, hallelujah, that you holding their past against them, they have moved on. As a matter of fact, many times you were the main person in the wrong. Wrong because you didn't handle the situation properly and you still bitter. I'm not talking to people right now, you can't stand to hear somebody name. I'm talking to somebody now that's been molested, that's been raped, glory to the name of God, by a loved one, and you don't want to go around when they're around. You need to let them go and so you can move on with your life. They were wrong. Don't get it twisted, they were wrong. You a child, a grown person touching you wrong. It's a devil. It was designed to thwart your destiny and create constant delays in your life. But you gotta let that go, and you got to learn how to love them in spite of and getting all bent out of whack when you hear that name. And it's got to be sincere. It's gotta be real. Oh boy, I gotta go, man. Golly. So what is bitterness? When you compound these three things— bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness— bitterness is like a cancer, man. It is, it is a byproduct of unforgiveness. It's the very next step. And this thing spreads through your body. It's— it— watch this— bitterness has the propensity to spread through your entire trikotomi, your body, your soul, and your spirit. It starts affecting your health. It starts affecting your psychological existence. You become psychologically debilitated and you cannot think adequately emotionally. Because you've allowed this thing to cloud your judgment concerning people who could genuinely mean you well. It get in your spirit. You can't commune with God. You— everybody becomes suspect to you when you operate in bitterness, including God. Resentment is just bitterness that graduates to hate. Again, you can't stand to hear their voice. You can't stand to see them coming. I was counseling a couple one time, and she had been married to this man 11 years. The man had cheated on her maybe 7 years prior to our conversation. She said, I'm gonna just be honest with you, preacher, I can't stand to look at him. When I see him, I get sick. When I see him, I get angry. And I've just been tolerating this for the last 7 years because of what he did to me. And my immediate response to him was— to her was, the reason you're sick in your body right now with high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer, and you— and, and listen, you're in first stages of cancer and you are 34 years old. It's because of this resentment you've harbored in your heart towards your husband, and the only reason you stay is for the children. The only reason— listen, you got to get this together. At this point, it's not even about him. You— do you believe he stopped cheating? Yes. Do you believe he loves you? Yes. Do you want to stay married? Yes. Well, you got to get yourself together, is what I said to her. Her. So we immediately begin to take some time to focus on her deliverance and getting to the root of the bitterness and getting her free. Now they've been married about 20 years, happy, 6 kids. At the end of the day, that never would have happened though if she wouldn't have got rid of that bitterness. They're one of the most in love couples I've seen. So hear me what I'm telling you. When you compound these three things together, it's— let me tell you what it is— it's spiritual filthiness or dirt on your inner man. And this is why God can't coagulate with this, because his promises are exceeding above, above which is normal. He's holy. We got to get this together so the promises can flow through our spirit, so that our relationship with God can be tight and God can commune with us. But he can't commune with this dirt. He wants to deal with it. He wants us to get rid of it. Lord have mercy. The Bible said we're washed in the word, so that your body, it ain't like Dial soap, man. When you get in the word, don't clean your body, clean your innermost man, your spirit. Spirit. I told y'all before, we're three parts: body, soul, and spirit. We're trichotomy. We're tripartite beings. And the spirit man, the innermost man, is where God lives. When he comes into your life, he takes up residence in your spirit. The development of that relationship is highly connected to how pure and clean you keep that space. That's why you got to constantly repent. You got to constantly get stuff out of your heart and mind that doesn't belong there. Listen, you, you're washed in the blood of Jesus, and you got to keep it that way. You got to apply that blood to your life and let him clean you up. Let's go to Matthew 18. Let me read Matthew 18:33. The Bible says, should it not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, it is even as I had pity on thee. Wait a minute, so So how is it that we want God to forgive us and have compassion on us, but when it comes down to forgiving others, we have no pity, man? We white glove Christians, we look at— we sin conscious, we looking to find something wrong with somebody, and we're looking for a reason to be mad. The devil is a liar. That's not the way of God. Let me read. And his lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him. Verse 35. So likewise shall the heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespass. So the Bible said, if you can't forgive, I can't forgive. That's what God said. If you can't forgive, I can't forgive. I'm gonna say it again: if you can't forgive, God can't forgive. So you need to make the choice today that you're gonna forgive, that you're gonna let it go, man, because you're hindering your season of amazing. Listen, it causes torture in your own life when you don't forgive. When you playing in the dirt. Again, it's filthiness, it's dirt on your soul, man. It causes a problem. Go to Proverbs 18:4. The strong spirit of a man— 18:14, I'm sorry. The strong spirit of a man sustains him in bodily pain or trouble, but a weak and broken spirit, who can raise up or bear? So what is God saying? Stop planting the dirt. Avoid weights in your spirit. And the only way you're gonna get rid of that thing that's weighing you down, you gotta let it go. Touch yourself and say, I gotta avoid weights in my spirit. Come on, say it again. Say, I gotta avoid weights in my spirit. Say it one more time. I gotta avoid weights in my spirit. You got to. Oh my God, you listen, you gotta decide. Carry this any another day. I know I'm preaching to— I don't know who this is helping, but some of the reason why you ain't seen the manifestation of God's promise in your life in previous years is because, hear me, Hear me, you carrying something that God says, I want to take it, would you just let me have it? Would you just give it to me? Would you just let that person go where you can move on with your life? Hallelujah! Oh my God, if I was in church, I'll tell you, look at somebody, say, stop playing in the dirt, period. Staying in the dirt, stop eating dirt. Part of your spiritual maturity is getting out of the— oh my God— playpen, the sandbox, playing in the dirt, playing in the past, putting torture on your own life. Because you know, lack of joy, depression, heaviness— hear me— not being happy Something ain't right with you all the time. You always down, you never smile, you never happy. Something wrong, man. You're poisoned. You're poisoned by bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. I gotta quit, y'all. This thing is dangerous, people. It's dangerous. I'mma say it again, it's dangerous to live like this. Let it go. I know a person, man, and all I could do was pray for this brother often because in his I don't even know why this level of arrogance exists with this dude, but because arrogance is wrong from anybody. But when you really ain't just got no reason to be— you sure just need to humble yourself, man. But you know, I already know that if I said something to this person, they're not gonna receive it. Although, watch this, they view me as a spiritual authority. I'm their spiritual father. So, but in wisdom, I choose to pray because this man inwardly is hurting on so many levels because he has unresolved— hear me— in the past cheated. And watch this, cheated in the church with somebody that's supposed to be a man of God, and he still really hadn't got everything back from that. And he fights in a lot of areas, so I pray because I don't ever want that poison to hinder his future. Lord have mercy. But, but those situations, you have to deal with them. You know you hurt right there. Stop acting like you ain't. Stop being quiet about it just because you feel like you should, just because it happened a long time ago. There's still brooding beneath the surface, brooding beneath all that you've been dealing with, is this issue that still bothers you. Lord have mercy. And in some ways, you resolve that it's your fault and you can't do it. Some of you in a situation, you making things your fault that ain't even your fault. Oh boy, just a deal, man. But that depression, that lack of joy, walking in lack of joy is not right. Heaven is not being happy. Come on, man, that ain't the way God want us to live. He wants to live holy, happy, and healthy lives. And I gotta close, guys. I'll finish this later. I'm gonna close with this scripture. Go to Proverbs 14:30. Watch this. The Bible says a sound heart is the life of the flesh. But envy the rottenness of the bones. My God, a sound heart, a healthy heart. Okay, that's what sound there means in Hebrew— a healthy, vibrant heart. Not— and not the cardio or the lev, that's 6 inches below the collarbone, not the physical heart. He's talking about the soul of a man, a sound soul where your mind, your will, and your emotions are healthy. He said that's the life of the flesh that keeps your flesh healthy. The flesh can stay healthy if you keep your psychological, your soul-ical man healthy. And part of doing that, you got to get this stuff out that weighs you down. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Let me, let me give you one more point. Can I do it? Can I do it? Can I do it? I'm almost done. Can I do it? One more point. So bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, being in your own way, dirt in your soul, dirt in your spirit, it hinders your relationship with God. The only way you can keep going to church, speaking in tongues, spitting, blowing bubbles, rolling in the floor with bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness in your heart is you fake. I'm gonna say that again. The only way you can keep going to church— uh, let me pull up here so make sure you hear me— and you got bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness in your heart is that you are fake. You're religious and you're fake, and you ain't fooling nobody but yourself. Hmm. Because you can't grow in your relationship with God with these things. It puts it in a place of— oh, I hear that Holy Spirit— it puts it in a place of arrested development. Where your development, your growth is placed under arrest, is put in handcuffs by your bitterness, by your resentment, by your unforgiveness. And now you can't matriculate into the exceeding great promises of God because you bitter against Mama, you bitter against your uncle, you bitter against your daddy, you bitter against your ex-pastor. You are God You ever notice how somebody get mad and leave a church, and when they leave the church, instead of them just leaving, they want to call everybody and tell them why they're leaving and poison the church? Church didn't do nothing to you. You just chose to leave because you couldn't forgive something that you thought you couldn't forgive, which is crazy. That's why most people leave, because they're offended by something. Listen, man, you got to get that out of your life. You're hindering your own growth and development. It hinders your personal relationship with God, and it hinders your ability to enjoy his presence. Your prayers are hindered, and you cannot have that in your life. You don't want to live where you can't enjoy the presence of God. That's why I say you religious, because if you can still move in bitterness resentment, unforgiveness, you still depressed, got heaviness on your life, and go to church and play the role, you fake and you religious. Hallelujah! Because religion never empowers you beyond your present state anyway. Religious people are still looking for God and hadn't found him yet. Oh my God. Let me go, y'all. Let me go. Let's go to Matthew 16:14, because if you— this is, this is why. Because number one, God can't forgive you. Let me read it again. Matthew 16:14-15: If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. So that's a hindrance by itself. Your prayers are hindered because, one, you can't get forgiveness because you won't forgive. Matthew 5:23. Let me show you where it hinders worship. Let me show you, let me show you. Someone said, man, that thing ain't hindering my worship. Yes it is. You're just loud and religious. But if you got bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness in your heart, your worship is hindered. Watch this. Therefore, if thou bring your gift to the altar, and if you remember— see, and they're talking about worship in Jewish custom. You brought your gift to the altar, you laid yourself down. He said, but when you get there and you remember that your— you have a— that you bear aught against your brother and he against thee, he said, leave your gift on the altar, go your way, leave church. Yeah, and first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. How you gonna tell me can't forgive somebody but you ain't Oh, you can see all manner of things. The Bible said, with the tongues of men and of angels, but if you have not love, you're as a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. The scripture says, oh my God, oh my God, that you can speak all mysteries given to you from God himself. Oh my God. But if you don't have love, it's a bunch of noise. So he said tap in, cuz again, it hinders your personal relationship with God. Oh my God, man. If y'all just joining us, please share. I'm almost It hinders worship. Look at Mark 11:26. I've read this, I'm gonna read it again though. Mark 11:26, because I want you to get— I'm closing with these. Mark 11:26. Mark 11:26. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. I want you to get that in your spirit. You gotta let them go. You gotta let them go. You gotta let them go. I want you to go to Isaiah 55:10 because watch this. Some of your seed that you sow, man, and some of the giving that many of give you do, you can't— watch this— get a harvest off it because you still got unforgiveness, bitterness, and resentment in your heart. Oh, oh, you giving but you ain't receiving no results because you still ain't got the forgiveness of God because you won't release this other joker. Do you know God is available to help you forgive? You simply gotta ask him, man. Come on, church, you just gotta ask him and say, Lord, help me to— oh my God, help me, God, help me, Father, to forgive them. Are y'all with me? I'm closing. You got to get your relationship with God tight, and you got to deal with this bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, so you can get the things he's promised, man. I said it a lot of different ways today, but the main thing is you gotta let them go. I want to pray for somebody right now, and I'm gonna finish this tomorrow. They're struggling forgiving. Isaiah 55, I said I was going to read that, verse 10. He said, for the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, but that it may give seed to the sower. So God says, watch this, I'm gonna give seed to the sower, bread to the eater. I want to forgive you so you can sow not just money, but your life, your gifts, your talents, your ideas into the earth, and so that he can keep on blessing them and prospering because you're sowing what he gave you into the world. Let's pray, y'all. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you now, God, for this, your people. And I ask you, God, that you will forgive their sin. I rebuke bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. I pray you would give them the, um, the strength to let it go, God, to let them go, to let that person in their life, that situation, that occurrence, God, I bind up hatred and I release the love of God. I release the spirit of reconciliation between daughters and mothers, between fathers and sons, between leaders and parishioners. In the mighty name of Jesus, and I give you glory, honor, and praise for it now. In Jesus' name, amen, and thank God. Listen, get out your own way, y'all, and let's deal with bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness. I'm nowhere near through. I got a whole bunch of stuff I got to share with you. We got to talk about offense. We got to talk about how, glory to the name of God, you cannot love with unforgiveness and bitterness and resentment. And, uh, we're going to talk about how when you're walking in this, you open the door for the devil. And I'm going to talk about the process, how to get out of this, how to overcome and how to really win, because I want you to have the best 2021 you can possibly have. Listen, I've been challenging people, glory to the name of God, people not just live, but people I've been talking to, because I believe people need to get seed in the ground. Up and above your tithe and offering, I'm a— rather, church, if you remember our church, and if you're a partner, we have many partners, from up and above your monthly partner commitment, I need you to get a seed in the ground as quickly as you can said, for $20.21. Glory to the name of God. Make that sacrifice. You can give two ways. One, Cash App, Radah Church, R-A-D-A-H-C-H-U-R-C-H. If you're still with us, write it on the screen. So, or you can give online, radachurch.com/donate, and we'll be glad to receive your seeds. And I declare that what you sow will be multiplied a thousand times more even in this first quarter of 2021. Get that seed in the ground. Don't delay, don't play games with it.