Mike Bickle addresses the issue of bitterness in his sermon 'Overcoming Bitterness: Avoiding the Way of Cain,' emphasizing the importance of diligence in identifying and confronting bitterness in our lives. He uses Cain's story as a cautionary tale, illustrating how unresolved bitterness can lead to emotional, physical, and spiritual turmoil. Bickle encourages listeners to ask the Holy Spirit for insight into any bitterness they may harbor and to actively work against it through gratitude and love, ultimately highlighting the need for repentance and connection with God. He stresses that bitterness not only affects our relationship with God but also impacts our relationships with others, urging a proactive approach to healing and reconciliation.

or confronting bitterness and detecting it in our life and declaring war against it. And we're gonna use Cain as the example. It was Jude the Apostle that said that we should avoid the way of Cain. And we're gonna investigate what that means to avoid the way of Cain. We're gonna begin in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 15, where it talks about the writer of Hebrews says, "'Looking diligently, lest anyone fall short "'of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness "'springing up causes trouble, and by this, "'many become defiled.'" There's so many principles in that one sentence. First thing I wanna draw attention to is the word diligent, that we're called to be diligent, because the root of bitterness in our heart, it's a root, it's operating below the surface. And the root and bitterness, we do not naturally detect it. We have to be intentional about it. We have to be deliberate about it. I wanna ask a question that I don't fare well on the answer myself, but I'm gonna ask it to you anyway. It's when's the last time that you asked the Holy Spirit to show you if you had any roots of bitterness, any residue of bitterness is a better way to say it. Now, it was only in preparing this and reading this verse that I just stopped and said, "'Holy Spirit, I haven't asked this question in a while, "'but since this is my third time today "'I've given this message, I have asked it very recently. "'How about you?' No, in all seriousness, just as preparing this, I go, you know, I haven't been as diligent to detect this as I need to be. Because we don't naturally see it because it's below the surface. Number one, the root of bitterness, the root dimension is you can't see it, but it's working and it's moving in our hearts. I believe that we should all assume, assume there is a residue of bitterness that lingers in our heart, except we have in a fresh, in a new way, cleansed ourself of it recently. It's the most natural thing for our hearts to do is to pick up just small, undetectable, undetected offenses that are growing in our spirit. It's like cancer in a body. You know, the patient says to the doctor, "'Well, it's only one little speck. "'I don't think it's gonna be a problem.' And the doctor says, "'I don't think you understand how cancer works. "'One little speck can be deadly.'" With bitterness working under the system, under the surface as a root system, it is deadly in the lives of believers, in all of our lives, if not detected. And the writer of Hebrews says, "'Be diligent to go after this thing.'" And I've lacked diligence in this subject, but just preparing this, I've renewed myself to say, Lord, I wanna see it. Several times over the years, even just several years ago, when I asked the Lord this, He spoke to me and made it clear. I had a residue of bitterness that was affecting my emotions. And I was surprised. I was like, Lord, no. You know, I went to that one seminar about how bitterness was bad, and I taught it. And I don't do bitterness because I already went to that seminar, and I tell people not to be bitter. I mean, that's Christianity 101. But just life in the difficult environment of a fallen world, we pick up bitterness just so easily. So I just want us to assume, unless we have freshly dealt with it, that it's already, the residue is growing more. And after a while, that residue, just that those little dimensions of it become a root system in time. The writer of Hebrews says it will cause trouble. And the trouble it causes first is emotional trouble. I could spend a bit of time describing that. Most of you can figure that out. Then it causes physical trouble. There are more physical sicknesses that are related to bitterness and anxiety than most of us would assume. Then it creates relational stress and tension, not just in the relationship that we have bitterness, in other relationships, bitterness with another person affects the way we relate to yet another one. And then, of course, it affects us spiritually because it undermines and hinders the vibrant spirit, the vibrant connection with the Holy Spirit. Bitterness cuts this thing short and hinders it in our life. It causes trouble. It's real trouble. It's not pretend trouble. It's not hypothetical trouble. The trouble's real, and it's in the lives of believers. It's in the lives of people like us who love God. The writer of Hebrews said that by it, many are defiled. Bitterness is easily passed on, easily passed on. And one of the most common ways that bitterness is passed on is from parents to children. It's just the cynical kind of complaining, slandering style that parents communicate in the home about people, their children pick it up. Innately, they just get it. The children are still responsible for it, so you can't say, well, my parents were like that, that's why I'm bitter. No, it doesn't work that way. But it is passed on easily. And then when it's passed on, the people that we pass it on to have the same fourfold trouble that we have. One of the things as a father that I really cared about through the years as our two sons were in the home was not slandering or complaining about people. That's one thing I tried really hard to maintain. Well, for spiritual reasons in and of themselves, but as a father, I did not want our two sons to catch this spirit of that it's normative to gossip and to put people down. Just I'm talking about just the routine rigors of everyday life, it's easy to do that. That says, if bitterness is operating in you, you fall short of the grace of God. It doesn't mean you're not saved. It means that it will minimize your ability to experience the spirit's power in the heart. We get a toxic heart. We can't feel his presence. We can't feel the power of the word. We have a dull spirit. It cuts short the grace of God. And not only that, when that happens, then our war against every other areas of lust is hindered. We are hindered in our war on other areas in our life when our connection with the Holy Spirit is minimized because of bitterness. Bitterness is really bad news. It really is. It's a root system that is not automatically apparent to the eye. It's underneath the surface. It takes diligence to see it. I'm gonna pray right now for just a moment. Holy Spirit, we just ask you, even as we're going forward in this message, speak to us. Give us a name, a face, let it come to mind clearly those where we have still a residue of bitterness or even beyond that, a root system of bitterness developing. Paragraph B, Jude warns of the lifestyle and the values of three different types of false teachers that are in the body of Christ. These false teachers, by the way, many of them are born again. Being a false teacher doesn't mean you have horns and you are the leader of a cult. Somebody could be a false teacher, be born again, be sincere, but their teaching is the embodiment of these three things and their lifestyle. A false teaching doesn't only mean bad ideas. A false teaching often means you have the 10 main points but you live in a false way in your private life before God. And he lays out the three types of leaders that had crept into the leadership of the early church. These were guys in the leadership team that had a public teaching ministry. Jude goes on, he goes, verse four, several certain men have crept in unnoticed. They're ungodly men who turn the grace of God into lewdness, meaning they teach on the grace of God in a way that emboldens people to continue in their compromise. When they hear their teaching on the grace of God, the people aren't motivated to repent. They are put at ease that their compromise is okay. That's what that kind of teaching does. And that kind of teaching is prevalent in the body of Christ today. Then he goes on in verse 11 and he describes three types of value systems or three types of difficulties that these born again false teachers in the body of Christ were doing. He says, number one, he says, for they've gone in the way of Cain. And that's what we're looking at in this message tonight. The way of Cain, which is they live and minister from a place of a root of bitterness in their life. It's called the spirit of murder. It's what Jesus called it. Hebrews 12, 15 calls it a root of bitterness. It is the beginnings of the spirit of murder according to Jesus' teaching in Matthew five. We'll look at that later in the notes. He goes, second, so one group of guys, their teaching ministry, is they have undealt with bitterness and it comes forth in their teaching and it comes forth in their leadership style and it defiles the body. Secondly, they run greedily in the air of Balaam for profit. The ability to make money from their ministry is premier in their mind and thinking. It has an inordinate preoccupation with their ability to make money from the anointing. It's prevalent. It's all over the body of Christ in the West. It's a sign of a false teacher. Doesn't mean they're going to hell when they die. It means they're injuring the body of Christ through their public ministry. And the third is they perished in the rebellion of Korah. They don't have a revelation of spiritual authority. So they minimize it and resist it and they go against it. These three things, again, I don't want to go off into them, but I'm focusing on one of them. They operate in the way of Cain. Roman numeral two. Cain's battle with bitterness, with the root of bitterness. And in this passage, Genesis chapter four, verse two to 12, the Lord is speaking directly to Cain and he asked him four questions and he lays out six principles. Now these four questions and these six principles are meant to be applied in our life because Cain was the first person in human history that struggled and wrestled with the root of bitterness. So the Lord, it's like the Lord pulls a chair out, sits down, talks to him face to face. I'm sure it didn't happen exactly that way. He says, listen, I want to help you overcome and master this thing called bitterness. And as the Lord was giving this information to Cain, it was meant to be understood by all the people of God throughout redemptive history. This is what God would say if he was going to have a face-to-face talk with you about the struggle of bitterness. This makes Genesis four massively relevant to our lives. These four questions and these six statements, these principles. It says in Genesis chapter four, verse two, Abel was a keeper of sheep. Cain was a tiller of the ground. Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord and Abel brought an offering of the firstborn of the flocks. The Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering. So we find first that Abel, he worked with the herds. He was over the animals and Cain was over the crops. But what Cain wanted to do is he wanted to come to God and offer, make an offering or present his worship. It's the same thing. It's synonymous concept on his own terms, not on the terms of the revelation of God, not according to what God required, but on his own terms, he goes, God, I will come to you my own way. Now, of course, the underlying principle that is clear in the overall testimony of Scripture, but it's not highlighted in this passage, but it's unmistakable that Cain understood this. The Lord had taught the principle because Adam operated in this principle that without the shedding of blood, Hebrews 9, 22, there is no forgiveness of sin. He says, Cain, you just can't come to me your own way. I'm a God of justice. This is why we insist. I mean, insist. I mean, no matter what it costs us, there is only one way of salvation because there's only one who was innocent, who became guilty and paid with blood the debt of our sin. It's not about, you know, well, we're Christians. So we're elite. We think our religion is better than you. It's about justice in the court of God. Any religion that can produce a perfect man that's willing to die for the rest, then let's talk about, let's make a case for that man and talk about that religion. There is no such man. It's not about religious elitism. It's about justice. And Cain is the embodiment of this whole spirit of unified religion, always to God. It doesn't matter every way works and every way path leads to God. Absolutely not. God refused Cain's approach to him because it was contrary to the revelation that God gave him. Again, that's not clear in the story right here in these verses, but it's clear in the overall testimony of Scripture. So he told Cain, no, I don't respect your heart. I don't like what's in your heart because you're telling me no. And I don't receive your offering because it's not according to the revelation I gave you. We must come to God on God's terms. We cannot come to God on our terms. And of course, that's what this world Babylonian harlot religion is going to do. Let everybody come to God on their own terms and it's all one big happy family. It doesn't matter anyway. I've heard Christians talk in this kind of heresy and this kind of deception. Someone says, yeah, but this religious zeal creates trouble. Yeah, it does create trouble. God became man and was crushed by the wrath of God. It cost him a lot of trouble to do this. Absolutely. It is heavy that this is the way that God had to pay for sin. It's very serious. Jesus will be human forever. It causes lots of trouble. This message does. But we insist on it because it's the truth. Well, what happens, paragraph B, is Cain is sad. He's angry and he is sad. The scripture makes clear, we'll look at in a moment. And when the Lord rejected him and corrected him, instead of humbling himself and repenting, he rose up in anger and he rose up in depression. The Lord wanted him to respond in repentance when he said, I don't respect your heart and I don't respect your religious service. I don't respect either one of them. Offend me. I want you to repent. I mean, anybody with a humble, contrite heart would bow down and say, Lord, help me with my heart and the way I'm presenting myself to you. Turn to page two. It says that Cain, Genesis four, verse five, was very angry and his countenance fell. That's the element, he's sad. He's mad and sad, which are two different realities. He's disappointed and he's offended. The root of bitterness was already working in his spirit. Well, I mean, it was a mature root system by this point in time. It wasn't just a residue, it was a root system. A root system is more developed than just the residue of bitterness that I find in my heart sometimes. The Lord said, deal with it so it doesn't become a root system because the root system is hard to get rid of. It changes the whole atmosphere of our interior life and the way we process life and people and relationships is dynamically affected when a root system of bitterness is established in our heart. Paragraph C, the root system of bitterness is founded on the belief that we're not getting what we deserve. That's the fundamental issue in bitterness. I'm not getting from God or I'm not getting from people what I deserve. And if you push it, that's what's always happening in our heart. Wait, I worked hard, I deserve more honor. I deserve more money. I deserve more privilege. I just deserve more for all I've put into this thing, whether it's in our relationship with God. God, I've been praying and fasting for a day, a year, a month, a decade, whatever, and you're not rescinding revival. I'm on the verge of getting mad. You're not giving me what I deserve. I know many guys that have been in ministry for years and they have a root of bitterness towards God because they thought by now they ought to be history changing level type of anointing, changing all of history and they're still, they're very disappointed with their ministry and a root of bitterness is operating in their spirit towards God because they think they deserve more than God's giving them. Well, the same is true in marriage, friendships, parenting, ministry. I should be getting more than I've put in more into this relationship than I'm getting out of it. That's where bitterness raises up. They feel overlooked. They feel misunderstood. They don't feel understood. Or they feel mistreated. And when they feel mistreated, it's typically related to money or honor or in a very sensitive way. I don't wanna deal with this tonight because it's a big subject and it would deserve an entire focused session on it. I don't wanna deal with it not because it's unimportant, but because it is so important, the issue of mistreatment and the issue of abuse. That's how people are mistreated. So people have bitterness because they don't get what they deserve in terms of they're overlooked, misunderstood and mistreated, but the most general type of the day in and day out bitterness, I'm not talking about these significant life altering, horrible traumatic experiences that abuse have related to them. But I'm talking about right now, I'm focusing right now on just the day in and day out root of bitterness that comes out of this residue of bitterness because we're not getting the money and the honor and the privileges that we deserve. Paragraph D, but then when we think about it, of course, we don't want what we deserve. I'm not getting what I deserve. The angels in heaven say, hallelujah, hallelujah. You would go to hell, you would go to hell. Well, Lord, I don't really want what I deserve in that way. I just want what I deserve from people, not from you. We can't have two systems. Okay, it's not what I deserve. I want what I want. Well, now we're talking straight. Now we can deal with the problem. But it's an innate, it's an unspoken, subtle argument in our heart that we're not getting what we deserve from God or from people, again, from the marriage, from the family, from the ministry, from the friendship. You go to the friend, you know, I've invested more in this than you've invested in it. What about, and it's the knowledge of the big picture of truths that helps us overcome bitterness. Gratitude is the atmosphere of the heart in which bitterness is overcome. Without gratitude, bitterness will never be conquered. It's more than gratitude. Gratitude's the attitude. We're gonna look at some actions in a few minutes from Matthew chapter five, verse 44. There are three specific actions, but I'm getting ahead of myself. This is the attitude of gratitude, where we understand we're receiving far more from God than we deserve. I mean, beloved, we're gonna live forever as best friends with God, with really great, cool friends, with great food, and an awesome house, in a body that's unreal, in a great atmosphere. The weather will be awesome. Our work will be relevant for billions and billions and billions and billions of years. And I know you're not getting the money right now in this season you deserve from that group. The Lord says, if you're not getting the money and the honor things, really what you're saying is my leadership is not adequate. I'm not making them respond. Because at the end of the day, it's about, Lord, if you would really break in and make people see who I am. The Lord says, I see who you are. That's why I'm giving you eternal life, an eternal mansion, close friendship with me forever, a resurrected body, a real good work assignment, great food, great home, great city, forever and forever. I know who you are. Yeah, but I want them to see who I am like now. Well, I'm not gonna do that because if I, if they relate to you this way, you have a chance to exercise your heart and grow in love and you'll even have a better assignment in the age to come. You'll even be closer to me. Oh, I want that. Why can't I get everything I want now and be as close to you as possible then? The height of injustice is to receive mercy freely from God, but not extended to other people freely. That is the height of injustice. I want free mercy. I wanna be able to blow it and get a new beginning with God within a 24 hour period, a brand new beginning, a first class status, feeling the presence of God, but then I don't want to give you that same generosity that God gives me. That is the height of injustice. And again, this thing begins in marriages. It begins in friendships. It's just not about the difficult situation, you know, far away. This begins in our core relationships. Gratitude is what fuels love, paragraph E. Well, now the Lord is going to sit down. He's gonna ask in verse six and seven, two of the questions and make four of his statements, his principles. These are huge. They don't look that big at a casual reading, but beloved, you won't get to the end of the wisdom of these four questions and six principles between verse six and seven and verse nine and 12. You won't get to the end of these 10 statements in your life, in this life. 10, 20, 30 years from now, you will still be finding new insights on your heart and how to respond to God from these 10 statements in Genesis chapter four. God gave these statements, these four questions, six statements to the first man that wrestled with the root of bitterness. I mentioned that. And he gave it as an insight as to what he would say if he was face-to-face with you talking on the issue. He doesn't have to repeat it again. He never changes. And besides that, if you asked him, Lord talked to you about it. He goes, I just did a minute ago. I mean, 6,000 years ago in the Garden of Eden, that was a minute ago to me. I don't change my ways on anything. It's still true today. Just a minute ago anyway. When I said it to Cain. So he asked the two questions. Verse six, the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry and why are you sad? That's what he's asking. Then he makes the four statements. If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do well, sin lies at the door and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it. Every one of these are massive statements. Now, first, when God asks a question, it's not because God's looking for an answer for him. When God asks you a question or a person a question in the scripture, he is wanting the person to locate their heart before him. You know, in the chapter before, Genesis, Genesis three, when Adam sinned, he says, Adam, where art thou, Adam? He wasn't saying, Adam, you come out, you're hiding under some bush. Where are you? He knew where Adam was. The problem is Adam did not know where Adam was. So when he asked the question, why are you angry? This is massive. This is not a small question. Here's, now here's what I'm gonna put before you. First, I've said, have you asked the Holy Spirit recently for insight as to the measure of the root of bitterness in your life? And most of us really don't do that much, but in the, under the exhortation of being diligent about the root of bitterness from Hebrews 12, we wanna ask that question more regularly. I may get, I'm just saying that myself, I've dropped the ball on that. I said, Lord, I need to ask this, it's too important. It's too important, not that's the question. Now here's the, have you answered this question now? Why are you angry? And it's not a broad stroke answer, just a kind of a one sentence answer. I'm getting a bad deal. He wants you to answer with details because when we answer with details, this question, it brings us to the big picture of truth again, and then gratitude wells up in our heart. Why are you angry? I didn't, you didn't accept my worship, okay? Why didn't I accept your worship? Answer the question, why are you angry? Why are you angry? Because I did it different than you, okay? Why is that a problem? Because I want my way to be instituted instead of your way. Oh, ouch, no, I don't like that. Let me think of a better answer. Why am I angry? We have to give detailed answers. This is a question that you think about in depth and you give layers of answer to, because somebody else less dedicated than I am got more from you. Oh, that's it. How do you know? How do you know they have more? And how do you know their hearts are different? How do you know what's happening in their heart? Well, I don't know that much. Oh, you don't know that much. How do you know this is even happening then? Well, it seems that way. Oh, so it seems that way. So you're angry because it seems that way. I guess I don't really know why I'm angry. Huh, why am I angry? And this question drives us to the big picture of truth if we really answer it. So we wanna ask the question, Holy Spirit, is there a root of bitterness? Then we wanna answer the question that Jesus asked. Well, he asks us four questions in this whole passage, two of them right here in verse six and seven. Then he changes, he says, why are you sad? It's what the countenance following is about. Are you sad? There's so much self-pity. Why are you wallowing in self-pity right now? Well, because you're gonna live forever. You're one of my best friends. You're gonna have great friends, great food, great body, great house, great job, great environment forever and ever. It's never gonna change. I really like you. Why are you so sad? Well, because I don't have as much money and the other guy gets more money than me. Okay, you don't really wanna lose your way with me for that, do you? Oh, I guess I don't. I mean, when we really ask, why do we have self-pity? Now, most people don't like to admit either of these are happening in their life. It takes a certain amount of honesty, but it's worth it. You know, in the medical sense, the patient doesn't wanna come in and have some kind of hype answers to whether they have cancer or not. They want the real answer. We want the real answer here. Then the Lord says, okay, paragraph G, let's look at this, make some principles. If you do well, if you do well, that's the point. It's the call to do well. He says here, I ask you this, will you be accepted? He goes, he's in essence saying, what you choose is what will determine the quality of our relationship. Now, that's a lot of responsibility, but that's a lot of dignity on our free will. I mean, God dignifies the human spirit by taking our choices at face value. I mean, this is not a practice game, this thing called life. If we do well, in other words, he says, Cain, even with your bad attitude right now that I'm not pleased with and your wrong approach to religion, if you will repent, you can have a first-class relationship with me, a brand new start. You will be assured of my favor and you will be assured of my blessing on your life. It's not too late for you, Cain. That's what the Lord's saying. It's never too late to start. I assure you, if you will change your attitude now, we can avert many troubles that this bitterness is going to bring you. And that's the same thing the Lord would tell us, if you will do well. But to do well means follow through. It doesn't mean make a decision at a conference, it means follow through. If you'll do well, you can have a new start and you can get to the place of favor and blessing and I will give it to you, but your heart must change. The Lord's not gonna change. He's not going to change the way that he relates to his people. We have to change. Principle number two, he goes on and he says, if you don't do well, and I tell you, this is real. We really have the choice to say yes or no. And these issues of our life, he goes, sin lies at the door. Or one translation says, sin crouches at the door. It's like the lion behind the bush and the guy's walking down the path. He says, sin is crouching at the door, it lies in wait. It's ready to pounce on you if you stay in the spirit of bitterness. It will pounce on you and with the spirit of bitterness, your connection with the Holy Spirit, your sense of grace in the heart, it's minimized and it renders you vulnerable to this lunging out at you at sin in a way that the Lord says, I don't want you vulnerable in this way, but it's waiting for you. And I tell you, beloved, they may have done something really bad to you, but bitterness will make you vulnerable to a far greater attack of sin that's lying at the door, waiting to leap on you like a lion behind a bush at the opportune time. He says, if you don't do well, it's real. And I won't stop, but I will allow you to have what you want. And that's the glory, this thing about how God honors us. He gives us what we want. The guy says, I don't want God. So for billions of years in the lake of fire, he doesn't get God. He says, that's what you wanted. You didn't want me. You will not have me forever according to your choice. The other guy says, I do want God. So here we are, you know, in the prayer room and our personal life, and we're, it's boring and the word's not alive, but I want God, I'm trying, I'm staying with it. And the Lord says, you want me, you're gonna have me face to face forever and ever. Well, Lord, it didn't feel like I was really getting you. He goes, oh no, I saw, I saw your heart. You wanted me, you will have me forever in a way you can't imagine. Whoa, well, Lord, that's awesome. But I want more of you now before then. Well, that works too. Just stay with it. The Lord really does give us what we want. Sin lies at the door. One of the, one of the disappointing points of life that I have faced over the years, and many of you have the same kind of thing. When I was 20 years old, I'm 52 now. When I was 20 years old, just starting the ministry, I thought I met some 50 year old guys, some old guys. You know, I thought they were fossils. I mean, the guy was 50, like, oh my gosh. I thought he's got a ministry. Do they still, do you still have ministry at that age? When I was 20, I just said, I'll never be 50. And I had this assumption that just by the guy, you know, I talked to these guys, they walked with God 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. You know, they're 60, 70, 80, and I was blown away. And I had this very wrong assumption that by virtue of being 30, 40, 50, 60 years of the Lord, it would automatically result in, they would just say the name of Jesus and the anointing would come on them. I mean, 30 years of God. I mean, I was, you know, at age 20, I was five years old in the Lord. And I thought, hey, it's tough, but hey, when I'm 50 years old in the Lord, I'll just say Jesus, and all the angels will show up. It'll be so awesome. But it's quite different. It's quite different than that. Because a guy that's been 30 years in the Lord, 40 years in the Lord, 50 years in the Lord, he hasn't had 10 negative opportunities to overcome. He said 100 to overcome, 100 disappointments. And over the years, by far, the majority gets snared by the root of bitterness. So instead of the guy being 60, 70, and 80 and on fire for God as just a given, to me, it's a miracle because they've had 100 major disappointments and they're still fiery for God. Now, when I see somebody 60, 70, or 80, and they've been walking with God since they were 20 or 30, whatever, I go, wow, this is awesome because you've overcome so many opportunities to be offended at the church, to be offended at God, and to be offended at people in general. And you've overcome them through the revelation of who God is and therefore the gratitude in your heart towards Him. So it's a miracle when I see a 60 or 70 year old going hard for God, who's been, now they're newly converted, well, that is a miracle. But I'm talking about someone who's been walking with the Lord all those years. I look at him and I say, I had no idea that it's, how miraculous it is because they have so many reasons to get off on a side path in their disappointment. Principle three, the Lord says to Cain, He says, sin lies at the door and its desire is for you. What a statement. Sin is personified. Now we know from the New Testament revelation what this means. There are demons that are attacking us, flaming missiles that inflame our sense of injustice. They inflame our lust, whether it's immoral lust or whether it's rage or anger. They inflame our sense of rejection, flaming missiles. That's what the Lord was talking about. Of course, we don't get the full revelation until the New Testament. Sin is lying at the door. There are demons waiting to hit you to bring this thing to a whole new level. A whole new level. Satan wants to bring our weakness into wickedness. He wants to escalate our weakness to wickedness, but he can't do it if we don't do acts. We have to do acts of sin that open the door. I mean, we could think bad and that's bad, but it's when we actually act that we give him governmental authority to move in our life at another level. Now someone says, oh, that means I can think bad. If you think bad, it's T minus 10, T minus nine, T minus eight. It's only a minute before you do bad. The devil can get you thinking bad. You're going to do bad soon. So don't do the, well, I'm not doing nothing yet. Put the word yet in capital letters, a hundred foot high, Y-E-T. So don't do the cop out thing. Well, I'm only thinking the bad stuff right now. Like, no, that's disaster. That's warning, warning, warning, warning. Trouble is a moment away. But the devil does, it's when we act, when every act we make, good ones as well, it's a governmental statement before the spirit realm. When you act in kindness and humility, it's a statement that releases grace before you and Emma, you're lining up with heaven. Every act, big and small. You guys says, well, I'm just going to go out on the weekend and have a little fling. You'll come back with two more demons that you have now from that fling. When you do have a little fling, that's a governmental act which you open your being to demons and the demons don't go away when you're tired of them. You can't act. He told him, he goes, if you do, if you don't do well, sin is going to leap on you and its desire. And again, we know that it, the personified sin is demons. Their desire is for you. And then he goes on in principle 40. He says, I want you to know how I run my universe. You should rule over this dilemma. We'll take it away. The Lord says, no, I will help you, but you must rule it. I don't want to rule it. I want to go away. I want all the bad options to go away. I think that's called prison. I want all, no, I want my options, but I don't want bad. I don't want, I don't want to feel negative things and have to choose beloved. Every single person on the planet. We all each have a different personality, a different issues going on in your life and your money and your body, your relationships at different seasons. And every one of us, we have a unique situation in this hour. That's different. Even in the situation you had a year ago, you're different. You feel different. Things are different. And it's the theater from which God allows you to show you love, allows you to show your love to God. He says, that is the stage of which you will show me your love. You must rule this. And when he said to Cain, you should rule it. He also meant you could rule it if you want to, because you can position yourself in the grace of God. I will give you the ability to rule this, to get authority over it. Lord, I just want to go away. Beloved, all 6 billion plus people in the earth, every single human being on the earth has things at the heart level where God says, I want it different as the way you show me love. Not don't express what's there. Do it differently. Say no to it as a statement of love. All 6 billion human beings have the dilemma. You have not been isolated. You're not the only one. Every single human in history has had that. I don't want to do this. I want to do that, but I'm not going to because I love you. And the Lord writes it in his book. He says, I'll remember that. I'll take that personal. Every single one of us. He told him, you have to rule it. It's real. I won't do it for you. I'll help you if you position yourself. But you must, because it's not a practice game. It's the real deal. Top of page three. We won't get through all this. Some of it we'll skip here. Come and look at my time here. Top of page three. Paragraph I. We're going to go on to the next passages. Cain did not understand the consequences of his actions. Now I got to go to H. I'm trying to skip H to save time. I like H. Staring at it. Cain did verse eight. Right out of this divine conversation with God, instead of humbling himself and crying out for help. You know what he did? He went out and talked to the guy he had bitterness towards. Not to settle the issue, not to go humble himself. Beloved, when we're in a storm of bitterness. I mean, if you're going to humble yourself, that's cool. Go talk to the person. But when Cain talked, only a moment later, Cain rose up. When you're in a storm of bitterness, you're angry. First connect with God and repent for your anger. So I'm going to go talk to the guy. I'm so mad I could just tear his head off. But the Bible says, talk to him. The Bible first says, answer the question. Why are you angry? Why are you sad? And take these four warnings in verse seven. And work them through in your walk with God. Then go talk to the guy and humble yourself. Even if you're right, go in a posture of humility. You know, the reconciliation meetings, is it go vent to the guy, how mad you are. That's what would, when Cain talked, Cain rose up. That is the, that's the story of history. The guy talked and then he rose up with the spirit of murder operating in his heart. Okay, so do verse six and seven talking before you do verse eight talking. Let's go to paragraph I. Now we're looking at verse nine and nine to 12. Two more questions and two more principles. But these, it's changing now. Because now he's murdered his brother. It's a, the situation is now very different now. It's, it's governmentally different. The choices he have made are real. His walk with God is affected. It can still be healed. But it's, it's really serious. The consequences are real. Now he's going to talk. He's going to ask two questions and make two principles that are related to the discipline that God's going to put on his life. Now the reason God's putting discipline on Cain's life is in order to help him respond back to God. God's not giving up on Cain. God's turned the pressure up. God's going to hem him in to get him to respond. Beloved, because God loves you, if you say no and say no and you do this and you stay with him, you keep doing it, the negative stuff, sooner or later, God will hem you in out of his kindness to you. I love you too much to let you go. If you go on that path, you'll end up completely denying your faith. I love you way too much for that. And that's what this set of questions are about. The Lord said to Cain, where's your brother? He goes, I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? Then he asked number two, what have you done? I mean, you think, what have I done? Like, Lord, you don't know what I've done. The Lord says, no, I know what you've done. I don't think you know what you have done. Now it's, we get the benefit of these questions that were asked to him after he became a murderer. We get the benefit of them before we've operated, acting out our root of bitterness. Our root of bitterness, not only are we hostile towards the person we're mad at or jealous, I've met more guys that have, I mean, it's insanity. I've heard this several times over the years. I mean, not thousands, but plenty. The guy says, I have been serving and I'm just gonna go do what I want to do something for myself for a change. I mean, what insane thinking. I'm gonna go sin and invite demons come in, bring the judgment of God on me because I've served so hard and I deserve something for myself. Judgment, demons, wrath, discipline, like what? If you wanna do something for yourself, throw yourself into God, heart and humility with prayer and fasting, you get the word and you do something for yourself. Treat yourself to a really good weekend. Go throw yourself into the presence of God. I've heard guys do that other thing. I go, what are you thinking? Do you think those demons aren't real or do you think God went to sleep? It's a real game. It's not a practice game. It's a real deal here. And he says, the voice of your brother cries out, verse 10, the consequences are real. They haven't gone away. The consequences will come. Verse 11, if you're cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood, and when you till the ground, the earth won't yield its strength to you. Some things will work here and there, but you won't have the full strength of the earth of your labors and a fugitive and a vagabond you shall be. Number one question, after he's sinned, he goes, where's Abel? And what he's trying to get, when God asks a question, God doesn't need the answer. The person needs the answer. He said, what are the consequences of your actions on your brother and on your family? Where is your brother? My brother's dead. He goes, say it again. My brother's dead. Let it ring through your being. Do you realize what's going to happen to the relationships that you're vitally connected to if you step across that line? And you are connected to them. Am I my brother's keeper? In other words, do I have responsibility for my brother and the answer's partially yes. The brother has responsibility primarily before God. The point is this, because he had revelation of it because he said it in a sarcasm. Am I connected? Am I any way responsible? And the answer is, beloved, what you do in darkness will dynamically affect your family, your friends, your children, your future. Where is your family in your mind right now as you're making this choice? Where's your future family? Where's your ministry? Where is Abel? He's dead. Say it again. Dead, ruined, destroyed. Say it again. He's dead. I don't ever want to do this again. You're getting it, Cain. You're getting it. Many people, they just take their chances and throw caution to the wind and they don't know they are vitally connected and the relational fallout is disastrous and it's real. It's real. Next question he asked. What have you done? In other words now, what are the consequences in your own life? Not just in your relationships. Where's this going? What have you done? And the answer is, I have defied you after your tender repeated warnings and you don't change and you love me too much to let me go my way and my way is to continue to go like I'm going. That's what the answer is to this question. He's asking what he says. What have you done? I have put myself in the place before a jealous holy God who loves me where you have no other option but now to hem me in because you love me. That's what I've done. That's the answer to the question. A lot of guys go, you know, I looked right. I looked left. There's nobody seeing me and they do the crazy irresponsible act and their family present and future is hurt. Doesn't mean it's always over. It's hurt. It's real. And then their life as consequences are real. Their life is damaged. There's hope. You can repent. But even then, there's still difficulty to work through. What have you done? You've done it before me as a God who won't let you off the hook because if I do, you will do more and you will become apostate. You will fully turn away from me if I don't stop you. I love you too much. Do you know who it is that you're acting before? All of this is wrapped up in that question. Then he says, okay, principle number one, verse 11, you are cursed from the earth from now on. When you work the ground, it won't yield its strength. You will have more difficult circumstances, not as a penalty, not as a penalty. God doesn't give penalties. In that sense, just to show us he has the power to, he's saying, Cain, I'm going to win you back. I'm going to him you in and because kindness did not get your attention, I even spoke from heaven. I will now get your attention to the difficulty. You will hate this choice. You will grow to hate it with a great zeal. You will hate it because of the difficult circumstances and then you will, you will determine never to go there again. I love you too much and you will know the consequence of it. Then he says, you will be a fugitive and a vagabond. From now on, your relationships in the future are going to be troubled and it's not as a judgment. I believe it's as a consequence. I mean, it is a judgment, but part of this, I'll say it this way. Part of this is the natural consequences of what he's bearing in his being. When a guy decides he's going to disobey the Lord and sin, he becomes a fugitive. He becomes a vagabond, meaning people retreat into their isolation so they can sin without getting caught. There are more people addicted to more things in the body of Christ and they can't interact in the body of Christ because they've got to be close to their stuff and nobody can see them. They become vagabonds and fugitives by their own choices. There's a natural cause effect as well as there's a spiritual dimension too, but there's a natural cause effect. Our sin isolates us. And then he says, well, and then the next thing, not only if it doesn't isolate us so we can go sin in secret, it makes us retreat in shame. It scars our soul, though God will forgive us and God will renew us. It takes time to get our confidence renewed. Our way we relate to people is different. We don't have the same confidence. We don't have the same perspective. It causes us to retreat from people. Now we can get it back, but it's not going to come back just in a moment or the forgiveness can come in a moment. But then we got to renew our mind and work all those muscles. Let's go top of page four. Just really fast. You read this mostly on your own. Roman numeral four, top of page four. How can we avoid the way of Cain? Paragraph A. Jesus gives it. I mean, it's so simple. Anybody can do it, but it's so simple, so few will. He says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to operate in the opposite spirit of bitterness and murder. Because murder, this page we skipped, is earlier in Matthew chapter five or just a couple of verses later, about 20 verses later. He was talking about anger and murder being the same thing. Now Jesus is still in the same context talking about the hard issues. He goes, I want you to love your enemies, but I want you to, and our enemies are those that we have an adversarial relationship. By the way, the adversarial relationship we have, most of them are in the body of Christ or in our family. It's not some random guy out there we are adversarial without. You know, in the marketplace, that guy out there, there's some of that going on for sure. But most of the people that in the last five, 10, 15, 20 years, whatever, that have troubled most of us, it's people in the family of God or in the natural family. It's real close ones. It's because that's the group you care most about. That's why it troubles us. It's not because Christians are innately worse. They're not innately worse because they're Christians, just that you care and you're close and it matters what they say and therefore it hurts more. Here's what the Lord says. I want you to do three things to operate in the opposite spirit. Paragraph B. The Lord wants us to bless him. I'm reading from Matthew 5, 44, but I look at paragraph B. I want you to bless him. Now, this is not optional. He didn't say, you know, well, here's what sometimes we get in that mindset. This guy's adversarial. It's a brother in the kingdom, in the ministry, you know, in the family of God, on the worship team. And they're not giving me the money or the honor I want or they're doing something to block my goals and I don't like it. I mean, they're not an enemy in the full sense, but they're an adversary and they're hurting me and I'm mad at them. And the Lord says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to bless them. Well, OK, we all know that verse. Well, Lord, I'm not saying anything bad about him. He says, that's good that you're not saying anything bad, but that's not what I told you to do. I said, say something good. Go the other way. Ah, well, Lord, no, I'm not slandering. I had plenty of opportunities. No, it's not enough to just to avoid the bad. I want you to say the good. That's the only way you're going to operate in an opposite spirit. That's the only way you're going to overcome the spirit of gratitude in your soul. And then the actions, these three actions, the combination of these together with a life in God, we break the spirit of bitterness. It's the attitude of gratitude. And then it's these three actions in Matthew 5, 44, of loving our enemies. He gives us practical ways. Bless them. Number one, under paragraph B. We speak kindly to them. Doesn't mean we tell them what we think they did is right, but we're kind to them. And why? Because we know God is kind to us when we're adversarial to him. We're kind to them. When we talk to others, we don't tell lies about their virtue, but there's points of kindness we can point out about them. Like, I don't want to bless them. I just want to be neutral. How about neutral? I mean, everybody else is proactively bad. I'm being neutral. Isn't, don't I get a trophy for being neutral? I mean, everybody else is gossiping. I'm not gossiping. That's not what I just said. I didn't say don't gossip only. I said, bless. You must operate in the opposite spirit. Ah, well, let's take it up a notch. Do, give them money. I don't want to give them money. They'll use it in a way that won't glorify you. All of a sudden we get really zealous for God's glory when it wasn't related to helping our enemies. Beloved, we need to do things to people we're adversarial that bless them without them even knowing it. I mean, it's okay if they know it. But I mean, we're just, we're doing it not just to help them. It's liberating our hearts. And this, I find for some reason, I find number three has been the hardest one. I can bless a person that's been, I've been adversarial. I can even give them some money and actually feel good about it. Some of the time. And then, but I find number three, pray. I want to ask you this question. Do you actually say real prayers, 90 second prayers for the people that have offended you? Actually pray. I don't mean in a group where everybody hears you and pat you on the back. I'm talking about in your private life. Do you actually, have you ever, ever done it once? I find this is the hardest because I pray for individuals. I try to on a daily basis. I don't always, but I got a number of people within our staff here and our family and different situations around the world. And I pray for them because I believe it makes a difference. And I said, Lord, I'll give him money. I'll even say nice things about him, but I don't want to take my prayer time because there's guys like, I want to pray for Alan Hood. I want to pray for this guy. I want to give that time to Alan. Lord says, if you pray for them, it'll free your heart. And I have found this strange thing when I Lord bless them, you know, just help them and do stuff and give them money, make it easy. You got it. Psalms, pick the Psalm you want God. That's what I mean. Lord says, no, I want you to say it to me focused on my throne, open spirit. I want you to, Lord, I want to pray for Alan right now. I don't want to pray for this guy. I don't want to take my good prayer time for this guy. Can I write him a check? No, I want you to say words with an open spirit before the revelation for throne. I find a resistance in my spirit. You know what that resistance does? It brings the bitterness, the residue before it becomes a root. It brings it to the surface. I go, I'm really not free. Am I? Huh? And then we go to the, we get it. We got to go above the storm. You know that guy, if he's in the kingdom of God and most of the people that bother you are in the kingdom of God. This is how it works because that's the group you care most about. You know, you're going to be dear friends with them forever and ever and ever. You're going to like, really like them for billions of years. It's only going to be strained from what? You know, one thousandth of 1% of his relationship. Oh, you know, 99.9999999999. 9999 nine percent of the time that you relate to them. You're going to like really like them. Draw the step back. Get the big picture. You know, that's cool. But you know, it frees my heart. It it's a glorious thing. if we actually do it amen let's stand okay I feel this weird it's about third time I gave this message today I feel this weird combination of feeling really good in my spirit and feeling really rotten right now I've heard this thing three times today okay pickle I got it yeah I'm just saying having said this three times today I just really Lord want y'all to close your eyes let's just go before the Lord let's talk to him Lord I want to do this I want to do this I want to do this for real I want to bless to give money I want to do good things I want to pray for what I thank you for who you are what you've done for me just as we're praying I'm just gonna ask you all just to close your eyes just talk to the Lord just for a minute just for the next two three minutes ask him about bitterness in your heart say Holy Spirit show me then ask the question why am I why am I mad and why am I sad what's the real issue go get to the bottom of the pity the self pity ask all four questions and talk it to the Lord about all six statements just as we're praying anyone in this room here tonight you don't have the assurance right now that if you died tonight you would be saved you'd stand for the Lord but you would like to know that before you leave this building you can know that we have a team that's gonna meet back in the gymnasium she's going down the middle aisle there just lift the clipboard up those right there just anyone in the room that saying I want to talk to somebody about my relationship with Lord I would make sure it's there I wouldn't have the assurance that it's real or maybe somebody you've not been filled with the Holy Spirit in the sense of receiving your devotional prayer language and you want to receive it the gift of tongues maybe you need to be water baptized this we got part of our leadership team going in the gym they'll wait there for a few minutes just to talk to you but if you came with somebody ask them say hey you want to go back and talk to me those ministry team leaders about any of those issues then just bring them back there with you this is the rest of us are praying Lord I ask you talk to me I'm not gonna have anybody come up I mean we all need to talk to the Lord right now just again stand or sit just what's ever comfortable as Luke leads us Lord Lord I want to go there with you I want to do this I want to go there with you so let's go for a few minutes I encourage you not to look around the room not even just to sing the songs per se right now talk to the Lord about this Lord why am I mad why am I mad why am I sad not all of us are mad some of us are sad what do I want from that relationship or that ministry or that marriage or that job or that family or that child or that parent what do I want I'm not getting that I'm sad mad about what do you got to say about it Lord let him talk to you