And we are just making our way through the book of Ezekiel on Wednesday nights, and we find ourselves here in chapter number 35.
Now, this is not a long chapter. It's 15 verses, and there's a very succinct point, and I don't think it'll take very long to make it.
So we'll just make the point, and the verses in Ezekiel are real long, and they go in depth. This is not one of them.
So I want you to notice what the Bible is saying here. Look at verse 1.
Moreover, the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Mount Seir.
Now, he's preaching against Mount Seir, but of course he's talking about the people that live in Mount Seir.
This is Edom, and I won't take the time to develop all the verses, but these are the descendants of Esau.
These are people that have been enemies of God's people since the beginning, really.
He says, Set thy face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, and say unto it, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O Mount Seir.
Again, referring to the people. I, notice these words. This is quite the words that I don't think any of us would ever want God to say about us.
He says, I am against thee, and I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.
I will lay thy city's waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
Now, of course, if you've been with us through the book of Ezekiel, you know that these first four verses are not unique to the book of Ezekiel.
There's many passages in Ezekiel where God is just talking about his judgment and bringing judgment down upon people.
What's interesting about this chapter is the way it's laid out. He tells us that God says, I'm against Mount Seir. I want to destroy Mount Seir.
I'm going to make you desolate. I'm going to stretch out my hand against you.
And then in verse 5, he tells us why, and he's told us this before in other places, but he makes it very clear here.
He says, because. He says, because thou hast. And here's what I want you to notice and what I want you to understand,
is that these people, these Edomites, these people of Edomia, the Mount Seir, whatever you want to call them, all these names apply to them.
They were a certain type of people, and these are the type of people that I call just negative people.
People you just, that are, you ever been around someone, they're just negative. Everything's always just negative.
It's not good. Nothing's positive is going on in life. Everything's bad. These are the types of people that they were.
And notice how God describes it for us. He tells us that these people, first of all, he tells us that they were hateful.
He says, the people of Mount Seir were hateful people. And here's what I want you to understand.
Today, the word hate has become a bad word. And here's what you need to know. In the Bible, the word hate is not necessarily a bad word.
The Bible tells us that there are certain things we ought to hate. Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a time to hate.
The Bible says in Psalm, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee.
So to hate something is not necessarily a bad thing, because the truth is this. You can't truly love anything unless you hate certain things.
If you say, well, I love everything, then you love nothing. Because in order to love the truth, you have to hate lies.
In order to love children, you have to hate those who would hurt children. So you can't love everything.
So the word hate or the feeling of hate in the Bible is not necessarily a negative thing.
But here's what is a bad thing, is to just be a hateful person, where you just kind of hate everything.
In fact, the Bible tells us that we're supposed to love everything. The only thing we're supposed to hate as far as people are reprobates, are the enemies of the Lord, are those who hate God.
But you know, you're supposed to love your neighbor, you're supposed to love your enemies, you're supposed to love your brothers and sisters in Christ.
So God does not want us to be hateful people. But notice how he describes these Edomites in verse 5.
He says, because thou has hateful hatred. The word perpetual means continually or constant, just a constant hatred.
And has shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end.
So I want you to notice that these people were hateful people. But that's not it. Not only were they hateful people, but they were envious people.
And it's interesting that we find ourselves in Ezekiel 35. On Sunday, I just preached a whole sermon.
I don't want to re-preach that sermon tonight, but it comes up in the text. Notice verse 10.
Because thou has said, these two nations. Now what nations are being referred to here?
I believe that the nations being referred to is definitely the nation of Israel, but I think he's referring to both the southern kingdom and the northern kingdom.
He's talking about the entire kingdom of the nation of Israel. He's saying these two nations and these two countries, notice what the people of Edom said.
They said, shall be mine. It wasn't mine, but it's something I wanted. It's something I envied after.
It's not jealousy because it didn't belong to them. If it belonged to them and they were jealous over it, that would be a justifiable thing.
These people were envious of these countries and they wanted them. They said these two nations and these two countries shall be mine.
And we will possess it, whereas the Lord was there. So I want you to notice, not only were these people hateful, they were also envious.
But I'd like you to notice thirdly tonight, just as we kind of go through this, they were also slanderers. Notice what it says in verse 11.
Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will even do according to thine anger and according to thine envy, and there's the word envy by the way,
which thou has used out of thy hatred against them, and I will make thyself known among them when I have judged thee.
Now we're going to come back to verse 11 here in a minute, but notice verse 12.
And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, and that I have, notice what he says, heard all thy blasphemies.
So he said these people, they weren't just hateful in their feelings, and of course that produced actions.
They weren't just envious where they wanted these two nations that did not belong to them, but they wanted to possess them.
They were also slanderers. They were people who spoke evil of others.
It says that they were having blasphemies, notice, which thou has spoken against the mountains of Israel.
He said you were speaking against the people of Israel to consume. So we see that they were slanderers.
Notice verse 13 as well. Notice what he says. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me,
and have multiplied your words against me, I have heard them.
So here's what we learned. The Edomites were hateful people. They were envious people.
They were slanderers, but not only that, they were also spiteful. Notice verse 5.
Because thou has had a perpetual hatred, where we talked about that, notice what it says.
And has shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword.
So they had attacked the children of Israel and had killed them, but notice when they did it.
In the time of their calamity. In the time that their iniquity had an end.
So they took advantage and they exploited a situation here where the children of Israel were under attack by another enemy.
The Edomites were not formidable enough to be able to destroy them or attack them, but they sure were going to kick them while they were down.
They were going to attack them and they were going to kill them in the time of their calamity.
Look at verse 14. Thus saith the Lord God, when the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.
But notice what he says in verse 15. As thou didst rejoice. I want you to just notice that these people are spiteful people.
As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel. Notice, why are they rejoicing? Why are they happy?
Because it was desolate. So will I do unto thee. Thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Edomiah, even all of it.
And they shall know that I am the Lord. So notice, they were rejoicing because they were desolate.
You know the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13, it says that charity rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.
Hear these people, they were rejoicing in iniquity. They were rejoicing and notice these are negative people.
They're hateful. They're spiteful. They're slanderers. They're envious. And here's the truth, you know people like this.
Some of you are married to people like this. You know, some of you were raised by people like this.
You go to work with people like this. You go to church, unfortunately, with people like this.
Just negative, negative people. People that they're just, there's always drama around them. There's always problems around them.
There is not just, look from time to time, all of us will have a problem or an issue with one person.
But there's the type of people where they just have a problem with everybody. They have issues with everybody.
Let me tell you something. When you have issues with everybody, you're the problem.
When it's like, well I've got a problem with the pastor's wife. I've got a problem with this person.
I've got a problem with the pastor. I've got a problem with that person. I've got a problem.
Look, if you're the common denominator, then you're the problem.
Because most people don't live their lives like this, but there are people, there are people that are negative people.
Just spiteful, just angry, just hateful, slanderers, boasters, braggers, people who speak evil.
And you say, well, what is the point? What is it that God is trying to tell us?
And here's the point that God's trying to tell us. And keep your finger there in Ezekiel 35.
And like I said, it's only 15 verses. There's just one real clear point that I'll make tonight.
But I'd like you to notice what the Bible says in the book of Galatians.
Keep your finger there in Ezekiel 35. Go to Galatians, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians.
You say, what is the point that God is making in this chapter?
Because He's already preached against the Edomites a lot in Ezekiel, and He's going to preach about them some more as we go forward.
What is the point of this chapter? What is the point of this passage that it's given us?
And here's what He's trying to tell us. He's trying to tell us, why you?
And look, this is Ezekiel talking to hateful, angry, slandering, envious, spiteful people.
But the message is for you. And you say, for who?
For those of you that are not slanderers, and hateful, envious, and spiteful, but are thinking of, or considering, or going down that road.
He's saying, look, here's why you don't want to be hateful. Here's why you don't want to be envious.
Here's why you don't want to be a slanderer. Here's why you don't want to be spiteful.
Here's why you don't want to be, you know, the drama mama, right?
There's always drama. There's always issues. There's always problems.
You say, why don't I want to be that person? Here's why.
And here's the whole point. If you don't listen to the rest of the sermon, just make sure you understand this from Ezekiel 35.
You don't want to be this person because what goes around comes around.
And this is what He teaches. This is what He says.
Now, this is actually a biblical principle. We've all heard that phrase before, right?
What goes around comes around. What goes around comes around.
And that's a worldly type phrase, but there is a spiritual law that kind of goes with that idea of what goes around comes around.
Let me show it to you. Galatians chapter 6, look at verse 7.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 7. You know these verses, but let's look at them together.
Galatians 6, 7. Be not deceived. Look, you're only deceiving yourself.
God is not mocked. Notice what He says.
For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Here's what He says. He says you can't plant something without reaping something.
You can't invest into something without receiving that back.
He says for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Now, here's the great thing about the law of reaping and sowing.
It's that it's neutral. It's not positive or negative. It's both.
It can be used against you in a negative way, but it can be leveraged by you in a positive way.
Notice verse 8. For he that soweth to his flesh.
And look, this is what we're talking about. When we're talking about people, and you know them,
people are just hateful all the time, wrathful all the time, slandering all the time, gossiping all the time, having drama all the time.
Here's what He's saying. He's saying, look, these people, and I'll show it to you in a second,
these people are living in the flesh. It's a carnal life.
We're talking about if they're Christians, if they're safe. It's living in the flesh.
And here's what He says in Galatians 6. Here's what Paul would say 2,000 years ago.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.
He says, look, nothing good comes from living a carnal life. Nothing good comes from living in the flesh.
He says, look, if you sow in the flesh, you're going to reap, but what you're going to reap is corruption.
Notice, but he that soweth to the Spirit. You say, well, what does it mean to walk in the Spirit?
We're going to look at it here in a minute, but if you remember just a few weeks ago from our Holy Spirit series,
look, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, right?
And it's all those negative things, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, the fruit of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
And here's what he's saying. When you sow in the Spirit, when you live your life in a way that's loving,
that's charitable, that's kind, that's positive, he says when you sow in the Spirit,
he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap, notice what he says, life everlasting.
Now, people like to take that verse and try to teach that, oh, the way you live your life depends on,
has some sort of a determining factor on your salvation.
And obviously, we can disprove that a million different ways from the Bible.
I want you to understand what it says here that if you sow in the Spirit, you'll reap life everlasting.
What he's saying is that you'll reap things that you can benefit of in everlasting life,
that you can benefit from in a spiritual sense.
He says when you sow in corruption in your flesh, you reap corruption.
When you sow spiritually, you will reap everlasting life.
But here's the point. The point is this, that the Bible teaches that what goes around comes around.
The Bible teaches that what you, yet you will reap what you sow in things,
and it really depends on the type of things that you give out.
When you give out negativity, hatred, slander, spitefulness, ugliness,
just criticism and being angry and wrathful and drama,
God says all you're going to get back is those things.
But when you give us friendship, then you will get back those things.
Now, go back to Ezekiel 35. Let me show you how he says it.
Now, do me a favor. Keep replacing Galatians 6 because we're going to come right back to it here in a minute.
We're going to come back to Galatians.
But I want you to notice how he breaks this down for the Edomites when he refers to them
or when he talks to them about why you don't want to be hateful and envious and angry and a slanderer and spiteful.
He says, look, when you are hateful, hatefulness will follow you.
When you are angry, anger will follow you.
When you are negative, negativity will follow you.
Notice verse 6, Ezekiel 35 verse 6.
Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood.
He says, you shed blood, so I'm going to prepare you unto blood.
Notice what he says, and blood shall pursue thee.
You say, why? Because what goes around comes around.
So if you want to take advantage of the children of Israel when they're under attack and kill them,
God says, that's fine. Just realize that blood shall pursue thee.
Now, notice this word, saith, S-I-T-H. It's an old word. It means sins.
He says, since thou has not hated blood, you said you didn't hate violence.
You didn't hate hatred. You didn't hate negativity.
He says, since thou has not hated blood, notice, even blood shall pursue thee.
Here's what he's saying. When you shed blood, then it's going to pursue you.
When you're hateful, hatefulness will pursue you.
When you're violent, violence will pursue you.
When you're angry, and we're not talking about, there is a such thing as righteous indignation and righteous anger.
Obviously, Jesus was angry.
At times, the Bible says, be angry and sin not, but here's the truth of the matter.
If you're honest, and I'm honest, you know that most of the time when we are angry, it is in the flesh.
There is a such thing as righteous indignation, but most of the time, it's in the flesh.
And here's what he says. When we allow ourselves to live in that carnal life, it shall pursue thee.
And here's what you need to understand. If you're taking notes, just write this down.
When you are hateful, hatefulness will follow you.
When you are angry, anger will follow you.
When you are violent, violence will follow you.
When you shed blood, blood will pursue you.
Thus will I make Mount Seir desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out, and him that returneth.
And I will fill his mountains with his slain men in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers,
shall they fall that are slain with the sword. Notice verse 9.
I will make thee, remember they had a perpetual hatred?
God says, well, your perpetual hatred is going to turn into perpetual desolation.
You say, why? Because when you make others desolate, you will become desolate.
Because what goes around comes around.
And you can't get away from it, because it is a spiritual, it is a biblical law that you will reap what you sow.
I will make thee a perpetual desolation.
The word desolation means barren, laid waste, destitute.
And thy cities shall not return, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
Because thou hast said, these two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it.
Whereas the Lord was there. Notice verse 11.
Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God. Notice, and again, I'm just trying to show you.
He's trying to tell us, here's why you don't want to be negative.
Here's why you don't want to be hateful, and critical, and angry.
A slanderer, and a gossip, and a drama person.
Here's why you don't want these things, because what goes around comes around.
Because you reap what you sow.
And God says, and I will make sure of it.
Notice verse 11.
Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will even do according to thy name.
Don't miss that.
God says, I will see how you treated others.
I will see how you dealt with others.
I will see your negativity to others, and I will even do according to thine anger.
Now look, if God says, I'm going to do to you according to your anger, then I want my anger to be pretty calm.
If God's going to do to me according to my wrath, then I want my wrath to be kind of gentle.
If God's going to do to me according to my strife, then I want to stand up for righteousness, and I want to do right.
And I want to be truthful and walk with God.
But you know what?
When I have the opportunity to be spiteful toward someone, to take advantage of someone, to be angry toward someone,
then I want to do that in the most gentle and loving way.
You say, why?
Because when God has to judge me, I want him to be gentle with me.
I want him to be gracious and patient with me.
And he says, I will even do according to thine anger.
Notice.
And according to thine envy, which thou has used out of thy, notice these words, hatred against them.
And I will make thyself known among them when I have judged thee.
And here's what he's saying.
Here's what he's telling the Edomites, and here's what he's telling you, and here's what he's telling me.
You don't want to be hateful.
You say, why?
Because when you are hateful, hatefulness will follow you.
God says, I guarantee it.
He says, in fact, I will make sure that you are done according to your envy, according to your anger,
according to your criticism, according to your critical spirit, according to your bad attitude.
God says, look, what goes around, it comes around.
So you say, well, I don't want to be hateful.
Why?
Because when you're hateful, hatefulness will follow you.
But there's a second thing.
Notice.
Because remember, they weren't only hateful, and they weren't only envious.
They were also slanders.
You say, well, why don't you want to slander?
Why don't you want to speak evil to people?
Why don't you want to be a gossip?
Why don't you want to be someone who's constantly criticism and critical of everything that's happening?
Here's why.
Because when you slander, here's what he says, when you slander, God hears it.
Don't know that I am the Lord.
Notice what he says.
And that I have heard all thy blasphemies, which thou has spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying,
they are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me and have multiplied your words against me.
Don't miss this.
I have heard them.
You say, Pastor Jimenez, why would I not want to gossip against somebody if they don't hear me?
Well, here's the problem.
God hears you.
Why would you not want to speak evil against someone?
Because God hears you.
Why wouldn't I just want to criticize the church and criticize the pastor and criticize everything that's going on?
You know what?
I may never hear you, although you'd be surprised what I hear.
But I know this.
God hears you.
God says that it doesn't matter if the children of Israel ever heard the slander and the speaking evil and the criticism.
God said, I heard it, and I will make sure that it comes back upon you.
Why?
Because when you're hateful, hatefulness will follow you.
And when you're slander people, God hears it.
And at the end of the day, isn't that who we should be concerned with?
Is God?
Go to Matthew chapter 12.
This is not just something that's eagle tough.
This is something found throughout scripture.
We go to a lot of passages.
I'll just give you one.
Matthew chapter 12.
Look at verse 36.
The first book in the New Testament should be fairly easy to find.
Matthew chapter 12, verse 36.
But I say unto you, this is Jesus speaking.
You have a red letter edition Bible.
These words aren't read because these are actually words that came out of his mouth.
But I say unto you, notice what he says.
That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Don't miss that.
God says that you say, how's this all going to play out?
How's this all going to work?
I don't know.
I'm not really sure how it's all going to work out.
I just know this.
That God said that Jesus said that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment.
Now, that may be like the actual judgment.
I doubt it, but I think this just means that God's going to judge you here on earth.
And in that day of judgment, you're going to give an account for every idle word.
Notice verse 37.
For by thy words shall thou be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
And here's all I'm trying to tell you, and here's the only reason I'm having you go to
this passage, because here's what you got to know.
Everything you say, everything you say, God hears it.
And whether anybody else hears it, whether anybody else becomes aware of it, God hears
it, and here's what God says.
God says, you don't want to be hateful.
You don't want to be negative.
You don't want to be critical.
You don't want to be spiteful.
You don't want to be this drama of mama, this dramatic person, this person that's always
got issues and always got problems.
You say, what?
Well, here's why.
Because when you're hateful, hatefulness will follow you.
And when you slander, when you speak evil, God hears it.
And God says, I will make sure that what goes around comes around, because you do reap what
you sow.
It's not just that.
Go back to Ezekiel 35.
Remember, they were spiteful.
Spiteful, meaning that they just wanted to take advantage.
They saw an opportunity.
They took it.
They saw that someone went down.
They said, well, I would have never confronted them face to face, but now that they're on
the ground, let me go ahead and kick them a few times, right?
That was the attitude.
And here's what God says.
When you're spiteful, it comes back to you.
Ezekiel 35 verse 14.
Thus saith the Lord God, when the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.
As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate,
notice what he says, so will I do unto thee.
He said, you rejoiced when they failed?
God says, I'll rejoice when you fail.
God says, I will make sure that what you put out comes back to you.
I will make sure that you reap what you sowed.
I will make sure that what goes around comes around.
He says, so will I do unto thee.
Thou shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, and all edumia, even all of it.
And they shall know that I am the Lord.
Now, go back to Galatians, if you kept your place there.
We were just in Galatians 6.
Go to Galatians chapter 5, just one page back.
Galatians chapter 5.
Now, I want you to notice what the Bible says in verse number 19.
Galatians chapter 5.
I'm actually going to turn there myself, because I want you to see these verses.
I didn't put all these verses there.
Galatians 5, look at verse 19.
Notice what he says.
He says, now the works of the flesh are manifest.
Here's what he's saying.
And remember, in the book of Galatians, he's talking to believers.
He's talking to saved people.
But he's talking to people that have been walking in the flesh.
Because look, just because you're saved doesn't mean you're spiritual.
You could be a carnal Christian.
And here's what he's saying.
He's saying, we will know, we will be able to see when you are a carnal Christian walking in the flesh.
He says, now the works of the flesh are manifest.
He says, they can be seen.
Say, how can they be seen?
Here's how they're seen.
He says, now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these.
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft.
But don't miss this.
Hatred?
Oh, I was talking about godly hatred.
No, it's in the list of the works of the flesh.
This is negative hatred.
Just being a hateful person.
Hatred.
Variance.
Emulation.
Wrath.
Strife.
Seditions.
Heresies.
Notice verse 21.
Envings.
Murders.
Drunkenness.
Look at this word.
Revelings.
That's rejoicing and iniquity.
And such like.
And here's the thing.
Some of you live here.
This is your life.
It's just hatred and wrath and strife and envyings and revelings.
It's never about the great things that are happening at church.
It's always about all the bad things that are happening.
Well, I think pastors should do this and I don't think we should do that.
And I think it's funny how everybody thinks they know how things should go.
It's not positive.
It's not a positive.
You're just kind of a negative person.
Your life is just kind of characterized by these words.
Hatred.
Wrath.
Strife.
Envying.
Reveling.
You say, well, what's wrong with that if you want that coming back to you?
Because the reason that you don't want to live your life in a critical way is because
what goes around comes around.
And he says, look.
You can be a Christian and live your life in this critical, critical, negative, angry
way if you want to walk in the flesh.
He says, if you want to live in the flesh.
But notice the contrast.
Verse 22.
You're there in Galatians 5, verse 22.
But the fruit of the Spirit.
Ask yourself, do these words characterize my life?
Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such, there is no law.
These are two different pictures of two different people.
One is characterized by love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
One is characterized by positive, just a positive life, a joyful life.
The type of people you like to be around.
The type of people that you enjoy to be around.
The type of people that encourage you along the way.
The type of people that once you spend time with them, you think, man, I'm just encouraged.
I'm just uplifted by being with this person.
And here's the question I have for you.
Are you that person?
Are you the hatred, anger, clamor, slander, evil speaking?
And here's what I'm telling you.
If that's you, be careful.
You don't want to be that person.
You say, why?
Because what goes around comes around.
Because you will reap what you sow.
You say, OK, so what do we do?
What's the point?
We're there in Galatians, go to Ephesians.
And look, if your life sounds like that, I'm not mad at you.
I'm trying to help you.
I'm not mad at you.
Why would I be mad that your life stinks?
I feel bad for you.
I feel bad for the person married to you.
I feel bad for the person that's got to be raised by you.
I'm just trying to help you.
Look, the Christian life should be a joyful life.
Do we have problems?
Do we have struggles?
Do we have battles?
Do we have issues that we deal with and tribulations?
Of course we do.
But look, we should be able to go through those things
and have the joy of the Lord as our strength.
But when you live your life in the flesh, it's just negative.
It's not attractive, and there's nothing attractive about it.
And sometimes we think like, oh, people don't want the gospel.
Sometimes people don't want the gospel because of you.
Sometimes my family won't hear the gospel.
It might just be that your family's looking at you
and thinking, oh, if that's Christianity, I'm good.
Just drama, and problems, and criticism, and criticalness.
Say, well, what do we do?
Here's what we do.
Ephesians 4, 31.
Notice what he says.
Ephesians 4, 31.
Here's what Paul said.
Here's what I need to do.
Here's what you need to do.
Here's what all of us, because here's the point.
None of us are spiritual all the time.
None of us are walking in the spirit all the time.
None of us are having the fruit of the spirit all the time.
We all, from time to time, will have this tendency
to want to walk in the flesh.
And when we walk in the flesh, our lives
will be characterized by envy, hatred, variance, wrath,
slandering, evil speaking.
All of us can do it.
You say, well, what do I do when I find myself there?
Ephesians 4, 31.
Notice what he says.
Let all bitterness, all of it.
I want you to think about that.
He doesn't say, let all bitterness that is not
justified.
He says, let all bitterness.
You say, pastor, if you knew my story, look,
if I knew your story, I'd agree with you.
I'll have rough lives.
And I'm not minimizing what you've gone through.
But you say, well, I've had a bad marriage.
You know what?
People have bad marriages.
I had a bad upbringing.
People have bad upbringings.
And I'm not minimizing.
And I'm not trying to say that you haven't gone through issues,
you haven't gone through problems.
But here's what I'm telling you.
That God knew who you were and what you've gone through.
And God says, let all bitterness and wrath and anger
and clamor, this is loud uproar, and evil speaking.
That's your slander, your gossip.
That's what he says.
He says, be put away from you.
And I want you to notice that phrase, be put away from you.
When you look at the underlying words
that our King James translators translated
as be put away from you, when you find those same words
throughout the rest of the Bible and see
how our King James translators also translated that phrase.
In Ephesians 4.31, they translated it
as be put away from you.
And that's a great translation.
That's a perfect translation.
It's God's perfect word.
I just want you to understand, so you kind of understand
what they were thinking when they did that.
They translated the same words in other places
in our King James Bible as be taken away or be thou removed.
The idea is this, that you, it's kind of like when you,
the trash can in your house.
I don't know where you keep your trash can.
We keep a big trash can in our kitchen.
It's kind of when that trash can is overfilling.
I feel like I take that trash out four times every day.
I mean, I don't know how your family is,
but I guess six kids, there's always trash.
And he says, you kind of look at that trash,
and it's just kind of overflowing.
Isn't it kind of disgusting?
Kind of yucky?
You look at it, and it's just kind of full.
You know, sometimes the kids are just throwing stuff,
and it's like, nobody, you know.
You guys didn't see it's overflowing?
And you say, well, what do you do with that?
I mean, do you really want to sit there and eat
with that trash can just kind of overflowing?
What you do is what every sensible adult would do
is you pick up that bag, and you take it out.
You drop it off.
You have it be thou removed.
You remove it because it's kind of stinky,
because it's kind of yucky, because it's kind of ugly,
because you kind of don't want to live like that.
And that's the idea.
He says, all the bitterness, the wrath, the anger,
the clamor, the trash.
He says, put away from you.
He says, let it be taken away.
He says, be thou removed with all malice.
And look, here's what I'm telling you.
Here's what I'm telling you is, do you really
want to live like this your whole life,
where you're just kind of always upset?
You're always angry?
You're always finding something wrong with something?
It's never good enough.
It's never right.
It's never good.
There's never something good going on in your life.
It's just always negative.
It's always bad.
You're always down.
And God says, look, you don't have to live that way.
Say, well, what do I do?
Just put it out.
Just put it in a trash bag and put it.
Look, some of you literally need to go home tonight
and say, you know what?
The bitterness isn't coming in.
I know I've been critical of my spouse,
and I just criticize and criticize and criticize.
And I never tell them they're doing anything right.
They're always wrong.
I'm going to leave that out.
I'm going to allow that to be thou removed.
I know that I'm always angry at my children
and upset with my children.
I don't want to live like that.
And I don't want my kids to remember me that way.
So I'm just going to throw that out.
I'm just going to put it away from me and from you.
Notice the contrast.
Verse 33 says, once you put it away, here's what happens.
And be kind one to another, tenderhearted.
Don't those two verses just sound like two different people?
That all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil
speak and be put away with all malice, then get rid of it.
You don't need it.
Don't live like that.
You say, why would I want to live like that?
Because look, when you're hateful,
hatefulness follows.
When you slander, God hears it.
When you're spiteful, it will come back to you.
And I don't know about you, but I'd rather live my life this
way and be kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake
has forgiven you.
He says, look, you can live your life in a positive way.
So I'm just telling you, you don't have to live.
Doesn't it get tiring to be angry all the time,
upset all the time?
Some of you dads are not like, I'm not trying to offend you.
I mean, you know, I always offend you.
You just live your life with that short fuse, you know?
And it's just kind of like, you're always just ready to
blow up.
And those kids, no matter what they do, you're always bad.
You really want to live like that forever?
You really want your kids to grow up and remember you that
way?
Look, I don't know about you, but I don't want my kids to
grow up and they'll never say it to my face.
But I don't want them to grow up and say, man, the thing
about dad is you kind of always have to just kind of walk
around, you know?
Be careful, because he's always just ready to blow up.
I don't want the memories that my kids have with me and my
wife is, eh, I remember that one time and they really got
into it that one time.
I don't want them to remember us fighting.
You know, I'm thankful for my parents.
I can honestly tell you this, and I know my parents aren't
perfect, obviously, and I'm sure they had issues and they
had fights.
I can tell you this.
When they fought, we never saw it.
I have a lot of memories of my parents just laughing together.
That's what I want for my kids.
That's what I want for you.
So some of you need to just let it go.
Just put it away.
Just throw it away.
You say, why?
Here's why, and here's the point.
Because what goes around comes around.
Because you will reap what you sow.
Go back to Galatians chapter 6, look at verse 7.
We'll finish up right here.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 7.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 7 says, be not deceived.
God is not mocked.
For whatsoever a man soweth, that's choice.
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap
corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the
Spirit reap life everlasting.
Verse 9, he says, here's what can happen.
Here's your two choices.
Here's what you can decide.
And then he says in verse 9, he says, here's what I hope
you'll decide, and let us not be weary in well-doing.
You say, why?
Well, he just told us.
For in due season we shall reap what we faint not.
You say, Pastor Jimenez, I've been that person.
I've been that angry wife.
I've been that wrathful husband.
I've been that just on edge dad.
I've been that terrible church member.
I've been that terrible mom.
I've been that negative critical drama mama person.
Well, look, put it away.
And let us not be weary in well-doing.
Because here's what I know.
What goes around comes around.
And you will reap negative.
But if you begin to sow well-doing, if you begin to sow
words of encouragement, if you begin to sow attitudes of
love, if you begin to sow positive things, he says, let
us not be weary in well-doing.
For in due season we shall reap what we faint not.
And here's what I'm telling you.
When you start to live in a positive way, what goes around
will eventually come around.
And you will reap if you faint not.
So let's throw it away.
That's why I had to have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word.
Thank you for the Bible.
Lord, I pray that you'd help us, Lord, because from time
to time we all walk in the flesh.
But, Lord, some of us are just negative people.
We're just critical.
We're always upset.
Nothing's ever good enough, and there's always something
to criticize.
Lord, I just pray you'd help us to wake up, help us to
realize that we don't have to live like that.
We don't have to live that way.
And it truly is as simple as making a choice and throwing
it away, removing it from our lives and beginning to reap
good things.
Beginnings are so good things that we can reap good
things.
We love you, Lord.
I pray you'd help us, Lord.
I pray you'd help me.