Letting Go of Resentment

Traveling Light   •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Letting go of resentment is easier said than done. Our anger and offenses can grow against God, others, and life circumstances. If we don't let go of our resentment, it won't let go of us. Let's forgive and travel light

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Catchy Introduction

Everyone has a scars—these scars have stories
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Not emotional scars—physical
Use “impatient and got myself in deeper trouble”
I have one on my wrist I get asked a lot about
Define resentment
Brother and I playing football
After he pushed me down and I got wrist scar I got mad
Impatient, anger, offended, resentment
Every chance I got I tired to push him back
Until I made a move which landed my knee on a rock—creating another scar
I learned—resentment only hurts—in that case literally it hurt

Introduction

We are continuing
Continuing in series—Travel Light—Letting Go of Resentment
If we haven’t meet—Chris
Past 2 weeks Kevin—who at Maron Co. Campus—covered letting go of:
Disappointment
Regret
It’s no secret—throughout the year we carry emotional, spiritual and mental baggage
Main verse for this series—this is Jesus speaking
, Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light .” (NLT)
Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
A yoke was used to put 2 oxen together to plow a field
Jesus is saying, “You’re tired? I will give you rest”
This does not mean we won’t have to work—travel
When we do travel—Jesus helps us to let go and make the travel lighter than it would be w/o him
There is no carrying this on your own
There are times where God asks us to let go
Today God is asking you to let go of your resentment

Teaching

I want to introduce you to someone in the birth story of Jesus—not talked about
Anna—2 verses on her—found in
In the OT—law that says if a woman’s first child is a boy—he must be dedicated to God
Mary, Joseph and Jesus go to temple
At the same time they are there—Anna is also at the temple

36 Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. 37 Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.

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Some translations say “she was a widow for 86 years”
Either way—she was a widow for a long time
Anna—a Godly woman—prophet—served as a mouthpiece for God
7 years into her marriage—tragedy strikes and her husband dies
She’s left as a widow for years—being was not easy at this point in history
It’s not easy no matter what time we may be in
In this culture—they were overlooked, shunned, shamed
Often times had very little money, power, couldn’t get a job
It was a hard life
I think when we read “Anna, a prophet” we forget that Anna was a real person
With real feelings, emotions, thoughts, hardships
Anytime we read from Matt/—we forget everyone in Jesus’ birth story is a real person
This includes Anna
She lost her husband—a person she loved, admired, long for after 7 years
Raise hand if you’ve been married 7 years or more
It could have totally been totally possible for resentment to grow in Anna’s life
For her to get offended, angry, hold a grudge
I think I would grow resentful if something that tragic happened to me
You can hold resentment towards a collection of things:
God, Others, Yourself, Life Circumstances
Whenever something tragic and surprising happens—who do you think people hold resentment towards?
God
In talking to young students, adults—knowing how I operate
God is often times the person we hold most responsible for how our lives are going
We say things like—”He could have stopped it—healed—praying but he’s making me wait”
We all wonder one question—why God, why?
WHY DOESN’T HE?!
The “why” can very quickly turn into resentment (a grudge, anger, bitterness)
This bitterness, anger, un-forgiveness can develop in the same fashion in these other areas

4 Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, 5 and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”

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The Israelites were saved from slavery in Egypt—were on their way to the promise land
Resentment started to develop towards God and others (Moses)
They grew impatient—you will find the more resentment in your life—the less patients you have
You grow impatient with the person you once loved—impatient with life—the back and forth
They also began to speak against God/Moses—they began to complain
As resentment grows so will our complaining
I’ve noticed this in my life—the more bitter I get the more I complain about God, others, life
Because of Israel’s impatience and complaining—let’s see what happens

6 So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died.

This is not the end of the story—stop here for now
Resentment only hurt them—it lead them away from God
Resentment will only hurt you
Hold unto un-forgiveness, bitterness, anger only hurts
It can kill patience and start a fire in your mouth

Application

How do we let go of resentment?
Each week Kevin has given us one word to hold onto
Disappointment = trust
Regret = refocus
To let go of resentment we have to forgive
Letting go is not easy

An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city.

Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars.

Forgiving is difficult—the longer wait, the harder it gets
There is a DirectTv commercial where diecttv is trying to get people to upgrade from cable
You may have seen this before—here it is
Not forgiving someone can make our life look a lot like this commercial
Un-forgiveness leads to bitterness—bad choices—further away from God—further from God, further from other people—further from people, further from serving—further from serving, further from calling
Do not live far from your calling to serve—upgrade to forgiveness
Yes it is difficult
God tells us to forgive and he practices it
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I’m not trying to be trite—it is the truth
I want to read to you the rest of that story we started earlier

7 Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.

8 Then the LORD told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” 9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!

God forgave them and healing was the result
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You forgive—healing will be the result
It may not be in the other person’s life—it
I want you to know—Forgiveness is not:
1. Forgetting
Pretending it didn’t happen, sweeping it under the rug, saying it wasn’t wrong
2. Fair (natural)
Not natural
Natural would be to strike back—to hurt that person more
We often say, you get what you deserve—I want to thank God that he does not operate like us
He does not give us what we deserve

He does not punish us for all our sins;

he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.

11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him

is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

12 He has removed our sins as far from us

as the east is from the west.

Forgiveness is giving others what God gave you
This is how you let go of resentment

Conclusion

There are people in here who have been resentful for a long time
Towards God, spouse, parents, kid, life
I want to end by reading you the rest of Anna’s story

She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. 38 She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

If Anna had any resentment—she let it go—the end of her story was not “my husband died”
The end of her story was “I worshipped God day and night—I told people about Jesus”
What are you going to let the end of your story be?
Resentment? a life of pain and bitterness
Forgiveness? a life of healing
STAND
Worship team/prayer team
My desire for you is 1 or 2 things
1. To start following Jesus—God has forgiven you for what you have done
He wants you to follow him so that you can embrace the life he has for you
Come and tell one of these prayer people—they will introduce me
2. To let go of resentment
If you need to go forgive someone—do it—this afternoon, don’t wait
If you need prayer and encouragement to make it through—come and get it
PRAY
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