What does First B Jackson teach about bitterness?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on bitterness starts with a sober look at what it actually does to the person carrying it. Across multiple messages, the image that keeps appearing is a root, something that will spring up on its own and, if left alone, will spread, defile others, and steal joy and peace from the one nursing it. Pastor Josh, Pastor Mike, and Pastor Jason have each returned to the same verse in Hebrews 12: the warning that a root of bitterness springing up causes trouble and defiles many. The consistent point is that you cannot stop the root from appearing, but you can refuse to water it. Driving around it only lets the crack widen until there is real damage.
The connection the teaching keeps making is between bitterness and unforgiveness. Bitterness, in these messages, is what grows when forgiveness has not actually taken root. Michael Demetrius put it plainly: unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. The person nursing the wrong is the one who loses sleep, loses joy, and loses the capacity to love a neighbor, which Jesus names as the second greatest commandment. The teaching does not treat this as a personality problem or a temperament issue. It is a spiritual one, and the only thing strong enough to reach the root is the same grace God has already extended to the person holding the bitterness.
What First B Jackson teaches as the way through is forgiveness understood as a willful decision, not a feeling. Pastor Ray has said it plainly in the context of premarital and marital counseling, and the same frame runs through the congregational teaching: forgiven people forgive people. The debt every believer has been released from, the one that could not be earned away, is the only ground on which forgiveness of others makes sense. The parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18 has been taught here more than once precisely because it closes with Jesus saying the tormentors who came for the man represent the bitterness and anger that eat a person alive from the inside when they refuse to extend what they themselves have received.
Taught from Hebrews 12:15 · Hebrews 12:14 · Matthew 18:21-35 · Ephesians 4:32 · Romans 8:28-29
The passage taught · 1 Chronicles 12:32
32 Of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their heads were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their command.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- October 25, 2023 Women's Bible Study - October 25th, 2023 - Review and New Topic: Forgiveness Deborah teaches First Baptist Jackson's women's Bible study on how unforgiveness blocks spiritual growth, drawing from Matthew 18 and Ephesians 4.
- February 16, 2020 A Kingdom That Cannot Be Shaken Hebrews 12:14-28 calls believers to pursue peace, guard against bitterness, and hold fast to an unshakable kingdom secured not by law but by Christ.
- February 2, 2020 Forgiven People Forgive People A Wyoming pastor walks through biblical forgiveness: what it costs, why we avoid it, and how God's grace makes it possible to finally let go.
- February 2, 2020 Forgiving People Forgive People A Wyoming pastor walks through forgiveness step by step, from taking honest account of sin to making the choice to let go, rooted in Hebrews 12:14-15.
- January 26, 2020 Strengthen the Weak, Pursue Peace Hebrews 12 sermon on pursuing peace, fighting bitterness, and accessing God's grace daily before, like Esau, the moment to act is irretrievably gone.
- January 26, 2020 Strengthen the Weak and Make Straight Paths Hebrews 12 sermon on strengthening the weak, pursuing peace, and guarding against bitterness before it spreads and defiles those around you.
- February 10, 2019 Forgiveness Is Not Optional Michael Demetrius teaches First Baptist Jackson on why forgiveness is not optional for believers, what it is, what it isn't, and how to actually do it.
- February 10, 2019 Forgiveness Is Your Path to Freedom A sermon on forgiveness from Matthew 6 and 18, exploring what forgiveness is, what it isn't, and why Jesus calls every believer to practice it freely.
Mentioned along the way
- January 14, 2024 You Are Not All Alone Jeremy Diebler walks through the "one another" commands of Scripture, showing how loving each other well is the lab where Christian faith becomes real.
- February 15, 2015 God Has Forgiven Us, So We Should Forgive Others A mother's forgiveness of a drunk driver who killed her daughter opens a meditation on why forgiving others is inseparable from receiving God's forgiveness.