Today on Summit Life, J.D. Greer talks about an often misunderstood aspect of God's character.

There's only when I believe that vengeance belonged to God that I developed in my heart,

the capacity to forgive and to love, because only the sense that God would get justice took away

the hatred and rage from my heart. My love will begin to grow when I embrace the God to whom vengeance belongs.

Welcome back to Summit Life with Pastor, author, and theologian J.D. Greer. I'm your host,

Molly Vitavitch. You know, everyone's born with a natural desire for justice.

We see it all over social media and the news. And I think that's why that we love it when the

bad guy in a movie gets what's coming to him, right? But the Bible makes it clear that, as Christians,

we're called instead to forgive. So does that mean that we're supposed to just let justice fall

by the wayside and not concern ourselves with it? Pastor, J.D. answers that question today.

We're discovering how the gospel satisfies God's justice and mercy and equips us ultimately

to instead forgive. If you'd like to catch up on the previous messages in this study called

Home Records, you can find them at jdgreer.com. Now let's get started with today's message titled

Bitterness.

One of the things that I love about the Bible is that it is not at all like the Brady

Munch. Sometimes people in the church are fake. That's true, but the Bible never is. When the

Bible presents families, it presents them as they are, not like we would wish that they always

were. You read some of the stories of families, especially in the Old Testament. It's like watching

a Jerry Springer show. What that tells me is that there are families and there are marriages

in here in this church that have issues. We've got a statement around here that some of church

that everybody's normal until you get to know them. When you get to know them, you realize that

their families are as dysfunctional as many of yours were. Now let me make sure I'm clear on this.

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