SERVANT LEADERSHIP - The Blue Letter Bible Institute

Servant Leadership – Lesson 11 14
Bitterness and Hatred by Skip Heitzig
how he handled the situation. There was an animosity between he and another brother. Ortiz says,
“There was a young man in my former denomination who became my enemy some time ago. He
said that I was not being faithful to the church. Eventually he started to hate me. During one of the
conventions I went to him and said,
‘Hello. How are you?’ and I gave him a big hug.
“Don’t hug me’, he growled.
‘Well, I love you’, I replied.
“You cannot love me because I am your enemy’. [He was almost shouting at this point].
‘Praise the Lord’, I said. ‘I didn’t know you were my enemy, but here is an opportunity for me to
love my enemies. Thank You, Jesus, for my precious enemy.’”
He concluded by saying, “You know something. One year later I was preaching in his church.”
Pastor Ortiz just would not let anger dominate him. He would not let jealousy dominate him. He
had rumors going around about him all over the place in Argentina. He just said, “Forget it.”
Forgive them. A soft answer turns away wrath.
Heavenly Father, we feel like we are being so fed by the
practical exhortations of the men so far. We are privileged,
Lord, to handle the word of truth. We do not take it lightly. And
even though it would be great, Lord, like we do every year in
June to speak about the common salvation, we felt it very
necessary to exhort the brethren. Lord, You love Your church.
You love Your ministry. And we remember right now that it is
not our ministry to begin with. It is Yours. You just graciously
let us be stewards, co-laborers with Christ. I pray, Lord, that we
would never hold onto anything so tightly and possess
something that does not belong to us anyway. That we would be
faithful stewards, faithful men, and men filled with truth and
that we would speak the truth in love. Help us, Lord, to never let
our pulpit become platforms for getting even, or scolding the
sheep, or yelling at people who have harmed us. Lord, help us to
deal and to resolve issues of anger, sinful anger. Help us, Lord,
to get angry at the right things. And to be very tender hearted
toward Your sheep. Lord Jesus, You did not say, “If you love
Me beat My sheep.” But You said, “If you love Me feed My
sheep.” And that is what we want to do. In Jesus’ name. Amen.