Matthew 10, verse 16,
"'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.
"'Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.'"
So the tip this morning is about being wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.
So there's so many mission in Matthew 10.
It is specific to the disciples.
I mean, Jesus is sending them out just to the nation of Israel.
That's where they're to go.
And we don't get our commission from here.
Ours would come from Matthew 28 or Acts 1-8,
because we're to take the gospel to every creature, everywhere.
But in verse 16 of Matthew chapter 10,
Jesus gives the 12, the disciples,
he gives them a warning before he sends them out.
And obviously in their time,
they were going to be scourged and beaten,
and hopefully that doesn't come upon us.
But today we take more of a verbal abuse, right,
as we're out soul winning.
But Jesus warns them before he sends them out.
And these are great soul winning principles,
you know, that I believe are good back in that time.
And they're good today for us.
And Jesus uses four animals to teach us how we should be as soul owners.
Look at verse 16 of Matthew chapter 10 says,
"'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.'"
What are sheep?
Sheep are harmless.
Sheep are simple.
Not always that wise.
And wolves are not harmless.
Wolves are very dangerous.
Wolves are cunning.
What's Jesus saying?
What's he trying to teach them?
He's saying, I'm putting you disciples.
I'm putting you soul winner in a dangerous situation.
And because of this, because I'm putting you in this situation,
Jesus says, you must be there for,
meaning that you better become this.
It's not optional.
He says, if you're going to be a soul winner,
you're going to have success.
You better become this.
Look at verse 16 again says,
"'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.'"
Look, "'Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.'"
These kind of things kind of contrast each other.
It's like, well, how can I be both?
And see the child of God, the soul owner for God
needs to be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove.
But we kind of need to balance both of these things
because look, it's dangerous to be one without the other.
I don't know if you ever thought about that when you read this.
Because I've met some soul owners,
you know, they're wise as serpents.
I mean, they're good speakers, they're clever,
but they're not harmless as a dove.
And they use their subtlety like a serpent would.
And they use, it kind of turns into manipulation.
And if you need a definition of manipulation,
it's acting, the action of manipulating something
in a skillful manner,
the action of manipulating someone in a clever
or unscrupulous way.
You know, brother Jeff was up here a few weeks ago
talking about where to persuade men.
The Bible is very clear.
We are to be persuasive.
We're to bring them the truth and say,
this is what we have.
We're going to be really honest about it.
And this is what you need to believe in
to have eternal life.
But we're not to manipulate them in to believe in it
and kind of tricking them in to believe in it.
And I know we probably might not do that intentionally,
but sometimes it kind of leads us that way.
I have a story in my first church.
The pastor used to send me out on Thursday nights
and I would basically be visiting people.
And he would take a picture with his phone
of like the church contact card
for people that came to church.
And then he'd have three by fives
of people that he was working on trying to get in church.
Either he got them out soul winning, whatever.
And he was letting me participate in that.
Well, one Thursday night I went to a house
and I mixed the cards up.
I actually had a three by five,
but I didn't realize in my mind
I thought it was a person that came to church.
So I met this guy, he got invited me in.
And he's like, I've never been to that church.
I go, yes, you have.
I go, you've been to this church.
I got a visitor card with your name on it.
I go, you don't remember where the piano was at?
You don't remember the hard preaching?
You don't remember the music?
You don't remember the chairs?
And I worked on him and you know what?
Pretty soon before I left, he believed he came to the church.
And then I went back to my pastor
and I was telling him,
giving him an account of people I talked to.
And I go, yeah, that one guy forgot his name,
but he goes, he didn't even think he came.
And pastor's like, dude, he never came.
He goes, he's never been to a church service.
I go, well, now he thinks he has, okay.
And you know, I dig that out of ignorance, right?
It wasn't on purpose,
but we want to be careful
that we're being honest with people.
This is what we're here for,
where to be wise and use it in a very way,
combining it with the gentleness of a dove.
Because, you know, I've also,
I've seen people that they're very,
the word may be gullible.
They're very in a way that they have no craftiness
about them whatsoever.
So these might be the people say you run into a wolf,
like a Mormon, someone at the door
that they might actually start turning in on you
and start preaching to you their doctrine
and start trying to teach you, you know,
you need to read the book of Mormon.
You need to do this.
And they're not wise enough to see what they're doing.
And they're trying to actually witness to you.
And that's not what you're there for.
You got to have the discernment
to be able to stay on focus of what you're doing.
So what's the takeaway?
The takeaway is as soul owners, we're to be wise.
We're to know what we're talking about.
We can know the Bible,
to know when you come up to the door,
this is what I'm there for.
This is what I'm doing.
Not here for anything else.
But more importantly, have discernment.
Something that, especially if you're a new soul winner,
you're a silent partner,
this is your time to be learning that.
Watch the person who's talking.
Watch how they interact with the person
and learn discernment.
Watch what they say and watch how they respond.
And, you know, don't be looking at the trees and all this.
Be actually watching and learning
because even if you've been soul winning for years,
you should be doing that.
Because every encounter, everyone's so different.
You're dealing with different kinds of people,
especially in different neighborhoods.
And I know you soul owners that have went to many different,
even different countries,
you know that people are different, how they interact.
But being able to see that body language
and make wise decisions based on that,
how you should proceed.
But also we need to be harmless.
Comparing that with the dove.
Don't insult people.
Don't be a jerk.
And I know some of them, we don't intend to do that,
but I have a problem with it.
It comes across that way.
Sometimes you're a little rougher with people
than you should be.
I'll give you an example.
If it wasn't someone here,
I was with a soul winner one time.
And when the lady said she was Catholic,
he proceeded to tell her everything that was wrong
about the Catholic religion.
Just started preaching to her
like he was up here preaching the sermon.
So how do you think that turned out?
She got mad.
She goes, we're done here.
Shut the door on his face.
You know, he took all that Bible knowledge
and he directed it in a bad way.
And see, that's what's great sometimes
when you're a new soul winner,
you might not know that much.
So when they ask you other questions,
you're all like, hey, I'm just here
to preach Christ crucified, right?
Just because you have all this knowledge
and if you've ever been with pastor
or one of the other guys or ladies here
that really know the Bible,
they're not gonna use that in a malicious way.
They're not gonna use that just to puff their ego up
and show people, you know, I know more than you.
Because that's not what it's about.
And you never wanna get to that point.
So you need to always be soft with people,
gentle with people.
And number two, as far as being harmless,
don't fight back.
You're gonna get insulted.
Mark my words, you do it long enough,
you're gonna get insulted.
Don't get into arguments.
I'll give you example.
If you choose to knock on a no soliciting sign
and they come out and they say,
don't you see that sign?
Why'd you knock on my door?
Don't you see no soliciting?
Don't sit there and try and explain to them,
well, technically we're not soliciting.
It's free.
We're not selling you.
That's not gonna go well for you.
Be like a sheep and flee.
It's time to leave, right?
And try and leave a good flavor in that person's mouth.
So when God works on the other side,
maybe he'll work on that person
and we're gonna come around again.
We plan on coming around again.
So don't remember or do remember with all your wisdom
because you're in a kind of church
where you get a lot of wisdom fast, right?
If you come here and you're faithful
and you're doing the things that you're being preached,
you're gonna get wisdom fast,
or as far as I should say, knowledge fast.
But then couple that with the grace of God
and the Holy Spirit of God that indwells in you
and learn how to use it.
That's why Jesus says it's important.
You need to be both.
Remember it like this.
A serpent is dangerous and a dove is in danger.
So we need to combine both these qualities
so we can go out and minister with people.
Because remember, why are you at the door?
Why are you gonna be at their door today?
Are you there for you or are you there
to bring them the gift, the free gift
that they don't know about?
Because remember, they're blind, right?
Most people in this world,
even the ones that think they're saved, they're blind
and they think they're on their way to heaven,
they give you the wrong answer.
You're there for them, whatever they need
as far as that goes.
And I show you this and I give you
what was freely given to me
and just keep that in your mind as we go out.
That we're gonna love on people
and gonna be focused and be wise and harmless
in our conversations.
Let's pray.
Your heavenly Father, Father, thank you
for the word of God, Lord.
Thank you for your examples that teach us
how to be soul owners.
And I pray for every one of us.
We continue to strive to read your word
to become better for you.
That we go out and we just love on people, Lord.
In Jesus' name, we ask all these things.
Amen.