Wolves, Sheep, Snakes, and Doves

Well, good morning to all of you. I must say that if I could pick on Hunter for just a second. I think that's the first time in my entire life I ever heard anyone use the term Furthermore, when they were giving church announcements. That was very impressive, brother. Very good, yes.

So if you didn't get that Furthermore, I have more to say to you, so anyway, very good. Yeah. Great to be with you today, and we've already received a very warm welcome. uh from all of you as I totally expected because I know a bunch of you and uh you have uh and certainly know us and uh uh one gentleman thought that I he I had lost all of my hair since the last time he saw me And I said, well, it's been sort of vanishing for the last 30 years, so it's nothing, this is nothing new for me, but anyway, it might be new for some of you.

So Beacon has been supporting us. Since 1982, so 43 years we have been a part of the Beacon Missions family and certainly thankful to be, and you folks have been very gracious to us in a hundred different ways. And we'll be speaking a little bit more about that tonight when we share some thoughts and history and testimony regarding the ministry. Pastor Barkman called me several days ago and asked if I would be willing to take the morning sermon this morning. And I said, sure, I've got a few extra sermons with me, so we can do that with you today.

Several months ago, I began preaching in Hart Butte at our church there a series of messages on the parables of the Lord Jesus. Teaching with parables was, of course, one of the common methods used by the Lord Jesus, and as the holy, sinless, omniscient Son of God, he was the greatest teacher to ever walk the earth. As the holy God, he had complete understanding of everything in the universe because he created it. As the sinless God-man, he was not hindered by ordinary human flaws, as we all are. And as the omniscient, all-knowing Son of God, Jesus knew what everyone was thinking.

He knew how they were going to respond. He knew how they were going to react. And all of that combines to make the Lord Jesus Christ the greatest teacher to ever walk the earth. And he regularly used parables to communicate. I know a number of you are well-versed New Testament students and you probably know that the word translated parable in our English Bibles is the Greek word parabole, which just got transliterated into English as parable, literally means to lay beside to compare.

Para meaning beside and balo meaning to throw or throw down.

So to throw down, beside, to compare. It appears 50 times in the New Testament.

Now 48 times in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and twice in Hebrews. But we are going to look today at one of those parables. And in fact, the scripture was read already, the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 10. There are parable sayings in the scripture. There are parable similitudes, as they are often called, and there are parable stories.

Usually, when we think of a parable, most folks think of a story, which is correct. But there are also parable sayings and parable similitudes, and we're going to take a look at one of those today.

So, parables, whether they are brief sayings or longer stories, they are comparisons, they are word pictures that the Lord Jesus, the master teacher, used in his teaching. When we look at Matthew chapter 10, in fact, if you were to go back to the very beginning of the chapter, which we'll take a couple of moments to look at in a moment, but chapter 10 and verse 5, all the way to chapter 11 and verse 1, record a major teaching, a major lecture to his disciples, a significant sermon by the Lord Jesus Christ. New Testament students call them a discourse. meaning a teaching, a sermon, or if you're in a college class, perhaps a long lecture. There are actually five major discourses in the Gospel of Matthew.

The first one is the well-known Sermon on the Mount in chapters 5 through 7, and here in chapter 10 that we'll be looking at just a portion of is the second major discourse. In the first few verses of chapter 10, Jesus calls the 12 men who are going to be his apostles, and he grants them certain miraculous powers to authenticate the message that they were going to preach. And by authenticate, I mean that the Jewish people who had a very good understanding of the Old Testament would recognize that these men had miraculous power that reminded them of the Old Testament prophets.

So it would verify or demonstrate that these men did indeed have a message from God. And then in verses 5 through 15, Jesus gives them basic instructions for their journey. what they were going to do in this first evangelistic travel. They were going to, first of all, he says, don't go to the Gentile towns. Only go to Jewish towns.

Now, it wasn't that they couldn't preach to Gentiles. But they were not to go to Gentile towns or Samaritan towns, and they were to preach totally to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then the second instruction he gave them was to preach that the kingdom of heaven is coming. Basically, the Messiah is here. The third thing he said, don't demand money as preachers of the kingdom.

People will support you. Jesus quoted, you'll see in those passages, he quoted from Leviticus in Deuteronomy that a worker is worthy of his food. A worker is worthy of his hire.

So Jesus said, make no demands, charge no one for your ministry. You will be supported by people, but you don't have a fee schedule.

Some years ago, I was asked to do a wedding for some folks, and so I was in the process of going through all of the pre-marriage counseling that I do with a young couple who wants to be married. And we came up to the time for the rehearsal. And after the rehearsal, the groom-to-be, the groom-to-be on the next day, came up to me and he had his nephew with him. He said, Pastor, I've brought my nephew along so we can negotiate your fee schedule. I said, well, that's be very easy and very fast.

I don't have one. You can do whatever you want. He should be, what? You don't have a fee schedule? No, I don't have a fee schedule.

Others have called me. Another fellow called me a few years later and he did not come to our church and we had known his mother just in a casual sort of way, but his dad had passed away and he said, my mom wants to know how much you charge to do a funeral. I said, well, I don't charge anything to do a funeral. You want to give me something great? If you don't, that's fine, whatever.

Ministry has no fee schedule or should not. Jesus said it did not. We just rely on the graciousness of the Lord's people, whatever God may lay on their hearts. That's an ancient principle instituted by God 3,500 years ago in the Old Testament law, restated by Jesus and numerous places by the Apostle Paul in his letters.

Now these 12 men whom Jesus had endowed with miraculous power, they could have made a lot of money by healing people. But Jesus restated the Old Testament law that those ministering live from the gifts of God's people, but they don't charge. There's no fee schedule for ministry. Then Jesus also said to them, if you are well received, He said, do your best to be a blessing to the folks that you are preaching to. I interpret that when Jesus says, let your peace come upon them, to do your best to be a blessing to those folks.

And he says, if you're not well received, then shake the dust off your feet as you leave. That was an ancient Jewish custom you may be familiar with, that when Jewish people returned from Gentile territory, as a sign that they didn't want to even bring the dust of those unbelieving Gentiles into Israel, they would shake the dust off their feet.

So Jesus is saying, if people won't hear you, Then leave them to the fruit of their own choices, leave them to the results of their own rejection. Then beginning in verse 16, we have the section of our text that we want to unpack today. Hunter read all of those to you from 16 up to verse 23. I'm just going to read with you today verse 16. Behold, I send you out as sheep.

in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents. and harmless as doves. And if we were to title our thoughts from this passage, the natural title would be wolves, sheep, Snakes and doves. When I was preaching this message a few months ago in Hart Butte, just the day before, our son Nathan, many of you know, has Down syndrome, lives in a Christian group home across the mountains from us.

If he calls on Saturday, he always wants to know what I'm preaching the next day. What are you preaching about the next day or tomorrow, Dad? I said, Wolves, sheep, snakes, and doves. You Oh. That should be interesting.

I said, well, I sure hope so.

So we're going to talk about wolves, sheep, snakes, and doves. That's the imagery that Jesus is using. And it very clearly explains to us what it is or what we should expect as we try to live for God. How will the unbelieving world respond to us? How should we react to unjust treatment by the world?

And as we dig into this text, we need to remind ourselves that anytime we read a passage of scripture with something prophetic, something that's being predicted for the future, then we must understand there is often an immediate fulfillment and a continuing future fulfillment.

So we see what is right in front of us and we see what is off on the horizon. And when the apostles preached on this first tour of duty, as you might call it, The first call to Israel that Jesus was here and that the kingdom was coming, they were not really persecuted. You see, Jesus said to them in verse 17, beware of men, they will deliver you up to their councils and scourge you in their synagogues, and you'll be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. That did not happen on this first missionary journey for them. But boy, did it happen after the resurrection.

in a major way. After Jesus ascended back into heaven and the Holy Spirit came to empower the disciples at Pentecost, and the apostles began to preach not the gospel of the kingdom, but the gospel of the cross. Then, wow. Did Jesus' prediction come to pass? And it's still coming to pass today in our day, all over the world, various places, various times.

If you keep up with current events, you may know what's happening in Sudan and Nigeria these days, as well as many other countries. Yes, this passage is still coming true today, 2,000 years later. And Jesus' words in verse 21 to 23 sound very similar to what he taught about the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24.

So there is yet a future fulfillment of Jesus' prediction. But I want to focus our thoughts with you this morning on verse 16, Wolves, Sheep, Snakes, and Doves. Jesus says, I am sending you out as sheep. in the midst of wolves. I am not a sheep expert.

Some of the folks who go to our church in Montana are.

Some of them have raised sheep, some of them still do. I do know some things about sheep. On the place where we lived from the late 80s to the late 90s, the farm ranch owners raised grain and hay and cattle and sheep. They had a thousand sheep, one band as they call it. One band of sheep is about a thousand.

And they ran them on some government grazing leases way up in the mountains to the west of us all through the summer. And when they brought the sheep down from that mountain grazing leash, usually mid-October, they kept them on the place where we lived until mid-February when they took them to their home ranch for lambing.

So for about four months every year, And we had a thousand sheep. and a sheepherder in his sheep wagon living about a hundred yards from the house. In fact, we knew they'd be coming down from the mountains soon, but sometimes we would come home, and in the evening in October, you'd get out of our van and you'd say, The sheep are here. You knew it right away. Of course, they weren't that far away.

And I don't know how much livestock you've been around, but every. Every different type of livestock has a smell. Horses have a smell. Cattle have a smell, pigs have a smell, sheep have a smell, and it's very distinct. and you know what they are, so you could you knew the sheep were there before you saw them.

And so we had a thousand sheep living around the house there for about four months every year for the better part of 10 years.

So I had many discussions with the sheepherder, learned a lot of things, observed a lot of things, many fascinating memories.

So while I'm not a sheep expert, I do know that sheep have lousy eyesight. Therefore they spook easily. They get disoriented easily. They get lost easily. As the rough old herder told me one day, you don't have to tell a sheep to get lost, Larry.

They just sort of do it natural. On the way out from the corral to the stubble field to graze one day, three of the sheep got separated from the rest of the flock. They got into our yard and I went outside to get them out and a Labrador retriever that we had at that time went out with me. Dog stayed very close to me, was not barking or growling or being aggressive, but was curious, of course, and began to walk slowly toward the sheep as I walked slowly toward the sheep. And the dog just kind of wanted to give him a sniff, I'm sure, and see what they were.

And as we got closer and the dog started going a little bit lower to the ground just to kind of get near them, the sheep kind of bunched up into the corner of the fence. And as the dog got closer, they began to visibly shake. and just about the time the dog's nose touched them. They collapsed to the ground, put their heads down. As though to say, just kill me now.

So sheep are very easily spooked, easily disoriented. Easily lost. timid, non-combative. generally helpless. All connected to the fact that they can barely see 25 or 30 feet away.

That's why sheep get lost. because they don't have long-range vision. They might get separated from the flock, and the flock might just be a few hundred yards across the field, but they can't see them. And so they wander around running this way and that, trying to figure out where to go because they can't see anything. They're just kind of, we would think of them as being half blind.

We don't have glasses for the sheep. And if they probably couldn't see any farther, they're then from here to the front row. Anything out there that the rest of it would have no idea.

So if you are raising sheep in open country, That can be extremely labor-intensive.

Now, if you lived in Israel in Jesus' day, you would have totally understood everything I just shared with you. you would have understood the challenges of the task of the shepherd. who has to lead his sheep and watch over the sheep and defend his sheep against the elements and the thieves and the predators.

So the concept of the sheep and the wolf was very clear in the minds of these men. And the Lord Jesus says to them, Look, fellas, I'm going to send you out to preach the gospel. And to give you a perspective of how it's going to be, it's going to be like being a sheep in the middle of a wolf pack. I must say, that's not exactly the most thrilling call to ministry I've ever heard. Sending them out as sheep, now that's a wonderful thought.

Christ is the good shepherd. He knows his sheep, he loves his sheep, he cares for his sheep. They know his voice as John 10 tells us, all those beautiful teachings. But the idea of being a sheep in the middle of a wolf pack. is the Lord's way of of making a graphic illustration of the helplessness and fearfulness of confronting a Christ-rejecting, God-hating world with the message of the kingdom.

And sometimes the wolves end up being among us. You may remember the Apostle Paul's words to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20. Paul says, I know after my departure, grievous wolves shall rise up among you, not sparing the flock. Paul writes again in Romans chapter 8, all day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Sometimes the wolves are on the outside, sometimes the wolves are on the inside. Masquerading in sheep. And I'm sure you all remember the wonderful passage in Matthew 7, the phrase that Jesus uses, the wolf in sheep's clothing, speaking of false prophets.

So the wolves are out there, Jesus says. And without me you are defenceless victims.

Now that would be enough to panic anybody. helpless, defenseless apostles. going out among God hating men, Christ rejecting men. Is it any wonder that the first word in verse 16 is the word, behold? That's a word of amazement.

He says, get a grip on this man. Plug into this, my new apostles. Behold. I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by a wolf pack.

Now the apostles might be thinking, no, wait a minute, Lord. Didn't you just give us power to heal the sick? cure leprosy and cast out demons and raise the dead? How come we're not the wolves going out to grab some sheep? We got all this power.

Like go out and get them boys tear them up for the gospel But Jesus says, no. They're the wolves. You're the sheep. It doesn't mean we're always going to lose or be destroyed. It means that we don't have the resources within ourselves to carry the gospel message effectively.

We are spiritual sheep. We are easily spooked, easily disoriented. easily lost. timid, non-combative, generally helpless. in desperate need of a shepherd.

That's why it's so wonderful when we read in John 10 that the shepherd, the good shepherd, gives his life for the sheep. We know he will defend us. My sheep hear my voice, Jesus says. I know them. They follow me.

They will never perish, neither shall anyone pluck them out of my Father's hand, because our security is not in us. It's in our shepherd. The Lord Jesus. Many years ago, my sister was who taught school for many years. I used to teach her.

She spent 37 years in the fourth grade. But she was the teacher in the fourth grade. But anyway, but you know how brothers are. She spent 37 years in the fourth grade. in a suburb of Detroit.

And uh and we were uh she came out to visit us a number of years ago and we've lived, as many of you know, kind of way out in the middle of nowhere. And at night you can hear the coyotes howl, and there's just not a whole lot of traffic around. And my sister says to me, You ever get scared out here? I said, you live in a suburb of Detroit and you're asking me if I get scared out here? Are you kidding?

Scared of what? Coyotes and prairie dogs. I mean, I mean, yeah, what, what, what, you know, but no, but anyway, you know, but there are times when you find yourself in a circumstance. Which, if you have tried to witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to find yourself in those circumstances where you feel a little insecure. The times that I've preached some funerals for 200 people, where there are two or three hundred people present, and I am quite certain that the overwhelming majority of the people sitting out there are unbelievers.

And I have been asked to do a sermon for someone who has passed away, and I'm sitting in the midst of this room thinking. You know there's probably hardly anybody on my side out there. It can be a little unnerving. if you if you let it get to you. But you just open the Word, preach the gospel, and do what God is telling you to do.

And if you are, I'm sure many of you have jobs where you are surrounded by unbelievers. You witness to folks in circumstances where you are surrounded by unbelievers. And maybe not just unbelievers, but people who are relatively hostile to the gospel. Who are irritated at the gospels? There are some people around us who are quite irritated at the gospel and irritated at what they perceive.

as having been done to them and brought to them by people who professed to be Christian, which unfortunately was true. But the Lord Jesus reminds us again our security. is not in us. Yes, I am sending you out. like a sheep surrounded by a wolf pack.

But he said, Your security is not in you, your security is in me. Our good shepherd will defend us. We do not need to be combative and forward and standing up for our rights and demanding respect and recognition. because our shepherd will take care of his sheep. Hold your finger here for just a moment and look at 2 Corinthians 11.

2 Corinthians 11. I'd like to remind you of a few verses, a few things that the Apostle Paul said. Many of you are undoubtedly familiar with this passage of Scripture. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. And I want to begin to read in verse 24.

This is the Apostle Paul speaking of his sufferings. From the Jews, five times I received. 40 stripes minus 1. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in the deep.

in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides the other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches. Then look at chapter 12 and verse 7. And Paul writes, And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, as much as God had revealed to him, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said, My grace is sufficient for you.

my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly I will boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I don't know if you're a Bible underliner or highlighter or if you are well familiar and have these verses memorized already.

But if you are a Bible highlighter, I would encourage you to mark that last phrase of verse 10, when I am weak, then I am strong. The Apostle Paul certainly in his entire ministry was a sheep in the midst of wolves. Just reminding us again, we do not rest in our power, we rest in the power of Jesus Christ. You look at all of the things that Paul endured, and then says, God gave me a thorn in the flesh, besides all of that. We do not rest in our power.

We're resting in the power of Jesus Christ. And when we're weak, then we're strong because we're resting in the power of Christ. When we are sheep in the midst of wolves, then we are being like the Lord Jesus. willing not to fight. willing to not be demanding, willing to suffer hardship or loss, if necessary, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But then back in chapter 10 of Matthew, if you'd flip back there. Jesus gives us a very interesting balancing word picture. He says in verse 16, Therefore, because I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves, Therefore, Be as wise as a snake. and as harmless as a dove.

Now, the harmless as a dove part, that's kind of an easy word picture for us. The harmless, the word harmless could also be translated innocent or pure. I like to think of harmless as a dove in practical terms, that you're not going to return evil for evil, as Romans 12 says. Do not return evil for evil. Do not be vengeful.

You are harmless as a dove. I like to think even further that if we are harmless as a dove, No one is going to be worried about what you will do to them. No one is going to be worried about what you'll say to them. or what you will say about them. or what you will think about them.

or how you might criticize them if they share something with you. If someone bears their soul to you, opens up in deep ways about their struggles, they will never have to worry about what you might do with the information. because you are harmless as a dove.

Someone might share something with you that you could really use to hurt them. But you won't. And they don't worry that you might. Because you're harmless as a dove. But the snake picture is a little harder until you study it out.

Because snakes are generally portrayed in fictional books and comics and movies as evil and sneaky and most people don't like them unless you're a science teacher. I'm sure that if that door opened and five snakes crawled into the auditorium. What would you do? No one said anything, but you're nodding your head like, I'm getting out of here. Yeah, yeah, most people don't, we don't like snakes.

They're always portrayed as being evil and terrible and so forth.

So unless you're a science teacher, you don't like snakes very much, which reminds me of one humorous missionary story I met in a missions conference once, a missionary to Haiti who had been a science teacher. And this witch doctor was dancing down the street with this gigantic snake, and of course, everyone was whirling the snake around and wrapping it around his neck and so forth. And the missionary, ex-science teacher, walked out in the middle of the street and says to the guy, Hey, can I play with your snake for a minute? and reached up and took the snake right out of his hand, began looking at him and stroking him, putting him doing the same thing the witch doctor was doing, and everybody's eyes were as big as marbles. And it just kind of cracks me up.

The witch doctor was just kind of sitting there like, oh man, you're stealing my thunder, man. I just, what's going on? But uh but unless you're a science teacher, you probably wouldn't want to do that.

So, I did a little research from the science perspective to see what snakes are like. and how they fit into the natural world. Really quite interesting. Snakes have a flexible skeleton that enables them to move very quietly in multiple directions, even though they have no limbs, obviously, no arms or legs. You know, I see Barbara laughing back there.

I remember one of your snake stories.

Okay, I won't tell it today anyway. All right. Snakes are generally camouflaged by their coloring, so they can move around undetected. That's why we don't like them. They can move around undetected.

They're very adaptable. They're found from the desert to the jungle, so they live in many different habitats. Their entire body structure, from the skeleton to the internal organs, is built for efficiency. They have specialized sensory organs, so they are highly aware of their surroundings. And as I read those things, I kind of began to see the picture.

Because the word Jesus used, translated into English as wise, means sensible. Careful. strategic. understanding your surroundings, navigating difficult situations, having practical awareness and good judgments.

So, Jesus is saying, I'm sending you out to represent me and speak of me and obey me and serve me. And many times you are going to feel like a sheep surrounded by a wolf pack. Therefore, Be aware of your surroundings. adapt to different situations. Know when to hide and when to run.

know when to stand firm and when to not. Be sensible, be strategic, learn to thrive for Christ in different kinds of situations. We just read of the Apostle Paul and all of his sufferings for Christ. Do you remember the situation in the book of Acts when the Jewish authorities had stirred up the crowd and gotten Paul arrested for preaching? They were tying him to the post and stripping him and getting ready to beat him, standard Roman procedure to get someone to tell the truth about what was going on.

And Paul looks at the centurion and says, Aren't Roman citizens supposed to get a hearing before they get beaten? Centurion says, yeah? I bought my citizenship at a very high price. Paul says, well, actually, I was born a Roman citizen. which would be the highest level of citizenship in the Roman Empire.

Centurion says Cut him down. Can't touch him without a hearing. I'll have a hearing tomorrow morning. What was Paul doing there? He was being as wise as a serpent.

He was understanding his surroundings. He was adapting to different situations. He was using his legal rights as an opportunity to continue preaching the gospel, which he did at his hearing the next day. You can read the whole story in Acts chapter 22 if you'd like to sometime. Wise as a serpent.

harmless as a dove.

So, Jesus is saying, I'm sending you out to represent me and speak of me and obey me and serve me. And many times you're going to feel like a sheep surrounded by a wolf pack. Therefore, Be wise like a snake. but be harmless like a dove. What are you willing to endure for the Lord Jesus?

Did you happen to remember as we were looking at these things that these word pictures that sheep? and doves are both sacrificial animals. Down through Old Testament history. Hundreds of thousands of sheep and doves had died as sacrifices, as offerings to the Lord. I am sending you out like a sheep, and I want you to act like a dove, Jesus says.

But still be as wise as a serpent. Be sharp. Be wise. Don't say stupid things. Don't react sinfully.

Rely on the power of God. You have power. You and I do as well. We have divine power on the one hand.

So the message of Jesus is unstoppable. The message of Christ on the cross is invincible. The cross brings victory. But on the other hand, we are sheep. And there is weakness and vulnerability in that.

And so, in serving Christ, and I can tell you, 45 years. As a missionary, 40 of those years in Montana. I can tell you, there is a tension between Invincibility and vulnerability. The power of God And the weakness of man. Because the power of God and the weakness of man is all rolled together by the grace of God into his sheep.

who carry his sacrificial message of forgiveness to the wolf pack of this lost world. Are you ready? And are you willing? to be a sheep in the midst of wolves. Are you ready to learn to be as wise as a serpent, and are you willing to be as harmless as a dove?

Because you are invincible with your message. But you are also vulnerable. As a sheep. We get to, that's one confusing thing many people struggle with today. They think because they have the message of the gospel, that they are invincible.

Well, the message is invincible. You are not invincible. The message is invincible, but you're not. I'm not. I could fill a notebook with the stupid mistakes I've made as a missionary in the last 45 years.

I am not invincible. But the message is. And God, in His tremendous power and His tremendous grace, He takes. sheep who are blind half the time. And can't see very far, and sheep who get lost and disoriented and easily spooked.

He takes sheep and he empowers them with the divine message of the cross.

So the message is invincible. But you and I are very vulnerable. And God, in His mercy, takes that invincibility and vulnerability, and He wraps it all together in sheep. And he sends us out there as sheep in the midst of wolves.

So my question's for you this morning. Are you ready for that? And are you willing? Let's pray. Father, we are grateful for your abounding grace.

Oh Lord, if we are honest with ourselves, we. recognize so easily our our vulnerability. Our foolishness, our mistakes. Or bumbling around, wishing we had said something differently in a witnessing venture. Witnessing or wishing we had handled a circumstance differently.

as we're trying to reach people for Christ. Lord, we are vulnerable. We are sheep. We are easily spooked and easily disoriented and easily lost. And yet the good shepherd has given his life for us.

and has and has handed us an invincible message.

So, Lord, may we keep that balance. May we be May we be courageous. and yet wise May we have an attitude like a dove and as harmless as a dove. Yet may we be as wise as a serpent. Looking for what you want us to do and maneuvering our way through challenging circumstances.

And understanding our surroundings, knowing what to say and when to say it and how to say it. Lord, may we come to grips with this wonderful blend of invincibility and vulnerability. And may we, Lord, be used by the power of God to touch this world for the cause of Christ. May we be ready and willing every day. In the name of our powerful Savior, we pray.

Amen.