He That Winneth Souls Is Wise No. 12

All we have to do is look at His creation to see this is true. However, this is not always true among mankind. Often men try as hard as they can to make things similar..

Illus: Many people visit fast food restaurants from time to time. Have you ever noticed that no matter where you go across America, several of the different franchises look alike. Sometimes it seems that even the employees look alike. The point I am trying to make is, whoever owns those restaurants does not believe in variety, that's for sure!

This is not the case with God. He is a God of variety! That is evidenced in things we so clearly see every day. For example:

• Every mountain is different from all other mountains.

• Every river, pond, and creek is different from all other rivers, ponds, or creeks.

• Every tree and shrub is different from all other trees and shrubs.

• We are told that no two flowers are exactly the same.

• We are told no snowflakes are the same.

• We are told that no two fingerprints are alike.

• We are told that no two "voice" prints are the same.

And if you want further proof of the fact that God is a God of variety, just look at each other. Every person is CREATED in his own UNIQUE way. God made every one of us different.

Let us look further at-

I. THE UNIQUENESS IN OUR CREATION.

Man is God's masterpiece in creation. The scripture reveals that. Look at Psalm 8:3-9 you see the psalmist recognized the UNIQUENESS in the creation of mankind. Everything God created in this whole universe is marvelous, but man is His masterpiece. Although He created every man with certain like physical characteristics, when we look closely, the fact that God is a God of variety becomes obvious again. Every person is UNIQUE in his own way. In every family you will find certain similarities, in fact, we often wish our children would not be so much like us.

Illus: One dad, who had a hard time in English when he was in school, had a son who was just like him.

The little fellow told his teacher, "I aint got no pencil."

The teacher corrected him, "It's 'I don't have a pencil.'"

The little fellow, dismayed, said, "You don't got one and I don't too."

Again the teacher corrected him, "It's 'We don't have a pencil.'"

The little fellow said, "What happened to all them pencils!"

Illus: One day a little boy came home and told his dad, "Dad, a kid at school told me that I look just like you." The proud father asked, "And what did you say?" The son said, "Nothing, he was bigger than I was."

Seriously, yes you will find similarities among family members, yet each individual is different in many ways. Even identical twins are not truly identical. Every person is UNIQUE in his own way. Some may look so much like others that it is hard to see any difference, but no two people are exactly alike. You will never find anyone exactly like you. We also find a...

II. UNIQUENESS IN OUR CULTURE.

Because of our uniqueness in our creation and because of the uniqueness in our culture, people have to be evangelized in a way that is acceptable to them. If we are going to be effective at soul winning we have to have respect for the individual's UNIQUENESS in creation, and the UNIQUENESS of each individual's CULTURE.

If we try to throw everyone into a mold we have devised, and expect them to conform to that mold, we will not be effective.

Illus: That would be as foolish as going to a shoe store to buy a pair of shoes and finding the store owner only stocked one size shoe.

Illus: That would be like a restaruant owner who liked spinach only offering spinach on his menu every day.

Illus: Every good fisherman will have a tackle box full of different kinds of bait and sizes of hooks etc., because he KNOWS that just one thing will not work on all kinds of fish.

Every individual is UNIQUE in his own way and we have to respect the UNIQUENESS and THE CULTURE of every individual if we are going to be effective soul winners. Paul told the Colossians, (4:6), "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." To illustrate his point, Paul used a substance everyone of that day was familiar with.

Illus: The housewife knows that food is not very tasty without being seasoned with salt. Paul knew, if a person ate anything that had not been seasoned, he would not like the way it tasted and would reject it.