In the sermon titled 'When You Are Caught Unaware,' Chris Hayzlip uses Genesis chapter 3 to explore how believers can effectively handle objections to God's Word. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having firsthand knowledge of scripture to prevent vulnerability to doubt and inaccuracies. Hayzlip argues that the serpent's method of sowing doubt in Eve's mind serves as a warning about the dangers of hearsay and inaccuracies in understanding God's Word. The sermon delves into the need for believers to adopt both strategic and tactical approaches when sharing their faith, emphasizing the importance of patience, teamwork, and listening. Hayzlip highlights the Socratic method as a powerful tool to engage people through questions, allowing for a deeper understanding and preparation for future discussions. The ultimate goal is not to save souls, which only God can do, but to persuade and win them over with wisdom, grace, and gentleness, all while tearing down false beliefs and misconceptions.

Alright, if you would turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3. Back at my home church I teach the adult Sunday school class and we've been doing a series of lessons on biblical apologetics. And so many of apologetics courses begin by laying a firm foundation on God's Word. And we're going to do that too, but one thing I want to address in particular is what do you do when you're caught unawares? You know so many times we run into people in our daily lives and sometimes we either overhear a conversation that we want to jump into or maybe we're sharing God's Word with somebody and somebody overhears us and they start attacking us with objections and you know what about this what about that and sometimes we're caught unaware how do we deal with situations like that That's one of the things we're going to address today.

So let's begin by reading our text, Genesis chapter 3 and begin in verse 1. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath said ye shall not eat of it neither shall you touch it lest ye die and The serpent said unto the woman He shall not surely die For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's, knowing good and evil." What I want us to think about for a few moments is what can we learn from this example? God said everything that the prophets wrote was given to us for an example.

So this is an example to us. What can we learn? What can we glean from it? Well, we see here that the serpent, what did he do with Eve? He sowed seeds of doubt in her mind.

She had received the Word of God and already the serpent is calling into question what God said. Excuse me. Now we have three reasons to study this. First, I want us to note that this is a powerful weapon against hearsay. Why is this tactic so effective?

Well consider that when God gave the command to eat of all the trees of the Garden of Eden but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve had not yet been created. It was just Adam. So we don't know this for sure, but I would say it's likely that Eve received the instruction from Adam and not first hand from God himself. So you might say that this was a powerful weapon against hearsay. Because Eve didn't receive the instruction from God directly, pretty much it was hearsay.

Adam heard it and then he repeated it to Eve, right? So what we can glean from this is when we don't have first-hand knowledge of God's Word, we are more vulnerable to attack by our enemy. And this sowing seeds of doubt is a powerful weapon against anybody who doesn't have firsthand knowledge of what they're talking about. Secondly, it is a powerful weapon against inaccuracies. If we go back and read Genesis chapter 2 verses 16 and 17 it says, And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shall not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die." How does this differ from what Eve told the serpent? Well somewhere along the line there was a certain clause that got added to God's Word. What are we warned against in Revelation 22? Not to add anything to God's Word or to take anything away from it. Somewhere along the line, the neither shall ye touch it clause got added.

God did not say that they weren't allowed to touch it. For all we know, they could have climbed the tree, picked the fruit, and played baseball with the fruit as long as they didn't eat it. So we learn from this that sowing seeds of doubt is a powerful weapon against inaccuracy or error. Finally, sowing seeds of doubt is a powerful weapon that cuts both ways. Here's a problem the serpent has.

His words were recorded in God's Word. God saw fit to put that discussion between him and the woman, Eve, in his word for our example. And what does God tell us about his word? It is sharper than any two-edged sword. What is the key quality about a two-edged sword?

It cuts both ways, right? So if Satan can use this tactic against the children of God, can not the children of God use the same tactic against his children? Yes, and that's what we're going to learn today. Alright Proverbs chapter 11 verse 30 tells us, The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. Let's think about something.

In order to be effective of what we're trying to do, when we're trying to share the Word of God with people, we've got to begin, as they say, with the end in mind. What is our purpose? I've seen so many people forget what they're after when they're trying to share God's Word with people. So many times I've seen them go up and start rebuking people right away. Now if we observe Jesus Christ and the way he conducted his ministry he had two ways of approaching people one harsh one gentle.

Now the harsh approach was reserved for those who knew better, but didn't do what they knew they should do. For example, the scribes, the Pharisees, the lawyers, those whom he called hypocrites, Right? But how was his approach with everybody else? It was with meekness, humbleness, gentleness. He approached them gently.

He spoke to them Gently. So we need to consider what are we trying to accomplish when we share God's Word with people. Sometimes we do need to rebuke people and sometimes we do need to admonish them. Other times we need to speak to them gently. Why?

Because He that winneth souls is wise. Sometimes it is our goal to win souls. What does that mean to win souls? You ever think about that? Can you save a soul?

No. Only God can save a soul. So why are we told that he that winneth souls is wise? What is a soul? The soul is the house of the intellect of man or even an angel or God himself.

It is that consciousness that continues on for eternity even long after this mortal body dies and rots away. So what does it mean to win a soul if it doesn't mean to save it? What it means is to convince, to persuade, to win over to your side. We may not be able to save souls, but wouldn't it be wonderful if we could convince them, persuade them. You know, Paul spent a lot of time arguing and reasoning in the synagogue's and trying to persuade people.

We can't save their souls, but that's up to God. But we can persuade, and we need to be persuasive. Now, We have a problem many times when we try to approach people and share God's Word with them, or even when they try to interrupt us when we're trying to share God's Word. Proverbs 29, 11 pretty much sums this up. Here's the problem.

A fool uttereth all his mind but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. What's our problem? We tend to talk too much. You know we need to spend more time listening. It's a lost art listening is.

Listen to your conversations every day, just with your family members and anybody you come in contact with. Try to conduct this experiment. See how many times you interrupt somebody else and how many times you get interrupted. You know what that means when you're interrupting or somebody's interrupting you? You're not listening.

Try to study to be quiet. That's what God's word says, right? Study to be quiet. Listen. Why?

Because guess what? You're going to receive a free education if you let the other person do the talking. And we'll get into more of that in a moment. Turn if you will to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Part of the reason why we always feel like we have to talk too much when we share God's word with somebody is, so many times we feel like it's gonna be our first, last, and only encounter with this person, right?

So we feel like we gotta dump everything on them all at once, you know? Let me start at Genesis and you stay there and listen to me till I get to Revelation. And then when I'm done, you're dismissed. And I've done my job, right? Studies have shown the person has an average attention span at best of 17 minutes.

Children of God are amazing people because you can sit here for 30 to 45 minutes or even an hour and a half depending on how long we speak, right? Just kidding, not going that long. But it does show the benefits of attending church. It increases your attention span. But anyway, so people have very shortened attention spans.

Sometimes you've got to deliver things a piece at a time. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3, starting at verse 6, I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." What do we learn from this? Sharing God's Word is a team effort. There are some members of this team that sow the seed, some water, but we no matter what we're doing we got to remember it's God that gives the increase.

Remember we can't save souls. All we can do is try to persuade, try to win souls. So don't think that just because you've had a chance encounter with somebody and God's opened the door for you to witness to them that you have to dump everything on them at one time. You don't know when you have that chance encounter whether you're sowing seed or watering. Just take advantage of the opportunity.

Give them what they need to hear at that moment. Give them as much as they can handle at that moment and then stop. Don't worry about it. Don't forget we serve a sovereign God. If that person is elect, God is going to use his word to save their soul regardless.

And if you don't get the time to sow the seed and water, don't worry, he will send somebody after you to finish the job. It is effective teamwork when we work together this way. Winning souls, therefore, is a work that requires both time and patience. Turn, if you will, to 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. So what do we need to be doing many times when we encounter the children of the devil?

Well I like what Ronald Reagan once said. He said it's not that liberals don't know anything, it's that so much of what they think they know just isn't so. Well this is the way it is with the children of the devil. They know many things, but the problem is so much of what they know just isn't so. Why?

Because they have sat at the feet of the father of lies. And they have learned lies. And this is a problem. We live in a generation where post-modernism, and if you don't know what that is, I encourage you to go look it up and learn about it. It's a scary teaching.

And just a brief introduction to postmodernism. Postmodernism teaches that not only can you not know truth, but there's no such thing as truth. Truth is relative. What's true for you isn't necessarily true for me. Well, that's a lie.

Truth is singular, it is eternal, and it is unchanging. What is true today was true tomorrow is true to yesterday. What's true for you is true for me and true for everybody. Truth has amazing qualities, I'm not going to get into that now, that's another sermon. But anyway, they've been trained to ignore facts, they've been trained to duck logic, and they've been trained to apply twisted reasoning to everything and therefore when you encounter somebody who's been indoctrinated in post-modernism it's often very difficult to talk to them because You'll say well, you know, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, right?

The light. And they'll say, yeah, what is truth? They start sounding like Pilate, right? What is truth? Well, now you've got to get into a discussion about what is truth and explain what truth is and then you've got to prove to them that truth is true and it gets very convoluted.

Well, part of our job is tearing down what they think they know. Let's read in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 starting in verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations in every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having in readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. So part of our duty is not just share the gospel with them, But we also have to tear down what Satan has taught them.

And this is quite fun really. Especially when you start seeing light bulbs go off on people's heads and they start realizing, hey everything I've been taught, everything I've believed up to this point is a lie. That is so fun to see and so it's a joy and a privilege that this is our duty. Tear down those strongholds that Satan has built up. Cast down every imagination that goes against the knowledge of God.

It's a wonderful thing. Matthew 16, 18 says, And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it You know I used to be when I read that verse I thought I imagined the gates of hell coming on the offense and I'm on the defense and trying to defend against it. No! Guess what? Gates don't move.

They stay attached to the fortress They're on. This verse demonstrates that we're supposed to be on the offensive. The children of Satan are supposed to be hiding in their strongholds with their gates closed. And it's saying here that the gates of hell will not prevail against us. Isn't that wonderful?

We need to be taking the battle to them, for they cannot withstand the pillar in the ground of the truth. Matthew 10, 16 says, behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves When you go to war there's two different things you think about all the time strategy and tactics Strategy is all about positioning Trying to gain positions of strength getting the higher ground We do that as the saints of God by acquiring knowledge, by building up our knowledge of God's Word because that is the firm foundation, It's the rock we stand upon. The rock from which if we stand upon it we cannot be moved. But once you come in contact with the enemy it's no longer about strategy. It is now about tactics.

Notice it says be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. To be wise as serpents, What is wisdom? Wisdom is the skillful application of knowledge. So to be wise, to skillfully apply knowledge, you have to spend some time getting knowledge, right? So therefore, to be wise as serpents takes a lot of preparation.

But it doesn't stop there, it continues and it says, be harmless as doves. What does that take? That takes a lot of diplomacy. We have to be gracious, we have to be kind. We never want to inflict harm on the souls we're trying to win.

When we start tearing down strongholds, we're attacking the beliefs, We're not attacking them. We're attacking the lies. We're not attacking them. Be gracious and kind. It's one thing if they're offended by God's Word.

God tells us people are going to be offended by His Word, But it's another thing if they're offended by us. That we don't want to happen. Turn if you will to Colossians chapter 4. So now how do we take these ideas and apply them when we go out into the world. How do we take these concepts and put them to good use?

Paul gave good instruction to the Colossians and Colossians chapter 4 verses 5 and 6 he says walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how ye ought to answer every man. Now these two verses give us three key points that we want to focus on. First it says, walk in wisdom toward them that are without. Now we said that Wisdom is the skillful application of knowledge and therefore its prerequisite is knowledge.

Therefore, what this tells us is, we need, in order to walk in wisdom, we need to spend time in God's Word studying it. But not just merely studying it, but we need to be obeying it not just hearers of God's Word But doers of God's Word why? Because when we start doing God's Word when we start applying it to our lives We start experiencing its truth when it says for us to keep ourselves from lying and we start telling the truth and we start seeing the benefits of telling the truth all the time and we also start experiencing some of the hardships that come along with telling the truth. One thing I love that my father-in-law says all the time and I've adopted this he says you got to see both near and far and that's one of the benefits to age. Young people, problem they have is they think all the experiences they have right now is the truth of everything they know.

The problem is so many times cause and effect can be 20-30 years apart, right? And so the benefit of age is the longer you live, the longer you get to see the long-term consequences of your behavior in younger years. So as we apply God's word to our life, over time we start seeing the long-term benefits of it. And this will help us when we start sharing God's word to others, because we can start sharing our experiences with them and showing them how it has benefited us even though it appeared in the short term to be harmful over the long term it did great and wonderful things for us. Now the second part, verse 6, let your speech always be with grace.

What does this mean? It means be nice, Be kind, be gentle when you're sharing God's Word to others, especially if you're wanting to win their souls. Treat them as you would have others treat you, right? The golden rule. First Peter chapter 3 verse 15 and 16 gives us more insight on this.

He says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ." You know, any time you start getting a little bit mean with somebody, the enemy is going to jump on that. You take the current presidential elections here in the United States, You got Hillary Clinton, which can go out and Pretty much steal everything the United States has and then if Donald Trump steals a cookie, what does the enemy harp on? Oh, he stole a cookie You know Well, that's what they're gonna do with us Remember our lives are an open book to everyone. Read by everybody.

And they're going to and because we hold to such a high standard as the Word of God They're gonna hold us to that standard strictly even though they themselves don't hold themselves to that standard We are going to be closely scrutinized So be kind be gracious So that when they accuse us They'll be ashamed how will they be ashamed? Because of all the witnesses we'll have around us. That'll say, no, that doesn't sound like the character of person I know. Colossians 4 6 the second part says seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." What does this mean? It means be tactical.

Keep in mind that there are some things that we do not want to do. We do not want to overwhelm people. We do not want to get in a fight with them. We do not want to make them angry and we do not want to become angry ourselves. Why?

Because when people become angry, they stop listening. And we want them to listen. So, going back to Genesis chapter 3, We see the serpent using an interesting tactic. Throughout time it's been giving different names. The most famous person to use this tactic and therefore is named after him to this day, was Socrates.

It's called the Socratic method. In Socrates, he had a college. And His method of teaching was he would not give his students any information. He would not tell them anything. He always asked questions.

It was up to them to do the research, find the answers, or use reason and logic to come up with the answers on their own. And if they come up with a wrong answer, he would just ask another question, kind of guide the conversation along and guide them in the right way in which they should go. It's a very powerful method. I don't know if any of you like detective shows but back in the seventies there was one called Columbo and He was very famous for using this method. He would always, you know, go in, listen to the criminal, and the criminal would tell him his version of what happened.

Of course, it's always wrong. And Columbus would go, oh, okay, yeah, gotcha. All right, I'll call you if I need any more information. And as he's walking the door, walking out the door, what does he do? He always stops and says, oh, there's something that's bothering me.

Mind if I ask you a question? And then that was it, right? After that it was just a series of questions. Questions are very powerful tools as we see with Satan here. Satan did not directly attack Eve because if he had directly attacked her she would have put up her guard and then it would have been over for the devil.

But he began by asking a question. Why? People love to talk. When you ask a question, there is something in people's minds that assumes you're ignorant and they're the teacher. You're the student, they're the teacher, and pride.

Well let me share with you what I know. Who has more pride than the children of the devil? The one who was thrown out of heaven for the sin of pride. So why not use that against them? Let us become the student and let them become the teacher, or let them think that they're teaching.

So what we're going to learn is how to sow seeds of doubt by asking questions. First we're going to ask a strategic question, a carefully placed question. And this comes in really handy especially when people catch you off guard and ask you something you don't know the answer to. Let's say you know so many times people will bombard you with something they've recently studied but you haven't studied in 10-15 years or maybe not at all. So just begin by saying what do you mean by that?

That's a powerful question. And here's why. So many times, people regurgitate what they've heard. So much of what they know is hearsay. Sound familiar?

You know, people in this world, they go to grade school and they get bombarded with evolution, right? And what do parents tell their children When they send them off to school, obey your teacher, listen, behave, learn a lot. They set up that public school teacher as being an authority that isn't to be questioned. Think about that for a moment. That is very dangerous.

And then they get out of school. And then they're bombarded with movies, television, books, magazines, and this lie keeps getting reinforced. You know, you cannot even watch a movie just for entertainment anymore. Don't turn off your mind when you watch television or movies because you're still being indoctrinated in the devil's lies. So this bombardment is almost going on 24-7.

And so many times people regurgitate everything they've heard And they often don't know what they're talking about. For example, you might hear somebody say, well, everything's relative. There's no such thing as truth. Everything is relative. Ask them, What do you mean by that?

Huh? Yeah, what do you mean by relative? What do you mean by everything? You know, so many times when people say everything, they don't mean EVERYTHING. So the good place to start is define your terms.

What do people mean by what they say? And often you'll get dumb looks from them. They don't know. So few times have they been questioned. Now what you've done is you've caused them to stop.

You know one of the things I love about reading how Jesus dealt with the Pharisees and the scribes is often they come and attack him and he'd turn around and ask one question and shut them up. It's like man I wish I could do that. One question, just shut people up. Well, you'll find you can shut some people up with just this one question. What do you mean by that?

Well, I mean, I don't know. Well, the benefit of asking this question is if you don't know what they're talking about, and they do, guess what? Sit back, shut up, and listen. You're about to get a free education. Because they will tell you everything you need to know.

And it doesn't matter if what they think is accurate. Like say for example, their idea or concept of evolution isn't what's being taught in schools. Doesn't matter. Start where they are. Because what you don't want to do is start going on the offense against something they don't even mean.

Like if they're talking about evolution, and what they mean is a gradual change due to variation within a species, well you don't want to attack that. We believe in that. That really does happen. We have scientific proof to show that that happens. But if by evolution they mean going from one species to another over millions of years, well then that's something different altogether.

So just because they use a word, don't assume you know what they mean by it. Let them teach you what they mean by it. All right now you will encounter some people who have studied what they're talking about and so they'll tell you what they mean and so now you've established what all the terms mean. Your next question should be well how did you come to that conclusion? This is the question that sows the seeds of doubt in their minds.

Really? How'd you come to that conclusion? Well, I did the research myself. How many people you're gonna find you actually did the research themselves? Oh really?

So, man evolved from ape. Right. Okay. How'd you come to that conclusion? I'll tell you.

You might have to ask this question a few times. How did you come to that conclusion? And you know, you can often back people into a corner by asking this. And The reason you want to ask, how did you come to that conclusion? Take for example, somebody comes up and says to you, there is no God.

What is our natural reaction to that? We want to go out of our way to prove to them that there is a God, right? A fool uttereth all his mind. Let me teach you a simple rule. Whoever makes the claim bears the burden of proof.

You claim there is no God? Okay. How did you come to that conclusion? Can you prove to me there is no God? They can't.

And usually that'll shut them up. I like what I always think of like Ricky Ricardo, right? In the I Love Lucy shows, somebody says there is no God. You've got a lot of explaining to do. So start explaining.

How can you prove to me there is no God? How did you come to that conclusion? And oftentimes you'll be met with blank stares and dumb looks because all of a sudden they've realized Their beliefs have been based upon blind faith And With this question we're finding out not only what they believe but why they believe it. Now what they believe and why they believe it is good for us to learn even if we are ignorant on the subject because guess what? Remember what I said earlier about you don't have to do everything at once in one conversation.

Even if you're never going to see this person again, guess what? You've just received an education. You've now learned what do you need to go home and study so that next time you get a conversation with somebody who talks about the subject, you will be prepared and ready to go on to the next level. So use this opportunity to receive an education. Absorb what they're saying.

Listen to what they say. And sometimes you can just walk away simply by saying, well, you've given me a lot of things to consider, thank you. You know what that does? It shows them that you were listening to them and not just listening, trying to think of a counter attack. You ever see that in some people when you talk to them?

They listen just long enough to where they can catch a certain word or phrase and then they interrupt you and they do a counter attack, right? Well, that immediately shows them that you weren't listening to them. Or you're not patient enough to hear the context of what they're saying. But when we patiently listen and let them do all the explaining and then walk away saying thank you you give me a lot to consider