Winning Souls
Edited directly from the sermon transcript of Matthew Miller’s message at Highland Hills Church of Christ on July 5, 2026. Adapted for length and readability while preserving his voice and message.
Legacy has to do with something we leave behind. Every one of us will leave something behind, whether we realize it or not. Our lives are about influence.
The question isn’t whether we will influence others. It’s what kind of influence we will have. What we leave behind is the fruit our life produces. If we think of ourselves as a tree growing in this world, what kind of fruit is it bearing?
Proverbs 11:30 says, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.”
Righteous living is life-giving. That’s the important thing I want us to get.
Throughout this chapter, Solomon contrasts different ways of being in the world: integrity and deceit, generosity and selfishness, wisdom and folly. Verse 30 brings those contrasts to a climax. Righteousness is never merely personal. It’s influential. Being righteous is fruitful.
I love this image because fruit is meant to multiply. If you’re growing an orchard, you don’t want to go out after tending the trees and find one single apple hanging on a limb. You want fruit across the branches in abundance, for you and for others.
My house is surrounded by oak and hickory trees. Soon our vehicles will look like they have hail damage because those hickory nuts rain down in abundance. The point isn’t just the single tree. It’s how that tree spreads its life through the forest.
That’s a powerful image for how we live in this world. Psalm 1 describes the righteous person as a tree planted by flowing water. Jesus tells us that a tree is known by its fruit. In John 15, he says we cannot bear fruit unless we are connected to him.
But Proverbs calls this a particular kind of tree: a tree of life.
We’ve heard that before. At the beginning, in the garden where God placed humanity, stands the tree of life. Sin brings a loss of access to it. At the end of the Bible, in Revelation, we see it again in the garden city of new creation, with leaves for the healing of the nations.
The tree of life represents God’s life flowing into his creation. The righteous become a place where that life is experienced.
When you live as God calls you to live, people who encounter you don’t encounter perfection. They encounter God’s life flowing through the person he is making you to be, through your personality, background, and the places you inhabit.
All this imagery comes together in Jesus. Abiding in him produces fruit. Apart from him, we can do nothing. This is more than good behavior. It’s becoming a channel of God’s grace because we have received such profound kindness.
The proverb’s second line belongs with the first: “He who wins souls is wise.” Winning souls is often reduced to techniques, public speaking, or knowing every argument for God’s existence. It matters that you understand why you believe and can share the reason for your hope. But Proverbs carries a broader idea: rescuing, persuading, drawing people to life.
The person who lives by God’s way invites others into it through their life. That includes evangelism, but also discipleship, mentoring, parenting, reconciliation, and encouragement.
Wisdom is discerning between good and evil and reflecting God’s way to the world. Solomon doesn’t say the most talented person wins souls. He says the person who wins souls is wise. Wisdom is measured by who becomes more alive through God’s influence in our lives.
Jesus came to seek and save the lost. He gave us the charge to teach what he taught and baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Believers become ambassadors of the gift God has extended to us. The church becomes an orchard of life-giving trees.
How do we become those trees? Anyone who has tried growing something knows you can’t manufacture the outcome. You can cultivate the conditions, protect a plant from brutal heat, and give it water and nutrients. You can’t make fruit grow.
The first question is, “Am I deeply rooted in Christ?” In John 15, the order is to abide in Jesus, then bear fruit.
We sometimes fear evangelism because we imagine walking up cold to someone and saying, “Do you know Jesus? Let me give you ten points.” A single conversation can change a life. I’ve seen it happen. More often, it comes through relationships with people whose lives show God’s beauty.
Proverbs paints a picture of ordinary faithfulness: living with integrity, speaking with hope, and extending mercy.
There’s a powerful scene in Les Misérables. Jean Valjean takes shelter in a bishop’s home, steals from him, and is caught. The police bring him back with what he has stolen. Instead of thanking them for catching a criminal, the bishop gives Valjean the silver candlesticks too.
That fictional scene gives us a powerful picture of mercy extended, changing a person’s life. By living and listening well, we grow invitations into the life God has for another person.
Better evangelism starts with deeper people. The deeper you are with Jesus, the more naturally that life and invitation will come.
We’ve been talking throughout this series about a one-person focus. Have you identified that person? Have you invited them to dinner, to walk a trail, or simply to spend time together?
Righteous living includes sharing both the good and the bad. Pretending you’ve never done anything wrong is inauthentic. We need to point people through our pain to Christ and the healing he brings, giving them hope through the hope we’ve found ourselves. That takes honesty and transparency.
Live this week so that someone is more alive because they encounter Christ through you. Let your home, workplace, and conversations consistently bring life to the people you know.
One tree can bear fruit. If just one of us takes this seriously, there will be fruit. It may not be immediate; it may come down the line. But an orchard transforms the whole landscape.
What would change if all of us did this work? How many people might say, “I was at the bottom. I didn’t know where to turn. You pointed me to the one who could help and heal. You pointed me to Jesus”?
Highland Hills can be an orchard of life that transforms our community. We can look for people who are weary and need shade, whose souls are hungry. Seeing Christ’s grace in our own lives gives us courage to extend it to people at their worst, because that’s where Christ found us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The Bible begins in a garden and ends in a garden city, with the tree of life at the center. Through the terrible sacrifice of the cross comes access to God again. Jesus offers us life and makes us new.
Will you embrace that work? And if you have, what is keeping you from producing the fruit God wants to grow in your life?
