Sharpening the Blade of Your Life

For our text in second second Kings chapter number six.

Someone said that revival is the church falling in love with Jesus all over again.

Pastor Sexton will often say that revival is a new beginning of obedience to God.

How many of you are grateful that we serve a God of second chances?

How many of you used up your second chance a thousand times ago?

Here in our story, we read of a man that lost his edge as a Christian.

I recently read the story of a young man who took a job, though he was fairly unqualified, took a job as a lumberjack.

And he just determined he would be a great success.

He was determined that he would work harder than anyone cutting down trees.

And he started out pretty strong.

He thought he was excelling because when others took a break, he worked through them.

He didn't take his break, he didn't take lunch.

He worked and labored and labored and labored until the end of his second week, the boss came to him and said, You're fired.

Fired.

He said, I worked harder than everyone.

And the manager said, That might be true, but your production has fallen significantly.

He said, I don't understand.

He said, I've worked harder than everyone has worked, and now you're firing me.

And then the boss asked him a question.

How often do you stop to sharpen your axe blade?

He said, I never stopped.

Always striving without the edge, the power.

Ineffective in his labor.

I know a lot of Christians who've lost their edge.

I myself at times have lost mine too.

And we can continue cutting down trees, or we can allow the Spirit of God to give us our edge back, that we can move forward for the glory of God.

Second Kings chapter 6, verse 1.

2 Kings 6:1

And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us.

Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thee fence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there that we may dwell.

And he answered, Go ye.

And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants.

And he answered, I will go.

So he went with them, and when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood.

But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water.

And he cried and said, Alas, master, for it was borrowed.

And the man of God said, Where fell it?

And he showed him the place.

And he cut down a stick and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim.

Therefore said he, Take it up to thee, and he put out his hand and took it.

We have here in our passage a story of progress, of expansion.

Elisha, this great prophet who had received the mantle of Elijah, was in the work of training other prophets.

It's pretty awesome, not just to be called by God, but to equip others who are themselves called by God.

It feels as if Elisha got a hold of that passion greater than Elijah did.

It was Elijah that prayed, It is enough, O Lord, it is enough.

O take away my life, for I'm not better than my father's.

And God said, Get back to work.

Go anoint Elisha to be prophet in your room.

And it's Elisha here that creates the school of the prophets, investing in these young men to speak the word of God.

And they came to Elisha in verse one and said, This place where we live with you is just cramped.

It's entirely too small.

Can we get into a building program?

And verse two, let us go, we pray thee, even to Jordan, and take thee fence every man a beam, and make us a place there where we may dwell.

And he said, Sure, go at it.

Let's build on to our ministry.

And verse 3, one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants.

And he answered, I'll go.

So he went with them, and they came to the Jordan, and they began to cut down some wood, and as one was cutting down a particular tree with a borrowed axe, the axe head fell off this borrowed axe blade or this axe handle into the water.

And of course, he acknowledges what has happened and then comes to the man of God.

So the first thought I want you to see in our passage tonight is when you lose your edge, you first have to acknowledge that it's gone.

As one was felling a beam, the axe had fell into the water.

Do you remember the story of Samson?

Samson was mightily used of God.

Every flannel graph, every cartoon I've ever seen of Samson is unbiblical in nature.

He looks like a Gold's gym walking advertisement.

He's got bulging biceps and thighs the size of cedar beams, and he's so big and strong, and that's not what the Bible portrays of him at all.

He's a man on whom the Spirit of God comes.

And when the Spirit of God comes on him, he can do Herculean things.

He doesn't drink alcohol, he's not allowed his hair to be shorn, he's not touched a dead animal, and the Spirit of God comes upon him, and he uses him to free the children of Israel from the power of the Philistines.

And he goes out and he performs miraculous things, and people are amazed in wonder at the exploits of Samson.

Till finally the Philistines have had enough of this Hebrew that is constantly afflicting them.

And Delilah is contracted to find out what makes this man who he is.

And he taunts her with riddles and with excuses and with distractions, and finally, day after day, he vexed her with his questions.

And by the way, can I just tell you that's what the serpent will do in your life?

He will come day by day looking for a toehold in your life.

And finally, the day you allow a toehold in your life is the day Satan might gain a stronghold in your life.

And finally, she wears his conviction so thinly that he tells her all his heart.

You see this flowing hair I have?

He says, if you cut it, I'll be like any other man.

Well, there's an interesting part of that statement, and that is once God has touched Samson, he can be like no other man.

Because he's been set apart by God.

She cuts his hair, she begins to shake him.

Samson, Samson, the Philistines be upon thee.

And you know the story.

The Bible says he arose and shook himself.

And he wished not.

The Holy Spirit was removed from him.

Oh, I'm saying in this passage, the first thing that must be acknowledged that we have lost our edge.

We've lost our first love.

There's the recognition of our place with God.

There's a recognition that there used to be a time we read God's word with greater sincerity when tears, warm, salty tears, would fill our eyes as we thought about the love of Christ and the grace of Christ and the forgiveness of Christ and the plan of Christ and his mercy to others through us.

If there were ever a time Jesus meant more to us than he means now, we have lost our edge.

I want to say that part of having social media and being addicted, so to speak, to the modern electronic stimulation of our minds and our curiosities, we've become callous to the needs of others.

We are cyber celebrators of pain in the lives of others.

We lose our blush, we begin to celebrate it.

Videos go viral that make us laugh that should have made us cry.

We've lost our edge.

If our attendance, our faithfulness was ever greater and more consistent than it is today, we've lost our edge.

As one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water.

And you can take a handle and beat that tree all day long, but that tree's not coming down.

You have to recognize you've lost your edge.

But notice the second thing here.

The Bible says in verse 5, the axe head fell into the water and he cried and said, Alasmaster, for it was borrowed.

Just borrowed.

We speak of our things, our life, what we're going to do with our life and our time and our possessions and our family.

And we ought to speak of that which belongs to God.

It all belongs to God.

It's just borrowed.

Alas, Master, it was borrowed.

And the man of God said, verse 6, can I just use the modern vernacular?

Where did you lose it?

And he said, I lost it right there.

Now I want to ask you a question, and I'm praying the Holy Spirit will ask you the question and that you'll answer him in your own spirit tonight.

If you've lost your edge, can I ask you where you lost your edge?

Where did you lose it?

Sometimes I misplace things.

Anybody misplace things?

How many of you men misplace things?

Raise your hand.

Okay, if your husband's hand is not up, ladies, will you raise both of them, one for yourself and one for him?

Okay, he he misplaces things.

And I'll be looking for something.

And you know what my wife asked me?

She asked me a question that bothers me every time she asks it.

Where's the last place you saw it?

And I incredulously say, I've already looked there.

There's a second question people ask, did you find it yet?

If I found it, I wouldn't still be looking for it.

Or did you lose it?

You lost the edge, a certain place in your Christian life.

And many times we can't get it back until we go to that place.

That place.

That conversation that you had with someone, where bitterness and anger and struggle came into your relationship with that person and now is manifesting in your relationship with God, you not only acknowledge that you've lost your edge, but you'd be wise to go back to that very place where you lost it.

The first time you sinned that sin and felt such a guilt and conviction about it, that has become just a minor nuisance of trouble in your own soul.

You might find it where you lost it.

May God's Spirit help us to reveal to us not just the fact that we're not where we ought to be, but reveal to us where we lost that red-hot passion that we once had for God.

He said, I lost it right here.

When I lost my temper, I lost it right there.

When I lied, I lost it right there.

When I robbed from God, I lost it right there.

Did you know that every sin in our life is based on a false belief we have about God?

What's the false belief that you had about God that led you to that sin?

And it'd be wise for us to go back to that place and say, God, I'm not where I need to be, but I know I know where I lost my edge.

I'm gonna go back.

I'm gonna go back to that place.

And he did.

The Bible says in verse 6, when the man of God said, Where fell it?

And he he showed him the place, and and he cut down a stick and cast it in thither.

And the iron did swim.

Now that's confusing.

He took a stick, cast it into the water, and the iron did swim.

Well, obviously the Bible's talking about a miracle here.

A scientific miracle.

The iron did swim.

But I think there's something a little bit deeper that God is saying to us here.

And just allow me.

Just allow me to find Jesus in the Old Testament.

Will you allow me to do that for just a second?

Do you remember when Moses came to the waters of Mara?

He brought the children of Israel into the wilderness.

How are we going to get food for all of these people?

How are we going to get water for all of these people?

Finally, they came to a place called bitter.

The water was bitter, the people couldn't drink it.

And every time the people got mad, Moses knew what was coming.

We're going to kill you.

We're going to kill you.

They got mad at Moses.

Instead of being mad at Moses, they should have talked to God.

And God said, I want you to take a tree.

I want you to cut it down.

And I want you to throw that tree into the midst of those bitter waters.

And when you throw a tree into the midst of those bitter waters, those bitter waters will become sweet.

You couldn't drink them, they made you sick.

People couldn't drink from them, it made them sick.

But somebody came along and told you that there's a tree.

And if you'd cast that tree into the waters of your life, the bitter things of your life could become sweet by the glory of God.

I'm talking about Jesus' cross.

And every bitter thing was made better by the cross of Jesus Christ.

Now I can't prove this, and maybe I'm reading it into the text, but just allow me to humor myself for just a moment.

I believe the Bible is teaching us a great principle here.

That when we lose the edge in our Christian lives, and when we acknowledge that we've lost our standing with God, there's only one thing that immediately will get us back on track.

Do you have a reset button in your Christian life?

What is it?

What's the thing you can go to to reset your own Christian life?

Your vigor, your vim, your encouragement.

Where do you go?

I'll tell you where I go.

I go back to the foot of that old rugged cross.

Where the Son of God Jesus Christ took on hell for me.

He took punishment for me.

He was separated from his father so that I would never be separated from God.

He experienced thirst so that I would never cry out, Father Abraham.

Just a dip of your finger in water would cool my tongue.

He suffered darkness so that we would live forever in the light of God's wonderful glory.

He said, take a tree, cast it into the water, and the water will swim.

It would be good for us every day this week to get up.

And if you know the gospel, really understand the gospel, can I encourage you to preach the gospel to yourself every day?

I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.

God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world was crucified unto me and I unto the world, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye are healed.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

I'm saying this evening that the gospel is not just for the down and out person that we look at and say, Man, he truly needs Jesus.

The gospel is for all of us because there is never a moment in my life when I cannot say, I desperately need the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Where did it fall?

It fell right here.

How do I get it back?

He said, Introduce the cross into your life.

Think of what Christ has done for you.

I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now there's a fourth step.

Verse 7.

Therefore said he, Take it up to thee, and he put out his hand and he took it.

Or did you lose it?

Lost it right there.

How do you get it back?

Introduce the cross.

But there's a fourth step to this.

We have to aggressively take back what has been lost and put it back into the work of God for the glory of God.

Have you ever got to the place in your life that you knew you weren't where you ought to be and you knew that Christ would forgive you, but there was a disconnect between your recognition of his forgiveness and your ability to re-engage in the work of Christ?

Do you know that we have an enemy called the devil?

And you know what he is?

He's a liar.

One of our dear men called me this week and started telling me some things that he started thinking about himself.

Question his motives, question so many things in his own life.

And I called his name and I said, brother, we have an enemy, and we're not ignorant of his devices.

And he wants to discourage us.

And he wants to lie to us.

Because the thing Satan dreads so desperately is a Christian thoroughly right with God who's encouraged in Jesus, moving forward and seeking to serve Jesus Christ with their life.

He said, How do I how do I fight the lies?

I said, with the truth of God's word.

Have you been forgiven?

Yes, I've been forgiven.

Are you at this moment right with God as much as I know I am?

Is there sin in your life unconfessed?

No.

No.

Are you walking with God?

Yes.

Are you reading His Word?

Yes.

Are you in prayer?

Yes.

Are you are you making your soul happy in Jesus every day?

He said, Yes.

I said, then tell the devil.

I said, tell him this.

When he reminds you of your past, you remind him of his future.

Take it up.

Well, I just feel unworthy.

Welcome to the club.

I just feel unworthy.

How could a loving God, so pure and just and righteous, how can he forgive me, brother?

That's called grace, and every part of our life is filled with that.

Songwriter said, All of grace is my story, all the way from earth to glory.

Brother, if there was anything good done in your life, it was the gift of God by the grace of Jesus Christ.

Pick it up, he said.

And get back to work for the glory of God.

I just want to encourage us as we close in prayer.

The Christian life, as we talked about this morning, Barnes said two to three percent of Christians are actively living a life of discipleship.

Think about that.

That number startled me.

How many of you were shocked by that number?

Two to three percent.

Jay Harold Smith, a great preacher of yesteryear, preached all around the country, said only 25 percent of church members have a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ.

25 percent.

Now, nobody knows if those numbers are exactly true, but I'll tell you this: less than 100 percent of professing Christians right with God ought to be something of alarm.

We ought to be so happy in Jesus and so in love with Christ that every demon and power of hell in Englewood ought to be terrified of the might of the Calvary Baptist Church.

But nothing he described on the video was anything outside of what we could do for God this week.

Can we believe the word of God this week?

Can we apply the truths of God's word this week?

Can we fight sin in our lives?

Can we preach the gospel to others and preach the gospel to ourselves this week?

Can we do that?

Can we regain some ground in our lives?

I told you there was a word that's been in my heart all week.

Do you want to know the word?

How many of you want to know the word?

Well, good.

I'm I'm gonna tell you anyway.

We become very ungrateful.

Do you know there's so many things I deal with as a pastor that couldn't be corrected by just some ingratitude to God?

We become entitled.

We forget where he brought us from, and we forgot where we used to be.

And there's times we lose our edge.

May God, by his spirit, show us the very place in our lives where we lost that sharp edge of power and strength.

May we acknowledge that tonight.

Go back to that place, remind ourselves of the cross and pick it up and get back in the fight.

Or we can be like that fellow who labored and worked through all of his breaks only to discover he should have taken a little more time sharpening the blade of his life.

You know why you need to read your Bible and pray in the morning?

Abraham Lincoln said if he had four hours to cut down a tree, he'd spend the first three sharpening his axe.

Because in the morning, we need to get sharp for God that he might use us throughout the day for his glory.

Let's pray, may we?

Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, and we thank you for this little reminder from Scripture tonight of how many times in our lives we lose that wedded edge of power.

And oh, Father, how we so desperately need to be right with you in our lives.

Lord, if there's someone here tonight that would say, I've lost my edge, my prayer life and my devotional life, and my own spirit and soul is on edge and anxious and troubled.

Lord, show us the place in our lives where we lost that place with you.

And help us to take that journey to the foot of the old rugged cross.

Help us to get right with you.

And as you sharpen us by your spirit, help us, Lord, to fight the good fight of faith.

To be bold, to be grateful, to honor you with all that we say and do.

You've showed me some things in the Word tonight.

I just want to come and pray.

You come as the invitation is given.