The Refinery (Week 2): Brothers Make Us Better - TWCC 6-14-26 9:30 am

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Way Community Church Podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our mission is to show people the way to life with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Darahal and I am the pastor of the Way Community Church.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you would like to join us as a member or of you simply need prayer,

[SPEAKER_00]: or if you want to worship through giving, you can find the links and the transcription of this podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today, we're going to continue our refinery series.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to look at the thing verse of our new men's ministry, power of 27, 17.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to consider how the sharpening experience of iron on iron can revolutionize the development process of a man.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, I'm going to encourage you to follow along

[SPEAKER_00]: The grab your bibles and join me in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 27 is where we're going to be today.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's one verse on a read in our hearing.

[SPEAKER_00]: May the truth of that powerful song resonate in our soul for the man under pressure,

[SPEAKER_00]: We believe God allows it to refine us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Poverbs 27 is when we offer us number 17.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may have heard these words before, but I want to read them in your hearing.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can find these notes as well in the Bible app.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you search events, look for the right community church.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will find these words there.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Word of the Lord says in Poverbs 27, 17, the New King James Version, as iron, sharpens iron.

[SPEAKER_00]: So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we kick off the refinery men's ministry of the way community church, I want to preach today with this thought in mind, brothers make us better.

[SPEAKER_00]: Brothers make us better.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is a danger.

[SPEAKER_00]: and hypermasculinity to believe that a man can become the best version of himself without the help of any other man.

[SPEAKER_00]: That idea is as far from the truth as it can be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And usually, that kind of belief leads us into isolation when God designed us for interdependence.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is called every man, regardless of family roles, to be a priest as it were in the community.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is, a go between for those under your authority to maintain a healthy relationship with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, as men, we are all priests in a way, but we're not just priests in and of our sails.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're also a part of a priest who did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's our big idea for today's message and that is this, Godly men are refined in a brotherhood of Christ's likeness.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to read that with me on the count of three, one, two, three, godly men are refined and a brotherhood of Christ's likeness.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we established this on last week when we launched into this refinery series, looking at Malachi chapter three, and God's issue with the priest there as reflective of how he is challenging men even now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we ask two important questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first is, how does God measure a man's piety?

[SPEAKER_00]: By piety, I mean spiritual devotion.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we saw there that God measures a man's piety by that man's worship, by how that man treats his wife, by that man's words, and by that man's ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are the metrics God uses to determine the godliness of a man who makes such a claim.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then the reality is because we are not perfect.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will stumble or struggle in one or all of those areas and so the next question then, well, how does God make a man pure?

[SPEAKER_00]: because if God is going to require me to be a man, a piety, a man of devotion, I need his Holy Spirit to purify me towards what He's called me to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God does that through two ways, through refining fire and cleansing pressure.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what we left it last week and that's what we pick it up this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: This concept of God using refining fire is a motif that shows up again here in Proverbs 27, 17.

[SPEAKER_00]: because here what we see is that the iron tool that was molded in the refinery now has to be sharpened to become effective.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a connective tissue there that got refines us over and over again and a part of that refining process is to be sharpened.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says here in Proverbs 27, 17, is one verse, but there are four thoughts I'm gonna lay at your feet to help us consider this for verse from four different angles.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe we're gonna appreciate it that God can give us man the perspective we need to grow in the areas that he is using the Brotherhood around us to help us grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the first thought that is this Criticism improves my character.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here we are again, part of 2017, as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, countenance of his friend.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you see that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Allen P. Ross said that constructive criticism between friends develops character.

[SPEAKER_00]: The point of line two is that a man sharpens the face or countenance of his fellow.

[SPEAKER_00]: The word face or countenance means the personality or character of a person.

[SPEAKER_00]: What I've discovered in almost 40 years of living and almost 20 years of manhood is that the place where a man cannot be criticized without becoming temperamental irritable or angry is the place where that man may lack character development.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's why we must do the internal work to become stable, not just so that we can affect change around us but so that we won't crumble under criticism.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the implication here is that the criticism is constructive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let the chart say constructive.

[SPEAKER_00]: because it's coming from a brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's coming from a friend, from a trusted companion.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what this verse is not saying, man, it's not saying let an unhealthy parent abuse you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not saying let a bitter lover break you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not saying let a mean spirit it boss, belittle you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not saying let an enemy talk down to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: What it is saying is let a friend who loves you and respect you criticize you when needed.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's possible brothers that we're so used to abuse verbally, to being berated and belittle by words, to the condescension of those who use how they speak to taras down instead of build us up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're so used to that that we're too sensitive to constructive criticism.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here's my question, fellas, and that is this, when you are hurt by words, do you heal or call us?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a difference for the golfers in a room with a fisherman in a room with those who like me lift weights in a room.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may see callis forming on your hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: The callis is built there as a thicker part of skin, not to heal, but to protect that part of the hand from the roughness of what you're doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when words hurt your heart, brother, does your heart heal?

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a major key.

[SPEAKER_00]: A heel soul can tell the difference between abuse and criticism.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's another major key.

[SPEAKER_00]: A callous soul rejects all criticism because pain can harden into pride.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're so used to being abused by a worry, you've got to be careful, brother, not to let your heart become Calis or try to protect your emotions.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to do the internal work to heal regardless of those who've tried to harm, because healing is your responsibility.

[SPEAKER_00]: And where you don't heal, you become Calis.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you become Calis, criticism can help your character.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I've ever shared a story with you all about how I almost flunked out of my doctoral program.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was working on my doctor from 2016 to 2019 and when I learned when I started to work on it, I was at Sanford University in Birmingham.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the doctor level is A B F. Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the A is on the 90s as always.

[SPEAKER_00]: The B is on the 80s as always.

[SPEAKER_00]: But instead of an F being down in the 60s, now

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what makes it worse.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you get one F, a one assignment in a doctoral study, you are out of the program.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here I am thinking, I wanna paper in my second of six intensives and I'm gonna show my professor really how good I am with these words.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I sit down to write my 25 page paper and I get it done and I submit my paper to my professor, surely out of this cohort, I must be at the top.

[SPEAKER_00]: I get my paper back and it's more red in only than the black ink I printed out on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I got an 82 on the paper.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what my pride was really puncture.

[SPEAKER_00]: I peaked at one of my cohort members' favorite, and they had a 83.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I reasoned that I must have got the lowest score in the whole cohort.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not only did I get a little score, the professor took it upon himself to criticize my writing style and to tell me the ways I had overwritten the paper challenge to show out and really what I did was I displayed my inability to communicate clearly in simple sentences.

[SPEAKER_00]: The criticism punctured my ego are almost quit the program the next morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at that moment, I realized, Lord, this is so much pressure to try to complete this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I ain't had a break.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna straight from my master straight in my doctor, but I tell you what, every morning, I'm an unquit and every night I'm a quit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, flash forward, if I had a folded under that criticism, because my problem was hurt when I learned I was not as good of a writer as I thought I was.

[SPEAKER_00]: I never would have had a dissertation successfully defend it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And years later, I never would have became a published author of Speaking of Cross Generations.

[SPEAKER_00]: All I'm trying to tell you brother, is you got to get your pride out of the way when you're being criticized because that criticism is going to help you produce something after it that you could not produce.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the moment, do I have a man or God in this house?

[SPEAKER_00]: and testify, God, give me the humility to heal so I can be criticized, criticism improves my character and criticism best happens in a context of dialogue, therefore number two, dialogue improves my discernment.

[SPEAKER_00]: same verse, different perspective, look at it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we're reading it from the amplifier version.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says as iron sharpens iron.

[SPEAKER_00]: So one man sharpens and influences another through what church, through discussion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is the amplifier Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the amplifier Bible clarifies the implication that the way this sharpening happens is through a back and forth talk.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I've found through marriage, through friendships, through manhood, that the best type of discussion is dialogue, that the church say dialogue.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you might assume, wrongly, that because I can deliver a speech or a sermon, that I've always been good at dialogue.

[SPEAKER_00]: Deliverment of speech is not the same thing as having Donald.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I learned this in a tough way in my marriage.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would get up and preach it from the thousands of people at 22 years old and then go home and couldn't understand the woman I love the most, who claims she love me too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dialogue is not automatic.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a learned skill.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dialogue happens when both parties are more focused on listening over-speaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Winning each other over-winning the argument, getting it right over being right, and learning over teaching.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this concept of a friend or a brother sharpening his brother through discussion is a picture of two men studying God's word together and dialogue increases their revelation.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are sharpening each other's ability to discern truth in God's reveal word.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why trusted conversation partners, masterminds, and mutual respect with other brothers are key in a man's life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a major key.

[SPEAKER_00]: Man, don't just need somewhere to event.

[SPEAKER_00]: We also need somewhere to listen deeply.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can see if you just looking for somewhere to event.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why the bar is so attractive.

[UNKNOWN]: Wow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Am I telling the truth?

[SPEAKER_00]: You pull up to the bar, you get your favorite drink, however you like it, I'm not going to name a drink because I don't want you all to judge me.

[SPEAKER_00]: You get your favorite drink, and perfect strangers, let you be.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you sit there, and you feel saying, and you feel hurt, mind you these people don't know your name.

[SPEAKER_00]: These people have no vested interest in your in your well being.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a safe moment for a time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what it really is is just somewhere to vent.

[SPEAKER_00]: But is it somewhere to listen deeply?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why we do live groups here in the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let the church say live groups.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was in a live group with some men a few years ago, and we were studying, and yeah, I'm the passive of church, but naturally I was one of the younger men in the group.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was a big brother in the group, his name was Stephen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he dropped some on us in the middle of that group that had us all like, whoa, he said, a man who cannot discipline himself sexually is not a man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you came up thinking or believing the law or being told the law that your manhood is measured by your sexual exploits, then you get in a life group with another brother who has more experience than you, and he tells you, no, actually, it's the opposite.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you can't control yourself in this area, you're not really the man you think you are or the man you claim to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: and what that statement does is show other brothers in the group that the truth is actually opposite from what I grew up believing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Which may, Ralph, here's a major key dialogue helps us discern that kingdom manhood is paradoxical to worldly manhood.

[SPEAKER_00]: How are you going to know if it's a worldly manhood or a kingdom manhood?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you never have a safe space to open up, to listen deeply.

[SPEAKER_00]: So somebody else can tell you if what you're believing thinking was guiding your decision making the basis of your values if it's worldly or if it's kingdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is there any man in the house who's grateful for the safe space you have with other brothers who can tell you the truth even if it's opposite from what you thought.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just enough to be in dialogue, brothers.

[SPEAKER_00]: But also, you gotta make sure it's no fool sitting at your table.

[SPEAKER_00]: A man should only have about one or two times to give you bad advice.

[SPEAKER_00]: One or two?

[SPEAKER_00]: Fool me once, shame on you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fool me two times, shame on me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jake Colson, fool me three times.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a lady who ran on you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Germain Cole, dialogue improves my discernment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dialogue does not mean we will always agree.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, number three sparks improve my sharpness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Same verse, says iron, do you hear that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does what church sharpens?

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not just criticism improves my character, it's not just dialogue improves my discernment, sparks improve my sharpness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because when iron strikes iron, sparks might fly.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's interesting is you can sharpen a blade using multiple surfaces.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can get a sharpening stone and you can use that to sharpen a blade.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can get a leather strap.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually called a Strop STR OP and used a leather with some oil on it, the sharpener blade.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Texas saying, no, when a man sharpens his brother is strength on strength.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the goal is not just that your blade would be sharpened.

[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is that your blade would be sharpened through coming together with somebody who's cut from the sand stuff you cut from.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a major key, a good brother, removes the burrs in my blind spot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody say, where are what's a burr?

[SPEAKER_00]: A burr is the opposite side of a blade that's not yet smooth.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the rough side of a blade that's been used.

[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning, if you're sharpening the edge of an ax or the edge of a nice knife, the side you sharpen can be can be sharp.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the other side it creates a burr which means you can't leave one side sharp and the other side of the sharp you got to sharpen both sides.

[SPEAKER_00]: What happens when you come in a relationship with the brother is you may be shot on one side of your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: But as you engage in dialogue and smart start the fly, you will notice I'm good here, but I got a blind spot here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I'm good with managing money, but I don't really take care of my body.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I'm good with working hard, but I'm not good with taking the vacation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I'm good, we're giving advice.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not good, we're taking advice.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what happens in a safe space of brotherhood is that your blind spots get removed and the side you left unsharpen, gets sharpened as sparks fly between you and the brother that you trust.

[SPEAKER_00]: When a brother brings your attention to a blind spot to make you sharper that challenge can make sparks fly.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the area where our run from the sparks of brotherhood is the area where what could have been sharp will stay dull.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you got a choice to make brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to spark free life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or do you want to be sharp in every area that you can?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to run from the potential conflict of disagreeing with a brother who's out of make you better?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or, do you want to really become the man that you used to believe deep in your soul you could become before the difficulties of lifestyle lying and you to tell you you couldn't?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to be sharp in every area, you have to embrace the sparks, at Charcite Sparks.

[SPEAKER_00]: a few years ago, some interest in the happening was a playoff game, and the Kansas City Chiefs were in this game.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you know anything about the NFL, you want to stand that says 2020, the Kansas City Chiefs have won three Super Bowls.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have been to five Super Bowls, meaning they keep getting to the top game and 60% of the top they win.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, within their prime, they had the best coach, Andyree, and the best tight end, Travis Kelsey.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't run into playoff games.

[SPEAKER_00]: Travis Kelsey comes off the field.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's angry, he's fuming, slamming his helmet down.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to Andyree, Andyree, there's going to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody watching is like, man, this is top tier entertainment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ain't not pop corner chips.

[SPEAKER_00]: After the game, they asked him, you know, what happened on the sideline, what was going on?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the reporters are trying to get to the scultoble of what could be happening beneath the surface to try to see if something is bringing the cheese down.

[SPEAKER_00]: and both of them sent to the press without either one of them sitting there while the other one was talking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although everything is cool, the reality is he's the best coach in the league, I'm the best tight-end in the league, and all we want out of each other is the best.

[SPEAKER_00]: So sometimes that means it's gonna be a little heated.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you know where I hope it's some sparks flying right now?

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope right now in the Falcons of Seas and Kelp.

[SPEAKER_00]: I need some sparks to fly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that how you get to fly Super Bowls in six years?

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope somebody fight.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope somebody wrestle.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cause if you avoid conflict, I can't get the best out of you and you can get the best out of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I deeply believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: As a Falcons fan, I believe we got the best while receiver in the whole division.

[SPEAKER_00]: Drake London.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe we got the best cornerback in the whole division.

[SPEAKER_00]: AJ Terrell.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope right now they're going at each other back and forth all of season.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope the offense fight the defense.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope the defense hate the offense.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody ask me why.

[SPEAKER_00]: because if they are as good as I believe they are, that means the enemy teams are scheming a game plan to stop them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if they can allow sparks to fly and practice to make each other sharper, then they can cut right through whatever the enemy gonna try to use to stop them, come here, man, God, you're trying to figure out how the enemy's plan to stop you, keep working.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it possible?

[SPEAKER_00]: That you're wondering away from the sparks of other brothers who can make you sharper, and if you submit to a safe environment Well another man can sharpen you you will cut right through whatever the devil thought he was going to use the stop here Is there any brother in the house who can give God praise but a fact that once you start rubbing shoulders with some real man You start to become the man God design should have been

[SPEAKER_00]: Sparks improve my sharpness and sparks fly when strength on strength happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: Number four, and I'll bid you a do because age improves my efficiency.

[SPEAKER_00]: Criticism improves my character.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dialogue improves my discernment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sparks improve my sharpness so that age can improve my efficiency.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a major key.

[SPEAKER_00]: The end of the discipleship is for every man to attain and maintain his cutting edge.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to hear me, brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your cutting edge is never owned, is only borrowed.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will never pay off the mortgage on your cutting edge.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rent is due every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Am I telling the truth?

[SPEAKER_00]: and issue edge that makes you efficient.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why everything that double throws at us seeks to dull our edge.

[SPEAKER_00]: Discipleship is not easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it is necessary.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is like the craft of an ironsmith who forms an ax head and then makes the edge on that ax head, he fish him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at Isaiah 44 verse number 12, it says, the craftsman of iron shapes according to, and does his work over the coals, fashion it with hammers and working it with his strong arm.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you hear the clinking of the hammer?

[SPEAKER_00]: On the ax head, can you see that ax head over the heat of those coals being heated up above normal temperature so that it could be made efficient?

[SPEAKER_00]: I say a 54 of us number 16, behold, I myself have created the Smith, this God speaking, the iron Smith, who does what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Blows on the fire of coals, that's refinery, and produces a watch-all, a weapon for his work.

[SPEAKER_00]: The work of the iron smith is in the branch of science called metallurgy, and essentially metallurgy is the branch of material science engineering that focuses on the physical chemical and atomic behavior of different metallurgy elements.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when we read iron sharpens iron, it is a proverb or an analogy based in the science of metallurgy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, those who understand something about how metal is prepared into a axe can appreciate what the verse is implying about brotherhood and friendship.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's a simple question.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you never chop wood at damn your life, it's intuitive, and that is this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it wise to chop wood with a dough axe?

[SPEAKER_00]: The answer is what?

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not wise to chop wood with a dough axe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it because the axe can't chop through the wood?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's because the axe can't chop through the wood efficiently.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will expand more energy if the axe don't have an edge.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wonder brothers, in what area of our life, are we exhausted because we lost our edge?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that you're not getting it done, you just got a dove axe trying to chop wood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your edge has been lost, so your efforts are exhausting you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a process that's implicated in this whole thing about crafting an X with a sharp edge to make it efficient.

[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning one swing, boom, is done.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll need 10 swings to do what you could do in one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the way that Axis crafted is first through the starting building.

[SPEAKER_00]: Basically what they do is they get this piece of steel.

[SPEAKER_00]: They pick out the raw steel that has in it, the strength and the natural qualities to undergo this transformation process to become an Axis in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the way they do that is they heat the metal in a forge until this iron has a bright orange color.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's heated so hot that the iron becomes malleable, it becomes easy to maneuver and move around.

[SPEAKER_00]: When it gets hot, they punch a hole in it, and they create a space for the axe handle to go once the axe head is forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then they use a fuller-in tool to shape the metal and to create the side of the axe, two things called cheeks is to the side of the axe head that leads into the blade.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the true shouting part is the heat treatment that the church say, he, the axe head won't function properly without heat treatment.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here's how it was used.

[SPEAKER_00]: First, the axe head is hardened, then it is tempered.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's hardened through heat that once it comes out of the heat, they quickly dip it in oil to quench it.

[SPEAKER_00]: or they'll dip it in water to the quench the heat.

[SPEAKER_00]: And once they cool it back, they let it settle for a minute, then they reheated this time, not so hot that it melts, but so hot that it won't resist the shaping of the hammer, so that the steel can become sharpened and the blade can become strong.

[SPEAKER_00]: You trying to figure out why the Lord keep taking you in and out of high situations.

[SPEAKER_00]: You trying to discern why the Lord keep moving you in and out of pressure situations.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the break you, it's not to harm you, it's not to embarrass you, this ain't about your ego, this ain't about your machoism, you just act head that the Lord wants to use efficiently and the Lord, like I iron the Smith, is using the heat.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the pressure of your situation to shake you to become the official aunt, he designed for you to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: God never meant for you to take 10 swings to do what you could do in one swing, but if you submit to the Holy Spirit, here's what the Lord will do.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord will use heat, then the Lord will use oil.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord will use heat.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't afford to use some water.

[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't afford to use heat and the water used a hammer.

[SPEAKER_00]: What you mean, Reverend, what's the oil?

[SPEAKER_00]: The oil is the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do I have a mature man in the house who's lived with the Lord longer enough to know?

[SPEAKER_00]: He won't let the heat destroy me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'll give me jazz to know he.

[SPEAKER_00]: To moan my heart when he won't sit in bed.

[SPEAKER_00]: to heal a night me for his use and a night me to make me strong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is there any man in the house who's ever been dipped in some water after you come through a hot season right after the worst season he'll give me the baptism of some water the cool you are so that you won't crumble under the pressure you ought to be grateful for the fact that he uses heat to shape you but not hurt you

[SPEAKER_00]: because the Lord wants you to have age, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Say age, here's the major key, now let's go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Either put in the time for discipleship or waste time trying to do things your way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Either put in the time, let the Lord harden you, let the Lord temper you, let the Lord dip you in some oil, dip you in some water.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let the Lord prepare you to be efficient so that you can do a one swing when you used to take you 10 or keep doing things your way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Swing away with the dollax, trying to chop wood.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you want to be efficient, man, you've got to have edge.

[SPEAKER_00]: As iron, sharpens iron.

[SPEAKER_00]: So does a freer, so does a brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: sharpened the countenance of his free.

[SPEAKER_00]: A manchart, a man getting on a hang-up of praise if you would.