Man, it's great to be here this morning, good to see you all again.
And this morning we're in 1 Samuel chapter 13 and I want to start in verse number 19
where the Bible reads, Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel, for
the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears.
But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his share and his coulter
and his ax and his mattock, yet they had to file for the mattocks and for the coulters
and for the forks and for the axes and to sharpen the goads.
So it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in
the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan, but with Saul and with
Jonathan his son was there found.
The title of my sermon this morning is sharpen your share, sharpen your share.
Now what is a share?
It says here that the people, they sharpen their shares, their coulters.
When you plow a field, the plow has a blade that digs into the earth and, and tears up
the ground as you pull that plow.
And so one of those blades is called the coulter.
One of them's called the share.
And obviously we know what an ax is.
We know what a fork is.
And then a mattock is sort of like a pickaxe.
You ever see those pickaxes where one side is sharp like an awl and then the other side's
like a flat kind of a arcing piece, who knows what I'm talking about.
That's a mattock.
So what he's talking about here is they're sharpening up tools that they use for agriculture
because they've been disarmed by the Philistines.
The Philistines are ruling over them and they're not allowing them to have any weapons.
They're not giving them the right to bear arms.
And there's no Smith in the land because they don't want to have those kinds of skilled
laborers that would be able to fashion swords and spears secretly.
So what people end up doing in order to fight against the Philistines is to just sharpen
whatever tools they have.
They're taking the blades off their plow.
They're taking their equipment that they use for agriculture, sharpening it up.
Saul and Jonathan actually have real swords, but then everybody who's following them is
just using whatever sharp object they can find and just going into battle against the
Lord's enemies.
So the title of my sermon is sharpen your share because obviously this has a spiritual
application even though it's a physical story.
The first thing I want to point out is that the devil does not want us to have any weapons.
I'm talking about spiritually now.
He doesn't want us to have weapons.
The devil would love nothing more than for Christians to be completely disarmed so that
we could just be a sitting duck and we can't get in the spiritual fight.
We can't do battle with the rulers of the darkness of this world because we have no
weapon to fight with and we're just out of commission spiritually.
Now if you would turn to 2 Corinthians chapter number 10 in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians
chapter number 10.
And while you're turning there, let me point out this is why the devil does not want us
using the King James Bible.
This is why he's come out with all these phony versions and just flooded the market and put
out a propaganda campaign telling you to use the ESV or the NIV, the New Living Translation.
And he's got different Bibles to suit different personalities and he doesn't care which one
you use if you're an egg-headed, geeky, nerdy, Calvinist type guy.
He's got the ESV for you.
Or if you just kind of, you know, want to go worship and, you know, you need to get
free bro, then he'll get you on the New Living Translation.
Or if you just kind of want to go with the flow and do what everybody's doing, you just
get the NIV because it's the number one most popular.
And he's got all different Bibles for all different kinds of people.
He doesn't care which one you use as long as you don't use the King James.
And then if he really wants to trick you, he'll come out with the New King James in
order to make you think that, oh, it's pretty much the same thing.
What's the difference?
My friend, accept no imitation.
The King James Bible, this church is King James only because we know that the rest have
been tampered with and corrupted.
Okay.
They're not just a little easier to understand.
They're not just an update of the language into our modern vernacular.
They are corrupted.
They remove entire verses.
They affect key doctrines.
And so we need to be King James only.
The Bible says the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.
So the Bible is the ultimate weapon.
It's razor sharp.
The devil wants to take this razor sharp two-edged sword of the King James Bible that has stood
for 400 years.
He wants to get that out of your hand and put a butter knife in your hand called the
NIV.
He wants to put some kind of a dull blade in your hand and people will say, well, I
still think there's enough truth in there to get somebody to say, look, I don't want
to have a Bible where I have to go searching to see if there's a little bit of truth in
there I can squeeze out of it to get something done.
You know what?
You can go cut down a tree with a dull ax.
You can also go into battle with a dull sword and just beat somebody over the head with
the sword.
You know, yeah, okay, but I want something that's sharp.
I want to sharpen my weapon.
I want to have it razor sharp.
The King James Bible cuts like a knife, these watered down, softened versions.
Even in verses where they say the same thing, even in verses where the meaning is the same,
they soften it.
They water it down.
They take the teeth out of it, okay, and it ends up sounding mild and soft and weak,
and it doesn't cut to the heart like the real word of God does, and so that's why we need
to be King James only.
Don't let the devil be like the Philistines and take all the weapons out of your hand
and give you something dull and useless.
We need to have a sharp sword in our hand of the King James Bible.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3.
The Bible says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
Now notice it doesn't say we don't war.
It just says we don't war after the flesh.
We are fighters.
There is a battle.
We do wrestle.
We do fight, but it's not a physical fight.
It's a spiritual fight, and so therefore it's fought not with physical weapons.
It's fought with spiritual weapons, so the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.
It says in verse 4, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting
down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having inner
readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
So we see that this war involves thoughts, ideas, imaginations.
It's a battle for the hearts of men, for the souls of men, because they've been brainwashed
by the world that we live in, and we're trying to cut through all that garbage with the word
of God, and cut them to the heart with God's word so that they can be changed.
So the Bible says that our war is a war that involves imaginations, knowledge, information.
There's a popular website that's a conspiracy website called Infowars that most of you have
heard from, right?
Well, he's pretty much borrowing that concept from the Bible, because I'll tell you, the
real information war, the real info war is getting this information to people, right?
When we're out going soul winning, this is the info, and this is the fight.
This is the warfare.
It's spiritual, and the weapons, plural, of our warfare are not carnal.
So what I want to show you here is that there's not only one weapon.
Now obviously the Bible's the main weapon, but we have weapons plural, and they're not
carnal weapons, they're spiritual weapons.
So what does it mean then to sharpen your share?
See a sword's not the only weapon.
You know, Saul's got a sword, Jonathan's got a sword, the sword's the best weapon, right?
That's the ultimate weapon, so they took the two best fighters, Saul and Jonathan, give
them the two best weapons, because those are our best guys, they can wield it the best.
But then everybody else could still get in the fight, because they sharpened their share,
they sharpened their coulter, they sharpened their axe, they sharpened their matic, they
sharpened their fork, for crying out loud.
Probably like a pitchfork, not like a fork that you're eating.
So they're obviously using a bigger fork, and so they just used whatever weapon they
could find.
So the title of the sermon is sharpen your share.
What does it mean to sharpen your share?
It means taking the tools that you do have, the weapons that you do have, and sharpening
them, developing them, improving them, using what you have to serve the Lord.
Now flip over to Ecclesiastes chapter 10.
Ecclesiastes chapter 10.
Sharpening your share means being as effective as you possibly can with what you have.
Taking the spiritual weapons that are in your arsenal, and sharpening them, and being as
effective as possible with those weapons.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 10, verse 10.
The Bible says, if the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge, then he must put to
more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct.
So if the iron be blunt, now if an axe gets dull, it becomes blunt, right?
So we have an axe, think of cutting down a tree, and you touch the edge of that axe,
and it's very blunt, it's very dull, it's not sharp at all.
And what the Bible's saying is that if the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge,
what does it mean to wet the edge?
Notice this W-H-E-T, who's ever heard of a whetstone?
Put it in your hand if you know what a whetstone is, right?
So sometimes, I remember when I was a kid, we'd buy a hunting knife or survival knife,
and sometimes it would come with a little whetstone, and you would use that whetstone
to sharpen the knife.
So when he says here he do not wet the edge, he's saying you're not sharpening the edge.
So the iron's blunt, you're not wetting the edge, it says that he must put to more strength,
meaning that you're gonna have to swing the axe harder to get the same effect, because
you're chopping with a dull axe.
So if you chop with a dull axe, it is possible to get something done, you can eventually
cut down that tree.
But as the saying goes, a woodsman never loses any time when he stops to sharpen his axe.
You know, stopping to sharpen your axe might seem like, oh, I don't have time to sharpen
my axe, I just gotta chop all this wood, I gotta keep cutting this wood, I don't have
time to sharpen the axe.
But any time that you spend sharpening your axe is always going to pay off, and you're
gonna end up getting more done in the long run if you stop and spend five minutes sharpening
your axe, because you're gonna be so much more efficient, you're gonna be so much more
effective, and any of you that have worked in construction know that when you're using
the wrong tool, you can waste a lot of time.
And you don't want to go to Home Depot, you don't want to go to Ace Hardware, you don't
want to go back out to the truck, or whatever the reason, you're already up on the roof,
and you've climbed up, you know, 30 foot ladders to get up on the roof, and you forgot the
tool that you need.
Well, maybe I can just make do without it.
You know, you can end up wasting a lot of time with a dull drill bit, right?
With the wrong tool.
And then you get the right tool, and it's just, boom, it's like a hot knife through
butter when you get that right tool.
And you ask yourself, why didn't I get the right tool two hours ago?
I've been wasting my time with the wrong tool, okay?
So if you don't wet the edge, if the iron be blunt, you have to use more strength.
You end up working a lot harder and getting less done.
And then at the end it says, but wisdom is profitable to direct.
So what the Bible is saying here is that the way that we sharpen our sword spiritually,
the way that we sharpen our share, the way that we sharpen our axe is wisdom.
Wisdom, when it comes to the spiritual battle, the sharp blade in our lives is wisdom.
That is the whetstone.
Wisdom is the whetstone that will sharpen the tools of our life, that will sharpen the
axe, sharpen the sword, et cetera.
So having wisdom is equivalent to having a sharper weapon, which means what?
Having to put two less strength.
Because if the axe is dull, you have to put two more strength.
But if we have wisdom, then we're going to have a sharper tool, less effort, more results.
Everybody understand?
So many people today are working hard in the Christian life.
And when I say that they're working hard, I mean that in the sense that there's a lot
of movement.
They're sweating, they're moving, they're doing stuff, they're working, they're busy,
getting up real early, work hard all day, go to bed at night.
But here's the thing, sometimes they're not accomplishing that much.
Even though they're putting forth a lot of effort, a lot of work, a lot of money, a lot
of time, a lot of energy, that does not mean that they're being effective.
The Bible says in Proverbs 11 30, the famous verse, the fruit of the righteous is a tree
of life, and he that winneth souls is wise.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise.
So think of dull weapons or dull tools as ineffective methods, dull methods for serving
the Lord, dull methods for serving Christ.
How about this, handing out tracts?
You can put a lot of work into handing out tracts.
You can put a lot of effort into handing out tracts.
You can put a lot of money and time and energy.
I know because I've done it.
I remember when I was a teenager going out and handing out 10,000 tracts and basically
seeing zero results, a lot of work, a lot of effort, a lot of motion, a lot of activity,
but I was chopping with a dull ax.
If I would have put that exact time, effort, energy into soul winning, into actually just
the simplicity of just walking up to somebody and asking them, do you know for sure if you
died today, you go to heaven, and offering to show them from the Bible how to be saved,
if I would have put my effort into that, I would have come home rejoicing, bringing my
sheaves with me.
I would have had people saved.
I would have accomplished something because I would have been chopping with a sharp ax.
Soul winning is the sharp ax.
Tracts are the dull ax.
He says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise.
Wisdom is profitable to direct.
Wisdom is the opposite of having the dull tool or the dull weapon.
Soul winning is the sharp ax.
I think of other methods like, for example, street preaching.
A lot of people, you see them, they're out on the street corner holding up a sign, screaming
at cars that are driving by.
Nobody's listening.
Nobody's interested.
They're yelling at no one in general or no one in specific, and they don't see results.
I've talked to these guys.
I've taken them aside and asked them about the results, and the results are weak.
The results are minuscule.
Now you say, well, no, they got a guy saved.
Look, I'm sure eventually you're going to get somebody saved even using the dullest
method, even using the weakest method.
If you're preaching the correct gospel and using the word of God, eventually you're going
to get somebody saved even with the worst possible methods, but I don't want to sit
there and beat on a tree with a dull ax all day and all night and keep coming back day
after day, and then I cut down one tree.
I'd rather just go out there and just be chopping down tree after tree after tree because I
know what I'm doing.
Look, I saw a video the other day where these guys were cutting down a giant tree, and they
had to cut down in like three minutes, and it was a massive tree.
Why?
Because these guys are experts.
It's all they do all day every day.
They say if you do something for 10,000 hours, you become an expert at it, so these guys,
all they do is cut down trees, and man, they were like a well-oiled machine.
They knew exactly where to lay that ax.
They hit it with the ax.
They hit it with the saw.
They used the tools of the trade, and it fell exactly where they wanted it to fall.
They knew exactly which way that tree was going to fall.
They were done in a couple of minutes.
It was very impressive.
Why?
Because they had wisdom.
They had training.
They had knowledge, and if we take our weapons that we have, sharpen them up.
What does that mean?
Getting knowledge, getting wisdom, getting training, doing things the right way, following
the Bible, we can be so much more effective.
You don't get an award in heaven for most effort.
Now folks, you know, we're at the judgment seat of Christ.
All right, our next servant to be rewarded here.
I mean, this guy barely got anybody saved.
He barely got anything done.
He accomplished very little, but good night.
This guy worked hard.
This guy was a hard worker.
You know, you don't excel at your secular job by being the hardest worker.
You excel at your secular job by being the most effective worker, by being the guy who
gets the results, that gets the job done, that makes the company the most money.
Not just, man, look at the effort he's putting in.
I mean, it takes him forever to get a job done, but man alive, he never takes a break.
He works.
He sweats.
He toils.
Look at the wounds.
He's bleeding, for crying out loud.
That doesn't impress the boss, does it?
What the boss wants to see is the work getting done on time, well done.
So I think a great illustration of this also is swimming.
When you look at somebody who's a good swimmer, it looks like they're putting forth like no
effort.
Am I right, Alex?
It looks like they're just putting forth no effort.
The guy who's out there really working hard swimming is usually not a very good swimmer.
And if you're not that good at swimming, swimming's hard work.
You're like, oh man, this is the hardest workout I've ever done.
And you're barely even moving forward because you're dragging in the water and everything.
But then you see somebody who's a great swimmer and you just look at them and you're like,
this guy looks like he might as well just be laying in a hammock.
Like he's so relaxed.
Am I telling the truth?
He's just so relaxed, just gliding through the water.
And you look at that and the guy who's working the hardest is getting the least done.
And the guy who seems to be just taking it easy is just launching through the water.
Why?
Because he has the knowledge.
He has the wisdom.
He's actually doing it right.
Okay.
So that's a good example of this sharpening your weapon.
What about another Dole, you know, besides just tracks or street peaching, what about
the traditional missions program where these guys end up, they go to a foreign country
where they don't speak the language, okay, then they spend years in language school.
So by the time they even start soul winning, people have already poured like $200,000 into
these people through deputation and the language school.
And then it's like you get the letters home from some of these guys, keep praying for
Pablo and Maria.
You know, we've been witnessing to for the last six months, you know, we're trying to
make a breakthrough here.
You know, another guy flies to the mission field, lands the plane, he gets somebody saved
before the sun goes down the first day.
Okay.
What's the difference?
The difference is one guy has a sharp ax, one guy's got a sharp share, one guy's got
a sharp weapon, the other guy's over there chopping with a Dole ax using methods that
have failed again and again and again.
Methods that have continually failed and they keep using the same failed missions model
instead of a common sense missions that says if you don't speak the language, then you're
not called to go there.
Why would God call somebody to a mission field to go to where they don't speak the language?
You say, well, they learn the language, then learn it and then go.
Well, you got to learn it over there.
Hey, you know what, experts in teaching foreign languages will tell you, you can learn your
language better at home than over there.
Especially today when you have Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, Pimsleur, you have all the tools
available to you.
You can go on video Skype and talk to people from that country all day long.
You can go, we're in Los Angeles, California, you can pretty much find a neighborhood where
you can find people speaking any language on this planet.
So why don't you learn the language?
Let's see if you even have the ability to learn a language.
Some people don't even have that aptitude and they spend 10, 15 years, 20 years on the
mission field and they're preaching through a translator 20 years later.
You don't have the aptitude, buddy.
Well, God called me.
Really?
What?
Did he call you on your cell phone or what?
How did he call you?
How do you know he called you?
Because you know what, if God calls you, he equips you.
God's not going to send you to the job site with no screwdriver, no hammer, no saw.
He's going to send you with the tools you need to get the job done and if you don't
have the tools, then you're not called.
Just because you have some feeling where you're like, oh man, that exotic place looks pretty
cool.
I think I'd like to live there and serve God there because it looks exotic because I want
to go check out the volcanoes in Iceland or I want to go to Kazakhstan and be out on
the steppe and wear funny clothes and I want to go to Africa and the jungle and it seems
cool to go on safari and whatever.
Look folks, if God calls you, then he equips you.
Well, I'm just doing it by faith even though I don't know the language.
Learn the language.
Work.
Get knowledge.
Hey, show me a sharp ax, then I'll go send you into the woods to cut down trees for me.
You know, if I'm going to hire somebody to cut trees for me and I'm going to pay them
by the hour, I want to feel the edge of their ax if it's even sharp.
And I don't want to see them going out there with a pocket knife saying, I'm going to go
chop wood for you.
Will you pay me by the hour?
And that's what's going on today in missions.
We got people going out there.
They got a pocket knife in their hand, but it's got a little saw feature.
It's a Swiss army knife.
It's got a little saw on it.
You know, if I send somebody to mission field and I'm going to pay their way, I want them
to have a big sharp ax.
I want it to slice my skin open just when I check it.
I want them to use a sharp ax.
I want them to use the right tools.
I want them to know what they're doing.
So just because you're working hard doesn't mean you're getting things done, right?
Missions should be done in a common sense manner.
The sharp ax means you speak the language.
And if you don't want to learn a foreign language, guess what, there are a ton of wonderful
places where you could do missions without having to learn the language.
Like how about Guyana?
You could go to Guyana and be an effective missionary.
You go to Jamaica.
Those are great places, receptive places.
People want to hear the gospel.
You could go to Botswana.
Guess what?
A lot of people there speak English.
You could go to South Africa.
Ton of English.
I mean, look, English is spreading like wildfire across the planet.
It's getting to the point where the whole world is learning English as a second language,
at varying levels.
I remember when I was in Germany in 1999, nobody spoke English.
You would almost never run into anybody that speaks English.
Now 20 years later, 2019, virtually every teenager or young person in their 20s knows
pretty good English.
The older people still don't know it, but the young people do.
That's the trend all over Europe.
That's the trend all over Africa.
That's the trend in parts of Asia is toward English.
So look, if you just want to be a missionary, then just go to an English speaking place.
Otherwise, if you speak Spanish, then we'll talk about you going to Latin America.
If you speak Portuguese, then we'll talk about you going to Brazil, right?
If you speak Chinese, let's talk about you going to China, but let's not take a Chinese
guy and send him to Morocco where he's going to learn Arabic and he hasn't even learned
one word.
But that's the old IFB's missions program and that's a true story.
I got a missionary letter from that guy, from the Chinese guy going to Morocco.
I got his missions letter.
I wrote to him and said, hey, bro, I was super friendly to the guy.
I said, hey, brother, I want to encourage you.
I want to be a blessing to you and give you some advice because I said, I'm going to tell
you how you can win souls in Morocco using English because he's just talking about being
in language school, getting nothing done.
And I said, hey, brother, I just want to see you win some souls in English while you're
over there.
And I gave him a list of ideas of where he can find English speakers in Morocco to win
to Christ.
And he just wrote back, oh, no, it's not going to work.
You don't understand.
And the guy just sits in language school for two years learning Arabic when he's Chinese.
I think God's calling you to China.
I'm not claiming to be a seer or a clairvoyant, but you look like you're called to go to China
since you already speak Chinese.
But the point is, I tried to tell the guy, hey, here's how you can win souls in English
because here's where you're going to find English speakers in Morocco.
I did research on it and sent this guy a list.
He didn't want the knowledge.
He didn't want the wisdom.
He didn't want the training, even though I offered it to him in a humble and meek and
kind way saying, hey, brother, just want to give you some encouragement.
He just came back whining to me how it wasn't going to work.
And you know what?
I was so tempted and I wouldn't do this, but I was so tempted to literally just buy myself
a plane ticket to Morocco, fly to Morocco, be there for one week and win a bunch of people
to the Lord using English.
Because I don't know, the only word I know in Arabic is yella, which means hurry up.
Let's go.
Hurry up.
Yella, yella.
All right?
That's all I know is you're driving over there, you just stick your head out the window, yella.
But look, I was tempted to just hop on a plane and just go find people that speak English
and win a couple people to the Lord and say, okay, buddy, what now, buddy?
What now?
What's your excuse now?
He wants to chop with a dole axe because he doesn't care how much firewood comes home.
He just cares about getting paid.
It's a joke.
So let's turn, if you would, to Proverbs chapter 15 verse 19, Proverbs 15 verse 19.
What am I saying today?
I'm saying work smarter, not harder.
Work smarter, not harder.
Working harder is not always the answer.
And look, I've seen some people in the old IFB, man, they work hard.
I've seen these guys that get up on Sunday at 5 a.m. and they don't get home until midnight
and they're working hard.
But does that always mean that they're being as effective as they could be?
Folks, it's not about working harder.
It's about working smarter.
It's about getting the wisdom from the Bible that's profitable to direct you to doing it
right.
That's the sharp axe.
Amen.
Proverbs 15, 19.
I love this verse.
The way of the slothful man, what's a slothful man?
A lazy man, right?
The way of a slothful man is an hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made plain.
So what does this mean?
Lazy people, everything's an obstacle.
So their way, a way is like a path or a road, right?
Camino.
Their way is a hedge of thorns, meaning like they're walking through the hedge.
Imagine the righteous man is walking down the sidewalk.
He's just walking down the sidewalk.
He's going fast.
20 minutes, he goes one mile in 20 minutes.
The lazy man, the slothful man, he's inside the hedge, just struggling through the hedge,
being stabbed by thorns.
He's bleeding.
He's sweating.
He's dragging forward.
Oh, you don't know how hard it is in this mission field.
Oh man, it's so hard.
I'm in a really hard area.
This is a really hard area for someone.
It doesn't work here.
Oh, no, he's slothful.
Amen.
You see what I'm saying?
The way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns.
It's just chopping with a dull ax.
Oh man, cutting trees is such hard work.
I'm so tired, right?
Because the righteous has got that razor sharp one swing and the trees down.
I mean, there's that wood.
He just splits it, right?
Wisdom is profitable direct.
The slothful man's way is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the righteous is made
plain.
It's just wide open for him.
Where do we go next?
Just the sky's the limit.
I mean, we're just full speed ahead, right?
Look at chapter 13, verse 13.
Chapter 13, verse 13.
It says, who so despiseth the word shall be destroyed.
Talking about the word of God, right?
Look, if you despise the word of God, you're going to be destroyed.
But he that feareth the commandments shall be rewarded.
The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.
Good understanding, listen to this.
This is the key verse that I want to focus on.
Verse 15, good understanding giveth favor, but the way of transgressors is hard.
Isn't that the same thing we just saw in that last passage in chapter 15?
The way of the slothful is like a hedge of thorns.
The Bible says the way of transgressors is hard.
It's hard.
You say, oh man, it must be so easy living the worldly life.
It's so hard to be a Christian.
Guess what?
The way of transgressors is hard.
You ever see a lady and say, boy, she looks like she's lived a hard life.
Have you ever heard somebody say that about a lady before?
Well, guess what?
They don't say that because she was a Sunday school teacher.
Is that what it is?
They look at a woman who's had a lot of kids and been a Sunday school teacher and washed
the saints feet and diligently followed every good work and said, oh, she looks like she's
lived a hard life.
No, when they say she looks like she lived a hard life, it's drinking, drugs, whoredom.
That's what they're talking about, folks.
That's what they mean.
Why?
Because the way of transgressors is hard, whereas good understanding gives you favor.
Favor is similar to the word grace.
Look, God is blessing the people who are working hard and doing things right.
You say, oh man, I want God to bless my ministry.
How can he bless your ministry when you're not doing it the way he told you to do it
and when you're chopping with a dole ax, you're not using the King James.
You're not using soul winning.
You're not using the right tools of preaching and the gospel and so forth.
It's going to be hard.
It's going to be a flop.
It's going to be a failure.
How do you get the favor?
By doing it right.
The Bible says every prudent man dealeth with knowledge, but a fool layeth open his folly.
So if the war is an information war, if it's casting down imaginations and bringing everything
thought into the obedience of Christ, if it's a spiritual fight, not a carnal fight,
how do we sharpen the spiritual weapons?
What is the whetstone?
The whetstone is knowledge.
The whetstone is understanding.
The whetstone is training.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
So how do you know to use the right methods?
You get trained.
How are those guys that I saw in that video so good at cutting trees?
They got trained.
They got knowledge.
They understood they were wise and they were trained.
Okay.
When you come to church, you're sharpening your share.
You sit down in church and the pastor preaches knowledge.
He preaches understanding.
He preaches wisdom.
What he's doing is sharpening your weapon.
You say, oh man, sitting in church is such a waste of time.
I could be out making money.
Hey, you're never wasting time when you're sharpening your weapon.
Never.
Say, oh man, I don't have time to read my Bible in the morning because I'm too busy
out working and making money trying to make ends meet.
Hey, you are sharpening your tools every morning.
When you read your Bible, you're sharpening the weapon.
You're getting knowledge, wisdom, understanding.
You go to church, you're getting knowledge, wisdom.
Oh man, my family life is so screwed up.
My marriage is so screwed up.
My child is so screwed up.
I don't have time for church.
I got to focus on the family.
Hey, you better get in church and sharpen your share so that you can actually be effective
as a husband, be effective as a parent, be effective at your job, be effective because
the Bible teaches you how to do all areas of life more effectively and sharpens your
weapons and your tools in all senses.
Go if you would to Luke chapter number five.
Luke chapter number five, while you're turning there, I'll read for you John 21.
We're talking about working smarter, not harder.
John 21 five, Jesus said unto them, children, have you any meat?
They answered him, no.
And he said unto them, cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find.
They cast therefore and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
So what's he saying there?
They're working hard all night, they're fishing, they're working hard.
They're not catching anything.
Jesus just comes along and says, hey, you're casting the net on the wrong side.
Cast the net on the other side of the ship and you will find.
They cast the net on the other side and they have a multitude of fishes, right?
Look at Luke chapter five verse four.
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and let down
your nets for a draft.
And Simon answering said unto him, master, we've toiled all the night and have taken
nothing.
So here's a group of guys that are working hard, they're sweating, they're toiling, they're
laboring, and what did they accomplish?
Nothing.
Nevertheless, he says, at thy word I will let down the net.
And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes in their net break.
So what do we see here?
Doing things according to God's word, doing it at Christ's word, following the word of
God makes you effective, otherwise you can work and work and toil and labor and catch
nothing.
Folks, there are churches out there that are hardworking churches that literally go an
entire year with zero salvations.
There are hardworking churches, I mean, they work hard on the choir.
They work hard on Awana.
They work hard on Patch the Pirate.
They work hard on Sunday School.
They work hard on getting the building in tip top shape.
They work hard on writing sermons.
They work hard on all these things.
And yet at the end of the year, it's zero baptisms.
Why are there no baptisms?
Why are there no salvations?
They're casting their net on the wrong side.
They're not following the word.
They're not doing it at Christ's word.
They're chopping with the dole axe.
And yeah, every five years they'll get a couple of salvations, a couple of baptisms.
Because even with the dole axe, you can eventually cut the tree down.
I remember reading about how in the Soviet Union, in the prison colonies there in the
Gulag, they would have all these slave laborers doing work, but they didn't always have the
tools to supply them and everything.
So I read about these slave laborers in the Gulag in Siberia literally tying ropes around
the countries and pulling them down with just manpower because they didn't have a sharp
saw or an axe.
Just using just stupid methods to get things done because they just have all this manpower,
no tools, totally inefficient, mismanaged.
That's how a lot of churches can start to look if we're not guided and directed by the
word of God.
Right?
Wisdom is profitable to direct.
Work smarter, not harder.
Do the first works.
You remember in Revelation 2 he said, I know thy works.
And then he said, I know thy labor.
So he's bringing up the work twice.
He said, I know thy works.
I know thy labor.
I know thy patience.
But then he said what?
I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works.
So here's the thing.
They were working hard.
They were laboring hard.
They were working patiently.
But were they doing the first works?
No.
So they're working hard on the wrong things.
They're chopping hard with a dull axe.
Does everybody understand?
They need to do the first works.
So number one, we said about sharpening your share, having a sharp weapon.
Number one is use the King James Bible.
Number one.
If you don't have the King James Bible, you're not cutting down any trees, friend.
Number two, use biblical methods.
Do the first works.
Do it at Christ's word.
Use soul winning, not these other methods that man's wisdom comes up with.
So number one, use the King James.
Number two, use biblical methods, i.e. do the first works.
Number three, sharpen the skills that you have.
Sharpen the skills that you have.
So you're using the King James.
You're using biblical methods.
You're doing the soul winning.
You're doing things the way God told us to do them.
But then number three, sharpen the skills that you have.
Sharpen your share.
Sharpen the tools that you have.
Now if you would, flip over to Isaiah 49, Isaiah chapter 49.
So what are some skills that you have that you could sharpen up?
Well here's the thing.
It's great to go out and do a lot of soul winning, but you know what's even better is
if you can get good at soul winning and then go out and do a lot of soul winning.
So if there's a soul winning training, pay attention to it.
If there's a soul winning training, learn from it.
Listen to it.
Don't just think, oh I know, I know, I know what I'm doing.
When you go out soul winning with other people, pay attention.
Learn what you can from them.
Glean what you can and become a better soul winner.
How about memorizing the verses that are used out on soul winning?
That's going to sharpen up your share right there.
Gaining skills, you know we did a whole big soul winning conference.
You know that's a great, and I believe we had, I don't know if the DVDs are back there,
but they were back there in the past I know.
That DVD conference had a lot of helpful tips and tools and stuff like that will sharpen
up your soul winning.
I think you guys have a soul winning training coming up on April 6th, so that can help sharpen
up.
The bulletin says March 6th, it's supposed to be April 6th, to sharpen your soul winning.
What about your preaching ability?
Being able to preach, that's an effective tool for reaching people.
The Bible says that God has chosen to manifest his word through preaching.
He has chosen to use the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
So therefore, if you can become good at preaching, if you can learn how to preach, then you can
really be effective to reach a lot of people.
So sharpen up that tool, sharpen up your soul winning, sharpen up your ability to preach.
How about reading?
Reading the Bible.
Now a lot of people, they say, man, reading the Bible is so hard for me, but part of that
is just because they need to become a better reader.
Think about this, if you are a bad reader, then reading the Bible for you is like a hedge
of thorns and you're chopping with a dull ax.
If you can actually get better at reading, you can actually get better at reading your
Bible.
And especially getting better at reading out loud, so that you could be that guy that reads
the Bible before the preacher preaches, you can read that chapter.
Or you can read the Bible to someone if you're talking to someone about the Lord and you
need to turn somewhere to show them something.
You don't want to be like, all the land, right?
You want to be able to read effectively, right?
These are the tools of the trade, friend.
We don't go out soul winning with a literal ax in our hand.
I don't recommend that method, all right?
Don't go soul winning with a machete, don't go soul winning with a pitchfork, okay?
But what do we go soul winning with?
We go soul winning with the Bible, we use reading, we use preaching, we use speaking.
These are the things you want to get better at.
So you say, well, how do I become a better reader?
Practice reading out loud.
Read the Bible out loud.
And I'm not saying in a public place, okay?
That can be a little odd.
I'm saying, you know, when you're at home by yourself, you can sit and read the Bible
out loud and you can, I'm not saying to do it on the airplane, okay?
But you know, you can go by yourself, you can read the Bible out loud and get better
at reading.
You know those lists of names everybody wants to skip?
Read those names out loud because that'll teach you to sound things out and read every
letter on the page.
So getting better at reading.
How about getting better at singing?
You know, singing is an effective tool for serving God.
I like the fact that you guys have this class, you know, at 5.30 on Sundays where you're
learning how to sing and it's improving the congregation.
I mean, the congregational singing sounded great today.
And I've heard that part of it is because of that class.
You know, it's like you could just keep coming to church and singing with a dull axe.
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, chopping with a dull axe, trying to sing.
You know, it's great if you can actually learn a little bit about singing, learn a little
bit about music.
If you can become a better singer, you say, well, what's the big deal?
I thought it's all about the preaching.
But you know what, when somebody walks in here and this whole place is just singing
out, their heart is stirred.
Their spirit is stirred.
We're not just singing these songs for fun, folks.
We're not just singing this because the tradition or an exercise that we go through.
You know why we sing is to prepare ourselves for the preaching, to prepare our hearts for
the preaching and to get in the spirit because the Bible says that we should be filled with
the spirit, speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
So we get in the spirit.
We're filled with the spirit by singing those songs.
And you know, if you walk in and everybody's singing like praise the Lord, praise the Lord.
It doesn't inspire you.
It doesn't motivate you.
It doesn't get you fired up.
But when you walk in and the whole place is just belting it out, just, you know, and can
it be that you are, it's just like, wow, yeah, this is great.
Look, I've walked out of services where people commented more on the singing than they did
on the preaching because they said, man, that singing was amazing.
That can really minister to people.
That can really inspire people and look, and it teaches too.
Bible says, teaching one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, teaching and
admonishing one another, Colossians 3 16.
So learning how to sing better.
You could be a song leader or you can just sing from the pew and just inspire people
and also inspire yourself.
And Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, if you're walking around singing,
guess what?
If you're singing and you're walking in the spirit, guess what you've got a sharper acts
than if you're trying to do it in the flesh.
Try living the Christian life in the flesh.
You're chopping with a dull acts.
You try living the Christian life in the spirit and you've sharpened your share.
You get up in the morning, you read your Bible, you sing some hymns, you pray.
Guess what?
You just sharpened your acts.
You just sharpened your share.
You just sharpened your culture, you sharpen your matic and you are ready for the day,
whatever the battle, whether it's in your family, whether it's at work, whether it's
in church or whatever, you're ready to go.
Any time that you spend reading, learning, studying, gaining knowledge, getting training,
these things all pay off because the sharp tool gets more work done for the Lord.
It's very important.
Isaiah 49 says this in verse one, listen, O isles unto me and harken ye people from
far.
The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention
of my name and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand hath
he hid me and made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hid me and said unto me
thou art my servant O Israel in whom I will be glorified.
Look, we all want to bring glory to the Lord.
We all want the Lord to be glorified in us.
We all want to be an effective tool, an effective arrow in his quiver, and he says here that
his mouth was made like a sharp sword.
When I go out and preach or if I go out and go soul winning or if I sing a Christian song,
you know what?
I want my mouth to be like a sharp sword.
I don't want to be ineffective, dull, and just unable to accomplish the purpose that
God has for me.
I have my mouth like a sharp sword, and I want to be that polished shaft in the Lord's
quiver because the quiver is where you put the arrows, and basically God is sending people
to different areas to accomplish various tasks, and so we're like arrows in the hands of a
mighty man.
We're the Lord's children.
The Bible says as arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth.
So we're God's children.
So we're arrows in his quiver, and we don't want to be that arrow that's got all the knots
in the wood, and it's a little crooked, and when you shoot it, it's not going to fly true.
We want to be that polished shaft.
We want to be straight.
We want to be clean.
We want to be polished, and we don't want to be a practice arrow where the end of it's
blunt.
It's like, boom, the Lord could pull back as hard as he wants and let go and boom, straight
to the target and just bounces off because it's so dull, it just bounces off.
Think about that.
We want it to be that when the Lord sends us somewhere, wherever he sends us, Mexico,
Morocco, whatever, if he sends us there, we don't want to get there and be like, I don't
know the language, boing, or somebody comes to you and says, can you please tell me how
to get saved, and you're like, I don't know, because you haven't been soul winning.
I guarantee you, the people who go soul winning every week here, if somebody asks them how
can I get saved, they're just like, great, Romans 3.23, let's do it, and they can roll
right into it.
They wouldn't even miss a beat.
They wouldn't even hesitate, and they'll get it done, but how many times I wonder have
Christians been asked by somebody, I don't know, what must I do to be saved, and they're
just like, come to church with me and find out.
Oh, it's too far away, and they're not prepared to open their Bible and give an effective
Gospel presentation.
It's sad, right?
We want the Lord to pull back on that bowstring, fire us into whatever the situation, fire
us into that encounter with someone, fire us out there on door-to-door soul winning,
fire us out on the mission field, and we are so razor sharp, we want to just cut in and
come out the other side.
We want to be that sharp, polished arrow in the Lord's quiver that he can just pull out
and just boom.
He can trust it.
He can rely on it.
Hey, this thing's going to hit the mark.
This thing's going to get it done, and you say, man, I want God to use me.
I want God to give me opportunities.
How do you get those opportunities, Pastor Anderson?
How do you get those opportunities, Brother Mejia?
How do you get those opportunities, Brother so-and-so?
How do you get in those situations where you get to preach in schools or where you get
to preach to these people or go on that mission strip or go to this soul winning?
How do I get those opportunities where I get to be put behind the pulpit?
Here's the thing.
If God knows that you're sharp, if God knows that you're polished, you know what he's going
to do?
He's going to reach for that arrow.
I mean, think about it.
If I have my best arrow, and then I have some other arrows that sometimes they hit the mark.
Sometimes they're sharp.
Sometimes they're reliable.
Well, you know what, when I have something important, when I have something big, when
I have a really important target, I'm going to reach for the arrow I can trust.
And let me say this.
There's always a prepared place for a prepared person.
So don't worry about how do I get that gig, you know?
How do I get that opportunity?
No, no, no.
Worry about being the person who can nail that opportunity.
And you know what?
The opportunity will just fall in your lap.
You won't even have to go looking for it.
You won't have to try to figure out, man, how do I become a pastor?
How do I become a missionary?
How do I become a preacher?
Learn how to do it, and it will happen.
The opportunities will be everywhere.
Why?
Because God wants you to preach more than you want to preach.
He wants you to hit the target more than you want to hit the target.
Sharpen your ax, and there will be a tree to cut down.
Sharpen your share, sharpen your coulter, and there will be a Philistine with that share's
name on it.
And you say, well, I don't have much.
I don't have a great sword.
I don't have a spear.
Well, then sharpen your share.
What you do have, sharpen it.
Different people have different skills, talents, abilities.
And you may say to me, Pastor Anderson, I have no ability to preach.
I'll never be a preacher.
That's okay that you don't have that particular sword or that particular spear, but do you
have a plowshare?
Do you have a coulter?
Do you have a matic?
Let's just sharpen what you do have and get you out there doing what you can do.
Everybody can go soul winning.
Everybody can come to church and sing out with all their heart, and at least you say,
well, you don't know how dull my vocal cords are.
Well, okay, but at least we can sharpen them a little bit.
Folks, there's a prepared place for a prepared person.
People go through life spinning your wheels.
Don't go through life chopping with the dolics.
And by the way, this sermon is all about spiritual things.
You can apply this to your job.
If this weren't church right now, if we were just in a workplace seminar, in fact, I'm
going on the road to workplaces.
Tell your workplace that I'm going to come in as a motivational speaker and preach to
them about sharpening up their job skills.
No, I'm just kidding, of course.
But the point is, this could literally change your job.
If you would actually go home and maybe read a book about what you do for a living, you
know what I'm saying?
Well, not unless I'm getting paid to be trained or whatever.
Look, when I first started a job doing alarm systems, you know what I did?
I took one of the fire alarm panels home, and I set it up in my living room and just
fooled around with it for hours on my own time.
And you say, well, yeah, but I mean, you're wasting your time because you weren't on the
clock, and I'm getting paid.
No, because look, I took it home, I fooled around with it in my living room, I figured
out how the thing worked, and I ended up making way more money.
When I was doing fire alarm systems, I used to go to college at night and take a fire
sprinkler class.
I would just go to the community college, everybody else there was a firefighter.
They were trying to get a degree to become a fireman.
They wanted to get a degree, and then that's going to help them, it was like some kind
of a fire safety degree, and then they'd be more likely to get hired on at the fire
department with the associate's degree.
I was the only person in the class that was not interested in becoming a fireman, firefighter.
I would just go, and then they're like, why are you here?
And I said, well, because I'm a fire alarm installer, and I want to just basically just
understand everything about my profession.
So I want to understand the related professions of sprinkling.
And look, I can't even count how many times that information came in handy, where I'd
be on a job site, and there was some kind of a mix up between the fire alarm guy and
the fire sprinkler guy, and it was like, boom, I understand both.
I jump in and fix it, figure it out, get cross trained.
Why?
Because I was in a job where I could only work eight hours.
It was like eight hours, five days a week, 40 hours.
There's no overtime available, right?
And here I am, I'm a young married guy, I've got a child, I've got the second child on
the way, and I'm thinking to myself, man, I need to make more money.
I need to make more money, and the way my job was, they didn't smile upon you having
a second job.
They didn't want you having a second job.
They wanted you to be able to go out of town whenever they want, and they just wanted to
own you, even though they're only using you for 40 hours a week, and they weren't paying
you that well.
But it was like they just wanted to own you like that.
So basically, what I did was, I went home, I went to the library and just got books to
read up about my job, and I went to a college class to just try to learn more about my job,
because I just wanted to excel at my job.
Because you know what I was basically doing at night?
I was just sharpening my axe, so that the next day, I could be more effective.
So sometimes it's hard to make it, maybe Southern California, high cost of living, whatever,
and you're trying to make it on one income, you've got your wife staying at home, you've
got a kid on the way, oh man, I've got to make more money.
You know what, it's not always a second job that's the answer, and sometimes a second
job is the answer, and I've worked a second job many times, but you know what is often
the answer is actually just getting more skills at your first job.
You know, all the people that whine about, oh, you can't make it on minimum wage.
Here's a tip then, don't make minimum wage.
Oh man, minimum wage, you've got to raise minimum wage, I'm not making up, you know
why you're making minimum wage, because you have minimum skills.
You have minimum skills, minimum knowledge, minimum understanding, minimum wisdom, minimum
effectiveness, because otherwise you'll get a raise.
You understand what I'm saying?
Get some skills, get the skills to pay the bills, amen?
Sharpen your share, spiritually.
Sharpen your share, occupationally.
Sharpen your share, ladies, in the kitchen.
Sharpen your Ginsu kitchen knife.
Sharpen up your cooking skills.
Sharpen up your child rearing skills.
Sharpen your homeschooling.
Sharpen your wife skills.
Sharpen your skills as a husband, man.
Sharpen your skills as a father.
Sharpen your skills in every area of life, learn, grow, get training, get instruction,
get wisdom, seek it more than you seek rubies.
Seek it more.
Information is more important than the degree.
Information is more important than the paycheck.
It's about knowledge, understanding, wisdom.
And then you go through life, and you've got all the right tools, razor sharp, and you're
super effective.
That's what God wants for us.
Read your Bible, go to church, and always get as much training and knowledge you can
in any area of life.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and help all of us, Lord, to take heat
under your word.
Of course, we know your word is the ultimate weapon, but there are other weapons, Lord,
and help us to sharpen all of our weapons.
Help us to go through life with the path wide open and not try to go through the thorn
bush of being in the dark, having no information, no training, Lord.
Help us to get the right tool, the right training, and be effective to serve you, and in Jesus'
name we pray, amen.