(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

I'd like to focus on is just verse 10 where the Bible reads, If the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge, then must he put to more strength. But wisdom is profitable to direct. And what this verse is speaking about is someone who is chopping with a dull ax. And the iron of the ax is blunt, and you do not wet the edge. Of course, a whetstone, you've probably heard that term, is something that you use to sharpen a blade. And here he says that if the iron is blunt and it's not sharpened properly, then you have to put more effort into the chopping. You have to put more strength into it. But don't miss the last phrase there at the end of the verse. It says, but wisdom is profitable to direct. So what God is doing here is he's using chopping with a dull ax as a metaphor, as an illustration of someone who is living their life without wisdom. See, sometimes there's a better way to do things. And often, we're working very hard, and we're putting forth a lot of effort. But that doesn't mean that we're necessarily accomplishing a lot. Because often, we need to work smarter instead of just working harder. I was thinking about this yesterday because I was working on an alarm system, and I was drilling into a steel door. And I was drilling down. I was putting all my might and effort into drilling this hole. And I just wasn't going anywhere with it. And the bit looked pretty good, but it just was not going in. And I'm just pushing and shoving. And then finally, I changed it out for a new bit, and it was like a hot knife through butter, just zzzz, done. Because sometimes 90% of getting a job done is just having the right tools. And when you're trying to do a job with the wrong tools, you end up beating your head against the wall. And I don't know how many times I've been on a job, because I've worked in construction-type related jobs for years and years. And you'll work on something, and you'll work on something, and you're calculating in your mind, OK, Home Depot is this far away, and it's going to take me this long to get in the car and drive over there and get the tool. And you're like, no, I don't want to spend that 25 minutes to go get it. But then you end up wasting two hours not having the right tool, not having the right equipment. Usually it's always better, as soon as you figure out you don't have what you need, to just get in the car, bite the bullet, make the 50th trip to Home Depot for that day, and go get the tool or the part that you need. And anybody who has a blue collar-type job probably knows what I'm talking about. And I was thinking about plumbing. Plumbing is something that's not my favorite thing to work on. But when you work on plumbing, a lot of times you're dealing with stuff that has been on for a long time, and you have to break that. Help me out with the terminology here, Jerry. You have to break the seal. Yeah, OK, there we go. You know, things are sealed on. See, I don't know the terminology of plumbing, OK? But I've worked on a lot of plumbing. But you know, there's like a nut holding something on, and you put the pliers on it, and you're pushing and shoving, and you're putting all your might into it, and you can't break that seal, you can't break it loose. But what Jerry taught me is that you need a longer wrench. And he came, and I'm thinking, I have a pretty long wrench. Then he reaches into his van and pulls out one that's like this long. He's like, no, that's not a long wrench. So he gets out of this big, giant, long wrench, and because of the way the angle is, and just because of simple physics, he just holds onto the edge of that wrench and can put very little effort into it and break something. You know, you're down there with a short wrench, you're, ugh, you know, every muscle in your body is tightening. But if you have a longer wrench, you can just, you know, Jerry walks up and just puts one finger on it, and just, you know, breaks that seal. Because of the fact that you have the right tool. And I figured out that part of the reason why I was struggling with plumbing for so long is just I didn't have the right tools. And I got a few tools that I needed, got some longer wrenches, and then it was, well, no, it wasn't a piece of cake. But anyway, but it was easier than it was before. So having the right tools can cause you to have to put forth less energy, less strength. And God is saying that in our lives, the tool that we need is wisdom. And if we have wisdom, we can work smarter sometimes instead of just working harder. Go, if you would, to Romans 10, for example. Now, Romans 10 is a scripture that's talking about the unsaved. And specifically, it's talking about the Jews that do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Romans chapter 10, verse one, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So here, he's talking about Israel, and he's saying they're putting forth a lot of effort. I mean, they have zeal. They're putting forth a lot of energy, and it makes me think of the Apostle Paul when he talked about in Galatians how before he was saved, he profited in the Jews' religion above many his equals of his own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers. I mean, Paul was working very hard. He was striving to excel in the Jews' religion. He studied, he worked, he was zealous, but he said later in Philippians 3 that he counted it all as dung. He said it was all dung. It's all a waste of time. He was beating his head against the wall. He was accomplishing nothing because his zeal was without knowledge. And oftentimes, we could be working really hard and trying really hard and putting a lot of effort into it, and our heart is in the right place, but because we lack wisdom and knowledge, we are wasting our time. Just like you could waste your time with the wrong tool for three or four hours on a job before you finally break down, go to the hardware store, get the right tool, takes 30 seconds. And how many times have we been there? Here, we see that the unsaved are often working hard, and a lot of unsaved people think that they have to work their way to heaven. They don't understand that it's by faith. Here, it says that they've not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Being saved is so easy. It's just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Jesus did the hard part, but how many people today are working so hard to try to make it into heaven and their labors in vain? Because they have zeal in many cases, but they don't have knowledge. They go through such hard work. Think about the people that one day are gonna say to the Lord in Matthew 7, it records, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. I mean, those people are working hard, putting forth effort. Then while I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me that work iniquity. He's saying, your works are iniquity. Your righteousnesses are as filthy rags before me, and they're not seeking salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ. They're seeking it through their own works. They're putting forth a lot of effort. They're accomplishing nothing. But of course, most of the people that I'm preaching to this morning are already saved. And so for those of us that are already saved, go to 1 Corinthians 3, and let me explain to you from the Bible that we are going to be rewarded in this life for what we accomplish, not for effort. You know, a lot of teachers in the school system might say, you know, I'm just going to grade you on your effort. I'm just going to reward you for effort. Well, you know, the way I look at it is that, you know, the first three letters of effort is F. You know, and that's what you should get if it's just all about your effort, okay? Because honestly, it's not about effort. It's about getting the job done. I mean, what happens when you get out into the real world, and you go to some job where you're supposed to install an alarm system, you mess everything up, the alarm doesn't work, you put holes in the drywall, and you say, well, don't you see how hard I'm working? I'm getting up early, I'm staying at the job late. I want to be paid based on my effort. No, you're not going to be paid on effort. You're going to be paid on what you actually finished, what you actually got done. When you go to your job, your boss isn't looking for effort. He's looking for results, okay? He wants to get paid. He wants to get something finished. It says in First Corinthians chapter three, verse 11, for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Of course, the foundation is just being saved. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And that's what we dealt with in Romans 10. But it says, now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he had built there upon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire. You see, you can still be saved without having those works there. He says, yet he himself shall be saved, even if all your works were wood, hay, and stubble, even if it was all burned up. But I want to point out about this passage is that over and over again, he keeps using the word work to refer to the product of your labor. Because when it talks about trying your work to see what sort it is, he's looking at the product. He's looking at gold, he's looking at silver, he's looking at precious stones, he's looking at a physical object saying, okay, this is your work, what you produced. It'd be like if you went to an artist and they said, let me show you my work. And they'd show you a finished product, wouldn't they? They'd show you paintings, they'd show you sculpture, they'd show you their work and what they accomplish and what they produce. And when God says he's going to reward us based upon our works, he's talking about he's going to reward us based upon what we accomplished. And he's going to try our work of what sort it is. He said, behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. And four times in these verses, he uses the word work to point to the product. What you accomplish. What remains after your life is over. What remains? The gold, the silver, the precious stones. What did you accomplish? He's not looking at effort. He's not looking, oh, this is how many hours you spent or this is how much effort you put in or how much strength you put into chopping with your dole axe. No, he's looking for how many trees you cut down, my friend. He wants to know what you did with your life. Go to Luke five. A perfect example of this is soul winning. Because soul winning is one of the major works that God has commanded us to do, isn't it? I mean, it's one of the big things that we're even here on this earth for. When you think about the fact that we've believed on Christ, we know we're going to heaven, why are we on this earth? Why are we here after we get saved for many more decades? To reach other people with the gospel of Christ. When Jesus Christ left this world physically after he died and been buried and risen again, he said, you know, as the Father has sent me, so send I you. He said, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. He said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He said, you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. He said, over and over again, you are to go out and reach the lost to preach the gospel to the unsaved. That's your job. That's the work that he has called us to do. That's what Jesus spent his time doing, going to all the towns and villages and cities and preaching the gospel daily in the temple and in every house. They ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. And so when it comes to soul winning, you can put forth a lot of effort, right? You can swing that dole ax, but you know what? You're going to get more done when you're shopping with an ax that's been sharpened. Look, if you would, at Luke chapter 5, verse 4, it says, 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 have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, 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. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they had come and helped them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished in all that were with him at the draft of the fishes which they had taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, fear not, here's what it's really about, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. So here we see that they had toiled all night and caught nothing. Were they working hard? But they weren't accomplishing anything. Then they did it according to God's word. Peter said, at thy word, I will let down the net. Now he's obeying the command of God. Now he encloses a great multitude of fishes so much that the net break. And the reason that the net break is simple, he was told to let down multiple nets. He only let down one net. That's why it broke, because he didn't have room, because he didn't obey exactly what Jesus had said. Go to John chapter 21. We'll see a similar story. John chapter number 21. Because remember, fishing in the Bible is often an illustration of soul winning. He said, I'll make you fishers of men. And he uses that illustration when we're out soul winning that we are fishing for men. And a lot of people are putting a lot of effort into soul winning and not getting anything done because they're not doing it according to knowledge and because wisdom is not directing them. Because remember the verse that's guiding this whole sermon. If the iron be blunt and he do not wet the edge, then must he put to more strength. But wisdom is profitable to direct. When you're directed by wisdom, you're chopping with a sharpened ax and you are getting more done. Look if you would at John 21 verse one. It says, after these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberius and on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathaniel of Cana and Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately. And that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith 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 here you see them working all night and catching nothing with the net on the left side. Jesus says to them, cast it on the right side. Now all of a sudden they're catching a multitude of fishes. Now all of a sudden they're having success. Why? Because they're doing it the right way now. They're doing it according to God's word. And there are so many people today putting so much effort into soul winning and they're failing today. And they're not gonna be graded on effort. What are they getting done? What are they accomplishing is what I'd like to know. And let me give you a perfect example. People who just hand tracked instead of actually giving people the gospel. Perfect example. And I mean there are people, I remember I knew a guy when I was in Germany. He literally spent three days a week, eight hours a day just distributing tracts. But he wasn't doing any soul winning. He wasn't opening his mouth. The Bible says that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. The Bible says go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And look, you say well are tracts any good? You know what a tract is good for? To put in somebody's hand as a way to start the conversation. That's what it's good for. To put it in somebody's hand and start a conversation. But you know what, if you're just gonna go out and just do nothing but hand out tracts, that's not something that God ever told you to do. Great effort. You get an A for effort because you're out handing out tracts all day. But wait a minute, are you getting people saved? No. And you say oh tons of people get saved from tracts. No they don't. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. How so they hear without a preacher the Bible says. And you know what? Most people are not gonna read that tract and if they do read it they're not gonna understand it. They need a spirit filled Bible believing Christian to open their mouth with boldness and preach the gospel. You know I always think about it. Whenever I'm out knocking doors, soul winning, and I give somebody the gospel and they get saved, I always think to myself man there's no way this person would have got saved just reading a tract. You think my wife would have got saved reading a tract? I explained to her the gospel like 30 times before she got saved. I mean I explained it to her over and over and over again. And I prayed and I talked to her and I went over it with her and preached the word. You know you think if I would have just handed her a tract. In fact that's how I met my wife. I handed her a tract and you know what she did? She handed it back to me and said not interested. That's true. I walked up, handed her a tract, and she handed it back to me and said not interested. And she said well I just didn't wanna you know litter it like everybody else was littering it. She was trying to be green about it and save the environment so she handed it back to me and you know her greenness paid off because you know here we are happily ever after 13 years later. But what I'm saying is she wouldn't have got saved from a tract. She didn't get saved the first time I gave her the gospel. I had to give her the gospel over and over and over. It took boldness. It took the boldness to get that phone number you know when I talked to her. It took the boldness to call that number you know. It took the boldness and the preaching and the prayer and everything that went into it. But we wanna take an easy way. What's easier just handing somebody something? Or actually doing the soul winning. Doing the soul winning is more difficult. Doing the soul winning requires you to learn some Bible. Doing the soul winning requires you to have some boldness to be filled with the spirit. You don't have to be filled with the spirit to hand somebody a piece of paper. The mailman does it every day. And he's not even saved. Okay. I mean the mailman can hand these papers out. You could literally program a robot to hand these papers out and to just you know a faithful word Baptist church. No we need a spirit filled soul winning Christian to open their mouth and preach the word of God like only they can do. And when you open your mouth and preach the gospel to somebody it's not gonna be exactly the same as me. It's not gonna be exactly the same as someone else because we're all different. God can all use us in a unique way to preach God's word and to reach different kind of people when we're speaking from our heart and from our soul. And you know what I don't even think that you should just memorize the soul winning demonstration video and just recite that. You know let it come from the heart. Let it come from the spirit. Learn the scriptures and speak to people from the heart and from the spirit and be a soul winner. You say that's really hard. I know it's hard. It's why nobody's doing it. And if it were easy everybody'd be doing it. But tracts are easy. That's why it's so popular. Just hand them out. Say you're against tracts. I'm against 99% of them that preach a false salvation. Every time somebody hands me a tract it's telling me I have to turn my whole life around to be saved. I have to turn over a new leaf and turn away from all my sins. I'm all for a tract that says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that teaches salvation through faith alone. But you know what it's not enough. It's a great ice breaker. It's a great ice breaker. You know what I mean? Because it's not gonna get the job done alone. We need to do the job. Now let me ask you this. Did God command you to just hand out tracts as a substitute for soul winning? Is there any verse that teaches any such thing? Is there any verse that you could point to that says this is where the Bible teaches us to hand out pieces of paper instead of opening our mouth? So when you're letting down the net in that way are you letting down the net according to his word? No. But when you open your mouth, and people say oh soul winning's not biblical. Look, how could it not be biblical to just open your mouth and start telling somebody about Jesus with the Bible in your hand? And point to verses in your Bible and show people the gospel. Nothing could be more biblical. That is the most biblical thing in the world. And look, yeah, I'll fill my pocket with tracts. We got tracts in the back to hand somebody as I give them the gospel. But I'm not gonna hand it to them and then wash my hands and say well I've done my duty. That person's without excuse on judgment day. Good night, help us. But anyway, you know, soul winning. But not only that, but when we think about soul winning, some people's methods out soul winning could use a little sharpening up. And you know what, if you sharpen up your methods on soul winning you'll get more done for God. And you know what, read your Bible, study. Now don't use it as an excuse not to go soul winning. Well I haven't studied enough. Just get out there and start doing it. Because the best way to learn how to do something is by doing it. You learn by doing. You know, you can sit in a classroom for four years and learn about plumbing, right? Or you can get your hands dirty and start doing some plumbing. You're gonna learn more. And so don't use it as an excuse not to go soul winning. But those of you who do go soul winning, time to sharpen up. You know, I would listen to the sermons that I've preached on soul winning because I've been soul winning for a long time and have a lot of good tips. I would go soul winning with as many different people in the church as you can. Because you'll pick up different things from different people in the church. Be a silent partner with as many different people as you can. Learn the different techniques of soul winning. Things that you like and things that you might think, you know, that's not such a good way of soul winning. But you're always learning. Even if the person you're with isn't doing it exactly the way that is the right way or the way you think they should be doing it. You're always learning and getting better and sharpening your skills. The more verses you have memorized, the sharper you're gonna be on soul winning. But not only that, one of the major ways that people are soul winning with blunt iron is when they're using little or no Bible in their soul winning. A lot of people, they go soul winning and they just explain the gospel in their own words. That's a pretty blunt tool right there because you need the two edged sword of God's word. The Bible says the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. Piercing even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit of the joints and marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You know, when you go out soul winning and you're using the word of God, you're using a sharp tool. You're gonna get something done. You go out and just explain it in your own words, it's like trying to just chop at that tree with a dull ax, it's never coming down. And how many times have we given people the gospel in our lives? And I remember, you know, in my early days as a teenager, this is the mistake I was making. I would just explain people the gospel but I never opened the Bible and I wasn't quoting the scriptures verbatim and that's the mistake I was making, that's why I wasn't getting anybody saved. Then I got in a soul winning church that taught me to use the Bible and go through the verses with people and I started having success because it's the word of God that has power. And often when we go out door to door, yeah, our tendency is to open the Bible and use the Bible but when you're giving the gospel to your friend at work, your family member, your loved one, hey, if you don't wanna whip out a Bible, you need to quote those verses verbatim and quote those scriptures verbatim and let the power of God's word cut to the heart and let them be saved through the power of the Holy Spirit because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and Jesus said the words that I say unto you, they are spirit and they are life. He said it is the spirit that quickeneth or bring it to life. By his own will begat he us with the word of truth, the Bible says, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. The Bible teaches that the word of God is what saves us. Said he shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved, Acts 11. It's God's word that saves and so if we wanna get people saved, we need to use God's word. So we see first of all when it comes to the unsaved, they're chopping with a dull ax, they're doing a lot of work and accomplishing nothing. When it comes to those of us that are saved, when we go out soul winning, how sharp is our ax? How sharp are the tools? Are we wasting a lot of time handing out things instead of actually trying to get in a conversation with the people to whom we try to hand something? There are a lot of people who work really hard to get people saved and they just don't get a lot done. Like for example, people who scream on the street corner with a bullhorn. Now look, that's gotta be hard work. I mean, you do that for a while, you're probably gonna collapse in bed at night tired. I know preaching is hard work. I've preached every night for the last few nights and I wanna say thank you very much to the people who showed up the last several nights for the filming of the Revelation series. But just preaching on Wednesday night and then preaching two sermons on Thursday night, preaching on Friday night, preaching on Saturday night. It doesn't seem like much but man, it's draining. And I gotta imagine that especially standing out on a street corner and screaming and preaching and out in that kind of environment. But you know what, it's such a waste of time. I mean, I hate to say it but it's a complete waste of time. I talked to this guy, he did it for every week for a year and had nobody saved, okay? It's not effective. You say, well, what's wrong with it? Well, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it except that it's just a big waste of time and you're probably not accomplishing half as much or how about 100th as much? I mean, if you put that same time into knocking doors and actually went to people one on one and actually talked to them instead of just yelling and a bullhorn, you'd actually get people saved and so it's a big waste of time. You know, you spend 100 hours out street preaching, you're gonna get very little results and very few people saved. Spend 100 hours soul winning, you're probably gonna get 40 or 50 people saved if you're doing a good job and you're filled with the Holy Spirit. So what, you think you're gonna get 40 or 50 people saved bullhorning because you're not? It's a waste of time. And you say, well, but it's biblical. No, it isn't. It's not biblical. You say, well, people preached outside in the Bible. Yeah, they preached to audiences outside. Whenever you see Jesus preaching outside, people gathered to hear him. He wasn't just yelling at cars going by and yelling at people walking by. That is not biblical. You cannot find me a place in the Bible where somebody preached where there's nobody listening. I'm all for having an outdoor service. I mean, I'm all for all of us meeting in the park and setting up a sound system and having a big preaching service and the unsaved could walk by and say, great. But when you see a guy preaching with no audience and people are just walking by and people are just driving by and he's just yelling on the street corner saying, this is what God told us to do in the Bible. I wanna say where? Because the Bible, and then people tell you this, Jesus was a street preacher. Okay, the Bible says his voice was not heard in the streets. What part of that do you not understand? That's in Matthew 12. It says his voice was not heard in the streets. No, he preached unto people that came to hear him or he went to people one-on-one and preached to them. He spoke to people who were listening. He didn't just go out and just start yelling. And a lot of these street preachers too, they're not preaching the gospel. Because the Bible teaches that when we preach to the unsaved we're supposed to be preaching the gospel. Paul, when he came to the Corinthians, he said, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified, howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, he said. You know, when we preach to the saved in church, we preach on every subject. But when we go to the unsaved, you know what the main message we need to bring people is? The gospel of Jesus Christ. Because look, if somebody's not saved, all the other stuff's not gonna help them anyway, is it? So standing outside of a movie theater, ah, this movie's wicked as hell, and you should be going to this movie. Or standing outside the adult bookstore, ah, there's a bunch of pornography in here. Or standing outside, you know. I mean, it's just, it's not biblical methodology. I'm sure it's hard work. I'm sure it takes a lot of guts to get out there and do it. But it's not what God told us to do. He told us to give the gospel to every creature. To preach the gospel to every creature. And when we study the Bible, we see that happening from house to house. We see that happening one on one. Or we see that happening in an assembly where people have gathered to hear. We don't see any bullhorning, okay. I don't believe in it. You say, well, are you gonna be mad at me if I do it? No, but I probably will just think that you're wasting your time. I'm not gonna think it's cool, cause I don't think it's cool. I'm not interested in it. But the Bible says that, ah, when the iron's blunt, you gotta put more strength and more effort into it to get the same result. You know, to cut down one tree, it's gonna take a lot more work than if you had a sharp ax. But, you know, we look at the way that people live their lives sometimes. And there are other areas of life, besides just soul winning, besides just, you know, being saved or whatever. There are other areas where a lot of times we're spinning our wheels or working really hard. But because we're not doing things according to wisdom, and according to God's word, we end up wasting a lot of strength and a lot of effort on things that just don't work, okay. And if we think about this in our family lives, for example, when it comes to child rearing, you know, a lot of people really struggle to raise their kids. And they really struggle to get their kids to behave. And this is part of the reason why people look at a family that has a lot of kids and they're just in shock. Seven kids, you know, how in the world do you do it? Or, you know, what in the world? How do you survive? And they can't figure it out because they say, and I've had people tell me this all the time. Because when you have a big family, people say this stuff to you all the time. I have one and I can't hardly even handle it. Or I have two and it says, oh man, how can you handle seven threes, it's insane. And they can't figure it out. But here's the thing. It's because their ax is dull and they're just, oh man, how do you do it? You're cutting down seven trees, I can't even cut down one. Sharpen your ax. Turn the ax around, you're using the wrong side, you know. And so, people are wasting a lot of strength and energy because they're not raising their children according to God's word. And let me just tell you, just the most basic thing, if you're not spanking your children, you're not raising your children according to God's word. I don't care if you take them to Sunday school, church, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. I don't care if you're reading the Bible to them morning, noon, and night. I don't care if you spend three hours a day praying for them on your knees. If you don't spank your kids, you are not raising your children according to God's word. You might be putting a lot of effort into it. Sounds like you're working pretty hard to me, but you're gonna fail because you're not obeying God's word. And the Bible says that if you turn away your ear from hearing the law, even your prayer shall be abomination. Do it God's way and you'll have success. And look, it takes more energy to raise your kids the wrong way. You say, I don't know, spanking, that sounds like it takes a lot of energy. You know, you gotta swing that belt, you know, or you gotta swing that cooking spoon, and you gotta, you know, you gotta, you know, it just takes a lot of work, right? But look, you see people who don't spank and what do they do? They spend an hour yelling at their kids. They lecture their kids for 45 minutes or an hour. And that is more energy, more work. You know, it's more stressful and takes more energy and it wears you down more to sit there and lecture your kids on and on and yell at them and scream and do all that than to just spank them and be done with it. And you know what, the spanking enters into their heart much more than the verbal rebuke. I mean, they just get the message better when it's a spanking. And a lot of people waste a lot of time dealing with bad behavior also. Because, you know, when you don't spank your kids, when you don't raise them right, then their behavior is bad. They're swinging from the chandeliers. You know, they're disobeying. You're constantly having to get on their case all the time. You know, if you do it God's way, you'll have good, obedient children. I'm not saying they're gonna be perfect. I'm not saying you're never gonna have problems with them. But it's a lot easier just to deal with the problem God's way, just to spank them and be done with it. And many people today, they have blunt iron in their child rearing and that's why it's such an uphill battle for them, because they're not doing it right. Some people aren't spanking right either. You know, you see some people spank their kids and it's more like just a pat on the rear end. You know, newsflash, this doesn't hurt. No, no. No. No, no. You know, your kid's just gonna think it's a joke. And obviously I don't believe in abusing your kids or hitting them in the face or something. I'm just talking about applying the rod of correction to the seed of learning. You know, I'm talking about the padded area that God designed to receive correction on their rear end. But you know, I'm not saying to injure your child, but it needs to sting. If there's no pain, no gain. You know, it's just like a workout. But anyway, and the Bible compares it to exercise. He says, no chastening for the present seemed to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. So therefore, just like with exercise, if there's no pain, there's no gain. You know, sometimes I go to spank one of my children and they'll say to me, before I even start spanking them, you know, my daughter will come up to me, it hurts. And I always say the same thing. If it didn't hurt, it wouldn't be a spanking. It's supposed to hurt. That's what a spanking is, it's supposed to hurt. And if you spank your kids in a way where it doesn't hurt, you're wasting your time. No, it doesn't even have no effect. It has an adverse effect. It makes it worse because now they think you're a joke. They think that you can't even give out real discipline. Okay, and again, not saying, you don't have to injure them. I'm just saying to do it to the point where it hurts and it has to be a deterrent. I mean, when I got a spanking from my parents as a kid, it lasted me for a while. I wasn't just five minutes later doing it again. That spanking, you know, it put the fear of God into me. Yes, it's eventually gonna wear off, but it kept me flying right, you know, at least that day or whatever, at least for several hours, okay? And so we need to do things according to wisdom, according to knowledge. But not only that, go to Job 39. Job 39, a lot of people just, my friend, they lack wisdom and they work harder than they have to and they waste a lot of time and energy. And by the way, if God's blessing you, you're gonna accomplish more in your life than when God's not blessing you. You know, the Bible talks about people who work really hard in Haggai chapter one and he says they put it into a bag with holes and God blows on it and God messes it up because God blesses you when you obey him. So if you take the time to figure out what God wants you to do and then you do it, it's like sharpening your ax. You're gonna have more wisdom, you're gonna do things right, you're gonna get things done and God's gonna bless you. You know, tithing, a great example of this is tithing. You know, people basically think, you know, well, I can't afford to tithe, right? I just can't afford to tithe. And here's the thing about tithing, it's 10%. So the less you make, the less you're even giving, you know? And then some people say they make too much money to tithe. They make way too much, you know, because it's just such a huge amount. Well, that means you have a lot though, right? And if you're poor and you say I'm so poor I can't tithe, it's like, well, 10% of what you make isn't that much anyway. You're so poor, okay? And so what I'm saying is with tithing, I firmly believe that you can live better on the 90% chopping with a sharp ax than to live on the 100% chopping with a dull ax, okay? And then you could use all kinds of illustrations. But here's another perfect example. In 1 Timothy 5, you're in Job 39. In 1 Timothy 5 it says, I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully for some are already turned aside after Satan. So the Bible teaches that women are to bear children and guide the house. The Bible teaches that there to be keepers at home, meaning that they're supposed to take care of the house, do the housekeeping, keepers at home, to run the home, to guide the home. But we see today many husbands sending their wife to work to make extra money and then they put the children in daycare, did you hear me? They put the children into daycare and that way the wife can go to work as well. Instead of the wife staying home and raising the children like she should, she puts them into daycare and then goes off to work. And look, if you're a single mom or whatever, obviously you shouldn't even be in that situation anyway. And I'm not saying it's your fault necessarily, a lot of times it is your fault. You know, and I'm sick of this thing of like, oh, we should never tell any single mom it's her fault. You know what, if you're getting pregnant out of wedlock, that's your fault. Stay pure, stay clean, that's your fault, okay? You divorce your husband and now you're a single mother, your fault. You commit adultery, your fault, okay? But what I'm saying is obviously sometimes there's a husband that leaves his wife high and dry, right? Okay, well I'm not saying that that's necessarily your fault you could be put in a situation, but you're still in that situation as a result of sin. Now it might not be your sin, could be the husband's sin. If your husband leaves you high and dry, well there you go, he's the one in sin. But somebody sinned, you know, that's not the ideal situation. Now you say, well what if your spouse dies? What if you're a widow, right? Well the Bible has clear teachings on widows as well, okay? And the Bible teaches, you know, obviously that widows that have children are supposed to get married. Okay, that's what the Bible teaches. But you know, obviously if they have the money and whatever and they can stay home with their kids another way, great. Now I know this isn't popular preaching, but it is what the Bible teaches. But here's my point, what we see a lot, and here's what I want to deal with, because you know, everybody always wants to pull out the rare exception where somebody's a widow. But if we were to walk across the parking lot to this daycare center right here, how many of the people dropping their kids off there do you think are widows? Now why don't we just come back down to earth for a minute, shall we? You know and I know that if we walked across the street to that daycare center, that it's not a bunch of widows dropping their kids off at that daycare center. That is not what's happening, and you know it and I know it. You know who's really dropping their kids off? Men and women. And you know how I know that? I've worked on fire alarms in a lot of daycare centers, and I've done fire alarm testing, and I see couples dropping their children off at the daycare, and I see dads, moms, both of them. I guarantee you that the majority is people where there's two parents there, dropping them off. Or women who went out and fornicated and played the whore, as the Bible says, okay? But what I'm saying is, today, and you say, well this is anti-woman. No, it's anti-man who allow their wife to go out and work instead of raising children when they're supposed to. I mean a lot of times, I talk to a lot of women who wish that they could stay home and raise their child. They're being sent to go off to work by their husband, saying you need to contribute. No, you need to be a man. You need to man up and pay the bills. And let me tell you something. Daycare should be called don't care. That's what ought to be called don't care. You know, when you're sitting there and dropping your kids off at daycare so that you can make more money, okay, instead of having, and again, I'm talking about where there's a husband and a wife in the home, right? You got both parents in the home, and the husband's not making enough money or paying the bills, and so he sends his wife to work and drops the kids off at daycare, or don't care, okay, to be taken care of. Look, you've got your priorities wrong. Because you need to raise those children, and they're not being raised properly at daycare. They're not being spanked at daycare. Say, well, that's a Christian daycare. They're not spanking your kid the way you would spank your kid. Well, that's a Christian daycare. That's even worse, Christian daycare. What we need is Christian parents caring for their own kid. It's gonna be a cold day in hell before our church ever opens a daycare, okay? And let me tell you something. If our church ain't running it, it's probably liberal. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, you know, I'm just saying, most of these daycares, they're not being run the way that you would run it. I visited these daycares, they smell bad, and they're playing Elton John music from The Lion King. They're, you know, they're playing Ricky Martin living La Vida Loca to the kids. They're playing Elton John music while spooning GMOs into their mouths. And there's no spanking that's going on. There's no Bible preaching that's going on. There's no singing of the hymns that's going on. I'm just telling you what I've seen in these don't care facilities. And let me tell you something. We as God's people need to understand that God has commanded women to raise their children, to bear children, guide the house, be keepers at home, love their husbands, love their children. We need to get some traditional values. And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, you know, if one income's not enough to make it today, then the man needs to get two jobs in. And the woman needs to stay home with the kids. And I've done it for years. I've spent years doing it so that my children could have a mother at home raising them. I went out and worked two jobs. I'm not gonna put my kids in daycare. But put that all aside for a moment. Put aside the fact that God teaches a traditional role of the man being the breadwinner and the woman staying home with the kids, and that's what he teaches. Let's just put all that aside for a minute. Those who follow that lifestyle of, hey, let's drop the kids off at don't care and let's have the wife go get a job, oftentimes it doesn't even make sense financially. You're chopping with a dolax. You're beating your head against the wall. You're working so hard. And you know, I feel bad for these ladies because it's like they go out, they work for 40 hours, and they gotta come home, and they gotta make the food, they gotta clean it up, and they're just working to work, it's so hard. And often, at the end of the day, it's not even making sense financially. You say, why is that? Well, here's why. Because of the fact that when you have the woman working, now you're paying more taxes. The government's getting a bigger piece of the action with those two incomes, number one. Number two, you gotta pay for the don't care. And that's like, how much does don't care cost? Somebody, somebody help me out. How much does daycare cost per month? Would you say 500 a month? 500 a month, okay. And that's probably, that sounds about right. Anybody else have another number? 500 bucks a month, okay. Now, you gotta have another vehicle, right? Gotta have another vehicle, because you gotta take two vehicles to work. So you got 500 bucks a month for the don't care. Then you got your vehicle, your gas, your insurance. What's that, another 300 or 400 a month? It's gotta be, right? Right, everybody listening? Then you gotta have all the work clothes. You gotta have all the fancy work clothes, or whatever. Your business attire, or whatever you wear. Then, you gotta go out to eat all the time. Because you're not cooking the food at home, right? And then when you do eat at home, you gotta buy all the canned and boxed goods, which are more expensive. Okay, everybody listening? And then when you need clothes, you can't spend time going to garage sales, and yard sales, and thrift stores, because you're so busy. You just go to the department store and just buy all the clothes. Or you just buy cheap junk at Walmart, or whatever, and then it's not gonna last, for example. You know, you buy the cheapest possible clothes, it's not gonna last. Or you could, you know, you don't have time to go to the thrift stores and the garage sales and find good clothes that are used, that are gonna last and be durable, okay? So you're spending more on clothes, you're spending more on food, and then because you're constantly eating out and eating out of a box and eating out of a can, you're gonna spend more at the doctor. And then your kids are gonna get sick in daycare! Please, please come to me and tell me after the service that dropping your kids off at daycare doesn't make them sick. Okay, you drop your kids off at daycare, they're coming home with thick green snot streaming out of their nose, that's a fact. And then you know what's gonna happen next? They're gonna infect you with sickness. Because when you put a bunch of little kids into a room from all different families, all different parts of town, you put 20 of them in the room, they're sucking on the toy, the green snot comes down, they pass it around the whole room to every kid, it goes into all their mouths, all their noses, all their ears, all the germs are prepped, and they go there to the don't care, and they get all these germs, right? Then they bring it home to you. And then you get sick. And then you miss work. That costs money. So by the time you pay the extra taxes, by the time you pay for the extra vehicle, by the time you pay more for clothes, more for food, eat a bunch of GMOs and partially hydrogenated soybean oil and sodium benzoate filled food, okay, then you get sick from that food because your immune system's shot, then you go, you know, then your kids are sick, and then the daycare says don't drop your kid off because they're sick, and then one of you has to stay home from work, and then the wife already used up her sick day, so now the husband has to start staying home, and that's costing him money, and then he gets sick because he gets infected by the green snot-nosed kid, and then he gets sick, and then she gets sick, and then he goes to work and makes everybody else sick, and then they all get home, and then him and his wife fight all the time because it's like, well, you didn't vacuum. Well, you didn't, you know, I'm working just as much as you are, you know, and he's like, honey, where's dinner? She's like, I worked as much as you did, you know? Well, what's the ring? There's a ring around the bathtub, you know? The house is dirty. Can we clean the house? That's your job. No, no, I vacuumed last night. No, no, no. See, it just, it doesn't make any sense, my friend. It's so much smarter to just have the wife in her place, and here's the thing. She knows what her place is, too. Because the one who's paying the bills is the one who makes the rules, okay? And so what happens is, if your wife stays home, she can go to thrift stores, garage sales, yard sales, find all the deals, cook nutritious food from scratch. That's gonna save money. You know, when we were first married, we only had one car for years and years and years because of the fact that, you know, my wife could just drop me off at work, and she's got the car or whatever, and it worked for us. You know, we have two cars now because I go out of town and everything, and it's a luxury, to be honest, to have two cars. We could theoretically survive with one car, okay? And what I'm saying is that, you know, people think, oh, I could never afford to have my wife stay home and raise the kids, but you'd save the money on the daycare. You'd save the money on food. You'd save it on clothes. You'd save it on taxes. You'd save it on sickness. You'd be healthier, you'd be happier, and you could work better at your job and perform better, or as a husband, you could get a second job, and the kids could still have that stable environment and home life where they're being raised by their mother. You say, well, that sounds hard. Well, I wouldn't want you to do anything hard now, would I? But you know what's harder is facing the consequences of doing things the world's way. It's way easier to just bite the bullet, sharpen your ax, and do it God's way than to just beat your head against the wall and do it the world's way. In the end, it's more work, it's harder. I'm gonna have to skip Job 39 for sake of time. Go to Proverbs 27. So how do you sharpen your ax? How do you sharpen up your ax? Well, the best way to sharpen your ax is by reading the Bible. Because remember, the Bible said that when you're chopping with a dull ax, the problem is that you're lacking wisdom. The Bible says wisdom is profitable to direct. If wisdom is directing you, you're chopping with a sharp ax. When wisdom is not directing you, when you're working not according to wisdom, you're chopping with a dull ax. So where do we get our wisdom? From the Bible. Now here's what's funny. People will often say this. I just don't have time to read the Bible. These are the same type of people who would say, I don't have time to run up to Home Depot and get the tool I need. Right? I don't have time to sharpen my knives. I don't have time. And look, think about this. Picture a guy out in the woods chopping down a giant tree and he's swinging that dull ax and sweat is pouring and he's working and he's putting everything he's got into it and he's just swinging it and swinging it and swinging it. And you walk up to him and say, your ax is dull. Sharpen your ax, it'll go faster. And he says, can't you see how many trees I have to cut down? Can't you see how slow this is going? Can't you see how much work I'm doing? I don't have time to stop and sharpen the ax. I gotta keep chopping. Would that make any sense? No. Because everybody knows that taking the time to sharpen your ax is always time well spent. It's never a waste of time because you will accomplish more. Sharpening the ax is essential. It's never a waste of time because it speeds up the work. And so people say, I'm too busy to read my Bible. You know what, you'd be better off to just stop everything, let things spin out of control, neglect this, neglect that, because you know what, part of the reason why you're so busy might be because of a lack of wisdom. You might get wisdom from the Bible that'll cause you to be even a little bit less busy. And I'm gonna tell you something. You are wasting more time by not taking the time to read your Bible. You're gonna waste more time. You're gonna waste more time fighting with your wife. You're gonna waste more time fighting with your children. You're gonna waste more time down at the hospital. You're gonna waste more time losing your job. You're gonna waste more time messing up your life this way, that way, and the other way by not taking the time to read the Bible and learning what you need to learn. In the long run, you'll waste more time. Reading the Bible saves time. It doesn't waste time, it saves time because it'll make you smarter about the way you work your job. It'll make you smarter about the way you run your marriage. It'll make you smarter about the way you raise your children. It'll make you smarter about the way you take care of your health. Look, in every area of life, wisdom is profitable to direct. And if you take the time out of your schedule, take that half hour, take that hour, and read the Bible, say, I don't have that extra hour. Find that hour. And in the end, you'll have more, you'll have an extra two hours if you spend that hour reading the Bible. It's true. You'll do better. You'll get more done. It's just as ridiculous to say I'm too busy to read the Bible. I don't have time to read the Bible. You don't know how busy I am. I don't have time to memorize the Bible. I don't have time to read the Bible. That's just as foolish as the guy saying I don't have time to sharpen my ax. I'm too busy chopping. Here you are chopping in your life and you're frustrated and you're stressed out and you're mad and you're tired. And somebody's trying to tell you, look, sharpen the ax. And you're, I don't have time. That's the same thing as when you're beating your head against the wall in life, stressed out, frazzled, busy, overworked, and somebody says, look, you need to stop everything and read the Bible and pray. See, I don't have time. Doesn't make any sense. But here's another way to sharpen your ax. So two ways to sharpen your ax. Number one, by reading the Bible. Number two, look down at Proverbs 27 verse 17. Proverbs 27, 17 says this. Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. And then he says in Proverbs 13 verse 20, you don't have to turn there, but it says, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. So there's two ways to gain wisdom. One is from reading the Bible, and the second one is from getting around people who are wise and godly people. Those are the two ways to get wisdom. You want to sharpen your ax? Stop everything and read the Bible. If you stop everything and read the Bible, you are sharpening your ax. That is sharpening your ax. But number two, by getting around other wise people and godly people, the Bible says iron sharpeneth iron. And remember, if the iron be blunt, that's when you're chopping with it all. Iron sharpeneth iron. You know, if I can get around other people that are wise, if I can get in a Bible-believing church, I'm going to be way more effective as a Christian than somebody who's not in church. Think about that. Somebody who's not in church, they might be reading the Bible a lot, getting a lot of wisdom there. That's great that they're doing that sharpening. But you know what? They'd be sharpened even more if they could get around God's people. They'd be sharpened even more if they had friends. And I've learned a lot from my friends. First of all, just talking to people. Almost every time I preach a sermon, afterward I talk to people in the church about the sermon. And sometimes I get these great points. I'm like, man, I wish I would have known that before I preached the sermon. That's a great point. People walk up to me after the service and give me more insight on what I preach. They sharpen me. I sharpen them for an hour. I'm up here preaching for an hour and I'm sharpening them. And then they'll walk up to me afterward and sharpen me and say, hey, did you think of this? Oh wow, that's amazing. Okay, when you're in a Bible believing church, you get wisdom from people. You go out soul winning with them, you're sharpening each other when you go soul winning together. You sharpen each other. Not only that, but even just on carnal things, not just spiritual things. Like for example, I mentioned Jerry taught me a lot of plumbing. How do you learn plumbing? Well, you could read the plumbing manual or you can just hang around with a plumber for a while. Don't learn his habit of, I'm not talking about Jerry, but don't learn the habit of not wearing a belt from plumbers. But I'm saying if you get around plumbers, you're gonna learn plumbing. You get around people who have different skills. And there are a lot of people in our church who have maybe skill with working on cars, electrical, plumbing, whatever the case may be. And you can learn things from getting around people and get tips. It's the same way spiritually. But you know what? When you start hanging around with everybody who thinks that Pastor Anderson is a lunatic and everybody who thinks that of course, women need to be liberated and put the kid in daycare and put them in the government school indoctrination camp and do all that stuff. Obviously, if you're just around that all day long, that's gonna dull you. That's not iron. That's not gonna sharpen your iron. We need to be sharpened up, my friend. And look, you say, why do you preach this sermon? Just to punish people that are not living right? No, the reason I preach this sermon is because it's painful to see people working so hard and just beating their head against the wall when it would be so much easier if you just look, just take five minutes and sharpen the ax. And you look at people and you just think, why are you living your life this way? Why are you doing this? You're wasting your energy. You're wasting your time. And you know what, I don't think that, I think a lot of people, they're not bad people. A lot of people, their heart's in the right place. They wanna do what's right. They're trying so hard to do something for God. And yet they're just wasting their time and in vain. I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of Christian daycares that really work hard. You know, I'm sure that there's a lot of street preachers that scream their lungs out and a lot of people who handed out a million tracks in their life. You know what I mean? And it's just sad when people spin their wheels instead of just going to the Bible and doing it according to his word. You never are wasting your time when you stop to sharpen your ax. And it's never a waste of time to go to the store and buy the right tool. You're gonna waste way more time trying to use whatever is a hammer. You know what I mean? Instead of just going and getting a hammer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Please help us to infuse wisdom into our lives. Help us not to waste our time living our lives, working so hard to serve you and to win souls and to preach and to raise our families and to have a good marriage, but not according to knowledge. Help us to get the knowledge that we need so that we can be effective. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, let's go ahead and sing one more song before we go. Can anybody think of a song that ties in well with the sermon? I think we just did that one, didn't we? Your husband just said. Oh, okay, you're right. What is that, 375? Which one is the one that she's mentioning? 44? Yeah. Oh yeah, sure enough. All right, song number 44. We'll Work Till Jesus Comes, song number 44. Let's sing it out in that first verse. Song number 44, good memory, son. ["Work Till Jesus Comes"] ["Work Till Jesus Comes"] Oh, land of rest for thee I sigh When will the moment come? When I shall lay my armor by And dwell in peace at home We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes And we'll be gathered home All right, we're dismissed. Thanks for being here this morning. Thanks for being here this morning. Thanks for being here this morning. Thanks for being here this morning. Thanks for being here this morning. Just take five minutes and sharpen the X. And you look at people and you just think, why are you living your life this way? Why are you doing this? You're wasting your energy. You're wasting your time. And you know what? I don't think that, I think a lot of people, they're not bad people. A lot of people, their heart's in the right place. They want to do what's right. They're trying so hard to do something for God. And yet they're just wasting their time in vain. I mean I'm sure there's a lot of Christian day cares that really work hard. You know I'm sure that there's a lot of street preachers that scream their lungs out and a lot of people who handed out a million tracts in their life. You know what I mean? And it's just sad when people spin their wheels instead of just going to the Bible and doing it according to his word. You never are wasting your time when you stop to sharpen your ax and it's never a waste of time to go to the store and buy the right tool. You're going to waste way more time trying to use whatever is a hammer. You know what I mean? Instead of just going and getting a hammer. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word. Please help us to infuse wisdom into our lives. Help us not to waste our time living our lives working so hard to serve you and to win souls and to preach and to raise our families and to have a good marriage but not according to knowledge. To get the knowledge that we need so that we can be effective and in Jesus' name we pray.