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Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Mountain Baptist Church. Take your songbooks and turn to song number 294. Song 294 in your songbooks will sing Stepping in the Light. And if you would stand, we'll sing song 294. To walk in the steps of the Savior Trying to follow our Savior and King Shaping our lives by His blessed example Happy, how happy the songs that we bring How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Stepping in the light, stepping in the light How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Leaden paths of light Pressing more closely to Him who is leading When we are tempted to turn from the way Trusting the arm that is strong to defend us Happy, how happy our praise is each day How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Stepping in the light, stepping in the light How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Leaden paths of light Walking in footsteps of gentle forbearance Footsteps of faithfulness, mercy, and love Looking to Him for the grace freely promised Happy, how happy our journey above How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Light, stepping in the light How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Leaden paths of light Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior Upward, still upward, we'll follow our guide When we shall see Him, the King in His beauty Happy, how happy our place at His side How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Stepping in the light, stepping in the light How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior Leaden paths of light All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just want to thank You, God, for this beautiful day that You've given us to just meet in Your house and hear Your word preached. I pray, Lord, that You would just bless our pastor, fill him with Your power and spirit. For it's in Jesus' name we ask all of it. Amen. All right, you may be seated. And turn to song 407, apparently we're going to start singing Christmas songs, sing Faith of Our Fathers, the well-known traditional Christmas song. I always think of this, I don't know, anyway, Faith of Our Fathers, it's not really a Christmas song, but we'll sing song 407. Faith of our fathers living still In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword O how our hearts beat high with joy When e'er we hear that glorious word Faith of our fathers' holy faith We will be true to Thee till death Our fathers chained and prisons dark Were still in heart and conscience free How sweet would be their children's fate If they like them could die for Thee Faith of our fathers' holy faith We will be true to Thee till death Faith of our fathers we still strive To win all nations on to Thee And through the truth that comes from God Mankind shall then indeed be free Faith of our fathers' holy faith We will be true to Thee till death Faith of our fathers we will love Both friend and foe in all our strife And preach Thee too as love knows how By kindly words and virtuous life Faith of our fathers' holy faith We will be true to Thee till death If I forget, if I think of something and I don't write it down immediately, it's gone. Yeah, yeah, it's hitting me hard. I've got to remember what I was even thinking about. Where was that? It has to do with the so-called contradictions. Bear with me because if I forget about this, then I'm going to be really, yeah, here it is. It's on the first page. All right, did you ever just have those epiphanies where you're thinking about something and then it just like pops in your head? It had nothing to do with that song or anything like that. I wasn't thinking about that at all and it just popped in my head. Anyway, you'll find out tonight. But Welcome to Mountain Baptist Church, sorry about that. When I think of something, actually when I'm writing a sermon and I'm like thinking of ideas, if I don't get it down fast, I'm like literally like trying to get all my stuff thoughts down because if I don't get it down real quick, I lose it and then I forget what I was trying to think about, so anyway. So just general first announcements here. We have an offering box in the back there, mother baby rooms in the back, and our service times are normal service times, so nothing different about that on the schedule there. We have our main soloing time this afternoon at 1 p.m., so try to meet up if you could be here for that just before 1 o'clock and we'll get you teamed up if you don't already have a team before then, and then on Monday and Tuesday, we have our regional soloing times. I know brother Richie has been doing it around Wednesday a lot, so just the Monday time may be more Wednesday, and I think it just has to do more with schedule, so just be on the WhatsApp for those regional soloing times. The Tuesday one is usually always Tuesday, but in the end, you know, it doesn't really matter to me what day of the week we go. We can do more than this, but if it comes to the point where it's just always Wednesday, we'll just change it to say Wednesday, but just so you know about that. Galatians chapter 4 is our memory chapter for the month, and so we'll be working on that, and we're actually going to be hitting Galatians chapter 4, Lord willing, this Wednesday, and then Ecclesiastes 10, 10 is our memory verse for the week, and just so I don't butcher it, if the iron be blunt and he do not wet the sword, then must he put to more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct, and so that's going to be pertinent to our sermon this morning, but the idea is sharpen your tools, you know, so anyway, and as far as upcoming events, we have the men's prayer meeting. We don't have it on the list yet, but we're going to do the Lord's Supper on the 29th, so that'll be the last Sunday of August, so just kind of be thinking about that, you know, we want to be here. We do that after the afternoon service, so the Lord's Supper there, and then on September 11th, we have our Solemnity Marathon in Moundsville, and that's leading into our church anniversary on the 12th, and we're going to have a fellowship there for that. When we get closer to that, we'll get a sign-up sheet as far as if anybody wants to bring anything or how we want to do that, what food we want to bring. Just order some PJs, Papa John's, for those that don't know, or something like that. We'll figure out what we're going to do for food, and then we have the Mountain Baptist Church Retreat on there. I think everybody in here has signed up, so I think we're good to go for that. If you have any questions about that, but that is going to be coming up at the end of September, and on the back here, what do we got for birthdays? Do we have any coming up? Today's the 8th, right? So we do. We got Brother Richie. How old are you? I'll be 34. No, you're not. Really? Yeah. Man, you always seem a lot younger than me. I mean, you are younger than me, but for some reason, I'm thinking he was like 29 or something like that. But then I look at Brother Shane and Brother Nick, and I'm like, we got the little babies over here that are in their mid-20s. No, I'm just kidding. I just feel like I'm still in my mid-20s, though. They're looking at me like, no. No, you're not. So you're going to be 34? Yeah, you're not quite in the mid- well, I guess we had that argument, right? What was mid? Is that mid? Okay. Then we have Brother Jason, but what's the end of the week here? So yeah, we'll get him eventually. And then we have anniversaries, the Joneses, they're not here today, so we'll get them. Just make a note of that. So that's Saturday, so that would be this week. Pregnancy, we got six ladies on here for the pregnancy list, and so Ms. Ruth has been added recently to that. And so be in prayer for all these ladies on the pregnancy list, and with the delivery- well, with the pregnancy process, the delivery process, the recovery process, all that, and be in prayer for the families in general, obviously. Some, you have the first babies, but then you have adding on, as far as having- adding on a child is never easier. So just be in prayer for the families there as they have more children. So that's about all I got for announcements. Besides the fact that we are looking into getting a different building, I've reached out to a realtor that knows like everything, so their signs are everywhere. So they're looking into what they got, we're going to try to find something. Our landlord's going to be really generous with us as far as like, you know, going month to month until we find something. But just be in prayer for that, you know, that we find something that's accommodating and all that. So we're going to try to figure that out. But that's about all I got for announcements. Brother Dave's going to come sing one more song, and Brother Levi, are you reading this morning? So he's going to be reading Ecclesiastes chapter 10 for us. And don't forget to sing Happy Birthday, Brother Ritchie. All right, take your song books and turn to song 116. Song 116, we'll sing he, wait, no, that's 115, it's right next to it. 115, we'll sing No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus. But before we do that, we need to sing Happy Birthday to Brother Ritchie. I'm with Pastor, I always think you're like in your 20s, you're just going to be perpetually 29 forever. Getting sore, all right, sing Happy Birthday to Brother Ritchie. And when's your birthday? What day? I don't even know what day it is today. Okay, so Tuesday. Happy Birthday, Brother Ritchie, Happy Birthday to you. And here we go, ready? Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday, brother, all right, we'll sing song 115. I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus, since I found in him a friend so strong and true. I would tell you how he changed my life completely. He did something that no other friend could do. No one ever cared for me like Jesus, there's no other friend so kind as he. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me. Oh, how much he cared for me. All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me. All my heart was full of misery and woe. Jesus placed his strong and loving arms about me, and he led me in the way I ought to go. No one ever cared for me like Jesus, there's no other friend so kind as he. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me. Oh, how much he cared for me. Every day he comes to me with new assurance. More and more I understand his words of love, but I'll never know just why he came to save me till some day I see his blessed face above. No one ever cared for me like Jesus, there's no other friend so kind as he. No one else could take the sin and darkness from me. Oh, how much he cared for me. All right, take your Bibles and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter number 10. Ecclesiastes chapter number 10, we'll have Brother Levi read that for us. Oh, sorry. Ecclesiastes chapter number 10. Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savor, so doth the little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor. A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left. Yea, also when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool. If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not that place, for yielding pacifieth great offenses. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an arrow which proceedeth from the ruler. The folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place. I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking, and servants upon the earth. He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it, and whoso breaketh an hedge, a servant shall bite him. Cuso, removeth stones, shall be hurt therewith, and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby. 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. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment, and a babbler is no better. The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. A fool also is full of words. A man cannot tell what shall be, and what shall be after him. Who can tell him? The labor of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness. By much slothfulness the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands the housetrap bith through. A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things. Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber. For a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. Amen. Let's pray. God, thank you for the day, God. Thank you for a time that we can come together and hear your word preached. God, I just pray that you'll be with the pastor and help us to learn something and let everything we say and do be glorious to your name, and we'll pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So you're there in Ecclesiastes chapter 10, and I want you to look down at verse 10 there. So Ecclesiastes 10, verse 10. It reads, if the iron be blunt, and he do not wet the edge, then must he put two more strength, but wisdom is profitable to direct. So the sermon is entitled, If the Iron Be Blunt. And the idea of this sermon, and you probably heard this phrase, and we probably all heard it growing up, to work smarter, not harder, that idea. And you know, sometimes it's misused. I remember, you know, in school, they'd kind of almost vilify blue collar jobs and like lift up white collar jobs and say work smarter, not harder. But that's not what this is talking about. This isn't like an attack on blue collar jobs and saying, well, you should all just get, you know, like a higher education so you don't have to work, you know, do any manual labor. What this is stating is that whatever job you have, you want to work efficiently and effectively and you want the best route to get the job done so you get it done fast but with good quality. And the idea is being profitable with your time, you know, the idea of having wisdom that, you know, think about going down to cut a tree, right? You know, if you sharpen the axe, it's going to be a lot easier to cut that tree down. Now in both cases, you're going to be doing manual labor, but which one are you going to be doing more manual labor in? Now nowadays, you're not usually going to take an axe to that. I mean, they still sell axes and you can still cut down trees with axes, but, you know, we're going to get chainsaw out. But even with a chainsaw, you got to sharpen that stuff or, you know, if you go out there with a dull chain, then it's going to take a lot more time. I think about we did my brother's basement. We were redoing the basement and we were cutting all these laminate flooring. Was it laminate? Was that? Yeah. And anyway, we were going through, we did the whole thing in one day. But that blade started getting dull. And at the end of the day, that thing was screaming so loud. That saw because it was just so dull, but we're just like, get it done. You know, we're like, it's like one of those, you know, you know, what's the name of that saw? Yeah, it's a circular saw, but it's like, what is it? Yeah. So, so anyway, we're just like, shoving it down. It's like, you know, like, just like my ears. I literally had a migraine after we were done with it because, you know, what would have been smarter though is if we had another blade, you know, that was sharper or sharpen that blade so that we weren't just like, just wrenching on these things. And then we were all like deaf after we were done with the job, right? The idea there is that, you know, having sharp tools, you're still doing the job, right? It's not like the job has changed. It's just the fact that it's going to be a lot easier. You're going to get more done. You're going to get done faster, okay? And so the old phrase, you know, work smarter not harder is a good thing to understand, not to like compartmentalize, you know, like what type of job you have, okay? Because if you're a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, listen, there's smarter ways to work. But even, you know, in the white collar type jobs, you know, like when I think of like, you know, I design a building and I use programs. We use programs to draw up everything, okay? There's the old phrase, there's more than one way to skin a cat, and you're like that seems like a little rough, good, no, I'm just kidding, I don't like cats. But I would never skin your cat or anything like that, okay? Now, but the thing is that that phrase of like skinning a cat, you know, there's more than one way to skin a cat is because there's more than one way to do things, okay? And the idea is what you're trying to figure out is what's the fastest way that doesn't basically take away quality, okay? Because you don't want to do something really fast and then it just looks horrible when you're done, okay? Or it didn't get it done right. You want to do it right, but you want to do it effectively and fast, right? Go to Ephesians Chapter 5. So the idea here is that why do you want to sharpen the edge, okay? Why do you not want your iron to be blunt? And obviously this is being figurative using a physical application that we can all understand of like if you were to get an ax and you want to sharpen it so you can cut down a tree or whatever the case may be with whatever tool you're using, using that physical representation to understand that, hey, wisdom is profitable to direct, meaning that the more wisdom you have, the more knowledge you have as far as how to do things, then the more profitable you're going to be. And when it comes to Christianity, we want to be the most profitable we can be because we only have a short amount of time, okay? Go to Ephesians Chapter 5 Verse 15. Ephesians Chapter 5 Verse 15, it says, See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is. So the idea here is that we need to redeem the time because we only have a short amount of time, but it says walk circumspectly. Now that's, you know, kind of a bigger word, but it basically means to walk like carefully or prudently, you know, the idea of, you know, basically you're thinking about how you're walking, right? You're not just, you know, bowling through something. You're like thinking about why, you know, where you're going, what you're doing, and it says not as fools but as wise. Go to Colossians Chapter 4 because instead of using the term circumspectly, it just says wisdom, okay? And so in Colossians Chapter 4 and Verse 5, it says, Walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time. Let your speech be all the way with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. Go to James Chapter 4. So we know that we need to redeem the time because the days are evil, and it keeps stating this fact that we need to redeem the time. And I believe the reason why it's saying that is because we have a short amount of time. So you have to basically use that time wisely, and so as Christians, this should be our goal at all times is to be more productive, to be more efficient, and, you know, basically try to get as much done as possible in the amount of time that you've got. And obviously you want to just do what you can, but as you learn more, you start learning better ways to do things, and, you know, when it comes to soul winning, when it comes to just Bible reading, Bible memorization, like all these different things, these are things that you need to keep sharp, and you need to constantly be making sure that, hey, I'm keeping that sharp. I'm not going to let that dull, you know, get dull or, you know, be blunt, okay? And in James Chapter 4 and Verse 13, it says, Go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. So it's basically saying, you know, you're saying you're going to go over and do this for a year. You don't even know if you're going to be alive. That's what it's stating. You don't even know if you're going to be alive. So when you say, I'm going to go do this, you know, you ever hear the phrase that a lot of times we'll say is that, Lord willing, I'll see you on Wednesday, right? Lord willing, I'll see you on Monday. Lord willing, it's not, you're not saying that because you're like, well, I might just not come, okay? You're saying that because, you know, if I'm still alive and like, you know, obviously circumstances can cause, you know, like I, you know, there's a lot of things that could happen to where you just physically can't make it, right? And so you don't know what will be on the morrow and the idea is that we don't even know how long we're going to live, okay? So we go to Psalm 90, Psalm 90, so we don't know how long we're going to live, so you got to redeem the time. You got to try to be the most profitable you can be with the amount of time that you have. But even if we did have the most time that anybody has on the earth, notice what it says here in verse 9. So Psalm 90, verse 9, it says, for all our days are passed away in thy wrath, we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away. Okay? So it's basically saying in threescore and ten is 60, well 60 is threescore. And then ten obviously would be, make it 70, so 70, 80 years, okay? That's what the Bible is saying here is that, you know, most people live 70, 80. Now we know that some people, you know, especially with modern medicine and all that stuff, a lot of people will get up into their 90s or whatever, but, you know, let's just face it, you know, like that's the lifespan that you're going to be living, okay? Some people reach 100, but it's not very many, right? And the idea is that we only have a short amount of time, so even if you have all the time that you would be allotted to like your old age, if you will, that's still a very short period of time when you think of eternity. And so we got to use this time wisely, and you don't have to turn there, but in Psalm 144 it says, man is like to vanity, his days are as a shadow that passeth away. So the Bible likens our life to a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away. It likens it unto a shadow, right? And you kind of think about how a shadow, you know, just as soon as like the cloud goes over, you know, like there's no more shadow, right? You know, you overcast sky, no more shadow, it just vanishes away. And that's what it likens our life unto. So this is why it's important that in life you sharpen your skills, right? You keep things sharp. And the idea here is that if you use them, they're going to get blunt and you got to keep sharpening them, okay? And so this isn't something like you sharpen it and then you just go on the rest of your life. Okay? No, this is a constant process of just sharpening your tools, if you will. And you just got to know that. I won't be getting into the examples of this, but go to Psalm 7, Psalm 7, because it talks about if the iron be blunt and he do not wet the edge. Now what is wet the edge? Now wet is spelled a little different there, W-H-E-T, okay? And when you're talking about wetting the edge of like a sword or something like that, it's talking about sharpening it, okay? Now you probably heard of a wet stone, right? You know, like where you'd sharpen like swords and that's what it's talking about as far as, you know, sharpening things. But so that's basically, it's talking about sharpening the edge because if you don't, you're going to have to put more strength to it. It's going to take, it's going to be a little harder for you to do. In Psalm 7, verse 10, it says, my defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart. God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not. So it's talking about being angry with the wicked every day and it's saying if he turn not, meaning like if he doesn't like turn away from his wrath from the wicked, it says he will wet his sword. He had bent his bow and made it ready. So notice that when it's talking about wetting the, you know, his sword, he's making it ready. He's making it ready for battle, right? It says and he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death. He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors, okay? So this is a term, you know, like the Lord wetting the edge of his sword and basically he's just up there sharpening it, you know, he's just sharpening getting it ready, okay? So the idea is that when you go in the battle, you don't want to have a blunt edge because you're not going to be, it's not going to work well for you, okay? Now go to Proverbs chapter 27, just to give you some examples of what do we need to sharpen in our Christian life, okay? And when I say that, some of you have already been sharpening it, but the idea here is that you need to keep sharpening it, okay? This isn't something that you just sharpen at once. I wish that were the case, you know? I'm sure anybody that's ever worked with tools would be like, man, I can just sharpen that thing once and it's good forever. You know, it's like those as seen on TV, never have to sharpen these knives, you know? It's like, yeah, right, you know, you have to sharpen everything. But that being said, this verse right here has been used out of context, I don't know how many times I've heard this, like used in a different manner than what it's actually talking about. And this phrase here in verse 17, so Proverbs 27 verse 17, iron sharpened with iron. So this is used usually in isolation, there's no, no one says anything out of it, they're like iron sharpened with iron, brother. And what they're usually using this verse for is Bible studies. Like, you know, basically, you know, we need to have like at home Bible studies, church is not enough, you know, you need to have like these ministries and these Bible studies at home with these small groups, all this different stuff, and they're like iron sharpened with iron. That's all cool, you know, right, as far as like if you want to try to say that, but it's not what it's saying, okay? And you say, well, what do you think about like having Bible studies and all this stuff? Listen, you guys can talk about the Bible with whoever you want to whenever you want to, okay? I'm not going to come down on you, you know, for doing that, but I'll say this is that Bible studies can be dangerous when you think about like the fact that the people that are talking don't know what they're talking about in a lot of cases, okay? I've been to Bible studies, you know, in college and then outside of college, we go to Bible studies and you get around this big circle and you'd read a passage and then everybody would give their thoughts and most everybody's wrong what they're saying, right? And I was wrong in a lot of cases when I would like state something in this Bible study because there's a lot of unqualified people giving their opinions on passages in a lot of cases. Like I said, you know, if you want to, you know, families, you know, talk about the Bible all you want, you know, and teach your children, do everything you got to do, right? But what I'm saying is that by and large, these Bible studies, a lot of times it's just a lot of people talking that don't know what they're talking about and usually the people that don't know what they're talking about are the ones that talk a lot, okay? That being said is that even if someone does know what they're talking about, you know, a lot of times they're not like really in a position to be that kind of leader to really be telling everybody what it says, okay? So I'm not here to say like it's wicked if you have like a Bible study over your house. I'm just saying beware of it because there can be a lot of false documents sometimes. And listen, if there are infiltrators, which I don't believe there's any infiltrators in our church, you know, that are just trying to come in and cause division, but if there are infiltrators, remember this is that they separate themselves, okay? So when people come up to you and say, hey, I want to have a Bible study, it may not be nefarious, okay? It could just very well be like, you know, what they're used to and they just want to hang out and have a good time and, you know, have a good fellowship, right? But infiltrators use that. They use that to try to pull people out of the church building and out of the church congregation to get them alone away from the pastor, away from the leaders, so that they can start giving them false doctrine, okay? So that's just things that I've seen in the past. This is things that, you know, I've heard of happening and, you know, just something to look out for. But here's the thing, this verse isn't talking about Bible studies, okay? That's what it says here in verse 17, iron sharpened with iron, so a man sharpened with the countenance of his friend. Now does that have anything to do with having a Bible study? Okay? Let's talk about countenance, okay? What is specifically, what are you talking about when you countenance? Well think about Nehemiah. When Nehemiah, it's said that he had a sad countenance, right? Remember he was like thinking about Jerusalem and the fact that the wall was broken down, the city was in ashes, right? Now the temple had been built, but he's like just thinking about like how the city's in rubble, right? And he had a sad countenance, okay? This is where fellowship is so important, okay? You want to talk about iron sharpened with iron, it's talking about good Christian fellowship. Because listen, none of us are always like just jolly, you know, rejoicing in the Lord Christians all the time, okay? But let's say you have a church, let's say you have a church of 75 or 100 people, you're going to have some people that are, okay? And you're going to have people that are sad, you're going to have people that are in the middle, people that don't care what's going on, you know? And they're just, you know, there's people all around that spectrum, right? But the idea is that when you come to church, for example, you have that opportunity to iron sharpened with iron, right? You come in, you're like you're having a bad day, and who here has had like they're just having a bad week, but then they come to church and they leave and they're just like, man, I'm glad I came, just because it lifted up your spirits, right? You're just like, man, you know, I was having a bad day, but man, it was, you know, it was a great day to be in the house of the Lord, okay? And that's an example. Now, I'm not saying it has to be a church, okay? We're going to do a retreat, right? That's a time of iron sharpened with iron. That's not a church service, you know, but that's a time of good fellowship where we can get together, have fun, you know, go walking some trails, watch Brother Dave, be horrible at skeet shooting. I'm just assuming, you know, no, I'm just kidding. But anyway, all that, you know, it's a good time of fellowship. It doesn't always have to be in work, right? You go out sowing, obviously there's fellowship and that sharpens each other as far as that fellowship when you're working together, but also when you're, you know, just having fun together, or if you're just in church together, iron sharpened with iron. That's why it's important to be in church. Now, go to Hebrews chapter 10, Hebrews chapter 10, and I don't usually preach on church attendance. I'm not one to be like just coming down on everybody that doesn't, that does or doesn't come to church or their attendance or anything like that. And I don't beg people to come to church, I'm just going to be honest. I'll persuade and beg people to get saved, but I will not beg people to come to church. If you don't want to be here, that's fine, okay? Now, if you have a problem of why you're not here, just talk to me at least, right, before you like don't come back. But at the same time, you know, if someone doesn't want to be here, then you know what, that's fine. You know, it's kind of like you think about the story where they're going to war, Gideon's going to war, and God's like, you know, anybody that's afraid, leave. He's like, why? Because you don't want people to be like bringing down the morale, if you will. You don't want a bunch of people in there that are just like a bunch of negative Nancy's and Debbie Downer's that are just going to bring everybody down, right? So if you don't want to be here, you don't want to be a part of what we're doing, then don't come, you know? But notice what it says in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 23, it says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. So there's not many verses on like church attendance, just to be honest, you know? You say, why don't you preach on it a lot? All right, I am right now, but this is like the one verse that I got that's really talking about church attendance, okay? Now obviously the Bible does talk about daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ, you know, and they would, you know, basically break bread. You think about Acts, there's verses on it. I'm not saying there's not verses on it, but what I'm saying is that, you know what the Bible says why we should be in church, why we shouldn't be forsaking the assembly? Because we need to exhort one another in love and good works, okay? Church is not to get saved, okay? Church is for believers, but specifically there's two main reasons, or at least three, or I guess there would be three, you know, to send people out going soul winning, okay? Obviously it's the job of the church, but one of the big reasons for church is for teaching doctrine, you know, for the perfecting of the saints, you know? That's one good reason, but the other good reason we see here, what's the reason? It's for exhortation of one another, okay? The church is not me, okay? The pastor's not the church. We're all the church of God, okay? Meaning that we all have, you know, parts that we play, you know, as far as I'm obviously the pastor, but at the same time like I'm a member just like you. None of us are the head, okay? You know, Jesus is the head, but as far as the members of the body, we all make up this body of Christ here, and you know what? We need to sharpen that constantly. You know, I believe if you come once a week, then you're not forsaking the assemblies. That's my personal belief. I know a lot of people are like, no, the doors are open. You need to be there, and if you're not, you're forsaking the assemblies. Okay, what if you had church every single week? You expect people to come every single week? So I'm not a stickler on that, but I'll say this, and you know, you can take offense to it or not. When people aren't in church on certain services or whatever, it does affect morale, okay? So meaning this is that on Sunday, you know, when it's like we're packed out, and it's like Sunday morning, we're packed out, you know, it's exciting, everybody's here, and then it's Sunday afternoon, like half the crowd's not there. Listen, we go through it, and I don't take it personally, okay? Because you can say, well, that's your preaching. It's horrible. We can make it on Sunday morning, but Sunday afternoon, you know, it's a little hard for us to do. You know, I'm just saying that there is a little bit of like the idea of how many people are there, all that does play a factor in, you know, exhortation, you know, sharpening iron, right? And so I'll say this, I suggest that everybody tries to come as much as they can, okay? Because if you're thinking about, let's say you have like an axe, should you sharpen it more often or less often, right? If you have a tool, you're going to want to sharpen as much as you can, okay? And so, you know, take that as you will, but that's one thing that we need to sharpen is fellowship, church, you know, being around believers, because that's going to sharpen your countenance, okay? And we're in this world, the more you can kind of step out of this world, okay, and kind of get sharpened up and, you know, have a good fellowship with believers and be like, you're not the only one that believes like this, right? Because you know as well as I do, you go to work and you go around people and you're just like, you're like the black sheep of society, you know, like, I mean, especially nowadays, just knowing that there's only two genders, you're the black sheep, you know, it's like you don't even have to be a Christian to be a black sheep anymore, you just have to like believe in logic and science, but that being said, that's one thing that we need to sharpen, okay? And I'm speaking to all of us, even people that come all the time, because here's the thing, if you're coming all the time, let's say you're coming to every single service, you still need to sharpen it, you still need to think in yourself like, I need to keep that sharp, okay, meaning that let's say in some cases it's blunt, right, well, sharpen it up. Let's say it's sharp, keep it sharp, right, the whole point here is that if you're doing everything you should be doing, or you're kind of running full capacity, well, here's how you keep a full capacity, keep it sharp, but if you're like, hey, I need to sharpen things up, and I think everybody would say that to a certain extent, right? I would hope everybody would say this to a certain extent, that in their mind, there's always some sharpening that needs to happen, that you're not like, I am sharp, okay? Because that's the wrong mentality, okay, I've arrived, you know, I have attained, you know. No, the Bible, you know, Paul says, I have not attained, you know, not as though I'd already attained, I'm already perfect, but I follow after it, that I may apprehend that, which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus, I press toward the mark for the prize, the high calling of God and Christ Jesus, you know. The idea is that we're never going to be fully sharpened, but we need to be thinking about always sharpening. Go to Hebrews chapter 5, Hebrews chapter 5, another thing that we need to be sharpening or that we don't want to be blunt is our skill in the word of God, okay? So if you're a new believer or, you know, you're just, you know, getting into the word of God for the first time, listen, it is what it is, I mean, you can't expect to be like some like well-oiled machine when it comes to like understanding the word of God and just knowing where everything's at if you're just getting into it, okay? So there's nothing wrong with being a babe in Christ, okay? The thing that you got to be thinking about is you shouldn't always be a babe in Christ though, like there should be a point where you come out of that stage, right, you should be growing out of being a babe in Christ. So if someone just gets saved and they start coming to church and, you know, or you win someone to Christ and they're just getting into reading the Bible, listen, they're going to be unskillful in the word of righteousness, but the idea is that, you know, they should be trying to grow to do that and there's nothing wrong with that stage, you got to have that stage, right? You know, baby James is in the stage of being a baby, okay? I'm not going to feed him a steak right now, okay, now read what it says here in Hebrew chapter 5 verse 12, it says, for when the time, I'm sorry, for when for the time you ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. So get the context, he's talking to people that should know better, okay, and he's saying, you need milk, though, and then it says for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. There's not wrong to be a babe in Christ, you know, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow there by, so there's nothing wrong with being a babe in Christ, but when for the time you ought to be teachers, meaning like at this point you should be teaching people not just, not being a babe, right, not needing the milk of the word, okay, that'd be like me right now saying I just, I'm just going to drink milk the rest of my life and that's it, just give me a bottle, I'm going to drink milk, you know, that'd be weird, and it wouldn't be healthy, you know, like, anyway, the idea is that you got to grow out of that and you got to start eating solid food. In verse 14 there, it says, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age even those, notice this, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. I want to point this out very clearly that when it comes to being skillful in the word of righteousness it's because you use it, okay, it doesn't say by reason of reading or knowing, okay, it says by reason of use, and I don't think it's an accident that those that go out soul wanting, those that are doing the work, those that are trying to live for the Lord and trying to do what God tells them to do, that God gives them more understanding, more wisdom, and doctrine, and things of the Bible, because the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that win his souls is what, wise. I believe God blesses that and this is stating here that, you know, the reason that people can handle strong meat is because they're using what they got, okay, use that, that, the milk of the word that you know, use it, okay, and you say what are you talking about, you know, honor thy father and thy mother, that's milk of the word, okay, children honor your father and mother, you know, you do that, guess what, God's going to bless you with more deep things to understand, okay, husbands love your wives, do that, that's milk, okay, that's very easy to understand, love your wives and wives submit unto your husbands, wives submit unto your husbands, now I didn't say it was always easy to do, okay, but it's easy to understand, okay, and that's the idea is that the milk of the word is easy to understand and therefore, you know, do those things, but here's the thing, even those who have been eating the meat of the word, okay, if you don't use it, you're going to end up being unskillful in the word of righteousness, I mean, think about it, let's say I just stopped reading today, okay, let's just say, you know what, I know enough, I read through the Bible scores of times, I got, you know, a ton of Bible memorized, I'm done, tapped out, I'm just going to stop reading, how do you think that's going to fare with my Bible knowledge, you know what's going to happen, I'm going to forget a lot of stuff, okay, there's times where I remember, like someone will even tell me, you know, like you showed me this and be like, that's awesome, I don't remember that, you know, or like I'll look back at a sermon, you know, that I preached and I'll be like, man, that was a good point right there, I forgot completely about that, you know, and this happens to everybody, where you look back at something and be like, I used to know that, I used to, like that was something I knew and then you like figure it out again, right, it's kind of like you come back and you're like, man, that's good, wait a minute, I already knew that, but you forgot it, okay, and that's why you got to keep that fresh, your reading needs to be on a daily basis, and so, hearing, you know, like reading the word of God, that needs to be something that you're doing constantly, you know, on a daily basis, but how about this, go back to, you're in Hebrew chapter 5, go back to verse 11, okay, because this is what kind of started the conversation, you know, as far as like, hey, you ought to be teachers, but you need the one to teach you again, what really caused them to be that way, okay, because you got to think about like, why are they still babes, right, why have they not gotten on to strong meat, notice what it says in verse 11, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing your what, dull of hearing, and what's another word for dull, blunt, okay, like if the edge is blunt or if it's dull, okay, and you ever wonder why the Bible uses that term dull of hearing, okay, because you think about, there's a verse, I don't have it in my notes here, but it talks about your hearts are waxed gross and your ears are dull of hearing, okay, and you know, in my mind, shouldn't that be like your ears are waxed gross, you know, because you think like ear wax, you know, and no one else thought that, oh, man, someone else had to think of that right now, no, anyway, so, but dull of hearing, the idea is having sharp hearing, right, you kind of think of having sharp eyesight, okay, but having like hearing that you like, you hear that, you like understand it, and obviously there's the idea of just hearing it, right, you have people that are like, you hear that over there, and be like, I don't know what you're talking about, like, you know, you got some like, you know, bad ears or something like that, but go to Ecclesiastes chapter 5, Ecclesiastes chapter 5, and the idea here is that you need to have ears that are ready to hear, ears that are sharpened to hear, okay, now, you know, don't confuse like having ears to hear as just believing every word, okay, does that make sense, like meaning just because you listen to everything doesn't mean you believe everything that said, okay, the idea is that you just take it in, you take it in, whatever it is, whether it's bad, good, in the middle, take it in, be sharp to hear it, okay, this comes with anything, when you're thinking about, let's say you're thinking about a subject where you have a position on it, right, and even as, you know, I have a position on doctrines, but listen, I still need to have an ear to hear what the other side is, because you know what, there's a chance I could be wrong sometimes, now, salvation no, I'm not going to be wrong on that, because, you know, the case is closed with that, there's nothing that can change the fact that it's by grace through faith, and that's what the Bible teaches on that, but what I'm saying is that there's a lot of things in life, and even outside the Bible, where you have a certain way that you do something, but you know what, you should be sharpening your ear to be listening or, you know, trying to understand other things that could make it easier, better, more efficient, okay, and it's easy for us to get stuck in our ways and be like, no, I've done it this way, I'm comfortable doing it this way, I don't want to learn something else, some of it has to do with laziness, some of it just has to do with stubbornness, okay, but, you know, a lot of times we're just like, I know how to do it this way, so I don't even want to think about this, I think about this, and no one's going to understand this besides, like, maybe my brother, but, you know, when it comes to drafting, you know, like you're making plans, you used to have to do it with a pencil, okay, you know, protractor, you had to draw all this stuff out by hand, okay, like draw out the drawings, you know, well then there's this program called AutoCAD, which is like this two-dimensional, like, drawing tool, where basically you draw a line, you can tell how long you want it, you can, you know, change the angles, and you could basically draw everything up on this computer, right? Well, when I first started working about 100 years ago, no, like 14 years ago, I knew AutoCAD really well, you know, I had used it in college, I used it for internships, I was using it at work, well then a new program came out that was 3D, okay, and I was the first one in our company to start jumping into this, well, you know what, at the beginning, I didn't like it because I had to learn a whole bunch of stuff, I knew, it was one of those things where I knew I could do it faster than this because I know how to do it, over here I don't know how to use this program, so I have to learn this new tool. Once I learned it though, there's no way of going back, like I opened up AutoCAD, it's like I hear creaking hinges and like bats fly out, that's how archaic it is to me compared to this new program that I use, and to think about like staying in that, and not moving to something that's better, more efficient, just because it takes a little bit of learning, you know, that, you know, it's just foolishness to think of like staying in it, and there's a lot of people that do, okay, there's people that are still working in that program, and then I'll work with them and they're like, we got a CAD file for you, I'm like, ugh, it makes my life harder, I'm like, why don't you use this 3D program, you can look at it, it's like looking at the building right now, you know, before it's built, and that's an example in my job where, you know what, I had to make a choice, do I just stay in this something I know, and something that I can do, right, or do I take that extra step to learn a little more, in the end, there's no doubt it paid dividends, like there's no doubt, I can do stuff faster, I can see stuff better, I make less mistakes in the field, you know, like less mistakes are made in the field because I'm seeing it in 3D, I'm looking at it, the other program, you had to imagine it in 3D, you had to think about it in 3D, you didn't see it in 3D, okay, I'm literally spinning around the building, cutting sections, I'm walking through it, like I'm walking through a building that's already built, okay, but that took some learning, right, that took some education, you know, I had to take some classes, I had to, you know, do some extra work to do that, that's the idea, okay, is that there's times where it's gonna be hard, it's not gonna be fun, listen, sharpening the blade takes work, doesn't it? It's easier just to pick it up, go out there and start chopping wood, but you know what, it takes a little more work to sharpen that edge before you go out there, but listen, once you get out there, you're gonna be glad you sharpened it, because it's gonna be, make your life so much easier. You go to Ecclesiastes chapter 5 verse 1, it says, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, notice this, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God is in heaven, and now upon earth, therefore let thy words be few. So notice that it's saying, you know, be ready to hear, and basically be more ready to hear, okay, that means that you just need to take it in. You know a wise man, it talks about, and I don't have this in my notes, I'm gonna butcher it, but it talks about a wise man basically take, he keeps it in until afterwards, I'm gonna mess that up completely, but basically it's talking about like, basically listening, and then holding your peace until afterwards, right, you basically take in all the information, and then you speak, okay, but a lot of times what we do foolishly is that we start speaking before we know it. He that answereth the matter before he heareth it is folly and shame unto him, okay, that's not the verse I was thinking about, but that is a verse in the Bible that basically is the fact that you don't want to just speak about something you don't understand or you don't know all the facts about, you need to take it all in, okay, even if you know like from the very beginning this person is completely out to lunch with whatever they're saying, okay, you kind of take it in, get all the facts, okay, because a lot of times if someone, if you don't let them speak everything they're gonna say, and you start speaking early, they'll just deny whatever you think they're trying to say, does that make sense, like we run this out soul winning too, like they'll say something where like we know exactly where they're going, we know exactly what they're trying to say and what they're trying to prove, but you need them to say it, okay, one because you want to make sure that that is actually what they're saying, but second of all you need them to say it because you know what, now you can have, hey this is what you told me, this is what's true, this is what's right, but all that to say is that, go to James chapter 1, James chapter 1, by the way the book of James is like a mini Proverbs, so a lot of times you'll see correlations with Proverbs here, but notice what it says in James 1 and verse 19, James 1 19, it says wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity, of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls, so you're supposed to receive with meekness the engrafted word, why, because you're swift to hear, slow to speak, you know, you probably heard the old saying, you know, like there's a reason that God gave you two ears and one mouth, because he wants you to listen, you know, double, okay, than what you're speaking. Now, we're made in God's image, okay, like man, we're made in God's image, women, you're the glory of man, so I'm not saying that's why God has two ears, okay, but it's a simple way to understand like hey, God wants us to listen more than he wants us to speak, okay, and you know, that's what we need to be thinking about when we're in church, but even in the Bible, you know, I'm all for prayer, and the Bible says to pray without ceasing, but listen, I read a lot more, and I listen to the word of God a lot more than I pray, okay, and God wants us to pray, I'm not negating that, okay, but at the same time, I want to hear what God has to say more than what I have to say. You say, well, you're up here preaching, and yeah, you know, through the foolishness of preaching, you know, he chose for the gospel to be preached and all that, so meaning this is that, yeah, I have a great responsibility not to be a fool up here because I'm speaking, you know, because the Bible says let your word be few, basically to not speak a lot, but at the same time, you know what, he has chosen that way to how his word is brought forth and all that, so yeah, I mean, that's a danger, that's a danger of being a preacher is that I can get up here and start speaking my mind and say stuff that's really dumb, okay, so that's something I've got to keep in check, and you're like, you've already said a bunch of stuff that's dumb, and don't get me wrong, after four years of preaching, I know I have, I know I've said stuff that was foolish, I've said stuff that's dumb or stuff that's not accurate, you know, but here's the thing, I'm trying my best to be accurate, to say, you know, anything that I'm preaching from the Bible, you know, if I preach it, it's because that's what I believe it says, okay, but the idea here is that sharpen those ears, you know, to hear, and the thing is is that people though, instead of sharpening their ears, they end up having itching ears, go to 2 Timothy chapter 4, 2 Timothy chapter 4, you know, when it comes to the word of God, you can either say, you know what, I'm going to listen to what the word of God says whether I like it or not, okay, that's sharpening your ears, but you know what people do, they dull their ears to the word of God, because they don't want to hear what it has to say, okay, and you probably run into people that are like, don't tell, I don't want to know, you know, and you're like, but the truth hurts in a lot of cases, right, that's why people don't want to hear it, because it's true, and in 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2, it says, preach the word, be instant, end season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. So they're heaping to themselves teachers because they have itching ears, right, so the idea is that they have these itchy ears that they need scratched, so what do they do, they're finding teachers that will scratch their ears, okay, like a dog, you know, like where you like scratch the back of their ear and they start like thumping their foot because they just want to have a feel-good message, right, they don't want to hear something that hurts or something that's harsh or something that's sharp, okay, and it says in verse 4, and they shall turn away their ears from the what, truth, and shall be turned unto fables, and that's the problem, you know, that we deal with in America today, in the world, but a lot of people that go to church, they're going to church because they want their ears to be scratched and not to hear the truth, okay, and if they hear the truth, they'll get upset and leave, okay, but you know what, you don't have to be that way, you can be the person that says, you know what, I want to hear the truth whether I like it or not, and you know what, you know where this is hard is where it applies to yourself, right, where you're just like, ouch, that hit me, yeah, but you know what, you can do there, you can either keep your ears sharp to hear it or you can just let it get dull to where you don't hear it, you can, you know, basically find some teachers that will scratch your ears and make you feel good or you can just hear the truth because these teachers, these preachers, these pastors out there that aren't preaching the truth, that aren't preaching what the Bible says, you know what they're teaching, fables, fables, you know, when they think, well, God's never angry, God's not angry with you, that's Joyce Meyers right there, she wrote a whole book saying God's not angry with you, I think we just read a verse where it says God is angry with the wicked every day, now, you have a choice, you're going to hear what the word of God says or you're going to go to a teacher having itching ears, okay, because you don't want to think that God's ever angry with you, listen, God is angry at sin and even his children, he's going to get angry with his children, he's going to chase on his children, why, because he loves them, okay, anger's not wrong, you know, if it's in the right place, be ye angry and sin not, the Bible says, but here's the thing, that's truth, that's what the Bible says, but you know what, that's a hard thing to hear sometimes, that's hard to take in and a lot of times when people hear that type of stuff, they shut it out because they don't want to hear it because it hurts, okay, go to, well, actually, I'm just going to read off a few verses and this is something that if I read off all the verses, I'd have to end in prayer because there's just so many verses that say this, but throughout the Gospels, you probably hear this phrase, he that hath an ear, let him hear, that's what he's basically calling out to people, who has ears to hear, okay, he's not saying like, you know, a lot of people don't have ears out there, you know, they've all been chopped off by Peter, you know, I was just reading about Malchus actually, so that was in my mind, but the idea is that if you have an ear to hear, meaning that you're not dull of hearing, you haven't like made your ears to where these itchy ears where you want someone to scratch it and feel good, right, then he's like, if you have an ear to hear, then hear what I have to say, and here's some ones that are said, and it says Matthew 11, 15, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear, Matthew 13, 9, who hath ears to hear, let him hear, Mark 4, 23, if any man have ears to hear, let him hear, and Revelation 2, 29, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, by the way, every single church, that's said, in every single church, in Revelation chapter 2 and 3, after everything's said, it says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, okay, you want to have some verses memorized, there's like three at least there, because some of them have other things that are said besides that in that same verse, but there you have like three verses memorized, just knowing that right there, but that's just, that's said over and over and over again, Jesus says it many times, it's said in Revelation, it's said in other places, if you have an ear, then hear, okay, because you need to have some sharp hearing so that you'll hear the Word of God. When it comes to your Bible reading, you need to, you need to sharpen this, okay, because it's not always going to stick with you, go to 1 Timothy chapter 4, 1 Timothy chapter 4, now the Bible, you know, you think of Matthew and Luke, it says, you know, man shall not live by bread alone, and Matthew says, but by every word that perceives the mouth of God, and Luke, it says, but by every word of God, and the idea is that if you're eating bread on a daily basis, then you should be reading the Word of God on a daily basis, okay, this should be a daily thing that you're eating, but also meditating upon it, and 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 13, this is, you know, Paul writing to Timothy, who's a pastor, he's a bishop, but it says that, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all, taking it unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in this, for, I'm sorry, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee, and this isn't talking about eternal salvation, this is just talking about the fact of having good doctrine and saving yourself from physical destruction and different things, you know, I don't want to go into that because that's going into the whole book of 1 Timothy, but the idea is that he's saying give attendance to reading, and then he says meditate upon these things, okay, now reading's not the only thing he said to do, but the idea is that we're supposed to be reading, but we're supposed to be meditating, that's where you get into memorization, okay, not always memorization because you could obviously meditate and think about what you've read, okay, but anybody that's memorized large portions of the Bible knows that that can get dull, meaning that you may have had that memorized where you can quote every single word and just spout it off right now, but then it's kind of gotten a little dull, it's still kind of there, right, it's not like it disappeared completely, okay, but, you know, for example, like Galatians, like I've memorized Galatians, but if I were to quote it off to you right now, I'd make a lot of mistakes, okay, and you'd have to like help me to make sure I'm saying the word, I know everything that's in there and I know every single verse, what it's supposed to say, like, you know, in general, but to get it word for word perfect, like I'm going to have to sharpen that a little bit, okay, and same with other books in the Bible that I've memorized or other chapters that I've memorized, it's there, but a lot of it's a little dull, to be honest with you, right, and anybody's memorized, if anybody's memorized chapters or books of the Bible that says they didn't, none of it ever kind of gets dull on them, I want to know this person, I want to know what your secret is, tell me how you're doing it, right, how in the world do you do that, because here's the thing, you've got to keep up on it, because you're going to forget, it's going to kind of get, you know, dulled out a little bit and not sharp, so you've got to keep sharpening that, okay, and, you know what, I'll say this, it's better for you to memorize a book of the Bible and it get dulled and never memorize it at all, okay, because some people get kind of bogged down with that, and I'm there too, you know, like man, I used to have Hebrews memorized completely, but I don't know if I can quote that off completely, and you just kind of get down about it, and you're thinking like should I keep memorizing all these books, you know, if it's just, I'm just going to lose it, but here's the thing, I could tell you every single chapter what's in those chapters, if anything, I've read Hebrews, I don't know how many times, right, I couldn't tell you how many times I've read Hebrews, how many times I've read Galatians, or the books I've memorized, anybody that's memorized a book of the Bible, can you think about how many times you've read that verse, how many times did you say it in your mind, just so did you have it memorized, right, I mean, you're probably thinking hundreds of times, wouldn't you, hundreds of times at least, you know, to have it memorized, do you think that's bad, should have done that, right, no, but obviously it's still good, even if it gets dull, but you got to sharpen it, okay, go to Proverbs chapter 24, the other point I want to make here in the sermon is that you want to sharpen your tools, you want to sharpen your skills, whether it's the Word of God, whether it's, you know, reading, whether it's coming to church, whether it's fellowship, whether it's, you know, whatever the case may be in your Christian life, you got to keep that stuff sharp, okay, but the idea with keeping it sharp is having wisdom in your work, okay, meaning this is that you don't want to go out and do something and it'd be dull, like think about it, if I come up here and preach, do I want to just be like coming up here and I haven't read in weeks, right, like I don't want to do that, that's going to be painful, okay, it's going to be painful on you, it's going to be painful on me, it's going to be embarrassing, you know, because I'm just going to be dull, I'm not going to be sharp, okay, but in Proverbs 24 and verse 27 it says, prepare thy work without and make it fit for thyself in the field and afterwards build thine house. You never thought that, you know, construction would come into play here in the church, but this is talking about prefabrication, okay, meaning that you prefab, you fabricate something or you build something somewhere else, you build all the pieces, it's kind of like you build all these pieces, then you put them all together, okay, think of like a Lego set, you build all these little pieces and you kind of work on that piece, then you work on this piece over here, then when you get done with it a lot of the cases, you put those pieces together and it makes this massive thing or whatever, right. Go to 1 Kings chapter 6, I'll give you an actual example in the Bible where they did this, was building the temple of God, okay. Now this happens in construction all the time, okay, you think of like homes, there's a lot of homes where they're, you know, basically prefabricated and they bring them in in pieces in a lot of cases, okay, and what it has to do is that, is the fact that it's smarter because you have all this stuff that's done over here where you have like this shop, okay, where they're doing everything and it's going to be cheaper that way, it's going to be more efficient that way, then they bring it in and then they piece it together there, okay, whereas if you stick build it, if you will, then all the labor has to go on site, okay, and it's going to be more expensive and I'm not here to like discredit either one, everything's done in the field, everything's done out in the world as far as that goes, but what the Bible's showing is a lot of wisdom in the prefabrication process of like having these things made and one of the great examples of this are roof trusses, okay, most every house that you run into there's roof trusses, you know, you think of like the gable roof trusses where it's just pitched like this, right, you have a top court and you have a bottom court. Did I lose anybody yet? So you have a top court, your bottom court you have like your diagonals in there, okay, and you think about that truss, they don't usually build that out at your house, let's say you're getting a house built, they don't just build that out there on the lawn, okay, those are all built somewhere else and then they're shipped in and what do they do? They just set them in place, okay, this is what they did with the house of God, notice what it says here in verse 7, so you're in 1st King chapter 6 verse 7, this is where Solomon's building the house of the Lord or the temple, it says in the house when it was in building was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building. So they basically built this thing or they constructed everything out, so basically any stone that needed to be like hewn or like things that were like made, they were all done offsite and then they just brought it in and just put it in place. Now I don't exactly know how they did this without hammers, okay, like you think about like how you put things together but they must have had some kind of like connection, way of connecting everything that you could do it by hand. So basically when they're putting this together there wasn't like all this construction noise going on, does that make sense? And I just find this very interesting because this is something that's still done today, okay, there's nothing new under the sun, they were doing prefabricated work back in the Bible days and actually Proverbs teaches how that's a wise thing to do, okay. And anybody knows this, you know, you've probably done any project where you work on something over here that's easier to work on, you do it over here and then you bring it in and then put it into place, okay. And that's the way you need to be thinking about preparing is that you're doing it, you're doing it, you know, outside of where you're actually performing it, okay. So unlike me who like basically comes in and I'm working on my sermon as I'm doing announcements because I wasn't prepared, no I'm just kidding. But, you know, it would be kind of like if I was like preparing my sermon as I'm like doing my sermon, does that make sense? Okay. I'm being a little silly there because, you know, obviously I already have my sermon written but at the same time like if you kind of like that where you're kind of like trying to, I mean I'm in the church and I'm like making my sermon. Now I'm not saying that never happened, okay. I can't remember, it might have happened where I was actually working on, I almost guarantee I was working on a sermon when I was in the church building like between services or something like that, okay. But the idea is that I usually prepare my sermons at least a couple of hours before I get here, no. But at least the day before, you know, so hey when you find out what those chapters are and it's like midnight, you know, what's going on. But the smart thing is what you should do, you know, do what I say not what I do, is that you should prepare this stuff before you get into doing the work, okay. Now one great example of this and the last thing I want to point, I want to hit on here is soul winning, okay. You want to be prepared before you go soul winning, okay. Now obviously if you get saved and you want to tell someone how to get saved, go for it, you know. Like I'm not here to say like you need to have this seven week Bible study on how to get someone saved. Listen, if you know how to get saved, give them some verses that are about salvation and explain the gospel to them. You know, you can get someone saved. But here's the thing, you want to be effective, you want to be, you want to be, you want to not just bear fruit but bear much fruit. Do you want to bear 30, 60, 100 fold? You want to be very profitable and have wisdom to direct, then you need to be prepared when you're going out, okay. And in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10, Ephesians chapter 6, this is the whole armor of God passage here. It says, finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day in having done all to stand. So this is setting up saying, hey, this is not a physical battle. When we're talking about the whole armor of God, we're not talking about physical armor, like you're literally putting on plate mail or chain mail right now, right. I got it in my office, I'm putting it on, we're going out soul winning, okay. This is talking about spiritual garments. These are spiritual weapons for spiritual warfare, okay. Notice what it says as far as what you're doing or what you're putting on. It says, stand therefore in verse 14, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness, notice this in verse 15, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Now, the sword is always going to be sharp. Does that make sense? Like this is the, the word of God is sharpened in any two edged sword, okay. So, this is always sharp, but is it always sharp in your mind? Okay, that's the question you got to ask when it comes to sharpening something that's blunt. Your mind gets blunt, okay. Your mind gets dull. And you want to keep your mind sharp, okay, and sharp with the word of God. Now, when it comes to the preparation of the gospel, you know, what is that talking about? You need to be prepared, okay. I mean, think about the fact that the Bible says in 1 Peter, it says, be ready always, it says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. This is how it starts. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So, the idea is that you need to be ready to give an answer and how do you do that? By sanctifying the Lord God in your hearts and, you know, think about having the, letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly, you know, the idea of like having the word of God dwelling in you richly, you're sanctifying the Lord God in your hearts and you're ready to give that answer, okay. But when it comes to soul winning, I'll say this, some people knock going, no pun intended, they knock going door to door, door knocking. But they'll basically say, oh, you know, that's not the way to do it. All right, show me a better way, okay. Now, the Bible says that they went, you know, from town to town, from house to house, you know, they, that, you know, Paul said that he went from house to house preaching the word of God, preaching the Gospel. It says in every house, you know, in the temple and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ, okay. So, it's biblical, first of all, to go door to door. But, okay, show me a better way though, okay. Here's the thing, when it comes to soul winning, I want to know what's the most efficient, best way. Oh, street preaching. All right, show me that works because I've yet to see anyone ever get saved street preaching, I've never gone street preaching, but I've never seen someone actually get saved when they're out street preaching. You say, well, I've heard of somebody, yeah, they're probably not even saved because the person that's usually preached street preaching is preaching like repent of your sins, you got a term for, you know, your sins to be saved. These people aren't even saved most of the time that are preaching, that are preaching on the streets. But it says about Jesus that his voice was not heard in the streets, did you know that? That he wasn't a street preacher. You're like, well, he spoke, you know, and multitudes heard him, yeah, they came to hear him. There's a difference between unsolicited preaching and, you know, people coming and attending and wanting to hear what he has to say, okay? And even Paul, you know, it says that he would talk, he would preach to people in the marketplace that would meet with him. So even Paul, when he would like talk to people out in public, he didn't just unsolicited it and just start preaching to the crowd and they're just like, you got to hear me whether you like it or not. It's obnoxious, no one wants to hear it, they're not listening to what you're saying, okay? They're shutting it out in most cases. But so that being aside, you know, show me a better way. But here's the thing, when you go door to door, you need to have a plan, okay? You need to have, you know, basically an outline, a template, if you will, okay? And anybody, you know, that does work or wants to be profitable and wants to do something quick, efficiently, you have templates set up. And what's a template? It's basically like an outline of what you're going to do, but it's not necessarily exactly what you're going to do. Does that make sense? Like there's like a beginning, middle, end, okay? There's certain points that need to be met, right? There's certain checklists that need to be met, but how you accomplish that may be different, okay? Does that make sense? So a template is just like, I got a way that I'm going to do it, I'm going to start off with saying this, you know, I'm going to say, do you know 100% sure you're going to heaven and can I show you, you know, that you can know 100% you're going to heaven, right? You have, and I'm oversimplifying it, but what I'm saying is that you basically have, okay, this is how I'm going to start the conversation. And you can even have the template be like, this is how I'm going to end the conversation. Can I lead you in a prayer to tell God that's what you believe, you know, or something like that. As far as there's your beginning and your end, in the middle you have certain points like, okay, I need them to realize they're a sinner. I need them to realize that the punishment for that sin is hell. I need them to realize that Jesus paid it all, that he's God, that he, you know, it's just by faith alone, eternal security, they can't lose their salvation. I have these certain points. Now fill in how you're going to accomplish that. Does that make sense? What verses are you going to use? Okay. You're not bound to only using the verses I use, okay, but have verses for each one of those points, but that outline should be the same. Does that make sense? And even when I talk to somebody and they're like really close and they're like just on, you know, like they're just struggling with eternal security, most of the time I go all the way back to, do you know you're a sinner, you know the punishment for sin is hell, you know, and just going through that whole thing. You're like why do you do that? Just to make sure, make sure they got it, everything, okay. And having that template and being prepared is going to make you more effective, it's going to keep you like in the zone as far as what you need to do. And you're not going to forget something that way, okay. Because you don't want to leave a conversation and be like man I didn't hit on that point, you know, that's a crucial point. Well if you have a template that you never leave, then you're not going to miss that point. You're just going to be like going through, it's like second nature, like these are the points I'm trying to hit. You may use different verses and listen sometimes I do, okay. Let's say we do a Sony marathon, you're out for like four hours or something like that and you've been preaching the gospel over and over and over again, you're probably going to switch up the verses just for your own sake, okay. Because the person you talk to doesn't know that you've been saying that same verse for the last three hours, you know, they're not hearing it over and over again, you are, okay. So you can pick different verses, all that stuff but you need to have a plan. Don't just go up and just swing from the hips, you know, or shoot from the hips. I don't know what that means to swing from the hips. Don't do that, okay. But you don't want to just shoot from the hips, you don't want to just like, you know, go rogue all the time. You can still get people saved. I'm not saying you can't, okay. You want to be efficient, you want to be effective, you want to be profitable, have a plan, be prepared of what you're going to say, okay. Before you get up to that door you know exactly what you're going to say, okay. Be real, don't be like a robot, you know. But at the same time like you have this plan, you're prepared and that's where you're going to be effective and that's why you're sharpening that tool. You're sharpening that tool of what your presentation is going to be before you go out there. Can you still get some, can you still chop down a tree if the iron is blunt? Yes. It's going to be harder though, okay. And you're not going to chop down as many trees, are you? You just don't have enough time, okay. I don't care how strong you are. You could be Paul Bunyan and have a blue ox but if your, if your axe is dull you're not going to chop down as many trees as the person that has a sharp axe. So when it comes to soul winning you need to have that sharpened. That presentation needs to be sharpened up before you even go out and you're going to get more people saved that way, okay. So I hope this sermon, you know, helps. You know, it's obviously just a lesson that's taught in Ecclesiastes about, you know, basically sharpening up your tools, sharpening up your skills, okay. We're all at different levels, you know what I mean? Like it's not here to like say anything about whether you're a babe in Christ or whether you're like an elder in the faith or something like that. The idea is that wherever you're at you should be sharpening your tools. I don't care if you're an elder in the faith. I don't care if you've been saved for 50 years, you've been soul winning for 30 of those years. You need to sharpen your tools, okay. When I turn 50 one day, if I'm still alive, you know what, I still need to be sharpening my tools. I still need to be sharpening my presentation. I need to be sharpening my bivalry. I need to be sharpening my memorization. By that point I definitely need to be sharpening my memorization if it's still there. But the idea is that don't let it get blunt because it's going to make your life harder, okay. That's the whole point. Don't make your life harder than it has to be, you know. Just sharpen it up. So let's end with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for this passage. And just one verse in the Bible really that prompts this but it's just a great truth that we need to try to be more profitable, be smarter, be wise in what we do. And Lord we just pray that you be with us throughout the rest of the day. Be with us as we go out soul winning. Pray for many to be saved. And Lord we love you and pray also in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Fred Abel, come sing one more song and then we'll be dismissed. All right, song 119 in your song books. Song 119. We'll sing till the storm passes by. Song 119. Or if you would stand. Yeah, yeah, stand up. In the dark of the midnight Have I oft hid my face While the storm howls above me And there's no hiding place Mid the crash of the thunder Precious Lord hear my cry Keep me safe till the storm passes by Till the storm passes over Till the thunder sounds no more