good morning my friends i'm pastor
stephen brooks
welcome today to our midweek bible study
called morning glory
i'm so happy that you're here and i want
to invite you to grab your bibles
and join me today we're going to be in
the book of wisdom
the book of proverbs chapter 27
and today let's look at our key verse
which will be
verse 17 and let's open up in prayer
heavenly father as we go into your word
we thank you that the
entrance of your word into our hearts it
brings
light illumination understanding
and wisdom so father let there be the
entrance of your word
let your holy spirit anoint your word
and let it fall upon us like
a soft rain and we thank you for the
light
that it's bringing father we give you
praise thank you for the wisdom of your
word
in jesus name we pray we all agree and
shout
amen praise the lord now verse 17
as iron sharpens iron
so a man sharpens the countenance of
his friend as iron sharpens
iron again it says so a man's
countenance sharpens his friend
i was reading a story yesterday about
mr reese howells the great prayer
intercessor
from wales and he raised up a great
bible college
by the way with that great bible college
it wasn't in a sense
what you would call a very large school
of ministry or like a big
public type college or anything like
that it was a very
focused bible college endeavoring to
raise up uh those in the ministry who
would be completely dedicated to the
lord
and although there's a lot of people
that never heard of the wales bible
college
it certainly had its graduate students
who went on to do some major exploits
one of those men was actually
one of the graduates from that bible
college was a young man
named reinhardt bonke and we certainly
know
the great work that god did through him
in the continent of
africa so it's not always necessary to
be the biggest
sometimes that's not even god's plan but
you can focus on being the best
and you can churn out and produce
quality
that is exceptional well i was reading
about mr howells when he was
actually in africa himself in the area
of
southern area of africa and he came down
with malaria
and he was real sick and on the eighth
day he was not getting any better
so his wife said you need to pray about
about this condition ask god to heal you
he goes well i did pray and i did ask
god to heal me but
now that i'm really kind of examining my
my prayer he said i didn't really pray
in faith
so he said i'll i'll pray it again and
i'll pray in faith
so later she walked back into the room
where he
had been lying on the bed and the moment
she walked into the room
she looked at her husband's face and it
was lit
up with light and she said the lord
healed you he said yep he said i got the
prayer right this time and he instantly
healed me
and he was already recovering in
strength he was beginning to
move about and so forth and literally
the next day he was back on his feet
and uh working and functioning and so
forth so
there is this illumination this light
that can be upon the countenance that
can
share knowledge with someone else
that allows them to come into the light
also
one time i had been in in my garage
which was connected to my house i was in
the garage praying
and i had a major visitation from the
lord the lord came to me in a vision
and he talked with me and he shared some
things that in many ways
set the course of my ministry and like
all visions eventually they end
but when the vision ended uh i was maybe
you could use the word lit
up from the encounter of having met the
head of the church himself
and i went into the house and the moment
kelly saw me in the kitchen when i
walked in
the first words out of her mouth were
you just saw the lord
didn't you and i said yes why
there's a countenance there's an
illumination now again the scriptures
say
as iron sharpens iron so a man
sharpens the countenance of his friend
now i have a a really nice
knife that i use if i go camping or
doing things around the the outside of
the house you need to cut something just
pull it out
and it's a real strong knife and i had
cut up some pieces of cardboard that
were real thick
the other day and that knife was just
going through even that thick cardboard
like hot butter
but something uh while i was cutting
nicked
the blade of the knife so i i took it to
the knife store here in town
and it's actually one of the best knife
stores in the country just
uh everything you could ever imagine or
want if you like cutlery or knives
they've got it well i
took my knife there and showed him the
little burr that had happened on it he
goes oh i can take that out stephen for
you let me fix that
and in order to sharpen it he didn't
grab another knife so he's not going to
sharpen my knife with another knife no
he grabs
what would be called the wedding stone
and you take that special stone
and you use it to sharpen the blade of a
knife and so
he technically didn't use a stone he's
got these little rods that are wetting
stone rods and he could
run it against the blade and he had that
thing so sharp by the time he was done
with it
it was probably i think sharper than
what it was when i originally bought it
so it's fascinating because
here there is a reference of iron
sharpening iron and you wouldn't really
sharpen iron with another piece of iron
but it's
it's being said like that this proverb
or this
maxim of life this wisdom statement is
being said like that in the sense that
we
sharpen each other and we have the same
nature so
you're not going to get sharpened by
talking to a robot you're not going to
get sharpened
by you know just having empty
conversation with somebody
you get sharpened when you are
conversing with someone
that is in a similar hunger and desire
and growth mode like you are and you
start talking and there's a sharpening
taking place so it's like iron
sharpening iron it's the same material
sharpening the material the same the
same humanity
the same hunger uh connecting with the
hunger for god
to become very very sharp praise to lord
so
this sharpening it influences literally
the countenance of a person
because that countenance consists of
understanding
and light it's like as we say when the
light comes on
so there's an illumination and this can
take place
by sitting down with someone and
you're both running with the lord and
you begin to have fellowship
and you begin to have dialogue and
conversation you start bouncing
things around uh with the other person
and my friends you
you'll never leave a conversation like
that without having been edified
or without having been made more
sharp than what you previously were i
think it's important
that whenever you have a valid spiritual
experience a vision
or some type of supernatural encounter
to be open to
sharing that with a spiritual mentor
it's not like perhaps you're trying to
have the vision judged i mean
if it's from the lord it's from the lord
and at the same time when it is genuine
uh there's nothing wrong with sharing it
with somebody or somebody asking
questions uh to
get insight to maybe give guidance or
direction
but i would say that it's a good thing
to do to share
your visions with somebody that would be
spiritually mature
why because they can offer insight and
help
drop some things of revelatory knowledge
that maybe you never picked up
and the moment they hear your vision and
you tell them about it
they'll be able to give more insight
because of the iron sharpening iron
principle praise the lord now
don't go and share a supernatural
experience with
even a minister just because the person
is a minister
i found that out very young in ministry
that there's a lot of good pastors
and they have wonderful congregations
and things like that
but it doesn't necessarily mean that
they are in a sense spiritually enabled
to talk about things that we could call
spiritual i know several
ministers that have very large churches
and
in a sense you could say they're even
charismatic or pentecostal
because they believe in miracles and
things like that but
they have a little bit of tunnel vision
in other words they believe in miracles
like healing
but if you get into other types of
miracles or the glory realm or
supernatural experiences or visions or
things like that or angelic
encounters they have no uh experience
in that realm at all so to try to share
something
with them that would be more of a
prophetic type experience and they're
not prophets
or they just they've never had
experience in that
then you're not going to be able to get
a good uh
sharpening process out of that and i
have met quite a few ministers and
they're good ministers they love the
lord they're doing a good work and they
have
zero interest in any type of what we
would call
supernatural experience they're happy
just with a nice
normal little ministry that's moving
along
or the larger size ministry that's
moving along and
there may be no power of the spirit
manifesting that that that's okay with
them they're
they're just as happy as can be but uh
certainly not everybody is in that
position there are those that are
hungry for god and no there's more and
of course we know there's a whole lot
more
and want to tap into fuller expressions
of god's glory
well when you do have those types of
experiences you need to be able to talk
with somebody
that also is living
walking in that realm praise the lord
i had a situation one time where i was
in my
bedroom area of the house and i was
praying my wife and daughter they were
they i can't remember where they were at
but they were not in the house and
the bedroom had two uh sliding doors
large sliding doors that were glass that
looked out
onto the backyard and so i had been in
prayer for quite some time
and i noticed something very unusual
it's only happened once and
probably once was enough because it was
really uh
it was very very strange there was a
play set like a children's playset in
the back
and it had a swing like two little
swings
well a hawk of all places where at that
time i was living in the city in
southern california
a huge red tail hawk came and landed on
top of that swing
and started and if i could if i could
say it like this started calling me
he he actually extended his left wing
out
and he was doing like this and it seemed
to me like an expression like
that was saying come into this and he
was like screaming
if that's a word that hawks actually
used you know they'd make that piercing
cry
and he and he was looking right at me
looking right at me
and i thought i've you know because i
grew up in the country and
we had all kinds of you know birds of
prey and things like that but i never
had
something like that and he was so close
i mean he was he was maybe uh
12 feet away and he was very loud and he
kept on doing that
and i thought what is all that about i
didn't want to go out there because you
could see his talons
wrapped around the pole and stuff like
that and uh so after doing that for some
time he just he flew away
and i thought lord i don't understand
that but i think there was a message in
that for me
but i have no clue what you were trying
to convey to me
through that experience now this was not
a vision this was something that was
real
but i felt that god was involved in it
and i wanted to
i wanted to get some insight from
somebody that had
a sharpness that could help me in this
so i knew that where i was going next
week the minister that the pastor
who was really an apostle over that
church
i thought maybe that he could help me
and uh i was right he could so i got
i got to the city uh i think i was going
to minister on sunday morning maybe
saturday night they wanted me to start
but i got there like on friday
and i actually stayed in this home uh my
family and i stayed with his family
that would give he and i more time to
talk and the first thing i did was
when i sat down in his living room i
said brother i said i had the most
unusual thing happen
with this hawk flew into my backyard and
landed on the pole and uh on the
children's place
extended his wing out to me and was
bringing his wing in and out and
trying to like convey come into this and
uh was looking at me and he was piercing
cry and all of this and uh
he goes oh brother stephen you know what
that means don't you
i said no i said for about a week now
i've been praying
uh trying to get insight on what that
was all about
i said i have no clue what that was
about he said he said are you serious
you don't know what that means i said no
i have no idea what it means
so i said please tell me
he said that he said the hulk represents
the apostolic ministry
so that would be an invitation a call
into
the apostolic ministry and i said
i said now where is that at in the bible
and he said
he said seriously stephen you don't know
where that's at i said no i don't know
where that sat in the bible i've read
the whole bible through
but i've never read anything like that
in the bible he said really he said you
don't know i said no i don't know
what's going on i'm getting sharpened
i'm getting sharpened and i
by the way he had some things that i was
able to sharpen him on
also so it's a it's a an amazing process
you'll never leave conversations like
that without knowing god better
and becoming what sharper so um
i said well where's it at in the bible
you know he was like kind of did he just
tease me you don't know what that said i
said no
i have no clue he said isaiah chapter 46
verse 11. oh i had to see it i turned
right over there
and let's just take a look ourselves
isaiah 46 verse 11
calling a bird a prey from the east
and he explained to me that bird of pray
in in the hebrew and it's true because i
looked it up in strong's concordance
which anybody could do the
the word is ait and it means what it
means hawk
calling a hawk a bird of prey from the
east
the man who executes my council from a
far country
so an apostle is basically uh in the
original corner greek or the common day
language of the people when that
word was used regularly uh in paul's
time
it was it was an emissary it was
somebody that was sent
sent by a higher authority and here we
see that god
was going to call and send cyrus for a
unique purpose so it's a symbol
of an early prototype of the apostolic
type
ministry before christ ever commissioned
the ministry
office of the apostle to the church as
we know he did during his
ascension in uh which is discussed in
the book of ephesians chapter 4
where it talks about the five-fold
ministry offices
that were given as a gift by christ to
the church
woo praise god so that unlocks some
things from me
and that was the original um kind of
hawk talk
that started to take place in that sense
of beginning to
think more about the apostolic more
about uh see you can go
but there's a difference between going
and god sending you
and the sending is the empowerment uh
where god gives you his authority
his supernatural equipment and of course
his blessing
so you need to have people that you can
talk to that can
sharpen you there's a there's an apostle
in asia that i talk to pretty often he's
a good friend of mine we've known each
other for quite some time
and uh anytime i have a vision
and i share it with him he always adds
something
through interpretation that i didn't
catch so i had a major experience
it was about it was about five years ago
that
really was something very very deep and
it was a phenomenal
vision that the lord showed me he
actually took me to heaven and showed me
some things
well when i was retelling the vision to
my friend
the apostle over in asia and i told him
about a certain part of the vision he
goes well you know what that means right
i said well i didn't really think about
that what does that mean he goes this
means and he gave me the the
prophetic interpretation of that and i
thought now why could i see that
i said oh my goodness that makes so
much sense and it just kind of like
unlocks something
and it took the the pieces of the puzzle
and just fitted it all together so much
better
and i could already see the puzzle
because i the vision happened to me the
experience happened to me
but by sharing it he was able to
sharpen my understanding of what god had
allowed me to experience
and he shed some light on something
that was a great blessing a great
blessing in my life
there's another minister in india very
anointed
uh he he's sharp sharp as sharp can be
in any time
i have talked with him about uh
supernatural encounters and experiences
particularly one that i had
that my wife was with me when it
happened and i shared
i shared with him what happened in this
vision because i had a i had an
encounter
with the prophet elijah in the spirit
realm
and when i shared with him about the
visionary experience about what took
place
he said oh this is what that means and i
thought
again i thought how come i didn't see
that now i should have known that
[Laughter]
oh but when you look at it from a
different angle which is what somebody
else will bring who's
who's got experience in that area trust
me you'll
you'll walk away like a sharp axe like a
sharp knife praise the lord and my
friends
you need people like that in your life
again that's proverbs
chapter 27 verse 17 as
iron sharpens iron or that of a similar
nature
a man or or another man talking a woman
or another woman uh having fellowship
and talking
so a man sharpens the countenance of his
friend
you get lit up why that's understanding
you know something
more fully than you did before praise
god it's a joyful
experience now the lord jesus
wants us to become sharp in every area
of our lives let's go today to the book
of ecclesiastes
and uh this really brings it out
very very clearly ecclesiastes chapter
10
and let's go down now to verse 9.
it says he who quarries stones
may be hurt by them well that's that's
certainly true and if you're working a
job like that i think
back in those days they were doing it
all in sandals
and there was no such thing as steel toe
boots
but you know i used to work at a machine
shop and one of the first things they
told me they said stephen
we've got a lot of heavy stuff in this
warehouse if anything ever
tilts or begins to fall do not try to
catch it
because you cannot hold up fourteen
thousand pounds you know
you have you have machines that weigh
sixty thousand pounds if they're getting
moved around on forklifts or things like
that these
super giant forklifts and stuff don't
don't try to
get in the way of it same thing at a
quarry you have these giant stones
they're being cut and they're being
broken loose and maybe you have them on
logs they're going to roll or
something starts rolling too fast just
get out of the way
and let it go praise the lord it is a
dangerous job
and so you always want to walk in wisdom
which would uh include
walking in safety protocol he who
quarries stones
may be hurt by them and
he who splits wood may be endangered
by it splitting of wood better watch out
it can be a dangerous situation
i'm not sure if some of you were aware
of this but back in the year
2003 for some strange reason
the head coach of an nfl football team
the
jacksonville jaguars he came up with
this
this model the theme for the team which
was you know supposed to be motivational
and it was supposed to be something that
motivated you to just
you know motivate the players just to
really keep at it so the theme was keep
on chopping
maybe you know where this is going it
wasn't good
well the coach had somebody get this big
old
uh oak wooden stump and put it right in
the locker room where all the
men would change at and then he had a
big old axe
put in there and the thing was you know
take a swing take a chop at it keep on
swinging
well um uh one of the
big linemen one of those big huge
linemen he said that he picked that axe
up
because a lot of the guys would do that
you know if you're going to put that in
the middle then you're going to have
guys are going to pick that axe up and
swing it hard as they can at that stump
especially when you got you got all that
strength and so this one of these
lightman said he picked that ax up
swung it as hard as he could and the axe
bounced off the side somehow and went
right by his leg full force full speed
and he said it missed his leg by like an
inch he's and he said it terrified him
he said i'm never touching this stupid
thing ever again
he said this is crazy we have this in
here
and he said that he said he said i could
have just
rammed that axe into my leg well
uh the next day that same
big giant lineman came into the locker
room and noticed that the
stump was gone the axe was gone and
there was
red stuff all over the floor and it was
blood so what had happened
earlier that morning the punter had come
in and he picked that ax up and he had
swung it as hard as he could too
just like some of the others did and it
bounced off the side
went through some of the wood on the
side and buried it right into
his leg so you know you have to be
careful
with these things you want to be sharp
but you have to be careful
with sharpness praise the lord now
he who splits wood may be endangered
by it absolutely um
when we operate in wisdom we have to
think
about what we do praise the lord we're
talking in essence here about an
axe but it's going to have much further
reaching
applications but since we are talking
about an ax
here's a story that would tie into this
today
this is second kings chapter 6
verse 5. well what had taken place
is that those in that minis ministry
school of the prophets had decided hey
let's build a bigger
school because we don't have enough room
so let's let's make a log cabin okay so
verse 5
but as one was cutting down a tree the
iron axe head
fell into the water and he cried out and
said alas master for it was borrowed
now we know that the prophet elisha is
going to come along
the gift of working of miracles will be
in manifestation and the iron accident
is going to float
and people get all excited about the
miracle well maybe we should also think
about
the fact that isn't it good that it fell
into the water uh instead of
flying into somebody's head because the
top of that
ax the blade the metal part flew off
the handle well that's not supposed to
happen pastor stephen
it's not but it's just good to check
things and it's good to be careful
because if you got a bunch of guys and
they're all chopping at the same time
and you know your guy just wears that
axe back and slings it down and suddenly
that blade
comes flying off i'm glad it went in the
water
and now at that time also it's not like
israel had a lot of weapons
uh they had been stripped of a lot of
their metal the access to
create weapons and things like that so
an axe was extremely
valuable so he got suddenly plunged into
debt
so god did a miracle through the prophet
he got bailed out but how about this how
about if we just act
a little more safely how about if in the
first place
we just walk in wisdom and we examine
things
uh and just take a look before we take
off and be
and make sure everything's the way it's
supposed to be praise the lord it only
takes a moment
but it could sure save a lot of pain a
lot of misery
here's an interesting uh verse
deuteronomy
chapter 22 verse eight we're talking
about wisdom we're talking about always
walking with a sharp axe you you have to
be sharp
you have to think there are a lot of
people they go through life
they have a brain just like you but they
they don't do a lot of thinking
there are people that cross streets they
don't even look
to see if something is coming they just
think it's going to stop they start
walking
you know a lot of people
their their lives have ended prematurely
because they just didn't look
well pastor stephen they have the right
of way yes they do
but you should use wisdom just to make
sure everything is
is operating the way that it should now
verse 8
when you build a new house and this
could apply
uh to some of you that want to have your
own home or build your
maybe build a new home make sure that
your architect is
familiar with this rule of thumb when
you build a new house
then you shall make a parapet for your
roof
that you may not bring guilt of
bloodshed on your household
if anyone falls from it now a parapet
would be like a little
gate or or a fence that in other words
if a child
goes up on your roof because most of the
roofs back in those days were flat
and you had these flat roofs and a lot
of times people would
sleep up there or they would go up there
for conversation
especially in the evening when the sun
went down you just went up on the top of
your roof
well the bible commands that if you're
going to do that there needs to be
in essence a guard rail some type of
rail to keep a young child
or to keep a person from falling over
the side
now you would always have those that
would say well you know if they follow
us their fault
they should have had better balance than
that they were but they should have
watched where they're going
but here god says if
a person has that second story or third
story or whatever
and it's not there's no railing they are
liable
they are responsible and and they are
at fault and so it's a commandment when
you build a new house then you shall
make a parapet
a guardrail for your roof that you may
not bring guilt to bloodshed on your
household if anyone falls from it trust
me
if you have a house like that and you
don't have a rail up trust me somebody
will fall
there there are just there's always
somebody out there
that's going to uh not notice or
or didn't see the sign or whatever so
you have to
make it as secure as possible so
that you just don't run into situations
where somebody falls off your roof
i you know i went to the drive-through
of a coffee place the other day
a lady made my coffee and handed it to
me and it's got
you know it's got the heat it's like the
cups they give you that are
designed for hot stuff and it's got the
sleeve on it
and it was still so scalding hot
that if i were to have drunk just an
ounce of it it
probably would have burnt the entire
lining of my mouth
and it must have been boiling
literally boiling when she put it in the
cup and handed it to me
well there have been lawsuits where
people were given hot coffee
and they spilled some on them and it was
so hot that it scorched them they got
third degree burns
and you know nobody is really out to sue
anybody although there are some people
like that that would be unbelievers
but um you just want to use wisdom and
uh
and i just i took that coffee it
literally took 20 minutes
just sitting until it could get down to
a temperature where i could actually
drink it and i like my coffee really hot
but i can't drink boiling
like coffee i mean who can right so
these are things that we have to walk
with the sharpness
and if you have employees then you have
to train them
you have to train them hey look that you
can't give people scalding
coffee like that mcdonald's has been
sued over things like that and they had
they had to pay out
the judge ruled why these things make
sense so many of the
the rules that we have the good ones at
least they are rooted in what they're
rooted immorality
and morality is rooted in the word of
god
now some people have said you can't
legislate morality but if you can't
legislate morality
what else do you have left to legislate
right
because these rules like
against stealing well why is it stealing
wrong well it's because we
have this commandment called the eighth
commandment you shall not
steal and so so much of our laws are
rooted in biblical principles but my
friends
you have to stay sharp you have to stay
sharp because life
has many dangerous things in it and you
have to be able to go through it
smoothly
praise the lord here's an example of
just
something that we need to be observant
on maybe particularly
especially in pentecostal churches acts
chapter 20.
how about this one acts chapter 20 verse
verse 7 praise the lord
now on the first day of the week when
the disciples came together to break
bread paul
ready to depart the next day spoke to
them
and continued his message until
midnight praise the lord you know when
when the anointing is flowing time does
fly by those of you under
understand that that when the when the
teaching is anointed and it's answering
questions that you desperately want to
know
it's not like you're just you're in
labor or toil to stay there
no you lose total track of time now
there were many lamps in the upper room
where they were
gathered together and yes we know they
didn't have electricity back there so
light some lamps and just keep on
teaching verse nine
in a window said a certain young man
named eutychus
you'll always have a eutychus in your
life
so be careful it could be a little child
it could be somebody that just you know
you have to watch out for uh be careful
uh so here's eutychus who was sinking
into a deep sleep
he was overcome by sleep and as paul
continued speaking
he fell down from the third story and
was taken
up dead oh now we get all excited about
the miracle how
paul he went down and fell on him and
embraced him and
uh basically the child was raised back
to life we get all excited about the
miracle
what about if we become more observant
now paul's carrying the message
paul he's he's in the anointing he's
ministering
but what about those who can give more
support
who can give another angle of wisdom and
what if somebody would have said
hang on just a minute paul i don't want
to stop your teaching this is so good
but let's take a break just for a moment
because utica is sitting over there in
the window now
they don't have window screens like we
do today
but even on modern day screens there's a
little
tag that says this will not support
your weight if you lean on it in other
words if you sit in the window
and there's even though there's a scream
you're gonna you're gonna fall right
through that screen and you're gonna go
straight down
so he's sitting there in that open
window on the third floor
somebody should have said paul love your
teaching hang on just a moment
let's get him out of the window that's
making me nervous
and it's making me nervous and i can't
focus because
he he looks like he's about to fall out
the backside well he did
he did so many of these things we can
see it
we can address it beforehand and then we
don't
find ourselves suddenly in this great
need because what happens
when there's not an apostle paul with
that miracle working anointing
they'll go down and raise him from the
dead and let's just get right back to
the teaching
okay so let's just uh let's stay sharp
and when you're walking with the lord
very prayerful
you're going to become uh more observant
to many things
i've been in in meetings in pentecostal
circles
where mainly in prophetic type churches
where for some reason people are really
into the flags
and during the praise and worship it's
not like they're going to take their
flags to the back
and praise the lord in the back they
want to go up to the front and they want
to swing those flags you know
multi-colored flags and
you know all kinds of decorated things
line of the tribe of judah and
all the names of god jehovah nissi
you've got all their banners and flags
and their
twirling flags and stuff like that
and i was in a meeting one time where
one of these guys uh
big old fella he had he had two flags
one in each hand
and at the end of each flag it was like
a poker
at the you know you got the flag in the
rod and the end of the rod was like a
real sharp poker on each side and he's
just
whirling those like a bull in a china
shop with all these little
kids four and five-year-old kids with
their little flags and
and i told i told the person that was um
uh in charge i said somebody needs to
get control of this because
you somebody can lose an eye just like
that get an eye gouged out in church
in church uh so that really needs to be
uh
there needs to be some order there yes
we're not trying to put burdens on
people if you want to worship the lord
yes but hey
we don't want somebody to lose an eye
it's not worth it
stranger things trust me have happened
praise the lord it's all fun right until
somebody gets hurt
so let's walk in wisdom let's be sharp
let's be sharp you could save somebody's
life
literally praise god thank you lord
jesus now
let's get back to ecclesiastes chapter
10. let me jump back over there
ecclesiastes chapter 10 and now let's
move down to verse 10.
if the ax is dull and
one does not sharpen the edge
then he must use more strength
well i want to ask you a question it's
the question they ask
all of the young boy scouts you know
like within the first three days of
joining the scouts
as they teach them about you know tools
of survival in the woods and the
things like that so here's the question
which is safer a dull knife
or a sharp knife which one is safer
and you know you ask all the little kids
that and all the hands go up and the
little kids say well the dull one
the one that's real dull that's safer
but that's not true
and they're taught why the sharper knife
is always
safer because if you're using a real
dull knife and you're trying to cut
something
now because it's so dull you got to pull
all of this extra exertion and strength
to try to push through it and that's
when
accidents happen if it's sharper it's
going to go through
easier and if you're sharp as a
christian you're going to go through
life a whole lot easier
these things are very very important
sharp
is safer and it's
wise very very wise to stay
sharp in your walk with the lord and i
want to say this
keep your prayer acts sharp
read books praise the lord that inspired
you to pray read books i love books
praise the lord
read books that inspire you to pray one
of the best books i ever got on prayer
as a young man i actually of all places
came across it in the grocery store
for whatever reason the grocery store
had this little rack little revolving
iraq and it had
christian books on it and there was a
book by dr paul youngi
cho and i believe he goes by david
yangicho now
the pastor in seoul south korea
who grew the largest church in the world
and so much of that growth and
multiplication
was through very very effective praying
himself and
the others who were really strong in
prayer and
books things like that what did they do
they sharpen you they'll make you sharp
and you may not be able to sit down and
talk with certain people i was in seoul
korea one time
and they said pastor stephen we would
love to take you to meet dr cho
i said well that would be wonderful but
some things happened and this happened
and uh
the schedule's you know so busy it never
took place
but uh i did read his books so i was
sharpened by his books
and you need to get books that will make
you sharp now let me say this
you cannot walk in wisdom if you don't
stay sharp
in prayer
a prayerless life will cause you to
become dull
to the things of god let's let's look at
that one more time
a prayerless life will cause you to
become
dull to the things of god
carrying a sharp axe is the same thing
as
walking with a strong prayer life and
this will allow you
to see things come together smoothly in
your life
without the struggle or anxiety that so
many even christians
endure because they're not sharp in the
spirit they're
they're letting their prayer lives down
and the next thing you know
they're getting hit with all the cares
and the worries of the world
and it gets them into anxiety and
anxiety
is a sign that you need to stop chopping
stop
chopping and go and sharpen your
axe the moment you realize we're dull
we need to stop see it says if the axe
is dull
and one does not sharpen the edge then
he must use more
strength so now you're into the human
equation now you're laboring
now you're toiling now you're moving
back under the adamic
situation of having to produce by the
sweat on your brow and all of that your
own
ingenuity but you're up against a lot of
other people that are willing to sweat
they've got they've got their ingenuity
but you want to be in the anointing
you want to move in the spirit you want
to be sharp
you want to be sharp why because that is
that relates to wisdom
and that brings success into your life
without having to go through
all of the crazy struggle so anytime
you sense anxiety endeavoring to touch
you
that is a sign that you need to stop
chopping and go
and sharpen your axe pastor stephen how
do i sharpen
my acts we see it very clearly in the
book of philippians chapter four
verse six through seven i really like
this let's take a look at it
and does this ever work this is what
will keep you this will get you sharp
and this will keep you sharp praise god
philippians 4 verse 6 be anxious
for nothing but in everything by prayer
and supplication
and supplication is making certain
requests
it's making petitions to god of certain
things that you desire or need
be anxious for nothing but in everything
by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known to god
and the peace of god which surpasses all
understanding regard your hearts and
minds through christ
jesus so when you sharpen your axe
when you go before the lord in prayer
the
prayer shield goes up the guard goes up
around your heart
and your mind and you stay in peace in a
world
that is very troubled it is amazing how
many people in
america are on drugs to deal with their
anxiety issues
because life throws them these
curveballs or these difficulties that
they find very hard to handle but my
friends we as christians can walk in a
higher wisdom
we walk in the wisdom of god we walk in
the word of god
and we also walk in prayer because the
prayer
is the anointing that brings all of that
wisdom to life
and it it just causes things to come
together
smoothly hallelujah without struggle
you slice right through it you split the
wood in half
praise god thank you lord jesus yes
my friends working with an ax can have
its certain inherent dangers but the
main thing is
is that as you go through life go
through life
sharp as sharp as you can possibly be
and you're going to have such better
success things will go so
much smoother for you and this the
smoother it is the faster it is and the
further you'll get
and the better progress you'll make and
you'll accomplish
what god has called you to do so let's
look at that key verse one more time
back in ecclesiastes praise the lord
this would be chapter
10 verse 10. if the acts is dull
and one does not sharpen the edge then
he must
use more strength but wisdom brings
success so use wisdom stop chopping
and go sharpen up praise the lord
and then when you're sharp you can
sharpen
others praise the lord heavenly father i
pray for your people as you're watching
today
if there be any type of a thud on the
axe and it doesn't
have that bite if it doesn't have that
sharp edge let them go
and make themselves sharp by being in
your presence
by uh inviting wise counsel
into their lives and we thank you father
god for
them walking continually i see you
walking continually
with a very very sharp edge praise you o
god thank you father
bless your people in jesus name amen
i see the file coming out sharpening
sharpening
sharpening whoo hallelujah glory to god
you know when that professional knife
person finished
sharpening my knife he took a piece of
paper and went and just cut right
through it
praise the lord i see you so sharp
hallelujah
now if you're watching today and you
don't know christ as your lord and save
and savior being spiritually
sharp and alert all begins with the
initial
salvation experience and you build from
there
so if you would like to receive the
eternal life
and forgiveness of sins that christ
offers to you
pray right now pray this prayer after me
say lord jesus
you died to save sinners and i'm a
sinner
but jesus i turn from my sin
and i turn to you jesus
save me now wash all
of my sins away write my name
in your book of life thank you jesus for
saving me
and help me to stay sharp all the days
of my life
as i walk with you in your name i pray
amen and amen
praise the lord now let's take holy
communion
[Music]
if you haven't taken communion in quite
some time
you need to do that if you're going six
months or a year
or months and months with no communion
you'll lose an element of sharpness so
keep the whole blade sharp
make sure that you take it often praise
the lord let's take it right now
grab some unleavened bread and some
grape juice
and let's pray over it praise the lord
hallelujah father we thank you for the
bread
and the juice we bless it and
right now we set it apart we consecrate
it as holy
we thank you that this is the body of
jesus and this is the blood of jesus
thank you father god we give you praise
father as we receive the body
of christ we thank you that in many ways
our walk with you is like an axe so oh
god let us be
sharp let us be sharp thank you let us
not try to force things because we are
dull
let us be sharp so that we can go right
through
thank you father we receive the body of
jesus in faith
in his name we pray amen let's receive
together
wisdom brings success
and i prophesy over you that this will
be the most successful year
you've ever had in your life why
because you're walking in greater
dimensions of wisdom
than you've ever had before and you are
pouring the oil of the spirit
upon your walk with god through prayer
therefore i prophesy to you that this
will be the most successful year
you have ever had in your life
because you're sharper than ever before
now for some of you i sense a little bit
of divine frustration because you feel
like pastor stephen i don't have anybody
to talk to i don't have another
iron sharpened iron experience the lord
will bring you that person
hallelujah now if you're married it will
not be somebody
uh of the different sex in other words
if you're
if you're a woman and you're married to
your husband he's not going to bring you
another man to start
having these close talks you understand
that but the lord ladies the lord
can bring another lady into your life
that loves the lord also
that you can have that that spiritual
friendship
with praise the lord and men
god will bring christian fellowship into
your life
for the deeper life if you desire that
he will bring those in
that can run with you as you run he'll
bring those that are also running
into your life i since some of you have
you you
you haven't had that but if you'll seek
god for it he will give you
those valuable friendships so you can
know thousands of people
but the friendships those that you can
really open these things up and talk
about and
run praise god those are very very
valuable and you guard them
you guard them very carefully praise the
lord
now father we thank you for the blood of
jesus
we ask that if we have committed any
sins that you would wash them all away
we thank you father that our sins and
our iniquities
you remember no more you washed them all
away
we thank you father god we pray that you
would deliver us from the evil one and
keep us safe from him
and we thank you for your angels
protecting us and shielding us
we thank you o god hallelujah father we
thank you for the illumination of wisdom
thank you father god thank you for
friends that walk
in wisdom he who walks with the wise
will become wise we thank you father god
for selective
relationships father we give you praise
we thank you
in jesus name we pray
amen let's receive
praise god now once your axe
is all sharpened up and this is it's as
sharp as it could be
then you're faced with the challenge of
staying sharp
stained sharp glory to god and i see you
committed to that walk may the lord
bless you
and keep you i'll see you back next time
bye bye