REGAINING YOUR CUTTING EDGE
2 Kgs. 6:1-7
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A police officer saw a man dressed as a cowboy in the street, complete with huge stetson hat, spurs, and six shooters.
"Excuse me, sir," said the police officer, "who are you?"
"My name's Tex, officer," said the cowboy.
2. "Eh?" said the police officer, "Are you from Texas?"
"Nope, Louisiana." "Louisiana? So why are you called Tex?"
3. "Don't want to be called Louise, do I?”
B. TEXT
The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet.” And he said, “Go.”
3 Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?” “I will,” Elisha replied. 4 And he went with them. They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!” 6 The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. 7 “Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.” 2 Kgs. 6:1-7
C. THESIS
1. THREE QUOTES:
a. “There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” Pres. John F. Kennedy.
b. “In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” Max Dupree,
c. “Unless you do something beyond what you’ve already mastered, you will never grow.” Ron Osborne.
2. In this morning’s text, we’re going to see a man who got a revelation of how serious it was to be too limited and to lose your only way to grow!
3. The title of this message is “Regaining Your Cutting Edge.”
I. TOO SMALL
A. RECOGNIZING OUR SMALLNESS, SPIRITUALLY
1. In this portion of text is found what must become your anthem and heart’s cry and our life as a church. APATHY is a force which tries to seep into churches and make us comfortable, complacent and satisfied. We wouldn’t be the first church and group of people to succumb to this sickness.
2. The cry that parted the lips of this young man must become our constant, daily, weekly cry. It should be our cry individually and corporately.
3. The sons of the prophets made a statement that was literal for them but must become a spiritual statement for us. They approach Elisha and state, “The place where we are living is too limited for us.”
4. This statement has implications for us personally: the place where some of you have been living spiritually is too limited. Most American Christians spend:
a. about 2 minutes in prayer each day b. Too little time in the house of God
c. Too little time in the Word of God. d. Think that fasting one meal occasionally will bring them breakthrough in an area of their lives.
5. It is time to realize that the place where you have been living, where you have been abiding and spending your time is too limited. Touch your neighbor and say, “I need some room”.
B. IDENTIFYING THE SIZE OF THE PLACE YOU OCCUPY.
We know we are living in a small place when:
1. You're not expecting God to set up divine appointments during your day,
2. You're not prepared to pray for people who have needs,
3. You don't expect to be tested in your Christianity,
4. You're concentrating on your own needs and not the needs of others,
5. You're worried about building your own kingdom but not about building God's kingdom.
6. Touch a neighbor and say, “This place is too small for me.”
C. WHAT THE WORD TELLS US
1. The Word tells us that we are commissioned to: a. grow and mature,
b. move from glory to glory, precept to precept, c. move from milk to meat,
d. to press onward and upward.
2. We were never called to grow comfortable, stagnant, stationary, a monument. We are told to expand and lengthen the lines. And as much as I know you would like to stay with what you know best and what you grew up with you cannot grow if you stay in the same place and do the same things you have always done. You can never take it to the next level if you continue to stay in the small place. You must come to the place where you realize where you are living is too small. There is more out there. There is room to grow.
3. Touch a neighbor and say, “Give me some room.”
D. SUMMARY & CHALLENGE
1. If you try to live in too small of a place it will cause you to die. You may think you have everything that you need -- the right friends, the right job, and the right material goods but unless you live in a place where you can grow you are destined to die.
2. Some of you that you have been the big fish in the little pond long enough; It is time to find a place to grow.
3. I am calling for you to stand up and proclaim: “Excuse me but I need some room. I refuse to die. I refuse to accept mediocrity. I refuse to stay like I have always been. I refuse to fight the same sin and temptation for the rest of my life. I refuse to be comfortable and just eat and go home. I refuse to stay in a small place. I need some room.”
II. THE DISTRESS OF THE WOOD MAN
He lost the most important thing he had to work with – the axhead, the cutting edge.
A. WHAT IS A “CUTTING EDGE”? (phrase)
1. This is a phrase that’s often used in fashion, technology, scientific discoveries and application, the latest innovation, etc. People want to have the newest and latest.
2. If a person is said to be “on the cutting edge,” they’re…
a. pioneering b. up to date
c. leading the pack d. covering new ground
They’re the thinkers, the movers and shakers, the entrepreneurs, they make things happen.
3. In spiritual things, it means being…
a. sensitive to the Holy Spirit;
b. Attuned to God (David, a man after God’s heart);
c. In the center of God’s will;
d. To be about the Master’s business.
e. 1 Chron. 12:32; “Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.”
B. AREAS WHERE THE 20TH CENTURY CHURCH HAS LOST ITS CUTTING EDGE, lost its prophetic voice.
1. ANOINTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. When you’re full of God, your words have power to convict.
a. When Peter, on the Day of Pentecost, spoke to the Israelites (Acts 2:37), “They were pricked in the heart” (Gr. Says “stabbed, pierced through”).
b. When Peter spoke to the Sanhedrin (Acts 5:33), they were “cut to the heart” (Gr. Dieprionto, “sawn asunder” or ‘cut to the quick’).
c. When Stephen confronted the Jewish leaders (Acts 7:54) they were “cut to the heart” (Gr. “Sawn in two”). It’s obvious in these three examples, the anointing on them had a ‘cutting edge.’
2. DIFFERENT THAN OUR CULTURE. You’re the Salt/ the Light of the World. If the salt has lost its savor, it’s no good for anything, but to be thrown out! That keen edge must be maintained.
3. REBUKING SIN. We’re to love sinners, but there’s a place for rebuking sin. There must be confrontation. Two opposing kingdoms can’t co-exist without confrontation.
4. BE NOT CONFORMED
C. IT WAS BORROWED
1. What does the loss of the cutting edge have to do with needing to grow? The point is –get this – the young man was totally dependent on someone else’s edge to remove the obstacle to his growth.
2. YOU’VE BEEN DEPENDING ON a). mama’s and grandma’s prayers long enough….b). you have been letting others dig truth and life out of God’s Word for you long enough. You can no longer depend on someone else’s edge to remove the obstacles to your growth.
3. You can’t depend on me to break your bondage. You got to get your own edge. The Word declares that you are an overcomer, not that Pastor John is the over comer for you.
4. You have got to get in the quiet place and sharpen your own edge. You must get the power to remove your own obstacles.
5. TD JAKES tells the story about a young man who came to him and asked, “Would you pray for me that I will have the same anointing you have?” T. D. Jakes began to pray for failure, pain, and trouble to come into the young man’s life. The young guy said, “Stop! Why are you praying such terrible things over me?” T. D. Jakes answered, “You can’t have the anointing I have without going through what I have been through.”
6. There’s no substitute for touching God yourself. The 7 Sons of Sceva found out what happens when you try to use someone else’s anointing. They were exposed for a fraud.
7. “I have some habits and if I could just get the prayer team to anoint me I could quit.” But the bottom line is the Word says for you to take every thought captive and to present your body a living sacrifice.
D. HE’D LOST HIS – HAVE YOU?
1. Much of the Christian Church around us has lost its spiritual cutting edge.
2. A dull blade isn’t good for anything:
a. If a razor, you can’t shave with it.
b. If a knife, you can’t cut with it.
c. If an ax, you can’t chop with it.
3. Where are the signs you’re still walking with God? Where are the healings? The conversions? The baptisms in the Spirit? Are you really walking with the Lord?
III. RESTORATION OF THE AXHEAD
A. SUPERNATURAL AID
1. “The iron floated” vs. 6. Not because the iron’s properties were changed, but because gravity was overcome. GOD HAS HELP FOR HIS CHURCH!
2. Up to this point – no supernatural, though Elisha was present. They travelled there, cut down timber, carried the beams to the new location to assembly a new school – all by natural skill and force.
3. But when needed, supernatural aid was provided.
B. THROUGH A ‘TYPE’ OF REDEMPTION
1. Iron was commonly used as a “weight” for fishing nets, etc. Heb. 12:1 “lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us.” Linked to sin.
2. Elisha cut down and cast in a stick (cross) into the water with the axhead. [Same with Moses at Mara – bitter waters healed by the stick.]
3. The stick (cross) causes the iron (sins)to lose their power to “weigh down.” The STICK is a symbol of redemption!
4. Though Elisha caused the axhead to float, he required the man to “take up his own axhead!”
C. IT’S TIME FOR A DECISION
A reporter from Newsweek magazine once asked Bob Kuechenber, formerly of the Miami Dolphins, what motivated him to go to college. Kuechenber replied, “Well, my father and uncle were human cannonballs in carnivals. When I was about to graduate from High School, my dad said I could do two things with my life: ‘Go to college OR be a cannonball.’ Not too long after that my uncle was performing at a circus. When he was fired out of the cannon, he missed the net and hit the ferris wheel. I decided to go to college.”
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A.J. Gordon visited the World’s Fair in Chicago and saw, in the distance, a man in bright gypsy clothes operating a large hand pump. He was impressed with the man’s energy, his smooth motions, and his obvious physical conditioning. He was pumping a tremendous amount of water.
2. Getting closer, Gordon was surprised to discover the man was actually made of wood. Instead of turning the crank and making the water flow, the flowing water was actually turning the crank and thereby moving the man!
3. That’s the way it is with those in God’s service. It’s not our efforts for Him that achieve the results. The flowing water of the Holy Spirit, channeled through our lives and lips, keeps us going and yields infinite results! [Nelson’s Complete, pp. 441-441].
B. GET BIGGER
1. Sir Edmund Hillary, who attempted to scale Mount Everest, lost one of the members of his team in the failed effort. He returned to a hero’s welcome in London, England, where a banquet held in his honor was attended by the lords and ladies and powerful people of the British Empire. Behind the speakers’ platform were huge blown up photographs of Mount Everest.
2. When Hillary arose to receive the acclaim of the distinguished audience, he turned around and faced the mountain and said, "Mount Everest, you have defeated me. But I will return. And I will defeat you. Because you can’t get any bigger and I can."
C. THE CALL
1. Repent of mediocrity and pray for a new vision of growth and usefulness.
2. Salvation.
