"Friends Sharpen Friends"
(Originally preached by Frank Lewis, FBC Nashville, TN)
March 16, 2003 Chester’s FBC, Chester, IL Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Items needed: Anvil, Blacksmith’s Hammer, Sheep Sheers, Steele, Knife, piece of metal, channel locks, metal file/rasp, table for props.
Introduction:
A Pick up metal, hammer and hit it on anvil
HIT "As iron sharpens iron" HIT "so one man" HIT "sharpens another"
a Centuries before the birth of Christ, Solomon gathered the wisdom sayings that make up the Book of Proverbs and one of those sayings is "Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend."
b The original reader knew exactly what Solomon meant.
B In the ANE the town blacksmith was one of the most important individuals in the town. (Worked with metal, fire, smoke)
a He was a potter, weaver, carpenter, fix-it man!
*Every year you would take your plows and axe heads to the smitty to get you hooked up!
*The knew the sounds and smells of the blacksmith shop.
b They knew exactly what Solomon meant when he said, "Iron sharpens iron."
C They had also seen friends "sharpen" each other.
a Seen friendships forged out of many experiences.
(Stories turn to laughter, forged out of hardships/difficulties. Friends don’t let each other down, face challenge together.)
b God has given us friendships as gifts. (Like any gift God gives us, we must use it to its fullest.)
T.S. It’s easier to remember to sharpen knives/lawn mower blades than it is to remember to sharpen each other. This morning we’re going to look at two friendship facts that can help us sharpen one another as friends.
I The first friendship fact is that developing friendships are crucial in life.
A Jackie Robinson was the first black player in major league baseball.
a By breaking the color barrier, he faced jeering crowds in every stadium he played at. (While playing in his home stadium in Brooklyn, he committed an error. He stood on second base, humiliated as the crowed booed.)
b Then, shortstop Pew Wee Reese came over and stood next to him. He put his arm around Jackie Robins and faced the crowd.
*The crowed grew quiet. Robinson later said that arm around his shoulder saved his career.
* "YOUR FACE MIRRORS YOUR HEART You use steel to sharpen steel, and one friend sharpens another." Prov. 27:27 The Message
B We get word "face" from the Hebrew word "paniym" and it has several shades of meaning.
1 Paniyms first meaning is....How a person looks.
*If your in pain, sad, happy, joyful....it shows up on your face.
*Good friendships help us look better. (If you want to have better looks, choose better friends.)
2 Paniyms second meaning is...How a person looks at things.
*friends help us see a clearer perspective in issues that may concern/confuse us.
*Have you ever become oblivious to the obvious? Friends help you see what’s in front of your face.
3 Paniyms third meaning is...That which goes in front of.
*In hard times, difficult decisions, even in personal failures, friends help us see out in front of them/beyond them.
*Help us see the hope in a better tomorrow.
*Friends see what you think can’t be done and help you believe that it can be done and you can do it!
*friendships are crucial in life
C Paul told his young apprentice Timothy in a letter (2 Tim. 2:22)
22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace,....
*Great advice by itself...but that’s not all the verse!
......along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
a Paul is telling Timothy to be careful how his friends are. Why?
*They are either going to led you to or from temptation.
*They are either going to led you to or from righteousness.
*They are either going to led you to or from faith.....love....peace....
*They (friends) will either make you spiritually sharp or spiritually smooth.
b Your choice of friends is crucial.
*Who are your friends these days? (Monica, Rachel, Phebie? Joey, Ross, Chandler? Simon, Paula and Randy?)
*We adjust our schedules to be with them, set our VCR’s if we can’t be with them. In the process we grow spiritually dull!
*If we fail to choice our friends wisely were are left with dull marriages, dull relationships with our kids or even a dull sense of intamacey with our heavenly father. ALL THIS COMES BY CHOOSING THE WRONG FRIENDS.
T.S.: Not only is choosing the right friends critical in life, so is this next friendship fact.
II The second friendship fact is that your choice to be friend is critical.
(There are people who are around you, in your sphere of influence, who need a friend.)
Let me show you what I mean with these common items found in a blacksmiths shop.
A Take the knife (say: God has put someone in your sphere of influence) Take the steele (This is you) *Run the knife up and down the steele for a few moments.
*This is the sound of friendship!
a Through out the last five years of my ministry I’ve had a mentor (Dr. Palmer), he’s helped me, guided me, influenced me in my ministry since I’ve been at FBC. I’ve rubbed up against him and he’s made me sharper.
b Some of you been like this knife, you’ve been dull and needed someone (Maturity/character) to rub against for a while. (That was friendship)
*Some of you need to become like this steele. You’ve sharped someone around you in the past. There is someone around you who needs to be sharpened today.
B Take out the file and run it across the piece of steel. (That’s the sound of friendship.) (The file and steele have similar jobs, but the files job is rougher)
a We all have our rough edges, in God’s wisdom, He allows people tocome into our lives who serve as the file to smooth away the rough spots that emerge due to pride and ego.
b These people love us, but the have the gift of confrontation and their not afraid to use it.
*I don’t always enjoy the confrontation, but I’ve grown to appreciate the work that God does through them in my life!
C Take out sheep sheers and squeeze them together. *This is the sound of friendship.
a A shepherd holds the sheep in one hand and the sheers in the other, carefully cutting the wool off the sheep.
*Sheers are made by joining two blades together with rivets. (You’ve got to have both blades working together.)
b You can’t shear a sheep with one blade. You can kill the sheep with only one blade, but you can’t shear it. (As the blades move against one another, they sharpen each other.)
*The lesson this teaches us is that we can’t do this thing alone. WE need each other!
(These shears can represent a Sunday School class, church, marriage.)
*Together Everyone Accomplishes More!!! T.E.A.M
D The last object that I’ll use to teach about friendship is the anvil.
a The anvil hasn’t changes in thousands of years. The smitty would heat the object he was working in the fire until it was white-hot. Then, he would place it on the anvil and strike it with the hammer over and over again. When necessary, he would heat it again in the fire and repeat the process-from the fire to the hammer, the fire to the hammer, again and again-until the object was perfected.
b You are not the fire or the hammer as a friend. (The world will hammer you and you’ll go through the fire. You need a friend who will be as steady as the anvil.
*God uses the fiery trials and the hammering struggles we go through in this life to perfect our character.
*He also uses friends who are willing to come along side us, supporting us, encouraging us in difficult times. Being a friend means that we are going to remain loyal in tough times.
CONCLUSION:
"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Friends can bring out the best in each other. (ESS)
1 We’ve looked two friendship facts that help us do just that.
A The first friendship fact is that developing friendships are crucial in life.
B The second friendship fact is that your choice to be friend is critical.
2 I hope you’ll decide to use the friendship facts to develop spiritually sharping relationships. (Objective)
3 How are you doing in your friendships?
A business partner became very upset when he realized he was carrying more than half the work load. To vent some frustration he sought the counsel of a friend. Over lunch, the hardworking man shared his grievance. Quietly and patiently the friend heard out this distraught worker. He then reached for a glass of water and shared a significant truth. "Water is the foundation of life. All the planets we know about are barren, because they don’t have water. For water to exist there must be teamwork, but that teamwork isn’t mutually equal. Water is made up of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen, H20. Hydrogen has to work twice as hard as oxygen. If a business (marriage, friendship, or church) is to thrive, we must be willing to sometimes work twice as hard as others."
It has been said that friendship between two persons depends upon the patience of one. As you reflect upon your friendships, does it require greater patience on the part of others? True friendship shares this responsibility and forgets when patience was exercised on behalf of others but keeps a steady check on how often others need to display their patience.
***Notice: I have used Sermon Central sermons for a VERY long time. If this or any of my sermons are similar to a sermon that is already on Sermon Central by another pastor or teacher....chances are I have used it. Actually, there is probably absolutely nothing in this sermon that hasn’t been preached before! If I used your sermon and haven’t given you credit, please write me and I’ll give you credit by name. I have in no way intentionally withheld credit to any work I’ve used/borrowed from. PLEASE NOTE THAT IF I HAVE "USED" YOUR WORK IT WAS BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU HAD A SUPER SERMON! I prefer to preach with an outline and just rearranged your sermon. My intent is to make sermons relevant and easy for outline guys to use. If you use MY work, feel free to claim it. I do not care!! Simply realize that I have borrowed from other preachers, too.
Mike Fogerson, Pastor, Chester’s First Baptist Church
