Let Freedom Ring IV, When You've Lost Your Cutting Edge

Smell of carbon monoxide. Well, I wanted you to see this morning. It's Carol's tractor. No, it is. I mean, I've had many of you call the office and want to speak to another because you were driving around my house seeing my wife cutting the grass. I'm wondering whether I'm abusing her somehow. How many, how many wives like to get out and just get their hands on a piece of equipment and drive? Look at that. See that, man? We've had this all wrong. Anyhow, last spring, when things are really getting thick and heavy, I asked Carol just for one opportunity on the tractor. Can I just borrow your tractor? I want to get out there and just feel it, you know. Now, when Carol goes to cut the grass, it's like it's an escape thing, you know. She just, she gets relaxed. She has no big pace to keep and so on. She just enjoys the smell of the fresh cut grass and the, you know, the nature and the sounds. When I, my turn comes up, I mean, I like, I have a mission. I try to break my previous record to see if I can cut it, you know, in one minute less. And I think my record for my half acre of grass is 47 minutes and that's really sick, isn't it? I mean, that's just the way it goes. But, so I climb on the tractor, you know, and I know where all the settings are and I've got, you know, the right blade height and, you know, the right speed. We have that little, I mean, this tractor's got, you see the three settings there. There's the turtle and the blade and, you know, where I put it. I put it up there by the rabbits. I mean, I'm just, I go as fast as I can without bogging it down, right, Pastor Scott. You know what this is about. So I'm hopping on the tractor and I start this, I've got the thing patterned out to go around concentric circles and close in on it. And every once in a while, you know, you listen. I had the headphones on, listen to praise music, of course. And I could, I can hear when the grass is catching up in the blades and I have to stop. That's really a pain. But I wasn't hearing any of that and I was tapping it back here. This is how you feel if the bags are filling up with grass. Probably about my third time around, I'm realizing, boy, these bags are not filling up. Something's not happening here. I stopped the tractor, turned around and looked, and I could see where the tread marks were three times. And I could see the grass kind of laying over on its side. But I hadn't cut any of it. It wasn't cutting. The bag wasn't filling up. And here I was, thinking I was really tooling along. I was just setting a new world's record for cutting my half acre of grass. And all I was really doing was using up a lot of fuel, making a lot of noise, and being kind of dumb. And I was preparing this message earlier this week, the thought came to me, that is a perfect analogy of what I want to talk about today. What happens when you lose your cutting edge? Many of us run our lives just like I ran that tractor that day. See what had happened? Unbeknownst to me, somebody had run over the metal stake in the ground where the dog's leash is the week before. I confess, she reminded me that I had done that. And I had not gotten the blade sharpened. It was just totally kind of skewed and ineffective. And you see, I'm going to talk today about what happens in our lives when we lose our cutting edge. Because we can go through the motions, and we can go as fast as we think we could possibly go. And you know what? We can end up just driving over things and not making any difference at all. Would you pray with me and ask the Lord to open our hearts today to hear what he has to say. Lord, take your word, I pray, the word that you breathed to your prophets long ago, and help them to make sense to us. And Lord, to have application to change our lives today, that we might be, Lord, sharp tools in your hands. That we might make a difference in the world in which we live. And we thank you in advance for what you're going to do in Jesus name. What do you do when you feel like you've lost your closeness with God? What do you do when things are kind of dry? When prayers seem empty, and nothing seems to be getting through? David felt that way. Look at the verse on the top of the outline. If you haven't taken out your outline, take it out now please. It says, Oh God, do not be so distant from me. Even the great King David, had times when he didn't feel close to God. And I know, listen friends, I don't need to go on. I know today I'm talking to probably several hundred of you. Who, if we had a one-on-one conversation, and you were willing to be transparent, you'd say, I don't feel very close to God. And I want to share with you, I have had those feelings. Now, we don't lose our salvation in these times. Those who have come to know the joy of Christ's presence on our lives, we don't lose our salvation, but we do lose the ability to make a difference. We do lose the joy and the enthusiasm. We do lose the sense of spontaneity of being on an adventure with God. Routine replaces expectation. Things become dull. God may even become dull. And this is particularly true, I find, with men. Men get into a long funk with God. They get down with Him. Evangelist Steve Hill wrote this, Americans of the 21st century, men see if you relate, they're enthralled by entertainment. We just can't get enough of it. The reason we're bored stiff. Why? Because we lack adventure in our lives. Boredom occurs inside the church as well as in the larger culture. In fact, boredom is one of the church's biggest problems. Christians, especially men, he writes, were never designed to be satisfied with the three-point sermon that gets you through the week. We were created to abandon ourselves recklessly to a God who wants to do astonishing things with our lives. Man, I want to be part of something astonishing, don't you? I want my life to count. Men, are you with me on that? I don't want to get to the, are you with me? I don't want to get to 70 or 80 or 90 and look back and say, well, you know, I did my best. Rest in peace and nothing really happened. In fact, if you're called to this church, you know that I routinely join with you in saying, what's the next thing God's going to have us to do that's going to make a difference? Because I don't believe we've begun. We just touched the very tip of the iceberg of our potential as a church. And men, we have got to lead the way in that. And women, you as well. You want to have a passion for God that just doesn't, you know, roll over and just extinguish itself just because you face some adversity. This is a time, listen, though things are difficult on the outside, it's a time when I sense God wants to move on in the inside and do some mighty things. Part of me is torn up inside because I see the fear and I sense the hesitation in people. I see people withdrawing. And the other side of me is expecting because it's often in the darkest times that God is preparing to do his greatest work. So I believe he's about to move. But loved ones, we have to be ready for it. We have to be prepared. And so the story that God led me to this week is found in 2 Kings. It's sort of an obscure parable. In fact, when I brought it up at staff meeting the other day, pastoral staff meeting, a couple of pastors were not sure they remember where that was. It isn't very frequently read, but let's look at it. It's in 2 Kings 6. And if you don't have it right there at your fingertips, would you look up here on the screen? We'll read it together. It's the story of the floating axe head. A very weird story. The company of the prophets said to Elisha, Elisha was the head prophet of those days, look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole and let us build a place there for us. This is an interesting 3,000 years ago. They had building programs. Hadn't stopped. And he said go. He told him to go ahead. Then one of them said, well, won't you please come with your servants? I will, Elisha replied. And he went with them. They went to the Jordan, that's the Jordan River area, and began to cut down trees. As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axe head fell into the water. Oh my Lord, he cried out, it was borrowed. The man of God asked, where did it fall? And when he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there and made the iron float. Fourth graders, does iron usually float? Nope. This is a miracle. Lift it out, he said. And then the man reached out his hand and took it. Now remember, every miracle in the Bible is also a parable. I believe this happened, and I'll tell you why a little bit later. But I also believe it was given not for us to try to recreate it, but for us to learn from what God would speak to us of the principles that are in these simple scriptures. And so let's look at this together, and let's discern what to do when we've lost our cutting edge. And by the way, this was a big deal back then. Peter, let me just to give a reinforcement of this. Here's just a regular old axe, okay? I guess this is probably what's got it. This is like a tempered steel kind of thing. This isn't real iron, is it? Iron would be a little bulkier. Iron in those days was quite rare. And so when they were working on cutting down those trees, and that thing fell into the water, it was bad news. I mean, they didn't have a whole lot of these laying around. That's the real thing, okay? It's a nasty looking thing. You could really do some serious work with this. But it fell in the water. It was gone. What's the first thing you got to do when you lose your cutting edge? And by the way, the axe head stands for the power to get the job done. That's what it stands for. That's the symbol. It's spiritual power in your life. That's the symbolism that's there. Okay? Do you have spiritual power in your life? Are you making a difference? Are you cutting through the stuff that's in your way to get through to God? Are you making a difference in other people when God wants you to step up to the plate? Is God using you to touch other lives, maybe directly or indirectly? Do you sense that you're in the sweet spot of God's purpose, making a difference? If not, you may have lost your cutting edge. What's the first thing you need to do? You need to admit it. Go ahead and write that down in your outline. You've got to admit it. Admit that you've lost it. Stop living in denial, thinking things are great, and just face the reality that you must have lost your cutting edge. You're not as close to God as you used to be, and you're not making a difference the way you know you want to be. In 2nd Kings 6.5, the prophet said, what should I do, sir? He admitted it. When he lost his axe head, which represented his power, his ability to get the job done, he said, Elisha, what should I do? I've seen people do two things when they lose their spiritual power. Here's what I see. Sometimes they use it as an excuse just to stop being available to God. They just pull back. They don't get involved. They say, you know what? I've been serving here for a while. I'll let someone else step up. Now, let me be real clear about this, folks. There is a time when you should take rest. Sabbaticals are appropriate. Time to recharge. Everyone needs that, but not when you lose your cutting edge. Should you make that an excuse to pull back and let someone else step up? I'm concerned with some people who feel like, well, you know, I did my part, and I'm just going to come, and they don't. What they've done is, they're rationalizing their own spiritual condition rather than asking God what they should do to change. This prophet didn't do that. He said, sir, what should I do? The other thing that I see people do is this. I see people, when they lose their cutting edge spiritually, they just keep right on going. Thanks, Peter. Here's an axe handle without the axe head, and there are people who lose their sensitivity to God, people who lose their sense of care, their sense of compassion, their sense of hearing God's voice, and they just keep right on going. You know, they just keep right on, I mean, I'm just going to keep, I'll keep cranking away. Now, let me ask you a question. I don't have that other one again, Pete. If I went out and tried to chop one of the four remaining trees in our property, how long would it take me with something like this? Assuming, well, let's say Peter did. It'd probably take him maybe, what, 15, 20 minutes to chop a whole tree down. But how about this? He'd be whacking away for a long time. Do you see my point? There's a clear point here, and the point is this. Some people, at a point in their life, are close to God, and they know the Lord's touching them, and they know His presence. They lose that for reasons we're going to talk about. They lose their edge, and they just keep right on going as if nothing happened. They just keep pretending, and it's a very sad thing. You know, it's like Samson, who woke up after the fourth time of being captured by his enemies, and he just kept waking up and breaking off the bonds, and finally, the fourth time, he woke up. He said, I'm going to do it again, and they cut his hair off, which was the symbol of his power, and he woke, and he went like this, and the chains held him, and he didn't understand it, and he kept doing that. Folks, hear what I'm saying. Here at North Way Christian Community, I believe that God has brought us to a time like this, to be used by His Spirit to a culture who needs to hear of God's love and purpose, but if we've lost our cutting edge, we won't be able to fulfill our destiny, and we can't just keep on banging the stick as if it doesn't matter, because it matters enormously. How many of us want to be close enough to God to know that He's leading us, to know what He is saying for us to do? See, what we end up doing, here's a couple of symptoms, if you want to know if you've lost your cutting edge, number one, your love begins to grow cool. Let me just say this, if you could just sing a song like Awesome God, and nothing happens in you, and you just go, I got to tell you, wake up. You're in more trouble than you think. Your love's growing colder. People come in, and they rate the services. Well, you know, music this week, it was better a couple weeks ago, I thought, give it like a five. Oh, the sermon, eh, wasn't for me today, give it a four. Oh, you know, I had a hard time getting out of the parking lot, that really bothered me, give them a two there, and on they go, and you know what, folks, if you move from just being a participant and engaging, and you start evaluating and spectating, can I tell you something? You're losing your cutting edge, and if you keep going down that trail, you'll one day walk in here and just wonder, what's the difference, and pretty soon the next step is you won't walk in at all, and you won't walk in the other church and find it either, because it's not about the church, it's about what God has to do in each of our hearts to keep us soft before him. The second indication that I see in people who are losing their cutting edge is that their faith begins to shrivel up. What they used to be able to believe God for, which was significance and power, they can't sense anymore. They don't know what they're supposed to do. They start to dry up on the inside, and you know what, I just don't know. I can't, don't ask me to be involved anymore, because I just don't have any real, I can't, you know, I don't know what difference I can make. They stop taking risks. They stop vision casting and imagining. They lose the desire to make a difference. They prefer the predictable, the ho-hum, the low risk, low return option to that of being on the edge for God, and Jesus makes it really clear when he calls it in Revelations, the danger of becoming lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. Lukewarm, you should beware of that. It's a dangerous way to be. Now, I know there are lots of reasons in these days. Things are happening that are difficult. There are not a small number of you who maybe lost your job, who might lose your job, and you're thinking, how, you know, what's going to happen? You know what, the Lord knows your condition, and he will not fail you. In fact, there will be some of you who will emerge out of this job transition stronger, because you've learned to trust God in a difficult time. Others of you have had people disappoint you, or circumstances that have hurt you, things that have gone wrong in your life, but what you do about those today may determine whether or not you stay profoundly stuck in self-pity or move on into God's new victory for your life. You can go through the motions, or you can cut a path into your future. I have just one simple question. Let's put it in a time frame. Are you closer to God today than any other time since last Thanksgiving? Well, I'm not sure. Well, you probably know the answer to that. And if that's the case, if the answer is, well, no, I'm not. I was closer back in the summer. I was closer a year ago. Then my question is, what will you do about that? Will you just sort of say, well, it doesn't matter all that much. I mean, loved ones, it matters a lot. Because what the enemy wants to do is to pull us all down slowly, you see. He wants to lower the bar of our passion. And may God deliver us from mediocrity. My heart's cry is that every one of us would say, Lord, I want nothing but your best. People say, well, you're getting too intense about this. I'm not, you know, I'm not, I'm not reading it that way. It's not that big of a deal. I don't sense God's presence, you know, all the time. I don't feel that close to him, but I have cable. Can I suggest to you humbly, it's time to call on the Lord. Admit that you've lost it. And say, Lord, I need to restore my first love. See, Jesus said this, those exact words. The love you had at first is gone. Restore it. Second thing you need to do is to acknowledge it. Acknowledge where you lost it. The man identified the exact spot where the axe head went in. Look at 2nd Kings 6.6. Where did it fall in, Elisha asked? The man showed him the exact place. Circle the word exact. The exact place. Let me ask you this. Do you know where, when, or how you lost your cutting edge? Do you know when and where and how you began to drift from God, if in fact you have? You know what it is for a lot of us, loved ones? You know what it is? We've gotten really busy. Now, we talk about this, Pastor Dave and I go back and forth about this a lot. How much we are conforming to the culture. You know, a lot of us have had a few days off. And tomorrow is a national holiday, isn't it? At least it is around here. We've got the Bambi spree. And keep the population down. School's out, right guys? Yeah. Okay, in these 5 days, 4 or 5 days that most of us had off, here's a question. Students, listen up. Those of you who have busy work schedules, listen up. Question for you. If you've been saying to yourself, I'm just so busy. I don't have time to get along with God. I can't really read His Word. Let me ask you a question. In the last 4 or 5 days, with all the time you've had under your basic direction, have you made time for God? Did you set apart a block of time when you said, Lord, I'm going to devote the next 2 or 3 hours just to be with You? And the answer to that question is no. My suggestion is that possibly it's not so much about not having time. It's about what you really want to do. And what happens is when you don't do this for a while, you finally lose the desire. And then even when you have time, other things fill it up. You go shopping. You sleep in. You watch 15 football games that don't matter at all. But you don't spend any time with God. There was one woman who just said amen back there when I said football. I heard that. The second thing that happens to us, or can cause us to lose our cutting edge is disobedience. If the Lord is directing you to do something or to stop doing something in your life, to make a difference here but you're not doing it, or to stop doing something that's been involving you inappropriately, you know what? God isn't dumb. We've got to get this through our heads. We can't just do what we please and ignore His voice and expect Him to bless everything else. You know, God, I am not going to listen to you. I'm just not giving that up. But I do want you to bless my family and my business, and I want to be intimate and I want to be passionate with you. But no, Lord, I am not going to share my testimony with my neighbor. No. I'm not going to ask forgiveness for my relative who hurt me. I'm not going to give the church another dollar. Whatever it is. Whatever the thing is that holds you up. God says, this is what I've called you to do. If you want my blessing over here. Oswald Chambers, he says it numerous times in his annual devotional. He says, if there's something that's breaking your intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, get that right, or God will bring you back to it again and again and again. Another reason why we do it is we lose our cutting edge because of pride and relying on our own power. This isn't, you know, no one's dumb enough to say I'm bigger than God. But, you know, we say it by just the way we act. And sometimes we equate knowing with doing. Like, because I know what I'm supposed to do, I know it, but God understands why I don't do it. But even animals know things and don't do them. How are we any different? My next-door neighbor had a great turkey dinner for their extended family. They did a deep-fried thing. I don't know, but I understand that's a really good way to do it. And they had a deep-fried turkey thing. And at the end of the meal, they needed to clear the table, make some space. And so, if I understand the story correctly, their garage is right off the kitchen and, you know, integral to the house. And they took the turkey out there with all the other stuff and put it out there on a high table and went back in and served dessert and so on. And they came back out, and their rather large golden retriever got up and finished off the turkey, all the trimmings, and 30 deviled eggs. We're talking a nasty, nasty night in their household. I wouldn't let that dog near my yard, let alone their yard. They were at the vet on Fridays, getting everything pumped out and cleaned up. He knew he wasn't supposed to be in there eating all that stuff. He's not supposed to be in that garage. He doesn't hang out there. Did it anyhow. We can't just know it and not do it. Last thing is carelessness and laziness. We get a little bit lazy about the important things. I just want to commend you this morning. You know, on a dark, rainy, kind of foggy morning, Suey's just asleep and says, I just don't need to go to church. You know what? Every time we gather, you should be here to exalt God. Every time your small group gathers, you should make it a priority. When God nudges you to be part of something, give it with all your heart, loved ones, because it's those little things that become big things over time. Those are the things that will keep your cutting edge sharp. So, first thing, admit your condition. Say, Lord, I'm just not where I used to be. Second, acknowledge where you lost it. And third, expect God to restore it. This is the good news part. I want you to know something. God wants to restore you to intimacy and passion and the cutting edge of life with Him more than you even want it. And I wish I could say this in a way that somehow would penetrate through everything else because nothing's more important than this. This is the faith step. Something in you has to believe that God's going to do it. Notice, Elisha believed it. Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water at that spot. And the axe head floated to the top of the water. Now, what is the point of that? Can I have that stick, please, Peter? Yeah, he's got a little... There you go. This is just a little representation. Elisha picked up this stick, and the other prophet said, well, it fell in right over there, and Elisha took a stick. Right over there? He said, yep, and he just threw it right in there. Right into the water. Now, what is the significance of that? Well, some commentators say, well, you know, the stick represents the cross, and he was representing how the cross went in and redeemed... I thought that was kind of a stretch. What do I think it means? Well, here's my observation. God often requires us to use tangible things to identify the expression of faith that we are expressing before God. Little things that say, God, here it is, here's the marker. This is the thing that I'm going to use to point to the fact that I'm believing you. Thanks, Peter. For example, did Jesus need the little boy to bring up the five loaves and two fishes to feed the 5,000? Or could He have just said, pass the baskets around and have the stuff piling up in them? Of course. Did He need to pile the mud on the guy's face to heal him of blindness? No. He just put those visible things out, you see, as expressions for us to say, okay, that marks it. Whoa, look at that. All right? That marks it. My faith is secure. I'm putting it down. Today, I'm going to have an opportunity in the service for you to mark your desire to renew your cutting edge. Just something that you can do. Why? Because all of us benefit from having something that marks that moment. Something that says, I'm believing God. In the realm of our giving, we say, Lord, I'm planting a seed of faith. Just something in my hand that I'm opening up and giving to you as a mark that says, I'm trusting you to provide according to your promises and so. That's what that means. You've got to expect that God's going to fulfill what He promised. If you don't believe it, it's not going to happen. This faith connection is a huge thing. And you know what? God will wait until your faith is all you have. I'll say that again. God will wait until your faith is all that you have. We were talking also this afternoon about lifeguarding. Any lifeguards in here today? How many people have lifeguard training? Is it not true that you're trained as a lifeguard that if a person is still struggling and flailing and actively trying to save themselves even though they know they can't, you're trained as a lifeguard to not get up alongside of them. Why? Because sometimes they'll be so out of control they'll wrap themselves around you and pull you down with them. Am I right about that? And lifeguards are trained to just stay back until a person is just about ready to go under. In fact, they may start to go under. And then when they're basically, they've lost it, the lifeguard moves in. God is doing that very thing with some of you right now. You've been flailing, you've been trying, you've been struggling, and God's waiting until you just say, Lord, I can't, and you're... Then he's going to come around, he's going to rescue you. Expect him to. The last thing you got to do is to then reach out and pick it up. Reach out and pick up your cutting edge. What does that mean? Well, back to the axe handle, please, Peter. When that thing floated to the top of the river, that had to have been an amazing thing. I mean, it just does. Just don't see that real often, this iron axe head floating down the river. Do you think that the same God that reversed the natural laws to do that miracle could have had the thing just come up the extra few feet and just land back on the axe head? Could that have happened? Absolutely. Why not? But instead, Elisha says to him, reach in and grab it. And what is that about? It's about you taking that last step and saying, okay, God, I'm going to engage myself. I'm going to step in and do something that represents the fact that I'm believing you. Along with my identification of faith, I'm now going to take an action. Let me put it in these terms. Jesus said, flip your outline over, in Revelation 2, he said, when you've lost your first love, there are three things I want you to do. He says, I want you to remember where you've come from. First thing, write it down somewhere on the side or put it on the back. Remember, the first thing, when you've lost your cutting edge, remember what it was like at first. And by the way, as I share these, think of any relationship that's grown cold in your life. A marriage, a father-son, mother-daughter relationship. Remember what it was like. Number two, return. Someone has to have the courage to begin to turn back and say, wait, I want to see this restored. And you take a step. And number three, repeat the things that you used to do. Jesus says, come back and do the things again. Bring the same offerings. Express the same love. If you're in a... People come to me and they say, you know, I just don't feel like I love them anymore. I just don't, I don't love them anymore. And I say, well, what does that mean? It means this. It means I don't feel the love that I felt 20 years ago or 10 years ago or whatever it was. I say, well, do you think God can change that? I don't think so. I just don't love them. So you're telling me God can't change the way you feel. I said, try doing the things that you did 10 or 20 years ago and believe that God's somehow going to restore it. And you know what I have found? Over and over and over again. Listen, emotions follow motion. Take a step. God will bring the feelings. It's the same way with him. If you don't feel close to God, guess who moved? Take a step toward him and then trust that he'll bring that sense that we all long for, that sense of his presence with you. Let me end with this. If you don't hear anything else I said, hear this. You are as close to God today as you choose to be. Now that is a very heavy theological statement for those of you who are theologically inclined. What I'm saying to you is you can't look at Pastor Jay or Pastor Scott or Pastor Dave and, well, they're the ones that are responsible for where you are with God. You can't look at your spouse or your boyfriend or your girlfriend. You can't look at your boss or your circumstance. None of those determine how close you are to God. Only you. You see, God in his infinite wisdom gave you free will because you were created in his image. And he says to you, if you choose to draw near to me, he said, I will draw near to you. Think of that. Today, my hope for each of us is that we can choose to draw near to God. Don't watch them. Watch me. They're just coming up to serve us in a moment. Because I don't want you to miss this. Choose to draw near to God. We only have certain times in our lives when God breathes on us and says, now is that time. In my heart, I believe we're in one of those seasons as a church. We can choose to say, yes, Lord, I want to. Or we can choose to say, you know, no, I'd just rather cope. I'd rather deal with where I am. I'd rather just be a little bit on the distant side, the dry side. I don't want to risk again. Loved ones, God is worthy of it. And as we closed the service, I thought, you know, there might just be a way that we could respond that would be different today. And I was taken by the words of Keith Green when he said this. I remember Keith Green. He was a brilliant young Christian songwriter, musician. He wrote these words before he was killed in a plane accident with a number of his children. He said, my eyes are dry, my faith is old, my heart is hard, and my prayers are cold. And I know how I ought to be, alive to you and dead to me. But what can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up, Lord, with oil and wine. The oil is you, your spirit of love. Please wash me anew with the wine of your blood. We're going to take a little bit of a risk right now and just invite you to join in. If you're a guest today, we value spontaneity without craziness. But you don't need to do this. I'm going to ask those of you who'd like to, to do it. We're all going to stand in just a moment. And then when we stand, I'm going to ask you to do one of two things. Either just to bow your head and quietly say, Lord, I'm not sure where I am, but I want you just to show me. And just pray about your cutting edge. But I'd like most of you in those next moments to turn to someone. Maybe it's your wife or husband. Maybe it's just a new friend you've made. It might be one of your kids. And just say, well, here's kind of where I am. Here's where I sense my cutting edge is. And if you want to put a number to it from one