As Iron Sharpens Iron

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You sharpen iron for a reason

Ecclesiastes 10:10 NIV

If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success.

STORY - My sharp axe becoming dull

a tool that isn’t great at what it’s supposed to do isn’t terribly useful.

A sharp knife can work wonders - a dull one can be dangerous to the one using it.

God intends for us to grow through relationship

Notice how it doesn’t say, as an iron smith carefully and with lots of training sharpens iron, so a skilled expert can help you grow

Don’t get me wrong - i’m not knocking expertise. But the bible plainly says that we can - and we will be able to - help each other.

If we avoid connecting with other believers for the sake of helping each other grow, we will miss the primary way God’s intended us to grow.

We can all easily say ‘no, we would never do that!’ But...

How often do you gather with and pray with other believers - outside of a program at the church?

How much do you intentionally try and pour into someone else’s life?

How much do you intentionally seek out the input and feedback from others - and mainly others that don’t see and understand things exactly the way you do?

The growth process in the bible is one of mutual building up and sharpening.

In my experience in the body, often times, we receive a word or a gift or SOMETHING from the Lord - and then he sends another person along to help us refine it.

Sometimes, we need to be sharper rather than fuller

STORY - I put a hole in drywall once. Tried to fix it by just putting the piece back and mudding. That didn’t work? TRY MORE MUD.

The solution to a dull tool isn’t pouring in more iron, enlarging the size of it.

Sharpening is the difference between bloat and effectiveness.

Pruning is the same idea. We aren’t healthy when we’re gigantic - we’re healthy when we are productive.

An apple tree with a hundred sick apples is worse off than an apple tree with 50 really good ones.

Our physical health is the same way. Bulk isn’t the same as health.

God wants to sharpen us, not just load us up. Because the point is - he wants us to be effective tools in his hands.

And we sometimes forget that fact. We think God’s approach to us is like people at an all-you-can-eat buffet. He wants to just keep stuffing us and stuffing us while we sit and receive. We only look for and only expect the “nice” experiences.

Hebrews 12:5–6 (NIV)

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

We’re tools in God’s hands. We’re his children that He’s trying to raise up to be good and productive people.

God WANTS to bless us - and He will. But it comes hand in hand with refinement. Jesus said, whoever can prove a faithful steward with a little will be given more.

Watch what other irons you sharpen with

STORY - There’s this phrase, ‘stuck in a rut’. Pushing a wheelbarrow the same path every single time. Creates a rut. Eventually you wear the ground down, and it becomes difficult to get it out!

iron has no choice but to sharpen iron. This verse doesn’t say, ‘as a piece of iron choose to allow itself to be sharpened by another piece of iron, so one man can allow other people to sharpen him, if he gives them permission’.

Iron sharpens iron. People sharpen people.

So as much as we believe we need to do this - we also need to know when we shouldn’t.

1 Corinthians 15:33 NIV

Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

The quality of material you start with is incredibly important. Your good character is essential to your growth. But it’s not like, once you nail good character, you can say, ‘OK, i’m good, I don’t ever have to worry about corruption ever again! I’m a good person, so I’ll always be one, forever and ever’.

All the high quality clay in the world can be reduced to a pile of dust with poor quality sandpaper.

The shape of our people group determines the shape of our person.

Now, I have to repeat this point. This doesn’t mean, ‘only stick to people who agree with you’.

Jesus told a story of two people praying - pharisee & tax collector. Pharisee held himself up as the standard of goodness - tax collector repented. Tax collector was justified before God.

Just because you think you’re right doesn’t mean you’re right. We ALL need lots of people around us.

Proverbs 11:14 NIV

For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.

It doesn’t say - ‘for lack of a smart leader’ - though that’s true. It doesn’t say, ‘make sure you know the right thing’ - though that’s true. It says, if we don’t have guidance - and from a bunch of people, not just one or two - we fall.

But we DO need to be careful with who we allow within sharpening distance.

Relationships are in levels. We have a LARGE group of people we would consider ourselves roughly associated with. These are people we say we know.

Smaller group - social circle. People we see more often. These are people we say we see.

Small group - close friends, spouse. People who we have close access to - and who we give close access to. These are people we say we need.

Paul even said in 1 Corinthians 5:10, ‘I want you to not associate with immoral people - but I don’t mean people of the world. If you tried to do that, you’d have to just flat out leave the world’.

We can witness to people who aren’t great - but the people we allow in close, the people we spend the most time with, the people who we choose to grow with - we need to be selective.

What does sharpening actually look like?

We need to make a habi of checking bigger ideas off your core group for sharpening and evaluation.

STORY - PAOC Conference, one pastor who i respect and who i’d consider a very mature believer, received a word from the lord they wanted to share. First thing they did was go to the chair of the meeting and say, ‘hey, I feel this thing from the Lord - what do you think? Am I right? Should we share it now?’

It’s not about lack of confidence - it’s about knowing how this is supposed to work.

You’ll never get to a point that you hear perfectly from the Lord in all circumstances. Up until the day ou die, you’ll need feedback from others.

You’ll get to the point that you can discern pretty well, and there’ll be circumstances that you’ll go against the flow and say ‘no, actually, i DO think this is the right way’. But even that is done in humility, and with a lot of time spent with others examining your own character.

We need to hear and experience a bunch of different ideas - not just people nodding in agreement to whatever you say.

STORY - Rule for a youth years ago - say out loud, ‘my buddies and i thought it would be a good idea if’ and if you laugh, don’t do it

Every mature person started as a person doing a bunch of stuff they thought were good ideas at the time.

The fact that you think it’s a good idea doesn’t make it one.

But it’s not about how you’re wrong and someone else is right. It’s that our ideas, our communications from God - they’re incomplete when we’re isolated. God’s put all the pieces across the entire body - we need to put them together.

You aren’t the source of all the good information in the world.

We need to allow people the right to call us on our behaviour.

STORY - Pastor friend calling me on how my perspective on my dad was affecting my relationship with God.

If you trust them, and you’ve put in the effort to make sure that they are trustworthy - then they have something valuable to say. Listen to them.

If any random person disagrees with me, I’ll pray about it for sure, but it may not become a strong area of focus for me. But if my close friends, my mentors, or my spouse call me on something - I’m going to pay attention and take notes.