Transcription
[Applause] And you can have a seat. So, I've been enthralled watching the Wimbledon tennis matches as much as I can, since they're on at the wrong time coming from England. And I've been watching both the men and the women, and it's been pretty extraordinary.
But one of my favorite players now is still Novak Djokovic. And I think some of it is because he's been around so long. And I watched him come up against this young kid named Sinner. What an inappropriate name, or unfortunate. And in that particular match, in the semi-finals of Wimbledon, Sinner just absolutely wiped out Novak. Swept him in three sets, in no small part because Novak was injured.
And in the interviews afterwards, they asked Novak, did he feel frustrated because of the misfortune, the bad luck of being injured? And it was so fascinating to me to listen to him talk and say, "Well, this isn't about bad luck or misfortune. This is about getting older. This is the reality of age. My body simply couldn't hold up."
So, I wanted to do a little research because I resonated with that, until I realized Novak was only 38 years old. And then I realized that this young man is speaking as if he's at the end of his life. And then you have to step back to the backdrop of realizing that Novak is competing against Alcaraz and Sinner, who are 23 and 22 years old. And the question for me isn't, well, why did Novak's body break down? Because he looks like one of the most incredible physical specimens of a human being I've ever seen. It's how did he maintain that level of excellence for so long? And even though his body did break down, he was still in the semifinals. He's still one of the best players in the world. One of the greatest players who walks on a court at the ripe old age, near death, of 38.
And then you begin to unwrap that and you can say, well, it's about talent, but I guarantee you more talented players have come and gone. It's about skill, but I assure you more skilled players have come and gone. There is something inside of the very best in the world where they just keep their edge. They just refuse to lose that edge that separates them from everyone else. Because when you get to that level, when you reach that pinnacle of greatness, it's greatness against greatness. It's the best against the best. It's talent against talent. It's skill against skill. All the things that carried them in their youth were not the factors that would carry them into their greatness. It's the edge. It's the refusal to settle for less. It's the refusal to be less.
And then I had this disconnected thought that is very connected, actually. Have you ever walked into a restaurant that you loved, but you hadn't been to in a long time? Like a local restaurant, and maybe you even brought your friends. I used to go to this Indian place. It was incredible. Let's go. And five years later, you go, and it's run down. Or you go to a coffee shop that was your favorite coffee shop, but now the pastries are like rocks. The guilty will remain nameless. And what happens is that they started with an edge. They started with a commitment to greatness. They started with a commitment to their uniqueness. They started with a commitment to bring to the world the very best of who they were. And the reason they're still there is because they were successful in striking that edge, whatever that particular edge was in that moment, whether it was the best food, or the best service, or the best athlete, or the best thinker, or the best writer, or whatever it may be.
It struck me years ago when, I believe it was Bob Dylan, that they were asking about his early lyrics. And as he would recite his lyrics, they almost felt magical, or mystical, or transcendent. And when asked if he could write those lyrics now, his answer was, "No. I'm not capable of whatever I did then." Now, in my mind, I just started reeling with this thought: What if he changed his mind? What if decades later, he came to a moment of self-realization, self-awareness, that there was still something else he had to say? What gift would he bring to the world? What poetry would seep into our souls and change our perspective of reality, or deepen our burden, or increase our hope?
There's something unique about men and women who live their entire lives always pursuing the best version of themselves. That's why I am so enamored with this particular passage of scripture. It's in Ecclesiastes 10:10. And as long as I'm alive, I'll bring us back to this passage over the years. It says, "If the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill will bring success." Sometimes the most succinct, pithy statement carries the most truth. It has an atomic, nuclear capability that if you open it up and allow it to explode inside of you, it will change your life. And I think that's one of the expressions of Solomon being the wisest man who ever lived, that he could summarize the profound truths of life in such simple and few words.
"If the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed." It's kind of obvious, right? And probably this week, when you were using your axe, you had the same thought. And that's the problem sometimes with metaphors, is that the metaphors are usually born out of something that's everyday. Do you remember rollerblading? There was a time where if I talked about rollerblading, you would all know. But now you're going, "What's a rollerblade?" Most metaphors are born out of something common, something real. Remember the hula hoop? If you do, you are old. And if I gave you a metaphor about a hula hoop, if it was at the right time, it would have translated perfectly for you. And here's the challenge: that so many of the metaphors in the scriptures are written from a different time. And so they are drawing a picture around something that is not a part of our everyday life. But the Bible is actually not trying to be obscure. It's actually pulling out of things that are in our everyday experience.
So, for just a few moments, we're going to pretend that we're all lumberjacks. That knowing how to cut a tree down might be the difference between life and death for you. Believe it or not, I actually worked as a lumberjack. I can't say I was great, but every tree I cut fell. So, I had a 100% success rate. And I didn't know much about lumberjacking, if that's what you call it. When I started, they just gave me an axe and told me to cut. And then, as I cut wrong, they came and taught me how to cut properly. And then, as I cut without thinking about which direction the tree would fall, they came and told me how not to die. It was a hands-on process of learning how to be a lumberjack.
And Solomon's assuming we all know what is essential and necessary in being a lumberjack. And so when the axe is dull, he's telling us, its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed. Because one thing you can know when you're a lumberjack is that no matter how sharp your axe is when you start, it's going to become dull. And he tells us that the way that we keep our edge, and the way that we can actually live at an optimal level, because that's what he's actually talking about. If you can just get your edge sharp enough and keep it sharp, and embrace the process of keeping it sharp, you will never lose your edge. You will keep your edge all your life.
So, the first thing he tells us is: keep sharp. Take time to keep your edge. And this is the tricky thing: if you're handed a brand new axe, which let's say is your life, it starts with an edge. But every day that you live your life, that edge gets dull. And maybe every Monday you wake up and you feel like you've got an edge. You ever wake up on Monday? "This is the week I win. This is the week I take over the world. This is the week I get the promotion. This is the week I show up. This is the week I outshine myself the week before. This is the week that I get it done. This is the week I fulfill my dreams." And then it's Tuesday, and your axe isn't as sharp on Tuesday as it was on Monday. It was like, "Oh, that was hard. I forgot why it's called work. My boss is so difficult. This job is so taxing. Life is hard. God, where are you?"
No matter what you do, what occupation you have, what career you've chosen, what life you're living, whether you're single or married, have no kids or have so many kids you don't even know how many kids you have anymore, life is hard. And you will face things every day that will dull your axe.
And I don't know if you're petroleum-based or electrical. You know, Kim's a hybrid. But one thing I do know is that when I shifted from petroleum, from a gas-powered car, to an electrical car, they didn't really tell me one very particular thing: that when you have a petroleum-based car and you run out of gas, you can pull up at a gas station, and in two minutes, your car is full, and you can run and destroy the atmosphere. Or you can do like I did nearly 10 years ago, and I bought my Tesla, and I'm saving the planet. And I'm driving across the street, and my battery's dead, and I have to pull over to a super station, which takes over an hour for me to charge my car. And that's only if I have the good fortune of finding a super station. Otherwise, if I go to a regular charging station, it will take me 10 hours to charge my car. No one told me how long it would take to recharge my car so that I could make any more progress.
This is like sharpening your axe. The reason most of us don't sharpen our axe is we don't take time to refuel ourselves because it slows us down. Because if we understood that when the axe is dull and the edge unsharpened, more strength is needed. So, what it's telling you is that when you do not keep your edge, life gets harder. That's what it's telling you. If you do not keep your edge, if you don't take the time, put the effort in, have the discipline of whatever it takes, whatever it means to keep your edge, you may think you're making progress, but you're just going to stop and die at the side of the road.
My Tesla does have a function, a feature. I did not know. I was driving back from San Diego in my Tesla a few years ago when I first had it. And as I was driving, I didn't pay attention to the warning that my battery was dying. And all of a sudden, my Tesla changed my navigation system and told me I was not going where I thought I was going. It directed me off an exit and led me to a charging station because I was too stupid to realize I was not going to make it home on what I had. Now, I don't want to say you're stupid, but I do want to say that some of you do not have what it takes inside of you to get where you're going because you're not taking the time to sharpen your edge. You have to find a way to refuel, to renew, to strengthen. You have to find a way to sharpen your edge every single day of your life. Take time to keep your edge. It may mean taking some time and praying every day. Taking a walk and meditating and listening to God every day. Taking time and seeing going to the gym not as a benefit, but a requirement. Taking the time to work on your mental health, your physical health, your relational health, to take the time to keep your edge so that you can run at the best version of you.
Don't raise your hands, but how many of you know that you're not running at the best version of you? You just know it. Oh, we got a few hands. I hate to sleep. Anybody with me now? I know people who love to sleep. I know more people who love to sleep, frankly, than... But I actually hate to sleep. And I read the Bible that God gives sleep to those he loves. That's what it says. Like, you don't love me. You know, I actually hate the sleep. I hate the thought of being dormant half my life and then dying. I just hate it. I used to experiment to see how few hours I could live on every single day. I mean, I had seasons where I could live on one, two, three hours of sleep. My longest period of time without going to bed was six days. And I wasn't even 20 years old yet. I'm 21 at that time. Because I just couldn't take the idea of wasting my life unconscious. And then, of course, I began to discover that if you don't sleep, you die. That if you don't sleep, you're not operating at an optimal level. That if you don't sleep when you're awake, you're half dead anyway. You need to keep sharp, and you need to take the time to keep your edge.
Vacations are such an odd idea. Live a life you hate for 51 weeks a year, and then vacate it for one week to find the strength to come back and live a life you hate for 51 years. 51 weeks. And it just doesn't make any sense. How about sharpen your edge? How about taking time every single day to refresh yourself, to renew yourself, to invest in yourself? You need to keep sharp, but you need to keep close. You not only need to take time to keep your edge.
And someone asked me recently, what were some of the daily disciplines you have that have allowed you to live this way for 66 years? I said, they're not the disciplines you're going to expect. I take the time to dream every day. I take the time to reflect and meditate every time. I take the time to listen to what God might be saying to me every single day. I take the time to imagine and create every single day. And I know those things keep my edge. But I also know I need to keep close. You need to choose the people who have the edge to be in your life.
In Proverbs 27:17, it says this: "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." That's great news if you're iron. It's really bad news if you're butter. Because if you choose to be butter, which is a metaphorical way of saying soft, you will avoid every blade. Butter doesn't want to be around iron. Iron wants to be around iron because iron sharpens iron, which has one small and significant requirement: you have to be iron to be sharpened by iron. And you have to be iron to sharpen iron. Said, "Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." This is the way we keep our edge. We keep sharp. We take the time to keep our edge. Every single day, you find a way to pull back and say, "My edge cannot be dull and unsharpened, or it'll take more work. I will be a lesser version of me." But I also need to keep close and choose people who have that edge. I want people in my life who demand more of me.
Do you surround yourself with people who are less passionate than you, less intense, less committed, less ambitious, less driven? Because you will become that, the sum total of the people in your life. Now, the problem with iron people is that it causes friction. Have you ever seen iron sharpen iron? Creates sparks, creates friction. If iron could feel, it would say, "Ouch." If there are not people in your life who speak truth to you, you're not pressing iron against iron. You have to have people in your life who just look at you and go, "That's not okay." You have to have people in your life go, "You know, you're being a jerk," or however you might say that. You have to have people in your life saying, "You're depressed because you're all about you." You have to have people in your life that say, "Every time you open your mouth, it's about you and not someone else." Yet, do you have friends who, when you talk to them, all they do is talk about themselves the whole time? You just keep waiting for your turn. Keep waiting. The only way that's going to change is if you actually love them enough to say, "Hey, have you ever thought about listening to someone else's story?" You have to have people in your life who are willing to tell you where you need to grow, or you will not grow.
Anybody here like critique? I won't call you a liar. And uh, no, I believe you. I believe you. I believe you like critique. Right now, I'm going to critique you, and I'm picking you because you like it. No one else likes it. All right. I don't really love critique because I call critique Aaron and Mariah, and it... I have adult children now. Kim and I have adult children, and they know me probably better than anyone, and they always have a critique of how I could be better. And I'm getting better because I'm trying to apply everything they tell me. It's just so much, and I'm working on it, and the list is long and voluminous, and it's kind of a War and Peace version of me. And yet, what I realize is a critique is the greatest compliment you could ever receive. You know who you do that critique? The person you've convinced yourself doesn't want to change. Do you have friends that you never critique? It's because you've convinced yourself they don't want to get better. Oh, and by the way, if no one critiques you, you've convinced your friends you do not want to get better.
Iron sharpens iron, as one person sharpens another. You want people in your life who sharpen you. Early on in my life, it was from almost a different side of the sword. I met this man. He was much older than me. He was so old, he was like 40. And I was about 21, 22. And I had never seen anyone so kind and so loving in my life. His name was Bob. And he went by Pastor Bob. He pastored a little church out in the country where there were horses. And when I was at Chapel Hill, I would drive out to that church just to serve under him because I wanted to become a kinder human being. I want to get so close in proximity to this person that my unkindness is exposed around him. Because see, that's what happens when you get close to someone who has an attribute that's stronger, or better, or more noble than yours. You get exposed by it because you're not quite there yet. But you allow that discomfort of exposure to be the friction that causes you to grow. You want to get smarter? Get around smart people. It's really easy to win an argument if you just choose people dumber than you, right? It's not hard. And probably half the world's population is dumber than you. So, just choose carefully. It's hard when you surround yourself with people who are simply better than you at what they do, and you decide, "I'm going to be in that room because I want to get better."
Keep sharp. You keep close. But then you have to keep striking. Listen to what it says: "If the axe is dull and the edge unsharpened, more strength is needed." Now, you know what the optimal word is right now? It's the word "more." When the axe is dull and the edge is unsharpened, more strength is needed. But guess what? When the axe is sharp and the edge is not dull, strength is still needed. I think this is the myth of spirituality. When you're right with God, when you have faith, when you're close to Jesus, however you want to say it, everything should be easy, right? When you're in the zone, you... I just want to get in your flow state. I don't know what flow state looks like all the time. I just know we think that flow state means it's not hard. But I want you to realize, he says that when your edge is dull and unsharpened, you need more strength. But when it's sharp, when you're at your best, when you're living at an optimal level, when you own your strengths and you refine your skills and you learn your craft, it's still hard. It still requires strength. So, you have to keep close and keep sharp, but you got to keep striking. You have to put the work in to get the results. More strength will be needed if you do this the hard way. But strength is going to be needed no matter what.
We have to escape this absolutely destructive thinking that if you're aligned properly with God, life is easy. If two people love Jesus and they're married, guess what? Marriage is hard. Right, Brooke? Right, Andy? Even when you love God, marriage is hard. If you have a company, if you own a company, if you started a business and you love God and you're trusting Jesus, it's still going to be hard. If you work at a company and you want a promotion and you're like, "God, I'm trusting you with everything I have," it's still going to take all the strength you have. So, it's not about less strength. It's about more productivity with the strength you bring. He's not telling you that when you sharpen your edge, you won't have to be as strong. He's telling you you're going to have to use the wrong kind of strength if you don't pay attention to your edge.
And one of the beautiful things about it is that you actually don't experience fulfillment in life when something is easy. What actually gives you satisfaction is not success. What actually gives you satisfaction is not fame. It's not power. It's not wealth. It's the gift of having had that journey, of being able to look in the mirror and go, "Wow, I didn't quit. I didn't give up." What's going to wake you up in the morning with a sense of fulfillment and meaning and intention are not all the people who admire you, or all the accolades, or all the symbols of success. It's that you know, like no one else could possibly know, what it took to get there.
Honestly, I thought about this so many times with Kim and I having been married over 40 years. And my heart breaks for people who go through divorces. It really breaks because you lose not just that person, but you lose someone whose journey has been a part of your journey. See, Kim's the only one who knows. She's the only one who knows what I was like at 24. She's the only one who knows how I was gripped with fear and struggled with a sense of insignificance and inadequacy at 29. She's the only one who knows what it took, what courage had to be found when nothing was certain and nothing was clear. And if I lost her, I wouldn't just lose her. I would lose a part of myself. Because not only does she know, she helps me remember. And that's where the joy comes. That's where the meaning comes. Because it was hard, and it took strength. You had to find some courage out of a vacuum of lack of proof that you would ever succeed and ever make it.
You have to keep sharp and keep close and keep striking and put the work in to get the results. But then you just... you need to keep double-edged. I love how the scriptures even talk about how the word of God is a double-edged sword, cutting the bone and marrow. But here, what I just want to highlight: you just never stop learning and growing. You have to not just sharpen one side of the edge, you have to sharpen the other side of the edge because you never know when you're going to need it. Because the last thing he tells us in Ecclesiastes 10:10 is this: "But skill will bring success." It just summarizes it all. But skill will bring success. And he's telling us now, it's not about the edge, it's about what you've learned.
Do you ever wonder why they teach people who learn how to shoot guns how to assemble them and disassemble them? Because you have to become an expert in how it works to actually optimize how it works. And it's the same with the axe. Only when you know how to sharpen it do you understand how to strike it. There's a skill that you learn in the discipline of the process. "Wisdom has the advantage of giving success," is what Solomon says.
I love this imagery, and I'm going to just bring us to a close to it because it's one of the most beautiful images in the scriptures for me. In 1 Chronicles 12:1 and 2, it's talking about King David, and it's sort of obscure and hidden. It says, "These were the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he was banished from the presence of Saul, son of Kish. They were among the warriors who helped him in battle. And then here it is: They were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed." What an odd detail. I mean, why is that even in the Bible? Right here, you have the sacred text where you have the same passages of "Thou shalt not kill," and he's like, "Hey, by the way, they were armed with bows and they could shoot arrows and sling stones right-handed or left-handed." What he's actually telling us is the individuals who brought David the greatest value were the ones who expanded their skills beyond what was expected.
I was at a soccer match, and I saw one of the great scorers of the team go to his left, and he had a wide-open shot. If he could have shot it with his left foot, but he had to pass on it and move to the inside to shoot it with his right foot, and by that time, they blocked it. I remember just whispering, "Ah, he doesn't have a left foot." And when you watch the very best in the world, it doesn't matter when the opening comes. They can shoot their arrow or sling their stone from the left or the right. See, I think a lot of times in life, what we want is we want God to give us a great challenge that matches the skills we already have. But what if God isn't finished growing you yet? What if there are things you are yet to learn?
This has been the greatest discovery of my life: that pressing up to 67, I'm at the beginning of my learning journey. I'm finally learning how to learn. I know I'm slow. I know some of you got it earlier. Some of you got it at 16 or 17. But I'm just slow. And maybe that's why God's let me live this long, because he's saying, "It's going to take you a while. It's going to take you a while to know how to make the greatest impact in the world that I can make through you. But I'm going to be patient. You just have to keep learning how to sling with the right hand and the left hand. You have to learn how to shoot the arrow with your right hand and your left hand and go, 'God, I want to be double-edged. I want to never stop learning and growing.'"
And you bring all of this together, and you realize this is what you need to live the life God created you to live. That you need to pay attention to this truth: that when the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed, but skill brings success. Because you don't know what you need to know and what you need to do until the moment it shows up.
I was researching and discovered that it was anonymous, that there was a father and a daughter, I think, on a Disney cruise headed to Fort Lauderdale, and the daughter got up on the ledge on the fourth story of the cruise and fell off the ship to her death. And those who saw it said that the father, when the daughter dropped off, instantly, without hesitation, jumped off the ship into the ocean. And because of his immediate response, he saved her life. He carried her for 20 minutes until they came. Wow. This is like this is the most practical and beautiful and profound and devastating example of what life is like. You do not know the moment you have to show up. You don't know the challenge that you will have to face. But in that moment, that father had to make decisions. [Music] No, that father had made decisions which made the decision.
How many times have you just been paralyzed in life? You know that you're not living at the level which God created you to live. You know that you have lost your edge. You know that you're living beneath who God created you to be. See, in that moment, there was no overthinking. There was no uncertainty. There was no ambiguity, no ambivalence. There was no measuring the consequences. There was no lack of clarity. He just acted because he knew what was required of him in that moment if he was going to save the life of the one he loved.
Being the best version of you is not about you. It's about who people need you to show up as. It's who your family needs you to show up as. It's who the world needs you to show up as. And if you're the person going, "Oh, you know, I saw her go off the boat, but then I thought, what are the chances of finding her? It's a big ocean. She went under. I couldn't see her. I thought maybe someone else would go. I thought there were lifeguards. I thought there were people on this ship that would take care of that." If he had asked all the questions that we ask every single day because our axes are dull, she would have died. At least in that moment, he became the perfect representation of what it means to be ready for the moment that you're needed most.
I want you to keep your edge. Not so that you can live a great life, or live the best life, or move toward optimal performance, or be super successful. I want you to keep your edge so that you can be who the people in your life need you to be. And so when you come to the end of your life at a ripe old age of 38, you can say, "No, my body just broke down." But you know what did not break down? His will. Novak was still committed to keeping that edge sharp. So then the question falls on me: Do I have that commitment for my life? The question falls on you: Do you have that commitment for your life? It's not about how much you want for you. It's how much you love the people that need you.
Would you bow your heads with me just for a moment? Just close your eyes for a moment. [Music] You are here on purpose. Your life has intention. You're created by a God who loves you and who has entrusted you to live a life that matters. [Music] To leave the most beautiful impact, to leave fingerprints of faith and hope and love everywhere you go. That's why Jesus came. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead not so that you would be okay, but so that he could reclaim your life so that you could get to live it.
If you're here and you've never invited Jesus into your life, I want to extend an invitation from God to you to trust him, to seek his forgiveness and his freedom, and to put your life in his hands so that through his hands you can mold your life to be who you were always created to become. So, if you've never crossed a line of faith, if you've never invited Jesus into your life, I want to invite you right now just to whisper the simple prayer: "Jesus, I give you my life." Right now, just tell him, "Jesus, I give you my life. Jesus, I give you my life." [Music]
If this is your prayer, if this is the desire of your heart, I want to pray for you. And across our campuses, our campus pastors want to come up on stage and pray for you as well. If you're here and you would say, "Today, I cross the line of faith. I whispered this prayer: Jesus, I give you my life." I want you to hold your hand up high so I can see you. And I want to pray for you right now. Beautiful. Anyone else? Jesus, I give you my life. Anyone else right now? Beautiful. Anyone else right now? Jesus, I give you my life. Jesus, I give you my life. Wonderful.
Father, I thank you for each person who in this moment has crossed that line of faith, has opened up their heart to you, and has trusted you to forgive them and to give them freedom and to give them a future and hope. I thank you, Jesus, that you promise that they belong to you, that you'll never leave them or abandon them, that you have filled them with your presence, that you will walk with them and guide them. We pray in your name, Jesus. Amen. And amen. Can we just thank God for all those who responded to him this morning? So good. So.