Handle It

HANDLE IT!

With Pastor Timothy Porter

The bridge Church Upstate

Exodus 4:1-5

Introduction:

Lets call on Moses today because he certainly deserves to be heard, as to how he did what he did

? This text revolves around Moses being called to deliver Israel from the slaverly of Egypt.

So, He has just been summoned by God, at the burning bush a bush consumed by fire that would not burn up.(by the way this is the picture of a life set on fire by faith that burns bright but will not burn out.)

He is 80 years old, He is a fugitive from Egypt. He lives with his father-in-law Jethro and keeps his sheep. He does not appear to be a likely choice for what God has in mind.

So, let's join Moses on the back side of the desert in Middian

*STAND * READ * PRAY *

When God calls Moses at the burnning bush he gives every excuse he can think of to get out of what God is asking him.

1.) says What If they (people) will not believe me (ILL.What If) Has a what if ever made you choose to do or not do something you now regret?

2.) He says he doesn't feel worthy

3.) He says he doesn't even know God's name

4.) He says that he is not good with words

5.) he says, “Send another

After all the excuses, Moses finally submits to do what the Lord has ask him to do.

In the middle of all this, God asks Moses a question. That question is found in vs.2 of our text.

It is that question that I want to investigate today. This question, is rather simple. It is, “What is that in your hand?” Moses answered, “a Staff ”.

All he had in his hand that day was a simple staff. To Moses, all he had in his hand was a dead, dry stick. That's all it was to him, but in God's eyes it was so much more than that.

? That stick (Staff) was so much more than a stick, it represented Moses vocation. The staff in his hand made Moses reckon with his past mistakes b/c of his past is why he now is a sheppard. If Moses would have never killed the Egyptian, he would have remained in royalty but now he is a fugitave on the run. That's how he ended up a sheppard, and everything he needs to preveail is within his reach.

Now listen anytime God confronts you with your potential, He will cause you to face or confront your past. Somebody say ~ Handle It!

The very thing Moses feared became the tool God used to bring Glory to His name and excel Moses.

Turn to you neighbor and say: "Neighbor, I don't know what you are going through, I don't know what you are dealing with but God told me, to tell you to Handle It!"

?Let's examine these vs. today and see what Moses really had in his hand. As we do, let's take the time to look at our own lives to see the things we carry in our hands.

I want you to see that just as God used what was in Moses hands, His desire is to use the things we carry in our hands as well, for His glory. We have to know how to Handle It

Prehaps God wanted to show Moses, "Everything you need is within reach." Have you ever asked God to give you something that He was trying to get you to see you that you already have?

I.) Moses Held His Personality in His Hand (v. 2)

When Moses said “a staff named, Rod ”, he was referring to his shepherd's staff. This was a stick some six feet long that was used in a variety of ways.

It was used to guide, lead and protect.

It was used to support the shepherd and help him climb up and down the steep places.

It was used to defend the flock and himself against the attacks of wild animals.

Moses depended on that staff every day he lived.

That staff identified Moses as a shepherd. When people saw that staff in his hand, they would knew immediately who he was!

?That staff also represented all that Moses possessed. He did not even own the sheep that he tended. They belonged to his father-in-law Jethro. All Moses possessed was the staff. It represented his life, his identity and his livelihood.

That staff was a constant reminder that he had never reached his fullest potential in the Lord.

Forty years earlier God had moved on his heart to deliver Israel from Egypt, Ex. 2:11-14(Ill) Back then, Moses ran ahead of God and took matters into his own hand. Because he did, he felt like he had wasted his only opportunity to serve the Lord. Moses had come to believe that we was worthy of being no more than a shepherd.