What Do You Have In Your Hand?
We all know the story of the burning bush and Moses’ excuses before God.
He had 4 excuses and God had 4 answers.
- Who Am I? (vs 11-12) God’s answer was - it doesn’t matter Moses: who you are - what is important is who I am and that I will be with you.
- I won’t know what to say (vs 13-14). God’s answer was I will tell you.
- They won’t listen to me (vs 1ff). God’s answer was that I will work through you in power. They will see and believe.
- I can’t speak well (I don’t have the skills) (vs 10ff). God’s answer was to speak through him.
Do you have similar excuses as Moses? Well God has similar answers for you. Moses was once a doubter. And at the beginning of his ministry he was certainly nervous.
We are not going to focus on all of these excuses this morning, but I want to focus on a single question God asks of Moses. Before we get to that let’s read part of this account - Ex 4:1-20.
Ex 4: 2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
What do you have?Moses said “Nothing”
1) What is nothing to us is something to God
It was used ...
• To confront to soothsayers of Pharaohs court (7:12)
• To turn the waters of Egypt into Blood (7:17-20)
• To bring frogs upon the land (8:5)
• To cause lice throughout all the land of Egypt. (8:16)
• To bring thunder and hail throughout the land (9:23)
• To bring an east wind that brought the locusts across the land. (10:13)
• To cause the waters of the Red Sea to stand up like a wall (14:16)
• To cause the bottom of that sea to dry up so they could pass
• To cause the waters of the Red sea to come back upon Pharaohs armies
• To bring forth water from the rock at Horeb to supply their needs (17:5)
• To bring victory to his army (17:9)
This rod was nothing special of itself; it was just a rod (a stick).
What was significant about this stick was: It was what Moses had.
God did not ask Moses what he didn’t have.
We all could make a long list if what we don’t have.
*We don’t have enough money
*We don’t have a good education
*We don’t have a high social standing
The list can go on and on
God never directs our attention to what we don’t have, but to what we do have even though it seems small.
II) Availability is the key ...
Would this staff been able to be used if remained a stick in the hand of Moses.
To be used, it had to be made available to God for his use.
Once Moses released it, it became God’s for him to use as he needed.
The difference is the power of God.
It is not
*your ability,
*your knowledge,
*your talent,
*the size of your gift
All that matters is: How much of God is in your stick.
Your stick represents what you have that you surrender to God.
When God gets in it, it’s enough
When God gets in it
It will surprise you (Moses fled from his rod when it turned into a serpent).
We need to ask God to get in our stick.
God in our song,
God in our preaching,
God in our marriage,
God in our business.
God in our gift,
God in our talent.
When God gets in a thing it is not the same.
Just like Moses who had never seen his rod do anything like that before.
*God got in a rock and caused a river to flow out of it that quenched the thirst of 1to 3 million Israelites.
*Got got in a donkey and caused it to speak and rebuke a rebellious prophet.
*God got in an axe head of Iron and caused it to swim up to the top of the water so the prophet could reach out his hand and take hold of it.
*God got in a little pot of oil and caused it to multiply till it met every need and provided an abundant overflow.
*God got in a box, and they called it the Ark of the Covenant.
(The Ark was made out of wood, but it was covered with Gold,)
No one would know by looking at the outside, that there was such a valuable treasure inside.
Today God has chosen to place his presence and glory in human tents;
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this (treasure in earthen vessels,) that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
It was only as Moses released his rod to God, that Gods power came into it.
It is only as we surrender ourselves to God that his power will be manifested through us.
God wants to give us something new, something greater, (but you have to be willing to let go of what you have).
III. The rod of Moses became the rod of God.
Moses used the "staff of God" to confront the powers of this world!
Each time, Moses was triumphant!
Moses had carried that staff all along, he already had it, it just needed to be touched by God and transformed to be useful!
God told Moses what he was going to do, and how he would deliver Israel
But he still had to stretch out the rod.
God’s word reveals his will to us, but we still have to Speak it, (Stretch out the rod).
Jesus said we had mountain moving power, but he said in order for the mountain to move we have to speak to it.
Every time Moses stretched out the rod it was a type of speaking the Word out of a believing heart.
One of the greatest problems we have as Believers is we have a tendency to underestimate what we have.
* I have just enough meal and oil for one little cake said the widow of Zarephath
*I have just a little pot of oil, said the widow woman who was in debt and in danger of losing her sons to a life of slavery.
*There is a lad here with two fish and five loaves of bread, but what is that among so many asked Philip a disciple of Jesus.
In each case their little bit was enough.
When they put it in Gods hands it became more than enough.
When Samson was assaulted by the Philistines.
He found the jawbone of an ass and with it slew a thousand men.
(All God needs is for you to make what you have, make yourself available to him).
Put it in his hands.
When Samson used that jawbone, it becomes an instrument of mass destruction.
Had he thought that it was too weak, or too insignificant or too foolish, he may have died at the hands of the enemy..
If we make ourselves and our gifts and talents available to him, He will take them and make them His.
*It is not our voice that we sing with, it is God’s.
*It is not our voice that we teach with, but God’s.
*It is not our hands that we work with, but God’s
Look what God did with a stick
What’s In Your hand?
Do you hear God asking you, "WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR HAND
Has God touched it?
CONCLUSION:
So often we feel we need extraordinary abilities to do God's work.
In truth, we all already possess whatever we need to do God's work, we just need to let God touch it first and then use it!
