What is in your hand?
We have been looking at Life Changing Questions that God asked.
“Where are you?”, “Who said you were Naked?”, “Why are you laughing?”, “What is your name?”
Today the next Question is “What is in your hand?”.
Exodus 4:2 (KJV) And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
Christians are unfruitful because they believe they are not qualified
to do what God calls them to do!
We look for something that will help us feel we can do the job God calls us to do....but that something is usually something we don’t now have.
Satan’s fear is not our being a Christian, it is our getting involved in ministry
as a Christian...for if we stay unproductive or sedentary, Christianity will quit
spreading.
There is no doubt about God’s call on our lives...it is a call to be active in
ministry...the question we struggle with is "how to do it".
The Bible will teach us that we possess whatever is necessary to do
what God calls us to do, we just need to let Him touch those areas of our life supernaturally to become effective for Him.
There was a young boy who was the son of a drifter. This boy worked as a store clerk for a while, but the store failed. He bought a partnership in another store, but it failed also. He ran for legislature and lost both times. He ran for vice-president and lost. He became the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
There was another boy who was called a "slow learner." A teacher recommended he be withdrawn from school because of his seeming inability.
He tried to go to school in Switzerland, but failed the entrance exam. He was fired from three teaching jobs. At age 26 he won the Nobel Prize. He was Albert Einstein.
Here were men who suffered serious setbacks in life, road blocks if you will, but they did the best they could do and to and become great in their fields. How much more important is it for a child of God to use the ability God has given them?
God put us here to worship him.
Secondly, we were made for God’s family. He fashioned us to live in fellowship with others. Believers need the support and encouragement of others in the family of the church.
We are shaped for God’s service. The Bible terms this purpose—ministry.
Yet many times the very things God has given us to use for His glory, get laid aside, get hidden away because the devil sidetracks the people of God.
The devil knows he can’t take away that which God has given you. Your time, talents, and treasures are yours from God.
But the devil desires to keep you from using them for Christ.
If the devil can keep us from doing that which God has commanded us to do, through fear, discouragement, self-pity, or any other thing he has been successful,
Ecclesiastes 9:10
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might....
I. What I Have is Insignificant To God
Let me tell you about a man who took something insignificant in his hand, and God made it miraculous.
There was a man of God named Samson.
God had set him apart and made him a judge over Israel.
Samson had super-human strength which was given to him by God and God had given him many victories.
Samson finds himself in real trouble. He has been bound and is going to be delivered into the hands of his enemies, the Philstines. As he was being delivered into their hands, God’s Spirit moved, and the ropes which bound him broke.
Judges 15:14-15 (KJV) Jdg 15:14 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
. Yet he was still surrounded by a great host of trained and armed fighting men.
If you and I had been there we would have said " Samson, give up. You don’t have a sword or a shield.’ But the Bible says Sampson grabbed a near by object and used to kill 1,000 fighting men. What did he grab? Was it a sword or a spear? No, it was the jawbone of a Donkey.
You might say what could Samson possibly do with a jawbone. Samson couldn’t do anything with it, but it was all he had in his hand and he trusted God with it. And God took that insignificant object and wrought a great victory.
Jdg 15:15 And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
What brought that victory? Was it the jawbone? No it was the man who held the jawbone who was willing to let God use what was in his hand. No matter how insignificant it seemed.
The devil is telling you that the thing which God has in your hand, time, talent, or treasure is insignificant. And it is insignificant if you try to use it in your own strength or hide it away.
But take that which seems to be insignificant. That which seems to be nothing but a jawbone, and give it to God. And God will take that which He has placed in your hand to bring a great spiritual victory.
Don’t hold back our mouth from witnessing to others because we feel inadequate. Give it to God.
Read our Bible even if our understanding seems limited compared to others. Give it to God.
Pray even if we feel we don’t know how.
Give it God.
What’s in your hand? Give it God, and you will see miracles in your life.
II. What I Have Is Not Enough
Some think they don’t have enough TIME, ENERGY.
I could be faithful to church but that cuts into my time.
I could teach that class but I don’t have enough energy
Lets look at a lady who learned to give all that was in her hand.
Elijah, the man of God, had been dwelling by a brook and was being fed by ravens. Then the brook dried up and God told him to go to a city called Zarapeth and to find a widow woman who would feed him. Elijah found the widow woman and told her what God had said.
But when she looked at what was in her hand, it didn’t seem to be enough.
1 Kings 17:12-13 (KJV) 1Ki 17:12 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
1Ki 17:13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
Elijah said, " Do that which God said." The widow obeyed God .
I Kings 17:16 says " And the barrel of meal did not waste, neither did the cruse fail, according to the word of the Lord."
What would have happened if she had hoarded that which was in her hand?
They would have starved.
What happened when they gave it to God?
He multiplied it over and over.
Christian, are you hoarding your time?
You are using it for yourself instead of giving it to God.
You can spiritually starve to death.
Give what you have to God and let Him multiply it and you will be spiritually full and running over.
The reason many think they are starving in a church is because they are keeping their time and energy for themselves.
III. That Which God Has Placed In My Hand May Make Others Laugh.
You desire to be used of God.
You desire to win victories for Christ.
You desire to fight a good fight.
But what God has given you is just laughed at by the world.
How can one person make a difference with what God has given you?
The Philistines were set to do battle with the Children of Israel..
A Philistine giant challenged Israel day after day to send out a man to fight him.
No one was willing to fight him except a Shepard boy named David.
1 Sam. 17:42 And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.
43 And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
44 And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.
45 Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied
46 This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
47 And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give you into our hands.
And when David when out to do battle, the giant laughed at him.
All David had was a sling shot in his hand.
But when the giant fell from a stone in his forehead no one was laughing any more and a great victory was won.
People may laugh at what God has given you. They may tell you it is impossible for you to do anything for God. But you remember David and say, people may laugh at what I have but God it’s yours. And He will use it to defeat some great giants.
IV. What God Has Placed In My Hand is OLD AGE and
UNQUALITYFIED in an Unimportant Place
Look at Moses:
80 years
old working for his father-in-law,
keeping sheep,
on the back side of the desert,
in a foreign country.
Look at the EXCUSES
• 1] Who Am I?! - Exodus 3:1-12
• [2] Who Should I Say Sent Me?! - Exodus 3:13-22
• [3] What If They Don’t Believe Me?! - Exodus 4:1-9
• [4] But I’m Not Eloquent! - Exodus 4:10-12
• [5] Lord, Send Someone Else! - Exodus 4:13-17
Exodus 4:2 (KJV) And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
We all know the Rod was something that he used every day controlling the sheep but when Moses gave it to God, it lead the Children of Israel to the Promise Land.
What do you have in your hand?
1. Does it seem insignificant? Tell that to
Sampson. God wants to use small things.
2. Does it seem not enough Time or energy to share? Tell that to the
widow. Little is much when God is in it.
3. Does the world laugh at what God has given
you? Tell that to David. Your sling shot
will defeat giants.
4. Do you think age and former failures will stop you from being what God wants?
Tell Moses a old rod become a Symbol of Authority of God
It’s not whats in your hand, it’s what you let God do with it!
