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.
So,That stick told Moses, “You are nothing but a shepherd keeping another man's flock!”
?Like Moses, we also hold some things in our hands today. We need to learn to Handle It!
Listen to some of the things we hold. "Some of those things are good and others are evil."
Here is a short list of some of the things we hold on to today:
the past, some pet sin, some hard feelings over things people have done or said to us, unforgiveness, the sorrows of life, feelings of inadequacy or being unqualified, negativity, talents, natural abilities, and accomplishments.
All of these things, whether they are good or bad, identify you and control your lives. You come to depend on the things you hold in your hands and you may even think you can't live without them. They become an integral part of your lives.
Like a shepherd leans on his staff, you lean on the things that you hold in your hands.
You lean on the things you hold in your hands. Things like your past, problems, grudges, abilities and your talents. You live for those things and you allow them to define our personality and control your spiritual destiny.
You look at some of the things you hold in your hands and believe that those things are all you will ever be.
God will use Moses to teach us that we can rise above the things that we hold in our hands. We will see that what we hold does not have to hold us! We Have to Handle it!
II.) Moses Held His Problem in His Hand (v. 2)
When Moses heard the Lord's question, it must have stabbed his heart. “What is that in your hand?” is the question. “A Staff ” is the answer.
Moses must have remembered a time when his hands held all any young man could ever dream of. Surely his mind went back to those days in the palace in Egypt when he was being trained and educated to be a Pharaoh. He may have remembered a time when he held the world in his hand, now he has nothing but a dry, dead stick.
God knew what Moses had in his hand. God was not asking for information. God was asking for instruction. God was asking Moses to carefully consider the thing he held in his hand. In Moses' life, the thing he held also held him!
That staff identified Moses and that staff also represented all the problems in his life!
?That staff reminded him that he used to be a prince.
?That staff reminded him that he was just a servant.
?That staff reminded him that he was poor and owned nothing.
?That staff reminded Moses that his life was filled with vast potential at one time, but that
now, he was merely a has been, a washed up nobody on the back side of the desert.
All the things I mentioned before, have the ability to define us. Your sins, Your past, Your hurts, Your negative feelings about others, all impact who you are and how you relate to those around you. They even determine how you serve the Lord.
If you allow the negative aspects of your life to control you, then you will stand in the way of the Lord and of His will being done in your life. Even the positive aspects of our lives, like our talents and abilities, become liabilities when we depend on them instead of the Lord.
I would remind you that we are to be controlled by nothing and no one but Jesus Christ.
Paul said: Romans 12:2 (NKJV) 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
?What do you have in your hand? Are you handling it or is it handling you?
What are you clinging to today? Is there some attitude, some activity, some action, that defines your life? The only thing that should identify is “Christlikeness”
? Paul could say, in Phil. 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ…” if you made that statement, how would it come out of your heart? What do you live for? Whatever it is, it reveals your personality. Whatever it is, it controls your life! and you need to Handel It!
III.) Moses Held His Potential in His Hand (v. 3-5)
When Moses finally gives into God's call on his life, God uses a series of miracles to teach Moses the truth and that He has this thing that has Moses. God has it handeled!
1.) The staff becomes a serpent and then it becomes a staff again (v. 3-4).
2.) Moses' hand becomes leprous and then clean again (v. 6-8)
3.) God tells Moses that he will be able to turn water to blood (v. 9)
All these miracles are designed to comfort Moses and teach him that he is indeed a man sent from the Lord.
?Moses is commanded to take the staff and “cast it on the ground”. When he does, it turns into a snake. The bible says, Moses runs from the snake. This tells me that it was probably not an ordinary snake. Most likely, it was a cobra. Cobras were worshiped as gods by the Egyptians. (Pharaoh even wore a golden cobra around his neck.)
Seeing Moses take a stick and turn it into a cobra would tell the Egyptians that the God Moses represented was more powerful than the gods the Egyptians worshiped.
?Here's my point, To Moses that staff was nothing but a tool, a weapon, a necessary part of his life. It was just a dead, dry stick.
When that stick was given over to God, it became a living thing. It became a thing of power that God used to defeat enemies and to glorify Himself.
God took that insignificant stick and worked wonders with it.
It was used to turn the waters to blood — 7:17-20.
It was used to bring forth the plague of frogs — 8:5.
It was used to bring forth the plague of lice — 8:16.
It was used to bring forth the plague of thunder and hail — 9:23.
It was used to call and east wind that blew in the plague of locusts — 10:13.
It was used to part the Red Sea — 14:16.
It was used to cause the Red Sea to come together again, drowning Pharaoh's army — 14:27.
It was used to bring water from a rock in the desert — 17:5.
It was used to bring victory over the Amalekites — Exodus 17:9 (NKJV)
9 And Moses said to Joshua, "Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand."
In vs. 4, Moses was commanded to “reach out your hand, and take it by the tail”.
People who work with snakes will tell you that this is a recipe for disaster. If you are going to pick up a snake, you should always grab it behind the head.
(? My encounter with a timber rattler coon hunting.) Moses was commanded to take the snake by the tail to teach him that he could trust the Lord to take care of him. When Moses obeyed, the snake became a dead stick. But, I guarantee you that Moses never looked at that stick the same way again
The very thing Moses feared became the tool God used to bring Glory to His name and excel Moses.
?It was not until Moses reached out and grabbed it by the tail that it became a staff again! Somebody say Handle It!
You have got throw what is in your hands down and handle it ! Trust God reach out and handle it! watch the glory of God shine!
?I do not know what you hold in your hand today. But, I do know this: You have got to Handel It!
If what you hold in your hand is not yielded to Jesus, it's a hindrance in your life! It holds you back from being everything you could be for the Lord. Not only does it hold you back, but it also affects everyone around you! It affects your family. It affects your church. It affects everything you touch in your life and everything that touches you.
?That sin you refuse to abandon to the grace of God is a dead stick in your hand; but when you give it to God in confession and repentance, it becomes and opportunity for Him to display His grace, His forgiveness and His restoration. Handel It!
?That bitterness over some past wrong you feel you have suffered is a dead stick in your hand; but when you bring that thing to God, He is able to deliver you from the bondage you are in and restore you to a place of blessing. Handel It!
?That negative spirit you possess that causes you to look for the bad in everyone and everything is a dead stick in your hand; but when you bring it to the Lord, He is able to give you His perspective on people and events. He is able to bring you out of that bondage. Handel It!
?That sorrow that you have allowed to shape your life and steal your joy is a dead stick in your hand; but bring it to God and He will teach you that He has a purpose even in your pain, and He will teach you the truth of Romans 8:28 (NKJV) 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
?That ability you have that you are so proud of can be a dead stick in your hand; but when that ability is surrendered to the Lord, it becomes a channel of blessing whereby He is able to use your life in greater ways. Handel It!
?Those accomplishments in your past that you continually look to are a dead stick in your hands; but when you yield them to the Lord, He will enable you to see that He has even greater things in your future. Handel It!
I am trying to get you to understand that everything you hold in your hands is either a burden or a blessing depending upon what you do with it. When you hold on to it, it is a problem. When you yield it up, He is able to release its potential for blessing in our lives.
Look at you Neighbor and say Handle It!
Everything we hold in our hands can hinder our life, our walk with God, our family and our church, if those things are not yielded up to the control of Almighty God.
Conclusion:
Moses yielded the stick he carried that day to the Lord. When he did, he was released from its power. When he did, it ceased to define him. When he did, it became the power of God in his life.
“What is that in your hand?” what do you carry today? What defines you? What are you holding on to that holds you back and keeps you from being everything God saved you to be?
Is there some sin that needs to be laid down? Is there some event from your past, some hurt, some sorrow, some bitterness, that hinders you today? Is there some area of life where you feel like you have arrived? Is there some talent or ability that fills you with pride? Is there something in your life that holds you back? Is there something in you that holds your family and your church back?
Look at your life and see what you hold. You may hold it in your hand, but it dominates and controls your life. Handle It!
Life is either about a dead stick or a powerful Saviour. Which is true in your life will be determined by how you Handle It!
