God gave us two hands because God has a lot for us to do for Him. The shame of many today is that they will use their hands to provide for themselves, but will not use them to provide for the work of the Lord.
Illus: Our hands are very valuable to us, but some hands are more valuable than others.
• A basketball in my hands is worth about $19.00 dollars. In Michael Jordan’s hands it’s worth about $33 million.
• A baseball in my hands is worth about $6.00 dollars. In Mark McGuire’s hands it’s worth about $19 million.
• A rod in my hands will keep a wild animal away. A rod in Moses’ hands parted a mighty sea.
• A sling shot in my hands is a child’s toy. A sling shot in David’s hands was a mighty weapon.
• Two fish and five loaves of bread in my hands is lunch. Two fish and five loaves of bread in Jesus’ hands fed thousands.
• Nails in my hands will produce a birdhouse. Nails in Jesus’ hands produced salvation for the world.
It all depends upon whose hands it’s in.
The way folks have used their hands in this society in which we live has made a lot of difference for the GOOD and the BAD!
• While all of us have similar hands PHYSCIALLY, yet when we place them side by side we see a difference in them.
• And the same thing is true when it comes to our SPIRITUAL HANDS. When Christians compare them side by side, they can see vast differences.
In the first sermon, I talked to you about having WORKING HANDS. I showed that the Lord Jesus had working hands.
He was a carpenter. Look at Mark 6:3, we read, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.”
Those PRECIOUS HANDS THAT WERE NAILED TO A CROSS FOR OUR SINS most likely had scratches, cuts, and calluses from the hard work that he did as a carpenter.
If we are going to be Christ-like in the way folks see us each day, we can not be lazy, because you never see the Lord laying around under some shade tree in the scriptures.
It seems that when it comes to having working hands, the government hires their share of lazy people. But not only do they seem to be lazy, when they do work what they do does not make any sense.
Illus: Did you hear about the two city employees?
One day a man noticed some city employee furiously digging holes along the road side, then another man would come behind him and quickly fill the hole with the same dirt that was taken out. They were drenched in sweat.
The man watching from the sidewalk couldn't believe how hard they were working, but also couldn't understand what they were doing.
Finally he said: "I'm confused. You dig a hole and then your coworker comes behind you and fills it up again!"
The digger leaned on his shovel and replied, "Oh yeah, it must look funny. You see, the lazy rascal who plants the trees is sick again today! But we are still getting paid to do our job!”
We Christians should have working hands. In fact, if you go to any factory in this country, the best employees should be Christians who are representing Christ. But that is not always the case.
Illus: A Christian man was applying for a job.
• The manager said: "I'm sorry I can't hire you, because there isn't enough work to keep you busy."
• The applicant said: "You'd be surprised how little it takes."
Illus: Did you hear about four fellows each claiming they had the best dog in the world?
• The first was an engineer, who said his dog could do math calculations. His dog is named T-square, and he told him to get some paper and draw a square, a circle, and a triangle, which the dog did with no problem.
• The accountant said his dog was better. His dog was named Slide Rule. He told him to fetch a dozen cookies, bring them back and divide them into piles of 3, which he did with no problem.
• The chemist said that was good, but his dog was better. His dog Measure was told to get a quart of milk and pour 7 ounces into a 10 ounce glass. The dog did this with no problem.
All 3 men agreed this was very good and all the dogs were equally smart. They all turned to the union member and said, "What can your dog do?"
• The union member called his dog, whose name was Coffee Break, and said, "Show the fellas what you can do." Coffee Break went over and ate the cookies, drank the milk, walked down a set of stairs, claimed he injured his back while doing so, filed a grievance for unsafe working conditions, applied for worker's compensation, and left for home on sick leave.
But it does not matter where we work. If you are a Christian you should be the best employee in the place. One of these days we are going to be gone, but will your life reveal you had WORKING HANDS when you were here?
We look at people when they die and we determine if they were successful by how much money they left behind.
• But that is not the best way to evaluate a person’s life. We have some today who are not worth the paper their birth certificate was written on, but they have inherited millions.
• A true assessment of a person’s life should be determined by their hands. DID THEY HAVE WORKING HANDS? What did they leave behind?
But let’s look at some other kinds of hands we can have. For example, we can have-
II. DIRTY HANDS
Look at James 4:8, we read, “…Cleanse your hands, ye sinners...”
As bad as a lazy person might be in representing the Lord Jesus, a person with DIRTY HANDS IS EVEN WORSE. This is why the Word of God states, “…Cleanse your hands, ye sinners...”
Illus: Let me ask you something. Suppose you went to a reputable restaurant. When your order was brought to your table, you noticed that the waitress or the waiter had dirty hands. And their hands were touching the food you had ordered. Would you be able to eat that meal?
I couldn’t!
Illus: Suppose you went to a reputable restaurant to eat and went to the rest room to wash your hands. The cook was there using the facilities and you noticed when he left the rest room he did not wash his hands. Could you eat at such a place? I couldn’t!
Listen, we do not want to go to a restaurant where the food is prepared by people who have DIRTY HANDS!
Illus: One of the things that schools used to teach and grade students on was good hygiene. Many of us can remember having the teacher come down the rows in our class room, checking each student to see if our clothes and hands were clean.
Today you can smell some students before you see them.
Illus: They remind me of the little boy that the teacher felt was not bathing as he should, and other children did not want sit next to him. She called the parents in for a conference, but how can you tell a parent their child has a B.O. (body odor) problem. So rather than say, “Your child stinks!” she decided to say he was “Spoiled” The mother quickly said, “He always smells this way!”
We do not like people to handle our food with dirty hands, and listen, the Lord Jesus does not like dirty hands. God can not use folks with DIRTY HANDS! The Lord commands the lost man to cleanse his hands.
What is the Lord looking for today? He is looking for-
III. HOLY HANDS
Look at 1 Timothy 2:8 “I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.”
Do you know what the lifting of hands symbolizes? It means surrender.
Illus: What happens when someone tries to rob you? They tell you to “Stick ‘em up!” And you do not ask them what they mean, we know it means we are to stick our hands up to show that we surrender.
God’s Word teaches that we should lift up HOLY HANDS toward heaven as a symbol of recognizing that He has the right to say to us, “Surrender your life to me!”
I think it is a wonderful thing when you are in a worship service and you get so caught up in worship, that you forget everyone around you and focus on the Lord, and you lift up holy hands to heaven and say, “Lord, I recognize your greatness and I surrender myself unto you.”
Now let me comment on the lifting up of hands. Some folks, in lifting up of hands, seem to think the idea is to see if they can touch the ceiling. When the Bible talks about lifting up holy hands, many times it was no higher than their shoulders.
You see, we need to be careful that the things we do in our worship are not to be seen by men. And many times it is done to make someone look spiritual when they are not. But when it is done for the right purpose, that is great!
If you are living a holy life, the Word of God teaches we should “Lift up holy hands.”
But we also need to consider that we should have-
IV. HELPING HANDS
The Bible records a lawyer with dirty hands in Luke 10:25-37. But it also shows us a Samaritan who had HELPING HANDS.
The parable itself takes place on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was 17 miles of rough, winding road; plenty of places for robbers to hide. It was a dangerous journey.
We see three things we want to look at briefly about the Samaritan who had holy hands. Let’s look at -
A. THE PLACE
Look at verses 25-29, we read, “And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?”
He wanted to know what he could do to be saved. He knew the Law.
He was a “Nike” Jew – He wanted to “Just Do It”. So What’s so wrong with that? Aren’t we supposed to do good works?
• First, the Law was given to show us our sinfulness; it pointed out that man fell short of the righteous requirements of the law.
• Second, the Law had no power to produce righteousness; Its demands could never be kept apart from the power of God in a person’s life through a personal relationship.
Pride blinded the mind of this lawyer - he really thought that he could keep the law through his own efforts. The lawyer tried to put Jesus on the spot. Instead, Jesus turned the tables on him and gently put him on the spot.
HOW DID JESUS DO THIS? By telling the lawyer a parable.
B. THE PARABLE
Look at verses 30-35, we read, “And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.”
Let’s for a moment picture ourselves somewhere in the story. Have you ever had a chance to help someone in need, but for some reason you did not. You were too afraid or too busy to help? I think we all have.
The fact of the matter was that…
• The robbers
• The priest
• The Levite
… all went away leaving the poor man half dead.
Illus: They make us think of two social workers who were walking through a rough part of the city in the evening. They heard moans and muted cries for help from a back lane. Upon investigation, they found a semi-conscious man in a pool of blood. "Help me, I've been mugged and viciously beaten" he pleaded.
The two social workers turned and walked away. One remarked to her colleague: "You know the person that did that really needs help."
But what did the good Samaritan do?
• He went to the man
• He took pity on the beaten man
• He used his hands to bandage his wounds
• He used his hands to pour oil and wine on him
• He used his hands and put the man on his own donkey
• He used his hands to lead the donkey to an inn
• He used his hands and reached into his purse and took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper asking him to look after him
And finally, he promised the Innkeeper to reimburse him for any extra expense he might incur.
Illus: A seminary student became bored with all the constant barrage of intellectual learning and longed to do the ministry as Jesus did. He got in his car and drove to the local county Hospital to visit the sick and minister to them. When he arrived in one room:
• He noticed there was a clergyman sitting in a chair opposite a dirty, unkempt patient. This clergyman was wearing pristine white vestments and performed a series of rituals that are common to his denomination. Then the clergyman got up, said a few religious sayings and left the room. This minister never touched the patient, and took great care to keep his distance from the patient.
• The seminary student who had been reading about the life of Christ entered the room. He introduced himself and told the patient that God loved him. Then he took a sponge and cleaned the man up. Then he got out shaving cream and a razor and shaved the man. Finally, he washed his hair and combed it.
The patient was astounded. He got up from his bed and walked down the hall of the hospital with his face beaming because this young minister had holy and helping hands.
Which minister do you think the patient was influenced by, the first one or the latter one?
The Samaritan did not just say that he loved the Lord, his helping hands proved it.
Conclusion:
Illus: An English dignitary once asked Mohandas K. Ghandhi, “Why are you not a Christian?” His answer was this: “When those who profess to be Christians obey Christ as their Lord and King, when they live in total obedience to His teachings and commandments, I will become a Christian.”
Who is our neighbor? Our neighbor is the very next hurting person we meet, whether friend or enemy.
Illus: In 1921, Lewis Lawes became the warden at Sing Sing Prison. No prison was tougher than Sing Sing during that time. But when Warden Lawes retired some 20 years later, that prison had become a humanitarian institution. Those who studied the system said credit for the change belonged to Lawes. But when he was asked about the transformation, here’s what he said: “I owe it all to my wonderful wife, Catherine, who is buried outside the prison walls.”
Catherine Lawes was a young mother with three small children when her husband became the warden. Everybody warned her from the beginning that she should never set foot inside the prison walls, but that didn’t stop Catherine! When the first prison basketball game was held, she went…..walking into the gym with her three beautiful kids and she sat in the stands with the inmates.
Her attitude was: “My husband and I are going to take care of these men and I believe they will take care of me! I don’t have to worry!”
She insisted on getting acquainted with them and their records. She discovered one convicted murderer was blind so she paid him a visit. Holding his hand in hers she said, “Do you read Braille?”
“What’s Braille?” he asked. Then she taught him how to read. Years later he would weep in love for her.
Later, Catherine found a deaf-mute in prison. She went to school to learn how to use sign language. Many said that Catherine Lawes was the body of Jesus that came alive again in Sing Sing from 1921 to 1937.
Then, she was killed in a car accident. The next morning Lewis Lawes didn’t come to work, so the acting warden took his place. It seemed almost instantly that the prison knew something was wrong.
The following day, her body was resting in a casket in her home, three-quarters of a mile from the prison. As the acting warden took his early morning walk, he was shocked to see a large crowd of the toughest, hardest looking criminals gathered like a herd of animals at the main gate. He came closer and noted tears of grief and sadness. He knew how much they loved Catherine. He turned and faced the men, “All right, men, you can go. Just be sure and check in tonight!” Then he opened the gate and a parade of criminals walked, without a guard, the three-quarters of a mile to stand in line to pay their final respects to Catherine Lawes. And every one of them checked back in. Every one!
You do not have to live a wasted life, if you get the right kind of hands you can make a difference, and when you are dead and gone, people will talk about what you left behind.
The Lord left us here to do something with our hands besides using them for ourselves. Which kind do you have?
(Part 1)
I. WORKING HANDS
(Part 2)
II. DIRTY HANDS
III. HOLY HANDS
IV. HELPING HANDS
