What is that in your hand?
It is so encouraging isn’t it to see how many people are involved in ministry in this church. That says to me that there are many people who are serious about using their gifts and talents for God. This is encouraging because this means that you either
1) know what part of the body you are and are committing yourself to fulfilling that function for the benefit of the rest of the body, or
2) are not exactly sure what your role should be - but that is not stopping you from attempting something.
I want to encourage all of you who stood up this morning to serve with enthusiasm this year. Be assured that what you are doing is important in the whole scheme of things - no matter how small.
I know there are 3 types of people here this morning who I want to address. And many of you will find yourself fitting into one of these categories.
• Firstly there the doubting - those who are not willing to serve in any capacity yet. This may be because you doubt that you have anything to offer or that you doubt that you could do anything worth considering. Well listen this morning because God has a message for you
• Secondly there are the worriers - or the nervous. Those of you who have agreed to do something this year that was beyond your wildest dreams a year ago and still even today you are not sure how on earth they are going to carry out the things they have volunteered to do. The only thing that is stopping you crawling under the bed and hiding is that you are scared of letting the already small team down. Do you fit in this category?
• Thirdly there are the comfortable - those who are doing what they have done many times in the past. It doesn’t hold any surprises and they have the skills and experience to be able to carry out the taks comfortably. They don’t need to think about it too much and they certainly don’t need to rely on God as it is almost second nature to them. If you fit into this category, listen this morning because God has something for you.
When you think of Moses, you think of a great leader, a faithful servant. He was given a great task to do and he was certainly a great leader. But he like many of you was initially unwilling to be involved in God’s master plan. 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 in the midst of these excuses. Before we get to that lets read part of this account - Ex 4:1-20.
In the midst of this dialog, after the third excuse God asks Moses simply “What is that in your hand?”
“What Lord, I don’t have anything in my hand.”
“No Moses ... What is that you have in your hand.”
“Oh this ... This Lord ... Well its my staff, just a stick Lord, its a bit battered - almost time for a new one - but its served me well.”
In its context, God had already answered the first two of Moses’ excuses by promising to be with him and to provide him with all the help he needed. But Moses was still unconvinced. He still doubted that God had the skills and ability to carry this thing off and so he said. You’d better find someone else - They won’t listen to me anyway.
To this God asked the question ... “What is that in your hand?”
To Moses his staff was nothing special. It was a walking stick, a weapon, a guide for his sheep. To Moses, it was a staff. It neither made Moses special or unique. But to God is was untapped potential if only it was released to him for service.
What happened? Lets read it ... 3 The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
A Couple of observations here that maybe helpful for us as we begin a new year of ministry ...
1) What is nothing to us, is something to God
In Moses’ hand this was just a staff. But In God’s Hand this was anything he liked. And it was. 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)
To think that Moses called it “JUST A STAFF.”
So What do you have in your hand that God could use? We can find many other instances of others who thought they didn’t have much to offer, but God used what they had mightily.
• All Jochebed had in her hands was some straw, but she wove it into a basket to shelter Moses. So, what do you have in your hand?
• All Miriam had in her hand was a tambourine, but she used it to lead the people to celebrate God’s faithfulness. So, what do you have in your hand?
• Hannah held a small child in her hand, but when she gave him to God, he became a great prophet. So, what do you have in your hand?
• All the widow had was enough food for one more meal for her and her son, but God used it to feed her family and the prophet throughout the famine. So, what do you have in your hand?
• All Mary had in her hand was perfume, but she poured it over Christ as a memorial. So, what do you have in your hand?
• All the little boy had was a sack lunch, but Jesus used it to feed 5000. So, what do you have in your hand?
• All the widow had in her hand was two small coins, but Jesus said it was worth more than the bags of money offered by the rich. So, what do you have in your hand?
• All Jim Knight had in his hand was a wrench, yet God used it to touch the lives of underprivileged families. He didn’t always think like this though, for a long time, he thought he couldn’t do anything. He was a doubter. When asked what he did for a living, he would reply. "I work down at a GM dealership working on cars." Nothing extraordinary at all. But Jim was challenged by his pastor to figure out something he could do for the Lord with what he knew how to do and he did. His idea was ... “why don’t we start a ministry one Saturday a month to do light repairs on the cars of our widows and single women?" Soon Jim and his team were servicing 20+ cars a month. Over the course of a couple of years, the men of the church even fixed up a couple of old junks and gave them to families without transportation. Soon the ministry expanded to include home repair. What a ministry this would be to our community. So, what do you have in your hand?
• Gwen Townsend had a book and knew how to read it, so she and other women from her church started a literacy ministry. Once a week they met with people from the community who didn’t know how to read, tutored them and became their friends. "For G Go God soo Lov ed" she read out loud. Here was a grown woman reading a Bible verse for the very first time. A Woman taught to read by Gwen. So, what do you have in your hand?
Just some straw–no problem, God can use it!
Just a child–you’ve got to be kidding, God can change the world with a child!
Just a bottle of perfume, or a sack lunch, or a wrench, or a book – put it in His hand and He will use it!
For those of you who doubt - don’t doubt. God can use what ever you have, no matter how small for he is truely the God of the impossible You don’t need to be educated, rich, white, good looking. God isn’t interested in thise things, but he is interested in what we have in our hands. We all have something to give. We have life, we have a testimony, we have the word of God, we have prayer, we have material possessions and we have some ability - so stop doubting and give it to God who can do something marvellous with it.
For those of you who are nervous - don’t be. Hudsen Taylor, the great missionary to China wrote in his autobiography "God said to me, "I am going to evangelize China, and if you will walk with me, I will do it through you." It was God’s power that made Hudsen Taylor’s ministry a success, not his individual talents. It was God’s power that made the staff great, not Moses’. It will be God’s power that will make your ministry a success - nothing you do - so stop worrying.
2) Availability is the key ...
Question: Would this staff had been able to be used in these instances if remained a stick in the hand of Moses? No. 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.
What would have been the consequences if Moses refused to let go of his staff? Who knows. Maybe a nation would have remained in slavery, maybe thousands more would have lost their lives, maybe we would not have heard of Moses at all. What are we missing out on because you are holding onto your staff instead of giving it up to God. What will we never accomplish as a church, as a body of believers worldwide if you keep what is in your hand for yourself.
When Michelangelo was ordered to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel, he refused. He had ever done any work of that kind, and said he could not do it. But he was told his refusal would not be accepted. When he discovered that there was no alternative without some very unpleasant consequences, he mixed his colors and went to work. And thus came into being the world’s finest painting. There are few who realize what possibilities are locked up within them until some necessity compels them to attempt something they have always considered impossible. But it is only impossible to you - not to God.
So what is in your hand? Have you released it to God? Notice that when it is released, God gives it back - we don’t lose it, it just becomes more valuable.
Doubters - Are you still doubting that you have nothing to offer. Release what you have - your skills, your hobbies, your dreams, your hopes to God - let him use them and be surprised. Find somewhere to serve or create a new area.
You Worrriers - The solution to worry is to hand it over to God. It is his work, so let’s use his power to accomplish it. Let him have free access to your resources and let him work through you. Don’t worry, pray.
You who are Comfortable - It is easy to rely on our own talents and abilities if we are comfortable with the tasks which we are undertaking. We come to believe that we don’t need God’s help and so we don’t seek it. What a mistake this is. We fail to realise that it was God’s power that made our previous attempts successful. Now we are cutting off our real source of power. We, like everyone else need to release our gifts to God and rely on him and his power. Allow him to work through us - to make our service even more effective. Don’t dare to attempt anything for God this year without first seeking his power - otherwise you will never be as effective as you could have been.
3) If we make available what is in our hand - it becomes God’s (Ex 4:20)
There is an amazing postscript to this account in Ex 4:20 which I believe is so important. In verse 20 we read “So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.”
What did Moses take in his hand? It was no longer his staff, but God’s. He went to Egypt to do God’s work, with a promise of God’s power and with God’s tools.
When we do God’s work, we do it not only in his strength, but with his provisions. If we make ourselves and our gifts and talents available to him, he takes them and stamps his name on them. 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. It is not our compassion that we help with, but God’s.
What do you use to minister in this church? Is it your gifts and abilities you use or is it God’s? Have you handed them across to God to use as he sees fit or are you holding them close not prepared to share them?
In closing, I believe God has a word for each of us here today. What has he spoken to you about and more importantly what are you going to do about it?
Firstly, How are you serving God this year? Maybe you have been convicted that you were not among those who stood up here this morning. Maybe you need to get involved - to stop doubting that you have nothing to contribute and realise that nothing in the hands of man is something in the hands of God. No matter how small, God can use your service for him and make an incredible impact. God needs you, the world needs you, the church body needs you - will you take you place in the body and help us change this community?
When Milan Cathederal was finished, in the vast throngs of people assembled to witness the dedication was a little girl who was heard to cry out in childish glee, as she pointed to the great building, "I helped to build that!"
"What!" exclaimed one of the guards who was standing in brilliant uniform. "Show me what you did."
"I carried the dinner pail for my father while he worked up yonder," she replied.
Her part, though humble, helped to complete the plans of the architect. Our part in life may seem small, but it should loom large in our thought when we remember that it is helping to complete the plan of the Divine Architect.
So what part can you play? Please stand up all the leaders of ministries in this church who need more people to help them? For those who are looking for a place to serve - look around and talk to these people after the service.
Secondly, Are we making available to God what is in our hands, our hearts, our minds. Handing them to the master potter so that he can use them; so that he can breathe power in them. You know how to get a successful ministry? Someone once said that to be successful we need to work as if it is all up to us and pray as if it is all up to God. Jesus told us to pray in his name - the name that has authority and power. We need to pray for power, for his enabling and for him to use us and our gifts.
God has given us all that we need to accomplish his work in the world - so what are we waiting for. We need to offer him up our resources that he has given us. By doing this we allow God to minister through us - we can then just go along for the ride.
For those who are nervous you need to realise that you have the same promises available as what God has given to Moses. God is with you, He will work through you and provide you all the resources which you need. It is his work after all, so trust him.
For those of us who tend to be comfortable, we need to work on relying on God even more. Seek his power every time we do something for him. Ask him to use your efforts to Glorify him.
Thirdly, Are we giving God the glory for what he does through us? Remember that when we make ourselves and our talents available to God, It is no longer our staff that is being used, it is God’s. It is his power, his wisdom, his words, his success and for us to take credit for it is wrong. So when someone compliments you on something you have been involved with - lets resolve this year to give God the glory.
So what do you have in your hand? And what are you going to do with it? Remember the choice is up to you, but I pray that we, like Moses, would be surprised, and even terrified at times by the power of the staff in our hands.
