What Is That In Thine Hand?

WHAT IS THAT IN THINE HAND ?

Ex.3:1-4:5; 17

Usability

To show that God can use most anything if we will only surrender it to him

A. WHY GOD WANTS WHAT’S IN YOUR HAND

1. God doesn’t ask you to give him what is in someone else’s hand, only what is in your hand

2. God doesn’t ask you to give what you do not already have in your hand

3. God does not need Strength, he just needs what is in your hand

4. God does not need Beauty, He only needs what is in your hand

5. God does not need Intelligence, He simply needs what’s in your hand

6. God doesn’t need Talent, He just wants what’s in your hand

7. God doesn’t ask you to go off and get something in your hand so you can give it to him. God just wants what is already in your hand.

B. THERE WAS NOTHING EXTRAORDINARY ABOUT MOSES OR THIS ROD

1. The rod was just a simple shepherd’s rod

2. Without the rod Moses was just like any other man

3. The rod didn’t make Moses unique from all other Shepherd

4. The rod in Moses hand was just another rod, But given to God from Moses hand it was used to do the miraculous

5. God can’t use anything you’ve got until you let go of it

6. God doesn’t have you until he has what’s in your hand

7. As long as you’re in God’s hand, all God needs is what’s in your hand

D. ONCE GIVEN TO GOD THIS ROD WAS USED IN THE HAND OF MOSES

1. To confront to soothsayers of Pharaohs court (7:12)

2. To turn the waters of Egypt into Blood (7:17-20)

3. To bring frogs upon the land (8:5)

4. To cause lice throughout all the land of Egypt. (8:16)

5. To bring thunder and hail throughout the land (9:23)

6. To bring an east wind that brought the locusts across the land. (10:13)

7. To cause the waters of the Red Sea to stand up like a wall (14:16)

8. To cause the bottom of that sea to dry up so they could pass

9. To cause the waters of the Red sea to come back upon Pharaohs armies

10. To bring forth water from the rock at Horeb to supply their needs (17:5)

E. GOD CAN USE ANYBODY SO LONG AS HE CAN HAVE WHAT IS IN THEIR HAND

1. Educated or Uneducated, Rich or Poor, Black or White matters not to God.

2. The important thing to God is does he have what is in your hand.

3. None of us have the same thing in our hand, but all of us have something that can be used of God to do the miraculous.

C. THE INTERACTION BETWEEN MOSES AND GOD IS CHRISTIANITY IN IT’S MOST BASIC FORM

1. God makes inquiry of Moses

2. Moses answers God’s inquiry

3. God gives Moses a simple command

4. Moses simply obeys God’s command

5. God transforms the ordinary into the miraculous

6. God gives back what is given to Him with dividends (v.17)

F. WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF MOSES WOULD HAVE REFUSED TO GIVE TO GOD WHAT WAS IN HIS HAND?

1. A nation would have stayed in slavery

2. Thousands would have been killed

3. We may have never heard of Moses at all

4. The rod would have been just another rod

5. What’s happening as you hold onto what’s in your hand instead of giving it to God?

G. WE WILL NEVER REALIZE THE FULL POTENTIAL OF WHAT WE HOLD IN OUR HAND UNTIL OR UNLESS WE ARE WILLING TO LET GO OF IT AND GIVE IT TO GOD

1. You’ll never really have what’s in your hand until you give it to God

2. Once Moses gave it to God from his hand, it was given back into the hand of Moses by God to be used for God (17)

3. We need to realize that we can do more with what is in our hand once we give it to God

4. You may say Moses didn’t have much to give up. it was just a rod. Nothing you have is any better than this rod if it remains only in your hand

5. You will never be all that you were meant to be until you give whatever is in your hand to God!

BODY

I WHAT IS THAT IN THINE HAND, LAD? - Five loaves and two fishes

1. Not much you say, but given to God it was used to feed 5000

2. What if the Lad had held on to his lunch?

3. Would we have had such a wonderful miracle recorded by Jesus?

II WHAT IS THAT IN THINE HAND, MARY OF BETHANY? - a box of precious ointment (Mt.26:7-13)