Wholly Devoted Hands Series

Introduction:

A. Today we continue our Wholly Devoted Series.

1. We are exploring how to be wholly devoted to God with all that we are and all that we have.

2. Let’s review the two verses that have provided the Scriptural foundation for the series.

a. Jesus said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)

b. Paul wrote: “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).

3. So far in our series, we have explored what it means to have:

a. A wholly devoted mind.

b. A wholly devoted heart.

c. A wholly devoted tongue.

d. Wholly devoted eyes.

e. And wholly devoted ears.

4. Today we want to explore what it means to have wholly devoted hands.

B. Let’s start with a couple of children’s jokes about hands.

1. Why did the one handed man cross the road? To get to the second hand shop

2. What did the boy octopus say to the girl octopus? I wanna hold your hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, hand, and hand!

C. Hands are a truly an amazing creation of God.

1. Each hand is made up of at least 29 major and minor bones.

2. Each hand has of 29 major joints.

3. Each hand has 123 named ligaments.

4. Each hand has 34 muscles which move the fingers and thumb: 17 of them are in the palm of the hand, and 18 are in the forearm.

5. Each hand has 48 named nerves.

6. Each hand has 30 named arteries and nearly as many smaller named branches.

7. About a quarter of the motor cortex in the human brain (the part of the brain which controls all movement in the body) is devoted to the muscles of the hands.

8. Sir Isaac Newton said: “In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God's existence.”

9. One person said, “We can land men on the moon, but, for all our mechanical and electronic wizardry, we cannot reproduce an artificial fore-finger that can feel as well as beckon.” (John Napier)

10. So, physically speaking, our hands are amazingly complex and useful!

D. It is also amazing what we can communicate with just our hands.

1. What does this hand gesture communicate? I love you!

a. A-ok or Okay.

b. Beckoning sign.

c. Clenched fist.

d. Fist Bump or High Five.

e. Crossed fingers.

f. Loser.

g. Talk to the hand.

h. Thumbs Up.

i. V sign – peace or victory

j. Vulcan salute.

k. World's Smallest Violin.

E. It is also amazing how the hand has made it into our communication through the use of idioms.

1. We say things like: “Give someone a hand,” which can mean to applaud or to help.

a. All hands on deck.

b. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

c. Cold hands, warm heart.

d. You will be eating out of my hand.

e. Get your hands dirty.

f. We are making money hand over fist.

g. You have the upper hand.

h. I know it like the back of my hand.

i. You are near at hand, or won’t lift a hand.

j. Leave it in their hands, or it is out of my hands, or my hands are tied.

k. You are my right hand man.

l. Don’t tip your hand, or wring your hands, or take matters into your own hands.

F. Have you ever noticed that you can tell a lot about a person from looking at their hands?

1. If you look closely to a person’s hands, can you estimate their general age? Are they young, old or middle-aged?

2. Can you tell if they are male or female?

3. What might you look for that would tell you what they do for a living? Are their hands calloused or stained?

4. What might you learn about them from the strength of their grip?

5. See, a person’s hands can really tell us a lot about them physically, but they also can tell a lot about them spiritually.

G. When we turn to the Bible we notice that the words “hand” and “hands” appear over 1000 times.

1. We read things like: “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart…” (Ps. 24:3-4).

2. Psalm 143:6 says: “I spread out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.”