WHAT'S IN YOUR HAND?

• WHAT IS IN YOUR HAND?

  (EXODUS 4)

picture taken from Google

INTRODUCTION:

Ask: What ministry you’re involved at this present? What do you think you’re good at? (Wait for few responses from audience?

I remember when I was young, I thought that I had no talent to mention. Every time I was asked, I had no reply. I had little jealous that time to my co-church workers because I saw them, they were good in singing, leading, and acting but me? I would just join the ministry and support the leaders. As time went on in my Christian life, I’ve noticed I’m good at writing lessons and script and teaching.

 After Moses' encounter with God at the burning bush, the Lord told Moses that he was about to use him to free the nation of Israel from slavery and bring them into their promised land. At eighty years of age, Moses was overwhelmed by the assignment and did not feel that he had what it took to achieve this huge task.

Feeling inadequate, Moses asked the Lord, "When I get to Egypt, what do I tell to Pharaoh?" The Lord replied with a question, "WHAT IS THAT IN THINE HAND?"

Have you experienced the same situation with Moses where you were given a job and you have doubts to fulfill it? The reply of God has some lessons we should think about.

LESSON POINTS:

1. WHAT YOU HAVE IS GOOD ENOUGH

        Moses replied to God's question, 'A ROD.' Notice the Lord did not require            about something that Moses did not have. He was interested in what Moses         had in his hand. Too many people focus on what they don't have, and they         look right pass what they do have. Many do not see the value in what they         already have. From God's point of view, what you have is good enough.

        The staff in Moses' hand was a tool he used every day as a shepherd. It was           something familiar, something he knew how to use. It was a part of his identity.       And it was this ordinary, everyday object that God used to perform extraordinary         miracles. God didn't ask Moses to use something he didn't have or something        he wasn't familiar with. He used what was already in Moses' hand (https://www.sermoncentral.com/).

     In Judges 3:31, we read, "After Ehud came Shamgar son of Anath, who struck         down six hundred Philistines with an OX GOAD (tungkod n pantaboy ng baboy).     He too saved Israel." In 1 Samuel 17:49, it is written, "Reaching into his bag and         taking out A STONE, David slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead.         The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground." And in         Judges 15:15, we read, "Finding a fresh JAWBONE  (panga ng asno) of a donkey,     he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men."

     God already knows what you have and don’t have and whatever you have is good     enough. We just need to have a willing heart to use whatever we have for God’s         glory.  

2. WHAT YOU HAVE QUALIFIES YOU TO BE USED IN A POWERFUL WAY

        In our lives, we often feel like Moses. We feel inadequate and ill-equipped to do         God's work. We look at our lives, our skills, our resources, and we think, "What         can I possibly do with these?" But just as God used Moses' staff to perform                miracles, He can use what's in our hands to do extraordinary things. We just             need to recognize what we have and be willing to use it for His glory.

What he had was an old used well rod. This rod represented his life in the wilderness. There was great possibility that this rod was used in tending animals, used in dangers and a lot more. He held onto his rod as the one possession that he valued in his heart.

The Lord pointed to the rod and said, "And you shall take 'THIS ROD' in your hand, with which you shall do many signs." (Exodus 4:17)

 

Like Moses, we may not have much, we may not be the most talented but what you have, has value to the Lord. What you have together with what He has, is more than enough to do mighty tasks.

ROD OF MOSES, Moses' wonder-working rod. When he drove Jethro's flock into the wilderness of Horeb (Ex. 3:1), the Lord appeared to Moses and ordered him to cast his staff to the ground, and it became a serpent; then he was ordered to seize the serpent by the tail, and it became a rod again (4:1–5). Moses subsequently repeated this and other signs before the Israelites and then before Pharaoh to convince them that he was sent by the Lord. He manipulated the staff in the performance of various miracles in Egypt (Ex. 7:14ff.; 10:13), as well as the splitting of the Sea of Reeds (Red Sea; 14:16), and the producing of water from a rock in the wilderness (Num. 20:9ff.). Rod of Moses | Encyclopedia.com

 

        For us, God has placed certain gifts, talents, and resources in our hands.                 These are our divine deposits. They may seem ordinary to us, just like the staff        seemed ordinary to Moses. But when we recognize them and use them for God's         glory, they can become extraordinary (https://www.sermoncentral.com/).

CONCLUSION:

    As we place what we have, however small or insignificant we may feel it to be, into the Master’s hands, He can take the little and make it much. We see this over and over again in the Bible records. When the Lord asked Moses ‘What is that in your hand?’, Moses simply replied “a shepherd’s staff’.  (Exodus 4:2) That simple staff could not have been a more unremarkable piece of equipment, yet when Moses     yielded what he had in his hand to the Lord, it became an instrument of God’s power and authority