What is in Your Hand?

Posted: November 26, 2023 | Author: | Filed under: abilities, anger, God, Jesus, Provision, Sermons, Stewardship, Talents, Tools, Weapons | Leave a comment

What is in your hand? Maybe you recall those words when you were younger because you were trying to hide something and some adult knew it? “What’s in your hannnd?” But what if God was asking you that same question not to expose you, but to experience Him? That question today from God may change your life because you finally find your purpose. “What is in your hand?” God did ask that question once to somebody and it wasn’t because God didn’t know the answer. God always knows the answer! As someone has said, “When God asks a question, it is not for His benefit, but for the benefit of one being asked.” I believe God is asking us the same question – what is in your hand? Last week, I gave you some homework that you were to bring to church. You were to bring something that symbolizes your work – a ball, a book, a phone, a laptop or a tool. What did you bring? If you didn’t bring anything, I want you to think about it. I brought my Bible because it is my guide, my tool, my weapon, and my hope. 

My opening stories come from the Bible today, so please turn in your Bibles to Exodus 4:1-5 and 17:1-16! If you don’t have a Bible, we would love to give one to you. We are concluding our series on stewardship where we have attempted to love God with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our souls and with all our strength. As Pastor Kyle told us last week, “Stewardship is recognizing that we own nothing while loving the God who has given us everything by dealing appropriately with His stuff.” In simplest form, we are God’s resource managers. Every one of us has been given our bodies, our breath, our abilities, our minds and our money to manage on God’s behalf. Some day we will stand before God and give account for what we did with His stuff and the opportunities we were given. If you were to self-assess, how are you doing with what God has given you? The motivation for what you do with it has to be love – not self-love, but love of God and others. 

To put it another way, we are called to love God with our treasure, thoughts, time and talents. Your stewardship will be tested, especially this next month. This week is Giving Tuesday. You are going to get a lot of requests for donations and gifts. Week one of the series we were encouraged with a prohibition, a promise and a principle. The prohibition was to stop investing in the temporary. The promise was to start investing in eternity. The principle was that our hearts always go where we stare. Don’t just invest in kind things, but in kingdom things! Jesus told us in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” All your needs will be taken care of along with more responsibility being given to you as you seek God. Sometimes that takes a while to learn these truths. One of those people who it took a while to learn to seek God first was the writer of the first 5 books of the Bible if you could imagine. (The Bible doesn’t hide its heroes’ flaws which may help us skeptics to have more confidence in the Bible.) The hero’s name was Moses and he was 80 years old when started to seek God first. What a reminder that it’s not too late to follow God – as long as you have breath! 

Maybe you have heard of Moses – the Moses of The Ten Commandments fame! Even though he was set apart at birth, the first 80 years of his life, he spent trying to fix things on his own or he was on the run from his true calling. We can get in the ditch either way. You can try to be the Messiah or you can run away from Him. An example is from Jordan Peterson’s insight on the American/English poet T.S. Elliot’s play The Cocktail Party. “One character in the play is super unhappy and goes to her psychiatrist. She hopes all her suffering is her own. The psychiatrist is taken aback by her perspective and asks why. Her conclusion was: if it’s her fault, she might be able to do something about it. If it’s God’s fault, however – if reality itself is flawed, hell-bent on ensuring her misery – then she is doomed.”[1] Is that how of some you feel today? You may be a religious person like the majority of the planet – working hard to fix your problems and the problems of the world through self-effort. Moses seemed to think this way the first 40 years of his life in Egypt. Fast forward 40 years, when we pick up the story just after Moses had an encounter with God at the burning bush in the desert. God was calling Moses to go back to Egypt – the place where 40 years earlier he was on Egypt’s Most Wanted list for killing an Egyptian task master. The octogenarian murderer Moses is now going back to Egypt not to take matters into his own hands this time, but to lead with what was in his hand. Let’s read what happens next in Exodus 4:1-5 where Moses finally had accepted His calling. Maybe today you will have an encounter with God? Maybe you will finally accept Your calling and purpose in life? Read Exodus 4:1-5!

Here is a little bit more background: Moses had been protesting His calling. He gave all sorts of excuses to God: 1) he wasn’t worthy (Exodus 3:11-12); 2) he doesn’t know God or His name (Exodus 3:13-22); 3) he didn’t have any power (Exodus 4:1-9).  Isn’t that some of the excuses we use? We aren’t good enough, know enough or strong enough for the task. Moses had to learn that goodness, knowledge and strength all come from God. God gives all that you need to accomplish His will. And so when God asked Moses what was in his hand and Moses says his shepherd’s staff, it was an opportunity for Moses to experience God and to learn that God is the source of all goodness, knowledge and strength. It was an opportunity to move from being religious to being in a grace-filled relationship with God. Whatever God has put in our hands, He often uses to point back to His control of our lives. That is the first lesson we learn about the talents and tools God has given us – He is in charge. The first lesson in the stewardship of our strengths is: 1) God owns our talents and tools (Exodus 4:2-5). God can do with whatever He likes with what He gave you. He will use those tools to teach you and others. Moses learned this as a shepherd. Most Biblical leaders were shepherds first – Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Amos and even Jesus had compassion on people as sheep without a shepherd. The staff that helped the shepherd walk, guided the sheep and protected the sheep was what God wanted Moses to use as deliverer in Egypt. Often God takes what we presently have and redeems it for His purposes. What did Moses do with the Staff? He put it on the ground and it turned into a snake. Now we need to understand as one scholar says, “Across the ancient Near East, the snake was a symbol of both death and healing.”[2] God would bring death to His enemies and healing to His people. What is in your hand that God may use to punish the wicked or provide for the righteous? God owns our talents and tools. They are His!

Which is why He never wastes anything. Writer Philip Yancey calls God the great recycler. God doesn’t waste any of our past. Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s house after being adopted as a baby by Pharaoh’s daughter. He was well-educated by the Egyptians. God used this education later as he addressed Pharoah. It reminds me of a story. “On November 20, 1759, the Arundel approached an unknown ship in the waters of the West Indies. The tense, tanned sailors stood by their guns as Captain Charles Middleton sent a boarding party to investigate. The Swift proved to be a slaver bound for Guinea. It carried the plague. Middleton summed his surgeon, James Ramsay, a young man he had to Christ. The doctor clambered aboard the Swift and reeled in horror. The holds were jammed with naked slaves, chained row upon row, writhing and groaning and sweating and dying of the plague. The stench was unbearable, the filth unbearable. Ramsay left the Swift vowing to do his utmost for slaves. Shortly afterward he retired from naval service and became pastor on the West Indies Island of St. Kitt. He purchased then slaves from tyrants and Ramsay became their servant, teaching them Scripture and treating them medically. His hatred of slavery grew as he visited nearby plantations, treating wounds inflicted by whips and branding irons. Owners threatened him when advocated humane treatment of slaves; and when Ramsay called for the abolition of slavery, he was attacked in the local papers, censured by the citizens, and driven from the island. Ramsay took a pastorate in the English countryside of Kent. Though only 48, he looked old and drawn. Day and night, the cries of slaves haunted him, and the memories of November 20, 1759 never left him. He put his feelings into print and braced himself for another storm. It came, but this time he had an allay – his old captain, Charles Middleton, now a member of Parliament. Middleton joined Ramsay’s crusade, but looked around for a younger, more eloquent member of Parliament to be leader. He chose? … William Wilberforce! Wilberforce’s lifelong crusade to abolish slavery in Britain is well-known. But few remember that it can be traced back to a quiet Christian doctor who made a vow on November’s day in 1759.”[3]

Moses was not to the vow stage yet. And God wasn’t finished with Moses’ staff either. Actually, Moses staff is renamed. By Exodus 4:20, Moses’ staff becomes “the staff of God.” Of course, Moses’ staff was God’s staff all along because God owns everything. This evident in how the staff is used to show power over nature and Egyptian gods, which were really demons. This is the second lesson in the stewardship of our strengths: 2) God empowers our talents and tools (Exodus 7:20). It is not like God gives us a tool or toy, but it doesn’t come with batteries. What God asks us to do, He also enables us to do. The staff of God was used strike the Nile to turn it to blood in Exodus 7:20, “Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded. In the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants he lifted up the staff and struck the water in the Nile, and all the water in the Nile turned into blood.” And the staff was used later on after Pharaoh finally let God’s people go, it was the staff of God that divided the Red Sea in Exodus 14:16, “Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.”  God provided the power for His people’s talents and tools. The Israelites by this point in history had become a population of multiple millions and God, through Moses, rescued them from slavery in Egypt. He sent 10 plagues to force Pharaoh’s hand to finally let the God’s people go. The Israelites miraculously crossed over to the Sinai Peninsula through the Red Sea on dry land as God created a wall of water on each side of this temporary seabed highway all the while using Moses’ staff to do it. Then He collapsed the water on the Egyptian army when they chased after the Israelites. 

Now the Israelites find them free from slavery, but slowly travelling en mass under the hot desert sun. They are in Sin. “Sin is related to Sinai and should not be confused with the English word ‘sin.’”[4] And then what do you think happens next? Let’s read Exodus 17. Read 17:1-4! 

Grumbling and complaining leads to a life of wilderness. And God takes grumbling very seriously. One can be obedient and following God, but then complaining takes over. And that is when the staff of God kicks in. The staff of God becomes the rod of God as the KJV calls it, but not in the way you think. At first, God doesn’t punish His people, but He provides for His people. This was a total act of grace and God used Moses’ staff to do it. “Once more, then, Yahweh provides for the need of His people, this time for the physical need of water.”[5] He can provide when there is too much water like a sea before you and He can provide when you don’t see water anywhere. This is the third lesson in the stewardship of our strengths: 3) God provides throughour talents and tools (Exodus 17:5-6). Check out Exodus 17:5-6, “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.’ And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.” God could have sent rain from heaven like He did with the manna and quail for food. That would have provided for the people’s thirst as they captured the water. But God wanted Moses to use his staff. Often God wants us to use our talent and tools to provide for our needs, our family’s needs and the church family’s needs. Are you working hard enough? Are you using the talents and tools God has given you?

So far we have learned that the lessons that God owns, empowers and provides through talents and tools. Now, there is a fourth lesson in the stewardship of our strengths: 4) God desires our talents and tools to be shared (Exodus 17:8-16).  This is evident in the story of the Israelites defeating the Amalekites. “’Amalek’ means ‘trouble maker.’”[6] The Amalekites were distant relatives of the Israelites as they descended from Esau, Jacob’s brother. They were a constant nemesis to Israel. Verse 14 is a promise that God would “utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” But as we study Old Testament history we learn that the Amalekites and they continued to be a thorn in the side of the Israelites. King Saul stumbled over them in 1 Samuel 15:3. He didn’t obey God and enabled Israel’s enemies to be a thorn in their sides until God destroyed the last of them in Haman during the time of Queen Esther as we learned this summer (Esther 3:1). By the way, sometimes God takes us to places such as deserts or places of captivity to fulfill His promises and defeat our enemies. And God often does this so that our talents and tools are shared. God choses some to fight with their hands and others to fight on their knees. Both are valued and needed! The success of the sword was dependent on the height of the staff! Are you sharing your talents and tools with others? You actually need others to maximize your talents and tools effectiveness. Your strength will fail you. Your jobs and calling require others to hold you up. We often forget this.

Here is fifth lesson in the stewardship of our strengths, which is a warning: 5) Talents and tools can become weapons (Numbers 20:2-13). These weapons may keep us from seeing God’s promises. Remember Massah in Exodus 17:1-8. That was a test. Moses passed the first test. But he failed a second test. “The events of the quarrel in Exodus 17:1-8 are similar to those that would take place at the same location later on in Numbers 20:2-13 and through which Moses was not allowed to enter Canaan.”[7] “If we accept that the place named Massah alone belongs to the first incident of grumbling in Exodus 17:1-7 and Meribah alone to the second incident in Numbers 20:2-13, then we will understand the two names of the same location.”[8] As we read in verse 7, Massah means “test” and Meribah means “arguing.” That makes sense because often when you fail the first test, as any school kid knows, it can lead to arguing later on with parents or teachers or classmates you feel in competition with. Watch out as you age. Your talents and tools can become weapons that hurt you if you don’t deal with your anger! One example would be a person raised in church who is very gifted vocally, but leaves the church and sings songs that do not honour God. Some of the most famous recording artists have roots in the church. One scholar puts it this way in describing Numbers 20, “The chief difference between the two accounts is that in this passage the people were judged for an act of rebellion, whereas in Numbers 20 Moses and Aaron were judged.”[9]

In fact, this was so serious that later on we discover that this simple little act of disobedience effectively was Moses striking the Messiah. The Apostle Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” When Moses struck the rock rather than just speak to it, He was essentially striking Christ. What a reminder that our talents and tools can become a weapon that hurt ourselves and others including God. Every sin we humans have ever committed were strikes against Christ. We beat and nailed Jesus to death with our sin. Think about that! When we use our strength to just promote ourselves that is abuse of the Son of God. When we take our talents and tools for purposes and use them only for the flesh, the world and the devil, those are strikes against Jesus. Here is the amazing thing. Our strikes became His stripes by which we are healed (Isaiah 53:5;1 Peter 2:24). 

We have all done this. What has God’s response been? He sent His Son Jesus like He did with the water at Mt. Horeb when we were grumbling and complaining like the thirsty Israelites or like in Elliot’s play The Cocktail Party or like at home, church, work or play we don’t get our way. Jesus Christ used his talents to serve and care for people in miraculous ways as He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He used the tool of the Cross to save us. Jesus Christ died for us so that not only our talents and tools can be properly used to find our purpose, but that we can be saved and lived for God’s glory. Christ used all that He had to save us. He is our loving motivation. What is in your hand that can be used for God’s glory?

As we conclude, I have a number of action points. Maybe only one of them will apply to you? Here are the ACTION POINTS:

  • What is God saying to us as a church through these passages today? One challenge: we need to raise up more Aaron and Hurs who will hold up our leaders in prayer. 
  • Love God with all your heart by trusting God to provide for you after giving a tithe (10% of your income) to the Lord’s work. Try it for a month and see what happens. 
  • Love God with all your mind by taking a class or a year after high school at Heritage. You can take Philippians with Dr. Wayne Baxter on Tuesday evenings at 6:30-9:15 PM or Psalms with Dr. David Barker on Thursday evenings at 6:30-9:15 PM. Register today at www.discoverHeritage.ca/apply
  • Love the Lord your God with all your soul by practicing Sabbath and find rest in Christ.
  • Repent of times you have used your talents and tools as weapons. Give the talents and tools back to God and see if He will redeem them for good.
  • Share your talents and tools with others.
  • Recognize God owns your talents and tools. Let’s start by consecrating them to the Lord. As we sing, if you have a symbol of your talents and tools, I would ask that you come up and put it at the front of the stage as an act of surrender to God. Maybe you feel like you aren’t very talented or resourced. Remember, God gave you what you have and He doesn’t make mistakes. He can multiply and empower your talents and tools. Tools often join with other tools to make something work. Maybe you will find somebody today whose talents and tools complement yours? Consecrate your talents and tools before the Lord.

[1] Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life (Toronto: Random House Canada, 2018), 154.

[2] John N. Oswalt, NLT Study Bible (Carol Steam: Tyndale House Publishers, 2017), 131.

[3] Robert J. Morgan, “November 20,” On This Day (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1997). 

[4] Oswalt, 152.

[5] John I. Durham, Exodus – Volume 3 (Waco: Word Books, 1987), 232.

[6] Durham, 235.

[7] Kenneth Laing Harris, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 172.

[8] R. Alan Cole, Exodus – An Introduction & Commentary (London: Tyndale Press, 1973), 134.

[9] John H. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 277.