THROW IN YOUR TOWEL AND THROW DOWN YOUR STAFF.

Then the LORD asked him, "What is that in your hand?" "A shepherd's staff," Moses replied.

"Throw it down on the ground," the LORD told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back.

INTRODUCTION

Good evening, Southpointe: I want to talk to you tonight on a simple subject, throw in your towel or throw down your staff. Simply putting in a very easy term. quit or get on the stick.

Life is filled with moments of quit or get on the stick.

I am a very good musical person, but many don’t think so, but I don’t let that effect me.

There was this man that is well know in classical music, he is like William Shakespeare was to English literature and Sir Isaac Newton was to physics.

Johann Sebastian Bach. In his times of composing the songs which were basically prayers before they became songs.

But before Bach started writing his sheet of music, he would write at the top of the sheet a simple prayer. Two letter: J.J. which mean Jesu, Juva and it is the simplest prayer: Jesus, help me.

But he also would at the completion of every composition would write three letters in the margin of his music. SDG in Latin in was this phrase: Soli Deo Gloria which means to the glory of God alone.

This was a rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation, but Bach personalized it. His life was a unique translation of that singular motive.

So is yours. No one can glorify God like you or for you.

Your life is the original sheet of music.

And this is what we must understand it is not about what you do. It is about why you do what you do and who you do it for.

In God’s kingdom, it is our motivations that matter most.

If you do the right thing for the wrong reason, it doesn even count. God judges the motives of the heart, and God only rewards those who do the right thing for the right reason.

It is not about success and failure, it is not about good days and bad days. It is not about wealth or poverty. It is not about health and sickness. It is not about death and life. It is about glorifying God in whatever circumstance you find yourself in. Anyway, anywhere, anyhow, whenever, wherever, and whatever.

Ecc_12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

There is no circumstance in which you cannot glorify God.

You see, what I have found in this Christian walk is the act of obedient is not counted on success and failure, but just on the act of being obedient.

It is not on our estimate of grading but on God’s.

Think about it SDG is really so freeing and so enpowering. It is a way of life.

I have verses that I call fallback positions. When all else fails,i fall back on the things I know to be true.

In our text, tonight, it is dealing with Moses for forty years Moses felt like he had failed. He had failed to accomplish his God-ordained dream of delivering the Israelites out of slavery.

The prince of Egypt had all the potential in the world at forty, but he felt like a lost cause at 80.

He lost everything when he lost his temper. He was both a felon and fugitive.

Instead of doing God’s will, God’s way, he took matters into his own hands and killed an Egyptian taskmaster.

Now he delayed it for 40 years.

You see, at some point in our lives, most of us feel like life has passed us by. Our dream seems like a lost cause.

Things are not working out, it is not what I was hoping for. This is not what I signed up for.

And now we are presented with a choice: Throw the towel down once and for all, quit, walk away, give in or throw the staff down.

What I mean by throw the staff down is to throw your hat back in the ring.

Putting your head down on the trail like a old blood hound.

Getting back in the saddle!!

Too many people give up on their dreams because they feel like God has given up on them. they call it quits because they feel like it is too little, too late.

No matter how many wrong turns we have taken and no matter how many detours we have been down, it is God’s grace that gets us back up on the road.

Moses was put out to the pasture for 40 years. But what seemed like a life sentence to Moses was really a parole with a purpose.

Can you think of a better way to prepare Moses to led the Israelites than taking care of his father-in-law’s sheep on the back side of the same desert, that he would be leading the Israelites thru.

Think about it Moses knew the ways of the wilderness, he knew the wildlife, he knew the watering holes, He knew the weather patterns.

Moses live there. He had probably learned many things from the time that he was there. And as all of us know Moses learned a lot of things from his past failures.

Because the truth is we all have had a few failures before you get it right.

But someday you will celebrate the failures as much as success. Because failure is the fertilizer that grow character.

And character sustains success so it doesn’t backfire.

Success without any failure is like a plant without any roots or a building without any foundation.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.

And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love

So my thought is this “If Moses never had been out on the back side of that desert suffering from his failure would have God used him in the deliverance of Israel.

This is what I know that every triumph has a starting place. If you backtrack all the way to beginning of the journey to the Promised Land it all started at the burning bush.

I believe that it was one of those days when Moses was down on himself.

This is my thoughts but maybe Moses was thinking look what I had got myself into, just because, (do you have some of those just because moments?)

Moses could have been thinking I used to live in a palace, I have the finest of the finest and now I am out here taking care of these stinking sheep.

It is hot and dust and I am so tired of doing the same thing over and over again.

I wonder if it was that day that Moses was wanting to quit, I am just not going to make it here at this job. This is not what I am cut out to be.

And on that day, God reveals Himself to Moses. On that day, God show Moses that He is still in charge and He know exactly where Moses is at.

Jewish scholars used to debate why God revealed Himself to Moses in the middle of nowhere, A burning bush on the back side of the desert.

Why would it not be in a real important place, a highly religious place?

Why would God go out of His way to go out of His way? Many believe it was because God want to show that no place on earth, not even a thornbush is absent of the Presence of God.

Let’s understand: God is above but He’s not pushed up. He is beneath, but He’s not pressed down.

He’s outside, but He’s not excluded. He’s inside, but He’s not confined.

God is above all things presiding, beneath all things sustaining, outside of all things embracing and inside of all things filling.

So when you leave this place tonight at the end of this service, you don’t leave God’s presence, you take His Presence with you wherever you go.

You are standing on Holy Ground!!

You see holy ground is not the Promised land. It is right here, right now. it is wherever God is and God is everywhere.

Every place where you set your foot is the Promised Land. You never know how or when or where God might show up. God can and will invade the reality of your life at any given moment and change everything for eternity.

And when He does, you need to mark the moment, mark the spot.

A Spiritual breakthrough happen on that day for Moses. Moses didn’t throw in the towel but instead He getting ready to throw in the staff.

Moses on that day, on that day meeting God change him, Moses found out not only who God was, but who Moses was.

Moses found out that God doesn’t use us because of us. He uses us in spite of us.

You see, it not about who you are, it about whose you are!!!

God replied to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you."

You see, Moses kept trying to say i can’t and God said I know but I can. I am who I am.

I am

That is all we need to know:

If God is for us, who can be against us? God plus one equals a majority.

His name is the solution to every problem.

His name is the answer to every question. His name calms every fear, seals every prayer, and wins every battle.

At His name, angels bow and demons tremble. At His name, our sin are gone and our authority is there. because it is not about who you are but it is about who He is.

So who you are is absolutely irrelevant.

Look at this:

But Moses protested again, "What if they won't believe me or listen to me? What if they say, 'The LORD never appeared to you'?"

Then the LORD asked him, "What is that in your hand?" "A shepherd's staff," Moses replied.

"Throw it down on the ground," the LORD told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back.

Look what Moses was saying, What if they won’t believe me or listen o me.

Look at what Moses was leaning on himself, two times he said me.

They won’t believe me or listen to me.

This is where Moses had to throw the towel in and quit trying to do it himself.

Many of you here tonight, you have been trying to run your own life, you been trying to take care of all our problems, troubles and concerns. You need to throw in the towel and let God.

Look what God said, what is that in your hand?

I want to talk little about this because several months ago, I spoken on this and I want you to get a clean concept on this:

That staff represented Moses’s identity and security as a shepherd.

It was the way Moses made a living. It was also the way he protected himself and his flock.

So when God told Moses to throw it down, He was asking Moses to let go of who he was and what he had.

So my question is what are you holding on to? or what are you not willing to let go of?

If you are not willing to let go, then you don’t control what ever it is that you are holding on to. It controls you.

And if you don’t throw it down, your staff will forever remain a staff. It will always be what it currently is.

But if you have the courage to throw down your staff, it will become the rod of God, not because you threw it down, but because of the One who will change it.