What is in your hand?

Scripture

Exodus 4:1–5 NIV

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

Pray.

Introduction

Years ago....long before ministry. I was just volunteering at church. Just starting to come around a little bit. I was asked to serve at children’s camp.

You are not Moses

I need to start here with this. You are not Moses. This should really be A Question God asks Moses and what we can learn about it. I hear too many preachers that would call you David, strap you in armour and go looking for your Goliath. But God’s deliverance with his people and his relating to the ones he calls is something we can grab a hold of.

Why do I need to say that up front? Well I dont want to take Moses and apply all the same ups and downs of his life directly to yours, and the staff in his hand is something in your hand, and the calling he has is your calling. This is not a proverb to put your life into.

However, we can see some of the same struggles and we can see some of the same ways that God speaks to us.

Moses has all the excuses

Moses has all the excuses and all the objections. I am telling you, go read the first four chapters of Exodus and it is exhausting. Remember Moses story, he is rescued from death as a child. Fortunate to survive as a Hebrew male when Pharoah is killing all the male children. He flees to save his life when he kills someone. Yes, I said killed someone. And he meets a family, gets married, is shepherding his father-in-laws flock. Jethro. Burning bush happens. God appears in manifest present form. Explains that he has heard the cry of his people and will send Moses to go and rescue them. 5 objections or excuses:

1.

Exodus 3:11 NIV

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Inadequacy, what if I am not enough? Who am I that I should go?!?!

2.

Exodus 3:13 NIV

Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

But I dont even know you? What is your name? I need to know more

Tell them my name is “I AM who I am”

3.

Exodus 4:1 NIV

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

What if I dont do it right? Or it is not enough? or i fail?

Look in your hand. I will move through you

4.

Exodus 4:10 NIV

Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

But I do not have the skills for this....

I will help you speak, I will give you the skills

5.

Exodus 4:13 NIV

But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

Just send someone else!!!! When all else fails....please dont send me.

oh goodness just take your brother. (and the elders).

Man, my son is in that stage where he is beginning to stall and make excuses for bed time. And I know we are not even to the worst of it yet. You know what I am talking about....something hurts, or need to read one more book, or i am thirsty, oh missing that one stuffed animal. Or like all of a sudden he decides now he does not like a messy room. Excuses avoiding bedtime

We can read Moses this way, like a toddler. But I think reading that into here is not quite fair. I believe we do this all the time and we justify it....chalk it up to wisdom, or waiting for clarity. Or just ignore it. Again, we are not Moses and do not have the luxury of something as clear as a burning bush or God speaking us in this personal way....or maybe you do and you really have not excuses....so a lot of times we can just ignore what God is calling us to.

We can get consumed by our excuses…and walk away from the great things God is calling us to.

So I love this question right in the middle of it all…What is in your hand?

What is in your hand?

God asks Moses to consider what he already has....who he already is. This question, I believe, is a window into something more.

Moses has been shepherding a flock, working in the fields. He is going to be called to shepherd a people now. To lead them where they need to go.

As Moses doubts if anyone will listen to him and believe him....he says What is in your hand? You are a shepherd.

I wonder if God might show us something today from Moses:

God reminds us who he is and who we are

First thing at work here is God is doing a little reminding to Moses of who he is. Not just in his name, which is hard to even get our mind around, I AM, but also the one who can speak creation into existence, sovereign over creation, and more powerful the Pharoah himself. He is the God of promise.

Second, the word is Moses.....I am calling you to be a shepherd. You are a shepherd. Look what is already in your hand!

God is working long before the task presents itself

God is at work in every part of Moses’ story...

What if the gifts we have, what if the things we love and excel at are actually from God.

What if our passions are born in us from God?

my journey in my faith, family faith and being called to help people awaken from their marginal experience of God.

Moses has the same passion.....it is in his bones. When two Hebrews are fighting with each other, he is infuriated. Now, he plays that out in the wrong way.

God is looking for people that will be foolish for him

God is insistent on the unqualified. And yes....Moses has a ton of excuses, but he is under no impression that this will be because of him. That is the place where God will be displayed

And dont get it twisted....what God is asking Moses to do is ridiculous. But even in reluctance Moses goes and the miraculous takes place.

We are too safe. Not willing to live out of our comfort place. Even too afraid to talk to people about hard things, much less step into uncharted waters. What would it look like for the people of God to step out into places that would leave us toast if God did not show up.

What does this look like?

Saying Yes to God

Simply put, it is saying yes to God. See the great modern misconception about faith and Christianity is that it is some construct to help us to feel good and be good. To be good people who are not miserable. Now listen , we should be good people and not live lives that lack in love, hope, and peace…but this comes in our saying yes to God. Os Guinness says this about our silly misconception:

“We are not wise enough, pure enough, or strong enough to aim and sustain such a single motive over a lifetime. That way lies fanaticism or failure. But if the single motive is the master motivation of God's calling, the answer is yes. In any and all situations, both today and tomorrow's tomorrow, God's call to us is the unchanging and ultimate whence, what, why, and whither of our lives. Calling is a 'yes' to God that carries a 'no' to the chaos of modern demands. Calling is the key to tracing the story line of our lives and unriddling the meaning of our existence in a chaotic world.”

― Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life

First and foremost, we believe that being in God’s family and being a follower of Jesus requires a yes to him. Saying “yes” to Christ is the most important “yes” in your life. It means you are ready to follow him. And what that means fully today will deepen tomorrow but you are ready for that journey.

This “yes” takes priority over any other “yes” in your life.

This “yes” changes some “yes’s” to “no.”

Some of you have being saying yes to things that you should being say no to.

And most of us have been saying no, to things that we should be saying yes to.

Why is this important?

“Calling is not only a matter of being and doing what we are but also of becoming what we are not yet but are called by God to be.” ― Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life

For Moses, it was not just doing what he was supposed to do…it was also about who he was becoming. Moses’ most important days were in front of him.

What you and me are to become in many ways is unknown, but it is definitely on the other-side of our obedient “yes” to God.

Paul:

Dear friends of mine have a powerful testimony of saying yes to God. My friends lost their son to an accident involving alcohol a few years ago. It was as tragic as you can imagine and it was public and involved a fraternity and a big college and all that spun out from there. My friends have been down a hard road from that moment and still really struggle with grief and pain that will never go away.

Long before their son passed my friend was a part of a flyfishing ministry that teaches kids to flyfish and introduces them to Jesus. It is a way of mentoring, building relationships, loving kids that are at risk. When we first met he was wanting to find a way to do this work....I thought to myself…I dont even fish, and I thought you had to go to like Washington state in the summer to do that....? In Texas?

Fast forward and my friend is still looking, he gets introduced to a foster home of boys and decides to see if they would be interested. The staff and kids are energized by this first introduction and the potential to learn a new activity and meet more people.

Fast-forward a few months and my friend has organized a fishing retreat to a Christian camp for all of the boys and dozens of volunteers to come and serve and tell the boys about Jesus. People are donating buses to take them, others the equipment and others their time and finances.

I will never forget my friend, through tears at lunch, telling me about this experience and his desire for these boys to know the hope he has for Jesus. He looked at me and said “John Wayne God is using my love for my boys to love the fatherless.”

God used ordinary things and passion. God used even tragedy and worked through tragic loss and suffering, and God brought something supernatural to be in the world.

Finally, my friend’s best days are in front of them. Because they are becoming who God created them to be through obedient “yes.”