"WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR HAND?"

 TEXT: Exodus 4:1-5,17

 INTRO: More Christians are unfruitful because they believe they are not qualified to do what God calls them to do! We tend to be looking for something that will help us feel we can do the job God calls us to do....but that something is usually something we don't now have. Satan's fear is not our being a Christian, it is our getting involved in ministry as a Christian...for if we stay unproductive or sedentary, Christianity will quit spreading.

There is no doubt about God's call on our lives...it is a call to be active in ministry...the question we struggle with is "how to do it".

The Bible will teach us that we possess whatever is necessary to do what God calls us to do, we just need to let Him touch those areas of our life to become effective for Him.

I. RISK OF FAILURE 4:1-3

A. Trial of Acceptance 4:1

1. Moses has returned to Egypt after 40 years of being in the wilderness, his last attempt at leadership flopped! 

            a. God has sent him back to lead Israel....

            b. Moses had failed at this earlier

            c. Why would they believe him this time?  

2. Moses is not struggling with the MESSAGE, he is struggling as the MESSENGER           

            a. His concern is that they might reject HIM.

            b. It is his credibility that he is concerned about

            c. his previous record and absence for 40 years would make them cautious  

3. This is always the fear we struggle with in doing anything for God:            

            a. "What if they do not believe me?"

            b. "what if they don't think God appeared to me?"

            c. Acceptance is such an important thing for us,            

                        yet this is the wrong question!  

4. What God was looking for was someone who can handle the difficulties of leading, a man who knew             difficulties, a man like Moses!  

ILLUS: Sandhill cranes and geese have something in common, they fly great distances across continents. The only way they can do this is by doing something remarkable, they fly in a "V" formation....at the tips of each wing there is added lift for those just behind and extended out at the end of their wing tip, thus the one in front does most of the work while those who follow can fly with much less work required!...it is this that enables them to fly such long distances, but to do this requires the leader to be strong and to be able to handle turbulence well! 

Secondly, those who follow honk constantly to encourage the leader onward. They will also take turns being in the lead so that the leader when he is tired doesn't die from exhaustion. They already possess the abilities to lead, it just takes one of them to do so! The abilities are there, what is required is the willingness to go to the lead and believe the others will accept that leadership and follow! 

5. We worry too much about acceptance and not enough about ministry!            

            a. This was Moses' 3rd excuse to try and get out of God calling him

            b. Fear of acceptance can be a great impediment to ministry!

            c. These kind of issues keep the Church weak. 

B. Trial of Authority 4:2-3  

1. Moses was also concerned that they wouldn't believe that God had spoken to him!            

            a. He was afraid they wouldn't believe that God had authorized him to come to them

            b. His focus however is wrong, it is on him and not on God...if he comes in God's authority, God will have a way to show the people that authority is there

            c. As long as Moses spoke God's word...the authority would prove real!  

            Some preachers feel the same way.  Will people follow me?  It doesn’t matter! 

                        Have a book chapter verse for what you teach! 

2. Moses did not know where he was going to prove God's authority in his life, all he had was the authority of a shepherd's staff!

            a. Such a staff was used to guide sheep

            b. it was used to extract sheep from crevices and pitfalls

            c. it was used to correct sheep

            d. etc.

            e. This simple shepherd's staff was all the authority Moses had, but once he lets God touch it                                          supernaturally, it will be all he needs!  

3. Moses not speaking of himself, he was being sent to simply say what God says...that is powerful authority! 

ILLUS: A family had invited the Preacher and his wife over for Sunday dinner on a hot blistering day. When all were seated, the man of the house turned to his 6 year old son and asked him to say grace. The son however protested with , "but daddy, I don't know what to say!". His mother then said, "it's o.k. son, just say what you have heard me say!" Obediently, he bowed his little head as did everyone else and he prayed, 

"O Lord, why did these people have to come here for dinner?..AMEN"!  

It was not the little boy's voice that was heard, it was the mother's since it was a quote of her words from his little lips...it carried her authority, not the little boys! 

4. God has only one question for Moses' concern over authority... "What's that in your hands?"            

            a. Moses already possessed what God needed for him to do the job God was asking him to do!

            b. Just one thing left for Moses to do in order for God's authority to be real in Moses' ministry:                        

                        (1. "Throw it down"... in other words, let go of your own authority!

                        (2. Throwing it down would indicate a willingness to obey God, thus letting go of his own                                                           authority.

            c. As long as Moses held onto his own authority, God's couldn't come through.  

5. When Moses let go of it, it became a snake...the symbol of Egypt's authority!            

            a. Cobra was the symbol of Egypt's power and authority, it was worn on the Pharaoh's headdress.

            b. Moses had been reared in Egypt, he had learned Egyptian politics and power.            

6. Moses runs away from this poisonous snake...he was afraid no doubt!            

            a. in one way this was good...we should run away from this world's authority

            b. In another way this was bad however, for he was afraid of Egypt's authority,

              a luxury he couldn't afford when he had to stand before the image of that authority, the Pharaoh!            

            c. Moses must not run away from Pharaoh...and so God will call him to do something remarkable

                         with this snake...pick it back up!

II. RESULTS OF FAITH 4:4-5.17

A. Triumph of Accountability! 4:4  

1. God now asks Moses to not be afraid and to pick the snake up...and by the tail of all things!            

            a. any snake handler will say you never pick a poisonous snake up by the tail, always by the head!

            b. to obey God here meant to do things God's way and not Man's!...this is the test of faith!  

2. The simple staff that Moses had thrown away had been supernaturally touched by God,

                        now God wants Moses to pick it up again!            

            a. God had to transform it before Moses could pick it up again to use it!

            b. When Moses obeys and picks it up, it becomes the shepherd's staff again in his hand.

            c. it looked the same again...but it had now been touched by God supernaturally...

                        this would give it a new authority!  

3. It was now the same staff, supernaturally transformed by God's power back in Moses' hand...

            this simple shepherd's tool will be used to defeat the armies of Egypt and the power of Pharaoh!            

            a. This staff was before the Elders of Israel to convince them that God had sent Moses ( Ex. 4:29)            

            b. It was used in front of Pharaoh and his magicians (see Ex. 7:8-13)            

            c. It was used to strike the Nile to turn it into blood in the eyes of all Egypt (see Ex. 7:14-21)

            d. It was used to bring up the frog plague (see Ex. 8:5)            

            e. It was used to bring the gnat plague (see Ex. 8:16)            

            f. It was used for the lightening and hail plague (see Ex. 9:23)            

            g. It was used for the locust plague (see Ex. 10:13)            

            h. Moses was instructed during the Passover to keep it in his hand ready to leave ( Ex. 12:11)       

            i. It was used to part the Red Sea (see Ex. 14:16)  

4. It now was not just the "authority of a shepherd named Moses", it was the symbol of God's authority in          Moses' ministry!  

            a. Moses had had this staff all along!

            b. It wasn't something new that Moses needed to minister, just what he had already,           

5. All of the hardships of desert life for Moses had made him ready to lead God's people now that he had God's authority in his hands!

            a. These experiences had not been wasted time,  prepared him for the difficult job of leading

            b. Rather than weaken him, the 40 years of  desert living had made him strong enough to lead! 

ILLUS: In hot tropical rain forests, huge plants and trees grow quickly, sometimes almost overnight! But these trees have soft wood, and they fall prey to insects easily and diseases and therefore live but a short time. In such a lush environment, the wood fibers grow so fast that they are too soft to be strong and so they fall over easily as well. However, trees that grow in rough mountainous terrain where cold and strong winds constantly buffet them have strong rich grains that make them endure through all kinds of trials. These trees that grow in such

harsh conditions also are the ones that live the longest.  

7. Moses' first 40 years in Egypt had made him soft, the second 40 in a harsh wilderness however had   toughened him up...he is now ready with God's authority!

B. Triumph Assured! 4:5,17  

1. Moses  will move forward.

            a. While Moses had failed 40 years earlier, this time it would be different

            b. God's authority would be at work this time, not Moses' authority as a prince in Egypt he tried before  

2. The past would only help establish God's power this time,

            though Pharaoh might have thought this was the same Moses, he was in for a surprise!            

            a. The God that had preserved the baby Moses, would now bring history into the present!

            b. God's authority reaches out over time! 

ILLUS: In the 1930's in Stavropol, Russia, Stalin ordered that all Bibles be confiscated and Christian believers be sent to prison camps. Ironically, most of the Bibles were not destroyed, they were stored in a large warehouse, yet many of the believers were killed or died as "enemies of the state". With the recent dissolution of the U.S.S.R. and the fall of communism a CoMission team arrived in Stavropol in 1994 to do ministry. Their request to have Bibles shipped to Moscow was being held up, but someone told them about a warehouse outside of town where confiscated Bibles were still stored. Remarkably, the team was given permission to distribute the old Bibles still in the warehouse, and so they hired several local men to help.  

One young man, a hostile agnostic, came only for the day's wages...but not long after they had started, he disappeared. He was found in the corner of the warehouse, weeping, a Bible in his hands. Intending to steal it for himself, he had picked up a Bible only to find his grandmother's name on it 

Of all the Bibles he had grabbed that one that once belonged to his Christian grandmother that had been taken by Stalin so many years earlier! Today that same Bible is transforming his life..and now others of another generation...God's authority in His Word cannot be taken away! 

3. The 1st incident of the staff turning to a snake established in Moses' own mind God's call and authority

                      the 2nd time before the Elders of Israel established Moses' call and authority in Israel's eyes,

                        the 3rd time before Pharaoh established it before Egypt.

            a. Time and time again after this Moses used the "staff of God" to confront the powers of this world!             b. Each time, Moses was triumphant!

            c. Moses had carried that staff all along, he already had it, it just needed to be touched by God and                                transformed to be useful!

4. Do you hear God asking you, "WHAT'S THAT IN YOUR HAND?"

            a. what's your answer?

            b. Has God touched it?              

CONCLUSION: So often we feel we need extraordinary abilities to do God's work. In truth, we all already possess whatever we need to do God's work, we just need to let God touch it first and then use it!