# What’s in Your Hand

Category: Grace
Key Passage: Exodus 4
Speaker: Anthony Aaron
Date: June 7, 2024

Amen, amen. I was thinking about it. Preacher calls this headset his earring, and it made me think, only in Rutherford County Baptist Church can men exchange earrings and not be weird. But, no, I am thankful for you being here tonight. I’ve got a joke to kind of open us up. It’s not for you; it’s for me to calm me down a little bit. But while I’m reading it, go ahead and turn to Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 4 in your Bibles.

That kind of fits us, the preacher and the music director. There was a church where the preacher and the music director were not getting along. As time went by, this began to spill over into the worship service. The first week, the preacher preached on his commitment and how we should all dedicate ourselves to the service of God. The music director stood up and he began to lead the song, “I Shall Not Be Moved.”

The second week, the preacher preached on tithing and how we should gladly give to the work of the Lord. The director led the song, “Jesus Paid It All.” The third week, the preacher preached on gossiping and how we should watch our tongues. The music director led the song, “I Love to Tell the Story.” The fourth week, the preacher preached on throwing all the liquor and booze into the river, and the music director led the song, “Shall We Gather at the River?”

With all this going on, the preacher became very disgusted over the situation, and the following Sunday told the congregation that he was considering resigning. The director stood up and led the song, “Oh, Why Not Tonight?” As it came to pass, the preacher did indeed resign. The next week, he informed the church that it was Jesus who led him there, and it was Jesus that was taking him away. The music director led the song, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”

So that is not the case between the preacher and I tonight. But I just wanted to kind of get us loosened up here a little bit. But I hope to be a help to you today tonight here as we look at the scripture. Go ahead and stand with me. And we’re going to start there in Exodus. I told you four tonight. Let’s go ahead and look at Exodus chapter 3, verse number 1. And we’ll read a couple of verses here.

And then we’ll get started with the message. Exodus chapter 3, verse number one. Preacher mentioned being a fundamental Baptist. So if anybody has a King James Bible, I’ll be glad to switch with you. I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. All right. Here we go. Exodus chapter 3, verse number one. The Bible says this: Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked. And behold, the bush was burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto a place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee.

God’s talking to Moses: I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. Let’s go look at chapter four. Chapter four, we’ll read through a couple verses here, starting in verse number one. And Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, it became a serpent. And Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said to Moses, Put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand. Here’s the last verse we’ll read: But that they may believe the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee.

Lord, we thank you so much, Lord, for your word. I thank you, Lord, just for the truth here. And, Lord, just amazing that you use just the average person. And, Lord, I’m so thankful for that. I ask you, please just be with us tonight. Help us to be able to bring something home tonight. And, Lord, just help us to get a simple truth: Lord, what is in our hand? And what is in our hand that you might be able to use? I just ask you blessed. Thank you, Lord, for what you’ve done in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thank you so much. You may be seated. Moses was just like any other man. And you’ve probably heard many sermons on this. And I know I’ve heard a sermon by this title, but the title tonight is, “What Is That in Thine Hand?” And I’ve heard some sermons, and I tried my hardest not to revisit those sermons so that I would use their outline. I wanted to see what the Lord wanted to give to me to be able to give tonight for the message.

But Moses was curious. Moses was curious, just like anybody would be. I’m sure that was not—it was not a common sight to see a bush burning in the backside of a desert. But Moses saw this bush, and it was burning, but it wasn’t consumed. There was something different about this bush. And so Moses went. He saw the bush, and we just read that chapter, and Moses was able to talk to God face to face. And what a great privilege that that was for Moses to be able to talk to God that way.

But, you know, Moses went—if you think about Moses’ life—he went from a shepherd boy out in the desert to being used by the Lord to get the greatest exodus in history, taking the children of Israel out of Egypt into the promised land. Moses did that. That was this man that we’re going to learn a little bit about tonight. But the Lord used that. And there’s an attitude that Moses had that I think will be a great attitude for us to have. And it’s this attitude of seeing what he had and giving it away. Seeing what he had and giving it away. I want to take just the next few minutes here to talk about what we have and how we can give that away.

By introduction, my first point here is: What do we have in our hand?

You know, if you’ve ever been to a magic show or something like that, they’ll call somebody out there, and usually it’s the gullible person, and they’ll call somebody up to the front, and they’ll have a quarter, and they’ll play around, and they’ve got all these—I can’t think of that stuff. Brother Bruce comes over here, and I just sit there, go, “How do you do all that?” But I can’t understand all the magic, the illusions and stuff that they do. But, you know, they’ll take that, and they’ll take that quarter, and they’ll put it behind their ear, and they’ll do all these crazy things, and then they’ll go, “Look at your hand.” And they look down at their hand, and there’s the coin. And, you know, it’s a magic trick there.

But, you know, sometimes we live our lives like that. We honestly don’t know what’s in our hand. We don’t know what we have to give to the Lord. And, you know, just kind of some general things that we all have in common: We have the Bible, and praise the Lord for a King James Bible that we get to have. I’ve never died. I’ve never been burned at the stake for this King James Bible, but I get to have this Bible in my hands and read it on a daily basis. That’s amazing. That’s what we get to have in our hands.

What are some other things? What about time? You know, you’ve heard it before, but everybody has the same amount of time. Donald Trump has the same amount of time that we have. And there’s no person that gets an extra hour, if you wake up earlier—but don’t take away my sleep—but anyway. But time, we all have the same amount of time in our hand. We have the Holy Spirit. If you’re saved tonight, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling in you. You have that guiding and that power from the Holy Spirit.

What’s some other things that we have? We have access to the throne of God. And I just want to stop here just for a second. But think about that. Everything that was created was created by God. And we get to go to that Creator and talk to Him. We get to take our little bitty burdens and we get to show them before God and say, “Lord, I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it without you.” And we get to take them to God, and God says, “I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you.” We get to go to the throne of grace.

I think about the gospel message. We have the truth. Brother Fontaine and I went out yesterday. We got soul—we were knocking on some doors. And we were talking to a lady, and she was confused about a lot of Calvinism. She was confused about a lot of things, probably Church of Christ influence. And you know what I was able to tell her? I was able to tell her, “Look, I can tell you something all day long, but I want to show you what the truth is. I want to show you what the gospel is.” And I took the Bible, we were able to show her some verses and share some things and open her eyes about some things. But why? It’s not something we did. It’s something God has put in our hand. And that’s the gospel message.

What about a godly heritage? We’re sitting in an independent Fundamental Baptist Church tonight, and none of us have died or shed blood to be able to get our heritage the way it has been. Many, many people have died. You can ask Brother Humphreys. I love reading The Trail of Blood, and I try to—I’ve read it a couple times, I’d like to read it again—but you just get to see that the many people that have given their lives. You know, Fox’s Book of Martyrs, and you think you read that, and it’s just amazing. But we have such a godly heritage. You’re like, “Brother Anthony, I’m new in church. I’ve never really entered church before.” But guess what? You have a godly heritage. You have a Father that loves you, and you have a godly heritage.

What’s some other things? You know, here tonight, we all live in America. Unless you flew in from the Philippines or something just to be here in church tonight—praise the Lord for you!—but we live here in America. We live in the greatest country in all the world. So this is something that we have in our hands. There are some things, just a couple of things here, that we get to have in our hands. This is what we all have. This is not just to those that are famous. This is not just to those that really have a close walk with God. This is for everybody, the things that we listed here.

But you know what? What’s amazing is Moses knew what he had in his hand. The Lord didn’t say there in verse number two, He didn’t say, “Hey, what’s in your hand, Moses? Let me see. What I got here? Let me see. I got a rod, I guess.” No, Moses knew. Moses was able to answer God right away. You know, sometimes where we mess up and where we make mistakes is we fail to realize what we have in our hands. When we fail to realize, we take things so for granted, when we fail to realize what is in our hands, what has been given to us from God and by others. But Moses knew what was in his hand.

What’s in your hand tonight? Some different things. What about financial security? Some of you don’t have to worry about the next meal coming around, and praise the Lord for that, but there are some people that don’t have that. Maybe you’ve got a 401k, you’ve got a nice bank account. That’s a financial security. That’s something that you have in your hand. What about a steady job, a loving family? You’ve got a good church here, but what about good health? Those are some things that we have in our hands that we just take for granted. We just go, “Okay, well, that’s just how it is.” No, that’s not how the cards folded. That’s something that the Lord has placed in your hand. That’s something that you have personally in your hand.

What about a spiritual upbringing? I thank the Lord for my parents. My parents were first-generation Christians, and they stood by what the preacher said, but they wanted to find it out for themselves. The preacher would say something about—we would listen to the CCM music, and we’d listen to that. We were thinking we were on fire for the Lord, all right? We’re sitting here, new Christians, and we were on fire for the Lord, listening to our contemporary Christian music. But then the preacher stood up and he preached against that. And you know what? My parents had to take a hard look at themselves and a hard look at what the Bible said and said, “You know what? It’s what the Bible says. It’s what we believe.” And, you know, I praise the Lord for my godly parents. I praise the Lord for the spiritual upbringing that I have. But some of you have that. Some of you don’t. But some of you do. Some of you do have a spiritual upbringing.

What about some spiritual gifts? We all have something that the Lord has given us. What is in your hand? And so I just got a couple of questions, and I want you to kind of constantly be thinking through while we go into the message. But the first thing is: What do we have in our hand? What do I have in my hand? Ask yourself this question. Do a self-evaluation. What is in my hand that I have that the Lord can use? What is in my hand?

And then the second thing: What are you not willing to let go of? I asked the kids this time. I asked the kids on the bus this a lot. I’m like, “Hey, if your house was on fire, what would you run and grab?” And the funniest thing I heard—and he got it off of a radio commercial—but he said, “I would grab the bacon. And on the way out, I would go really slow so that bacon would get nice and crispy.” And…

But what are we not willing to let go of? You know, you think about that. If your house was on fire, what would be the thing that you would run in and grab? You know, of course, my wife and children would be number one. But there would be some things, maybe some sentimental things that you have, maybe some expensive things that you have. Yours, not if you see your neighbor’s house, you run into that one. But, you know, I want you to have this question on your mind: What do I have in my hand, and what am I not willing to let go of? What if somebody were to come up to me with a gun and say, “Look, I’m going to shoot you unless you give me…” and you fill in the blank there. What are we not willing to let go of?

Moses tonight, when we read in the passage here, God asked Moses, “What is that in thine hand?” And you know what Moses said? “A rod.” And what did God say? “Cast it down.” Go ahead and give it to me. And what did Moses do? “Well, not this rod, Lord. I got another rod in the car. Let me go ahead and grab that one and give it to you. Not this one.” No, Moses cast it down. He cast it down.

So that’s by way of introduction. But the application tonight, I want us to think in our minds some things that we have in our hands and some things that we hold dear to, but the Lord wants those things. I want to just go over a couple points here.

First thing: God wants what you have. God wants what you have. Look at verse number two there, chapter four. “And the Lord said unto him,” who? Moses. “And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand?” He didn’t say, “What is that in thy neighbor’s hand?” “What is that that you want in your hand?” No, He said, “What is that in thine hand?” God wants what you have.

You have something to bring to the church family that nobody else can. You know what’s amazing is why it’s so important to be in every church service? Because there’s something that you can bring to a church service that nobody else can, because God has enabled us individually with spiritual gifts to be able to help and encourage the brother, to strengthen the family.

I think of some things—I like to—I’ve got a couple of people that I’m watching in the NFL Combine, all right? I watched them in college and things like that. And I was watching the quarterback section, and they were talking about quarterbacks, and they said, “Man, you know what? What’s amazing is you look at these quarterbacks, and then you find out what their God-given ability is. They all have something different that they have as a quarterback.” And you know what? That man—they nailed it. But we so often we forget what God has given us: something, a God-given ability, a God-given talent, a spiritual gift that we don’t ever—we don’t hardly use, and God has given that to us.

What is a God-given ability that you have? I think of somebody in the church here that is good with people. And they come up to people, and they never meet a stranger, all right? That is not me, okay? Usually, if there’s a visitor that comes in, I kind of make one pass, and my heart is thumping. I’m like, “All right, just talk to them, just talk to them. All you got to do is just say hi, shake their hand.” You know, my hand is shaking like this coming up to them, and then, “Oh, I can’t do it.” All right, and I walk off. And then they’re still standing there. They’re talking to somebody else. And I go back up. I try to build the courage back up. “Lord, please help me. You got to give me strength. Please help me.” And I’ll walk up to somebody. And I got to go over here. And, you know, usually my daughter’s running around, so I grab my daughter real quick because I’m scared to talk to people. I have a fear of talking to people. All right?

But some people have just this ability that God has given them where they’d never meet a stranger. And they’ll walk up to anybody, just be able to ham it up, have a conversation, and spend an hour talking to them. I’m doing good just to, you know, make it extremely awkward: “Hi, how are you doing today?” “I’m doing good.” “Okay, that’s nice. Thank you. Have a great day. You know, glad to have you today.” But that’s not my ability that the Lord has given me.

Some people have the ability of public speaking, and you can just stand in front of a crowd, and you can make a whole crowd laugh, and man, they’re all on your side, they’re on the edge of their seat, and they’re just listening in. And, you know, some people have that ability. Some people have the ability of hospitality. And, man, you can spot somebody that maybe is kind of sitting towards the back, and they’re just, you know, maybe having a bad day, and you’re just able to come back by them and come by their side and just be hospitable and be able to encourage them. Some people have that ability.

Some people have the ability of prudence. And you see, man, there’s trouble coming, and I can see that trouble coming. I’m going to let somebody know. All right. Usually that happens to me: “Brother Anthony, you don’t need to be doing it like this. You need to be doing it like that.” All right, yes, sir. Go ahead and you do it for me then. But the prudence—some people have an ability of prudence. They can see problems coming.

What about management? You know, maybe you have the ability you can organize a group together and you can get things all penciled down in paper, black and white. You’re ready to go. You’ve got it all ready. But maybe you’ve got a strength in organization, but maybe your people skills aren’t that great. And usually, you know, the Lord knows that. But maybe you’ve got a musical talent. Maybe you’ve been blessed with a musical talent. You’ve got a spiritual ability in that area. But you know what? God wants to use what you have. There is something that you have that you can bring to the church family. There’s something that you have that God wants.

God went to Moses. This is Moses, all right? Moses was in the wilderness for 40 years. And God came to Moses and He said, “What is in thine hand?” What do we have in our hands tonight that God wants? God wants what you have. You’re like, “No, Brother Anthony, not me. Not me. I’m new at church, or I’m just not a strong Christian like so-and-so.” No, God wants what you have. God wants what you can bring to the table. God wants that. A healthy church family is a church family that realizes God wants to use what I have. Maybe I can’t stand up in front of people and lead singing, or maybe I can’t stand up in front of people and teach a Sunday school class, but I can be faithful. I can encourage somebody that’s hurting. The Lord wants to use that. And God wants to use what you have. God told Moses, He said, “What is that in thine hand?” God wants to use what you have. That’s number one.

Number two: God wants to use all that you have. God asked Moses—and look at verse number two, I’m sorry about that. Look at verse number two of Exodus: “And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand?” And he said, “A rod.” Moses told God everything that was in his hand. We don’t know if he had some goldfish or whatever he was snacking on, some raisins or whatever in his hand or in his pocket or whatever like that. But the Lord asked Moses a question: “What is that in thy hand?” He said, “A rod.” Moses told God everything that he had, because why? God wants all that we have. God wants all that we have.

You know, sometimes we hold things back. I think of Ananias and Sapphira in the Bible. What happened? You know, Peter said, “Hey, we’re trying to do some—we’re fundraising a building program for the church. Go ahead and sell what you’ve got. We’re trying to get an offering taken up for that.” And, you know, I don’t know what happened. Maybe they sold their land for a little bit more than they were thinking. And they’re like, “Well, let me see. We kind of told everybody this, so let’s just hold on to a little bit.” And they didn’t give all. And what happened to them? They died. You know what? God wants all of us. God wants all that we can bring, all that we have.

You know, Elaine, she’s our little two-year-old daughter, and just a couple months ago, she was eating chicken, and she does not eat meat. I don’t know why. I don’t know if she’s Amish; I have to check her birth certificate every now and then. But she doesn’t eat meat. She just doesn’t like to eat meat unless it’s covered in honey mustard, and you can’t taste the meat anymore. But she was eating chicken one day, and Ketorah and I were just—we were not in a heated conversation, but we were just—we were talking to each other, looking each other, and I doing all the marriage things that we were supposed to be doing. But we were talking with each other, and then we looked over, and Elaine had this big bite in her mouth, but then it was gone. We’re like, “Okay, wow, that’s kind of odd.” You know, usually we have to pull her arm behind her back just to get her to eat it. But it’s gone. And, you know, she—but both of her hands were behind her back. And we’re like, “Oh, okay. All right, Elaine, did you eat your food?” “Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am.” “Okay, well, what’s in your hand?” And she—you could see her kind of moving something over—and she goes, “Nothing.” And we’re like, “Oh, that’s great. What’s in your other hand?” And she knows she was caught. She kind of—and she showed us the bite of chicken, that whole amount of chicken that we had.

And, you know, sometimes we play those games with the Lord, though. You know, the Lord wants to know everything that we have. God wants to know, and He wants all that we have, but sometimes we hold it back from the Lord. We say, “Lord, you know what? I’ve got this. I’ve got financial security. I’m set for life.” “Oh man, the church is in a building program.” “Well, I don’t know about that. Lord, I’ll give you everything else, but I’ll hold on to that money.” “Oh man, you know what? We’ve got a need in a ministry here. We need a teacher. Maybe we need somebody to help a teacher. Man, we need somebody just to give of their time.” “Well, you know, I’ve got my afternoon nap. I’ve got to make sure that I get taken. So, Lord, anything else, you know, anything else you want, but that time, I want to have a hold of that.” Maybe it’s your family. And praise the Lord for family. Is a family being able to keep you from giving all to God?

You know, when I was a young person, I grew up in church, had a great youth ministry that I was a part of, and we would have preachers come in—preachers and missionaries would come into our church. And it’s just neat even as a teenager to remember back and just to see the different lives, the different people that the Lord has been using. And we were able to see all of those. And then even when I went into college, Bible College, we would have a different preacher, a different missionary, different evangelist every week of college, and we would listen to them. You know what I found? Is the most common thing: the ones that were greatly used by the Lord were the ones that you could tell gave God all. You know, it’s very easy to preach, “Give God all, I surrender all, give it all to the Lord.” But you know what? That’s kind of—that’s hard living. That’s hard. It’s easy preaching, hard living, as they say.

You know what? It’s—with the theme, with those missionaries and preachers, the ones that the Lord used, there was hurt there. You know, there was some hurt there. Maybe there was—you know, my pastor for the longest time when I was growing up as a young person, his wife had so many struggles of health issues. You know what? I think of missionaries losing children. I think of a pastor in Indiana lost his adult child. And you think about those things, and you’re like, “Man, I don’t know if I can give the Lord all.”

We dedicated our daughter Charity just a couple weeks ago, and we brought her over here and we dedicated her to the Lord. But you know what? That wasn’t when we really dedicated her to God. When Ketorah, when we had the baby, when she had the baby, they gave Charity to me, and I held little Charity in my arms. And I had to look at her and I said, “Lord, I love that baby. Lord, I love her smile. She’s got big fat cheeks just like her daddy. I love this little baby. But you know what, Lord? She’s yours. And whatever you have for her life, Lord, I’m surrendering her to you. I’m giving her to you.”

And you know what? It’s easy to say that, but it’s hard to live that. When the Lord says, you know, when she grows up and maybe she’s going to be a missionary somewhere and she’s going to go across the world, and I have to remember, I surrendered all. I gave all to the Lord. The Lord doesn’t just want just a little bit. God wants everything that we have. God wants us to give that to Him.

You know, Moses not only gave God his rod. Moses gave God what his rod represented. When you think about that, what is a rod? A rod is what a shepherd uses. When Moses gave the Lord his rod, he said, “Here’s my job. Here’s my financial security. Here’s everything. Lord, I’m giving it to you.” I’m casting it down before the Lord. And you know what? The Lord wants all. The Lord wants all that we have.

You know, the verse that we read there, the Lord said it to him, “What is in thine hand?” And he said, “A rod.” Moses knew what he had, but Moses gave it all. Moses gave it all to the Lord.

So the first thing: God wants what you have. God wants what you can bring to the table, what you can bring to church, what you can bring to Him. God wants what you have. It’s not what your neighbor has. God wants what you have.

The second thing: God wants all that you have. God wants all that you have. And then the third thing: God wants what has you. Look at Exodus chapter 3 for me, and we’ll read a couple of verses here. But God wants what has you.

Often, I’ll be working here at the office, and Ketorah will call me up, and she’ll talk to me, and I’ll put her on speakerphone, and I’ll be working on the computer, or I’ll be running around doing something, and I haven’t given her my full attention. And she could tell that. And I’ll be, “Yes, ma’am. Okay, yeah, yeah, sure, that sounds great.” And she’s asking me questions, she’s telling me things. “Okay, yeah, yeah, that sounds good. Okay. Yeah.” And then I’ll be working on something. “Did you hear what I said?” “Yeah, yeah, no, I know. I got it all. We’re okay. We’re good to go. Go ahead. That’s fine. Do what you got to do.” And she says, “I can tell you’re busy. I’m just going to go ahead and call you back later.”

And, you know, when we go to God, God wants to know what has you. You know, I’m distracted very often, all right? So Ketorah knows, all right, I’m going to have to call him at a different time. And usually I have to put it on speakerphone, stop what I’m doing, look at the ceiling so that way I can give her my attention, all right? And that’s what the Lord wants. The Lord doesn’t want just what we have; He wants all that we have, but He wants what has us. He wants what has and is distracting us. What is keeping you from serving the Lord?

Go ahead and look at chapter 3 of Exodus, verse number 11. The Bible says this: “And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” And he said, “Certainly, I will be with thee.” This is God talking. “And this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” Verse number 13: “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say unto me, What is his name? What shall I say unto him?”

And God said unto Moses, “You dummy, I’ve already told you to go. What are you talking about?” No, what does God say? God says this: God said unto Moses, “I AM THAT I AM.” And he said, “Thus shall ye say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” You know what? God wants to know what’s controlling us.

Look at verse number—actually look at chapter four and verse number one: “And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.” And look down at verse number 10: “And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.” And the Lord said unto him, “Who hath made man’s mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or the deaf, the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord?”

Go ahead and look at verse number 13: “And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.” You know what Moses was bringing before the Lord? He was bringing before the Lord his excuses. He was bringing before the Lord his weaknesses. God made man’s mouth. And God didn’t say, “Moses, I’m going to go ahead and send you forth and you’re going to have Aaron.” No, no, no, Aaron. God told—He was going to use Aaron because Moses kept bringing up this excuse and this weakness that he had in his life. And you know what? God wants what has us.

Go ahead and look at verse number 14 there: “And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses; and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and I will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be unto thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. And thou shalt take his rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.”

And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said unto him, “Let me go, I pray thee, and return to my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive.” And Jethro said unto Moses, “Go in peace.”

You know what? Moses came to God. God’s original plan was not for Aaron to be the spokesman. God wanted to have Moses go before the children of Israel. And we see the Lord increasing Moses’ faith through the plagues that were listed in Egypt. And we see slowly Moses and Aaron were doing the plague, and then slowly you just see Moses doing it. That was God’s original plan. God knew that Moses was capable, not on his own, but through God.

And in our lives, we have things that control us. We have things that keep us—in our minds—keep us from serving God to the full potential. You know, do you live under the circumstances of life? I think about John O’Rice. I think—is a person I didn’t look it up—but John O’Rice, somebody went up to John O’Rice and John O’Rice said, “Hey, how are you doing?” He said, “Oh, I’m doing pretty good under the circumstances.” And John O’Royce said, “What are you doing under those?”

And so often we live under the circumstances. We live under the burdens of life. And God wants what has us. God wants what is controlling us. God wants our weaknesses. God wants my weakness. I have several weaknesses. We don’t have time to list them all, right? Sorry about that. But I have several weaknesses, but you know what? The Lord wants those weaknesses. The Lord wants your excuses because the Lord—every time Moses gave an excuse, what did the Lord say? “I’ll be with you, Moses. I’m going to help you, Moses.” He didn’t slap him across the face. He said, “Look, Moses, I’m here to help you. I’m here to help you.”

And when we need to realize in our minds, look, when I’m giving God my all, you know what? I’ve got some things that I might hold back, but the Lord wants all. And the Lord wants what is controlling us. Is it a weakness in your life? Second Corinthians 12:9: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Whose weakness? Our weakness. God wants our weaknesses. God wants our failures, our shortcomings. God wants those things because God wants to work strong in our life.

You know, is it a family? You know, and I love family, all right, but family reunions, okay? That would be something that my grandma tried to initiate, and she would try to get us to go, but usually they were on Sundays. Would a family reunion keep us from going to church? Would a family reunion keep us from going to a church activity? And I’m for family reunions, and I’m for meeting with family. But is your family controlling you? Is it keeping you from giving all to God?

What about your job? Your boss comes up to you and says, “Hey, man, it’s been a rough week. I know you didn’t want to work on Sundays, but, man, we’re just going to need some overtime. Can you work on Sunday?” And he puts that pressure on you, and you go, “Well, you know what? The boss needs me. I have to come in on my white horse and come in to save the day.” No. When we put our job in front of God, God sees that. God knows that. And there’s nobody here on earth that I’d rather please than my Heavenly Father. And God doesn’t want just what we have, but God wants what has us. What has you tonight?

Is it a sin? Is there something in your life that you’re keeping, that’s keeping you bound from the Lord using you? Are you bound by a sin? The Bible says—and this is my life first—Galatians 5:1: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” God has released us from this yoke of bondage when we get saved. Often we bind ourselves back in those chains. And we say, “Well, I’m just bound—I’m bound to this sin.” No, you’re not bound to sin. God gave you liberty. Why be entangled again? But what is keeping you from serving the Lord? What is keeping you from giving God your all?

Are you keeping your salvation from God? That’s the last thing here. Are you in your mind thinking, “Well, I’m going to make it to heaven just by my works, by my righteousness”? You know what, friend? We’re never going to get there. We’re never going to get there. We’ll never be perfect. We talked to a lady this week, and she was just discouraged. She said, “I’m not going to go to heaven. I haven’t been—I haven’t had a relationship with the Lord like I was supposed to.” I said, “Well, let me tell you something, ma’am. You know what? We never have the relationship that God wants us to have with Him. You know, it’s insurmountable. God’s righteousness is all the way up there. My best that I can do is just these filthy rags. There’s nothing that I can come close to that.” But you know what? Have we kept that from God? Are we keeping that sin in our lives? Are we keeping our salvation? Are we trying to keep it from the Lord and just giving it to God?

What is it tonight in your mind? I hope you’ve been thinking about some things, maybe that you’re holding on to. Maybe that you didn’t realize that you had in your hand. Maybe the things that we listed here—what are you holding on to?

Now, I’ll close with this verse here, but Genesis 22:15: “And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because thou hast obeyed my voice.”

God is calling you today. What is in your hand? Cast it down. Cast it down. What is in our hand today that we’re holding on to? Abraham, God said, “Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your only son, Isaac,” and he brought his son Isaac, and he gave it to the Lord. He gave Isaac to the Lord. You know what? What are we holding back? What are we not willing to give to the Lord?

You know, I think about those preachers. I think about those missionaries. I think about men—maybe laymen in the church—but they have sold themselves to the Lord. They’ve given everything to the Lord. You know what? There might be some hurt. There will be some hurt in their lives, but you know what? It’s not always they’re going to lose a child; it’s not always they’re going to have health issues for the rest of their life. But you know what? If it is, would that keep you from serving the Lord? If it is something like that, will that keep you from giving your all to God? God wants it all. God wants everything that we have and what we’re able to give to Him.

You know, I think about this in closing. You know, when I see those preachers, when I see those missionaries, I want God to bless my life. God can take our little bit of works. God can take the little bit of things that we have in our hand. And just like Moses, he casts it down, and what happened? God turned it into a snake. God turned—God did something miraculous through what Moses gave. And in our lives, man, you say, “Brother Anthony, all I’ve got is this. I’ve just got this little bitty talent. You know, I can bug people to death.” All right. You know, maybe you got a little bitty talent. And you’re [thinking], “Brother Anthony, I want to give that to the Lord.” You know what? God can do so many great things through that thing. So that little bitty thing that we give to God, God can do so many things through that. We just have to give it to Him.

God didn’t say, “Moses, what’s in your hand? I’m not going to tell you.” “Oh, come on, Moses, what’s in your hand? I’m not going to tell you.” “I’m just going to keep it.” “Oh, come on, Moses, it’s all right.” No, I’m not going to do it. No, God’s not going to fight you for it. If you want to give it to the Lord, God said, “I’m going to do some great things through that.” But if you hold it back and you keep that rod, man, you’re going to be in some trouble.

God has given you some things. When we stand before God at Judgment Day, and the Lord says, “Hey, what have you done with what I’ve given you?” “Well, Lord, I didn’t even know I had all that,” or, “Lord, I just wanted to keep it to myself.” And the many blessings that we’ll miss out on because we didn’t give all to God.

Let’s go ahead and bow our heads and pray. God wants what you have. God wants all that you have, and God wants what has you. Tonight, the instruments are going to play 287, “I Surrender All.” We’re not going to have anybody sing, but they’ll just play 287. Will you do that tonight? Will you surrender your all to God?

I just have a couple of questions here. If you say, “Brother Anthony, I’ve got some things maybe in my life that I’m holding on to, that I’m not letting the Lord have. Tonight I want to make a decision to give those to God.” If that’s you, would you raise your hand for me? Just want to give some things to God. Hands up around the room. Thank you for that.

“So, Brother Anthony, as far as my salvation, I’ve been trying to do it on my own. I’ve been trying to do it my way. And I just need to realize I’ve got to give it to God. It’s not about what I can do; it’s about what God has already done. And as far as my salvation, missing hell and going to heaven, I’ve got to give that to the Lord.” If that’s you tonight, you don’t know for sure that you would go to heaven, I just want to ask you a simple question: If you would just raise your hand for me, and we’re going to have an invitation time here in a minute. If you would like to come down, we would have somebody—a lady with a lady, and a man with a man—but we would show you some Bible verses how you can know for sure that you’re going to heaven. If that’s you tonight, would you just raise your hand for me? You don’t know for sure, but you would like to know. You would like to know how to go to heaven tonight.

Dear Lord, we thank you so much for you. Thank you, God, for what you have done for us. Lord, I thank you, Lord, that you used Moses in such a mighty way just because he had this attribute, this characteristic of seeing what he had and giving it to you. And, Lord, let that be the case for us tonight. Lord, help us just to take some time here at the altar and, Lord, do some self-searching just to see what we have and, God, what we’re holding back from you using. And as the instrumentalist plays, you can go ahead and come down to the altar.

You know, it’s a privilege of ours to give our stuff to the Lord. That’s a privilege. It’s not even—it’s more than a responsibility; it’s a privilege. And I can take what little I have, what little I can give it to the Lord if He wants it. It’s a privilege. We’re so privileged to offer—to be able to offer. He wants our lives. What an honor! It’s just an honor. He wants me. He wants what I have. He wants my own. He wants it. It’s a privilege. We’re privileged people to give God what we have. It’s an honor. And what a privilege we as Americans can give Him what we have. And we’re honored people. We’re blessed just to be able to offer what little bit we have to God. It’s our privilege to do that. And you’ll be happy. It’s a joy. It’s a privilege to put ourselves in the hands of God.

You’ve heard me talk about the Louisville Museum and all the different bats there, and then you’ll see those in the glass. Well, what’s special about those? Well, that bat was in Ted Williams’ hands one time. And it’s a privilege to put ourselves in the hands of God, and He’ll take us. And it’s an honor and a privilege to do that. If you got a blessing tonight, would you say amen? Amen. And what a blessing. Praise the Lord for it. Let’s stand and we’ll be dismissed. So glad to have everybody out tonight. We’re just thrilled to have everybody here. What an awesome, awesome crowd on Sunday night. And I honor to have the Copeland’s, and my friend, and I appreciate you, Kevin, with us tonight. That’s great. Good to have guests in the back there with us. Thank you for coming with us tonight. We’re honored to have y’all. And that’s wonderful. Thank you for coming to be with us. And we appreciate that so very much. And Brother Copeland, would you dismiss us with a prayer? Our Heavenly Father, thank you for the joy of being in your house.

Original File: Whats in your Hand - Brother Anthony Aaron 3120