We are looking at the first three verses,
but then we will back up and look
at it together of chapter four, and Moses
answered and said, he's talking to God, but
behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken
unto my voice, for they will say, the
Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
The Lord said unto him, what is that
in your hand?
He said, a rod.
He said, cast it on the ground, and
he cast it on the ground, it became
a servant.
Moses fled from before it.
The Lord said unto Moses, put forth thine
hand and take it by the tail, and
he put forth his hand and he caught
it, and it became a rod in his
hand.
A picture of Moses as God is slowly
working him along, convincing him of the calling
that he has on his life.
I believe that's a slow process in all
of our lives, by the way.
God has a calling on all of our
lives.
It tells us in 2 Corinthians 3.6
that he has enabled us to become ministers
of the New Testament, all of us, speaking
to the church, to all of us.
I'm not the minister, the servant, you are
all servants, you're all ministers.
Again, it tells us in 2 Timothy 1
.9 that God has called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his grace and his purpose, which
was in Christ Jesus before the world was
formed.
That God has called us according to his
grace.
Romans chapter 12, I beseech you therefore by
the mercies of God to present yourselves a
living sacrifice unto God, which is your reasonable
service.
And all of us are called to give
ourselves to Christ.
That is the payment, that is the taking
up of our cross, that he has given
his life for us so we are to
give our lives in return to him, to
his purposes.
And that is a high and holy calling,
it is on each of our lives.
And it is very much against the same
kind of backdrop that Moses found himself against.
And we looked at that some last week.
It was a backdrop of desperation of the
people of God, of a nation that was
corrupt, Egypt, of the difficulties that they faced.
And we certainly are much in the same
situation.
We are in desperate times.
We live in an era of violence.
There have been more people gunned down in
our cities this century by handguns than casualties
in the wars that we fought.
More dangerous to walk the street here in
this nation.
Again we mentioned a few weeks ago that
there are more adult bookstores right now than
three times more than McDonald's restaurants in the
United States.
Statistically the most dangerous time for a human
in the United States is between conception and
birth.
Statistically 34 million in the last 20 years.
Statistically the most dangerous time for an American
is the nine months of his mother's womb.
If you made it that far you stand
a better chance of getting along in life
at least for some years.
That's the backdrop that Moses faced as the
children of Israel were putting their sons in
the Nile River.
Desperate times.
And yet God had a calling on his
life.
And God brings him to this place where
he is speaking to him saying Moses I'm
going to send you to the children of
Israel and to Pharaoh.
Chapter 3 verse 18 and God says they
will surely hearken unto you when I send
you.
But here where Moses now speaks Moses says
to God but you've never said that to
God have you?
But behold they will not believe me or
hearken to me.
God just said now you would think that
if God appeared to you in your bedroom
or he appeared to you in a burning
bush in his glory and the angel of
the Lord's presence Jesus Christ standing in the
midst of the flames and said to you
I'm sending you and you're going to go
and when you go they're going to listen
to you and they're going to hear what
you have to say.
You know you wouldn't think that you would
say but and behold he's saying behold to
God which means did you ever think of
this?
He's saying to God but consider this they
will listen to me and they're not going
to believe me.
Now has he had a bad experience in
the past with burning bushes and appearances of
God?
I mean God says to him Moses what
is that in your hand?
He says Zerod it is a reminder daily
of my failure.
It is a constant reminder of my life
being lived out in mediocrity.
It is a constant reminder that I tried
in my own strength to accomplish the purposes
of God and I am left here to
live out my life without anybody ever knowing
who I am or having any impact on
the things of God.
I thought I would deliver Israel from Egypt
as the commander in chief of the Egyptian
army, as the son of Pharaoh's daughter and
lying to be Pharaoh with the political clout
and power and education God had given me.
Certainly I thought this is a great plan.
God has put me in a specific place
at a specific time to deliver the children
of Israel.
I set out in my own flesh and
my own abilities.
I failed miserably and here I am in
the back side of the desert with a
flock of sheep and this rod in my
hands.
And I know it well.
I have carried it for 40 years.
I know every knot in this rod.
I know where the grain curls.
The top of it has become shiny from
my hand rubbing against it and from the
lanolin from the sheep.
I know exactly where I like to grab
it.
I can feel it without looking at it.
I like the knot going before my first
finger and my thumb.
I know it completely.
I know it as well as I know
myself.
I don't even look at it.
Yes, Moses knew it completely but he didn't
know it at all.
I think as God challenges us and says
what is in your hand, we look at
our lives and there are so many things
that we are surrounded with in the humdrum
of life and we think that we know
or we understand or we're familiar and we
may be completely missing what it is that
God is saying to us.
Now, by the way, as God asked him
this question, what is in your hand, it
is defined by two questions he had asked
earlier that are important.
Chapter 3 verse 11, when God said to
Moses, I'm going to send you and you're
going to go, Moses asked the first question,
who am I that I should go?
Very important question.
God said, never mind who you are.
I'm going to go with you.
I'll certainly be with you and you'll go.
You speak to Pharaoh and you bring the
children of Israel back here to the back
side of the desert to Horeb as a
sign unto you, Moses, that I've spoken to
you.
Moses said to God, now there's a second
question.
Well, when I go and they say to
me, who sent you?
What's God's name?
What should I say?
So then he says to God, who are
you?
I don't know who I am.
I don't know who you are.
What's your name?
God says, and you know, sometimes as I
look at this, I think, you know, here's
the deliverer, one of the greatest men in
the Old Testament.
Doesn't know who he is.
Doesn't know who God is.
No wonder God says, what's in your hand?
Let's start with basics.
A rod.
Good.
We're making progress now.
You know something.
Moses said, who should I say sent me?
And he says to Moses, I am that
I am.
And thus you shall say to the children
of Israel, I am has sent me.
And again, last Sunday night we looked at
this.
There isn't really a better way to say
what the language says.
Many of you with more modern translations have
different things written there.
Many commentators have tried to say and paraphrase
what this means.
But altogether, there is no better way to
say what God said to Moses than to
read what he said in the way we
have it translated, I am that I am.
Lord, who should I say sent me?
Who are you?
I am that I am.
I am completely separate from any definition that
you could place upon me.
I am the Holy One.
Again, I exist and everything else that exists
is not me.
I am God.
Everything else is not.
I am the creator.
Everything else is the creation.
Satan, fallen angels, heavenly angels, spiritual realms, the
universe, man, the animal kingdom, all of that
is distinctly separate from me because I am
creator and it is creation.
I am God and it is not.
What is your name?
I am that I am.
And some define this in the sense of
I am the becoming one, that there's an
inference there.
And I think that there is.
But I think that is related to the
first question, who am I?
Moses asked that, who am I?
Well, God defines himself to us in light
of need, in light of the first question.
God says I am that I am.
I am whatever I need to be in
relationship to what you are and what you
need.
That's how God defines himself to us.
It is in light of our need.
You know, Moses said, who am I?
And when we interpret our rod or whatever's
in our hand, whether it's a wife or
a husband or children or our job or
employees or an employer or parents or a
hammer or a chisel or a paintbrush or
an instrument, what's in your hand?
And if you try to define what that
is by who you are, who am I,
Lord, it really doesn't amount to a whole
lot.
Even if it's commander in chief of the
Egyptian army, even if it's a Ph.D.,
whatever it is, if interpreted in light of
who we are, because we are part of
what we live in, and that is a
desperate nation.
And without Christ, we can do nothing.
We are depraved, except for his grace.
We are grace in the new creation of
Christ in our hearts by the power of
his spirit.
If we interpret the rod in our hand
by who we are, it doesn't really amount
to anything.
It is as we interpret it in light
of the next question, but who are you?
And God defines himself to us and to
what we hold in our hand in light
of the need.
He would reveal himself to Abraham as he
went to sacrifice Isaac upon the mountain.
And it was the most desperate need at
that moment in the life of Abraham as
he would offer his son.
And God stopped that and said, no, my
name is Jehovah Jireh.
I am or I am become your provider.
He would say to the children of Israel,
Exodus 15, in the wilderness, none of the
diseases that I put upon the Egyptians shall
come upon you, because I am for you,
Jehovah Rapha.
I am become your healer.
He would say to Moses in battle with
Amalek, against all odds, I am Jehovah Nissi,
Exodus 17, I am your banner, I am
your victory.
He would say to Gideon, as Gideon realized
the Lord had appeared to him and thought
that he would die, he said, you name
this place, Jehovah Shalom.
I have become your peace.
He would say to David, Jehovah Ra, the
Lord has become my shepherd.
I shall not want he maketh me to
lie down in green pastures.
He would say to Jeremiah in the midst
of a nation turned away from God, my
name shall be Jehovah Sidkenu.
I am become your righteousness.
He would say to Ezekiel in chapter 48,
as he saw the temple established in God's
presence, my name is Jehovah Shammah, the Lord.
I am become ever present.
And ultimately, he would say to Gabriel, tell
Mary and Joseph, my name is Jehovah Shua,
I have become your salvation, Joshua Jesus.
Moses said, who are you?
He said, I am that I am.
I am whatever I need to be.
There is no human definition that you can
place upon me because it would restrict me.
I am not restricted by your needs.
I am not restricted by the desperation of
your nation.
I am not restricted by the darkness of
the backdrop that you live against.
I am not restricted by the need for
revival in the church.
I am not restricted by your resources and
what you can do and what you can
accomplish.
I'm not restricted by defining what's in your
hand by who you are.
What's in your hand, Moses Arad?
And I know it well.
Do you, Moses?
You don't know it at all because you
haven't defined it in light of who I
am.
You've defined it in light of who you
are.
What's in your hand?
Is it a ram's horn?
I'm a priest of the tribe of Levi.
I've carried this shofar my entire life.
I know it well.
It makes a sound.
Do you know it well?
When you interpret it in light of me,
do you know that the walls of Jericho
will fall to the ground when you blow
that thing at my command?
What's in your hand?
The jawbone of an ass.
Do you know that it'll slaughter a thousand
Philistines, change the course of a nation?
What's in your hand?
A pitcher, a clay jar.
Gideon, do you know there's 135,000 Midianites
against 300 of you?
You have a trumpet and a clay pitcher.
Gideon, throw it down in front of me.
I'll give it life.
What's in your hand?
Nothing.
Slingshot.
Know it well.
Use it to draw the drive off jackals,
wolves from the sheep.
Grown up with it.
Pretty good shot.
Let's interpret it in light of the fact
that the enemies of God are defying the
God of Israel.
David, take that thing.
It's a giant killer.
It's not a shepherd's tool.
It will change the course of our nation.
What's in your hand?
Three loaves, two fish.
Means nothing.
In light of the need.
Really?
That's because you've interpreted in light of who
you are.
Jesus would say, give it to me.
The multitudes may be fed.
What's in your hand?
Nothing.
I'm a mom.
Continual pile of wash.
Kids in the terrible twos, terrible fours, terrible
tens, terrible fifteens.
My heart is angry half the time.
It's insincere.
Really?
Give it to me.
Put it in my hands.
What's in your hand?
Two mites.
That's all I have.
Isn't worth anything.
I'll throw it in the treasury while no
one's watching.
Only God would say this poor widow has
cast in more than they all.
And how she would change the lives of
thousands who would read the scripture.
Interpreted in light of God, he was a
much greater sustainer than those two mites would
ever have been.
What's in your hand, Moses?
It's no mistake.
It's taken me 80 years to put it
there.
You are a stubborn man.
It's a rod, Lord.
God says, Moses, throw it down in front
of me and I'll give it life.
Let go of it.
What is it?
It's a reminder of my failure, my struggle.
Good friends of, not good friends, friends.
Live in Europe.
Right after they were married here in the
United States, they're missionaries.
They were in Connecticut.
Car broke down just as they crossed a
bridge.
Back road, no lights, dark.
They get out of the car.
They didn't realize they were kind of backed
up right against the wall.
It was a 40-foot drop.
Didn't realize it was there because it was
dark.
And as another car came by, they went
to step backwards.
She fell off the wall, new bride.
Broke her back, broke her neck.
Now, there happened to be, happened to be,
in the town, a doctor who had been
at D-Day and had treated several hundred
broken backs from the invasion.
Men jumping in the water in the waves
with backpacks that weighed 50 pounds.
He strapped her on a board where she
was at the bottom of the wall, strapped
her head down, strapped her chest down, strapped
her legs down, strapped her onto a board,
carried the board to the hospital bed and
did not take her off the board for
three months.
And she went from there to a wheelchair
to walking.
In the process, met Johnny Erickson and sat
and talked with her.
Johnny said, you know, I'm blessed that God
is working in your life and it looks
like you're going to be up and around
again.
But he's given me this wheelchair.
It's my pulpit.
I've spoken to millions of people because of
this thing.
I remember seeing Johnny Erickson at the Rochester
Crusade, quadriplegic, sitting in a wheelchair, looking at
the crowd, her face glowing, and saying, you
know, you're handicapped.
You have disabilities.
As the Bible says, there are many who
have eyes but they don't see and they
have ears but they don't hear.
And they don't understand what God has done
for them.
She said, you look at me in this
wheelchair and you think I'm handicapped.
She said, I'm not.
Because my eyes have beheld the glory of
God and the gospel of Christ.
My ears have heard the good news.
My body awaits a day when I'll be
leaping and jumping for joy in his presence.
But you, she said, many of you, disabled,
eyes but they don't see, ears but they
don't hear.
And I sat there weeping and thought, boy,
Billy Graham's going to be an anti-climax
after this.
What's in your hand, wheelchair?
What's in your hand, Moses?
A rod.
Throw it down, Moses.
Give it to me.
I'll give it life.
It's just a rod, is it, Moses?
It'll turn the Nile River to blood.
It will turn the earth to lice so
that the magicians of Egypt are confounded and
say this is the finger of God.
Moses, is it just a rod that you
know so well it will part the Red
Sea?
Moses, you'll strike a rock and it'll bring
forth water for a nation.
Moses, is it just a rod?
Is it the hand of God?
Are you belittling it?
Do you despise the day of small things?
What's in your hand?
Just a dead stick, is it?
Moses, it will bud forth and bring forth
branches and flowers and almonds.
Moses throws it down.
You know the story.
Turns into a snake and the deliverer flees
in his bare feet running across the desert.
God's got to yell, yo, get back here.
He hadn't taken his sandals off, he just
takes off.
Take it by the tail.
And he took it by the tail and
it turned into a staff again.
He thought he knew that well.
Was there a snake trapped in that thing
all those years?
And God's saying to some of you, what's
in your hand?
Put your life down in front of me
and I'll give life to it.
Moses at this point has no idea, even
though it's turned into a serpent and turned
back again in a staff, he has no
idea what will still be accomplished as his
life is in the hand of God.
What's in your hand?
Husband?
Are you willing to put your life down
in front of Christ and be a Christian
wife?
Christian husband?
Christian parent?
Your business belong to him?
Your life?
The hammer that you hold?
Your instrument?
Is it something that you're so familiar with
and you think you know so well that
if you're not careful you might live your
life out in mediocrity in some senses?
You know, Moses could have said, you know,
no thanks.
I mean, I'm happy here.
A couple sheep.
Zephora's, she's okay.
Think what he'd have missed.
The power of God.
The Passover night.
The parting of the Red Sea.
Eighty days on the mountain of God so
that he comes down with his face shining
from God's glory.
The presence of God passing in front of
him.
God putting his hand over Moses.
See his hind parts standing on the transfiguration
with Elijah and Jesus.
Is it just a rod?
Is God beckoning you to give your life
into his hand?
Are you saying, but did you ever think
of this?
We're like that.
Or are you running from it as God
says, give it to me, throw it down
in front of me, I'll give it life?
I look at the passage and I think,
Lord, you have written this in here for
us, no doubt.
And it's because the things that are in
our hands, sometimes we look at them and
we think they're there because of failure.
They're there because of a mistake.
No, it's taken 80 years of God's design
to put that thing in his hand.
But God's waiting for Moses to throw it
down in front of him.
You know, God essentially has one message and
that is, to a lost world, you are
mine.
And how can he send someone who is
not his to spread the message that men
and women can be his?
Moses comes to the point of a surrendered
life and God won't use someone with an
unsurrendered life to go to an unsurrendered world.
God will not use an unsurrendered man or
woman to reach an unsurrendered generation.
Because he desires to make our life part
of our message.
Moses, what's that in your hand?
You know, I think, boy, what are in
our hands?
Are you a grandparent?
You know, it's interesting.
I look at a generation and I think
some of the grandparents around today came from
a different generation.
And though the generation after them has failed
in so many ways, I thank God for
grandparents because there are a lot of kids
who are not getting from their parents, because
of failure of my generation, but are getting
from their grandparents the news of Jesus Christ
and who knows who they will be.
What's in your hand?
Children?
Husband?
Talents?
Job?
Do you know your circumstance so well that
you think, yeah, this is the humdrum of
life.
Nice and church today.
Tomorrow back to work.
The whistle blows.
I become a robot again.
Put on the hard hat.
Or are you perceptive enough?
You know, if you've turned aside from the
pace of all that to seek his face,
are you willing to listen?
And if he says to you, you know,
take all of this and throw it down
in front of me.
Let me give life to it.
Surrender it.
It's not by mistake, Moses.
It's taken me 10 years or 20 years
or 80 years to get you in life
to the circumstance you're in.
And there is a spiritual, sovereign tapestry that
is woven to bring you to where you
are today in your circumstance.
Do you despise the person you're married to
or the children you have or the boss
that you work for or your health or
your condition?
Do you look around you and think this
is mediocrity?
This is a constant reminder of my failure
and of my mistake and it could have
been the scepter of Egypt and it's this
rotten shepherd staff in my hand?
Do you know it at all?
Have you only interpreted life in light of
who you are?
And you know we're so self‑centered, that's how
we interpret most things, in light of who
we are.
And if he says to you, throw it
down in front of me, your life is
not by mistake, surrender it, so that I
can reach an unsurrendered world and set people
free from an unsurrendered world.
Are you saying, but?
Did you ever think of this, God?
Look over in verse 20.
Very interesting.
Moses finally on his way.
He's on his way to the desert.
Moses took his wife and his sons and
set them upon an ass and he returned
to the land of Egypt and Moses took
the rod of God in his hand.
You know, what was it like for him
to write this?
He wrote the Pentateuch.
What was it like for Moses remembering back
to that day when he finally got his
marching honors and he finally went and he
looked at that thing that he had carried
for 40 years and thought, what did he
think?
Did he think boy, I hope this works
in front of Pharaoh.
What if I say watch this and I
throw it down and it goes clunk, clunk,
clunk, clunk, clunk and Pharaoh looks at me
like, Moses, in hindsight is writing and he
left and he took the rod of God
in his hand.
It had always been there.
He hadn't seen it.
He hadn't interpreted it in light of God,
he interpreted it in light of himself.
I say that we live in a desperate
generation.
A generation that seems hopeless.
And I say that most of us look
at our lives and we think it really
doesn't matter, it's really not ever going to
come to be anything, it's just a shepherd's
staff.
Lord, my life is a good life and
my life, Lord, I try to do the
best I can and I am involved in
this or that, but Lord, I'm going to
live this life.
I'm never going to be, Lord, a Billy
Graham or a Chuck Smith or I'm never
going to be a Mother Teresa or an
Esther.
Who knows if God has saved you for
such a time as this?
And you know, if you can walk away
and say to me, well, I don't think
what you're saying is true because my life
is completely surrendered and I'm not seeing what
you say, well, let me tell you something,
my life is not completely surrendered so I'm
not going to believe you, thank you.
Because if you come up to me and
say your life is completely surrendered, there's an
area of pride that isn't.
God is beckoning us.
This isn't the only story in the Bible,
it's one of many and it's a record
of how God deals in the lives of
men and women and here with Moses, calling
him, Moses, you don't know who you are,
you don't know who I am, what's in
your hand?
Let's start there.
Moses, is it your shepherd's staff?
Let it be mine, it will become the
rod of God.
Moses made a decision.
I encourage you today to make a decision
too.
Now, again, if you don't know Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior, are you willing
to throw your life down in front of
God?
Take up your cross.
If you do, he'll give life to it.
The Bible says if you seek to save
your life, you'll lose it.
You hear people saying that, don't you?
I feel like I'm losing it.
They are.
They're losing it because they're trying to hold
on to it.
No matter what I do, I can't get
ahead and the cat throws up on the
floor.
I feel like I'm losing it.
You are losing it.
Let go of it.
If you let go of it, how can
you lose it?
You already let go of it.
Jesus said, if you let go of it,
you'll find it.
If you lose your life, for my sake
and for the gospel, you'll find it.
Some of you here, maybe you've been coming
and you've been putting it off and you
know in your heart you need to be
saved and you've been wrestling with God and
you've been saying what Moses is saying here,
but, but God, did you ever think of
this?
And God is saying to you that he
wants your life.
You're saying, but God, I had an abortion.
How could you ever love me?
I use drugs, Lord.
I rip people off.
I don't even like church.
God is saying, just put it down in
front of me.
I'll give it life.