Labor Day - What's In Your Hand; First Church Sermon

good morning First Church and happy Labor Day I am so excited to share some great news with you this morning as you know we've been in a youth director search for the last several months and I'm happy to tell you that we found someone amazing he had a ton of opportunity because he was so great but he came to First Church and said I want to be a part of generation after generation so he's coming here his name's Zachary Fraley and he starts September 18th I can't wait for you guys to meet him but in this process we actually had a friend of mine named Keith Robinson help and guide our search and during the time as we got to know Keith we said man this guy is amazing we've got so much in common and eventually we didn't just have a partnership we had a friendship and so the leadership team and I asked Keith to come and speak at our church this weekend and share his heart with you Keith is one of the most talented communicators of his generation and I say his because he's a few years older than me not that many actually were part of the same generation but I want first church to put our hands together for the one the only pastor Keith Robinson yeah I feel like I'm walking out to an MMA fight or something with that introduction thank you guys so much it's great to be at first Church are you guys excited to be at church this morning that's great well I'm excited to be here with you thanks so much I want to say a huge thank you to Pastor John Hill he has become such a dear friend just over the course of these last several months as we've walked together through the process that he mentioned of helping to discover who God was lining up to bring to First Church to be your next youth director and student pastor and so I'm so excited about Zachary Fraley going to be coming here you're gonna love him it's gonna be an amazing season of ministry as he starts and and I can't wait to see what happens and hear all those great reports and you know as John was talking a few minutes ago and introducing me I like when he said that he sent me this video a couple days ago he said hey this is your introduction video and when he said his generation I got a little like I got a little angry I just gotta be honest like I got like what do you what do you mean my generation what are you talking about man like and part of it is because like I don't know if you've seen John lately but that dude has the blackest head of hair I've ever seen I'm so jealous like really and and I look at him and I look at myself and I'm like I know we're only a few years apart but I got all these gray hairs coming in but the more that I thought about it you know I got angry for a minute because I'm like you know I know I wish my hair was dark like his but that's okay I don't care if it turns gray as long as it doesn't turn loose you know what I mean I get it can always be worse now some of you didn't laugh at that because it already has but anyway it's great to be here this morning that's a great way to introduce yourself I'm telling you though this church is amazing I have journeyed across the country do it every year traveling coast-to-coast speaking in churches partnering with churches I've been in full-time ministry for 17 years and a lot of churches in our culture talk about being multi-generational but very few embody it the way that first church does and your story is so remarkable that I believe it's a model for what God wants to do in aging churches the country that there is new life and there are new generations that can build on what previous generations have done that we actually get to stand on the shoulders of decades and decades and in this case over a century of ministry that first church has to be able to go further and do more for the kingdom of God than ever we ever thought possible and that's reality for this place and I want you right now to give yourselves a huge hand for what God has done here in this church I want to thank you for that I hope you sense how real that is because it's not the story of a lot of churches and a lot of churches are closing their doors or kind of selling out and giving up their facility to someone else to some other Church that's growing because ministry seems to have passed them by but what I love about this story is that there were a generation of people here that were willing to invest to sacrifice and being multi-generational it can be a challenge in fact there can be a lot of challenges attached to that but I want to applaud you for your effort of doing it because it's worth it it's worth it because today your kids and your grandkids are worshiping God alongside of you because of you what what you've been able to do here in this community future generations will hear the gospel because of your faithfulness to God because you are willing to lay down some preferences and you are ready to reprioritize the mission of God in your generation and because of that look at what the Lord has done look around this is amazing and so I'm so honored today to be able to lend my voice on this Sunday morning and bring this message to you and the message title is just simply this if you're taking notes and you want to follow along on the youversion app with the scriptures that are going to be there you can do so but the title today is what's in your hand what's in your hand of all the titles that I carry the one pastor is the one that often gets the weirdest looks if you're talking with someone in the airport trust me it's the one that people go oh and all of a sudden the conversation changes when you say you're a pastor it's like their spaghetti coming out of your ears or something like it's just such a weird thing to introduce that into the conversation because people start calculating how many curse words they've used up until that moment right and then they start counting all the ones I use no I'm just kidding but anyway uh so but of all the titles that I carry the one that I'm most proud of and they're linked together is that of husband and father that title or those titles if you will and at this point it's hard to separate them out it's like a cracked egg it all goes together but I got to tell you that I carry that proudly because I understand the the impact that I get to have in my children's life and nothing has informed my relationship with God more than being a dad and so I've got these two awesome boys they're right here kind of in the middle section in the back they they're eager to wave because they're glad to be here those are my two boys Joel and Jude they're 12 and 9 years of age they're worshiping with us this morning at First Church it's so awesome that they're here and my wife Samantha's sitting next to them and and I got to tell you both of my boys are amazing they're great kids but they're kids you know what I mean they're kids and and nothing in the in all the world can prepare you for parenting like there's just the scenarios that you run into because kids are goofy and they do dumb things and one night several years ago me and my wife Samantha we were binge watching one of our favorite shows on Netflix as we do and and that as we're sitting there in front of the television it's way past the kids bedtime at this point and our youngest son Jude comes into the room and and he's freaking out he's panicking he's whimpering he's crying he's he's obviously upset and we look and he has his arm inside a vase all the way up to his elbow and it stuck and he's screaming and he's crying and he's dad I can't get it off I can't get it off and he's trying to pull this glass vase off of his arm and so I I'm and and of course you immediately want to go into like correction mode right like mom's in fix-it mode but I'm in like correct like how did you get your arm in the base what were you doing in the base and where are the flowers that I bought for your mother right like that's what's going through my head as a dad and of course mom's like we got to get his arm out of the vase and now we're thinking if we break it we're gonna cut him and that's a hard thing to explain the ER and so we're going through all these all these scenarios on how we get his hand out of the vase and so I said come here son and I pulled him up onto my lap and I start kind of like moving his arm and he say now dad stop and I move it and finally I see that down in the vase that he's got his hand clenched in a fist all the way at the bottom and the bass narrows around his arm and I said well son just let go of your fist and you'll be able to pull your arm out he said well daddy if I do that I'll drop my quarter he had been throwing money into the base trying to hit it from across the room and the quarter went in there he pulled the flowers out stuck his hand in to get it and when he grabbed it he wouldn't let go of it today I tell you that story because sometimes the things that we're holding onto are the very things that are holding us back what is it that's in your hand today that you're holding on to that's holding you back today I want to tell you three stories from the Bible three men who were holding on to things that were holding them back at some point and how in the middle of that they were able to let go and watch God do things in their lives they never imagined possible but their stories and what's funny because as we read stories in the Bible and we read the characters of the Bible if you grew up in church I did not I didn't grow up hearing all the stories I didn't come to faith in Christ until my senior year in high school but I didn't grow up hearing those stories but I know for many of us that did have for us hearing these stories in the Bible we just think that their lives were all perfect and economics we would describe that as their lives were up into the right you know the whole time just this wonderful perfect journey with no bumps bruises scars or wounds but nothing could be further from the truth in fact the only hero that we really see in the Bible is Jesus Christ everyone else pretty much gets it wrong at some point and for these three men they are no exception in fact for all three of these men you could say the struggle is real you can say the struggle is real Yura felt that way maybe you're there today the struggle is real in your life and you don't have to play church this morning and pretend like everything's okay just look at somebody next to you and say this struggle is real come on say it to them not wait a minute wait a minute later yeah hang on I want you to turn to somebody else now because you already blew it with that person I want you to turn somebody else and I want you to look at them with an attitude and say their struggle is real something like I don't even know what this guy's talking about you will Genesis chapter 32 we're gonna read the story about a man who had a real struggle in his life by the name of Jacob and Jacob does what all of us should do when we're struggling and that is pray we read jacob's prayer in Genesis chapter 32 and I want to read it to you and then we're gonna give some context to it it says in verse 9 that Jacob prayed O God and my grandfather Abraham God and my father Isaac Oh Lord you told me return to your own land and to your relatives and you promise me I will treat you kindly he says I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness you have shown me your servant when I left home and crossed the Jordan River I own nothing except this walking stick now my household fills two large camps lord please rescue me from the hand of my brother Esau for I am afraid that he is coming to attack me along with my wives and children but you promised me I will surely treat you kindly and I will multiply your descendants until they become as numerous as the sands along the seashore too many to count Thank You grant if you go back to the tenth verse in the 32nd chapter of Genesis we find that Jacob is in a place of desperation a place of Prayer and he says something very interesting in his prayer he reminds God who his grandfather is and who his father is because his grandfather and his father had a history with God some of you sitting in this room this morning you're not here by accident you're here because you had a praying mother a praying grandmother a grandfather who is an elder a deacon maybe not at this church but somewhere else some of you in this room you have a history with God somewhere back in the family tree someone had a relationship with Jesus and it changed the trajectory of your family history some of you in this room you wandered for years as moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas and others prayed for you that you would come to faith in Jesus Christ some of you are sitting here this morning and you got a drug problem you got drugged to church this morning because somebody wanted to make sure that you would hear the Word of God today every single one of us in this room we have our own stories Jacob was a man who's recounting his story in a time of desperation as he's praying to God he's saying God remember my granddaddy Abraham remember my papa remember Isaac you know those two guys right because they have a history with God you could read about it in the book of Genesis he's saying you remember them well now remember me and he himself begins to remember his life in fact what's amazing about this prayer it's the first time we hear a prayer being prayed by Jacob and he says when I crossed this river years ago when I crossed it god I only had a walking stick in my hand another translation says a staff now if you know anything about Israelite history you understand that they are a shepherding people they lived a pastoral life and as such they would have had these staffs that they carried that represented much more than just the fact that they were shepherds in fact the staff would serve not only as a weapon to fend off wild animals if they would try to attack their flocks it served as a point of strength something that they could lean on they would have to stand and oversee their flocks for many hours at a time and so the staff was something that they literally used as a piece of furniture thus at the staff was a symbol of strength it was a symbol of their vocation but the staff for the Israelite was also so much more not just for that culture but even today primitive cultures do some really interesting things when it comes to the staff the staff was assigned to the head of every household in fact when they when the firstborn reached the age of manhood which was around 13 or 14 years of age they would venture off into the wilderness into the woods they would take a sharp object of flint and they would begin to carve their own staff from a single branch from a hardwood tree and that staff would be the thing that they would carry for the rest of their lives as they watched over the flock but not only that they would also write significant events and this still happens today in primitive cultures significant events were marked on the staff they were written on in those days there was no written form of communication so in order for stories to be handed down from generation to generation what what happened was there were tribal storytellers who were commissioned with conveying and relaying the promises of God the purposes of God the Word of God from generation to generation it was passed down and the staff was a useful instrument in telling that story and as the head of the household if I were the head of the household I would mark down on my staff every significant event in my life not just my victories but also the key milestones the days that my children were born but that I prospered promises of God that I had held on to prayers that had been answered and so a father could look as the patriarch of his family as a tribal storyteller and pass on generation to generation all the good things that God had done and Jacob is in his prayer in this moment and he's remembering the day of small beginnings he says when I crossed this this River years ago all I had was this staff but now look at all that the Lord has given me the staff was a humble reminder of all the things that God could do but he's also facing a real struggle not only did the staff represent his identity it also represented his struggle in his life and here's what Jacob's staff reminds us his staff reminds us that God can do a lot with a little he was small and insignificant or so it seemed and he's remembering that in his prayer and he's having a desperate crisis now he has to go back and he has to face his brother Esau whom he had cheated and stolen from years before and not just a little thing he literally stole his inheritance all of it he did what most of us do though when we get desperate about something he prayed and he prayed an oh crap prayer you ever prayed one of those Oh don't judge me come on let every one of you in this room have prayed and oh crap prayer at some point in your journey right you think back to the first prayer you ever prayed I bet more than anything it was an oh crap prayer it was oh dear God if you exist please I did not study for this test help me to remember everything I did not learn right we've all been there at times in our lives you get moved to a new school if you're a young person you get cut from the team maybe it hits harder mom and dad get divorced you watch someone that you love and you care for pass away as we get older it doesn't change sometimes in our lives there can be moments of what now Lord when our kids go astray when they don't want to go to church when we get laid off from our job unexpectedly we don't see it coming or when we get the news the dreaded news it's cancer it's in those desperate moments when the struggle is so real that we can learn something from the life of Jacob Jacob was facing his brother Esau and his relationship with him was quite rocky to say the least let me give you a little back story you see Jacob was a twin his brother Esau was his older twin brother and from the moment that Jacob was born in fact his birth that the Scriptures tell us what happens Jacob is born second esau first and as Esau is coming out of the womb as he's being born Jacob the Bible says reaches out and grabs Esau by the heel holding onto him striving to get ahead to be first to be noticed and from that moment of his birth until we read this in Genesis 32 Jacob has tried and strived to get ahead to be first to be noticed even as a child Jacob felt insecure even as a child growing up Jacob dealt with things in his own life because of his father issues you see Jacob's father Isaac wasn't a perfect man but Isaac maybe did something to Jacob it's the worst thing that you could do for a child the Bible tells us and actually tells us this that Isaac loved Jacobs brother Esau more he loved him more he favored him more Esau was a man of the field he was a beastly man the Bible says he was hairy and he just liked to go out and kill things and drag it home and eat it he was a man's man and Isaac said that's my boy he's the firstborn and Jacob grew up with this complex of not being good enough for father he had daddy she's growing up he really did he was favored by his mother he was a mama's boy always hanging out inside making stew cooking at the stove that's what he did and so he carried this with him his whole life I don't know if there's anything more damaging you can do to a child than make them feel less than someone else less than a sibling and yet he grew up feeling that way he grew up with a sense that there's something missing in my life and Jacob probably grew up feeling like an oops or an accident and I don't know what it is that you're sitting here this morning and I don't know how your staff is marked or scarred rather with all the things that you've been through in your life but Jacob is a reminder that your past with God does not define you listen your past rather your past does not define you there is a future in God that he has for you on the other side and you are not your sins you are not your mistakes you are not an oops and you are not an accident Jacob was a man who has labeled the name Jacob the very name means deceiver he was given that name from birth can you imagine that was his identity it was all wrapped up and the story was told but that's not the end of the story there's something on the other side so now Jacob because he wanted his father's approval he goes in one day to his father Isaac who's now on his deathbed he's blind he can't see yet can't move he's pretty much bedridden and Jacob goes into him one night because he wanted his brother Esau's birthright which means he gets all the share of the inheritance he gets the lion's share of it all and he wanted it but more than that I think he wanted his father's blessing I think he wanted Isaac just to look at him and affirm him and say you're loved and you you're the best and so Jacob does a really weird thing he goes out and he shears an animal and he takes the hair from that animal and he patches it on his arms and on his body so that when he goes in and Isaac who's blind reached down at his bedside to touch him he thinks it's Esau and their Isaac pronounces the blessing over Jacob whom he thinks his Esau and here's the thing somebody said well why didn't when he found out like he just say oops sorry it wasn't for you as your brother it didn't work that way when a thing was spoken when a thing was verbalized it was as good as written in stone and so in that moment when he pronounced the blessing and gave it to Jacob Jacob had all the rights and all the accesses of the firstborn he took his brothers money he took his brothers inheritance and he went running and he ran for years as the deceiver until this day in Genesis 32 when he says I'm gonna face my brother again he's afraid for his life he's in a moment of oh crap what next but Jacob does something that we should all do when we face these moments in our life we should pray we should pray and we should remember where we've come from and don't forget what it is that God has promised us and listen you may have sinned you've may have messed up and you may be like Jacob you got a whole list of things in your past that are marks against you but one night one moment with God can forever change your eternal destiny the Bible says that Jacob wrestled with God all night in prayer he wrestled with God and at the end of that wrestling match God reached out the Bible says and touched his hip socket and knocked it out of joint and from that day forward the Bible says that Jacob walked with a limp and so Jacob think about it for just a moment walked the rest of his life with a limp what did he lean on the whole time that he walked he leaned on the story of a God who takes bad beginnings and turns them into beautiful endings in fact the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 21 that Jacob it was by faith when he was old and dying he blessed each of Joseph's sons and bowed and worship as he leaned on his staff so for the rest of his life he walked with a limp as a reminder of the grace of God the transformation that God had done in his heart and in his life and at the end when he looked and he saw his grandkids and his kids he worshiped God and gave thanks because of what God had done for him his staff was a reminder that God can do a lot with a little and by the way that same night that Jacob wrestled in prayer God changed his name from Jacob the deceiver to Israel which means Prince of God ever heard of it the name Israel that's where it comes from this is a God who can do a lot with a little in fact today I don't know what you're sitting in here carrying I don't know what you're walking in here with I don't know what sins are on the staff of your story but I got to tell you that the same promise that God gave to Jacob to transform his identity to change him from the inside out God offers that to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ and Paul says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17 if anyone is in Christ they're a new creation the old is gone behold all things are new well I thought that get somebody excited this morning the old is gone behold all things are new today in this room there's some new people sitting in this room you're not defined by your past by your sin you're not your sin you're not your shame you're not your failure you're not your guilt in Christ you are a new creation and grace says you can journey for the rest of your life walking with that limp that points to the fact that God is a God who writes beautiful new stories the second story we find is about a man who's quite along in years you know we live in a culture today that worships at the altar of eternal youth and we think that's all that is important now but I got to tell you the Bible is replete with stories of people who look like they should have been counted out but they weren't and I want to say to you today as we read the story from this next individual that if you're not dead you're not done there's still something that God can do in you and wants to do in and through your life Moses was a man who is 80 years old when we read this encounter with him in Exodus chapter 4 now to set it up before this verse that I've read I'm about to read before this happens the Bible tells us that Moses was spared as a baby as a child he was born to an Israelite family and Pharaoh hood Pharaoh had issued a decree that every child in Israel every male child under the year under two years of age was to be slaughtered and so Moses his family hid him among the reeds in the sea in the Nile and he was rescued from that basket and raised by Egyptian royalty he was raised in a home of great opulence and prosperity but Moses as he grew up he knew that he was an Israelite he knew that he had been spared and as he got older his conscience began to bother him as it should when we see people oppressed in our world he saw the oppression of his people Israel and he wanted to rise up and do something about it so he did one day and he saw one of the Egyptian guards who was abusing one of his people the Israelites he took matters into his own hands and he murdered that Egyptian guard and fearing for his life Moses ran for the desert to disappear and that's what he did he was 40 years old when he went to the desert he met a woman there and now he married her now he's working for his father-in-law living on the back side of the desert and he's 80 years old and in Exodus the Bible tells us that God shows up to Moses when he's on the backside of the desert working for his father-in-law far away from the palaces of Egypt which he wants to residents in and now God shows up and speaks to him and the Bible says the way that God does that it's interesting he shows up in a burning bush there's a bush that's on fire in the desert Moses goes over to see what's going on because he says to himself he has this monologue the bush is burning but it's not could it's not consumed and so he goes over and a voice calls to with to him within that bush and says him Moses I have indeed heard the cry of my people crying out in slavery in Egypt and I've come down to save them now you go save them that's what God says to Moses I've come to save him now you go save him so Moses begins to make excuse after excuse after excuse of why he can't do it right he's afraid he's afraid he knows the power of Pharaoh he knows the power of Egypt he knows how badly Israel is beaten down from the hundreds of years of hearing the shout of the slave drivers in their ears it's hard for slaves to rise up and he knew that and he was afraid he's 80 years old I'm sure he was thinking why don't they just why doesn't God ask someone young to do it someone more qualified and then we pick up the story in this conversation between God and Moses Exodus chapter 4 verse 2 and the Lord asked him what's that in your hand Moses replies a shepherd's staff or a staff what is that in your hand he says his staff and God says throw it on the ground so he threw it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses ran from it I want to park right here for a moment this story is fascinating to me Moses being the shepherd that he was living on the backside of the desert would have had a shepherd staff in his hand again all of it marked with the stories his identity everything tied up in that it pointed to his vocation and in some ways it pointed to his failure and God says to Moses what is that in your hand what's in your hand what are you holding on to and Moses was holding on to all of that baggage from his past all of us failed attempts everything that had caused him to miss out on what he thought was his opportunity to do something great in his life most of his dreams are probably gone merely a shadow now of what was and now he throws the staff on the ground and it becomes a serpent now that's that is interesting meaning for two reasons first of all most of us are scared of snakes and so the symbol don't don't lose it the symbol in this don't lose the point Moses is afraid of walking in obedience to Christ Moses is afraid of following God Moses is counting his own failures into the equation and saying I can't I can't and he's running from God's call on his life much like we would all run from the snake on the ground does that make sense so the moment that that that staff hits the ground it becomes a serpent he runs in fear but then God says put out your hand verse four and catch it by the tail you ever caught a snake before where do you not want to catch it where do you not want to catch it let's all make sure you know this don't grab it by the tail you grab that snake up by the head so it won't bite you he says grab it by the tail and the Bible says he did and it became a staff in his hand once again and he said that the Lord or rather 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 Moses was afraid he ran and God said stretch out your hand and pick it back up and when he did in the next chapter the Bible says that Moses set out for Egypt with the staff of God in his hand you know that tells me it tells me that in your hands your life my life may be a very little consequence but in the hands of God it can be a story written for his glory in the hands of God our lives can do amazing things and Moses was reminded in that moment when he walked back to Egypt now not with his fear but with faith in his heart that God could do amazing things he realized in that moment you know what I've not just been saved from something I've been saved for something do you get that this morning you see Moses was saved from something from certain destruction as a baby the most vulnerable in society as a baby being born into an oppressive regime certain death awaited him and yet God saved him from something but it wasn't the from that mattered so much as it was before you see you've been safe from something if you know Jesus Christ you've been safe from something you've been safe from a life of destruction you've been safe from hell you've been safe from all those things but my friend that's only half the story deliverance is only part of it there's inheritance for you there's something that God wants you to live for now and Moses it took him 80 years to get to this point but he finally did and he crossed over he had four excuses before he started this journey he says to God Who am I and God says it doesn't matter who you are Moses it matters who I am and by the way I am that I am I'm the first and the last the beginning in the end the Alpha and the Omega there's nothing you have to worry about because Moses it's not about you it's about me he says I don't know what to say God says I'll tell you what to say don't worry about that Moses says well they won't listen to me God God's answer was I'll work through you and power I mean can you imagine Moses having to go back to the Israelites and be like hey I was in the backside of the desert I know I haven't seen you guys in like 40 years there was a bush on fire a burning bush in the desert spoke to me we're gonna get set free the rest of the Israelites to be like most we think you've been burning some bush in the desert like seriously like what what is wrong with you and God says don't worry about what they'll say I'll give you words and when they don't listen just remember that you hold in your hand the staff of God that you hold in your hand not your string not your power but mine Moses what's in your hand my friend can I ask you today what's in your hand what are you holding on to that's holding you back maybe it's time to throw it down to stop running from the fear but to grab faith and hold on to it now why did God ask that question what's in your hand do you realize this about God that's a rhetorical question like he's not like he's not confused God's never pondered anything in his life he's never wondered gods never had an aha moment he always is he always was he knows everything but he wants Moses to recognize he wants Moses to recognize that God in him can do amazing things and that in his hands his life will spell certain failure destruction but in God's hands amazing things can happen for God's glory and sometimes will never realize the full potential of what can be done unless we're willing to let go of the things that are holding us back so today Moses staff reminds us that we are to never exempt ourselves from God's possibilities because of our own insecurities what insecurities do you have Moses could have said I'm 80 I don't care if you're rich or you're poor you're educated you're uneducated do not exempt yourself from God's possibilities at this season in your life because of your own insecurity the last story is found in 1st Samuel Chapter 17 probably the most familiar story in the Bible or at least in the Old Testament it's the story of a young man by the name of David David was a shepherd boy the Bible tells us that he was the youngest of eight brothers his brothers had gone off to fight in the great battle against the Philistines the Philistines were kind of the arch enemies of God in the Old Testament so the Israelites and the Philistines were always fighting and the Bible says that David did not go to the battle field that day he was on the backside of the desert tending his father's sheep just a shepherd boy with a staff his father called to him one day and he said hey go take your brother's some food down at the battlefield they've got to be weary by now so David loads up his donkeys and makes a trip makes a journey down to the battlefield travels for half a day or more and he shows up as the pizza delivery boy he's got bread and cakes what's better than that but to his dismay when he shows up on the battlefield no one's fighting everyone's hiding all the Israelites are afraid because there's a nine foot tall giant who comes out and taunts them every single day says send me your champion and the winner takes all David hears the tone of this giant in his ears and somewhere in his heart and his mind he can't fathom the fact that God's people are hiding and cowering in fear and so as a 17 year old man he said young man he says I'm gonna fight him everyone thinks he's crazy people begin to despise him they get jealous of him people think he's arrogant but he says no I'm not doing this for me I'm doing this for the glory of God and he steps out and the Bible says that he begins to run at the Giant on the battlefield he runs at him and we pick up the conversation in 1st Samuel 17 verse 42 and when the Philistine looked and saw David he disdained him he despised him sneering and contempt at the ruddy-faced boy and listen to what he says am i a dog that you come at me with a stick don't miss that in this verse and he cursed David by the names of his gods come over here and I'll give you a flesh to the birds and wild animals Goliath yelled David replied to the Philistine you come at me with a sword and spear and javelin but I come at you in the name of the Lord of heavens armies the god of the armies of Israel whom you have defied today the Lord will conquer you and I will kill you and cut off your head I like this kid this boldness that rises up inside of him listen to it listen to where it's where it's headed and I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds in the wild animals and the whole world will know check this out the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel and everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people but not with sword and spear this is the Lord's battle and he will give you to us now notice what the Giant says when David starts running had him notice what the giant says Goliath says am i a dog that you come at me with a stick what do you think David had in his hand he had his story in his hand we always talk about his sling that's great the sling was David's kill but the staff was David's story and David had quite the story you see when his brothers were out jockeying for position David was on the backside on the hills with his sheep and he was riding Psalms and making music in his heart to God and the Bible tells us that David when he heard the Philistines taunts you know what he said to his brothers and the armies of Israel he said you know what the same God who delivered me when I was on the backside of the desert tending my father's sheep the same God who delivered me from the mouth of the lion and the paw of the bear can deliver this uncircumcised philistine into my hands who is he against the god of the armies of Israel you know what he was doing he was looking back and remembering the wonders of the Lord I don't know what you're facing today I don't know what kind of news you got I don't know why the struggle is real in your life but I want you to do this today I want you to remember the wonders of the Lord I want you to look back at your life and remember all the times that God came true look back at your life when you should have received judgment but instead he gave you grace look back at all the times in your life when you pray desperately God come through for me and if you don't I don't know what I'll do but you're still here you're not dead and God's not done with you yet because the best days are still in front of you no matter where you've been or what you've done and David's staff reminds us that God is not looking for a ability he is looking for availability and so today is a day that we're reminded that Jesus is a master at making champions out of underdogs I met with a young man just a few minutes before this service who said that he had done some time in prison recently rededicated his life to Christ I love stories like that because the beginning of his story is not the end of his story because there's another March somewhere in the journey there's a milestone that's just been reached he's crossed over from death to life and now there is a future in front of him don't forget the wonders of the Lord share him with your children write them down today journal them so that you have something to tell the next time you think little things don't count remember that story and remember whose hands it's in you see a basketball in my hands is worth about 20 bucks but a basketball in LeBron Jameses hands it's 30 and a half million dollars a baseball in my hand is worth about six dollars but in Clayton Kershaw's hands it's worth thirty three million because it all depends on whose hands it's in a tennis racquet my hands pretty much useless put a tennis racket and Serena Williams hands is worth the Wimbledon championship because it all depends on whose hands it's in a staff in my hand just makes me look like a goofy guy on stage but a staff in the hands of Moses parted a mighty sea five loaves and two fish in my hands a couple fish shameless shoes sounds pretty good right now but five loaves and two fish in the hands of the master can feed 5000 men plus women and sure because it all depends on whose hands it's in a couple of nails with a hammer and my hands will produce a birdhouse maybe but a couple of dales in a hammer and hands in the feet of Jesus produce salvation for the entire world because it all depends on whose hands it's in so today I want to encourage you to put your life in his hands put your concerns your worries your fears your failures your labels that you've been given the titles that you've allowed people to put on you your dreams those that have failed and feel gone and lost forever put your family members who are hurting and suffering or maybe away from God put your relationships in the hands of God because when they're in his hands all things are possible would you bow with me today today if you're here in this room and you have never put your life into Jesus's hands to be your Lord and Savior you've never invited him in to forgive you to help you to start over to start a new journey I've read it earlier and I'll say it again if anyone's in Christ old things are gone behold all things are new God can write a new story for you starting today this can be the turning of a page a brand-new chapter if you'll just surrender your life to him and so on the count of three if you've never done that you've never given your life to Christ or maybe you've strayed and you know it's time to come back come on this moment is for you so when I count to three if you need to surrender your life to Christ you want to do that would you just raise up your hand when I say three and by doing that you're just saying Keith pray for me today if that's you and you're here one this is your moment to say yes to Jesus to pass from death to life to step into the new side of the story that God will tell through you - don't hesitate err wait raise it up high when I say three three right now come on raise it up I want to surrender my life to Jesus I want to put my life in his hands my life's been in my hands up till now but I want to give it to him come on just another moment I'm not pushing pulling or prodding anybody to do it but I want to give you this moment because Jesus has incredible things in store for you my friend you may have failed you may feel like a failure but you are not you are not your failures you are not your mistakes you're God's beloved you're his child Jesus loved you so much that he died for you and if you want to surrender to that let him make you new if you've not raised your hand already do it right now do it right now anyone else man hands all of this room amen you can put your hands down I want everyone to bow with me right now for those of you that raised your hand I'm gonna invite you to pray this prayer with me and we're gonna make confession this morning that we need Christ into our lives and this is the moment you pass from death to life so I won't invite you to pray with me but first Church I wonder if we could join with our brothers and sisters in Christ that are praying that this morning they're joining us in this prayer so I wonder if we could join them I want to invite everyone in the house to pray this with me today say this dear Jesus come on everyone pray dear Jesus thank you for speaking to me today Jesus I admit I need you in my life more now than ever before I need you so I asked you to come and forgive me of my sins cleanse me and make me new Jesus I believe you died on a cross for me and you rose again to give me a new life today I received that new life come and be my Lord my Savior and my best friend from this moment on I am yours and you are mine come and live your life in me and through me and help me to follow you all the days of my life in Jesus name in Jesus name Amen can we give the Lord a hand for that there were hands all over this house afraid I'm Way out of time but I want to just encourage you don't go anywhere everyone stay where you're at please this card if you raised your hand there's a next step card and the seat back in front of you and if you raise your hand to pray to receive Christ I want you to take that out right now as we sing this last worship song and I want you to fill it out and Mark the Box about your decision and before you leave the building today please go by the visitor center and drop this off because first Church wants to partner with you and your journey as you walk out your faith for Christ god bless you so much First Church thank you for letting me be here we'll see you again soon [Applause]

Channel: First Church

Views: 1,695

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: First Church, First, Church, First.church, DeMotte, Wheatfield, Indiana, Jasper County, First Reformed Church Of DeMotte, Grace, Fellowship, Sermon, Reformed, DeMotte Church, Wheatfield Church, Churches, labor day, what's in your hand

Id: ovD_qSQ2UZY

Length: 50min 43sec (3043 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 03 2017