Sermon Tone Analysis

Exodus 4:1-5

*WHAT IS THAT IN THINE HAND?*

*Intro*: Ill.

The context revolves around the call of Moses to be the deliverer of Israel.

He is 80 years old.

He is a fugitive from Egypt, *Ex.

2:11-15*.

He lives with his father-in-law Jethro and keeps Jethro’s sheep, *Ex.

3:1*.

He does not appear to be a likely choice for the ministry God has in mind.

When the call of God comes, Moses gives every excuse he can think of to get out of what the Lord has for him to do.

1.)

He says he doesn’t feel worthy, *3:11-12*.

2.) He says he doesn’t even know God’s name, *3:13-14*.

3.) He says the people will not believe him, *4:1-9*.

4.) He says that he is not good with words, *4:10-12*.

5.) he says, “*/Send another/*”, *4:13-17*.

After all the excuses, Moses goes to do what the Lord has told him to do, *4:18-31*.

In the middle of this account, God asks Moses a question.

That question is found in *verse 2* of our text.

It is that question that I want to investigate today.

That question, and the answer to it, has importance for our lives right now.

The question is rather simple.

It is, “*/What is that in thine hand?/*” Moses answered, “*/a/**/ rod/*”.

All he had in his hand that day was a simple shepherd’s staff.

To Moses, all he had in his hand was a dry, dead stick.

That’s all it was to him, but in the eyes of God it was so much more than that.

Let’s examine this text today and see what Moses really had in his hands that day.

As we do, let’s take the time to look at our own lives to see the things we also carry in our hands.

I want you to see that just as God used what was in the hands of Moses for His glory, He desires to use the */things /*we carry in our hands as well.

Let’s notice these truths together as I preach on the question, “*/What Is That In Thine Hand?/*”

 

  I.

v.

2         *MOSES HELD HIS*

*             PERSONALITY IN HIS HAND*

·         When Moses said “*/a rod/*”, he was referring to his shepherd’s staff.

This was a stick some six feet long that was used in a variety of ways by the shepherd.

It was used to guide, lead and protect the sheep.

It was used to support the shepherd and help him climb up and down the steep mountain places as he led and looked for his sheep.

It was used to defend the flock and the shepherd against the attacks of wild animals and others who would threaten the flock.

Moses depended on that rod every day he lived.

·         That rod identified Moses as a shepherd.

When people saw that rod in his hand, they would immediately know who he was!

That rod also represented all that Moses possessed.

He did not even own the sheep that he kept.

They belonged to his father-in-law Jethro.

All Moses possessed was the rod.

It represented his life, his identity and his livelihood.

·         That rod was a constant reminder that he had never reached his fullest potential in the Lord.

Forty years earlier God had moved on his heart to deliver Israel from Egypt, *Ex.

2:11-14*.

Back then, Moses ran ahead of God and took matters into his own hand.

Because he did, he felt like he had wasted his only opportunity to serve the Lord.

Moses had come to believe that we was worthy of being no more than a shepherd.

That stick told Moses, “*/You are nothing but a shepherd keeping another man’s flock!/*”

·         Like Moses, we also hold some things in our hands today.

Some of those things are good things and others are evil.

Here is a short list of some of the things we hold on to today: */the past, some pet sin, some hard feelings over things people have done or said to us, unforgiveness, the sorrows of life, feelings of inadequacy, negativity, talents, natural abilities, and accomplishments/*.

·         All of these things, whether they are good or bad, identify us and control our lives.

We come to depend on the things we hold in our hands and we may even think we can’t live without them.

They become an integral part of our lives.

Like a shepherd leans on his staff, we lean on the things that we hold in our hands.

·         We lean on the things we hold in our hands.

Things like our */past/*, our */problems/*, our */grudges/*, our */abilities/* and our */talents/*.

We live for those things and we allow them to define our personality and control our spiritual destiny.

·         We look at some of the things we hold in our hands and believe that those things are all we will ever be.

God will use Moses to teach us that we can rise above the things that we hold in our hands.

*/We will see that what we hold does not have to hold us!/*

 

 II.

v.

2        *MOSES HELD HIS*

*                 PROBLEM IN HIS HAND*

·         When Moses heard the Lord’s question, it must have stabbed his heart.

“*/What is that in thine hand?/*” is the question.

“*/A rod/*” is the answer.

Moses must have remembered a time when his hands held a scepter instead.

Surely his mind went back to those days in the palace in Egypt when he was being trained and educated to be a Pharaoh.

He may have remembered a time when he held the world in his hand, now he has nothing but a dry, dead stick.

God knew what Moses had in his hand.

God was not asking for information.

God was asking for instruction.

God was asking Moses to carefully consider the thing he held in his hand.

In Moses’ life, the thing he held also held him!

·         That rod identified Moses and that rod also represented all the problems in his life!

That rod reminded him that he used to be a prince.

That rod reminded him that he was just a servant.

That rod reminded him that he was poor and owned nothing.

That rod reminded Moses that his life was filled with vast potential at one time, but that now, he was merely a has been, a washed up nobody on the back side of the desert.

·         All the things I mentioned before, have the ability to define us.

Our sins, our past, our hurts, our negatives feelings about others, all impact who we are and how we relate to those around us.

They even determine how we serve the Lord.

If I allow the negative aspects of my life to control me, then I will stand in the way of the Lord and of His will being done in my life.

Even the positive aspects of our lives, like our talents and abilities, become liabilities when we depend on them instead of the Lord.

·         I would remind you that we are to be controlled by nothing and no one but the Lord Jesus Christ, *Eph.

5:18; Gal.

2:20; Rom.

12:1-2*.

·         What do you have in your hand?

What are you clinging to today?

Is there some */attitude/*, some */activity/*, some */action/*, that defines your life?

The only thing that should identify the child of God is “*/Christlikeness/*”, *Phil.

1:21*.

·         Ill.

Paul could say, “*/For to me to live is Christ.../*” if you made that statement, how would it come out of your heart?

What do you live for?

Whatever it is, it reveals your personality.