Are you Settling for Less? 

Exodus 

So, let me tell you something about me. I'm not a golfer. I know some of you all play golf. That's fantastic. I'm not here to hate on anybody's sport. I'm never going to be a golfer. I'm never going to play golf. In fact, I have a lot of pastor friends that say you're really not called to be a pastor if you don't golf. I must not be called to be a pastor. But I love sports, I love studying sports, and I love great athletes. I was watching a documentary, a while back, on golf. I remember that when I watched it, I was like, “I'm going to keep this.”

I put it into a notepad because I'm like, “I'm going to use this at the beginning of a message at some point,” and then I was like, “Oh, this is the time to use that.”

Well, in 1972, Jack Nicklaus — and many of you all probably have heard that name. If he's not one of the greats of all times, some people think he's the greatest of all time. He's won more majors than anybody else. Jack Nicklaus, in 1972, at Pebble Creek, was on the 17th hole, and the wins were a blustery wind. I mean, it was 20-30 mile-an-hour winds. He was at a par three on the 17th hole, and he was using a 1-iron. For those of you who — I think I got this right. If you all are golfers and I don't know what I'm talking about, give me some grace. Okay? He was getting ready to hit, and when he went to swing, the wind came, and he sort of had to take a little bit of a different attack in the way he hit the ball. The ball goes all the way onto the green, hits the pin where the flag is, and bounces just a few inches from the hole. He’s able to tap it in for a birdie, and then that set him up on the 18th hole to win the major. It’s an incredible shot. You can go on YouTube and it's just incredible. 1972 Pebble Beach, Jack Nicklaus, 17th hole.

When I saw that shot, I'm like, “That’s got to be the greatest shot ever.”

When you go and type in “greatest shot ever,” sure enough, under any circumstances, that's one of the greatest shots of all time. They sat down with Nicklaus, and they were talking to him about that shot, and a couple of other shots that were incredible shots, and they said, “What was the most important shot in your golfing history?”

Now, you’ve got to think about it. He had a lot of shots. I mean, this was a guy that won a lot of majors. I mean, this was the guy for a long time. His response was different than what I had thought. I mean, I don’t know how you all are when you watch something, but I’m sort of thinking, “If I was Nicklaus, I'd be like, ‘Man, 1972, when I hit that ball and the wind was coming. That was the greatest shot,’” or maybe something else.

Here’s what his response was. His response was like, “Wow, that's a great response.”

I wanted to save it for beginning of a message. Here's what he said. He said, “Every shot was important because my destiny was always in my hands.”

I was like, “Wow.”

See, I don't know how you all are, but in my life, I’d be worried about Tom Watson, or I'd be worried about Seve Ballesteros, or I'd be worried about Arnold Palmer, and he's like, “I didn't really tune into what they were doing. They weren't going to win or lose for me. I was. Every shot I hit was important because my destiny was in my hands.”

Now, as Christians we realize that there's probably not a complete truth to that because God is sovereign. And we don't know exactly how the sovereignty of God and the choices that we make work out, but there's something profound about that because that attitude is an attitude that I often don't have in my life, and maybe you can relate to me. Sometimes it's like, “Well, if that wouldn't have happened, then this. If they wouldn't have done this, then I wouldn't have had this. If that particular thing or that person wouldn't have said that, then this.”

Constantly looking for something else to put the responsibilities on rather than going, “No, no, no. Destiny is in my hands.”

When you think about this theologically, when God created us, He created you and I with a ton of ability. He created you and I with the ability to name the animals. He didn't say, “I'm the creator. I’m the one who's going to do it all.”

He said, “No, no. I want you to use all the talents and abilities you have. You're going to name them all. Not only that, you're going to have dominion over the animals. Not only that, but you're going to subdue the planet. You're going to be like my co-creators in the way that we do this thing. You're going to be like my vice regents. You’re going to do it with me, you're going to do it unto me. I've given you such ability and such wonder.”

When you think about life, how many of us, if we're honest, many times, would rather put the blame somewhere else than to go, “You know, maybe, just maybe, rather than worrying about everything else, I do need to think about some things? Maybe I do need to think about how I look at life and my attitude about life.”

We're going to see this, this weekend, as we continue our series in Exodus. God's going to ask Moses a question that transcends all of scripture, and we're going to get there in a minute. The question He’s going to ask him is, “What is in your hand?”

And it's profound. It’s a profound question. What's in your hand? I want you to do something. I don't normally do this. This is an interaction. I want you to turn to somebody, I want you to look at them, and I want you to say, “What is in your hand?”

Turn to somebody and say that. Don't turn to them and say, “Where are you going to eat after this guy gets done?”

Okay? Don't do that. What is in your hand? I want to talk about that, this weekend, as we continue our Exodus series where we're going back, looking at Exodus. And we're going to move into Matthew when we get into December, and we're going to see how all of this works together, how the story of Exodus is exactly what Matthew's telling us in the story of Christ. We’re going to be like, “Wow, that is profound.”

So, last weekend, we left off at the burning bush. Most people have probably heard that story in some form or fashion, whether you grew up in church or not. So, God meets Moses in this burning bush, and He tells him He’s got something for him to do. And what is Moses' response? He's like, “Well, who am I? I mean, You’re going to use me? I'm a shepherd. I've made some mistakes.”

God's like, “No, I'm going to be with you. I'm going to use you. Don’t you worry. Believe me.”

And what happens after that is in Exodus 3-4, which I'm not going to be able to go through all of that, there's a lot of back and forth between Moses and God. It's actually tender. I don't know how you all are, but if I was God, and Moses is continually questioning me, I would be like, “Enough.”

I mean, you all would probably be more kind than me. I'd be like, “I’ve heard you complain now eight times. That's enough.”

God is so tender. The back and forth is something you should see because it really is a longer passage of scripture than what I can take time to do this weekend, but I want to enter into that. There’s this back and forth between Moses and God, and we're going to get to this incredible question: What is in your hand? This idea of it being in our hands, and this idea of God wanting to use you and I.

With the Jack Nicklaus story, I was also listening to Tom Wright recently, and Tom is considered one of the great New Testament scholars of our generation. I actually kept hitting “stop,” and writing down what he was saying because it was so profound. It made me realize that when we talk about destiny in our hands, and when God asks the question, “What's in your hand?” so often, we settle. We settle for excuses. We settle for less than. We try to convince ourselves that we're doing the right things, or that we're really focusing in on the right things, but sometimes we aren't. This is what he said. This is profound. Then we'll get to the text, here, where Moses and God are going back and forth. I wrote this down. I was like, “Man, this is so profound.”

He said, “Made for spirituality, we wallow in introspection. Made for joy, we settle for pleasure. Made for justice, we clamor for vengeance. Made for beauty, we're satisfied with sentiment. Made for relationship, we insist on our own way.”

How often are we settling for something less? Maybe there's something more. So, as we enter into this text, as Moses is doing what most of us do when it comes to God, sort of bargaining, bartering, saying, “I can't,” and, “You don't understand,” and, “If you knew.”

We're not like Jack Nicklaus, going, “Man, every shot I took was important. Destiny was in my hands.”

Oftentimes, we’re just putting everything else in. So, all of the stuff is going on. There's this interaction between God and Moses, and Moses is saying, ‘They're not going to listen to me. You don't understand.”

Let’s pick up the text, here, where God and Moses are sort of going back and forth with each other. God says to Moses, “They’re going to listen to you. Look, I know. I'm God, and I know how this is going to work out.”

How often are we like that? God has told so many of us things that He says He would do, and we say, “No, I don't think You’re going to do it.”

I mean, I don't know how you are, but there have been plenty of times in my life where I've been like, “No, God. There’s no way You’re going to be able to do this. I know You said You would do this, but I don't think You’re going to do it this time. I don't think You’re going to come through. I just don't think.”

He says, “Moses, they're going to listen to you. They're going to listen to your voice. Not only that, but you and the elders of Israel are going to go to the king of Egypt. In other words, this is not an individual sport, Moses.

You’re going to go with some other people. They're going to listen to you. They're going to listen to you so much that they're going to go with you. Just listen to me, Moses. Pay attention to what I'm saying to you.”

He says, “You’re going to go, and this is what you're going to say: ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now, please let us go a three-days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’”

“This is what you say, Moses. This is your message to Pharaoh. You're going to say, ‘God met with us, we saw Him, we talked with Him. He met with us. What He wants is He wants us to go a three-day journey into the wilderness.”

Now, what's interesting is when you go to commentaries, they'll be like, “So, three days. They’re going to go out three days and then they're going to return.”

They’re missing the whole idiomatic understanding here of what's going on. A three-day journey into the wilderness means that you're going to die because there's no water and there's no food. It’s the wilderness. You die in the wilderness. If you went three days, that means you'd have to come back three days. You can't survive six days without water. This is a journey that that's a journey of death, unless there's something massive that happens to them. Which, of course, this is all Gospel.

“We're going to go out three days, and on the third day, what we all know.”

These are not throwaway words here. What he's really saying — and Pharaoh understands it — is, “We're leaving. We're going to be going, and we're going to worship our God.”

By the way, whenever you decide that God is more important than the empire, fireworks will ensue. Whenever you decide that God's more important than everything else, somebody's going to have a problem. God says to Moses, “This is what you're going to say to Pharaoh. This is your message. Go tell him, ‘I met with God. He wants us to go on a three-days’ journey in the wilderness, and we're going to sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ That's what you say to Pharaoh. That's all you have to say.”

He says, “But I know something, Moses. I know that the king of Egypt's not going to let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. You're going to say what you need to say, you're going to deliver the message, but to get it done is going to require a mighty hand.”

Notice the word “hands” in all of these verses that I'm reading to you. There's a lot going on here. It’s powerful. That's why we spend time in the Word of God. That's why we read this thing, because there's so much going on. He says, “That's your message. And then what's going to have to happen is — I know this guy. He’s not going to let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. So, I'm going to stretch out my hand.”

What’s beautiful here, too, is that in the same way you read in the Old Testament that He’s going to stretch out His hand, I want you to know that the ability to stretch out that hand, to do those miracles, and to perform all those great things is because, one day, there will be Jesus who does stretch out His hand, and His other hand, on the cross to die for you and me. These words are not throwaway words. Why does He stretch out His hand? Of course, it means stretch out, but there's more going on here. All of this stuff is profound.

He says, “‘So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go.’”

“So, Moses, what I need you to do is I need you to go deliver the message, and then let me do what I'm going to do. That's your responsibility.”

Also, this is beautiful. He just throws this in here.

He says, “‘And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you will not go empty.’”

This is profound because — I want you to hear this. We sang a song, we just prayed, and we just talked about that God is a good God. Okay? The children of Israel had been in Egypt for 400 years. Many of those years, they had been enslaved. Many of those years, they had not been paid their wages that they should have been paid. God doesn't forget anything. God is always a God of redemption. He's always a God that does more. He says, “Oh, by the way, I'm going to give these people favor so that when you leave Egypt, you're not going to go empty. In fact, each woman…”

This is another beautiful reversal here because you would think it would be the men, but it's the women. Oftentimes, we don't read this when thinking — because we read with certain lenses. Women are elevated in scripture in ways that you and me oftentimes don't see.

“‘…but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold, jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.’”

In other words, God’s saying, “I'm going to make sure that you leave with all of the wages that you were cheated out of, and more, on the way out,” because God is a God of redemption. Listen to me and hear me. God will always give you back more. Whether it's in this world or in the world to come, God will always take back what the enemy has stolen from you and give you more than what you had before it was stolen. Do you hear what I'm saying? He's just a good God. These stories are there to remind us of this. Because how often do we think, “OH, He's forgotten? It’s been 400 years. He's just forgotten.”

He hasn't forgotten a thing. There's nothing that he's forgotten. And then we're set up for the great interaction here between God and Moses.

Moses says, “They're not going to believe me.”

I mean, seriously, we're like Moses. But you just want to be like, “Moses, stop it, man. Just stop it.”

But he doesn't. He's like, “You know what? I mean, this sounds all great and everything, but they're not going to believe me. The Hebrew people are not going to believe me. They're going to remember that I killed an Egyptian. They're going to remember that I fled. I've been the wilderness for 40 years. They're not going to believe me. They're not going to listen to my voice. They're going to say, ‘The Lord didn't appear to you.’ You think I’m just going to roll in there, God, and tell them, ‘Hey, I was out in the wilderness, and from a bush with fire, like an old 80’s concert with pyrotechnics, God spoke to me and told me to come in here and say this.’ They're not going to believe me, God, at all.”

Here’s the profound statement.

“The Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’”

“What do you have in your hand, Moses? What’s in your hand?

“He said, ‘A staff.’”

“It’s like the one thing I’ve got. I don't really have anything else. I'm a shepherd, and this is important. It helps me lead. I can fight off other animals. That's what I’ve got in my hand.”

Why does He ask that question? He asks that question because Moses is doubting whether or not God can do these things. He says, “What have you got?”

“I’ve got a staff. That's it.”

The Lord says, “What I want you to do is I want you to throw it on the ground. I want you to take the thing that's in your hand, probably the only thing that's got much value to you, at this particular point, and I want you to throw it on the ground. I want you to let go of it.”

Throwing it on the ground is sort of emblematic of worship, of letting it go, and falling onto the ground.

“Take that staff and throw it on the ground. What do you have in your hand? Because whatever you have in your hand is what I can use. I'm not going to have you use something that you don't have. We're going to use what's in your hand. What have you got?”

“I’ve got a staff.”

“Throw it on the ground. Take what you have in your hand and throw it on the ground.”

We're told that when he throws it on the ground, it became a serpent. Moses ran from it. This is so pregnant with meaning. Not only is the emblem of the Pharaoh the serpent, but the serpent and the beasts were what mankind was created to rule over. Mankind has given that up in the garden. Moses takes his staff, he throws it on the ground, it becomes a serpent, and he runs from it because he probably doesn't know if it's poisonous or not. He doesn't know exactly what to do. He's scared of it. He's in a position, here, that shows you his fear. He doesn't believe, even though he knows the history of his people, he knows what God created people to do. He runs.

“But the Lord said to Moses, ‘Put out your hand and catch it by the tail’…”

And I don't know much about snake handling. I don't particularly care about snake handling. If you ever wonder if we're going to be that kind of church, we’re not. We just don't do that here. I know some of my people in Kentucky do that stuff. I'm not part of that group of Kentucky. But the one thing I can tell you is when you go to get a snake, you do not get it by its tail. The reason you don't get it by its tail is because he can turn right around and bite you. I mean, I've watched enough nature videos to know you’ve got to grab them by the back of the head. I mean, I ain't grabbing a snake, period. The only good snake is a dead snake. That's just the way it is. But some of y'all, if you love snakes, if you have snake pets, I don't know. That's on you all. You take that up with the Lord. I'm telling you, if I see a snake, he's dead. He's just dead. He's a dead snake squirming, whatever he is.

So, He says, “Go grab it by the tail.”

“So he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand.”

Because Moses was created, we were created, not to have the animals rule over us. We were created to do great things. We were created to multiply, subdue, and to be God's mirror to the world. He’s showing him all these things in this moment.

“You’re running from a snake. You're actually going to be running from a snake, but you're going to be running in a good way. You're going to be getting out of Egypt. Not only that, but if you would trust me with what is in your hand, you cannot even begin to imagine what I can do with you, Moses. You have no idea. Reach out and grab that snake by the tail.”

That requires some action. It requires a hand to pick it back up. There's a lot of stuff going on here that's important. So, he put out his hand, caught it, and became a staff in his hand.

He said the reason He’s done this is: “‘…that 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, if you want to know if they're going to listen to you, what's in your hand? If you'll give me what's in your hand, you have no idea what I can do with you.”

Now, as we peel back here, what are some things that we can glean from this, that we can sort take and apply to our life? Well, the first thing — and this is huge in American Christianity today — is the people of God simply deliver the mail. We’re just messengers. We're not the change agent. The change agent, the one who changes people's lives, is God. We just deliver the message. God said, “Here's what I need you to do: I need you to go to Pharaoh and say, ‘I met God, He said we're going on a three day’s journey, and we're going to worship Him.’ Just deliver that message and I'll handle the rest. If you'll just deliver the message, I’ve got it. I know that the king of Egypt is not going to let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. If you'll do what you're supposed to do, which is to speak the message, I'll do what I do. I'll create deliverance, victory, and do all the things.”

For you and me, we have a message. It’s called the Gospel. It's the good news. The good news is that Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that He could forgive us of our sins, then He rose again on the third day so that we could have eternal life. That is the message. Paul says that message is the power of God unto salvation. So, what do we have in our hands? In our hands, we have the message and how we deliver it. And how convoluted has the message become in America today? It's not simply, “Let me tell you about Jesus. He died on the cross for you and He rose again on third day.”

It's everything else but that. Do you know that only 2% of Christians actually share, or will share, the Gospel message to someone? Two percent. And if you go, “Oh, yea. You're right. I've really never told anybody about Jesus,” I'm not here to give you a hard time. What I'm telling you is what is in your hand. Because what's in your hand is the message. We're just the mailmen. We're not the change agents. We’re just the one that brings the mail. We just bring the message. That's all we do. God does the changing. What we have in our hand is the message and how we deliver it, because what the world needs today is the Gospel message delivered in a way that makes sense. The world doesn't need any more weird. It doesn't need any more, “Let me tell you what you're doing wrong.”

It doesn't need any of that. What it needs is people that are living out their life in such a way that people want to know what is different about you, and then you can deliver the message in the proper way, and people can understand who Jesus is. So, the people of God realize, when you read this story, is that it's set up so detailed.

“Moses, you go tell Pharaoh the message, and then let me do what I do.”

If we could trust that, if we could believe that, do you realize what a difference that would make in American Christianity? But we co-mingle the gospel message with everything, so people don't even know what it means to be — like, nobody knows. The Philippian jailer, he comes in and goes, “What have I got to do?”

In America, it would be, “Well, you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that, and you’ve got to do it this way. You can't say this on social media. You can't do that, you can't this, and oh, by the way, you can't do this. You can't vote, and you’ve got to do this here, and you’ve got to do that here, and this here, and this here.”

We’d be like, “Okay.”

Then they go and talk to somebody else, and they go, “Oh, no, no, no. It's this here, this here, this here, and this here.”

It’s like nobody knows. Here's the answer:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will never perish but will have everlasting life.”

That's the message. That's the message. So, in our hand we have the message, and we have the way we deliver it. Second thing: The people of God realize that adversity, suffering, and/or evil or evils must be properly understood within a larger biblical framework. When we have bad things that go on in our life, what do we do? We just look at our own life. We don't realize that we're a part of a much larger drama of what God is doing in the world. The children of Israel went to Egypt for 400 years to get prepared to learn what it would look like to be the anti-empire. But at the same time, God was dealing with all the people in Canaan, trying to get them to repent and to serve Him, but they decided to sin and sin and sin. So, by the time the children of Israel were delivered, it was time for judgment in Canaan. God's playing a much larger deal than we see because, so often, we only see it within our life. We don't see the larger picture of what is going on in any way, shape, or form.

This leads me to the key. Like, hear me as your pastor. I don't know what the world's going to bring, I don't know what next year's going to bring, I don't know what the next five years is going to bring, but I've got to help people be ready for adversity. Because if you follow Jesus, you're going to have adversity. I don't care what they tell you on TV. If you follow Jesus, you're going to have difficulties from time to time. You're not exempt from them. You're not exempt from a bad message from the doctor. You're not exempt from hearing something that your son or daughter did. You're not exempt from certain things. In fact, you also step up because there's persecution that comes for following Jesus. The larger narrative of scripture is that suffering in the child of God is always followed by glory. That’s how you get through difficulty. You get through difficulty knowing that on the other end, whether in this life or the life to come, there's going to be glory. That's why Paul says that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that's going to be revealed. That's Romans 8:18. Jesus says, in Luke 24, “Did the Christ have to come and suffer and then enter into His glory?”

You can read this over and over. Joseph has suffering, and then he's put at the right hand of Pharaoh. There's glory. Samson is suffering, he's an idiot, and he doesn't do right stuff. Then, finally, God does something great. All these stories are there to remind you and me that God has not forgotten us. And in the text, we see it. He didn't forget them. He says, “You're not going to leave empty. I didn't forget what I said I was going to do. I didn't forget the people of Israel. I didn't forget what was going on. I know exactly what's going on.”

But we're part of a larger picture. I love what Paul says to the church at Corinth. Let this deeply hit your spirit right now.

He says, “For this light momentary affliction…”

I love that. Paul's getting rocks thrown at his head, he's getting beaten with rods, and he goes, “Eh, it's just light momentary affliction.”

I don't know. That's not what I — I mean, I stubbed my toe at three o'clock in the morning, and I don't think it's light momentary affliction.

Do you know what I'm talking about? I mean, he's got such a different view.

He said, “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

Do you know what's in our hands? In our hands, we have the ability to choose our perspective. James says that when you fall into various difficulties or trials, what do you do? You count it joy. Because what’s in your hand? In your hand is the ability to choose your perspective. Do you realize how powerful it is when Christians are going through difficulty and people see something different? There's a wonderful preacher in New York. His name is Tim Keller. Tim's been suffering with cancer. I read the things that he says, and the way he chooses to write, and it's so inspiring because it's not about — I mean, I'm sure he goes home and cries, I'm sure he goes home and has moments of despair, but the way he's carried himself through this has been so inspiring because he's chosen to have a different perspective. I'm telling you, when we, as Christians, can have the whole world fall apart in front of us, and we can still smile and still have hope, everybody around us is going to want to know, “What is it that you have that makes that difference?”

And that's when we get to say, “Let me tell you about Jesus. Let me tell you about the one that's made a difference in my life.”

The last thing is the people of God understand that God uses what is in our hand. That's what He uses. We always think, “Well, I know, but I couldn't have…”

No, no. For every single one of us, what He asks is, “What's in your hand? What do you have right now?”

For many of us, we don't want to let go of that thing that's in our hand. That’s the one thing we like.

“If You could do this over here, or do this over here, God, I could do that.”

He says, “No. What have you got in your hand?”

“Well, I’ve got my business, I’ve got this, I’ve got that.”

“Throw it on the ground and watch what I can do with it.”

As people of God, we realize that God uses what's in our hand. See, He says, “What's in your hand?”

But He told him beforehand, in Exodus 3, “I'm going to stretch out my hand.”

There's this wonderful relationship between when we give God what's in our hand and what God uses His hand for. It’s absolutely incredible. It beyond us. You can see it in scripture. You can see how this is all through scripture. You have Elijah meet a widow, and the widow is in debt, because of her husband, to someone. And the creditor's going to take her two children because that’s the way it worked in the ancient Near East.

Elijah says, “What do you want me to do for you? What have you got in the house? What have you got in your hand? What have you got right now?”

She said, “I’ve got a jar of oil. That's it.”

He says, “That's fantastic. That's all we need. What I need you to go do is go borrow every jar that you can find, from everybody that you know, and bring it back to the house. When you bring it back, I want you to start pouring that jar of oil into all those empty canisters.”

And do you know what scripture says? It says, “As long as she kept pouring, it just kept flowing. It just kept flowing.”

That's what God wants to do in our lives. What is in your hand? He wants to use what's in your hand and my hand to do incredible things. You see it at the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus goes, “We need to feed everybody.”

The disciple was like, “Dude, we're on a mountain. There are 5,000 people here. We don’t have enough money.”

But we're told that Andrew, Simon-Peter's brother, said, “Well, there's a boy here, and do you know what he's got in his hands? He's got five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they for so many?”

God says, “Whoa, whoa. You’ve got to stop thinking that way. What this guy's got in his hand, I can take, use and do something incredible.”

The bottom line is if we're willing to use what's in our hands for the Lord's purposes, the possibilities are unlimited. They're unlimited. If Samson can take the jawbone of a donkey and slay a Philistine army, let me tell you something: God can take what is in your hand and do something far beyond what you could ever think or imagine. But sometimes it's just simply, “God, I'm giving you all these excuses, I'm telling you all these things that I can't do, but maybe, just maybe, what I’ve got to do is look at what I’ve got that's in my hand, give it to You, and just be available. Just be available to You.”

Would you bow your heads with me? We're going to sing a song called “Available,” and I just pray, for the Lord's glory, that this will speak to you, and that you'll have a moment. Even if it's one person that just goes, “God, I'm giving You what's in my hand.”

I'm telling you, God wants to use you. He wants to use you for Kingdom work. You have so much potential and so much destiny within you. Sometimes it's just a matter of giving Him what's in your hand.

Father, I just humbly ask, for Your glory, that You would take this message, Lord, from a flawed human being. I just pray God, somehow, You would take what's been said and use it for Your glory right now.

I pray that as we sing this song, You would speak deeply to all of us. Help us to just be available like the little drummer boy. “All I’ve got is a drum, but I'm going to play my drum for Him.”

Lord, we may not have a lot, but what we do have, what's in our hand, we give to You. We ask, Lord, that You take it and use it in ways that we could have never even imagined. We will be very careful to give You all the praise and all the glory. In Jesus' name.

Would you stand with us? Let's sing this final song, and let's just have a moment with the Lord as we sing.