Psalm 18, I was thinking about this psalm a little bit,
and there are words that sort of popped out at me.
And look at verse number 20, Psalm 18, verse number 20.
It says, the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness.
Now, when we think of that word to be rewarded,
we think of it in a very positive context.
And of course here, if it's positive,
if it's the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness,
but it continues, according to the cleanness of my hands,
have you recompensed me?
So that reward and the recompense,
sometimes those words are interchangeable in the Bible.
And what I noticed here, it says that
according to the cleanness of my hands,
have you recompensed me?
And so the Lord looks at our hands
and I'm just thinking about this idea of our hands,
that our hands often is associated with who we are
and what we do, right?
And my hands handle these keys, right?
And so I've got two car keys here,
one of my vans and one of my little Corolla.
And because I handle these keys,
this kind of represents the fact that I've got
two vehicles that I drive around.
I've got my house keys on here
that represents that I live at that house.
And often when we work our jobs,
we're often using our hands, right?
For whatever role we have
and often our hands again represents what we do,
who we are, what job we're involved with.
And I started to notice that in this Psalm,
of course the Psalmist uses our hands
as an illustration or as a symbol of what we are.
And if you drop down to verse number 20,
that verse gets repeated.
It says, therefore have the Lord recompense me
according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanest of my hands.
There it is again in his eyesight.
So the Lord sees how clean our hands are
and he's going to reward us accordingly by that standard.
The title for the sermon this morning
is the story of your hands.
The story of your hands and how, you know,
the Bible uses our hands as a symbol of what we are,
who we are, whether their hands are clean,
whether our hands are dirty,
the God speaks speaks much about our hands.
And I want you to sort of think about your life
as we go through these verses
that I have for you this morning.
And you know, what does your life represents?
You know, how does the Lord recompense or reward your life?
And again, you know, that word recompense means to compensate.
The word recompense means to compensate.
It means to counterbalance, okay?
And so, you know, again, that word reward,
again, often we think of the word reward
in a positive context,
but it can be negative as well.
To recompense can be something negative, right?
Not just the righteousness that we do
that God will recompense for that,
but also the unrighteousness that we do,
God will recompense that as well.
They can carry both positive and negative connotations.
And so the first thing I want us to look at here
is if you drop down to verse number 25,
same chapter, Psalm 18, look at verse number 25,
he speaks of his hands again,
or actually, sorry, it's a continuation of verse number 24, right?
He's saying that God's going to recompense
or reward us according to our hands in his eyesight.
And then he explains what that is in verse 25.
It says, with the merciful,
that will show thyself merciful, okay?
So there's that counterbalance, right?
I mean, I'm sure you and I,
we want the mercy of God.
Why?
Because we make mistakes in life.
We sin against the Lord.
We know that we're not always righteous.
We know that we need God's mercy in our life,
but how do we receive the mercy of God?
Well, he says with the merciful.
If we're merciful to others,
God's going to show his mercy toward us.
That tells me that if I'm not very merciful,
God's not going to be very merciful with me
as I go about my life.
It continues with an upright man
that will show thyself upright.
There again, the counterbalance, right?
If we're upright, we're walking in righteousness,
God's going to be upright toward us.
Verse number 26, with the pure,
that will show thyself pure.
I mean, also for mercy, uprightness, purity,
these are all positive connotations.
These are all positive things.
If we act in a positive way,
you know, if we show our hands in his eyesight
to be doing which is positive,
then God's going to show that positive back to us.
But notice the last point.
The last point is a negative connotation.
It says, and with the throw word,
that will show thyself forward.
The word forward is someone who is difficult, okay?
Someone that is hard to get along with,
someone that is disobedient.
You know what?
God says that if you're someone that is hard,
you know, if you're someone
that is difficult to get along with,
then God will be someone with us
who's going to be difficult to get along with.
He's going to show his hand of judgment,
of chastisement,
and he might put us through some difficulties
because we've been difficult toward other people.
Title of the sermon, like I said,
was the story of your hands.
What do your hands show?
You know, if God were to look at your hands,
of course, this is symbolic
of what's within our heart,
what's within our minds,
what we do with our lives.
You know, how will God recompense you
or how has God recompense you?
And so I want you to be thinking
about this topic this morning.
Now, we're there in Psalm 18,
so let's drop down to verse number 34.
Psalm 18, verse number 34,
our first point comes in the same Psalm.
Psalm 18, verse number 34.
The Psalmist says,
He teacheth my hands to war,
so that a bow of steel is broken in mine arms.
The first thing I want you to ask yourself,
the story of your hands.
You know, are your hands made to war?
You know, do you have hands ready
and have the ability to go and fight a war,
represent yourself as a soldier
of the Lord Jesus Christ?
You know, God is the one
that teaches our hands to war,
so that a bow of steel is broken in my arms.
I mean, that's quite a strong arm, right?
Those are strong hands.
If you can take a bow of steel
and actually break that with your arms
and with your hands.
This tells me that the Psalmist,
King David here,
was a very powerful, very strong man,
physically speaking, okay?
That he can break a bow of steel in his own hands.
Of course, we know his power as a soldier,
as a military leader,
ability to take down Goliath and other armies.
He shows himself to be a powerful man of war.
But who taught David to be a powerful man of war?
It was the Lord.
The Lord taught his hands to war.
And brethren, we need to be strong soldiers
for the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
We need to be out there in the battlefield,
not physically speaking,
but the spiritual battlefield, you know,
against the forces of darkness,
against the forces of the devil.
You know, the fact that he's blind to the hearts
and the minds of this lost and dying world.
You know, God wants us to go and battle,
you know, this spiritual warfare,
to put on the whole armor of God,
to take the sword of the Spirit
and show people the wonderful light of Jesus Christ.
You know, we have a battle.
You know, God is the one that teaches us to war.
Now, when we think about our hands
and being used for war,
you know, I don't know if you think about,
you know, the army or the military,
you know, if you've ever seen any,
you know, any maybe movies
or documentaries about people preparing themselves,
you know, you're going to find that
when you go for military training,
it's not easy, okay?
It's very hard.
In fact, they put you through a lot of,
you know, trials and a lot of,
you know, routines to get you hardened,
not just physically,
but also mentally for the great battle.
But here's what I love about the Lord.
You know, his training for you to be
a man of war is a little bit different.
If you continue then verse number 35,
like verse number 34,
just finished saying, right?
He teaches my hands to war, right?
A bow still is broken in my arms, okay?
Man, David, you're a powerful warrior, okay?
How'd you become so powerful?
Verse number 35.
He says,
thou has given me the shield of thy salvation.
So we need to notice that
the power, the strength to go to war,
okay, to be a powerful soldier for Christ
does not come from our flesh.
It comes from God.
He's the one teaching us.
And what is it that gives us protection,
that shield of his salvation?
Number one, his salvation is what
prepares us for war.
You know, because what this means is that,
you know, you know,
people that often go to war,
those that fight in, you know,
as part of an army,
they can lose their life, can't they?
You know, to have the courage and the boldness
to go and fight a battle known full well,
they're not likely to see,
you know, tomorrow they can lose their lives.
Well, one thing that, you know,
allows us to realize that,
hey, we don't mind if we lose our lives
is to know that we're saved.
The shield of salvation gives us the courage,
the confidence to go to,
you know, places like Fiji or,
you know, to go and do our work
and know full well that
if we do something for the Lord,
we might be rebuked for the name of Christ.
We may be attacked.
You know, we're going to be hated
for the cause of Christ.
But what gives you the courage,
what gives you the strength, right?
The strength of your arms
is to know that we're saved.
The shield of salvation.
It doesn't matter if,
even if I had to lose my life for Christ,
I know where I'm going.
I'm going to heaven.
I know that I'm going to be eternally saved
no matter what.
I am eternally saved right now.
It doesn't matter what happens in my life.
You know, if it's my time today,
it's my time today.
God knows what my time is.
And that shield of salvation
prepares us for the battle.
Not only that, it says in verse number 35,
and thy right hand
have holden me up.
Okay, so we're in the hands of God, right?
Again, who prepares us for the battle?
Who makes our hands ready for warfare?
It's our Lord God.
Why?
If we're, well, I mean, how?
I should say, well,
how well we're in the hands of our Lord God.
So whatever battle God can win,
you can win with him.
Okay?
He holds you up in his right hand.
I want to show you,
the reason I want to show you these verses,
it's his salvation.
It's his right hand
that prepares us to be a warrior,
you know, for him,
that makes our hands strong for the battle.
It's him.
It's the power of God in our lives.
You know, sometimes we rely on our strength,
you know, our abilities,
and you know, Lord,
I don't see myself as much,
and I don't know if I can be used,
but you know, yeah, you're right.
You know, by yourself,
we're really nothing, brethren.
By ourselves, we're sinners.
By ourselves, we're on our way to hell.
But with the strength and power of our Lord God,
we can be mighty warriors for him.
His shield, his right hand.
I mean, this is what
prepares us for the battle, right?
This is what gives us our hands to war.
What else does he mention?
He mentions there in verse,
sorry, verse, continue verse number,
where am I reading from, brethren?
Verse number 35, sorry.
At the last point,
that's the last point
that I wanted to talk about, right?
And thy gentleness have made me great.
And thy what?
Gentleness.
Remember I mentioned the military drills
when you're preparing for war?
I mean, what we see,
what you see on the TV,
I mean, I don't know if anyone's
been part of the military or what,
you know, we see the hard training, right?
I don't think we would look at the training,
you know, for a soldier and go,
well, that's very gentle on them.
But you know, the training that God gives us
to be a man of war,
to have a hands of warfare is gentle.
He's very gentle with us.
That's what I love about Lord God.
He can be gentle on us.
He can be once again.
Why?
Because we're not fighting from our own strength.
We're fighting from God's strength.
His ability to make our hands to war.
You're there in Psalm.
So can you please turn me to Psalm 144?
Psalm 144.
Psalm 144, please.
This idea of our hands for warfare
gets repeated here in Psalm 144.
And again, it's a Psalm of David,
you know, David, once again,
saying the same things in this Psalm,
Psalm 144.
And look at verse number one.
He says,
blessed be the Lord, my strength,
which teacheth my hands to war,
and my fingers to fight.
So how'd you get so strong, David?
Well, there it is, the Lord, my strength.
You see, it's very consistent.
You know, our power, our ability
to do something great for God
must come from him.
And he continues, he tells us how,
again, how he got his hands ready for war,
how he got his fingers ready to fight.
Verse number two, he says,
my goodness and my fortress.
Who's his fortress?
Who's his goodness?
His Lord God, God Almighty is his fortress.
You know, when you go into war,
you need to fortify,
you know, the position you're holding, right?
You might have your, you know,
your barracks or your, you know,
I don't know, in the old times,
your castle, right?
Your city surrounded by a powerful wall, okay?
Well, David says,
instead of it being something physical,
he says, no, God is my fortress.
He goes, my high tower and my deliverer,
the one that's going to get him
through warfare is God.
God's the one that's going to deliver him
against his enemies.
He says, my shield.
There it is again.
Who's the shield?
God is the shield.
And he in whom I trust,
who subdueth my people under me.
You know, again,
we think of King David,
definitely a powerful warrior,
a great king,
a great king used by God in mighty way.
And we think, well, surely, yeah.
I mean, what a great man.
Of course, the nation of Israel
were subdued under his authority.
But even David recognizes,
actually, it's not me.
It's God who subdued my people under me.
Okay.
So, hey, you know what?
Are your hands ready for war?
You know?
And he said, I don't want to go to war.
Look, God's going to be gentle with you.
We saw that already.
And it's not your strength.
The strength and the deliverance
and the power and the ability to fight
is your Lord God almighty.
You know, the one who's given you,
he's given you salvation,
he's given you a shield.
You know, he's prepared you for the battle.
You guys know this verse,
2 Timothy 2, 3.
Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Yeah, you know what?
The Christian life can be hard.
It can be very difficult at times.
But I want you to remember
that the drills God puts us through
is gentle.
It's good for us.
He's not trying to, you know,
like in warfare,
they're trying to break your individuality.
You know, to just be,
you got to be part of that.
And I understand.
I understand.
Like, you know,
if you're in the middle of war
and your commander's issuing commands,
you can't be like,
oh, I'll just go fight
my own battle somewhere else.
You're going to lose, right?
If you've got people that aren't,
you know,
walking and fighting the same battles.
But our Lord God is so sweet,
so gentle with us.
He gives us time.
He trains us.
He understands that we can't fight on our own.
He understands that we need his abilities,
strength and power.
And so I ask you,
brethren, are your hands ready for war?
Have you been using your hands
for the spiritual war
that God has put us in?
Because we are meant to be good soldiers
for our Lord Jesus Christ.
Can you come with me to another passage?
Come with me to Ezekiel chapter three, please.
So the first point that I had
was looking at the hands of war, right?
We're going to be looking at new hands now.
Another pair of hands in Ezekiel chapter three.
Ezekiel chapter three, please.
Ezekiel chapter three.
So the hands of war,
that's a positive one, all right?
So, you know,
we saw that God recompenses us.
He rewards us.
So this tells me,
if I'm going to the battle,
if I'm ready to go,
yes, yes, Lord,
I'm ready for the fight.
Yes, Lord,
use me in whatever battle you've got for me.
Then he's going to fight the battle for me, right?
We saw that counterbalance, right?
What he, you know,
what he sees of us doing,
he's going to shine that,
that measure upon us, okay?
Now we're going to be looking
at a negative connotation, okay?
We're going to be looking at bloody hands.
This is, this is negative.
You know, are your hands bloody?
Do you have blood in your hands?
In Ezekiel three, 17,
God says,
Son of man,
I have made thee a watchman
unto the house of Israel.
Therefore, hear the word at my mouth
and give them warning from me.
Brethren, God is telling Ezekiel,
he has made him a watchman, okay?
And God's going to give the watchman
words to say, warnings to speak about.
Verse 18,
When I say unto the wicked,
thou shalt surely die,
and thou givest him not warning,
nor speakest to warn the wicked
from his wicked way,
to save his life,
the same wicked man shall die
in his iniquity,
but his blood will I require
at thine hand.
What is God saying here?
If God has given us a warning
to speak to the wicked,
and we refuse to speak,
we refuse to warn,
and that wicked man dies in his iniquity,
he dies in his sin,
he goes to hell,
God says,
I'm holding your hands accountable,
or his blood.
Wow.
I mean, that's a scary thought, isn't it?
Brethren, are your hands bloody?
Do you have blood on your hands?
You know, I mean, again,
you know,
watchmen in these days,
they're looking over a city,
they're looking within the city
to see if there's any problems.
They're kind of like your policemen
back in those days, right?
But they're also looking outward
to see if there's any soldiers,
any armies that might be a threat
to that city.
They're looking at what's happening within
and without the city,
making sure that if there's any warning signs
that they have to issue out those warnings,
whatever it is.
I mean, what if they failed at their job?
You know, what if they saw a conquering army
come into their city,
and they're just like,
won't say anything about it.
You know, everyone in the city
is just going about their regular life.
They just think, you know,
today's going to be a normal day.
There's an approaching army,
and the watchman on the wall goes,
ah, I'm not going to say anything to the king.
You know,
I'm not going to prepare our armies.
I'm not going to send an alert.
I'm not going to blow the trumpet.
I'm not going to do any of that.
And that conquering army just comes in,
breaks down the gates,
and destroys, you know,
all the people in that city.
Who's responsible, really?
The watchman,
because he did not issue out the warning.
Blood is on his hands.
Reverend, is blood on your hands?
I don't want to be recompensed by God
for blood on my hands.
You know, one reason I'm a soul winner
is because of the years that I went by
without giving the gospel
and knowing that I had blood on my hands.
I gave the story.
I don't want to give the story so much
because it makes me emotional.
But the one time where God made it very clear for me
at a shoving center,
this person needs to hear the gospel,
and I refused,
and God made me cross that man's paths.
I don't know how many times.
I can't even remember now.
And I was just too timid.
I was too afraid to tell.
I mean, look, obviously,
there's no guarantee that that person's going to get saved.
But I know there's a guarantee
that I'm supposed to warn people.
I can't control if people
are going to receive the message.
I can't control if they're going to receive
Jesus as the Savior,
but I can control whether or not
as a watchman I'm giving people a warning.
And a lot of the time,
look, praise God for Fiji.
It's great, you know,
because we're doing soul winning.
But many times in Australia,
we're doing soul warning, aren't we?
Because people aren't as receptive.
People don't want to,
well, we're trying to tell them,
hey, you can be sure of heaven.
You don't have to die in your sins.
You know, you don't have to,
you know, stand before the judgment of God
and find your name not written in the Book of Life.
I can tell you how to be saved.
Because right now you're a sinner
on your way to hell,
and you need a Savior.
We can at least do that
or attempt to do that, right?
As we go and warn the people
of the Sunshine Coast
and in Australia that they're,
boy, they're going to die and go to hell.
And you know, people say,
well, that's not a loving message.
You're right, okay?
But the loving message is then
that Christ sent his Son,
that God loves you so much
for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son.
There's the love of God.
But you need to hear the warning.
You need to be aware
that judgment is coming
before I can tell you
that God's got a solution for you as well.
And it's free.
That's the best part.
It's free, paid for
by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Do you have blood on your hands?
I can say that it's,
yeah, there's been blood on my hands, right?
And we need to learn those lessons.
God's going to hold us accountable
for the times that, you know,
God's made it so clear or so obvious
and we've had the time,
we've had the opportunities
to preach the gospel
and we've just refused.
And you know, going to Fiji,
I just feel like, okay, you know,
this is one way that I can make up
the times that I didn't, you know,
when I felt I had the chance,
I had the opportunity,
but maybe the fear of rejection,
maybe the fear of being hated,
who knows what it is, right?
That stopped us from giving somebody
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Do you have blood on your hands?
We saw that God's going to recompense.
God's going to reward, you know,
whether it's positive,
I want the positive parts,
but he's also looking
at the negative things, right?
God will be forward to you.
If you're forward,
I don't want that in your life.
Do you want that in your life?
You want God to be hard on you?
No, we want God to be gentle.
We want him to be merciful.
We want him to reward us, bless us,
to shine his face upon us.
We need to wash our hands from blood
when we've not had,
when we, God's opened those times
for us to give the gospel
and we simply refused.
Can we meet to Hebrews chapter 12?
Can we meet to Hebrews chapter 12
and verse 11?
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 11,
and verse 12 and verse 13.
Now, sometimes when God
has to be forward toward us,
when God does have to be
a little hard on us
because our hands aren't clean
for whatever reason,
then what does God do?
Well, we know he's long suffering.
We know that our Lord God
is slow to anger.
He still gives us time,
believe it or not.
I mean, thank God
for the time he gives me.
I need the time
because I need to,
because I'm a bit hardheaded
about my own life.
And even though God can see
the wickedness in me,
sometimes it takes me a while
to realize, oh, there is
wickedness in me.
Thank you, Lord,
for the time you've given me
before you just calm down hard on me
so I can get myself right.
But hey, when God is,
when God says, all right,
it's time to bring down the hammer,
time to bring down judgment,
he begins to chastise his children.
And look,
the Bible makes it very clear
that if you're a son of God,
if you're a child of God,
you will be chastised.
You can't go through life
and not be chastised
if you're saved.
It's all of us.
All of us, okay,
have time when our hands
are not clean
and the Lord God sees it
and he recompenses,
he rewards us
for the fact that our hands aren't clean.
And that comes in the form of chastisement.
Okay.
So in Hebrews chapter 12,
verse 11,
you guys know these verses.
Now no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous
but grievous.
Nevertheless,
afterward it yielded
the peaceable fruit of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby.
So I want to remind you,
look, you might be under
the God's judgment right now.
I don't know.
You might be under God's
chastisement right now.
And it's not joyous,
it's grievous.
You know,
you're probably just waiting
for this judgment,
this chastisement to end.
But just remember,
this is why our Lord God is gentle
and he does all things
for our profit and for our benefit.
So he says,
nevertheless, afterward it yielded
the peaceable fruit of righteousness.
I mean,
that's why we want to
discipline our children.
We don't want to just hurt them
or, you know,
make them go through
a difficult experience.
We want the fruit of righteousness
to come out of life.
You know,
when we chastise our kids,
we want them to understand
that the wrong that they've done
is they need to,
you know,
they need to fix that.
Okay.
And there are consequences for wrong.
But really what we want
is for the fruit of righteousness
to develop in the life.
For our kids to do what is right.
You think God's any different?
No, God wants the same thing.
He wants to see the fruit of righteousness
develop in our lives, right?
That's why he puts us through
times of chastisements.
Now, again,
we're dealing with our hands.
We're looking at the story
of our hands today.
I don't know.
Maybe you're someone that says,
pastor,
I mean, you don't have to tell me.
You don't have to tell me
if you're bound to the hand
of the chastisement of God.
I don't tell you when I am.
Okay.
But I know we all experience it at times.
And what can happen at times
when you're under that judgment
and the chastisement
is what we see in verse number 12.
Okay.
It says,
Wherefore,
lift up the hands
which are hanged down
and the feeble knees.
Okay.
So what do we see here?
We're dealing with the hands right now.
The hands which are hanged down
and the feeble knees.
Again,
sometimes when you're dealing
with God's chastisement,
even though we know God's word says
it's for our benefit,
it's for our profit,
we can,
it can cause us to be downcast.
The idea of your hands is chained down.
It's like,
you're walking around like this.
Oh man.
You know,
God's judgment.
And you know,
you've got the weak knees,
the feeble knees.
You know,
instead of your hands
being utilized for something productive,
you're just so weakened,
you're so depressed,
you're so cast down.
Oh,
how long is this judgment going to last, Lord?
And you've got these hands
just dripping down at your sides.
Weak hands.
Feeble hands.
How are your hands looking right now?
I don't know.
Again,
if you're on that God's chastisement,
God doesn't want your hands like this.
Like I get it.
I understand,
you know,
as a father with 12 kids,
you know,
I understand when you,
when you discipline your kids,
it takes them a while to realize
that discipline is for my benefit.
And yeah,
like,
oh man,
you know,
I'm going to get disciplined.
I'm in trouble.
All right.
And you know,
kids start to make excuses.
How can I get away from this?
You know,
so mom and dad aren't so heavy handed upon me.
And that weakness,
you know,
and you're like,
where are your hands?
Are your hands weak?
Are your hands feeble?
Are your knees feeble?
As it is mentioned in this passage.
But again,
you know,
if you're this person,
if you've got the weak hands right now,
God says,
lift up the hands which hang down.
God actually says,
look,
you know,
enjoy,
be thankful
that I'm chasing you
because there's a sign of love.
It's a sign that I want the best for you.
Brethren,
I don't know what,
you know,
tribulations and trials you're going through right now.
And sometimes it's just,
you know,
the consequence of living in a fallen world.
And yes,
sometimes it's a devil,
but many times it's just you.
Okay.
Many times it's just me.
All right.
We do what is wrong.
And we know we should do better.
And then,
you know,
we just,
well,
God,
you're taking your time to chastise me.
I guess it's okay for now.
And then before you know it,
the hammer falls down
and you're downcast.
Well,
don't be downcast,
God says,
you know,
lift up your weak hands.
Be thankful that God is putting through you,
putting you through this chastisement
and don't have those weak and feeble knees.
That's what it says in verse number 13,
and makes great paths for your feet.
Right.
Instead of being weaker,
I don't know what,
cause look,
no,
look,
set,
you know,
fix this.
Find the right path for your feet.
We know that path is found in the word of God.
God is trying to show us,
trying to bring our attention on an issue in our life
that needs to be fixed.
God is trying to draw our attention
on a path that we're walking,
that is not the right path.
He says,
look,
set the right path in your life.
He says,
lest that which is lame is turned out of the way,
but let it rather be healed.
God says,
when we're being judged by him,
there's lame,
lameness,
like the inability to walk properly.
He goes,
no, no, no.
You know,
if that's how you think of God's chastisement,
you've got it wrong.
Okay.
He wants us to be healed,
healed from our weakness,
healed from the bad paths that we're walking,
healed from this depressed and cast down,
you know,
position that we find ourselves in
with our hands just drooping there on the side,
those weak hands.
Reverend,
have you got weak hands this morning?
I don't know.
Don't tell me.
Keep that between you and the Lord,
but if your hands are weak,
you know what the Lord says,
lift them up.
Strengthen those hands.
Appreciate your chastisement
and get on the right path.
Get on the right path
and walk according to his ways.
Can you come with me to James chapter 4?
James chapter 4.
The title of the sermon was
The Story of Your Hands.
We've looked at the hands to war.
We've looked at bloody hands.
We've looked at weak hands.
And James chapter 4,
verse number 8.
James chapter 4,
verse number 8.
While you're turning there,
I'm going to repeat a verse
that we had in Psalm 18,
verse number 20,
which says,
the Lord rewarded me
according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands.
Have you recompensed me?
I love that about the Psalmist.
He goes, Lord,
my hands are clean.
And that's the next point.
Clean hands.
Are your hands clean?
I hope they're clean actually.
You know,
I don't want them to be bloody.
I don't want them to be weak.
I want your hands to be clean.
Are your hands clean this morning?
And I can tell you right now.
I'll be honest.
Yeah, my hands are clean.
So how do you know
your hands are clean right now, pastor?
It's because I asked the Lord
to clean my hands.
Okay.
You guys know,
I've told you so many times,
but before I get up to preach,
I'm like,
Lord, if there's anything else in my heart,
any other issue,
any sin that I've just not confessed to you,
Lord, can you please fix it?
God wants us to have clean hands.
In James chapter 4,
verse number 8.
Draw nigh to God,
and He will draw nigh to you.
That's that counterbalance.
Okay.
If we draw close to God,
He draws even closer to us.
You know,
one step closer to God's will
is really two steps closer
because God takes a step
and God's steps are much larger
than your steps.
Okay.
Then it says this.
Cleanse your hands,
ye sinners,
and purify your hearts,
ye double-minded.
What connects your hands
to your heart there?
You know,
the reason we do wickedness with our hands,
with our bodies,
is because there's wickedness in your hearts.
Double-minded.
You know,
do I live a life that pleases me
or do I live a life that pleases God?
Do I seek the desires of my heart
or do I seek the desires of God's hearts?
This is double-minded.
Now we should always seek God's ways,
God's wills,
God's commandments for our life
because it's best for us.
It's the best way for us to live.
That's why we're going to have
the greatest blessings,
the greatest contentment,
the greatest joy
when we do what God asks of us.
But when we say,
Oh Lord, I'll do it my way,
there's your double-mindedness.
There's your heart,
not pure before the Lord,
and before you know it,
you'll find your hands
are not pure before the Lord.
Now before we read,
before, you know,
obviously in James chapter 4,
before we read verse number 8,
I just want you to track back
a little bit to verse number 4
just to get the full context of this.
Why is it
that James is speaking here of,
you know,
speaking to his,
to believers about cleaning their hands.
You know,
what is it that caused their hands to get dirty?
Well, it's found in verse number 4.
It says,
ye adulterers and adulteresses,
okay,
men and women.
Now when we think of adultery,
of course,
it's a horrible sin.
Horrible.
Okay.
Even God puts the death penalty
in the Old Testament for adultery.
But this adultery is not one of the body
that we're reading about here
in James chapter 4.
It says here,
what is this adultery?
Know you not
that the friendship of the world
is enmity with God.
Whosoever therefore
will be a friend of the world
is the enemy of God.
Now brethren,
I don't want to be considered
the enemy of God.
Number one,
I'm saved.
I'm a child of God.
He's my Heavenly Father.
But you know what?
If we start to love the world,
we love the world's philosophies.
We love the way the world
tells us to live our lives.
We live according to the world's standards.
Fornication.
Adultery.
Right?
Abortions.
Hatred.
And,
you know,
I mean,
like,
you think about all the sins
that God has
laid out in the scriptures
and the world just openly does it.
Saying,
look,
you know,
I'm missing out on the world.
I've been dragged to church my whole life.
I've been trying to live a clean life
and it just seems like
all my worldly friends out there
seem to be living it up
and having a great time.
I'll do the same.
I'll live like the world.
You know,
you become a spiritual adulterer
in the eyes of God.
You defile your heart.
You defile your mind.
Before you know it,
your hands are defiled.
You know,
you spend time looking at pornography
or things like that.
You know,
defiling the heart before you know it,
your hands are going to be defiled.
Loving the world is the,
is being enmity against God.
Being a friend to the world
is an enemy to God.
Don't be double-minded,
brethren.
Clean your hands, you sinners.
Draw an eye to God
and He will draw an eye to you.
Where are your hands?
Are your hands like the world?
I don't know.
I can't see your spiritual hands.
You know,
I don't know.
All I can see is
whether you wash your hands.
I can't even tell that really.
I mean,
I don't know where your hands are
spiritually speaking.
But if I had the vision of God,
if I had the foresight
and knowledge of God
and you lifted up your hands,
what would we see?
You know,
we're going to see clean,
righteous hands that love the Lord,
or we're going to see hands
that are filthy with,
just like the rest of the world.
You know,
hands where you're showing yourself
to be an adulterer
against your love for your Lord God.
Do you have clean hands?
And if you don't have clean hands,
what's the instruction?
Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts,
you double-minded.
And I tell you, brethren,
cleaning your hands is not as hard as you think.
It's just going before God,
humbling yourself,
saying, God, I got dirty hands.
I've walked to the ways of the world.
Can you clean them, Lord?
Can you forgive me again?
I'm sorry, Lord.
You know,
a broken heart,
a tender heart,
a contrite spirit before God.
Say, God, I've been doing it
like the world again.
Clean my hands, Lord, please.
And He'll be,
He's just,
you know,
He'll forgive you.
He'll cleanse you with those dirty hands, right?
You draw nigh to God,
He draws nigh to you.
Amen.
Can you come with me to Proverbs chapter six?
Proverbs chapter six.
We've looked at
one, two, three, four,
four hands,
hands to all,
bloody hands,
weak hands,
clean hands.
Proverbs chapter six, please.
Proverbs chapter six.
Proverbs chapter six and verse number nine.
How long will thou sleep,
O sluggard?
When will thou arise
out of thy sleep?
The sluggard,
the lazy,
all right?
The one that doesn't want
to do anything in life.
How long are you going to sleep,
O sluggard?
Verse number 10.
Yet a little sleep,
a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to sleep.
Look, the sluggard is lazy.
All right?
Lazy, slothful Christian.
Is that you?
Are your hands lazy,
sluggard hands?
Instead of laboring,
you're sleeping.
Instead of being productive,
you're doing nothing in life.
Is that you, brethren?
Are you the one
with lazy and sluggard hands?
What's the result of being lazy?
Verse number 11.
So shall thy poverty
come as one that travelth,
and thy want as an armed man?
Thy poverty shall come.
You know what God is saying?
If you're lazy,
if you just refuse
to do anything productive,
God guarantees poverty in your life.
You're going to be amongst the poor,
because you're doing nothing.
You're achieving nothing.
I mean, even our nation,
the Centrelink and the welfare system.
And look, I understand.
It's a nice system to have.
You know, especially when someone's
really going through a hardship,
all right?
Or truly, people are trying to
maybe migrate to Australia,
and they're going to be
productive to society.
And you know,
the welfare system might help someone
along that path at certain times.
But I don't know.
I could be wrong,
but I think the vast majority
of Australians living off welfare
are just lazy, sluggard hands.
Just saying, I'll just,
I'll do the bare minimum
or I'll do nothing.
I'll just go to sleep
and be sluggard.
Brethren, don't be like that.
I know it's tempting.
Ah, Centrelink's got my back, back.
I'll just take it easy.
I will just go to sleep
and let the rest of tax-paying Australia
take care of my needs.
Now, God guarantees you poverty,
not just poverty, of course, physically,
but this is also spiritual poverty.
If we are lazy as Christians,
I mean, God doesn't,
He wants us to,
He will reward us for our labour in heaven,
laying up our treasures in heaven.
Let me quickly read to you
from Revelation 3 17.
God says,
Because thou sayest, I am rich
and increased with goods
and I have need of nothing.
Then he says,
And knowest not that thou art wretched
and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
And God is, of course, speaking spiritually.
You know, someone on the outside
can look very wealthy,
very well to do.
A believer might seem like on the outside,
they're doing very well in life.
But God once again sees the spiritual.
He sees poverty.
You're poor, you're miserable,
you're blind, you're naked.
You've got nothing for eternity.
Look, praise God,
we bring nothing to be saved.
Thank God that the foundation is Jesus Christ
and Christ alone.
It's a free gift.
The gift is offered to all.
You receive the gift of salvation,
the work of Christ,
you'll go to heaven no matter what happens.
But what about when you get to heaven?
Are you going to have rewards?
Gifts are not worked for,
but rewards are worked for.
Rewards are earned.
Brethren, how are your spiritual hands?
Are they poor?
I hope not.
I want this to be a laboring church.
I'm never going to force you to serve the Lord.
I'm not going to put a gun to your head.
If you say to me,
Pastor, I just want to be spiritually sluggered.
So be it.
If that's what you want to do, go ahead.
But all I'm going to tell you is
you're going to regret it when you get to heaven.
Why was I sluggered?
Why did I do nothing for my Lord?
Why did I not serve my brethren?
Why did I go to church and wait for everybody to serve me
and complain when I didn't get served well enough?
Why didn't I just offer my hand and say,
Pastor, I'll do it.
I'll take care of that.
And just go ahead and serve.
Because we're lazy.
And look again, I'm not saying that you're lazy.
I hope maybe you're the hardest working believers in the world,
but I know I can be lazy.
I can be lazy physically.
I can be lazy spiritually.
We need to remind ourselves.
Why not?
I want my hands.
Like I want my hands to tell the right story.
All right.
I want to be seen as a man who labors.
And let's get to our next point.
We've seen lazy sluggered hands.
Let's look at 1 Thessalonians chapter four, please.
1 Thessalonians chapter four.
1 Thessalonians chapter four and verse number 11.
And if I'm ever going to...
By the way, I'm a millennial, apparently.
Born in 1981, I'm like the oldest millennial that there is.
And so a few times when I preach against, you know, the millennials,
I was actually preaching against my own generation, apparently.
But this is a passage of scripture that millennials and gen...
What's the next thing?
Gen Zs?
Gen X?
Gen what?
Gen Zs?
You know, my kids, our kids need to hear, okay?
I mean, if you look at...
Look, children today, young people are very lazy.
Or they're just...
I mean, I'm not lazy pastor.
I'm busy playing video games.
Look, that high school means nothing in eternity, I promise you.
But 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verse number 11.
And that you be...
Sorry.
And that you study to be quiet.
I mean, that's something our generation needs to hear.
And to do your own business.
In other words, mind your own business.
Something else our generation needs to hear.
And to work with your own hands as we commanded you.
Working hands.
You've seen the lazy and the sluggard hands.
I don't want that to be your hands.
I want your hands to be working hands.
As we commanded you...
Who's we?
The writer of the epistle?
Ah, that's just a man and a...
God, the Holy Spirit moved men to write these words.
Who's commanding you to work men?
The Holy Spirit of God.
Do you have working hands?
Or are you busybody?
Look at verse number 12.
It says that you walk honestly toward them that are without.
And that you may have lack of nothing.
You say, man, I can't afford things.
Are you working?
I mean, I fully understand.
If you're working full time.
You know, you're working like God says in the Bible.
Six days a week, right?
And you know, you're resting one day, you're doing six days.
And like, you're just working hard.
You're giving the best you've got.
And you still can't afford things.
Okay.
You know, I feel sorry for you.
All right.
I have compassion towards you.
But if you're saying, look, I just can't afford.
But you're lazy.
And when you're lazy, and you're not working.
Because when you're working, you know, your mind's at your work.
Your mind is on your business.
Your mind is on being productive.
The last thing when you're working is thinking about this family.
And that person.
And that over there.
And that issue.
And that problem.
Instead of being busybody in other men's business,
you become busy in your own business.
And young men, my boys and other young men,
you need to learn how to work hard.
God's given you the ability, the body, the power, the strength
to get out there and work and provide for your family,
provide for your own.
Listen, our generation needs to hear this.
We live in a place of such self entitled jerks
that think the world needs to give them everything
because they're just born in the breathing air.
Lazy, lazy, sluggard hands.
And look, what kind of hands do you have?
What is the story of your hands?
Again, I hope everyone is like,
oh man, all the positive things, that's me.
And all the negative things, I'm done with that.
But I know, and I don't want to attack anyone.
Because I know me, I don't know what I'm like.
I mean, if I could be lazy, I think I'd choose a lazy route.
I think God gave me 12 kids so I could be forced not to be lazy.
Right?
Like maybe I needed more pushing to be a hard working man.
And so God's given me bigger responsibility sometimes.
So I can just not be lazy.
If I'm lazy, it falls apart.
Working hands.
What do your hands have to say about yourself?
And ladies, does that mean?
Well, my husband goes to work and he's the one.
Of course, that's his main responsibility.
That's his role.
But the Bible speaks of the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31.
I'll just read it to you.
Proverbs 31, verse number 10, who can find a virtuous woman
for her price is far above rubies.
But what is the virtuous woman doing?
Is she just sitting on the couch watching soap operas?
She's just on the soap operas.
That's so last generation.
Is she just on the couch going through Facebook?
You know, is that her life?
Because it says in verse number 13, she seeketh wool and flax
and worketh willingly with her hands.
Willingly.
She goes, you know what?
I also want to work.
I also want to help my family and my household.
And of course, her priority is taking care of the family needs.
Okay?
As dad's out there outside of the family home, working a job,
the wife is there making sure the house and the family,
the children have what they need.
She's not lazy.
She's busy as well.
Ladies, are your hands working hands?
Or are they sluggard?
Now the last one.
Come with me to first Timothy chapter two, first Timothy chapter two.
Thank you for your patience this morning.
First Timothy chapter two, verse number 18.
First Timothy chapter two, verse number eight, sorry, verse number eight.
First Timothy chapter two, verse number eight.
The Bible reads, I will therefore that men pray everywhere,
lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.
Brethren, do you have praying hands?
Now maybe your way of praying is to lift up your hands.
It says here, I will therefore that men pray everywhere.
I pray in my drive.
So if I'm driving and praying, I'm not going to be able to lift up my hands.
That's going to be a problem where I got to keep those hands on the steering wheel.
But look, do your hands pray?
You know, whatever your position is.
Do you have praying hands?
And brethren, I find out of all the things in the Christian life,
like when I think about all the foundational things we need to do,
such as go to church, such as read the Bible, you know, go soloing in.
All these key things that are just, you know, fundamentals to our Christian life.
The thing that often falls off, you know, off my daily routine is prayer life.
I don't know why that is.
This is one of my struggles that I have.
And again, I'm thankful to be a pastor because as a pastor, I'm supposed to pray.
When you read through the epistles, First and Second Timothy and Titus,
you're commanded to be praying.
That's one of the main responsibilities of the pastor is praying for,
obviously, the ministry, the congregation, the needs of the church.
And so, you know, I'm glad once again, being in this position,
because I'm trying to work on an area that I know historically in my life,
that I fall off that wagon, right?
I'm not saying that I never pray.
Of course, I'm praying, you know, but I know that if I were to just sort of get a bit side,
you know, away from the Lord, you know, I start to lose the passion.
I lose the zeal a little bit for the Lord.
One of the first things that falls off is the prayer life.
I don't know about you.
Maybe you're not like that.
Maybe there's other things that fall off your life.
And I find it easier to actually read the Bible than I find it.
You know, I find that easier than to pray.
You know, I find praying to be quite difficult.
And I don't know if I'm like, maybe a little bit ADHD.
Maybe I lose because that's what happens to me.
I feel like I start to pray and then all of a sudden,
my brain goes somewhere else.
It's traveling over there and like, did I finish that prayer?
What happened?
I was just talking to the Lord and now I must have just ignored him.
Because my mind went somewhere else and I feel horrible about it.
But brethren, do you have praying hands?
Do you have praying hands?
We're already seeing that our strength comes from the Lord, right?
If we're going to be men of war, you know,
if we're going to be powerful warriors for our Lord,
and we've got wars, hands of war, then we need the strength of our Lord.
How do we get that strength?
We go before our Father.
We ask him for our help, for his help, for his guidance,
for his protection, for his deliverance.
Do we do that?
Do we pray before the Lord?
Do we bring our requests before him?
You know, sometimes I wonder, Lord, I say in my mind,
not really to the Lord directly, but I say in my mind,
why hasn't God come through?
Why hasn't he answered this?
And then I think, did I even ask him?
Has that ever happened to you?
Lord, I mean, you know, I need this and you know, I need that.
And then I think, but did I ask him?
No, the answer is I didn't ask him.
I just expected it to happen.
No.
Do you have praying hands?
You know, are you someone that goes before the Lord?
He's thrown of grace.
You bring your supplication and praise before him.
Not just your own needs, but the needs of the church.
And brethren, if you don't know that your brethren has needs,
then ask them because they most definitely do.
Okay.
I've never met a family in this church that did not have a single problem.
Okay.
Every family in this church has issues and concerns and worries.
And you know what?
Sometimes when you're going through those issues and concerns,
it's hard to pray, but that's why we need each other
to be praying and lifting up each other before our Lord God almighty.
Do you have praying hands?
What's the story of your hands this morning?
You know what?
If I could spiritually look at your hands, what do they say about you?
Would they say that you've got, would your hands be hands to war?
Or would they be bloody hands?
Would they be weak hands?
Would they be clean hands?
Are they lazy or slugging hands?
Are they working hands?
Are they praying hands?
And I want you to remember, the Lord knows.
I don't know.
I can't see it.
You can't see mine, but the Lord knows what they are.
And I want the Lord to recompense you.
In that positive way, right?
Doing the right things, with your hands, symbolically speaking,
and the Lord will look down and recompense you,
give you a great reward and a great blessing.
All right, brethren, let's pray.