Title: Faith in Hands / Hebrews 11:8-10
It is said that God made hands, and humans created civilization with those hands. The upright human beings have used their hands as a result. The hand is the magician of the human body, the fold of history. So a lazy person doesn't make fun of his hands, but a diligent person does. If you look at the hand, you can even tell the person's past and occupation.
People considered the hand to be a symbol of wealth.
So I grow my nails, paint, and decorate. At one time in China, only the Ong could keep their nails long, and the hand became a symbol of status and wealth.
In modern times, the hand has turned into a symbol of beauty. Beautify your nails and dress them up in a glamorous fashion. Bracelets, colorful rings, and manicures are all about making things beautiful.
Recently, men are also growing their nails and applying manicures.
Some adults have the habit of sucking their fingers and biting their nails. In any case, hands are precious, but we must have hands that are more precious than these.
Many of you have seen it, but even without hands, there are a lot of people who write and draw with their mouths, but there are a lot of people who create better works than people with healthy hands.
The greatest of modern astronauts, Dr. Hawking, was awarded by a great scientist because he can't do elaborate work or write with two hands, but we have an invisible hand.
Dear brothers and sisters, I hope you have the hands of faith.
Today, Abraham had the same hand as ours, but he had the hand of faith in a different meaning, so the Bible introduces him in today's text.
Who is as great as Abraham, and who left a mark as great as Abraham?
1. Be a favored hand
① Abraham obtained the most precious children by his hands.
(Chaplain, honey, and a soldier's bucket)
All the soldiers went looking for a small jar of honey, but the guard who was on the guard found out only late, and he looked for the jar of honey, but could not find it. The soldier in a hurry went to wash the bucket containing the cleaning tools, but the chaplain filled the bucket with honey.
That evening, a honey feast was held in the barracks of the soldiers who went out with a large bowl.
When you come before God, you must come out with big hands that receive grace.
The big hand that receives grace is the hand of faith.
Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
When Abraham was a hundred years old, his wife Sarah gave birth to the youngest Isaac.
If you blow, it will fly, or if you hold it, it will explode.
It is recorded in Genesis 21 how good Abraham was when he had a son.
In Genesis 21:3, his name was Isaac. Isaac means 'laughter'. It is the story of Abraham having a son and smiling happily.
In 21:8, it is said that Abraham excreted a feast when Isaac was weaned. It was a great feast for the children.
In 21:10 and below, when he heard the words of his wife Sarah, he cast away another son, Ishmael, and his mother, Hagar. This means that there was only one person, Isaac, to Abraham and Sarah.
Those who come to God must believe that He is the rewarder.
I hope to live with the hands of faith. Then God will give you something as precious and good as Isaac in his hand.
② God gave Canaan to Israel (Deuteronomy 2:24).
When the Israelites almost finished their 40 years in the wilderness and left Kadesh-Barnea again, God spoke to Moses.
Deuteronomy 2:24,25 “Arise, go, and cross the Valley of the Arnon, and I have given the land to Sihon the Amorite king of Heshbon into your hand, and begin to fight for it and acquire it. And I will make you afraid, and they will tremble and grieve over you when they hear your reputation."
Although our human hands are incompetent, I believe that if God gives them to them, they will become great and powerful hands.
③ The receiving hand may give.
During the POW exchange after the Korean War armistice agreement in 1953, 21 Americans refused to return to their homeland and offered to remain in North Korea. The world was shocked by those who gave up the United States as a free country, and many institutions studied them, one of which is the Basilae Report.
According to the Basilae report, these were also people who knew freedom, knew literature and music, and had a higher education, but one thing they had in common was that they did not have a loving family as a child. They were soldiers who grew up in broken families or in institutions other than their homes. The bottom line was that those who were not loved refused to return to the United States in the POW.
The recipient can give it, and it is only when you know love that you give it.
I hope that you will receive a lot of grace, know it, and become a giver of grace.
2. It must be the giving hand.
Abraham was the most precious thing, but he gave it when God asked for it. God gave them back to them and made them the most precious nation in the world.
In Genesis 21, God appeared one day to Abraham, whom he loved so much. And you say
Genesis 22 is an account of Abraham being tempted.
22:2 says, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on the mountain, as long as I will show you."
It is the incomprehensible and unbearable Word of God.
Why is it that the 100-year-old son who has been granted is to be offered again as a burnt offering?
But in Genesis 22:3, Abraham, who heard the word of God, got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took his two servants and his son Isaac, and cut the wood for the burnt offering, and left, and went to the place that God had instructed him. "It says.
Without a word of doubt, no worries for an hour, no discussion with anyone, he just got up early in the morning and went out to obey God's word like a machine. Hallelujah!!!
As they go up the mountain, the son asks his father (Genesis 22:7).
"And Isaac spoke to his father Abraham, saying, "My father." He said, "Here I am, my son.
To the son's heartbreaking and heartbreaking words, the father said, "Son, God himself will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering."
Then, on the mountain where God directed them, he spread trees and bound his son.
As he raises his sword high and tries to strike it down, he suddenly hears a call from the sky.
"Abraham, Abraham"
“Do not lay your hand on the boy, do nothing to him, for you have not withheld me, your son, your only son, and now I know that you fear God.” Hallelujah!!!
A ram was weeping with its horns in the bushes, and Abraham took it and offered it to God in his son's place.
Hands offered to God God speaks to Abraham.
Genesis 22:16-18 says, "I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will bless you and increase your descendants as great as the stars in the sky, and the sand by the seashore. and your descendants will gain the gates of their enemies, and through your descendants all peoples under the world will be blessed, because you have obeyed my words.”
I knew it would end
① Jehovah-jireh prepared something else.
② He promises to give them greater blessings and make their seed multiply and multiply like the stars in the sky and like the sand of the sea.
③ He says that it will become a source of blessing for all people under the world to receive blessings through him.
When you deal with God, He is a God who gives you greater and more precious things.
3. It should be an outstretched hand.
Hebrews 13:1,2 says that there are some who have entertained angels while unwittingly entertaining guests.
In Genesis 18:1, when Abraham was sitting near the oaks of Mamre, he sat at the tent door around noon, and when he saw three strangers coming, he ran to meet them, took them home, washed their feet with water, fed them with bread, and slaughtered a calf and served it. I did.
Abraham unwittingly made a guest, and it turned out that they were messengers of God who came out to scout out the wicked land of Sodom.
The word salvation appears more than 2,000 times in the Bible. Even now, more than 40,000 people die of starvation every day. Surprisingly, more than one billion people, a fifth of the world's population, are starving.
Do not be greedy; for this the LORD your God will bless you in all that you do and in the work of your hands. Hallelujah!!!
I hope you know the secret to receiving blessings in all things (Proverbs 11:25).
4. You must raise your hand.
① Raising your hand is a blessing.
In Korean, there are a lot of words with hands.
There are notebooks, handcuffs, prime ministers, handicrafts, tools, tricks, goggles, handcuffs, skillful, handicrafts, riders on horseback, riders with flags, assistants, players, masters, noodles, sewers.
The Hebrews raised their hands to pray for blessings and lowered their hands for a curse.
Moses did not go to the battlefield when the Israelites fought the Amalekites, but went up the mountain./ Then he raised his hands and prayed.
When he raises his hand, Israel wins, and when he lowers his hand, Israel loses.
When their hands became heavy, Aaron and Hur offered up their hands, and Moses prayed for them, and Israel defeated Amalek greatly.
Raise your hands and bless you.
② Raise your hand to welcome.
In 2 Kings 11, Jehoiada the priest, unable to withstand Athaliah's evil, rebelled. And he set Joash, seven years old, raised in the temple before the people.
The people raised their hands and cheered Jehoiada and Joash.
When the people welcomed Joash, who became king at the age of seven, he became a rare clergyman in the history of Israel (2 Kings 11:).
You should be welcome.
In conclusion, let me tell you.
Psalm 24:3,4 says that he who ascends the mountain of God has clean hands.
Adam's hand was the hand of rebellion that broke God's command and picked the tree of knowledge.
Cain was the hand of blood that envyed his brother and killed him with a stone.
Judas Iscariot was a traitor who sold his teacher for 30 pieces of silver.
Pontius Pilate was a cowardly hand who poured water into a basin and washed, saying that he did not care even if he gave Jesus Christ to be crucified.
According to legend, he was later expelled from office and went into exile, where he left water in a basin for the rest of his life, washed and washed, asking, 'Why did my hands get so bloody?'
Our God-given hands are the hands that receive God's grace, the hands we give to God, the hands we extend to others, and the hands that bless and welcome us.
This is by no means a physical hand. It's not a visible hand. This hand is the hand of faith. You cannot do this without the hands of faith.
I hope that you will receive grace with this clean hand of faith and live a good life of giving, giving, and blessing for God and your neighbors.