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In God's Hands

Dwayne Gandy
03/02/25 - Praise and Preaching Service

Sermon Summary: “In God’s Hands”

Speaker: Dwayne Gandy (03/02/25)
Passage Focus: Psalm 19, Psalm 95, Isaiah 64, Daniel 5, Exodus 2–3, 1 Samuel 13, 2 Chronicles 14–16, and more

This powerful sermon, titled “In God’s Hands,” delivers a message that is both timeless and deeply personal. Through vivid illustrations, biblical storytelling, and practical application, Dwayne reminds us that our lives are most valuable, purposeful, and protected when we are fully in the hands of God.

Introduction: The Value Depends on Whose Hands It’s In

The sermon opens with a relatable and impactful illustration. Dwayne compares the value of a basketball or a golf club in his own hands to the same item in the hands of Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. The difference is staggering—not because of the object itself, but because of who is holding it. In the same way, our lives, when placed in God’s hands, take on eternal value and power.

This idea serves as the foundation for the rest of the message: we must stop trying to live in our own hands—or in the hands of others—and start fully trusting the hands of God.

1. The Hand of the Lord Creates

From the opening texts in Psalm 19 and Psalm 95, Dwayne emphasizes that God is the Creator of all things. The heavens declare His glory, and the earth is the work of His hands. Isaiah 64 paints the picture of God as a potter, and we as clay—formed, shaped, and molded according to His purpose.

This image of “handmade” implies intimacy and intention. Dwayne draws from personal experiences—stories of handcrafted furniture and gifts—to highlight how things made by hand have deeper value and sentimental weight. In the same way, because God personally formed us, we are more than just beings on a planet; we are beloved works of His hands, crafted for a purpose.

This understanding should move us to worship and trust the One who created us.

2. The Hand of the Lord Provides and Protects

Building on the foundation of God’s creative power, Dwayne moves into God’s protective and providing hand. Referencing Psalm 138, he shows that even in trouble, God stretches out His hand to save, shield, and sustain us.

He shares the story of Belshazzar in Daniel 5, who failed to glorify God, even though he knew what happened to his father. The key verse: “The God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.” It’s a strong reminder that we are not in control—even our very breath is held by God.

Dwayne urges listeners not to fall into the same trap. It’s one thing to know the stories of Scripture; it’s another thing to live by them. We must not merely hear that God provides—we must live like we believe it.

3. When People Took Things Into Their Own Hands (And What Happened Next)

In this portion of the sermon, Dwayne skillfully walks through biblical examples of people who decided to act outside of God’s hands—with costly results.

• Moses (Exodus 2–3): When Moses tried to deliver his people on his own terms, he became a fugitive. But when he finally submitted to God’s calling, he became a deliverer. His life is a testimony to the process of learning to trust God’s hand.
• The Israelites (Numbers 14): After initially refusing to enter the Promised Land, the Israelites tried to go up without God’s blessing—and failed. Timing and obedience are crucial. Doing the right thing the wrong way is still disobedience.
• Saul (1 Samuel 13): Impatient for Samuel, Saul offered a sacrifice he wasn’t authorized to give. His disobedience cost him the kingdom. God seeks people after His own heart—those willing to wait and obey.
• Asa (2 Chronicles 14 & 16): In one season, King Asa trusted God and won a battle against a million-man army. Later, he trusted in an alliance instead of God and brought trouble. Past faith doesn’t guarantee future faithfulness. We must trust God continually.

Dwayne makes it clear that acting in our own strength or seeking refuge in others rather than God leads to disappointment, disaster, or missed potential.

David and Jesus: Trusting the Father’s Hands

The sermon draws to a spiritual peak by focusing on two key figures who fully entrusted themselves into God’s hands:

• David, who wrote, “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31), repeatedly expressed trust in God as his rock, fortress, and protector.
• Jesus, echoing David, utters the same words on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

These declarations remind us that trusting God’s hands isn’t just for life—it’s also for death, for suffering, for sacrifice, and for eternal hope.

Jesus further assures us in John 10 that His sheep are safe in His hand, and no one can snatch them out. What more assurance could we ask for?

Practical Application: Whose Hands Are You In?

Dwayne closes the sermon with a deeply personal and practical challenge.

“Are you a person who tends to take the bull by the horns—trusting in yourself?”

“Or are you someone who lets others push and pull you in every direction?”

“Either way, are you really living in God’s hands?”

He encourages the church—not only as individuals but as a group—to evaluate their trust. Are they truly a church of Christ, living in His hands? Or are they functioning more by their own wisdom?

To make the message tangible, he offers a visual aid: a drawing (made by a church member) representing living in God’s hands. Members were encouraged to place their family photo inside it and post it at home as a reminder: “We live in God’s hands.”

Dwayne ties it all together with a powerful call:

“We want you to live in the hands of the One whose hands were nailed to the cross. That’s the only place where you’ll be forgiven, loved, and secure.”

Final Thoughts

This sermon is not only rich in Scripture but deeply practical and convicting. It reminds us that God’s hands are not passive—they are creative, protective, powerful, and redemptive.

Whether you’re someone who tends to over-control your life or someone who allows others to steer you off-course, this message calls you to realign and place your life fully and intentionally in the hands of God.

📖 Want to go deeper?
You can read the full transcript of the sermon below, listen to the audio version, or watch the video version. We include the transcript here to make this message easier to search, reference, and return to as you continue your walk with the Lord.

Full Transcript

"In God's Hands" by Dwayne Gandy on 03/02/2025
(Transcribed by Congregate. Please forgive any errors in transcription)

Start off with a couple of statements of praise.

You can say amen if you agree with these statements of praise or nod your head.

The first statement of praise is praise God for holding us in the hollow of his hand that he wants to do that.

That's amazing that God wants to hold us in the hollow of his hand.

We don't only hold his hand, but he holds us in the hollow of his hand.

That's so important.

Praise God that there is safety and security in the hollow of God's hand.

It's good that we're here today to talk about the importance of being in God's hands.

I have a couple of illustrations as we start this basketball, the value, it's not an expensive basketball.

The value of this basketball is probably somewhere around $30 to $40.

You can go to the store and you can buy one.

In my hands.

How much do you think this basketball is worth?

$30 or $40 or less, right?

Because I, I don't add value to this basketball, uh, in Michael Jordan's hands, how much did this basketball become worth?

$3.5 billion.

So he was able to take a basketball and turn his talent into basketball and do $3.5 billion.

I can't turn into anything now if I played basketball with this for a couple of days and I try to sell it to you, hey, hey, I play basketball with this.

Uh, this was in my hands.

How much would you pay for it?

Nothing, right?

It's not worth anything.

If Michael Jordan had played basketball with this basketball and I said alright, I got a game basketball from Michael Jordan, how much are you willing to pay for it?

If you have any sense whatsoever, you'd be willing to pay more than $35 for it.

You would, you know, maybe I think $100 for it, but it'd be worth probably thousands of dollars just because he touched it because he had it in his hands.

You can do the same thing about a golf club in my hands, a golf club is worth probably less than it's valued at.

This is, uh, I'll tell you, when I worked for Aldi, you know, Aldi has those special purchases in the middle of I bought this entire set of golf clubs for $25.

Uh, they, they marked it down, they couldn't sell them, they marked it down, marked them down, so $25.

This isn't worth very much at all.

 I could take this and I could play golf for the rest of my life and I'm not gonna make it more valuable and I'm not gonna gain any value from it.

On the other hand, guys like Tiger Woods, they could take a golf club and they can turn it into a lot of money.

Does that make sense?

So if your eternal destiny rested on who held you.

Would you wanna put yourself in your own hands or would you wanna put yourself in Herb's hands?

Neither, right?

Would you wanna put yourself in your hands or God's hands?

It's, it's just a no brainer, but so many times in our life we decide I wanna live and direct my own life.

Or I want to let other people influence me and push me in directions that I don't really feel comfortable in and that's not the direction God wants me to be in.

So I have one more example for you.

I wanted to make this more personal and more practical application for our particular group.

I  challenged Jared to a drawing contest, right?

Herb's just catching on.  We both drew a picture that symbolizes living in God's hands and the point of the picture long term is going to be you can take the picture, whichever one you choose.

I didn't make any copies of mine.

I made copies of Jared's just to let you know,  and you can put a pic, your, your kids' picture in there if you want to, to symbolize that they live in God's hands.

You could put your whole family's picture in there to symbolize we as a family live in God's hands and sort of post it somewhere in the house or refrigerator or mirror whatever where it's just a visual reminder, yeah, I'm in God's hands.

I'm in God's hands so hit the button so we can see my drawing that's my drawing.

Herbs laughing.

Alright, alright, that's not that bad, you know, that's not terrible.

So you have, I, I, I look, I had AI give me an image and so I just, I didn't trace it.

I just looked at the image and drew something of this nature, and they were laughing at me a little bit about this, the, the, the one hand it looks like my fingers are crossed and if you notice one hand there's this huge thb and on the other hand it's just a really skinny thb.

I am not an artist took me an hour to do that.

Uh, so let's go ahead and hit the button to get yours.

Oh wow, right.

And and I want to make this point If you had given me unlimited time and unlimited resources, you were to say Dwayne, you have 133 hours this week to draw even a better picture, color picture, whatever.

Mine's not gonna get any better, right?

And if you gave Jared and, and you've seen some of the stuff these days, you've given him, you give him an entire week, 40 hours, so's, I mean, it's gonna be even so much better than what he was able to do in 1 hour.

So at the end we'll, we'll come back to this and this idea of living in God's hands.

So what we're gonna do, we're gonna have 3 different points we're gonna talk about this morning.

The first is.

The hand of the Lord creates so if you're gonna be in someone's hands, it'd be better to be in the hands of the one who created you, and knows why he created you.

He knows how to use you to get the most out of you.

He knows how to protect you.

He knows how to give you security, so we're gonna look at God.

God, the hand of God creates, and then the hand of the Lord provides and protects, and then we're gonna do, you, you guys know I like to do this.

We're gonna look at some examples of the Bible, how some people trusted in themselves and where that got them and then when they decided to live in God's hands and do it God's way where that got them.

And so hopefully the lesson will be helpful and beneficial to you and some of the ideas that we talk about will stick to you with you and the thing that you can take home.

I made 50 copies of it.

We can make as many copies as you want if you want the digital format where you can take a digital picture and put it in there and print it out yourself, you're welcome to do that.

I will be glad to give that to you and thank you, Jared, for providing that for us and that great example of someone with talent and someone without talent and how the difference is.

But before we get into what the Bible actually says about God's hands, I wanna make sure I emphasize to you a couple things.

What I'm not trying to share with you what I'm not trying to teach and what the Bible does not teach.

It does not teach that living in the hands of God means we just wait and let God do everything.

Doesn't matter.

All we're just gonna, you know, just go wait for God to do this.

I don't have anything to do, whatever the case would be.

I'm gonna live in God's hands.

He's just gonna protect me.

I don't have to go to work.

I don't have to make a living.

I don't have to do all these other things.

It's just not what the Bible teaches.

No example of the Bible shows that the teaching of the Bible doesn't show that.

And I'm also wanna make sure that we don't we understand that living in God's hands, it not only doesn't mean that we don't have responsibility, it also.

It doesn't mean that we don't also help each other, right?

So we can live in God's hands with each other and we help each other along God's path.

So let's look at what the hands of the Lord has the power to do.

It has the power to create.

Psalm 19, most of these verses are in your outline.

You can follow along your outline, fill them in as you go.

Psalm 19 verse 1 says this.

The heavens declare the glory of God.

The skies proclaim the work of His hand.

Some sometimes I say handiwork, but I love the way the NIV says this.

The creation is the work of God's hands.

And Psalm 95, starting in verse 3, Psalm 133, starting in verse 3, the psalmist writes this, for the Lord is great.

The Lord is a great God.

And the great king above all gods in his hand are the deep places of the earth.

The heights are of the hills are also his.

The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh, come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

So the deep places of the earth, they're in God's hands.

Isaiah talks about how the hand of God measures the entire world with just his span.

We know that the terminology and the creation account of creation creating man, what does it do?

The hand of God forms us.

It shows this intimate relationship with us and when we realize it is the hand of God that makes everything, including ourselves, our response is simple.

It is to worship the one who created everything.

bow down to him.

You're the Creator.

I trust you with my life because you created me.

You know what is best for me.

Isaiah 4812, there's also a similar passage to this in the book of Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 8, but Isaiah 48 says, Listen to me, oh Jacob and Israel, whom I have called.

I am he.

I am the first and I am the last.

My hand laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand spread out the heavens.

When I call to them, they stand forth together so God says his hand laid the foundation of the earth and his right hand spread out the heavens.

When something is handmade, it communicates an intimate connection between the creator and the created.

Now the Isaiah 64:8 passage is the one that's referenced in Jeremiah as well.

Look at Isaiah 64:8 says this, but now, oh Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you are the potter, and all we are the work of your hands.

So not only has God made us, he continues to mold us and shape us.

Into vessels for his honor.

Every day he molds us, he changes us, he takes the life around us and the events of our life and he changes us now.

Think about this for a second if somebody.

Make something for you with their own hands, it has more value to you, doesn't it?

A couple of things about this our my father-in-law made our kitchen table.

How hard is it gonna be for us to depart with the kitchen table?

We don't, we're not gonna depart with the kitchen table, right?

We're probably gonna pass.

It's that it's very sturdy, made out of cherry wood.

It's gonna last us hopefully for a long, long time.

We ate dinner around it with our family who's here right now.

We play games around it with our family and so that's just special because he has a little plaque he put underneath it made by P Papa and so we know or made by Phil for Shelly, I think is how it's something like that.

He made Lauren a desk.

Uh, we had a friend back at, at, uh, in Colbus who was good.

She was here for a while.

She lived with us for a little while.

Her name was Sheena.

She worked at Disney for a while.

She made pillows and she made decks.

She'd paint made Christmas scenes on them.

She was an artist and she'd paint ppkins on them.

Now when it comes time to get rid of pillows, are we more likely to get rid of the pillows we bought at the store to make room or the pillows someone made us?

The store bought things, right, so it shows an intimacy.

So this person took the time, took the effort, and, and I hear that, you know, Rachel got some things last week on Sunday that people made her with their hands, including something that her mother made her and others took the time to make things with their own that is more valuable think about that.

That's the intimate relationship that God has with us.

I didn't just, you just weren't already created.

I decided to be your king or your God.

I made you, I formed you, I created you.

I have a vested interest in you.

And I love you.

So let's look at this, the second point here.

The hand of the Lord provides and protects.

Look at Psalm 138 and 133.

Psalm 138 and verse 7.

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me.

You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand will save me.

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.

Your mercy, oh Lord, endures forever.

Do not forsake the works of your hand.

So the psalmist here is saying, I'm the work of your hand.

I'm important to you.

You took time to make me inform me and give me life.

I know I'm important to you.

Please don't forsake me.

David was confident that the Lord's hand would be against his enemies, while his right hand would save him.

And I think that energy is so important to us to have in our minds.

I'm living in the hand of God the hand of God is shielding me the hand of God is protecting me.

It's sort of making sure that my enemy can't get to me and it rewards me for trusting him and living in his hand.

In Daniels chapter 5, Belshazzar forgets to learn the lesson of what living in your own hand looks like.

He heard this story.

It was a story about his own father.

His own father was so arrogant.

He thought he could reign over his entire kingdom and he thought he did everything and God sent him a message.

I'm gonna show you that you're not as well equipped to lead things as you think you are because of you.

Cockiness and your arrogance, I'm gonna put you in a place where you're gonna eat grass for a while, and that happens he comes to his senses, God gives him his kingdom back.

And he heard that story.

Daniel says you heard, , you heard this.

You knew that this happened to your father and yet you have failed to live by what you should have learned from your father and I just wanna read there at the very end of that passage that I have in your outline at the very end it says.

You have drunk wine from them talking about the things that they have stolen.

You have praised the god of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know.

so let's stop there for a second.

So you've been worshiping and putting your confidence in gods of gold and silver and bronze and wood, they don't even, they don't even real.

There's nothing there and look how he finishes off, and the God who holds your breath.

In his hand and owns all your ways you have not glorified.

So Belshazzar did not learn the important lessons from the story of his father that is recorded in Daniel's chapter 250, and I. Want to encourage us and warn us.

That we also Can know the stories.

And be able to tell the stories.

But not learn the lessons from the stories, and we have to make sure that we learn the lessons that we should put ourselves in God's hands and live in his hands regularly.

And I think this is a very important point.

As a result of not living in God's hands.

Oftentimes we don't live up to our God given potential.

Let's go back to our illustrations here.

If you were a basketball and you just weren't some inanimate inanimate object you actually could think.

And you were given a choice.

Michael Jordan and I are both looking at the basketballs on the shelf.

You can go way back to early 240s if you want, when I was 250 and he was whatever the age he was.

Who would you want to pick you?

Who would you want to buy you?

Who would you want to be in his hands?

Who would get the most out of you?

Michael Jordan or me?

Michael Jordan, right?

If you were a pencil and the only thing you could be used for is art, you would wanna be a pencil in Jared's house, not my house.

And yet how silly are we to think.

I wanna make my own decisions.

I wanna run my own life because surely I can do it better than God.

You can't You can't get as much out of yourself as God can get out of you.

And other people can't get as much out of you as God can get out of you.

In his hands he can take how how valuable what can a pencil do without a guy like Jared?

Nothing Right, you can just sit there.

I can't do anything.

What can we do without being in God's hands?

Or worse, right?

nothing or worse, we're not gonna anywhere end up being as useful to God and is useful to one another if we are putting ourselves in our own hands or we're putting ourselves in other people's hands.

Here's some examples I wanna talk about Exodus chapter 25.

Remember Moses, he's 213 years old.

Moses thinks it's time.

I am going to save God's people.

I'm gonna take it upon myself and with my own hands if I have to kill a man, I will.

I am going to rescue God's people.

Exodus 213:143 says this Now it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren, and he looked this way and that way and when he saw no one he killed the Egyptian and he hit him in the sand.

And when he went out the 214nd day, behold, two Hebrew men were fighting, and he said to the one who did the wrong, Why are you striking your companion?

Then he said, Who made you a prince and a judge over us?

Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?

So Moses feared and said, Surely the thing is known.

When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he sought to kill Moses, but Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.

So when Moses took matters into his own hands.

He became a fugitive who Pharaoh sought to kill.

Now most of us probably aren't fugitives.

And no one's trying to kill us.

That when we take matters into our own hands.

And we learned this with getting a little bit right at the end they wanted to do have something and have some things to build something, make something maybe as a reminder for what he did.

He ended up in a bad situation and his family suffered it as a result.

Look at chapter 2500 in Exodus verse 2000.

Now, therefore, behold the cry of the children of Israel come to me now this is 40 years later.

And I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them.

Come now, therefore, I will send you to Pharaoh.

You may bring my people out, the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

So Moses offered a bunch of excuses.

Why he did not want to be in God's hands.

You know that sounds that that's really what he did, right?

I don't want you to use me for this, God.

I wanna be used now to just tend some sheep.

I'm happy.

I have a wife, I have some sons.

I've gotten used to this.

I don't wanna go back there.

I don't wanna do it.

And the conversation goes back and forth offers excuse.

God's answer, offers excuses God, you know how that that conversation ends basically God says enough.

Did your parents ever say that to you?

They'd listen to you for a while and maybe you have some exchange and they would say something like that's enough, not another word.

Do what I tell you to do.

And that's basically what God told Moses.

That's enough.

I don't wanna hear from you anymore.

Do what I told you to do.

Nbers chapter 14.

So Moses has told the children of Israel that you have refused to be in God's hands.

You looked out at all the adversity out there when you spied out the land and instead of trusting like David did that God was going to protect you from the enemies, he was gonna use his hand to protect you he was gonna use his hand to help you destroy your enemies instead of believing in him, you said no, we are not going to go.

Deuteronomy 14:39.

Then Moses told him all these words, all the children of vision the people mourned greatly, and they rose early in the morning and they went up to the top of the mountain saying, Here we are, we're ready to be used now by you, God, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned, and Moses said, Now why do you transgress the command of the Lord, for this will not succeed.

Do not go up, lest you will be defeated by your enemies, for the Lord is not among you.

The Lord is not with this.

You're not in the Lord's hands right now.

The Lord is not gonna use his hand to help you with your enemies.

And you will be destroyed and they had a they went up anyway they said all right we don't care about what you guys said we're gonna do our way we're gonna go up we're gonna fight and they lost.

The children of Israel took matters into their own hands and tried to take the promised land without God.

Now if I had said that what happened if I if we just from a.

Intellectual standpoint.

If I tell you Are you better off in God's hands or not?

You're gonna know the answer to that.

But how many times have you found yourself making a mess of something because you tried it your way.

Or you've realized that's not what God wants for me and that's not how God wants to use me and you've sort of forced an issue and it's been painful it's been not helpful and we have to make sure that we're.

Letting God use us.

Look at Deuteronomy 26 and verse 6.

It says, but the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us.

Then we cried out to the Lord of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.

So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm arm with great terror and with signs and wonders.

He has brought us to this place and has given us the land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and now behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which you, our Lord, have given me.

Here's the here's a point that I think is very important to us.

Moses's life was a journey where he learned the importance of trusting in God's mighty hand.

Just curious.

You don't have to say you're old or you don't have to admit being old, but how many of you through the years.

Have finally come to the conclusion or you're growing, you've grown to the point where you realize you're only useful in God's hands and you're, you've grown that you, you know it better now than you did when you were 5003.

How many of you know it better now than you did when you were 20?

Go ahead and raise your hand, right, how many of you know it better now than you did when you were 30?

Know it better now than you knew when you were 40.

50, you're not 40 or 50.

Here's the, here's the thing, how many of you think what you will know that better?

5 years from now, then you know it today.

And being in God's hands, he's patient with us, right?

He doesn't look down and say what are you doing?

smash like just trust me, trust me, trust me, and that's what we need to do.

The rich young fool trusted in himself or the rich fool trusted in himself, I will build bigger barns.

Right, and Bobby made a point in class today, we have to give God credit for anything that we have in this life and not take credit for that that I, I, I've got trusting God to provide for me and this is what God has provided for me.

He didn't do that and the rich young ruler trusted in his riches.

Instead of trusting in God.

In First Samuel chapter 13, we have another example.

What did Saul do?

Saul, I'm not gonna read that that that passage there.

I'm just gonna give you the answer to that.

Saul took matters in his own hands.

And offered sacrifices that he had no right to offer.

What did you get sick of doing?

Waiting on Samuel, but who's he really waiting on?

He's waiting on God.

I'm sick of waiting on God.

I'm a man of action.

And God isn't acting fast enough, so I'm gonna take matters in my own hands and I'm gonna do what I think I should be doing even if it's something that God told me not to do and that is something that we really have to be careful of.

First Samuel 13:13 to 14.

Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly.

You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you.

For now, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel.

But now your kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

As a result of taking matters into his own hands, God took the kingdom out of his hands and gave it to a man after his own heart.

Think about this for a second in our analogy.

God looked at Saul and said Saul, you're not living in my hands.

I can't go on with like this in my my people, so what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna take the kingdom away from you and give it to someone who's willing to live in my hands.

You read through the Psalms, are you gonna see that David is a man who trusted in God and said, I will live in your hands, God.

I trust you to protect me.

You're my rock, you're my shield.

You're the hand that can help me out of this.

So that's what he's doing.

And so the heart then determines whose hands we live in our hands or the hands of someone else.

AA, another example.

When he was faced with the Ethiopians, he trusted God.

And he makes this great statement, God, you can deliver with, you know, a small army a large army doesn't matter to you.

And God helped him.

He had 500,000 beat a million.

Later on in his life He doesn't trust God.

He doesn't trust himself.

He trusts the Syrians And God says, why would you do that?

Why would you do that?

Don't you remember when you trusted me and you lived in my hands, how great things were?

I helped you defeat a big army.

Now you're trusting in the Syrians and if you would have trusted me, I would have given you the Syrians into your hands too.

I would let you beat the Syrians.

You would not only have beaten the the Israel because he was from Judah, you would have beaten and destroyed Syria, the Syrians.

So when Asa trusted in others, he enjoyed temporary peace but long term war.

Uh, so I was trying to get.

A uh Picture for this, an image for this.

I did this last week.

I didn't draw a line this time.

This is where I'm gonna draw the line.

And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna ask you to dig deeper into this text, read the rest of these verses, fill the blanks and your own time.

This is, this is your first practical application.

And the answers will be in the word search.

All right?

The word search are the answers to the blanks.

So when you go home with your kids, say right what does it look like to be in God's hands look at some of these other verses so you can sit around the table and you can answer these questions on your own so.

We wanna provide you with good information, but we also wanna give you tools to keep going after you leave here so this is sort of my attempt to give you some time so you can read all these other verses that I have here and fill in the blanks on your own and if you get stped you can.

Call Diane because I've given all the answers to Diane.

Diane has a whole bunch of the, uh, Emory has one too, so Emory, you can talk Emory, you can call Diane.

They have all the answers.

Let's go to the practical application.

Think about this for evaluate yourself.

Are you a person that tends to want to control your own life and your own destiny?

Take the bull by the horns, hey, I can do this.

Take a second and if that's you.

You have a temptation, you have a bent.

You have a personality.

That might be.

Subject to not being in God's hands.

If that's you think about it for a second.

How are you living?

Are you living in your own hands?

Are you living in God's hands?

That's not me.

OK, I fit in the other category.

I sort of Allow other people to sort of guide me into the past sometimes where they think I could be more useful and more effective.

I gotta stop that.

And I gotta live in God's hands and trust God to use me how he can use me to get the greatest amount of use out of me.

What every person.

And every group of the Lord's people must ask themselves, am I living in the Lord's hands or my own hands or other people's hands?

Is this church And I believe it is.

This is an a kind of is this church truly a church of Christ, a church that belongs to Jesus?

Are we living in His hands?

Are we trusting Him as a collective group?

And so I have the other thing, a practical application I wanna leave with you.

I do have some of Jared's pictures back there.

You can take one of JR's pictures with your kids take put their picture in there, put a family picture in there.

And you can say we live in God's hands.

Those are those great moments in the Bible, right?

Choose this day whom you will serve.

but me and my family, we're gonna serve the Lord.

How long will you falter between two opinions?

If God is God, serve him.

If Baal is God, serve him.

I have set before you blessings and curses, life and death, choose life.

And so I want you, we all want you to live in the hands of the one whose hands was nailed to the cross.

That's the only place where you'd be forgiven.

You can't forgive yourself.

I can't forgive your sins.

You can't do enough to do it.

It's only God through the blood of Jesus Christ and if you need to be forgiven of your sins by having them washed away in baptism or if you're not living a good life, you've been living in your own hands, you've been pressured by other people to do things that maybe you shouldn't be doing in a a course of action that you shouldn't take, stop it.

Commit right now whether publicly or privately to live in the hands of God as we stand in the same.