Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.
Good morning, good morning. Hey, pray for those children's workers, man. There are a herd of kids
back there. So that's awesome. We love that. We love seeing that. I did want to take just a moment
this morning and as the lead pastor here and just talk a little bit just about membership.
We just recently had members come in and they're going to put their faces up there.
All right, they're already up there and we always want to honor those who've come in
and decided to go into membership. And if you don't know the process here at Life House,
sometimes good just stop for a minute and talk about that. But we really try to take people
from first-time guests and make a connection with them. We usually send out an email and then we do
something called a connection lunch where we buy you some food. We get to sit down and talk together
and then we do welcome to church and we try to get people involved in groups and teams following
that. And a lot of times people are interested in membership and that's what these folks have done.
And this is Carlos and Trini, Cintron, Justin and Katie Reeder and Dennis Frick all decided to
become members of Life House. They're LHCers. We don't tattoo them or anything like that but
we don't have an LHC tattoo or nothing going on except maybe those licking sticks. I might get
some of those. But if you're interested in membership in the future, we'd love to sit and
talk to you about that. We don't ask people to make that decision quickly or lightly but
thank you to each one. Would you give them a hand? They joined in. Yep.
I used to bring people up front and they and I had one person tell me if you ever do that,
I will never become a member. So I stopped doing that. Yeah, I don't bring people up front. But
this morning I'm excited to preach the Word of God. I always am. I love God's Word. I love
what it speaks into our hearts and lives. And as I get ready to preach this morning, I want to ask
you a question. Have you ever looked at something like a thousand times and maybe literally like a
thousand times and all of a sudden the next time you looked at that something, you saw something
that you never saw before? Now that thing didn't change. It was always the same way. But you walked
by it a thousand times. You've gone, you stepped by it. You stood in the room where it was. That
happened to me this week. This week we were in here at the church and we got temporary offices
set up in the uptown room and the staff comes in and we're sitting there and we're in there for
hours and hours and hours each week. Right. And I'm used to that room and everything. It's in that
room and I spin it out of my chair and I look at a blind that's been hanging there for probably years
and it was broke on the one side. First time I saw that and I'm like, what? You know, and his blind
was broke and that's called familiarity blindness. You know what that is? Have you ever heard of that?
Raise your hand if you ever heard of familiarity blinds. It's a thing. Okay. It's the thing. If you
go into your house, right? You're so used to walking in your house. There could be a crack in
the wall. There could be a dent in the door of your car. You don't notice it because you just gotten
used to it. And that's what it was that I walked into, you know, up there and I spun around on my
seat and I saw for the first time. I'm like, Hey, how long has it been broke? Did that break last
week? And they're like, no, it's been like that for like months. And I'm like, really? You know,
we got this conversation. It will be fixed by the way. Right. And if I'd have walked into an
unfamiliar space, I would have picked up on that. And this morning I want you to look at something
that you've probably looked at a thousand, maybe a hundred thousand times. And hopefully by the end
of this message, you're going to see a little different. So I want you to do something. I want
you to take your hands, lift them up right now in front of you. Okay. Just your hands. Look at the
back of your hands. You probably very familiar with the back of your hands. Look at flip it over.
Take a look at the palm of your hands. You're probably thinking there's nothing new there.
Okay. I've seen that this morning. I saw it yesterday. I saw it the day before. Right. Well,
hopefully by the end of this message, you're going to learn something different about your hands.
You're going to, there's going to be a different spiritual aspect that's going to go along with
their hands. And if you got your Bible, you can head to second Timothy chapter one, verse one,
turn to somebody right now, why you're turning into your Bible and say, we're going to talk about
hands today. We're going to talk about hands today. We're going to talk about hands. Second Timothy,
one chapter one, all right, verse one. And just to give you a little background as we go there,
second Timothy is a letter from the apostle Paul to Timothy, a young minister, a young protege of
Paul's and Paul walked alongside of Timothy for some, so quite a bit of time. Timothy went along
with him on multiple missionary journeys. As Paul went, the apostle Paul went to different cities.
And at this point, what we're going to pick up in the, in the letter,
Timothy's been at the city of Ephesus now for about four years. Paul is writing to Timothy
from a dark, damp Roman prison cell. And just, this is taking place just before Paul is going to die.
This is in AD 1967. Paul would soon be beheaded by the Roman emperor Nero. If you know anything
about Nero and the Roman empire, Nero was what I would call certifiably crazy. Okay. He really was.
And one of the things that Nero did, he would torture Christians. He kind of used them for
scapegoats to complain about everything that was going on in their society. And he would literally
torture them and kill them. And Paul ends up being one of those. So this letter is to Timothy,
and he's writing it to Timothy right before he's going to die. And so second Timothy chapter one,
verse one says this, Paul went a possible of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise
of life, which is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, a beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the
father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God in whom I serve with a pure conscience as my forefathers
did. And as without ceasing, I remember you in my prayers night and day greatly desire to see you
being mindful of your tears that I may be filled with joy when I call remembrance to genuine faith
that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois and your mother, Eunice. And I am persuaded
is in you. You can hear the personal nature of this letter that he's writing. He knows the family,
right? And and he's talking to him in that way. Then it says this, therefore, in verse six, therefore,
I remind you to stir up the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my what hands.
Paul's writing to this young protege and encouraging him to stir up the gift of God in him,
to stir up the gift of the Holy Spirit in him, to stir up the gift of preaching and teaching that
was in Timothy. But he tagged something on the end of this, he said, which comes to you or through you
by the laying on of my hands. These spiritual gifts became active in Timothy's life after
Paul laid hands on Timothy. So what's Paul talking about here? What does he mean by the laying on of
hands? Right? What is he referring to? Is this just kind of a metaphorical reference of some kind?
You know, did he physically lay hands on Timothy? Did he shake the spirit of God into him? You know,
the gift of God into him. Everyone shakes somebody a little bit. All right. You know,
or did Paul's hands possess some kind of spiritual power that we're not aware of? What did he mean
by this? Well, to fully understand what Paul was talking about here, we got to explore the whole
counsel of God. How many of you got to look in God's word? You got to look for patterns,
you got to look for places, you got to look for repetition, you got to find out, you confirm the
word with the words. Good theology, by the way. So we're going to start and we're going to take a
look in the Old Testament and the New Testament and try to pair a little a little bit today and
talk about what hands have to do with scripture and hands and really the transfer something that
takes place with our hands. So while you're turning, I'm going to go to Leviticus 1.1. I'm
going to jump a lot in the Bible today. So if you got your Bible, you introduce some Bible flipping.
If not, you can just look up at the screens and if you're online, you got the screens as well.
They're going to have the scriptures up for you. Thank you for joining us online this morning.
It's good to have you. But I want to make a statement. Things are transformed with our hands.
Do you know that? Things are they're transferred by our hands. We can transfer something by our
hands. Now I could go, I could walk down here. How many know it pays to sit in the front seat,
right? And I can say, Dennis, you know, you're looking really good today and I love that you're
here at church. I'm just going to give you my credit card today. All right. And I'm going to
let you go shopping this afternoon. All right. No limit. And that's like, yes. Right. I transferred
something right from my hand to his hand. Now, Dennis is going to transfer it back to me. Right.
Right. Yeah. He's passing it around a car gauge. I'll get that later. All right. He's going to
pass that around. There's a transfer that takes place. We can transfer something from our hands.
And Dennis, I transferred over to him. Leviticus 1.1 says this. Let's go back into the Old Testament.
It says, now the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying,
speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when any one of you brings an offering to the Lord,
you shall bring your offering of livestock of the herd of the flock. If his offering is a burnt
sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a meal without blemish. He shall offer it to his own free or at
his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. Then look what it says.
Then he shall put his hand on his head of the burnt offering and it will be accepted on his
behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord and the priest.
Aaron's sons shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around the altar that is by the door
of the tabernacle of meeting. What is happening here? There's a transfer taking place. There's
a transfer from one hand right to the bull. In the Old Testament, the central worship location was
the temple. This was before Jesus. This is before Jesus came and became the final sacrifice for our
sin. So the only way for remission of sins, the only way for forgiveness of sins is they would
bring an animal sacrifice. Blood had to be shed. The word of God tells us that anything that sin
touches eventually dies. This is what took place. Instead of, if we had sin in our lives,
we would bring a bull. We would take from the flock and we would bring an animal that was not
blemished and we would come to the temple that was set up and they would go through the door of the
temple. There was a brazen altar and when they got inside, what would take place is they would
place their hand on the bull and so would the priest and he would lay his hand on it. There was
a transference of sin. It was symbolic of sin being transferred over as they laid hands on that
bull and then they would sacrifice that animal and the blood would be sprinkled on the brazen altar.
There was a transfer that took place. You see it all through the Old Testament before Jesus came
and became that final sacrifice. In Leviticus 3.1, when his offering, it says this, when his
offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female,
he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord and he shall lay his hand on the head of his
offering and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of meaning and Aaron's sons and the priest shall
sprinkle the blood all around the altar. If the whole nation of Israel sinned, Leviticus 4.15 says
then the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord
and the bull shall be slain before the Lord. Over and over again, this took place every day at the
tabernacle where worship was taking place. Every day they would come in and there would be this
transference that would take place and God did that for a reason. One, I believe, I don't know
I'm going to confirm this one day when I get them, but I think God wanted people to see the hideousness
of sin, right? How sin can lead to death and how there has to be a blood that was sacrificed and two,
he wanted them to see this transference that takes place. It was symbolic of what Jesus would do when
he come to this earth and he would be the final sacrifice for all the mankind, for the sins of
mankind. Three, things are transferred by our hands. Now listen, it's not only a sin thing,
aren't you glad it just didn't stop there, right? Wasn't just about our sin being transferred,
it wasn't just that, but there are things that are transferred, there are spiritual aspects
that accompany the laying on of your hands. Look at your hands again, come on,
just keep looking at them this morning, all right? There's spiritual things that can happen with your
hands. There's a transfer of authority that can take place. There's an authorization that can take
place. There's a recognition of somebody's calling. There's a recognition of mission on someone's
life, a commissioning. There's a recognition of God's gift and call on someone's life. There's
an empowerment of that gift that comes. There's a setting aside of a large group of people or
even a small group of people for an authorized work all by the laying on of hands. Numbers eight,
five, we'll go into the Old Testament first. It says, then the Lord spoke to Moses saying,
take the Levites. The Levites were one of the tribes of Israel. If you think about a nation,
there were 12 tribes in the nation of Israel and God says, I want to set one tribe, the tribe of
the Levites aside from among the children of Israel and cleanse them ceremony. Thus you shall do to them
to cleanse them, sprinkle water purification on them, let them shave all their body, let them wash
their clothes and so make themselves clean and let them take a young bull with its grain offering,
a fine flour mixed with oil and you shall take another young bull as a sin offering and you shall
bring the Levites before the tabernacle of meaning and you shall gather together the whole
congregation of Israel, the children of Israel. You shall bring the Levites before the Lord and
the children of Israel lay their hands on the Levites. They would pray over them. They would
commission them. They would assign them. They would empower them. Moses was instructed to have
the children of Israel lay their hands on the Levites, tens of thousands in this group and they
would take care of the temple. They were set aside as a group of people to care for the things of the
temple, to care for the holy things of God. There was an authorization that took place, right? We
still practice this in ministry today. If we have young ministers who come up and get credentialed
and do the study and do the work and they test and they get their ordination, what we do is we bring
those ministers together. The bishops come together in the organization and they lay hands on them and
they pray over them. They authorize them. They say, we see the gift of God. This happens in the church
and should happen in the church. People in the church recognize the gift of God or the gifting
in someone's life and we lay hands on them. We pray over them, right? We see this over and over.
Numbers 27 and 18. Moses lays hands on Joshua who would be the next leader of Israel. So the Lord
said to Moses, take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit and lay our hands on him.
It's all through the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament as well. In Acts chapter 6,
the early church, in Acts chapter 6 verse 1 says, now in those days when the number of the disciples
were multiplying, there arose a complaint. How many know a complaint happens? Okay, doesn't matter
what century it's in, what year it's in. There was a complaint that took place and the Hebrews were
upset or the Hellenists were upset with the Hebrews. And really what this boiled down to is it boiled
down to a complaint that the disciples, the 12 disciples were not taking care of the widows
and they needed something, something needed to happen in this. And they came, they brought the
complaint and the disciples said, you know what? We can't walk away from the work we're doing. We're
in the word, we're preaching the word, we're studying the word. So we need to set seven men
aside. That's what they did. Stephen was one of the men. It says, full of faith in the Holy Spirit,
Philip, Prochorus, Nacor, Timian, Parnithius, Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch whom they
set before the apostles. And what did they do? They prayed and they laid what on them? Hands on
them. There was a transfer of authority. There was an assigning of God on them. There was an authorization
by faith, right? By the Spirit laying on of hands. Look at your hands. You didn't know all that was
in there, did you? Come on, let me show you another place. Acts chapter 13 verse one. It says,
now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas,
Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manian, who was been brought up by the Herod,
the Tetrarch and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, now separate
to me Barnabas and Saul, which would be Paul, for the work of which I have called them. Then having
fasted and prayed, they laid hands on them and sent them away. Right? Whether you're a clergy,
whether you're a lay person and working in the church, there's this idea of laying on hands and
saying, we authorize you to do this, to do the work of God in this area. Paul tells Timothy in his
first letter, this very thing. He says, let no one despise your youth. It's his first Timothy 412.
Be an example to believers in word and conduct and love and spirit and faith and impurity.
Till I come, give attention to the reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift
that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the eldership.
The elders recognize the call of God on Timothy's life and they laid hands. Don't underestimate
the power of laying on of hands to authorize. There's a transfer that takes place. Right?
When we did last week, we did a baby dedication. We brought the parents up and we did the dedication
ceremony and at the end, the family came together. You all laid hands or raised hands out and we laid
hands on that child and we dedicated that child back to the Lord. Right? It's the laying on of
hands. It's the praying over people. It's the signing spiritual work and I want to do more of
this here. We need to lay hands on one another and pray and right. Amen. It's true. We do that.
Sometimes we come to the altar, we lay hands on shoulders and we pray. There's power in that. It's
biblical. I don't know what it's going to look like one day when I go to heaven.
Maybe you, I don't know if you've ever imagined heaven. I do sometimes like what's God's kingdom
going to be like, you know, is it going to, I don't know, your picture is probably different than mine,
but you know, as I walk into heaven one day, I know why I want the first words to be. I want to
hear well done, the good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord. That's the first thing
I want to hear. But when we come into the kingdom, I wonder what it's going to be like, you know,
because we're going to get authorized to do new things. Right? They do not need preachers in heaven.
I'm going to be out of a job. Okay. They don't need preachers in heaven. So what's going to happen
in heaven? You know, I don't know. I kind of imagine like a kingdom, you know, and in the kings,
they used to night people, right? They, they'd lay the sword on the shoulder. They come and kneel and
they were authorized to defend the king and they represented the king and were ambassadors for
Christ. But what's going to happen in heaven? We're going to get authorized to do new things. Maybe
the hosts of heaven will lay their hands on us and you're going to get a new assignment in heaven.
I don't know. I can't confirm that, but I imagine in my mind, because you see it all through the
word of God, there's a transfer of authority. Hands also can be, there's a transfer of the
spiritual that takes place. Deuteronomy chapter 34 verse nine. Listen, I'm walking you down through
scripture. I'm talking fast this morning, but I want you to see this through the old testament
and the new testament. Now, Joshua, the son of nine was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses had
laid hands on him. There was a transfer. So the children of Israel heeded him as did also the Lord
had commanded Moses. It's old testament, new testament, following Pentecost when there were
120 individuals in the upper room at acts chapter two, and they're waiting on the promise of the
Holy Spirit following this event. When they're baptized in the Holy Spirit, they go out into the
community. They begin to speak God's word. They're speaking in the language of the people that are
all around in the city of Jerusalem. And there's, and that continues. And in acts chapter eight,
shortly after when the apostles were in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God,
they sent Peter and John to them who when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive
the Holy Spirit for as yet they had, for as yet he had not fallen on none of them. They only had been
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were only baptized in water. Then they laid
hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. The apostles and disciples were going out. They got
out beyond Jerusalem. They started going out into Samaria and they began to lay hands on these
these individuals who came to Christ for salvation. And let me be clear here. I can't just pick
somebody out at random and will and just come lay hands on you, right? And you're going to receive
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's not what it's saying. There's other factors that work. First
of all, you got to have faith to receive anything from God, right? That's from salvation on. You
got to have faith. There's got to be desire. You got to be seeking. All right. But the power of the
Holy Spirit from the laying on of hands, we're just a conduit always for God. We're just the word of
God goes through us. The spirit of God works in us. We're just a conduit, right? I'm just a message
boy. I say that all the time. I'm just a vessel that God can use. I have no power in me. It's all
God and it's all here. But there's a transfer that takes place. We don't possess the power within
ourselves, but we know the one who does. Do you know that if you're a follower of Jesus Christ,
you are an ambassador for Christ? Do you know that ambassadors are authorized, right? They represent
the government. They represent a president. They are authorized. There is some power that goes behind
that. And I could tell you the enemy doesn't want you to know this. He doesn't want you to realize,
look at your hands again. He doesn't want you to realize there's anything there. He wants you to
think that you got nothing. He wants you to think, well, hey, you're saved and you're on your way to
heaven, but you got nothing else, right? Man, good thing God just got you through. He doesn't want
you to know that there's power there. He wants you to, he doesn't want you to know that there's
authority there. He doesn't want you to know that there's transfer that takes place.
We need to understand what the word of God says. And this isn't a spooky thing. I know about the
spiritual spooky stuff. I mean, how many know that you get into spiritually weird, right? That's not
what I'm talking about here. I'm talking biblical laying on of hands is an act of faith. You can
think of it in that manner. When you go pray for somebody, you lay hands on them. It's an act of
faith. When I'm bold enough to lay hands and pray over somebody, that's me stepping out and God
always meets faith. I got a friend who does that. He'll go into a restaurant, man. If he sees
somebody that's got a crutches or they got her arm in a sling, he doesn't even know him. He
don't care. He gets up, goes over, starts chatting with them, talking with him. Hey, how'd you get
hurt? How'd you get injured? Can I pray for you? And he just quietly kneels down and he'll just put
his hand right on, right? And he just prays. He's seen people, he'll in restaurants, flips them out,
right? Like this, look, what, huh? You know, and it's working. Also, he's seen that happen,
but it's because he steps out in faith and he lays hands. There's a transfer that takes place. And
even if they're not healed, right? Even if you go pray for somebody and they're not healed,
because I'd like to say every time I prayed for somebody, they got healed. Listen, I prayed for
people in the hospital and they died. I'm just saying it happens sometimes, right? I'm just being
honest. I can't tell you every time I pray for you, you're going to get healed. I've seen people get
healed praying, but that doesn't always happen. But it's a very minimum. Do you know that a couple
things are taking place? One, you're showing them the love of God. You're showing them the care of
God for one, right? For two, they're sensing God's presence because God's presence dwells with you.
You should know that as you lay hands on. And, you know, as we do this, if nothing else, there's a
transfer of blessing that you can put on somebody's life. Do you know that? You can speak blessing.
There can be a transfer of blessing with our hands. You can bring blessing over them. Joseph,
in the Old Testament, the word of God shows us this idea of blessing. Jacob, his dad, who God
renames Israel, is going to bless his grandsons. He's going to speak blessing over his grandchildren.
Jacob's getting an elderly. He's getting ready to breathe his last soon. And Joseph, his son, brings
his two boys to Jacob, and he wants Jacob to bless him. He wants to lay his hands. This was tradition.
This was Jewish tradition. They would bless their children, right? Their grandchildren, and they
would speak blessing over them. So Joseph brings the boys in, and, you know, dad's old, Jacob's old,
and he thinks that his dad is confused because what Jacob begins to do is he begins to put his
right hand, which was meant for the firstborn, by the way, right? In Jewish culture, the firstborn
got a portion of the inheritance, and the right hand was supposed to bless the firstborn, and then
the left the others. But when Jacob's grandsons come in, he switches it. He puts his right hand
on the younger brother and his left hand on the older brother. And Joseph says this in 48, 70, he
says that Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim, and it displeased him. So
he took the hold of his father's hand and removed it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And
Joseph said to his father, not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on
his head. But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people,
and he also shall be great. But truly his younger brother shall be greater than he,
and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. So he blessed him that day saying,
be by you, Israel, will bless saying, may God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh. And thus he said,
Ephraim, before Manasseh, you see blessing taking place by the laying on of hands. You can go to
the gospel of Mark and actually in Matthew. And Jesus has the disciples all around him,
and there's children trying to come in to see Jesus. And the disciples are shooing him away,
kind of like the whole herd up here, right up here in the class. And Jesus, you know, the kids
want to come to Jesus and the disciples going, no, no, go to uptown. All right, go to class,
go over here. And Jesus says, ah, let him in, let him in, let him in. And what does Jesus do?
He blesses them. He lays his hands on them and he blesses them. At a minimum, when you pray
someone for someone, you can pray a blessing over them. You can speak blessing over them.
It's Jesus plus our hands. It's the Holy Spirit plus our hands. It's our hands
transferring God's love and his purpose and his power, right? It's a transfer. As I get ready
to close, I'm going to ask if the worship team would come. Our hands can also transfer healing.
All right. Jesus hands always transferred healing. In Luke chapter four, verse 40,
when the sun was setting, all those who had had any that were sick with various diseases,
brought them to Jesus. And he said, and he laid his hands on every one of them and they were healed.
The demons also came out of many crying out and saying, you are the Christ, the son of God. I want
you to picture this. Jesus is there and everyone who comes with diseases and sicknesses, he lays
hands on all of them and all of them are healed. Those who have demonic influence in their life,
and that was very common back in that culture, witchcraft that was going on, he would lay hands
on them and they would be free. And you say, well, that was Jesus. And to that I say, you're right.
OK, that was the son of God. But listen what Jesus says in Mark 16, 14, as he's getting ready to leave
this earth, he's rose from the grave. He's speaking to his disciples. He's talking to those who are
witnesses that he rose from the grave. And he says this in Mark 16, 14. Later, he appeared to the leaven
as they sat at the table and he rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did
not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. And he said to them, go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes in his baptized will be saved, but he who
does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe. Say believe.
These are believers, right? In my name, they will cast out demons. They will speak with new tongues.
They will take up serpents. And if they drink any deadly thing, it will by no means hurt them.
They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover. They will recover.
I didn't say it. The word of God says it. Look at your hands. Do they look different this morning?
Are you seeing something that wasn't there before? Or you maybe you've looked at your hand a thousand
times. What are you seeing different? God has purpose for your hands, right? Along with your
faith in him and his power. Listen again, we don't got anything in us. There's nothing special about
my hands. All right. I kind of got small hands actually. All right. There's nothing particularly
special about my hands, but my hands plus Jesus, my hands plus the Holy Spirit, my hands plus the
power of God, my hands plus blessing, right? All those things, right? We use our hands.
Our hands. I'm going to ask you to stay in the school.
dot lifehousecog.com