Scriptures: Psalm 128:2, 90:17, 28:2, 141:2, 17:7 & 138:7,
Proverbs 10:4 & 12:24, Exodus 17:11-13, 1 Timothy 2:1+8,
Leviticus 1:4, John 20:24-28 & 10:27-30
Video Link: https://youtu.be/1sAi6TtXn1I
Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 26 Jul 2026 – Hands by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Structure:
- Introduction
- Hands are for work
- Hands are for prayer
- Hands are for saving
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
What do these four words have in common: chandler, handkerchief, shorthand and handsome? [Wait] That’s right, they all contain a hand.
A chandler was originally someone who made candles by hand. But it can also be someone who handles the purchase of supplies for ships. A handkerchief is a cloth you hold in your hand for wiping your nose and shorthand is an abbreviated form of handwriting.
Handsome first meant ‘easy to handle’, in the sense of being convenient or well-crafted to fit the hand. But it has since evolved to mean aesthetically pleasing or beautiful. It can also mean generous, as in openhanded.
There are literally hundreds of words in English which contain a hand or derive their meaning from the hand.
Today we continue our new sermon series on body parts, this week focusing on the foot. No. Just kidding. We might do the foot another week. Today’s focus is the hand. Apparently, the hand is mentioned around 1,800 times in our English Bibles, which is a lot.
Our message today explores the purpose of our hands. The purpose of our hands is to make things happen. Hands get things done. In the Bible, we read how hands are used for work, for prayer and for saving. Let us begin then with hands at work…
Hands are for work:
There are 27 bones, 29 joints and at least 123 ligaments in each human hand.
This gives human beings the dexterity to do a whole variety of different kinds of work; from writing, to sewing, to changing light bulbs and chopping wood. Where would we be without our hands.
I have a confession to make. Two Sundays ago, I skipped church. We were in the Franklin district visiting one of our daughters. It was a beautiful day and there was work to do.
Among other things, I spent about an hour picking up pony poo. I needed my hands to do that. The horse doesn’t belong to our daughter. She was looking after it for one of her flat mates. The horse wasn’t that interested in me, because I didn’t have any food, but I did get on well with Cookie, the goat.
Now you might be wondering, why pick up the pony poo? What difference does it make? The horse is just going to undo your work by pooing all over the field again. Well, it’s not a pointless exercise.
Picking up the poo helps to keep the horse healthy. It’s not good for animals to eat from the same place they defecate. And, in the case of horses, taking their poo away breaks the lifecycle of worms and other parasites.
In Psalm 128 we read: “When you eat the labour of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.”
The labour of your hands is a poetic way of saying the produce of your work.
If you are a dairy farmer, then to eat the labour of your hands is to drink the cows’ milk. Or if you are a wheat farmer, then to eat the labour of your hands is to eat the bread made from the wheat grown in your field.
And if you pick up poo for a living, then eating the labour of your hands does not mean eating the poo. It means having a healthy horse, free of worms and parasites. The psalmist is saying that what we produce by working with our hands feeds us, body and soul. Without our hands we would be hungry and sad.
While I wouldn’t want to pick up poo fulltime, I did enjoy working with my hands that day. It fed my soul to do something different and to help someone I love in a practical way. I felt closer to God and his creation.
Working with your hands gets you out of your own head. It helps you to stop overthinking and it grounds you in the natural world. Despite the new blister,
I was happy and it was well with me.
There is wisdom and folly in our hands. The book of Proverbs has this to say about how we use our hands…
A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich.
Also, Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in forced labour.
These verses are saying the same thing really. When you put your hands to work in a diligent way, with careful persistent effort, then (other things being equal) you put yourself in the driver’s seat. You have more control in your life.
It should be noted that working with diligent hands does not automatically guarantee riches and success. We need a measure of God’s grace too.
If God didn’t send rain to grow the grass or enable the horse to produce a foal safely, then it wouldn’t matter how diligent you were at picking up the horse’s poo. As we read in Psalm 90…
Let the favour of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us; yes, establish the work of our hands!
These words are attributed to Moses, that great man of God. Moses worked with diligent hands most of his life. He spent 40 years caring for sheep in the wilderness and another 40 years working as Israel’s shepherd.
Moses knew that hard work was not enough by itself. Without the Lord’s favour, without God’s grace to establish what his hands had worked diligently to produce, all his work would be in vain.
It is instructive to remember that Jesus worked with his hands most of his life. He was a carpenter longer than he was a preacher. His hands were skilled, strong and most likely calloused. At the same time, they were gentle hands, not clenched in anger nor used in violence.
The apostle Paul also worked with his hands as a tent maker. He put great stock in it. His advice to the fledgling church in Thessalonica was this…
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
A quiet life doesn’t sound very ambitious and yet Paul saw dignity in it. He saw it as an essential part of our Christian witness.
Now in saying that, I don’t think Paul means that all Christians should become tradespeople. We are not all good with our hands. The point is, to work diligently for the glory of God.
The work of our hands, whether that be taken literally or metaphorically, is part of our public witness and worship. This means the work we do (whether in the church or in the world) is a sacred thing.
What is the work of your hands? Do you see your work as part of your worship of God and witness for Christ? Or has it become something else?
We need to avoid two extremes. On the one hand, the work of our hands should not become an end in itself; it should not become an all-consuming idol which replaces God.
By the same token, we don’t want the work of our hands to be emptied of its meaning either. As Albert Camus once said, ‘When work is soulless, life stifles and dies.’ But (as the Bible indicates) when the work of our hands is done as an act of worship for God and witness for Christ, it feeds our soul.
Hands are for prayer:
We are talking about the purpose of our hands. Hands are for work and hands are for prayer. Let me tell you a story…
Albrecht Dürer was born into a German family in 1471. He was one of 18 children. Albrecht and his brother Albert both wanted to become artists, but their parents could not afford to send them to art school.
So the brothers made a commitment to each other. They tossed a coin. The loser would go to work in the coal mines for four years to pay for the winner to go to art school. Then, four years later, the roles would be reversed. This way both brothers would support each other to become artists.
Albrecht won the coin toss and went to art school while Albert dutifully went to the coal mines. Albrecht thrived at the art academy in drawing, painting and woodcutting. He proved to be better than his teachers.
After four years, Albrecht returned home. On seeing his brother, Albert broke down in tears. He showed Albrecht how almost every bone his hands had been broken by four years labour in the mines. Albert had lost the dexterity to do the fine work of an artist. He could not go to the art academy.
Deeply moved by his brother’s sacrifice, Albrecht asked Albert to pose in prayer for him. He then drew the famous ink and pencil sketch of what we know today as the “Praying Hands”.
Albrecht Dürer became one of the greatest artists the world has ever known because of the silent sacrifice of his brother Albert. God established the work of both brother’s hands. Hands are for work and hands are for prayer.
Sometimes you see people raising their hands in church, usually during sung worship. This is not a new idea. It goes back thousands of years. Lifting open hands to God is an act of prayer. It’s a way of aligning your body with your heart and spirit. We come across raised hands in the psalms.
For example, in Psalm 28 we read: Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my handstoward your Most Holy Place.
And in Psalm 141: May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my handsbe like the evening sacrifice.
Don’t be afraid to lift your hands in church while we are singing songs of worship, if that feels right to you. It is the ancient posture of prayer. A way of reaching out to God. A way of physically demonstrating our openness to God’s will and our dependence on him for all that we need.
In Exodus 17, Moses famously raised his hands in prayer as the Israelites defended themselves in battle against the Amalekites.
11 As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. 12 When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up… so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
13 So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
Raising hands in prayer isn’t just an Old Testament thing. In the New Testament letter to Timothy, Paul writes…
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people… 8 Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.
Hands raised in prayer are more effective than hands raised in anger.
Hands are for work and hands are for prayer. Hands are also for saving others, but salvation doesn’t come cheap. It comes at a cost. Let me tell you another story.
Hands are for saving
An orphaned boy was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. Sadly, the grandmother was overcome by smoke and perished in the blaze. The boy’s cries for help were answered by a man who climbed an iron drainpipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck.
Some weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen all came forward offering to take the boy in. But as they talked, the lad’s eyes remained focused on the floor. He didn’t want to go with them.
Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing the scars on them. The boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. The boy threw his arms around the man’s neck and held on tight.[1]
The same marred hands that saved the boy from the fire, also gave him a home and security. We are reminded of someone else whose hands were marred in saving us. As the song goes. ‘Hands that flung stars into space, to cruel nails surrendered.’
The Psalms are peppered with this idea that God’s hand saves and delivers.
For example, in Psalm 17 we read: 7 Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.
And from Psalm 138: 7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with your right hand you save me.
This is poetry. The psalmist is using the hand of God as a metaphor for the Lord’s skill and power to save him from those who meant to do him harm.
Nothing is beyond the reach of God’s hand. Nothing is too difficult for the power and skill of God.
God’s hand to save reminds us of Jesus who used his hands to heal and restore; to save people from the enemies of sickness and death…
Jesus healed lepers by touching them with his hand.
Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead by taking her hand.
And Jesus reached out his hand to Peter to save him from drowning.
God’s hand doesn’t just save us from physical harm. God’s hand saves us from spiritual harm too, that is from our sins. But God’s salvation doesn’t come cheap. It comes at a cost.
In Leviticus chapter 1 we read God’s instructions for burnt offerings to make atonement for sin: 4 You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for you.
By laying their hands on the head of the animal to be sacrificed, the Israelites were symbolically transferring their sin onto the animal so that when the animal was killed and burnt, their sins were done away with as well.
These ritual sacrifices pointed to Jesus, the Christ, who would atone for our wrongdoing by taking our sins upon himself. All our sins were transferred to Jesus on the cross so that when Jesus died, our sins died with him.
On the third day after his death, God raised Jesus from the dead. When Thomas (one of the disciples) was told about Jesus’ resurrection by the others, he had a hard time believing Jesus was alive. Thomas said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Our salvation by the hands of Jesus did not come cheap. It was costly but also effective. God established the work of Jesus’ hands.
Conclusion:
This morning we have heard about the purpose of our hands. Hands make things happen. They get things done.
Hands are for work. The work of our hands nourishes us (body & soul), it gives us more control in our lives. Better than that, the work of our hands is to be a public expression of our worship of God and witness for Christ.
Hands are for prayer. We are not to rely solely on our own efforts but lift our hands to God in prayer, depending on him. Our hands raised in prayer should mirror our hearts open to God’s will.
Hands are for saving. Nothing is too difficult for God’s hand (his skill and power). But we need to remember, our salvation by the hand of Jesus comes at a cost. We value Jesus’ salvation of us by trusting and obeying him.
Let us pray…
God of wisdom and compassion, establish the work our hands for the praise of your glory. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
- What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- Have you ever injured your hand, so you were not able to use it? How did it feel not being able to use your hand? How did you adapt?
- What is the purpose of hands? How did Jesus use his hands? How do you use your hands?
- What are some benefits of working with your hands? Why is it important to work with diligent hands?
- What is the work of your hands? Do you see your work as part of your worship of God and witness for Christ? Or has it become something else? Does anything need to change for you, where work is concerned?
- Why do people raise their hands in prayer? What does this posture demonstrate?
- What does the Bible mean by the hand of God? Have you experienced the hand of God’s deliverance in your life personally? If so, how?
- How might we value our deliverance by the hand of Jesus?
Outtakes
In John chapter 10, Jesus says this…
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
To be in the hand of Christ is to be in the hand of God who loves us. Jesus is our security. There is no better place to be.
[1] I’m not sure where the story, about the boy rescued from the fire, comes from?
Tawa Baptist 