“Empty Your Hands” | Sunday AM | Rev. Donnie Huslage

Maybe, maybe not.

But today's message is named Empty Your Hands.

And this is not just your generic message, this is from my heart.

After more than 40 years of ministry and walking with the Lord, I've come to one overwhelming conclusion.

And I want you to hear this.

The whole message is not about this, but I want you to hear this at first.

The Bible has answers for every question life can even throw you.

The Bible is the answer.

The Bible is the answer.

You young people, mid-age people, if you're not reading the Word of God through every year or at least something like that, please, please, all other disciplines, learn to get into the Word of God.

Get into the Word of God.

It has answers where you don't expect to find answers.

Amen.

So for years, I read the book of Judges and wondered why God included such strange, disturbing stories.

Some of you might identify with that.

Crazy judges.

How did these guys get in there?

Why on earth could God call them to be judges?

What is this?

I mean, you've had to thought that.

If you're reading the Word of God, you've gotten in there and gone, why is this book in here?

This thing is all wrong.

These guys are sinners.

These guys are they're nuts.

They're they're trashy.

I don't know any other thing to say about it.

Some of them did things you just couldn't believe.

They even flipped things over.

Deborah told uh the general, said, uh, this is for you to do.

But he said, I won't go without you.

She said, Well, you won't get any glory for it.

And she's listed as a judge.

It's amazing.

Everything there is backwards and weird and twisted.

How about the Levite and the concubine?

Who put that in there?

That story that's not appropriate for the Bible.

That shouldn't be in there.

Why is this wacko story in there?

And then how about this one?

The Benjamites.

So there was an Israeli tribe that was like Sodom and Gomorrah?

Yes.

Almost identical.

We all talk about Sodom and Gomorrah, but we don't talk about the Benjamites.

Do you know Paul was a Benjamite?

Oh, there's a whole story behind being a Benjamite.

The tribe of Benijman was wicked individuals.

Okay?

Now they came out of it.

But why is that in that book?

Then I heard a Jewish rabbi explain something that changed the way I read the entire book.

Hear this out.

The book of Judges shows us what life becomes when everyone does what is right in their own eyes instead of following God.

With the amount of voices and disturbing concepts that are in the world today, how can you possibly overcome that without a constant IV of the Word of God?

You've got to have the Word of God to wash your filthy brain, even if you're apostolic, even if you're Holy Ghost filled, you've got to have this flow of the Word of God.

Look at all the media that's coming in from every direction.

I'll say most of that for this evening.

But the media that's coming from every direction, we've got to have something that stands against that.

Without God's leadership, morality collapses, families collapse, nations collapse, and people collapse.

Does that sound familiar?

In the middle of this dark period stands a guy, and that's uh the verse I'm gonna give you today.

It's gonna be uh Judges 7, 1 through 7.

That guy's name is Gideon.

His story teaches us one of the greatest lessons, and here's what let's jump off into it.

If God is going to fill your hands, he first has to empty your hands.

Judges 7 and 1.

Then Jerubal, that is Gideon.

I don't know if y'all stand or not.

If you want to, let's stand.

You don't know what culture churches have today.

You just kind of lean into it.

Amen.

Since everybody's standing, we normally stand just to honor the word of God.

It's being said in public.

Hallelujah.

Praise the Lord.

Then Zerubbabel, that is Gideon.

This is Judges 7, verse 1.

Judges 7:1

And all the people who were with him rose early and they camped beside the spring of Herod.

And the camp of Midian was north of them by the hill of Moriah in the valley.

Now, what happened is Israel was being punished by God, so the Midianites rose up and started putting pressure on.

Sometimes God gets our attention by putting pressure on.

Amen.

Okay, so the Lord said to Gideon, this lowly little kid that nobody really knew much about, he called him forward and he lifted it up and said, I'm going to do these great things with you.

This is a little bit later on.

He says, The Lord said to Gideon, The people with you are too many.

What had happened is Gideon had rose up with a group of people to go against the Midianites, and they ended up there with thirty-two thousand soldiers.

Okay?

Let me fast forward through this.

The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel boast over me, saying, My own hands has saved me.

Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.

Amen.

When I was going to start a church, I might have hoped God would have said that, but I'm glad I didn't listen.

I went ahead and started the church.

Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained.

There's a number sequence there.

And the Lord said to Gideon, The people are still too many.

Take them down to the waters.

Now let's skip down to verse 7.

And the Lord said to Gideon, With 300 men who lapped it, I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands.

Lord Jesus, have your way.

Open our eyes and our ears and let your word go forward and transform our lives, Lord.

Thank you for your anointing.

In Jesus' name, you may be seated.

God had to consistently get rid of people because there was far too much in the way.

Sometimes we're in the way.

We're not in the great and holy way, we're in the way.

Amen.

Israel had 32,000 soldiers.

God said, too many.

That doesn't make sense to us.

We think bigger is better most of the time.

God thinks dependence is better.

22,000 left, still too many.

Another test.

Finally, 300 men remained.

God deliberately removed every human reason Gideon could claim victory.

God had to bring about what God wanted.

He had to remove every aspect of where Gideon came into the story.

You might have never heard this word, or you probably have crisis of faith.

Your life in order to move forward needs to have a crisis of faith.

You know, I'm looking at quite a few pastors just here that I know of.

There's probably others here.

But we know that in the middle of our planning, in the middle of us going to do a work, there had to be a crisis of faith.

Last night we were talking about the medical issues my wife had when we were doing home missions work.

And you would have thought, God, why would you let these medical issues happen?

Why?

Because God, for God to get you out of you, he's got to crush something.

And he's going to bring some pressure against you that's going to cause you to make your way through it.

We've all heard the story of the eye of the needle, and we've heard lots of different ways of interpreting that.

I'm going to give you an interpretation you've probably never heard before.

God can bring you through the eye of a needle.

And I'm not talking a hole in the walls of Jerusalem.

I'm talking the eye of a needle.

If he drags you through the eye of the needle, he is going to break every single bone and pulverize you into absolutely nothing.

But on the other side, he's going to reconstitute you.

And so often in God's world, for God to get the glory, we've got to get out of the way.

We've got to die.

That's the reason why.

So Israel could not boast.

God refused to compete with their pride.

Sometimes God removes people, sometimes he removes money.

Sometimes he removes opportunity.

Sometimes he squashes your plans.

Not because he's against you, because he wants us to know he is enough.

Deuteronomy 28 and 12 says this the Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the reign to your land in its season and to plus all the work of your hands.

And you shall lend to nations, but you shall not borrow.

God says he will bless you.

He will bless all the works of your hand.

Oh my goodness, that verse bothered me.

That bothered me.

It still bothers me sometimes.

I prayed, Lord, why isn't this promise being fulfilled in my life?

The answer might surprise you.

God cannot bless hands that are already full of their own plans.

God cannot bless hands that are already full of your own plans.

He blessed surrendered hands, not clenched fists, open hands, ones that are available, ones that are ready.

After almost 10 years, some of y'all know some of our story, but my wife and I pastored 10 years in Alaska, seven years at New Life in Austin, and 23 years in Georgetown.

That's probably our story right there.

After almost 10 years in Alaska trying to build a church, 1989 to 1999, we were in the seventh most remote place in the United States, Haynes, Alaska.

The ferry term ferries even drive by and don't stop.

You know, they're there you go.

We were just remote, remote, remote.

And I'm talking outhouse.

I'm talking no running water.

I'm talking raising four kids in a little uh, what was that, a fishing shack is what it was, what we bought.

That's all we could afford.

Abject poverty.

We were very poor, but I was determined to do a work for God.

Okay.

I was very discouraged at the end of that.

We started getting headway.

I cried out to the Lord, I said, Why isn't this blessing happening?

Why can't this find its way into my life?

I remember so clearly.

You know, I really understood.

In Texas, you can't comprehend this.

You can't see the forest for the trees.

We don't even know what that means.

What is it?

Forest, what's the word are you talking about?

You live in Alaska, you got it.

You step out in the forest, the trees are there, and in the forest, the trees, they're they're so big, they're everywhere.

You can't even see the sky because of the trees.

You can't see the forest because of the trees.

You gotta wait till you step back that you can see.

There's got to be a clearing somewhere.

And the idea there is that I was I was standing out there going, God, why aren't you blessing me?

Why aren't you doing this?

Well, one reason is I didn't ask.

I think up to that time I'd worked and built that church 100% on my own energy.

I'm talking to somebody right now.

Stop it.

Stop it.

You have been repeatedly trying to fix something, and God's just saying, get your hands off of it.

I mean, if you listened, you would hear the Lord saying, You're in my way.

You're causing me problems.

I can't get around you.

Save them, Lord, save them like this.

I want you to save them like this.

God says, I want to save them like this over here.

But you're saying, I want to save them like this.

And God's saying, Please get your hands off them.

I can't go over you or through you.

I have placed you there for a purpose of influence, but you're influencing incorrectly.

You're influencing and you're in my way.

God's speaking to somebody today.

Amen.

You're in my way.

I remember praying that prayer, and I'll tell you what happened.

This is not a this is not magic.

I just want to tell you.

Two weeks after that prayer, God changed my life forever.

I went from poverty to financial strength from that day forward.

An absolute mind-boggling, ridiculous, out-of-control miracle happened.

Two weeks almost to the day, somebody called me.

It was a city administrator for an island.

Uh Chichikov Island is out in the middle of southeast Alaska.

Huna, Alaska is there.

It's a little native village.

The administrator for the city called and said, Listen, would you come out and look at something for me?

I said, sure.

I was a plumber.

Still am kind of, but the idea is that he said, Come out, I want you to see something.

Next thing you know, somebody came to my front door with tickets.

And it was the airplane.

It was the airline.

And they picked up my luggage and took me, put me in a car, and took me out to the airplane and flew me over there.

I didn't pay for any of it.

Up till there, I was begging for work everywhere.

I went into the city, they showed me a youth center.

They said, We have got three bids.

We want you to bid this.

I bid it.

I walked away from the job when it was done with$200,000 cash clear.

From that day forward, I have not had, I don't think I've had one day without enough finances to pay all the bills.

Because I prayed that one prayer and the subseeding thing, I emptied my hands.

When I went out into the forest, I said, I cannot do this.

I'm done.

I'm done being the pastor.

I'm trying, done commit uh making this image, I'm done just grueling at this.

I need help.

If you learn the skill of crying out to God, you are going to be shocked at the response.

Because God is likely to come through in such a way that it will utterly blow your mind.

Recently I reviewed about 15 of my most successful real estate investments.

I became a plumber, I've sold multiple plumbing companies, at the same time, I was a freak pastor, starting church after church, just absolutely nuts.

Uh well, in the middle of all this, I started to be realtor.

My lawyer said, Donnie, don't ever get a real estate license.

Because then they'll come after you.

So I just you just keep doing what you're doing.

So in the in the time I've bought 38 properties, that's quite a few properties, been through quite a few closings.

And I went and I reviewed my most successful real estate investments.

I have developed uh subdivisions, I have bought uh multifamily housing complexes, all kinds of stuff.

And at first I thought I made some good decisions here.

You know, you might be pretty smart.

You might be pretty smart.

Then I look closer.

Every portfolio, now let me tell you about my portfolios.

I use a hard binder, it's blue.

You've probably seen these things.

They've got the clips on the top, and they're very hard cardboard, but they're in sections.

I buy them in three sections.

And when I go and find a property, I open it up in the first section, I I put together in notes and then I type it all up very, very clear.

All of my plans having to do with that property, all of my dreams, exactly what I'm gonna do, how I'm gonna turn it, how I'm gonna make an investment, how much money I'm gonna make out of it, how I can stretch it the whole way.

Very, very thorough.

Then the next section is what I do to bring that about, and then the final section is just where I'm getting the paycheck, okay?

And it's all in the paper.

Even my, I'll put my amortization schedule in the last part because I know I'm getting that money on a regular basis.

Okay?

So, you know, felt pretty good about it.

Every profitable deal happened after my original plan failed.

And I have it all documented, so I have proof of my ignorance.

I have proof of my nothingness.

I have proof where I look at it and I say, This is not because of me.

And it was the Lord who brought me back after this time of rebellion saying, Look what I've done.

He said, Come back to here.

I want you to see you are zero in this equation.

What a fabulous place to be.

So you mean, Lord, if I trust you, I'm gonna blunder into blessings.

Yeah, that's how it works.

Most of the time, the Lord is waiting on me to get out of the way.

And for sake of this message, because I'm sure my point has gotten across to you, Peter said to Jesus, not me, Lord, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna speak about you.

Matter of fact, it was uh the 33rd chapter of Matthew 26, 33.

Peter answered, Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.

Do you realize, Peter, that it was just one day later you were denying Christ?

Oh, that we wouldn't.

I plead with you today, do not trust yourself, do not trust your masculinity or your vibrancy or your capabilities.

Phooy on all of that.

Fooie on all of that, fooie on all of our skills, and I lay it before God right now.

Uh phooey on all of that.

It's time to say, God, I give it to you.

On the way back from Alaska, I was uh driving down the road like you know, a kid that was raised in Texas, never could get my foot in in the Texas district because the Texas district was tight.

Some of y'all remember.

I mean, it's just like I was unknown.

I would never be known.

I mean, the sun would never come up on my shore.

You know, I was dirt poverty, didn't know anybody, and had this audacious concept of being a preacher.

How crazy is that?

Well, lo and behold, the Lord called me to Alaska.

My wife and I, through a series of dreams and other things, very profound, we went there and we did a work where other people couldn't do a work.

Well, on the way back, I was, men are always looking for their pride point, men and women both.

And on the way back, I said, Lord, people are gonna be happy what I did in 10 years.

They're gonna ask me to come to conference and speak about missions work and the hard work it took, you know, an outhouse and and and you know, no running water and raising four kids.

We would we would go down to the local RV place to wash our kids in the sink because we didn't have running water.

Things you would we paid quarters to take a shower and put our kids in, you know, you just don't know.

Well, here I was driving back, and I said, Lord, kind of nice what we did in ten years.

And the Lord just literally said to me, real quick, He said, You know, I could have got that done in two years if you would have got out of the way.

Don't woe me.

I'm delighted.

I am nothing.

That's why here today, when I say you go deeper to find God, you don't go up.

You go down on your knees, you go into a place of quietness, you go into a place of poverty.

I'm glad I there is nothing.

I remember back when I first got the Holy Ghost, and I remember now, I recognized when I got the Holy Ghost, I was nothing, and He is everything.

I'm gonna tell you today, wherever condition you're in, go back to zero.

Go back to zero.

I don't care if you have millions of dollars.

Go back to zero.

Go back to zero, and maybe give some of that to the kingdom.

Praise God.

One problem today is that our minds never become quiet.

We're always thinking, we're planning, we're worrying, we're calculating, we're defending, we're talking.

And forgive me, I do read my notes.

When you've had breathing issues and all upper respiratory issues, you learn to write everything down.

Okay.

Hallelujah.

Defending, we spend our time defending, talking, but Revelation says I stand at the door and knock.

The door, Lord is still speaking.

The problem isn't his silence, it's our noise.

We're far too noisy.

Sometimes the holiest prayer is simply this: Lord, my hands are empty.

Now what do you want me to do?

I run a recovery program.

I'm happy for that.

Being involved in recovery, you might not know what that is, but in recovery, it's often that you have a moment of silence.

It's right there in the middle of what you're doing.

You say, Let's take a moment of silence.

And everybody in the recovery group.

It's a weird feeling.

Your brain kind of flips and goes, What am I gonna do with this?

That's the place you find the Lord.

Hey, you know what your name means?

Y'all ready for this?

Hey, you lazy child.

I'll give you another one.

It really means nowadays it's been translated into a roofer.

Now let me give you the spiritual sense of that.

In the day that name became given a meaning, a roof was a very important item.

You were the most important person in the city.

Today, you're a roofer for your family.

You protect them.

That's just a sideline.

I told Don too what his name meant.

His was uh Brother Shepherd.

I'm sorry about that.

My name is Don also, so we're together on this, but it's world ruler.

Did you know that?

Don means world ruler.

I'll let you make the connection.

Look, I want to give you a present, and I want to give your pastor a present.

Now the first thing is I want to give it to you.

So I know you want it, but I also want to give it to him.

But I can see that there's something in your hand.

What do you think you need to do?

Put it in between the bottles.

It would probably be not as secure.

I want you to really honor this present.

Okay?

So the deal is I think you're gonna have to empty your hands.

Why don't you set those right over there?

This is a gold coin.

It's not real.

This one's for you.

And this one's for your pastor.

I'm glad you opened your hands.

I hope you got that in my closing.

That's where I'm at right now.

Just to say, I beg you today.

I know some of you are stuck.

Some of you were in something super perplexing.

I too have had payrolls that were in the almost hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands easy, twenty-some odd thousand.

My best friend had 149,000 payroll every single month.

I've known people in every tier of pressure.

But today, you must empty your hands.

For God to give you what God wants you to do right now in your life, you're gonna have to shed some weight.

You're gonna have to let go of some things.

Hallelujah.

Moses had to lay down his staff.

Abraham had to lay Isaac on the altar.

Peter had to lose confidence.

You think, I can't afford to lose.

Sometimes you have to lose confidence.

Donnie, you're not so good.

Donnie, you're not so capable.

Oh, Brother Hustled, please don't talk down to yourself.

No! I just want to be honest.

Today I'm probably one of the highest ranking master plumbers in the state of Texas.

That's a whole lot to swallow.

My number is 16842.

That is such a powerful number in the state of Texas.

When I go into further education classes, no kidding, they almost bow to me.

The guy who teaches the class calls me out the moment I come in.

Why?

Look, I I have I have two sons that are master plumbers.

I have transferred my trade to my kids, and they have become the powerful, the largest med gas plumbing company in Texas.

I want you to chew on that.

I've got a 31-year-old son that's worth way a little over six million dollars.

I've got a 38-year-old son that lives on a yacht in Houston and is retired at 38 years old.

I want you to think about that for a moment.

I looked at my 38-year-old son and I said, son, I want you to remember one thing.

With one breath, God can lift you up or God can put you down.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Sitting on my couch, he said, Yes, Dad.

Bowed his head.

Yes.

God's got to come first, no matter who we are, where we're at, what's going on, he's got to be first and empty you of you.

You have a chance in the service today to be empty and allow God to give birth to something brand new.

If you've been stuck, you didn't think you could move forward, God can make that happen today.

Gideon had to lose his army.

Jesus opened his hands.

God fills empty vessels.

Perhaps you've been trying harder, planning more, working longer, holding together things, holding tighter.

Maybe God is saying, let go.

I'll say, I'll guarantee it is let go of your pride, your fear, your plans.

Is there an area in your life you've been trying to control?

It might be your child.

God couldn't do anything in my kids' life until I pulled my hands back.

I had to tell the Lord, I don't own them.

I don't own what they do.

I don't own them.

Matter of fact, as a pastor, we don't own you.

Thank God.

Hallelujah.

The idea is you are standing before the Almighty God.

Where's your marriage at?

Is it time to give your marriage to the Lord?

Let's stand together.

I really don't let this slip by.

There is something moving in this room right now that's an opportunity.

And I'm really concerned you might jump right over it.

Just like a speed bump and you forget it.

This is a moment, just like my day in the woods, when I cried out to God that everything could change.

Now, money doesn't answer things, it's helpful.

Believe you me, it's helpful.

It's nice to have gas to go places and money to buy food.

But it's a way that God might want to bless you.

But even more so, He can give you a 39-year marriage that is so fun.

We get in the car together and we like each other.

Matter of fact, we like each other, I'll tell you the truth.

We like each other more than we like you.

We got two doggies at home.

They're our little buddies too, right?

But the thing is, God can do something in your life, he can do something in your finances.

And we're gonna pray about this in just a moment, but he can do something in your ministry that might not have been opened yet and what God wants to open.

He can do something with your children, he can do something with your future.