In The Right Hands | Bro. Zach McGee

Well, praise the Lord, it is good to be in the House of God

tonight. I know we, we don't always feel

like being in midweek service, but it is still good to be here.

I just want to take a moment just to give honor to God and

I'll give honor to my wife and my daughters.

It's chaotic but beautiful, just having such a wonderful family.

And I was thinking about, you know, whenever we get to heaven,

there will be no marriages in heaven.

That's kind of a weird thought, especially when if you're

married, you live your whole life married to that person.

It's like that's going to feel kind of weird, kind of kind of

strange. And there's another pastor on

TikTok that was talking about it.

He's like, you know, when we get to heaven, it's not that you're

going to find it weird. So you got to look at this

person like, I know. Thank you.

But helping me to make it here, thank you for being my partner

through life. And I think that's such a

beautiful thing that we're going to be in heaven together.

We're going to know that we help support each other to get there.

And it's exciting. Just everything there is to look

forward to. Of course, a whole life with

her. And then eternity is something

even better. I give honor to Bishop and

Sister McGee. I give honor to Pastor and

Sister McGee and to Brother and Sister Mason, our ministers.

They're all so amazed and I'm so grateful for the ministry.

So if we could just stand. I've got just one quick verse to

start off, start us off with tonight in Ecclesiastes chapter

Ecclesiastes 4:1

4, verse 1. So I returned and considered all

the oppressions that are done under the sun.

And behold, the tears of such as were oppressed and they had no

comforter. And on the side of their

oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter.

Tonight my message is titled in the right hands.

Let's just take a moment to pray.

Lord, we thank you for the service, guy.

The chance to be in your house, guy.

Lord, we thank you for the chance to be here together to

worship you, God and Lord. God, I pray you touch my lips

that you would anoint my lips, anoint my mind for the ministry

of the Word and open our ears, open our hearts, God, to hear

and receive what you would have for us here this evening.

God, for those of us that are here in person, everyone that's

coming in online, God, both tonight and in the days to come.

God, we will give you all the glory and all the praise.

Lord, for you alone, our worthy God, in Jesus name, Amen and

Amen, You can go ahead and be seated.

I just want to preface my message tonight briefly because

my trust in the wisdom and justice of God was shaken to its

core very recently, and it took several weeks or months before I

finally realized that at all times, God knows what He is

doing. Now the feelings I had, they

weren't wrong to have. I'm a human being.

We have feelings. But I do feel foolish that I

thought I actually knew better than God of what should or

should not happen. But still, the feelings were

real, and there were many. And many people have asked the

same question that I did. Why would a loving God allow or

cause certain bad things to happen?

So I'm I'm going to speak on a few things here according to

what God reminded me of. So life is not fair.

We live in what feels like an unjust, wicked, cruel and

uncaring world. The good die young and evil men

are celebrated as heroes in a sense is trampled on.

Sickness just racks and takes control of our bodies.

Mental health is just out the window.

War, famine, poverty, human trafficking.

And many people ask, including us, where is God in all of this

mess and why is he allowing things to be this bad?

Why doesn't he just fix it? He can do anything.

So why? Because it can feel like God

isn't kind and loving, but rather distant and cold and kind

of caring more for just that he has praised, or that his rules

are followed, or even like he's just toying with our lives.

If he's even real. And I'm not saying these

feelings are correct, but their feelings that are real that we

have. In fact, every, every Christian

hears words like this from those around them.

I have many times. And I know the Bible says that

God cannot lie and that God is love.

Not that he loves that he is love and his knowledge and his

wisdom is infinitely greater than ours.

But still, I find myself wondering why?

Why do? Why do these things, these

events happen? Why are they allowed to?

It doesn't make any logical sense to me.

And I questioned his judgment because there's just no way it's

supposed to be this bad. But let me tell you what the

story that really messed up my faith in God's judgment for a

while. Because I promised my faith

didn't just go away. God did see me through, but, and

I I hate this story. I hate thinking about it because

it hurts me deep. But some years ago there was a

man who owns some alligators. He just had them in a pond in

his yard that was fenced in. Everything was safe, everything

was good, everything was up to code.

It's cool. If you want alligators, more

power to you. Had to be someone in Florida.

Who else is coming too? But this man was a father and he

had a young 2 year old little girl and while he was outside

just doing yard work, she was outside just playing and running

around. And unfortunately those bars

that were too small for the alligators were not too small

for a 2 year old girl. And at some point, while the dad

was busy, she got herself inside the fence.

She was never found. It's, it's, it was really

obvious what happened very quickly.

And every time I think about that, I, I, I get choked.

I, I hate the thought of it because I keep thinking of the

horror and the panic on the dad as realization dawns.

I'm like, hey, let's, you know, where is she at?

Where's my daughter? And then he starts to realize he

genuinely doesn't know where she's at and he cannot find her.

And he's looking around before finally seeing that alligator

pen and the realization of what happened.

And I keep imagining what that little girl, her last moments

must have been like. The confusion, the pain and the

utter terror. As you know, she got in there.

She was, she was innocent. She didn't understand.

She's just playing around and just went in there out of

curiosity. In the next moment, the jaws of

a predator clamped down on her with enough force to break bones

and dragged her into the water where she was alone and she was

scared for a few brief moments before her life left her.

Her last moment was one of fear and panic where

I can't help but look at God and just scream out why?

Why did this little girl have to die such a horrible death,

feeling those teeth, drowning, all alone and scared.

And then her father, you know, he has to live with that.

His little girl died on his watch, and there's no going back

and undoing it. I don't understand.

And I weep at it because I see it as unjust and cruel and

vicious. And that's not even the only

story of things like that in the world or our worst things.

I can find no reason or logic for why God did nothing to steer

this small, innocent girl away from this needless death.

It is very much in His power to do so.

He could have just shut the alligator's mouth.

He did that with the lions for Daniel.

There were so many ways he could have just stepped in to save

her. So God, why didn't you?

Why didn't you stop this? This story messed me up for a

long time and it rocked my faith to the point that most times I

had to continue only by what I knew was right.

Because I know what the Word says and I know that God says He

cannot lie, that He is loved, that He has a plan and all

things were to the good. But that's not what I was

feeling and I couldn't let my feelings just take the reins

because my feelings told me I couldn't trust God if He allowed

something like that. I felt spiritually numb every

time I thought about this and I felt just angry and resentful

and depressed her. Almost like almost feel like I

was betrayed in some way. Like my trust in God was

misplaced because he allows things like this.

And as a father of young girls myself, I can't imagine anything

more cruel to happen than this. Until very recently.

Because as I was just taking the time in the evening to pray and

I once again just felt numb and I couldn't really focus because

I kept thinking of this girl. I kept thinking of her father.

But even and all that, God reminded me of something I

forgot to consider. That little curl woke up in the

arms of Jesus. As much as her last moments were

truly horrible, she woke up to eternal joy and the arms of a

God who loves her more than any natural Father ever could.

She will never know any more pain or sorrow or fear, only joy

and love and peace. The horror of her last moment

was hearing God in the blink of an eye and it holds no weight to

the glory of eternity in heaven. I was so caught up in the effect

on this life which is here 1 moment and gone the next, that I

lost sight of heaven. This life is not our home,

heaven is. That little girl just got to get

there a little bit sooner than we did, and for all I know,

maybe something worse would have happened if she had lived

longer. God knows a lot better than I

did what the rest of her life would have been like.

He could have saved her from something so much worse.

He knows better than I. And her father is also in those

same good hands as well. The same hands that holds that

little girl now are the same hands that will be there for her

dad. Because you see, before time

began, before the Word let there be light was ever spoken, God

already knew their story and exactly how to help this Father

live on past this tragedy. I don't know if this Father is

leaning on God and trusting Him or not.

I don't. I don't know where he's at right

now. But I do know that God is there

and will be His strength. Now, I still don't have an

answer for every bad thing, but just as Job was reminded of his

limited wisdom and God's infinite wisdom, Even so I was

reminded that God's hands are better than mine.

I don't understand the work why he allows this and doesn't allow

that, but I trust him. I have been humbled at the

realization that this girl and her father were in the right

hands of the whole time and my righteous quote UN quote anger

at what I viewed as injustice on God's part was rightly put to

shame because how small and limited I am and He is not.

Now. I am still sad when I think

about this story. I still cry about it anytime I'm

alone because just the thought of that happening is painful.

But I still trust the hands of the One who made us and that we

are all in the right hands even if we don't understand the

reason behind everything. But life is full of unfair

scenarios of many different kinds, and I will not even begin

to scratch the surface of every different kind.

I'm just going to hit a couple. Life is full of different pain

and hardships, especially financial.

There are so many times in life we find ourselves in need of

more money than what we have. Whether it's through job loss, a

physical sickness that just brings way too many medical

bills, our vehicles breakdown again.

It seems like every time we look at our bank account we're just

seeing it go closer to 0, and every time a little bit of money

trickles in, it just right back out.

It is simply a fact of life that we will face financially hard

times and that's going to leave us stressed and anxious about

how anything is going to possibly work.

And it will feel like we are drowning because every bill just

feels like another milestone tied around our necks, or

millstone rather tied around our necks.

And every dollar that comes in is gone before we even get the

chance to know it. They aren't gone, it comes down.

It's not a matter of deciding what bill to pay, but rather

what bills we can get away with just not paying this month.

Do we choose to keep the lights on?

Do we choose to put gas in the car so we can make it to work?

And we ask, how are we going to make it?

What are we going to do? It is an overwhelming feeling of

hopelessness fighting a battle that you know you're losing.

But in Matthew chapter 6, verses 25 to 23 to 25 to 33, Jesus

said, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life

what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your

body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat,

and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for

they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet

your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Are ye not much better than they?

The answer to that is yes. Which of you by taking thought

can add 1 cubit unto his stature?

And why take He thought for raiment?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.

They toil not, neither do they spend.

And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon, the wisest man on

earth after Jesus, and one of the richest, even He in all his

glory, was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field which today

is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more

clothe you, O ye of little faith?

Therefore take no thought saying, What shall we eat, or

what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.

For your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these

things, but seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his

righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Jesus is not their promising prosperity or riches, or for

anything to be easy. What He does promise is that if

we put His Kingdom first, even when it seems illogical to do

so, He will meet every need. We keep tithing and we keep

giving to the offering as best we can.

We keep showing up for church and we keep putting 1 foot in

front of the other. The bills are going to be met

and we're not going to lack for shelter or food or clothes.

The right job is going to happen, and God's going to make

sure we either have the right income or somehow money is going

to make its way to us for things to be taken care of.

Because God, he just cannot leave us destitute.

It's against his nature. He is our provider, Jehovah

Jireh. The Lord will provide.

And I know we say God can do anything, but there's things he

can't do. He can't go against his nature.

That's why he can't lie and he can't just leave his children

out there alone and unprovided for.

So as we switch our focus from our physical needs and instead

on to his Kingdom, which does take a lot of faith, it takes a

lot of just saying, OK, God, I, I don't see it.

I don't know, I don't understand and I don't like what I'm

feeling, but here I go, His peace.

We'll replace our fears, maybe not with that first step, but

the more we're stepping, the more we're not looking left and

right. The more we're just focused on

His will, his Kingdom, and keeping him first.

The more all that anxiety is going to be replaced with a

peace and a trust because we start to realize we're in

really, really good hands. Psalms 3723 to 25.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he

delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be

utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.

I have been young, and now am old yet have I not seen the

righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

I myself, I have been young and I haven't been old yet, but I

had still have not seen His people forsaken or forgotten in

my brief 33 years. I have personally seen His

provision in my family and a different members of my church

family. God didn't stop the bad from

happening. Oh he could have, He could have,

but he didn't. Why?

I don't know. He knows, but He provided

through it all and He brought us out time and time again and I

know He will do it again. We can find peace even when we

find ourselves in need because we are in the hands of our

provider. We are in the right hands and

beyond. Beyond any financial crisis, we

face so many other issues, health, relationships,

educational needs, bullies, different things on the job, the

list goes on. But I want to address just one

last thing that has bothered me personally off and on throughout

my life. And I know I'm not unique and

that probably all of us have been affected in this way.

And that is the death of a loved one that you're not sure is

saved or not. You know, the death of a loved

one is the hardest thing. And it's especially hard if

you're not sure, like did they go to hell?

Did they go to hell? You know, it's depressing if you

know they didn't make it. It's, but it's, it's causes so

much anxiety if we just don't know for sure, because naturally

we want to always think that, hey, of course they went to

heaven. I loved them, I knew them, I

laughed with them, of course, you know, but but what if they

didn't? Because we know that there is a

difference between someone saying they believe in God and

someone who actually builds a relationship with him.

But sometimes it's not always easy to tell because we don't

know that person's heart. We don't know them in the

deepest, most intimate moments of their lives.

And yet, yeah, there there's people that there's no doubt,

there's no doubt they went to heaven.

And we rejoice, we cry that they're gone, but we rejoice

because they're in a much better place than we are.

But I've experienced the death of family and others where I I

wasn't entirely sure because I'm not so close with everyone that

I know that I have a good gauge of where they stood or what

their faith was like. But again, I've come to realize

we're in good hands and that God is a good and righteous judge.

He will fully and righteously judge sin because He upholds His

own law. But He's not out to get us and

send us to hell. He knows our life and our

struggles. He knows our thoughts and

intents. He knows what we could and what

we couldn't do, and He will judge with wisdom and

righteousness. So instead of just holding on to

anxiety for my past loved ones, I'm choosing to trust that

they're in the right hands of a judge who knows first hand just

how heavy the weight of sin is, because He was willing to bear

the wave of it on a cross in our stead.

Luke 2339 to 43 And one of the male factors which were hanged,

because this is Jesus, and the two criminals all on the cross

together, railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself

and us. But the other answering rebuked

him, saying, Does not thou fear God, saying, Thou art in the

same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we

receive the due reward of our deeds.

But this man Jesus hath done nothing amiss.

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest

into thy Kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily

I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Now that man, he had not made sacrifices for his sins

according to the Old Testament, and neither was he a born again

Christian. He wasn't.

He hadn't been baptized in Jesus name and filled with the Holy

Ghost. It wasn't time for that yet and

he clearly didn't live a holy life.

He recognized he was on the cross because he deserved his

punishment. But in this moment, this man

defended Jesus when no one else did.

And in a single moment, Jesus took this man's sin and pardoned

him, taking the condemnation upon himself instead.

The other man on the cross died in his sins, and he was

condemned with his sin because he never repented.

He held on to his sin until his dying breath.

He had salvation literally right there and he didn't choose it.

But the other man looked to Jesus and found grace even while

dying for his crimes. These men were in the hands of

the righteous judge, and we can agree that their judgement was

rightly handled. And every single one of us,

everyone that has passed on before us, are in those same

hands. Because again, Jesus is not here

to find everything possible to condemn us with.

He's not hoping for us to fall and fail.

He is full of grace and mercy, and He with all wisdom, with all

love, with all righteousness, will judge us in just the right

way. I can't decide where someone is

going to go and I don't need to be anxious for somebody else

that has passed because I trust that they are in the right hands

and that I myself will be in the right hands.

Because sometimes we get so caught up in trying to live

Christ like, or like we've got to do something just right.

We've got to, and we live kind of anxious and we're kind of

worried and we know there's grace, but we feel like we got

to have everything just right. You know, like what if, what if

God comes right now? I just don't feel like I'm

worried. I don't, I don't feel like I've

done enough. And I but those hands are full

of grace. We don't have to worry about

those hands coming down. Try to back.

Gotcha. You got what you deserve.

No, these are the hands. These are the nailed, scarred

hands. The proof that he loves us and

we'll do everything in his power to help us succeed.

We still got to live our lives. We still got to come to him.

We still got to pray, we still got to repent of our sins.

We still got to put in that effort to live as he wants us to

live. But his grace is so strong and

so wonderful and those nailed scarred hands are there to help

us out. When Peter was walking on the

water and he took his eyes off Jesus for a moment and he

started to say, Jesus didn't be like, well, bummer for you.

No, he reached down with his hands to pull him up and to help

him. We don't have to be worried or

afraid of the judgement for someone else or for ourselves.

We can instead trust that he knows what he's doing and that

it's going to be OK. I don't know how many people

like me have been anxious when someone they knew has passed on

and they're just not sure. And we're not going to get a for

sure answer in this life, but I can choose to trust that they

are still in good hands. There's a story of a judge who

was known for his integrity and known for not being harsh but

always upholding the law exactly how it should be.

And one day, a woman came in being prosecuted because she was

driving drunk and wrecked some vehicles and, you know, needed

to be condemned for that. And that judge saw her, saw the

proof, saw what it was, and guilty.

You have to pay the highest fine, the highest amount.

And then everyone was shocked when that judge got down from

the plat from behind his area, went to the bailiff and paid him

the money. Because that woman was his

daughter. He judged her righteously

because he could do no less, and yet because she was his daughter

and for love of her, he also went and paid the price for her.

That's what Jesus did for us. We are in very, very good hands.

Our musicians can go ahead and come first.

Peter 57, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you,

all your care, which means everything you feel, which even

means those feelings when you're angry at God.

He can take it. We can cast it upon him.

Because when I was so numb, when I just couldn't get past that

story and I just couldn't trust Him, I could tell Him that he

heard everything I had to say. He heard me out, and then he

corrected me. Life is so hard.

It is cruel, it is unjust, but we're in the right hands when we

put God first and allow Him to move in the way that He wants

to. Every single care we have will

be taken care of in the right way and at the right time.

No matter how long the trial is or how hard the question is, His

plan is greater than all the bad we experienced.

Just like a drop of water cannot be compared to the vastness of

the ocean, Even so all the bad we experience is just like that

little drop compared to all that God has planned for us.

If we will just stay close to the Father even when we don't

understand, we will be in the right hands.

The Bible says that God cannot lie, and if He cannot lie, we

can trust Him. Despite the horrible and unjust

things in life, there is something greater in store that

simply overshadows even the grossest evil and injustice.

As we see, I choose to take Him at His word.

I choose to place myself and every question I have in His

hands. Every situation, every anxiety,

every emotion is in the right hands.

If we go ahead and stand, I just have two final verses and then

this altar is open. You can come to the altar, you

can stay in your seat, you can worship, you can pray.

Jeremiah 29 and 11 of the ESV, for I know the plans I have for

you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to

give you a future and a hope. Sometimes we don't see that hope

in this life, but we will see it in the next Psalms 4211.

Why are you cast down on my soul, and why are you in turmoil

within me? Hope and God, for I shall again

praise Him, my salvation and my God.