Who's Holding Up Your Arms?

Your arms are shaking, and the fight isn't over. It's not even over. You've been holding something. You've been holding something up for longer than you expect it to. A family. A responsibility. A burden that really nobody else seems positioned to carry. And you're not sure how much longer your own strength can keep it raised without dropping. You keep telling yourself to push through, and you tell yourself quitting isn't an option. And somehow willpower alone is going to get you to the finish line. Moses tried that too. And the battle still wasn't won by him trying harder. Shalom and welcome to True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I am Sean, day 73. Exodus 17. Two crises in one chapter. A thirsty nation ready to stone Moses. And an enemy army that can only be beaten by arms that won't stay up on their own. My book, True Word, Faith for Life, it's available now at TrueWordfaithforLife.com and anywhere books are sold, but I'd love for you to buy it direct. It's not really direct, but through us. Helps the ministry more. We get a dollar through Amazon and all the others. So get a copy. Maybe get one for somebody who's exhausted from holding something. Holding something up alone. Today's question is, who's holding up your arms? Yep. Israel moves on from the wilderness of sin to a place called Refidim. And there's no water. No water. By the way, good morning to everybody. Good morning, everyone. Waking up early, way early, and everyone staying up a little bit before you go to bed. And all those in between. God bless you all. The people quarrel with Moses, and I would have hated to be Moses. You imagine that mission? Give us water to drink. And Moses answers with a question of his own. Why do you quarrel with me when why don't you why don't why do you test the Lord? Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? The thirst is real, but so is the accusation underneath it. Why'd you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children with thirst? Moses cries out to the Lord, This people, they're almost ready to stone me. And God tells him something quite remarkable. Pass on ahead of the people, take some elders with you. Take the staff you struck the Nile with and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it. And Moses does exactly that in front of the elders, and water flows out for the whole nation to drink. He names the place Masa, testing and Mirabah, quarreling. Masa Mirabah, testing and quarreling. Because the accusation the people leveled at God himself, is the Lord among us or not? Then almost immediately a new threat arrives. Amalek attacks Israel in Rephidim. Moses tells Joshua, choose men and go fight Amalek. Tomorrow I'll stand on top of the hill with my staff of God in my hand. Joshua fights below Moses, Aaron, and her. They climb the hill. And something strange starts happening. Whenever Moses holds up his hands, Israel prevails. Whenever his hands drop, Amalek prevails. Moses' arms grow tired the way anybody's arms would grow tired after holding them up, holding anything up for hours. So they take a stone and they sit him down on it, and Aaron and her. They each take one of his hands and they hold it up, one on each side, until his hands stay steady all the way until sunset. Pardon. All the way until sunset. Joshua defeats Amalek completely. And the Lord tells Moses to write this down as a permanent memorial to be read aloud to Joshua specifically, that Amalek's memory will be blotted out entirely from generation to generation. Moses builds an altar and names it Adonaiisi. The Lord is my banner. Four things in this chapter carry weight worth slowing down for, so we're gonna. First, notice exactly where God stood. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock. When Moses struck it, he wasn't striking an empty stone. God had already placed himself at the point of impact. The water that saved a dying nation came out of a place where God chose to stand and take the blow himself. Second, the naming of Masa and Meribah wasn't meant to shame Israel privately. It was meant to instruct every generation that would ever read this story afterward. Testing God by demanding proof of his presence gets a permanent name in the scripture. Precisely so, nobody has to repeat the same accusation blind. Third, the battle below and the intercession above, they were never separate stories. Joshua's sword didn't win by itself. And Moses' raises, his raised hands didn't win by itself either. Victory required both. The fight on the ground and the intercession on the hill happening at the exact same time. Fourth, Moses' arms failing was in a spiritual failure. It wasn't a spiritual failure. It's simply what arms do. The solution. It was Aaron on one side and Ur on the other, doing the actual physical work of holding up hands that had run out of their own strength. But together, this chapter says something worth leaning back on. God stands at the point of your deepest need before you ever reach it. The failures worth naming are the ones that teach the next generation something true. And the strength to keep going often isn't found by trying harder alone. But by someone else physically stepping in to hold up what you can no longer hold up yourself. Now you know we we look at the challenges of life, and we all can name them, right? Thirst, hunger. And technically speaking, we can we can manage those, right? One way or another, we can manage those. But the challenges of life, illness, injury, sorrow, loneliness. If there's one thing I've learned, and for those of you who are new, uh I was critically injured in a horrific car crash. But I was also injured in the military, and there's a just a bunch, a bunch, a bunch of damage in my spine. And it caused this, you know, permanent and worsening damage to my spinal cord and my spinal column. And what's weird is it reaches out, the problem reaches out from your spinal column into other parts of your body. And my brain injury, it just doesn't work correctly. And sometimes it doesn't work at all. And you wonder, my glitches, is it gonna come back? I say that I say that because I will tell you in my life I have had people who didn't have to come up and hold my arms up, but they did. But they stopped what they were doing, and they held my arms up. I'm no Moses, trust me. They came along and helped our family. They encouraged us, they prayed for us. They had plenty to do on their own. Many of you are in this list, this live chat list. Linda and Susan, you were there. There were many others who are gone. My dear friend Jerry Summers, if people only knew what that guy meant to me, still does to this day. If you guys only knew what you mean to me. Something has occurred to me, and I'm more emotional now. My son even said it, I'm more emotional now at this stage of my life than I ever was. And I was never one to ask for help. I hated asking for help. Life is about how good you can hear the need of someone needing help and respond. But life is also partly about understanding your need and asking for help. I said a moment ago I I would have hated to bend Moses. Doing the impossible for the ungrateful. I'm sure there were many in that group that viewed Moses as a hero, and they wouldn't think to complain. There were many also in that group that said, Hey, you're the reason we're here, man. Fix it. This passage, I don't know if it hits you how it hits me, but this is the part where it gets a little bit personal because most of us, we've been Moses on that hill, arms raised, doing something genuinely important, and we're running out of strength. Long before the battle below actually ends. And you know, Miss Tammy gave me a card past Sunday when I spoke at Virginia Creek, and I can't thank you enough. And Linda and Susan gave me this card, came at the perfect time. I can't I cannot thank you enough. And Miss Sharon and by the way, Miss Sharon and Cheryl, we need to pray for them. The 24th is a big day for both of them, but it's not just going to be that day, it's gonna be a lot of days after. Recovering from surgery is rough. It's rough, especially very serious surgeries. And we will have to pray them through. And perhaps there are physical things that can be done for them to help them. And we will sing hallelujah all along the way as we pray. Perhaps we have to strike a rock, or perhaps we have to help lift the hands. Pardon me. And the battle isn't over, and each of us will run through our own battles at different times. Some of the battles will bring on ourselves, you know it and I know it. I'm living proof. But the battles happen, none the less. Where are we for our brothers and sisters? Look, maybe your arms are weary from a responsibility you've been carrying that nobody else seems positioned to share. Maybe it's a fight that's dragged on so long your own willpower is just quietly given out. Even while you keep your hands up out of just sheer stubbornness, I'm not lowering my hands. I might know a thing about that. Maybe you do too. This chapter doesn't treat that exhaustion as a failure of faith. It treats it exactly as what human arms do under enough weight for long enough. And notice what actually solved it. Not a fresh burst of Moses' own resolve, but two other people, specifically named, specifically positioned, one on each side, doing the quite unglamorous work of simply holding on. There's no shame recorded anywhere in this text for Moses needing Aaron orderer. The shame would have been pretending he didn't need help or sending them away, so nobody would see how tired he actually was. Pride. Modesty. Privacy. Sometimes we send people away out of embarrassment. I don't want them to know I can't manage my own my own deal here. I remember the first time they were evaluating the extent of my uh brain injury and all this stuff. And they said, Count to count to twenty. I was like, we're starting with the easy stuff. Then I got along about to eleven, and uh had this blank stare come over my face. And the doctor said, Well, what's the matter? I said, I don't know. What was I doing? And she said, You were counting to 20, and I laughed again, as though I'd never heard that. And I started counting again and got along about eleven. Then I grew silent and blank. And she said, and I said, and what? She said, You can't count to twenty. I said, Oh, I absolutely can. But this time tears of frustration and sweat were all over my forehead and my face. And I was starting to get mad. And I tried it again and I couldn't do it again. When my son, who was just young at the time, when he heard that, he said, Don't worry, Dad. I'll count for you. Sometimes, you know, stuff that comes out of kids' mouths, the kindness and compassion that comes out of their mouths. Not all the kids, because some kids would go, well, good luck with that. And look back down at some gaming console or texting their friends or doing a selfie, yet another selfie. But he didn't. He said, I'll count for you, Dad. He never made me embarrassed. Now, he took some shots at me periodically if I was making fun of him for this or that on good fun. He go, hey dad, count to 20. Well, humor. I don't know if some of you know what you mean to me, but you mean an awful lot. Cards like that, sentiments like what are written. Long after I'm gone, somebody will go through a And that card will be in there. Because I can't bring myself to throw things like that away. Somebody that took the time and the effort and the generosity to do that. I said all that to say this, that some of the look look, I I touched on it just for a second. I wondered if you'd pick it up. There are many times where holding your brother or your sister's arms up in time of war, in time of trouble, in time of struggle and exhaustion, sometimes that's unglamorous work. I got you. I got you. Look, I can I've been in the presence of people who are hurt as bad as me or worse. And I remember God gave me the opportunity to help them in real unglamorous tasks. And afterward, I always felt honored, blessed. I want you to notice that Aaron andor didn't take over for Moses. You know, I have a habit of that. Miss Colleen will tell you. If I know how to solve a problem, you say, hey, I got this situation going on, and I'll grab it and fix it. And she'll say, No, no, I don't need you to fix it. I need you to tell me how to fix it. Why would I do that? I'll fix it for you. Sometimes the thing is, we don't. It's not about us fixing it. It's about letting others help us fix it. And if you don't think that God sends, angels and they're they're in our midst. They're real people, and we're unaware. I wonder when's the last time you were an angel for somebody. As simple as taking the time and just saying, hey, let me mow up this grass for you. Hey, I noticed when I came over to visit today, these little household chores prayer too hard for you to do right now. You mind, would you be offended if I helped you with that? Don't shame them. Hey, you looks like you got some laundry needs doing. How about I I'm good at laundry. By the way, I am good at laundry, I think.

Maybe not.

I think I am. Isn't that what matters? So there's all kinds of things you can do for people. And sometimes the best thing that you can do for them, you just come and sit with them and listen to them. And if they're silent, let there be silence. My buddy Eric, he departed this world. Spent long about the last three years of his life together. And we went to school together. He's a great guy. Loved him. Very talented. And uh blood cancer came after him hard. And over the course of maybe five, six years, good land. So I would come down and take him to take him to uh a kidney deal. It'd be hours sitting in the chair. It was a simple task. Not that big of a deal. And I remember he'd be so exhausted. Dialysis, what it's called. Uh he'd be so exhausted when I'd get him back to his house. When it was all over. He couldn't lift his arms. He was freezing, so he had usually a hoodie or something like that on. And he said, hey man. I I remember one day when I took him home, I said, Is there anything I can do for you? What do you need? And for a long time he, I'm alright, man. I'm alright, man. I'm good. And then one day, he said, will you take my hoodie off? I can't, I can't get it off. And then another day he'd say, Man, I'm so tired. I just want to can you take me back to the bathroom and and get me in the bed? Okay. And then other times he'd go, I just want to watch Bridges Over Tokori. We must have watched that. I bet I've watched it 150 times with him. Hey man, you just want to sit here with me. Would you mind? And then wait till somebody, somebody came and took over. And sometimes he wouldn't wake up in between. He'd just fall asleep right there. Unglamorous work. We look for the glamorous. We want the accolade. I'm going to tell you one more story, and I'm going to finish this because you got places to be. You have an important life. I remember I used to be able to sing a little bit. And now, as you, you know, I'm not talking above a whisper. That's why I have this special mic and this special thing, because I don't have any strength in my voice anymore. And so, and sometimes it just goes. So, if you'll bear with me. But I used to be able to sing pretty good. I was in all the types of choirs and all that. And I remember one time I was in, nobody really heard me sing but my one friend. And uh I remember one time I was in the choir, and I decided, hey, I'm gonna let loose on this one. And I remember the people all around me would turn and look at me and say, Why aren't you in the worship team? What in the world are you doing up here in the choir? You don't have a voice like that, and you're not in the worship team. And I've been out in the congregation, and I'm not saying this to brag because I can't sing like that anymore. It's I have a choice talk, sing, or breathe. I can't do both at the same time anymore. So I've been in the congregation before I got all jacked up, and and people would turn around afterward and say, Man, what a voice. And that's a gift from God. It's a gift from God, I'll tell you right straight to your face. I miss I abused it. I I misused it. But then I met a lady one time. I didn't know her well, and I don't know her well now, but she was in the choir and she sang quiet. You ever know those quiet singers? And then one time I caught her singing it, singing out. The Lord moved her out of her shyness, her embarrassment, and she let it rip. And I noticed it, and I said, Man, oh man, why in the world aren't you singing? You have the voice of an angel. Which we say that angel voice, angels were in the scriptures were always male and they were always terrifying. I don't know why we do that. Euphemisms. Sometimes they're real and sometimes they aren't, but I said, why don't you sing? Why don't you sing out in public? And she said, I don't sing out in public because I feel like my worship is more authentic in a group, in a choir, or maybe in the back somewhere. I don't want it to be about me. It was about me for an awful long time. And now I want it to be about God. And there was a time where I would argue with that and say, no, he gave you that gift. Share it with others. And before I could say that, which uh I normally would, and she said, that gift is between me and God. I use it to sing to him. You say, what in the world are those two stories? How in the world are they related? The easiest thing in the world to do doesn't require any talent, is listen to someone. It's the easiest thing in the world. Listen, don't ever put the burden on the person you're trying to help by saying, listen, if you think of a way I can help you, let me know. Come on. We've all been in need before. Write out a list. Text out a list, however it is you communicate and say, hey, here are the things I'm really good at. I'd love to help you, but in the meantime, can I run and get you some groceries? You want me to run the sweeper? How about mow up your grass? Whatever, whatever it is the thing. I make great muffins. I don't know. You need your dog taking for a walk. I'm good at that. And then you don't tell a hundred people what you did. Humbling. Let me ask you something. Do you think that Aaron and Ur? Do you think when the battle is raging, people are looking up on that hill? Going, oh wow, look at Aaron and Ur. Look what they're doing. Man, aren't they something? Do you think they even looked at Moses? He had to try to hold his arms up by himself and hold that stamp up. Come on. Wow, would you look at Moses? Look, he struck that rock and water came running out. No. I want you to think about this because it's so important. I want you to notice, too, that Aaron and Odor didn't take over for Moses. They didn't grab the staff and start waving it for themselves. Look here, I'm helping. They simply held up what was already to hold. They freed his strength to last as long as the battle needed it to. And that's usually what real help looks like. It's not somebody else doing your job for you, but somebody willing to bear the weight, willing to bear the weight of it alongside you until you can carry yourself again. Is there a fight you've been trying to win with your arms raised entirely alone? When the actual answer is it was always going to be somebody willing to stand on either side of you and hold on until the sun goes down. There's Jesus, there's Yeshua all up in this text. The Apostle Paul or Shaol tells us plainly what the rock actually was. They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ. God stood at the rock before it was struck, and centuries later God stood in human flesh and was struck himself so that living water could flow out to anyone thirsty enough to receive it. Yeshua stood at a well. It will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. The pattern was already written into a rock at Refidim, long before he ever said it out loud. And it's okay if this is the first time you've ever made that connection. That's what I'm here for. And Moses on the hill interceding while a battle raged below him, arms held up by others, because his own strength wasn't enough to sustain the fight alone, points toward something Scripture says is still happening now. All around us. Yeshua lives, he always lives to make intercession, holding his hands up on our behalf. Not for a single afternoon until sunset, but permanently. Permanently. Without ever needing his own arms held up by anybody else. The rock was struck so water could flow. The sun was struck so life could flow. And the one who once needed arms held up on a hilltop is now the one whose own intercession runs. It never ever runs out of strength. Whatever your fight, whatever fight you're in right now, let me encourage you, you're not the only one with your hands raised.

You're not the only one.

The Heavenly Father is already interceding. And he's never once needed Aaron or order to keep his hands up. Here's some things you can do if you want to find your way to obedience. First, name one fight you've been trying to win entirely on your own strength. Arms raised, exhausted, and unwilling to admit it. Second, identify your own Aaron andor. The specific, the specific person or people who could actually hold up what you're carrying and ask them. Listen, they can tell you no. There's no shame in that. They say, hey man, you don't know what I'm going through, but I can't take on another thing. Or they might say, Yeah. They might be honored that you asked. I'd love to help you. Third, remember that Yeshua's intercession for you never runs out. It never runs out of strength, even on the days that yours clearly has. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. What fight are you currently trying to win alone? Who is never actually meant to be won that way? Who has God already positioned beside you that pride or exhaustion has kept you from actually asking for help? Here's the choice today. Keep holding your arms up on sheer willpower until they finally drop. Or let somebody stand on either side of you the way Aaron and Oda did, until the sun goes down on this particular fight you're fighting. Pray with me, Father, in the name of Yeshua. Thank you that you stood at the point of our deepest need before we ever reached it, and that you're still interceding for us right now without his strength ever running out. Thank you for the errands and the odors that you've already placed on either side of us, even when we're too proud or too tired to ask them for help. And for those of us who are the errands and the odors, I pray that you'd give us the gentle boldness to reach out and help someone who can't keep their arms up one more day.

For everyone whose arms are shaking under the weight of something that they've been carrying. Maybe the fight you're most exhausted by isn't the one in front of you at all.

Maybe it's the one inside you, and you've been trying to win it with your own strength for far too long. I want you to pray this with me. Seriously. Just pray it. And mean it. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Forgive me, fill me, lead me. I am yours. In your name. Amen. And the simple fact is this: if you just prayed that prayer, welcome to the family. If you need help, I'm here. True WordFaithforlife.com. Click on the contact button and let us know. We're more than happy to help. We've helped lots of others. We'll help you too. Listen, if this if this is your first time with us, we've been walking through scripture chronologically since Genesis. Started day one. We're on all the podcast platforms, the audio only. We have a player right on TrueWord Faith for Life with TrueWordfaithforLife.com. There's a player embedded right there under episodes. I can't encourage you. It's free. It doesn't cost you anything. And if Spotify is your thing or iHeartRadio or Apple Podcasts or iTunes or whatever, any of them. We're on all of them. How about it? I encourage you to join, not join, subscribe to True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N, the one with about 4,000 subscribers. Subscribe on that. The other two are backup channels. Um I would encourage you to do that. First of all, it means more than you think. Second of all, it helps you to know what's happening. Listen, I did an episode the other night, Tuesday night. I can't more vigorously encourage you to watch or listen to that episode. You'll know it when you see it. A rock. A rock struck in water for a dying nation, a hilltop, and arms too tired to stay up alone. Aaron on one side or on the other. Steady until the sun went down. Whatever you're holding up right now, you were never meant to hold it up by yourself. And maybe you know somebody whose their arms are shaking right now from holding something up all alone. Send them this episode. Tell them it's time to let somebody stand on either side of you. And standing on one side or the other might just mean sending them in this. You're not responsible for what they do with it. I want you to receive this blessing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. I'm going to pray it first in Hebrew, the language of God. The language of God. And then I will translate it into English. You say, why? Why do you read it in Hebrew? I'm not Jewish. Wouldn't you love to know what it sounded like by the one who said it first? You ready? May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Until tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Shalom Bishim Yeshua. Shalom alaikum.