[0:00] This is the only time I see something like this happening. It's kind of an odd situation when you look at the whole of Scripture and the way the Lord deals with Israel and their battles and their enemies.
[0:11] This is a peculiar thing. And I want to take a look at it this morning and preach a message out of here, probably in a different way than you've ever heard, I assume. We kind of get focused on one side of this, and there might be some of that.
[0:24] But I want to draw something out of here that I noticed that I think I hope can help us this morning. So let's pray together, and then we'll get into this passage some more.
[0:35] Our Father, Lord, please help us to learn something from the Bible this morning and help us to open our hearts to this truth. And, Lord, help me to explain it and to expound upon this passage with clarity.
[0:50] And, God, I pray that somebody would get something today, that they'd receive something from it, be better off because they came to church today and heard your words. So, Lord, please remove all distractions.
[1:02] For these next 30 minutes, help us to focus on the truth of the Bible and make application where needed. And, God, we need this book. We need your words in us. We need your spirit to illuminate us to truth and to guide us in this life.
[1:15] And so I pray that you'll use this morning to do that. And please do this for Jesus' sake, and it's in his name I ask. Amen. Isn't it odd that when Moses' hands are up, Israel prevails?
[1:29] But then when Moses' hands are down, Amalek prevails? Why would God limit his working and his giving of the victory to Israel, why would he limit it to Moses, to his stamina, to his uplifted hands?
[1:47] I'm presuming he has the rod in his hands. He says he took the rod with him. Why is the battle being won or lost dependent upon the physical strength and the stamina of the man Moses?
[1:59] Isn't that kind of different? To date, as far as going through our Bible and coming up to this point, all of the heavy lifting has been done by the Lord.
[2:10] All of it. He put the plagues on Egypt. And there were some nasty things that took place there. He did that. He led them out. They came to the Red Sea.
[2:21] And God said to Moses, he said, Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Or he said, quote, He said, The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. In the future, past this moment going forward as we read through our Bible, when Moses is telling them before they go into the promised land, when he's commissioning them a second time in Deuteronomy chapter 1, the Lord, or Moses says this, he says, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.
[2:48] The Lord your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you according to all that he did for you in Egypt. Elsewhere, through the history of this nation, God gives instructions.
[2:59] They follow the instructions, and he just miraculously defeats their enemies. They march around a city, a fortress, Jericho, quietly, not making a sound, and shout and blow the trumpets, and the whole thing just falls to the ground.
[3:13] I mean, who did that? God did that. God miraculously defeated their enemies. Another place, an angel of the Lord shows up and kills 185,000 Assyrians in one night, and they didn't lift a finger.
[3:27] Another time, God turns Israel's enemies against themselves. Another time, they hear a rumor of something happening in their own land, and they take off and flee and run away, and Israel comes in and spoils their tents and everything.
[3:41] I mean, the Lord influences battles and even fights the battles for Israel. So what's up with this? Why is it that when Moses' hands go down, Amalek's prevailing?
[3:54] Why is God allowing Joshua there, fighting for his life, to be defeated because Moses up there can't keep his hands up? Isn't that strange? Isn't it something different than before? I reread the passage.
[4:07] I'm trying to understand what's going on here, and I noticed something. I noticed that there's no mention of God giving Moses any instructions. Notice in verse 8, it says, Then came Amalek and fought with Israel and Rephidim.
[4:21] And Moses said unto Joshua, verse 9, Choose us out, men. Go out and fight with Amalek. There's no mention here that God gives Moses any instructions.
[4:34] You say, well, so what? Well, I thought that too. Yeah, that's just, Moses didn't write everything down. Until I went back and started coming through these events.
[4:46] And all through these events, it's, And the Lord said unto Moses, And God spake unto Moses, And God said, Moses, do this. Go out there. Take this. Go do that. Everywhere along the line, God speaks to Moses.
[4:57] Moses writes it down. The Lord said, And I did this. Even through going into the future, you go past this moment here, and it's, God calls Moses to come up to the mountain. Moses went up to the mountain.
[5:08] God says, Moses, get down out of the mountain. Moses goes back down out of the mountain. Look, everything he's doing, God's given him instructions. And look in this chapter. Look in this very chapter. Look at verse number five.
[5:19] And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel, and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river. Take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock of Horeb.
[5:31] Thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it. The people drink. Moses did so. Look, God gave him the specific instructions. Moses did so. Well, there it took place. Come past this story, or even where we read in verse, after Joshua in verse 13, discomfited Amalek and the people with the edge of the sword.
[5:50] Then, here's the Lord speaking to Moses again. Verse 14. The Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book. Rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. I don't think Moses is just forgetting to mention, God told me to do this.
[6:02] I don't think God told him to do it. And I'm not saying Moses did wrong, but I studied this out. I can't say that every single step Moses took, God said unto Moses, Take a step.
[6:13] But I'm saying, it's pretty obvious when God's speaking to Moses, and he gives him instructions on how to go forward in a situation. This time, there's no Lord speaking unto Moses.
[6:26] That stood out to me. Could it be that this wasn't really God's plan here that we read about? That this wasn't God's idea for handling the situation?
[6:38] God speaks to Moses all over the place, and we look at it and say, Well, surely God's involved, right? I mean, Moses' hands, the rod itself, it doesn't have the power. Moses can't just go doing everything he wants to do on his own.
[6:51] So surely God was involved in this, and maybe this is just me speculating here, but just right off before this, there's Moses, the people in chapter 17, the beginning, they're chiding with him about not having water.
[7:09] Just in the previous chapter, they're murmuring about not having any food and flesh to eat, and the Lord brings the birds, and he brings the manna, and then he gives them the water. Maybe, and I'm speculating, maybe God's just getting to that, starting to be fed up with these murmurings and chidings of these people, and they're complaining, and he's just not honoring them, but when Moses' hands are up interceding with the rod, he's honoring Moses.
[7:34] And when Moses' hands drop, God's just kind of like, not present. I don't know. Maybe that's the case. Maybe he's starting to withdraw himself, in a sense, from his people because of their complaining and murmurings.
[7:49] You know, of course, it doesn't take too long until he's ready to wipe them all out for their sins. That's just some speculation. Regardless, surely the victory and the glory goes to the Lord, but why does it not mention God instructing Moses to go up on the hill?
[8:07] Could it be that this plan was Moses' alone? Could it be that he did not have a word from God? He didn't say, Moses, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
[8:21] Moses, get to your tents. I will send hail fire on this people Amalek and show them who the true God is. Why didn't God come forth like he just had? That's his MO to date.
[8:35] Nothing here. Why? There are soldiers that are poised and prepared to attack Israel and there's no mention of a word from God about how he's going to deliver them and what he's going to do.
[8:53] But Moses has to do something, doesn't he? As a leader, he has to act. And so this brings me to a truth here that we don't always get clear instructions from God when it comes to certain things or situations in life.
[9:10] A divine answer does not always come forth from the words of the scriptures. Some people just, I'm just going to flip open and whatever I find, God's going to give me and it just doesn't work.
[9:24] God doesn't always just speak. His word, his answers don't always leap from the page and so you seek counsel and I can tell you right away, I don't have all the answers for the situations in your lives.
[9:38] I can't give you an answer specifically of what God wants you to do. I don't know that nor do I pretend to have that answer. So what do we do? Sometimes a decision has to be made.
[9:52] Sometimes there's certain circumstances that prevent us from waiting on the Lord. There's an army that's about to attack. A decision has to be made.
[10:03] So what do you do? I want to preach a message from that thought of when God is silent. When God is silent. And I see that Moses makes a decision and I see that he implements some things and I think we can pull from this because ultimately God honors it and God works through it and in the end God says, hey Moses, write that down.
[10:25] Write down what happened today. Make sure you write that down. You're going to rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. I don't want him to ever forget what went down today. So God honors the thing but sometimes he's silent and I want to try to give us some examples or maybe some points here that can help you.
[10:42] So look here in verse number 9. The first thing that I see Moses doing. In verse number 9 it says, Moses said unto Joshua, choose us out men, go out, fight with Amalek. First thing or what you can do is to, I'll call it this, engage the situation.
[11:00] Engage the situation. When God's silent, when he's not telling you what to do, you're going to have to do something. So do what Moses did. He engaged the situation.
[11:13] He said, Joshua, get some men, go out and fight them. Don't run, don't turn around, don't take off, and don't sit around and expect God to just fix it for you. He didn't tell us he was going to do that this time.
[11:25] So we're going to have to do something. And you know, Christian, you can excuse situations in your life and say, well, it's not my fault because God never told me to do it and he never gave me direction and he never gave me confirmation and because he never did that, then I just, this is what happened and it's not my fault.
[11:44] You're not going to get away with that. Sometimes you just have to go forward and do something. Sometimes you have to engage a situation and see if God's in it or not. And that's the case with Moses here.
[11:56] He didn't get the chance to just sit back and say, no, God didn't tell me what to do. Or there'd be some dead Israelites laying all around the place. No, instead he engaged the situation.
[12:07] Moses said, Joshua, get ready to fight. We're taking a stand right here. If we don't do it, we're going to get slaughtered. You remember Jonathan, King Saul's son?
[12:19] 1 Samuel 14. King Saul's just laying low under a tree and the Philistines gathered themselves together against Israel and Jonathan's sitting there and he just can't sit there any longer.
[12:31] He says to his armor bearer, come on. And they snuck out of the camp and went their way and came up on a garrison of Philistines and through the story goes, they defeated all of them.
[12:43] And the word spread around and Jonathan did this thing. He didn't have a word from God. His own people didn't even know that he went out. But the Bible says that he wrought with God that day.
[12:57] He couldn't just sit there and wait. He initiated a major victory for Israel. He engaged the situation and he didn't have a word from God on it.
[13:09] You know, I think passive Christianity is one of the biggest curses on the church today. Sitting by, waiting for the rapture, huddling up every Sunday morning, but never battling for God.
[13:24] Never battling for what's right. Watching an enemy advance, flexing that wicked image in front of you, flaunting its filthiness and even picking off the weak off the edges on the outskirts.
[13:38] And the passive Christian just complains and whines how bad it is and cries about it but never gets engaged. So what did Moses do?
[13:49] Moses said, Joshua, choose us out men. We're doing something and we're doing it tomorrow. We don't have another day to waste here. Choose us out men.
[14:01] You think when Moses said that to Joshua, he meant just go pick anybody that you want. Get your friends, get your family. Who do you think, Josh? Do you think he said, you know, duck, duck, goose or what's the rock, paper, scissors?
[14:17] Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. How are you going to choose these men, Joshua? What do you think he did? Do you think Joshua said any volunteers? I don't think he did at all.
[14:27] I think Joshua went and chose out men and those men were the chosen of Joshua to come out and fight. He chose strong men. He chose valiant men. He chose men that were courageous, not some coward, not some stripling.
[14:42] Men with some fight in them. Men that weren't afraid because the lives of the weak and the women and the children depended on those men to stand up and fight and to engage the situation.
[14:54] These men, they had to last a whole day of fighting. They couldn't turn and run when they saw somebody's sword bathed in blood. I wonder in this church if there's any men in here that have any fight in them or are you all just passive?
[15:08] Just sit by while the enemy advances on the church or while the enemy advances on your family, while the enemy advances in your own life and in your own heart. I wonder if you got any fight in you.
[15:23] And you just say, well, God never told me to do that. God never showed me that. Sometimes you see wickedness advance and you need to engage it. Instead of waiting on the Lord to tell you something, when there's an enemy approaching, get ready to take a stand, to protect your family, to guard your own heart and engage that enemy.
[15:45] If there's that situation at hand like it was here, engage the situation. There's something else I see that Moses did here and it's in chapter 17 again in verse 9 where Moses said unto Joshua, choose us out men and go out, fight with Amalek and now catch what Moses does.
[16:04] Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. You know what Moses is doing here? He doesn't have the word from God but he's evoking what works or what at least has worked in the past.
[16:20] Moses is like, I'm going to get the rod of God and I'm going to go up on that hill. Why would he do that? Well, Moses has used that rod before.
[16:31] If there's anything he can put his hands on, it's that rod. This goes back in Exodus chapter 3 when he stood there before the bush that was burning with fire when he had his first meeting with the holy God.
[16:43] The bush was not consumed and Moses took the shoes off of his feet. He stayed on holy ground and in chapter 4 God says, what is that in thine hand, Moses? He said a rod.
[16:54] Cast it to the ground. And he's like, okay. Cast my rod to the ground. I'm throwing it on the ground now.
[17:05] And boom, it turns into a serpent. And see, can you imagine that moment of reality for Moses? Moses. That's no longer a rod. That's a serpent and it's alive and then he picks it up and at that time, when the Bible says in Exodus chapter 4 that Moses, Aaron came out to meet him and then Moses, they went to Egypt.
[17:25] He says he went with the rod of God in his hand. It started by being, what's in your hand, Moses? A rod. And he left. It's the rod of God. There's only two times that phrase, the rod of God, shows up in your Bible.
[17:38] It's there in Exodus 4 and it's right here when Moses says these words, I'm going to go up to the hill and I'm taking the rod of God with me. I'm sure that he picked that thing up on purpose.
[17:50] I'm sure that he's evoking what works or whatever has worked in the past. He used that rod in the presence of Pharaoh. He initiated plagues with that rod, as did Aaron, his brother.
[18:01] He parted the Red Sea with that rod. He just finished, earlier in this chapter, we read it, he smote that rock and water came forth. Now Moses doesn't have any certainty about this, but it's the best option he can see.
[18:16] And so he heads up the hill. He's evoking what has worked or what he believes works. If you need an answer, you need instruction or you need the will of God on a matter in your life, do what Moses did.
[18:33] If God's silent, you can evoke what has worked. Has God ever spoken to you from the word of God? Has he ever given you any light and any instruction? Well then don't stop reading your Bible because you need an answer.
[18:48] Read it more. Evoke what you know works. Has God ever helped you in a church service? Have you ever spoken to your heart? Has he ever dealt with you and strengthened you?
[18:59] And don't quit coming. Don't skip for any reason. Evoke what you know works. Has God ever answered a prayer of yours? Has he ever put peace in your heart about a question you have or about a situation that you're unsure of?
[19:15] Has he ever done that in the past? Well then don't stop praying. It works. It always has. It's God's way. Don't underestimate it because you don't get that answer immediately.
[19:26] Evoke what works. It's not rocket science. God, he still works through certain means. He still does. And when we exercise faith, when we spend our time in our Bible, that's exercising faith, seeking an answer from God.
[19:46] When we absorb preaching and seek for truth and for God to deal with our hearts from just a point of a message, from a theme of a message, from just a thought that gets put out, you pick it up and the Lord says, that's it.
[20:00] He can help you. He can deal with you. He does it. He does it through preaching. Prayer still works. The still small voice of the Holy Spirit inside of you still works.
[20:11] Sometimes edification from the saints, sometimes just the circumstances of life can speak to your situation. So evoke what has worked. But whatever you do, do not, do not sit by and do nothing and just wait for the answer to fall from heaven.
[20:29] If God's silent, then continue to seek his will and exercise those things that you know have already worked for you. You know that as God dealt with Moses so far to this date in Exodus 17, he's done it on a one-on-one basis.
[20:45] God spoke to Moses. The Lord spoke to Moses. The Lord did this. Should Moses, because he's not getting an answer from God, go to Aaron and say, what is God telling you? Hey, her, can you guys, let's take counsel together.
[20:59] Should Moses go to Joshua? Should he go to the other people and seek their advice here? It can't hurt necessarily, but when he's used to hearing from God and he's not hearing from God, those men aren't going to give him the answer either.
[21:13] But he's going to evoke what he knows works. He's going to try to do what he knows has worked in the past. A little bit ago, a few months ago, I was in Florida with a couple of you guys at the meeting there in Pensacola at the blowout.
[21:27] And there was a student that was in Bible school. Samuel was playing basketball after the service. And we were hanging out there in a gym and I was just messing around. And this one young man came up to me and he just said that he remembered me from two years before at being ordained there at one of the services and he just was talking to me.
[21:47] And so he started asking me questions about how do you know when God wants you to do something? How do you know that, how did you know that you were supposed to go to Los Angeles? He started asking all these questions to me and I understood where he's coming from because I was there.
[22:01] And he was a third year student about to graduate in a few months, maybe even like very soon. And he didn't know what to do and he was seeking direction. He was seeking God's will. He wanted an answer from God so he starts asking these questions.
[22:15] And I just said to the young man, I said, how do you know that you're, or just said, why are you here? Why are you here in Bible school? And he's like, well, I believe the Lord wants me here.
[22:25] I believe we're called to preach and that God wants me to, wanted me to come here. And I said, you're positive of that, that that's the Lord's will for you. And he's like, absolutely, no question about it. I was like, well then, if you've already heard the voice of God leading you here into this stage, part of your life, then God will lead you to the next one.
[22:46] I'm not going to give you the answer, but the Lord will. I said, you've heard his voice, you'll hear it again. And he's like, okay. I said, listen, it is God's job, if I could say it this way, it's God's duty almost.
[23:00] If he calls you to give you direction, if he's going to say, I want you to do that, then he's going to tell you what to do. I know that the pressure falls, I need to figure it out, and I need to figure it out really soon and start making plans, and that never works.
[23:16] It always, it's frustrating. When I was the third year, when I was in that young man's shoes, in my third year of school, I decided, in my heart, I don't know what I'm supposed to do after I graduate.
[23:31] It was like, to me, it was like a wide, I wrote God a blank check, whatever you want to do with it, do it. And I didn't know where I was going to end up, I had no idea. Mission field, rescue mission, some church, nothing, just go work a job.
[23:46] What am I going to do? Where does God want me to go? There's this world out there. What am I going to do? And I decided, I need to get a little more serious about this.
[23:57] I need to start fasting. That's what I need to do. And it wasn't the Lord inside of me saying, Toby, fast, and then I'll tell you. It was me, in my own mind, saying, I'm not doing enough because I'm not getting an answer from God, so I need to do more.
[24:11] And so I started fasting on Saturdays. And I decided that was what I needed to do. And I did it on, just figured, I'll do it one day a week, and I, I don't even remember if I told my wife about it or not, I can't recall exactly.
[24:25] But I decided I was going to do that for, it didn't last terribly long until I realized this is just in the flesh. But I remember one morning, we had played on a softball team, a church softball team, and we had softball practice.
[24:39] And it was a Saturday morning, and after a week of working and going to school all night, and just, it's always an exhausting week, Saturday morning, got up earlier than normal to go to this, like, early practice.
[24:52] Felt like it was 8 o'clock, I didn't eat anything, and I'm out there in a field, and I just feel drained, I feel tired, and I'm like, Hannah, why did I not eat something? Why did I not eat breakfast? I feel like I'm going to get crushed in the face with a softball and not be able to react in time.
[25:06] I just felt so low and drained, and I felt at that moment, I'm like, God, why don't you just answer me? While I'm out there in the field, in the grass, just kind of in my mind, a little bit bitter, like, why am I going through this?
[25:17] And I just felt like the Lord's saying, I never told you to do it. I never told you to do that. You're doing that just because you think it's something magic here. And so I just decided then and there, like, as soon as I get home, I am eating because I am hungry.
[25:32] I'm done with this. No, I'm not knocking fasting. I'm not kicking it out. I'm just saying, in that situation, it wasn't for me. It wasn't the Lord leading me. It wasn't right. And I wasn't even invoking what has worked for me in the past, how God has dealt with me.
[25:46] I was just trying to make something happen. And so I counseled with that young man as we talked. I said, just be ready. Just be ready when the Lord tells you, be ready to engage the situation and pursue an opportunity He puts in front of you to see.
[26:01] Just to go back through, I don't want to beat on this every week, but when we were trying to, I was trying to understand what God was doing in my life and in my family's life, and I had all these opportunities of churches, I went to Oregon because I felt like there was an opportunity there and I knew the guys and I felt like maybe the Lord will use this.
[26:19] Maybe He wants me to do this. And I went and I surrendered to it. God, if you want me to do this. And it was when I was in Oregon that the Lord showed me, spoke to me out of Joshua chapter 1 in my Bible specifically about the situation.
[26:32] And I wasn't getting any light back there in Pennsylvania. I was like, Lord, there's four churches. They need a pastor. And I feel like something's happening. And what am I supposed to do? I didn't like roll the dice.
[26:44] I didn't pick a name out of the hat. I just, I prayed. I didn't have any light. Didn't have an answer. And I know I have to engage this situation. I have to go and do something. And so I went to Oregon and I didn't have God say yes.
[26:58] I had the man say at the church, I think you should vote for this man right now to be your pastor. I think you should vote for it. I think he's the man. I think God's in this. And I was like, stop, stop, stop, slow down.
[27:09] And so the Lord, though he did speak to me, gave me something from his word that really helped me. And I feel like it was just two or three weeks later that Carla and I were on a flight to come out here and to see you all for the first time.
[27:22] And while we were here, that Sunday, staying upstairs at the Pfeffer's home in what is Ali's bedroom, I believe, staying there Sunday afternoon, got in my Bible and the Lord gave me something else directly to me out of that book from 2 Samuel and about the situation.
[27:42] And it was like, I'm not getting this all the time, but in that moment, there it was. The Lord spoke to me. But I had to, I had to seek. I had to take a step.
[27:53] I had to get here to get that. I had to get up there to hear something else. I couldn't just sit at home and be like, well, if God shows me, then I'll go. Because nothing would have happened. I'm convinced of it.
[28:04] Now remember, back to Moses here, as long as Moses' hands or the rod of God was elevated, God was involved and God was at work. When Moses gave in to fatigue, when he took a break from doing what he could do for that battle, things fell apart.
[28:24] And so if you know that there's something you should be doing, if you haven't evoked what you know works with God, you better get back to doing it. You're not going to get that light or get that answer or get that understanding or get that victory if you're not evoking what you know God works through, those channels of faith.
[28:43] Maybe somebody needs to get back to prayer or get back to their Bible, simple things, or get back to being plugged in and faithful. Evoke what you know works when you're seeking God to speak to you.
[28:56] There's one more thing and we'll be done. Look at verse number 12. And here's the third thing is to enlist the help of others. This is something Moses did, but Moses' hands were heavy. They took a stone and put it under him.
[29:07] He sat there on and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, the other on the other side, and his hands were steady into the going down of the sun. The third thing Moses did was he enlisted the help of others.
[29:19] Even Moses, the man of God, the one that God would speak face to face with, the one whose natural force was not abated after 120 years of life, even Moses was unable to outlast the persistent attacks of Amalek.
[29:35] He needed help. And it's a good thing he didn't go up on that mountain by himself because he wouldn't have made it. Amalek wasn't giving up. Moses was running out of juice and it says in the verse that Moses' hands were heavy.
[29:50] His hands were heavy. You know, when Jesus Christ walked into the garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion, the Bible says he began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
[30:02] And you know what he needed? He needed those men that were very close to him to watch with him and to pray. He said, the spirit's willing, the flesh is weak. Guys, I need your help. Sadly though, they weren't of any assistance to him.
[30:17] You know why? Because their eyes were heavy. But we read here in this passage that his hands were heavy at the beginning of the verse. But at the end of the verse it says his hands were steady.
[30:30] His hands were steady. Why? Thanks to the assistance of a few good men that stood by his side and were there for him. Where do you think this term holding him up in prayer comes from?
[30:41] It comes from your King James Bible and this story right here with Moses needing help. In 2 Corinthians 1 verse 11 Paul tells that church he says, ye also helping together by prayer for us.
[30:56] Helping together by prayer for us. There's a missionary in the Ukraine and his wife recently was sick and she got her name out there and it went on to a prayer list and she started feeling a lot better and he put in a letter a recent letter saying that my wife wants to thank everybody for their prayer.
[31:17] She feels a whole lot better and she made this comment I wish I could always be on the prayer list all the time. I feel so much better because prayer works and sometimes you need to enlist the help of others.
[31:30] But you know what? Moses could have went up there by himself and said boys you stay down here I've got the rod of God I'll go up there I'll hold the rod up.
[31:44] He could have gotten that puffed up arrogancy about him of what he's going to do but no thankfully for his sake and for Joshua's and for Israel's sake he took some men with him and he enlisted the help of others and it shows me that this is a tendency and maybe it's true for some in here you're too proud to ask for help or you're too private to involve others in your life and in your problems because you refuse to expose your hurt or be vulnerable and look I get the private matters I totally get it I'm not trying to squeeze you about these things there's delicate situations some stuff's nobody's business and it never is I get that but there's other times where none of us liveth unto himself and the Bible says to bear ye one another's burdens and that we're to love our brethren love one another in deed and in truth sometimes you need to let your guard down and enlist the help of others sometimes you don't know what to do well enlist the help of others that are faithful and that love you and the Lord and have your best interests in mind don't go it alone you might wear out and if you wear out you might give in and if you give in you might give up and you might quit so allow the brothers and sisters rally with you and hold up your arms it may be that God has them there and here for this point in your life this time of struggle when you can't seem to figure it out or get the answer enlist the help of others let them hold you up in prayer we don't always get clear instructions from God we don't always get instructions and directions about every given situation sometimes God is silent and it hurts and it drives you nuts and you just say why God and where and what am I supposed to do and at the time
[33:53] I needed you most and you're silent well there is some things we can do and just like Moses showed us we can engage the situation we can stand up and do something don't just sit by and watch it fall apart that's for sure it's the time to run to the Lord not start slipping away from the Lord we can evoke what has worked for you in the past that is you do what you know is right to do and do it with all your heart trusting the Lord and then thirdly enlist the help of others God may not give you the answer but he did give you a church that can have your back and can help you now I think there's more in this passage than we've seen yet this morning and Lord will and we'll see in a few weeks we'll come back and revisit it and pick something up outside of here that kind of caught my attention but for today when God is silent what do you do what you don't do is give up and backslide and quit what you don't do is just sit around and do nothing and say well if God wanted it to be then it would be you don't get lazy you get engaged you be proactive not passive you know what works you know what how God has used or spoke to you in the past you go that route you seek his will there because that's what
[35:18] Moses did and it ended up working for him and then you get some help from other people God put him in your life use them don't go at it alone you'll just be a train wreck you'll be alone for a long time so trust the people that God put in your life trust that they have your best interest and heart and you know what I hate to say this but I'm thinking of a particular recent situation with somebody I know you might get burned and it stinks because you trusted and then they ended up throwing you under the bus so to speak and that's where you just have to trust the Lord that all things work together for good to them that love God you may not get the answer you may not get it the way you think you're gonna get it but do something about it let's bow our heads together let's listen to it let's listen to it that's the way you came is