DAY 18: WHY BUY A GRAVE?

Doctor Sean (0:03): Why would Abraham buy a grave in a land God already promised? Why why does a chapter about death become one of the clearest pictures of faith in the entire Abraham story? Why why would the Bible slow down and give us this much space to a burial transaction? Because this chapter isn't really about real estate. It's about whether faith still obeys when promise hasn't fully arrived, when people think faith looks strongest when the answer shows up, when the door opens.

Doctor Sean (0:44): Hey, man. My faith is awesome because that thing happened. I got that thing. That thing came into my life. I I I got it.

Doctor Sean (0:55): It's it happened. He answered my prayer. I must really be close to him. Oh, yeah. Most people do think that the the correlation is that the faith, it's directly correlated to whether the prayers are answered.

Unknown Speaker (1:25): And you tell me. I mean, maybe that's you. That used to be me. No shame, no shade. You know what I mean?

Doctor Sean (1:42): No shame, no shade. But most people think, hey, man, my faith is strong because this door opened. This healing happened. The dream finally landed. But Genesis 23 shows us another kind of faith.

Doctor Sean (2:08): Faith that grieves. Faith that grieves. Faith that buries. Faith that pays full price. Faith that plants hope in the ground while the tears are still running down the wet cheek, the already wet cheek.

Doctor Sean (2:45): So let me ask you something. We're here. Good morning to you all. It's so good to have all of you. And for those of you listening on Apple, podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Castbox, GoodPods, iHeartRadio, Pocket Casts, and, like, nine more.

Doctor Sean (3:16): Man, we appreciate it. By the way, like and subscribe. I don't know if I put enough hints on the screen about all that, but maybe, maybe not. Look, we're friends. We get together every morning at 7AM Eastern Standard Time right here, Monday through Friday, and then 06:30 on Sunday.

Doctor Sean (3:36): So we're close enough now to ask each other questions, real questions, not the BS stuff that people you ever notice this? How you doing? How you doing? We answer that we answer how you doing with how you doing? If we really wanna know, then we really answer.

Doctor Sean (3:59): So why not ask the question? Have you ever had to trust God in a season that looked more like a loss than fulfillment? I mean, hey, things aren't going well, but I'm still gonna trust. Welcome back to Through the Bible in a Year, walking the story of God. I'm doctor Sean, and today we come to Genesis 23.

Doctor Sean (4:26): By the way, never promised you this was gonna be easy because it's not. Genesis 23 opens with Sarah's death, and that matters. She isn't some unnamed Hollywood movie extra side character. She's the woman through whom the promised son came. She waited, she laughed, she doubted, she hoped, she struggled, and finally held the son of promise in her arms.

Doctor Sean (5:11): So when Sarah dies, the Bible slows down. And as you might imagine, Abraham mourns, and that matters because real faith isn't it's not numb. Real faith isn't fake. Real faith doesn't pretend pain doesn't hurt. Thank you for the sound tech, free of charge, no cost or obligation to you.

Doctor Sean (5:48): You don't even get a t shirt. Abraham was married to Sarah for a long time. They went through a lot of stuff. Real pain. It's not numb.

Doctor Sean (6:14): We expect to look back onto the Bible characters and project upon them some sort of clinical sanitized deal, and and that's not that's not reality. These are real people. They went through real stuff. They had really real feelings because they lived in a wild ancient Near East. It was wild there.

Doctor Sean (6:38): And now Key went through so much with her side by side. Yeah. He made a lot of mistakes, and so did she. And now she's gone. Real faith isn't fake.

Doctor Sean (6:57): Real faith doesn't pretend pain doesn't hurt. And Abraham grieves, and he still he still believes. Those things aren't apples and aardvarks. Some of you need to know that right now. You've been carrying grief like it somehow proves you're weak.

Doctor Sean (7:21): It doesn't. Abraham wept. Abraham mourned. Abraham still walked by faith. Then Abraham rises and speaks to the Hittites.

Doctor Sean (7:39): And what does he call himself? Calls himself a sojourner and a foreigner among you. That line is loaded. Yeah. I'll do a shout out.

Doctor Sean (7:54): Why not? Adrian James, new listener. Hi. Can you do a shout out? Happy birthday to my friend Amalia.

Doctor Sean (8:01): How old's your friend Amalia? We appreciate you, miss Colleen, and we well, Riley gets you a t shirt. Oh my lands. That's funny. I guess t shirt design is coming.

Doctor Sean (8:20): Anyway, happy birthday, Amalia. I don't know how old you are. Hey, Lynette. Hey, everybody. Hey, Nicole, Tammy, dragonfly three wings, my good friend Joe, to be continued 25.

Doctor Sean (8:36): He's got a cool RV travel oriented podcast. It's cool. 12. Oh, okay. Well, happy twelfth birthday, I think, Amalia.

Doctor Sean (8:50): From Adrian James. That's nice. What a nice thought. So here we go. We're we're back into can you imagine me and call that a sojourner and foreigner among you?

Doctor Sean (9:05): He called himself that. And the line is low to God. God promised him the land, but he still doesn't fully possess it. And by the land, I mean, the land, lots of it. But he's one dude.

Doctor Sean (9:27): He has covenant, but he doesn't yet have completion. He has promise, but he doesn't yet have full visibility. That's where a lot of people live right now. You know what God said. You know what he put in your heart.

Doctor Sean (9:44): But when you look around you, it still feels unfinished, unfulfilled. It's still unstable. Life is unstable. Life is crazy. Some of you have had crazy things happening in life through no fault of your own.

Doctor Sean (10:04): You didn't do the thing. Somebody did the thing, and that affected you. Genesis 23 says unfinished doesn't mean untrue. Now let's tether this to the ancient Near Eastern world because this chapter gets far more powerful when you hear it like they would have heard it. That's what I talk about all the time.

Doctor Sean (10:34): You must get sick of hearing it. Language, culture, and context, the ancient Near East, If you don't know it, then why would you know it? I'm just a weirdo who studies ancient culture, language, context. I don't know. And I did, and it opened up everything for me.

Doctor Sean (11:01): And I wanted to open everything for you. You see, if you understand the ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context, you understand this world. Because this chapter gets far more powerful when you hear it like they would have heard it. Like they would have heard it. Because in that world, burial wasn't just about disposing of a body.

Doctor Sean (11:30): It was about family identity. Family identity. Maybe your family has a family identity. Maybe it was about inheritance. A lot of us wish we would get an inheritance.

Doctor Sean (11:47): I don't need to inherit these bills now. Land. We sure wish we would get some land. Memory and belongings. Where your dead were buried said something about where your family stood.

Doctor Sean (12:05): You buried somebody in a place. You didn't leave that place. Things have changed now. Look at me. My whole family's buried somewhere else.

Doctor Sean (12:18): Man, I'm sorry fishing seven forty eight that your family sucks. There's a lot of people who can identify with that. A lot of people. God bless you. Hang in there, man.

Doctor Sean (12:31): I think this will be a blessing to you, Or woman, if you're a woman, I don't know I assume. And your family, where they were buried back then, that's where you stood. It it said where your where your family was buried. It said where you belonged. It said where your future was tied.

Doctor Sean (12:55): So when Abraham asks for a burial site, he isn't just solving some practical problem, good lands. Where am I gonna put this dead woman? No. He's making a covenant move in public. He's saying my family belongs in this land.

Doctor Sean (13:11): God's word still stands in this land. Our future is here even if I only hold one piece of it right now. That's why that's why the Bible the Bible gives all this legal detail. Modern people kinda skim over it, and I get it. I did a lot of times.

Doctor Sean (13:38): As I mentioned yesterday, I'm I'm on my 30. I miscounted. We will absolutely pray for you, Madeleine. God bless you. Let's pray right now.

Doctor Sean (13:52): Heavenly father, we just pray for those who are in a season of of struggle and sorrow and loneliness, and they feel abandoned. For all those out there, some have said, hey. My family's wicked. Some have said, hey. My family's not good.

Doctor Sean (14:12): They're not good people. And, father, I pray that you will bless them, give them comfort. As my dear friend and your follower said, sometimes church families are closer than your own real family. That's true. Thank you for giving us that gift.

Doctor Sean (14:29): And I pray heavenly father that you will comfort these people. I know what it is to be in turmoil, And I know they do too. And I pray that you will bless them. Give them a supernatural comfort. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of it.

Doctor Sean (14:52): In Yeshua, your son's name. Amen. God bless you. You know, that's that's why the Bible gives all this legal detail. Modern people, they do.

Doctor Sean (15:09): Skim through it. Because we don't think transactional language is emotional, and maybe, you know, many don't understand it, and I get it. But in the ancient Near Eastern world, this is deeply emotional because it's covenantal, legal, public, and permanent. Abraham isn't but he's not borrowing space. He's not borrowing space.

Unknown Speaker (15:38): He's not, hey. I'm just renting here. Nah. I'm a buy a piece of land. This is where I'm going to stay at.

Doctor Sean (15:51): He's not borrowing space. He is securing a foothold in the promise. He can't point yet to the whole inheritance because he hasn't seen it all. But God has told him, and he trusts him. He trusts him.

Doctor Sean (16:15): But but he can he can point to that one purchased burial place right there and say, no. No. No. We and my people, we belong here. That's not weak faith.

Unknown Speaker (16:28): That's mature faith. Now bring that into modern life, the one you live, the one I live. I'm a regular dude. That's really not that much special about me. I live a regular life with struggles and all that stuff, same stuff.

Doctor Sean (16:46): I I get it. But bringing that into modern life, a lot of people say they trust God. They just throw it out, oh, I trust the Lord. They'll give you ten minutes of diatribe about how torn up their life is, how awful their life is, how they've been so abandoned, and they've all these things, and then they'll say, but the Lord is good. They finish up with the Lord is good.

Unknown Speaker (17:11): God is good all the time. You you you've negated that first part. The fact of the matter of it is is people have equated good times with God is good. And and that jacks us all up, doesn't it? Come on.

Doctor Sean (17:33): Think about it. A lot of people say they trust God, but they keep waiting for total certainty before they obey. Been there. Done it. They want the whole map, the whole answer, the whole healing, the whole provision, the whole future.

Doctor Sean (18:03): Well, they'll see all that. When we see all that, what Lord, when I when you give me all that, I'm gonna move. I'm gonna obey. I'm gonna commit. But covenant faith never worked that way.

Doctor Sean (18:18): Biblical faith takes the next obedient step before everything's visible. Before. That's Abraham here. He buys one field, one cave, one costly, painful, holy piece of ground where his beloved wife is buried. And in doing that, he declares that God's promise is more real than his present sorrow.

Doctor Sean (18:43): That'll preach today because that's exactly where many people are living. You're standing in a chapter that doesn't look like fulfillment. It looks like pain, loss, delay, silence, confusion, and and you're wondering whether obedience still makes sense here. Genesis 23 says, yeah. Yeah.

Doctor Sean (19:04): It does. Especially here, The Hittites call Abraham I love this. I love how how the language works. I love reading it in its original language because it it flows so beautifully. The Hittites call Abraham a prince of God among them.

Doctor Sean (19:23): Among them. That's fascinating. He's still a foreigner. He's he's still not in full possession of the land. He's still grieving, and yet they can see the weight of God on his life.

Doctor Sean (19:35): Do they see it on yours? Do they see it on mine? That should hit home for you. You don't have to possess everything yet to carry presence of God, The presence of God. You don't have to see the whole promise yet for people to see that God's hand is on you.

Doctor Sean (19:55): Faithful people carry weight. Holy people carry weight. Covenant people carry weight even when they're standing in an unfinished place. Then comes the negotiation with Ephron for the Cave Of Machpelah, and Abraham insists on paying full price. Why?

Doctor Sean (20:35): Because this can't be vague. This can't depend on borrowed favor. This can't remain unsettled. Faith isn't sloppy. Faith isn't careless.

Doctor Sean (20:53): Faith doesn't live in vague emotional language with no concrete obedience attached to it. Much as we hate it, that's just the truth. Abraham handles grief and legal obedience at the same time. That is mature faith. That's not hype.

Doctor Sean (21:07): That's not noise, not churchy talk, Concrete obedience in the middle of heartbreak. And some of you keep waiting for a feeling before you obey. Genesis 23 says, obey anyway. Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. That that little song that little song, trust and obey, doesn't say trust, enjoy all the soft landings, and obey.

Doctor Sean (21:40): No. Trust. Trust. Trust. Some of you want God to hand you the whole land before you'll take one faithful step.

Doctor Sean (21:50): Genesis 23 says, buy the land, buy the cave, take the step. Honor the promise where you are now. And let's make this even plainer. Come on. Somebody, take a deep breath.

Doctor Sean (22:04): Here it comes. Abraham's grief didn't become an excuse for passivity. He mourned honestly, then he rose, then he acted. That's a needed word for real people. Feel the loss.

Doctor Sean (22:19): Don't not feel the loss. Don't fake the pain. Don't pretend the wound didn't hurt. Don't let pain become your master. Grief is real, but grief doesn't get the throne.

Doctor Sean (22:31): Sorrow is real, but sorrow doesn't get final authority. Abraham mourns, rises, speaks. He weighs the silver, and he secures the claim. That's strong, that's faithful, and that's holy. There's a bigger story here too.

Doctor Sean (22:54): There's a bigger story. This burial place becomes the family burial place. Sarah is buried there. Abraham will be buried there. Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah will be tied to the same place, what becomes whole.

Doctor Sean (23:22): Come on. You might even wanna write this down. What begins as burial becomes belonging. What begins as loss becomes a witness that God was still building something bigger than Abraham could see. And that's often how God works in our lives.

Doctor Sean (23:47): He becomes the place where he quietly plants the next testimony. So what does Genesis 23 say to us now? Says real faith acts before the whole promise is visible. It says grief and covenant hope can stay in the same chapter. Says tears don't cancel trust.

Doctor Sean (24:26): It says details matter. It says integrity matters. Public obedience matters. Sometimes the holiest thing you can do is plant your hope in the very place that's that still hurts. Some of you are waiting for the whole inheritance.

Doctor Sean (24:42): God's asking you for one faithful act, one honest decision, one holy conversation, one obedient move, one cave, one concrete step that says, Lord, I still believe you here. And if we're being honest, maybe you'll comment below. Where do you need to take one concrete step of faith even though the full promise still isn't visible? I'll be honest with you. One of the places I'm doing it is spending a whole bunch of money I don't have doing all this.

Doctor Sean (25:18): Miss Colleen can come in with an amen anytime you like, thinking that eventually it'll it'll it'll sustain itself. You say, well, you're supposed to be doing this for the Lord. Well, I don't have a money tree. Some of you have been just wonderful. You get money from YouTube.

Doctor Sean (25:38): Yeah. Money I'll never see. I don't have enough three hundred and sixty five day rolling three hundred and sixty five day views. You gotta have four thousand hours of views. I don't have it.

Doctor Sean (25:50): So right now, we keep doing it month by month, faith by faith. And some of you have been amazing to help, and I appreciate it. But I'm telling you, that's one of my areas, man. I'm looking at that and I'm going, God, you you called me to it. And I have to trust him to get me through it.

Unknown Speaker (26:15): You you want honestly honesty? That's honesty. But where do you need to take one concrete step of faith? This is mine. Last thing in the world the doctor said to do is, hey.

Doctor Sean (26:28): You know what you should do? You should do more. You should do more. You should do you know what we think you should do? We think you should do a one hour or a five day a week, 7AM thing, and then you should do a 06:30 thing on Sunday.

Doctor Sean (26:43): That's what we think you should do. No. They said the opposite. But God told me this, and I'm gonna keep doing it till I can. What about you?

Doctor Sean (27:00): Where do you need to take one concrete step? I'm not talking about a 100. I'm talking about one. Even though the full promise isn't it still is invisible. Well, I have for you today a challenge and a choice.

Doctor Sean (27:16): So here's the question. Where have you been waiting for visible triumph before you obey? Where has pass look. Look. Where has grief made you passive?

Doctor Sean (27:36): Where has grief made you passive? Where have you acted like faith only counts when it feels victorious? And where is God asking you to put roots down in the ground that still carries pain. Here's your choice. You can keep waiting for perfect conditions or or or you can obey in the place God has assigned you.

Doctor Sean (28:20): You can keep calling this season a dead end. You can keep going around from YouTube channel to YouTube channel, finding those with whom you disagree and trying to disrupt and spending your time that way, or you could turn to the one living God. You can recognize that even this cave may become part of your testimony. Look, you you can keep calling this season of your life a dead end. I'm in a weird season of my life.

Doctor Sean (29:00): I'm 60 years old. I'm I'm jacked up. I was supposed to be dead at 47, miss Colleen reminded me the other day. That's when the doctor said I would live to. I was born two and a half months premature, two point six pounds at birth.

Doctor Sean (29:15): Now that's no big deal, but back sixty years ago, that was a real big deal. I've been dead multiple times. I've I've had stuff happen and been involved in stuff you just wouldn't believe. I lived it, and I don't believe it. Miss Colleen lived it.

Doctor Sean (29:34): She believes it. But that season has never been a dead end. I've learned something from everyone. Oh, I've messed up. I've hey.

Doctor Sean (29:44): Look. I'm jacked up. I've messed up many times. Maybe you can identify. You can keep calling this season a dead end.

Doctor Sean (29:52): You can. You can. Or you can recognize that even this cave may become part of your testimony. You can keep delaying because you're in pain. You can.

Doctor Sean (30:08): Absolutely. Or you can say, Lord, even here, even in grief, even in loss, I still believe what you said. Why? Because prayer isn't asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back.

Doctor Sean (30:21): Come on. If you've never placed your faith in Christ, I'd love for you to do it now. Pray this prayer with me. Father, I know I've done wrong things, and I need your mercy. I believe Jesus died for me, was buried, and rose again.

Doctor Sean (30:36): Today, I turn for my sin. Today, I turn for my sin, and I place my trust in him as my Lord and my king. Forgive me, make me new, and fill me with your spirit. From this day forward, I want to follow you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Doctor Sean (30:55): Praise the Lord. I'm I am beyond excited for you. Reach out to me if you have questions, you want any help. True word. Truewordfaithforlife.com/contact.

Unknown Speaker (31:09): I mean it. I mean it. I will personally help you. I've helped countless people. I'll help you too.

Doctor Sean (31:19): Look, faith grieves and faith rises. Faith obeys. Even even in the field of loss. And and even in the field of loss, God is still securing his promise. I have to ask, if this message If this message touched you in some sort of way, share it.

Doctor Sean (32:08): It's not an unreasonable request. It's free. Not asking to do anything. It you money. Just ten seconds of your time.

Unknown Speaker (32:18): Think of one person. You're not doing it for me. You're doing it for you. You're doing it for your friend. You're doing it for your family member.

Doctor Sean (32:27): You're doing it from that for that person you just meant that you exchanged information because you saw them hurting and you reached out to them. Share it with that person or share it with your social media. Post the link. Hey. This blessed me.

Doctor Sean (32:42): I think it'll bless you too. This has been True Word, Faith for Life with doctor Sean. Tomorrow morning, we're gonna be here Friday morning, and it's a wild teaching. It's also a teaching that will comfort your heart. Amen.

Doctor Sean (33:09): You are loved until tomorrow at 7AM Eastern Standard Time.