Broken Beyond Repair?

You broke it. Not a dish. Not not something insignificant like that. This time. The thing you broke is is something that mattered. Your marriage. A promise you made at an altar. Your children's trust. Your best friend's trust. Your sobriety date. Your own faith, maybe. You held it in your own hands. And you threw it down. And you've spent years. Years standing in that same rubble. You're sure of one thing. You're standing there in the mess you made, all the shards. And you're sure of one thing. That's the end of the story. That's the end. Some things don't get a second try, some things don't get a second copy. You had your chance with God and you shattered it. So you keep a polite distance. Sure, you'll listen to a sermon, of course. You'll hama him. But you don't really come close. You don't allow yourself to come close. Because you know what you did with the first go round. Here's what you'll need to hear this morning. This is the thing you need to hear. It's not a small thing. Moses, who once stood at the foot of a mountain holding the most sacred objects ever on earth. Two stones written by the finger of God himself. And he threw them down and he smashed them to pieces. Do you know what God said next? Ah, blew my mind. I bet it'll blow your mind. All that stuff you thought about God. All that stuff that unbelievers tried to convince you that God was. It doesn't have to get you to turn all the way around, just needs to get you to veer just a little bit. God said, cut two more. Bring them up. I'll write the same words again. He didn't lower the covenant. He didn't hand Moses a smaller version. Same words. Second stones. And the broken pieces? We'll get to where they ended up, but I'll assure you of this. If you've never heard what happened to the broken pieces, when I tell you, it will undo you. This is True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I'm Sean. Good morning, everyone. Robbie and Miss Susan and Miss Colleen and Sean spelled correctly. And Nicole, good early morning, Nicole. Miss Tammy, good morning. It was great. I agree with Miss Colleen. Great to see you at Virginia Creek Ministries yesterday. It was lovely to see you, be able to give everybody a hug and see everybody. Good morning, to be continued. Great to see you yesterday. Love you, brother. Miss Linda, I see you there. Good morning. Good morning. That's a lot of people. A lot of people clicking in. Don't forget to share this. It's important. Well, welcome to day 125. Bet you never thought we'd get here. We're walking through the Bible in a year. Walking the story of God. We're in Deuteronomy 10 today. Thank you, Miss Colleen. She says the sound is good. Deuteronomy 10, one chapter, and it's the chapter where God starts over with people who wreck the first beginning. Oh, yeah. By the way, I forgot to bring these in at Virginia Creek Ministries yesterday. I'm the worst book promoter on the planet. This is my book, True Word, Faith for Life. It's textbook quality, 60 or 80 pound paper, ink that won't make you sick or bleed or run. And um, it's built to last a lifetime. It was written for people ready for God's word to make sense in real life, the real life you're living today. Now, I say a lot in that book that I can't say here. So just be prepared. There's a warning in the front of it. I encourage you to read it. It's a true word, faithforlife.com. It's available everywhere, but we do best when you buy it there, but that's totally fine either way. Before we start, I just want one word. I don't need a million, I just need one. It's easy to type, I chide it myself. The thing you broke. Reparable or ruined? One word. The thing you broke, owning it. The thing you broke, repairable, or ruined. Just one word. Type what you actually believe. Let's see what God does with it. Here's where we are. On Friday in Deuteronomy 9, Moses told Israel the worst day of their history, told them right to their face. 40 days on the mountain, this guy. He was receiving the covenant down below. And by the way, he wasn't up there, you know, living it up. Life wasn't easy up on the mountain. He was receiving the covenant. Conversations with God. What are they going to deliver to the people? And down below, those people that he was receiving the word of the Lord from. Well, they're melting down their gold and making a golden calf. And I can imagine when Moses came down and saw it, Deuteronomy 9, verse 17, says he took two tablets and threw them out of his hands and broke them before their eyes. In order to get this, I mean, really get it. You have to understand the ancient Near Eastern language culture and context. You have to understand what these tablets were. In the ancient Near East, when a great king made a covenant with a smaller people, the treaty was written out in duplicate. One copy for each party. And each copy was laid up in the temple of whatever the people's god was before the eyes of their deity. So here's a strong reading among scholars that the two tablets weren't the first five commandments on one stone and the second five on the other. They were two complete copies. Did you hear me? See, we've seen it displayed as one through five here and six through ten here. Two separate ones. everywhere, right?Anywhere where there's a copy, you know, an image of the what we perceive the Ten Commandments to be, that's what we see. Type in comments if that's what you've been taught your whole life. Five on one, five on the other. God's copy and Israel's copy, and both went into the same arc. Because Israel's God lives in the middle of Israel. Which means when Moses shattered them, it wasn't a temper tantrum, it was a legal act. Everyone, every single person watching understood it. Well, the treaty's broken. The covenant is void. Now I want you to listen to chapter 10. Deuteronomy 10, verse 1. At that time the Lord said to me, Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. And verse 2, I will write on the tablets the words that were the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark. The words that were on the first tablets, they're not new terms. Not a downgraded deal for the people who blew it. They're the same words. God rewrites the exact covenant that they shattered letter for letter in his own hand. Now I want you to understand something. And maybe, maybe this never occurred to you. I don't know. Never occurred to me. I've read the Bible cover to cover 39 or 40 times. And on whatever number this is, that I'm reading through this time. Finally occurred to me. You don't think God knew what they were doing down there? Oh, I I was so focused on what these people were doing, these people, my people, I was focused on Moses Moshe. Well, I just wasn't paying attention. I just wasn't paying attention. I don't know. My son and daughter-in-law gave me this pen, this beautiful quill pen. I'm gonna put it right here. Yesterday, I got a wonderful card and gift from Miss Tammy and and um it was lovely. And uh and Miss Sharon, wonderful gift, and Miss Sharon gave me these two highlighters, they're non-bleed through highlighters. I just saw them over here. I've got them right right next to me, and uh I thought I'd show them to you. They are Sharpie highlighters, and you may think, what in the world is he doing talking about that right now? Well, um I'm saying it right now because when you're studying scripture and you're really in it, and you're highlighting, a lot of highlighters will ruin ruin the text, but these won't. They're they're see-through, but they're they don't bleed through so much. I know. Shocked me. I tried it out, it worked. Just thought I'd tell you that. They're not a sponsor or anything. I just thought all the lovely gifts that were given yesterday. Very touching. It finally occurred to me. While Moshe or Moses is up there going through what he's going through, right? He's going through what he's going through. You think God can't see it? You think God can't see what's going on down the mountain? Of course he can see it. Clear as day. He could see that they were making the golden calf, melting down their gold, while he's dealing straight on with the guy he's chosen to lead his people to the promised land. God can carry on more than one conversation at the same time. And so while he's what an honored position, but what a position of I don't know. Such high responsibility. The risk is high to him personally, as you as you can absolutely see. He ended up not getting to go into the promised land, the thing that he led his people to through all those years, all those troubles, all those trials. And here he is, he's up on the mountain. There they are, melding their gold. So they could make a golden calf because they wanted something to worship. Something they could see. I imagine it this way. When I read it this way, this time, I imagined this way. Okay, Moshe, I'm gonna write now on the stone. So step back a little bit, because my finger, you know, it flames and stuff shoot off of that when I touch things on the earth. He's looking down at the people, making a golden calf, melting their stuff down. And then he's back to Moses. He knew the whole time. And then Moses, because he was upset with them, understandably. Moses had a temper, y'all. Anybody got a temper out there. We think we have one shot with God. I can't imagine the frustration Moses experienced. I really can't. To me, it seems I don't know. It just seems so I'm blown away by it. Honestly. And I just don't know. I don't know if I can adequately explain that the the the the what happened was stunning. Their leader is up. I just I want you gotta get this in your head. Their leader is up on the mountain. This is not just a story. Moshe, their leader, Moses, he is up on a mountain for 40 days. He's away from their presence. And as far as the people knew, so was God. And in just 40 days, look what they did. And Moshe. Moses, when he comes down, he just is flummoxed. Put yourself in that. I don't know if you've ever been a leader of an organization, but put yourself, put yourself in that position. Here's the thing, God rewrites the exact covenant. And I word it this way on purpose. The exact covenant they'd shattered, letter for letter, in his own hand, again. My friends, I want you to think about that. Yeah, Moses is the one that threw it down, but they're the ones that shattered it. And God rewrote it. You ever you ever do something or say something? Just you fly hot all of a sudden, red hot. All of a sudden, something happens, and boom, you don't even realize it. You feel like that's irrevocable. And many times in the natural it is. God meets them in their brokenness and says, You bring the stone, I'll bring the words. Now here's where the broken pieces went. You ready? The Babylonian Talmud in Bhava Batra 14b and Berakot 8B preserves an old tradition. The whole tablets and the fragments of the broken tablets were placed together in the ark. The rabbis didn't throw the shattered covenant away. They carried it right next to the to the new one. Into the Holy of Holies. The broken pieces weren't discarded. They were carried under the mercy seat where God met with his people. Take that in. That's what he does with your broken pieces. If you'll give them to him. Then, with the covenant restored, Moses asks the question, Deuteronomy 10, verse 12, and now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Here's where the working translations part ways, the ESV and MESB, English Standard Version, New American Standard Bible. They both say require. It's a fair rendering. But the Hebrew verb here is sha'l. It's the ordinary word for ask. The complete Jewish Bible says, What does Adonai, your God, ask of you? Require sounds like a creditor, right? That small print, you get a loan. You buy a car, there's pages and pages and pages. Ask sounds like ask instead of require sounds like a father. This is the God who just rewrote the whole covenant for people who shattered it. Those same people. They just did it. And now he's asking. And what does he ask for? Verse 12 and 13. To fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve him with all your heart and soul, and to keep his commandments, which I command you today for your good. For your good. Verse 14. Heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it. And then verse 15, yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers. Yet the God who owns every galaxy set his heart on a handful of shepherds. That's the same word from Friday, back Friday. Attached. Bound. So do verse 16. And we go to verse 16. Verse 16 tells them what to do about it. Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn. There it is again. Stiff necked. The exact diagnosis from Friday, if you were listening on Friday, day 124. God's cure isn't a stronger will. It's surgery. Something has to be cut away from the heart itself. Then look at who this God is. In verses 17 through 19, he's God of gods and lords, Lord of Lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no partiality and takes no bribe. And the very next breath, he executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. The mightiest God in existence spends his power on the ones with nobody. The orphan, the widow, the outsider. And verse 22 closes the chapter. Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven, 70 broken people. Stars. So bring it home. Bring it to your own heart. You've believed that there's a category of broken that God doesn't repair, that if you'd only cracked it, maybe. On purpose. Some of it to everyone watching. You saw you do it. You smashed that thing on purpose, and everybody's looking at you. Israel didn't crack the covenant, they smashed it at the foot of the very mountain where God was writing it. And God's answer was bring me two more stones. He's not offering you a lesser life because you blew the first one. Come on, somebody. He's not offering you a life B, which is much lower, much lesser because you blew it the first time. Those of you who who uh are on your second marriage, that second one isn't a consolation prize. Don't treat it as such. Those of you who blew a job, you blew it, it was the great job. It's gonna fix everything you thought. And you blew it. It was your fault. Maybe it was a relationship the best friend you ever had, ever. Ever. And you blew it. I talked yesterday at Virginia Creek Ministries about real friend, true friend. Let me tell you the hard truth. And I told the audience there, lovely, amazing people. Uh I told them. You stand there and you see this and you think.

Wow.

I told the truth, and this friend just I haven't they haven't reached back out to me. I've reached out, I've texted, I've called. I was just trying to help them. They were headed for disaster. And then you're the friend that they were trying to help. Out of love, out of honesty. And you never picked up the phone, you never answered the texts, you never called them back. And decades have passed. God's not handing you a consolation prize. He's offering to write the same words again. The same love. The same belonging. The same calling that you thought you'd forfeited. And what of the pieces, the shattered pieces on the ground of what you broke? He doesn't need you to bury them in shame. He carries them right next to the new thing. The new thing he's writing, where his mercy covers them both. The thing you shattered and the new thing. So here's your step today. Moses had to cut the stone himself. God brought the words, but Moses had to show up with something in his hands. So before today's out, I want you to name the thing you broke. Name the thing you broke. Look, you don't have to do it here in the comments below or in the chat if you're listening live. You don't have to do that. By the way, welcome to everybody in chat. I see a bunch of new names. The thing moves so fast. Yesterday we had over a thousand people listen live. And there's so many when I went back and read both of the, you know, there's a vertical. Um, if you're watching on your phone and you're watching the vertical version, and then there's the horizontal version, maybe you're watching, I don't know, on your television or something. And um, so there's two different sets of comments, and each can't see the other, but 1.1,000 people were watching yesterday live. Stunning. Amen, man. That's a God thing. Tell your friends, click on subscribe, click on the little bell for all notifications, smash the like button while you're at it. But before this day is out, and this is something you can do. I don't ever give you things that you can't do. I've never once in 125 days, more than that, because Sunday summations, um, I've never once given you anything that you couldn't do. And when I say before the day is out, I mean the day is out. And it is something you can do. It's not impossible. Before today is out, whenever you're listening to this, name the thing you broke. No excuses, no long diatribe about, well, it was because of this that I did that, and yeah, I know this was wrong, but the reason I did this wrong thing was because, listen, you'll never get better. Putting that caveat before it. Name the thing you broke. Or the things. In my case, it's things. Just be honest. It's you and God. One sentence out loud to God, not the whole story, not the excuses, just the thing. Then I want you to say this. Are you ready? I want you to say this. Say it out loud to God. Lord, I'm bringing you new stone. Please write it again. Then do one small thing that brings the stone to God. Make the call. Open the Bible again. Go back to the meeting, sit in the pew, sit in the chair. At church, you bring the stone, he'll bring the words. He will not bring you the words if you never get in his Bible. If you never pray, I never hear from God. God never says anything to me. I just sit here and sit here and I go by and do my life. And God never talks to me, so I just move on, live life. You know, that's what I do. I do, I do me, boo. You never talk to him? You never get in his word. Let me tell you something. There's something humbling about being a handicapped man and getting on my knees and praying to God. You might ought to give it a try. Shut out all your, all of the potential disruptions or distractions. You bring the stone and he'll bring the words. Moses said, circumcise your heart, but Israel couldn't. Stiff necks don't operate on themselves. So God made a promise. In Deuteronomy 30, verse 60 the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart. What he asked in chapter 10, he promised to do himself in chapter 30. Then in Jeremiah 31, verse 33, God says it plainly. Not on the stone. Not on the stone this time. Oh, maybe you think of your heart as a heart of stone. Maybe you think of that person who hurt you as they have a heart of stone. I assure you they don't. God didn't write on stone this time, he wrote it on hearts. Did you catch that? I will write it on their hearts. And that promise has a name. And in Colossians 2, verse 11, Paul says that in Yeshua, in Jesus, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. And in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 3, he says, You're a letter from Messiah, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. The God who rewrote the stones now writes, On you. And what of the broken pieces carried in the ark? Under the mercy seat where the blood was sprinkled once a year on the Day of Atonement? Hebrews 9, verse 12 says, Yeshua entered once for all into the holy places by means of his own blood, securing an eternal redemption. Your broken pieces sit under the blood, the blood of Christ, shed for you, not thrown out, not held against you, covered. If you're watching or listening on any of or on all the podcast platforms, if it does it, we do it. We're there. Costs a mint, but I think it's worth it. Listen, beloved, you're sitting there and going through your mind is man, I have wrecked this. I have torn this thing up. He's not gonna give me another shot. Why would he? I wouldn't. And in your mind, you've broken this thing a lot. Beyond repair. My friends, he was broken, so he could write it again. I have for you this morning, this afternoon, this evening, whenever you're listening, a challenge and a choice. Here's the choice. You can keep standing in the rubble, keeping your polite distance, sure you had one chance and shattered it. Or you can pick up a new stone. And you can walk back up on the mountain. God already said what he'll do with it. Same words, second stones. I don't know. Your choice is rubble or the mountain. You can sit and stare at what you tore up and never move on. Or you can go back to the mountain. Go back to God. Bring him new stone, and he'll write on your heart. Which one are you standing in when this episode ends? Which one are you standing in? Have you made any sort of choice today? We're gonna pray, but prayer isn't asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Pray with me. Father, we broke it. Lord God, we broke it. Some of us broke it in private, some of us broke it with everybody watching. And we've lived in the same rubble ever since. And we were sure that you were finished with us. I can speak for me, Father. I many times I thought this is it. He's done with me. Thank you for Deuteronomy 10. Thank you that you told Moses to cut two more, and that you wrote the same words again. Thank you that you don't throw away the broken pieces. Thank you that you carry them under your mercy. We ask that you cut away what's hard in us, circumcise our hearts, because we can't do it ourselves. We ask that you write your words where stone never could. And this seems so empty, so weak, so so just not enough. But thank you for Yeshua. Thank you for Jesus. Who was tortured and murdered on a cross he didn't deserve, so that our hearts could be made whole. I pray this in his heavenly name. In his risen. And his stepped on out of that grave. His body, his mind, his spirit. I thank you for him. And I pray it in his his name. Amen. Maybe going out on the limb here. Maybe you've never once let God write on your heart. Oh, you've let him have little conversations, but you've never let him write on your heart. Maybe you've only ever lived in the rubble. Then today, bring him the stone. Bring him the stone. Just bring him yourself. Just bring him yourself, just as you are. Pray this with me. Yeah, you're going to give your life today, right now, to Christ. Pray this prayer. Yeshua, I need you. You died for me. I believe you died for me, and you rose again from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Forgive me, fill me, lead me. My life is yours. In your name. Amen. Well, if you prayed that prayer, you just watched God write the first words on a brand new heart. Type again in the chat or in the comments below so that we can celebrate a second beginning with you. Then tell one believer you know, maybe you know one believer. Tell them this week out loud that you walked back up on the mountain. Maybe share this episode with them so they can understand the context. You don't have to give them a sermon. And if they don't respond in a favorable way, even if they do, tell me. TrueWordfaithforLife.com. True WordFaithforLife.com contact and I will reach back out to you. As soon as I receive the message, I will get a hold of you. The thing you broke isn't the end of your story. God has a habit of saying, Bring me two more, same words, second stones. And the pieces of the first, well, he carries them under the mercy seat, covered by blood that speaks better than your worst day. Pick up the stone, walk up, walk on up that mountain, walk back up that mountain. He's waiting to write on your heart. Tomorrow, Deuteronomy 11, and a land that doesn't drink from the Nile. We step right on into that. Send this episode to one person you're sure that you know, you know that they're sure that they've broke it, they've broken it all beyond repair. They've torn everything up. Tell them God still writes on the second stones. And if you think of it, tap on subscribe and tap the bell here on True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean YouTube channel. We have about 4,000 subscribers, so um that's the one you want to do. We have backup, we have a backup uh channel, but by the same name, but this is the one you want. You tap on that bell, you click on all notifications, tomorrow we'll find you. Every day we'll find you. Now listen, I'm gonna pray a blessing over you. I'm gonna pray it in Lashon Hakadesh, the language of God. And I want you to understand something. I'm nobody special. But this has been prayed by God over his people and by Yeshua. Even as he was ascending to heaven, mid-sentence he was praying this prayer, arms stretch wide, just like they were on the cross. And I'm gonna pray it over you. Don't panic, I'm gonna translate it. You ready? Take a deep breath, come on. Adonai Panavaleka Vichunaka. Isadonai Panaveka Virsimlaka. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face 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, live or on playback at any time, they're always available. We're on all of the podcast platforms. I encourage you, subscribe, like, hit the little bell, whatever, all notifications, yada yada. It helps more than you can ever realize. These new people that come in, they see it because the algorithm told them, hey, this is something you want to see. You know why that happens? You. When you click on subscribe, like, the little bell, believe it or not, when you leave comments, it shows it to more people. Till tomorrow at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Shalom Bishem Yeshua. The shalom elakim.