Can't Keep it!

Good evening. God is so faithful. Here we are. Sunday summation. Tomorrow is 80. Day 80. Of course that doesn't count the Sunday summations. I'm glad you're here. This is gonna be a unique experience for you. No matter who you are, no matter where you are. There's a mountain. I think I would say it's in your life, but it's in everybody's life. There's a mountain in your life you keep trying to climb and you never reach the top. You keep trying. You know the rules, you know what good looks like. And somewhere along the way, you made a promise. Maybe out loud. Maybe just to yourself in the dark, that this time you'd finally do it. Keep it all. Get it all right. Be the person you're supposed to be. Oof. This week, two million people stood at the foot of a real mountain. And they made that exact promise out loud, in one voice, all that the Lord has said we will do. Well, they weren't lying then. They meant every word of it. And then they broke it before the man even came back down. So here's what I've been sitting with all week. And I think you need to sit with it too. What if the exhaustion you feel isn't a sign you haven't tried hard enough? What if it's a sign you've been trying to climb something that was never yours to climb? This wasn't a week about a mountain you climb. It was a week about one who came down the mountain. We're going to talk a little bit more about that. Listen, I appreciate you coming. I appreciate you making this a priority. Um, shalom and welcome to the Sunday summation uh in deepening. This is a unique thing. Um, you know, I don't sit on YouTube and look for similar um uh channels and methods, and I don't look for different ones. I don't look for ones I agree with, and I don't look for ones I disagree with. Um but as I have found over time, I have found this is a little bit different, and I and I I reckon with that. One of the things that makes it so different is you know, I do 90, 99 lives, and that's a different sort of thing. One of the cool things we have is we have the live chat. So if you're listening on playback on any of the bazillions of audio platforms we're on, we're on them all, uh any podcast platform that that you like, um click on us, and it's it's uh true word faith for life with Dr. Sean, S-A-J-W N. And um we're there, we're everywhere. And then on Facebook, you know, I'm just Dr. Sean, or I think if you search me either way, it'll come up. Um, I'm on all of the socials that I know of, and um, I don't do a lot with them other than post reels and all that stuff, so I don't really, you know, I'm I'm not adept on those. Um, but what is important is YouTube and uh not just subscribing. So subscribing is critical, but if you you have to click on that little bell and click on all notifications because that drives everything, and not for nothing. It may seem like nothing, and it is nothing, it's easy, but you doing that makes a big difference and clicking the thumbs up, which is considered a like, that makes a big difference. The more interaction and engagement YouTube algorithm sees, the more they will push this. So I'm glad you're here. As you might have guessed, I'm Sean. Uh, tonight we gather the whole week, days 75 through 79, the week Israel reached Sinai, the Trembling Mountain and 10 Words, the everyday law of oxen and pits and cloaks, the cry of defenseless, the defenseless that God swore to hear, and the blood that sealed the whole thing on the last day. Five days on one mountain, and one question underneath all of them. My book, Trueword Faith for Life, is available now, by the way. Uh, there's some links in the show description, but you can also go to True Word FaithforLife.com and go to store. I'm right there. Easy to find, easy peasy. So I'd love for you to get a copy, maybe buy one for somebody. Everything else on there, by the way, is free. It's all done for you for free. And I spend a lot of time on it. And uh I would love for you to use it. So get a copy of the book, one for somebody maybe who's worn out from climbing a mountain they were never able to climb. And today's question, tonight's question, whatever, right? Whatever time you're listening to it, is simple and it's heavy. What do you do with a covenant you know you can never keep? So before we do that, I want to say welcome to Susan and Linda. Linda, God bless you. Linda's really been through it, and uh, she just had a big, big deal on um this week, and she's recovering. And we uh we love you, we've been praying for you, and also for Miss Cheryl. We love you. Uh, she's had a very, very serious surgery, and we love you, and we've been praying for you. Uh, we're pulling for you both. And if we can help you in any way, I know um Linda is so fortunate to have Susan uh as her friend to look after her and and to help her, help her through this period. And um, it's a beautiful thing. I love it. And Miss Cheryl is fortunate to have uh Joe to help her, and you know, as she's in the hospital, and this is a it's a big deal. But Cheryl is up, you know, she's all over the place. She's been walking around and all that. So that's good. It's a great thing. We prayed for it, we should be pleased for it. So I'm gonna run that question one more time. It is a heavy question, and and I'm not asking, I'm not asking it to be facetious or anything like that. It's what do you do with a covenant or promise that you could never keep? So let's go in. This week's movement. I want you to watch where the the story actually traveled this week because it moved and the direction it, by the way, how's the sound? I totally forgot. I totally, totally forgot that uh to ask you that. So let me know if one thing's too loud or not loud enough, whatever it is. Hey uh Gabriel Romo, we're uh respectful here, and this is not a place to do things that are untoward or crude or anything like that. Might be a good place for you to just listen for a little bit, take some stuff in. So I want you to see where the story actually traveled this week. It was wild how it moved, and the direction it moved is the whole point, right? So we can talk about the movement, but the direction it moved, good lands. So it started in the air, right? Monday. Monday, God carried Israel to the mountain on eagle's wings, and he made an offer that was all grace before was ever a command. I know that's hard to reckon. People have a hard time reckoning it, but the mountain caught fire, and the God who'd carried them there so tenderly shook the earth so hard the people trembled at the foot of it. By Tuesday, he was speaking the ten words out of that fire with his own voice. And the people who'd said yes so eagerly backed away and they begged him to stop because the law had shown them a gap in themselves they didn't know was there. It showed them. The law showed them it, it it illustrated, it illuminated a gap in themselves they had no idea was even there. And then something you'd never expect to happen. Well, it happened. Thank you, Julius Caesar. God bless you. Welcome, brother. I appreciate it. The fire came down. This was never expected. The fire came down off the summit and moved into the field. Wednesday and Thursday, the same holiness that shook the mountain, started talking about servants and oxen and uncovered pits and the poor man's only cloak. And it bent low toward the widow, the orphan, and the stranger with a tenderness that would break your heart. The holiness didn't stay up on the peak where it was safe. It came down into ordinary life. And it came down toward the ones with no one. Good morning, good evening, good afternoon to everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome. No matter what time it is where you're listening. So then Friday. Friday was quite a day, wasn't it? Friday, so how we do this, if you're new here, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, we do much shorter, ostensibly, um teachings, and then we do uh a summary and a deepening on Friday. Uh on uh what's today? Sunday on Sunday. So that's what we do and how we do it. So then Friday, oh, by the way, I forgot to mention um Linda and Susan sent me this wonderful card, and it had a lovely, shockingly generous gift in it. And I was able to make a huge payment on my computer that I only use for this show, um, because the other one just was dying. And then um a special chair for people with spine and spinal injuries. So I just got it, and uh I'm super excited. So thank you, Linda. I'm able to do this as you can see. I have this big old this deal on. Let me see that. It's called a TLSO brace, and um, it helps hold me up because I can't hold myself up without it. So, anyway, but thank you, Linda and Susan, for for that. That was amazing, it was just incredible. I'm not a 501c3. Um, I don't have any of that stuff. So I just I really genuinely appreciate it more than you'll ever know. So that's how I'm able to do this. This thing holds my spine up. It's wild, it's a wild-looking chair, but it's really, it's really works well. So thank you so much. So then Friday, it's the summit of the whole week. The covenant got sealed, but not with a handshake, but with blood. The people promised again. Moses took the blood and put half on the altar and half on the people, and then the elders climbed up and saw God and sat down and ate. What? Yeah, they saw God. They climbed up there, the elders just climbed up there. Let's have something to eat with God. Days after the mountain would have killed them to touch it. Why? Because the blood had made a way to the table. See, that's the movement. From the air to the fire to the field to the blood to the table. Every step was God coming down. Not one step was them climbing up. Imagine that. So there are five threads here. We're going to go through all five. Five threads ran, and probably some of you, especially those of you who take notes, you know, you're a fastidious note keeper or a note taker. If you, if you're that person, you you'll you would have noticed the five threads as it ran through the whole movement. Pull each one and you'll feel the same truth. It will tighten. So the first thread is grace before law. And I know this trips people out. They just are like, come on, man, that's not possible. Yeah, it's not only possible, it is. It just is. Grace before law. Every single time he carried them before he commanded them. I know, I know it's a shock. It's a shock to systems people who who've come to believe that look, you know, it's the law. You teach the law, the law, the law, the law. You're uh, you're um, what is it they call me all the time? A uh legalist, legalist. Not at all, not at all. Um, but you have to understand what the law is meant to do, what it did then, what it does now. There's a big difference. I mean, we can we can quibble, but the reality is very, very different. It's just very, very different. So, grace before the law. I didn't wrap your wrap your hands around that one. Wrap your hands around that one. That one's tricky. Grace before law. Every single time he carried them before he commanded them. I mean that is just that's stunning. He carried them before he commanded them, before the offer at Sinai. You've seen how I bore you on eagle's wings before the very first of the ten words. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the house of bondage. Wow. Rescue first, always, and then the commands. Wait, I th I that wouldn't I think I've been taught different than that, right? In the postmodern Western Evangelical Church, oh I no, it's the law and then the it's it's the commands and then the rescue and the blessing and the answers and uh rescue first, always, and then the commands. The law was never a ladder up to God, it was the shape of life for a people he'd already carried out. Oh, you might want to write that down. The law was never a ladder up to God, it was the shape of a life for a people he'd already carried out. Now, I get it. If you spent your your entire life thinking obedience is how you get God to love you, this week has just reversed the entire order on you. He loved you first, he carried you first. The commands come to people already rescued, never to people trying to earn a rescue. Come just as you are. Come just as you are. Yes, there's a lot you have to do. You know, I always say prayer's not asking for an easy journey, it's it's asking for a strong back. And I often say the life as a follower of the way is not easy. It's not easy. There's a transition in your life, it's not magic. But listen, I know people that have come to Christ that were um IV drug users, heroin addicts. And they they play, and I kid you not, this is true. They placed their faith in Christ. Never had another desire to stick a needle in their arm. They didn't have methadone, they didn't do some big program, nothing. I know some same with alcohol. I know them personally. They turned their life over to him, and they never took another drink. Are you listening? There's all kinds of hurts, habits, and hangups, folks. Everybody's got their thing. And you know what? It's a struggle. And I'm not saying if you're addicted to alcohol or drugs or any of those things, any of the things you get addicted to, that maybe you maybe maybe you should seek out professional help. I'm for that. I'm straight up for that. But I do know people. I know them on both both spectrums, right? They they came to Christ, they never had another desire. Whether it was the P word, whether it was alcohol, substances, eating disorders. All of them. I know examples, living examples. They placed their faith in Christ, truly placed their faith in Christ, never, never again an issue. And I know others who truly place their faith in Christ. I mean, they really, really love Jesus. They got away from the drug dealers, they got away from the people and the things that get them addicted. Bad influences, and still they struggle, and still they hold fast to the Lord, and he shapes them. But here's the thing, they already know they are covered by the blood of the Lord that he shed on the cross. He went to a grave that he only needed to be there three days, and he vacated it, and he's with the Father, ready to intercede. The commands come to people already rescued, never to people trying to earn a rescue. The second, the second thread is the law as a mirror. When God spoke the tenth word, do not covet. The people backed away and they begged him to stop. That reaction is the most important thing that happened on Tuesday. The tenth word is different from all the other nine. By the way, um, day 80, tomorrow, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, it's gonna blow your socks off. It's wild. The tenth word is different from all the other nine. It's so different. Because it's the only one nobody can see. Look, murder shows, theft shows. Coveting happens in a heart. Happens in a heart that no one can see. We cannot discern the heart of another person. And the moment the law reached past their hands and into their hearts, they knew the law was working. It wasn't failing them by terrifying them, it was doing exactly what a mirror does showing them the truth, driving them to the end of themselves so they'd go looking for a mediator. A mirror can show you the dirt. A mirror can show you the dirt that it was never able to wash off. The third thread is that holiness refuses to stay on the mountaintop. This one still surprises me, I have to tell you. Right after the fire and the glory and the thunder, God starts legislating oxygen, oxen, pits, fires. Fires that spread into a neighbor's field. And the first law He hands a nation of former slaves is a law of freedom. Release your servant in the seventh year. You will never do to anyone what Egypt did to you. Listen, God won't let us split the sacred from the ordinary. How you handle your neighbor's wandering ox is the same holiness as how you sing on Sunday. If your worship is high and your everyday dealings are low, you've torn into something God fused together on this mountain. Listen, if your Sunday, if your Sunday demeanor at church doesn't match your demeanor to the server or the waitress or waiter at the restaurant after you left church. The way away from church. The widow and the orphan because they have no man to stand for them. The poor man whose only cloak is the coat he sleeps in. And God says the most tender thing in the whole book of the covenant. If they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. Somebody come on. The God who heard slaves, he heard slaves, our God, heard slaves groaning in Egypt. He is building a people who hear the same way he does. But watch this. Because he guards it, he tells them not to bend the truth. Even for a poor man, even for the poor man in his lawsuit, don't bend the truth, don't lie. Don't embellish. Justice has to stay true no matter what. That's the benchmark. Justice has to stay true. Compassion that lies isn't compassion. God's heart leans hard toward the defenseless and never once tips over into dishonesty. I know someone who is a professing Christian and they pride themselves on their appearance to be a Christian. And yet, if they order something, and the amount billed is to their benefit, they won't they won't let on. If they order something, then they drive up at McDonald's. And it's they only ordered one hamburger and a and a small fry, and they got you know three hamburgers and a large fry and the shake and everything else, and they just drive off. They go, Oh, it's my lucky day. And sometimes that person even goes, The Lord bless me today. If you'll be dishonest in the little things, you'll never be entrusted for the great things. The fifth thread ties the other four into a knot. And it's the one the whole week was really about. The people promised to keep a covenant they couldn't keep. They promised to keep a covenant they couldn't keep. Na'ase, we will do. Na'ase, we will do. They said it again at the end. Naase vi vinishma. We will do and we will hear twice in one voice. And they meant it. And they broke it within weeks at the foot of the same mountain with a golden calf. Look, that's not a footnote to the week, that is the week. From the eagle's wings to the blood on the people, every single piece of it was pointing past their broken promise to a covenant that someone else would keep on their behalf. Good evening, Robbie. It's good to see you. You can always go, hey, listen, we know you struggle to sleep. You can always go back and listen to the beginning, but we're glad you're with us now. And we're glad you slept. That's good. Now there's a theological center to this. Now let's go somewhere. The daily walk didn't have room to go. I didn't have time, didn't have room. The Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So now let's take the time to do it. Because there's a shape underneath this whole week that changes what the mountain even is. Are you ready? Because this is deep and it's heavy. In the ancient Near East, when a great king made a binding agreement with a people, that agreement followed a form. Everyone knew the form. It opened with the king naming himself and rehearsing what he'd already done for them, his acts of rescue and provision. Then came the stipulations, the terms of the relationship, the circumstances that have to be met in the deal. And then it was ratified, made binding with a solemn ceremony, often with blood. Historical scholars of the ancient world, the ancient Near East, John Walton among them, have shown that Exodus 19 through 24 is built on exactly this pattern, which means the thing you've been reading all week isn't a rule book. It's a covenant document. It's a treaty between a king and a rescued people. And once you see the form, the pieces snap into place. I bore you on eagle's wings. That's the king rehearsing his rescue. The ten words in the book of the covenant, those are the stipulations and the shape of the relationship. And then Exodus 24, the day we land on tomorrow. That's the ratification. That's the ceremony that makes it binding, which is why Exodus 24 has blood in it. You don't see a rule, you don't seal a rule book in blood, you seal a covenant in blood. Now look at what the people say at the ceremony, because there's a detail here that the rabbis have marveled marveled at for 2,000 years. In Exodus 24, verse 7, Israel doesn't just say Na'asa, we will do. They say Na'asa Vinishma. We will do and we will hear. They committed to obey before they'd even finished understanding. That's stunning trust. That's jumping and asking. Somebody tells you to jump and you jump and ask how high on the way up. That is stunning trust. That's emuna. That's faith, faithfulness, the willingness to say yes to God before you've seen the whole road. And there's the tragedy folded right inside that beautiful moment. Even that much trust. Even saying yes before they understood couldn't make them able to keep it. And listen, their intentions were pure. The promise was sincere. Their trust was real, and it still wasn't enough. Because the problem was never the sincerity of the promise. The problem was the condition of the heart making it, by the way. If you haven't clicked on thumbs up, like, whatever, I'd love for you to do that. But I want you to watch what Moses does with the blood. Because this is the center of the center. Naum Sarna. Naum Sarna. Love reading his work. And his work on Exodus or Echodos or Shemos Shemot points out how deliberate this ritual is. Moses takes the blood of the covenant and he divides it. Half he dashes against the altar, which stands for God, and half he sprinkles on the people. One blood, two parties, the same life splashed on both sides of the relationship. In that world, blood was life, and to be bound in a shared blood was to be bound in a shared life. Behold, Moses says, he says, Behold, the blood of the covenant, God and his people are now bound together in one life. And the binding was never their obedience, it was the blood. And then the most staggering thing in the entire chapter. The thing you could read a hundred times and skip right past. By the way, I don't know if I showed you this one. I completely forgot, I think. Beautiful. She put beautiful ribbons in there, red, black, and gold, beautiful stitching. This is Moose Works Bible. She's not a, she's not a um, she's not a sponsor, but I absolutely love her work. I love her work and she works you know by herself, and she deserves for people to see her work, admire her work, and and purchase her services. If you have a Bible that you want to last, really, really last. I'm telling you, Moose Works Bible. Mooseworks Bible works. They're on, she's on Etsy. Her name is Melissa, she's on Etsy. I've never met her in person. Her work speaks volumes. Not a sponsor. Somebody asked me the other day, they sent me a message, and they said, Why do you keep hawking her service if she's not paying you to do it? Well, so what? I want her to be blessed. If you need a Bible fixed, or or maybe you have a Bible and you go, Yeah, well, I would like this Bible to be rebound. I'm telling you, it's crazy how beautiful these are. Even stacking the Bible up against a premium, premium Bible, like super expensive Bible. The leather is nowhere close. The work is nowhere close. It is true handmade artistry. And she'll never hear this. I don't think she listens. She's listened to a few episodes, but she's a believer, and and uh, but I don't I don't do it to fluff her up. So if you have a need, tell her you heard it here. So she feels good about that. Everybody likes to hear that. Somebody else is bragging on you. And ain't bragging when it's true. So this is easy to miss because, you know, it's one of those things, you know, most people aren't into the Old Testament. I teach it as a foundational thing, and you gotta understand this, or you will never understand the New Testament. Hello, Miss Tammy. So nice to see you. God bless you. Everybody, welcome, Tammy. Good to see you. I don't want you to miss this, y'all, because it's it's easy to miss. After the blood, Moses and Aaron and the elders climbed the mountain, and Exodus 24 says, They saw the God of Israel and they beheld God, and they ate and they drank. They had a meal in the presence of the same God whose mountain days earlier would have struck them dead if they do so much as touch the edge of it. What changed between the fence around the mountain and the feast on top of it? The blood. The blood changed everything. The blood turned a mountain, you die to touch into a table you're invited to sit at. And think about how rare that is in the story so far. Not since the garden, not since Eden, has anyone simply eaten in the unhidden presence of God like this? Nobody's done it. Every step since has been fences and flaming swords and mountains you can't touch. But here, for the first time, in the long ache of the story, blood opens a table and people sit down and eat with God and live. That's the doctrine at the center of this week. And it's the doctrine the whole Bible is walking toward. Do you see it? All the way to a supper in an upper room and a wedding feast at the end. The blood of the covenant makes a way to the table. Come on, somebody shout amen. Somebody shout amen. Somebody give glory to God. He provided a way. I'm fixing to tell you about the way that he provided. Listen, Yeshua is in every part of this text, and every piece of that mountain was pointing at Yeshua. God promised an angel to go before them, and he said something about that angel. He said about no one else. My name is in him. Oh, come on, somebody. My name is in him. His own name, his own presence, and his authority, and dwelling in the one who goes before the people. That's a glimpse, 1500 years early, of the one whom all the in whom all the fullness of God would dwell in bodily form. Glory to God. It's it's so big. It's such a big deal. It is the big deal. It's the biggest deal. The people stood at the mountain and said, I said, Vinishma, we will do and we will hear. And they could not, and the whole world has been unable ever since. They've been unable to do it ever since. You and me, unable. And then Yeshua stepped into the exact place where they failed and where we failed. He kept every word of it from the inside out, not gritting his teeth up a mountain, but living the covenant perfectly from a heart that never once coveted, never once turned from the Father. The people promised. And the blood, half on the altar, half on the people. Behold, the blood of the covenant. Do you know those exact do you know those are the exact words Yeshua reached back and picked up in an upper room 1,500 years later when he lifted the cup and said, This is the blood of my covenant poured out for many. Hello, Miss Carolyn. We don't usually get to see you in the live. So nice to have you. What a what a nice, sweet blessing. Everyone, this is Carolyn, longtime listener. She always comments, and it's lovely. It's it's lovely. Thank you so much. This is the blood of my covenant poured out for many. Who are the many? It's you. It's me. He wasn't inventing a new image. He was standing at Sinai and finishing it. His is the blood. The mountain was always pointing to. The blood at the Sin. Oh, come on, don't miss this, please. If you miss this, you miss everything. The blood at Sinai bound the people to a covenant they would break.

Come on.

Come on. Here it is. His blood binds us to a covenant He has already kept forever. And remember the elders who climbed up and saw God and ate and drank days after the mountain would have killed them. The blood made a way to the table, it always does. It is finished. It is accomplished, Yeshua said from the cross. The old covenant said, Do this and live. The new covenant says, It is finished, it is done, it is accomplished. Therefore, live. You were never going to climb the mountain. So he came down it and he carried you up on eagle's wings. Let me bring this all the way home. Because you've stood at the foot of that mountain more times than you can count. You know the rules. You know what you're supposed to be. And you've made the promise in your own words. Welcome, Sean, spelled correctly. Good to see you, brother. You've made, you know the rules. You know them. You know what you're supposed to be? You made promise after promise after promise in your own words. This time I'll get it right. This time I'll keep it. And you meant every syllable, exactly like the two million people who meant it to and broke it before Moses even came down. And maybe there's a quiet exhaustion in you tonight, or whenever you're listening, from a lifetime of climbing a mountain you'll never reach the top of. Certain that if you just try harder, if you just want it more, if you just discipline yourself better, you'll finally be the person the law says you should be. Hear the hard mercy of this week. You can't keep it. You can't keep it. You cannot keep it. Not because you're worse than anyone else, but because no one can. Because the tenth word reaches into a heart that no amount of willpower can clean. And here's the mercy hidden inside that hard truth. Covenant was never sealed in your blood. That's the whole reason for the blood on the mountain. Israel's obedience wasn't what bound them to God. The blood was. And the blood that binds you to God tonight. Isn't your performance. It's not how churchy you can sound or look. It's not even your record. It's not even your best effort finally paying off. It's his. So the honest question tonight, it isn't whether you can climb the mountain, you can't. The question is whether you'll finally stop trying to climb it in your own strength. And come stand under the blood. Under the blood of the one who climbed it for you and climbed it for me. Here's your concrete obedience. You say, I want to know. Tell me clearly, Dr. Sean, tell me. Tell me what I need to do. Well, here's your step this week, and it's got three parts. First, name the mountain. The specific rule, the standard, the version of yourself you keep promising to become and keep falling short of. Say its name out loud this week. Vague exhaustion can't be surrendered. Vague exhaustion can't be surrendered. A named mountain can. Second, admit it. Honestly, out loud if you can. Admit that you can't keep it. And that you were never able to keep it. Not as despair, as the truest thing you'll say all week in the doorway to rest. Listen, I just want you to understand, what I am not saying is not to work on your hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Absolutely not. What I am not saying is that if you have an addiction, that you don't bring it before God and get the help he directs you to get, and then work hard on it. If you have a predilection that is a bad thing, a proclivity that is a bad thing, absolutely. I'm not saying just let it go. I'm not saying try not to sin if you want. No, no, no. Sin, our sin grieves God. But understand he knows who you are. This is number three. Stop climbing long enough to stand under the blood. Stop climbing long enough, just long enough to stand under the blood of Christ. This week, take the bread in the cup at your table or at your church. You know, people think you have to do it at church. You don't have to. You can do it in your own home. It is a it is a solemn. It is a solemn and quite serious event. Understand that. Whether it's at church or in your home, doesn't matter where it is, take it seriously. Take the bread in the cup at your table or your church. And when you do, I want you to say it plainly. This covenant was kept for me and sealed in his blood, not mine. Then I want you to walk out and live like somebody who's already been carried up, not someone who's still still trying to climb. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. What mountain have you been trying to climb by trying harder? When the whole point was that you never could. And what would actually change in your Monday if you finally believed the covenant was sealed in his blood and not in your performance? Here's the choice tonight. Here's your choice today. Keep climbing a mountain you'll never reach the top of. Promising again and again what you already know you can't keep. Adding one more broken promise to a pile that's already exhausted you. Or come down to the foot of it. Stand under the blood and let the one who kept every word carry you the rest of the way. One of those is a lifetime of climbing. The other is rest. Choose the blood. I want you to take a deep breath. Heavy stuff. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. I want you to pray with me. Father, in the name of Yeshua, thank you that your grace came before the law. Thank you that you carried us before you ever commanded us, and that the covenant was sealed in your blood and not in our broken promises. Thank you that when we said we will do and we couldn't, your precious son, your beloved and only Son, Yeshua, He stood in our place. And he did it all. And he made a way to the table we could have never reached ourselves. Heavenly Father, sweet, sweet Lord, for everyone worn out tonight from climbing a mountain they were never able to climb, let them lay it down, let them stop, let them stand under the blood and finally rest. I pray this. I pray this in the holy, matchless name of your Son and my Redeemer, my Savior and my King, Yeshua Hamashiach. Maybe the mountain, maybe the mountain that is it has exhausted you your entire life is the one you've been trying to climb to reach God. And the truth is, he already came all the way down it to reach you. You don't have to climb another mountain. You don't have to climb another inch. You just have to come just as you are. Crystal Lewis does a beautiful song. If I could find a licensed copy of it, I'd play it right now. I can't find it. Come just as you are. You're afraid of what it'll mean for you. I get it. But I have to ask you, do you want that to stand in between you and an eternity in heaven with God and his redeemed, made perfect eternally? Or do you want to spend eternity separated from God and now you say, Oh, I don't like to talk about it. Well, it's real. Why would you spend eternity because you you're afraid of embarrassment?

Why? Why would you do it?

I encourage you. I cannot encourage you. Look, I'm not saying this life is easy. Being a follower of the way. I've never said it. Never said it was easy. In fact, I've said quite the opposite.

You've done hard things before. This is easy. Are you sincere?

If you believe, but you've never placed your faith in Christ, if you've never asked him, if you've never asked him for forgiveness for your sins, for your hurts, your habits, your hang-ups. Now's the time.

Now is the time.

You ready? Don't put it off. Stop it. You're trying to you're trying to let a distraction pull you away. I can do this another time. No, right now. Pray this with me. Finally. Repeat this after me 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. My life is yours. In your heavenly name. Amen. If you just prayed that a minute, welcome to the family. If you need help, I'm happy to help you. I am ecstatic to help you. This is my favorite thing ever. It's free. No, there's no trickery. There's no you gotta buy this, you gotta buy that. No, it's none of it. I don't even care if you buy my book. I really don't. What I want you to do is go to truewordfaithforlife.com. True WordFaithforLife.com. And then slash contact or just click on the little contact button. It seems pretty easy. Click on contact, fill you out so I can talk to you if you want me to talk to you. If you have questions, that's the way we can connect. And everybody knows that has ever sent me a message, which is countless number, they know I'll help them and I'll help you. We want to help you, and we will. Look, if this is your first time with us, here's what we do. We've been walking through the whole of Scripture, chronologically, in order, since Genesis day one. We're at day 80 tomorrow. If tonight stirred something in you, don't start here. Start at the beginning and walk the whole story with us. Listen, you can go back to number one, day one, and you can listen to all of those. I encourage you to do that because honestly, it's kind of cool. And you can listen on whatever podcast platform you listen to. You don't have to look at this face. You can just hear it. We're there. Easy to find. If tonight stirred something inside you, don't start here. Start at the beginning. Miss all those steps. You can listen as we go too. But go back to the beginning. You'll be glad you did. And stay close this week because we're stepping off the mountain into what God builds next with a people he's just bound himself to. He has bound himself to in blood. A trembling mountain. A people at its foot. A promise made in one voice and broken within weeks. The fire that shook the summit. Come down to walk in the field. The cry of the widow heard. The blood half on the altar, half on the people, and elders who climbed up saw God and lived to eat and drink. You were never able to climb it. Neither was I. That was the point. So he came down, he sealed it in his own blood, and he made a way from the fence you die to touch to the table you were always meant to sit at. If someone you know is worn out from climbing a mountain they can't climb, promising God what they can't deliver, send them this episode. This one. Tell them what it took. Tell them what it took me 40 years to hear. The covenant was never sealed in your blood, it was sealed in his.