What Happens When They're GONE?

Good morning. There's an empty chair at your table. Maybe it's your husband's. Maybe. He's handled the bills, the the hard calls. Maybe it's your mother's. The one you always called first. Or maybe they're not gone yet. But the doctor used a word you didn't want to hear. And you're watching the strongest person you know get smaller and smaller. Maybe you're the son or the daughter. Maybe you just carried your father's casket. And on the drive home, it hit you. Well. Everybody's looking at you now. The money, the decisions, your mother. And you do not feel ready. Or you're the one everyone leans on. You can feel the years. What happens to my kids, my grandkids when I'm not here? Who holds it together when they're gone? An entire nation once watched the only leader they'd ever known get ready to die. Forty years he carried them. And he told them plainly, I'm not going with you. I've come this far. But I'm not going with you. Can you imagine? Then God made them a promise for the day after. And here's a Hebrew word. Here's a Hebrew word in it that English Bibles kind of flatten. There's this Hebrew word when I tell you, your mind's gonna be blown. Because all your life you've read English Bibles, and the English Bibles flatten it because they don't have an equivalent. This is true word, faith for life with Dr. Sean. I'm Sean. Welcome to day 132 of Through the Bible in a year, we're walking the story of God. We're in Deuteronomy 31. By the way, I have a special, special little bit I'll be saying regarding October 7th. We are in Deuteronomy 31 today, the chapter where Moses, Moshe, hands the nation to Joshua. And God makes a promise for every empty chair. If you're ready for God's word to make sense in the real world, I have a book I wrote. It's called True Word, Faith for Life. True Word, Faith for Life. It's textbook quality. It's extraordinary. I think you'll love it. One word in the chat before we start. One word. Maybe if you're listening on playback, you put it in the in the comments below. Right now, are you leaning on someone you're afraid to lose? Or are you the one carrying everyone else? One word. It's one or the other. Leaning or carrying? Leaning or carrying. Here's where we are. Moshe, or Moses, has finished his great sermon on the plains of Moab, one of the greatest ever. The Jordan is right there. And it's one line he won't get to cross. Deuteronomy 31, verse 2. I am a hundred and twenty years old today, and I am no longer able to go out and come in. The Lord has said to me, You shall not go over this Jordan. There's something very important going on there. And we have to understand. The one of the things that makes Hebrew such a phenomenal language, literally and grammatically and with expression and completion. Is its idiomatic expressions. They have hundreds of idiomatic expressions. And go out and come in is a Hebrew idiom for leading. Marching out in front of the people and bringing them home. That's a big deal. By the way, over a thousand of you listened yesterday, live. And I'm glad to have you. It's an honor. Just looking over chat. Hello to everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time you're listening. Thank you for the sound check. Thank you, Nicole. Carrying. Thank you, Miss Tammy. Josh, before I bounce you, because you're just playing a game you're gonna lose at. Uh just because you don't take life seriously. You don't take your own life seriously. If you just listen, but you don't. You're smarter than God, you're smarter than everybody else. So, you resort to that. God bless you. I wish you the best. And Randy, I don't know. You're preaching your own little sermon and you're. I haven't even barely started. I don't I don't really get it. Maybe listen for a little bit and see if what I'm teaching today resonates with you. And uh that'd be great. Sean spelled correctly, thank you. Carrie. Miss Linda, good morning. To all of you. Miss Nicole, Colleen, To Be Continued 25. By the way, excellent, excellent. To be continued phenomenal channel. Good guy. I'll be at Virginia Creek Campground, Virginia Creek Ministries today. Or not today, Sunday. We start at 9.30. If you're in anywhere near Surf City, North Carolina, Virginia Creek Campground, be phenomenal to have you. Absolutely phenomenal. And if you've got my book, I'd be happy to sign it. Go out and come in. It's a Hebrew idiom. Idiomatic expression is complex. But it's powerful. It's a Hebrew idiom for leading. Marching out in front of the people and bringing them home. Moshe or Moses used the same phrase in Numbers 27, verse 27. When he asked God for a successor. Wow. In Deuteronomy 34, 7. It says his strength hadn't left him. Moses, Moshe isn't too weak. But his season of of leading is over. God closed it at the waters of Meribah. And Moshe accepts it. The leading of God, even when we don't like it. Think about it. Think about what he could have said. God, I'm 40 years I've led these people. The least you can do is let me go into the land. You owe me at least that. It's what we would do. It's what I would do. That's why he chose Moshe. Hi, Miss Linda. God bless you. Love you. That's why he chose Moshe. By the way, if you're listening and you're all twisted up over the political stuff and you're tired of the commercials and you're just all spun up and you think the world's falling apart. I wrote a song, I vote the lamb. There's two iterations of it on the YouTube channel, True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N. Even if you're listening on any of the places we're streaming right now, go to YouTube, True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S H A W N. It's about 4,000 subscribers. We're not a huge channel. Click on subscribe. Click on the little bell for all notifications so that tomorrow's message finds you. Click on the thumbs up as you go by. Costs you nothing but less than 30 seconds. I'd love it if you would. And thank you, Randy. I appreciate it. You're obviously a very intelligent guy. You know a lot. Um and you clearly love scripture. But today's message is really important. I want you to think about who's listening. Always think about the audience. The generation that left Egypt as adults, well, they're buried in the wilderness. They don't even have their bodies. We don't even have a grave. Go visit. These people were, they were children back then, or they weren't even born yet. They've never known a day without Moshe, Moses. In the ancient Near East, a king's death, a king's death was the most dangerous moment a nation faced. Rivals rose, vassals rebelled, and in 672 BC, the Assyrian king, Essa Raddin, made his subjects swear loyalty to his son, Ashur bin Epal. While he was still alive. The handoff was everything. Well, God does the same thing here, only he does it better as he does. He makes the handoff public and he makes the promise personal. Verse three, the Lord your God himself will go over before you, and Joshua will go over at your head. The Lord first. Then Joshua. The one who really led Israel was never Moses. Good morning, Andrew. Good morning, Miss Susan. Good morning, all of you. Thank you to you all for listening. God bless you. Sometimes we it's hard for us to grasp our position in things. If you want to be led well, you have to be a good follower. And you have to understand who is leading you. Doesn't mean you're blind in the whole thing. Just means you trust and you respect. You acknowledge the Lord first, then Joshua. I don't think Moses ever was deluded to think that he was the one actually leading Israel. Verse 6. Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them. For it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you. English language, the English language can't show you this. The commands are plural. Be strong, all of you. But the promise is singular. Moshe or Moses speaks to the crowd and the promise lands on each one. I want you to listen to the Hebrew here. It's wild. Here are the translations, they part ways. As they do. The ESV or English Standard version says, he will not leave you. The complete Jewish Bible says, he will neither fail you nor abandon you. Have any of you ever felt abandoned in your life? Both are faithful. And both lose the picture. The verb is raha. It means to go slack, to let something sink. In Joshua 10, verse 6, the Gibeonites beg Joshua with the same verb: don't let your hands go slack from your servants. So God is saying, My grip won't go slack. I won't let you drop. The second verb azat. It means to abandon, to walk off, to leave something behind. He won't let you drop, and he won't walk away from you. Verse 7, verses 7 and 8, really, Moshe, or Moses calls Joshua forward in the sight of all Israel. And he gives them the same words. Be strong and courageous. Be strong. Be courageous. It is the Lord who goes before you. He will not leave you or forsake you. That's the installation formula. And God repeats it to Joshua in Joshua 1. Nobody in this handoff is exempt from fear. Not even the new leader. Can you imagine following someone like Moses? Good morning, Miss Sharon. God bless you. Verses 9 through 13. By the way, thank you to all of you. So generous and so kind in so many ways. Comments that you send to me personally, cards that you send, contributions that you make. It's wonderful. It's how it's it's it's how it's the only way we can do this. And I thank you for it. I'm humbled. Verses 9 through 13. Moses writes the law down and hands it to the priests and the elders. Every seventh year, at the feast of booths, gather everyone, men, women, little ones, and the foreigner and read it out loud. Verse 13. That their children who may not who have not known it, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God. How else will they know? Tell your children and your children's children. How else will they know? Make sure they know this past that we've lived, it's important. Because all along we've been kept by God. Remember to tell them. Remember to tell them that their children who have not known it may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God. You wonder why this country and this world is twisting in angst and fear and chaos. You wonder why. This is why. Because we failed to tell the story of how we got here. Hittite treaties. Centuries older. They were centuries older. They did the same. A copy went into the temple, and the treaty was read aloud at set times. In verse 26, Moses sets this book beside the ark. Moses knew he couldn't stay. So he made sure the word would. Then the hardest part, verses 16 and 17. God tells, God tells Moses, this people will forsake me and break my covenant. The verb here is Azav, the same word from verse 6. And God answers, I will forsake them and hide my face from them. So did the promise break? Go back to Deuteronomy 4, verse 31. Moses looks past the exile and says, The Lord your God is a merciful God. The same words. He will never let go of his covenant people. Never ever let go of his covenant people. Not then, not now, not ever. Romans 11, verse 29. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Come on, Romans 11, verse 29. You might want to write it down somewhere. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. And let me tell you something, folks. Today has a date on it. That promise has a date on it. Three years ago, this morning, October 7th, 2023, terrorists from Gaza, Hamas and otherwise, broke out of Gaza into southern Israel. It was Shabbat. It was Temkatorah, the last day of the feast of booths, the very feast in verse 10 where Moshe, Moses, told Israel to leave to read this book aloud. Families were asleep in their homes. Young pil children were young young people. Teenagers and a little bit older. They were dancing at a music festival, celebrating peace. The most peaceful people in Israel, the ones who say they hold their hands up and say, hey, we don't want to fight with you. We want very much. We want very much. We want very much to get along, to help you. You might say many of them were deluded. Peacnicks, hippies. People that just wanted to be left alone and live off the land and care for each other. And many in their minds just denied what could happen, even though it seemed like every week they were getting bombed and rocketed prior to October 7, 2023. And then on that day, the terrorists murdered about 1,200 people. Holocaust survivors, grandmothers, and babies among them. And they dragged 251 hostages into Gaza. 251 hostages. They didn't keep them in prisons, they kept them in homes of regular people. And those regular people tortured them, orwarded them, and worse. It was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. Pharaoh tried to erase this people. Babylon tried. Rome burned their temple. Europe built the camps. But every one of those empires is gone, and Israel is still standing. On that black Shabbat, it may have felt like Esther Panim, the hidden face. But Lo Yarpika held. Two years later, every living hostage came home, and the families of the fallen have been carried, grief and all, by a nation that refuses to die. The people of Israel live. If you love this book, pray for the peace of Yerusalim today. Psalm 122, verse 6. The grip of God did not go slack on Israel, and it will not go slack on you. And verse 21, I know what they are inclined to do even today. The word is Yitir, the bent of the heart. He knew they'd fail before they crossed the river, and he brought them across anyway. So, let's bring it home. But they were never the one holding you. Moshe was an Israel's strength. The Lord went before them the whole time, and he's still here after the funeral, after the moving truck, after the last voicemail you cannot bring yourself to delete. He will not let you drop. Be strong and courageous. Not because you're ready, because he goes before you. what your intent is here. I see you in the live chat. I think at some point you get your own channel. And you not be rude and interrupt with stuff that's completely unrelated. I mean, you may be a frustrated teacher or preacher and not have a place to do it. You can start a YouTube channel, why not? But interrupting this channel? No. I just don't understand why people don't have respect and decency. This is part of the reason. This lesson today. Lessons didn't get handed down, and sometimes they got handed down, but they just didn't listen. So here's your step today. And it depends on which side of the chair you're on. If you're the one leaning, write Deuteronomy 31, verse 8, on a card before dark today, or before light if it's nighttime when you're listening. Deuteronomy 31, verse 8. Write it on a card. It is the Lord who goes before you. Set it where that person used to sit. You know, the one that you miss or you're about to say goodbye to. Read it out loud every time it catches your eye. And if you're the one carrying, do what Moses did. Before dark or light today, write one page where God carried you. And what he never let drop. Put one child or grandchild or nephew or niece's name on the envelope. And let the word outlive you. Now, I want you to watch something. Watch where this chapter leads. In Numbers 13, verse 16. Moses renamed Hoshea, Yhoshua. The Lord saves. Nehemiah 8, verse 17 calls him by the short form of that name. Yeshua, son of Nun. In Greek, Joshua and Jesus are one name. That's why Hebrews 4, verse 8 says, if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. Another Yeshua had to come. The night before the cross, Yeshua was the one leaving. John 14, verse 18, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Then Hebrews 13. Verse 8. It reaches back to this chapter and it hands it to you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. The Greek word for leave is annaimi. It is the word the Greek translation of Deuteronomy used for Rapha. To let go slack. And it sits right after. Keep your life free from the love of money. It's a promise for the man lying awake about provision. It's a promise for the woman lying awake wondering right now, how is this gonna be handled? How will this come through? How will I make it? Every leader you lean on one day will be gone. But God never will be. Yeshua never will be. The Holy Spirit, Rakakodesh, never will be. If you're watching on another platform, by the way, come sit with us at YouTube, True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S-H-J-N. It's the one with about 4,000 subscribers. That's where this family gathers every morning, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. And then on Sunday nights, we gather at 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. We go deep. Love to have you. The failure God saw coming in verse 21. He saw yours too. And he brought you a cross anyway. And the Yeshua who leads you home paid for everyone. He will not let you drop. I have. For you today, a challenge. And a choice. So here's the choice. You can keep putting your whole weight on people who were never built to carry it. And you can live afraid the day they're gone. Or you can lean on the one who goes before you. A gift. Not a God. A gift. The empty chair or the God who fills it. Where are you gonna lean today? Which one? The empty chair or the God who fills it? Put your weight there before you leave this room. Prayer is not asking for an easy journey. Prayer is asking for a strong back. Pray with me. Heavenly Father. Almighty God. Adun. Adunai aluin. Some of us are sitting across from an empty chair right now. Or a chair about to be empty. Some of us just stepped into one and we don't feel ready. And some of us can feel the ears creeping up on us. Thank you that Moshe was never the one holding Israel. I thank you that you were. Your grip never went slack and you never walked away. I ask that for the grieving, those grieving today, that you come close. For those of who are listening, that are afraid, give them comfort. Give them comfort. Let them know that you are present. Fill the silence where a powerful voice in their life used to be. And for those who are left behind who feel like they're carrying everyone, give them Joshua's courage, the kind that comes from knowing you. You go first. Heavenly Father, for the ones getting ready to leave. Help us to put your word in our children and our children's children's hands. And trust you with what we can't hold. We can't fix this world. Thank you for Yeshua, the greater Joshua, who promised he'd never leave us as orphans. And Father, finally, I pray for your chosen people then and now and always, your chosen people from whom we are grafted in. Thank you. Thank you for them. I pray, Father, that today, on this day, the horrific thing that was done to them, and yet they stand. I thank you for their strength, the hijacking that was intended to crash a plane with 170 souls on board, Jewish souls into Tel Aviv or Jordan. I thank you that brave people, including the Indian pilot, that fought. I pray that you heal him. I know that he has been lifted up by Israel, all of Israel, as a hero. Heal his body. And for those souls on board that came forward and fought, never again. Thank you for the strength of your people. Amcha Ishrael. I pray this in the name of your son Yeshua. Jesus, the Messiah. Amen. Maybe, maybe you've leaned your whole life on people. Human beings, we are fallible. And every one of them has left you, or they will. And those people that you look to, those people that you look to, and you say, I can't live without them. One day you will have to. Today you can lean on the one who will never leave you and will never forsake you. He's the only one who can make the promise of I will never leave you nor forsake you and keep it. I want you to pray this with me. Solve this problem. This is a problem that if you don't solve it today, you may not have another chance ever. And I mean that sincerely. Trust me. I say this from experience. Pray this with me. Solve it today. Put down your reluctance. Stop gambling with your eternity. Pray this. And mean it. Yeshua, I need you. Jesus, I ask that, I know that you're the risen Son of God. I know it. And I ask that you forgive me. I know that I'm a sinner. I know I have hurts, habits, and hangups. And I need your help. Please forgive me. Please fill me. Please lead me. Today I give my life to you. I surrender gladly. I am yours. In your matchless name, in the name of Yeshua, the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. If you prayed that today, you just put your whole weight on the one who will never let you drop. If you placed your faith in Christ today, whether live or on playback, put it in the comments or chat. Put the word never. So this whole family that's listening right now, over a thousand people right now that are listening, so that they can rejoice. The family can rejoice. All of heaven is rejoicing. Then I want you to tell one believer this week, somebody you know that's a believer. Listen, it doesn't matter how they respond, honestly, it doesn't. The point is to tell them. The point is to tell them. And if they don't respond well, just be gracious. You don't have to tell them the whole story. Just tell them today. I placed my faith in Christ. And if they respond well, let them walk beside you. I can help you as well. I can help you find the right Bible for you. I can help you find a church. No matter what country you're in, no matter what state you're in. I'll help you. I've helped countless others. I'm happy to help you. Listen, every leader you've ever leaned on was a gift to you. You didn't know it at the time. I look back on my life and I think, wow, was I ever blessed to have this person in my life. And when it's happening, you know something huge is happening. You know something huge is happening. Wow, this is a special person that's in my life. But then in the same breath, if if you're mature enough emotionally, mentally, spiritually, you realize this person will not be in my life forever. Not physically. One day it'll stop. One day the beating heart will stop. And one day you will stand beside their casket or their urn or their grave. And you will look around and you will say, How will I make it without them? And you may feel that God is hidden from you, but he may feel hidden for a season. But his grip never goes slack. Be strong and courageous, not because you're strong, but because he's there. In a moment you're going to hear the priest's blessing. May the Lord make his face shine upon you. The face he said he'd hide, he turns toward you in Yeshua. Tomorrow is a very special day. Tomorrow is Thursday, October 8th. In Deuteronomy 32, Moses sings the song God told him to leave behind. And he calls God by one name again and again, The Rock. Send this to someone sitting across from an empty chair today. Subscribe, tap the bell for all notifications so tomorrow finds you. Now I want you to receive this in his heavenly name and in Lashonho Padesh, Hebrew, the language of God. It's the language he spoke to his people, and it's the language his people spoke to him. It is the very language, and this is the very prayer that mid-sentence. Mid-sentence. Now I want you to receive this in his name. Don't panic. I'm going to pray it in Hebrew first. And then I will translate it. Are you ready? Shalom. 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 at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. If he tarries, if he gives me the opportunity to live one more day, I will be here. And I hope to see you here. Until tomorrow. Shalom Bashem Yeshua. Shalom.