HE CALLED FIRST!

Good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome. In just a few moments you'll be given the opportunity to pray with me for something very, very important. That's about to happen. Until then I want you to listen. Don't be distracted by anything.

We're gonna get after it. Even if you never say it. You've had the thought.

You never well, you never say it out loud.

For sure.

You've had the thought that if God is real, then getting to him that's on you. That he's up there, holy and far off, and you're the one who has to climb. You have to perform, you have to clean yourself up, you have to say the right words, prove you're serious enough. And maybe if you do enough of it, you'll finally turn.

And it's exhausting because the door never opens.

And the harder you push, the more sure you get that you have to make the first move. And honestly, you have no idea how a new book of the Bible opens today. And it opens on a man standing in exactly that spot. Locked out of a room full of God with no way in. And the first thing that happens is the last thing he'd expect. A voice comes from inside the room and it calls him by name. Can you imagine? By name. Before he'd figured out a single thing about the way in. I'm Dr. Sean, and this is true word, faith for life. Every weekday. Every weekday. True word, faith for life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N. I'm Sean. That's who I am. And every weekday we walk through the whole of Scripture one day at a time. In the Hebrew, in the Aramaic, and then when we get to the New Testament in the Koine Greek. And we do it in the world it was written in, always coming home to Yeshua. So today we open Leviticus, the book where a lot of people quietly give up. They just give up Leviticus. Skipping. So stay with me. It's not what you think. The link to my book, by the way, True Word Faith for Life, is down below in the show description and at TrueWordfaithforLife.com up in the store. Love for you to pick up a copy for you, for everyone else. And so Miss Sharon is here. She's waiting to go back to the surgeon and have this humongous surgery done. And she is plugged in and we are going to pray for her. Are you ready? We are storming the gates of heaven, Father. We are asking collectively for our dear sister, Miss Sharon, that as she awaits any moment now to go back and have this humongous surgery, that we know you know all the ins and outs of her body because you created it. And that even though it was it was so broken in something that was totally not her fault, that you know how to knit it back together. You know how to give her mobility, and you've preserved her in a crash that really should have killed her. She's here, spreading light, spreading love, spreading your light, spreading your love. You know what a faithful sister she is. You you convene with her every day throughout the day in her prayers and in her and her Bible reading and and and in her going and worshiping when she's able with her friends at Virginia Creek Ministries and going to the Bible studies and ministering to her family and her friends and to all those around her. Father, I ask, I'm asking you very plainly and very clearly that despite my sin, I ask that you forgive me of my sins, my hurts, my habits, and my hangups, so that my prayers might be heard on her behalf. I ask that you hear the many who are who are here praying, not just the ones in the live chat, but all the ones praying around the world who are listening right now, that you would exponentially multiply our prayers and hear our petition for our dear sister, Miss Sharon. And I pray that you would also bless her family as they're there and I'm sure they have concern. And I ask that you bless them, give them peace. I pray that the surgeons' hands would move with absolute perfection within the confines of humanity, but within the open possibilities of supernatural intervention. I pray that they they would operate in such a way that they would be amazed at how her surgery goes. We look forward to great updates, and we pray that you'd give our dear sister, Miss Sharon, peace in her sleep as they administer the anesthesia, and that she rests throughout, and she when she wakes, that they manage her pain, and that everyone that she deals with throughout this process within the medical community, everyone would just recognize the light that comes through her. We pray that this would be the beginning of many aspects of healing that you have for our dear sister Miss Aaron. We thank you for her. She has been a blessing to all who are blessed to know her. We pray this in your matless name. Amen. If you knew her, you'd understand why. You'd understand why. She is a precious soul. Nothing but love for so many people. I thank God that He is a God that listens. I'm glad y'all are here. Like I I have a I have a quick one for the chat before we start. And look, you can you can call this whatever you want to call it, and you can say, well, I don't like these probative questions, but you want to grow, that's kind of how it happens. Have you ever felt like it was all on you to get God's attention? Like reaching him was your job and you were failing miserably at it. If I could type in there, I don't want to type in there. Will you watch me right now? Amen. I'm telling you right now, that's that's me, man. All along, the whole way. Hey Jay Wheezy. Good to see you. It's an honor to have you. Thank you for joining us on the True Word Faith for Life channel, the uh the uh YouTube channel. True Word Faith for Life, the Dr. Sean S-H-A-W-N. It's the one with about 4,000. We have backup, we have backup channel, but um the one you want is the one with 4,013. I think it's 13 today. I don't know. It bumps around. Anyway, by the way, we continue to pray for the healing for Miss Cheryl and and uh and also for Linda. Miss Linda, we love you, we love you both, and and also for so many uh that that are, you know, you have prayers that you that you utter between you and God and and not here, and we respect that, then we know life ain't easy. We know it. And um, but we we continue to pray for you. So just know that you all are prayed for daily. And hello to all of you. I'm looking at a full, a full and vibrant chat. So how lovely to see you all, Robbie and Miss Susan. You know, we had a nickname. Uh Susan's uh mental acuity is extraordinary, and and her desire to learn is extraordinary. And it's funny because I developed a nickname for her in the Kehala that we used to do uh back in Delaware. We met, we met together, we ate a meal, it was beautiful and wonderful and amazing, and then and then we would, you know, we would go bro we would broadcast live, you know, live audience, and and it was fun all around everywhere. People listening in Belgium. We had a group of um we had a group of uh they were atheists and agnostic, and um 13 of them in that book club bought my book, my first book. I don't know why. I have no idea why they bought the book, but they did. I miss Nicole, and they bought my book and they read it, and my book had nothing to do with them being saved. They listened to our show, and we kind of called it Sundays with Dr. Sean back then, um, but it it was um God and country, the collision of faith and politics. And so there's a lot more, you know, high, high velocity politics in it. And so, anyway, my point is that um they listened and they began listening every week, and all 13 placed their faith in Christ. All 13. And uh that's exciting because in Belgium, you know, it's not a huge faith place, you know, it's not it's not really what they're about. And um, they used to be many, many years ago, you know, but um yeah. So anyway, so she was there, and we had a nickname for Susan, uh Skip Ahead Sue, because she her velocity and acuity of learning, she's a math teacher. Math teacher, holy moly, and um man, she could learn. She was she was always wanting to understand, and um, she always thought it was a little bit of an annoyance or interruption, but it wasn't. It was awesome. And um, so anyway, by the way, pray for Miss Colleen. Uh, she is having a rough time, she is sick, sick, sick, sick, sick. And uh, so we're praying A, that uh Miss Colleen heals up and the medicine works and all of that, and B, that Mr. Sean doesn't get sick because if Mr. Sean gets sick, well, yeah, Mr. Sean has no immune system to fight the battle. So the simplest thing can do me in. So we're just praying that that that does not happen. And um, but anyway, so there's lots and lots of um, lots and lots of instances that at the Khala that we had that were fun. But one of the memories I have too is, you know, Skipahead Sue used to sit up front and uh which her name is Susan, not Sue. And so, but Skip ahead Susan really is the more appropriate official nickname. And um, but Linda, who is listening now, and we continue to pray for you, uh, was back at the wood stove, Mr. and Mrs. Stabley, Jill and John Stabley, two of the greatest people ever, uh opened their magnificent home. And uh it was amazing. I'm telling you, it was utterly amazing. But they had this wood stove in the back and it overlooked this nature and this ravine, and we used to watch owls. We watched uh uh owls grow up, and and I was a nature photographer. You don't know how hard it was for me not to bring my camera and stop the presses and take photographs. And um, we had deer playing, and it was amazing. It was just amazing, anyhow. Linda and Miss Colleen and Doyle would sit back where that wood stove is, and boy, they would be toasty warm back there. And uh they're sketchy, sketchy crew back there. But anyway, um, and we had old Glow and we just that's right, best recliners ever back there. And um, we had old Glow and she was just something. She is just something. She's in her 90s, and we just adore. And uh anyway, so that's a memory of of the old Khala that we had, and uh we loved it, and it went out to you know millions of people, which is crazy. Just crazy. Anyway, so so the the question I asked is a real question, right? All of them are real, but this one kind of guts you. Have you ever felt like it was all on you to get God's attention? Like reaching him was your job and you were failing at it. That's you, type yes. Type yes, I typed yes because that's me. So anyway, you're gonna want to hear how this book opens. We're starting sort of a new deal here. Right? We're starting this new deal, and this is a tricky part. It's a tricky part. It's it's it's uh wow. I think um, I think it's this is this is this is something profound, I will say. Remember where we stopped yesterday? The glory of God filled the tabernacle so completely that Moses, Moshe, the friend of God, the man who walked into the fire on the mountain for 40 days, stood at the door and couldn't go in. That's where Exodus Ekodos Shemot ends. God is here, gloriously here, in the middle of the camp, and nobody can get to him, not even Moses. So, how does the next book open? Chapter 1, verse 1. The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. He called from inside. The first word of this whole book in Hebrew is varikra, varikra, and it means, and he called. And that's the name the Jewish people have always given this book. Varikra. Do you feel the grace in that? Moses is standing outside a tent full of glory with no idea how to get in, and God doesn't wait for him to work it all out. He doesn't say, Hey, figure it out, bruh. Impress me. No, God speaks first. He calls Moses by name from inside the very glory that's keeping him out. And then he spends the entire book telling him exactly how to come to him. So let's walk into the offerings, right? And remember, on Sunday, 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, I have laid out a uh Sunday summation and deepening that I think you're really gonna love. Um, yeah, it's cool, and we're working on the blog post and study guide. I redid it because I'm a weirdo and yeah, I'm a weirdo. Anyway, by the way, those who are listening from the Kala, do you remember the time? There's two times we never coordinated uh meals. One time we had all desserts, and another time we had all fried chicken. It was a fried chicken fest. A lot of times we would have people would bring homemade things from home, and people, somebody drove from Tennessee to Delaware, didn't know us at all, but they listened to the show and just showed up one night. And there were so many guns in that room. Are you kidding me? Including me. And uh we're like, who's this guy? And um, sure enough, you know, he said, I listened to the show and I wanted to come see if this was real. Like you guys talk about the meal you have together. He ended up that night sleeping in my home. Yeah, he was just gonna sleep in his truck and then drive the rest of the way home. Or get a uh get a little uh motel room, and we became friends. Wow, right? It's crazy. So let's walk into the offerings because there are three today, and they build on each other. The first in chapter one is the burnt offering. The Hebrew here is Olah, Spadayin Lamed He, from Allah to go up to ascend. Because the whole thing goes up in smoke. It's the only offering completely consumed, nothing kept back, nothing left over. All of it goes up. There's a gesture in verse four you absolutely cannot miss. Right? Let me just say, people skip over Leviticus, right? They skip over it. They don't want to, I don't want to read that. You skip over it because they say, it's not my bag. It's okay. It's okay, but you're missing a lot. As long as you understand it, all right? If you don't understand it, you you yeah, you're skipping over it mostly because you don't understand what you're reading. But once you understand it, you understand. Ooh, how about Leviticus right after? Right after Exodus. This gesture in verse 4, I gotta tell you, it's beautiful. He shall lay his hand on the head of the offering, and it shall be accepted, accepted for him to make atonement for him. The Hebrew for that laying of the hand is samach. And it isn't a light touch, it isn't a pat. It means to lean, to press your weight down onto something. Picture it. The man presses his hand down on the animal's head and leans. And in that moment, the two are bound together. This one is standing in for me. What happens to it should have happened to me. And the text says it's accepted for him, not because he was good enough, not because he climbed high enough, because the real reason is because a substitute took his place. The whole thing goes up, as in Hebrew, a reach nichoak. Now, here's a place worth watching your translations. The English Standard Version calls it a pleasing aroma. The NASB, New American Standard Bible, calls it a soothing aroma. And that def and that difference, it absolutely matters. Because the root is niwach. To rest, the same root under the name Noah.

It isn't just that God likes nice smelling things. It's an aroma of rest.

Something is finally settled between God and this person. The striving is over because it came the way he said, leaning their whole weight on a substitute. Now look at something so tender. Most people it's so tender, most people just rush right past it. The offering can come from the herd, a bull, if you have it, or from the flock, a sheep or a goat, if you don't. Or, verse 14, if a person can afford neither, turtle doves or young pigeons, birds. The wealthy man brings a bull, the poor man brings a bird, and the text calls both. An aroma of rest to the Lord. God won't run a system where only the well-off get to come near. The bird wasn't a lesser atonement, it was exactly the same. It wasn't a second-class welcome. It was exactly the same. It was the same access at a price the poorest hands could pay. And I have to tell you, I have to tell you where this shows up later. Because it undid me the first time I made the connection. When Yeshua was born. When Yeshua was born, Miriam, Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary and Joseph went up to the temple to make his offering, and Luke records, the Gospel of Luke records exactly what they brought.

Ooh. Not a lamb.

A pair of turtle doves. A pair of turtle doves. The savior of the world. She's just given birth.

And yet they're poor. They are poor.

Not a lamb. A pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons, the poor families offering. The very Son of God, our Redeemer, our Savior. He was born into a family that couldn't even afford a lamb. And that's exactly right, because they didn't need to afford a lamb. Because the lamb was already asleep in their arms. Then chapter 2. And the tone changes completely here because this offering has no blood in it at all. It's the minchach. Mincha, the grain offering, fine flour, oil, frankincense. A handful is burned. The rest goes to the priests. And what is grain? Grain is work. Somebody plowed and planted and waited through a season and harvested, ground it by hand. This is the offering of a person's labor. Their ordinary working days lifted up and handed to God. So right beside the offering of life, God makes room for you to bring the fruit of your week and say, This is mine, and it's yours. No leaven, no honey. But verse 13 requires one thing: season all your grain offerings with salt. The salt of the covenant. Salt preserves. Salt is what ancient people used to seal an agreement meant to last. A life, not just to meant to last until somebody changed their mind. We're talking about a lifetime and beyond. An agreement, a covenant that had eternal implications to it. Salt, that's what they used to seal it. Your work, brought to God, is sealed with permanence. What you hand him doesn't rot. And then chapter three. And this is where it lands. And it's my favorite of the three. And I bet if I was a baton man, I would bet maybe some of you this might become your favorite too.

But it doesn't have to be. The peace offering.

The Hebrewish shalomim. And you can hear it in the word. It's built on shalom. Wholeness, well-being, nothing missing, nothing broken. And here's what makes it different from everything else in these chapters. The peace offering is eaten. The fat portions go up to God. A portion goes to the priest, and the rest goes back to the family. And they sit down and they eat it. Right there, in the presence of God. It's a meal. God and the priest and the family all sharing one sacrifice at one table. Very similar to what we did. Hey Jeffrey. Hey, thanks for joining on YouTube there. Appreciate it. And thank you for Chiming Wong 1539. Listening all the way from Malaysia. Malaysia, tough times right now in Malaysia. We are concerned. So may I just say I mentioned the Kehala earlier. And in the Kehala, we ate a meal together. And it was the most beautiful thing. Lots of laughing. We had a great time. It was so fun. And we prayed. And we had joy together. Hello, Michelle. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Listening from True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. Thank you all for joining us. If you haven't hit subscribe and hit the little bell and the thumbs up, I'd love for you to do that. It helps us massively. You have no idea. I say that all the time, and people think it's just something you say. It's not true. It's a thousand percent critically important. It's the closest thing in the entire New Testament to a dinner table with God Himself seated at the head of it. So I want you to look at the three together because the order isn't random. The burnt offering, I give you all of me, resting my whole weight on a substitute, the grain offering. I give you the work of my hands, my ordinary days, the peace offering, and now we sit down and we eat together. My friends, that's the Christian life in three movements. If this has never been taught to you this way before, don't throw rocks at your old teachers. That happens a lot. Uh we have that happen, and people go, oh, why didn't my why didn't my pastor or my Sunday school teacher, my blah blah blah, why didn't they ever teach me this? Like they were intentionally leaving it out. They didn't, they don't know. They don't know. And that's okay. It's okay. This is a deep thing. There's nothing easy about this. Nothing easy at all. I want you to give them some grace there. I didn't know either. Until a few decades ago when I started studying it. I ran up on this one professor named Dr. Skip Mowen. Hardest professor I've ever had in my life. He's a little bit like hugging a cactus. He stayed in my home. He's he's a brain of just you're around that level of intelligence. You're around something different. Until he became my professor. Yeah. I had no idea about any of this. And when I first heard it, I was mad. The ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context. He break worldview. I was mad. I was like, come on now. You're asking me to turn away from everything else. And then I thought, man, at Masters, how did this guy get in? So different. Well, it sunk in. So I want you to understand, this is different. It is a different teaching. But I don't want you to get angry. Hey, Gary, I don't want you to get angry at your past teachers because they don't know what they don't know, and that's okay. I'm no smarter than them. Most of them probably know more than I'll ever, or forgotten more than I'll ever know. This is just what God has called me to do. I'm excited that you're here. Three movements here. Three movements. Surrender, then daily faithfulness, then fellowship at his table. And notice where it ends. It ends at a table. Every single time God draws people to himself, it ends at a table. Amen, Gary. My people perish for lack of knowledge. So I want to bring this back to that thought from the top of the episode, you remember? The exhausting belief that reaching God is all on you. Here's the truth of this book. Here's the truth the book opens with, right? It shows us in the very beginning. And I want you to let it land on you sweetly. You have never once initiated with God. Not one time in your entire life. He called Adam in the garden. He called Adam in the garden. Where are you? He called Abram out of Ur. Moses. Called to from a burning bush. Samuel by name in the dark. Zacchaeus. Down of a tree. And he called you. Long before you ever thought to go looking for him, he called you. And the door you have worn yourself out pushing against, the one you were, the one you were dead sure you had to force open from your side. It opened from the inside a long time ago. The voice you were straining to reach has been calling your name the entire time. You didn't find God. He found you. He found you at the kitchen sink, in the hospital hallway, in the car in the driveway with the engine off and your hands still clenched on the wheel. He called first. He always calls first. And I want you to carry it all the way through the weekend. Amen. He stands at the door and knocks. Amen. Thank God. I want you to carry what I'm about to say all the way through the weekend. We're going to gather back here Sunday at 6.30, Lord willing, 6.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time for the Sunday summation and deepening. And a little preview of what's coming next week. Stop trying to reach up. Stop trying to reach up and just find a breath of peace and stillness. And just answer. God is calling you. Just answer. Take one ordinary piece of your day, the work you actually did, a task, a shift. At your job, you think, oh, God's not in this. This is this is my work. This is my regular life, church, and well, my relationship with God. Well, that's different. No, it's the same. It's all the same. A chore, maybe. Maybe something you've made. Or fixed or cleaned or carried. My buddy over the past few days has made the most amazing thing. His wife asked him, I'm not going to say his name. His wife asked him to make uh, I don't even 100% know what you call it, just like a dumbbell weight stand. She wanted to buy it. She didn't ask him to make it, she wanted to buy it. He said, buy it. And he had he had saved the metal legs or the you know the things from a bed of his one of his parents who has passed. And he just, for whatever reason, see, he saves metal and and uh he's taught himself how to weld. And over the past few days, I've watched him build a dumbbell rack for his wife, and it's beautiful. He transformed what would have been trash to anybody else into something beautifully useful. So today, out loud, I want you to hand it to God as His. Say it plainly. This is mine and it's yours. That's the grain offering. Then do it again tomorrow and again the day after, every day until the next time we're together. One ordinary thing, lift it up and hand it over. You're not performing to get noticed. It's between you and God. You're someone that has already been called, and you're bringing the fruit of ordinary life, ordinary days, to the God who called you first. One thing out loud today and every day until we meet again. And now let me bring it all home. Because Yeshua's all three offerings at once. He is the burnt offering. The apostle Paul or Shaol writes that Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering, a sacrifice to God. That's this exact language. Reach Nihwaq. Lifted straight out of Leviticus I and laid on the wood of the cross, holy given, nothing held back.

And the Father was pleased. He is the substitute your hand leans on.

What the worshiper did. I don't know, can you imagine? What the worshiper did, hand pressed down on the animal's head, whole body leaning, saying, This one goes in my place. That's exactly what you do with your whole weight when you place your faith in Yeshua. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The perfect life, the flower with no leaven in it anywhere. And he is our peace offering. Shalom bought and paid for. And what does he do with the peace he purchased? He sets a table. On the night he was betrayed, he took bread. And to anyone who will open the door, he says, I will come eat, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. At the very end of the whole story, there's a wedding supper, and we're not the help. We're the guests. He called first. He has always called first. He's already been the offering. Every one of them. So that there's nothing left for you to bring to that table except yourself. Come lean your weight on him. Come and eat. So, here's the choice. It's the one you'll be sitting with. Keep pushing on a door you were never meant to open from your side. Performing for a God you are convinced you have to impress. Or hear that he already called your name. The way in is already open. The offering is already made. And the seat at the table already has your name on it. One road. One road keeps you outside and exhausted for the rest of your life. The other one ends with you sitting down to eat. And if you've never once answered the door, the one, you've never once answered the one who has been calling you, you can answer him today. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. Now let's focus. Let's focus in. Let's let the agendas that the silos that we all come with, the fiefdoms we all come with, the thing that we're into, let any of the distractions fall away. And let's pray, Father, we thank you that you call first. Thank you that while we were wearing ourselves out trying to reach you, you are already speaking our name from inside the room. For the one listening right now who's been so tired, so sure that getting to you was all on them. Let them hear your voice, the voice that's been calling them the whole time. I ask that you quiet every other voice and let them hear their own name and yours. Thank you that you you built a ladder all the way down so that the poorest hands could reach, that you became the offering yourself so that there'd be nothing left for us to carry, and that you set a table and pulled out the chair and called us to sit down and eat. In the name of Yeshua, we pray. Amen. And if today is the day you stop trying to. Reach up and you simply answer the God who has been calling you by name. Then I want you to pray this with me. Don't just read it. I want you to mean it. Pray it with me. You've put it off for so long. Why put it off another day, another minute, another second? Pray this with me, Yeshua. I need you. I need your forgiveness for my sins, my hurts, my habits, and my hangups, and I ask you for it. I believe you died and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Forgive me, fill me, lead me. However it looks, I don't know all the answers. But I'm following you. I pray this in your name. Amen. If you prayed that and you meant it, then the one who called you has become your offering and your peace. And there is a seat for you at his table with your name on it. Don't sit with this alone. Tell somebody today. Doesn't matter how they respond. Then you can message if you want. Message me through true wordfaithforlife.com, true wordfaithforlife.com under contact, or you can leave me a voicemail inside. It's only two minutes. It's your two minutes, it's free. You don't have to pay for it. I pay for it, so you don't have to. Tell somebody today. Don't worry about how they'll respond. Message me. Tell a believer you trust. I don't, however, you want to do it. Tell someone. And then if you need help, I'll help you find a fellowship where the word is opened and the table is set. No, it will not be a perfect church. Sorry. None of them are. The God who called from inside the glory made the whole way himself, and he is calling you by name to come and eat. So stop pushing on the door. It opened from the inside a long time ago. You were never the one who had to reach. He became the offering. He set the table. All that's left is to answer. Lean your weight on him and come and eat. Tell them that the door already opened. Tell them he already called first. Tell them there's a seat with their name on it, or just send them the episode and say, hey, I thought you might like this. Now I want you to receive this blessing in his heavenly name and in Leshon Hokodesh, which means the language of God. That's what God spoke to his people, and that's what his people spoke to him. Are you ready? Until Sunday, by the way, 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m., we're here. Eastern, all times Eastern. Also, forgot to mention, we're on every podcast portal there is. True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean S A T W N. Click on follow, subscribe, add to list, whatever. You ready? Here we go. 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. Till we meet again. Shalom Bishem Yeshua. Shabbat Shalom.