How Do You Know You're Safe?

Good morning. Here we go. I hope you're ready. You're gonna drink from a fire hose this morning. And pretty much every day this week at 7 a.m. Take a deep breath. Here we go. You've done everything right. And you still don't feel sure. You've prayed the prayer. You've made the change. You've made that that change that you promised God you'd make. You've done the thing that you were told to do. Right? And somewhere underneath all of it, a quiet voice kept asking. But what if what if it's not enough? What if I'm missing something? Israel, well their their fur their first Passover. What a story. Israel's first Passover was never going to rest on how anybody felt that night. It rested on the blood, painted across a door frame. Whether the family inside felt safe, felt brave, or if they were terrified. Well, today we we find out what actually made a household safe. And by the way, it wasn't confidence. It wasn't feelings. I'm Dr. Sean. It's true Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, and ironically, I am Dr. Sean. This is day 65. Some of you listening, I see the numbers here. You've listened to every single one. God bless you. That's amazing. Here's what I think. I'm impressed every time I see that. Day 65, Exodus 12, the first 13 verses, we're standing at the doorway of the most important night in Israel's history. Wow, I guess we should pay some attention to it. The most important night in Israel's entire history. The night everything changes. And well it starts with a lamb chosen four days before anyone needed it. Did you know that? Four days they choose a lamb. That's powerful knowledge. We're gonna get to the root of that here in a second. My book, True Word Faith for Life. It's available. There's links, blah, blah, blah. There was a thing that popped up as you started watching products thing. There's a little link down in the bottom. You click on that, that'll take you right to it. Um, love for you to buy it. There's a link if you want to go to my website, true wordfaith for life.com, it's right there. Get a copy, maybe get one for somebody who's still trying to feel their way into assurance instead of standing on it. Today's question. By the way, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, whenever you're listening. But the folks, some folks are listening, it's three or four o'clock in the morning where they live, and they have woken up as they do almost every day, so that they can be here alive. Something special going on here. So, today's question: how do you know you're safe? How do you know you're safe? Let's go in. You ready? God gives Moses Moshe and Aaron. Give them something. Something unusual. Before a single instruction about the lamb, there's a calendar. This month will be the first month of the year for you. God says resetting time around what is about to happen. Don't miss that. Resetting time. God can do whatever he wants. He's the one that created it all. He can reset time if he wants to. On the tenth day of the month, each household is to select a lamb, a year old, without defect. And here's the detail we're slowing down on. They don't kill it that day. They keep it. Four full days, watching it, feeding it, living alongside it, before it's slaughtered at twilight on the fourteenth. Good morning, Linda. Slaughtered at twilight on the fourteenth. Once it's killed, the blood goes on the doorframe, the sides, and the top, using a branch of hyssop. Hmm. Wonder why. The lamb itself is roasted whole over fire. It's never boiled. It's never eaten raw. It's served with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. They're told to eat it already dressed for travel. Cloak tucked into their belt. Sandals on their feet, staff in hand, reading. Well, maybe not reading. I don't think they I don't think they had a moose works Bible. I don't think they had this. But they had something else. You see, they were living the Bible. Good morning, Russ. Good to have you. See, here's the thing. They're standing there, ready for travel, ready to roll. Like they're getting ready to roll right on out that door. And they're eating in haste. God tells them exactly what the blood's for. It's a sign on the houses where you live. When I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Wow. Wow.

Three details in in these 13 verses carry more weight than their length suggests. Look, it's a short, short bit, but there's a lot to it. If you understand the ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context, you'll realize, oh, there's a lot more there. If only we knew. Well, you're in luck. Happens to be my specialty. First, the four days. God could have told Israel to grab any lamb, any available lamb. On your way out the door, grab you a lamb. He didn't. He built in a waiting period. Time to actually look at the animal. To know it wasn't broken. To be certain of what was about to stand in for them. This animal, this lamb lived with them for four days. They knew the lamb had no idea. Whatever's gonna cover you, it needs to be examined before the crisis, not scrambled for in the middle, in the middle of it. Second, and and this is easy to miss reading quickly. Oh, I gotta tick this box. I gotta hurry and touch this box and read this passage kinda. Maybe I understand it, maybe I don't. But I just tick in that box. Maybe I skip over a few because I'm I'm a little bit behind on my reading through the Bible in a year, because I want to be able to finish and say, I read the Bible in a year. But do we want to understand the Bible? Well, here's your sign. The blood was never information God needed. He already knew which houses belonged to him. Scripture says plainly, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. That's not God checking a list that maybe he's somewhat uncertain about. That's God giving Israel something visible, something physical, something undeniable, so that on the worst night in their history, their assurance wouldn't have to rest on how confident they felt in the dark. It could rest on what was actually on the door. And third, hi Susan, good morning. Good morning, Tammy. Good morning, Robbie. Hello all. Third, notice how they're told to eat this meal. Dressed, girded, sandals already on. Are you kidding me? Staff in hand, ready to move the instant the word came. Look, this wasn't some leisurely dinner. It was a meal eaten standing up at the door of freedom. Because this is a different day. Because faith that is real doesn't just believe deliverance is coming. Real faith doesn't just believe it's coming, it gets dressed for it in advance. Put together, this passage says something that it holds for every generation since. The covering that saved you was chosen deliberately, verified in advance. It was never meant to be, it was, it was never meant to be about how sure you felt. That real faith should feel more solid than this. But Israel safety that night. Oh my, Israel safety that night. It never depended on how brave anybody in that house felt. Some of those families were almost certainly terrified. You would be too, so would I, listening to the wailing start in the streets outside, wondering if they remembered every instruction correctly. Did I do it right? The fear didn't move the blood, the blood was already on the door. This is where a lot of us get stuck. We treat assurance like a feeling we're supposed to manufacture, and when we can't manufacture it, we assume our faith must be fake. But assurance was never supposed to be the feeling in the first place. It's supposed to be a fact you keep coming back to when the feeling isn't there, when that emotion isn't there, when the when the worship music isn't perfect, when the preacher isn't letting it rip. Well, I feel the I feel the presence of the Lord in the house tonight. No, no, no, no, no. This is what it's about, these moments. The obedience. I want you to notice the four days again. You ready? Because it matters here too. If Israel had grabbed any lamb in a panic on the 14th, they'd have had no idea if it was actually without blemish. They'd have no idea. Oh, I better hurry up and get a lamb. Slaughter it so I can put some blood on the door. They would have no idea if it was actually perfect, actually sufficient, actually gonna hold. Why did they know it? How could they know it? Because they'd already examined it for four days. What have you been trusting that you've never actually examined? Listen, your faith will never be great. Never will be. It'll never be solid if you don't read your Bible. Sorry to tell you, if your Bible's dusty somewhere, you don't even not really sure where it is. If you don't study the word, I'm telling you will not have the benefit of assurance. Examine his word. Examine what has God already given you time to verify. If only you'd stop long enough to look. I love how this goes. And maybe you do too. Every detail in this chapter was written centuries before anyone could have staged it to fit. Oh, understand. Understand, this was written hundreds of years before anyone could go, you know, there's this thing gonna happen. Let's put it in there. Just so when folks are reading it, they'll be like, ooh, I'm gonna get a part of this. I'm gonna get on in this church, I'm gonna get on in this building. No, it's possible. It was impossible. Hundreds of years. Wasn't staged defend, you can trust it. A lamb without defect, examined in advance, killed at twilight, its blood applied so that the judgment would move past everyone under it. The apostle Paul or Shaol, he doesn't leave this to guesswork. He doesn't leave this connection to hmm. He writes plainly, Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. Yeshua wasn't a spontaneous substitute grabbed at the last second to solve an unexpected problem. He was chosen before the very foundation of the world, examined by every test the accusers could throw at him, and found without a single defect. Unlike us, and just like the blood in Egypt, his blood was never information God needed. God has always known exactly who belongs to him. The blood is for you. The same way it was for the household on the worst night Egypt ever saw. Something visible, something you can actually point to on the nights your feelings can't be trusted. You know, your feelings very often cannot be trusted. Emotions very often cannot be trusted. The Lamb was chosen before the foundation of the world. The blood was never for God's information, it was for your assurance on every night that your feelings can't be trusted to tell you the truth. Praise the Lord. Welcome, Barrath from India. Welcome, welcome, welcome. It's good to have you. Barath underscore 916. Look, this is why you don't feel I'll just say it. That's why you don't have to feel safe to be safe. You have to be covered. Those are two different things. And only one of them was ever the actual condition for surviving the night. Come on. You say, I want a concrete way. I want a way that I can believe. I want a way that I can obey. Well, here it is. You ready? Here it goes first. Stop waiting to feel sure before you believe you're covered. Go back to what's actually true. Go back to what Yeshua actually did, what Jesus Christ actually did, and let that be the ground you stand on instead of your emotions on any given day. Second, or your mood, by the way. Moods lie, emotions lie, they all lie. Second, examine what you're already trusting, the way Israel examined the Lamb for four days. Is it Yeshua's finished work, or is it something else you've quietly substituted? Maybe it's your own performance, maybe it's your own good intentions, something that was never meant to hold this kind of weight. You say, ooh, examine, I don't know. That feels kind of like, mm, I don't judgy. Guess what? Guess what? You say you don't have time to read your word. You have five minutes in the morning. You say, Well, I don't have five minutes. It's so close, I barely make it to work. Listen, set that alarm. Wake up 5, 10. How many ever minutes early? Get up and read it. You say, why do I have to do it in the morning? Why can't I do it and get home from work? Start your day the right way. Do it the right way. Examine the word every day. Five minutes. I'm not asking you for an hour. I'm asking you for five minutes. You want to know what obedience feels like? It's that. Third, get dressed for the door. Get dressed for the door. By the way, I just I just want to say this really quick. Your own emotions, your own performance, your good intentions, what you feel like you want to do. Um, but I've 916, you can contact me through True Word Faith for Life. Hit on the True WordFaithforLife.com, go to the contact uh thing, the button at the top, or there's a voice thing on the side. It's two-minute voicemail you can leave. Everything is free. Click on that, but I would suggest clicking on the contact thing and then sending it to me. As soon as I receive it and I'm able to respond, boom, I will respond to you. By the way, we have other listeners in in India as well. Um, I wonder if you'll share what part of India you're in. We have uh some folks in Chennai, um, a couple other places too. So it's good to have you. It's an honor. Good morning, Miss Colleen. So listen, you you can say, and I a hundred percent get it. I do, I a hundred percent get it. I hundred percent get that you say, look, man, I get that you say I need to do this. I get that you say that, but guess what? I don't have time. I don't, I, I'm not a reader. I'm not a reader, I just don't, I just don't read. Oh my goodness. Don't you know there's people in countries that are clamoring for a book to read? My book sells, true word, faith for life, sells better in places that are so impoverished, and yet they'll buy a book because they believe it'll help them. Not just my book, other books. We just cast it aside. We say, well, you know, I'll just look at it on the app. I'm not against audiobooks. I'm not, not at all. Audio Bibles, not against it at all. But you need to have an actual Bible and you need to take the time, just a few minutes. Oh, God went to the cross for you, was tortured, and died for you. I mean, can't you can't manage five minutes? Good intentions mean nothing. Doesn't have the kind of weight that's needed for this. Number three, get dressed for the door. Listen, Israel ate that meal standing up, ready to move. Don't live like someone waiting to find out if deliverance is coming. Live like somebody already dressed for it. I have for you this morning a challenge, and I have for you a choice. Have you been chasing a feeling of safety instead of resting on the fact of your covering? What have you been trusting that never act you you never once actually stopped to examine? If in this episode, If today were the night everything changed, if today were the day everything changed, would you be found already dressed and ready, or still scrambling to figure out if you're actually covered? Here's the choice in front of you. Keep measuring your safety by how sure you feel. Feel in the dark, or plant your feet on what's actually true, what has been examined for millennia, chosen, and finished before you ever needed it. Come on, somebody. Somebody. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Yeshua, thank you that our safety was never meant to rest on our feelings, that you gave us something visible and true to stand on instead. Thank you for the Lamb, chosen before the foundation of the world, examined and found without defect given for us. Father, I pray for everyone who's been chasing a feeling of assurance that they can't seem to manufacture. Please, Father, show them now that the blood was never about how they felt. For everyone ready to stop scrambling and start standing on what is true, I pray that you meet them right there where they are, in Yeshua's matchless name. Amen. Now, let me just say, and this is important. If you've never actually been covered, if you spent your whole life trying to feel your way into safety instead of standing on what's already finished, today's the day that changes. I want you to pray this with me. Listen, you're talking to the risen Lord, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. Privilege. There is a privilege in this that is extraordinary. It is extraordinary. You pray this prayer and you mean it. You're speaking to God. Make sure you mean it. Yeshua, Jesus, pray it with me. You're talking to him. This is not fluffy, speaking to the risen Lord, the one who gave everything for you. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and you rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Please forgive me. Fill me. Lead me. I'm yours. In your heavenly name. Amen. If you just prayed that prayer, welcome to the family. Go to true wordfaithforlife.com slash contact or just press the button at the top or the little voicemail thing on the side. You only have two minutes, your two minutes. Use it wisely. I want to help you. I want to help walk with you from here. I'm sure you have a million questions. And even if you don't, if you need help, get a hold of me. I'd love to help you. Look, if this is your first time tuning into us, we've been walking through scripture. We call it um uh you know, through the Bible in a year, walking the story of God. That's what we've been doing. It's day 65. Go to True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean S H A W N, the YouTube channel, about 4,000 subscribers. Um, go to that and click on subscribe, click on the little bell, and um, you know, with for all notifications, good to go. Good to go. Yeah, you'll get notifications the whole bit. Plug in the true wordfaithforlife.com. It's all free. It's all free. Can't beat that price. So if if this is your first time with us, go back to day one. You can listen as we go and go back day one. Maybe it'll cost you two episodes a day, time. But you know what? I gotta tell you, we're on every audio-only podcast that exists. The big ones, the little ones you've never heard of. You know, we're on Spotify, we're on iHeartRadio, we're on Apple Podcasts, we're on, you know, iTunes, whatever it's called. We're on all of them. You name it. Join us. Usually about an hour, hour and a half after the episode, I have to edit it and download it and let it settle and process and all that. And then once I do, boom, I pop it on there and you're good to go. You're ready to go. So you can listen to them as you're doing other things on whatever player you like. Whew. The Bible chronologically, starting at Genesis, started day one. Walk with us from the beginning. Four days with the Lamb before the blood ever touched the door. Not a scramble, not a guess, a covering. Examined, chosen, and found without the effect. You don't have to feel safe to be safe. You just have to be covered. And you already are. If you'll stand on what's true instead of what you feel today. Maybe you know somebody. You know somebody. They've been exhausting themselves trying to feel sure. Instead of standing on what is true, send them this one. Tell them you don't have to feel safe to be safe. You just have to be covered. Now, I'm going to pray a blessing over you. It's going to be first in Hebrew, which is the language of God, and then I'm going to translate it. I'm nobody special. Me praying this over you is not a big deal. I just like to pray it over you so that you start your day or your night or your afternoon, whenever you're listening to this, blessed in the name of the Lord. Are you ready? May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Until tomorrow at seven AM Eastern Standard Time. Shalom.

Shalom Bishem Yeshua.