Inside the Promise: Why does it still HURT?

Day fifty-four. We've made it through a lot. And now it's gonna accelerate. It's gonna get a little harder. Exodus one. Two names. One book. Two names that tell you two entirely different stories about what you are about to walk into. The Greeks call it Exodus, the going out, the departure, the escape. That name focuses on the movement, the drama, the miracle, the exit. But the Hebrews had an entirely different name for this book. Shemut. Names. These are the names. And that is how this book opens in Hebrew, not with a map of escape routes, not with a battle plan, not with a triumphant declaration, with names, the names of real people, covenant people, people God had not forgotten. And right there, before we read a single verse, before Pharaoh opens his mouth, before one brick is laid, before one baby is threatened, God has already told you everything you need to know about this book. Exodus says, watch what God does. Shemot says, watch who God remembers. This is not just the story of a great escape. This is the story of the God who knows your name. Glory to God. Thank you, Father. Glory to God. People just brush over the book of Exodus, and many, many people brush over the entire Old Testament. But as you've seen, we spend fifty-three days learning the foundation of our faith. From the very beginning, and now we are deep in the struggle. But the struggle isn't the story. Not at all. It's what God does in the struggle of his faithful people. Shalom. Shalom. Welcome to True Word, Faith for Life. With Dr. Sean, I'm Dr. Sean. Today is day 54, and we step across one of the greatest thresholds in all of Scripture. Genesis is behind us. Fifty-three days, creation, fall, floods, nation. Nations. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, covenant, wound, preservation, forgiveness, hope, a coffin in Egypt. And now Exodus opens, not with triumph, not with rescue, not with the Red Sea parting, with names and multiplication, and a new king who doesn't know Joseph. And a people inside God's promise who are about to suffer deeply. That is where we begin. Welcome. Thank you for joining us today. There are the names. The Hebrew title Shemut comes from the very first words of the book. These are the names of the sons of Israel. These are the names of the sons of Israel. And then Scripture lists them, and we won we learned an awful lot about them along the way in those fifty-three days. We learned a lot about them. Scripture lists them. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Ishar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Natalie, God, Asher. It may feel like a repetition from Genesis, but it's not. It is covenant with continuity. And God doesn't begin the story of redemption with statistics. He begins with names. And the names matter. Because names matter. People matter. You matter. In Egypt, Israel will be, and listen, you're never going to understand your worth to God until you understand. Until you understand how these people mattered. In Egypt, Israel will be reduced to labor units, a population problem, a national security threat, a workforce to be managed, a community to be crushed. Oppression always begins the same way. It strips the name, it replaces the person with a category. But before Pharaoh ever counts them as a threat, God has already named them as his people. And that is the first act of resistance in the book of Exodus. Not a sword. Not a protest. Not a confrontation. A name. Shemut. Systems still do this, do they not? They reduce people. They still reduce people. To votes. To numbers. Consumers. Problems. Content, labor, and liabilities. But the God of Shemot, he knows your name. He's not managing a mass. He's keeping covenant with real people. Good morning. Good morning to you all. So nice to see you. Listen, we're streaming to multiple locations here. Uh looks like we're streaming to eight locations. Um, the true word faith for life with Dr. Sean YouTube channel. We're streaming to Facebook where Lynette is listening from, uh, the YouTube channel where uh 2B Continued25 is listening from, and several others here. Oh, it's interesting. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for hitting the thumbs up. I appreciate that. That helps massively. So here we go. Most people skip over Exodus. We make a huge mistake by doing that. So then the text tells us that Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly and multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them, and that language is deliberate. That language is so on purpose. Be fruitful and multiply. Good morning, Susan. Good morning, Linda. God bless you both. Good morning, Joe. Good morning, Lynette. Good morning, Miss Colleen. How's the sound? I forgot to even ask. Be fruitful and multiply. That's creation language. It's covenant language. The promise God made to Abraham is visibly, undeniably, unstoppably being fulfilled right there in Egypt. God's word is working even when God's people are not yet free. And then comes the turn. A new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. This doesn't necessarily mean he never had heard the name. It means the memory of Joseph's saving role no longer shaped royal policy. Thank you very much, all my excellent sound technicians. The memory of Joseph, so important. What he did, his role in all this. No longer shaping royal policy. The gratitude was gone. The history was erased. Yesterday's deliverer had become today's forgotten foreigner. And that is how quickly cultures can turn. Pharaoh looks at Israel, and what does he see? Good morning, Nicole. It's four in the morning where Nicole is listening from. She wakes up to listen to this live. What a blessing. You all are a blessing. I hope you don't ever think that you're not a blessing. You are. So Pharaoh looks at Israel, and what does he see? Too many. There's too many of these Jews. They weren't called Jews then, they were called Hebrews. He had other names for them too, but there's too many of these. They're too mighty. They have too much power, too much influence. And he imagines a future rebellion. He manufactures a threat. He reframes fruitful families as a national security crisis, and that's what fear does to power. It turns blessing into danger. It takes what God called good and calls it a problem. The oppression that is about to come is not rooted in truth. It is rooted in fear. This is where I need to stop. And I need to say something that may be the most important thing you hear today. Because there's a lie circulating among God's people. The lie sounds like this: if I'm in God's will, things should be getting better. If I'm inside the promise, the blessing should protect me from pain. If God is faithful, my circumstances should reflect that faithfulness. Come on, we have got to let that lie go. And Exodus 1 walks right up to that lie and it punches it right in the face. It dismantles it completely. Because here's what the text actually says. The more Israel was oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. They are inside the promise and inside the suffering at the same time. The blessing of God has not lifted, but the pressure has increased. The covenant has not been broken, but the bricks are heavier. God has not forgotten them, but their lives are bitter. Mortar, brick, field, labor, hard service, ruthless taskmasters. This isn't inconvenience. This is bondage. And you need to hear this today because some of you are walking through something just like this that doesn't look like God's favor from the outside. You're doing what God asked. You're trusting what God promised. You are living inside covenant, and it is hard. It's so difficult. It's so challenging. It is completely and totally daunting. And you wonder, did I miss something? Did I do something wrong? Is God still there? Exodus answers that question. God's people can still be inside God's promise and still suffer deeply. The multiplication of Israel doesn't mean Egypt was safe. Blessing doesn't remove battle. Promise doesn't prevent pressure. Sometimes blessing is exactly what exposes the enemy's fear. Sometimes the very thing God is growing in you is the thing the enemy is most desperate to crush. And here's what Pharaoh couldn't see, he couldn't plan for, he couldn't stop. The more he pressed, the more Israel grew. Come on, breathe that in. The more he pressed, the more Israel grew. Oppression cannot cancel covenant.

Somebody write that down in ink.

Then Pharaoh speaks to the Hebrew midwives. Their names are Shifra and Poah. I want you to notice something that scripture is doing here. Pharaoh's name is not given in this chapter. Pharaoh's name. The head Mahaf. Name not given. The king who believes he controls life and death. The most powerful man in the known world, the one with the army, the throne, the degrees, unnamed. But these two women who fear God, they're named. Listen, this is why I teach this way. I teach from the ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context. Because you'd never know this if you were just buzz-sawing through the Bible. Hey, I read the Bible. Listen, I've read the Bible 39 times. When I read it the 38th time, doctors told us, hey man, Miss Colleen can verify. Hey man, this is it. You're done. You're not gonna make it. You're not gonna live. Yeah. Get your affairs in order. We've been told that so many times. Listen, I don't blow it off. One of these days the off button's gonna go. And that will be the end of me here. But I'm here to tell you something. Shifra and Pua are named not the big bad Pharaoh. These women weren't perfect, but they feared God. And when we say feared God, remember, we're not talking about the fear that we hear someone, oh, why would I want a God that I that I have to fear? I'm not ever gonna worship some sky daddy that I have to fear, that I have to be afraid of. That seems counterintuitive. Well, the word doesn't mean what you think it means. And by the way, they were named. They were named. Think about the names in Scripture, how important it is. Think about the names that are there, and then think about the names that aren't. That's Scripture's value system. That's what covenant memory looks like. Pharaoh commands them to kill the Hebrew boys at birth. He freaks out. You see it on right now. The IRGC. They've killed tens of thousands. They've murdered in the streets. There was so much blood, their drainage system couldn't keep up with it. The burial of these people was done with bulldozers and huge trucks. The Hebrew boys. Pharaoh said, kill them all. Let the girls live, destroy the sons, eliminate the future. This is targeted, calculated, demonic assault on life. It also happened with the Jews in World War II. The Holocaust is real. Never again is happening again. Jews are being chased through college campus halls. They're having to hide behind doors and barricade doors even today. Don't think I'm kidding. Don't think I'm kidding. Because I'm not. Listen. There is a targeted demonic assault on life. Then and now. But the midwives fear God. That phrase is everything. They fear God more than they fear Pharaoh, and their fear of God means an entirely different thing than their fear of Pharaoh. The fear of the Lord isn't panic. It's not weakness. It's reverent loyalty. It is ordering your life under God's authority because He alone is the true king. So they don't obey Pharaoh's command. That's holy defiance, not rebellion for ego, not outrage for attention, not lawlessness for personal preference. Faithful disobedience to wicked commands. When human authority commands what God forbids, the people of God obey God. Pharaoh questions them. They answer that the Hebrew women are vigorous and give birth before the midwives even arrive. God honored their heart, not their method. God dealt well with them. He gave them families. Oh, if you don't know how important families is to the body, to the kingdom, to the church. Families, that's why it's so important to grow strong, faithful families. The people continued to multiply and they continued to grow strong. Gur. Pharaoh's plan failed, so he escalated. He commanded all Egypt to cast every Hebrew son into the Nile, the Nile. Egypt's source of life, their sacred river, their agricultural foundation, their religious symbol. Pharaoh turned the symbol of life into an instrument of death. And that is what idolatrous power always does. It takes good gifts and corrupts them into weapons. But what Pharaoh didn't know was this. The next chapter will show God using that very Nile decree as the entry point for deliverance. A baby, a basket, a mother's courage, a sister watching, a daughter of Pharaoh drawn into a story she didn't author. God was already working. Pharaoh thought he was writing the end of the story. But he was writing the setup for God's rescue. Come on, somebody, say amen. Somebody ought to be praising the Lord. If you're not driving a car, you ought to be bouncing up and down, thanking the Heavenly Father. Oh, for moving in ways we can never imagine. You think, you think your need is so beyond what God can do. Or maybe, as we talked about in the last message yesterday, it's free. True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean on YouTube. Go and subscribe, click on the little bell for all notifications, hit the like button, and listen to it. You get a notification every time I go live, every time I submit. A video. That's how it works. I don't say that. I don't get just like when I refer you to my website, TrueWordFaith for Life with Dr. Sean or TruewordFaithforlife.com. When I talk about that, I don't get a toaster. I don't get a dime. I don't get a penny. I pay. I pay for all that. But I do it so that you have a resource beyond this that will powerfully direct you, educate you, reinforce what we talk about here. Oh, that's so important. Listen, Exodus 1 speaks directly into our world. We still know what it looks like when power redefines life as a problem. We still know what it feels like when systems fear what God is blessing. We still live in a world where Pharaoh logic is alive and well. But the deepest application today is more personal than political. It is these questions. Listen very closely. Listen very closely. It's these questions. Have you? You right there. Have you been waiting for your suffering to end before you believe God is faithful? Have you been waiting for your suffering to end before you believe God is faithful? Some of you are in for real suffering. Terrible, terrible, physical, emotional, financial, relational, familial suffering. And you wonder when it's going to end. Listen, have you been waiting for your suffering to end before you believe God is faithful? Have you been measuring God's presence by your comfort? Listen, the world today equates our comfort with God's blessing, our wealth with God's blessing, the hugeness of our following, of our social media presence, of our influence, of our reach with the blessing of God, with the anointing of God. They're not correlated. And not one convert after years. Preached their faces off, not one. And God said, I am so proud of you. Have you been measuring God's presence in you by your comfort? Have you been interpreting hardship as abandonment? God, I'm having such a hard time here. Things are so difficult. Where have you gone? Oh my friends. Not how it works, and you're gonna learn that in this chapter. In this book, Exodus Shemot, the name, the going out. The last question is this. Have you been reading your pain as evidence that the promise has failed? Have you been reading that physical pain, that emotional pain, that that mental pain, that social pain, that financial pain. Have you been reading your pain, whatever your pain is, as evidence that the promise has failed? The modern church fails us here. The postmodern Western evangelical church doesn't teach that you're going to go through really hard times. That's why I pray as I do. When I lead someone to the Lord, that's why I say, listen, prayer is not asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. Understand that this journey is going to be difficult.

It is going to be a challenge. Your pain doesn't mean that the promise has failed.

Exodus one says the promise is intact. The covenant is unbroken. The multiplication is still happening. And the bricks are still heavy. You say, listen, I've been in this marriage fifty years, almost fifty years. My spouse is an alcoholic. The sweet person that while we were dating has turned mean. Destroying everything. I'm still praying. I'm still I'm still following you, Lord. I'm still I'm going to church. I'm teaching in Sunday school. I'm I'm serving you in every way that I can think. And still, still it all hurts. You say, I'm following you, God. I'm doing smart things with the little bit of money that I have. And my financial lack is just crushing. I hear the postmodern Western Evangelical Church talk about abundance. No, I don't have abundance. I have barely making it. Day to day, month to month, week to week. Maybe your physical pain. You are going through such horrific physical pain. You are struggling so hard. And some of us know that our time is very limited. And we're in pain. The bricks are still heavy. The covenant is unbroken, the promise is intact. The multiplication is still happening in our life. Listen, the bricks are still heavy. All of that is true. God is still working and it still hurts. That's not a contradiction. That's not proof that the Bible isn't true. That's not proof that becoming a Christian, I call it a follower of the way. That's not a contradiction at all. It's covenant reality. The Hebrew midwives stood between Pharaoh's death sentence and the life God gave. They didn't have a rescue yet. They didn't have the parted sea. They didn't have the thunder of Sinai. They just had the fear of God. They chose it over the fear of Pharaoh, and that is the call today. I want to talk about something before I'm going to talk about the next thing. We're near the end. We're about to land this thing. I've got the landing gear out. I want to talk about something delicate. And if this has touched you, God forgives. You put it for the foot of the cross. And he will absolutely forgive and he will forget. I will remember your sins no more. It doesn't mean God suddenly had amnesia. It means I'll never count this against you again. There are many out there who believe for some reason they've been, they've been propagandized, brainwashed, pressured into believing that the abortion mills, yeah, I said it. Deal with it. Hate me if you want. But I'm not running for office. And if I get deplatformed, I get deplatformed. My friends. A million babies a year, more than that, are being murdered. And when the demonic powers that were in control, they did everything they could. And if they get back in power, they're gonna do it again, even worse. They said, you can't even be standing across the street with a sign or attempting to plead with the moms who are going into that death mill and ridding themselves of that human life. That child of God inside their body. They've made it illegal to even say, sister, daughter, come. Let's talk about this. We have other ways we can help you. And we can help your baby. I don't have a baby. I have a clump of cells. No, you have a baby. It's separate DNA from you. And we look at people that stand out in public with signs talking about abortion, wanting to have a conversation about abortion. And that demonic Moloch-worshiping, Satan-worshiping bunch says that that guy's terrible. That woman is terrible. They're a horrible person. They should be put out. Listen, this is the same group that has fought and won that just for a simple thing. Okay, before you have this abortion, before you kill this child inside your body, first look at this high-definition 3D image of what's inside there. That's it. That's all we ask. Now, struck down. There are many of them, many of them, that want to be able to murder their baby even as much as two years outside the womb. Two years. That is a devil-worshipping Moloch. It's horrific. It is a genocide. And if you have had one of these procedures, I gotta tell you, put it at the foot of the cross. Name it. God already knows. Put it in front of him. Ask for forgiveness. And he will forgive you. And I don't judge you. I don't. Listen, I have dear friends who, through pressure of a sp of not even a spouse, of the father, of the baby, said, You don't have an abortion, that's it. We're done. Maybe it was the husband, her only source of income, the only source of living. And she said, How am I gonna live? Maybe you were in college, maybe you were in high school. I have one that listens, was in junior high and got pregnant. And she was forced by her family. Her family, her mother and her father, forced her to have an abortion. They didn't want the shame. I'm not about shaming people, but listen, this is horrific. This is no different than Pharaoh demanding that all the Hebrew boys be murdered. The Charlie Kirk. The Charlie Kirk way. This is a beautiful way. Let's have a conversation. Let's not yell and scream at each other. And they murdered him for it. And they celebrated. Understand what you're up against. Understand that this, and they may be your neighbor, they may be people in your family that believe murdering Charlie Kirk, oh that was good. And the people that malign Erica Kirk, today even, the woman who adored this man, loved him more than I mean, next to God. They adored each other. If you read his book, you'll know. They adored each other. People that claim to be Christian and they hurl horrific insults at this woman. The mother of his children. There are people mocking his murder, celebrating it. And they are people that teach your children. They are doctors. They are lawyers. They are people in the grocery store. They are people in your place of business. They're people in your senior center. They are people all over the place. They are celebrating. And there, some of them are people in your church. They're celebrating that. And they're the same people that celebrate the murder of the most innocent. I use that example as one example. I want you to think about that today. We have totally brushed that away. Horrific. It is a Holocaust every year. Listen, I want to give you a concrete way to obey. Based on what we've what we've talked about today, I want to give you a concrete way. Here is the step today. It's not complicated. It is not complicated at all. Name the suffering honestly. That's number one. Name the suffering honestly. If you are in a season where you're inside God's promise and you're still carrying those heavy bricks, say it out loud. Stop pretending it isn't hard. God isn't is He's not impressed by performance. Say it. I am in the promise and I am in pain. Second, refuse the lie. The lie says your suffering means God has forgotten you. And listen, this lie doesn't, as I have said, this lie doesn't just come from outside the faith. It also comes from people inside the faith. They look at you and they go, Oh, you're suffering. What hidden sin do you have? What area of disobedience do you have? What unconfessed sin do you have? It must be that. It's a lie. It's a misunderstanding of Scripture. It's an abuse of Scripture. It's a power level. Listen, suffering will soon visit us all, each one of us. Refuse the lie. The lie, the lie says your suffering means God has forgotten you, He hasn't. The truth says God is keeping covenant with people he knows by name. That's you. Third, identify one place where fear is governing your obedience right now. Fear of losing approval, fear of losing income, fear of being misunderstood, fear of being mocked, fear of conflict, fear of being called extreme. People have called me extremist, racist, misogynist. You name it, they've called me it. I'm none of those things. Name it. Then say this out loud. I will fear God more than I'll fear any Pharaoh. Now, take one step. Tell the truth. Refuse the compromise. Protect the vulnerable. Pray before reacting. Obey God in the place where fear has been winning. This is how Shifra and Puach. Courage grows, not in theory, in obedience. Trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. Here I today, today, Friday, listen, until Sunday at 6.30, you're not going to hear from me again unless the Lord comes for me. You're not going to hear from me again. Until Sunday at 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, where we summarize this week in a powerful, powerful way. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. Here's the challenge. Pharaoh is still working. He still wants fear to govern your obedience. He still wants you to read your suffering as God's absence in your life. He still wants the empire to feel more important, more permanent than the covenant. He wants you to feel like there is power over you. Amen, Nicole. He knew you before you were born and named you. Chosen. Listen, Exodus tells the truth. Pharaoh is not God. The empire is not eternal. The oppression is not the end. And the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob hears the cry of his people. He knows every name. So choose. Fear God more than any Pharaoh. Receive the suffering without letting it lie to you about God's faithfulness. Protect life. Tell the truth. Practice courage. Trust the covenant God. And let me let me go backwards just for a second. If you're the man that pressured the woman to have an abortion, or the girl to have an abortion because, oh man, I can't deal with that. You need to repent harder than she does. You're an accessory. You need to put it before the cross. Some of you are walking around, some of you men are listening right now, are walking around, and that's inside you. And you say, It was not me. I didn't kill anything. Oh, yeah, you did. You need to put it at the foot of the cross. Practice courage, practice truth. Trust the covenant God. Listen, Pharaoh tries to crush. But you have to understand that is nowhere near. If you protect life, tell the truth. Practice courage. Trust the covenant God. Because why? Because Pharaoh tries to crush, tries to crush you down. God's already positioning to deliver you. My friends, a thousand times I've said it, I'll say it a thousand more if God gives me breath in my lungs. And sound in my voice, and if he takes my voice away, I'll sign it. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, it is asking for a strong back. Let's pray right now, no matter where you are. Listen, you don't have to close your eyes, you don't have to do any of that. That's a construct. They prayed like this, not like this. You pray however you want. I'm just telling you, the modern construct tells you to pray and bow your head so you're not distracted. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Yeshua, you know every name. You knew ours before we were born. You knit us in the womb. Forgive us for reading our pain as your absence. Forgive us for letting Pharaoh's pressure make us doubt your promise. Teach us to hold both truths at once. We are in the promise. And it is hard. And you are faithful. Give us courage like Shifra and Pua. Help us to fear you more than every system that demands our obedience, and remind us that what the enemy is trying to drown, you're already rising. You're already raising up as deliverance. In the name of your matchless son, Yeshua. Amen. Listen, if you've never surrendered your life, if you've never done that, you've never surrendered your life to Yeshua, pray with me right now. Do not put it Off not one more second of your life. Why? Because just like me, you don't know when the second is gonna come that your heart beats no longer. Pray this prayer and believe it and mean it. Yeshua, I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe you died for my sin and you rose again. I turn from my sin and self-rule. Forgive me, cleanse me, and make me new. I receive you as Savior and Lord. Teach me to follow you with courage. Oh Father, teach me to trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Yeshua than to trust and obey. If you prayed that prayer today, welcome to the family of God. We're not perfect, we're so not perfect. But listen, you don't have to figure this all out alone. If you gave your life to Yeshua Jesus today, or if you still have honest questions, reach out to me. True wordfaithforlife.com slash contact. It's all you have to do. It's easy, it's free. It costs me, it doesn't cost you. There's no trick. I'm not taking all your information. I don't even know how to do that. And I wouldn't if I did. Listen, you go there as soon as I get the message, I will personally connect with you and help you take your next step. I've done it countless times. I'll do it with you. Listen, if this episode helped you, share it with someone who's inside the promise and carrying a heavy bricks right now. Some of you, tears are pouring down your face because you know this is you. This is you. You're carrying a heavy load. You put on a beautiful smile. How you doing? Good, how you doing? How are you? But you are suffering inside. And some of you know a person in your head right now, that name, that face, it's so present in your mind, so clear. Send it to them right now. Send the link to them right now. Send this episode to them. They need to know God hasn't forgotten their name. You might say, hey, they may have had an abortion. I don't know. This isn't all about abortion. It's one thing. Stop being afraid to bring it up. Stop being afraid to talk about it. It is a yearly Holocaust. It is a daily Holocaust. Listen, I'm going to pray a priestly blessing over you. It's an ironic blessing. Aaronic, Aaron. I'm going to pray it over you. I'm nobody special. I'm going to pray it first in Hebrew and then I'm going to translate it for you. Are you ready? May Adunai bless you and keep you. May Adunai make his face to shine upon you and show you his grace. May Adunai lift up his face toward you and give you shalom. Which means peace in the name of Yeshua. Listen, you can learn Hebrew if you want. You can learn a little bit of it. But I'd love for you to learn this. And peace be upon you all. That's what it means. Peace in the name of Yeshua and peace be upon you all. Sunday, we're going deep. 6.30, we're summarizing this. We're deepening it. This whole past week has been powerful. I thank you for listening. If you've listened to all of it, if you haven't, if you're listening on playback, I'm on every podcast platform there is. Usually within two hours after the live episode air, it is available on playback on the audio-only podback. Any of them, any of them. Even Amazon Music. Even iTunes, Apple Podcasts, all of them. iHeartRadio, everyone, you name it, I'm on it. Listen, follow, subscribe, share. This has been True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean.

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