The Same Hands!

Good morning. Look at your hands for a second. I mean, really look at them. These same hands, they've they've made things you're proud of. I mean, really proud of, and you should be. But these same hands have broken things you can't repair. You know the ones. Maybe it was a relationship you mishandled. You poured money into, maybe it was you poured money into the very thing that keeps hurting you. Firing you that you aimed at every wrong target. And now you look back and think, well, that's just who I am. That's just what I do. I ruin what I'm handed. So you've quietly written yourself off. You've decided that whatever God is building in this world, He'll build it with somebody cleaner, better, more perfect, more sinless. Somebody that has it all together, doesn't have hurts habits and hangups like you do. Somebody whose hands have maybe they have a better history than you. Today I want to show you the people who did the single worst thing in the whole story. And what God did with their hands next. It isn't what you might guess. It isn't what you would guess. I'll guarantee it. And it might be the most hopeful thing you hear all week. Welcome to True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I'm Sean. This is where we walk through the entire Bible in a year. It's a project we're doing. As long as I'm able to literally strap into this special chair and talk, I will do it. We walk through the entire Bible in context, ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context. In the language of the world. I just want you to understand the truth of it. So you can understand God. If today presses on something tender, well, I wrote a book for exactly that ache. A tender spot. It's called True Word, Faith for Life. I've written a couple of books, but this one's my latest one, and it's not perfect, but I think it'll bless you. So far, everyone that I've talked to that has read it has said it is blessing them every day. Some use it as a daily devotional. For that I am grateful. There's a link for it below. I think um yesterday was was tough. Tough in a lot of ways. I think if you know if you didn't listen, you you don't know what I'm talking about, but I would encourage you to listen. Um I would encourage you to to hear the message underneath. Don't worry so much about me. Hear the message underneath of it. Because that provides you a great foundation for this. This week that we're now embarked upon. This is gonna be wild. It's gonna be more than you can possibly imagine. I want to thank all of you who are listening. Robbie, thank you for the sound check. Nicole, thank you for getting up at four in the morning where you live. Thank you to Susan and Linda. Linda, we continue to pray for your recovery. Cheryl, we continue to pray for your recovery. God bless you. Joe, if you wouldn't mind, give us a report of how Miss Cheryl is doing. And uh we continue to pray for Miss Sharon as she soon will have her big, big surgery, and we pray that all will go well. She's a precious, precious resource, as all of you are. And and those of you who listen and and you you don't uh hey Sean spelled correctly. Good to see you, man. I hope you're doing well. Um all of you are a blessing, and you should know that. And Susan, God bless you. We know that it's a very tender time that you're going into um with your mom. I pray it'll be such a massive supernatural blessing. Good morning, Miss Colleen. And thank you to Miss Colleen for helping me last night from the second I got out of this chair. She helped me all day long, trying to get me able to do yesterday's show, and then and then um right after the show, she in fact she was making noodles for me. And uh, I ate some noodles and uh went to bed. So thank you, Miss Colleen. And Ryan, good to see you. What a blessing to have you listening on True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. Um, if you if you guys, if you're any of you listening, whether you're in live chat or not, if you're not uh if you're not a subscriber, subscribe to the one on YouTube, even if you listen in some other format, we're on every podcast platform there is. Um, but no matter how you listen, I just encourage you, I cannot encourage you enough to go to True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N, and and click on subscribe. It's the one with about 4,000 subscribers. Click on subscribe, um, hit the little fun thumbs up and and hit the little bell with for all notifications. You can't understand how that literally 30 seconds helps this program. Good morning, Tammy. Good to see you. God bless you all. You all are a massive blessing. So before we go into this today, I I just look, this is. She's a listener, but her life right now is just utter chaos. There's so much going on in every in every area of it. Um her name is Lynn. She's a dear lady, and she's taken care of her son, um, who's severely disabled, and her husband has Parkinson's, and and it's real bad, and just and she's infirmed and in her 70s. It's hard, it's so hard. And so they need to find a place, a good place for a son, and it doesn't seem like there is a good place. And uh, I just want you to know I see you, and that we'll continue to pray if you want to pray for her by name. Her name is Lynn. She's a very nice lady. She used to come to our Kehala in uh Delaware, in the state of Delaware. So, hard road. Super, super hard road. While we're at it, I just want all you who are listening from the Kehala, and all you all you who are listening, who who are you just this is your first experience with this, with true word, faith for life. And in my mission. Um I wish you could know. Uh I wish you could know and experience the Kehala. It's so beautiful. It's beyond anything I've ever experienced. Amazing people. So I I want to ask you, and Miss Colleen, um, there's one other experience that we had where we were ministered to, and it was the most powerful thing I've ever experienced as far as an unexpected massive blessing that was with Marysville Vineyard in Marysville, Ohio. Or Vineyard of Marysville. I'm not sure what their title is now. But I can say this um, you the you are not immune to powerful experiences, turns of the corner in your life. You're not immune to it. It's not impossible for you. It's not. Just don't just understand that. You you I want you to let go of the it ain't it ain't gonna happen to me. And it's not an experience, it's a state, it's a state of being where you you've let your mind go, you've let it be free to hear from God and to allow yourself, to allow his word to come into who you are, in the depth of who you are, unrestrained. It may be powerful worship music, it may be powerful preaching, who knows? I don't know what it is that's the trigger for you, but I know this you are not immune to it. It is not impossible for you. Nowhere is perfect, no one is perfect except for God and his son Yeshua. Before we go any further, I I just I want you to tell me in the chat or the comments below, what is the one thing? I'm not asking for a hundred. What's the one thing you're genuinely good at that you've mostly used for yourself, or you've used to wound someone else? You don't have to tell the story. Just name the gift. That part is easy. Music is a little bit louder this morning. Thank you, Miss Colling. I wonder why. Uh, let's see here. There we go. Hopefully it'll be a little bit lower. Thank you, Miss Colling. I don't hear the music, so I just go by the numbers. So that's why I need the help. Thank you so much. I hope that that that helps it, if you could just let me know. I don't I don't want you to tell the the story. I just want you to name the gift, that thing. Oh, you've used it for good and you've used it to wound. You know what it is. You know your life, you know your story. Memory and recall. Nicole, Miss Nicole, uh, as all of you who have listened anytime for any length of time, we certainly know Miss Nicole's memory is extraordinary. Her ability to recall scripture is incredible. Down one more. Okay, there we go. It's almost off. Music is almost off, so let's see. We'll see how that is. Thank you for helping me with that because uh otherwise I just don't know. I don't I don't know. I have no clue until I listen on playback and I'm like, oh, the music was too loud. And then I come right in and turn the knob down a couple of I don't know. If you have a sound technician, somebody you know producing the show and directing the show, there I have this box right here. This is has nothing to do, but I have this little box right here. It's called a stream deck. So if you see me looking down, so I look one place, the camera's right there, you're right there, and then to the right is your comments, and they're it's just spinning, you know, because there's more people than you see clicking in, and I see all that, not all of it, but a lot of it, and then and then there's this box that controls the music and controls the mic and all kinds of different functions, and I'm doing all myself, and I'm you know, I'm 100% disabled. You know, I could barely sit in this chair, but by the way, this is a special chair that through uh Linda and Susan's incredibly generous gift. Um I wouldn't be able to do this because this chair holds me at the perfect, just the perfect canton all that's called a new chair. They're not sponsors, we paid full retail for them, and it's a super expensive, super expensive chair. It it's almost a thousand dollars. Just the chair, but it's the special chair, new chair, N-U-C-H-A-I-R. Boy, if I ever get paid by any of these sponsors, but anyway, um, so there's this box, and I'm constantly I get comments about this where people go, what are you looking at? What are you doing? Pay attention. Well, it's I've got a brain injury and I've got a spinal cord injury and a bunch of other really terrible things, and and I'm trying to manage all this stuff, and it's just it's not easy to do. It's not easy to do. So I muddle through it and I make mistakes. But no, Nicole, uh let's see. I don't know. Let's see. This one. Uh play that one. See if this is the one you're talking about. That's a Judah Earl sand drawing. I paid $60 for the licensing for that phone, for that song. Um, and it's to me, it's one of the most beautiful things. Um, but that's the one I get the copyright strikes on the most, even though I own a license to it. It's exasperating. It's just people trying to rip you off. It's not Judah Earl. He he he's the composer and violinist and cellist. Man, he's amazing. Judah Earl, sand drawing. Look, I want you to remember where we are here. All that other stuff aside, I want you to remember where we are. God brought these people out of Egypt, right? It's so easy for us to forget. It's so easy for us to forget what these people have been through. God brought these people out of Egypt. He split the sea, drowned an entire army. He met them on the mountain and he handed them plans for his dwelling, the place where heaven would touch their camp. While Moses was still up on that mountain, they melted their gold into a calf. They threw a party to it. They took the covenant and they shattered it about 40 days. Can you imagine? Utterly devastating. Right? Utterly devastating. If that if if we were God, if we were God, this is this is the face. And if you're an audio only, you just my face is definitely not worth clicking in to see, but go over to True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean YouTube channel. If we were God, this is if this is what I mean, I'll speak for me. I won't speak for you, can't speak for you. But if it was me, if my people did that after I brought them through all that, we say we want miracles. I want miracles. God, I'll believe in you if I see miracles. Over 500 people saw Yeshua transcend into heaven. 500. They saw it with their own eyes. They were there. And we know by their writings, only about a hundred and twenty, hundred and twenty-five actually followed him, became followers of the way. We say we want miracles. When they happen. When they happen, we we just wow, that was awesome. What an experience. And then we're over it. Next entertain me again. I think if I were God, this is the look I would have when I saw it. I just be so hard for me to watch. And I'm not throwing shade at them back then, the ancient Near East. I'm throwing shade at me. How many times must I disappoint the Father? How many times must I let him down? He blesses me and I. I was gonna say something, but I'm not gonna say it that way. He blesses me and I I make a mockery of his blessing. He shows me grace and mercy, and I make a mockery of his blessing. Grace and mercy. I don't know your life, but I know mine. And it must exasperate him. Good thing I'm not God. So then the impossible thing happens. After that, I talked about it last night. God didn't walk away. He didn't walk away. We see our our heavenly ideal, right? Through earthly eyes, through the natural. We can't possibly comprehend the supernatural goodness and amazingness of God. So we look at it through our natural eyes and through the paradigm that we've developed over a lifetime of people disappointing us and us disappointing people and their reaction and our reaction. So we apply that to God. And that isn't who or what he is. Because the impossible thing happened here. God didn't walk away. In chapter 34, he passes in front of Moses and speaks his own name over the wreckage. Adonai, Adonai, Rachum, Vakun, Vakunun. The Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious. He renews the covenant. He stays. Adonai, Adonai, Rachum, Vakanun. That's Hebrew for the Lord, the Lord, merciful and gracious. I want you to hold on to one more thing here, because the first hearers felt it in their bodies. These people knew what forced building felt like. In Exodus 1, Echotos, Egypt drove them to build the store, the store cities of Pitom and Rahamsis, beaten and never resting for a king who saw them as tools. Yeah. He worked them to death, literally. So when God finally has them building for him, watch how different it is. Watch the very first word out of Moses' mouth. Miss Colleen, how's how's the music blend now? Chapter 35, verse 1. Moshe gathers the whole community before one syllable about gold or wood or curtain. Listen to the verse. This is verse 2. Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a holy day for you, a Shabbat or Sabbath of solemn rest to the Lord. Rest first, before the building, rest. Do you feel how strange that is? They're about to raise the most important structure in their history, and God opens with a day off. God's not lazy. There's nothing about Him that's lazy. The God they build for is not Pharaoh. He will not have his house raised by frantic, never stopping people. Some some people ask me, you know, the ones that aren't anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, anti-Jew, they cloak it with, well, they're termalic, they're not even Tamildic Jews, they're Tamildic Jews. And they've never even, they don't even know what the Talmud even is. And they'll throw rocks at them. They're all over the world, not just, not just in the United States, they're all over the world. And they've bought into it, and that's demonic. Oh Netanyahu's demonic. I've met him. He's the one that gave me my nickname, the Ninja Pastor. He's not demonic. Thank you, Miss Colleen. He's not demonic. He's trying to save a country the size of New Jersey. Enemies all around them that just want to annihilate them. Gaza. Gaza is genocide. Let me tell you something. You don't feed people, you don't send medicine to people. You know, the ones that aren't trying to kill you. How do you know which ones they are? That's not genocide. If they wanted to annihilate them in 10 minutes, everyone in Gaza annihilated. You don't deliver 800 trucks, giant trucks of food a day, and fresh water. You know why they don't have water? Because instead of Hamas, instead of Palestine and Gaza, instead of using the piping that they are given, and the billions and trillions of dollars of aid that they're given, they use it to make rockets and rocket launchers out of. They don't care about the people. And the ones that buy into that are demonic. They're possessed. And they will never change. But imagine Israel has the power to bomb them into glass. To have an entire people never exist again on the earth. And they lose their own people trying to feed them. Idioty. And please stop talking about what kind of Jews they're not the kind of you don't even understand. You don't people, you don't even understand how idiotic what you're saying. You may be parroting some big YouTube person who also hates Jews, but will take your money for click, click, click, click, click. Some of the most benevolent people on earth. The most benevolent army that has ever existed. And God's chosen people. No, no, no. They're not the they're not the God's chosen people. They're it's this this one. Most of them aren't even Jews. Let it go. It's idiocy. You will have to face God one day, face to face, and account for what you did to his people.

Phew, out of breath.

I have a choice, you know, based on what's wrong with me. I I can either I can't. Most people talk and breathe naturally. They just their parasympathetic and autonomic systems work. And so you can talk and then you know where to breathe and take little sips of air. I have to tell myself to breathe. So it's talk or breathe. I used to love to sing and I have a choice sing or breathe. Crazy but true. So I apologize for that if that's a little distracting. Look, rest isn't the reward you earn when the building is finished. Understand that. Rest is not the reward when the building is finished. Rest is the ground you build from, not laziness. Rest. Verse 5 is the invitation: take from among you a contribution to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing heart, whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it. The word for the offering is teruma. Teruma, from a root, meaning to lift up, something you raise and set apart. The one who brings it is nadivlev. Nadivlev. Here's a small thing that tells you a lot. Little things don't mean a lot, they mean everything. Your English Standard Version Bible calls it a generous heart. Your NASB calls it a willing heart. That one word, nadiv, holds both at once. Generous and freely willing. It matters because God isn't asking for rich people. Nothing wrong with wealthy people. God bless them. I admire people's ability to create wealth and jobs and futures for people they don't even know. God is asking for available people. Come on. Are you available? Do you make yourself available for God? He's asking for whoever's heart says yes. Now, I want you to notice what God does not do. After the calf, he could have said, You have lost the privilege. Remember, after they made this golden calf, they gathered up all their gold. Imagine how that must have felt for God. Are you kidding me? You're making a calf full of gold, and you're looking at that calf and saying, Oh, this golden calf that you just made out of your gold. That is why you survived to now. Are you kidding me? I would have. He could have said, You've lost the privilege, you've lost the covering of my blessing. You've lost my anointing. I'm gonna take your gold by force, but he doesn't. He keeps the same exact terms. The same exact terms he had said before they'd even failed. He still asks, he still waits for the willing. By the way, I haven't thanked them publicly, I think, in a long time. I don't remember, but maybe I have. But I'll do it again because they're amazing. My medical team that takes care of me every week, most is through the VA, and some are civilians, but the VA, I go every week for physical therapy and spinal therapy and all that. And then I uh I have speech therapy, and my physical therapist has been my physical therapist, I think, for six years. I absolutely adore her. And my speech therapist is the reason I'm able to say things clearly and pick, for the most part, I hope, the right words. And um, she's working with me. So I just said a word that I have particularly struggle with, and it's called ask. And I know that sounds crazy, but when you have a brain injury and your body doesn't work, doesn't listen to the messages, and doesn't, you know, there's this whole mess. Um it's hard to say certain things, and it exasperates me, frustrates me to no end to say the wrong word or to say it incorrectly. So she's helped me with that and um massive blessing. So then comes verse 21. And I want to live in this line. And they came. Everyone whose heart stirred him. Everyone whose heart stirred him. That is exactly how nearly every English Bible reads it. Stirred, moved, gentle words, they're gentle words, stirred, moved. The Hebrew underneath it is not gentle at all. Wait till you hear this word. Are you ready? We've heard it before, and you're gonna go, what? The Hebrew word isn't gentle, it's Natsah. Natsah, that's right, nasa. It means to lift, to carry, to pick up and bear a weight. It is the word for hauling a load. So the verse literally says, everyone whose heart lifted him, whose heart picked him up and carried him to the Lord with a gift in his hands. Hear what a translator quietly decided for you. Stirred. Look, I don't think, I don't think the translators of any of the ones that got this wrong. I don't I don't think they have a bad mind, heart. I don't. I just don't think they understood Hebrew, Aramaic, or Corney Greek, mostly Hebrew and Aramaic. They just they just don't. So the translator decided for you, well, stirred sounds like a small feeling. It sounds like a nudge. Bless you too, man. I love you, brother. Miss Sherrill, we continue to pray. Miss Sherrill had a very, very serious surgery, which they had to search and search and search for a surgeon who would perform this surgery. Amazing. Stirred sounds like this little bitty thing. Sounds like a mmm, a little bit of mmm, little nudge. That's not the picture, my friends. The picture is a person whose own heart reaches down, takes a hold of him, and carries him toward God. Nobody dragged him. Nobody guilted them. Their hearts did the lifting. Here is the beautiful part. The same verb that lifts the offering is the verb that lifts the giver. The gift and the person, both raised, both set apart. Look who gets carried. I want you to see who gets carried. Don't miss this. Verse 22. Men and women together. Verse 25, the women who were. I'll explain this. Shacham Lef. Shacham Lef. Wise-hearted, skilled, spilling, spinning blue and purple and scarlet with their own hands. Verse 34, God gives Bezalel and oh, and this sounds like Ohio, but Ohyb, Ohaliyib, Bezalel and Ohaliyib, something extra. He fills them with skill. Then he fills them with the ability to teach it to others. God is never building just one gifted person. He builds one so that they can build the next. Why? Why in the church, instead of tearing each other down, why do we not help each other? Why do we not lift one another? Imagine the greatness that we could do for God, that we could be for God. If only instead of looking for every opportunity to tear a person down, we lifted each other up. We encouraged one another. When one fell, we lifted that person. Imagine if we did it like God. I want you to watch how it ends here. By the way, I'm not saying church people are perfect. Why? Church people are people, people. I understand there's a sense of vulnerability when you go to a church, but there no church is perfect. By the way, if you live somewhere and you're like, man, I can't find a church, I'll help you. I'll help you from here. I've done it before, I'll do it again. It's a blessing for me to help you find a church. But I tell everybody, when you go to these churches, they're not perfect. Some you should leave. If they're not preaching the gospel, if they're not preaching the Bible as best they can, you know, if if they're heretical, yeah, you can't be staying there, but man oh man. It's amazing to be among a body of believers who are just followers of the way. They're not trying to show out, they're not trying to manipulate you. They just want to worship together and to learn together and to serve together. So I want you to watch how this ends because this happens nowhere else in the Bible. Did you hear me? Nowhere else in the Bible does this happen. Chapter 36. Exodus, Exodus chapter 36. The people keep coming. Verse 3 says, 36, 3, says, They brought free will offerings morning after morning after morning. The craftsmen finally have to set down their tools and walk over to Moshe or Moses and say in verse 5, the people bring much more than enough. Much more than enough. Oh, that we would bring much more than enough. There are churches, they're raising money to send five or seven or twenty people to some far-flung place around the world to serve for four days, three days, five days. And each person has to raise 20 grand to do it. And as they go out to their cars, there's an apartment complex right nearby where people don't have coats. Children don't have school supplies. Some don't have food. They're barely making it. We close our eyes to that. We put our hands over our eyes. And we go to this far place so that we can say, look at the worldwide missions we do, look at the reach our church has. Meanwhile, right there. It grieves my heart. Imagine if the people bring much more than enough. Verse 5: the people bring. This is what the craftsmen come. They come to Moses, people building all these things, making all these things, essentially from nothing. They walk over to Moses and say, the people bring much more than enough. So Moses gives the strangest command a leader has ever had to give. He sends it through the entire camp. Stop, bring no more. Verse 6 says, So the people were restrained from bringing. Can you imagine? They had to be held back from giving too much. Come on, somebody say amen.

How extraordinary. What if that was us now?

What if that was us now? What if we gave it was more than enough? What if we did that? There'd be no poverty. We wouldn't look to government. We wouldn't have all these stupid laws and stupid rules. Where men want to pretend to be women and play sports and beat up on women. And women, liberal women, I don't care if you're from the LGBTQIA plus plus plus camp. I don't care what camp you're from. You wear these stupid shirts and these stupid signs. Trans kids belong. Protect trans kids. You know who trans kids, trans kids belong, who need protecting from? The parents of those trans kids, the teachers of those trans kids, the doctors who would give medicine that will ruin this poor child for the rest of their life. That's who needs protecting. Those children. Don't tell me about all that stupid crazy crap. But I'm telling you, if the churches did what we were supposed to do, if all of these bazillions of churches out there, if we did that, there'd be no problem like those things. They couldn't compete with the goodness and generosity of God through the church. And who's the church? You and me. We're the church. God would have to say, hold on. Storehouses are full. Take a pause. Rest a little bit. Now two pictures. Side by side. Because the Bible set them here on purpose. Picture one Exodus Exodus 32. The people say, Make us a god. Aaron says, Bring me the gold from your ears, your earrings. They tear off their earrings and they hand. Handed over and it becomes a calf that they bow to. Picture two. Exodus 35. The people bring their earrings and their gold, and it becomes the dwelling place of God on earth. Same people, same gold, same hands. Don't be so quick to throw people under the under the bus, this terrible bus that drives around and people get thrown under. Don't be so quick to throw other people under that bus to say that they're not capable. Look what God people, God's people did. In Exodus 32, the people said, after being delivered, make us a calf. So they take their earrings and they make a golden calf. They make a golden calf and they worship it instead of the God that brought them through. And they bow to it instead of God. And just a little bit later, the second picture, Exodus 35. Oh, I encourage you to mark them in the Bible. Mark them in whatever Bible you have. Exodus 35. The people bring their earrings and their gold, and it becomes the dwelling place of God on earth. These were the very same people. I want to direct you to something. Same people, different behavior. Yeshua entered the city, and they put on palms and laid down palms and they worshiped him and they, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest. Three days later, they were they were crying for him to be murdered. And he was same people. And yet, from that cross, Yeshua said, please get this. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And who was he asking for that forgiveness for? Even the people who were actively torturing him. Forgive them. For they don't know what they're doing. And those people, that 120 people out of that 500 who went to that place and saw Yeshua rise, they risked their lives, and many of them lost their lives, becoming followers of the way. Same people. Same gold. Same hand. My friends, that's what grace does. Grace doesn't only forgive what your hands did, grace redirects your hands. God didn't swap out their hearts for new ones. It was the same one. You say I'm I'm irredeemable. No, you're wrong. You're wrong about that. You're not irredeemable. You say, oh, you don't know the bad I've done. You don't know the bad I've done. I gotta take a second and breathe. Whew. I love lightheaded. As Colleen knows, when my room starts to spin, that's when I'm getting ready to go. And that ain't a pretty sight. Anyway. He took the very hearts that just before ran to the calf, and he turned them around and he pointed them at the tabernacle. Somebody, please get it. Please get it. Please understand. I don't want to be killing myself for nothing here. I want you to get it. Get the link. They are inexorably linked. The intensity that got them into trouble is the intensity that built the sanctuary. Somebody say amen. Here's the thing you keep getting wrong about yourself. You, I'm talking to you right now. This is the thing you keep getting wrong about yourself. And believe you me, I've gotten it wrong about myself many, many times for many, many years, decades. The fire in you that has burned things down is not the enemy. That drive, that hunger, that frightening capacity to give yourself completely to something, that is not your sin. It is the image of God in you, aimed at the wrong target. When God gets a hold of a person, he does not make you dull and half alive. He takes that same fire and he finally points it at something worth burning for. Somebody tell me something about this book. We need to have a fire for this book. To learn this book. We need to have a fire for it. We need to stop being so nambi-pamby about it. We need to stop throwing rocks at people. Stop using this book as a cudgel. To beat people over the head that are a little bit behind us. That we think. And the reason I teach it the way I do in the ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context, I do that for a reason. I want you to know God. At the same time, to know God is to serve God by serving his people. So here's your assignment today. And I want it specific. I want you to take that one thing you named in the chat. And maybe you maybe you just wrote it down. You didn't name it in the chat. Maybe you're not in the chat. Or maybe in the comments below. Take that one thing you named in the chat. The skill you've spent mostly on yourself. Or you used it to wound. I used to know an artist very gifted. And the artist I knew this person from fifth grade on. And they were a tortured soul. Despite all the blessings God has given. Tortured soul. So gifted. And just would be racked with not knowing what to paint, just be staring at a giant canvas. And can't sell these giant paintings. Can't make a living at it. And I said, paint what God tells you to paint. If you're a pianist or a musician of any type, play what God tells you to play. That's not always going to be, you know, uh sacred music or worship songs or any of those things. Play what God tells you to play. If you're a teacher, teach how God teaches you to teach. Don't fall for all this crap. If you work in a public school, you have legal protection. If you're a doctor and they're forcing you to give medicine you know will destroy someone. And it is against every fiber of your faith. We need to stand together. Listen, if you have a skill, whatever it is, use it for the Lord. Some of us have skills that boy, we can use it for good, but there's that fine thread where if we decide to use it to wound, well, we can wound deadly wounds. Listen, before the sun goes down today, you know which that word is or what that thing is. A gift, a talent, an exceptional thing about you. Before the sun goes down today, whenever you're listening, I don't care what day it is, you don't have to be listening live. You listen on playback, it still applies. Before the sun goes down today, use it once. Don't worry about I got to use it a million times. Use it once on purpose for one person who cannot pay you back. If you're a pianist, go to the go to the senior center and say, hey, do you guys have a piano? I get a lunch hour every day. Or I'm retired. Could they benefit? Could your residence benefit with some piano playing? And then play hymns, play worship music, play whatever lifts their souls. Instead of just playing on that piano at your house just for you. My gift. Oh, I'm not that good. Are you good with words? Good at writing encouraging messages? I have a dear friend, we call him O D. Extraordinary human being. Extraordinary. And I don't mean in a minor way, I mean in a huge way. Served our country extraordinarily honorably, has done amazing things. Things that would blow your mind. Most humble man ever. Helps dogs. Keeps them from going to the kill shelters. Drives to entirely different states to deliver dogs to people who are going to adopt them. Just to save their lives. But he he has this gift of writing cards. He does it on his own. Church doesn't make him do it. They didn't even know he was doing it. He sends cards. It's a precious thing to get one of his cards, handwritten. Beautiful. You're good with words? Send the message you've been withholding. Stop holding back on the good. Stop holding back on the good. Maybe you're good with money. Maybe you're really good with money. Maybe you've been very successful. Give some where no one will ever know it was you. Are you good with your hands? Can you fix? Can you fix anything? You can, man, you just you're so good at fixing stuff. Go fix the broken thing at somebody else's house that can't pay you. One one redirected act. Say I don't know, man. I'm not great at that. I'm not great at that. Stop saying you're shy. Stop saying you're awkward. Stop saying you're stop making excuses. It doesn't have to be this huge big thing. Just your gift. Redirected to someone who needs it. Today, before dark. That's the whole obedience. I get it. Yeah, well, I can't do it. I gotta work. Maybe it's at work. Maybe you go to the lunchroom. Maybe you tote your Bible. I know that's controversial. Well, you know, separation of church and state, by the way, not in the Constitution. That had to do with a letter that was written to Thomas Jefferson. They wanted to be sure that religion wasn't going to be forced on them, that the state, this new country's religion, wouldn't be forced on them. So they wrote a letter, and he wrote them back saying that we're not going to force religion on you. We will ensure that there is always a separation of church and state, not in the Constitution. Stop listening to people who don't know what they're talking about. So you say I don't tote my Bible because my work says I can't. Your work can't say you can't. Now, you can't be sitting at your desk working when you're supposed to be working and be reading your Bible instead. You have an obligation to your employer who is signing the front of your paychecks to do the work better than anybody else there does the work. Christians, you should be the best employees anybody ever had. You should be. You must be. But let's say you're there at work and you're reading the scriptures. And you see somebody that every day they come into the lunchroom and you see the scant little bit of food they bring in. And you can look at them and tell they must be hungry. What must their life be like? You say, well, they're probably on drugs. That's probably meth. That's probably, that's they're probably, you know, shooting it up in their veins. Doesn't matter. They need this even more. Maybe when you're making your little sandwich and your little your little uh fritos or salt and vinegar chips or whatever it is you bring with them, carrots, celery sticks, whatever. I don't know what I don't know your life. Don't know what you bring. I don't want you tote for for lunch, but I can tell you this you can make an extra sandwich, put it in a baggie. Maybe bring a a packet of mayonnaise or a packet of mustard, make them both, put them in there. Don't put them on there because you don't know what they like. And you see them over there. You go over there and you say, Hey, I I made this extra sandwich. I I can't eat it. Would you like it? I I I couldn't decide when I was making it mayo or mustard, so I just anyway. Don't preach a sermon, let that be the sermon. Let that be the sermon. How much would it cost you to make a sandwich and just humbly and quietly give it? What would it be like if they experienced that? And you did it because and for God and His people, how much would it cost you? Say, I don't have a lot to give. Let me tell you something. That might mean, and that person may look at you and go, because they've been hurt and they're they that when they allowed themselves to be vulnerable, they got hurt. They might look at you and go, hey, no thanks, man. No thanks. And you might go, fine. See what I do to help somebody. No, don't say that. Say, well, I don't want to throw it out. You think maybe you might be hungry later? Yeah, okay. Because they will be hungry later. Hey, maybe when you get that break at 2.30, you might be a little hungry then. You can hold on to it. If you don't want it, you can take it home. Or whatever. Maybe find somebody to give it to. So simple. It's so easy, but nobody does it. Maybe you're sitting down and you're you're you're so blessed to be able to go eat out and have someone serve you. First of all, stop being unkind to your servers. Stop being unkind to the hostess. Be kind to them. That older lady who's standing there at the hostess stand? She's in her 70s. You think she's there because she wants to be? No. You think that old old person at the Walmarts is standing there because they want to be. They're not. Trust me when I tell you, if they had enough money in retirement, you don't judge them for, well, if they'd have put their money away, if they'd have been smart, if they'd stepped up. You don't know their life. You don't know what they've been through. You think they want to be, you think, could you just spare a smile? Hey, how's it going? How are you today? Walk up to them, shake their hand, say, hey, I'm I'm Sean. Now, if your name isn't Sean, don't lie. Tell them your name. Shake their hand, say, I see you every day, and you have a smile on your face. Or I see you every time I come here. You're so faithful to your work. We need more people like you. And then move on. Such a small how long did it take me to say that? That's a gift you give to somebody who might need it desperately, and they might not respond in that moment. Like, oh, thank you so much for this great gift. Stop expecting the thank you. The thank you has no tether to the gift.

God has never wanted your grudging obedience.

The gift you hand over with clenching teeth. Here you go. Here's something for you. He never wanted your grudging obedience. He never wanted that money for you to and then you drop it in the plate or you put it in the envelope or you send it. He never wanted that. And you're that way because you're afraid of what happens if you don't. Oh, I'm just giving this because you know, God says. The Apostle Paul or Shaol says it plainly. God loves a cheerful giver. The only force in all of history that has ever produced a truly willing heart in a human being is mercy. Why did these people give like that that I just told you about? They gave more than was needed. Not because Moshe or Moses ran a good campaign, not because his advertising was good, not because his social media posts were compelling. They gave because God had spoken his name over the worst, the worst failures. He'd spoken his name over all of those things. Merciful and gracious. And the mercy went so deep they could not stop saying thank you with their actions, their goods, and their deeds. You and I have heard a name spoken over us that goes deeper still. Get this, please get this. Your eternity hinges upon you getting this. Not from a mountain, from a cross. Yeshua gave his own blood while we were still bowing to some calf. He didn't wait for your hands to come clean. He bought the hands that broke things with his blood and his torture and his death and burial and his resurrection. That's the whole order of the Christian life. That's the whole order of being a follower of the way. God doesn't stir your heart by demanding more of you, by demanding more from you. He lifts your heart by giving himself to you first. Somebody say amen. Somebody say amen. Not in a condemning way, because he doesn't look at you in a condemning way. I cannot encourage you enough. I'm not throwing rocks at you. God's not throwing rocks at you. He lifts. He lifts and stirs your heart by giving his own son. And when that lands on a person, the giving that comes back out cannot be stopped. And maybe, maybe you are saved. Maybe you have placed your faith in Christ. Maybe you did it a long time ago. But the joy of it, the massive mercy and grace of it has left you. Long ago. The awe of it. The humility of it, the greatness of it. Next, show me something else cool. Just like we're scrolling through reels on social media. Show me something else cool. So then I put out probably three three to five hundred reels a week. Yeah, it's hard work, but I do it. I have help to do it. I know I can't do it by myself. And some days I can't do it at all. Most days. So I use this help to help me do it. Systems and computers and programs and all these things. They're not perfect. They're not. Little bits and pieces because people's people's attention has been destroyed by social media. Short attention spans. So we put those out because that's what people can digest. And maybe the thing is one minute long. Boop, boop, boop. We don't even get to the whole end. Boop. We just next, next, entertain me, entertain me. You say, God, I I yeah, I praised you. Yeah, I I've given offering when I go to church. Yeah, I've I've sent checks before. Yeah, I well, no, I've never served. I never got on the cleaning team. No, I I never got on the greeting team. Yeah, I know I play piano, but I don't know. I never I never offered to be a fillain. He does, he does unbelievable. Miss Colleen, be safe today. He does unbelievable things in our lives. And then shortly after, and I mean shortly moments the next day, after. Next. One day Yeshua watched a poor widow drop two small coins into the offering. And he said, She has given much more than all the rich men combined. I want you to understand. He was never counting the gold. He has always. He has only been reading the heart. I have for you this morning, and I know I've gone way long. But I can't, I cannot bring myself to shortchange you on these messages. It's that important, and time is running out. So so which picture is you today? Which picture is you? Are you standing back in Exodus 32? Are you staring at the gold in your hands? Certain that what you did with it is the final word on who you are, for good or for bad? It isn't. There is a second picture, and God is inviting you and me to stand in it. Let the same mercy that turned their hearts turn yours. Hand him the one thing that has been asking, he's been asking for all along. It was never your gold. It was never your performance. It was always just you. I want you to pray with me. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. Father, we come with the hands we actually have, not clean hands. No amount of hand sanitizer, as you know, can clean them. Real hands, hands that have built things and hands that have broken things that we can't undo. We thank you that you are the God who spoke mercy over the wreckage and then kept the same terms anyway. You still asked us. You still waited for willing. So I ask that you lift our hearts today the way you lifted theirs way back in Exodus. I ask that you reach into the drive and the fire that you put into us. The very part that we've aimed so badly. We've so misdirected it for so long. And I ask that you turn it. And I ask that you help us point it toward you. Make us willing, not by fear, but by mercy received. Let us give something today, some word, some act, some gift that we couldn't have given yesterday. Father, we are finished writing ourselves off. I pray this in Yeshua, your son's matchless name. Amen. Maybe today, for the first time, you see that the gift he has been waiting for is your whole life. And you're ready to hand it over. And if that is you, don't wait another minute. Don't wait another second. Please don't.

Stop putting it off. People say, what have you got to lose?

Everything. You've got everything to lose if you don't. I don't understand everything completely. That's okay. That Bible is huge. I've never read it. I've read a couple verses. Okay, I've heard a couple verses. I'm not a good reader. I have to read things a thousand times. I can help you with all that. Tick, tick, and tick. Handled. And it won't cost you a dime. Listen, if this is you, don't wait any longer. Listen, you've gotta you've gotta stop putting this off. Pardon me. You've gotta stop putting this off. I understand. You're afraid. You're afraid of what this will mean for you. Do I have to become some sort of Bible weirdo like Dr. Sean?

No.

I am nobody. You don't have to do this. You just have to be kind to that person at work. You need to look past your struggles and look to help someone else. A smile, maybe. I'm not asking you to do crazy things. Yeah, you're gonna have to study that Bible. Whether you listen to me or however you learn about God, the truth of his word. Yeah. Yeah. You will. But you don't have to be some theologian to be an incredible believer and Christian, servant, and follower of the way. And to do good for God. I want you to pray this with me right now, right where you are. You don't have to close your eyes. Pray this with me right now. Yeshua, that's Jesus. Don't be tripped out by that. That's his Hebrew name, that's his real name. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today, right now. Father, forgive me for my sins, my hurts, my habits, and my hang ups. Forgive me. Fill me. Lead me. I'm yours. In your name, Amen. If you just prayed that, your heart has been lifted by the same mercy that lifted theirs, which means your hands have work to do. Send me a message and tell me. Don't let this be some quiet moment that you talk yourself out of by tonight. Say it out loud to another human being. Doesn't matter how they respond. It doesn't. You may say it out loud to somebody you think will be receptive to it. And they may turn the corner on you and go, You? I know your life. I've known you since you were a kid, or I knew you when you did this. Remember, I'm the one you were with when you did this thing? Remember I'm the one that you were that you were with when you did this thing to me. Remember, remember, remember. Doesn't matter what they say. Profess it to somebody. You don't have to preach a sermon. Say, man, I feel great. I just gave my life to Christ. And they'll look at you and go, What? What kind of crazy business is that? What are you in a cult? No. Doesn't matter how they respond. The same hands that made the calf built the sanctuary. The same gold that bowed to an idol rose into the house of God. Nothing about those people changed except the direction of their hearts. That can be the whole story of your life. Doesn't matter how old or how young you are. Starting today. No, you can't make up for lost time. Let that go. Whatever you did back there, whatever consequences have come, you can't undo that. Move forward today. Starting today and tomorrow and the next day. Yes, you'll fall. You'll stumble. That's why we build these, this, this group of fellow followers of the way that are humble and reach down and lift us up. Say, that's okay, man. I've been there. I want you to hear this before you go. And I'm so far over. Good lands, what's wrong with me? I just need you to hear this. I don't know how much longer I'll physically be able to do this. And I don't know how much time is left for this world. I don't say that as a person who's trying to use end times or eschatology preaching to unduly influence people. I'm just telling you, it isn't forever. This isn't forever. But I'm telling you right now, God isn't finished with your hands. He was never looking for the ones with a clean history. He is looking for the ones. He's looking for a heart that finally lets itself be lifted and carried to him. Bring him that. And watch what he builds out of what you thought was ruined. If this reached something in you, send it to the person who came to mind while I was talking. They're staring at their own hands right now, too. They're looking at their hands and going, I don't know how. Let them hear it.

Let them hear it. Bless them today.

Now, tomorrow, 7 a.m. If the Lord tarries and I'm here, and I'm able, I'll do this tomorrow. I can't wait to deliver the message. It's coming tomorrow. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, live. Sundays, 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, live. I'll do it as long as I can. I want you to receive this blessing in his heavenly name and in Lashon Hakkadesh, which is the language of God, Hebrew. Are you ready? I'll translate it for you, don't worry. But I want you to hear it in the language that was spoken by God and to God. Receive it today. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Until tomorrow. Shalom Bashem Yeshua.