Is It Too Late for You?

There's a fear a lot of us carry and never say out loud. It's the fear that you've finally done it. That somewhere back there you crossed a line you can't uncross now. You broke the same promise one too many times. And somewhere, in all of that, quietly, without a word, God backed away. He didn't announce it, he just went quiet, and now you brace. Every morning, a little, you brace for the day as it gets confirmed that he's gone. Maybe you can even name the moment, the thing you did, the season you threw away. And ever since you've read every silence, every closed door, every hard week, as the same message, he's finally had enough of you. Tonight I want to talk you, not into uh numbness, but I want to talk real talk. I want to walk you through a week where an entire nation did the single worst thing they could possibly do at the worst possible moment they could do it. God was in the middle of describing the home he wanted to build so he could live in the center of them. And while he was still describing it, they were already melting down their gold. They gave him every reason on earth to walk out and never look back. This is the story of what he did instead. He would not leave. Shalom, and welcome to the Sunday summation. This is the summation and the deepening of the prior week. And this is True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I'm Sean. And tonight we gather this whole week, days 80 through 84, and there's no doubt about it, they've been hard weeks. Exodus 25 through 34, the week God built a home and his people nearly burnt it down. The blueprint, the priest, the spirit-filled builder, the golden calf, and the name, the name God spoke over of ruin. By the way, my book, True Word Faith for Life, is available now. The link is down below. It's available at TrueWordfaithforLife.com. Onto the store and Savable anywhere books are sold, but we do better when you buy it from us. It helps support the ministry. This book was written for exactly the person carrying the quiet fear that they finally made God give up on them. Here's tonight's question if you're interested, and it's heavy. What does God do when you've handed him every reason to leave? Welcome to everyone in chat. It's so good to see you all. It's a blessing. I love you all. As you might have guessed, I'm in a bit of a struggle, but I'm going to get through this. And I'm going to rest after. I rested before, I'm going to rest after, and uh we'll see what we can do. Hopefully, I'm loud enough. I've got turned up to where it's just before the red. So let me gather the week. I hope you all are doing well, by the way. I love you all. It's Tammy and Robbie and Linda and Miss Sharon and uh Miss Susan. So good to see you all. And there's more clicking in. Lovely. If you might if you think of it, hit the thumbs up while you're at it. I'd love for you to do that.

So this has been a weird one. It's been so sad. In many respects. Don't you think? This whole week.

It reminds me of how much I must disappoint God. So here's here's the week. Thank you, Robbie. Here's the week. Because the whole thing bends around one desire God wouldn't stop repeating. Monday we went up the mountain with Moses. I want you to hear this. We went up the mountain with Moses. And we finally found out what God had been doing inside the cloud. And here's a tip for you.

He wasn't writing more rules. He was drawing a home. Make me a sanctuary, he said.

That I may dwell among them. And he started the blueprint not at the walls, but at the mercy seat, the golden lid where he promised to come down and meet the people face to face. By Tuesday he was dressing a priest, because if a holy God, if the holy God, is moving into the camp, somebody has to be able to carry the people in. Twelve names on the shoulders, the same twelve names worn over the heart. And when it was finished, God said, exactly why he'd done all of it word for word from the day before, that I may dwell among them. Hello, Miss Galline. Wednesday walked us through the last steps of coming near, incense rising like prayer that never stops, a ransom that cost the rich man and the poor man exactly the same. And then a sentence the Bible had never quite said before. God filled a man with his spirit, not a prophet, a craftsman, filled to build the house with his own two hands. And then Thursday, it all nearly ended. While God was still up on the mountain, saying, I will live among them. The people at the bottom melted their gold into a calf and handed it the credit for the whole rescue. Moses came down and shattered the tablets at the foot of the mountain because the covenant was already shattered in their hands. Friday was the morning after, and we're going to come back to what God said standing in all that wreckage because everything this week was leaning toward it. So before I give you the five threads, I want to pray. And I ask that you join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your love, your care, and your kindness. Thank you for blessing us with your word, your matchless, amazing word. There's never been a literary work like it in all of time. I thank you that you brought it across the centuries, across the millennia to us. We are blessed by your word. We're honored by your word. Father, I pray for those among us that names we know and those we don't, that have just undergone surgery and are in the midst of trying to recover. I pray that you give them healing and strength every day. And those who are about to undergo big surgeries, and we know there are several among us, that you would give them total and complete peace, give their surgical team excellence throughout their whole body, and let the surgical team know that that excellence comes from you. I thank you for those who are listening that haven't heard much of your word, who don't know you. I thank you that I have the chance and the honor to introduce them to you. I pray this in Yeshua your son's name. Amen. Now, lay all five days side by side. Five threads come up out of the week, running them through every single one of them. Good lands. And here's the first thread. Nearness was the whole point. Every board, every curtain, every loop, every clasp, every stone on the priest's chest, every drop of anointing oil, all of it served one sentence God kept saying over and over. That I may dwell among them. Hello, Miss Carolyn. So nice to have you. It's lovely to have you listening live. Look, we tend to we tend to picture something different of God. We tend to picture a God who perhaps his factory setting is distance. Picture a God who we have to talk into showing up. This week he says exactly the opposite. His default is nearness. He is the one trying to move in. Settle in that a little bit of a second, because it quietly rewrites. It quietly rewrites how you pray. You're not down here trying to get it the attention of a God who'd rather be somewhere else. You're being pursued by a God, the God, who has been trying to close the distance between you and him the whole time. And here's the second thread. That nearness was always going to cost. You can't set the holy God down in the middle of a camp full of sinners without atonement at every step. That's why the meeting place is a mercy seat and not just a throne. That's why there's a ransom and a labor to wash in, and a priest who carries the guilt of the holy things on his own forehead, so the worship doesn't get handed back. Nearness and holiness, both true at once, held together by blood. This is the thread the modern year, we resist it. We resist it the most because we'd rather have the nearness for free. Scripture won't sell it to us that cheap. There are some, by the way, who would prefer the rules. Only the rules, because they believe in their mind that their perfectionism, their adherence, their observance of the minutiae, it helps them because they feel they can keep it all. And then there are others who completely ignore any obligation on our part to do anything. They just get that grace real cheap, but it wasn't cheap. It's cheap for us, but it wasn't for Yeshua. So I want you to hold on to this one because Scripture won't sell it to us that cheap. Hold on to this one. Because in a few minutes it's going to carry more weight than anything else I say. Carolyn, if you message me at truewordfaithforlife.com under contact, I'll I'll share with you what's going on. That way I'll be able to spell it all out. I appreciate that. So here's the third thread. And it's the one we almost always walk past. We almost always just walk right past it. What God required, God provided. He asked for the materials, but only from a willing heart. He needed the tent built, so he took an ordinary craftsman named Bezilel and filled him with his own spirit to do it. Can you imagine being that craftsman? How amazing. How extraordinary. Hi, Miss Nancy. I love you. She's the whole reason I'm here right now. The whole reason. The whole reason I'm doing any of this. Remember this week I told you about a woman who prophesied into my life. She's the one. Bless her soul. And she's as precious as can be. Y'all would love her. Everybody does. So he he named an ordinary Cresman. Can you imagine this? Can you imagine being the one that's chosen, I think, of Mary. Miriam, the mother of Jesus of the Yeshua. She was twelve or thirteen years old. She loved God. She served God. She worshiped God. She obeyed God. She gave birth to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Our Savior, our Redeemer, Yeshua Hamashiach. Can you imagine? So think about being this craftsman. Right in the middle of commissioning all that work, by the way, he handed them the Sabbath Shabbat. It's a sign that said, Your holiness is something I give you. It's not something you manufacture. Every willing gift, every skilled hand, every day of rest was God supplying the very thing God asks for. Filled to work, and then commanded to rest. Grace was stitched into the blueprint from the very first thread. And now here's the fourth thread, and it's the hardest one, I think. The people couldn't hold up their end. The blueprint for the dwelling wasn't even off the mountain yet, and they'd already broken the first two commandments that they heard God speak out loud in his own voice. This is the same thing we watched last week at the Blood of the Covenant. They promised what they couldn't keep, and they broke it in record time. Can you imagine this? I cannot. And yet I can. Because that's me. I wonder if sometimes that's you. Good afternoon, Nicole. Good to see you. By the way, tomorrow's episode, if I'm here to deliver it, uh I uh I'm excited to deliver day 85. Many of you have been here every single day. What a blessing. They promised what they couldn't keep and they broke it in record time. How many of us have been there? How many of us have done that? By the way, the calf isn't the exception to the human heart. The calf is the exhibit. It's just what we do, cast in gold. And here's the fifth thread, and it's the one the whole week was reaching for. I wonder if you guys remember. Do you remember this part? Those of you who've listened. I try to make it plain, but make it as rich as I can while still being understandable. So hopefully I didn't miss the mark on this one. God had he had every reason to leave. And yet he wouldn't leave. When he finally spelled out his glory in words, it didn't open with wrath. It opened with goodness. When he finally spoke his own name over the smoking ruin of the calf, the first thing out of his mouth was merciful and gracious. The deepest thing about him, the weight at the very center of who he is, turned out to be chesed. In Hebrew, it's spelled Chet Samech Delat. Stubborn, faithful, covenant love that refuses to quit. Put all five threads together, and this week says to you, you will give God reasons to leave. Oh, sure we will. You already have. I already have. And the name he speaks over your failure is mercy. Are you listening? Do you hear this? Do you understand? Five threads. Five amazing deep threads. Undeniable. Undeniable threads that we live. Yeah. The ancient Near East. Far away and a long time ago. And yet it's us. It's us. This past week I was delighted to receive a message from someone who placed their faith in Christ. But came into listening as somewhat of an atheist. And they kept listening. They were listening, trying to find things to throw rocks at. Trip me up, trip you up. Amazing. Do you understand what God can do? God has every reason to leave us. And yet he doesn't. He won't give up on us. He wouldn't give up on them, and he won't give up on you. When God finally spelled out his glory in those words, it didn't open with wrath. It opened with goodness. When he finally spoke his own name over the smoking ruin of that calf, he spoke merciful and gracious first. Do you grasp that? The covenant love that refuses to quit. Yes, we give God many reasons to quit us. And yet he never does. And he never will. Now, I want to take you somewhere. No single day this past week had room to go. The name God spoke on Friday, standing over the wreckage. It's not a throwaway line. I want you to hear it in full. The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. In Hebrew, Virav Chesed Veremit. Overflowing with sentence. Yes, I do read the comments as best I can, flower T R4Q, listening on YouTube. Best I can. They go kind of fast. I do the best I can. Welcome, by the way. That sentence, Exodus 34, verse 6, becomes the most, it come, it becomes the single most quoted description of God in the entire rest of the Bible. So when David is desperate in the Psalms, he reaches for that. When Israel rebels in numbers, the book of Numbers, Moses throws it back up to God. Nehemiah prays it. Joel preaches it. Jonah of all people complains about it because he knew God was merciful and gracious and slow to anger. And he didn't want Nineveh getting in on it. This is the verse God's own people quote back to him for the next thousand years. It's the closest thing scripture gives us to God defining himself in his own words. And when he does it, he leads with mercy. Imagine that. But I have to be honest with you. Because the sentence doesn't stop there. And most of us stop reading right where it gets comfortable. Right? You know what I'm saying? Right where it gets comfortable. We stop because we think, oh, I don't want to read the harsh part. The very next breath, verse 7, says he will by no means clear the guilty, overflowing love. And he will not simply wave sin away. Both in the same self-portrait. And that's the tension the golden calf drops right in our laps. A God who is only soft isn't safe to build a life upon. And he leaves the calf standing. A God who is only holy can't have a sinful people in the camp at all. The nearness is impossible. And how does the God, whose name is mercy, stay near a people he refuses to pretend are innocent? The entire week, the whole tabernacle, the whole Bible is standing on that one question. Here's the deepest layer. The one underneath all of it. God has been trying to live with us since the very beginning. He walked with the man and the woman in the garden in the cool of the day. And we handed the glory back. We handed that glory away. Back then. We did the same thing back then. And humanity got sent out of the garden. Everything since has been God engineering a way to back into the same room with us. The tabernacle is Eden with a door cut back into it. And the calf is the garden happening all over again, the same swap, our glory traded for a thing we can hold in our hands. So when God speaks his name and stays, he isn't being sentimental. He's keeping a purpose older than Israel, older than Sinai, older than the fall. And he will get back into the room with his people. And mercy is how he does it. And I want you to notice, even the picture of that moment got a translation fight. When Moses comes down, his real name is Moshe. When he comes down carrying that name, his face is shining. The Hebrew verb is karan, karan, from a root that also means horn. Centuries later, the Latin translators read it the second way and rendered it horned, which is why one of the most famous statues of Moses, the entire world, has horns coming out of his head. That's why. It's a translational error. It was mistranslated. One small translation decision made for the reader, never explained to them. And it matters right here because the shine was mercy. Moses' face was radiant because he just stood in the presence of the God whose glory turned out to be his goodness. Listen, Yeshua is in all of this. He's in every bit of it. Because every single thread this week was pointing directly at him. God wanted a tent in the middle of the camp, a Mishkan, a dwelling. And centuries later, John opens his gospel, Yochanan, opens his gospel and says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word John reaches for there means he pitched his tent. The dwelling gods sketched at Sinai, put on skin and walked into our camp. John says we beheld his glory full of grace and truth. Grace and truth. In the Greek, choice and elitia. Exodus says steadfast love and faithfulness. John says grace and truth. The same two words. So the reader never guesses that John is quoting Sinai, but he is. The name God spoke over the calf, it's the name John saw wearing a human face. The glory Moses saw, the back of, he saw the back of it. It's the glory that looked at you from the face of Yeshua. The priest carried the people's names over his heart into the presence of God. Yeshua carries yours. Jesus carries yours in hands that were pierced for you, and he always lives to bring them up before the Father. The ransom cost every man the same, rich or poor, and his blood is the same infinite price for every soul. The level ground where the respectable and the wretched, the wrecked souls, kneeled down together. The spirit that filled a craftsman to build a tent now lives inside you. Because you are the temple now. And Moses. Moses offered to be blotted out of God's book for a people who deserved erasing, and God said no. Did you catch that? Moses offered. Moses offered, take me. Allow me to stand for their sins. Allow me to allow me to take the punishment. God said no. So Moses points straight past himself. Flower T R4Q. Yes, you absolutely can talk to me about God. And I appreciate that you need help and I'm going to help you. What I'd like for you to do, the easiest and best and quickest way is to reach out to me through true word, faithforlife.com. Click up on contact, type it out, and I will receive it. It'll go through a system, but I'll receive it and I will reach out to you right after this. I promise. I'll help you to the best of my ability. God said no to Moses. Said, hey, you gotta just erase me. Because these people deserve erasing. Don't turn your face on them. God did that. He said, No. A man cannot be the substitute. So Moses points straight past himself to the one who offered to be blotted out. And he was. He was numbered with the criminals on either side. He was cut off. He was forsaken. He was erased so that your name would never have to be. Here's the tension of verse 7. Finally answered. He carried the guilt himself. The judgment God warned would break out and consume the camp, broke out and consumed him instead. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my sins rolled away. At the cross, mercy and justice didn't strike a compromise. They touched. God built a house so that he could live with you. Look, we build calves, these golden calves, all the time, and still he wouldn't leave us. He spoke his name over the wreckage, merciful and gracious. And then he put on flesh and moved all the way in. The old covenant said, Keep it and I'll stay. And I am with you always to the very end of the age. My friend, if you belong to Yeshua, he is closer to you right now than your own breath, and he's not going anywhere. Well, there's some concrete obedience to be done, if you want. Here's the week's work. And it's bigger than any single day step. Three things, really, and I want you to actually do them before this week is out. And today is Sunday. First, find the place where you've been quietly settling for God's gifts instead of God Himself. Where you've made you've made your peace with the blessings as long as he keeps a respectful distance from you. I want you to name that place out loud or on paper, but name it. Second, I want you to name the calf, that specific thing that you've handed the glory. You've handed the glory to that instead of what belongs to God alone. The comfort, the approval, the relationship, the number on an account, the thing you melted together out of good gold, and you quietly started trusting to save you. Call it what it is. You can't tear down an idol you won't name. You can't change what you don't acknowledge. And you cannot and you will not receive forgiveness for sins, herbits, habits, or hangups that you don't name. Third, and this is the hard one for most of us. Stop bracing. Stop living hunched over, waiting for God to finally walk away. Take the name He spoke over people standing right next to a golden calf, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with love, and receive it as it is spoken over you. And then this week, make his presence the one thing you refuse to move forward without. Look, we pray and we ask for stuff. I'm not asking you to ask for stuff. I'm asking you to ask for him, not the gifts, him. So I have for you tonight a challenge and a choice. So here's the choice in front of you tonight. You can keep living braced. You can go on assuming that after everything you've done, God has quietly stepped back and you can settle into a polite, careful distance. The kind of faith where you'll take his blessings but never quite let yourself get near. You know, a lot of people, they live their whole lives right there. Gifts, but never the giver. Or you can believe the name he spoke over a people who had just built a golden calf. Merciful, gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with love that will not quit. And you can come all the way near to the God who wouldn't leave. So let me ask you the question the whole week has been asking. What would actually change? Starting this week, what would actually change if you truly believe that God is more committed to being with you than you have ever been to being faithful to Him? We're going to pray, but understand prayer isn't asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Father, in the name of Yeshua, thank you that your default is nearness to us, that you drew up a whole home so you could live in the middle of us. And that when we shattered it, when we shattered it with our own hands, when we handed your glory to a thing we made, you still wouldn't leave. Thank you that you spoke your name over the wreckage. And that name you spoke was mercy, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with steadfast love and truth. Thank you that the glory Moses, Moses only saw the back of, came all the way to us in Yeshua, full of grace and truth, and that he didn't clear out our guilt cheaply. He carried it himself. Heavenly Father, for every person listening tonight who's been braced for months, maybe for years, waiting for you to walk away, waiting for you to say enough. Heavenly Father, I ask that you let them hear your name, the name, let them stop bracing, and let them know down in the place where the fear actually lives, that your presence has moved all the way in and is never ever leaving. I pray this in Yeshua's name. Amen. Maybe tonight you're realizing the distance you've been feeling was never God backing away from you. It was you, braced, waiting for rejection. That he came all the way down a mountain and all the way down to a cross to make impossible. If you're ready to stop bracing and finally come home, here's where it starts. Yeah. Tonight, right now, right here, this is where it can start. Are you ready? I want you to pray it with me. I want you to believe it. Pray this with me. Settle this once and for all. Yeshua. Look, and wait a second. I just want you to understand. I just want you to understand. He is waiting to hear these words from you. He's waiting to hear this sentiment from you. And you think it's a big, long, complicated prayer, but it's not. Just talk with him. His name is Yeshua. Just pray this with me. Yeshua, I need you. I ask for your forgiveness and your mercy because I believe you died for me and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. I ask for your forgiveness. I ask that you fill me. And I ask that you lead me. I'm yours in your heavenly name. Amen. Well, what can I say? What can I say? I mean, that's that's what he does. He redeems. And he just redeemed you for all of eternity. And look, I know there's a million questions you may have. I'm here to answer them if you want. Go to true wordfaith for life.com slash contact and tell us. So we can walk with you. I'm not going to try to sell you stuff. I just want to help you. And by the way, not for nothing, because we have some new listeners and new viewers. If this is your very first time with us, here's what we're doing. We're walking through the entire Bible in order, one day at a time, all the way from Genesis. This week we watched God draw up the home he wanted to share with his people. Next week, this coming week, we're going to watch the glory actually come down and fill it. So if you like listening to audio podcasts, you don't want to see this face, um, or even if you just like while you're driving to have podcasts playing, I'm on all of them. You name it, I'm on it. True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N. Go back and listen starting at day one. Also follow us during the week. That way you can you can sort of be the parentheses on either end. It'll make sense to you, trust me. Walk the whole story with us, all the way from the beginning. You can also watch it on YouTube, through Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. It's the one with about 4,000 subscribers and not for nothing. If you're not a subscriber, click on subscribe, click on the little bell for all notifications, hit that thumbs up while you're at it. This makes sure that people can see this. Otherwise, it gets hidden. You're very kind, Carolyn. Very kind. So I'm eager to go into next week. I'm gonna rest and uh see if I can recover some. And thank you, Susan. You all are so kind. I love you guys. Look, there's a home drawn in loving detail on top of a mountain, a calf melted together, and a single afternoon at the foot of it. Tablets shattered on the rocks. And the God who had every reason in the world to turn around and go. But he didn't go. He stood in the wreckage and he spoke his own name over it. Merciful and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with love. And then when the time was full, he put on flesh. And he gave us an opportunity to invite him into our hearts. You never had to climb a mountain to reach him. He came all the way down and he stayed. If someone you love is carrying that quiet fear that they've finally pushed God past the point of coming back, send them this episode. Tell them what God said standing next to the golden calf, or just let the episode speak for itself. Merciful, gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with love. Tell them he wouldn't leave, and he still won't. I want you to receive this blessing in his heavenly name and in Lashon Hakodesh, which is Hebrew for the language of God, for that is the language of God. Are you ready? Until tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, where we will be live. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Until tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Until then, Shalom Bishem Yeshua Veshalom Alekim