Just Look UP!

You keep killing yourself.

We got it together. What is got it together anyway? When you've finally stopped the thing that you keep promising to stop. Maybe when you're a little less of a mess than you are this morning, with the coffee going cold in your hand. So you wait. You stay away from the one thing that could actually help you. Because somewhere you decided you're you're not allowed to you're not allowed not allowed anywhere near it. Because in your mind you have to show up clean. Clean. I don't know where your mind is. I don't know. I don't know. I wish I did. Sometimes I think people. I think a lot of times people not just in the the faith environment, but also in every environment. I think, man, I gotta have it all together. The barrier to entry is I gotta have it all together. And I don't. There were once people. I'll put it another way. There were people in a camp once. They were dying with poison already in their blood. And God handed them a cure that asked for none of that. Perfection, cleaned up, got it all together, none of it. Whatever euphemism you want to use. He didn't tell them to get well first. He didn't even take the thing that was killing them out of the camp. He asked for one thing. One thing a dying person can still do.

Look. That was the whole instruction, and every single person who looked lived.

Well, isn't that something? This is true word, faith for life, Dr. Sean. I'm Dr. Sean. Uh hey, glad to have you. Welcome in. We're walking through the the whole story of the Bible together this year or so. In the order that it actually happened, and today we're in Numbers 20 and 21, two chapters that hold a quiet burial. Now, you know, when I say within the order it actually happened, sometimes I deviate from that. Because it would be impossible for you to understand. And somebody joining us and going, Day one, Job, I don't understand. I don't know, whatever. Today we're in Numbers 20 and 21. There are two chapters that hold a quiet burial, a great man's worst day. You ever have a worst day? A day you remember, you just go, good lands, this is bad. And a bronze snake lifted on a pole. If this is the walk you've been hungry for, by the way, boom. My book. Textbook quality, true word faith for life. Yes, that is my photo on the image. Not a photo of me, but it is a photo I shot. Anyway, takes it takes this right to uh your kitchen table. And the link is in the comments below. So before we open the text, by the way, good morning to everybody. I see Tammy and Susan and Linda and Colleen and the Golden Bear 881. Uh I don't know that I've seen you in here before, but I miss Susan. Let's see here. Tubi Continued25. Good morning. Good morning. Good to see you. God bless you. We see other people clicking in here. Yeah, we have two different ones. We have the vertical and we have the horizontal. So I think vertical can't see horizontal and horizontal can't see vertical. Good morning, Miss Linda. So before we open the text, I ask a question. Yesterday, man, people went, they went all in. They went all in answering these questions, and I love it because it helps it. It helps seal it. And it helps other people understand hey, I'm not in this alone. So I have one question. And I want your honest one-word answer. Now, a lot of times I'll ask for an honest one-word answer. Good morning, Miss Nicole. Good early morning, 4 a.m. where she is. I don't know. I have two words for you and then I'll say eight. So I want your honest one-word answer in the comments. Are you waiting to get better before you come to faith? Before you come fully into faith. Maybe you're a person of faith already, but you've been holding back. You just you're not all in. Yes or no? You don't have to dress it up. Just the true one. Yes or no? Are you waiting to get better before you come fully in? Maybe it maybe you're a person you've never placed your faith in Christ. Um that question applies to you too. Before you come to Christ, before you place your faith in him. I'll give you a chance to do that here in a little bit. So chapter 20 opens with one sentence that swallows almost 40 years whole. Israel comes into the wilderness of Zen. The people stay at Kadesh. And Miniam died there and was buried there. That's a whole obituary. It's a whole obituary for. That's it. This is the girl who watched a basket in the reeds and kept her baby brother alive. The woman who led a nation in the first worship song in the Bible. One line, and she's gone. And right on top of that, I can only describe it as grief. Right on top of that grief, the text says, there was no water for the community. In the desert, water isn't a comfort. It's the line between the afternoon and death. Um and I I don't say this, I've I've done a lot in the desert. And I can tell you they always used to teach us water, it is everything. Don't wait till you're thirsty to drink. Don't don't guzzle it. Sips. But keep it coming. It is a rare commodity, and the heat, and we're talking heat, we're talking 127 degrees. Fahrenheit. In the desert, this is this is a big deal. Me too, Nicole. Me too. I never would have come if I waited to be good enough. I'd have never done this if I waited to be good enough. Good man. So two million people. Remember, this is a huge group of people moving. Two million people. And their animals hit cuttish. And the wells are dry. And so the people do what this generation always does. They turn on Moses, right? Wait a second, there's no water. That gummy, it led us to another dry place. Would that we had died when our brothers died? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this evil place with no grain, no figs, no vines, and no water? The sisters barely in the grave, and there's a riot at the at Moshe's tent, Moses' tent. This is the worst day of Moses' life. On and on with these people. And it's on the worst day that he's asked to stand up and re represent God in front of everyone. Can you imagine? On his worst day is the day he's got to go before God and represent his people. Moses and Aaron fall on their faces, the glory of the Lord appears, and God gives an instruction so specific you could carve it. Take the staff, gather the assembly, and speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will pour out its water. Take the staff, speak to the rocks, two verbs, and only one of them touches the staff. Here's what Moses does. He gathers the people, he lifts his hands, and he says, Listen now, you rebels, we must bring water for you out of this rock. Must we bring water for you out of this rock? And he struck the rock twice. And water gushes out. And the people drink. God provides anyway, which tells you that the water was never a reward for Moses getting it right. And before we jump on Moses, hey, and then follow instructions to the letter of the blah blah blah. You imagine the stress this guy's under? What he's been through in his life, from a baby all the way up through, you know, he's living, he's living large. And then he says, No, I'm I'm with those people. That's who I'm, that's who my people are. And then all the stuff that he led them through. Good lands, people. We gotta take it easy on Moshe. Moshe was carrying the weight of the world. And then the sentence lands. Because you did not trust me to treat me as holy in the eyes of the people, you will not bring this assembly into the land I have given them. Are you kidding me, God? Of all the things I've done, I've done so much for these people, these ungrateful, impatient people. You ask me to lead them, I let them, I'm imperfect. I screwed up sometimes. I don't understand. What do you mean I can't go? I've gone all this way. We're so close. Because I didn't trust you to treat you as holy in the eyes of the people. I do, I did, I have. And now I can't go to the land that you've given them? I thought it was them and me. I thought I was with them. I was just a leader. So what exactly was the sin? People have they've argued it for centuries. I'd rather give you what the text says than try to sell you one clever theory. God's own words are that Moses didn't trust him and didn't set him apart as holy in front of his people. Whatever went wrong, it went wrong in public. And it was about how God got represented. Before I go on to this, you'll notice in the chat. Most translations miscast the woman at the well as a prostitute. She wasn't. Watch this episode and hear the powerful truth. And then there's a song I wrote and composed. Uh, I'd love for you to listen to it. It's also on True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N. Love for you to go there and subscribe, hit the little bell for all notifications. That would be Vundelbar. I don't know what this thing means. Hi, Miss Melinda. So nice to see you. Good to see you. There's Blast from the Past, Miss Melinda Brown Fortney. Thank you so much for joining. Miss Melinda's heard the song. There's three different versions I do of the song. Um, but uh anyway, I'd love for you to listen to it. Let me know what you think of it. So three things are visible. Moses struck when he was told to speak. Back at the first Meturbah in uh Exodus 17, God did say, strike the rock. This time God said, speak. He said, speak. And Moses reached for what worked last time. I gotta tell you, my heart has always broken for Moses. It has always broken for Moses. By the way, how's the sound? I've I've I didn't remember to ask. Music too loud, too quiet. I'm too loud, too quiet. I can't help the ugly. So the second error was he said, We. Must we bring you water? In one small word, he stepped into the place that belongs only to the provider. Now, look, I don't know. I don't know what was going through his mind, but I imagine he was just fried. And how many times had God said, Hey, thank you, brother? Uh 2B continued 25, which is an excellent, um, excellent, excellent YouTube channel. Says the sound is crisp and clear. I appreciate that. Um, so here's the thing, Paul. You're very kind. You're very kind, Miss Melinda. So here's the thing, and I've thought about this forever. God gives specific instructions. He gave it to Moses, he gives them to us. How often do I wing it? And and the thing is, is when we when we when we pull this apart and we we really look at this, we go, okay, wait a second. He said, We must we. Is he bringing the water out of the rock? He's just he's just hitting it. And third, he called them rebels with contempt on his face at the very moment God was about to give them water for free. I don't know that I would have thought of that. I don't know that I would have I would have been so mad at these people. I might, I might one morning just before everybody got up, I just might walk into the other way. So God kill me in the desert. These people are wearing me out. Yeah, my heart breaks for Moses.

There's there you have it. News of the day. Headline. Poor man.

He made God look furious. I can't. I gotta tell you. I can't be mad at him. But he wasn't punished for being human. He was held accountable for what he made God look like. You ever think about that? Have you ever have you ever thought about that? The apostle Paul tells us why, and his name in Hebrew is Shaol. Shaol. We made up that name, Paul. Paul tells us why the striking cut so deep. By the way, the Apostle Paul, a Pharisee's Pharisee, the dude, the dude, and he's from the New Testament. If you knew the Bible, that's okay. It's from the New Testament. The New Testament is. By the way, I didn't say hello to the Golden Bear 881. Good morning. Good morning. May God's sunlight shine on you as well. And uh see that you're listening from YouTube. Thank you for listening. And Miss Melinda's listening from Facebook. And uh we're streaming to X and a bunch of different places. Nine, ten different places. By the way, we're on every podcast there is, that's usually after this. Um, sometimes I wait a few days because it's a very expensive system I use is very expensive and it uses credits. And so when I use use up the credits because these go long, um, they don't go long. I I make them long. Um I just want to give you your money's worth. And so I'm not making you pay for it. That's a joke. Um, so I go over and then the overage charges hit, so I have to wait until the next billing cycle. That's how it is. People think all this is free. It isn't. So the Apostle Paul, Pharisee's Pharisee, the guy, you know man, he hated Christians. He didn't hate Christians, he hated followers of the way. Christians was a Roman term, was a pejorative for people who were followers of the way. But what they were actually was followers of the way. They called themselves followers of the way, the way, the truth, and life. No man comes to the Father but by me. So Paul tells us, and by the way, I can't wait to tell you all about Paul when we get to the New Testament. If I don't even know if I can hold off. I hope again. He tells us why the striking cut so deep. They all drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was the Messiah. I know. You think, man, you're extrapolating a lot here.

No.

Paul knew what it was. He saw it. The rock had already been struck once years before. That was the picture. After that, you only speak to it. Come on, somebody tell me you got that. Somebody tell hey, hey now. Apostle Paul's telling you. I had to read it three or four, five, seven times when I was little to get it. And then I had to read it again as an adult to get it. Good lands, it was it hit me in the face. That was the picture. The rock is struck one time. And after that, you only speak to it. The Messiah is offered once. Strike that rock a second time, and you break the very thing it was drawn to say. Edom, their own distant kin, refuses them passage, so they go the long way again. And then Aaron dies on Mount Or. Moses strips the high priest's garments off of his brother and puts them on Eliezer, his son, while Aaron watches. And then Aaron lies down and dies in the clothes his son now wears. Two of the three who led Israel out are in wilderness graves now. And Moses knows he's next. Then chapter twenty one, and the complaint that sets the whole thing on fire. Our soul loathes this worthless bread, the manna. Almost forty years of bread from heaven every morning, and the word they chose was loathe. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit them, and many of Israel died. I don't want to rush past this next phrase. Fiery, fiery serpents? Fiery serpents? Are you kidding me? In Hebrew, that's Nechashim Seraphim. Nechashim Seraphim. The seraphim is a word you've met before. You've heard it, you've seen it. It's the same word for the burning ones around the throne in Isaiah 6. The seraphim. Most translations quietly smooth it down to fiery serpents, and that's a decision that God made for you. You were never told about it. You didn't know. That's why I teach the ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context. So you'll know. The burning judgment in the camp and the burning worship at the throne, they carry the same name. Sit with that a second. The people come to Moses and say, We have sinned. Pray that the Lord take the serpents away. And watch what God does not do. He does not take the serpents away. The snakes stay in the camp. Instead, he tells Moses to make a serpent and set it on a pole. And everyone who is bitten can look at and live. Look up. Moses makes a snake out of bronze. Two words that ring against each other so you can almost hear the rattle. And the cure is not a potion you drink, not a work you perform, not a penance, not a pilgrimage. Look. Turn your head toward the thing on the pole. They didn't have to be healed first. They didn't even have to stop hurting. They just had to look. Come on, somebody tell me. Come on now. Tell me you see it. Tell me you see it. There's a connection. Tell me you see it. So there's look here. Here's your one thing today. One thing, one thing. I'm not, hey, I'm not trying to wear you guys out with 12 things, 35,000 things. Just one thing, and you can do it before dark. Name the single thing you've been putting off until you're better. Maybe it's the meeting, the apology, the call to maybe your sponsor. The prayer you won't pray because you don't feel clean enough to say it out loud. You don't even feel you don't even feel clean enough to say it at all. Pick that one thing. Do it today. Maybe that's the text message. You know that you need to make an apology. You know that you need to pick up the phone and call. You know that you do. You know that you did wrong to that person. And you say, Man, it's gonna upset the apple card if I do it, I don't want to do it. But you gotta do it. Maybe it's the prayer, maybe the apology you need to that you need to make. Maybe the apology you need to make is to God. Maybe the reach out you need to do is to Jesus, to Yeshua. Yeshua. Look, if you're in the program, maybe you need to call your sponsor. Say, man, I'm I'm messing up. Or I'm on the verge of messing up, or I really messed up. Get back on track. And we all have been there, or we don't want to pray that prayer to God because we don't even feel clean enough to say his name. We don't even feel clean enough to say it. Pick that one thing. One thing. Do it today. This morning, if you can. Because I know if you wait, you procrastinate, you don't do it. Don't wait for the venom to clear. Look while you're still bitten. That's the only version of this that God ever actually asked for. Because in the middle of a late-night talk with a nervous Pharisee, Yeshua reached back and picked up this exact story. Do you remember? Those of you who've been raised up in the church, do you remember this? Yeshua reached back and picked up this story. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, should not perish, but have eternal life. Out of the whole Torah. Out of the whole Torah, this is what Yeshua chose to explain himself. And the match is exact. The Apostle Paul or Shaol says, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. The image of the very thing that was killing us, lifted up on a pole, so that anyone who looks lives. Not anyone who cleans up first, not anyone who earns it. Anyone who looks. Keep your eyes on the one who gave the cure, never on the bronze. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. Today splits two ways. It splits two ways. It's the weight of carrying his name in front of others. And for all of us, the question is simpler and harder. Are you trying to get well before you look? Are you trying to clean up before you look? Some people in that camp died staring at their own wound instead of at the pole. Don't be one of them. Look up. That's the whole instruction. It always was. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Pray with me, Heavenly Father. Forgive us. Forgive us for the times we've made you look like something you're not, for speaking for you in anger while you were being generous. For grabbing credit with the word we. For everyone who leads anything, who is grieving and depleted and still standing in front of people, I ask, Father, you give them grace. People are hard to lead. It's like herding cats. And a guard, I ask that you give them a guard over their mouths. Give me a guard over my mouth. I thank you that when Israel had earned removal, you gave them a look instead. That the cure asked for nothing but a turned head. That the snakes stayed and the mercy came anyway. Father, I ask that you keep us from worshiping the things you once used. And for the ones bleeding out this morning, the ones struggling, staring down at their own wound, they don't know what to do next. I ask that you reach under their chin and lift their eyes. In the name of Yeshua, my Redeemer, my Savior and my King. Amen. Maybe you've been trying to get better before you come. Trying to stop the bleeding on your own. So you have something acceptable to carry in. There were people in the camp dying with venom. This coursing through their veins. And God didn't ask them to heal first. He put something on a pole and said, Look, and everyone who looked lived. Yeshua said that was about him. He was lifted up so that anyone who turns toward him lives. You don't have to be well, you just have to look. If you're tired of fighting it, if you're ready, if you're just tired of it, you say, Look, I'm ready. This is the time. Now's the time. Don't put this off. You've put it off your whole life. You've known about Christ. You've known about your redemption. You've known about your savior. You've known about it, but you've never invited him into your life. Do it today. Stop putting it off. There's no reason to do it, and every reason not to. How's that sound? Does that sound easier for you? There's no reason for me to do this. There's no reason for me to pray this prayer. Why? Eternity! Salvation. The other side of that is not eternity without Christ. Eternity and torment. Nah. You don't want that. And who knows when eternity is gonna happen for us. I've almost lost my life so many times. On the razor's edge of life and death, and actually crossed over and come back. You don't know. We all have this thing inside of us that's beating, and we don't know when it's gonna stop. You don't have to be well. Stop trying to be well. Stop trying to be spotless. Stop trying to be shiny. Stop trying to have all the church words memorized, all the buzzwords, all the little phrases, all the vernacular. Stop doing it. I want you to pray this with me. Whenever you're listening to this, either live or on playback, pray this with me. Yeshua, that's right, you call him by name. He can't wait to hear from you, by the way. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and you rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today, and I ask that you forgive me, fill me, lead me. I'm yours. In your heavenly name. Amen. You handled some business this morning. If you're getting ready, go to bed. If it's nighttime where you live, you handled some business here. Most important business you'll ever handle in your lifetime. If you prayed that, by the way, heaven's rejoicing. Other people listening to us who are believers, they're rejoicing. If you prayed that prayer, don't keep it to yourself. It's not a secret. Tell one person today, pick one. Don't tell a thousand. You can if you want, but I'm just saying, tell one person today. Send me a message. Tell somebody who loves you. Say it out loud somewhere. You look, then you live, and that's worth saying. Listen, the snakes were hissing in the grass. The venom was still burning in the blood, and over the whole aching camp, one dead thing hung in the light. The only word that morning was look. And it still is. Lift your eyes and live. One more thing before I pray a prayer of blessing over you. One more thing. Somebody you know is staying away until they feel cleaner. Send them this episode. Send them the link. It might be the morning they finally look up. Now, I'm going to pray this blessing over you. I am nobody special, but I am honored to pray it in his heavenly name in Lashanho Kadesh, which is the language of God, Hebrew. That is, in fact, the language God spoke to his people, and that his people responded to him. Silver Race I've 9416. Thank you for joining us. All of you. It has been a pleasure. And I hope you'll come back. I hope you'll consider subscribing, hitting the little bell for all notifications, and hitting the thumbs up. I appreciate it so much. You don't even know. Maybe share. So I'm going to pray this blessing over you, and then I'm going to translate it. So I don't want you to think be in a bunch of panic. I don't even know what he's saying. I'll translate it for you. You ready? Vikunakha. 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. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Until then, Shalom Bishem Yeshua.