Faith Just Insurance?

We pray hard as the week before the biology results come in.

I mean you're you're you're a bona fide prayer. The week before the results come in. You start going to church again. You start going to church again when the business starts losing money. There's a cross on your dashboard of your of your car and a verse over the kitchen sink and you never say it out loud, but you're counting on them to keep the bad things of life away. You know, the kind of things that people point at who are non-believers and say, well, if God was a loving God, He would never allow this in the world. And you don't want that happening to you, so you know you're gonna stay prayed up. Keep the bad things away. That kind of faith works like an insurance policy. I mean you do your part, and you expect God to protect you when trouble comes. Some of you keep him around the way you keep a spare tire in the trunk of your car. I mean you know he's there, you know the tire is there, you think, you think, you haven't seen him in a long time. You haven't gone back to check on it. You certainly haven't aired it up or anything like that. That's what we do with God. You don't think about him until something goes flat. Today we meet a man named Micah. He built his own religion. Kid you not. He built his own religion. He had a shrine in his house, a silver idol and a priest on salary. Then he says what he really believes. Judges 17, verse 13. Now I know that the Lord will prosper me. What happens when you try to use God instead of following him? And what do you have left when the things you trusted are taken away? This is True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I'm Sean. Good morning. Welcome to day 153 of Through the Bible in a year, walking the story of God, where we take the Bible one passage at a time and we let it meet the life, the real life that you're living today. Today we open Judges 17 and 18, and we'll see the religion one man built for himself and why it failed him. By the way, every Sunday there's a free, free, no paywall, not a bunch of stuff. The free blog and a separate study guide, very, very detailed study guide. The one for this week is awesome. The one for last week. Yeah, it's something. To True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. No, no, no. True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean is the YouTube channel that you should be subscribed to and clicked on the little bell for all notifications. And uh also click on the thumbs up. Wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. Good morning, good early morning to all of y'all. All of y'all, Robbie and Miss Nicole, bright and early four in the morning. Miss Linda, how are you? Thank you, Robbie, for the sound check. Thank you so much. Good morning to all of the rest of you. Yesterday we had over a thousand people listening. And uh so we'll see what today is. I don't get the numbers until a little bit after. But um, it's a pleasure and honor. I don't take it lightly at all. So truewordfaithforlife.com, true wordfaithforlife.com, I'm telling you. It is a repository old episodes. And by the way, if you're one of our audiences listening on uh any of the podcast platforms, we're on them all, the audio audio only podcast platforms, thank you for listening. We'd love for you to hit a thumbs up and do a review. You can do a review on the website, by the way, the truewordfaith for life.com. If you'd ever like to write a review, I'd be honored for you to do it. The more the merrier. It's helpful. We reach more people that way. So you you know might say, you might say, well, you know, I I'm I don't I I can't help the I can't help this mission financially. I wish I could. Well, writing a review is one way you can. That would help immensely, you have no idea. So would hit and subscribe and the little bell and all notifications. Makes a big deal. It's an algorithm thing. It's not a Sean Greener thing. It's it's an algorithm thing. Anyway, so here's today's, oh, on the website under the store, my latest book, True Word, Faith for Life. True Word, Faith for Life. And yes, I did shoot that image. It's on the cover. Textbook quality. Textbook quality. Super heavy paper, spaced far apart. Font is large, so you can easily read it. There's lots of space for you to write notes, and I can say a lot of things that I could never say on YouTube. Anyway, here's today's question. I hope you're good this morning. I hope you're good. This question, maybe you'll be honest about it, maybe you won't. I don't know. I just can't tell. I just can't tell. You just never can tell how it's going to be. Listen, we had uh a young man from New Zealand during the show place his faith in Christ. Praise God, right? Praise God. That's the whole reason we're here. To build up the body, the people that are already believers, and to help help you truly understand scripture in the ancient Near Eastern language culture and context, how it happened, where it happened, why it happened, the audience who was hearing or reading, the person who was writing. Thank you. To be continued. Sure appreciate it. Miss you, brother. Um that's that's how I do it. That's how I do it. So you're gonna get a big dose of Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek, and you're gonna get a little bit of history, as you have never ever seen. By the way, I say by the way a lot, I know I do. Um, one announcement is I'm going to be doing a very special episode on it on. I may do it later today. I may do it this evening or this afternoon. I'm not sure, but I I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it today. I feel pretty good. Um, and won't be much time to market it, but I will tell you this. Um, woof. It is an education on it on. Um, you'll understand it as you've never understood anything. You you will really get it. If you want to, if you want the truth, all documented, and and I've written a blog post. I didn't do a study guide, but I did a blog post, and there's an annotated footnotes in there. Um, I'm trying to learn how to make it uh like you hover over it and the link where that if it just you just click on it and boom, it goes there. It's a link, but it's a different thing. Um, I don't know. I can't explain it because I don't know the words. So here, you know, I'm gonna ask you this so you you can do it what you want. Have you ever treated God like a backup plan instead of your Lord? Have you ever treated God like a backup plan, like an insurance plan? Well, if what I want to do doesn't work out, I'll do what the Lord says. If my figuring it out doesn't work out, if it doesn't work out, you ever see these? Oh amazing. It's it's hand sanitizer, but it smells good. But I wanted to do this. Look. We've all been there. Well, maybe we haven't. Maybe I'm speaking from out of school. I know I've been there. I don't know about you. Don't know your life. Some of you, I know some of your life. Have you ever treated God like a backup plan? Instead of your Lord. I've had a huge decision that Miss Colleen and I have had to make. We've had many huge decisions. Get the surgery and most likely die on the table? Don't get the surgery and live however long. That's not the big decision we've had. That decision's been looming for a few years, but so thank you, Miss Nicole. Um another very big decision. And and so I've been analyzing data and doing research and and all this for uh just about two years. But all along the way I've been praying. But every now and then I say, ooh, I'm my brain injury doing pretty good today. I can do research, research, research. Thank you, Miss Colleen. Thank you. Thank you, Robbie. So I'm I'm I'm gonna do research. And my brain is working good today. I'm gonna do research, research, research. I'm gonna research, I'm gonna research the paints off of this. This big decision. That's what I'm gonna do. Well, and then somehow or another, I think, somehow or another I think that I've got it figured out. So, what happens when I do that? What happens when we do that? When we say, I got my plan, I got my plan, I'm doing my plan. I mean, God wouldn't want me to leave it all up to him. No, no, he gives us a mission and he'll equip us, but we gotta take the tools and the stuff that he says, hey, you're gonna need these, you're gonna need a little something like this. Even the plan of who we're gonna marry, even who we're gonna date, job, job we're gonna take. Job we're gonna interview for, place we're gonna live, house we're gonna live in, an apartment we're gonna live in. What part of the country? What part of the world? Friends we're gonna make. Friends we're gonna seek. People we're gonna associate with Bible we're gonna buy. Church we're gonna attend. Doctor, we're gonna choose. I can't clean glasses for any amount of money in the world. I'm having a hard time holding on to things, as you might have noticed. Um, anyway, that's just part of it. It's no, it's no big deal, but it's part of this deal, what's going on with me? Look, I think any of us have treated, if we're being honest, any of us have treated God like some sort of insurance plan, like some sort of backup plan, like somehow or another, we shouldn't pick up his word. We shouldn't pick up his word and seek him and pray. Get on our knees and pray. Pray first, ask first. Don't do all the other stuff first, you know. At some point, we got to do all those things. God, oh god, I know. Why just got me so wound up? Because I've been there, I have made the decision without consulting God. I said, Well, I know I got a brain, I know how to do it, I know how to decision this, I know how to action this plan, I know how to lay it all out. It ain't no big deal. Why should I lean on God? Why should I lean on my faith? Why should I make my faith real in times of ease and in times of struggle? Why? I'll wait till it goes sideways, then I'll pray. Have you ever treated God like a backup plan in your life instead of your Lord? Type yes or no in the chat. Samson is dead. And the book of Judges has no more deliverers. Chapter 17. Chapter 17 through 21. Close the book with two stories. Two. They don't come after Samson in time. They don't come after him in time. They happened earlier, close to the days of Yeshua. Or I'm sorry, Joshua. I see Joshua and I translate it always. They show what Israel's homes and worship look like once people stopped listening to God. Our whole nation has stopped listening to God. Europe has stopped listening to God. One sentence repeats four times in these last chapters. In those days there was no king in Israel. Twice it adds, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Look, in the plainest of words, nobody led, so everybody made their own rules, even about God. First, the Levites, God set apart the tribe of Levi to serve at his house. Joshua 21 gave them forty-eight towns, but no farmland. And they lived on the offerings Israel brought. Preachers getting hungry, and they brought him food. It was the center point. These priests were the center points. By the way, don't freak out about the word priest, but I'm a Catholic. Wouldn't be a horrible thing if you were. There's so much faith bashing. Catholics are bad. Christians are bad. Episcopals are bad. Not all of them. The denomination itself has gone way sideways. But there's there's some Baptist churches that are that are nutjob churches. Don't focus so much on that. Focus on what they preach and why. And don't pick it apart. There are no perfect churches. You may be sitting in a church right now, and you may say, look, this church is doing this wrong, this chair is doing that wrong. All you ever see is what you don't agree with. Thank you. Thank you to all of you who are typing yes right now and the ones that are typing no. I appreciate it. You've lived the life you're living. You're living the life you're living. These priests, this word priest is. There's a negative connotation to it. Well, I don't like the word priest, you know. I'm not Catholic. Um, I prefer preacher. Well, you put whatever, whatever that's accurate in there. But they were priests. That's what they're called then. That's what they're called now. It's the accurate word, it matches. There should be no negative connotation to it. But these, these, they don't have farmland. Don't you all remember me talking about this? Do you all remember me talking about this? Remember why a while back laying out how it all happened? That's why we're doing it in order. We're walking the story of God in order. You might say, hey, he's jumping all around the Bible. I'm telling you how it happened, when it happened, in the order it happened. The real deal, not the fluffed up deal. These priests depended on the people to bring them offerings. Because they didn't have land that they could farm. They didn't have land where they could put, you know, uh um, what do they call it? Livestock on. They couldn't. They didn't have it.

They depended on it.

Whatever Israel brought. That's what they ate. When Israel neglected those offerings, a Levite could end up wandering. Going, holy moly, man. I can't I'm hungry. And I've been hungry for three weeks. I'm killing myself over here serving the Lord. And I've nothing to show for it but bony ribs.

And then what do you do? I gotta live. I gotta live.

Appreciate it. Look, now all of a sudden you got your your Levite, your priest, wandering around. Hey, you got any work for me? Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. Whoa, whoa. What just wait one second there? Aren't you supposed to? We know, because we we've been told how this is supposed to work. Aren't you supposed to be why are you out here working, looking for, we're trying to give work, hand-to-man work? Why? Why are you doing that? Well, can't you see how hungry I am? A Levite could end up wandering around looking for work instead of doing what he's supposed to be doing. That's why we, that's why we pay priests, that's why we pay preachers, so they can focus. If you had any idea how much it takes of me to do this, even when I was well, took less of me when I was well, but it's immense. Ms. Cohen can tell you. I'm not I'm not bragging or or seeking sympathy. I'm just explaining to you. There's a lot I don't know what other preachers do. Love you from Iran. You must be listening on a um VPN. So God bless you. And I'm not going to ask you what part of Iran because I don't want them to pinpoint where you are. We pray for Iran. The Persian people are amazing people, just amazing people. I have personal friends who are in Iran. And it's a tough, tough place. Tough place right now, but it's one of the most beautiful places on the Planet. The IRGC has it in its grips. And when I do this special episode, which I think will be a little bit later today or tonight, um I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to lay it out. And my friend from then on, don't risk, don't risk yourself. Don't risk your safety. But if you'd like to listen tonight, it's going to be alive. It's not going to be, it's not going to be uh, it's not going to be a rec pre-recorded. I'm going to do it live. So I feel pretty good. I got about three and a half, four hours of sleep last night. I got a bad sleep score, 46, but I feel pretty good. Anyway, that's a lot of blah, blah, blah. Y'all don't need to hear that, but when I have the energy and I'm able to. Thank you, brother. A lot of folks don't know. There were, there were, you know, pre-1979, there were there were a lot of Christians in on. Place of beautiful faith, some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Some of the most beautiful people, some of the smartest people you've ever met in your life. I pray for them. I pray that they'll find freedom and release. So look, this Levite, this is exactly who walks into the story. Number two, household guy made fun of me. He sent me a comment. And the thing is, it made me laugh because he doesn't know or care. Maybe he knows he doesn't care. So one time I said four, but I put up one finger. Well, that's because my brain doesn't have a brain injury and a spinal cord injury. So it gets crossed up. So that's why I move a lot. You know, there's a reason for that. But he said, You fidgety. You're too fidgety. I don't know why you fidgety. By the way, you don't know your numbers. He went on. It was a long thing. He was anonymous. I assume it was a he. Good lands. Nowadays, those liberal white women, woof, calling for death and whatnot. Now those two women on that podcast saying that Charlie wished they could do Charlie Kirk over again. And by do, you know what I mean, starts with a K. They wish that would happen all over again, could do it. And then they laughed like little cackling hands. And now they've lost millions of dollars in ads from their podcast. And now they're coming back. Well, I was explaining this. This is not what I meant. This is not what we meant. Come on. You applauded when he was murdered, and you said that they should be allowed to murder people. These are two liberal white women. Wealthy white women. They were wealthy before they started, wealthy families and whatnot. People are evil. Second, I did the right number. Second, household gods. The Hebrew word is teraphim. Teraphim. Families across the ancient Near East kept small figures in the house in different places, tied to protection, family ancestors, and the right to inherit. Third, the tribe of Dan. Don. Judges 1, verse 34 told us the Amorites pushed Don out of the land God assigned it. What do you mean, no video? Hmm. Anyone else having that issue? No video? Robbie is telling us there's no video. Looks like it's running on my end. I don't know. Y'all let me know. There's no video. I've had more problems this week. Good lord with technology. I need somebody who knows what they're doing to come in and set it up right. Anyway, I'll keep going if you can hear me. Judges 1, verse 34 told us the Amorites pushed Don out of the land God assigned it. Something wrong on your end, Robbie. Other people are seeing there telling me. Push Don out of the land, God assigned it. Don is a tribe without a home. They're looking for an easy target. And Deuteronomy 12 told Israel, worship only at the one place God chose, which in those days was the tabernacle at Shiloh. Every private shrine in this story breaks that command. Hello, flower. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you, Miss Nicole. God bless you. Thank you, Miss Susan. Judges 17, verse 1 introduces a man named Micah. His Hebrew name. That's tricky. And we make that Micah, you know. Nicole, check yourself before telling channel. I don't know why you would say that, flower, but uh she's telling me she's she sees and hears. No, I have video. So I don't understand what's wrong with that. Nothing. Nothing's wrong with that. So Mikael means who was like the Lord? Who is like the Lord? And this man is about to make an image of the Lord out of silver. Verse number two. He tells his mother, the 1100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears. Behold, the silver is with me. I took it. He's saying, Hey, don't curse. Don't curse the one who stole it. I don't want some bad thing to happen. No, I think Nicole is saying, No, I have video. She's saying no to Robbie that. No, no, no, I have video. So it's something on Robbie's end. Anyway. So Micah stole from his own mother. Can you imagine? Anybody out there have substance abusers in their household or in their circle? You've had some stuff stolen from me. Some of you don't even know. I see. I don't know. I think it's a misunderstanding, Flower. Thank you though. Some of you who have drug-addicted people in your uh in your circle. You know what it's like to be stolen from. I have a friend, a very smart person, who had ninety-two thousand dollars worth of what they call it. Cards. Baseball cards. Rare baseball cards. Stolen from their home. They didn't even know it. They were put away in those cases, you know. Their their son. Their son sadly came and visited and visited and visited. And they knew he was a drug addict, but they never in a million years imagined that he would steal from them. Robbie, I think what they're saying is hit refresh on your if you're listening on your phone, hit refresh, go out and come back in. And then uh if you're listening on a computer, boom. And Robbie says he's had this happen to him, what I'm telling. So, so some years later, they they went to go get that collection. I think they were going to put it in the um, what do they call those things? Um safe deposit boxes. It's oh these are, you know, now they're up to $92,000. I mean, they were they were super rare ones. They go down to where they were, they move the stuff, and they're not there. They're not there. They didn't walk off. Micah stole from his own mother, and and they're like, what in the world? What happened here? And then they made the call. Their son is supposed to be clean and sober now, but grown man. Still mismanaging his life, but they made the call and they said, listen, we gotta ask you something, and it's important. Did you steal these from our home? And then there was an awkward 30 or 40-second silence. Usually on the other end of that, there's, I can't believe, I can't believe that you would, I can't, I can't believe that you would ever, ever say something like that to accuse me of something like that. And then you get down to it from interrogating people over the years, I can tell you, and interviewing people over the years and being sent to schools, learning how to, and it's a curse, really, because you learn how to discern without a confession. You watch the body, you watch the movements of the human being, you you listen to how the words are coming out and the words that are chosen. There's all these cues and keys, and it's classified training, so I'm not going to go into all of it. But the point is, I did a podcast on that under the live tab where I talk a little bit about the things that, you know, how can you tell somebody's line? Anyway. Normally there's this big brustly, you know, how dare you! But he didn't do that. He said they could hear sobbing on the other end. And he said, Yeah, I'm sorry, I did. About three years ago. I needed money for drugs. I needed money. I needed money for drugs. I was in a bad way. I needed. I think took their $92,000 worth. By the way, you see me shaking this. This ruler is one of my favorite things. I've hung onto it for a long time. This is the ruler that I'm always talking about. If you do not, if you write notes and if you buy my book and you want to write neat notes, that's that's the ruler that I use. I use that for my Bible. I don't write much in my Bible anymore because I don't have good control over my hands anymore. And so I don't want to mess up the Bible because they're gonna get passed on to my children and um and maybe even grandchildren, I don't know. But when I did write in my Bibles, I used that, it's awesome. Anyway, I just thought of that because I was like, I'm telling about this thing, and I never have shown it to them. Look, there's nothing easy about having your own kin steal from you. We've had it happen. My family has had it happen. One one particular person ripped our family off. Libertad 57. So glad to find this channel. I have to go to work now, so goodbye for now, and may the Lord be with us. Yavitcha, amen, brother, amen. I am pulling for you, I am pulling for your people. You listen anytime it's safe. God bless you, God bless you. Julius Caesar, my good friend, brother, link to the ruler Amazon Walmart. I have no idea. I have had the same ruler. I had it before I married Miss Colleen. So that's almost 29 years, 25 years, 20. How many every year? We keep joking, man. We've been dancing around 25 years. We can't ever figure it out. Let me see. Can I read? I'll tell you what it is. Leave it to my buddy. That's a good idea. Oh, I've got to hold it up to the light. I got old eyes. It's a Westcot. Westcot. Westcot. So if you search a Westcot ruler in the A-word, I'm not gonna give a bit of there's so much on this, too. Measurements and all that. Look at me banging on the microphone. There's all kinds of different measurements, inches, and then there's all there's all different things in here. It's it's super cool. It's I I don't know what to tell you. It I love it. Normally I'm repulsed by those preaching channels, but you seem nice. Well, thank you, Snow White.doing dot things. I think I kind of know what your name means. So thank you. I am nice. At least that's what that's what my dog tells me. So Micah stole from his own mother. And look, you might think, man, he is beating this to death. Because maybe you've had something stolen from you, you know, from someone you love. Maybe not your children, but somebody you love come into your house. And they stole from you, and it's heartbreaking. He confesses only. Look, he doesn't, he's not overwhelmed with with repentance. Oh, I feel so bad stealing from my mom. How could I do that? No, no, no. He confesses only after he hears her curse the thief. In that world, a spoken curse was believed to carry real power. So his mother answers it with a blessing. Blessed be this be my son by the Lord. That's what she says. Blessed be my son by the Lord. And 1100 pieces of silver. I know I just talked about it yesterday, but maybe you picked up on the number when you're reading through. Hey, what might be ahead here for those of you who study ahead? 1100 pieces of silver is the exact amount each Philistine ruler promised to Lila in chapter 16. We just talked about it for betraying Samson. 1100 pieces of silver. The same money that brought Samson down now pays for an idol in an Israelite home. Can you imagine how far we have fallen? Listen up, America. Listen up, Europe. I'm gonna talk about that in this special episode. On and on. The truth. Footnoted, the whole deal. Verse number three: I dedicate this silver to the Lord from my hand for my son to make a carved image and a metal image. The Hebrew here is Hakdesh, Hakdashti, Hakdashti. Hakdash Hikdashti. I make it completely holy. That's what it means. Comes from a word kadush, holy. She uses the language of holiness while she breaks the second commandment, which forbids making an image to worship. Worship no other gods before me. Verse 4 adds that only 200 pieces of all that silver went to the silversmith. What happened to the rest of it? Verse number five, and the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and household gods and ordained one of his sons who became his priest. You might ask, what is an ephod? An ephod was a priest's garment used to ask God for answers. You could put that on and you would pray. Verse 6, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Verse number six, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Then a young Levite from Bethlehem, Bethlachim, wanders in looking for somewhere to live. Remember Levi, when you hear Levi, you read priest. He was looking for somewhere to live. Had nothing. He wasn't getting the offerings. He wasn't, the sustenance wasn't coming. Micah said to him, Stay with me and be my father, be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver. A year. A year. That was massive back then, and a suit of clothes and your living. Whatever you needed to live, I'll give it to you. And the Levite went in. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you very much. Good morning. Good morning. You're a new listener, and I'm I'm honored to have you. I hope you'll continue listening. Sometimes my voice is not so soothing. Sometimes it gets a little bit raspy, a little crackly. Verse 13. Now I know that the Lord will prosper me because I have a Levite as a priest. That's what he's saying. Listen to what he's saying. Now I know. I know the Lord's going to prosper me now because you know I hired this Levite priest. He's in my house. What could be better and bigger than that? Look, you can't buy God's blessing by filling your house with the right religious things. I have friends who have verses they've painted on their walls. All over their house. You know, you look all over. There's all these verses and these beautiful sayings, and it's lovely. Very, very lovely. It's a gorgeous home. And they don't do any of that. They don't believe any of that. Look, I know people that have crosses around their necks. They have crosses and they they they have Am Israel. They have that around their neck. They have, you know, religious religious symbols and whatnot. All over their house, and they don't live like it. There are lots of times I have all these beautiful Bibles in my house. And sometimes I don't look, we're going to be honest, or we're going to be honest. And sometimes we might think subconsciously, well, you know, that ought to get me something. That ought to buy me some forgiveness. My lands, my Lord. But it doesn't. You can't buy God's blessing by filling your house full of the right religious things. I'm not saying don't put those things in your house. I'm just saying, understand there's gonna have to be some repentance. There's checks and balances. We're not perfect people. I'm not. Those of you who know me, who are listening, you know I'm not a perfect guy. Far from it. We have to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves. The tribe of Don, this is chapter 18. The tribe of Don sends five men to scout for land. They stop at Micah's house, recognize the Levite's voice, and ask him to check with God for them. The text never shows him asking God anything. Did you catch that? The tribe of Don sends five men to scout for land and they stop at Micah's house to recognize the Levite's voice and to ask him to check with God for them. But the text never shows him asking God anything. Hey, um, listen, I have a prayer request. Oh, what is it? Tell me the juicy details. You know, a lot of times juicy gossip is hidden, or juicy details are hidden in prayer requests, and somebody is vulnerable and they're sharing with you. I asked my doctor yesterday, I said, hey, listen, later this afternoon I'm gonna have prayer time. And I just want to know is there anything I can pray for for you? That's only my second time ever being there. He looked at me, he smiled, and he went, like I've never been asked that. Probably never has. And he didn't have anything. He said, I can't think of anything. But how many times? How many times have we got the juicy details, the sad, the terrible details, the vulnerable details from the person who has just opened themselves up for injury? And they trust you. And they tell you this happened or that happened. And they say, please pray for me on this. And you say, Oh, you'll be in my prayers. Prayers going up. Prayers going up. Prayers up. There's nothing I hate more than that. On social media, it drives me insane. Prayers up. So unbelievable. By the way, I believe in praying now too. Let's pray now. Look, I'm not a perfect person. I'm so far from perfect. So, so hard, hard, far from perfect. But I'll tell you. I'll pray for you, and then they never do. And then you never do. So, well, I thought about them. That's not prayer. That's not prayer. That's not putting them before God. Look, you can pray as you walk, you can pray as you run. You can pray as you drive. You can pray at your desk at lunch. You can pray in any number of places. But it has to be set apart. It's not prayer. Just thinking about them is not prayer. Listen, verse number six, go in peace. So what my point there is if you tell somebody you're going to pray for them, pray for them. And I'll tell you what, do it right then with them. Lay your hand on their shoulder. Don't press them down. If you got hot, nasty hands, don't be putting them with people. Just pray, pray with them. Pray earnestly, sincerely. Don't make it fluffy so they're impressed by your prayer. No. Pray real. God, this person, you know, you're amongst us. You're with us here. And and you know that he or she needs help. And I ask that you that you help them. Thank you, Miss Sharita. Thank you for that. Send me your prayer request through um true wordfaithforlife.com. True wordfaithforlife.com. Contact. If you send that to me, and any of you, any of you need to reach me or want to reach me, and you don't have my direct number yet, that's how you do it. And you'll and you'll get updates. I'll tell you, I just prayed for you. Not that my prayer means anything big. I'm nobody special, but if I tell you I'm gonna pray, I pray. By the way, Miss D is doing well. She may go home today. That's ahead of schedule. Precious. She's a precious human being. It's been an honor of a lifetime to be hers and Mr. Larry's friend for all these years. My goodness. All the way back to the early 80s. What an honor it has been. I have had the most amazing friends in my life. One of my closest friends, he's going on to his reward, Jerry. Jerry Summers. What a precious man. One of these days I'll tell you about what he and Miss Joe did. Over 3,000 souls they have personally led to the Lord through a little sideline business they had. That was their mission, God. We will tell everyone about you, and they did. And 3,000 people placed their faith in Christ because they asked. And they discipled them and led them and prayed for them and prayed with them and taught them. Amazing. Verse number six. Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord. It's a very religious answer. It sounds very good. Let me let me let me do it like he might have done it. Go in peace. The journey on which you go is under the eye of the Lord. Yeah, real religious sounding. Tells them exactly what they want to hear. Nor if they find Laish. Laish is a quiet city with no allies. They don't have any allies, just quiet. They mind their business. They don't be up in everybody else's business. They stay over to their side and they keep, you know, they keep just attention to what they need to do. And you do what you do, boo, and I'm gonna do what I do over here, and then just don't bother us. Right? They had no allies. Nobody got their back because they're by themselves. Don comes back. Don comes back with 600 armed men, and and on the way, they rob Micah. Can you imagine? They rob Micah and take the idol. Remember that? He stole from his mama. He stole from his mama and had that idol made. And on the way, 600 armed men, they rob him. They take the idol, the ephod, and all of his household gods. Then they make the priest an offer. You ready for this, verse 19? You may have never read this in your life. I don't know. I don't know your life. Verse 19. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel? Let me read it again. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel? Verse number 20, and the priest's heart was glad. The Levite accepts, accepts the better job offer. He accepts that offer. And he carries Micah's gods out the door himself. Isn't that ironic? Micah runs after them, crying out. Verse number 24 You take my gods that I made and the priest and go away? And what have I left? Let me tell you something. If someone can carry your god out the door, it was never God. Don attacks the quiet people of Laish, burns the city, rebuilds it, and names it, he renames it Don, and he sets up Micah's idol. And then verse 30 finally tells us the Levite's name. And here's a little bit of translation tension the ESV reads. Jonathan, the son of Giroshhom, son of Mose, son of Moses, the King James reads it this way, son of Manasseh. In the Hebrew manuscripts, one small letter, Nun, and the Hebrew N hangs above the line inside the name Moses. Add that in, and Moshe, Moses becomes Manasseh. The rabbis and the Talmud said the scribes did it to protect Moshe or Moses' honor. The hired priest running a stolen shrine, stolen idol shrine, was Moshe's own grandson. Moses' own grandson did this. He was the hired priest that did this, which also tells us this happened only two generations after Moshe or Moses. Can you imagine the shame? The shame was hard to say out loud, and the Bible said it anyway. You say, well, I don't think the Bible is true. Bunch of weird stories. Hey, Caleb Anderson 4334, let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. Why in the world would you spend your time going to obviously faith-based lives and getting on there and talking about ignorant things? Why would you do that? Where where is your life that it's there, that it's it's here doing these things? Why? It's childish things, it's disrespectful. I can't imagine people living their life like that. Like, what kind of life do you lead? That that's where you are in life. I can't imagine. Can't imagine. So weird. Same for you, Vernon. Vernon Bandy 2597. Grow up, man. Grow up. Only two generations after Moses. Can you imagine the shame? And the Bible said it anyway. So the fact of the matter is, if the Bible wasn't true, why would they put things that reflect poorly upon them? Bible said it anyway. Today's question is whether your faith is a relationship with God or just an insurance policy. Come on. Just like in the thumbnail, faith just insurance? Is that what it is? Is that what your faith is? Let me tell you what, that's the kind of faith you get when you just kind of you learn a few buzzwords, but you don't ever put your. There was somebody very dear to me and uh happened to be in my home yesterday. And I looked, and she was having her time with the Lord, and I saw all the notes that she takes, and then she has a devotional book that she has alongside of it, and she's writing neat, and you know, she don't have one of these. This better not disappear when you let when you all leave today. You better not disappear, my ruler. You heard me. Anyway, I've I've literally had this ruler probably 30 or 40 years. Crazy, I know. You can't see it on camera, but it's got all little crackles in it. You know how acrylic is somehow how it does, but I have carried that with me. That and my bag of pens. Y'all are not gonna believe this. I'm gonna show you anyway. I know, not supposed to do stuff like this on fives, but look at there. You can hear the crinkle. Look at all those different colored pens I got. And I got different color pens, different types of pens, all that highlighters. Miss Sharon gave me a dear lady from over at um over at Victory, uh Victory, Virginia Creek Ministries, gave me this. I helped Miss Sharon find a church. She was looking for a good church. I said, Hey, where do you live? Turns out she lives not far from me at a church I've preached at. And I said, I'm just, you know, I'm not the preacher. Um Pastor Russ is, but she gave me these two highlighters. I use them. I'm a sentimental dude. Sentimental, I've had these pens, I replace them with the same kind all the time. It's not, I haven't had the same, same, the same, same pens. Some of them I have. I know I'm sentimental. Today's question is is a real question. Whether your faith, I'm not asking you if you live a perfect life or if you have, you haven't. Maybe you have, I haven't. Tries I might, I haven't. And I've done bad things. I'm not kidding you when I say, I'm not talking about singing out of tune in church choir. Bad things. And I'm not proud of them. And there have been times where my faith has been more of an insurance policy than a relationship with God. But listen, I started to say about this young lady, she was studying everything going on around her. Hey, she was connected with the Lord. And then I looked at her Bible and all throughout her Bible, highlighting neat underlining and neat little notes on the margins, and I mean intense study. You, if you want a relationship with God, that's how it comes. I'm sorry to tell you. Even going to church once a week, that's not how it happens. If you depend on the preacher, if you depend on me and I'm in front of you six days a week, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, I'm here. Even with that, it takes more than that. If your Bible is dusty, if you don't even know where your Bible is, go find it. Gently and respectfully clean it off. I don't touch the Bible. If I I don't touch the Bible until I've washed my hands. I know you may think this is crazy or that's so legalistic. You know, you know, whatever. I don't touch it unless I clean my hands. If I'm near wash basin or whatever, I can wash them with soap and water. That's what I do. If not, I use this stuff. You say, well, that's weird. I'm weird. Welcome to me. I respect God's word. That's why when I see people put it, put it on the floor, on the floor of their car with all their junk stuff. I just, I'm amazed at it. I I can't believe it. Or it's up in the back of their car and up in the sun all day long, and it's dusty as all gay down. Got all kinds of stuff up there. That's the Lord's. People died to bring us that. I can't imagine. I don't know. I don't know. Today's question is whether your faith, your faith, no, I'm not asking this in an accusatory way. I'm asking you to search your soul. Search your soul and ask yourself, what is my faith? Not what does it sound like to other people? What does it appear like? No, I'm not asking you that at all. I'm asking you, is your faith a relationship with God, real relationship with God, or is it simply a fire insurance policy? And what happens the day the policy can't pay? Micah's religion had all the right parts. An Ephod, a priest, a Levite with the right family name, he was in the line of Moshe or Moses. And none of it came from God. Micah designed it, paid for it, hired the staff, and expected God to bless it. Look, Lord, I've done this. Now you bless it. A lot of modern faith works the same way. Looking for a God who fits my schedule, a church that tells me what I want to hear, a preacher that I can shop for, like the Levite, who tells me, go in peace. God's with you no matter what I'm planning. Some of you have have a faith that's never once told you no, and never once asked you to change. That's how you know you built it yourself. And the test always comes, the diagnosis always comes back anyway. The business fails even though you tithed. The prayer you thought you'd earned. The prayer you thought you'd earn doesn't get answered your way. And you're standing in the road asking the Micah question. You're asking Micah's question, what have I left? If your faith can be stolen, it was never faith in God. It was faith in a deal you thought you made with him. Here's your step today. Write down. Use your pen. Use your paper. Don't think about it. Do it. Write down one thing you expect God to do because of what you do for him. I just got the Ethiopian Bible. Mechanic Matt 523 says, Yeah, that's a fascinating Bible. I happen to have that. I happen to have that. I have a Bible collection, and that's one of the Bibles. It's enormous. It's this big, this wide, and this thick. I just talked about it the other day. I held it up. I'm I can't hold it up because I don't have any power with my left hand. It's on the left side. I don't want to drop it. I lose my mind when I drop the Bible. If I drop it, sometimes I do, and it makes me sick. I hope you will read it, but I hope you'll also get another Bible, Mechanic Matt 523, if you don't have another Bible. Um there's there's lots of great translations. I do Bible reviews. Uh they're under the live tab uh on my channel. And you're welcome to review those if if you're looking. Well, I wonder what other kind of Bible I want to get. What translation do I want to have? And I do those. Uh but there are there are several that I have that are primary study points for me. And I'd love to help you with that. If you hit me up on truewordfaithforlife.com under the contact, I will absolutely help you. You may not even be looking for help, you may not need help. You may be a preacher. Oh, good, good, good. You have lots. Awesome. You're probably a Bible geek like me, man. Um, I got a bed. I haven't bought a Bible in two months, two years, whatever. You know, I feel like I'm in um Bible geek anonymous, you know, or I'm in confession. I haven't bought a Bible in two years, Father. But I love them. I love God's word. Listen, this is as real as it gets. Write down one thing you expect God to do because of what you've done for him or what you do for him, or what you perceive you do for him. Your church attendance, your giving, your daily prayers. Yeah, even your daily prayers. You say, hey, that ought to buy me something. Then I want you to pray this loud. I'm not kidding. Pray it out loud. Pray it out loud to God before dark. By the way, closing your eyes in prayer, that's a that's a a postmodern Western evangelical construct. They did not do that. They did not do that. Actually, I can't do it because I'm jacked up, but prayed like this. And then they prayed on their face. But the whole closing of the eyes, that's you can do it if you want. If if you get distracted, easy, and you can do that. But I'm just saying. Anywho, I want you to do this before dark. Not kidding. Out loud. Prayed out loud to the Lord. Lord, I don't serve you to get protection. I follow you because you're God. You may be afraid to say that because you may feel look, I really need this insurance policy. I don't serve you to get protection. I follow you because you're God. You may be afraid to say that. You may be, you may go, now listen, I don't want to say that, Dr. Sean. I don't want to say it because if I say that, holy moly. What if, what if it doesn't work? Then this week, say yes to one thing God's asking of you that will cost you instead of protect you. Oh, I'm way over time. So sorry, I'm hurrying. Say yes to one thing God's asking of you that will cost you instead of protect you. A hard conversation you've avoided, a habit to give up, a neighbor to serve who can't pay you back. They can't give you anything. They've got nothing to give you. And you serve them anyway. They can't do anything for you. They have no influence, they have no money. The hard conversation you said. Oh man, I'm not having that conversation. Maybe it's a habit, a hurt, a hurt, a habit, or hang up that you're trying to give up. That neighbor that can't pay you back. The Levite in Judges 18 is a picture of something. Yeshua described, You bet, brother. I look forward to talking to you. The Levite in Judges 18 is a picture of something Yeshua described. John 10, verses 12 and 13. He who was a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand. He cares nothing for the sheep. They're not his sheep. When a better offer came, the Levite left. In verse 11, Yeshua says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You cannot hire the shepherd. You can't hire Yeshua. He already gave his life for you. Micah wanted a priest who could make, who would make him prosper. Hebrews 7, verse 26 shows us the priest we need, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. Yeshua doesn't serve your plans. He brings you to God. Yeshua says in John 10, verse 28, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. Word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Israel traded God for Israel's again and again, but God never traded Israel. Romans 11, verses 1 and 2. I ask then, has God rejected his people? By no means. God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew. Faith in God can't be stolen, because God is the one holding you. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. You can keep God you can manage. You can keep a God, a God you can manage. And one day watch that kind of faith walk right on out the door, or you can follow the shepherd who cannot be bought and cannot be stolen. Micah ended his story standing in the road asking, What have I left? If you belong to Yeshua, you never have to ask that question. The question isn't whether you're religious. The question is whether you're following God or trying to use him. Today, today, stop trying to use God for protection and start following him because he's God. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. Pray with me. Father, you are God, and we are not. We confess the shrines we've built, the faith we've used as insurance, the prayers we've prayed only to get something back. The trade-off. For everyone whose plans just fell apart, Father. Beat them in the road. When they ask, What have I left? Show them that they still have you. For the man watching his business fail before his eyes, remind him that you are his provider, not his policy. Thank you that you have never rejected Israel, even when Israel set up idols at dawn. Thank you for Yeshua. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Father. Almighty God. Hashim, Adunaiu Elium, Adunaiu, Thank you. Thank you. For Jehovah. Thank you for Jesus, the good shepherd, who laid down his life and holds us so no one can snatch us away. I pray this in Yeshua's heavenly and matchless name. Amen. If your faith has been an insurance policy, today it can become a relationship. Yeshua doesn't want payments from you, he wants you. And he's already paid the full price for you. I want you to pray this with me. Listen, if you're a person listening, live or on playback, hello Jasper Milan. We greet you also in the love of our Lord. So if you're a person who's listening live or on playback, and you and you say, Man, I have not I've not done this. I've not turned my life over to the Lord. I've not repented of my sins, my hurts, my habits, my hangups. I've not ever done that. I want you to pray this with me today. Today. It's not a long prayer, but it's also not cheap grace. You have to mean it. You have to believe it. Pray this with me. Seriously, don't put it off one more day. Come on, you've done enough putting it off. Pray this. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you. Forgive me. Fill me. Lead me. I'm yours. And your matchless, heavenly name. Amen. If you prayed that prayer today, you've stopped using God and started following Him. Type Shepherd in the chat right now, so we can rejoice with you. Tell one believer what you did today out loud. And find a church family that opens the scriptures and loves Israel. Micah had silver, and he had a shrine, and he had a priest he could pay, and all of it was carried away in a moment. And he was left standing in the road asking what he had left. Yeshua can't be bought and he can't be carried off. Everyone who belongs to him is held in his hand. Someone you love is treating God like insurance. Send this episode to them today. You can send the link. It's easy peasy. Don't direct them to the YouTube channel. I mean, I want you to, don't get me wrong. But, but just send them the link. Make it easy for them. The easier form you make it, the easier for it is for them. Oh, Jasper in South Africa. God bless you. My wife and I got baptized last Sunday here in South Africa. What a privilege for us in a country where we get persecuted for our faith in our Lord. Listen, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. First of all, that is super brave because I know what's going on in South Africa. And you absolutely are right. You're living it. The persecution, the danger is massive. You've done a brave thing. God is with you. You will be in my prayers, you and your wife. God bless you. Tap subscribe. Listen, tap subscribe and hit the little bell for all notifications. You say, well, why would he ask me to do this, especially at this moment? Because it is an easy way to get notifications of when I'm going to be on. A reminder, you live a busy life. Every episode I've ever done is in the live tab, for the most part. I mean, there's maybe 2% that aren't. Next, Judges 19 begins the last story in the book and shows where making our own rules leads. Now I'm going to pray a prayer over you. And I want you to receive it in his heavenly name and in Lashon Hakadash, Hebrew, the language of God. 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, Friday morning, I cannot, absolutely cannot wait to preach that message. Oh man, have I been excited all week long. All week long. I cannot wait to deliver it to you. Until tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Sunday, 6 30 p.m. Eastern Time. Until then. Shalom Bishem Yeshua. Shalom Shalom.