Still No Sign?

You've got the bags packed by the door. You did the responsible thing.

You lined it up and then you sat down to wait for the go and it never came.

A day, then a week. Then you lost count.

You lost count. And now you're wondering if you missed it. You're wondering, did everybody get this signal and I didn't get it? Did I miss it? Have you been forgotten? Have I been forgotten? The tent is up, but nothing's happening. Or maybe maybe. Maybe it's the other way. It's the other way. Nothing has told you to move. Haven't heard anything. No direction, no instruction, and you're taking it all apart anyway. Because sitting still one more day feels like failing. Here's the question under both. Are you waiting on God or waiting on yourself? Because from the outside, those two look identical, and only one is obedience. So today, day 111, a number I love, today we walk with a whole nation that couldn't plan a single day. What moved them wasn't a schedule, it was the voice of God. This is true word, faith for life with Dr. Sean. I'm Sean. Hello to everybody in live chat. If you're listening live, if you're listening on playback on any of our platforms that we're streaming to now, or any of the we're on all of them. Spotify, iHeart, iTunes, whatever. All of them. We're on all of them. Click on the thumbs up, the subscribe, the all notifications, blah, blah, blah. I'm glad you're here. Day 111, it's a year-long thing. We're walking through the story of God, and today the story stops standing still. Well, and it starts to move. Numbers eight through ten. By the way, if this is of any benefit to you, any blessing to you at all, and you have at least one friend, maybe buy a copy of my book, True Word Faithful Life, then maybe buy one for them too. It's at TruewordFaithfulLife.com. You can buy them anywhere, you got books, but just saying, we do better when you buy it from us. You don't get it any faster buying it from them. We get a dollar from them. Some of them we get uh one of them we get 84 cents. We lose money on selling the book. But we would rather have we would rather you have it than not have it. Anyway, all that said to say, um there's there's a qu an inner question you need to settle for yourself. By the by the way, while I'm thinking of it, um if you haven't listened to the Saturday, um the Saturday broadcast. I'm trying to look here. We're over a thousand. It's called He Kept You. I think I think that's what I have on there. No, I don't know. The Saturday broadcast. The one I did on Israel and anti semitism, anti-Semitism here. Just gave you facts. Just hard facts. There's no fluff, there's no advertising, there's no nothing, it's just I'd love for you to see it. I mean it's up to you. You don't have to watch anything I tell you to watch. But if you do watch, buckle up. Not like this. Much nicer, Sean here. So, you know, I ask these questions, and and sometimes I wonder, well, I wonder if they realize these questions and and answering them are pivotal. They're just pivotal to this whole thing, to understanding the whole thing, as it relates to you. Look, you read the Bible. I've read the Bible now, 39. Well, I'm on my 40th time. Oh it isn't a big deal. It isn't. Only the last four or five times have I really, really understood what it means to have this word in my hands. It's an honor. And listen, there'll be people that come into the chat and they'll be ignorant. You know, we're nobody, I mean, 4,000. By the way, if you're not a subscriber, true word, faith for life with Dr. Sean, Shaw N. If you're not a subscriber, and even if you're listening in some other place, Facebook, X, Insta, um, everywhere. We're we're live streaming to 10 locations right now. We no longer live stream to Twitch. That's why we're not live streaming to it, because I don't understand it. Anyway, the point is go to True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean YouTube channel. Well, I've only had I've only like 4,000 subscribers. I'm no, I'm not a big deal. Click on subscribe, click on the little bell for all notifications, click on the thumbs up. More people, you you just don't even understand. The algorithm is the craziest thing you've ever seen in your life, and it changes all the time. The thing you're stalled on. I mean, that's a question for you to answer. I can't answer it for you. You know, you already know which which is the answer. The thing you're stalled on, is it God? Is it God? Has He not moved? Or is it you who won't move? It's one or the other.

Well, it's a little bit above.

No. God is full on, He's unmistakable. I appreciate you all so much. By the way, I'm preaching uh at one of my favorite places, Virginia Creek Ministries at Virginia Creek Camp Campground in Surf City. Can you all tell I'm going to my speech therapist today?

Whew!

I can barely get my words out. Um, anyway, uh it's in Surf City, North Carolina, September 27th at 9:30. When I say we get started at 9:30, I'm a I'm a real punctual fella. But I'm gonna tell you what, Pastor, right? He don't play. Start on time. I love it. What a crew over there. They're the nicest people. You'll be welcomed. Um, they're really, really, really lovely people. By the way, if you drink one of the cups of coffee, that's rocket fuel. It's good, tastes good, but it's rocket fuel. Anyway, you'll love them. You may not love my preaching, but if you come in person, you have a book, I'll sign it for you. Instantly worth half. So the thing you're stalled on, is it God? He just he just hasn't moved. He hasn't, he whatever it is you wanted him to do. Or is it you who won't move, you who won't listen to the instruction? I mean, for real. I can't answer for you. But I'll tell you what, you probably already know which one it is. By the way, thank you to those who who woke up early. You're in parts of the country. It's four in the morning right now. I I can't tell you what that means to me. By the way, also for people who are just recovering from massive surgeries. A, we're praying for you. B, thank you for listening. It's amazing. I'm just amazed you all do that. I I can't thank you enough. So here's where we are. Israel's been camped at Sinai for almost a year. And 11 months of holy standing still, right? We stood still, we don't know what to do. But God came down, the covenant got cut, the tabernacle got built, and everybody's been counted, sorted, and assigned. Everybody has a place, everybody has a job, and that matters because in the ancient world, your God stayed put. Your gods. A God belonged to a mountain, a city, a temple. You went to the god. The god didn't travel with you. That's just not how it that's not how it worked. Israel's God is about to do what no other god in the world was supposed to do. Never ever. It never happened. By the way, how's the sound? I didn't I forgot to ask. Music too loud, music too low. I don't know. The the other gods, small g, they didn't travel. You went to them, you did whatever you needed to do to go to them. But now, this this monotheistic god, capital G, the God of Israel, God of the Hebrews, apparently he travels. He's gonna fold up his tent and walk. The same presence that filled the mountain moves into a portable structure in the camp and leads a nation of former slaves across a wilderness on foot. Thank you, Miss Nicole. Good early morning. Four o'clock in the morning, California, right now. Well, 4'11. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it, man. To be continued, says awesome sound. Nicole says, sounds good. Awesome. Good, good, good. So the real question isn't it isn't whether God shows up. By the way, this is one of my um I composed this. It's a it's a weird song. This is Be Still and Know That I Am God. It's actually just titled Be Still and Know. Um and I composed this because a friend of mine said, a dear friend of mine, actually, the one that's trying to get me to eat okra. He is trying to this boy is trying to get me to eat okra. I mentioned it yesterday. Now he's mad at me because he says every time he tries to eat okra, I said it looks like snot. It's like nasty. But I'm told if you put it in the soup, and I'm a soup guy, I love soup. This has nothing to do with the show, but it's just a truth. Anyway, I wrote this really thinking of him, and I have another friend who is going through the hardest time ever right now in his life. His emotional turmoil, his familial turmoil, everywhere you turn in his life, there's there's turmoil. And um, he's been a dear friend, he's been with me through the hardest things in life, and I wrote this for him too. And uh, so this is this is why this is why I wrote this. There are others that I write for different reasons, but um this one I wrote for them. Okay, we got a Nicole in for I agree, slimy. I'm down. So the real question isn't whether God shows up, he already has. The cloud is on the tent. It's whether these people can be led by a God whose timing they can't predict and can't control. They can't. That's what makes him God. Man, if your God is on a if your little g God is on a tether and you can just manipulate him, I'm not God. How God created the heavens and the earth. Remember day one, back at day one, remember that. In Genesis. Chapter 8 opens with the lamps. Aaron sets them so the light shines forward out in front of the lampstand. The lamp doesn't exist to show off the lamp, it exists to show what's in front of you. Same as a flashlight. You don't turn on a flashlight and go, wow, that's a fancy flashlight. I like go of the light. No, you want to see the light that's coming off of that thing. That's the shape of this whole day. Then you have the Levites, they're cleansed, and Aaron lifts them up and waves them before the Lord as a tenufa. Tenupah, wave offering. Living men presented to God like something laid on the altar. They belong to him now. That's their life. Everything, everything, everything they do, everything they do, all about him, all about God. Adonai alumin. In place of every firstborn son in Israel, they belong to him. Hello, Isaac. Good to have you. These men were given, the text says twice, wholly given. Then a detail I don't want you to miss, because as many times as I've read through this, sometimes you know, you pick up, you pick up a little speed, you know, and you're reading and you're rolling, and what was what was that? Sometimes you miss it. You're going too fast. That's why I'm not rushing this thing. So I don't want you to miss this. It's important. Back in chapter 4, the Levites start their service at 30. Hear me? Did you hear that number? Age 30. Here in chapter 8, verse 24, they start at 25. But back in chapter 4, the Levites started their service at 30. But here's something's different. In chapter 8, verse 24, they start at 25. Two ages five years apart in the same book. And your translation hands you one and never tells you the other exists. I mean, it may not be a big deal. Big deal to me. I'm not mad about it. I'm not, I'm not mad about it. I'm informed, and now I'm going to inform you. The oldest reading of the gap is simple. The five years were the apprenticeship. Can you imagine? Five years of apprenticeship. Nowadays, kids graduate high school, they want to be CEO of some big company. They graduate college, they want to be CEO of the world. You learn the work before you carried the weight. That's why I love the tradesman. The trades, the trades you put in your time, you grind it out, and it's hard. It's amazing. Never underestimate the trades. They're unreal. So you learned the word before you carried the weight. And then verse 25, at age 50, the Levite ceases the avoda, the heavy service. But the very next line, he keeps the mismeret, the charge. He stays, he stands with his brothers, he stops caring, he doesn't stop belonging. God built a category for the season after your strength. And most of us have never been handed it. It's chapter 9, it's Passover, one year out of Egypt, and some men can't come. They touched a dead body, probably buried someone they loved, and then made them unclean for the one meal that made them a people. So they do something almost nobody in the Bible does. They walk up to Moses and they push back. Why should we be kept from the Lord's offering at its appointed time? And Moses doesn't invent a ruling to look in charge, look like the boss. He says, wait, let me hear what God says. And God writes them a second Passover, Pasak and E. A new date, one month later, for anyone unclean or on a long journey. Same land, same bitter herbs, same command. Do not break a single bone of it. Remember that bone. Remember that bone. Remember that. We come back to it. Then the cloud, and this is the center of everything. When it lifted, they moved. When it settled, they stopped. They journeyed and camped. Alpi Adonai at the mouth of the Lord. Not by a map. By his mouth, by his words. And the text hammers it. Two days, a month, a year, however long the cloud stopped, they stayed. When it lifted, they went. No pattern. No schedule. No warning. Israel could never plan. They could only watch. After 10 gives them two silver trumpets. A long blast gathers the camp. A broken blast sends a division out to march. I'm in the process of trying to compose this exact thing to the best that I can with my limitations. A broken blast sends a division out to march, and the same trumpet sound over the feasts and the offerings. The trumpet that calls you to war is the one that calls you to worship. And the cloud lifts and they walk. Judah first, exactly as arranged. And Moses asks Hobab, a relative who knows the desert, to come and be their eyes. He's got the cloud, the voice of God, and the ark, and still asks the man to be his eyes. That's not weak faith. God gave the cloud. And God gave Hobab. So come back to your packed bags. Israel just been counted, sorted, and assigned. Everything was in order. And then the timing of their lives got handed to something they couldn't see coming and they couldn't hurry. In this modern world, things are crazy. Everybody's busy. Everything is rushing. You can have your whole you can be the most organized person on the planet. And still not be the one who decides when you move. That's the hardest part of being led. It's not the walking. It's the waiting. And everything packed and no information. And it cuts both ways. Some of you are stalled and you're calling it discernment. You are. That's what you're calling it. You've stopped moving, you've stopped hearing, you've stopped listening, and you're calling it discernment. There's no cloud over the thing you're avoiding. You just don't want to take the tent down again. You're like, ugh. And some of you are the opposite. You keep tearing the camp apart because you're restless. Because you're anxious. Because you're at a short attention span. Because sitting still feels like you're losing. Everybody else is moving. Everybody else is achieving. Everybody else is climbing. Everybody else is putting miles. You know, when I go on a trip, Miss Colleen can tell you, I don't care about. I want to enjoy the trip. I want to enjoy the trip. I want to see everything. I want to, I'm not worried about seeing everything. I'm worried about seeing the things that I'm to see. That we're to see. That we're to experience. Oh, we got to make such and such by such and such. Yeah, I'd like to leave by 5 a.m. That's going on trip. That's when I want to leave. But I'm not panicked about it anymore. Sometimes the timing is the timing. But I tell you, in this modern world, a lot of times we think we're not putting the miles down and somehow or another we think we've lost. We think we're we're losing because there's other people. They're they're putting down the miles. They're they're rocking and rolling. But listen folks, that's restlessness. This is an anxious world. We have to recognize that the timing is gone. Every time I've tried to time something, every time God has timing is perfect. Total responsibility for the watching. That's one job. Keep looking up. Keep praying. Keep studying his word. You say, I I don't feel the presence of God in my life. And then my very next question is, okay, how much time do you have the leather-covered book in your hand? Or the phone, I don't know. However, you read your Bible, but I'm gonna tell you. Name the one thing you're stalled on. This is easy. Look, I'm giving you the step. You can do this before lunchtime today. Name the one thing you're stalled on out loud. Or on the back of a receipt. Look, I don't care. I don't care on a napkin, on a paper towel. I don't care. But not on those towels that are on the stove or next to the thing, because those are fancy, you're not supposed to use them. I don't know. And who wants to use them anyway? They never work. They're always anyway. That's a whole nother thing. The more I read, the less convinced I am. Well, you because you don't want to be convinced. You're leaned into not being convinced. You want to not believe. And so, there you have it. That's fine. It's a narrow pathway. So I want you to ask this: is there a cloud over this, or am I the one that won't move? If God hasn't lifted it, stop apologizing for standing still and stop calling yourself lazy. Keep the tent up, keep watching, keep reading, keep studying, keep praying. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. But if you know he's already lifted that cloud, if you know he's already said, no, this is what I want you to do, and you've been sitting on it in comfort because you're afraid to move. Moving is a pain in the neck. Chloe, follow this show. Follow this show. Click on subscribe, click on the little bell, follow this show. I'm gonna make a guarantee to you. You listen to this, I don't even think I'll be through to the to the New Testament by the time your faith has changed. And it is so strong and so unshakable that you'll stand in front of anything the devil has to put in front of you and you'll say, Bring it on.

Punk.

You'll do it. That's I'm making that guarantee. And it's not because of me, got nothing to do with me. God said to do this, I'm doing it. I'm doing it the way he said to do it. No ifs, no ends, no buts. I refuse, I absolutely refuse to quit. I'll quit when he quits me, when he presses the off button on my body. Until then, I'll drag myself out of bed and crawl in here and get Miss Colleen to help me up in the chair, and I will I will preach his word the way he told me to preach it. And I'm honored that you're listening, by the way. Don't think I think it's a small thing. We will help you here. I guarantee it. Listen, it's easy to not move because sitting still is so comfortable. But if but if you're sitting there and you're like, why, why, why isn't he directing me on this? Immerse yourself in his word. Immerse yourself in prayer. Unplug the TV. Unless that's what you're listening to me on. Take one piece of the tent down. Look, if you know he's already lifted the cloud. He's already said, he's already said this way, we're going this way. But you still are sitting there because you're like, man, that tent is such a pain in the neck to take down. Take one piece of the tent down today. Make the call. Call the person you know God has said for you to call. Well, I don't like to get on the phone. No, no, no. Make the call. Send the text. Send the email. Pack the first box. One piece. Today. Now I want you to go back and pick up that bone. God said at the second Passover, do not break a single. Remember what I said? Pay attention to this. Don't forget it. Do not break a single bone of the lamb. He said this at the Passover. Do not break a single bone of the lamb. Hold that because centuries later there's another Passover and another lamb. Capital L. Already dead on a Roman cross. When the soldiers came to break the legs of the man hanging there, they get to him and they stop. Yochannon or John says it plainly for you to understand. This happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled. Not one of his bones will be broken. That statute in Numbers 9 was waiting 3,000 years for a Friday afternoon. Yeshua is the Passover God was always writing toward. And that's why I say if you don't understand the ancient Near Eastern language culture and context of the Old Testament, you will never understand the beauty of the gospel and the New Testament. And here's the other thing about a God who goes first. When Israel finally moved, the ark went out ahead of them to find a resting place. God didn't send his people into the unknown to find rest and then report back. He went first. He went first. That's the voice of Yeshua. That's the voice of Yeshua Hamashiach, Jesus the Messiah. I go to prepare a place for you. I go to prepare a place for you. The shepherd walks ahead of his sheep, not behind. And they follow because they know his voice. He has never once sent you somewhere he has not already been. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. So today asks you to make a choice, to pick. Are you waiting on the cloud or are you waiting on yourself? One of those is faith, the other is just fear wearing faith's clothes. And only you know which one you got dressed in the morning, this morning. And if some part of you has quietly decided, well, I'm the exception, that what God has, God has for other people. Well, it doesn't reach as far as me and my history, my hurts, my habits, and my hangups, the things I've done. Look again. Look again as the men, look at those men who walked up and asked, why were we kept out? God didn't scold them. He wrote them a second Passover. The door is not narrower than you think, it's wider. And it's a person, and his name is Yeshua. I guarantee you, you you look at your dad or your mom or your brother, your sister, you look at people around you and you say, This is what love is, because it's not unconditional. There's no way somebody would do something like that for me. There's no way because you don't know what I've done. You don't know where I am. You don't know the muck and the mire that I'm in. You don't know my hurts, habits, and hangups. You if you knew you would just move on past me. No, no, no. Uh-uh. This is your second chance to come to him. Lest you think it's easy. It's not. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. Pray with me. Heavenly Father, thank you that you go first. Oh my, if we had to go first. Thank you that the ark searched out the resting place before Israel took a single step toward it. And that your son went ahead to prepare a place for us. We confess it. Because you already know we're bad at waiting. We take the tent down before you've moved because standing still feels like failing. Father God, sometimes we leave it up long after you've lifted the cloud, and we've gotten comfortable. And we don't want the work, we don't want the pain in the neck it is to put the tent up. To change our life, how it is. I ask you to teach us to watch instead of to plan. And for everyone here, Father God, I'm praying for everyone listening live or on playback. Everyone, Father, that's decided they're outside what you've made the room for. God, give them the nerve to walk up and ask. I pray this in the name of Yeshua, your son and my redeemer. Amen. Maybe you've read your whole life as the exception. It's for everybody else, but not for me. Salvation is for everybody else. It's not for me. It's not for me. I'm too bad. I'm too flawed. I'm too jacked up. I'm telling you now. If he saved me, he'll most assuredly save you. You don't know my life. But I'm gonna tell you something. I don't deserve it any more than any other person on the planet. You looked at your life and you said, Well, I'm the one person that this doesn't apply to. That's because you've seen conditional love your whole life, and maybe you've not even seen an example of love. What kind of love gets tortured to death on a cross for doing nothing, nothing wrong, goes to a grave and rises again the third day for you and for me. You say to yourself, what God has for everybody else stops at the edge of my story. What you did or what was done to you. I want you to hear this. There were men who couldn't come to the table through no fault of their own. They walked up nest, and God made a new day just for them. The door is a person. Your door is a person. His name is Jesus, Yeshua. And if you want him, tell them, I'm going to give you the chance to pray it with me now. Pray it with me now. Don't put it off another time. Place your faith in Christ. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. I ask you to forgive me. Fill me, lead me. My life is yours. In your name. Amen. If you prayed that just now, and you meant it, you're not standing outside anything anymore. I want you to do one thing today. One thing. Tell somebody. And look, let me just say this. Pick, be smart about who you choose, right? Don't spend a bunch of time vexing over it. It may be your mom, your dad, whatever, they're people of faith to some degree, and you go to them and you tell them, hey, mom and dad. I put if they're still here, I put my faith in the Lord today, and I turned my life over to him, and they look at you funny. Don't even wait for any sort of They don't have to endorse it. For it to be real. Sometimes the people that are closest to you, because they saw you grow up, they saw you as an adult, they saw you do jacked up things, and they say, right? They read the story, but they blow it over. Everyone except for them. You say, wait a second, I'm their child. Even if you're an adult, how can they do that? Well, they do it sometimes. And sometimes that's the reason why it's so hard for you to believe in the love of Christ for you. If there's any pushback, you don't argue with them, you don't get into a debate with them. You maybe send them this message, this uh link, and you say, you know what? When I uh when I when I first place my, you know, the preacher said to tell somebody, and man, you were the first one I wanted to tell. So I'm telling you. Now you move on. You know what? Go to True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. Tell me. Go to contact. It's just true wordfaith for life.com. And then go to contact up the top. There's a little thing on the side. You can click on that. It's two minute, two-minute voicemail. You actually speak. And I pay for it. You don't have to. Nothing on there costs any money except for my book. And that's a choice. You either, and I won't collect your data, I don't do any of that. Tell me. I'd be delighted. Text somebody you know that you trust. Walk into a church this week. If you don't know what church to go to, I'll help you find me. Say, wait a second, do you live where I live? No, but I know people. I have resources. I will help you find a great church. Not a perfect church, a great church. There are no perfect churches. And as soon as, look, if if there was one, as soon as I walked in, it'd be imperfect. Don't carry this alone. I'll help you along the way. I said to Coy, a new listener, I said to Coy, I'm gonna guarantee you, you listen to this every day. Whether live or on playback, you may not be able to get to it live every day. You listen to this every day. You get down the road 50 days, your life has changed. Don't carry it alone. Listen, do what Israel did every morning. Keep your eyes on the cloud. The bags can stay packed. The waiting isn't wasted. The cloud was never once forgotten, the tent it's resting on. And the God who goes first has never lost the road. When he moves, you'll know. Until then, you watch. If this touched you in your heart today, send it to the one person you thought of while I was speaking. That's how the cloud moves for somebody else. And now I'm going to pray a blessing over you, not because I'm anything special. I'm praying it over you because God prayed it over his people. Yeshua, before he was raised to heaven, mid-sentence, this is what he was praying over his people. And I choose to pray it over you in the heavenly name and in Lashon Kodesh, which in Hebrew means the language of God, because that's the language that God spoke to his people. And that his people spoke to him. I'll translate it for you at the end. Are you ready? Receive it in his name. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to 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. Eastern Standard Time, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard, and it's all live. And then you can listen on playback. Sundays at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I'd love to have you. Until then. It's been good to have you today. If you've been blessed by this, click on the thumbs up. Click on the sh the uh subscribe and the little bell and all that stuff. Tomorrow morning we'll be here unless the Lord takes me home. Till then, shalom bishim yeshua. Vishalom Alechim.