What Did YOU Delete?

Good morning. Well, here you are. I can't think of a I can't think of a better place. I mean, why not? Why not? You know what I mean? Why not? It is what it is. Well, I told you this wouldn't be the easiest week. Just remember I told you that. There's a stretch of your life that you've completely edited out. It's just when somebody asks about your past, you skip right past it. Because you've got a shorter version, an edited, tightly edited, different version. All ready to go. It's cued up. It's always queued up, just in case somebody asks you. It's the version with we'll call it a season. And it's quietly removed. You call it a hard time. If even you mention it at all, you might not mention it at all. Probably don't. Sometimes you don't. Most of the time you don't. But sometimes it's tough to act like you didn't hear. And you move things along fast. Like if somebody, you know, touches on that, you're like, let's handle this quickly. That's a no-go zone. And underneath the editing is a conviction you almost never say out loud. That if anyone saw the whole route, they know you're disqualified. If they could see how you got to hear, they know disqualified. They know that the deleted, that little button right there, the deleted years. The proof that God could never really use you. God had the story of Israel's 40 years written down. He didn't let them delete a thing. He commanded that the shameful stops. Those things that, well. No. Those times what we didn't do so well as a people. He didn't let them delete a thing. He commanded that even those times where they really failed went into the book. Somehow, they went into the book. Why? If you were gonna write a fake book, you wouldn't put the bad stuff in, you'd only put the good stuff well edited. And it's in the same handwriting as the miracles, as the beautiful, amazing, very nearly unexplainable things. Same handwriting. And there's no footnote. You know, if you go to true wordfaithforlife.com and the blog, and you'll see the study guide. You scroll down on each blog, you'll see the study guide, and there's footnotes there. This is what this means. When I said this, this is where this came from. There aren't any. The failures didn't get cut out from the map. They are the map. Welcome, I'm I'm glad you're here for this one. This is true word, faith for life with Dr. Sean. And as you might guess, I am Sean. We're covering three chapters today. Numbers 31, 32, and 33. And I'll I'm gonna lay it out for you. The first is the first one, uh it's a it's among the hardest in the Bible. We're not gonna skip it, we're not gonna sensationalize it. And we're not gonna make it something it isn't. If if teaching that handles the hard texts honestly, if that's what you've been looking for, well, I wrote a book. True word, faith for life. This one. This one right here. True word, faith for life was made for the person worn out on religion that never touches a real life. Well, that book, trust me when I tell you. There's a warning at the front of the book. I always encourage people don't skip. Don't skip, don't cut through. Because you're gonna need to read that warning. It's a true word faithforlife.com store. Edited or whole. The story of your life that you hand to people, is it heavily edited? Or is it the whole thing? Edited or whole? Just the honest one. To yourself. You can answer it if you want. I don't. I can't make you. The story of your life. You're getting to know somebody, you meet them. Obviously, you don't tell them the whole story up front, but when you're getting to meet them, what do you tell them? When it starts to go in deep, relationship becomes a real friendship. What do you tell them? The heavily edited thing? The real thing. Look, you don't have to put it in the comments. Just answer that for yourself. To feel the weight of chapter 33, you have to know that the ancient Near East world, how it kept its records. The itinerary was a real genre in the ancient Near East. Egyptian and Assyrian kings, they recorded their campaign routes or routes on temple walls and victory monuments, stage by stage. And every one of those was a triumph document built to broadcast conquests. Somebody in comments thinks they're being a sneaky little smart person. How do you feel about Islam? Was the question. How do you feel about Islam? Well, this is a marker of Islam. Build a monument on the land where you harmed the infidel. That's why they wanted to build an Islamic education center so badly. Just a block or two away from Ground Zero. That's why, now you know, it's built into them. It's what they do. Pharaoh, no, not every no, none of the pharaohs. They never carve in the stone the name of the place where his army panicked. No Assyrian king listed the site as the worst decision he ever made. He no king ever said, oh, I'm right here. Yeah, okay, here's some victories over here, but here's where I really I didn't do well. Really made a mess of things. We lost here.

Oh.

You recorded your wins and buried your failures. Or buried. Depending on where you're from in the world. That was the whole point of writing it down. Now, hold that and you're noggin. Because it's the backdrop for one blunt little sentence in chapter 33, and against that backdrop, it is genuinely radical. Walk the three chapters with me. By the way, that as it relates to Islam, a buddy of mine used to say, as regards, as regards, he was a funny guy. He has gone on to his reward. But as regards, if you so wish, the way this is done, the whole, you know, they put a little comment in there and they say, What do you think of Islam? Red Devil. That's his little hand on Red Devil. What do you think of Islam? Thank you, Miss Collin. And so I did a whole, I've done several podcasts on Islam. What this person may not know, probably doesn't, is that I'm an international expert on Islam, entrusted to consult at the highest levels. So you go to True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N, someone with about 4,000 subscribers, and you go there and you will find many episodes that I did on Islam. And so you're welcome. Free of charge and no cost or obligation to you. So I want you to go through these three chapters with me because they're important. They're important. I don't like them. Thank you, Robbie. You don't like them. By the way, hello to everybody in live chat. Um, if you're listening to this live, I know uh yesterday there was uh during the live there's about 350 people listening. But of that, only a very small portion go into the live chat. And it's fun, it's a nice thing. I like it. I like seeing everybody. Some of you woke up at 4 o'clock in the morning to watch this. Live. To be continued 25, Tammy, Linda, Susan, Miss Nicole, Miss Colleen, Robbie, Sean spelled correctly, and all the rest of you. So good to see you. It's a pleasure. I'm honored that you would take the time to do this. And all of you out there who are watching quietly, getting ready for work, or some of you getting ready for bed, depending on where you are around the world. Yesterday we had people from nine different countries listening. So it's silly. I'd be hunger pain. Silly. You're wasting your time with all that. It's just silly. Why? What is your faith? What do you believe in? And where do you think that ends up? So chapter 20, chapter 31 is the campaign against Midian. And the text ties it straight to what we read a few days ago. Says plainly that these were the ones who, on Balaam's Bilaam's advice, drew Israel into treachery against the Lord at Peor. This isn't land grabbing, it's it's a judicial action against a coalition that had deliberately engineered Israel's spiritual destruction after failing to curse them. And 24,000 Israelites were already dead because of it. Let me say three things about it. First, it's a specific historical judgment at direct divine command in one particular moment. Scripture never holds it up as a pattern for anyone to imitate. No prophet, no apostle, and certainly not Yeshua ever treats it as a template. No. Second, the details trouble faithful readers. They don't like it. They don't like it. And you know what? It should trouble you. If this chapter costs you nothing to read, well, you're not reading it carefully enough. I'd rather you sit uncomfortably with the hard text and have me smooth it into something it isn't. You see, when we're when we're reading the Bible in a year, oh man, I'm I'm going through the Bible in a year. And we, you know, I got a program on my I got a program on my on my on my smartphone. And every morning there it is. And I read the Bible in a year. That's what I'm doing. Reading the Bible in a year. And then you tick off a box. You don't, you kind of half read it, you know. And you know, you put it off until lunchtime, and then lunchtime you didn't read it. Yeah. I know it's a bummer. But I just didn't get to it. Then you say, Well, I'll I'll I'll knock that out when I get back to the house. And then guess what? You're really, really tired because it's a really, really challenging day. And you got a lot of stuff to do, and you say, Well, I'm gonna get to that right before I go to bed. Then you buzzsaw through it. You don't half-read it. Or maybe you just click the box, read it. Who'll know? That's not what this is. That is not what this is. In the ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context, that's how I want you to understand that. Because that's how it happened, where it happened. The people who are involved, I need you to understand it. You say, well, when we get into the New Testament, good lands, you're forever in this. You're still in numbers. My goodness, numbers. It's a whole, it's a whole uh, Robbie. It's the whole chapter. If you've got your Bible out, Numbers 31. That's that's where I'm focused right now. You'll you'll see as you go through. I'll make it plainly obvious. Look. I would rather you struggle through something that maybe it's not at the high point. Wait a second, I'm These people are the are the root of my faith. Look at they did. Yeah. What about your life? You look, my life. Your life, my life. I don't know your life. I know mine. Good land. You wouldn't want to know. You wouldn't know you wouldn't want to know all the parts. Major failures. Okay, Maddie Hayes. Just listen. Just listen. If you don't like it, click away. You pay a huge price for not believing in Jesus. I wish you wouldn't.

But it is what it is.

Anyway, you get the point. I want you to notice what the chapter doesn't do. Chapter 31. All y'all. Chapter 31. I want you to notice what it doesn't do. It doesn't celebrate. There's no victory song here. Nothing like Exodus 15. The officers come back, report that not one of their men was missing, and their response is to bring an offering to make an atonement for their own souls. The men who fought it brought a sin offering afterward. No. Chapter 32, it's quieter. It lands closer to home. Reuben and God, G-A-D God, have huge herds. Huge herds. They look at the land east of Jordan, they see excellent pasture. So they ask Moses not to be brought across the Jordan at all. And Moses answers with one of the sharpest questions in the Torah. Should your brothers go off to war while you sit here? Then he reminds them what happened the last time and discouraged their brothers from going into the land. That was Kadesh. I cost forty years. To their credit, they answer well. They offer to build pens for their livestock and towns for their children. Then arm themselves and cross over at the front of the fighting. And not go home until every Israelite has his inheritance. Yeah, it's a religious dream. Anthony, read the title. True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. That's not very hard. Anthony H. That's not very hard. Hello from India. Good to see you. Good to have you listening. But Anthony H., come on. Pretty easy. You know it's a religious dream. Good land. Wouldn't kill you to listen quietly. Look, Moses accepts it. With the warning that has outlived the moment. If you won't do this, you've sinned against the Lord. And you can be sure your sin will find you out. That's in scripture. Don't love it. Don't love it. If you won't do this, you've sinned against the Lord. And you can be sure your sin will find you out. Here's what to take from that. There's nothing wrong with recognizing that a place fits you. Sure. Some of us fit in certain places. Some people are apartment people on the 34th floor. And some people are country folk in a little ranch house on a little plot of land. Not so much that you're all always tending to it and never living in the house. But enough that you can look out and go, wow, man, I really like that. Different strokes for different folks. Some folks are city folk, some folks are country folk. Some folks like jobs that are frenetic and crazy, and some folks like jobs that are peaceful. And just you at a computer got a headset on to shut out the noise. And you're coding or doing whatever you do. There's nothing wrong. Nothing wrong with that. Their read on the land, hmm. It was accurate. It's good pasture, it's good pasture. Bottom line, it is what it is. Their read on this land was looks pretty good over there. Wonder what that's about. Hmm. You ever look over that way? Nah. But it does look good. Look how green that grass is. Is the grass greener? Over there. They were right. Good pasture, good pasture. The danger was settling into it early while their brothers still had a war to fight. And the fix was never giving up the land. It was crossing over first, carrying the shared burden, coming back to it after. Then chapter 33. And this is why I put these three together. Moses writes down their starting points, stage by stage, at the command of the Lord. At the command of the Lord. By the way, I designed these this way. For you to have your Bible and to have to either have read the passages or or or read them after. Have your Bible open, have a little notebook, and take notes. And then when you read through it, you go, ooh, I never knew that. That's why I do it the way I do it. If I go verse by verse and line by line, well, it'll be reading through the Bible in a decade. God specifically ordered that the travel logue be written. And then the chapter lists forty-two stations. Sukkoth, Etam, Mana, Elim, the Red Sea, the wilderness of sin, Rapadim, Sinai, on and on. Forty years reduced to a list of place names. Now, read the names carefully because God did not curate this list. But Ah is on it. The bitter water where they complained three days after the miracle, Refidim, is on it. Where there is no water and where they were nearly ready to stone Moses, Kibroth Katava, is on it. In Hebrew, Kivrot Hataava, the graves of craving, from Ta'avah, Tav Elef Vav e craving or lust. That's where God gave them quail and and a plague. They buried the people who could not stop wanting. Kadesh is on it. Where an eleven-day trip became forty years. Mount Hor, it's on it. Where Aaron died. God had Moses write down every place they camped, including the ones they were ashamed of. Come on, somebody. It's all part of your story. The peaks and the valleys. And the chapter ends with a blunt instruction about the land. Drive out the inhabitants and destroy their carved images and their high places. And if you don't, the English Standard Version says, those you let remain will be barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. Something small and constant that you learn to live with until it blinds you. And read the object of it carefully. Their images, their high places. The issue is the worship. The warning is that partial obedience leaves you living right alongside the very thing that will eventually take you. The book of Judges is the long, sad proof that they didn't listen. Half-dealt with things don't stay neutral. Right? Everyone's mad at President Trump for dealing with Iran. And Israel dealing with Iran. We don't hate the people of Persia or Iran. We don't hate them. But the IRGC, they're nuts. And they will kill, as we have seen, their own people. And they live only to kill us. To kill the Jews and to kill us. That's it. And they will not stop. And until you eliminate them, you will never eliminate the risk. And given nuclear power. Nope. You let those people have a nuclear bomb, and they'll use it in two places. And they want to eliminate each and every one of you. They want to wipe Israel off the map. Everyone that has ever existed that is of Jewish heritage gone. And they don't care if they die doing it. They don't care how many of their own people they kill in doing it. That's what drives them. Half-dealt with things don't stay neutral. They wait. As Miss Colleen says, they have a very, very patient mind. They're very patient. They'll wait. They'll get along to get along just long enough. So here's the bridge back to you. Yeah. You've edited your own itinerary. Everybody does it. Maybe it's little things. Maybe you don't have that. You don't have a real big thing in your in your history. Maybe you don't, I don't know. I don't know your life. Wish I did, but I don't. And really you don't know mine. But there are stops along your route that you didn't, you don't, and you didn't, and you won't tell anybody about. It's a season you refer to only as a hard time, a difficult season. You've built a version of your history with the shameful campsites removed, and you're sure the real story would disqualify you. Well, God had Moses write them all down by command. Never detours off the route. They were the root. Madah is where they learned he heals. Rafadim is where they learned he is their banner. Kadesh is where one generation learned what unbelief costs, and the next learned to go anyway. You don't have a testimony without the campsites that you're ashamed of. You don't. You have a highlight reel. And nobody has ever been helped by one of those. I'm just here to tell you. So here's the step for you today. I don't even know if you're still listening. But here's the step for you today, not down the road today. And you can do it today, before dark. It's easy. Name one deleted campsite. Just one. Not to everyone. And not carelessly. Hey, name it to God. Name it to God first out loud. To stop the hey man, I've kept this off the map for a long time. Went a little astray here. Or maybe you went a lot astray. Maybe you went way into the ditch or the gully. Or the gorge. Then pick one safe person this week. Everybody's got one. And let it back into the record of where you've actually been and how you got to where you are now. You're not confessing to be ashamed. You're putting a station back on the map so it can one day help somebody else through the same stretch. Now, why does this reach all the way to us? Why? Because Yeshua has an itinerary too. And it runs through the places nobody would have chosen. A feeding through, a feeding trough. And Bethlehem. Bethlehem. Nobody. If they were creating a highlight reel and they were writing a fake book, nobody would have put that in there. Nobody. An animals feeding trough. In Bethlehem. Egypt as a refugee. Nazareth, the town where they said nothing good could come out of. Why? Why would they put that in there? The wilderness, starving, Gethsemane, Golgotha. And the true church has never once edited that list out. They've never edited those things out. We put the worst stop on it on top of our buildings. And then when he rose, he kept the scars. He could have come out of the tomb with unmarked hands. He could have, he could have come out perfectly, not one injury. He could have come out of that tomb completely intact. Instead, he showed them to Thomas. And he said, put your finger right here. Put your finger right here. He kept the marks of the worst day of his life in his resurrected body on purpose. If the risen Son of God didn't hide his wounds, you don't have to hide yours. Your history isn't the reason he can't use you, it is most of what he is going to use. I'm living proof. If you knew my life, and one day I was confronted by that. In Newark, Delaware, at some of my dearest friends' home, where I'd been moved to study the Bible all day long and pray. Foregoing meals. Pancake. Pancake Saturday. Can't be pancake Saturday. John makes the best pancakes ever. Those dear sweet kids are grown successful adults now, but they kept coming up saying, Uncle Sean, you alright? You okay? I'm alright. I'm alright. And I wasn't alright. Because God knew. And I'd been fighting him my whole life. Really, since I was 16 years old. And there I was, a grown man, married, children. And I said, I don't I you can't be calling me. You cannot be calling me. Look at God, have you seen my life? Have you not noticed what a car crash of it I've made? Later on, I would have a terrible car crash. I was wrong about that. I was completely wrong. And look, you may not be struggling with, well, should I go in the ministry? You might be struggling with, should I tell somebody about my faith? Like somebody not in church that I know is a person of faith. I mean somebody that out there. Look, you have a choice today. I have a challenge and a choice for you every day, but today you have a real choice. Yeah, do what you want. You can keep handling the people, you can keep handing the people the highlight reel. The highlight reel of your life. It's only what you show them. Good parts. Or you can you can stay safe, right? The highlight reel only. This is my life, highlight reel. You can say you can stay safe and useless with that. Or you can let the whole route back into the record, the singing and the graves alike. You can become the map that somebody else gets through. They use you. They say, if that person could do look what they did, look where they came from. Authenticity. Doesn't mean you make your failures the highlight. It just be real. There are so many people that never come to Christ. And the reason they never do is because they think, man, he is unapproachable. Because look at look, I'm not going to that, I can't go to that church. How in the world could I go to that church? Those people are perfect. Look at their haircuts, look at their clothes, look at their cars. Look at their lives. Look at how they talk. Look at how they sing. I got hurts, habits, and hang-ups. I got sins all up in there. That's why I say I don't like churches. There was a church that we went to when we visited in Northeast Tennessee called Grace Fellowship Church. And that is what they drive on. Is this a church for the hurting. This is a church for the vulnerable. This is a church for the people who've got messy pasts. It's an enormous church. Because the leadership from the top down says, wait a second. The executive or the senior pastor has had mental health issues. He's honest about it. He says, This is what I went through. The other, they're honest. They're real. That resonates with me. Our pastor yesterday, ironically, at Grace Community Topsail. Pastor Steve, he was very vulnerable yesterday. That's real. Is that you? Or have you created this caricature of yourself? You know, these pictures that people do of themselves and they make themselves into different, you know, periods of time. And the AI perfects it and they put them out and they go, here's me. Instagram, all of the social medias, here's my vacation. But they never show you arguing with your spouse. No, I'm not going. I'm tired. The kids are tired. We're staying right here. Maybe we go down to the pool for a day. Instead of running around. I'm tired. My feet hurt. I'm staying right here. No, not doing it. Go if you want to, but not me. Not these children. They're worn out. They don't put those in there. Just the smiling with the just right posture. One more question. I wasn't going to do it, but I'm going to. From chapter 32. Have you sat down in your own good pasture while your brothers are still in the fight? You may have found the right place. Just make sure you cross over first. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. Pray with me right now. Father, thank you for a record that includes the places we would have deleted. Thank you that Mara is on the list and the graves of craving and Kadesh, that you didn't curate Israel's history into something impressive. But you commanded that the whole route, warts and all, be written down, failures and successes. The singing and the graves, and you had them do it in the same handwriting. We confess that we have edited ourselves. We've hidden our campsites we're ashamed of, and we've told a shorter story. And we've believed the real version would disqualify us from being of any use to you. I am so guilty of that. I thank you for the son, your son, whose road ran through a manger in a wilderness and a cross, and who kept the scars afterward. Give us the courage to let our whole root become part of the testimony. In the name of Yeshua, our Redeemer, our Savior, and our King, and my friend. Yeshua Hamashiach. Amen. Listen, maybe there's a stretch of your life that you've never told anybody. And you've carried it. You've carried it as proof God could never really want you. You see that part over there? When that hurt habit or hang-up got the better of me. When I went way astray. Couldn't use me. Can't use me. Used to be in the uh traditional churches, if you had any tattoos, you had to cover them up. When I was a police officer, there was a a guy, he was actually on my squad. His father was a very well-known state police officer and and and a friend of mine. A deer man. And but his son had been a Marine, and I mean he to he was all tatted up. And the police department said, Look, we can't have you exposing all those tattoos. Good morning. Good morning, Naculine Forbes. Good to see you. So he had to wear our winter shirt, our winter uniform shirt. It's made of wool. He had to wear it long sleeves because he couldn't show the tattoos. Not that there was anything terrible about the tattoos, couldn't show them. Tattoos used to disqualify you from being a worship singer. You had to cover them up. And eventually they found that, hey, that's their story. I did a whole episode on tattoos. I think you'd like it. I want you to hear this. God wrote the graves of craving into the same list as the crossing of the sea, same record, same handwriting, no apology attached. And his own son walked out of the tomb, still carrying the wounds. Your history isn't the reason he can't have you. So come stop putting this off. Stop putting it off.

Why?

Why? Why put your entire eternity off? You say, well, I don't I don't understand everything. Do you believe that Yeshua is the risen Son of God? Do you believe that God created the heavens and the earth? Do you believe that Yeshua lived a perfect life for 33 years? And he was tortured and died and rose again the third day for you and for me, as jacked up as you and I are. Maybe you're not jacked up. Look, maybe you're not. I won't put that on you, but I am. You say, I don't know all the answers. If somebody asked me a Bible question, I wouldn't know. I don't even have a Bible. After this, we'll see to it, you get the right Bible for you. You've danced around this long enough. None of us are guaranteed an hour from now. Trust me on that. I've been there. I've been dead several times. One of these days, I won't come back. I'm here to tell you, your history isn't the reason he can't have you. It's the whole reason he came. I'll help you. I have tons of free resources. I'll help you. I'll personally help you as well if you want. I've done it for countless number of people. I'll do it for you. Don't let anything be well, what do I have to give up? What do I have to stop doing? What do I have to get rid of? Do I have to get my tattoos covered? Do I have to um what do I have to do? Because you don't know what I just came from. You don't know what I'm in the middle of now. Come just as you are. Come just as you are.

God will do the changing. God will do the changing.

If you're tired of running from it, if you're tired of running from it, don't wait one more second. Whether it doesn't matter to me, whether you're listening live or you listen on playback. I want you to pray this with me. If you believe it, Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Fill me, lead me. I am yours. In your name. Amen. If you prayed that today, tell somebody. Don't file this away as a private moment. Well, there's two things we don't discuss: religion and politics, the very two very things. Two very things that we absolutely should discuss. Don't file it away as some sort of private, secret moment. Say it out loud to one believer this week. And let them stand with you, and maybe they don't respond the way you hoped they would, because they know your past. Well, you just smile at them. And you say, Hey, when the when the preacher on the internet box said to tell somebody, a believer, your your face. It popped into my mind. And I just thought I would tell you.

I just thought I would tell you. I hope you have a good day.

And move on. And then come tell me. I guarantee you I will respond with joy. All of heaven is rejoicing right now. Your whole root is allowed on the record. Same handwriting. The good, the bad, the bitter water, and the graves in the wrong turns. In the same handwriting, in the same handwriting as the miracles. You've had miracles come on, you've had them. When everything should have fallen apart, completely apart. And yet it didn't. It didn't for this moment, right here. Stop handing people the highlight reel. Let God listen, somebody's listening right now. Somebody's listening right now. And you've got your hands like this, and you're trying not to listen because you don't want to hear it. Because you know this is you. And you have hidden, you've hidden the bad stuff for so long. For so long. And you just want it to stay hidden. Stop handing everyone the highlight reel. Let God write the honest map, all 42 stops of it. Because that's the one that will carry someone else home. Now I'm going to pray a blessing over you. It's been prayed forever. It's been prayed forever. And I want you to receive this in his heavenly name. In Alishang Hakadesh. That's Hebrew, the language of God. It's the language that God spoke to his people, and that his people spoke to him. I'm going to pray it first in Hebrew, and then I'm going to translate it. So don't panic. And by the way, I'm not speaking tongues, it is actually Hebrew. If you're ready to receive it, take a deep breath. 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. Till tomorrow. By the way, share this with one person. Would it kill you to share this? The link. Share with one person. They've been hiding a chapter. They think, oh no, I'm not fit. It might be the day they let it back on the map. Until tomorrow. Tomorrow. 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. You ready? You ready for this day? Trust God. Talk to him. He's ready to listen. He's eager to listen. I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully. 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Shalom Vishim Yeshua.

Shalom, Shalom.