WHO Carried You?

Good morning. Who carried you here? You didn't walk it alone. You think you did it by yourself? You look back at how you got to right now. How you got to right now? Right where you are, this job. Maybe this retirement, this recovery. If only we could have seen you back then. I have a friend that says, if you'd have known me when I wasn't in recovery ten years ago, you wouldn't you wouldn't be friends with me. You'd be. You'd hate me. How about this marriage? How did how did that happen? You get here and the marriage is still standing despite all the obstacles, all the challenges. These kids, mostly raised. And the story you tell yourself is that you dragged it all here alone. You did it on a bad back and four hours of sleep. You carried everybody else. You're tired down in a place sleep doesn't reach. Somewhere under the tiredness is a quieter ache. That nobody saw it. That you did the hardest miles of your life with no witness. And if you stop walking tomorrow, nobody'd even know what it costs you to get this far. I want to open a book today that was written for the person who feels exactly that. I don't know your life. But someone listening right now. That's exactly where you are. But here, this is Moses. Moshe. He's at the very end of his life. He's standing in front of an entire generation. He's an old, old man. And he has been through a lot. And he's about to tell them the true story of how they got right where they're standing. And right in the middle of it, he says something that reaches 3,000 years down the road and puts a hand on your shoulder. He tells them, the Lord your God carried you. The whole way. The way a father carries his son. You didn't walk it alone. You never did. Welcome. I'm glad you're here today. This is True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I'm Sean. We're opening the book of Deuteronomy today, chapters one through three. The first of the sermons Moses preaches on the edge of a promised land he'd never get to enter. If this is the kind of teaching you've been hungry for, well, I wrote a book. It's this book right here. Written in textbook quality, highest quality paper, highest quality ink that won't poison you. It's built to last a lifetime. Lots of space in the margins and in between. And big print so normal people can read it. It's in the store at TruewordfaithforLife.com. You can buy it anywhere else too. We get a dollar or a little bit less. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. And Linda and Susan, thank you for your card. I appreciate that. That was sweet. I love the picture on the front. It's beautiful. Good morning, Miss Nicole. Thank you for getting up so early. 4 a.m. where she is. Sean spelled correctly. Alex, good morning, brother. Good to see ya. God bless you all. Joe and Miss Cheryl. I'll be seeing y'all. Not good swear. I saw. Miss Tammy. Good to see ya. I'll be seeing you, I hope, this weekend at Virginia Creek Ministries, Virginia Creek Ministries, Virginia Creek Campground, Surf City, North Carolina. I'll be there. I start preaching. Well, the singing starts at 9.30, I'll tell you that. And you don't want to miss it. These are wonderful people. Get there early. Meet some folks. All the seats are comfortable. There's not a bad seat in the house, so I'd love for you to come. And if you have one of my books, I'll sign it for you. Anyway, I wrote that book because I knew an awful lot of people worn out on religion. And faith, their faith, never touched a real life. Well, that book, well, most of what's written in that book, I can't say here. A good part of it. Anyway, true wordfaithforlife.com. Up at this door. So I want you to answer this one in the chat before we start. Just one word. Just one word. Here's your choice. You choose because you tell the truth about your life. Or do you? Carried or alone? Those are the two choices. There's not in between. Carried or alone. When you look back at how you got here, which story have you been telling yourself? Carried or alone? One word. Then let's see what Moses has to say about that. Here's something that unlocks the entire book. And most people have been told. Most people have been told it. Deuteronomy is built like a treaty, not a random pile of sermons. Now, let me say most people skip over the Old Testament. They do so at their own peril. Well, I just like the New Testament. I like stories. I like the miracles. I like this. Oh man, there's plenty of miracles in the Old Testament. But you cannot understand the New Testament until you understand our foundation. How did we get here? Why are things how they are? The ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context, I've spent decades studying that at the doctoral level. And I've broken it down so you don't have to go 20 years of school, 30 years of school to understand it. I just want when you pick up your Bible, when you pick up your Bible, I want you to open it and it come to life. Because until you understand the ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context, the people, the place. The language, the culture and the context of you're just guessing. So in the ancient Near East, where it all happened, when a great king made a covenant with a smaller people, that document had a standard shape. Looked a certain way. And we've dug up hittite versions of it. Carved, preserved. It opened with the king naming himself. Then before a single law, it did something you'd never expect from a conquering king. It rehearsed the history. It walked back through everything the king had already done for his people, all the kindness, all the rescue. And only after that long memory of grace did the treaty ever get to the terms. Because loyalty was never supposed to grow out of fear. It was supposed to grow out of gratitude. You obey the king because you remember what the king already did for you. Now, look at how Deuteronomy opens. Like I said, most people skip this book. Deuteronomy. It's a big deal. This book's a big deal. Sneezing bound. Yesterday we had a little problem with the VA clinic. And by we, I mean me. Extremely low blood pressure and 90 something over. I think the first one was 90 something over 58. Second was 95 over, I must say 60 or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Fighting to stay alive, but we have a great team. Dr. Dr. Walker. She's been. She's been with me the whole time I've been at the VA. And uh, same one every week. And then Miss Joy. What a blessing. Proper name. Yeah, I know. You're not supposed to blow your nose. But I don't want a snotty nose. Snotty face. So wasn't me. I wasn't going to mention anything in my prayers before this. By the way, I'm out of tissue. I'm in deep trouble. That's a bad position to be in. That was a lack of preparing. Whatever. It is what it is, right? So I wasn't going to mention it because I said, Lord, let this let this be about them. I always pray that. Let this be about them. Let this be about him and you. But my skin is dry. I go to the dermatologist today to look on in on this game gangster. Anyway. So I always pray, you know, make it about them, don't make it about me. But then I thought of it. This is the perfect time to say, you know, what was I carried here? Or did I come here alone? Well, I'm gonna guarantee you, I know for a fact. By the way, how's the sound? And and is anybody listening? Everyone send a box of tissues. No, Miss Colleen got a she's gotta thank you, Linda. She's got a she's got a little closet in there with a bunch of them, but I always forget to go in there. Tell a situation like this arises. Oh Lord. I'll try not to cry so I won't be snotty nose. Well, the reason this applies so much is because I wouldn't be here were it not for them. Hey, Mr. Cecil. Cecil Seesaw. Hello, hello. How are you? Listening on YouTube. We're streaming to nine locations right now. Thank you, Miss Tammy. Thank you, Miss Nicole. So carried or alone, I mean carried. You know, I'm I'm a I used to be a pretty self-sufficient guy. And then I got hurt, and then I got hurt again, then I got hurt again, then I got hurt again real, real, real, real bad. And yeah. So anyway, I credit the VA and God keeping me alive. I'd be dead right now. If it weren't for them, I'd be dead. But specific. And we have we meet so many nice people there. And one of the nurses had a little trauma situation where the anyway, that team that comes running. And uh Miss Colleen was with me because I couldn't drive, so she had to take off of work. She had to leave work, unfortunately. I always hate for her to have to do that, but she did. And uh, yeah. Good thing she was there. I don't think I'd have made it there driving. Thank you, Miss Linda. Thank you, Miss Linda. Good morning, happy birthday, sweet VA or God. Well, if you were listening, you would have heard me say the VA and God. And then I've said many times that God has used the VA in a mighty way, but the people there specifically are amazing and wonderful. And so even the ladies that check us in, Miss Green, one letter away from Greener, super sweet. I hope you're listening today. She doesn't listen to many podcasts, but she said, I'm gonna give you a listen. She was wonderful, delightful, ray of sunshine, a blessing. And Dr. Walker and and Miss Joy and Miss Durinda. So many. Ashlyn. I mean, I can go down a long list. They're amazing. And they care so sweetly. But I needed help yesterday. Miss Cindy came and I can't remember. Miss Colleen, what was that? What was the other lady's name? She was sweet as could be, too. Miss Cindy was all business. All business. They were all business. But they did their job well. And I thank God for it. I say all of that to say this. I know for a fact. I I toiled away for years believing. No, I'm I'm handling this. Right? I'm handling this. This is me. The hard times, the good times, all of it. By the way, Spertulumistoma. Um thank you for joining today. I don't think I've seen you on here before, but I'm glad you're here. Thank you, Sean spelled correctly. Glad you're here listening on YouTube, True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. It's the one with about, we're a small channel, about 4,000 subscribers. I encourage you to click on subscribe and hit the little bell and the thumbs up while you're at it, anyway. So I would have told you all along the way. Oh no, I did I did this. The 18-hour days, I did that. The building of the little businesses and the handling the stuff. Hi, Miss Tori. Hello there. Jesus loves you too. Thank you so much for joining. Also on YouTube. Hi, Miss Colleen. Good morning and thank you for your happy birthday wishes. 61. They said I wouldn't live. What was it? 47 or 50, Miss Colleen. And then it was 50. It must have been 47. Then 50. And then a few years ago, they sat us down and said, get your affairs in order. You are not gonna make it. Yeah. Yep. Only by the grace of God. I know for sure now. I get it. I've been carried. I've been carried by many of your prayers. Many of you have known me for many, many years. My dear friend Chris Kahalen, Miss Linda's wonderful and brilliant and super handsome son. He always made me mad about that. How handsome he was. I almost hated to stand next to him, but brilliant, brilliant mind, sweet man, great husband, incredible father, uh, so conscientious, and boy did he love the Lord. So Miss Colleen says, um, oh, the other nurse was Riley. You're right. You're right. Thank you. Miss Colleen says 47. They told me I wouldn't live past 47. Yeah. I was born 2.6 since it's my birthday. 2.6 pounds. Yeah, can you imagine this big old lug? 2.6 pounds. Hello, Miss Ivana. Good morning. Great morning to you. Thank you for joining us. God bless you all. Spiderman. Giggity giggity. Well, how about that? Thank you, Miss Tammy. Thank you to you all. Thank you to you all. So I was thinking about that. And I was thinking about a lunar carried. I asked you the question, but I'll answer it. Carried. I've always been carried. I had an exceptionally lonely childhood. I was the youngest of five kids. My sister's old enough to be my mother. And she's a wonderful, wonderful lady. Amazing person. And uh so she was five and or she was one and I was five. You know, number one child and number five child. And all, you know, my siblings were, you know, they don't want to think. I was lonely. But I was blessed because I remember Miss Lynette. She was always involved in my life. From the age of 10 on. She married one of my brothers. He has gone on to his reward, as has my other one of my other brothers. And the mom and the dad and grandparents and all aunts and uncles. And that's something how that happens. How did I get here? Ice cream cake. You remembered. Good memory. Oh man, did my I'm addicted to ice cream cake. I got a problem. Seriously, it's like this. You know what I mean? I love ice cream cake. I don't know what's wrong with me. I just love it. That crispity, crunchy bit on the bottom. You let it melt in a little bit. So good. There won't be. There won't be. My sister and brother are Army veterans. So yeah, I love the Army. I worked with a bunch of Army people. I was Navy. And um, and uh, of course I love the Navy, but I love all of them. I love all of them. Thank God. Thank God for them all standing on the line. You know, I do a um, I did, I don't do it anymore, but um, I'd do it again if I if I if you wanted me to come do it for a group of gold stars. I wrote, I wrote and uh did for a few years. Um I did um looking forward to being no, no, no, that was my other seminar. Um, Living Through Grief on Purpose. And I wrote that for Gold Star families to help them through. And it's the psalm that talks about yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Walk through living through grief. Yeah. Anyway, so I've been blessed to be around literally hundreds of amazing people. That's a hard road. Anyway, I do have a beautiful and awesome wife. Thank you so much. I was thanking God she was with me yesterday. We've we've had a few, I coded getting an infusion last year. I don't remember, I think it was last year. Or this year maybe it was. Um, I have no concept of time. Literally, I have a brain injury and zero. Anyway, um, yeah, I was getting an infusion, and it was relatively simple. And Miss Colleen was out in the parking lot with the dog, and uh, she just happened to be with me, and I happened to be going to have an infusion that I didn't have scheduled, but they looked at my blood and said, Hey, you've got to have an infusion, and it's got to be today, and they did, and unfortunately, I did not respond well, and I coded. So, um when I say I'm at, I've been at the door and been at the door and been at the door. This collection can tell you I have been at the door. For whatever reason. God has not had it for me to go through that door. And I think it's this. So let me get back to this jolling about myself. Good lands. Deuteronomy opens chapters one, two, and three. They aren't laws. They aren't laws, they're the history. Moses stands up and before he asks these people for one thing. He walks them back through the entire road that they've been on. This is the historical prologue of the covenant. This is God through Moses saying, Remember what I already did. Before I tell you how to live, remember what I've already done in all of your lives. And in all of your his story. And the story he tells. Brutally honest. Brutally honest. I want you to walk it with me. Okay? I want you to walk it with me because it's a beautiful story and it's a hard story. Chapter 1. Moses takes them back to Horeb, to Sinai. In Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 6. Did I see Rabbi today? I don't see Rabbi in there. I do the verse numbers because he requested. I've been working on remembering put the verbers in. So in chapter 1, Moses takes them back to Horeb, to Sinai. In Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 6, he reminds them that the Lord said, You've stayed long enough at this mountain. Time to go up and take the land. And in Deuteronomy chapter 1, verses 22 through 25, the people came and said, Let's send men out to scout it out. And the scouts went. They came back, and they even brought fruit in their hands and said, It's a good land. God's giving us a good land. Good to see you, Robbie. I'm glad you're here. So are we all? And then the people wouldn't go. Man, oh man, isn't that something how how the people of God, we can't look back at the Jews and say, the early Jews, the Hebrews, and say, well, why wouldn't they go? Why did they not pay attention? Why, how could they do that? God was showing them and he did all those things. God does miracles for us in our lives every day. And we blithely just right on past it. And then sometimes he has a miracle right there for us. Right there. We're here, right here. Miracle. From here back here, need of miracle. Then the miracle's right there. Listen, the last major thing that happened with me, I was in a horrific car crash. 51 miles per hour. I was going 51 miles per hour versus 92. Head on. Yeah. I was trapped. They had to cut the left side of the car off. Brutal. Changed my life. All the other stuff I could push through, but this one. Oof. Miss Colleen, they called Miss Colleen. And Doyle, my son, who had a broken leg, was supposed to have surgery the next day to take pins out of his brutally crushed leg. It was awful. And Miss Colleen received a call. I don't think anybody wants to receive. And she got there as they were about to take me out of the car after cutting the left side of the car off. It was wild. Miracle. Because the insurance people and the institutes and all the people that cut the car off said they don't know. They don't read the police reports. They just examine the car scientifically. They look at physics and metallurgy and deceleration and blah blah blah. And they said driver did not survive. None of the people there, all of the troopers, none of them could believe it. That's what happened to my heart. Massive cardiothoracic injury. Brain injury, spine injury, you know, all that stuff. Doesn't matter. What matters is miracle here. And then you get miracles right here, and you get to here, and you forget about here. Listen to how Moses, listen, I'm I'm I'm among you. Listen to how Moses remembers their words. Because the people wouldn't go. And this is how Moses remembers. Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 27. He says, You grumbled in your tents and said, Because the Lord hated us, he brought us out of Egypt to hand us over to the Amorites and destroy us. Stop right there. Because the Lord hated us. That's the lie fear always tells. They stood one step from the promise and reread every good thing. Every good thing God had ever done as evidence that he was against them. The rescue out of Egypt, in which they were slaves 400 years. The rescue out of Egypt in their fear. It became proof of hatred. And here comes Moses. Here comes Moses' answer, because he's ticked. He's ticked, I can't imagine. And it's the beating heart of this entire sermon. Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 31. You saw how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son all the way. You went until you came to this place. The word is Nasa. You've seen it before if you've been with us. This is, I think, day 122. I don't know. 122, 122, I don't know, it doesn't matter. If you've been here at the start, you've heard that word several times. Nassau. Yeah, you're right. N-A-S-A. Or in Hebrew, Nun Sin Aleph. To lift, to bear up, to carry. It's the word for hoisting a load onto your own back. Moses looks at the generation that panicked, the children of the ones who died in the desert. And he doesn't say you marched here. He says you were carried here. Like a father carries a boy whose legs gave out miles ago. And here are three translations. Don't fight, they agree. And the agreement is the whole point. The English Standard Version, the New American Standard Bible, and the complete Jewish Bible. Three translations that I use on the regular. They all land on the same picture. The Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son. One image, three voices. And this isn't even the first time God said it. Back at Sinai in Exodus chapter 19, verse 4, he told them, I carried you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. So he said it before. If you were with me, you heard it multiple times, and I pointed out to lift up Nasat to lift up. Isn't that interesting how they chose that name for Nash, what lifts a massive load? Isn't that interesting? So he said it to you before. But listen how it changes here. Back then it was a bird, a great strong wing under them. Now it's a father with a kid on his hip. It gets closer, it gets more personal. The god of the fire and the smoke and the thunder on that mountain bends all the way down and picks up a child. His child. Verse 9, don't provoke Ammon. Verse 19, I already gave them their land, then Simon of Heshbon chapter 2, and Og of Bashan, chapter 3, the giant whose iron bed they still told stories about, Deuteronomy chapter 3, verse 11. Both kings defeated, and the land east of the Jordan handed over to Reuben, God and half of Manasseh. Deuteronomy chapter 3, verses 12 through 17. Woven through every mile of it, one refrain, the Lord our God gave, not the Lord our God watched while we managed. Take a breath, you'll need it. And here's why you'll need it. Because here's the bridge home. You've been telling the alone story. I've been alone this whole time. You've been telling the alone story. I've been all by myself. And just like Israel at that border, right there. There's the promised land. When you're afraid and you're worn all the way down, you can take the very evidence of God carrying you and read it as God abandoning you. You look at the hard road and decide he wasn't there. Because if he wasn't there, look, let's go the other way. Because if he was there, why was it this hard? Yeah, okay, we'll do it that way. Because if he was there, why was this so difficult? Because the modern mind, the postmodern mind, says everything should be easy. With AI or SI, superintelligence, or whatever, it it everything's easy. We got this little thing here. We got this box that's sending me out to the world. By the way, thank you to everybody who's listening. God bless you. You're patient folk. We have so many things. We we say, well, how couldn't they, how couldn't they know? How couldn't those people know? How could they be so dumb? Because they didn't have this. They didn't have this. They didn't have, you know, the news. You can't believe half of what's on the news. Good land. It's a joke anymore. So what I'm saying to you is this. What about you? We know what Israel did. We have the book. We have the book. They didn't have the book. By the way, the writers of the Bible, they didn't have, they didn't sit there at one table. And what do you have for this? What do you have for that? No. People say, well, you can't believe it because there's some differences. Because people are different. What did they get for writing the Bible? Oh, dead. Tortured and dead, most of them. What do they get for follow being followers of the way, being followers of Yeshua? Dead, most of them. Tortured, exiled. When you're afraid, and you are you ever been so just worn out? You're just so worn out, you can't even barely breathe. You say, Man, I I cannot take another step. I was like that yesterday. And the night before. And when I was sitting here yesterday morning. That was only God that got me through that. It's only God that gets me through this. I'm just telling you the truth. You say you don't see miracles, M1. Not because I deserve it, I don't deserve it. I'm the last person in the world deserves any kind of miracles from God. But I'm telling you, when you when you were afraid and fear drives our life, loneliness drives our lives. And you're worn so far down, you don't know if you can take another step. You can take the very evidence of God carrying you and read it as God abandoning you. Sure you can. I I did it for years. I didn't deserve him being in my face and looking right into my face and saying, I'm gonna rescue you this way or that way. It didn't deserve any of them. People asked me time after time at the at the door of death when they looked at the car, they'd say, Man, the Lord's got big plans for you. And I and I used to shake my head and go, if I were him, I wouldn't. If I were him, I wouldn't. I knew me. I know me now. You look at that hard road and decide he wasn't there. That's what you tell yourself. But listen, who is whispering? Hey man, listen. Hey, young man. Yeah, I know you're I know you're older, but um yeah, did you uh did you know God didn't help you with that? God skydie, he didn't help you with that. That was me today, oh that was me. Or that was just cosmic, that was the universe. You look down that hard road and decide he wasn't there because if he was there again, why was it this hard? Moses is standing in front of people who live through the hardest road imaginable. Can you imagine? And he doesn't say it was easy. So God must have been with you. He didn't say it was easy. So God must have been with you. He says it was a wilderness. And he carried you through every mile of it. Living through grief, on purpose, living through life, on purpose. That ought to be my next book. I haven't made money on any of my books, so I don't think I'm gonna write another one. But if I did, maybe that should be the one living through life on purpose. The carrying doesn't mean the road was smooth. The carrying is the reason you're still standing at the edge of a road that should have finished you. Listen, there's no reason in the world I should still be here. Time after time after time. I don't deserve the rescue. If it was up to us to rescue ourselves, we wouldn't. We couldn't. We can't and we won't ever. That exhaustion in a place sleep can't reach, that's the feeling of a person who's convinced they've been walking. You haven't been walking. Look at the miles behind you. Look honestly behind you. You didn't have the strength to make that trip on your own legs, and deep down, deep down you know it. Those who are listening now who are atheists, they think they are. You know it too. Somebody was carrying you. So here's your step for today. Here's the easy thing. Remember what I always say. It's a remembering exercise. And you can do it in 10 minutes. I always say, usually before dark, but you can do this in 10 minutes. Takes only 10 minutes. Take your own 40 years or four or 13 or 17. Um, the two people, I want to update you guys. Uh, the two people did reach out to me yesterday. And if you're listening today, I'm glad that you reached out. I hope that that was helpful to you. I'll help you every day that I'm here on the earth, that I'm able, I'm physically able and mentally able, I will help you. As you saw. Both of them in a tough spot. Take your own however long you've been alive. 70 years, 80 years, 60 years, 40, 61. Take your own time, whatever that is, however far back the hard road runs. And instead of listing everything that you carried, name three places you should not have made it through and did. Three things. Three places you shouldn't have made it out, but you did. You shouldn't have made it through, but you did. You shouldn't have survived, but you did. You shouldn't still have your house or your apartment, but you do. Shouldn't still have your car, but you do. Shouldn't have your vision, shouldn't the heart shouldn't still be beating, you shouldn't still have your life, but you do. The diagnosis. The layoff. The retirement that didn't turn out how you thought it was going to turn out. The job that wasn't like you thought, now it's become a nightmare. It's the night you don't talk about, you made it through it. You don't bring it up, you don't talk about it, but you made it through it. Maybe it was the four years that you try not to talk about. Because you know you are far off from God. Three stops. Just pick three. Pick three. I know there's more than three. I have many. Maybe you do too. Or maybe it's just me that sucks. And the rest of you, you've done it right. It's not out of the realm of possibility. Pick three stops in your life where, by any honest math, you should have gone under and you didn't. Then say it out loud over each one. I was carried here. Not I survived. Not I got through. Not I was strong, but I was carried. Say it three times over three real stops today. Be serious about it. Now, why does this land with so much weight for us on this side of the cross? Why? Because that same word, that same picture, walks the whole way through the Bible and arrives at a hill outside Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Isaiah says it straight to the aging and the tired. Isaiah chapter 46, verse 4. Even to your old age I am he, and I will carry you. Same lifting, same shoulders. And then Yeshua tells a story in Luke chapter 15 about a shepherd who loses one sheep. And when he finds it, watch what he does. Luke chapter 15, verse 5. He doesn't drive it home, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing, and he carries it every step back. Yeshua didn't come to walk beside you. You know him as Jesus. He didn't come to walk beside you and grade your pace. He came to pick you up and put you on his shoulders. And carry you home. And here's the turn that ought to break something open in you. The Father carried the Son through the wilderness. And then the Son carried something through a wilderness of his own. Something he did not deserve. He didn't earn it. But he carried it for us. He carried a cross up a hill on his own torn-open back because that was the only way left to carry you and me the last mile home. The one who carries you was willing to be crushed under the weight of you. The one who carries you was willing to be crushed under the weight of you. You were never doing it alone. The tiredness lied to you. You've been up on the shoulders of God this whole time. I have for you this morning, this evening, this afternoon, a challenge and a choice. So you've got a choice about which story is the true one. You can keep the alone story. You can. You can keep it. It lets you take all the credit and all the blame. Remember that. Let you take all the credit and all the blame. Or you can do the humbler, harder thing and admit you were carried. Which means you owe somebody. Which means you were loved the whole time you felt unseen. Maybe your father didn't want you. Maybe your mother didn't want you. Maybe your your mother could not make up for what your father lacked. Rejection. At birth, then all along the way. Maybe it wasn't your parents. Maybe it was somebody else. Somebody let you down. Maybe somebody who was supposed to just not hurt you. Maybe they just had to get you through alive. And not hurt you, but they did. Listen, you can look at all that. You can take all the credit and you can blame somebody else for every bit of all the credit for the good, because all along the way there's been some good. Or you can do the humbler, harder thing. Robbie alluded to it. Nicole alluded to it. Others have alluded to it. Tammy alluded to it. Many of you others, I'm just catching it out of the corner of my eye. You can do the humbler, harder thing and admit you were carried. Carried or alone. It's two words. Listen, it means you owe somebody. We hate owing. I hate owing. But this is one I will carry. I'll accept it. For what it is. I owe someone. And somebody loved me the whole time I felt unseen. The whole time. Loved the whole time that you felt unseen. And that means you owe someone. One story leaves you exhausted and proud. It does. The other leaves you grateful and held. But see here the thing is. Let's pause right here. Let me just say only one of them is true. One story leaves you exhausted and proud, and the other leaves you grateful in held. Only one of them is true. But we're going to pray. We are going to pray right now. Prayer is not asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Heavenly Father. We pray for Tammy's kids. We know how heavy they are on her heart. We know how her heart hurts for them. How as a mother she cries for them and prays for them day after day. We know what a challenge it is to not be able to take that away. The hurt, the habit, the hangup. We know what it is. And Father, we've been so proud of a tiredness that was never the whole truth. We told ourselves that we walked here alone. And that the entire time you were carrying us. The whole time you've been carrying us, we we said to ourselves, Father, you've heard me say it. And that whole time I realized now you were carrying me. You were carrying us the way a father carries a son or a daughter whose legs can no longer make the distance. Father, forgive us for reading your hardest gifts as your absence. Forgive us for standing at the very edge of your promises and deciding out of fear that you must be against us. I ask that you open our eyes to see the miles behind us, the years behind us. Let us see your shoulders under every stretch we thought we had crossed on our own. And thank you, thank you, thank you for a son who carried a cross so he could carry us the last mile home. I pray this in his matchless name, the name of Yeshua who lifts us up. Amen. If today is the day you stop trying to walk it all alone, if you're ready to be picked up by the God who has been reaching for you the whole way, you can come home to Him right now. You don't need strength, you just need to stop running from His arms. For once and for all, pray this with me and mean it. Yeshua, I need you. I believe you died for me and rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Forgive me, fill me, lead me. I'm yours. In your heavenly, matchless name. Amen. Well, I can only tell you, if you prayed that prayer today, good lands, heaven is rejoicing. It's rocking and rolling up there. There is a massive party for you. You just let yourself be carried for the first time. Tell one person. Let somebody rejoice with you the way that that shepherd rejoiced over the one sheep that he found and carried the rest of the way home. I will tell you this: you are not as alone and tired as your tiredness told you. Look back at the road. Every mile you swore would finish you, and here you still are. You were carried. You are being carried. Rest back into the arms that have held you the whole way. Send this to somebody who's been carrying everybody else. You know a person like that. They have been bearing the load for everyone else. Remind them who's carrying them today. You just have to give them the link. Tell them you were blessed by this. I think you'll be too. I'm gonna pray a blessing over you in the heavenly name in Lashonho Kadesh, which is the language, it's Hebrew for the language of God. Lashon Kadesh, that's what it means. The language of God, Hebrew, that is exactly what God spoke to his people in, and what his people spoke to him in. It's what Yeshua was saying as he ascended to heaven. Mid-sentence. The last thing he did here on earth with his nail-scarred wrists, his tortured arms and back, the thorn prince in his head. The last thing he did was pray this blessing over his people. I'm nobody special, but I'm gonna pray it over you. And don't panic, I'm not speaking in tongues, I'm saying it in Hebrew first, and then I will say it in English. Some of you have already memorized this by now. And if you have, pray it with me. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Until tomorrow. If the Lord tarries, until tomorrow at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, Sundays at 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, go to TruewordFaithforLife.com. Tons of resources there. It's all free. The only thing that costs any money is my book, and it costs me money. So but until then, shalom bishem yeshua. Shalom shalom.