Who Gets YOUR Best?

Are we really?

Today's Friday. And who in the world knows? How many thought about it? How many that listened yesterday? Maybe you're listening, you're new. How many thought about yesterday? And you said, that's me. How many of you are on the one side? How many of you were on the one side and you said, ouch. I don't like how this feels. I'm on the side of being the one that. When I have a little bit of power. I'm rude to people. Not a great representer. Right? Say, man, I'm I I definitely did not do it right. How many of you yesterday? You just I don't know. You found yourself on either side. You were the one that gets beat on a little bit. I don't know. You you know your life. I don't know your life. But I'm really curious. I we rarely ever look back. But it's important. It's important because today, day 129, who gets your best? Who gets your best? You can't give your best when you're when you're in yesterday. Day 128. I just don't know how many of you wrote it down. And you said, man, oh man, oh man. That's me. That's me. I'm the one that comes into the place, and I see the person behind the counter, and I know that person is, you know, not the head mahof, not the not the big wig. They don't have any power. They're just there. Be a little rude to them. How about the person that's waiting on you? And you're less than kind to them. That sibling you always kind of tried to keep under your thumb. Maybe it's your friend you tried to keep under your thumb. You said, I'm way better than that person. You kind of always had a little bit of an error about you. That's a really important day yesterday. I looked back on it and I thought, man, I don't feel like I hit that hard enough. And then we're talking today about leftovers. God gets the leftovers. Are you kidding me? Is that what we want to give to God? The leftovers? Then I got to thinking. Oh man. Leftovers of what? Leftovers of what? Our best? Which is it? Your best is going somewhere every single day. Is it going to God? No. Most people, most Christians, they don't pick this up. Whether it's on this or it's on this, they don't pick it up. They don't open it. You know, I sometimes I fall asleep to scripture in my ear because I wear ear, earplugs, earbuds. And it's a program, they're not sponsors, and they would probably hate if I was saying their name, but they're called Dwell. Not the earbuds, the the thing. And you have to pay. So that's a beautiful way to refocus. Okay, this was my day, but now let's switch gears. We're falling into rest, trusting God that if I wake tomorrow morning, wonderful. He's got me. All the way till then. And then if I don't wake, I will wake into his presence. And all this pain and dysfunction will be gone. That doesn't count. It really doesn't. I thought about it and I thought, well, you know, I don't want to lead people to think that that counts somehow. You say, well, every little bit helps. True, true, true, true. I'm not sitting there with a stopwatch, folks. I'm not sitting there looking at you. Well, you know, well, yeah, but you don't know how busy I am. You don't know what I got going on in my life. Everybody's busy. There's a few people I can think of. That every time you talk to them, they're always talking about how busy they are. I'm so busy I don't have time for this. I'm so busy I don't have time for that. And I think, do you have any idea how busy I am? This is years back, too. I was working my face off before I got hurt this bad. And I was doing all these things, and I remember this a few of these people would just go on and on about how busy they are. Look at their life. Man, that ain't busy. To them, it's very busy. Sometimes busy is an excuse. How many of you have ever used busy as an excuse? By the way, good morning to everybody. Sorry, I good morning, good afternoon, good evening to everyone listening. So good to have you. Some of you are getting up very early, some of you are staying up late. Listen, I'll say it again. You know, look, I'm not the look at the Bible police. I'm not. You do what you want with your time. You invest it or you don't. I look, I know people. I'm just gonna say this and I'm gonna move on. I know people. By the way, am I too loud? Am I yelling this thing? Anyway, I wish I could wear my hearing aids and these in-ear monitors. They help me hear certain things, but not the balance of things. It's anyway, it doesn't make any sense. And I have tinnitus going woom in the background, so I try to override that and say, mm-mm, don't pay no mind to that. By the way, did you know that's not a real sound? It's not an audible sound. They can't stick something in your ear and hear it. I wish they could. Good lands. It's a brain injury thing. Or something. Anyway, it's horrific. I hope you never get it. Anyway. I know people who will sit and read, good morning, good morning. How are you, Miss Lisa? Good to have you. We're nice to each other here. Thank you, Miss Tammy. You're very kind. Nicole says, we make time for the important things. You commit to what's important to you, and it defines your idols. Amen. I'll tell you this. I know people who are avid readers. I'm an avid reader. You know, I I read I read ink right off of pages. However, you know, I've known people. One in particular doesn't have time to read the Bible. Don't have time. Got no time to read the Bible. I'm so busy. I'm a busy person. Bizy, bitsy, pizzy, pizzy, pizzy. And yet they'll read novel after novel, this book after that book. They'll blast through two or three books a week. No time to read the Bible, man. No time. I'm busy running around doing all this stuff. Important stuff. I'm important person. I look white as a ghost on that screen. I just looked at it just now. Good lands. Time to sit up. I gotta start wearing my brace when I'm doing this. It's ugly and I might not show up on black and white, though. I don't know. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Look. That person or those people, because more than one person have said to me this, I don't have time. I just don't have time. I try to make time. I don't have time to pray. Don't have time to read the scriptures intentionally. I'm just so busy. Miss Lisa, 4 a.m. wakes up at 4 a.m. to listen. Uh well, she put it right. We make time for the important things, we commit to the things that are important. I told you, I think it was yesterday. I don't know if you were listening. About the person with the boat rushing out of church, gotta get on out of church. Just about bowl everybody over, getting out of that church. Get into the getting to the restaurant first, quickly, quickly. Get the order in and snappy with the server, just ignorant to everybody, and then run on out to their half a million dollar boat. Spend the afternoon on Sunday on the boat. I nothing wrong with that. But don't be ignorant to everybody on your way there. All more Christian soldiers. Your best. Whatever that looks like, I don't know what your best is. But your best is going somewhere. Every single day, and it isn't going to God, is it? You tell me. Your sharpest hours go to your job. Come on, somebody. Somebody's gotta be thinking out there. Yep. Yep. Yep, you're right. Now that you mention it, I got an odd-shaped head, is what I got. Your sharpest hours go to that thing, and I get it. Man, that's the moneymaker. I gotta go, I gotta be at work. Maybe you have a dangerous job. Maybe you have a dangerous job. And then you've got to pay attention. I know about dangerous jobs. I've had a whole bunch of them. You don't do it right, you die. You don't do it right, somebody else might die. Your last real energy goes to a glowing screen at 11 o'clock at night. Come on, somebody. You're sitting there in the bed, just boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. And then you don't ever pull up that Bible app you're always talking about. That's the reason you don't tote your, that's the reason you don't find or and tote your Bible, dust it off first, tote your Bible to church, learn to look things up with your hand, feel the pages. That's the reason you don't do it, it's that phone. You go, oh, I got the Bible on my phone. I'm good. Come on, get with the 25th century.

It's not the 25th century, I think.

Do you understand what I'm saying here? Is anybody listening? Your sharpest hours go to your job. I understand, I get it. Your last real energy is expended on that little blue glowing screen at nighttime. When you finally crawl into bed after watching your shows, or putting the kids to bed, or or setting up for tomorrow's work. And then you say, Man, I just want to re I just want to lay in the bed and rest and think about nothing. Just mindless. Why not? Why not, God? Why not? I gotta ask you, why not? Well, I have a stressful job.

Dr.

Sean, I have this stressful job. I can't. You know, I gotta wind down, I gotta sleep. And God? The one you swear matters most. You'd swear to anybody, oh man, what's important to you? Somebody shoves a mic in front of your face. Hey, what's important to you? Well, my faith in the Lord, in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And of course, my family, my beautiful spouse over there. Handsome. Love you. Where would I be without you? You know? My mama, my dad. You know what I mean? All the things you name. What matters most? What do you swear matters most? Is it God? He gets that tired 90 seconds before you fall asleep. Half your attention. While the other half scrolls. Your family gets the drained version of you that walks in the door with nothing left. You never chose this. You never chose it. It happened while you were busy. Somehow or another happened while you were busy. The loudest things skimmed the best off of you right off the top. And the one who gave you all of it, the one who gave you all of it, got the scribes, got the leftovers. Moses gave Israel a ceremony built to break that pattern. Basket of fruit. And before you before you can hand it over, you stand in front of everyone and you say the most humbling sentence in your life. Oh, that's what we're getting to today. This is true word faith for life. I probably should tell you who we are and what we're doing. True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I'm Sean. This is my most recent book, True Word Faith for Life. I know, kinda like the name fits the show. Trueword FaithforLife.com. That's where it's available. It's available anywhere books are sold, but we do better when you buy it directly from TrueWordfaithforLife.com. The order portal's there. It's up under order or up under store. Blink, blink. It gets to you no faster ordering in the other places that give us less than a dollar for each copy. Costs us a mess to print them. A lot, you would be shocked. But I think it's worth it. I'm Sean, by the way. I don't know if I said who I was. Some guy just stumbled in here and got behind the microphone. I don't know what's going on over there. I turned on the TV or the internets and the YouTubes and the Facebooks and whatnot. And there was this fella, ugly as all sin, looking white as a ghost. I don't even know who he was. Well, I'm Sean. Welcome to day. Look, this is day 129. You made it through the Bible in a year, walking the story of God. We close out. This is the closeout of our week, right? Tomorrow, tomorrow we we we get to, or tomorrow it's you know, tonight is Shabbat, and then tomorrow we just kind of maybe think about the week. Some of you are are here every morning. So faithful. I love it. Every evening in some cases, every afternoon in other cases. Oh, you bet. You bet. Our friend from from Lagos, Nigeria. Things are tough in Lagos, Nigeria. It's tough living over there. Yeah, I'm just saying. It's tough living. I have whittled through 20 minutes. Go figure. I'll hurry up. Welcome to all of you listening all over the world. Over a thousand people listened live yesterday. Isn't that crazy? It's just crazy. It's a blessing. Tell your friends. Somebody you care about. Some of you got millions of friends. Tell them all. It's not up to you whether they listen. It's up to you whether you tell them. Welcome to day 129. 129, can you believe it? Deuteronomy 21 through 26. Whoa. By the way, my book is, it's written for people ready for God's word to make sense in real life. And let me just tell you this: there's a lot I say in that book I could never say here. Just saying. The man is just saying, everybody. By the way, true wordfaithforlife.com, tremendous resource. Tomorrow, while you're mowing things over, you might go at some point tomorrow, usually on Saturday afternoons, I post the blog post for the week and the uh study guide for the week. And that has all of my resources, everything I use to put this all together. Each specifically, everything footnoted, everything, the the annotated um footnotes and the bibliography, which is in Torabian style. You can use it for your Sunday school class, your small group, whatever. The only thing I ask, I make it so it's copiable and pastable. I do that so you can use it. You can't use it if you don't go there, but if you do copy and paste it, copy the copyright. And if you share it with somebody, make sure that's in there. Here's why. You know, I was a photographer, kind of a second hobby career, but turned out people bought my work. Crazy thing is, if somebody called me uh one day for an Mine, one of my colleagues, called me one day and said, Hey man, congratulations on your calendar. I said, What? I stopped posing for you know hottie calendars a while back. Just kidding, I never did. I still don't wonder. Anyway, gotta make the money. Just kidding. Actually, I don't, nobody would buy one. But I've, you know, calendar of my photography. This is an example of some of my photography. That's a low resolution thing. You could. In the real image, you could look at his eyeball. The eagles, actually her eyeball. My apologies, man. And the fella calls me and tells me all about this calendar. Oh, you got two calendars here. I'd see it. It's awesome. I said, I don't, what do you mean calendars? And then he sent me pictures. He was in uh Taiwan. There's beautiful calendars, but there were low-resolution versions of my work. Well, I hate that. I used to shoot in very, very high detail, high resolution, and see individual feathers. The individual parts of the feather, you know, the intricate parts of the eye. That was my thing. They just ripped them off of Facebook or social media and made a calendar. This is pre-AI. Yeah. So that's all I ask. That's the only thing I ask. I don't ask for any money for it, just that. Well, it'd be a shame to waste the resource. Go there, true wordfaithlife.com. Blog. I mean, there's episodes, there's all kinds of blog posts. The study guide, you know, you say, Well, I can't find the study guide. The study guide isn't a separate thing. The study guide is connected. When you read the blog post, it's up underneath that. So as soon as you scroll through there and read it, buried there. Now, I'm going to tell you the study guide is much more academic than the blog. The blog is me talking to you about the week. Study guide, different story, going to challenge you. Anyway, here we go. I promise I'm, I can't promise. Never mind. I'm not going to say that. Look, your best hour of the day, I'm just asking you. I'm just asking you. You knew I would ask. Why wouldn't I ask? It's about real stuff here. We do real stuff here. We we say real things. Your best hour of the day, does God get it first? Or does God get the leftovers? Put one or the other first or leftovers. And if you know that it's leftovers and you write first, God knows. God knows. And you know. Lying to us, that's what's that do? Doesn't help you. Doesn't help them. Doesn't help everybody. Sometimes God gets the leftovers even with me. Real. Look, Moshe or Moses, he stands in the plains, on these plains of Moab, days from the Jordan. In chapter 21, chapters 21 through 25, he lays out the case laws for a rescued people about to plow, plant, and harvest their own land. Deuteronomy 25, verses 13 through 16. Kind of wild. One to buy with and one to cheat with. Deuteronomy 24, verse 19. The sheaf you forget in the field, you leave it for the sojourner. The fatherless and the widow. Look, the the Israeli people today are still the most benevolent people in the world. Even their military. You say, genocide, genocide. Stop saying the word that the Jews, a Polish Jew, created because they tried to eliminate six million of them. And they did. And they were trying hard to eliminate Jews from the face of the earth. Folks have been trying to do that for I don't know how long. Since the beginning. Good luck. You'll have to go through me too. The sheaf. You forget in the field, that little bit of grain. Leave it for the sojourner, the person walking by. The fatherless and the widow. Good morning to our other brother from South Africa. God bless you. Listening with your family. Love that. And one line keeps coming back. I don't know if you'll pick up on it. I hope maybe if you're able to listen, don't do it if you're driving or piloting the uh you know Falcon 9. Well, you're docked up there, so you can read if you want to. Don't wake up, you fellas, fellow astronauts, whatever. One line keeps coming back. Deuteronomy 24, verses 18 and 22. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt. That's that's the motor of this of the whole law. Steve Bano, 5874, thank you for listening. Um he he asked a tremendous question. I've answered this question in detail in some of my episodes that are still, you know, there on YouTube and on TruewordfaithforLife.com under episodes and blog posts and all that. Um, why can't modern health care compete with the people of the Old Testament who lived over 200 years old? Some of them lived substantially longer than that. There's that's a whole big answer. We can't answer that here right now because, first of all, my fault, I'm running way behind. And uh, you know, this is my Shabbat, Shabbat and uh I do the traditional one into Shabbat. By the way, Shabbat has nothing to do with going to church, just FYI. Uh, but today is I do for my Shabbat so this evening. I've got stuff I gotta do before, you know, sundown, and then into Saturday. Anyway. But I might do an episode on that. And look, I have a great friend. He's the number one radio show, health and wellness radio show in the United States. He's my dear friend, Dr. David Friedman, seven-time best-selling author. He's one award-winning guy. He's the he's the doctor to the stars. And he happens to be my brother from another mother. And if I can talk him into being on my show, um, he does not do, he does radio only. But the network is fluctuating. I'm sorry, brother. He says the sound is good, but the network is fluctuating. Brother, I was raised by Christian parents. I was raised Christian by my parents, and I went to an all-men's Christian college, but I'm not stupid. Well, I don't know why doing all that would make you stupid. I don't, I don't get the it seems like apples and art of arts to me. Number one law school in the country, like 11 years running is Liberty University, one of my alma maters. Liberty University, number one law school in the country. Most successful lawyers come from Liberty University. Uh they have the highest first-time pass rating. First time past rating. You know, you pass the bar first time. Highest of all Harvard law, Yale law, Princeton law, doesn't matter. Liberty University. Anyway, it's not an ad for Liberty, they don't sponsor me. Look. We'll talk about that. We'll we're gonna do that sometime. That'll be fun. I'll see if he can come on. He has like agents and all that stuff and limitations and all that. He doesn't do on camera. I don't know why he doesn't, because he's funny as all get out. He's an actual stand-up comedian and um he's hilarious, he's super fast, but he doesn't like being on camera. So I'll ask him if he'll do it, and we'll talk about that. He's also messianic. Messianic, too. Love the dude. Phenomenal at what he does. So look, this is the motor of the whole law: memory. Rescued people who remember live differently from people who think they build it themselves. Who do you think you are? Steve, I'm starting to see that maybe you have an agenda here. Maybe you aren't just popping by to say hi. Hope that's not the case, but been around the block once or twice, seen you coming. Tucked into Deuteronomy 21, verses 22 and 23 is a law that looks small, but it's not. It's not. A man executed and hung on a tree can't stay there overnight. A hanged man is cursed by God. Hold on to that one. Sounds crazy, I know. But we're coming back for it. Then chapter 26 gathers everything into one act of worship. Deuteronomy 26, verse 2. You hear this, hear this. Hear it in the ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context, and understand that it was a different world there and then when it was happening than where you're living right now. But listen, you can take, you can extrapolate and understand the truth behind it. You shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you harvest from the land the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place the Lord your God will choose. The first. The first in Hebrew Reshit. Built on the Rosh, the head, the head of the harvest. It's the same word that opens your Bible. In the beginning, God started everything with his first. And he asks his people to start with theirs. Here's what makes it difficult, right? We try to comprehend these things. We try to put it in our life where we are now, and I'm gonna button it up, trust me on this. Here's what makes it hard. You give the first before the harvest is in, before you know there'll be enough. Before you know, hey man, I got enough time. I'm gonna pick this up. I'm gonna pick this up because you know I don't know where my day's gonna go, but I'm gonna give 10 minutes, five minutes. Two minutes, for Pete's sake, two minutes. We started in day, I don't know what, maybe even single digits. And I said, man, just commit to one minute of undistracted, uninterrupted time. Just one minute reading scripture. Can you do that? You give the first before the harvest is even in, before you even know there'll be enough. The leftover gift waits until you can spare it. The first gift. Well, that's an act of trust. The Mishnah. In the tractate called Bikurun, First Fruits, describes how this looked in later generations, right? We go back and we look at later generations. Steve is talking about um talking about the book of his life as blank pages. Out you go, brother. I see where you're going. Evil. I can't stand it. Let's be honest. Good land. In this, in this kind of look back on the history, it's extra biblical. It's not it's not the Bible, but it it you know, they wrote about things. And reading those things brings us a lot. I love to read Josephus. Not Bosephus, but I do like Bosephus, but Josephus. So this describes where this Bikurim first fruits describes how this looked in later generations. Whole villages walked up to Jerusalem together, an ox in front with gold on its horns, a flute playing the road. At the temple mount, every man carried his own basket on his own shoulders. The Mishnah said even King Agrippa did. And he records one more thing. At first, each worshiper recited the confession himself. But the ones who couldn't read were ashamed. Oh, think about it. Think about that. Some of the folks couldn't read, a lot of the folks, most of the folks couldn't read. They didn't want to be embarrassed, right? You ever be in school, and maybe you were the person that, you know, you didn't read so great. Maybe you had a vision issue, you know, mom and dad couldn't afford glasses, or or maybe single mom couldn't afford glasses. Or you had to do it every five years instead of every year. You couldn't get the eye exam. So maybe you just didn't have the glasses. Maybe you didn't have them all at all. You could barely read. You struggled throughout. Maybe you were a person who just never learned to read. I have a friend who never learned to read. At first, each worshiper recited the confession themselves. That was that made sense. But the thing we didn't think about is the ones that couldn't read, they were ashamed. So the rule changed. A priest read the words aloud and everyone repeated after him. So no poor farmer would ever be humiliated at the altar. Why? You know, we know, I know personally, folks that, you know, for whatever reason, as I mentioned, they just never learn to read. You say how'd they get through school? Some were good at sports. I don't know the answer to that in their individual thing. I know, I know one of them, very good at sports, went on to college to play sports, can't read. Some people don't even like to pray in front of people. They're believers, they're followers of the way, they love Jesus, they love Yeshua. They cry when worship songs play and the old hymns play. They cry because they love the Lord so much. They're so grateful, but they're terrified to pray in public. And I teach on this. On True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S-H-A-W-N, the one with about 4,000 subscribers, thereabouts. We're a small channel. Um I save everything. I don't, I don't, if this when I go live, it's gonna stay in the live tab. Yeah. I don't edit these afterwards. Now I do edit out the beginning and the end uh for the audio only. So if you're if you subscribe to me on, say, Spotify or iTunes or iHeartRadio, any of those, I'm on all of them, um you'll you'll realize that the beginning where I'm blah, blah, blah. And you know, that's cut out because I pay ber per minute for that. Because I have an aggregator and I pay pay huge money to put the the thing in, and you pay every minute. I'm over now. I'm already over. I don't know. Whatever. It's worth it to me. It's worth it to me to know people can listen however however they're able to listen. Now you know what? Maybe you're one of the people who who you just you're terrified to pray in front of people because you think, well, this sounds stupid to me. Like I'll sound stupid praying. I don't know all the fancy church words. Talk to God, just like talking to God. Listen, I I I went, I was uh at a pastor's conference, and I don't go to them now unless I'm the keynote. I know that sounds arrogant, but there's a reason. Hang on. And this is related, so don't get mad at me. I'm not jumping through the back uh gate of a fence here. I always, you know, say now I won't, I won't go until I won't go unless I'm the keynote speaker. And it's not because I think I'm all that, not at all. Quite the opposite. However, what I can't stand is all the silly stuff that a lot of pastors, the postmodern Western evangelical uh pastors will stand around with each other and say, you know, well, you know, what are you running on Sundays? Oh, three services. Wow, what are you running in total? How many conversions did you have? How many, how many, how many, you know, salvations, how many, they don't do that anymore. They don't. Text this number. They don't have an invitation where you come down and do all that. I do. I tell them, you invite me to come. Better have some folks ready because I'm gonna invite them to come to Christ. I'm gonna invite them to come get right with the Lord. Nobody comes, nobody comes. I'm not worried about embarrassment. I'm worried about people going to hell. I gave an invitation at a church one time, and the one of the deacons, I think he was the chairman of deacons, came forward. The pastors were mortified. They told me, Don't do it. Don't do it, don't give an invitation. I did. I said, I'm gonna. And I did. And the altars were full, not because of me, had nothing to do with me. They just needed to be asked. And this fella came forward. And people were shocked. And he said, I've never done it. I've never done it. I've served in church my whole life. I've been in church my whole life. I never did it. I never placed my faith in Christ. I said, Let's handle this now. Let's button this right up. And we did. Listen, don't judge people that can't read. Don't judge people that are afraid to pray in public because they think they got to pray a certain way. I say, talk normal at this conference. A fellow I had just been sitting at, he was at my table. He gets up to pray. He's the one that is gonna pray before, you know, the thing kicks off and everything. And uh, well, I'd been talking to him, and he was from Western Kentucky, or somewhere about in Kentucky, and he talked just about like this. But when he got up to pray, and he got up with that microphone in his mouth, he said, Dear Lord, let me sit there. The thine and thy glory. Bless this presence in the house tonight. It's always tonight, even if it's in the morning. He comes and sits down, and I say, Man, what was that? What was what? What was what? I don't know what you're talking about. You got two personalities, you bipolar, what's going on here? Man, you don't have to pray like that. In fact, I recommend you don't. So does Yeshua. Don't pray like those folks do, making a show. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it if you if you've got common language, pray with common language. Talk with Jesus, talk with Yeshua, talk with Adunna Elohim. Oh, don't miss the conversation. It should flow. It shouldn't be some separate thing. It's the continuance of a throughout the day conversation. Do it. Now, now, now. Listen to what they said. Deuteronomy 26, verse 5. You shall make response before the Lord your God. A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation. Great, mighty, and populous. In Hebrew, these are three words. Arami, Ovet, Avi. Hear the translation split. You might not think it matters, but it does. I'm alright. I'm sorry, folks. I'm not sorry. You're getting your money's worth. Hear the translation split. When I say I'm sorry, I look over at the clock. The digital clock. I look over there and I go, oh, oof man, I'm only 35 minutes behind. One of these days. So hear the translations split, and it really does matter. The English Standard Version, ESV, and the NASB, the New American Standard Bible, they read wandering. But Ovid comes from the root Avad. Remember, we talked about that. Avad. So that's the root. There's a root to words in Hebrew. Avad. And its first meaning is to perish. To perish, to be lost. It's the word for a lost sheep. My father was a perishing Adamian, a dying nobody. He was about to vanish. This is what this means. That's what they're saying there. That's why I say the ancient Near Eastern language culture and context, it doesn't matter. Little things don't mean a lot, they mean everything. And I'll tell you, understanding the ancient Near Eastern language culture and context is not a little thing. It's a huge thing. It is the thing. The Passover Hakadah. It reads the same three words another way. An Aramean tried to destroy my father. That's Laban. Remember, we talked about Laban. He cheated Jacob for 20 years. Twenty years he cheated him. He's a scumbag. Jewish families say it at the cedar table to this day. They repeat it. Either way, we started with nothing. We should have disappeared. Then verse 6, this is verses 6 through 9. The Egyptians treated us harshly. We cried to the Lord, and he heard our voice. He brought us out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and gave us this land. By the way, some of you have asked, you use the um, I use many translations of the Bible, uh, but you use when you speak this. I know uh some happen to know me personally, and they say, well, I know that you really use the uh complete Jewish study Bible a lot. Uh the Tree of Life Bible as well. I know the people who were on the translating team, amazing. But the complete Jewish study Bible I use a lot. That's that's a one of my primary sources, and then the Hebrew-Greek um keyword study Bible. I use that in multiple translations and others. But the complete Jewish, they say, why don't you use that? Well, because in this setting, I don't know who's listening. I don't know who knows what. And so when I when if I use a ton of Hebrew words and names, they just won't know. So people will hear me say, Yeshua, right? And they'll go, they'll hear me do the prayer at the end, which you're gonna hear, and I'm gonna pray it over you, no matter who you are, where you are, what you're doing. I'm gonna pray it over you just like Yeshua did. Jesus, as he was rising, God interrupted mid-sentence up to heaven. He was praying that prayer, and I'm gonna pray that over you, not because I'm somebody special. I'm not. I'm just like you, only uglier. I don't use it because I think I don't say it here because I think it it would be confusing to more people than I can control. I can't control, you know, who's listening, who has stumbled across this channel, True Word Faith for Life with Dr. Sean YouTube channel. They've stumbled across it and across it, and they don't they don't know anything. They don't they don't know anything about the faith. They just the Lord led them to this. They don't even know it was the Lord. I wanted to make it easy for them. I want to make it easy to them. Anyway, so before the farmer lets go of the best of his harvest, he says out loud in public, I was a perishing wanderer. Everything in this basket exists because God rescued me. Says this out loud. Before he lets go of the best of his harvest, he says out loud in public in front of everybody, I was a perishing wanderer. Everything in this basket exists because God rescued me. There's an old hymn called Love Lifted Me. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Right? That's an old hymn, I know. I've masquered it. Remembering, I only have this. I only have this thing I go to work for. I don't go to work, I'm disabled, but I work doing this. When in Dunbay. So but people go to work, they go to work, they say, well, I gotta pay for this house. I gotta, I gotta pay my rent for this apartment, I gotta pay for this condo. I can't, I gotta have a roof over my head. You're right. You're absolutely right. I have a family, I gotta feed my family, I gotta feed me, gotta feed my family. But do you recognize who you are? I am a perishing wanderer. Everything I have exists because God rescued me. That's the engine. You give the first because you remember you once had nothing. I say it about people and church, you know. People become uh, you know, you would call it Christians, call it follower of the way. That's what I am. People ask what denomination I am, I say follower of the way because that's what I am. And there was a time where I didn't know any of the words, I didn't know any of the phrases, I didn't know any of the catch phrases, the buzzwords, I didn't know any of the dress code or the haircuts or any of that mess. Didn't know it, didn't know any of the secret handshakes, none of it. So I came in, du-da, you know. And then I learned. But look, when you learn and somebody else comes in and they don't know, you don't reject them. I told a story, true story. I witnessed it myself. I was right there for it. Woman came into the church, and this is independent, fundamental, KJV only church that that I grew up in, and and um it's smaller now than it was when when I was a kid. That'll tell you something. Anyhow, community has grown by a multiple of 10. Still the same size as nuts more. Good morning, Miss Carolyn. So nice to have you. So in this church, this this woman came in. Her knees were all skinned up, she was wearing a very short skirt. You could tell that, you know, I grew up in a small place, and there weren't a lot of, you know, I don't know, fast women is not the right word, but I can't say the word on YouTube, or it gets anyway, it's a whole big story. Anyway, the point is, I thought maybe, you know, she she was clearly a drug or alcohol person. She was in the grip, and and she was dressed completely, and she walked in, she smelled a little bit. She walked past me, and I was just a kid, and I could tell it smelled like alcohol. I'd smelled it before because I grew up in a house of alcoholics. And she came in and nobody talked to her. Nobody talked to her, nobody helped her find a seat. Nobody, nobody was welcoming. They were singing songs and stuff during the hymns, and they could have easily helped her, but they didn't. And then you see whispering, can you believe?

Can you believe? Can you believe?

Look at that woman, Harlot, whatever. I don't know what all they were saying, but I know they didn't have a smile on their face. No woman from the you know, woman's group got up and went back and said, Hey dear, come on, come on, let me find you a seat. I got a seat. If you're willing to sit a little close, I got a seat right next to me. Come on, I'll show you the way. I'll give you a I'll give you a direction. I'll help you out. I'll do you a solid. None of them did. And finally, you know, one of the deacons got up and they went in a group, and they went back and they talked to her in the back. And they pointed to the door. And they showed her the door. I learned that not even two miles from there that day, she was hit by a car and killed. I don't know her name. I don't know her life. But can you imagine if she'd have been embraced by people remembering where they were before they placed their faith in Christ. We give first because we remember where we were, we remember what we had, which was nothing. That haunts me to this day. To this day. I'm 61 years old. Haunts me. But here's the thing: this ends in joy. This ends in joy. Deuteronomy 26, verse 11. Deuteronomy 26, verse 11. You might want to write this one down. You shall rejoice in all the good the Lord has done. Or you'll probably read, given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you. And verse 12 sends the third year tithe to the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat and be filled. Fresh fruits, joy, feeds the hungry. Then the chapter closes. Deuteronomy 26, verse 18. You ready? The Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession. Here is this word again. Segula. The word God spoke over Israel at Sinai in Exodus 19, verse 5. The perishing wanderer walks in carrying a basket and carries. They walk out carrying God's treasure. Here's the bridge from ancient Near Eastern language, culture, and context to your modern life, the real life you're living right now. Here it is, and it cuts close. You give God your leftovers because you've forgotten you were rescued, been there, done it. You lose the story, and everything starts to feel like your own. Earned, I earned all this. Owed, I'm owed all this. And whatever's yours, you hand God last after the urgent things are handled. The leftover life says, God, if anything's left after work, after the news, after the game, you can have it. And there's never anything left. The first fruits life says, You first, off the top. Because I'd have nothing without you. This is about money, and it's about a lot bigger than money. It's the order of your life. Who gets your first waking thought? Who gets who gets you before the day rings you out? Your spouse knows whether they get the first of you or they get the fumes left over. Your kids know. Let me sit down. Before I don't want to go out and play right now. I just got done working hard at work. And I don't, I gotta sit down and just don't bother me right now. I just need quiet. And then those kids put the ball in the mitt and they've been waiting all day. They got home from school and they said, Man, I'm gonna have a catch with my dad. Dad sits in the chair and takes some deep breaths, and before you know it, he's asleep. God bless him, he's working hard. Ten minutes would have been all it would have taken for those kids to feel like they were the most blessed kids on the block.

Look, the fix isn't trying harder.

It's not better time management, it's not a better to-do list. It's remembering. That's why the Jews they recite so many things. There's so many, that's why they observe the high holy days and the feasts and all of that. Sukkot, I think it's day six or day nine. I just it's jumped out of my head. But, you know, it why do they do it? You say, well, those people need to move out of that. We're we're here, we're New Testament. No, no, no. I say it all the time. Why am I spending so much time on the Old Testament? Because if you don't have the true foundation, you don't have the New Testament. No understanding. You won't understand it. You won't understand why it was such a big deal. The fix isn't trying harder. It's not trying harder, it's remembering. The farmer didn't give the first because he was disciplined. He just said out loud, I was perishing, and God saved me. Gratitude, prize open a closed hand faster than guilt ever will. Remember, yesterday we talked about what you how is your hand? Is it closed or is it open? Gratitude, prize open a closed hand faster than guilt ever will. Here's your step for today. Pick one place. I'm not asking you for the whole thing. I'm asking you pick one place. One place that God's been getting your leftovers. Your leftover time, your leftover money, your leftover family, one place. Pick one. Amen. Psalm 23. Captain Cave Three Man or Caveman listening on YouTube, even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil. For you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Amen. Look, before dark today, or before light, if it's nighttime where you are. I I and I don't I think about these things. You know, when I'm writing this, I think about the questions I ask, and I say to myself, look, is this doable? When I taught in Bible college, I would always ask myself, look, Professor Greener, is this something they can do? When you give them this challenge and a choice, is it something they can do? Can they do it? Is it possible? Is it within their capacity to do, to accomplish? You give somebody a task they can never complete, all it does is tear them down. But this is easy. I think about it, I pray about it, and I say, okay, Lord, is this doable? And this is doable before the end of your day or the beginning of your day, whichever part you're at, listening live or on playback, before the end of your day, give God the first of it. Ten minutes. Time is ten minutes. Pick ten minutes, come on. You can do ten minutes. Think about that number. Ten minutes. Ten minutes off the next of your open blocks. Ten minutes, come on. In his word. Before the thr before before you pick up the phone. Before the the thinking about money and I gotta do this, I gotta do that. Before any of that. You just put him first. Ten minutes. Wherever you live, wherever you live, if you if you attend a church or a body of believers, give. Give first today, before the bills eat it up. Family. The first hour you walk in the door, set your phone down and walk away from it. I have two people who listen every single day. They don't get in live chat. I just learned one of them is kind of famous. I didn't know that. Anyway, and I've talked to them about potentially coming on if they're able. They work crazy hours. They work 12 hour minimum and they're usually there 16 hours. And they are husband and wife, they both work in the same emergency department, and they come home. They come home and they're they get ready for bed and they watch this up on the big screen. And what they do is, and you think, well, they're he's a surgeon and she's a ER doc. And they put their phones in this drawer. They have this one drawer, and that phone will not ring in that drawer. It shuts it, shuts it completely. It's it's like a Faraday drawer, but it shuts it off from the outside world. No signal can go in or go out. And the first hour that they're home, the phones stay in there. When they do their Bible study, the phones go in there. They're, I mean, you say, well, somebody could die. They're gonna have to call somebody else. We're giving this to the Lord. Because if they answered that phone every time it rang, they would never get anything done. They couldn't even go to the restroom. Time. Ten minutes. Right off the top of your day. Money, give first today before the bills eat it. Family. The first hour you walk in the door, phone goes in another room, gets shut off. Whatever you do, look at your kids in the face, look at your look at your family in the face and disconnect from where you were. I know it's difficult, but we've come a long way since my parents, since your parents. We know better now. And so when we know better, we can do better. Before you give it, but before you give it, say your own rami ovedavi out loud. I was a perishing wanderer. God rescued me. Everything I have comes from his hand. Then give the first, while it still costs you something. First, the first fruits, Leviticus 23, verses 10 and 11. The first sheaf of the barley harvest was lifted before the Lord on the day after the Sabbath of the Passover week. That morning, outside Jerusalem, the tomb was empty. Paul names it in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. Messiah has been raised from the dead. The first fruits Of those who have fallen asleep. Yeshua is the first chief, the guarantee that everyone who belongs to him rises after him. Second, the curse. Deuteronomy 21, verse 23. Paul quotes it, Shaol quotes it in Galatians 3, verse 13. Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. The Son of God hung on that tree and took the curse of perishing wanderers. Then he rose on the day of the first fruits, the head of a whole harvest of rescued people. Come on, tell me. Somebody out there, tell me that you saw this coming. Tell me that this tether, you got this. This wasn't a manufactured thing. It is reality, how it actually happened and happens every day. We are not talking about apples and artivarks, Old and New Testament. We are talking about a tether to our very redemption. The Son of God hung on that tree and he took on the curse of perishing wanderers. And then he rose on the actual day of the first fruits, the head of the whole harvest of rescued people in a minute. He lifted to the Father. God did not give you his leftovers. I'm talking to me as much as I'm talking to you. How do you hand the scraps to a God, the God, who gave you his first? How? You might have thought a minute ago was the challenge and a choice. No, here it is. I have for you today a challenge and a choice. Here's the choice. The leftover life. It runs on forgetting. God and the people you love get whatever survives the day. It's tired and it's never full. The first fruits life runs on remembering. Remember. You hand the first and the best to the one who did exactly that for you. It costs more, and it's full of joy. First or leftovers? Which one does God get today? Prayer isn't asking for a strong back. It's not asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Pray with me. Father, we've handed you the leftovers long enough. We've handed you the tired minutes, the fumes that we have just barely at the ends of a day. We gave our best to things that won't last, and we gave you, if anything, the pittance, the shreds, the leftovers. Father, forgive us for forgetting. Forgive us for forgetting. I ask that you put the confession back in our mouths. We were perishing wanderers, and you reached down and you saved us. Every good thing we hold came from your hand. Heavenly Father, I ask that you, Father God, I ask that you let that memory pry our fingers off the best of what we have. I ask that you make our first fruits, make us, make us firstfruits people, with the courage to give first and the joy to let it spill over to the ones with nothing. And thank you that you never gave us your leftovers, never once. You gave us your only begotten Son. He became a curse on a tree and he rose as the first fruits so we could rise after him. I pray this in his name. The name of Yeshua. The name of Yeshua. Oh Jesus the Messiah, Yeshua Hamashiach. In his holy name, my Redeemer, my Savior, my King, and my friend. The only reason I have any hope. Amen. Look, maybe today. I haven't lived your life. I haven't. I haven't. I haven't lived your life. So I don't know. Bible burner 8426, destined for hell. Because they think they're smarter. They think somehow they're above. And they want to drag every last one of you to hell. There's people all around you just like that. That's what they seek to do. They want to drag you to hell with them because they think hell's a party. We're going to be partying down there, man. What a party it's going to be. If there's a hell and we're in it, party on. No, no, no. And then they retort with, well, if your God was so loving, why would he send anyone there? Oh, he doesn't send a single person to hell. He doesn't send a single one. That's a choice that is made. You're welcome, Yaved. Yaved, Yakub. Look, maybe today. Maybe today. Maybe today's the day. You realize you're still the perishing wanderer. You still realize that. You you kind of knew it before. Now you really, really know it. My land, you really know it. And it has become so completely clear to you. It's still me. It's still me. I'm that guy. I'm that woman. I'm that kid. I'm the perishing wanderer. And you've never cut you you realize you've never come to the God who gave his first, his son for you. Look, you can make of it what you want, but he's reaching right to you right now. It's not me. Got nothing to do with me. I don't get a toaster. I don't, I don't get a boat. I don't get any of those things. When I say go to true wordfaithforlife.com, I don't get anything for that. I don't get paid. I don't get any nothing. And when I say this to you, I don't get anything for it other than eternal satisfaction. God is reaching for you. Jesus his son is reaching for you. And he's reaching for you just exactly as you are. Not fancied up, none of that. I want you to pray with me. Are you ready? Are you ready? You can do this. You absolutely can. You absolutely can. This is not something you can't do. Handle this. We are not assured another day. Handle it right now. Today. Right here, right now. Live or on playback. Don't let it don't let another minute pass. Pray this with me and believe it. Yeshua, Jesus. I need you. I believe you died for me and you rose from the grave. I surrender my life to you today. Please forgive me. Fill me. Lead me. I'm yours. Amen. You prayed that in his name. That's the only reason you can talk to him. That's the only reason I can. Because he died and rose again, bearing my sins, my hurts, my habits, my hang-ups on his back. Yours too. And if you prayed that today, you've stopped wandering. You've just stopped wandering and you've come home. In comments or in chat, type first the word first in the chat so we can rejoice with you. And and also tell one believer before the end of today. Maybe they respond poorly, maybe they don't, I don't know. You never know how people are going to respond. Just be kind and move on. And then if you want resources, true wordfaith for life.com, contact, I'll help you. I'll answer your questions. We'll help you pick out a Bible. You name it. Look, you've been handing the giver your scraps because you forgot you were rescued. Remember today, the perishing wanderer carried home by a God, the God, who gave you his best. So give him your best. First, off the top, with joy. This week we walked from shattered stones rewritten, to a land that drinks the rain, to an open hand, to a king with a towel, to a basket of first fruits. Sunday evening, this Sunday evening at 6.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the Sunday summation and deepening traces the thread under all five mornings. Send this to somebody. Send this to somebody running on empty. They need it. Subscribe, tap the bell so all notifications hit the thumbs up so Sunday finds you. So Sunday reminds you. I'm nobody special, but I'm going to pray this blessing over you in his heavenly name and in Lashon Hakadesh, the language of God, Hebrew. Don't panic, I'm going to pray it also over you in English. Some of you are actually learning the Hebrew here, and I love that. I love it. You say, I almost have it down. God loves to hear from you, but I can't imagine what it's like for him to see his people trying to learn the original language of his people. The one he spoke to them in, and the one that they spoke to him in. Are you ready? 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 Sunday at 6.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Sunday, 6 30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, until the Lord calls me home. Until then, Shalom Bishem Yeshua.