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Deuteronomy chapter 2 verse 7.

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We'll read through the verse, then we'll pray and get started.

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For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands.

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He has watched over your journey through this immense wilderness.

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The Lord your God has been with you this past 40 years and you have lacked nothing.

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Let's pray.

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God, we come to you tonight and I pray that we can draw some strength from these words

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that you speak to us, that you speak about your people Israel, about how you were there

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with them in the most difficult times, dear Lord, that you brought them out of the wilderness,

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that you brought them out of the hard times, that you provided for them and that you would

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continue to provide for them.

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Dear Lord, I pray that we would know that you are the same God today, that you are with

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us as we walk through our wildernesses and you are with us, dear Lord, whatever we go

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through and you will continue to take care of us through it all.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

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Now here in Deuteronomy chapter 2, it's kind of a recount of the things that had taken

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place and God's people are getting close to getting into the promised land and they had

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been wandering in the wilderness for some time and some of that is recalled here in

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Deuteronomy chapter 2.

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But it's talking about as their journey was drawing to a close, they were about to be

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able to enter into the promised land.

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Now not Moses and not the generation that doubted that were disobedient, but the next

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generation that was going to come.

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And Joshua and Caleb, who were two of the ones that scouted out the land, they were

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going to be able to take the people of God into the promised land.

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And even though they had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, their journey

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was not quite complete.

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Their desire was to enter into the promised land, but they were only going to be able

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to enter when God was going to let them enter through the means that God was going to let

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them enter.

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Now they had come around from Egypt and they'd kind of come south probably through the Red

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Sea and then work their way through the Negev desert and then back up on the east side of

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the Jordan River.

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And they had wandered back and forth around during that 40 years, but finally they began

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to make their way up north and as they made their way up north, there were a lot of other

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tribes that were living there.

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There were the Moabites and the Ammonites.

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Those were descendants of Lot, of his daughters.

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You had the Edomites.

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That was the descendants of Esau.

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These were the people who were possessing this part of the land.

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And God's people, maybe there was a temptation there that they were just going to be able

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to cross over these lands or overtake these people to get into the promised land.

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But as they made their way north, they would encounter these lands and God said, look,

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you're not going in this way.

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You're not going to overtake these people.

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You've got to keep on going.

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It's not time yet.

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And they'd go on to the next group, the next region.

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And God would say, no, this is their land.

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You're not going to overtake these people.

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And ultimately they would come to the land of the Amorites.

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And when they get there, God says, okay, I'm going to hand these people over to you and

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they're going to overtake them.

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And ultimately they're going to make their way into the promised land.

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And as they're beginning this journey where they're going to be going through all these

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foreign lands and by all these foreign people, God says, look, I'm going to be with you.

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You don't mess with them.

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They're not going to mess with you.

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Everything is going to be okay.

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I've brought you this far.

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He says, I've been with you these last 40 years.

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And that's what we see in this verse.

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For the Lord your God has blessed you and all the work of your hands.

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He has watched over your journey through this immense wilderness.

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Now they had been in the midst of a wilderness.

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Now a wilderness is a place that, it's not that it's never been found by a person.

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Certainly people had been in this wilderness that they had been in before, but it was a

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desolate place.

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It wasn't a place that was easy to live.

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It wasn't the kind of place that you would probably choose to live in a lot of these

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areas that they were in.

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And nonetheless, as bad as it may have been, as difficult as the journey may have been,

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it's not like there were clearly marked paths for them to travel.

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It's not like it was easy during their time in the wilderness, but God says, look, you

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have been in the midst of a wilderness and I have brought you through it.

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So do not give up on me now.

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Now in the case of the Israelites, they were in the wilderness because of their disobedience.

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And maybe there are times in our life that we find ourselves in a wilderness type situation

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where we kind of find ourselves wandering and in bad shape because of our sinful choices.

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But I think there are lots of times in our life that we may have a wilderness experience,

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that we may be in a place that we don't want to be in, that we're not sure which way to

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go, that we're not sure how we're going to make it out, that we're not sure how we're

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going to survive, how we're going to be sustained, how in the world are we going to make it through

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here.

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We don't know where we are.

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We don't know where we're going.

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And it is difficult.

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And we have those experiences in our life in a lot of ways.

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We may experience that with a health crisis in our life.

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We find out that there are some health problems in our life or somebody we love.

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And it's uncharted territory.

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It's something we've never been there before.

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I've never had to deal with this kind of stress and worry.

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I don't know what to do.

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I don't know what it's going to look like when I go to the doctors.

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I don't know what treatments are going to look like.

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All these things, sometimes we enter into these wilderness experiences in life that

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we've never been there before.

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It's uncharted territory.

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The path is not clear.

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It's very scary.

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We don't know what's before us.

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We don't know how we're going to make it out.

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Maybe we encounter that in our workplace sometimes.

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We get out into the workforce.

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When you're young and you begin to get into adulthood, you may encounter a lot of those

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wilderness experiences in that you're going to experience a lot of things which are uncharted

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territory for you that you've never experienced this before.

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You're starting your first job.

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Okay.

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It's kind of scary.

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You've never been there before.

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You don't know what it's like to work in the real world.

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You don't know what it's like to punch a clock.

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You don't know what it's like to work with other people.

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Some of them are going to be good.

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Some of them are going to be mean.

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You don't know what it's like to deal with the public.

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There's a lot of experiences that we face that are scary.

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There are lots of things in our life that may be a wilderness experience, something

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that we have never gone through before, the loss of a parent.

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You live your whole life, Lord willing, and you get to see your parents live to old age.

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From the time you're born till the time they die, you have your mother and your father

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with you.

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You've never lived at a time that you did not have your parents.

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Then you lose a parent or you lose both parents.

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All of a sudden, you're walking in an experience that you've never been in before.

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You don't know what to do.

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How do I live without them?

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How do I function without them?

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I always called them.

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They were always there.

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They always give me wisdom.

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There are things in life that we encounter that when we encounter them for the first

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time, we are flying blind.

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It's like we are in the midst of the wilderness.

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The path has never been traveled.

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We don't know how to walk the path.

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We don't know how we're going to do it.

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We don't know if we can do it.

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We find ourselves wandering in these situations.

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Maybe you can think of others in your life, these wilderness situations.

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What does God say to his people?

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He said, I was with you in the wilderness.

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The thing about being in the wilderness is you want to be out of the wilderness.

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You don't want to stay there.

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You don't want to stay there trying to survive, trying to scrap, trying to get by, trying

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to find your way, wondering if you're walking in circles, wondering if you're on the right

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path.

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We don't want to be there.

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We want to get out the other side.

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We want to come out the other side from where we started in a direction that's leading us

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somewhere better.

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We want to get out of the wilderness as quick as we can.

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God had promised his people that on the other side of the wilderness was the promised land,

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was everything that they needed, was the rest that they desired and longed for.

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They finally had begun to get out of that wilderness.

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That's what we're looking for in the midst of our wilderness, whatever it may be tonight.

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We want to get out.

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We want to get on the other side.

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We want to find the blessing.

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We want to find the deliverance.

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We want to find the rest.

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We want to have the answer to our problems and our questions.

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Why this, God?

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Why are you allowing that?

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How are you going to work through this?

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We want to get out of the wilderness.

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God's people were so close.

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They were so close, but God even still in these verses was saying, but it's going to

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be just a little bit more.

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You're going to have to trust me just a little bit more.

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For many of us in this room, perhaps you can think of these words as God speaking to you.

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I have been with you the last 40 years.

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I have provided for you the last 40 years.

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I have taken care of you the last 40 years.

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Sometimes we need to remember that.

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Sometimes we need to pause in the midst of our struggles and the midst of our wilderness.

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We need to stop and we need to remember who is God?

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Is God good?

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Has God been with me?

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How has God been with me?

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How has God blessed me?

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We need to recall the areas in our past that we felt the presence of God, the joy of God,

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that we remember how God helped us and strengthened us and encouraged us and blessed us.

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We need to remember that God may be speaking these very words to us tonight as a reminder.

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I have been with you all of these years, wherever you are in the wilderness, whether you're

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just getting into it, whether you're in the middle of it, whether you're on the edge of

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it and you think you may can see the light of day, maybe God wants to remind us tonight,

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I have been with you and I'm going to be with you so do not give up.

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Don't stop now.

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The Israelites were so close.

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They had been through a lot, but God was going to keep his promise.

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He was going to keep his word.

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He was going to get them out of the wilderness and even though they were on the outer edge

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and even though they were so close to the promised land, even though they were so close

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to his rest, God said, not quite.

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It's not quite time yet.

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You got to go through Moab.

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You got to go through Edom.

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You got to go through Ammon.

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You got to go through all these places.

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You're getting close, but I am going to be with you.

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I got you this far.

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I've been with you for 40 years and he says at the end of the verse, he says, the Lord

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your God has been with you this past 40 years and you have lacked nothing.

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What God is telling them is, I've been with you 40 years and you've lacked nothing and

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I'm going to continue to be with you from now to the moment you enter into the promised

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land, I will take care of you and when you enter into the promised land, I will continue

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to take care of you.

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I will continue to bless you.

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I will continue to meet your needs.

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I will continue to hand your enemies over to you.

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I will be the one who will deliver you and so it is for us tonight.

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In all of our life, if you've been walking with the Lord, certainly, surely there are

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times that you can look back to and you can say, yes, I remember the time that God got

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me through the circumstance, the situation that I did not think I could get through.

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Maybe tonight you're in another one of those circumstances.

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Maybe tonight you're in the middle of a circumstance and the path is not clear.

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You're in the middle of the wilderness.

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You don't know where you're going to go, how you're going to get out.

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You don't know what the future holds but I promise you, God holds the future and he will

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deliver us and he will bring us to a place of rest and he will take care of us.

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Maybe not always in the way that we would like, maybe not always in the way that we

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pray for, but God's way is right and we need to remember that God is good.

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He has been good to us and he has provided the ultimate rest for us in Jesus Christ.

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That if we would only call out to him tonight, if we would only hold on to him tonight, if

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we would only remember that he's been with us and he will continue to be with us, so

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do not lose hope and do not give up and you will enter into the rest that God promised.

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Let's pray.

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God, we thank you for these good words and I pray that you would help us to learn from

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them tonight.

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I pray that you would help us to learn from the Israelites in a lot of ways, dear Lord.

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They got their self in this mess because of their disobedience and sometimes, dear Lord,

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we get our self into messes because of our disobedience.

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Dear Lord, sometimes there are things in life that are wilderness situations, that are uncharted

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territories, that are things that we're not familiar with, that we don't know how to live

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through and work through, dear Lord, and we just have to depend on you.

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We just have to trust you to guide us, just as you guided your people in the book of Exodus

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through out of Egypt and into the wilderness and through, dear Lord, all the way till they

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got to the promised land.

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God, you guide us as well through your word, through your spirit, through the love and

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encouragement of others, dear Lord.

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So I pray that if there's anybody in this room that's in the midst of a wilderness experience

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tonight that you would help them to have the strength to get through it, that you would

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encourage them, dear Lord, that if they are yours, dear Lord, that they would be reminded

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of how you have watched over them for the last 40 years, maybe more, maybe less, ever

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how long it is, dear Lord.

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I pray that they would be reminded of how you have taken care of them.

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Dear Lord, maybe there are some tonight and they are walking aimlessly in the wilderness

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and they do not know Jesus Christ.

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I pray tonight that they would put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ to know that they

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don't have to walk alone, but that you would get them through.

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God, help us not to give up.

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Help us not to question whether or not you are with us, but we can know for a fact, God,

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that you are with us.

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So I pray that we would hold onto that truth to know that you have never abandoned us and

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you never will.

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I ask these things in Jesus' name.

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Amen.