Deut 26:15, 'Look down from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Thy people Israel, and the ground which Thou hast given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Thou didst swear to our fathers.' 
	We are so blessed with this passage this morning. It gives us the opportunity to bring to the forefront of our minds the facts and the realities of God and His so great care and love for us. This has ever been the case with the humanity who was so created to be in fellowship with God. 
	At the most basic depth of this truth is the fact that God had to come to man. That is how it always has to be! There is no way for men to rise to God. Even at the Tower of Babel, that human effort was doomed because it was based on the working of man’s hands. Mankind can never bring into place anything that will rise to the functional necessities of reaching the Heavens of God. 
	Today, we have our quests into space, the latest with the idea of reaching and colonizing Mars. We send probes to the farthest depths of the galaxies, ever trying to expand to where we can reach. However, with all those scientific advancements, man is no closer to reaching the dwelling place of God than with the doomed attempt at that ancient tower. 
	And yet, to reach God, all that is required is to utter a prayer. It is a simple and yet so powerful access to the very throne room of God’s grace and mercy through Jesus Christ, Our Savior and Our Mediator and Our Brother. Through Him we are brought, by the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit, into the very presence of Our Heavenly Father. All the money and all the science and all the energy sources and all the complicated mathematical formulation and details of inter-terrestrial movement pale in comparison to the instant access that is ours in Jesus. 
	And, if we truly comprehend what is at hand, we will begin to understand that it is all because God so came to us, in love and in mercy and in grace. He chose to allow Himself to grace us with the presence of Himself. He sent His Only Begotten Son to us in order to be our salvation. He gifted us with His Holy Spirit to teach and to guide and to indwell us in order that we would have such unparalleled and undeserved and unhindered access to the very heart of the Lord God Creator of Heaven and earth. 
This is beyond all understanding of the human mind and thought processes. This is unimaginable in the scale and the scope and the sequence of why we were even created. And yet, this is the fact of who we now are in Jesus Christ! It is all because God came down from heaven and loved us unto Himself!
	As well, as we return to this morning’s reading, we will recognize that it is God Who was telling His people how they should remind themselves of this fact. Moses was declaring, from the Lord, how the people were to respond with their tithes and with their public declarations and remembrances that God looked down from Heaven. 
He is the One Who has so blessed them. He is the One Who redeemed them from slavery He is the One Who parted the Red Sea for their escape. He is the One Who led them and provided for them throughout their wanderings in the wilderness. He is the One Who would go before them into the Promised Land. And He is the One Who would bring forth the blessings of their inheritance. 
This was to be verbalized in such a committed manner in order to remind themselves and their posterity of all that the Lord had done! He reached down from Heaven above and so blessed them with His lovingkindness and tender mercies and the bounty of His provision. He reaches down from Heaven today to so bless those who will call upon the name of Jesus as both Savior and Lord.
The Lord, through Moses, will reiterate this great action again in Deut 26:7-9, as He makes known how the people were to teach their children of His response to their cries unto Him in Heaven. It is the detailed accounting of how God not only heard but responded with His manifest love. He brought them into the inheritance of His Promise to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Deut 26:7-9, 'Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; and He has brought us to this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 
    	Much later, when Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, it was again declared, in 1 Kings 8:27-29, that God did not inhabit this earth for the sake of His own habitation. He is not contained in any of the physical space that He, The Lord God Almighty, has created. And yet, He deigns to make His home with His people and He responds when they pray. His presence was within the temple and over the temple and within the Nation which He had so chosen for Himself among all the peoples of the earth.
1 Kings 8:27-29, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have built! "Yet have regard to the prayer of Thy servant and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which Thy servant prays before Thee today; that Thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, toward the place of which Thou hast said, 'My name shall be there,' to listen to the prayer which Thy servant shall pray toward this place. 
    	God responds to the prayers of His people. He holds those prayers as worthy of His outpouring of grace and strength and provision and love. His response may not always be in the positive with regard to what is being asked. However, it is always the perfect response at the perfect time as He so deigns to open the floodgates of Heaven upon those who call out to Him. This will always be in full accordance with His divine nature and essence. It is always the fact that He comes down to meet the every need of His people.
	Again, note what Solomon recounts for us in 1 Kings 8:41-43. Once more, it goes so far beyond merely the Children of Israel as God manifests His plan and His purpose in the creation of humanity. The Lord’s response from Heaven is universal in nature, universal to those who will seek to know Him in the fullness of His saving grace and redemptive mercy. The Lord will make Himself known to any who will seek Him in Spirit and in truth through His Beloved Son. 
Even here, at one of the pinnacle moments of the history of Israel, the Lord’s response was not limited by nationality or birth or economic status. It was a relationship with the humanity whom He had created for His name sake and His glory that was in evidence.
	1 Kings 8:41-43, "Also concerning the foreigner who is not of Thy people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Thy name's sake (for they will hear of Thy great name and Thy mighty hand, and of Thine outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house, hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to Thee, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee, as do Thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Thy name. 
	The Psalmist as well makes this known in Ps 102:18-22. There is the manifested work of God in evidence wherever man will gather and relay the fact that God hears and that He responds from His holy Heaven. This is the prophetic announcement of the truth that there is so much yet to be seen in the manner in which God comes down with every provision for those who are in anguish and in need. His heart has ever been toward those who have no other place to turn, no means of making it on their own. They need Him and they call out to Him and He hears and He answers. 
    	Ps 102:18-22, This will be written for the generation to come; That a people yet to be created may praise the Lord. For He looked down from His holy height; From heaven the Lord gazed upon the earth, To hear the groaning of the prisoner; To set free those who were doomed to death; That men may tell of the name of the Lord in Zion, And His praise in Jerusalem; When the peoples are gathered together, And the kingdoms, to serve the Lord. 
    	The Prophet Isaiah has so much to declare concerning this heart of God to make Himself available to those in need. He comes to those who are on the face of the earth and who cannot but receive and revel in the relationship which God, Alone, has created and put into place. God will work to show humanity, lost in sin and depravity, the fact that we need His Salvation. He shows us that we need to be healed from the cursed disease of our own sin and shame. We will start with Isa 57:15-19.
	Isa 57:15-19, For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, "I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite. "For I will not contend forever, Neither will I always be angry; For the spirit would grow faint before Me, And the breath of those whom I have made. "Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry and struck him; I hid My face and was angry, And he went on turning away, in the way of his heart. "I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him and to his mourners, Creating the praise of the lips. Peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near," Says the Lord, "and I will heal him." 
    	This is carried through, so wondrously and joyfully and resplendently into the marvelous promise of Isa 61:1-3. Isa 61:1-3, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. 
	Consider all that the Lord has put into place in His lovingkindness to the sons of men. He came from the heights of the heavens into the hearts of people, the people whom He so chose before the foundation of the world was put into place. He deigned to seek us out in order to manifest His so great love and glory and majesty to us.
	Listen to the voice of the Prophet in Isa 63:15+16, as he recognized that this was a relationship beyond the measure of the human condition. Men lay claim to all sorts of heritage and human capacity and endeavor. However, those who belong to God have a relationship which far transcends any earthly connection or association because it is the one that God has established and that He has ordained.
Isa 63:15+16, Look down from heaven, and see from Thy holy and glorious habitation; Where are Thy zeal and Thy mighty deeds? The stirrings of Thy heart and Thy compassion are restrained toward me. For Thou art our Father, though Abraham does not know us, And Israel does not recognize us. Thou, O Lord, art our Father, Our Redeemer from of old is Thy name. 
	The prophet, in Isa 66:1+2, then makes known the word of the Lord in what God seeks from those whom He chooses to know Him as their Heavenly Father. The Lord God Almighty, looks down from Heaven and into the very heart of those whom He has created and who will respond to His given Word, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in righteousness and in truth.  
Isa 66:1+2, Thus says the Lord, "Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? "For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being," declares the Lord. "But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. 
Next listen to the Prophet Zechariah, in Zech 2:10-13, as he detailed how we should respond to the fact that God comes down from Heaven to establish and to maintain this living relationship with us. Again, it is by Him and in Him and through Him and for His glory that this is all in place. We are His People by His choice and His accomplished work of Salvation.    
Zech 2:10-13, "Sing for joy and be glad, O daughter of Zion; for behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst," declares the Lord. "And many nations will join themselves to the Lord in that day and will become My people. Then I will dwell in your midst, and you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. "And the Lord will possess Judah as His portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. "Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord; for He is aroused from His holy habitation." 
    	We will close with just a most cursory consideration of Matt 6:9-13, if you would please open to it. This is the Lord’s Prayer which He used to teach His disciples and us how to pray. 
Matt 6:9-13, "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. 'Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 'Give us this day our daily bread. 'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 'And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.]' 
It is worth noting, first of all, the relationship that is expressed in this prayer. We are talking to Our Heavenly Father. That is His place and that it is His relationship with us. He is in Heaven and yet, by the redemptive work of Our Lord and Savior, we are able to talk with Him in His place of Honor because we are brought there by the Holy Spirit in operation in our hearts and spirits.
The next thing to realize is that we are to seek His will through the establishment of His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. That kingdom is in place everywhere that Jesus is King, meaning in the core essence of our hearts and minds and beings. We desire for all to acknowledge the fact that He is the Lord God Almighty and to be fully honored as such. 
This is the manifested truth that He has put into place. He not only looked down from Heaven and saw our need of salvation, but He came down from Heaven and offered Himself in our stead to bring us into this living and glorious relationship with Himself. Thank You Lord God Almighty! Let all the people praise Your name for Your so excellent greatness! So be it!
'Look down from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Thy people Israel, and the ground which Thou hast given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Thou didst swear to our fathers.' Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Josh 22:5. Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul." Amen.