Deut 23:14, Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you lest He turn away from you. 
This morning, we have a most wonderful reality given to us by the Lord. It is a blessing and a promise of His that holds amazingly true to this very day and will be for all of eternity. We are so fully lavished with the goodness of the Lord throughout His Word with these wonderful promises. This is one of those golden nuggets, as Dad used to call them, with which the Lord fills the buckets of our hearts and souls. It is a magnificent reality that should evoke manifold praise and honor from our hearts unto the Lord. As well, it should cause us to examine the course of our hearts and minds and actions and words in order to make certain that we are not guilty of anything that would hinder the continued and vital presence of the Lord in the camp of our dwelling on this earth. 
Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you lest He turn away from you. 
I wonder how many of us truly appreciate the manifest glory of the fact that God walks in the midst of our camp, be that our home, our place of business, our school, our places of recreation and travel, and this place of worship? Wherever we go, He is there, walking with us. He is there to deliver us and to defeat all the forces arrayed against our witness and our testimony of the fact that He lives and is Omnipresent in our lives. No force assembled against us can withstand His Omnipotence and His Omniscience. This is utterly unfathomable to our minds, and yet it is His promise and the reality of His presence with us always!
We can trace a pattern of His perfect faithfulness in this accurate certainty throughout a portion of the Old Testament. We will see how He made this evident to those whom He chose to so bless. We begin with Abram in Gen 17:1, before the Lord changed his name to Abraham. This was at the beginning of this wondrous relationship with the promise of a great nation that would come forth from the seed of Abraham and Sarah.
Gen 17:1, Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. 
Notice the implication of this declaration from God. Abram was to walk before Him. That meant that they would be together. Abram was not just left to himself to make the best way that he could in the land. The Lord was going with Him. They would walk together throughout the life that Abram had to live on this earth. 
As we know from Brother James, in James 2:23, God considered Abraham to be His friend. James 2:23, and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, " and he was called the friend of God. 
This means that they had to walk together and to talk together and to fellowship together and to enjoy each other’s company in the intimacy that is found in true and abiding friendship. God was with Abraham, as we have recorded throughout the accounts of the Old Testament in the manner in which Abraham and the Lord talked with each other and interacted with joy and honor together. 
Then we have the Promise of that nation fulfilled in the Children of Israel. The Lord let His Chosen people fully know what He expected from them and what they could count on from Him as in Lev 26:1-13, if you would please turn to it.
Lev 26:1-13, 'You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God. 'You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord. 'If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments so as to carry them out, then I shall give you rains in their season, so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. 'Indeed, your threshing will last for you until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until sowing time. You will thus eat your food to the full and live securely in your land. 'I shall also grant peace in the land, so that you may lie down with no one making you tremble. I shall also eliminate harmful beasts from the land, and no sword will pass through your land. 'But you will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword; five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword. 'So I will turn toward you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm My covenant with you. 'And you will eat the old supply and clear out the old because of the new. 'Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you should not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.     
	The Lord was very clear and precise to the Children of Israel as concerned their behavior honoring His holiness and His commandments in the Promised Land. If they were to follow through with their portion of the relationship covenant that He was setting up with them, then they would enjoy the full measure of His Blessings upon them and upon their habitation. They would be freed from all the curses of humanity that could cause fear and trepidation and anything of worry. They would have plenty to eat and safety and satisfaction in the full measure of the Lord’s gracious mercy and provision and protection and, most especially, His presence in their midst. 
	He reminded them of what they would have in Him and in His presence among them. 'Moreover, I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul will not reject you. 'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people. 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you should not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. 
Their safety and their well-being would not be limited to the physical measure of their walk on this earth. He was giving them the promise of His eternal joy and peace and salvation, if they would but honor and desire for Him to be their God and they to be His people. 
	Earlier in this Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 7, verses 1-4, the Lord made it abundantly clear how the people were to keep themselves and their communities holy unto Him as His place of dwelling among them. He specifically dealt with the manner in which they should guard themselves from tearing apart this relationship with God. That would happen if they allowed themselves to be drawn away by the customs and the rituals and the entanglements of the peoples surrounding them. They would experience the same, severe consequences that these nations were to suffer before the Hand of God in clearing them out for the sake of His people and His place of dwelling in holiness and righteousness. The people of God were to remain the testimony of the Glory of the Lord by holding firm to this living relationship with Him.
Deut 7:1-4, "When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. 
The Psalmist, in Ps 46:4-7, details the complete peace and comfort and safety that is in the presence of God, as He is in the midst of His people. There is gladness and strength and refreshment as we are in league with and honoring the Lord and He makes Himself our refuge and our salvation.    
Ps 46:4-7, There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. 
	What is so comforting in all of these passages is the fact that it is the Lord Who is making the promises to His people. He is after that living relationship in which He and the people of His choosing come together in the joy and the cherished association of closeness and familiarity. There is abundance in our affiliation and rapport with one another. It will be through His people that the whole of creation will witness the full aspect of the heart of God in His love poured out purely and perfectly and immeasurably on those whom He saves and with whom He is in communion. 
The Prophet Jeremiah had an understanding of this as is detailed in Jer 14:7-9. Jer 14:7-9, "Although our iniquities testify against us, O Lord, act for Thy name's sake! Truly our apostasies have been many, We have sinned against Thee. "Thou Hope of Israel, Its Savior in time of distress, Why art Thou like a stranger in the land Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night? "Why art Thou like a man dismayed, Like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet Thou art in our midst, O Lord, And we are called by Thy name; Do not forsake us!" 
This passages describes the sense of loss when man does not follow through with the full commitment that The Lord God Almighty has invested into His very creation. Humanity is so frail and so fickle and so less than honorable, while the Lord proves Himself over and over and over again as trustworthy and loving and merciful and gracious.
The Prophet Joel brings this gloriously to the forefront of our consideration in Joel 2:23-29. Please turn to it and let us celebrate the goodness of the Lord in making Himself known to His people in the fullness of His presence in their and in our midst.
Joel 2:23-29, So rejoice, O sons of Zion, And be glad in the Lord your God; For He has given you the early rain for your vindication. And He has poured down for you the rain, The early and latter rain as before. And the threshing floors will be full of grain, And the vats will overflow with the new wine and oil. "Then I will make up to you for the years That the swarming locust has eaten, The creeping locust, the stripping locust, and the gnawing locust, My great army which I sent among you. "And you shall have plenty to eat and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; Then My people will never be put to shame. "Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, And that I am the Lord your God And there is no other; And My people will never be put to shame. "And it will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. "And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. 
	What a manner of knowing the Lord in the fullness of His presence in our midst. What a truth in which to rejoice and to celebrate the reality that the Lord desires to pour out His Spirit upon us and to dwell in our midst as Our God. That is no small truth when we take to heart what it means. God is making Himself the One Who takes away our sin and our shame. He is our sustenance, not just in the physical wellbeing of these bodies, but in the eternal reality of all the ages upon countless and endless ages to come, He is Our God and we are His people! There is nothing to dread or to fear as our lives will be overflowing with the new wine and oil of gladness and joy and peace and righteousness!
	The Prophet Zephaniah proclaims this for us in Zeph 3:5. Zeph 3:5, The Lord is righteous within her; He will do no injustice. Every morning He brings His justice to light; He does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame.
Every morning, in Him, we know the full measure of His justice and His righteousness in Jesus Christ. All that was our burden and our shame and our utter transgression against Him has been dealt with for all of eternity. Accordingly, we can rejoice in Him every morning and throughout the day as we know His presence in our hearts and within the encampment of our lives.
	We bring this joyous consideration to a conclusion with the admonition of the Apostle Paul, in 2 Cor 6:16-18. He highlights the fact that we are to recognize what has been the focus of this morning, the presence of God within our midst. Accordingly, we are to live our lives every moment of every day in that truth, seeking to bring pleasure and delight to God Who is our Salvation. Our walk on this earth is to reflect the full measure of our communion with God and His walk with us, as so detailed to Abraham all those centuries ago.
	2 Cor 6:16-18, Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, "says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. "And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me," Says the Lord Almighty. 
We are now brought into the very awesome family of God by the adoption that is ours in Jesus Christ. In that gracious and merciful measure of God’s love to us, we are to reflect to all mankind, that we belong to Him. Our daily witness is seen in our desire to bless Him as Our Heavenly Father, with Whom we walk and commune and fellowship and share our heart’s desire. So be it!
Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you lest He turn away from you. Amen.
			
This morning’s benediction is Dan 2:20. Daniel answered and said, "Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. Amen.