Deut 28:1+2. "Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God. 
This morning, we are presented with a chapter that is extremely difficult to read. The beginning is wonderful as we hear the Word of the Lord concerning all the blessings that will be forthcoming if the people will diligently obey and honor the Lord and His commandments. 
However, as glorious as those blessings are, they are followed up with all the horrors of what will happen if the nation refuses to honor and obey the Lord. The curses are so vitriol in the depth of how the people will suffer if they refuse to diligently hold on to the Lord. The evident sufferings would be to their utter destruction if they were to seek after the gods of the nations surrounding them.
Part of the bleakness of this reading is the knowledge that, despite the wonderful promises that God fully set before them, the nation would turn away from Him and these foretold consequences would befall them just as was so specified by the Lord.
He is ever faithful, as we want to see, throughout His Word, to make known how blessed will be those who diligently obey Him and honor His Word and honor the full expression of His so great love in Jesus Christ. He is also, ever faithful, to execute His just and righteous and holy essence against all sin and blasphemous idolatry. 
We could spend so much time bemoaning what would happen if we failed to be those living witnesses of the grace and the mercy and the love of the Lord. However, this morning, that would only detract and distract from the full majesty of how God expresses His blessing upon those whom He has called unto Himself in the giving of His Only Begotten Son. 
You see, there is such a tremendous and marvelous difference in place in Christ Jesus. The old, which was signified by the utter failure of humanity to live in full and complete accordance to the commandments of the Lord through human effort and actions has been done away with. 
We are now freed, through the Omnipotent and Omniscient and Omnipresent power of the Holy Spirit, to live those lives that are pleasing to the Lord. We may not be perfect in that, but our hearts are desirous after that perfection in Christ. We are asking the Lord to work mightily and completely to make us those men and women of God who do bring honor and blessing and glory to Him, Alone. Our earnest prayer, as His people, is to be ever more true and brilliant testimonies to the Light of Jesus Christ in this world.
Therefore, we are encouraged by the promises of the blessings that we have before us in scripture. We need to be seeking after those manners of obedience and diligence in our hearts, being careful to do all His commandments with the complete and utter essence of the wellspring of our souls.
We can refer back to Ex 15:26, where Moses encouraged the people with the fact that God was the One Who would sustain the people if they would but honor and obey Him. This is one of those tremendous promises that we can hold onto in the midst of all the ills of our society in this day and age. It is as true today as it was the day that it was spoken to the Lord’s people.
Ex 15:26, And He said, "If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer." 
How wonderful it is to know that the Lord is our Healer. This is not just a statement of the theoretical. It is the fact of Who God is and how He works manifestly in the lives of His people. 
He heals us. He heals our illnesses, large and small. He heals our hearts and all the aches and pains of our deepest depression and stress and anxiety. He heals our minds sickened by all the pressures and the distractions and the smoke and mirrors of this age which try to keep our thoughts away from their focus upon Him. He heals our ills and our aches and our pains of spiritual growth into the fullness of stature as men and women of God. He is Our Healer as we concentrate upon Him and call upon Him and seek Him and obey Him and honor Him. 
Once more, in Lev 26:3-13, we have the full promise of the Lord to the nation as they were being brought into this glorious relationship as His people. He withheld no good thing from them and laid before them, again, the manifest blessing that He would lavish upon them. It is what He abundantly lavishes upon us today, as we walk in His ways and seek to obey and to honor Him in the fullness of Jesus Christ. 
Lev 26:3-13, '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. 
What was presented to the nation of Israel in the practical details of their life in the Promised Land is the spiritual outworking of the living relationship that is ours today in Jesus. The stipulation for this life of prosperity in the fullness of our relationship with God is still the same, our obedient service and diligent walk with Him day to day on this earth as is honoring and glorifying to Him.   
Next, please consider what we read in Deut 11:13-15. Deut 11:13-15, "And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. And He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and be satisfied. 
	In this passage we begin to get the complete sense of what the Lord has been earnestly putting into place for this relationship with His people. There is a satisfaction in the Lord that is ours as we love Him and serve Him. This means that we set aside all those selfish motivations and thoughts and ideas and behaviors and anxieties and anguishes in order to surrender to His will in our lives. Accordingly, we will find that which brings fulfillment and contentment to His heart and to our own. 
This is something that is falsely promised by all the lies and the deceptions of this age in possessions and in fame and in power and in wealth. None of that will ever satisfy the hunger that God has placed into our hearts. That full and complete satisfaction and contentment is found only in Jesus Christ and in our faithful and dedicated and honorable service unto Him. 
	Again, the full measure of the bounty of the Lord is upon those who seek Him with all their heart. Turning to Deut 15:4-8, we see that it is through obedient dedication of heart and mind and being that the people of God will never suffer the poverty of spirit and soul which manifestly plagues the denizens of this world order. Even those with wealth beyond measure find complete dearth and scarcity within their beings when their hearts are set on chasing after the fleeting and fruitless and unproductive and wholly unfulfilling pleasures of this age. 
Deut 15:4-8, However, there shall be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. For the Lord your God shall bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. "If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks. 
The promised prosperity of the Lord is fully manifested in those to whom He is everything. All the bountiful storehouses of Heaven are copiously open and lavished upon those for Whom the Lord God is Jehovah Jireh, Our Provider. Nothing is beyond the infinite and unending treasury of finding complete sustenance in the bountiful provision of the Lord. That means that no matter how little we may have in the eyes of the world, we are rich beyond measure in the eternal graces and mercies and love of the One Who sees us through each day.
Accordingly, the Psalmist calls upon us and instructs us to praise the Lord for the full blessing that He bestows, as in Ps 106:1-5. Please open to it and let us join our hearts together in this command to honor the Lord with praise and with thanksgiving. 
Ps 106:1-5, Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the Lord, Or can show forth all His praise? How blessed are those who keep justice, Who practice righteousness at all times! Remember me, O Lord, in Thy favor toward Thy people; Visit me with Thy salvation, That I may see the prosperity of Thy chosen ones, That I may rejoice in the gladness of Thy nation, That I may glory with Thine inheritance. 
What greater prosperity is there than eternal salvation. No matter what is part of this earthly life, we know it is transient and but for a fleeting moment. We have been given the full majesty and wealth of eternity in Jesus Christ. There is nothing that this age has that can even begin to compare to that glory and that joy and that promise of the goodness and the magnificence of God. As a direct result, no matter how little we may have in this present time, we are to be praising God with the every breath of our life. We are to contently thank Him for His so glorious salvation life coursing vibrantly and manifestly in our beings. We have been made alive, today and forevermore in Jesus Christ.
Next, please consider Ps 111:6-10, wherein we have the surety of God and the keeping of His promises declared for us. As a direct result, we will have the complete wisdom of God to do that which He requires in diligent service and obedience and honor unto Him.    
Ps 111:6-10, He has made known to His people the power of His works, In giving them the heritage of the nations. The works of His hands are truth and justice; All His precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever; They are performed in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to His people; He has ordained His covenant forever; Holy and awesome is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever. 
	Our final psalm of this morning is Ps 119:1-7. Our previous passage detailed the awesome faithfulness and trustworthiness of the Lord to those who live in accordance with His Laws and in submission to His promised blessings. This psalm manifests the resulting establishment of those people. As we learn to honor and to obey and to cherish Him, with praise and with earnest thanksgiving and reverence, so will our lives be changed completely. We will become those men and women in whom the Lord reveals the full measure of His saving grace.        
Ps 119:1-7, How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart. They also do no unrighteousness; They walk in His ways. Thou hast ordained Thy precepts, That we should keep them diligently. Oh that my ways may be established To keep Thy statutes! Then I shall not be ashamed When I look upon all Thy commandments. I shall give thanks to Thee with uprightness of heart, When I learn Thy righteous judgments. 
It makes all the difference in us as we learn to abide by the commandments of the Lord in the obedient service rendered unto the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives. We will become those living witnesses of the power and the majesty and the glory of the Lord to the whole of creation. Our lives will be the blessed testimony of the life of Jesus Christ. In Him, we are enabled, to return the blessing of the fulfillment of why God created us back to the very source of creation, Our Lord God Almighty. So be it!
Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the Lord your God. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 91:14-16, "Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. "He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him, and honor him. "With a long life I will satisfy him, And let him behold My salvation." Amen.