Ex 19:5, 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 
	As we read this chapter, there are many things which become very apparent in God’s dealing with His people. There is a breadth and depth to the full consideration that God would meet physically with humanity, His Chosen Nation. There is in evidence the fact that the people were willing to consecrate themselves to so come before The Lord. We have the accounting of the clouds and the thunder and the trumpet blasts and the fact that the mountain was holy because God was there manifesting Himself to the people if they would truly prepare themselves to so entreat with Him. There were a vast multitude of forces filling the atmosphere of this people, ranging from fear, to awe, willingness to self-reflection of the unworthiness and the much heralded need for consecration. So much so that it is easy to lose sight of a very simple, yet all encompassing truth detailed by God. …for all the earth is Mine…
	This morning, let us become reacquainted with the reality that all the earth belongs to the Lord and functions only in accordance with what He tells it to do. He is the One Who created it from the very beginning. Gen 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Or, if you prefer, the New Testament account, John 1:1-3. John 1:1-3, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In either record, the veracity of God creating all is established and authenticated. 
The focal truth of this is that, as The Creator, it all belongs to Him to do with as He so chooses to do, according to His plan and His purposes in its very creation. Everything serves to function in complete line after that for which it was created. Each element of creation is in subjection to its Creator and follows the integral pattern so established for it. 
This was so declared brilliantly by King Nebuchadnezzar after he was brought to the humbleness of what this entailed in his very own life. Dan 4:34+35. Dan 4:34+35, "But at the end of that period I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. "And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What hast Thou done?' 
This was, some argue, the greatest and most powerful king in the history of all the early civilizations. Yet, despite the immensity of his power and wealth and dominion, he made this statement to be delivered to the vast reaches of his kingdom. He accounted everything unto the Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth.
God is not under the dominion of any part of His created beings. He is not servant to the whims or the fickle delights of humanity. Everyone will come face to face with the truth so detailed by Nebuchadnezzar. 
Some of us are learning this even now, in our daily lives. Others will be waiting for their eternal doom in the certainty of the judgment and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. They may deny Him this day as they walk on the earth, but they will come to know the folly of their own heart’s deception on that day when they must kneel and proclaim that which is heralded in Phil 2:9-11. Phil 2:9-11, Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
	We must always bring to the forefront of our thoughts the fact that God is the One Who controls and holds all the forces of His Creation in check. It all serves to manifest His Sovereignty and His overruling Omnipotence and Omniscience as He so causes everything to function. We get a sense of this in the blessing of Abram by Melchizedek as recorded in Gen 14:18-20. Gen 14:18-20, And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And he gave him a tenth of all. God is declared as the Possessor of heaven and earth. It all belongs to Him!
	This is a great comfort because it means that He is the One Who controls the every movement of the heavens and the earth. All of nature is under His divine power and will do exactly that which He appoints for it. Natural phenomena are the outworking of His Hand in operation as Pharaoh was shown through the 10 plagues which ultimately resulted in the release of the Children of Israel from their slavery. Ex 9:29+30. Ex 9:29+30, And Moses said to him, "As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease, and there will be hail no longer, that you may know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God." 
	It took ten plagues for Pharaoh to finally get the picture that God was the One Who was controlling all the natural elements. God was using the forces of nature to bring freedom to His Chosen people of the tribes of Israel. Pharaoh continually set aside the thought that there was a God Who was so powerful as to make these plagues of nature function with a set purpose. He persuaded himself, even after his own magicians could no longer match the actions of Moses, that he, Pharaoh, would not give into such a display of power and might and sovereignty. Pharaoh was thoroughly convinced that his own power could outlast that of God. This foolish audacity brought ruin and devastation upon himself, his nation, his army, and his very place in history. He ultimately became the very instrument by whom God’s power and might would be recounted generation after generation after generation.
	Moses reiterated to the nation of Israel the fact that God is the Sovereign ruler of heaven and earth, as in Deut 10:14. Therefore they should continuously remind themselves that they serve Him. They should honor Him and His Law with all their hearts and beings. Deut 10:14, "Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. 
Because all belongs to the Lord, they would be foolish if they turned their backs on Him and His statues. They needed to encourage themselves over and over again that they belonged to the One Who maintained and held order within the whole of the universe of their existence. As His Law was given for their protection and their benefit, they would be without excuse if they disobeyed and neglected to bring to Him their fullest measure of consecration and service. 
	Job heard the voice of God declare the fact that His was the entirety of creation. God needed nothing to sustain Himself unlike the need for His sustaining all that He created. Job 41:10, "Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine. 
God has the entire universe well ordered and at His beck and call. What He wants to happen will take place, even if we think it to be some unique or miraculous thing. To God, all the laws of nature and this universe respond as He so directs. If He chooses to make everything react in different means than we think it should, what is that to Him? He speaks and it is done! He orders it and it obeys His every command! 
	The Psalmist recognized this as we read in Ps 24:1-6. Please turn to this and follow along with me. Ps 24:1-6, The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, The world, and those who dwell in it. For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the rivers. Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, And has not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from the Lord And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Thy face — even Jacob. Selah. 
	To honor this truth means that there needs to be a complete adjustment in our thinking of how things operate and function. Too many times, we feel that God is somehow just another entity within the framework of our existence. He is frequently compartmentalized into just another level or aspect of our lives along with family and job and school and recreation. We allot some time each week, as a token regard for the fact that we know there is A Being in the heavens to Whom we better give some allegiance or suffer the consequences. Here I am talking about you and me, well meaning and sincere Christian believers, who are still so caught up in the mechanics of our earthly functioning that we have an extremely arduous time differentiating between the various realms of our life on His earth. We tend to become so focused on the day to day routine that we forget that He is the Sovereign Lord God Almighty Who has called us unto Himself. He has done this through the freely offered gift of the very lifeblood of His Only Begotten Son.
	We think that we can buy Him off through our good deeds and our sincere efforts to prove our worthiness of His Love and Grace and Mercy. That is how this world, lost in sin and transgression functions, so we try to use the same techniques and schemes on God. 
Again, listen to the Psalmist in Ps 50:11-15 as He declares the fact of God’s Supremacy over the every aspect of this physical realm. Ps 50:11-15, "I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine. "If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all it contains. "Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of male goats? "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High; And call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me." 
He does not need anything that we could use to try to buy His love or His support or His efforts for our self-promotion. He is above every worldly device of manipulation and trickery on our part. We need to learn to love Him and to cherish Him and to give Him thanks in everything. It is our part to honor and to obey Him for the simple truth that He is worthy of all honor and submission and reverence. As we do so, He will grace us with a deeper and growing living relationship with Himself in His Son.
	This is recounted for us by the Psalmist in Ps 115:14-18 as the blessing of the Lord is poured out upon us resulting in our greater and more fervent praise unto God. Ps 115:14-18, May the Lord give you increase, You and your children. May you be blessed of the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth. The heavens are the heavens of the Lord; But the earth He has given to the sons of men. The dead do not praise the Lord, Nor do any who go down into silence; But as for us, we will bless the Lord From this time forth and forever. Praise the Lord! This is the joy of seeking after and knowing the Lord God Almighty and honoring and worshipping Him rather than those elements that are part of His creation. 
	Our Lord Jesus, Himself, bemoaned the critical and divisive nature of what man had made of the things of God. The religious leadership was caught up in the intellectualism and the scholarship as it would elevate them above the common rabble of the poor sinners. They were steeped in seeking after the honor and the wealth and the power and the prestige of that which is created rather than the very Creator of all. We read His statement in Matt 11:25. Matt 11:25, At that time Jesus answered and said, "I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes. 
It is to the praise of God that we are brought into something far greater and much more splendid than anything this world has to offer. He opens His very heart unto us and makes us to be members of His very family in His Son, so freely given to draw us into that familial relationship. 
	The Apostle Paul proclaimed this for those who will seek after and accept the truth of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Please follow along in Acts 17:24-28. Acts 17:24-28, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things; and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His offspring.' 
	It is always a good thing to remind ourselves, over and over and over again, that the things of this earth are just that, earthly elements that were created and are controlled by the Lord God Almighty. As we deal with our every daily issue and stress and strain and circumstance, we must never allow ourselves to get so entangled and caught up in the twisted and snarled web of earthly deceit. This age tries everything to draw our attention away from the One for Whom we now live and by Whom we now operate in this realm. We are just sojourning on this planet, and we should ever keep that at the forefront of our thoughts and as the core of our hearts. We belong to God, The One by Whom all has been created! We should ever and always look to Him and count on Him and trust Him as He shows His Hand of grace and mercy and love holding us close to His heart. He gives us everything we need to walk according to His plan and His purpose in this realm that belongs to Him. So be it!
	'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine… Amen.

		
This morning’s benediction is 2 Cor 4:17+18. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Amen.