Ex 13:21+22, And the Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. 
	 Last time, we considered the Omnipotence and the Omnipresence of God choosing to be with and to guide His people throughout all the days of their lives and for all of eternity in Jesus Christ. The key point that was emphasized is that He does so for the purpose of His Name’s sake and His Glory in His people. We are here to serve Him with all our hearts and with all our beings and with all our strength and with all our resources as He gives us His infinite supply of grace and mercy and love and provision. Too often, we assume that God is our Heavenly Butler, serving at our beck and call, instilling in our minds and hearts the most audacious consideration of who we are in the plan and purpose of God. 
	We fail to recognize the truth that, yes, God has our every hair counted, but it is because we are seen by Him in the love that He holds in His heart for His Only Begotten Son. As we are told by Christ, Himself, in Matt 10:29-33, "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. "Therefore do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows. "Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. "But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. 
It is all enveloped and contained in the truth that because we are now in Jesus Christ, we are those willing servants who honor and proclaim the beauty and the majesty and the joy of Our Lord.  That so pleases the Father that He brings us into His very family through the amazing and miraculous working of His Love. Apart from Christ, we have no standing with God nor will He go before us as if we were of some great importance on our own merit. Again, we are His servants and not vice versa.
I need to be very clear on this focal truth. We are each of utmost importance in the heart of God. He knows each one of us intimately, by name, and the full course of our lives. He guards and keeps and works in us to the utmost perfection of Jesus Christ. We are not just a group of people who are called Christians. We each are brought, individually, into His presence through the blood of His Son. He knows that the very best that we will ever be able to enjoy and receive is the fullness of a living relationship with Him, and that is what He has accomplished in the giving of His Son. 
However, as those redeemed servants of God in the glorious salvation of our Lord, we need to realize that our standing and our blessing and our eternity is wrapped up wholly in the person of Jesus Christ. When God looks at us, He sees the triumphant victory over death and sin in the sacrifice and resurrection of His Only Begotten. In that truth, our lives are a living sacrifice to His honor and His Glory and are for the plan and purpose that He institutes for the praise of His Son. All that we are and the every path that we travel is under His direction as He shows forth the ever increasing wonder and glory of the working power of the life of Jesus Christ in us. 
In the light of that glorious reality, we want to see the outcome of how the guidance and the leading of the Lord manifests His heart after the very best for His Chosen ones. Please open to the ninth chapter of the Book of Nehemiah as we have a couple of passages to read from the writing of that Prophet. 
The first is Neh 9:12-15. Neh 9:12-15, "And with a pillar of cloud Thou didst lead them by day, And with a pillar of fire by night To light for them the way In which they were to go. "Then Thou didst come down on Mount Sinai, And didst speak with them from heaven; Thou didst give to them just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments. "So Thou didst make known to them Thy holy sabbath, And didst lay down for them commandments, statutes, and law, Through Thy servant Moses. "Thou didst provide bread from heaven for them for their hunger, Thou didst bring forth water from a rock for them for their thirst, And Thou didst tell them to enter in order to possess The land which Thou didst swear to give them. 
	The prophet is here recounting the manner in which the Lord went before His Chosen nation as they escaped their slavery in Egypt and were guided into the Promised Land. He gave them every earthly provision to maintain their health and fortitude in order to conquer those nations that were before them in Canaan. God also gave them the Law in order to protect them from the abominable practices of those people who deliberately chose to make their gods out of wood and stone and precious metals. The Hand of God was in evidence as His people went forth and great fear consumed the nations who tried to oppose the habitation of the Promised Land by the people of God.
	Again listen to the prophet in Neh 9, verses 19-23. Neh 9:19-23, Thou, in Thy great compassion, Didst not forsake them in the wilderness; The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day, To guide them on their way, Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go. "And Thou didst give Thy good Spirit to instruct them, Thy manna Thou didst not withhold from their mouth, And Thou didst give them water for their thirst. "Indeed, forty years Thou didst provide for them in the wilderness and they were not in want; Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell. "Thou didst also give them kingdoms and peoples, And Thou didst allot them to them as a boundary. And they took possession of the land of Sihon the king of Heshbon, And the land of Og the king of Bashan. "And Thou didst make their sons numerous as the stars of heaven, And Thou didst bring them into the land Which Thou hadst told their fathers to enter and possess. 
	Note that all the credit for the great task of provision and manifest goodness is put fully upon the graciousness of God as He kept His people throughout their journey. He guided them in the most physical sense with the pillar of fire and cloud going before them. He also made the food and water abundant within the miraculous suppply of their necessary provisions. He instructed them by His very Spirit in order that they would have no doubt that they were being led by the Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. God also went before them into battle and caused the nations to fall before the might of His hand as His people possessed the land of His Promise and flourished as the stars of heaven. 
All this was in place because of the manifest goodness and grace of God in the preparation for the Promised Redeemer to come. Let us never forget the truth that this people was the heritage from which the Only Begotten of the Father would be forthcoming as the single means of salvation for all humanity. While the nation of Israel was peculiar unto God, the eternal plan was always the redemption of all men in a living relationship with their Creator: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
As so proclaimed by the Psalmist, in Psalms 107:1-9, let our hearts and minds find rejoicing in the guidance of God to bring everything into place in order for the appointed time to be fulfilled in which the Redeemer, the Christ, would come. Ps 107:1-9, Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary, And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desert region; They did not find a way to an inhabited city. They were hungry and thirsty; Their soul fainted within them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He delivered them out of their distresses. He led them also by a straight way, To go to an inhabited city. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, And the hungry soul He has filled with what is good. 
Please ponder this encouragement with the heart that offers to Our Heavenly Father the glory and the thanksgiving for the manner in which He made every provision for us in our wilderness or desert wanderings. This was even before we came into the living knowledge of Jesus Christ crucified, resurrected, and glorified. What was true of the guidance and the sustenance of the Children of Israel is as true of us in our lives. No matter what we go through, no matter what the course of our being lost in sin and despair, we are led to freedom, gathered from all the regions of the earth, to be brought by the Lord God Almighty, into the very presence of Himself and His goodness and His lovingkindness and the wonderment of His Love and Grace in Jesus Christ.
	The Apostle Paul carries forward into fruition what this means for you and for me in Rom 5:1-11, if you would please turn to it. Rom 5:1-11, Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. 
	We are guided into the full measure of our salvation through the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit as He makes Jesus Christ our life. His sustaining work was not just for those wilderness days of wandering, but for the day-to-day eternal life that is given to us as we learn to honor and to serve and to cherish Him. 
Just as with the Psalmist in Ps 136:1-16, we celebrate the lovingkindness of God to so make His guidance and His protection and His sustaining power the reality of who we are in Him. Ps 136:1-16, Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the God of gods, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. To Him who alone does great wonders, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; To Him who made the heavens with skill, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; To Him who made the great lights, For His lovingkindness is everlasting: The sun to rule by day, For His lovingkindness is everlasting, The moon and stars to rule by night, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. To Him who smote the Egyptians in their first-born, For His lovingkindness is everlasting, And brought Israel out from their midst, For His lovingkindness is everlasting, With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, For His lovingkindness is everlasting, And made Israel pass through the midst of it, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. To Him who led His people through the wilderness, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; 
	His lovingkindness is everlasting and we are the immediate benefactors of it in action as we learn to walk in His way, in obedience to His Word, in utter reliance upon the Holy Spirit to direct and to guide. This is not a theoretical application of some valid principle that has been put forth as an alternative manner of conducting ourselves on this earth. There are those who so study the various elements of religious practices, picking and choosing and creating hybrid theologies to observe. There are so many convoluted and disjointed and muddled philosophies being espoused as the way to live, at least for today.
	However, when we are led by the Lord, we are led by the Living God Who makes the person of Jesus Christ to be our life, altogether new and holy unto Him. He personally guides and directs our every step through the manifest working of His Holy Spirit. That will always, always be in complete line with His given Word. This is a living relationship, heart to heart and Spirit to spirit with the One Who is Omnisciently, Omnipresently, and Omnipotently manifesting His everlasting lovingkindness unto us now and for all of eternity. So be it! Amen!

	This morning’s benediction is 1 Chron 16:23-25. Sing to the Lord, all the earth; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; He also is to be feared above all gods. Amen.