shorter, I'm on the tail end of life instead of on the beginning of it and I want to enjoy my years that I have left. I don't want to go around with my lips stuck out, I don't want to go around just grumbling and griping and belly aching all the time, I want to enjoy the days that God's given me because it may not be a whole lot longer, none of us know when we're going to be in the presence of the Lord and I'm glad until then until Jesus comes or we go by way of the grave. I'm glad we can enjoy life, amen. I'm glad being saved is a good way. It's a joyful way. It's the right way. I'm thankful for it, amen. All right, if you will turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy 2. I do want to address the elephant in the room this morning. Yes, it is me. I am your pastor, amen. I'll tell you what happened the other day. My wife said, you know, it's a new year and you should probably try to be a new man, you know, a good man. Well, this was the easiest thing I could do, amen. It requires no dieting, no exercise. No, I'm just kidding. You know she didn't say that, amen. But it's good to be saved, amen. Good to keep people guessing a little bit, I guess, amen. but it is me. I just wanted to let you know that I am not imposter. I was supposed to be gone in Kentucky this week, but with that storm coming through, Brother Morrow called and said it was probably a good idea to postpone it. So Lord willing, two weeks from this Sunday, we'll be there with him just outside of Lexington, Kentucky. And I told him I agreed with him. I did not want to sit in a motel room without power for several days, amen. I was not interested in that. If I'm gonna do that, I'll be right here at the house, amen. So let's pray for them. I know a pretty big storm coming through that area this morning, this afternoon I believe. Deuteronomy chapter 2. I want to look at a thought this morning that kind of ties in with what I dealt with last week. I didn't intend it to. Matter of fact, I'll be honest with you, this was a message that I was intending on preaching there at Lighthouse Baptist this morning, had we been there. And we talked Friday night on the phone about the weather and decided to postpone the meeting. So I got up yesterday morning and began to look at some different things and just try to get the mind of the Lord. And the Lord just kept bringing me back to this point. I didn't intend to kind of pick up where we left off last week, but I do wanna look at a thought here kind of along those lines that I think will be a help to us today. In Deuteronomy chapter number two, we're gonna look at a thought here, just the first three verses. If you're able and wanna stand this morning, Stand as we read the word of God together. We'll read verses 1 through 3, and then we'll pray and ask the Lord to help us this morning. In Deuteronomy 2, verse 1, the Bible said, Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the Lord spake unto me, and we compassed Mount Seir many days. And the Lord spake unto me, saying, Ye have compassed this mountain long enough Turn you northward. Let's pray together. Father, thank you again for the joy, the privilege of being saved, and Lord, knowing that this world is not our home, and we're going to spend eternity in a wonderful place called heaven, going to spend eternity in your presence. Lord, we're thankful for that. I'm glad down here from time to time that we do get into the presence of God, but Lord, in that day, it will be eternal and forever, and I'm thankful. Lord, for that day that's coming, I pray that you'd help us now while we're living here to live a life that's pleasing to you and live a life obedient to you, knowing that that's where our joy is, that's where our peace is, that's where the good things of God lie in a walk that's obedient. And I pray in these days, Lord, you would help us to be obedient servants, especially in these last days, Lord. When there is so much disobedience and so many that have turned away from the truth, help us to be found faithful when you call us home. Lord bless the message this morning, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for standing as we read those few verses. Now this is a great couple of chapters, first and second chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy really is the second law, that's what it's talking about. It's not a different law, remember that. God gave Moses the law of Mount Sinai, the book of Exodus, and we read about it in Exodus, we read about it in Leviticus, but here they are after 40 years in the wilderness, and the Israelites are getting ready to go into Canaan land. And this is a rehearsal, if you will, this is a reminder. That's what the book of Deuteronomy is all about, reminding them of what God is expecting out of them as they go into Canaan land, as we are forgetful people. I think it's the fifth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy where he reminds them to beware lest thou forget when thou get into the land of blessing. And truly, that's very easy for us to do, to be enjoying the blessings of God and forget where God has brought us from and how good He's been to us. But here in this second chapter, I want to look at a follow-up out of these three verses this morning concerning this Mount Seir that's mentioned here. In verse number one, Moses, of course, the writer of the book, said, Now, it's very interesting, this place of Mount Seir. It's not quite as popular as Mount Sinai, Mount Hermon, some of the other mountains that are mentioned in the Word of God. But Mount Seir is more of a mountain range. If you look at a Bible map you will see it is a range of mountains that go from the southern tip of the Dead Sea down to the northern tip of that little area of the Red Sea that kind of juts up to where we would look at of the country of Saudi Arabia in our day. So that's the thought, that's the geographical location of where the nation of Israel is going to be for many years. And Moses reminds us here that they can pass that mountain many days. And in verse 2, the Lord speaks now after these many days, and said unto me, saying, Ye that can pass this mountain long enough, turn ye northward. So God now is changing the direction of the nation of Israel. He's taking them on toward the promised land. Last week we looked at some scripture in Numbers about them going over into the promised land and how two and a half tribes were unwilling to do that and they were willing to go over and fight and help their brethren to to secure the boundaries of the promised land, but they did not want to stay there. We looked at that last week, Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. This week I want to look at verse number three here, where Moses said, the Lord spoke to them and said, you can pass this mountain long enough, turn you northward. I want to preach a little while this morning on, don't you think you've been here long enough? Don't you think you've been here long enough? That's what God is saying to the nation of Israel. He said, don't you think you've been here long enough? He said, in verse 1, Moses said, we can pass it many days. And in verse 3, the Lord said, you can pass this mountain long enough. He said, you've been here long enough. It's time to look up. It's time to get your head up. It's time to quit going around in circles and go northward. Of course, northward in our text, if you look at a Bible map, that was toward the land of Canaan. The Bible also teaches us about God being in the north and just all these things God was reminding them they needed to get up out of their location where they were at and follow Him and go forward and be what God would have them to be. So I want to look at that thought just a few minutes this morning on don't you think you've been here long enough. Notice first of all Israel's disobedience found in verse number one. I want you to look at some things here about the history of what's going on here. Many of you know it but some of you may not. I want you to notice the place of where they are at when we get to this place in Deuteronomy chapter 2. You find the place by looking back one verse in chapter 1 verse number 46. Look at what the Bible said. in Kadesh many days according to the days that ye abode there." Again, Moses is rehearsing in the years of Israel what they have done and where they have been and how they're getting ready to go into the Canaan land and things transpired leading up to that point. So he's reminding them of the place that they were at when this story is being recorded. They're in this place of Kadesh. They're in this place, really, of disobedience. If you go back to Numbers chapter 13, and I mentioned this last week, it goes along with it, you'll find that God brings the nation of Israel out of Egypt In the book of Exodus, he brings them to Kadesh Barnea there on the borders of the land in Numbers 13. And he gives them the great promise that if they'll just go over into that land and possess that land everywhere that the sole of their foot treads, God has given that to them. He's gonna run out all the Amorites and the Hittites and the Jebusites and all those Canaanites. God is going to move them out of that land and bring his people into a good land. It's a land that flowed with milk and honey, a land of great blessings. In Deuteronomy and even in Joshua, I believe he mentioned again, God reminds them that they were going to have houses that they didn't build and vineyards that they didn't plant, wells that they didn't dig. God had a great and a mighty land of Canaan that he wanted to see his people possess. And that's why He brought them out. He didn't bring them out to leave them in the wilderness. He didn't bring them out to forsake them. He brought them out so that He might bring them in. You and I need to understand this morning, when God saved us, He didn't bring us out of a life of sin and disobedience just to let us wander through this world and live haphazardly and make it the best you can and hope everything turns out. No. God brought us out to bring us in. He brought us out of a life of sin and disobedience that He might bring us in to the will of God for our life. And that will is living spiritually in Canaanland. It was mentioned already this morning around the singing of the song that Canaanland talks about not heaven, it talks about the abundance Spirit-filled life of the believer, the joyful life or the joyous life that you and I possess when we get saved. And sadly today I think there are very few people that are living in the light of Canaan land. Very few people that are living in that joyous land spiritually. It's not because we cannot, it's because many times we will not. That's what happened with the nation of Israel. It was not that they could not possess the land. God had already promised them that. It's that they would not possess the land. They were not willing to trust God. They were not willing to go by faith. They were not willing to believe here. So here Moses reminds them of this place of Kadesh. It is a place of decision. I thought about this. The word Kadesh means holy. You look it up in a Bible concordance and that's what it means. It means holy. They were at a holy place. They were at a line of demarcation where either they were going to step over into the holy things of God and go over into that promised land or they were going to draw back and they were going to refrain themselves from selling out, if you will, to the will of God in their life. I think that's one of the biggest plagues of Christianity in our generation today. There's so many people that are not willing to go all the way with the Lord. They're not willing to sell out. They're not willing to walk into that holy place. It's going to cost you something if you're going to cross into into Canaan land. You're going to have to fight some giants. You're going to have to go up some mountains. You're going to have to withstand some things and you're going to have to deal with some things in your own life if you're going to enjoy Canaan land. And I fear that's why many of God's people today just bow up when we get to that spiritual line of Kadesh and we don't cross that line and get over into that land that God has blessed us with and we don't understand what we're missing I believe the nation of Israel just could not fathom they could not understand what God had for them you know you and I this morning if we could just understand what God had for us if we could just see through the eye of faith the life that he wants to give us I know we sing about heaven and I thank God for heaven I told you that earlier I'm glad there is a land where there's no sorrow or sickness and pain, and I'm looking forward to that. But I'm telling you, I've got to live down here now. You've got to live down here now. I've got years to live, Lord willing. You've got years to live. And I don't want them to be miserable. I don't want to be in defeat. I don't want to live a life of discouragement. I want to live a life of victory and power and joy and walking in the good blessings of God. And we can do that in this hour if we will just obey God. So here they were at a place of disobedience. They had to make a decision. And I'm going to tell you this this morning, if you're saved, you're going to have to make a decision in your life at some point, whether you're going to cross at Kadesh spiritually and get into the holy things of God and get into the land of milk and honey or not. And listen, you don't have to. I've learned that in pastoring these years. You can't make people do anything. It wouldn't do any good if you did. And you don't have to do it, but I'm gonna tell you, there'll come a day in your life, if you don't, you're gonna wish you did. There'll come a time in your older years when you look back on a life that has been wasted for the things of God, a life that's been lived selfishly, a life that's just been thrown caution to the wind and done what the world wanted to do. You'll look back on that life one day. If you don't desire to get into the good things of God, and you'll see a wasted life and I think you'll weep many tears. I can't help this morning but to think about my own life and how many times I've wasted opportunities. How many times the Lord has called me to walk closer to Him and cross that river and get into that land of the blessings of God and I failed to do that because of my own stubbornness and my disobedience. I don't want to have any more of that in my life. I don't want to waste any more years. I want to get up and go where God wants me to be. So here's the place they were at. And then I want you to understand the punishment now that's going on because of this. I thought about this yesterday. You know, we can make any kind of choice. We kind of have a, I guess you could call it a monopoly. We have a freedom of choice and we pride ourself in that and I understand that. I believe in soul liberty. I believe the Bible teaches that and that simply means that we have that freedom to choose to worship God and you do and I do and every man does. of freedom whether to believe or not. God doesn't force salvation on any man, woman, boy or girl. So we have that freedom of choice, but can I say this this morning? We do not have the freedom of consequences. You may exercise your freedom of choice in an area, but you cannot control the consequences. I cannot control the consequences. When I make my choice, it will set events into motion that will end up with consequences for the choices that I make. And that's what happened in the nation of Israel. They chose. God gave them that choice there. in Numbers 13 at the border of Kadesh Barnea at the mountain there. God gave him that choice. He wasn't gonna make them go. He didn't push them over. He didn't push, drag, or pull them over. You know, kinda like they advertise for those old junk cars. He didn't do that. He said, I want you to go over. I've made it able for you to go over. I've given you the land. I've signed the deed. It's all yours. All you gotta do is march over that mountain and go to the other side. And they said, no, we're not going to do that. and it set into motion a series of events that brought years of punishment in their life. I think it's one of the saddest things I've ever seen as a Christian, is watching somebody that could have been more for the Lord, that had the opportunity to sell out to God and give their life to God and do great things for the Lord and enjoy the blessings of Canaan and you see them get up to that place of potential you see them get up to that Kadesh place in their life and you're just waiting for them to cross over and enjoy the good blessings of God and then they turn around and go back the other way Boy, after that happens, things begin to spiral down and down. I've seen it too many times. Many of you this morning, you've seen it. You know people today that at one point, they stood at the border of Kadesh spiritually, the holy place. They stood at the place and God told them, I'm gonna use you, I'm gonna bless you, if you'll just follow me, if you'll just do what I tell you to do. I'm telling you there's some great and mighty things out there and they failed to do it and they turned around and they went back the other way and now today their life is shambles. Today, their testimony is of no good. And many of them, I was talking to somebody before the service, many of those people that once walked with God and once had a testimony and was a light in their family and their community, if you look at them today, they remind me of 1 Peter where he said they've forgotten that they've been redeemed. They've forgotten they've been brought out of that lifestyle of sin. They don't even resemble a Christian. Why? Because they were disobedient in that place in their life where God wanted to take them all the way. It's a very serious thing. It was so serious that God takes a nation and allows a whole generation to die off because of this disobedience. I was thinking about this yesterday. I thought, you know, there's all kinds of disobedience instances that are written throughout the Bible, but man, I'm telling you, this is a heavy price that they pay. This was a place of disobedience for a nation and now All these that are 20 years old and up are going to die in the wilderness. And they're going to trot around for 38 to 40 years in the wilderness and die and be buried in an unmarked grave. Nobody's going to know anything about them. Nobody's going to recall their name. They're not going to be a Moses. They're not going to be a Joshua. They're not going to be a Caleb. They're just going to be another statistic in the books. I don't know about you this morning, but I don't want to be another statistic in the books of Christianity. I don't want to be one of those preachers that 10 years, 20 years down the road, they say, boy, I remember when he used to do right. I remember when he used to pastor. I remember when he used to believe the Bible. But now, here he is, he's went off into all these things. And I'm going to tell you something that could happen to me or you just as easy as it has anybody else. None of us are immune to it. None of us are at such a level this morning in such a position that we're guaranteed to finish well. It's a battle. It's a work. It's a choice. It's a daily decision to walk with God. And here they were at this place and they made the wrong decision. We see their punishment. Look in chapter 2 verse 1. Moses said, Then we turned and took our journey into the wilderness. My, what a sad story. Here they were at the very threshold of Canaan land. Here they were where the spies, the twelve spies, went over and came back and said, man, it's a land of milk and honey. Oh, it's a land of grapes and pomegranates and oh, there's so much over there. The land is so wonderful and it's so fruitful and there's mighty things there. And they were so close to that, yet they missed it. They were even so close that those spies brought back a taste, a sample, if you will, of that land. Many of them got to see it, no doubt. And some of them got to taste how good it was. They were right on that threshold, but they decided to disobey God. I'm telling you this morning, disobedience comes with a high price. I know we're living in a generation that thumbs their nose to it. and laughs about it and mocks obeying God, but I'm telling you, God is the same as He was several thousand years ago in the book of Deuteronomy. If we disobey Him, we will pay the price. End of story. Amen? There's no reset button, there's no fixing it. Yes, I'm glad there is restoration, but you still gotta pay the price. You do the crime, you gotta do the time. Amen? And that's exactly what they did here. Now their punishment, they're turned into the wilderness. When they left Egypt, if you study the scripture, you can read it in Numbers chapter 1. When they left Egypt and they got to Kadesh Barnea, two years had transpired. For two years God had taken care of them. He brought them through the bitter waters of Marah. He brought them through the sneak attack of Amalek there in Exodus 17. That rock which was Christ followed them anytime they needed a drink it was right there. He rained down manna from heaven from Exodus 16 all the way to Joshua chapter 3 and 4 when they crossed the Jordan to go into the land. I'm telling you God was good to them. Their shoes never wore out, their feet didn't swell, their clothes never wore out. Can you imagine what they saved on bills? Amen. Can you just imagine how good God took care of them? Even in these years of disobedience, God blessed them. But they're being punished for what they did not do. And here now, all those 20 years old and upward are going to die in the wilderness. One moment of disobedience can cause a lifetime of discomfort and defeat. One time, you say, Bridget, does it really matter? Yes, it matters every time God speaks to us. Every time God says, go this way and not that way, it matters because that particular decision may chart the course of the rest of your life, either good or bad. There's a punishment that comes upon them, more of a chastisement, I guess you would call it. God did not destroy them, but he definitely did develop them through those days in the wilderness. There's a pathway mentioned here in verse number one. Notice what he goes on to say. He said, "...and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea." I was thinking on this yesterday, chewing on it, meditating on it a little bit. and began to look at the pathway that most believed they took. And if you look at a Bible map of that day, you can look at a map today, but especially in Bible days, the town names are different, so it'll help you understand it. But they did a big circle around Mount Seir for these 38 years, that's what they did. And they'd go up, and they'd get close to the Dead Sea, and they'd come back down, and they'd get close to the Red Sea, and they'd go back around. And Moses is very specific here by saying that the pathway went by the way of the Red Sea. Now, this is just my mind. It may not have been this way, but this is how I think of it when I read this. I don't know how many times they can pass the mountains of Mount Seir. The Bible doesn't tell us. We know it was 38 years. I don't know if they can pass it, you know, several times a year, probably did. I know it was 11 days journey according to the Bible from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea. That gives you a little bit of a kind of a template of how far it was from Mount Sinai way down there in the south up to Kadesh Barnea, 11 days journey. But for 38 years now, they're can passing Mount Seir. And Moses tells us they went by the way of the Red Sea. And what this makes me think of this morning, numerous times in these years of disobedience, they come by the place of the Red Sea. You say, Bridget, why is that significant? Because the place of the Red Sea was their salvation experience. The place of the Red Sea was where God miraculously parted the waters, and they went across on dry land, and Pharaoh and his army assayed to go after them, and God closed it up on them, and drowned Pharaoh and his army. It is a picture of salvation. If you want an Old Testament picture of salvation, look no farther than the Red Sea, and you'll find out. Let me help you with something this morning. There might be somebody here struggling a little bit with your salvation, whether it's eternal or not. You'll only find one time God parted the waters of the Red Sea. And I'm telling you, when you get saved, when you genuinely get saved, not just repeating a prayer, not just going through the motions or going to the altar because your best friend went there, but when you genuinely get saved, I'm telling you, it is forever. Amen? It is a one-time deal settled in heaven forever. I'm thankful for that. But I can't help but think on this pathway of disobedience, every time they came by the Red Sea, they had to be reminded of where God brought them from. Here they are wandering in this wilderness. It's a wilderness now. They're not traipsing through Pisgah National Forest with everything you could have to drink and clean streams and animals to eat. No, they're in the wilderness. They're in a waste-howling wilderness, the book of Deuteronomy calls it. They're in a barren land. I mean, they're in a desert. It's a horrible place. It's not conducive to life, much less conducive to growth. And by the way, they didn't grow any in the wilderness. They just wasted 38 years. If you and I choose to live in the wilderness in our life, we're going to waste the life that God has given us. We're going to throw it away and squander it away. That's what they did. And this pathway brought them time and time again back by that place where God saved them. Back by that place reminding them one more time of what God did for them. Well, I'm thankful for salvation this morning. I'm glad God saved me. I'm thankful for the times I'm reminded of it. But that's not where I want to spend all my life at. I don't want to end up at the same place I started when this thing's over with. I want to gain some ground. I want to get somewhere. I want to get in on the good things of God. Every time they went back by the Red Sea, it had to remind them that they were really getting nowhere in life. You know what's sad this morning? I'm not being negative. I'm trying to be positive this morning. I really am. What's sad this morning, if you look at Christianity as a whole, the church world, you will find that that's where most people reside this morning, sadly, because we're living in the last days. We're living in days of apostasy. We're living in days where seemingly there's no right or no wrong in the minds of people. People even call themselves saved and they have no definites, no absolutes. They don't a bit more believe the Bible than the man in the moon. They don't live it. They don't want to live it. They pick and choose and take what they want. And I'm telling you, that's the day we're living in. And that's why so many people are defeated. Because we're doing exactly what Israel did in this day. You see, not only a pathway. I've got to hurry on. Look at the prolonging here in verse 1. Notice what Moses said. He said, and we can pass Mount Seir many days. Now look right over on the same page just to the right at verse 14 of this same chapter. And the space in which we came from Kadesh Barnea until we would come over to Brook Zerid was 38 years. You want to know how many days many days are in this text? It's 38 years. Would you understand the prologuing of this thing? A momentary decision put them in 38 years of a mess. A momentary decision going against God's Word, against God's will, caused them to lose 38 years of their life. For all of these that were 20 and upward, they died in the wilderness. They couldn't have been any older than 58 years old, dying. And you say, preacher, I thought the Bible said 40 years. Well, you take the two years from Exodus to Kadesh Barnea, they're in Numbers 1, and you take these 38 years of circling around this mountain, and that's where you get 40 years. For 38 years they wandered in the wilderness. For 38 years. This is what they did for 38 years. Now listen, I'm not against cars. I like cars. I like fast cars. I like souped up things. But you won't find me sitting and watching NASCAR. You know why? Because this is all they do. Amen. I don't have time for that. I couldn't handle that. I'd get dizzy watching that on a TV screen around and around. You say, preacher, if they gave you that much money you might do it. Well, I don't know. But nevertheless, that's what they do. 500 laps, round and round. That's what the nation of Israel did for 38 years. They went around and around and around. Prolonged misery. Why? Because they were disobedient to God. I'm telling you, you don't want to live a life like that. You don't want to get yourself in such a predicament. There are people this morning that once sat on a church pew and said amen. They once sung in the choir like many of you did this morning. There are preachers today that once stood in a pulpit and welcomed a congregation and was able to get a message together and present to the congregation and enjoy the exercise of their calling. But this morning, you know what their life consists of? Just a circle in the wilderness. They're nobody headed nowhere, and I realize none of us are anybody outside of the Lord, but I'm telling you they're headed nowhere fast because they've been disobedient to God and His Word, and it's plunged them into a life of a wilderness. You do know this morning there's some things worse than dying. I'd rather die and fill an early grave than spend the rest of my life in the wilderness. I'd rather go on in the will of God. I know people personally, personally, that I believe God has taken to spare them some of these things. I believe that in my heart. You won't convince me otherwise. They were walking with God, they were going strong, and all of a sudden they began to deviate a little bit. And I know God doesn't always do that, but I know some people that I believe, people that were close to me, that personally God took them out, maybe at what we thought was a younger age, simply to keep them from ruining their testimony and dying in the wilderness. It's a sad thing. You see, you and I are not going to be remembered for how we started, we're going to be remembered for how we finished. You take a marathon and things like that, these running events. You don't remember who started first, but I'll promise you, you'll know who finished first. Amen? It'll be in all the headlines and all the newspapers and all the news outlets. It's how you finish is what matters. Here we see Israel's disobedience. I've got to hurry on. Look at the second thing now in verse 2. We get to verse 2. Moses now reminds them of Israel's delight. Look at this in verse number 2. And the Lord spake unto me, saying... You say, what's the great delight there? Let's dissect this just a minute. I want you to notice, first of all, in verse 2, I see an initiation here. I see that God initiated something. I'm going to loosen this collar here. Forgive me, a little bit tight there. But God gave an initiation here. Notice he said, and the Lord. Now Israel disobeyed. Israel did wrong. God spoke to Israel. God told them what to do. They chose there at Kadesh Barnea to disobey God. They went into 38 years of wandering in the wilderness, marching around Mount Seir because of their disobedience. But God so loved them that now He initiates a restoration. You can read in the book of Numbers, I think it's the 14th chapter, that just as soon as they turn from Kadesh Barnea and start out into the wilderness, that's what Moses is describing right here by the way, Just as they begin to do that, God starts telling them about what He's going to do for them at the end of the 38 years of wandering. That's what good God we serve this morning. That's the wonderful God that they knew and we know this morning. God had a plan, even though, yes, they had to deal with the chastisement, they had to deal with the punishment, God still had a plan for them. He was not going to throw them away. So here we find Israel's delight. There is an initiation. The Lord saw fit to turn Israel out of their wilderness toward the promised land. It is His desire for you and I to have a good life. Why don't we get that this morning? You ever have your parents or grandparents or a teacher growing up say, Boy, if I could just drill a hole in your head and pour it in. I think that's what the Lord would be trying to say to us this morning. Why don't you get it this morning? Why don't you understand child of God that wants to live your own life? Child of God that wants to live one foot in the world and one foot in the things of God and enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Why don't you get it? I've got something better for you. Listen, if you've got children and you've got any sense about you, you want your children to have a good life. You want your children to walk with God. You want your children to not make some mistakes maybe that you make. And God wants us to have the best life this morning. He wants us to live in Canaan. He's laid it all out there. The table is spread. Why are we not partaking of it? Why are we satisfied with the leeks and the garlics and the onions of Egypt? That's what they did when they got over there murmuring about it. Oh, if we could just eat those garlics again. If we could go back to those onions of Egypt. Man, they don't even remember the taskmasters. They've forgotten the burden they were under. They've forgotten the horrible existence they had in Egypt. And they get so backslid that they wish they had never been brought out of Egypt. Now, buddy, that's a bad place to be, amen? I don't want to ever get there. That's where they got. So you find an initiation. The Lord initiates bringing them out from this predicament they're in. There's an involvement. Notice this. Now, this may not seem like deep theology right here, but you need to get this. He said, and the Lord spake. Don't you understand something this morning? God doesn't have to get involved in my life and your life, okay? He's God, we need to understand. God is not a genie in a bottle that you rub three times and he comes out and does what you tell him. I know that's modern Christianity's definition of God. But I'm gonna tell you something, God's holy, and he's righteous, and he's sovereign, and he's self-existent, and he don't have to speak to me or you at all. He don't have to do a thing and He's still God. If God chose to never speak to me again, it would not change the fact that He's God. If God chose to never answer a prayer of mine again, it would not change the truth and the fact that He's God. If God chose to never reveal Himself to me or you through the Word again, it would not change the fact that He is still God. It would not diminish His character one jot or one tittle. You see what God did right here? Moses said, and the Lord spake. Can I say this this morning? We need to understand something. If God ever speaks to you, you better perk up and listen. If God ever speaks, oh, what a privilege. When you're lost, and you're in sin, and you're headed to hell, and there's no hope, and there's no remedy, and the Holy Ghost convicts your heart that you're a lost sinner, and God is speaking to you about saving you, oh, happy day. Oh, what a joyful day. Oh, what a privilege that God would speak to you and I as sinners. But I'm telling you, after we get saved, it is still a mighty high privilege when God speaks to us. I don't take it for granted, at least I hope I don't, I probably do and don't mean to, but I don't take it for granted when I'm reading through my Bible and God speaks to me. Because I realize He don't have to. There's been times I've been reading through my Bible and God didn't speak to me. There's been times I've been looking through the scripture, and because of things in my life that shouldn't have been there, man, it was black letters on a white page. It didn't mean any more to me spiritually than the morning newspaper. And then there's those times when I'm in the Word of God, and it comes alive, and it jumps out about that high on the page, and it's like the Holy Spirit's yelling, saying, I'm right here, I'm right here, this is what I want you to see. I'm telling you, don't take that for granted this morning. child of God, you better not take for granted God's speaking to you. If God is ever nudging you to get closer to Him, you are a blessed individual. I'm telling you, I'll be honest with you this morning. I think God's limited on His speaking in these days because so many people have rejected Him. Listen, I think there's a lot of attributes. I know God's ways are higher than our ways. I understand that. I understand He's sinless and He's perfect. There's a lot of similarities. I was thinking about this just yesterday as I was meditating on this. I was thinking about God speaking. And I thought about this, you know if I continually spoke to somebody and they ignored me, you know what I'd do? I'd do what you'd do, I'd quit speaking to them, amen? I'd quit fooling with them. You say, does God do that? Well, you look at the life of Herod in the scripture. You'll find that Herod hated John the Baptist because he had taken his brother Philip's wife. And I mentioned that back at Christmas time, we preached through that. and Herod had John the Baptist's head cut off. He cut the head off the preacher, amen? How was God speaking in the days of Herod? He's speaking through John the Baptist. So Herod cuts the head off the preacher. So Jesus comes on the scene and Jesus is sent to Herod and the Bible said He answered him not a word. You know why he answered him not a word? Because he didn't want to hear what John the Baptist had to say. Jesus, no doubt, Jesus thought, well you didn't hear my preacher, you didn't hear my forerunner, I ain't speaking to you. And I'm telling you this morning, when you reject God, when I reject God, when we don't listen to what he's got to say, we run a high risk of him not speaking to us again. It's a dangerous thing. It's a serious thing this morning. When God speaks, we better listen. And Moses understood it. The involvement of God was the delight to the nation of Israel that God would even speak to them. He could have left them wandering around that mountain till the whole lot of them died off. But he didn't. He spoke to them. And then we find Israel's delight in instruction. Look what he said. Verse 2, And the Lord spake unto me, saying, He didn't just say, Moses, Okay, you're there, that's fine, we'll go back to business as usual. No, he didn't say that. He didn't say, Israel, just want to make sure you're still there wandering around that mountain 38 years. That's fine, all right, we'll talk to you later. No, Moses said, and he spake unto me, saying. You know what that teaches us this morning? God had some instruction for the nation of Israel. I'm thankful for God's intervention or initiation in my life. I'm thankful every time God gets involved in my life and speaking to me. But I'm really thankful when He gives me instruction. I mean, I'm telling you, I'm one of them fellas, I gotta have instruction, okay? You gotta tell me what to do. I can't read minds. I'm not able to do that. Some of you may have that gift. I don't have that gift. I can't read minds. So I need to know what somebody wants me to do. You gotta spell it out. And I'm so thankful when God spells it out to me in His Word. This is what I want you to do. What a privilege it is. Israel's delight was that God was not leaving them in this 38 year journey in the wilderness. He was going to bring them out. Now let me give you this and I'll finish this morning. We see this great delight here in the direction. Notice Israel's direction. Look at the past in verse number 3. Moses again reminds them of the past. Ye have compassed this mountain. They didn't need to be told that. For 38 years they circled Mount Seir, that whole mountain range. Now again, I don't know, maybe you can find it in the Bible, I couldn't. I don't know how many times they come past that mountain. I know verse 1 says there's many times, and many means a lot. I don't know if they went once or twice a month, I don't know what it was. It's all up to speculation. Unless you can find something I couldn't find, and you may very well do it, I don't know how many times they went around that mountain. But I'll promise you this, they went around that mountain so long, they was tired of it. If you look at pictures of Mount Sierra and that mountain range, it is an ugly looking mountain. I'm going to deal with that in just a minute. It's an ugly looking mountain. I remember the first time I went out west in the military. I remember just as plain as it could be, 29 palms. What a wasteland. Some of you have been there, amen? We call it 29 stumps. That's about what it was. What a wasteland. I come from the mountains of western North Carolina, okay? And we fly out there and we land and I get out and I think, whoa, wait a minute, where's my suit? We're on the moon. That's what it looks like out there. It looks like the moon. 80 degrees in the daytime in February and 20 at night freezing to death. I hated it, amen. Six weeks out there. I hated the place. I just thank God that I didn't have to stay there, amen. I was in another base, something like that, an Air Force base, and we landed. We were cross-country flying, landed. I asked a guy, I said, what's to do here? He said, get orders out of here, amen. That's about the only thing that stuff's good for, amen. So here they are, they're in a waste howling wilderness, no green grass to look at, no pretty trees to look at, no rippling waterfalls and oases, just a horrible wilderness they've looked at for 38 years. I thought about these people in our area that's had massive devastation on their property through the storm and how they get up every morning and look at that, and that's discouraging. While you and I, if you happen to be blessed as I was and didn't have any damage on your property, I get up and look at my property. I mean, it looks good, everything's fine, everything's great. Some of these people, they're gonna be looking at that for years to come. It's gonna be such a job to clean it up. And that messes with your psyche, okay? When that green grass is grown and those trees are all piled up and a bunch of logs and nastiness, I mean, that messes with you. I got to go down on the river a week or so ago, see some of the stuff on the French Brawl just going up down the river. I thought, my goodness, that messes with your mind. It had to mess with their mind. It had to mess with their spiritual condition. 38 years they went around and around and around. So he deals with their past. He's reminding them, you don't want this to happen again. We can learn from our past this morning, church. We ought to learn from our past. If you've ever been in the wilderness, you ought to desire to never want to go back there again. I got to hurry. Look at this. We see the past. We see the parting. What great words here when God said, you have come past this mountain long enough. They're leaving again Mount Seir, the range of Mount Seir. The word Seir here means hairy or shaggy. It means rough or irritating. No doubt this 38 year mountain experience was irritating. No doubt it was rough, discouraging, nothing pleasant. about going around an ugly looking piece of rock for 38 years. Nothing pleasant about that. Not to mention they were burying all those from 20 years old and upward in unmarked graves all as they went. Can you imagine? I mean it was a horror show what it was, 38 years. Can I remind you and myself this morning? Bad decisions in our life can make our life a horror show. bad decisions in our life. I've met people, I've witnessed people, I've talked to people that once walked with God, whom I believe are genuinely saved people, just like you and me. They once sat in a church pew and was faithful, they once stayed close to the things of God, but their life right now basically is a horrible life. I have visited people like that, I've counseled people like that, I've taught people like that, and I've walked away with a brokenness in my heart over their condition, but also with a warning in my heart, God reminding me, buddy, you better be careful, you'll be right in the same place they are. It's horrible, what a miserable life. I'm not interested in that. I don't know about you, I don't think you are, I'm not interested in that. They're parting. They were glad they were going to part. And then thank God for the pointing here. Notice what he said in verse 3. Turn you northward. They were going the direction they should have went 38 years earlier. They were going the direction God intended for them to go all along. And here's what I want to say to you this morning as we wind this thought of this message down. Don't you think you've been where you're at long enough? Now, I don't know where your Mount Sierra is at. I don't know where your Kadesh Barnea is at. It may be different in your life than it is in my life. There's probably somebody here this morning, this has been your Christian life for the past little while. It's just been a monotonous circle. It's just been a wasteland because of some point of disobedience in your life. You know what that disobedient point is. God knows what that disobedient point is. That's between you and him. I don't need to know, don't tell me. I can't help you. I wear my collar straight, amen. I can't help you a bit. I'm not able to intercede for you other than just pray for you. You need to run to the Lord, amen. If there's a point in your life, if there's a K-dash in your life that you haven't crossed over, if there's an area in your life that you've been disobedient to God and you're wandering in the wilderness spiritually, I'm telling you the Lord loves you and he wants to get you out this morning. He wants to take you northward to the land of milk and honey. He wants to get you across the Jordan River, a type of death, and get you to enjoy the good blessings of Canaan. But you're going to have to turn northward. You're going to have to listen. You're gonna have to get tired of being where you're at. You know what the definition of insanity is. I'll say this and be done. You know it. You know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over and over and over again and expecting somehow to get different results. Aren't we that way sometimes? Spiritually, we do the same thing over. Lord, forgive me. Now, God, I'm sorry I got in that and did that and said that and should have done that. And then a week later, a month later, we're right back in it again. And we wonder why we have no power. We wonder why we can't get a prayer through. Wonder why church is dry to us. And wonder why, you know, I don't, I've heard, oh, preacher, I'm not getting fed. What's funny, 99%, 99 of the fold's getting fed. You the only one not getting fed? No, the problem is you've been snacking on the things of the world. You've been eating the junk of the world. Your appetites change. You can eat the wrong things long enough that that's all you want. physically and spiritually what about it this morning aren't you tired of where you at don't you don't you want to leave this barren wilderness you're in and go towards the things of God I'm here to tell you this morning if you want to you can if you want to God will help you and he'll lead you out and bring you to the Canaan land sister if you will come on you have the message this morning let's stand with our heads bowed as she's