1 Kings 17, Elijah the Tishbite. We're in the study of Elijah now in the book of 1 Kings. And Ahab and Jezebel, and last week looked at living in a lousy situation in your life. And Elijah was definitely in a lousy spot. And God really blessed him. And God's going to do some things here with Elijah before he gets to 1 Kings 18. before he calls down the fire from heaven in front of everybody publicly, God's doing some things with him privately in 1 Kings 17. Bust him on the scene. And I'm glad James tells us that Elijah was a man of like passion. He's just a man. He had his times of doubt and his times of, he got down one time wanting to die and had his issues too, but he's God's man. He's a common man. from Gilead, where's that from? That's the mountains. Elijah the Tishbite was a hillbilly, mountain man, common man, bold man, and went down there and stood up for God. Way more people's got some guts for God than this day. Some grit in their heart for God these days. This stuff here anymore, Brother Randall, anybody thinks you're a Christian, you're about a half sissy or fiery, And if you're a preacher, you're supposed to be some kind of old sissy and let the world stomp all over you. That's not what the Bible teaches, dear people. God's people be bold, stand. Warriors, soldiers out there, stand for something. Amen. And don't let your lost family throw at you, as soon as you have a little argument with them, something where they pull out the religious card on you, don't. You're supposed to be saved. Well, what are you supposed to be, I say? Huh? That's what I tell them, girl. I say, what are you supposed to be? Yeah, I'm saved, praise God, but I got a nature too, amen. Elijah the Tishbite, who was inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dune or rain these years, but according to my word. And the word of the Lord came unto him saying, get thee hence and turn thee eastward and hide thyself by the brook Cherith. I told you what Cherith means, it means cutting off, that is before. Jordan, and it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I've commanded the ravens to feed thee there. Where'd them ravens get that food from during the famine? Huh? They got it from, I believe they got it from Ahab and Jezebel's table. God sent the most selfish bird there are, a crow, that'll kill each other over a little biscuit to go down there and bring food every morning and meat every morning to Elijah during the famine. And God sent him by brook Cherub there obviously was out, hid out somewhere so he could drink some water there and God could take care of him. God is showing himself to Elijah that I'll take care of you during some hard times. God's sealing his stuff in his heart. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening and he drank of the brook. It came to pass after a while that the brook dried up. And you know what, I believe that brook got lower and lower and lower and lower. And he'd drink out of it and he'd say, Lord, this brook's about ready to dry up. And I don't believe God spoke a word to him. He just stayed right there. I believe he got down the last day, maybe he bent on his hands and he's getting what little bit of water he could out of that brook and it was about dried up. And then God's gonna speak to him. Came to pass after a while, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. No rain or no dew. No dew, no water at all. I didn't have Walmart in the day. I didn't have all this stuff. They lived off the land they farmed, and the rain was very crucial. The word of the Lord, here it comes again. Then the word of the Lord came unto him saying, and dear people, this is another lesson for another time. The word of the Lord came unto him, told him to say something to Ahab. He done it. Then the word of the Lord came unto him and told him to get down by the brook. And the word of the Lord didn't come to him. He just stayed by the brook. Stay where God spoke to him at. God took care of him there, as long as he done what God had told him to do. Now, he didn't move. And you know, Brett, you know the way we are. The Bible says that he was a man of like passions. You know that Elijah was thinking, I need to move out of this place. It's getting dry. I'm going to have to move around. And he didn't move. He stayed right there, because that's where God told him to be. You stay right. If God's getting dry, stay right there. Now the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, now I want you to get up, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So when God spoke to him, watch this now, so when God spoke to him, Ricky, and told him to move, he told him to move somewhere that he would not have went in his flesh. He said to get to Zarephath, that's in Jezebel's Backyard right in Jezebel's land you go stay where Jezebel's at now dear people Jezebel hated Elijah Jezebel wanted to kill Elijah So he said I want you to move and I want you to go to Zarephath And I want you to get right there and not only there. There's a widow woman there So, you know Elijah's like you and I Lord. I don't know if it is this really you but he knew the world the Lord He's gonna act upon what God had told him to do. What's God want you and I to do? He wants us to act upon what he's telling us to do. And he ain't gonna tell us nothing else till we do what he told us the last time to do. Right? He ain't gonna send Elijah up to Mount Carmel to call down fire from heaven until he does what he tells him to do back here by the brook. And God ain't gonna tell you to do something else until you do what he's lastly told you to do. Amen? For example, Tyler preached last week on hell. having a burden for him. And I said, you know, God's wanting his people to put their heart into this thing. And that moved a lot of people. That sermon moved people in here. But not enough to move them enough during the week to get here. Amen? See what I'm saying? So they'll come here today and they'll wonder why they ain't getting no progress with God because God told them something last Sunday, and he's told them many times before then, and they still won't do and get to the place where God wants them to do today. Amen. That's just the way God works. And watch this. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain me. I commanded. I put it in this widow woman's heart for you even get there. I've already commanded. I've already put it in her heart. She's already received it to take care of thee there. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks. And he called to her and said, fetch me. I told you it was a mountain man. He said, fetch me. I pray thee a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. Not a big piece of bread, just a morsel. And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth. So she's right with God. I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel. All I got's just a little meal and a little oil and a cruise. And behold, I'm gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat it and die. And dear people, the lesson this morning, our Sunday school lesson, is about hope in a hopeless spot. Hope, hope in a hopeless spot. Last week, he was in a lousy situation and God sustained him there. God held him up there and God moved him forward from there. And sometimes in life, we're going to get in some lousy situations. God's going to put us in hard places. And we learn the most. I hate to say this. We think we've learned the most by God blessing us, but we don't. We don't. We take it at first. We learn the most in life by suffering and situations that God puts us in. Sorrowful spots, hard spots. And here is going to be a hopeless situation. This widow's hopeless. Her youngin's hopeless. This whole situation right here is a hopeless place, but God is getting his man prepared for a big challenge that's gonna happen in 1 Kings chapter 18. Now think about Elijah for a minute. How many of y'all have ever prayed and called down fire from heaven in front of everybody? Nobody. And Elijah didn't die. God come and got him in a chariot. And you took him on and Elijah appeared with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration in the New Testament lives is going to be one witnesses. I believe it's going to come back and witness and preach Over in Israel during the during the latter days explain all that. Okay, but that's what the Bible says And so we're going to go with that. Amen because God says it and so he Comes to a place here with this woman She's a widow woman and she's a hopeless and a hard situation. And look at her, look at her place in life. She's a widow. Not only is she a widow, she's in Zarephath. And something that I find in the scriptures, it's a biblical principle from Genesis all the way to Revelation. God places great value on how we treat widows, three groups, widows, orphans, and strangers. Widows, orphans, and strangers. So this widow needed some assistance She's got a little boy there with her. If she dies, he's going to be an orphan. And what's orphans need? They need attention, don't they? They need somebody to attend to them. And strangers is the immigrants. And they need access is what they need. God has a whole lot to say about how you and I treat people who are in need and how you and I treat people that other people may pass over and look down upon. all through the scriptures. And a matter of fact, in Deuteronomy chapter 15, he says this, for the poor shall never cease out of the land. Jesus even said, the poor you shall have with you always. There's always gonna be people that are destitute and poverty stricken, no matter in any groups of people. He said, therefore, I command thee, God said, saying thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to the poor and to the needy in thy land. It's a sad state. We live in a country where people are literally coming across the borders to be homeless. Now think about that for a minute. They're literally, mothers are literally taking children, going through all these drug dealers, all these cartels, to get their children. And I know there's gangs, and I know there's bad stuff too. Any time you get a bunch of people, you're gonna have bad stuff. But there's literally mothers that are bringing their children, Ricky, to be homeless, knowing that if they get picked up, they're going to be put in a cage. But they still rather live in America in a cage than where they come from. Now think about how blessed we are, dear people, in America to be in that kind of condition and situation that we're in. That their life would be so hopeless somewhere else that they would brave the desert, they'd brave the whatever they gotta go through to get over here to be homeless, to be locked up in the United States of America. Boy, God's gonna hold us very, very accountable. It's like over there in Russia and some of these countries, y'all heard me tell us before, one little village, or we'll put it to you like this, they don't have hollers, they got villages, like in your holler that you live in, they got one copy of the Bible, and this family over here will have Genesis, and this family over here will have Exodus, And this family over here will have the book of Matthew. And they trade the different pages during the month so they can have the word of God, because they don't have that. And here we've got these laying around everywhere. We've got them laying around everywhere. Boy, God's going to hold us really accountable. This widow woman right here, she's in a spot, a place in her life. She lives in Zarephath. And listen, God said, You take care of the widows. God said you take care of the orphans. God said you take care of the strangers. That's what my people Israel done. She lives in Zarephath. They're not under the law of God. They could care less about God. They're down there worshiping fertility gods. It's all this wickedness and demonic going on down there in that land. Ain't nobody cares about her, what kind of shape that she's in. But that's where she's at right there in her life. And she's a widow and she's dependent upon everything. So God's gonna take, Elijah, there's a famine in the land to a widow woman who has no resources whatsoever in Zarephath. And God said, that's about as hopeless as you can get in this life. And I'm going to do a great work right there. That's the way God works in our lives. And there's going to be times in our life where we're going to get like this. Look at her problems in her life. She don't have a big cup of meal. She don't have extra bread. She said, I just got just a handful. He don't ask for a loaf of bread. He don't ask for a big sandwich. He says, I just want a morsel. A morsel is just a little bite. Ricky, she ain't got a bite to give him. She ain't got a bite in the house to eat. And he sends, God's man sends him their bread. God's already put it in her heart that he's going to do this. And they, Elijah nor this woman, know what God's going to do. Boy, I tell you, ain't that the way God works? And you find this principle all through the Bible. Now, look at her plan. She said, look, I'm gonna fix this bread, and I'm gonna put a little bit of oil I got, and me and my boy, we're gonna eat this, and that's it. We're just gonna die. Boy, that'd be a hard way to die of starvation, wouldn't it? And people was dying. If you go reading the scriptures in the book of Kings, it got so bad in one place, that they was eating the meat off a horse's face, a mule's face. It was going for high dollars. Ain't a lot of meat on a horse's face or the mule's face. They was eating dove's dung. You know what dung is, don't you? They was getting dove's dung and eating the seeds out of the dove's dung, and it got even so bad that they couldn't even get the dove's dung, and they ate all the meat off the horse's face. They was eating their own youngins. And it's in the Bible. That's how bad people got and famine got in the Bible with people. They did desperate things. And so that's about, when you get to the point where you're doing those kind of things, that is about as hopeless and low in life that you can get in. And desperate that you got. That is the best of time frame that you got with Elijah going down here and seeing this woman. And dear people, what we find from Genesis all the way to the end of the book of Revelation, Ricky, we find a principle in the Word of God of people that got into hopeless situations. And the devil loves to really get active when somebody gets real hopeless. Because he knows if he can take all hope from you, or show you there is no hope, then he can just about get you to do about anything. You know, Job, God says Job in the book of Ezekiel, God says Job was one of them men that he was a praying man and God really heard his prayers. You know what Job said in Job chapter 3? He said after this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. And Job spake and said, let the day perish when I was born. And the night in which it was said there is a man-child conceived. Job got up in Job chapter 3. Of course, Job wanted to. What happened? All his youngins got killed. He filed for bankruptcy, lost everything that he had. His friends come, just sit and looked at him. He had all these sores on his body from the top of his head to the sole of his feet. I mean, he was, you talking about feeling defeated. This man felt so defeated, Ricky, that he said, I wish to God I wasn't ever born. I wished I was never even conceived in my mother's womb and he meant it with all his heart. Buddy, the devil can get you. The world and problems can get you. You can get real defeated, can't you? I mean real defeated. He felt so hopeless. And the disciples who went with Jesus saw him raised to dead, saw him feed 5,000 one time, saw him feed 7,000 another time, saw him open blind eyes, saw him got people that was crippled to walk. The disciples got on a boat with him. He was on the boat with them. The Lord was on the boat with them on a pillow of sleep. They thought they was going to drown, and the disciples in Mark 4 said, Master, carest thou not that we perish? They felt like God deserted them. You ever felt that way? You ever got so defeated, this life just pours down upon you, and you just feel so hopeless that you just feel so defeated that you cry out like Job and say, I wish to God I wasn't even born. Or you get to a place where the Lord's laying there, you've been crying, he's asleep, and you, Lord, don't you even care? I'm about ready to die here. I'm about ready to drown. That's where these disciples got. Hopeless situation. This widow right here is a hopeless situation. Elijah's walking into a hopeless situation. Jacob, now you talking about another fellow that was hopeless. When he found out and saw that Joseph, he thought Joseph had died, look what this one Jacob said. Genesis 37, Jacob ran his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him. Listen to this, but he refused to be comforted and said, for I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Now, When he's doing this joseph is still alive and matter of fact if jacob would have just simply listen if jacob would have just simply sit down Took that coat and said now wait a minute that Is that really human blood on this coat? Yeah, if he'd asked some questions, but if he said now reuben Uh, what happened here? Where was jim's at and then he'd ask simeon some questions if he had investigated this thing a little bit more He might not have felt like this because he might said something don't something ain't right here No, he got all up in his feelings and said, I'm never gonna be comforted again. And 13 years he lived like this in this total despair over death. Listen, ain't that sad that somebody can get that way? You know what, Randall? He was so bad. Jacob got so used to living like this that even when Joseph said, look, I'm Joseph, dad, 13 years later, He still said, I refuse to be comforted. I've got so used to living like this, I'm not going to live no other way. Well, you don't know anybody like that. They get so used to living in a certain condition that even when times get better, and even when they see better, no, I can't let myself get joyous. I can't let myself get joyous. I got to stay in a hopeless rut. That's a bad Christian witness, ain't it? It is. That's what Jacob got to right here, got hopeless. where he was at. Now, God's going to show us how he's going to work right here in this hopeless spot. Because God's going to humble this widow woman down. He already has. God's going to humble his man down before God works in this. And God's going to humble them all down. And God's going to show something here that God does. Because Jesus mentions of everything that everything in the Old Testament Jesus went into the synagogue one time, and Jesus began to preach, and they didn't want to hear it. You know the story, Luke chapter 4. And they're going to throw Jesus out of church because they don't like what he's saying. And that's the way our human nature is. Something don't get said just right, we're going to get our little baby doll and go somewhere else instead of just saying, well, we need to take the truth, don't we? So he's going to get to a humble spot right here. Jesus says this Jesus in Luke 4 and this this when he says this this is when they said we're gonna kill him So they're gonna take Jesus and throw him off when he says this right here Jesus is but I tell you a truth Many widows she ain't the only widow many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias and When the heaven was shut up three years and six months when great famine Jesus said was throughout all the land He said but to aunt but unto none of them. I was Elijah's sin. God said there was a lot of widows. That's a big area. And there was a famine for three years and six months. But Jesus said, you know what? None of them was Elijah's sin, save unto Zarephath, a city of Zidon, that's Zarephath, unto a woman that was a widow. Boy, when Jesus said that, they got mad. because he could have went to a Jew. He could have went somewhere else, but God's gonna show his mercy in this woman by saving her out of her situation and by using God's man. Listen, God got in his mind that I'm gonna take the least likely, sorriest outfit, sorriest place in life. I'm gonna send my man down there to do a great, great work. Boy, aren't you glad God works that way? I mean he didn't send him down there to some rich people. He didn't send Elijah down there to somebody that had a big name. He sent somebody down there that everybody else just looked over to show how great and how merciful. She was one of the most unlikely candidates for God to use in this way. And listen to me, you and I are some unlikely candidates too. We are. But God in his mercy and in his grace look down like he did with this little woman, that's what he done with you and I. And he came down here and Jesus said, everybody down there, that's where God chose to send his man, to send his man to show how merciful and how gracious that he was. And when he said that, Ricky, they took Jesus, was gonna throw him off, but he passed through the midst of them. They couldn't stand that. And people can't stand that in this day in which we live either. But there was such an unusual relationship there between between Elijah, this widow woman, and her boy. Now watch this. He commanded this woman. He said, I commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. I put in her heart, even though she don't know how she's gonna do it, even though I don't know how this is gonna work out for her, I've already put it in her heart to do this. Has God ever done that to you? Put something in your spirit, put something in your heart, put something in your mind, You know, when you got saved, I want you to think about this for a minute. When God began to deal with you to get saved, now think about this, and everybody's got their own experiences. You begin to think in your mind, well, I've got these friends, and if I get saved, I don't know how I'm gonna deal with them. Or, I've got this issue in my life that I'm really, you know, you used to take pills, you can boil it down to drugs now, I call that. I'm really chained to that. I don't wanna be, you know, go down there and do this. All these things that we got in our minds. You know what I'm talking about? We got things in our minds that we begin to toy with. And we don't know how it's gonna work out, how we're gonna unravel this, how we got this gonna work out. Elijah just looks at this woman right here, look at verse 13. Elijah said to her, Fear not. Because she had all these things going on in her mind. All these things going on in her heart. How am I going to take care of my boy? And how's this going to work out? And she even says, look, I'm going to do this because God told me to do this and then we're going to die. But I'm still going to do what God's telling me to do. I don't know how it's going to work out. She had no idea, Ricky. It hadn't rained. It was just awful. But she's going to act upon what God said to do. And Elijah knows her fears. He says, fear not. Go, he said, I want you to go, and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. What does the Bible say to you and I? Seek ye what? First. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things be added unto you. In other words, God's saying this, look, look here, I'm speaking to you. Now you don't need to concern yourself on how it's gonna work out this situation and that situation. I'm speaking to you. Now you go and do. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. In other words, what's that mean? How I can be right with God. How I can be my family right with God. How I can get my situation. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and how I need to get right with God. All these other things I'm gonna take care of in your life. Seek ye first. That's why Elijah said, fear not. Go and do. as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, seek ye first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus, look what he says, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the crucible of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. You go do this, watch this, you go do this, and it'll never run dry. The cruiser oil will always have oil in it. The barrel of meal will always, if you go do what God says to do, if you go do what God has commanded to do, act upon what you know to do, God's gonna take care of you. Now, how did God do this? Can you explain to me how God kept, she got the last bit of meal in the barrel, The Bible don't say God opened up her roof and dropped more down. It don't say that. How'd God do that? We don't know. It's supernatural, wasn't it? Is there anything in your life that God's ever done supernaturally? Just took care of something? Paid a bill for you? Sent somebody to help you along the way? Had somebody show some mercy on you? Had some compassion on you? Worked something out for you that you could not explain no other way? Changed somebody's heart and mind that you was all worried about? He worked on that situation right there? God says, you go do what I said to do and I'll take care of the rest. Trust me and I'll take care of the rest. Fair enough. Just go do what I said to do. And Elijah didn't know how he was going to do this. Elijah didn't know. All Elijah know is I'm going to trust God, even though it seems so hopeless, even though it seems there's no way out. Even though it seems I have no other option, I'm just gonna trust God. I'm just gonna trust God. And he's doing all this in chapter 17. Elijah's learning and the widow woman's learning. He had to learn when he went down to Ahab in the first verse. Then he had to learn when he's by himself down there by the brook. Now he's with a little widow woman and she's got a boy. Now we're gonna look at next week. Her boy's gonna die. And thank God she did something. Right now, that trusting in God, cause when her boy dies, God's gonna take care of that too, ain't it? Can you imagine how she felt when her boy died? Lord, I've done all this, and here my boy dies? I've done all this? But she went ahead and trusted God. God listened when we ever need in our life. I got to thinking about this. I don't know, in our little Sunday school class, and we got people that listen to this online, I don't know what kind of situation people are going through. A lot of people fight hell by the half acre, but if you get to a church house on Sunday morning or Wednesday night, they do. We don't know what people go through all week and their mind and their heart. This world's hard. And I don't know what kind of impossible situation that people face, but we're looking at the Bible and we find principles of God's all found through the word of God. God's got the grace. Listen to this. God's got the grace. to get you through anything that comes your way in life. He really does. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 12, he said to me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul said, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my firmness that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He said, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. God's got a real way of working when somebody's real weak. And I don't know what situation people's going through in their life. I don't know what's going to face us this week. But whatever it is, we can trust in this. God's grace is sufficient. I've often thought the worst thing that could ever happen to somebody would be their child to die. I mean, to me, that would be the worst pain. And I've known people, and there's preachers that I've known that still go, and are strong, and I think, man, how do they go? Because God's grace is sufficient. God gives them, God's never gave me that grace, because I don't need it. My children are alive and well, I don't need that grace. But I know if something was to happen, that would be the, but I believe this would be the worst part. Not only would it be for your child to die, To me, the worst part would be for your child to be missing and you don't know where he or she's at. You don't know if they're dead or alive and you're laying there and your mind isn't going. But God's grace is sufficient. You lose your husband, you lose your wife, you go through a hard time, whatever the course may be, God's grace is sufficient. Cancer hits your body, God's grace is sufficient. Any kind of trouble, heartache, God's grace is sufficient. It's enough. He'd give it to you. He'd give it to you to help you get through that. Because why? Because he gets glory out of that. Because people say, man, how are you making it? And you say, because grace is sufficient. God's glory's holding me up. God's getting me through. And God gets great, great glory, dear people, from that. That's why he saves us. Not to go to heaven. So we can get good glory out of us. Going to heaven, that's secondary. He saves us so we can get glory. He gets glory to his name. And God will meet every need. Listen to this. He met the need in this woman. His grace is sufficient, this woman, this situation. And God will meet every need, not want, God will meet every need that arises in our lives. Every need, God will meet it. Philippians 4, 19, but my God shall supply, shall, shall, not my, shall supply all your what need according to his riches in glory by Christ. According to his, do we hear that? According to his riches. If Gert needs a $100 bill, and I've got $80, that's all I got, and Gert needs $100, and Gert says, Brother Kevin, I need $100. Well, all I can give you, Gert, according to my riches, is $80. That's all I got. But God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and owns the hills that the cattle sits on, amen? Amen, amen. So whatever I need, according to his riches, well, what's he got? He got everything. So whatever I need, he's well able, abundantly, to supply All that I need, amen? And you know something else that God will do? He'll walk every step of the way with us. Jesus said, teaching him to observe all things whatsoever I command you and lo, what'd he say? I am with you always. Always, even until the end of the world. What's the end of the world? When you die. That's the end of your world, when you die. He said, I'll walk with you always. He'll keep us safely through the dangers that come against us and everything that's gonna come against us. Isaiah 43, when thou passest through the waters, I'll be with thee. And through the rivers, they're not gonna overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, ye ain't gonna be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. God said, I'll be with you no matter the rivers come, the floods come, the fires come, I'll get you safely through those dangers. That's what kind of God that we serve. You think this woman right here thinks she's in a fire? You think she's just over flooded with all these issues? And her son laying there and his little belly hurting, you know he's crying out, I need something to eat. She's doing the best that she can, she's a widow woman. And God will carry us, listen, God will carry us when we can no longer walk. God will carry us. Deuteronomy 33, 27, the eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall save, destroy them. We get to the place in our life that we can't walk, we can't go any further, God walks, he picks us up and carries us. Just like the Bible said he's the good shepherd, ain't he? And the good shepherd always picked up the little lambs, and the good shepherd always picked up the wounded and would throw them on their shoulders. And God was going to take care of every pain, every problem, every pit of life that developed. And he'll make us more like Jesus. The Bible says we know that all things don't work together for good to them that love God, to them rather called according to his purpose. God, dear people, is going to take care of us. Now, I found this little story because it illustrates how God can really take care of somebody in a hopeless spot. There's a man named Chaplain Robinson. I couldn't find his first name, but his father had just returned from World War II. And during that time in the 40s on every American highway, you could see soldiers in uniform hitchhiking home to their families. That was the custom in that time in America. And sadly, the thrill of this man's reunion with his family was overshadowed by the illness of his grandmother. His grandmother had become ill and she had a problem with her kidneys. This is a true story. And the doctors told Robinson's father that she needed a blood transfusion immediately or she would not live through the night. This was in the 1940s. So the old woman's laying there and she needs a blood transfusion. Here's the problem. The problem was that his grandmother's blood type was AB negative, a very rare type of blood. It's even rarer today. But even harder to get back then because there were no blood banks. We're talking about the 1940s, no blood banks, no air flights to ship the blood. And none of the family members had matching blood. So the doctors gave the family no hope whatsoever of her surviving through the night. So this fellow left the hospital in tears. And he gathered all the family members so they could say goodbye to their grandmother, They went in there and they said, mom, we've done the best we could do. There's just nobody's got that blood to give you. This is 1949. So Robinson's father was driving down the highway and he passed a soldier hitchhiking home to his family. The fellow had his army uniform on and his bag and he's hitchhiking. And the man was deep in grief and so he decided to pull over and pick up his poor boy, his soldier, got back from World War II hitchhiking. And he felt strong to pull over and pick him up. So he felt the father was so upset that he didn't ask his name. He just, boy, just got on in the vehicle. He didn't ask his name or nothing. So the soldier noticed the tears in the man's eyes and asked what was wrong. And the man told the hitchhiker about his dying mother in the hospital because they could not give her a transfusion of AB negative blood because they didn't have that. And she would be dead in the morning. It got real quiet in that car. And the unidentified soldier put his hand out, and with his palm upward, and on your dog tags in the military, they put your blood type on your dog tags. If you've been in the military, daddy's dog tags, it's got his blood type, they put your blood type on your dog tags. On this fella's hand wide open was his dog tags. And his blood type was engraved on it, and it said AB negative. And that soldier told, who was a hitchhiker, told Mr. Robinson to turn the car around, get him to the hospital where she could be given a blood transfusion of his blood. They never did know this man's name. They turned the car around. He gave a blood transfusion. This woman lived until 1996. She lived 47 years later. And to this day, nobody knows that soldier's name, where he was from, or anything else. But he just showed up along the side of the road with the right type of look. God knows what he's doing, don't he? God puts people in places, when it seems so hopeless, when it seems there's no way out, God's got a way out, don't he? Why does God do that? Because God loves us, people. God cares for us. And God shows up when you think nobody else cares, nobody else will show. God will show on up, won't he? He showed up for this widow woman right here, and showed up for her son, showed up for Elijah, and ultimately it's gonna benefit the nation. Thank God for that. God shows up. Let's stand this morning.