Thank you, Brother Hutt. 1 Kings chapter 17. 1 Kings chapter 17. If you have your Bible with you and want to follow along as we read the Scripture tonight. 1 Kings chapter 17. We'll begin our reading with verse number 8. 1 Kings chapter 17 and verse number 8. I appreciate the service already tonight and the other services this morning and last night that we got to be a part of, the good report of the services on Monday morning and on the Lord's Day. I do covet your prayers for the next few moments. The Lord might speak to us and through us for just a little while. 1 Kings 17, we'll begin our reading with verse number 8. If you found your place, if you are physically able, if you're willing to do so, I do invite you to stand with us. And of course, by standing we'll honor and reverence the reading of the precious Word of the Lord. Notice what the Bible says in 1 Kings 17 and verse 8, And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. 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. called her and 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.' And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruz. And behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.' And Elijah said unto her, Fear not. Go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me. And after, make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the crews of oil fail, until the day the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. And she and he and her house did eat many days. And to bow the meal wasted not, neither did the crucible fail according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah. Father, thank You again for the privilege to pray. Thank You for the prayers already prayed, the songs sung tonight, testimonies rendered, the preaching, Lord, the message tonight. Thank You for allowing us to be here. Thank You for that You've already done. Now, would You have mercy, our Lord and the prophets of the service, and do among us what only You can do. Would You speak to and through us tonight. Would You bind the forces of hell and Satan and defeat. Would you give victor tonight? Lord, would You reveal Yourself to everyone that's come through those doors tonight and reveal to each one of us our need of You tonight? May we see ourselves in the light of eternity, in the light of judgment, and in light of the Word of God tonight. Lord, would You draw sinners to You? Would You stir up the saints? Lord, Your Lord, above everything that would be accomplished tonight, may Your name be glorified and magnified among us. Lord, what You're privileged and pleased to do in, through and for us, we'll thank and praise You. I ask everything I ask in Jesus' lovely name. Amen and Amen. I realize tonight from this text you've heard, no doubt, many and much preaching, and there are different areas and ways you can look at this text tonight, and things you can preach from. I want to call your attention tonight to verse number 10. When the Bible says Elijah arrives at the gate of the city of Zarephath, And the Bible said the widow woman, the widow woman that God had spoke to Him about when He was down yonder at the brook Cherub, that widow woman, the Bible said, was there at the gate of the city. And she was gathering of sticks. I want to preach on that phrase tonight. If God would help me, and you'll pray for me for just a moment tonight, on gathering of sticks. Gathering of sticks. This woman was, my friend, gathering of sticks to make a meal. Three times I want to look at in the Word of God where individuals were gathering of sticks tonight. And by looking at these individuals, maybe tonight we can realize where we're at Maybe gathering of sticks tonight. If you'll allow me and permit me tonight, we'll leave this text for just a moment and look at Numbers chapter number 15. In Numbers chapter number 15 and verse 33, there's our first individual that is gathering of sticks. The Bible said in verse 32, while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. So I want to say first of all tonight, there was a man that gathered sticks, a gathering of sticks on the Sabbath day. Of course, we understand as we read the rest of this text, that because this man was gathering of sticks on the Sabbath day that he had to die. That judgment fell on this man, on this individual, and he was stoned about the children of Israel, for here is the transgression. You see, the Ten Commandments had been given unto Moses, and that one commandment was to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Now it seems to us, when we think about a man gathering up sticks, my opinion that it was such a little thing, such a light thing, my opinion, such a simple trespass and transgression. But yet God's law was plain and explicit, and this man disobeyed. As a matter of fact, when we read verses 30 and 31 of Numbers chapter 15, we find that God is talking to Moses about people and individuals that sin presumptuously. Oh, hear me. And then I think in this example of this man, we have an individual that sins presumptuously. This was not an ignorant sin, but this was a presumptuous sin. This was a deliberate sin. The word presumptuously, my friend, means with a high hand. A means in the defiance. Oh, hear me. Verse 31, said, anyone that despises the commandment or the word of the Lord, it seems that this man, my friend, has specifically and purposely sinned against God. What he did was he set God's law aside. He set God's commandment aside and exalted his own will above the Word and the commandment of God. Amen. Did you know that's the trouble with every sinner? Amen. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way. Somehow, inside of all of us, we feel like that irregardless of what God has said and what God has commanded, that somehow we can set that aside and establish our own way. It started with Cain when he sacrificed unto the Lord the offering of the works of his own hand. The setting aside of the acceptable sacrifice, of the blood sacrifice, of the sacrifice that God would be pleased with. That Bible said there is a way. of extreme pride and demand. But the end thereof are the ways of death. Amen. Oh, hear me. And you not only need to be saved from Satan, as Brother Ken talked about tonight, and from sin, but you need to be saved from self. Are you hearing me? Oh, hear me tonight. If you go to hell, if you keep following the path that you're on tonight, if you wind up in the charred walls of hell, at the day of judgment, there'll be nobody that you'll be able to point your finger at. There'll be nobody else. You'll be able to blame. There'll be no one else and nothing else that you'll have to excuse yourself. But it'll simply be you. Amen. Your voluntary rejection of the Word and the command of God, your insistence on life and on impenitence in your life will lead you to that place of eternal destruction. an eternal damnation. Are you hearing me tonight? Oh my, it's not my way or your way tonight. It's not your opinion or my opinion. It's not how we think or we feel. It's doing it God's way tonight. And here this man set aside the command and the law of God, and exalted himself. Can I say, as every sin did, the first thing it did was steal from God what belonged to him. It robbed God. of His glory. That's what Joshua told Achan. He said, you've got all this sin, but you robbed God of His glory. You took the glory from the Lord. The Lord said, the Sabbath is my day. I want your attention. I want your attention. Are y'all hearing me? I want you to look to me on that day and remember me on that day and honor me on that day as your faithful creator. But this man set that all aside and established his own law and his own way. Anybody hearing me? Amen? I want what may command. I do this knowing that there was a penalty to pay. Now they brought him to Moses, Moses. I put him up and went to the Lord. They knew the Lord had said he should die in judgment. I would fall on him. They just didn't know how to administer that judgment. Amen? So they asked the Lord, and He told them to stone him with stones. But what would make him? Gather up sticks. Oh my, oh my, no doubt to prepare a fire. Hey man, why would he do it on the Sabbath day? Well, I think part of it is in the text where it said, and when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, it was the place where they was at that made him feel like that somehow God's law did not have to be obeyed. They were in the wilderness. They were not in Canaan. They were not in the promised land. They were wandering in the wilderness. And it was a dry time. And it was a time of death and funerals. And he thought All this is going on. I set for Him the place we're at. Why surely, hey God, whatever I want to do, I will be all right to do. Are you hearing me? What a wicked world we live in tonight. I want a wilderness that we're journeying through. I want a spiritual wilderness that we find ourselves tonight in Christendom and in society. And in America tonight, are y'all hearing me? Can I preach just a moment tonight? God help us. Are you listening tonight? Oh, hear me. Who'd ever thought that in America, are we gonna reach the place we are tonight? Are you hearing me? Thank God. And we went beyond a sodomite or same-sex marriage. We went beyond. Adultery and fornication tonight Who'd ever thought of my fear That boys don't know their boys And girls don't know their girls Are y'all hearing me? And you decide somewhere in life Oh, hear me What gender you are And you discover According to society That you're in the wrong A body here, are you hearing me tonight? It's nothing more than demonism and devils tonight. Are you hearing me? God help us. And somebody said God made me. This way God never did. The Bible said He made man upright, and it was man that sought many evil inventions. Amen. But why would a society not know whether they're male or female? I think they're both at the same time. When the average church in America don't even know what Bible to preach about. Are you all hearing me? Oh, you're listening to me. I'm telling you, things have been turned upside down. But I remind you tonight that we're in the wilderness. Thank God. God's still got a world. Are y'all hearing me? God's moral law is still in effect tonight, and you better take care and warn in the night that you don't set aside the law of God, my friend, because of the place you're in tonight. Amen? It doesn't justify, and it will not excuse it. Are you hearing me tonight? And you are accountable, and you are responsible. Amen? Hallelujah. Secondly tonight, not only the place where there's at, but the people here's around. Thank God. Here's amongst a rebellious crowd. Amen. They've been to Canaan. Thank God. I listened to the evil report of the ten spies and said we should not go into Canaan. Oh, we can't go into Canaan. That's upon us another captain ought to take us back to Egypt. Moses and Aaron has led us to this place, oh my, where we're going to die at the hands of the giants in the land of Canaan. Anybody hearing me tonight? And so they turned around. and walked away from the good land and the promised land, and the land flowing with milk and honey. They done like Jeremiah said. They hewed a mouth-sister and spoke consistent, which could hold no water, and forsook the living God. And Jeremiah said, you ought to stand in the way and see. And inquire for the old past. Ain't God wearing it's a good way. And won't bury him. Ain't God. I know the young crowd gets tired. Of us older preachers talking about. Old fashioned and old timey. Ain't God. But there is an open, and there is a good way, and there is a place, and there is a road, that a child of God can live and walk on in the modern church. I want something else, and they want entertainment. I call it inflexibility and carnality to the core. I call it. And most folks don't want holiness or sanctification and separation. But there's an old path that we ought to search for. Amen. Hallelujah. Here was his mentality. Everybody else is doing it. Everybody else is rebelling against God. Amen. So I'll rebel also. Amen. Are you hearing me? Lord, God help us. Hey man, I tell you what's wrong with America tonight. Hey man, the baby boomers, the yippie and the hippie crowd. Hey God, they took over our colleges and universities. Hey God, and our politicians and leaders tonight. Hey man, and they never got over. Hey God, their marijuana. Hey God, and drug culture. Oh, they never got over. A so-called free love. Are y'all hearing me tonight? Thank God they never got overshaken, their fists in the face of God. Hallelujah. As a matter of fact, the New York Times stated in the 60s on their front page, God is dead. And a whole generation thinks that the wickeder you live and the more tattoos and piercings that you have, and the more vile you can be, that you're fine, and that'll give you satisfaction. But brother Cain had it right. It's the ship to destruction tonight. Are you hearing me? And by the way, God didn't die in the 60s, and He didn't die in the 50s, and He didn't die in the 70s, and He ain't dead tonight. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hey, are y'all listening to me? I ain't gone. Hallelujah. By the way, a government will never settle the racial problem. Are y'all hearing me? That's a matter of fact. Have they tried to change it? In the sixties of a decade, let it alone. And our present leader, may God have took us down backward and led us backward instead of forward. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. We all have liberty, but we don't have rights tonight. God has a right. All of us just been given liberty. Are you hearing me tonight? When you march down that road of rights, you never get enough. But sodomites not satisfied of a same-sex marriage and getting that right, then they want you to approve of it. They want you to sanction it. They want you as a Baptist preacher to marry them. Are y'all hearing me? Are they never satisfied? Because man's right. We are never satisfied. The devil had to eat. When he told him, you'll eat of this fruit, you'll be as gods, knowing good and evil. But Satan's always right. But he's still alive tonight! And he paints a perfect picture! But he never shows! On the other side of it tonight! Are y'all hearing me? Whoo! Amen? Hallelujah! But can I say tonight with the old black preacher, hallelujah, God is not dead. Amen? If he's dead, in what obituary column did you find his name? And if he is dead, what corner was called? Thank God, oh, that found him. He died and what was the cause? Amen. And if he's dead tonight, why had I not been notified? I'm a member of the family. Thank God. I don't know. And God says, He's a man! And a man. Hallelujah. Bless His name tonight. Hallelujah. Oh my. Oh, God help tonight. Amen. Oh, are you living in presumptuous sin tonight? Are you defying, living in defiance tonight of God's holy law? Have you pushed aside the gospel of grace tonight? Amen. And said, I'll do it some other way. Have you pushed aside tonight the blood route way? Thank God. The way of the cross leads home tonight. Thank God. And fully own your church membership And fully own your good works tonight Own your dead works tonight If you ever escape the damnation of hell And ever see the gates of glory I thought it would be because of God's grace at work in your life And the blood by faith is appropriated to your heart I'm God and you're changed internally. I'm God eternally and eternally. Hallelujah. Amen. Oh my. Are you gathering sticks on the Sabbath? Oh, I'll tell you what you're doing tonight. You're trashing up. Rats against the day of wrath. Amen. You're laying up a ransom against the day of judgment, not realizing that the goodness of God is leading you to repentance tonight. But you've despised His forbearance and His own suffering. and you love the nation of Israel, you would have had to establish your own righteousness, and have not submitted yourself to the righteousness of God, which is my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. My Lord, it isn't me, is it? You never instead hold the Sabbath, and it's going to bring judgment and eternal death to your soul. Amen? Help us, Lord. Amen. Hallelujah. So in this gathering of sticks, amen, there was this gathering, amen, of sticks on the Sabbath. Amen. All because of the place He was at and the people He was around, He felt justified. Everybody else is doing it. Well, but it ain't what everybody else says and does, it's what God says. Hallelujah. Amen. Would you allow me to look at my text just a moment tonight for the second gathering of stakes. Then verse number 10, the Bible said, the widow woman was there, gathering of sticks. Amen. How unusually God provided for the man of God. First of all, He hid him at the brook cherith. Amen. Hallelujah. Can I say to you, the brook cherith, thank God was an open place. It was in plain view and in plain sight. And yet God said, go to the brook, Taylor. Go to the open place. I love you. And I'll hide you in plain view. I love you. I'm telling you, if you try to hide yourself tonight, thank God it doesn't matter how deep a hole you dig, In my opinion, I think the brush is, or the trees, God will find you. But if God ever tries to hide you, or not tries, but if God ever hides you, the enemy can't find you in plain sight. Are you listening to me? Woo! As a matter of fact, I'm sheltered under his wing tonight. And the enemy can't find me. And the enemy can't see me. Well, oh my, not only did he hide him in an open place, thank God, but oh tonight, thank God he fed him with an unclean bird. Amen. Thank God. Raven don't even feed its own. Thank God, plus it's unclean. But God used an unclean vessel. I defeated the man of God, and for some reason, twice a day, them ravens went down yonder. I came out and got it off of Ahab's table. I got it and brought it down under the brook chair. And they put all host mouths. And just in the nick of time, God said, let her drop. And they opened their mouth and there it was. Bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening. Hallelujah. God knows how to feed the man of God and the people of God. Oh, yeah. Oh, well, he's got them head. Even after he used to use, has to use, are they unclean to do it. Oh, God. Amen. What was it the old widow woman said? Thank God when the neighbor boys kept hearing her cry for bread, for a loaf of bread. Amen. And the neighbor boys, years ago, heard her praying through that open window. And they said, we'll put our pennies together and give that old woman her bread. And she'll thank God, didn't she? And we'll make a fool out of her. And so they put their pennies together and bought her loaf of bread. And when she was praying, boy, they threw it in the open window. When she got through praying and realized, I bet you had the bread. She said, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for the bread. They sniggered on the outside and said, that wasn't God. That was us. And then she said, Lord, I thank you for the bread. Even if you had to send them devilish boys to bring it to me. Thank you for feeding me. God knows how. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. Bless His name. Hallelujah. And now, when the brook dries up and the ravens quit coming by, God says go to Zarephath, not to a city of Israel, but a city of the Gentiles. And there I've commanded to win a woman to sustain. Hallelujah. And there he goes. Thank God. And I don't know what he thinks on the way down there. Hallelujah. A rich widow. A widow that her husband has left her. A multi-million dollar policy that can feed the man of God. But when he winds up at the gate of the city, there's a widow woman gathering up sticks. And she ain't got enough to feed her own, much less a man of God. But God said, that's the one I've commanded her to sustain. Are you all hearing me? Isn't that amazing? She couldn't feed herself. and her own son, but yet God said, keep the man of God. Are you hearing me? God uses unsavory means. God ought to perform His work. Amen. When he gets to the gate, he says to the widow woman, fetch me some water. He realizes that's her, and as she heads to get some water, he says, bring me a morsel, a cake, a little cake. And she turns around and says, sir, the famine's on, and I'm out here today gathering sticks. Hallelujah. She said, as a matter of fact, I'm gathering two sticks. Amen. Because I've got just a handful of meal in the barrel and a little oil in the cruz. And I'm going to take them two sticks and cook that handful of meal and use that oil in the cruz. And my son and I are going to eat this meal and we're going to die. She's gathering sticks for the supper. Are you with me tonight? Hallelujah. Now she says, it's the life supper. It's the fowl meal. Amen. It's the death meal. Hallelujah. Amen? And she kept walking off and he said, by the way, go ahead and do what I said for the Word of the Lord said. Hallelujah. You'll make me a cake first. The oil and the crews and the meal and the barrel won't fail until the Lord sends rain upon the earth. Amen? Do you all realize what she thought was her last meal turned out to be her first meal? Are you down to your last meal tonight? Are you down to gather in sticks? Thank God! And you're going to use up everything you've got? Hallelujah! And that's the end of it? You have no hope? Are you at the end of your rope tonight? Hey God, this is the end. You're at the bottom of the barrel. Hallelujah. What can I say to you tonight? Hey God, if you'll obey what the Word of the Lord said, it won't have to be your last meal. It can be that new beginning. Hallelujah. Amen. Hallelujah. The Bible said she did as a man of the Lord. Ain't God the man of God told her to do in the Word of the Lord? And her and her son lived on that? All during the famine. Now, the Bible said when Elijah came upon her, she's a gathering sticks. Amen? Hallelujah. I don't think she's got a handful. I don't think she's got an armful. I think she's going through, trying to find the right size. the right length, the right diameter, and she's going through several. Thank God. Say, I don't think this is it. But she winds up and she says to Him, I just got two sticks. Amen. Are you all hearing me tonight? Thank God. Oh, two sticks, you may think it's death, but you'll find out there why. It is death, death to you, but it'll bring the life of Christ. If you'll go to the cross, to the two sticks, it'll bring you to the end of yourself. I'm ready to put Christ's life in you. Paul said, thank God I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who heard me and gave himself for me. Hallelujah. Can I say this tonight? Thank God she gathered two sticks, a man and a handful of meal and the oil and the crews. And there are verses that I read to you tonight. I've gone through verse 16, talks again about the meal, wasting not and the oil and the crews, not failing. But two sticks are never mentioned again. The oil and the meal were mentioned again, but not two sticks, because two was enough. Can I say and report to you tonight, I ain't got on an old rugged tree, a cold caldwell, I ain't got at a place called Dalgotha, on an old rugged cross, on a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, me and my mum suffering in shame, Ain't God, hallelujah! I'm telling you, Christ appeared once in the end of the world, and by the sacrifice of Himself, I put away forever our sin! Are y'all hearing me? Ain't God, hallelujah! He won't have to die again! There won't have to be another cross tonight! Ain't God that one once in half? It's enough for you to live tonight! Oh, hallelujah! It's enough for you to be saved tonight! And God, He is perfected above that one offering forever! Him that are sanctified! Amen! Hallelujah! And the widow's gathering steaks for the supper. Amen? Well, I said, I'm through tonight. Acts chapter 28, the Bible said in verse 3, and when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks. Amen? There was the man that gathered sticks on the Sabbath. There was the woman that gathered sticks for the supper. Amen? And here's the apostle Paul that gathered sticks. But he's bitten by the snake. Hallelujah. Amen? I like Paul gathering sticks. He's aged now. He's not as young as he was. Amen? Oh, my. I don't know how his hands work after all that tent making. Amen? Are you hearing me? But he said, I can gather sticks. He didn't build a fire, but he sure wanted to put some wood on it. Lord, our churches tonight, if we had folks that want to put wood on the fire instead of wet blankets. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, bless His name. Thank God wildfire is a wet blanket. Amen. Deadness is a wet blanket. Ceremonialism and formalism is a wet blanket. Amen. Unholy lives, unclean lives is a wet blanket. Won't you hear me tonight? But Paul said, I want to bring some wood to the fire. Now, he's the agent. Thank God he's the one that had the message. Thank God for the entire ship. Thank God. If they'd listened to him, the first message he had, they would not have been in the shape they're being. But they're glad to hear the second message. Thank God. When he said, the angel of the Lord, who's I am and whom I serve, stood by me this night. Thank God. And he said, I was going to see Caesar. I'm headed to Rome. And God said, he's going to give me the lives of all them that sail with me. I know you think, some of you think the preachers are killing you and he may be the very reason you're being saved tonight. Hallelujah. Are you listening to me tonight? Thank God. And so here they are on the island of Melita and Paul. I've been the elder among them and the preacher among them. Ain't God headed to Rome? Knows where He's going. Could have put His hands behind His back or to His side. I fought Him and said, let somebody else do it. But He said, I think I'll put someone. Ain't God holding a fire? Are y'all hearing me tonight? Why are you waiting on the night? Why is it you come to the house of God and to the camp meet waiting for somebody else? Why don't you put wood on the fire? Why don't you chop summer to half? Why don't you pray through and get victory and come to the house of God with some sticks gathered and a beetle at the fire? Well, I don't know it's just there You'd be awful critical how we're doing it, but I don't say you're doing anything You want us to quit trying and let you have it? And see how you do it? Are you all hearing me tonight? No, I'll tell you what you're going to do tonight. I ain't going to let you tell everybody else how to do it. But you'll never lift your hand to do anything. You won't gather no sticks, but you sure like to warn. By the fire, hallelujah. Hey, the rain's on. It's cold and it's wet. Hey God, we need somebody to help gather some sticks and to build up the fire. Well, well, hallelujah. Bless His name. He's gathering sticks even though He's been through a storm. Hallelujah. And still in a storm. He's a-gathering sticks in the midst of a storm. Are you all hearing me tonight? Oh, have you give up in the storm? Have you throwed up your hands in the storm? Have you said there's nothing to be done? They were not still in the ocean. They were on the land. But oh, the wind was still howling. The gale force winds were still blowing. The rain was still falling. It was a cold day. But in the midst of the storm, he said, I believe I'll gather some sticks. He's gathering sticks, though he's been shipwrecked. Some of you have been shipwrecked tonight. Oh, all your faith has been shipwrecked tonight. Amen. You've been shipwrecked morally. Amen. You've been shipwrecked in your marriage. You've been shipwrecked spiritually tonight. Hallelujah. But oh, don't quit tonight. Gather up some sticks to put on the fire. Hallelujah. Oh, God help us tonight. Are you listening? Now, he's gathering up sticks in the storm. Thank God, and though he's been shipwrecked, it looks like enough has happened to him. And you see, that's this day. Hallelujah. We can't get over the storm and the shipwreck. Still trying to do good till we get a snake bite. Hallelujah. Some of you preachers, you get your head above water. Amen. Finally, after one weekend, amen, on Monday morning, and all the other Monday mornings, you're having to hold your breath or you're going to drown. But for all, finally, it's a little better the past Sunday and Sunday night. And on Monday morning, you've got your head above water. And you're at least breathing a little bit. And you say, well, maybe we're coming out of it now. Maybe things are going to be better from here on out. Thank God. Amen. I've seen some of you gathering sticks. Maybe, thank God, by next service we'll be a little better. And you start gathering sticks yourself, and the next thing you know, you get smacked back. And you think, what else can happen? What else can go wrong? What else can knock me down? What else can bucket me? Amen. What else can they say? What else can they not do? Amen. How else can they hurt me? How many other ways can they pierce through me? Some of you are not preachers, you're not just saints of God. And it seems like, over and over again, it's another messenger of Satan. And I bet that you, yes, you've cried. and to put the storm and the ship right behind you, and gather up some sticks to put on the fire, and the venomous beast has latched on to your hand tonight, and you took your sticks to the fire, oh my, and it looks like certain death. Are you hearing me? Amen? As a matter of fact, that barbarous people that inhabited that island said, hey, hey, Here's one of them fellas that's wicked and evil, and he escaped the storm and the sea, didn't drown in it, but the gods, amen, have still got it out for him. And a beast, that poisonous snake, and we're going to watch him swell up and die here in just a minute, because vengeance is on that fella. He escaped it from the sea, but he couldn't escape from the snake. Ain't nobody else will either, amen. And Paul just walks over there and throws his bundle of sticks in the fire and shakes off the snake. And walks on. Can you shake it off tonight? Can you shake it off tonight? Amen. Hallelujah. He shook it off! And they kept watching for him to swell up and die. And He didn't die, and He didn't look no different, and they changed their minds and said He ain't under the vengeance or the anger or the wrath or the judgment of the gods, He is a God. Because nobody can do that and live. Thank God. And Paul said, it ain't me. Hallelujah. It's the God I serve. Can I remind you the storm? Can I remind you the shipwreck? Can I remind you the snakebite you have tonight? It's for the furtherance of the gospel. Amen. See, because it ain't about you and me, no how. It's about Him. Amen. And sometimes it's rough sailing in rough waters, and it's enemy territory. And it's venomous snake bites that God allows us to go through to get glory out of our life, to have His name magnified. And before others, and to have others look up and say, how did they do it? It's not them. It's evidently the God that is in me. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. And they'll never see God in you until all of you has got rid of Him. And I realize more and more as I be a Christian and a preacher, there's a whole lot more of me than I thought there was. And I die here and I die there. And I realize there's some more of me. But every point in time when I get down, till I don't think I can do it no more, till I'm at the end of myself, That's when Paul said, I will therefore most glory in my infirmities, and that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak, the invite God I'll find a strength that I didn't know was there. As long as I can do it in my ability, in my strength, in my reasoning, in my logic, And in my flesh, I don't find that strength, but when I reach the end of that, there is a supernatural power that comes over me that enables me to go out and do the work and the will of God. Hallelujah. What he's literally saying is, there is a power that tents and tabernacles over me. Hallelujah. There is a strength that comes down like a tent and hovers over me. Have you ever felt it? Where are you tonight? And he shook off the snake, raised up the sick man, preached the gospel, and went on to Rome to see Caesar. Amen? Hallelujah. Oh my. We're headed to see Caesar tonight. We're headed for Rome. We're headed where God said we're going tonight. Are you gathering sticks tonight? Are you gathering sticks on the Sabbath? Are you defying God's Word and God's Law in your life tonight? Are you doing it because of the place you're in and the people you look around? Oh, but hear me. You'll not stand before God for all what they've done or not done. You'll stand for yourself. You're responsible for you. Are you hearing me tonight? Are you gathering sticks for the supper? Oh, my. Can I say two's enough? Bless His name. Are you gathering sticks in the midst of the storm and though you've been shipwrecked? Has the snake laid hold on you? Oh, don't let the venomous poison bitter you. Amen. Oh, blinds you. And it will. It will. Would you come tonight? Everybody stand, please.