I don't understand. I'll never figure out how people could live in a day like we live in and not know God. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful that He came to me. Amen. Wasn't interested in Him, but He was looking for me. Amen. Thank God He found me. Amen. Glad He found you if you found. Amen. All right, let's take our Bible today, Isaiah chapter 44, please. Isaiah chapter number 44, I'm gonna try to be a help to you just for a few minutes this morning, give you some understanding of the Word of God, spiritually speaking. And because I know this little passage that we're about to read that if you read through the Bible every year and have a daily Bible reading, then this is one of those places where you read it and then scratch your head and go on. Amen. But we're not going to scratch our head today. We're going to, we're going to just put on our thinking caps a minute and let God speak their hearts. Amen. Isaiah chapter 44, please. And look with me, please, at verse number 18. Isaiah chapter 44 and verse number 18. And find your place, say amen. Amen. All right. The Bible says in Isaiah 44, verse number 18, they have not known nor understood. For he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, their hearts that they cannot understand. Now, let me just say this. I know he's referring to the nation of Israel, but God will never give you something you don't want. He's a gentleman. Amen? and he'll go out of his way to make sure if you don't want him, you won't find him. Amen? And so the reason the Bible says here that he shuts their eyes, closes their understanding because that's the way they wanted it. Amen? Bible says in verse number 19, and none considereth in his heart Neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say. I have burned part of it in the fire, yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof. I have roasted flesh and eaten it. Shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stalk of a tree? He feeds on the ashes. A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? Now, if you have spiritual understanding, would you stand and please help us this morning? That's kind of a tough little scripture, isn't it? Let's see if we can make a little sense out of it today. just for a few minutes by the grace of God. In this, before we go any further, I want to just mention in verse number 19, He refers to cooking and baking and roasting and that sort of thing. And then he asked a question. The last phrase says, shall I fall down to the stalk of a tree? In other words, we have, of course, it's probably a bad time to be talking about it, but there's trees down everywhere across the country. And matter of fact, I got a family that's, my sister and her family is, they're stranded in Beach Mountain, North Carolina. No way out. They helicoptered them some groceries in. The fire department did. So you pray for them that God will help them get out of there. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. But we use wood for a lot of things. We build houses. You know, we use it to burn. A lot of folks in Alabama, we still burn wood in the fireplaces. And so he's asking the question. He says, so because I have all this wood that's available, because I can sell it by the truckloads and make money, because it is useful for cooking on a fire, And does that mean I'm supposed to go out there and fall down and worship the stump? Doesn't that sound ridiculous? Now listen to me folks, would you agree that that's ridiculous? To even consider falling down and worshiping a tree stump because it gave you wood. That sound ridiculous to you? Do you realize that people today are doing that by the groves? They even got a name for some of them today, they call them tree huggers. Amen. I went in years ago in Pennsylvania. I went into a store. I don't remember what kind of store. And I had hurt myself and hurt my hip. And I was limping around in the store and a lady came up and she said, what's wrong? I said, well, I just had a little accident and hurt my hip. She said, well, you need to get grounded. And I knew I shouldn't have asked. I knew I shouldn't have asked. But me being who I am, I had to ask. I said, what do you mean get grounded? And she said, I mean, you need to lay down on the ground and get in contact with the ground and let the energy of the ground. It'll heal you. She said, maybe find you a nice big tree and hug it. And I knew then I was in the wrong place. Folks, they do it all the time. People do it all the time. I want you to think about something. Israel, God Almighty used Moses. And by the right arm of God, he, after all those years in bondage in Egypt, By God's strong arm, he brought them out of Egypt. Delivered them out. They got backed up against the Red Sea. They just knew that now we're done. Here comes Pharaoh. They just watched God part the waters. Everybody all right? They watched a great miracle. They'd never seen anything like that before. And all of a sudden, because they're in trouble, how quickly they've forgotten the miracle of God. So they watched as Pharaoh came riding in their chairs across that dry ground in the middle of the Red Sea. He watched as God unleashed that water, drowned them, drowned all the troubles of Israel. He left them all behind. So they go out to Moses' old stomping ground. He goes up on the mountaintop to get commandments from God. Just that quick, they decide that we're going to make a calf of gold. And those will be our gods. That's what delivered us out of Egypt. Are you following me this morning? How quickly we forget. They, boy, they just, I mean, just absolutely forgot all that God had done. Remember when God punished them and sent serpents to bite them? And they begged for help. God said, all right, I'll tell you what you do. You get a pole and put a brass serpent on the pole. You tell them if they'll look on that pole, on that serpent, they'll live. Even if they'd been bitten. You know what they did? They looked on it and guess what? God did exactly what he said. And hundreds of years later, Hezekiah realized that the children of Israel were worshiping that pole. And he had it destroyed. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying this morning? I look across this crowd this morning, I see how much God has done. How many times he's delivered us. How many times he's answered our prayers. How many times he spared our lives. How many times the grace of God was there when we didn't even realize it. When trouble comes, when the microwave breaks, Car slings a little oil. We don't remember anything God's done. All we know to do, folks, is murmur and complain. I'm not fussing at you, I'm fussing with you. We're all guilty. I'm preaching to your church and my church and every other church in America. We're quick to forget God. I'm gonna get on this in just a second. Stay with me. I'm not gonna leave you. I know where I'm at. It just bothers me that God uses people. I think about, I remember, I remember the first day that this man of God took this church. And God has used him mightily to do things. But today, there's people that won't embark those doors back there that were here when he started. Are you listening to me? because just that quick, he did something they didn't like. And rather than look back and thank God for the nights he sat up in the hospital and prayed, for the nights he cried out to God and tried to get messages to help the people of God. And all we remember is that one time we think he did me wrong. There's something wrong with that. All those good days, the times when he married us and buried our children and our parents, all those things God used him to do. I'm not just picking on the preacher this morning. I'm just trying to get you to see something. Folks, can I tell you something this morning? God has been good to you. God has blessed you. And I'll tell you something, if you're not saved this morning, if you're sitting here lost without God, you're in the greatest place in the world. You're in the best position you could be in. And if you go to hell from here, it's your own fault. God set this up for you. He's always thinking of us. Always looking out for us. Always trying to help us. Let something go wrong. We forget all that He's done. We're just like Israel. Now watch this. I want you to see something, and I'm going to try to help you real quick. Look with me at verse number 18. They have not known nor understood, for He has shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is their knowledge nor understanding to say, You see, they don't have understanding to say what I'm thinking to say to you. I have burned part of it in the fire. Yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof. I have roasted flesh and eaten it. Shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Well, I could preach a message on what to do with the leftovers. But let me, can I help you for a minute? Here's a guy that has spent a lot of time and a lot of effort preparing his evening, let's just say his evening meal. That's what he's describing to you. He had to go out and he had to cut some firewood. He didn't have a stove that you could set on 350 or 400. He went out and he chopped his wood and he busted his wood and he stacked his wood and he got his wood prepared and he went in and he got some kindling and he put the kindling in and caught a fire and put that wood in there and got a fire going in the fireplace. See, that's what he's gonna use to cook his supper. That's what we call the evening meal in Alabama. It ain't dinner. Dinner is something you eat at noon. Everybody all right? So he's got his fire going good, and he's got his coal stirred up and good and hot, and now he's fixing to make you a big old cake of cornbread. It'd be real good with them pintos I seen him bringing in a while ago. And then the Bible don't tell us, now listen, it don't tell us whether he had something in a pen, an animal in a pen, a lamb or something that he had to prepare for his evening meal or whether he went out and took his bow or his stones or whatever he used and he killed an animal, a wild animal. Maybe a rabbit or a squirrel or whatever they did. It doesn't tell us specifically, but here's what I can promise you. I can promise you that it didn't come in a package that he had kept in the freezer until time to put it in the microwave. He literally had to go out, whether it was in his pen or whether it was out in the woods, and he had to spend the time to get that animal. And then he came home, and then he skinned that animal and dressed that animal and did all those things that prepared that animal so he could cook it and have a meal. Then he went in the house and he got some corn and ground it up and made some meal. You thought it came in a box or a bag. It don't work that way. He ground it up and he got this out and he got that out and he mixed all those ingredients together and he made maybe some cornbread. put in a big black skillet or whatever he had and he set it on the fire and he made some bread. The Bible said he made bread. Everybody all right? Are you hearing what I'm saying today? God is trying to teach them a lesson that he wants you to know. killed the animal, dressed the animal. Now he's got it cut up and prepared and now it's in a pan and it's on the fire. Now he's got maybe some lentils or some peas or something like that and he fixes that, puts them in a pot and he puts that on the fire and he's got his meal cooking. Boy, the aroma just fills up the place. Man, he's just getting excited about this meal that he's gonna get to eat, that he's worked with his own hands to prepare. Look at verse number 19. The Bible says, and none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say. I have burned part of it in the fire, yea. Also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof. I have roasted flesh and eaten it. I mean, this guy had went to all this trouble. It was probably, it probably took him one or two days to do everything he had to do to prepare this meal so he could have a big, nice meal to eat. Is everybody all right? Fix this big meal. I understand this is homecoming day. And if I can hurry up and get done here, we'll go out there and have a big meal together. You're missing it. God's trying to give you a meal here. And he had this big meal and it says he sat back and he might have shaved him off some toothpicks from that wood that he chopped. And now he's sitting there with a toothpick and he just, oh man, I'm satisfied. Boy, that was good. Boy, I enjoyed that, man. I'm telling you, that was something else. Boy, I'm, have y'all, you know you've done that, Thanksgiving, and you ever said this, man, I ate too much. Oh, Lord, I'll never, and you're saying, here's what you say, I'll never eat again. I ain't never gonna eat again. I'm full, I'm about stuffed. Man, have mercy. And then that evening later, next day, you're looking for leftovers in the refrigerator. And the Bible says, verse 19, none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire, yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh and eaten it. And shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Question mark. Shall I fall down to the stalk of a tree? Am I going to worship that tree because it provided this wood that gave me this meal? God's trying to get Israel to open their eyes. Now wait, did I say he made a good meal? Yes, he had a filling meal. It satisfied him. Now listen to me, folks. God said, here's what I want you to see. So the next day, he woke up, and he said, man, I sure enjoyed that meal last night. I think I'll have some of them ashes that's left over. And he goes in there and he still smells good. And he gets him a big old spoon. Boy, am I lying to you? The Bible says in verse number 20, watch this, he fadeth on ashes. A deceived heart hath turned him aside. Somebody lied to him that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? Somebody tricked me. Somebody told me that if I just get a blessing today, I won't have to go back Wednesday. See, cause I got ashes. I still got some ashes from that great meal. And I'm here to tell you, church, that you cannot live on ashes. It was good while it lasted, but it's gone. And we find ourselves over and over and over and over expecting the same results from what happened yesterday. And it's just ashes. How many of you ever been in a meeting when God came by. I mean the Spirit of God just sat down on the place. People was weeping and some was a shouting and some was praising God. I've been in some great meetings in my lifetime. I don't know if you'd call them revival meetings, but they've been some good meetings. I've seen God in the tent meetings. I've seen God do some mighty, mighty things. I've seen people laid prostrate out in the sawdust, crying and praising God and begging God for mercy. I'm telling you, I've seen God come by. That's over. That was yesterday. and you want to get the same results today, you're going to have to put in more work. You can't expect the same results that they had in the Isle of Wales when they had revival without putting in the work. Are you hearing what I'm saying, folks? We're trying to, we want God to do this, we want God to do that, but we just want it like it used to be. And you can't have it like it used to be. God wants to do something greater today. More wonderful today, mightier today, amen. But you got to put your part in. Well, I went to church Sunday morning. That mean I got to go tonight too? Come on, that's the way we think. That's the way the devil says, well, you done been twice this week. Why don't you just lay home today and get some rest? You know you want out. But listen to me, folks, you cannot live on what happened yesterday. Can I tell you something about ashes? Everybody all right? First of all, ashes don't taste good. You can try it, but you ain't gonna like it. Yeah, but preacher, I'd just rather have them ashes, you know, but they ain't gonna fill you up. You won't enjoy it. Everybody all right? Let me tell you something about ashes. Ashes, watch, ashes, if you eat them, good enough for you, they'll make you bitter. Ashes will make you, you'll get bitter at God, bitter at church, and bitter at the preacher, bitter at your husband, or bitter at your wife, hell, bitter at your children. You'll just be bitter. You cannot, you cannot take the blessings of yesterday and make them anything but ashes today. It was good. How many of you been in some good meetings? God blessed. Had a great time. Boy, if I could just go back, you can't go back. Boy, if I could just have what they had, you can have what they had, but they didn't have ashes, they had the real stuff. You can't live, folks, on the ashes of what has been. What God's already done. It's gonna take the same kind, at least the same amount of effort, the same amount of work, the same amount of prayers. Are you listening to what I'm saying? It's gonna take the same thing. At least the same thing. You wanna have more, you gotta do more. Everybody all right? Are you waiting on the message? I'm telling you this morning, folks, you need the blessings of God. You need the touch of God. But watch, can I help you? Malcomel ain't having it. He did that for Elijah. Now, you can have the same kind of thing, but not with the ashes. You can't live on the ashes. You can't live on the ashes of yesterday's fire. Amen? I ain't nothing. You look at somebody that loves the fire of God, the fire of God. I love it. I like it when God moves it. Amen? And if a preacher's right with God, he'll tell you he does. There ain't nothing like being around when God shows up and the fire of God's there. Amen? Ain't nothing like it. Power to save and power to seal and power to secure. Power of God, amen. Nothing like the power of God. Nothing like the fire of God. But you cannot live on the ashes of yesterday's fire. You gotta build a new one. You gotta have fresh wood. Listen, a complete sacrifice You don't believe it's Abraham, prove it's to you. A complete sacrifice. Watch, gives no change. You don't get no change. There's not some still in there you can use again. It's all gone, burned up. What preacher? That was yesterday's fire. You want fire today, you got to have fresh wood. You got to have a fresh sacrifice. Everybody all right? Is this too boring for you? I'm trying to help you folks. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I thank God for what I've seen. And I have seen, I have watched what God has done with this church in the past 25 years. Even longer, I've watched it from the inception all the way to where it's at. I have watched God do some mighty, wonderful things. Today's homecoming, an anniversary where you can rejoice over what God has done in the past. Listen to me, folks. But that's all you can do. You can't live off of those ashes. It's burned up. You can't live off the ashes of yesterday's fire. Listen to me, folks. Can I help you? You cannot live off the ashes of yesterday's food. It was good. It was a blessing. It was a help, right? But it's gone. You've got to have some meat today. You've got to have some food today. You've got to have something fresh today. Everybody all right? And if you listen to me, nothing else, I promise you, Nothing else ever will satisfy that man on the inside that needs the bread of God. That's why God, when He rained manna down for Israel, He did it every day. And enough on the sixth day to last them to the seventh. Are you hearing what I'm saying, folks? That's it. You got to have fresh food. That's why, that's why. It bothers me when I see these people writing these books and they call them, you know, the master and the greatest book written and this and subject and that. And you know, in six weeks they're writing another one. Why? Because they'll never exhaust it. What you've got in your life, you've got a King James Bible. It's exhausting. It's been exhausting. That's the final word on every subject that matters. That's all the food you need. But you've got to do your part. You know, if I... I know y'all probably don't do this, but I know some people that have decided in their heart I get enough for preaching Sunday morning, Sunday night, so I'm not coming to Sunday school or Wednesday night, and they settle it before they ever go to church. I know people like that. They don't realize what they're missing. They don't realize what they have lost. And they're never gonna grow beyond that point. And if that hits you, I don't apologize. But you need to change some things. Listen, if there's a problem in your life, the problem is not God. Everybody all right? You can't live on yesterday's food. You've got to have something today. That's why God demands something for the next service, because you've got to have something for that service. Last week, last month, 10 years ago, it won't work. It's gone. God, that's why you have a pastor. Amen. God put him here. Can I help you? I'm not trying to... Cause no problems in your church. But his job is not to chase people around and go out door knocking. That's not his job. Now if he does, that's fine. But that's not his job. His job is to feed the flock of God. And make sure you got fresh beans and taters and meat when you come to church. And it's sad that a lot of people have made up their mind when they're gonna come and they think They're just like Israel. They had this idea that I can live for God on my terms. God don't work that way, folks. He's not like that. You know, we spend our life, we spend our life as children of God trying to manipulate God. Isn't that sad? You can't live on the ashes of yesterday's fire. You can't live on the ashes of yesterday's food. And you cannot live on the ashes of yesterday's fellowship. Do you hear what I'm saying? Yesterday's friend could be today's foe. Everybody all right? That's those Mayweather friends. Are you with me? Now, if you find a real friend, one that's sticking closer than a brother, you got something. Amen? Hang on to them. And honor that friendship by gathering when friends gather. I don't know what I would do, literally, honestly, I'm gonna quit. I don't know what I would do If I didn't have a place in this world where I could go and be with those of like faith and get away from all the hell raising and all the wickedness and ungodliness and all the things that this world has to lay in front of us, I'm glad for a place to escape to. This is a body, this is a family. These are friends that gather. Are you listening to what I'm saying, folks? Don't take advantage of that fellowship that God's given you. Don't overlook the fact that he's been a blessing to you. And he's tried to help you and he's put people in your life. that'll help you grow and change. Listen, I don't care what preachers say. I'm telling you, you listening? You are not your own self-made person. You are the product of people that are around you all the time. Amen? If there's no other reason in your life why you ought to be at the house of God amongst God's people, that ought to be it. Because if you don't know how to be a Christian, God puts Christians around you to show you and teach you how. Amen? I know this, I know that you show me the five people closest to you in your life that you're around most of the time in your life and I'll show you what you are. Because you're gonna be like them. Everybody all right? You cannot live He feedeth on the ashes. And he found out real quick, something got to give. This will not work. Thank you. Come on preacher.