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[ Silence ] [MUSIC] ♪ To thee I give my spirit of the earth ♪ ♪ O may I die for thee ♪

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♪ I now receive ♪ ♪ I give my soul ♪ ♪ In God ♪ ♪ In God ♪

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(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) [HUMMING] (upbeat music)

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(soulful music) (humming) (plarnoy playing solo) ♪ He's a lonely guy ♪

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♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ (clears throat)

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Amen. Our scripture, Book of Acts, the 28th chapter, should read the first six verses based on the Tyndale Press translation. Paul and his company have been shipwrecked and land on an island as they make the journey

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toward Rome. We soon learned that we were on the island of Malta. The people of the island were very kind to us, building a bonfire on the beach to welcome and warm us in the rain and cold.

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As Paul gathered an armful of sticks to lay on the fire, a poisonous snake driven out of the heat fastened itself onto his hand. The people of the island saw it hanging there and said to each other, "A murderer no doubt. Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live." But Paul shook off the snake into the

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fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to begin swelling or suddenly fall dead. When they had waited a long time and no harm came to him, they changed their minds and decided he was a God. The subject of the message "Kindling for Fire." After we had escaped we learned that the island was called Malta and

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And the natives showed us unusual kindness for they kindled a fire and welcomed us because it had begun to rain and was cold. Kindling for fire. During my junior year in college in Marshall, Texas where Bishop College was located at that time, I lived with a dear old lady who was affectionately called

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Ma Grande, one of the most meaningful experiences of my life that occurred that year. She was a woman who was instrumental in many boys finishing bishop who ordinarily would not have finished because she provided a way when they had no way. When I had completely run out of money,

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and I shared this with my classmate, McClellan Stevenson, who at the time was living with Margrondi, and he told her about me, and she opened the door to come in and to live in one of the houses she had.

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She had three houses. They were like little shotgun houses. She lived in one, another was rented. And McClellan Stevenson and myself stayed in the other.

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And one of the chores assigned to us was to make the fires. And the fire had to be made in a fireplace. The fireplace was in one room and the bedroom was in another room.

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And it's a far cry from what we are accustomed today with all of the heating that we have that's arranged, central heating units. We would stand before the fireplace and undress before the fireplace, Get as warm as we could and then run into the next room and jump into bed on those cold sheets. Those kind of experiences live with you a long time.

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We had to get kindling for the fire that had to be made each morning. And if you want to get a fire started in the right way and get it particularly on those some of those cold crisp mornings that you have in East Texas, you certainly need to have some good kindling in order to get that fire started. In those days, it was a necessity to know how to gather the kindling.

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That was not only one of the chores that was assigned to me as I stayed with Margrunde, that was a chore that was assigned to me at home when I was growing up as a lad, to bring in the kindling, gather all the kindling. Because getting the fire started depended in large measure on the kindling,

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because it was essential. Fireplaces today and most of our homes are ornaments, but with Ma Grande it was a necessity. This particular event in the book of Acts occurs when Paul and his company following shipwreck, land safely on an island called Malta. They are in a

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strange place, surrounded by strangers. We have escaped from the old year 1985 and landed safely in a brand new year called 1986. And we confront new experiences, new circumstances, new challenges, and new conflicts. Life involves a series of adjustments.

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A historian describes the people on the Isle of Malta as barbarians. He calls them barbarians because they speak an unintelligible foreign language. They don't speak the Greek language, the beautiful Greek language that's so flexible as well as beautiful. They speak a language that Paul and his company do

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not understand. Here they are, strangers in a strange place. Imagine 276 people being shipwrecked and all of a sudden landing on an island. The people have no expectation of their coming. When they look around they're there. But the most wonderful thing that we notice about them here is that all of

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them find acceptance. And it's a wonderful thing if we greet this new year with a spirit of acceptance. How wonderful it is to know how to accept the unexpected and that's exactly what they did. And sometimes when the unexpected arrives they do not always receive a real good welcome. I had a

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friend who came down every time he would come down this way to Texas he would always come and he would stay with us and he had the hospitality of our home and he enjoyed it. But I went out to California and I went by his home and I at that time there were five of us my wife and three children we were all out

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to California I just went by to say hello but when his wife opened the door and she saw us out there she said well come on in but when I told her we didn't come to stay we just came by to see her she she lighted up and her voice was altogether different she was cheerful. Well how do we greet the unexpected? We

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all need life to show us kindness that's what the Islanders did for this group. That's the gift we all need. That's my hope for each of us that God will show us a kindly face in the year 1986. The ladies of Malta accepted Paul and his company and they went a step farther. They lit a fire. Here were this band of

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people, wet and cold, they needed a fire by which to warm and the natives did them no small service because they lit a fire. Fire gives light, fire provides direction for travelers on the broadening way of the future, they lit a fire. Fire gives heat, it provides warmth where there is coldness, where there is

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indifference, they lit a fire. And there is a crying need in our world today for persons who will light a fire. And kindling is placed on the fire. Paul is

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busy here as the camera is focused upon him gathering kindling, gathering brushwood, which is placed on the fire. And I suggest to you that it would be well for each of us

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To consider the kindling that we place on the fire for the year 1986 Kindling for the fire Now Paul is not satisfied just to sit around the fire, you know, some people just sit around the fire

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They want others to bring in the wood do all the other things, but they want to sit around and enjoy it But Paul is instrumental in going here and there, gathering up brushwood, gathering up what we would consider kindling

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to put on the fire. This is a ministry of helpfulness. If we would gather kindling for fire in 1986, we must be helpful.

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We rob ourselves if we fail to engage in a ministry of helpfulness, if we fail to be the channel through whom God speaks to others, through whom God ministers to others,

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if we fail to be the channel through whom God gives to others needed assistance, if we fail to be the bridge by which others are able to make necessary adjustments in life,

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to light a fire is to help others. is to meet the strange circumstances of human existence. It is to be helpful in interpersonal relations, to light a fire,

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to light a fire of sympathy, to light a fire of understanding. And I wish to suggest that if we would provide kindling for the fire, we need to engage in a ministry

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of helpfulness to go a little farther. For there is work for us to do. We need to constantly explore ways by which we may be helpful.

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Then the truth of the matter is, that when we help others, we help ourselves. For we really cannot be the kind of person God made each one of us to be without engaging in a meaningful way in helpfulness.

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Once a man dropped out of church and he felt that he could worship God at home as well as he could worship at church. He didn't have to be at church in order to worship God. That's what he would say.

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minister went by to see him and he was sitting in front of the fireplace and the minister just took the iron and as he watched all of the live coals of the fire he just took one of them and pushed it off to the side without saying a word and they sat there and they watched it as it gradually died. And so the man said

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to the minister he said I understand pastor I understand you have to be with the other coals of the fire in order to keep warm. You just can't be warm. You can't be strong and you can't really be the person you ought to be all by yourself. You have to light a fire and they lighted a fire and they welcomed

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them and there was warmth in the place because they lighted a fire and here is the Apostle of God putting kindling on the fire, kindling of helpfulness. We ought to use the kindling of patience, patience. Whatever may be the conditions other circumstances, whatever may be the conflicts that are ahead, whatever may be

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the joys, whatever may be the sorrows, to somehow be patient. Be patient. The song puts it, "Be patient with me that God is not through with me yet." Be patient. And we need this kindling of patience in order to build a kind of fire that will warm us that will equip us for the future.

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As we go into this year we gather kindling, kindling for the fire. You know the Boy Scouts are trained in such a way that they're supposed to be able to go out into the woods and make a fire. Not knowing where they are, that's one of the tests that they have to pass and to be able to gather whatever is necessary and

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to build a fire out there. Well that's the kind of work that we are called upon to do as the people of God, to be initiators. For God somehow has prepared all of the resources, everything that's necessary somehow in order to build the fire that's available. The kindling is out there, the brushwood is there,

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but the boy scout has to be able to go and to gather it and to use his skills in building the fire. Now as Paul puts this kindling on the fire, the kindling on the fire, the fire burns because he's instrumental in putting it there. If we should put the kindling of helpfulness, the kindling of patience, the kindling of faith, that

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somehow faith to commit ourselves to the Lord, to commit your way into the Lord. Lord, I don't know what you have ahead, but I commit myself to you. Kindling of faith. You can't make this without, this is a journey of faith.

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And we need that kindling to keep putting that kind of fuel into the fire. Kindling of faith. And we need also the kindling of love. love that enables us to accept that which is often ugly.

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It's rather easy to accept the beautiful. It's kind of easy to love the people that are loving you, but it's very, very difficult to love people who don't love you. And yet, it is by love that Jesus says

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that others will know that you are my disciples. You know, it's easy to say, you know, I don't like so and so, I don't love so and so. A little of her, a little of him will go a long ways

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with me, that's easy. But it's rather hard somehow to accept those who reject you and who drive nails in your hands and pierce you in the side and yet that's what we are called to be. Called to be disciples who manifest the love of Jesus Christ. And

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we find ourselves out many times in the cold. They were out there in the cold, the rain. we are referred to as a cold church. And somehow really being warm doesn't have to be dealing with just making a fire in a stove somewhere, but it has to do with the spirit that we have. That's really what makes warmth, the spirit of acceptance in our lives and the acceptance

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of others. So it might be well for us to hear the words, "Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, with all thy quickening powers, kindle thou a flame of love in these cold hearts of ours." Fire, kindling for the fire. Well while they're gathering kindling, while Paul gathers his kindling, while he has the brush and he's bringing

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to put on the fire and as he puts this brush on the fire that there is a serpent in the kindling and as he puts it on the fire and the serpent becomes more active as he gets near the heat and as Paul looks there is the serpent that is fastened to his hand a poisonous serpent the serpent is a is a symbol of

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the demonic. The serpent is a symbol of that which is destructive. The serpent is a symbol of that which is contrary. The serpent. The serpent is in the kindling and as Paul gets near the fire he finds as he looks at his hands that a serpent has hold of him. He was engaged in a ministry of helpfulness. He

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He was engaged in a ministry of patience, he's engaged in a ministry of faith, he's engaged in a ministry of love, but the serpent is fastened to his hand as he puts the kindling on the fire. And those who look and they see it, they say now maybe this fellow was able to escape the

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ocean maybe got away from the angry waves you know he's able to overcome that and he was able to overcome shipwreck somehow he got out of that but looks like this serpent has him here now he must have been an evil man he must have been a murderer even though he got away from these things God has taken care of

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him now and it must be that justice is being ministered to him after all that's what they said. But Paul shakes the snake into the fire. There are going to be some difficulties that we will encounter in the new year. We'll have to deal with the serpent sting and we'll look around with our best efforts whatever they may be

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whether they're at home, whether they're on the job, whether they're in the church, wherever they are. If you're in this world that there will be times when you're going to be gathering kindling, trying to engage in a ministry of helpfulness and putting it on the fire and you'll see that there's a serpent fastened to

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your hand. And if somehow you are not prepared for that, you'll go to pieces. Paul sees the serpent and then the natives see the serpent also and they they're already predicting Paul's doom, already. But Paul shakes the serpent into the fire. And so I say to you, whatever may be the contrarious circumstances

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that would keep us from doing what we ought to do when the serpent is on the hand, shake it into the fire. Shake it into the fire. Shake the serpent of destruction and shake the serpent of the contrary spirit into the fire, shake it into the fire and the serpent is consumed in the fire. Well, the fire is a

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symbol of the divine. That's really what it is and we need that that fire to accompany us on the way. We need it to warm us. We need it to comfort us. We We need it to welcome us. We need the fire.

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We need that fire in our lives. We need it. We need the divine presence. We can't make it without it.

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And it's always been a symbol of it, of that divine presence. John Wesley, when he talks about what happened to him, he said, "Well, the way I'd like to describe it," he said, "I was just strangely warmed." And when God gets into your life, you're just strangely warmed.

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Pascal when he had to describe it, he said I'd just like to use one word and what is it? Fire! Let me ask again. Fire! Fire! Just one word. Fire! The fire of the eternal. Just one word describes it. And we need the pillar of fire to guide us.

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For our God is fire and we need him in the new year. That's a mystery. It's a mystery. Have you ever just sat before the fire and looked at the blaze? Something mysterious about it. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. It's a certain presence. It's a mystery.

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And Chardin says that after we shall have conquered the winds and the waves, then we shall conquer the powers of love. And for the second time man will have discovered fire. He said man will have discovered fire. You know that love, whenever you discover something, it's already present.

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You just become, you become aware of it. It's a discovery in your experience. But it's something that's mysterious. And Sister Lucille Campbell, that great songwriter of gospel music, was one who gave us the song

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"Something Within." She was on the streets of Memphis and she noticed a blind man as he came to an intersection he walked up to it and when the light was red he stood there as the light turned green he walked on across the street and she saw him do that on a couple of lights and she sort of followed him and she got

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behind him near the third light she went up and she said mister I'd like to ask you a question see how are you able to do this you're blind how is it you know when the light seems to be red and when it's green and you wait and then you go. And he said to her, he said, "I can't explain it." He says, "Just something within me."

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The whole lot we can't explain just to know that there is something within, something within that holdeth the rage something within me I cannot explain there is something within it's the fire it's the fire of God have you that something that burning desire have you that something that never does tire oh

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Oh, if you have that heavenly fire, let the world know there is something within. And what you do when you come to worship from Sunday to Sunday, what you're doing is just putting a little kindling on it. Just keep putting a little kindling on the fire.

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You know, it's been burning a long time. It started burning in my life when I was just a lad, nine years of age, and it's been burning all along the way. Sometimes it gets cold and sometimes, I'm out there in the rain and sometimes wet, but

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somehow God enables you to keep putting a little kindling on the fire and keeps leading us along life's way. That's a good thing, it's a good thing early in the morning. It's a good thing when you get up in the morning to make a fire and have some good

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kindling to put on it. You know it's in the morning of a new year. It's a good thing when you get up in the morning to make a fire and to have some good kitten to put on it.

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You mean it's a good thing to put on a new year. It's a fresh start. And you have a gentle little seed. A gentle little repentance.

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Of trust in God. To make a new year. Put on a fire. That's a great job.

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(upbeat jazz music) [ Music ] If you seek God in the morning, he'll be with you all through the day.

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If you ask Him to go with you, He'll go with you all through the day. You must give him all your troubles. At his feet your burdens lay. If you seek God in the morning, he'll be with you all through the day.

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You must give Him all your troubles. At His feet your burdens lay. If you seek God in the morning, He'll be with you all through the day. You must give him all your troubles at his feet,

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your burdens laid. If you seek God in the morning, He'll be with you all through the day. If you seek God in the morning, He'll be with you all through the day. All day.

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