Thankful for that. Well, as you have been told, and the announcement has gone forth, I am Brother Pinto, Raul. And if you're kind of like, Raul, I'm not sure I can handle that. Well, Pinto, you can handle Pinto, right? Pinto beans, Pinto. How many of you remember the Pinto, the Ford Pinto? OK, some of our older folks. Yeah, exactly, right? Pinto pony. But Brother Pinto, yes, you can handle, I'm sure, Brother Pinto. I am an evangelist. I'm a bilingual evangelist, and by saying bilingual, the other language is Spanish. If you went by my display back there, of course you saw some Spanish up there. Hopefully you weren't intimidated by the Spanish, because the other half is the English side, and one half is the Spanish side. Try to keep that, obviously, for both languages, since I'm in both types of churches. We are ministry. Basically that is to help local churches like this one be more effective in reaching the Spanish community, the Spanish world, the Spanish speaking world. And I say world because we are not a ministry that is focused on one Spanish country. We are a ministry that is focused on reaching all the Spanish folks wherever they may be in the world. And, of course, there are many, many Spanish, as you have many Spanish here in Providence. There are Spanish folks all over New England. All the major cities in New England have Spanish-speaking people. And back in 1995, I was at Heritage Baptist Church on staff there. We needed to reach the Spanish-speaking people there in Wallingford, Connecticut. And I come from a Spanish-speaking background only from the standpoint that my mom was from Puerto Rico. I was born in New York City. I did not really speak the language fluently. And exposed to it, yes, at home, but not really speaking it, knowing a lot of the language. I could understand what's being said, but never really spoke it fluently. And so when the need came, And really it came probably in the late 80s when we had our bus ministry going out. We were seeing Spanish kids coming, but the parents, of course, we had nothing for the parents. So a lot of those Spanish-speaking parents did not know enough English for them to benefit from our ministry. So we were burdened about that. The church was. And you know church it has to start with you being burdened about reaching everybody. Regardless of the culture or the language. We're responsible to reach all of them. And so we were burdened with that. And so I volunteered. I volunteered. I said, well, pastor, I don't speak Spanish fluently, but if anyone in the church can learn Spanish fast enough or quickly, I can. And so with that, I went to the West Coast. I immersed myself in the Spanish-speaking language in the late 1994. And for the next few months, I tried to be in a ministry where I heard Spanish all the time. I was involved in a ministry of the Spanish ministry. I had worked there, I was working, cleaning the church building during the week and trying to, that headset, trying to learn, how many remember the Walkman? Okay, okay, I know I'm really dating myself this morning, right? Put that thing right there by my side and I'm trying to, you know, cram, jam, slam Spanish into me and seven months later, pastor said, you need to come home. We need to get the Spanish ministry off the ground. So in 95, 1995, we started a Spanish ministry. And I still needed to learn a lot of Spanish. I still needed to work with that. And so I got behind a pulpit and I said, Lord help me because I'm supposed to preach in Spanish and teach in Spanish and I don't feel ready to go. But the Lord helped me and the folks were very patient with me as I tried to learn the Spanish and preach and teach the Word of God in Spanish. And long story short, Lord blessed that ministry. I came. to know a lot of Spanish-speaking pastors in the tri-state area. One of them was a real great help to me, David Acevedo. He was a Spanish pastor, really, for 30, at that point in time, probably 30 plus years in Brooklyn. His dad had started a church. Back in 1930 in the city of New York and he had taken the ministry from his dad. His dad was in heaven and he heard about our ministry in Connecticut and somehow or other we got in touch and he invited me to come to a conference in October called La Espada Fuegos and Fires of Evangelism. La Espada by the way is translated the sword. Alright? I think some may be acquainted with the Sword of the Lord paper. Alright? And so this ministry was started In a way, because of John Rice's influence, and really wasn't directly influenced, but definitely had an influence in the life of Roland Garlick, a Texan who was a missionary in Central America. He was in Central America. He had a burden to reach the Spanish people. He obviously, John Rice, back in the late 60s, early 70s, his ministry was impacting fundamentalism across the country with the conferences and the paper and the pamphlets and all those and he was burdened. He said, why don't we have something like this for the Spanish-speaking world? We need to have conferences on revival and soul winning in Spanish. We need to have pastors coming and we need to have people getting saved. We need to have people having sessions in Spanish and getting them to plant churches and reach their heirs for Christ. We need to have that. And, of course, as he's burdened about this, of course, the Lord said, I want to use you to start this ministry. And so Brother Roland Garlick, by faith, started a ministry that did not exist. All right? He tried to basically do what John R. Rice did, but with no resources, no money, no, you know, it wasn't like he was a a nationally known evangelist like John R. Rice was by the time he started to sort he was already a well-known evangelist he had you know he had revival meetings he had he had uh city meetings and all well Roland Garlick didn't have any of this all right behind him so by faith he started and it started with small groups And the Lord allowed him to have English-speaking pastors come. He had somebody translate for those pastors. And those pastors, of course, as they preached the Word, the Lord worked in their hearts and the hearts of these folks that came in the early days. And that ministry grew to be a ministry that you'll see here in a minute or two that has impacted the Spanish-speaking world. And that's how I came to know about this ministry. I was told through Pastor Acevedo in Brooklyn, hey, come to this conference in Brooklyn. We have it every October for about four days and you'll be challenged, you'll be encouraged, there'll be resources. And I said, I need it all. Okay, I need the preaching, I need the resources, I need anything that I can bring home to our Spanish folks. We were running maybe between five and 10 on a good Sunday morning. And I said, I need all the resources and the help I can get. So I went and I was introduced to La Espada, the sword. And it was probably, I'm gonna say 1997-ish, I'm gonna say, when I was, or 898, when I was exposed to this for the first time. I was just obviously helped. I was encouraged. I was challenged. And we started having this ministry impact, not on myself, but our ministry there in Wallingford. And so, with that being said, I'm going to go ahead and let's see the videos. The video is going to present the ministry very, very quickly. Okay? So you have to kind of watch. The pictures are going to come, like, speeding by. But listen to Dan Garlick, who is the son of Roland Garlick. He explains what the ministry is about. And understand, we are an evangelistic ministry, okay? We're not para-church or some organization that works outside the local church. We don't believe in that. We are local church-based. We work through churches like this one. We help churches like this one to reach the Spanish-speaking world for Christ, whether they are English-speaking churches with Spanish ministries like I was involved in, or a Spanish-speaking church. All right? That also needs to be challenged and motivated and equipped and all those. So you're going to see pictures going by. Some of those pictures are on my display back there. But this ministry has grown to reach and impact thousands. Thousands, hundreds of churches, Spanish-speaking churches, English-speaking churches with Spanish ministries. It has impacted our ministry in Connecticut. It impacted me personally. And so, we'll see that DVD right now and you'll get a sense of what we're about. Is there audio? It is my joy to introduce you to the ministry of La Spada. La Spada exists to do the work of the evangelist. The evangelist is not principally concerned with evangelism. That's the work of every Christian. The evangelist is given by God to perfect saints for the work of the ministry. Our mission is the Great Commission. Actually, that's not just Las Padas mission. That should be every Christian's mission. We're privileged to work with one of the greatest teams. I thank God for the men that we're allowed to work with. Actually, there's over 67 men that preach with us every year in the conferences. These men come from all over the world and give of their time and take from their schedule to go in and train the younger preachers and teach them some of the things God's taught them over the years. We have nine full-time La Espada evangelists that go out every week and seek to stir churches for evangelisms. Not only do we feel very privileged with the men that we serve with, But we feel very privileged with the men we get to serve. Every year hundreds of pastors come and attend the Wild Spotted Conferences from all over the world. These men come because they have a desire to learn. These men come because they have a desire to fulfill the Great Commission in their communities. What a privilege it is to pray with these men and share their burden for souls, their passion for Christ. Probably the most exciting aspect of the La Spada Ministries are the conferences. Right now we're having over 130 conferences a year. Conferences all over the globe. When we started the conferences they were just small and now they've grown to be thousands of people. Every year the La Spada Evangelists are preaching over 60,000 people. We thank God for the churches and the pastors that come and receive the training and go back home to take their ministry to a new dedication and a new level of service for Christ. Every year God is calling thousands to serve Him full-time. Every month we're seeing over 100 young men surrender to preach and many young ladies dedicating their lives to full-time Christian service. I wish that there was space in this video to show you more of these young men and women I do covet your prayers for them. They're the front lines of battle. Many of them facing situations and difficulties that we can only imagine. It's great to go back and preach in the graduation services of some of them that surrendered years ago. And men like Brother Garcia come up to me and tell me that he surrendered eight years ago, and now he's pastoring, brought his church back, three men surrendered. Brother Effie surrendered seven years ago. It was a privilege to go preach at first service in his new church. Brother Gaspar just went off to Guatemala, surrendered in the La Espada Conference up there with Luis Ramos in San Leandro, California. No mention of La Espada will be complete without talking about La Espada publication. Right now we have over 400 titles in print. We have Sunday School material. We have one of the best hymnals in the Spanish-speaking world used in a large number of the Fundamental Independent Baptist churches. Of course, we publish every year millions of pieces of literature designed just to take the gospel of Christ to sinners. We thank God for the men who have come and received training detailed training in different countries to go back and prepare their churches to go out and help us reach the families. We have a dream, we have a vision, we have a goal that one day every home in Latin America would have someone from their local church. knocking on their door to tell them of the gospel message of Christ. Recently, we initiated a project in Central America to reach one million families, and we thank God for the response of the 255 pastors, 255 churches that are cooperating with that program in Central America. La Espada exists to motivate, equip, and train pastors, and help them motivate, equip, and train God's people, the church members, to take the gospel of Christ to every sinner, the teachings of Christ to every saint, until they're observing them. We believe in the every creature principle. It's not a tell as many as we can plan, it's a tell everybody. And it's not a teach as much as we can, it's teach everything that Christ commanded us. We covet your prayers. My dad always said, I don't understand it, but I know it's true. The more we pray, the more God will do. If there's ever a time that demands that we go to our knees, spend time before the throne of grace, this is that time. And we're asking you to commit to be a faithful prayer warrior for this ministry. Will you pray? You to pray. You saw very quickly really what God has done through La Espada. This is the ministry that helped our ministry in Wallingford, Connecticut years ago. When I went to the first conference and I saw Dan Garlick, and you'll see pictures of him on the table back there. He was about this tall, blonde hair, blue eyed guy, standing up there. And I didn't think, you know, he didn't look Spanish to me. And then when he got up there to speak, wow, he just blew me away. I mean, at that time I was barely speaking the language myself. But what was really important was that when I was introduced to that ministry, and his dad at that time was suffering from Parkinson's, and his dad did his best to be there up on the platform when he could, and it was obvious at that time that the ministry was transitioning. In other words, it was going more and more in the hands of his son, Dan Garlick, as Brother Roland Garlick's health was deteriorating. But you saw the vision was coming into reality. God burdened one man who said, yes, Lord. And he didn't have all of the resources financially. He may not have had even the language down, but he had a willing heart, a soft heart to do what God was leading him to do. And brothers and sisters, this missions conference is about God using every one of us and exceeding abundantly, but we need to be willing to give of ourselves to Him first. It always starts with that. Because God wants to use all of us to impact other people. It's not, it's what Jesus was, His ministry was always that, was always touching other lives and reaching people. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. And whenever God touches the heart of an individual, whether it be a lady or a man, God uses that individual to make a difference eternally in the lives of others. And Brother Roland Garlick was such a man. God had, you know, touched his heart. He was burdened. And then he said, Lord, I don't have much, but I'll give you myself. I will surrender to you. And then you take me from there to use me however you want to use me to do whatever it is you're leading me to do. And now we saw on the video what God had done with one man surrendering to the will of God. He didn't go to Bible college. It wasn't like he came with a lot of experience and all of that. He was just impacted indirectly by John R. Rice. And he took that same spirit, that same desire to make a difference. And then he said, Lord, you do that through me because I don't see how I can do it. And he did it. Or God did it through him. See, his son Dan picked that up. His son Dan, of course, at that time when they were, when he was on the mission field, he was just a little kid. He grew up in the Spanish-speaking world there in Central America. And so he caught the desire, he caught the vision of his father and took it, and took the baton. And, uh, that's when I got to meet Brother Dan. And, uh, I got to meet Brother Dan in Brooklyn, one of those conferences, a couple of, a few years later. And I said to myself, you know, I'd like to have him come and speak to our, our, our little, our, and I'm thinking, our little ministry. At that time, like I said, between 5 and 10 on a good Sunday morning. Okay? And I kind of figured, well, he's probably not going to be able to come because, look at all, you know, we're in a church where we have probably 200 plus preachers and folks from different churches, Spanish-speaking churches there, and then he's talking about, you know, and you saw the pictures, right? Did you see them? I mean, thousands of people. So I'm thinking, this preacher is, this evangelist is booked forever, and he's not going to be able to come to our little ministry. But then I said, you know what, the worst I can hear, the worst he can say is no. And then I'll just say, okay, I understand. You're booked until, you know, the year 2030. And I know I can't have you come, but pray for us. You know, I was kind of thinking that. And after the service one night, And at the conference I went up and I finally got to him and I said, Brother Dan, my name is Raul Pinto. I said, I'm a Spanish pastor at an English-speaking church in Connecticut. And I, I don't know, but you know, I'm thinking maybe, maybe if you could come for a Sunday morning and be there, I know it would be a blessing to our people. So I'm kind of getting ready for the, I'm sorry Brother Pinto, I'd love to do it, but, right? But instead he said, well give me a date Brother Pinto. So I wasn't ready for that answer. But I said, oh sure, OK, I'll get back to you. And so long story short, yes, he did come. The pastor in Brooklyn was very, very gracious about this because what the pastor in Brooklyn did was he would fly Brother Dan into New York City on Saturday night. And he would preach on Sunday night at the church in Brooklyn and probably speak in the morning on Sunday at the church in Brooklyn, the Spanish-speaking church in Brooklyn. But I said, could I borrow him? Could I have him come? I'll pick him up at JFK. I will bring him to Connecticut. I will bring him to the church Sunday afternoon so he'll preach at your church. And he said, well, OK, you better have him there, right? So I would go to pick him up at JFK on a Saturday night, bring him to our church. He would preach, I would take him to Brooklyn for the conference there. And so the first time he came, I'll never forget it, he came, I picked him up, he had these sea bags. Anybody know what a sea bag is? Okay, some of you guys have been in the service, right? And so he had two or three of those sea bags in the trunk of the rented car, and he said, Brother Pinto, I need you to help me unload. And so I go and I pick up the, I'm going, whoa. You know, does he have a body in here? What has he got in here? And so when I opened up the bag, well, you know what he had in there? All of those pamphlets that you saw in the video. I mean, I mean dozens and dozens of them. All in Spanish. For our Spanish folk. And he said, Brother Pinto, you're going to need to get out some tables. And I said, okay. So I got out one, then two, then three, then four, then five, then six. And I'm going, we're running out of... were running out of tables to put out, you know. But I had, you know, we're putting out all these pamphlets and I am just thrilled because our Spanish folk are going to get helped. They're going to see all these titles and help them grow in the Lord, you see. We don't only believe in reaching people with the Gospel, but we also believe the Bible teaches us to teach them to observe all things. And so those pamphlets are part of the ministry of soul winning. Discipling them. And so we have all this material. And I'm going, this is awesome. So our folks came and we had our big Sunday. I don't know if we even had 10 people there. But I was so excited. He came and he preached. just like if he was preaching before hundreds. I mean, Brother Dan gave of himself and preached and all those materials, we're talking about Bibles, we're talking about pamphlets, we're talking about good gospel, God-honoring music, all of that made available. And so for the next several years, Brother Dan would come and we would always look forward to Lattice Father, we have our conference, right? And our folks just looked forward to it. And every year he gave of himself. Few years later, the Lord opened the opportunity for me to join the team. And I was about, about nine years ago, now I think now that I went from being a Spanish pastor to an evangelist. And my main, really, role with this ministry was to be the song leader. Okay? So, brother, I feel your pain. Okay? So, the song leader. And so, he needed someone to be kind of like his music man for the conference, for the meetings. And so, I said, brother Dan, I'll do anything that you would need me to do. And he said, that's great, Brother Pinto. So we did a lot of talking and praying. We actually, you know, we talked about it and it was really for two years we talked about this. I didn't really go right into that or jump into that. I wanted God, obviously, to be in that. And so, as the Lord opened that door and made it obvious that I could step into the ministry of evangelism, he said, Brother Pinto, there's one thing, though, I need to let you know right off. And that is, we can't give you a salary. You're gonna have to raise your own support. Okay. Right? I've had missionaries come through our church for years, but now I'm really going to step into understanding what that means and what I'm going to have to do. And so each of the evangelists that work on the team of La Espada has to raise their own support to cover their own needs so that we can be free to go to these conferences. So I began that. And as I was doing that, the Lord opened some opportunities. Brother Dan said, you know what, I can use you to be at a couple of conferences. And so I was with him for a couple of them, probably about a half a dozen of them through the next couple of years. Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, a couple on the west coast, several down in the southern part of the United States, and Mexico was the last time I was with him. And so I was leading music, and there were times when Brother Dan said, I also need you to do some sessions. Ah! You know, and so the Lord just opened up opportunities for me, part of the team. And so as I began to do that, the Lord, of course, provided And I was able to little by little work on getting more and more of the support that I need, which I'm still trying to do. I'm up at about 75% of my support. I'd like to raise that more. Obviously I had incurred more expenses since nine or eight years ago. And right now I have about 17 churches or so. I had one church just take me for support in South Carolina. and hope to pick up a couple of more. Just again, just to cover my living expenses, the Ministry of La Espada, as you can imagine, got hit last year with COVID. As you can see, as you saw on the video, no social distancing. I was in Mexico for a, or Nicaragua, I remember that conference in particular. We had a thousand folks every night come. We were in the capital city of Managua and we had rented a pavilion, a very large pavilion there at a local college there. And we packed that pavilion with a thousand plastic white chairs and they came from all over. They came in vans, they came in buses, they came in minivans, they came on foot. And then when we sit them down in a situation like that, we want to make sure that everyone gets in to be part of that conference. Imagine that that's the kind of ministry you've had for numbers of years and then COVID hit. So last year we were hit with that. So basically we had to come to a screeching halt. And then one other thing occurred which impacted us and that was Brother Dan Garlick. The man that you just heard on the video is with the Lord. He had contracted pancreatic cancer and about two years ago almost now. And after a long bout with that, a long fight with that, the Lord took him home last May. A year ago last May. And so we got hit with those two. Now we know that the Lord allows these things. And it doesn't catch the Lord by surprise. He has a plan. So if you'll pray for it, when you saw, the last thing you saw in there was, pray for us. Please pray for us. I have my prayer cards back there. But pray for two individuals. Brother Dan passed this ministry on to two of his sons that grew up with him doing this ministry. Ben and Jonathan Garlick. When you think of garlic, how many, anybody cook with garlic? Ladies? Okay? All right. So, Italian, right? So, when you cook and you're using that garlic, think of the garlic family and pray for them. All right? Ben and Jonathan need your prayers. I have a picture of them. I was with them two years ago now in one of our major regional conferences there in Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. And so if you would pray for them, pray for them, and pray for us that God will open up that ministry again. We want to see those conferences back online next year. It doesn't look like it's going to happen anything really major outside of the states this year. You can imagine what's going on right now within the United States, right? About, you know, masks and all that, vaccines and all, and all the different states doing different things. And that's with the resources we have, okay? Mexico doesn't have those. Nicaragua doesn't have those. Think of the countries that we've been in, down in Central America. We've been basically in all of them, to one degree or another. Small conferences, large conferences. Pray that the Lord would open those up back up again. All right? I know that the Lord has a plan for Last Father to continue what we've been doing. God's done great things and I believe God has great things in store. And what? is this all about? It's about reaching the Spanish-speaking people with the gospel. All right? So if you'll pray for that. And my role, again, as an evangelist is I do my part to help with the ministry as part of a team. Last year I thought, well, you know, I've got, we don't have our conferences going and so I believe God was opening the door for me to be an evangelist in the area, to English-speaking churches. So that's why I took the role of bilingual evangelist because I still can speak English. You know, it's a good thing I'm not hablando en español, porque si fuera yo hablando en español, tuviera un problema, right? We would have a problem, okay? If I start speaking in Spanish, you would be kind of saying, okay, what am I here for, right? I'm not getting anything out of this. So I want you to understand that my ministry is to the English as well as to the Spanish. The Lord has opened up opportunities for me to be in English-speaking churches in New England. I grew up in New England. I have a heart to reach to people and to help local churches for the ministry. So I try to fit a lot of things in there, okay? And I want to go to the Word of God. So stay with me now, okay? Let's go to 2 Corinthians 8. Pastor has told me that I was to kind of be the kickoff for the Missions Emphasis Month. And as I meditated upon this, I thought to myself, well, there's so much to say about missions. But 2 Corinthians 8 is a very familiar passage in this regard. And I'm going to try to leave you up, leave you with one thought. Which I think is the most important thing when we talk about missions. 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Hopefully everyone has a Bible. If you don't have a Bible, I'd encourage you to look on with someone. Because what the Bible has to say is more important than what I have to say, alright? So we want you to see the scripture. Father thank you for these your people. Lord I prayed about this meeting I prayed about this particular time. I know that without you nothing gets accomplished. So please cleanse me Holy Spirit fill me help us to be spirit filled listeners. Lord, take away the distractions from our minds. Lord, anything that would hinder your speaking to us. Lord, I pray, please help. In Jesus' name, Amen. Moreover, verse number one, Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit or to know of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. How that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy, and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave them their own selves to the Lord. Look at that phrase now. But first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. And we'll stop there. There'll be other passages of Scriptures we'll go to, but stay with me. Paul is writing this letter after he had dealt with some problems at the Church of Corinth, those problems were resolved. He's trying to kind of pick up where he left off really in trying to really encourage them and commend them that they took care of those problems that were in the church. We don't have time to go, most of you that know your Bibles know about the problems in the Church of Corinth. But after those were taken, he writes his second letter and he's dealing with different things. He comes to this portion of his letter and he says, I want you to know something. I want you to be aware of something. Verse number one he says, I want you to know about what God was doing, has been doing in the churches that God allowed me to start in Macedonia. And Macedonia is part of the world there where modern-day Greece is today. Paul, in his traveling, in his missionary journeys, God allowed him to start churches in Philippi, in Thessalonica, and then eventually in the Church of Corinth. And that area where he traveled, really, was the first time that he was actually in Europe, really, and the gospel was starting to go to the West. And Paul is just trying to bring to the church at Corinth a teaching by saying, look, this is what God is doing in these particular churches and I want you to know about this. And one of those churches he started was the church of Philippi. Philippi was a city that was really a city that was built for the Roman soldiers. It was really a Roman colony. It was a place where the Roman guards or the Roman soldiers could be at and feel at home, even though they were hundreds of miles away from the city of Rome. They were able to be feeling at home in this really mini kind of mini Rome there. And so there weren't a lot of Jews there, But we know that God had started a church there just by Paul going to a group of ladies, Jewish ladies, that got saved, basically. And then we know about the Philippian jailer, remember that? What the Lord did there, and the Philippian jailer got saved, and his family got saved. So there was a church that was formed there And Paul has tried to stay in touch with that church. But you know, the church wasn't that very old before the Lord began to use the church at Philippi to bless others. To help others. And this is what he's talking about. I want you to know, he says to the church at Corinth, I want you to know about the grace that God had worked in the church at Philippi. Church of Macedonia. This is just, not one, but all of the churches, but one of them anyway. Verse number two. Look at verse number 2. It says, "...in a great trial of affliction." They had some trouble. Now we know that in the church of Philippi there was trouble. We know we don't have time to go back to the book of Acts to review that, but there was some trouble there. You know, usually this is what happens, brothers and sisters. When you and I decide to do something for God, Satan will oppose. The flesh will oppose. The world will oppose. It's not going to be easy. You're going to face some opposition. Now, some of you may have noticed that I have this cap, and some of you may not be aware that this is a Union soldier cap. I have to say that because some people think it's maybe Revolutionary War, they're not sure about their American history, so I have to kind of clear that up. Now I am a Civil War re-enactor. And one of the things that you'll learn when you're a soldier, whether it's a modern day soldier or whether it's a soldier of the 19th century, is you're training because you're getting ready to meet the enemy. Okay? You're going into the training and it's intense. It gets you ready because the enemy is coming. And so when you decide that you're going to fight for your country, it's a given that you're going to face opposition. It's a given that it's not going to be easy. That's why Paul says to Timothy, you know, to endure hardness as a good what? as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Why? Because Paul, at that time, when he was writing that last letter, he's saying, look, Timothy, don't be discouraged because I'm in prison. Don't be discouraged that I'm about to be executed. I've gone through a lot of terrible things because of the cause of Christ, because I yielded to the cause of Christ. Basically, what I was saying to the devil, basically what I was saying to the enemy was, I'm against you and I'm gonna fight against you. And the enemy says, oh yeah? Well, if you're going to do that, then we're going to fight against you. So, you know, as a Union soldier, you know, as we train, as we drill, as we go through all of those things, we're doing that knowing that the Confederate Army is also drilling and training and getting ready. So that when we get out into the field and we line up like they did back in the 19th century, and we're lining up in our ranks, and we're marching forward with our muskets, we know that the enemy is going to be doing the same. They're not just going to go, oh, here they come. So we're just going to lay down our muskets. We're just going to run away. Of course, we would hope they would do that. But of course, they don't do that, do they? Brothers and sisters, you see, we have an enemy called the devil. We have an enemy called the flesh. We have an enemy called the world. We have three major enemies against us. As believers, we've already declared war against these three. And so, as we try to live for God, as we try to do the right thing, as we try to to do what the Lord has called us to do, there's always going to be opposition and difficulties. And this is what Paul is basically saying about this church. He's saying, look, these churches are in a great trial of affliction. So if things are not going very well right now for you as a believer, don't be discouraged by that. Understand that Jesus said, in this world ye shall have what? Tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have, what? Overcome the world. You see, the Lord has already prepared us. He's told us it's going to happen, so let's just have that mindset and let's not be easily discouraged and saying, well, you know, I'm going through this trouble in my life. Oh, Brother Pinto, if you only knew. Oh, preacher, if you only knew. Oh, you know, I'd like to be there at church, but I really don't feel like being there because I've had this happen to me. I've had that happen to me. Well, brothers and sisters, join the club. We all have something. We all have difficulties. Whether it's physical, emotional, whatever it is that we're facing, brothers and sisters, let's just remember that we're not going to be the only ones. We haven't been the only ones as believers that have been going through difficulties and we won't be the last. You see, we're not in heaven yet. See? We're not in heaven yet. All right? So Paul says that even as they're going through difficulties, verse number two, look at this, they had an abundance of joy, verse number two. You see, there are things that will happen in my life and your life that will discourage us, but there is that abiding joy that never leaves us as believers. I trust that all of you are believers this morning. Jesus is still the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. So regardless of what happens, the Lord's joy never leaves us. Let's, let's, let's remember that. And look at verse number two again. And they're deep. What's the next word? They're deep what? Poverty. No, they didn't have a lot of money. Can any of us kind of relate to that this morning? Right? We don't have a whole lot of money. By the way, it was brought to my attention, and we don't think about this, but we are rich in comparison to the rest of the world. I had the opportunity to go to Nicaragua, and I saw third world poverty. Go to Mexico. I went to Mexico two different or three different occasions. There's poverty. I mean, people living in shacks, there's no running water, you had to run to get to water, right? Went to one place on the western coast of Mexico and we were there on a mission trip and heard of this truck going up and down the dirt roads and beeping the horn, beep, beep, beep, beep. And I'm going, why is he beeping the horn at six o'clock in the morning here? I'm trying to get some sleep. I go out, look out the window. What do I see? I see a big water truck. Basically he's just kind of going through and saying, do you need water? I'll stop. You know? And they would, and the families would have big barrels of where the water would go in, in the front yard. So that, that was their water. That was their water for the day. We don't understand what poverty is. We really don't. But this church didn't have a lot of money. But look at what happened here. This is a grace, this is something that God worked in their hearts. The Bible says that it abounded, verse number two, unto the riches of their what? Liberality. This is the time in the Bible when you can be a liberal, all right? We think of a liberal as being a bad word. Well, not in this context, it's not. But look at this. God did this. They were giving liberally. Not stingily. I don't know if that word is quite the right adverb there. But, but they, but it's not like they look, well you know I don't have a lot of money so don't think I can help here. What was the need? The need was there were some poor believers in Jerusalem that for one reason or another they just did, they needed a love offering. We're talking about above and beyond the tide. This is not the tide that we're talking about here in this context. We're talking about a church that said, I see a need. By the way, Church of Philippi was very, it was a good distance away from the Church of Jerusalem. They heard about this need and God moved in their hearts, worked this work of grace in their hearts for them to give, even though they were poverty stricken or in poverty. They had some, they had personal troubles. They had some affliction as a church, but that did not hinder them from thinking that God might use them to meet a need. And look at verse number three. It says, for their, for to their power or ability, and I bear record, yea, and look at, what's the next word church? What's the next word? Beyond. Beyond their power or their ability, they were willing of themselves. Now how is that possible? Because God makes it possible. You see, Rolling garlic was moved in his heart, I believe, by the Lord to start a ministry that he couldn't possibly have imagined was going to be impactful. You see, little is much if God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown if you'll just go in Jesus' name, you can win it. You can, but we have to, by faith, move upon what God is calling us to do. In this case, this church was called, or felt, that they should have a part in meeting a need of believers who needed a love offering. To help them with their need. It was tough to be a Christian back in those days. And in Jerusalem, there was persecution. You know that. We don't have time to go there. But there was persecution. The church was scattered. And for the Jews, a lot of those people that got saved in the early church were Jews. And when you got saved as a Jew, you know what happened when you got saved as a Jew? When you trusted Jesus Christ as the Son of God, you were disowned. You were kicked out. You were considered dead. your mom, your dad, your wife, your husband, that your family did not want to have anything to do with you if you trusted Jesus as your Savior, Messiah and the Son of God. And you believe that he rose from the dead and you came to your family and you said, I receive Jesus Christ as my Savior, that was it. Which meant, not only did you lose your relationship with your family, but probably your job. And that meant Financial, in some cases, financial ruin. These believers in Christ needed help. Church of Philippi found out about it and they said, we want to do something to help. We want to meet a need. You see, that's where it starts. You see the need, right? That's what they saw. And we're talking about helping other believers. And they said this, and this is what Paul says, look, I want you to know about this church at Corinth. He says in verse number four, they were asking us or praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift. You see, Paul was going to be the guy that was going to deliver this money. And the church at Philippi and the other churches at Macedonia were saying, please. That was much entreaty. That means they're literally begging Paul. Paul, please take this money, this love offering, please take it. And make sure it gets to those believers at that church in Jerusalem. Make sure it gets there, please. They were intrigued. They were begging Paul to get it over there. And, and, and so they gave, they wanted this, this, this offering to get there. Here verse number four again. In other words, they wanted us to be part of making sure, the Church of Philippi wanted us to have part in making sure that they received the blessing of the love offering. I want you to know about that, Church of Corinth. I want you to know about their heart. I want you to know that it wasn't easy for them to give. I want you to know that they gave beyond their ability to give. Somehow or other God made it possible for them to give above and beyond. I want you to know about that. But here's the most important thing. Verse number five. Are you there? Verse five. And this they did. This is what the Church of Philippi and the other churches of Macedonia did. Not as we hoped. In other words, they did more than we could have hoped. But first, here it is, but first gave their own selves to the Lord. This is what they did first. and unto us by the will of God. You see, before any of this happened, before they actually gave above and beyond, before they were able to bless those believers in Jerusalem with that love offering, it would have never happened, church, if they had not given themselves to the Lord first. You see, the problem with giving that we're not giving ourselves to the Lord first, in a lot of cases. And when the pastor talks about giving, whether it's the tithe, which by the way belongs to the Lord, and again giving the offering which, which, which is above the tithe, and then missions, conference, oh we know what that's all about. Money. Money. Well, I really, you know, pastor, I'd love to do it, but, you know, and we go through our list. And believe me, on a human level, I can do, I do the same thing. I mean, we talk about there's only so much money coming in, and I only, you know, I've got all these bills, and, you know, it's always, it seems like it's always about money. No, brothers and sisters, it's not about that. It's about our relationship with Christ. It's about are giving ourselves to the Lord. That's what it's about. That's what this church did. This church gave themselves first to the Lord. It wasn't, well, you know, those Christians in Jerusalem. They've got a need. But, well, we've got needs here too. I mean, we've got our own problems. And we saw that. Paul said, I want you to know that this church at Philippi, these church of Macedonia, they had problems. They had trials. They had afflictions. And they didn't have a lot of money. Well, yeah. Like, we know all about that. We don't have a lot of money either. And we've gone through some stuff and I, boy, Paul, if you only knew what happened to me and how difficult it is in my life. Well, Paul said, wait a minute. What they did, I want you to know, what they did that made the difference and made it possible for them to give above and beyond was they gave themselves to the Lord first. You see, when we say, Lord, I give myself, and I'm talking to believers this morning. I hope that I trust that you have trusted Jesus Christ, your Savior. We're talking to believers this morning. Understand that what we need to do is we need to present ourselves to Him. Because see, the Lord doesn't need our money. The Lord doesn't need my money. He doesn't. He doesn't need anything. That's why He's God. He doesn't need anything. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need me. He doesn't need you. That's why He's God. But we always have needs, do we not? Yeah, that's why we're creatures of the creation. He's the creator, right? Go to Romans 12, another familiar passage. 12. This is the passage that the Lord had given me as my life verses. And the pastor under whose ministry I was saved, this was his life verse. I'm sure many of you know this. If you do not have it memorized, you probably got it down. Remember, Paul said, they first gave themselves to the Lord. Now where are you this morning in that regard as a believer? Who is in control of your life? I'm not talking about whether or not you're saved or not. I trust you have received Christ as your Savior. Now the question is, is the Lord in control? I have to ask myself that question constantly. Is the Lord in control? Because if He's not, then everything else really doesn't matter. Nothing else is really going to happen in my spiritual walk if the Lord isn't first in my life. Romans 12.1. I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God. Now he's speaking to believers. He's not speaking on saved people. That you, that you present to your body a what? A living sacrifice. You see, he's speaking to believers. He's saying, by the mercies of God. In other words, because God in his mercy saved you and me, that is reason enough To present ourselves a living sacrifice. And that word present, it has the idea of not just doing it once, but constantly presenting ourselves. Because that's what we need to constantly do. I thought as a young believer, as a teenager, years ago, you know, I surrendered to full-time ministry as a 14-year-old at a youth conference. But, I learned as the years went by, that presenting ourselves is, or should be, a constant thing. Not just a one-time thing. You know why? Because the old flesh likes to take that seat again, right? That old flesh, that old flesh likes to take control, that old flesh wants to get back on the throne, and that's the way it is, right? The Lord Jesus Christ should be sitting on the throne of our life, but the problem is we say, okay, Lord, you take over, you have the control, and before too long, we just say, nope, nope, no, I'm in control. And when that happens, The Lord can't do what he wants to do in our life and through us and make a difference in the lives of others. You see, the idea of missions, conference, brothers and sisters is, Lord, I surrender myself. I surrender myself to you. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will. While I am waiting, yielded and still. But the problem is, I'm not waiting, yielded and still. I'm kind of wanting to do my own thing, and I'm doing this. And so, then all of a sudden, here comes this missions conference, and we're going, oh man, you know, oh no, no, no, no. Or some type of need in the church, and the pastor is asking the church family, look, we have a need, we have a financial need, and we need to get, we need God's people to help finance it with this need. And we're going, oh, I don't know. Oh, no. No, no. No, this is mine. This is mine. Right? Well, brothers and sisters, you see, that's why it's so important that we understand. God does not need our money. God is not poor. God is not broke. You'll not see God on any of the major streets in the major cities with a sign saying, I need, and I'm not making fun of folks that are in that situation. I'm just saying, God is not in poverty. What he's doing is he's giving us the opportunity for him to use us to make a difference in the lives of other people. And that's what it's all about. You see, when Paul wrote this, the letter to the Romans, he said, I beseech you. Why? And we don't have time to develop this, but go to chapter 11. Here's why. First we talked about the mercies of God, right? Chapter 11 and verse 36. Hang on, okay? I'm going through this very quickly. Stay with me. But you see, he goes into chapter 12, but really it's based on what he says in chapter 11. When you see the word therefore in verse 1, it's because he's concluding, this is really a conclusion of what he said in chapter 11. Look at verse number 36. Don't have time to develop this. Stay with me. Here it is. For of him, are you with me? And through him, And to Him are all things. Now watch carefully. Of Him, He is the source of my life. He is the source of my life. And through Him, He is the sustainer of my life. And look at that last phrase. And what's the next two words? And to him, he is the reason for my existence. And when we have that down, then he says, I beseech you therefore, based on that truth. What truth? He is the source of my life. He is the sustainer of my life. He is the reason why I exist and why I live. Are you thinking with me this morning, church? Hang on. I know it's been a little long this morning. I'm trying to fit it in here, but I want you to understand that when we talk about missions, let's get down to the foundation of it all. And the foundation of it all is, have I given myself wholly to the Lord as a believer? Or do I have, or am I holding back? We're not talking about money. We're talking about what areas in our life have we just said, Lord, that's where I'm in control. That's what, no, I'd rather do this, Lord. Lord, I know I should be in my Bible, but I'd rather not do, I know I should pray, but I know I should witness, give a tract. I know I should be in the church services regularly. I know I should, and we go through all the, and we think it's about do, do, do, do. No, no, no, it's not really about that. It's about saying, Lord, take over. Have thy own way, and when we really mean that, you know what happens? All of that stuff happens naturally. So Paul says, because he is the source of my life, he gave me life, he gave you life. Because he makes it possible for you and I to live, We're here because the Lord is making our hearts beat. The Lord is allowing us the health. I'm thanking God for my health. Are you? I had my bout with COVID last December. And I'm thanking God that he healed me. I'm thanking God that I'm here. But you know that over 700,000 people have died because of COVID? In this country? And you can, we can argue about whether they died or not, of that or not. That's not the point. The point is they're off into eternity, brothers and sisters. We're still here. And God's given us health and strength. He sustains us. He's making it possible. What a good God do we have. What a good God He is. He loads us with blessings. That's out of the Book of Psalms. He loadeth us. We are so blessed. We are so pampered. We are so spoiled. And then God says, on top of all that, He saved us. The Lord Jesus Christ died in our place. We deserve to die. We deserve to go to hell. God loved us so that He gave His only begotten Son for us. He gave. He's the first giver. Now all he's saying about us now is, do as my son did. Give. Have the spirit of giving. Whenever I do this. No Lord. No Lord. This is mine. We are negating the Spirit of Christ and of God. God gives. He loves so much that he what? He gave. And when that sinks into my heart and I realize how blessed I am because God gave, and not only because God gave, but others gave to make it possible for me to hear the gospel. By the way, the pastor that came to my church, to my town, Wallingford, Connecticut, got there because somebody gave. Somebody gave. There's nobody in this room that got saved without somebody somewhere giving to make it possible for you and I to hear the gospel. Let it not stop with us. Let it not stop with us. How can I be selfish? How can I say, no, I'm not giving, no, no, I'm not, I'm not, no, I don't know, no, there goes pastor again, talking about money, giving, I don't have it. Right? You may not have it, but I know someone who has all of it, and I know that God can do exceeding abundantly through us, and he wants to show how he can, but if we just Nah, nah. Brothers and sisters, this church at Philippi could have stayed with that attitude and said, nah, too much trouble at our church. We don't have a lot of money. We can barely pay our own bills. We can't do it, can't. But no, they said, Lord, there's a need. Those Christian brothers and sisters, we've got a place to go to. We've got a place called home. They don't. We've got troubles, but they've got some troubles. Lord, help us to be a help to them and a blessing to them. And so they gave beyond their power. I don't know how that happened, but it couldn't have happened without themselves giving themselves to the Lord first. So the question this morning, brothers and sisters, is where are you in your life as far as you're giving yourselves to the Lord and saying, Lord, I want to surrender myself to you. I want to surrender, and that means, that means basically this, Lord, have your own way in my life, in my personal life. That means, Lord, help me to just be, have you first in my daily routine. Help me to have you first when it comes to reading the Bible, when it comes to praying, when it comes to just being faithful to God's house. When it comes, there's so many areas, but you see, all of those areas should be a result of our love for the Lord and saying, Lord, I love you so much that I give you myself. I give you myself. How many married folks do we have in this room? Raise your hand. Okay? Those of you that got married, you're hoping they have all of your spouse. Not just some of it. Right? You presented yourself to your bride or to your husband-to-be. You said, I give you all of me. You know what? The Lord wants us to give all of us to him. Because he gave all of himself. And as we do that, everything else is not a problem. If the Lord has me, if the Lord has me, if the Lord has you, then he has this. If he doesn't have you or me, then this is, and by the way, if he doesn't, if you're saying, Lord, I'm really not there yet, then you know what? Don't bother with this. Don't bother with this. Because this is not what the Lord wants. This doesn't mean anything to the Lord. But what he really wants is you and me. He gave himself for you. And as we present ourselves to him, then yeah, giving, The Lord, the Lord will open our hearts and, and there'll be a need. We'll see, you know, you'll have other missionaries come through before the month is over and, and, and you'll, and you know what you'll get? Instead of thinking, oh, I know what it means. I know. I know what it means. The pastor's going to give us a card at the end of the thing. We're going to have to, you know, give an amount and, and hand it in. No, no, no. You see, that wouldn't even come into your mind as far as, you know, talking about that. It's like, you're gonna have the heart of God and you're gonna see, wow, that brother's going to such and such a country. And people there need to be saved. And he's not gonna be or she's not gonna be able to get there if we don't help them get there. God, I know how you are. You're a giver. You gave Your only begotten Son, and You did it for me, and I didn't deserve it. You gave me so much. You blessed me so much. How can I be even thinking that I wouldn't give? Wouldn't give. Lord, I want to. I don't know how it's going to happen, but Lord, I want to be a blessing. I want you to use me as a conduit to help this brother get to the field so that people will be saved and know what I've known. Help me to do it. I don't know how, but I know you're moving in my heart, Lord. You have your own way in this. And that's what it's all about, see. That's what happened to the church at Philippi. And he's saying to the church at Corinth, Corinth, get this spirit. Get this spirit. Get this spirit. If you read the church, if you read the letter, again, I know I'm really over time this morning, but stay with me. If you read the letter to the church at Philippi, the very last chapter, Paul says, you, and I'm paraphrasing, you are the only church that has given, and what did they give? They gave to Paul. Not because Paul wanted anything from them, and he says this, but he says, you help me and bless me. Why? Because what did they do? They first gave themselves to who? The Lord. And when they gave themselves to the Lord, well, of course, we're going to give to Paul, because God wants us to do that. And then what did Paul say? He said, The Lord, may the Lord bless you financially. And again, I'm paraphrasing. Let me just close with this passage. You don't have to go there, but you know this passage probably very well. He says, "...but my God shall supply..." What? "...all your need." Remember what he said about that church in the passage we read this morning? 2 Corinthians 8. Out of the poverty they had, right? They gave. I know that because they did that, God supplied all their need. Because they gave. They gave because God gave. That's what it's all about. What has God given you? How has God blessed you? How has God blessed me? Can we have the same heart and say, Lord, don't let it stop with me. Help me to be a funnel. And however you, however you move in my heart these next few weeks, help me to just say, Lord, you first. And then you just have your own way.