All right, if you didn't get one of these yellow cards, raise your hand. We want to get you one real quick. Anybody need one? It's real important that you have it. Debbie needs one. Give her one. Anybody else need one? All right. Just hold your hands up. We'll get to you. Lisa Miller, give her two. All right. Rick Hunt needs one. He's retired. Just give him half of one. These are our faith promise commitment cards. And this is, I'm happy for everyone to have one, but it's for our church family. And I want you to just hold it and we'll discuss it just a little bit later. I'm excited about teaching tonight, speaking about faith promise missions. I believe in supporting missions, don't you? God sent his son. The Lord was the first missionary who left his homeland heaven. and went to a foreign place, Earth, and spent his life and gave his life's blood for all the world. And so there's so many passages that deal with missions. Tonight, I don't think it's premature, but tonight we're gonna deal with our mission money, faith promise giving. I'll be preaching on this next week in New York. March has always been our month to put the spotlight on missions. I love missionaries. I love our missionaries. I'm thrilled that we're a church that have missionaries out of our church. And I'm thrilled that we have missionaries around the world that we support. And I'm thrilled that we have missionaries in our church from other sister churches. And I hate the deputation stage of missions. I just feel like there's gotta be a better way that we could get our missionaries on the field more than traveling all over the world, all over America. in Canada for two or three years raising support. There's other mission programs, Southern Baptist Convention there, their missions program basically is their Annie Armstrong and their Lottie Moon Offering and you would think something that's a big convention would really do a lot more for missions, but I want you the Independent Baptists, They give thousands of thousands upon thousands of dollars to missions. We have thousands of dollars that come through this church, through Korea and through Canada and all over America and outside of our country to support our missionaries that we have here out of our church. Now, the scripture is the most important thing. So if you need a handout, anybody need a handout? Because I want you to have it. Anybody, everybody got a handout? If you need one, we'll get you one. Anybody? Okay, we're good? Look there in 2 Corinthians 8. Like I said, there's so many passages, and we're going to deal with some more on Wednesday nights. We're going to deal with some. But there's so many passages, and notice, if you would, verse 1, where the Apostle Paul is talking about the Macedonian churches. Now, he's taking this collection. And this collection was a vow that he had made to help those suffering Christians, Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Understand, when you became a Christian in this day, you were disowned. You lost everything that you had. And so look what he says in verse one. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit or to witness of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia. So he wants he's making note and he wants the churches to witness of God's great giving grace here. He says how that in a great trial of affliction. Now, there will be people who will say, well, you know, we're afflicted with this or that or the other, so we can't give. We're not told what the affliction is here, but it was something horrific. And it says, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty. The first church I pastored, one of the deacons, well, three of the deacons came to me and said, you can't preach on giving here. Our people are poor and they can't give. And it says that they gave through their deep poverty, abounding unto riches of their liberality. In other words, as they gave, they abounded by the same measure which they gave. And he says, to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves. And he gives us the key right there. You know what? If you're willing of yourself, God will do great things through you. And he says, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering of the saints. And this they did, not as we hope, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God, insomuch that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that you abound in this grace also." Now, he's talking about grace-giving here. He says, we're abounding in these other graces. And as you abound in everything else, in your faith, and in your utterance, and in your knowledge, as you're growing in these things, in all diligence, and as you're growing in your love, grow and abound in your grace, in this grace of giving. He says, I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. Now that's a great statement there. Lovest thou me more than these? Well, how do we prove part of that love? How do we show our love? We show it through different ways, but I think grace-giving certainly is on there. I don't want to be offensive to you, but I'm just going to tell you, and I'm going to tell you something. I practice what I'm preaching here, David and I both do, but I want you to know when you get that January giving statement, it reveals a lot of your sincerity of your love. For God, for his church, for the ministries, for the work of God, for the kingdom of heaven, it reveals a lot. And this is what he's saying. It's not my words, it's just prove the sincerity of your love. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. There can't be no missing work accomplished through the local church apart from our faithfulness to giving financially that others might hear the gospel. You know, that there are people who won't make everything about faith. Well, let's just trust God. Well, yeah, let's I believe in trusting God. Amen. And and well, let's just have faith. But it takes money to turn the utilities on. It takes money to to run the air conditioner and the heater. It takes money to put diesel in the buses and pick up little boys and girls. And, you know, money, it takes money to make things function, to make things run. And there's no mission work that is accomplished anywhere apart from the faithfulness of our people who are giving financially that others will hear the gospel. Now, there are many passages of Scripture to which we could turn to give this truth of grace giving. I'm going to give some of them this month on Wednesday nights. But many myths exist in believers' minds concerning giving. They have a lot of confusion about this. And please notice there's some principles that I want to share with you. I have four tonight. First of all, our ability to give is not dependent upon the size of our bank account. And those of us who are giving and have been giving for years, we know that to be so. Our ability to give is not dependent upon the size of our bank account. The Christians of Macedonia were extremely poor. In verse 2, it says, there was a great trial of affliction. In verse 2, it says, and their deep poverty. In verse 3, Paul says, for to their power I bear record, yea, and beyond their power they were willing of themselves. Now, not only were they poor, But they were experienced great persecution of some type of persecution, most likely for their newfound faith in Christ. Now, the mathematical equation in this verse doesn't make sense to the world or to the carnally minded Christian. It won't make sense. You have to see this through faith. God's equation is this affliction. plus poverty, plus joy, equals generosity and giving. Are you awake? Are you listening to me? God grants many kinds of grace for his children. There's sufficient grace, there's sustaining grace, there's saving grace, there's strengthening grace. Listen to me, there's giving grace as well. And aren't we thankful for saving grace, his saving grace? Praise God for that. Aren't we thankful for his sustaining grace? That when it's a loved one that we've lost, he sustains us during that time. You know, he strengthens us. You know, his grace is sufficient for us. He's there for us. But there's this giving grace. And Paul says, as you abound in these other areas, he says, abound in this grace, the grace which is giving grace. Now, God's equation is affliction plus poverty plus joy equals generosity and giving. And then God's equation is grace plus obedience plus faith equals abundant life. And we're living that. I'm living that. I'm living the generosity of giving. I love to give. Can I tell you something? I'm not just talking about giving to the Lord. I love to give to people. I enjoy that. I love to give to my grandkids. I love to give to my family. I love to give to people in our church. There's a joy. It's more blessed to give than it is to receive. It certainly is. But from that grace and from that obedience and from exercising that faith, it brings abundant life. So these believers received God's grace. They were obedient to God's Word, and by faith they went beyond their very own resources. They went beyond their resources. Paul says he witnessed and beyond their power so that others would be able to hear the gospel. So understand this. Our ability to give to faith-promised missions. Now I'm talking about giving your tithes and your offerings and above your tithes and offerings. It's faith promise giving to the missions program to allow people like the Rays and like the Henrys and others that we support to give the gospel to those, and many of them, who have never seen a Bible. Now, it's not time to share this, but I just probably need to touch on it. In Romans 1, the Bible says that God has revealed himself through his creation. That's why you have naked savages out in the dark jungles of Africa and New Guinea hewing out a stone or carving out a stump and trying to worship it. Because he looks, he sees the heavens, he knows somebody put that there. These people are like the Samaritans who were desperately wanting to hear from God. Many of these people want to know God, and they need someone to take the gospel to them. The Bible says in Romans 1 that they are without excuse. In other words, they don't get a bye, they don't pass go to jail, none of that stuff. They will perish in hell without the Savior. Now number two, God's giving to us is often directly proportionate to our giving. That's what Paul is talking about. By the way, you know, not only is it proportionate, he gives greater than we do. You know, first of all, in the tithe and the offering, he asks us to give 10%. You know, your waitress asks 15 to 18, 20%. God Almighty says 10% in an offering, the tithe and an offering. And then, faith promise is above that. Now, how much faith promise do you give? exactly what God tells you to do. And here's the thing, this month of March if we would have people who have been giving increase a little bit in their faith promise, I mean obviously it's not God's will that we decrease, I wouldn't think that would be God's will, do you? And then those who aren't giving start giving, I think we could have a greater increase in our faith promise of getting the gospel out around the world. Now, there's a message I'll preach, but I want you to understand this. China is not the Rays' field. It's not the Rays' field. Romania is not Brother Henry's field. Whose fields are they? They're our fields. The Bible tells us this. We have responsibility to get the gospel to Africa, and to New Guinea, and to Australia, and to Romania, and to China, and to Taiwan, and to Russia, and on and on we can go. To Hawaii, I'll go. I've been there twice. had a missionary going to Hawaii and said man you're never gonna raise support he says Hawaii's tough now it is in some way you know I mean you can't afford prop they build straight up there's no way you can afford a smidgen of land there but he said he told me says Hawaii's tough you know the seasons never changes it's always like 68 and 70 year round he said that gets hard you don't even if you like this fall and you like spring I thought cry me a river pal you know Now, understand, God's giving to us is often directly proportionate to our giving. If we sow sparingly, we reap sparingly, right? We sow bountifully, we reap what? Bountifully. So, question, what kind of harvest do you want to see? Now, one of the blessings to me is bumping into people, and God's allowed to see people who you might have ministered to 30 years ago, 35 years ago, and you bumped into, like Mary Jackson, for instance. You know, I led her brother, Robert Fort Wingler, to the Lord. He was dying. Matter of fact, he died 16 hours after I left the hospital. I preached the funeral, and if I remember right, 13 to 14 teenagers got saved. It was packed. But I met Mary Jackson this 2019, and I would have never known her name was Fort Wingo, her maiden name, if her daughter hadn't have been with her. And that was so thrilling. But I want you to know when we get to heaven, I believe we're going to meet hundreds of thousands of people that got saved that we, you know, that every dime we gave to missions. I believe this. If God calls us, we ought to go. If God hasn't called us, then we ought to send those who have been called. And if we send those who've been called, we need to pray for those that we send. That's my that's my philosophy of missions. Now, understand this. What kind of harvest do you want to have? 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6. But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart. So this is where God puts that amount on your heart. Debbie and I have always been in agreement with this. You know, we've prayed together, and we've talked together, and we give our faith promise. And we've always been in agreement with it. You know, if it's of God, don't you think he's going to tell both of us? He's just going to tell one of us? And he says here, every man according as he purpoth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly. Let me give, you know, or of necessity. You know, this has got to be done, for God loveth a cheerful gilver. Now, you know the word cheerful, we get the word hilarious. God loves hilarious gilver. And we see The principle of sowing and reaping applied here. Galatians 6 verse 7, you see it there on your page. Now this is preaching a negative light so much. You're going to reap. You're going to reap. You sow that wild seed and you're going to reap. Well that's true, but that's just half of this principle. The other half is you sow righteous seed, you're going to reap a righteous crop. You're going to reap bountifully. And if we understand the principle here, we shouldn't be frightened of it. It should motivate us to give and to sow righteous seed. Notice the Lord commands us to give. He tells us in Luke 6, verse 38, He says, that ye meet with all, it shall be measured to you again." This is where I'm saying God gives to us often directly proportionate to our giving. You know, it's like the little boy, you've heard me tell the story, the little boy and his dad go in the church and his dad's a circuit rider preacher and comes by there once a month and preaches. And the little boy, the dad turns to him and says, here's a quarter, put a quarter in the offering when the offering plates pass by. And he does, and they're going home and the deacon gives him the envelope. He's riding on he gives an envelope to the son open up see what we got and he opened up in a quarter fell out And he says was and the dad looked the son looked at me says well daddy I guess if we gave more we would have gotten more you know and that's true I think the more we give the more Abundant we are with God the more liberal we are in our giving the more liberal God is with us He tells us for with the same measure that you meet with all it shall be measured to you again now I don't think it's always measured numerically and I know that it's not. If we give several thousand dollars to the church, I don't think that means I want to get several thousand dollars back, but it might be no hospital bills, no doctor bills, no appliance bills. That old car keeps running like a top. God just blesses, and you are sustained, and you have what you need. If you don't want to talk about it, say amen. See, the Lord says, when we give, it shall be given unto us. Give, and it shall be given unto you. Give, and it shall be given unto you. Give, and it shall be given unto you. That's the principle. God says it's a command. And He says when He gives it, He's going to give it in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. Now, the motivation should not be to give so that we might get, but rather to give so that we can give and continue to give and support worldwide missions. Notice that our receiving will be proportionate to our giving. Now, the tithe has never been done away with. only expanded. And there are people who'll say, you know, well, you know, that's Old Testament, you know, that was Old Testament law. No, no, no. The tithe was commanded before the law was given. Was it Melchizedek that gave his tithes? Yes, before the law. So, don't listen to that. That's not true. He tells us Malachi 3, verse 10, bring ye all the tithes, that's the tenth, into the storehouse. The storehouse is the church now. that there may be meat in my house," and look what he says, "'and prove me.'" Prove me. "'Now herewith saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.'" He says, prove me. Some folks try to excuse themselves from tithing by convincing themselves that God doesn't want them to give the tithe anymore. Well, that's ridiculous. God has set the tithe up and the offering to meet the needs of the church and to be able to afford the workings of the church. God still challenges us to try to outgive him, but it can't be done. You cannot give God, you cannot do it. Little Johnny went into the store with his dad and Mr. Jones said, Johnny, reach in there in the candy jar and get you some of that hard rock candy. Johnny just kind of stared at it and looked at it and shifted his feet and said, go ahead Johnny, it's okay, go ahead and get you some. He didn't move and finally the store owner, Mr. Jones, went over there and he said, stick your hands out. He reached in there and got him a big handful and gave it to him. They were going home and the daddy said, Boy, what's wrong with you? You don't have a shy bone in you. You don't have a shy bone about you. Why don't you reach in and get you some candy? You embarrass me. And the boy looked down and says, Daddy, Mr. Jones got bigger hands than I do. And I want to tell you something. God's got bigger hands than you do. And you're not going to out-give God. So God's giving to us is often directly proportionate to our giving. Our ability to give is not dependent upon the size of our bank account. Macedonian churches were in affliction and great poverty. Then thirdly, these are four principles about giving. All true giving begins with the giving of ourselves. That's the key. Now I remember an old, old preacher who was preaching. I was a young preacher. Kirk, I was as nice looking as what you are back then. I was thin and handsome and this guy was old and fat and bald. I had one of our sweet ladies text me during the family conference saying, boy, you and brother Stowe, y'all do have a lot in common, except you at least still have a pretty head of hair. And I thought, well, thank God for that. I can't remember, Hyatt was his name, Brother Hyatt. Did you know him, Brother Morris? He started a military ministry in Millington years ago, Brother Hyatt. Now there's Terry Hyatt, his son, but this was his father, and he was preaching, and he was an older man. He's kind of rambling on a little bit like older man preachers do, you know, and I remember hearing, I thought, oh God, I hope that that's not gonna be me. You know, I got some of these older preachers preaching this week, and you'll see what I'm talking about and everything. And he was preaching, and he got an offering plate, and he set it down, and he says, God doesn't want your money. God doesn't want your time, your tithe or your offering. You know, God's not against you. And he said, let me tell you what God wants. And he stood in that offering plate. He says, God wants you. And I thought, hmm. You know what? That's what God, you know, we need to give ourselves, give ourselves first. What is it that you've got? What is it that you have that you say, God, you can have everything, but keep your hands off that. You got a problem. Let me tell you something. God can have all I've got. He's given me. He can have any of it anytime he wants it. Now, notice, all true giving begins with the giving of ourselves. Verse 5. And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord. But once they did that, they put themselves in a position for God to really bless and unto us by the will of God. Now, it isn't easy. to give of ourselves. I don't pretend to make that this is something simple and easy. It's much easier to give of our substance rather than ourselves. You know that? It's a lot easier to give God a $50 or $100 or $200 offering instead of driving the bus route. That's easier to me. And it can be easier to give of our substance rather than give ourselves. It's easier to hire a staff person to do the ministry rather than to find our ministry and give ourselves and our time and sacrifice, you know, our performance. And let me tell you this, it's easy to give a substance than it is to give of your own self. Now, it's really a matter of lordship. This is what it is. It's really a matter of lordship. You will always have difficulty accepting the biblical principle of giving until you've first given yourselves completely to God. Now, we need to acknowledge lordship of Christ over ourselves and over all that we possess. Do you know what I'm saying? We need to acknowledge the lordship of Christ over ourselves and over all that we possess. We can never know the joy of these Macedonian Christians until we're willing to give ourselves and all that we have to the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke 14, verse 33, notice. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. Now the word forsaketh. that forsaketh not all that he hath." The word forsaketh doesn't mean that we have to throw everything away. That's not what it says. That's not what it means. What it does mean is that we must release control and allow Christ to be Lord over all. That's what it means. Lastly, what we give proves how much we love. Now, sit just a second here. Let me say this. I open my giving record with great anticipation. I don't know. I know what we give weekly, but I don't total it up. I don't keep a thing on it. We give our tithes and our offerings, and then some. We give our faith promise, and we give to the debt retirement of the building. We still give that. We've been giving it for 12, 13 years. The church went into a giving program for some years, but it's not paid off, and we're still giving towards that. But there's been many times that I've opened my offering envelope, my giving record, and been disappointed because I thought I'd done more. I want to do more. I want to go back in there. I told David, I said, call Dean. I think he's made a mistake. And he didn't. He's perfect. He never makes mistakes. But don't cringe and don't take your envelope. By the way, I use that giving record for my taxes and there's nothing wrong with doing that. And that's why you ought to give, listen, you ought to give in an offering envelope. And if you designate, designate on the envelope and not on your check. Because if you get audited, they won't count any designations on the check. I'm just telling you that. That comes from H&R Block. But we designate on the envelope. And we give. We've given cards to the church and to people who needed it. You know, it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. And when we give, You know, it reveals your love. Now, it's not a it's not a competition. It's not equal giving. It's equal sacrifice. You know, remember the widow's might. She gave the most. Now, how could that be? Because it wasn't what she gave is what she had left. You know, there are people who give for a tax deduction, you know, they got to find, and there's nothing wrong with that. When we rented the building, when we rented the warehouse church, the city had rented that church for city court when our city court had been torn to pieces by the tornado. And they were, were paying, I'm trying to think how much it was, but it was thousands of dollars. You remember how much it was, Dean? I think it may have been a little bit more than that. I think it was more like seven. And I met with the man, Mr. Davis, who owned that building. I met with his realtor. I never met him. But I said, you know, we could write this check and he could in turn turn around and give part of it back to the church as a giving record, as a giving. And he did that. He was happy to do that. And I think we rented it for like $2,000 a month or something like that, $2,200, something like that. that was in our budget, and he said, you know, we want a paper trail, we want to make sure everything's clear, and we did that. But you know, let me tell you, can I tell you something I learned as a pastor early, early on? It's not always the big daddies who got the big bucks, it's that guy who works 40 and 50 hours a week, who loves God, who brings his tithes and offerings and lay it out. That's where it's at. It's not some guy who, or some girl who, you know, I mean, they got some mega job, and they could write a check for thousands of dollars, and not even, you know, not even, it's that person who was out there, and they're living week to week, and they're working 40, and 50, and 60 hours, and they love God, and they're giving. That's how the church gets down the road. Now, what we give proves how much we love. Your giving proves your sincerity. Look what he says in verse 8. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove your sincerity of your love. He's talking about giving here. And the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is selfishness. Love gives, selfishness hoards. I've known people, I've pastored people this way. You know, I was preaching one time. And I just, you know, I was preaching and I said, oh, I know some of you folks out there. God bless your heart. You're so tight. You squeak when you walk. God bless your heart. You take a George dollar. You took a George Washington out of your wallet. Well, he he he rubs his eyes. He hadn't seen daylight in so long. And, you know, you're stingy towards God. You're not giving towards God. You give your thirty two dollars and 18 cents every week and you feel like you've done your part. And I had a man just have a bad attitude with me. I thought what is his problem? He just he stayed sour for quite a while. And I found out he's given $32 and 18 cents a week. Yeah. He lived a lot better than that, let me tell you. I want to tell you this, listen, you use God's money to go buy that widescreen TV, and you use God's money to go buy that second car, that truck, you use God's money to support that whatever you've got, I want to tell you something, you're not going to make it. It's not going to happen. The opposite of love is not hate, it's selfishness. Listen, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave. Love is giving. He is the only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Listen, God proved the sincerity of His love when He gave His Son. Jesus Christ proved the sincerity of his love when he gave his life. You see, when you love, you give. Verse 9, he says, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. If God measures our love by what we have given to Him, how great is your love? Our giving allows us to demonstrate, and it's the evidence of our love. Let that sink in. Can I tell you something? You're in trouble if you pull in some... I don't care if you make $1,000 a week or if you make $200 a week. If you're robbing God, if you're not writing your giving, you're not going to have the full blessings of God on you. Our giving allows us to demonstrate and to give the evidence of our love. Notice the Lord's soul-searching question in John 21. He turns to Peter in verse 15, he says, Jesus saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? In verse 16, he saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Verse 17, he saith unto him a third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Jesus wants more than lip service. There needs to be evidence and we need to show our love to him by what we do. Someone said, and I think it's true. It's a true truth here. We can give without loving, but we cannot love without giving. When Ella's sick and she was sick Sunday and I didn't get to see her and I hate it when my kids and my grandkids aren't here. Back, she's 13 now, but back when she was like three, she and granny were in Walmart and they were in Walmart and she found some toy that she likes over $40. Of course, she's three, she doesn't know. And she said, oh, gran, would you buy me that? And granny says, Oh, no, Ella, that's way too expensive. That's, that's over $40. I don't have the money. We don't have the money to do that. And she looked at her and she said, Oh, grand. Yes, you do. And she said, no, Ella. I mean, right there, I just got, I just got, I just killed the conversation. We wouldn't be eating that week or whatever, but we'd get that. And she said, oh, Gran, yes, you do. And Debbie said, Well, we can't just get that you know, there's there's a Wes and there's Annabelle and there's there's your brother Jameson there's and there's there's and you have these others and We just can't do it. And then Ella looked at granny. She says Oh gran Don't you wish Papa was here? Yeah Amen You see We can give without loving. A lot of people do. But we can't love without giving. I just love. I wish I could give more than what I do. I'm not just talking about the Lord. I'm just talking about to some of you and friends and family. Now, we believe that God's word commands us to take the gospel to all the world. Amen? Preach the gospel, go on the highways and hedges, streets and lanes, go into the world and preach the gospel. Now listen, our outreach and missions is only limited by our giving. Our outreach and missions is only limited by our giving. And then our giving is only limited by our faith and our obedience to God's word. Our outreach and missions, it's only limited by our giving, and our giving is only limited by our faith and obedience to God's Word. Now look at the little yellow card you've got. I want you to see something here. Let me see. First of all, it's your faith, promise, commitment card. This is what you pledge to give this next year till next March above and beyond your tithes and offerings. I've had these cards printed for years, I can't hardly read the small print anymore. Ecclesiastes 5.4. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Now look on this side, it says my faith promised missions. It says with my dependence upon God, I will endeavor, things happen, People get sick, people die, things happen. With my dependence upon God, I will endeavor to give by faith each week for one year the amount checked below for the worldwide missions work of our church. 2 Corinthians 2 verse chapter 10 verse 2 Corinthians 10 verse 15 and 16, when your faith is increased that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly to preach the gospel in the regions beyond. Now, this is a promised each week, and you can check a hundred, you can check 75, you can check a dollar, you can check 50 cents. It has other, you can write, you can check other and write in what God puts on your heart. Now listen, so what you do, you check, you make out what you're going to give, then you put that amount over here, You put this in the offering plate, and you keep that in your Bible to remind you each week what you pledged. And on the last Sunday of this month, we're going to take our faith promise commitment cards. Now listen, keep this card in your Bible all this month. How many of you have a cell phone? I'm afraid to even ask this next question. How many of you can stay up with it most of the time? Can you keep this card for this next month? And ask God, honestly, ask God what he would have you to do when it comes to world evangelism. If you're giving now, surely God will touch your heart to increase a bit. You know what your pastor wants you to give? Exactly what God puts on your heart. That's it. And then some of you who aren't giving, maybe you're like me. I was this way until I met Dr. Ernest Gambrel, the president of Fundamental Baptist Worldwide Missions. He's been a great mentor to me in the area of missions. We were in a building program in Memphis, and we needed $22,000 to get the plumbing up to the building, and we needed $42,000 to get it up here. And he came and preached on missions. I said, man, he's trying to take our money. We need this money to get the plumbing up to the building, you know. They didn't cover this in Bible college. They covered missions, but they didn't cover faith, promise, giving. And God really, really had to open my eyes to this, and I want your eyes to be open. And if all of us who are giving can increase a bit, whatever God would have us to do, and then those who have not committed before to faith promise and commit to it above their tithes and off, you can't rob people to pay Paul, we can't send money to China and have the lights turned off here, that's obvious, but you give, and people who are giving increase a bit, and then those who have not entered into a faith promise begin to give, how much of an increase could we have for this next year? I want to be a part of that, don't you? Can I tell you, listen, it takes money to keep missionaries on the field. There was a time that God had moved me and stirred me about going to New Guinea. Some of you remember that? I was really struggling with it, and some of our folks were concerned and But you know, boy, pastor is going to resign. He's going to go to New Guinea as a missionary. And. I called a missionary friend of mine. And I said, man, I'm burdened for New Guinea. And I don't know, I said, things are going well, the church, God's blessing. But I don't know if I shouldn't. Just resign and go out on deputation and go to New Guinea. And this missionary had been a missionary in Japan, and he had done a great work for God. He had a good church there. And he looked at me and says, Brother Rick, what you've got to determine is the difference between a burden and a call. And He said, you can be burdened for New Guinea and pastor this church. And he says, and you might do a greater work pastoring this church, sending missionaries out everywhere, supporting missionaries than you would ever do on the field in New Guinea. He said, I'm not trying to discourage you from going to New Guinea, but you've got to distinguish between a burden and a call. There came a time when the Rays were kicked out of China. Remember that? Was that 22 years ago? 21? Yeah. And we were praying. Eddie came into my office and he sat down. He says, Pastor, I don't know what to do. He said, you know, we could go to Taiwan. It's free there. He says, there's a great number of Chinese, a great Chinese church out in California. I could go and staff out there. He could readily do that. He said, I could go to Canada. There's a huge population of Chinese there. I just don't know what I should do. And God just put the words in my heart. The wisdom was from God. I said, Eddie, has God called you to the Chinese people or to mainland China? And I saw in his face, he says. We're going to China. We're going back. I don't know how, but we're going back. You know, but I know that it was from Ed Gibson, missionary Ed Gibson in Japan that shared that with me years before that set me up for that meeting with Brother Ray. Now, listen. If you're called, that would be wonderful. You know what I pray for, you know. To me, it would be awesome if some of our Spanish kids But go off to Bible college. Lose yourself, give your own self and go back to Mexico and preach the gospel to your people. You know that. How wonderful that would be. I tell you what, I'd support you. I mean, we'd hold the ropes here. Wouldn't it be great? You get too comfortable with this American life, though. You know. I'm just saying that. The heart throb of God is souls. And the mission of this church, of God's church. Is is is to send people out and to preach the gospel. And not all of us are called. I thought I might need to go. I wasn't called. I was burdened and still am. And what Brother Gibson said was true. I think I've done more for missions pastoring this church than I probably would have ever done on the field in New Guinea. Stand with me, would you please? Keep your card. I hope every day you have your Bible devotions, you look at it, and let me tell you something that you can do. As you look at it every day when you have your Bible devotions, say, God, tell me what you want us to put on this. And don't second guess the Holy Spirit. Remember these four principles. Keep this paper. Read them over. These are four solid biblical principles about our giving. I love preaching this because it brings great joy and the revenue of it is many souls that come to know the Lord around the world. God's people said,