Philippians chapter 4 verse 14. We're going to finish our series tonight, and we finish, we jump to the book of Philippians. Philippians is one of my favorite books in the New Testament. I love this book because when Paul wrote to the church of Philippi, he was in jail. He was suffering, but he didn't ever give up. Look what it says. Verse 14, Now withstanding, he hath well done that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now, you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. For even in Thessalonica ye sent once again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account." Don't miss that. Okay, but I have all and and abound I am full received received from Aphrodite the things which We're sent from you an order of sweet smelling a sacrifice acceptable well pleasing to God But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus and it says but unto God and our father be glory forever and ever and Amen, let's pray Heavenly Father. Thank you Lord for this passage of scripture and Lord what a wonderful passage right there in verse I believe Lord verse 17 where it says that that may abound to your account Lord Thank you Lord for the privilege that we have to give for worldwide missions Lord we doing exactly what you tell us to do to go throughout the world and preach the gospel to every creature Thank you, Lord, for such a great privilege of doing that. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. You may be seated. So, supporting the Gospel. We've been talking about the Gospel. This is our last message on the Gospel. In the Gospel, you have to understand, you say, what's the Gospel? The Gospel is the good news. What's the good news that Jesus saves? It's a good news that a lost soul can get saved, can become a Christian, can become a child of God. It has not become religious to become a child of God. If you're not a child of God, you're a child of the world. You don't belong to God. You don't want to die like that. Okay, so now I don't not making a money marathon here for the church About missions christian needs to get a vision for missions. Okay, i'm teaching on missions We teach we're talking about missions, you know what missions is and what the lord tells us about missions This is not a a marathon of see how much money we can make, you know We either give and we don't give there's one thing i'm going to share with you I'm going to give and continue to give because god's blessing me and I will continue to give because I want to see something added to my account. And Paul is very specific about that right here. Now the support of missions comes, listen to this, after the tithing, not before the tithing or part of the tithing. So the tithe is the Lord's, don't play with that, that's the Lord, I said that this morning. And any offering that we do to reach others is, that's what comes, it's above the tithe. So I'm trusting I'm trying to teach you a concept of this tonight so you can understand from a Christian standpoint where God tells us about this stuff about tithing, not tithing. Okay, a tithe is 10% of your income. All right? That belongs to God. You say, wow, that's a lot of money. Okay? You can think that way or you can say, it's God's money so it's not my money. I'm not even going to think about it. You follow that? I said this morning, some people, some I said, Pastor, should I tithe for my gross or my net? Well, and I said, that's not biblical. It's not by what I said. You want gross blessings or you want net blessings? However, you know, but here's one thing is for sure. The tithe is the Lord's. We give to missions after the tithe. That's my conviction. That's the way I believe the scriptures teach and that's where I teach, okay? I don't want to rob you from that of receiving those blessings. So I'm not teaching you something that you don't know. You know these things. We're just kind of reviewing these things. So we tied we give to missions and we do give to other outreaches that we do as part of the church. For an example, if you give to the food pantry, you give above your tie, right? you help. If you give to missions, the same thing. If a brother or sister is in need and the Lord impresses on your heart, you give. That's nothing to do with the tithe. It's above that. You just give. So as Christians, we are called to support the work of the gospel in three ways, okay? So pastor, so which three ways we support the work of the gospel? The gospel, we think we move the gospel to be moved forward, right? The gospel was to move forward. So how you support the gospel, all right? Pray it. The Lord says pray for the Lord of the harvest that he sent forth labors into his harvest. So pray is essential in our missions. We need to pray for our missionaries. We need to pray for the ministries. We need to pray that the Lord will keep them safe and all that stuff. Also, we need participation. Not because we give money to missions and pray for the missionaries. What about us? we are to be missionaries ourselves so we tell others about the Lord Jesus as the Lord brings that to our mind as we are given those divine appointments I was talking this morning and of course we have our financial support Paul talks about that the church of Philippi gave it to them to him and you see he keeps saying a gift because it is a gift you follow that the supporting missions is a gift you don't have to give you give because you want to give although you press on your heart to give okay so I want to make that clear so you can understand so if you notice we are we are a missions minded church we are a proactive missions minded church and and we take that call very seriously because that's what the lord calls us to do each week here the offerings goes to support missions you say pastor okay somebody asked me this pastor how much we give I would love to increase it we don't but this is what we do we send our missions check to our missionaries every quarter so every three months we add it up and we send $75 for each missionary a month so we add it up love to increase that we're not in that place to increase but in the future the Lord wills if we have more we can increase it but a little bit from us a little bit from somebody else a little bit from somebody else and they have all these churches supporting them it helps them take the gospel other parts of the world okay So why is it so important to support the gospel financially? Well, you know why? Because in many countries, those people that go, some of them have to be very discreet. Some of them can't work because it depends what country you go into. Some of them go in as teachers. Some of them go in as medical missionaries. And also the gospel can spread out because some countries are very closed and you don't have the freedom like we have here in America to proclaim the gospel the way we want. So, but the gospel moves forward. Like I said about, I think last Sunday, the gospel knows no borders. it just travels everywhere because you know what if you're a christian here you are a messenger of the gospel wherever you go guess who goes with you the gospel message all right so when you support missions let's look at this from some points tonight okay i pray that you will get encouraged tonight about grace giving to the lord i mean it's a wonderful thing to be able to give i understand it's a wonderful I'm glad for the people. I was saved in a church that believed in missions. I moved to another church that believed in missions. And I got involved with many churches that all believe in missions. You know, we have many churches that support us as a church plan. Even they call me a missionary. And it's amazing, Americans, you know, America needs missionaries. We need to look very hard in the land of America. So, when you support the gospel with your finances, what happens? Number one, if you want to follow the outline, you further the spread of the gospel. Look what it says in verse 14 and 15. Now withstanding, ye have well done, that ye communicate with my affliction. Naive Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, No church communicated me concerning giving and receiving, but he only. Paul says right here, you're the only church that actually supported me. Paul recalls how the Philippian church supported him financially in the early days of the acquaintance with the gospel. They were just getting started as a church themselves, and yet they made it a priority to support the work of the gospel. You know what we did when we first started this church? I am not kidding you. Brother Roland became our first missionary. That was our first missionary immediately when we were like, you know what? I want to be a missions minded church. We need to have missionaries. You know what? That was the right thing to do. All the support, all they did, listen, all the investment they put on us. We said, brother, we want to support you as one of our missionaries. And you heard him this morning in a video. What a blessing to be part of that. 196 churches. Isn't that great? And we're part of that? Praise the Lord. talking about putting stuff in your account in heaven. So they were partners in the gospel from the very beginning. Thus teaches us that church should be a missions-minded church because that is the mind of Christ. My pastor, Pastor Tom Crichton said, here's what he said, I never forgot that. When a church loses the vision for missions, that church lost the meaning of its existence. That is strong words. And he meant that because he was a very mission minded. How many missionaries do we have? What, 150 some missionaries we have? That was a great blessing. You know, and he said, when a church loses that vision, that church loses... because we can't just look and God says go ye throughout the world preach the gospel to every creature I'm not saying this in you know you know it is a blessing to see the mind of another pastor that believes in reaching the lost souls and he was very proactive very proactive on that so This teaches that we should support financially and prayerfully those who go and bring the gospel to other parts of the world. And it's not something you grow into, but it's part of your basis or the basics of Christianity. God calls us to give generously of our finances to the work of the gospel. Get this, the lost world is not going to support the Great Commission. You follow that? listen those who are lost they're not going to support the gospel they probably will laugh at it you know but we know that they need the gospel and who goes and gives the gospel those who are saved that you've been transformed by the power of God so the Great Commission was given to God's people not to those who are lost we are called to support missions both with prayer participation and giving. So Paul called this fellowship of giving, sharing in his troubles. Paul experienced the trouble of persecution and trial while spreading the gospel at the Philippians, experienced the trouble of financial sacrifice at home while supporting the spread of the gospel abroad. So the Philippians were not a wealthy church. You follow that? If you think the Philippian church is a wealthy church, they were not a wealthy church. But guess what? We read this actually, look what it says about this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1. It says, abounded into the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record that, 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 ministry to the saints." Paul says right here, listen, they're not a wealthy church, but you know what? Out of their sacrifice, out of their own necessity, they give. You know why? Because they saw the cause. And the cause was the gospel to move forward. I tell you, folks, the gospel is to move forward, not to stay still. The gospel is to go on to reach those who are lost. Listen, they don't understand what it means to be lost, what it is to be lost. I remember when Pastor Strickland came to my house many years ago in Warwick, Rhode Island, up there, and he said to me, are you saved? And I looked at him, I said, I'm not lost. I was being as honest as I could. I was not playing or kidding with him. I knew that he was a man of God. I knew he was a pastor of a church. And when he said, are you lost? And I said, are you saved? I'm sorry. I look at him. I said, I never heard such word before the way you put it. I'm not lost. I'm sitting in my living room. So I did not understand when he said, are you, what I said, saved? Saved. I did not understand. I honestly did not understand. But we know why. I went to church. And he began to preach on that. You know what? He did it every Sunday. And I began to understand the reason why he asked such a question. I was religious, but I was not a child of God. So to speak, I was not a born-again believer. I was not a Christian. I was a religious person. That's the way many people are. They're just religious. They have a form of godliness, the Bible says. That's what they have. But they don't know Jesus as their personal Savior. You see, we're dealing with something a lot more than religion. People say to me, you're religious. I'm not religious. They look at me like this. You know why they look at me that way? Because they don't understand. Listen to this. There are approximately 7,000 unreached people, people's groups, okay, in the world today. There are groups with no gospel witness. There are over 7 billion people alive in the world today, maybe even more. So nearly 3 billion of them lived in unreached people's groups with little or no access to a gospel message. We have been called to go into the world with the gospel. That's what the Lord tells us to do. Go ye throughout the world, preach the gospel to every creature. You say, Pastor, I can't go to every part of the world. No, we can't. We know that's true, right? I tell you what, we have a great tool, it's called Facebook. You got that? You say, what do you do with Facebook? Put the gospel message there. Talk about Jesus there. Oh, but you know, people don't put likes in there. Who cares about the likes? You know, you know why? Because if you have friends, they're going to see your post on their walls. It's going to show up. And their friends probably will see your post too. You follow that? Let's put an example. Okay. So you have, let's say 40 friends. Be conservative. Okay. Let's say one of your friends have 200 friends. You see where that thing is going? It just keeps on traveling. You might think I'm kidding. I'm not kidding. So we can use those tools to reach so many people that you don't even know. Oh, I know. You see, you have YouTube, you have all kinds of social media out there, but are they here without a preacher? So let's send those who go and plant churches as well, because ultimately people need a church to go to. Don't we need a church? There we go. Okay. So number two, you supply the needs of a Christian worker. Secondly, when you support the gospel with your finances, you supply the needs of Christian workers. Look over 16. For even in Thessalonica, ye sent once and again unto my necessity. What is remarkable about Paul is that Paul began to disminister in Thessalonica almost immediately after he left Philippi. Thessalonica was a neighboring region and Paul had not even left Macedonia yet, and the Philippians were already sending support, helping him in this time of need. I remember when we started this church plan, and we had several churches to go to. And my pastor asked me, he called me and asked me, so how are you doing? I said, we're doing great, Pastor. You're doing great? Oh, yeah, we have this church, that church, that church. How was your support? I said, zero. And he goes, no, I'm like, zero, Pastor. He said, you're doing good. Well, you know, God is in the throne, and I'm trusting Him. You know, if He wants us to have it, we're going to have it. If not, you know, we're going to trust the Lord. He said, So the first church actually that took us for support was New England Baptist Church in Medford, Massachusetts. That was the first church. Pastor Tom Michaels. Tom Michaels, am I right? Yeah, Tom Michaels. You know, I went there. Oh goodness. I got there very late because I got stuck in a highway and I'll go to Boston. He never make it there and I got there. I call him. I said pastor. I don't know. He went to a missions conference there and he said I don't think I said I don't think I make it. I'm stuck in traffic. He goes. Don't worry brother Barboza. We wait for you. He did wait for us. Let me tell you. And so I preached in a Friday night. And he said with me and another person and he said can you preach for us tomorrow? So I was in Saturday. So I was in the first church. Oh, what a glorious day that was. Somebody believed in us. Somebody really believed in us. You know what? Paul right here, the joy of somebody is behind you and said, I support your work. I believe in you. I know what you're going to do. What a blessing that was. So the people we support in missions are real people. Don't you know that? Just like you and I have real needs, they have too. They're not superhumans. They require food, clothes, medical attention, all those things that we have in our own lives as well. But even more than that, you know what? Many parts of the world, they have visas, they can't work. They can't work. Like if you go get a job like here, they can't do it. All right. So we want to send a missionary to Portugal. That's Europe. We want to send a missionary, let's say, to Italy. That's Europe. You follow that? Okay. Let's say you want to send a missionary to, let's say, to Brazil. That's South America, right? Okay. Here's the difference. The cost of living in South America is a lot cheaper than the cost of living in Europe. If you don't believe it, check it out. So a missionary that goes to Europe needs a lot more support than a missionary that goes to South America. Believe me, it's the way it is. These people are just like us. They have needs. bills to pay just like we do so as a church we should be praying that we give to missions what we have pledged for because every year we come under I mean I mean put this back as a church we should be praying that what about what we give to missions it were like this we should take a serious what we pledge to the Lord You follow that? We should take a serious. Lord, I pledge this amount. Help me to be faithful to what I pledge to you. Because ultimately, missions is not one time a year. Missionaries don't live just in October. They live year-round. And if, you know, when it comes to that time of the year and that time of the month when they don't receive, they're already saying something. Some of them don't say anything. you know so when you support the gospel with your finances number three you store up treasures in heaven look at verse 17 not because i desire a gift but i desire fruit that may abound to your account which account is he's talking about here a heavenly account oh wow then jesus said build treasures in heaven did jesus mention that You say, what about on earth? Well, your treasure's on earth. Listen, money is important, isn't it? I'm not naive here, okay? Money is important to all of us. We need money to survive. But ultimately, when you depart from this world, guess what happens to your money? Somebody else will take care of it, thank you very much. Because it stays here, it don't take it with you. And if you try, it goes to the grave and stays there. So you have those grief diggers and go, no, I'm just kidding. But anyway, so you see, build treasures in heaven. So when someone receives the gospel because you support that missionary, or because you prayed, or because you went out and did you know what? It's added to your account. Pastor Crichton said this too, right in front of me. I was saved at First Baptist Church of Warwick, Rhode Island. It was Pastor Sam Strickland, okay? Pastor Crichton called Pastor Simstrick and he said, don't you know that Tony Barbosa is starting a church in East Providence? And that's what he said. Brother, that is fruit to your account. He came from your church. That is true. That's where I got saved. That's where I got baptized. That's where I grew in the Lord. He said, let's see, I came one to another church, but guess what? It's fruit to his account as much to Pastor Crichton's account. So we have a missionary that we support go to other part of the world, guess what? If he leads somebody to the Lord, that's fruit to your account, to your account, to your account. Isn't that great? It is a blessing to be part of this great, great gospel. You store up treasures in heaven. When Paul speaks about what may be credited to your account, the original language actually says, fruit that may abound right here. This is a phrase that refers to the compound interest in the New Testament times. When you give to the gospel, you are not spending, you are investing in the kingdom of God. You follow that? You are storing up, treasuring in heaven that will never be taken away. In fact, that treasure is earning compound interest. What a wonderful thing. Souls for heaven. That's what Jesus died for. Isn't it? I mean, we look at Jesus on the cross and we say, well, why did Jesus went to cross for? Listen folks, the King of creation or the God of creation went, took a form of a man and went to Calvary's cross, shed his blood and died for the human race. Why did he do that for? Obviously is a need for right it was for so you can have redemption I can have redemption so we can be redeemed from our sin. That's why you went there for What a wonderful Savior, isn't it? See we think this for granted and we say I know listen, we're not gonna live forever. Oh we will But not in this body of ours You know, it's gonna come a day that we will depart you become a memory. I You follow that? I have many loved ones. You have departed. You know what I have left? A memory. That's it. What happened to them? Either heaven or either hell. They made their choices. We hope that they went to heaven. Now we, that's what we hope for. We want to see them again. How was your heavenly account these days? That's a question that you have to ask yourself. All right, when you support the gospel with your finances, number four, your gift is an act of worship that is pleasing to God. And we see this in verse 18, look where it says, Why would Paul would say that? because that's what God wants us to do. Paul says that's what God wants us to do, to reach those who are lost. The spiritual dimension to giving that it does not want the Philippians to miss here. The gifts from Philippi were not only supply is need, but they are also pleasing sacrifice of worship to God. They are a fragrant offering and acceptable gift that God is well pleasing. So when you go and when you tell somebody or you engage somebody in a conversation about Jesus, is God pleased with that? Oh, yeah. Oh yes, God is pleased with that. When we pray for those who are lost, is God pleased with that? Yes. When we give to reach those who are lost, is God pleased with that? Yes. Yes. So when you support the gospel, you ultimately are giving to God. Yes, you are furthering the spread of the gospel. You're moving the gospel forward by supplying your prayers, your participation, and your finances. This must come first, you know, like, you know, all that's together. In the long run, Christian giving is not measured primarily by financial value, but by the giving heart towards God. Listen, we should never put a price tag on a soul. Are we spending too much money? We can't. We trust God. That's what we do. We trust the Lord. you know in this church business is things like this is up years and down years up years and down years when we have a done year we pray more than God will provide more right right Lord hey we down Lord we need and Lord provides we just have faith enough to believe this stuff right there's that be faithful Lord We don't want to reach more souls. Let's pray a little harder. Let's adopt some of these empty seats and let's say, Lord, I want somebody sitting in here. I'm going to work for that. OK, so we're getting almost done. OK, when you support the gospel, what your finances, God provides the meat. I'm sorry, God promised to meet all your needs. The fifth encouragement is this, when you and I support the gospel, which our prayer, our participation, our finances, look what God says in verse 19. But my God shall supply all you need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. With all this talk of giving sacrificially for the gospel, someone might ask, what will happen to my own needs if I support the work of the gospel financially? We have here a wonderful promise from God, a wonderful word of assurance that God will meet all your needs according to His glories, riches in Christ Jesus. Now, it might not be the way we want, but God will bless. The Lord says, see if I don't open the gates of heaven or the windows of heaven, however that goes. That's for tithing. But we have to believe and trust and have faith enough to believe in God. Again, this thing about faith giving for missions, it's an optional thing. You want to give, you give. You don't have to give. But you know what? Paul said these churches went right at it. Like I said, the tithe is the Lord. Missions is above the tithe. Paul knows that he can't rip, let me tell you, listen, I'm in the same boat as well, okay? I'm not going to exclude myself, okay? Is it hard to tie? Let's be honest right here, okay? I'm not going to tell you, I mean, look, Pastor, you're naive, you don't know what you're talking about, you're way up there, you have no clue what you, listen, I work a full-time job too. I know how hard it is. All right. We have bills to pay. Don't we? All of us. Life is not cheap. Let's be honest. All right. You want to be able to give up all my time. That's even more. You know what? That's what fate comes in. Believe me. That's when fate comes in and say, Lord, you know my problems. You know what I have to do. You know, I don't know how, but I'm going to trust you. That's what comes down to faith. So God has whenever, listen, God knows your finances and know my finances. God knows your bills and knows my bills. He knows everything, doesn't he? I mean, honestly, doesn't he? He knows what your bills, you know, hanging in the house, they're waiting for some money to go in the checking account so you can pay. He knows that. He knows what you have in your checking account and savings account. God knows all. Does he know all or does he not? Listen. Our God is not naive. He knows all. That's when we need faith to trust Him that He will take care of us. It is an act of faith and sometimes a very hard act of faith. So okay, so when you support the gospel, what's your finances? Number six, to God be the glory. When you support the gospel with your finances, you further the spread of the gospel, you supply the needs of a Christian worker, you store up treasures in heaven, I'm sorry, your gift is an act of worship that is pleasing to God, and God promised to meet all your needs, number five and number six, to God be the glory. Look at verse 20 of Philippians 4. Now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Paul ends this section with glory and praises to God. There are three parts of this doxology. The who, the what, and the how long. The who is our God and Father who meets all our needs so richly in Christ. The what is glory. All glory goes to God. And how long is forever to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. So this is a fitting close, not only to this session, but to the whole letter. The bottom line is this, when you support, when you, when we support the gospel, the work of the gospel moves forward. People get saved, God gets glorified. All right, so we move the gospel forward, what do we do? We tilt the ground, we put seeds in the ground, we water the ground. The crops begin to grow, hearts are open, ears are open, and God gets the glory. That's how you got saved? That's how I got saved. You know how I got saved? Many people reached out to me, told me about the Lord. I refused, I rejected, I did all that stuff. And one day, I was ready for the harvest. And boom. I mean, I can say this because I can look back now. When I was there, how many times God's people approached me and I rejected. But it was a time on which my heart was ready for the harvest. The seed was already planted there, but it takes workers, it takes their movement, something to move forward. The gospel was made to move forward. So, I conclude this tonight. As we close tonight, let me highlight just one thing from each verse in this section, okay? Verse 21 each person in the body of Christ is important. Look what it says salute every saint in Christ Jesus the brethren which are with me Greet you so every person in the body of Christ is important Because no more than this this one is more important than that. Everybody's important number two. We are partakers of the gospel together the gospel is not made for the pastor or for the Leaders of the church, everyone are to participate in this. God no longer says all the saints salute you, chiefly they are of Caesar's household. Okay. Number three, we owe all to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We did this in verse 23. For the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. You see what it says right here? We are partakers of the gospel and we have the responsibility as God's children to move this gospel forward. Listen, we can close the doors of the church and make ourselves feel good here. Some churches have done that. But that's not what God wants us to do, is it? He wants us to be the light of the world, right? Number two. We are all partners in the gospel together. So this gospel, when the Lord says, go ye throughout the world and preach the gospel to every creature, is to all of us, all of us children, to be involved in this great work of the gospel. It is wonderful to be part of that, to be part of the gospel message, to tell others about Jesus Christ. Listen, this is not about playing church. There's nobody. You know, this is about telling people the truth They need the gospel. That's why the Bible never calls a miracle when someone gets it It is a miracle. So so God so great of a miracle that they haven't the heavens rejoice with them Wow All right. Let's pray Heavenly Father. Thank you Lord so much for the gospel message. It reached my heart and I reach the heart of my sisters and my brothers here tonight. And those who are online, they are saved as well. Lord, help us, help us to continue to move this wonderful message forward to the ends of the earth. So help us to do that, Lord, to be good stewards of this gospel that you left for us. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. All right. You take a soft line.