It is a great joy and a blessing to be here. Good crowd, good spirit. Hadn't always been that way. Such a blessing to have all that in place. Did you know it takes sacrifice to have that? It takes a stand, it takes a commitment, it takes some perseverance when things do get difficult, that you've just got your mind made up that there's a cause. And we'll do whatever we have to do to keep the ball rolling in the right direction. Whatever we've got to do. So it is such a blessing to be here, and I can just focus on missions. The last time I was here, I focused on just whatever. And it all worked out. Somebody said, how did you do that? I'm not sure I did. But here's what you've got to do if you're going to do something for the Lord. You've got to find out what He wants, and you've got to be willing to let Him use you, not in the way you want to do it, but in the way He wants it done. Whether it makes you look good, or whether it makes you look really bad. But the gentler was telling me, he said, you know, every time we put your name in one of our emails, he said, we have people unsubscribe, unsubscribe, unsubscribe. He said, we just put your name in there. And he said, we get more of that kind of stuff with your name and Shady Acres Baptist Church's name than anybody else. I'll say, if you're going to please God, somebody's got to be the bad guy. Here am I, send me. I don't care what people think about me. I do care what the Lord thinks. And if I can be the nice guy, I will. But I'm not hung up on that. Some people are hung up on that. They're going to think they've got to be the nice guy no matter what. Yeah, well, your ministry is going to be real bumpy. Because you're going to have evil people come in, and you're going to be the nice guy, and they're going to steamroll you. So if you can't be the bad guy, you better have somebody close to you that can. That works in the family too. Just like it works in the church. Just like it works in a nation. And just like it works in a business. Somebody has to be the bad guy. Not everybody in the company can be nice. Somebody has to say, get to work or get out. Brother Nathan Cox is our school principal, and before he became full-time at the church, he worked in human resources for a company in Houston, and he was the guy that interviewed people and hired them. And he said, every day I'd have a stack of applications on my desk of people that wanted a job. And I said, how did you figure out who to give an interview to? He said, well, it really wasn't that difficult. The first thing I put on it is, fill this out completely. That's the first thing it says. And he said, over 90% of them will not do that. He said, so all those went in the trash. I just thumbed through them, looked at all the blank lines, trash, trash, trash, trash. The stack I had left, I actually read and decided who to give the interview to. You know, people just believe they can do anything they want to do nowadays in any situation, even when it comes to giving and missions. It's really not up to us to decide. It's up to us to obey. Do what the Lord says. Do what the Bible says. You say, well, I don't agree with that. I don't like that. That is totally irrelevant. Totally irrelevant. I'd like for you to look with me in Luke chapter number 6. While you're turning there, I picked up a few missionary cards on my way in. I like to do that where I can pray for people during a meeting. And I'm sure I didn't get everybody's card, but I got one here for the Matt Welch and his family. I knew Brother Matt before he ever went to the mission field. Now he's gray-headed like me. And we've gotten older, Brother Matt. But he's been serving the Lord. He was serving the Lord in Bulgaria when there was revival. in Bulgaria. I'm talking about revival like you read books about. Going into villages, people getting saved. I never got to go over there and see it, but just hearing the reports, from Brother Ralph Cheatwood and Brother Matt Welch and some other men that I knew of the gospel going forth in Bulgaria and Romania and just miraculous things happening. If he were to tell you all the stories of what God did, you'd probably drop his support, thinking he was an exaggerator. That's how messed up we are. So he has to kind of dumb it down so that we won't think he's exaggerating. Just go ahead and tell it like it is, Brother Matt. Amen. Just tell it like it is and let the chips fall. Don't worry about it. That crowd that can't handle it, they're not going to give you any money anyway. Great, great missionary. The Holmes family. Missionaries to Nigeria, West Africa. There's more con men in Nigeria. We all know that, right? Doesn't everybody in here get emails from Nigeria that there's $10 million in a bank in your name waiting for you, and all you have to do is send a $5,000 cashier's check to pick up your $10 million? All that comes from Nigeria. You say, why does it all come from Nigeria? I hate to admit this, but apparently they're smarter than Americans. They can just send an email and get thousands of dollars. From who? Who does that? Who sends that? Oh, greedy people who have a chance of getting ten million dollars. for only $1,000 or $5,000 or whatever it may be. Of course, you send them a good cashier's check, and they send you a phony one. Now, good luck cashing that $10 million check. It's not going to happen. So I say, go, Brother Holmes, get the gospel over there and get them people saved, or they'll leave us alone. The Harris family, missionaries to Mexico. There'll never be too many missionaries in Mexico. Brother Meyer that we just heard from, I've known him since before he got married, before he went to the mission field, preached in his home church way back then. And I remember thinking, a single man on the mission field? I don't know about that. Well, that's how much I know. It all worked out. Hallelujah! Aren't you glad God doesn't operate in our little box all the time? That's the biggest problem we've got. We've got too many boxes. And if your God fits in your box, you're an idolater. Yeah, well, you'll probably get some more spam things on your email after me saying that. But that's what I believe. I believe it. Oh, I'm going to in a little bit. I'm on a porch visiting right now. It'll be preaching time. We'll get there. Is anybody preaching after me? Just me, huh? Okay. I haven't even started the time yet. Brother Lefevre, missionaries to the Turks in Bulgaria. Now, this is Brother Matt's son-in-law. He's probably got a lot of them. How many girls you got? Five. Yeah, he's probably got a bunch of those sons-in-law. What a blessing when your family wants to serve the Lord. And I wrote down when they were standing there, Brother Jason Kendrick, whom I've known for many years and been in some meetings with him. Brother Schwer, I may not be saying that right, but that's close enough. Brother Dunn, who comes to our camp meeting every time we have one. He and his wife come to our camp meeting and just sit there and rejoice with us. I mean, you know he's a good guy if he can go to Shady Acres and get a blessing. Brother Billy Richburg, whom I watched remodel a house in White Plains, North Carolina one time for us to stay in for camp meeting when Preacher Carl Lackey was there. Great old preacher and a great man of God, Brother Carl Lackey. Now, he didn't care a whole lot what people thought about him. He could pretty well say whatever he wanted to say anywhere, anytime. There he is right there. Dr. Carl T. Lackey. I got some more stuff in here, Preacher Lackey's, but it's hiding from me. Oh, there it is. Did you know at the White Plains Baptist Church, we offer White Plains Bible Institute and Bible College, White Plains Christian School camp, Jewel Youth Camp. That's his wife's name, Jewel Lackey. And she was a Jewel preacher. She was a Jewel. She would weep over people, get them back to church, and preacher Lackey would skin their hide and run them off. And she would go back out there and weep over them and get them right back to church. Amen, every preacher needs a wife like that. I got one of them. She said, if you knew how hard it was to get them here, you wouldn't be so quick to run them off. White Plains daycare, and there's Preacher Lackey's picture on the back. I carry those things in my notebook. I have for over 30 years. My wife says I never throw anything away. I got a sermon outlined on the back of where some kids in our master club signed a piece of paper and gave it to me when they were first graders. Now they're all married and got children. I still got that piece of paper, that sermon on the back. It's a missions message, so I can't get rid of it. Might need it. Some of those boys have been to Iraq and Afghanistan. I appreciate Brother Billy and his wife. I knew his mother-in-law. Now, there's a lady that'd like to have a good time. Brother Billy's wife can aid me in testifying that her mama, she went to have a good time. Somebody said, Church is boring. You should have went with her mama. You wouldn't say that. And Brother Smith and his wife, Sister Dee, they came to our church recently. She did a great job singing. He did a great job preaching. Got some great reps for Victory Baptist Press. We always enjoy them coming by. And of course, Brother Jim Fuller is always a blessing when he comes to our church. He comes to nearly every meeting we have. We're always glad when He comes. We're kind of like family. You know why? Because we are. You say, I don't like you being in my family. Too late. You'll probably be next door to me. Luke chapter 6 verse 38 will be our text. Then we're going to kind of roam around in the context a little bit. And then we're going to try to zero in on how it applies to us tonight. This is the Lord Jesus speaking in verse 38 of Luke chapter 6. Wouldn't you like the way that verse starts out? I mean, he didn't stand on the porch much, did he? He just launched right into it there. Give. Well, somebody said, why should we give? Jesus said to. Do you need any other reason? I mean, as clear as it can be, give. People are creative in all the excuses they can come up with for why they can't or why they won't give. But Jesus didn't make any exceptions because of our circumstances He just said to do it. Give. And if you're greedy and selfish and lukewarm and worldly, He's going to give you a reason to give. If you were not like that, He could have just put, give, and that would have been the end of the verse. But He understands our frame. He knows our hearts. He knows our thoughts. And He knew that there were going to be some selfish people who were going to really struggle with this whole idea of give. So He said, give, and it shall be given unto you. In other words, even if you're selfish, you can get a blessing out of giving. Isn't that great? Don't you love the way the Lord explains things? Good measure. Press down. He's talking about your blessing. He's talking about your blessing if you'll just do what He said. Just give. And it'll be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over more than you know what to do with. I already told you, my wife says I never throw anything away. I can take you to my house and show you that I got more stuff than I know what to do with. Most of you do too. You know how I know? I've stayed in people's homes. They'll say, here's your room, here's the bathroom, here's the closet, you can hang your clothes in, open the door to the closet. You couldn't hang one t-shirt in that closet. Much less two suits, three or four shirts, extra pair of pants, work pants or something, you know, in case you have to work, God forbid. If you've got so much stuff, you couldn't slide a pair of shoes under the bed. The closet has a shelf. You can't even put a briefcase. Not that anybody carries briefcases anymore. Everybody carries backpacks now. I hate backpacks. You get on a plane, and some moron's got a backpack that sticks out two feet behind him, and when he turns around, he whops you upside the head. Nobody watches where this backpack is going. They're just in there, and they're putting stuff up there, and they're doing them whack, whack, whack, whack, whack, whack, whack. I'm going to start carrying a cane. I'm going to start whacking them back. Then when they say, why'd you do that? Backpack. All the kids go to school now. You know what we used to do? You're not going to believe this. We used to just carry the books. It taught coordination. You know what happens to books when kids carry them in a backpack for a whole school year? They look like they've been used for 15 years. We carried them in our hands and took better care of them than they can in the back of the house. Putting them in, dragging them out, scraping it on the zipper. Just demolishes the books. Okay, you're dying on me. Where's that good spirit I was talking about? He said, what has this got to do with missions? You better hope I stay on this frame. You're going to like this story better than you're going to like the next one. Yeah, I hate backpacks. He said, with the same measure that ye meet with all, it shall be measured to you again. Or in other words, He said, give, and if you give, I'll give to you. He said, and however much you give will determine how much I'm going to give to you through other men. Shall men give into your bosom? You say, well, I can't afford to give, then God can't afford to bless you. I don't have any money. You would if you'd get up and go to work every day. Well, I'm in the full-time ministry. Is that an exemption from work? Is that where we are in America? If you're in the ministry, you don't have to work. I'm telling you, we've got the laziest crop of preachers I've ever seen in my whole life. Amen. Their skin's so lily white, if they had to get out in the sun all day, they'd be worthless on Sunday. Furthermore, they couldn't even stay out there in the sun all day, amen? I'll tell you, when God started, when He started rendering that lard out of them on a 95 degree day, amen, they'd be dizzy in about two hours. That's all they ever do, sit behind a desk. And their body falls apart. Work! You won't be a very good missionary, amen, if you're lazy. You won't be very good at anything. Brother Wood used to have a saying. He'd say, that sucker's so lazy, he wouldn't sample pie in a pie factory. I've met some of those guys, but they look like they've been sampling a bunch of pies. Give. You know why we ought to? Because it is commanded. Let's go to every Baptist's favorite verse in the Old Testament. Malachi, chapter 3, verse 10. For those of you that never go to Malachi, that's right before Matthew. I mean, when Malachi got through preaching, for 400 years there was silence. That pretty well happens when I preach out of Malachi. It still has that effect on people. Verse 10, "...bring ye all the tithes, into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out of blessings, and there shall not be room enough to receive it." There it is again. Malachi said, if you'll give, the windows of heaven will open and God will pour you out of blessings. Preacher Lackey used to say, we're not going to have a meeting here until we get the windows open. And he'd take up an offering, a big offering. And when the offering was done, sometimes he'd say, that'll open the windows. Sometimes he'll say, we're going to have to try again tomorrow night. We didn't get enough to get the windows open. That's Preacher Lackey. It's commanded, bring ye all the tithes, plural. Now, in the Old Testament, somebody said, well, that's under the law. We don't have to do that. You don't have to do it whether it's under the law or not. You can do as you please. If you don't want a blessing, don't tithe. Help yourself. You want your whole life to be cursed? Your life, your children's lives, your grandchildren's lives, your friends' lives? You want everybody you know to be cursed of God? Just make up your mind. I'm not going to tithe. Will a man rob God? Verse 8, Yet ye have robbed me, but ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? He said, in tithes, plural. and offerings, plural. There are actually three tithes in the Old Testament. So see, when we talk to you about ten percent, we're already being gracious. Ten percent is grace. In the Old Testament, they had thirty percent. Ten percent went to the temple to take care of the house of God. Ten percent went to the Levites, the priests, to take care of the men of God. And ten percent went to the poor to feed the hungry. I believe that's why Joseph set aside twenty percent when he was in charge. He knew God's people could do 30%, but he was dealing with Egypt, the lost, hell-bound world. And he said, lost people are probably going to struggle with that 30%, so we're just going to take 20% and set it aside. Had he been talking to Israel, he'd have probably done 30% because they already knew how to do that. You say, well, I can't afford 10%. That's because you're either lazy or wasteful. If you've worked hard, 10% will be no biggie. All you've got to do is get up earlier than everybody else, work harder than everybody else, get a better education than everybody else, be more determined than everybody else, put in more hours than everybody else, and then you'll have plenty of money to give. Now, if you're going to sit around the house and do nothing, go in, clock in, hang out at the water fountain and coffee pot, the bathroom, visit with your buddies, not really work, yeah, you're probably going to struggle to tie. You say, well, I'm going to fix the income. I'm going to fix it. Well, I'm on Social Security. Me too. But I'm not going to try to live on that and give commissions on that. I'm sure not going to use it for an excuse as to why I can't give commissions. I'm going to figure out a way, make some money, amen, that I don't have to depend on Uncle Sam to give me a check every month, and then me figure out how much I can give the missions out of that, because I'm going to tell you, there won't be much left. Time you buy your groceries and your gasoline, pay your car insurance, amen, and house insurance, if you've even still got a house by then. Where have any of you robbed me? He's in tithes and offerings. I'm sure this is a good independent Baptist church. I'm sure everybody in here tithes. Okay, I'm not that sure. You know who don't tithe? Teenagers. You know who don't tithe? Young married people. They got three babies now. And they can't afford to tithe. They don't have that good of a paying job yet. So they don't tithe. You know who don't tithe? Single men in their twenties, still living at home, no bills to pay. But every dime they can get their hands on, that man goes into their truck. Now they have got a nice truck. Girls, you're looking at this all backwards. Get your eyes off of that guy with the cool truck. Because if you marry him, all his money is going to the truck. None of it's going to you. Get y'all on that guy, Amen. Fenders are flopping in the breeze. Smoke's coming out the tailpipe. Amen. And he's got a bank account full of money. Because he don't mind driving a bucket of bolts so he can hang on to some money. I drive a 1999 Suburban. I'm riding in style this week. Brother Tim says, here's your vehicle right here, keys in it. I'm thinking, man, it's a nice vehicle right here. So I got in it, Brother Tim. I'm looking for the gear shift. How do I put it in reverse and back out of here? I'm looking, there's nothing on the column. I'm looking, there's nothing on the floor. I'm thinking, okay, it's got to be on the dash here somewhere. I mean, that vehicle's so new, I don't even know how to drive it. So I looked on the steering wheel and it said, gear minus, gear plus. I'm thinking, minus must be reverse. Nope, that didn't do anything. I thought, well, maybe I'll try the plus. Run through the print shop. That didn't do anything either, praise the Lord. And then there's a knob on here, reverse, neutral, drive. Really? A knob? How does that work on a quarter mile track? I grew up in the days where people, well, we won't go there. Why should we give? It's commanded. And it starts with a tithe. If you don't tithe, you won't do much for missions. If you can't afford to tithe, you sure can't afford missions. So the first thing you've got to do is find you some more work to make some money so you'll have something to give. Who else does not tithe? Well, I know some missionaries that don't tithe. Because, see, they believe everything they do is missions, and so every dollar they spend is for missions. And here's how they tithe. Here's how some missionaries tithe. Here's how they tithe. They get their tithe in this hand, and they put it in this hand, and it goes in this pocket. Yeah, preacher, I tithe. I tithe. It all goes into the work of God. You say, you're making that up. No, I've had missionaries call me from the field. and ask me if that's okay. And I always say, you called the wrong preacher. I said, Malachi, I said, you're a God-robbing hobo. I wouldn't want to support a missionary that doesn't tithe to his home church. Well, preacher, what do I do on the field? I'm trying to build a church and the people need to see me tithing. There's a simple, there's a simple way, a real simple way to do that. Tithe to your home church and tithe to the church on the field, both. That's still only 20%. You still haven't got up to the 30% mark yet. So you still got another 10%. That means you can put in missions. You ought to be able to make it on 70%. That shouldn't be a problem. Unless... You're lazy, or you have no faith. Who doesn't tithe? Now, I've talked to some pastors that don't tithe. Now, they'll get up and preach for everybody else to tithe, but they're not going to tithe. You say, I don't believe that. Well, I'll introduce you to some. Why would I be ashamed to do that? They're not ashamed to be God robbers. They're not ashamed. I won't be ashamed. I'll introduce you to them, give you a list. Paul did that in the Bible, you know. He said, yeah, Demas has forsaken me. He's called their name, put it in the Bible, 2,000 years later, their name's still in the Bible. Ha! Man! I need to write a book, that's what I need to do. I need to write a book, put all their names in a book. That brother is a so-and-so pastor, such-and-such church, he doesn't tithe, he doesn't give commissions, because he sits in his office all day, and he's lazier than a hound dog, amen. I could give you a whole bunch more people who don't tithe. I'll tell you who don't tithe. People that sit in church, every service, they're as faithful as a clock ticking. But they're not going to tithe. And in their mind, they're completely justified in not doing it. I'll give you a little personal testimony here. My grandfather was a Baptist preacher, pastored for 65 years, little country church that I grew up in, three miles from the nearest paved road, pretty well in the sticks in central Texas. He lived in walking distance of the church, my grandpa did. And if you ask my grandpa, do you believe in tithing? He'd say, sure, I believe in tithing. It's in the Bible. They'd say, so do you put ten percent of everything that you make into the church every Sunday? He'd say, well, no, I don't do that. And I'm not criticizing my grandpa. I'm just telling you how people justify what they believe. Well, how do you tithe if you're not putting the ten percent in the church? Well, he said, the Levites were the ruling tribe, and he said, when I pay my taxes, that takes care of my tithe. Okay, I've been preaching in a lot of places for a lot of years, and so I always ask this question when I tell that. Has anybody here ever heard of that? No. Neither have they ever heard of that anywhere. You know why? He's the only man in America that ever believes that. Him and the people in that church that I grew up in, my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, they all believed it because that's what Brother Frank said. The selfish nature of man kind of warms up to that excuse. Yeah, I pay my taxes. I support the ruling tribe of America. And my tax bracket's more than ten percent, so I'm above and beyond. Some of you don't even have a tax bracket, so that doesn't apply to you. You haven't even made the 14% bracket yet. It is required of us. And we're cursed if we don't do it. And the Bible said they were cursed, but they didn't know it. We're in if we rob God. Cursed with a curse? We're not cursed. Everything's fine. That's the way people think about the time. Grace makes us more debtors to give than the law did. Everything was more extreme under grace. Under the law, thou shalt not commit adultery. Under grace, don't even look with lust in your heart. Grace has a stricter standard than the law. That's why we not only ought to tithe, we ought to give a faith-promised mission offering, and we ought to pray and ask God what we can do instead of going home and getting the checkbook out and figuring out how much is coming in, how much is going out, how much we've got left, and what percentage of what we've got left we're going to give to missions. There's no faith in that. That's called accounting. Faith is, Lord, what would you have me to do? And when He speaks to your heart and says, this is it, this is the way, walk ye in it, just swallow about three times and say, Amen, Lord, here we go. I'll trust you to supply because there's no way I can do that. The tithe, and then there's free will offerings. 2 Corinthians 9, verse number 7. I bet you wish we was having a church split, where I could hammer the rebels instead of your mangy old carcass. 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6 says, this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly. He's talking about giving. The whole chapter is the grace of giving to get the gospel to the regions beyond. You want to reap sparingly? You want to have your little bitty harvest at your house? All you've got to do is just say, no, I can't, I can't, I can't give faith promise. He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. I'll tell you what you need at your house. You need bountiful blessings from God for your family. Every man according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give." See, people always say, well, how much should I give? Well, he said in verse 7, just according to your purpose in your heart. You just purpose it like Daniel did. He purposed in his heart, I'm not going to eat the king's meat, I'm not going to drink the king's wine, He has purpose in His heart. This is what I'm going to do by the grace of God and with God's help. This is what I'm going to do. How do you know how much to give? You pray, you ask God, and the best way you know how, you let the Holy Ghost lead you and guide you, but you make the decision and you say, Amen, Lord, You're able, I'm willing, let's do this. And quit making excuses. So let him give. Just purpose in your heart. So let him give. Not grudgingly or of necessity. For God loveth a cheerful giver. Pray and ask God and say, I'll do it. And then be happy about it. Shout the victory when you take up the faith promise. And then when it all comes in, we reached our goal about two or three weeks ago, and our conference is still two or three weeks away. We've been shouting already. We've been shouting for two weeks already. We're going to shout two or three more weeks before we get back under that load, you know, and have to do it all over again. But it sure is good to get to shout a little early. Do you want? Do you want to try to beat God in a pinching contest? You know, my brother and I used to have pinching contests in the back seat of the car. He'd always start it. He was a dirty, low-down scoundrel even back then. He'd just reach over there and pinch me, and I'd go, ow! He'd say, what's the matter with you? We'd ride a little ways and I'd reach over and pinch him. It didn't even hurt him. He'd just reach over and get me harder. We was in a pinching contest. I pastor people that are in a pinching contest with God. Oh, let's see if we can figure out who's going to win. Yeah, God, I can't do that. I can't afford to do that. I can't do that. There's no way I can do that. Pinch, pinch, pinch. He said, oh, OK, well, I have this blessing for you just coming down the pike here. I had some windows I was already raising them, fixing to pour you out a good blessing, but pinch, pinch, pinch. Some Christians are miserable because they got in a pension contest with God. No joy, no victory, no peace, and no money. These freewill offerings, tithes and offerings, as a man purposeth in his heart, so let him give. Some missionary comes through, they show their work, and you think, oh, I'd like to do something. Well, what do you want to do? What would you like to do? Just write it back and do it. Just purpose in your heart. You say, I don't have it. Well, pray and ask God to give it to you, and tell the Lord, as soon as you give it to me, I'll give it to that missionary. You might be surprised how quick it comes in. Giving is supernatural. If it's by faith. I mean, that's what we're having. Faith, promise, missions conference. A preacher told Brother Wood one time, he said, yeah, I've tried that. It didn't work for me. He said, yeah, I know it. He said, well, what do you mean you know it? Do you use faith, promise? He said, sure, I use faith, promise. Does it work for you? He said, of course it works. He said, but I understand why it doesn't work for you. He said, why? Three things. Number one, you've got to have faith. That eliminates you, cowboy. That's what Brother Wood used to tell him. Number two, you've got to make a commitment. Number three, you've got to keep your commitment. It's real simple. If you've got faith, you make a commitment, you keep your commitment, faith, promise will work. Now, if the first week that comes up that you don't have that $100 a week that you promised by faith, the first week that it comes up and you don't have the $100, and you say, it didn't work for me, and you quit. And I've watched a lot of people do that, take that approach. They were just waiting for that week. Of course, they had $100 worth of junk they could have sold out of their closet if they really wanted the $100. But they were more concerned about getting out of it than they were keeping the commitment. You might have to cut back on some of your hobbies. You might have to cut back on some of your shopping. You might have to cut out your deer lease or your dog club membership. Ooh, let's move on. You can preach that in a foreign country and they'll say amen. If you preach that in America, it dies. Why should we give as Jesus said to do? You have to give to be Christ-like. It's part of it. Jesus Christ was a giver. There's basically two kinds of people, givers and takers. What are you? If you don't tithe, you're a taker because somebody else is paying the light bill, somebody else is paying the pastor's salary, somebody else paid for the organ, somebody else paid for the piano, somebody else paid for these high dollar screens. We don't have these yet. I've got a guy to price them to me, and he told me how much they were, and I said, forget it. So missionaries come to our church all the time, you know, with a thumb drive. Yeah, here's my presentation. I said. Ain't happening here. Just leave your thumb drive at home. Leave it in your car. We don't have the equipment to hook it up to use it. He said, that church gave a million dollars to missions one year and they don't even have a screen and a projector? Brother Wood said, don't put your money in machinery, put your money in men. I'm not against y'all having it, okay? So don't take this wrong. But this Laodicean church is all about everything being perfect. All the missionaries are struggling to get by month after month after month. Giving is Christ's life. God so loved the world that He, God, is a giver. His Son gave Himself for us. He's a giver. And if you're going to be Christ-like, you've got to get in gear with giving and quit making excuses and quit dodging the responsibility and quit looking for ways to cut back on your giving. and look for ways to do more. Instead of having a hobby, get you some kind of little part-time business. And if you'll dedicate that business to missions, you're going to be shocked how well it's going to do. I did that myself. My wife said, I want to walk through this antique shop. Have you got time to walk through there with me? I said, sure, I'll walk through there with you. We walked through an antique shop. I'm looking at all this junk with all these high prices on them. And I'm thinking, I got one of these in my attic. $35, really? I got one of these out in my barn, you know, an old anvil. Wow. Anvils are up to $2 or $3 a pound now, and they weigh over 100 pounds. I was looking at the prices of all that junk, and I said, and she had been hounding me to have a garage sale and get rid of all of it. And I said, no, I'm not selling it for a dollar. Forget it. I'm not doing it. These are my lifelong treasures. And they won't be as important to anybody else in the whole world as they are to me. So if they get them, they're going to pay. So I walked through that antique shop, and my wheels started turning, and our youngest son was getting ready to go to college, and I was broke. And I went to an antique shop and rented an 8 foot by 9 foot booth, 72 square feet. And it was like the green glob that comes out of the jar, spills off of the table, fills the room, goes into the other rooms, fills the house, goes out into the yard, takes the whole neighborhood, and unless somebody does something, it's going to destroy the whole world! This green glob. I now have more junk than I ever had. From an 8 foot by 9 foot booth, I now own a 5,000 square foot building on Main Street. And it is stacked. I'll have a table. And on top of that is a little smaller table. And on top of that is two rocking chairs. And under the table is full of treasures. On top of every table, more treasures. In the seats of the rocking chairs are more treasures. I got an 11-foot ceiling, and it's stacked to the ceiling. The aisles are so narrow that if you've got a twin baby stroller, you probably can't even get down the aisle. Now what do I do? That is an outstanding question. That is an outstanding question. I am not going to live long enough to sell all that junk, because every Saturday people just pull into that place and they've got boxes full of stuff that their grandma passed away and their grandpa passed away. And they got all these boxes and boxes of stuff and furniture and dishes. You know, dishes that are not microwave safe or dishwasher safe. Therefore, their children don't want them. Their grandchildren don't want them. They bring them to me. And I don't want them either. But they're nice dishes. Limoge. Haviland, Homer Laughlin. I mean, some good stuff. But they're liable to have real gold around the ring, rim of it, or real silver. And you can't put that in the microwave or you're going to have 4th of July. Sparks are going to be flying everywhere. So I say, well, you know, this younger generation, they don't really much like these dishes. They say, I've got a china cabinet too. Well, they don't like china cabinets either because they don't like this kind of pretty dishes. The dishes they like now, they don't want to put them in a china cabinet for everybody to see. They want them behind closed doors because they don't have the artistic value that these old dishes had. And I'll end up buying, I'll pay them what I pay for them in the auction. I said, how many pieces are there? And they're showing me all this stuff. I said, I don't care about all that. How many pieces do you have? Well, there's 75 pieces. I said, okay, I'll give you a dollar a piece. I'll give you $75. Oh, they're worth a lot more than that. I said, of course they are. That's why I'm trying to buy them. You think I'm going to pay you what they're worth and then try to sell them? You think I'm stupid? Well, these are worth $350. I said, go sell them. But I'll hand you $75 cash and you can walk out the door and go home and forget it. And then I'll try to sell them for $350. Well, could you do $250? No. Because it's going to take me five years to sell them. I'm talking about I dedicated that business to missions, and it is amazing what God has done from a little eight foot by nine foot booth. And I knew nothing about any of that stuff. It's been a real education, but it put my youngest son through college. When I bought that 5,000 square foot building, it paid for itself in four and a half years. I'd like to find another one that'll do that. Built it on Main Street, and when I bought it, everybody in town just laughed at me and made fun of me. I think floods every time it rains and the roof leaks and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah We're so spoiled, we expect perfection. We look for all the reasons not to do anything, instead of, what can I do to overcome the obstacles and make it work? And I'd be out of town. Flood had come. I'd be out of town. By the time I got back, everything was mildewed. I got so much stuff, I need to clean the house about once or twice a year. That just gets rid of a bunch of stuff that I wouldn't get rid of unless it flooded. I can haul all that junk out, start all over. Next Saturday, they'll be rolling in there. I'll get home from this meeting, I don't know, 1.30, 2 o'clock. I'd give them about two hours to go down there, buy something, make a little mission money Somebody said, how in the world did that church give so much money to missions in Houston? Well, Brother Wood taught them how to give. And they got a hold of the idea of faith. And I taught finances in that church for 40 years. I was going to be a banker when God called me to preach. I just taught them finances. I went to school four years to learn one thing. You can't spend more than you make unless you're the government. Hey, you notice how even the kids listen when I preach? Hey, deadhead, they don't listen to you when you preach. You'd bore the leg off a chair. Listen to you preachers like watching paint dry. Put something in there that the kids can get a blessing out of. Quit being such a stick in the mud. Amen. I appreciate the kids saying amen. If they didn't say amen, the rocks would start saying amen. Thank you, kids. I appreciate it. They bring me notes when I get through preaching at home that I stick in my Bible and keep for 35 years. If you're going to give, it takes it to be Christlike. Well, I'm two points out of seven, but I've got to quit then. Hey y'all, it's your fault. You're giving me all this liberty, and I'm having so much fun, I can't get through. So it's your fault. If you'd scowl at me, amen, and frown, amen, and roll the kids and go to sleep, I'd shut her down. You can be sure Somebody in here needs to make a trip to the altar tonight, because you don't even tithe. You haven't even got the first base on giving. You say, I can't, preacher. Then come down here and tell God you can't, and ask Him if He'll help you and that you're willing to try. Do you think God would help you if you had the right heart and the right spirit and the right attitude and a willingness? You say, well, I sure can't tithe and then give a faith promised mission offering. Then if all I accomplish tonight is to get you to start tithing, I can go down the road shouting the victory. Because if you tithe for one year and see how God blesses you, it won't be any problem for you to make a faith promise a year from now. Because you will find out God is faithful. There are people in here, if we had time, we could have them stand up and testify about how they started tithing, and how they didn't think they could, and how God started blessing them, and how good God's been to them now all these years. I'm telling you, God will be debtor to no man. He will take care of you and your... A guy come to me one time, I preached something like this, and he said, Well, you know, the Bible said if a man doesn't provide for his own, he's worse than an infidel. He said, so I'll just take care of my family first. I said, you know what the problem with that philosophy is? He said, what? I said, in your eyes, your family always needs more. So there's never anything left. For God, the church, our missions, because your family always needs something. The truth of the matter is, if you'll trust God, God will take care of your family and you can give the missions. Never have I seen the righteous forsaken, David said, nor his seed begging bread." Your family's not going to starve to death if you give them missions. You're fellowshipping too much with the devil. You need to quit listening to him so much. What are you doing fellowshipping with him anyway? He's always talking to you. And you're believing him. Haven't you read that he's a liar and the father of liars and all that stuff he's telling you is straight out of hell and you're swallowing it hook, line and sinker because it's what you want to believe? The devil found him a sucker. He must be from Nigeria. How about it? Would there be one? Would there be one tonight? They would have the grace and the courage to come down here and kneel at this altar and say, Father, I have sinned, and I want to get it right tonight. And I want to do what you want me to do, whether it's the tithe, whether it's faith promised, or whether it's just being good to your neighbor. Our society is getting more and more secluded and isolated. People are from each other. They build solid wood fences now for yards, so you can't even look at my property. When I was growing up, we did strong barbed wire fences. You could look all you wanted to. We didn't need privacy fences. Well, why do we need all this privacy? Have you got a nudist count in your backyard? Huh? You're running out in the yard to feed the dog in your nightgown? Well, stop that! You're embarrassing the dog! No, I'm not preaching against privacy fences, privacy hedges, whatever you got. I'm not preaching against that. I'm just saying it used to be people interacted in person instead of through social media. My wife and I were in the airport, and we were talking and eating and getting ready to fly out somewhere. Who knows? She's in Bogota, Colombia tonight, and I'm in Florida. Lucky her. She'll be speaking to 200 women. We were sitting there eating in the airport. I looked over behind her, and there was a young couple. Looked like they were in their 20s. I looked, and they both had old wedding rings. And they were on their phones. I don't know if they were texting each other or other people, but they never spoke one word to each other the entire meal. Now, I'm going to tell you something, young people. You're going to have a rocky marriage if you're going to build it on that kind of sand. You need to have a time that the phones get turned off. I'm talking the off switch. You don't even know where yours is. You're like me looking for the gear shift. Where is the off switch? I never turned it off. that just because Jesus said, Give, you'd say, Yes, Master. Yes, Savior. I'll do it because You told me to, and I'll also do it because all these people are worthy of us to give and help them get the Gospel into all the world. Which, by the way, Jesus told us to do that too. Father, bless the message. Forgive me for all my foolishness, Lord. I probably got on too much of a roll tonight. But, Father, in my heart, I know there'll be somebody in this congregation. They're not doing right about their giving, and they know it. It may be a preacher, a pastor, a missionary, a dad. a teenager, a young unmarried young man spending all his money on his pickup truck. And I pray you speak to their hearts. And they'd slip into this altar and say, Lord, help me. I want to change the way I'm doing that. Father, if it lasts, You'll have to do it. And we're asking you, put something in their hearts they can't get away from. That they can see a world that's lost and going to hell, and a Savior that paid for their sins and freely will give them eternal life. Even as Brother Meyer quoted to us in Spanish tonight. And I pray, Father, that you would have your way in this invitation tonight, in Jesus' name.