We hear a lot about young people today, most of it bad. But I'm going to brag on the good ones. I love Jesus. You get a young person on fire for God, you can't stop them. They're bold for the Lord and they'll stand up for Christ. And I'm thankful for the young people here at this church. I've known them for years. It was in March. The year was 2000. by 2K that I first stood behind this pulpit. I didn't know you, and you didn't know me. Ben was here among you. Now 18 years later, I'm back again. And as somebody asked me tonight, says, is this going to be the good one? Somebody asked, I don't know if it was D.L. Moody or Charles Spurgeon that said, well, what is the best sermon you ever preached? And he said, my next one. If I already preached my best one, then it's all downhill from there, you know? And I don't want to be like that fellow, kind of new in the church and preached. And an elderly woman would come. She was very, very hard of hearing. And she couldn't hardly hear anything, but she wanted to be faithful and showed the devil whose side she was on and showed up anyway. So after the service, a particular Sunday, the young preacher met her and greeted her and thanked her for coming. She says, you know, son, I don't hear a word you say, but I come because I love Jesus. And he's trying to be humble, and he says, well, you're probably not missing much. And she said, yeah, that's what folks been telling me. I might not be the best preacher in the world, but I got something good to preach about. I'm preaching about Jesus. Now, tonight's message is not motivational, not devotional, It's not inspirational in a sense, but it's logical and it's mechanical to the point of how does faith promise really work. We can get all excited about faith, but unless we know how to do it and what the Bible teaches about it, we're just not going to be able to fulfill it. But you have your card tonight. Take it out. your point of contact between your heart and your commitment in your head. You folks are good. I didn't even ask you to hold it up yet, and you're doing it. Bless your heart. Okay, you have your card? Hold it up. That's good. Father, as we raise our faith promise commitment card tonight up to Thee, we ask you that a level of faith would be increased as well, that when that moment comes, when we take the pen and we mark the mark that needs to be done, that we would do so in great faith and anticipation of you providing for our every need. Speak to us tonight, Lord, through the teaching of thy word. Instruct us, Lord, tonight that we may know what the Bible says about giving. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you. If you turn in your Bibles tonight to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 4, I have preached this message several times here. I asked the pastor if he wanted me to do it again. He said, yes, I want you to do it again. Well, in two years' time, you forget and you get new folks. But what does the Bible teach about the actual giving to the work of the Lord? Is there a clear teaching in the scripture? God has a plan for everything, including the finances of his work. God hasn't left anything undone nor untold in his word. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4, here's the verse number, excuse me, 1 Corinthians, yes, chapter 4, and verse number 2, moreover, it is required in servants, stewards, that a man be found faithful. That is the basic right there. to be faithful. You might not be able to do a lot, but be faithful in what you do. God rewards faithfulness. We read the parables of the scriptures, the fellows that were given the talents, and some increased, and some tenfold, and some fivefold, and some didn't. But they were honored according to their faithfulness in taking care of the things of God. That's what God wants from us more than anything else, to be faithful. The basic premise the Christian life is this. God owns all that I have. Say that out loud with me. God owns all that I have. Say it again a little more convincingly. God owns all that I have. That settles it all. You're not giving your money. God owns it all, it's his. And when you stop and think, and we'll get into this just a little bit, the difference between the tithe and faith promise giving and what the Bible teaches about that, you gotta realize if God owns all that I have, he owns all my bank accounts, he owns all my money, he owns all my weekly paycheck. I give him 10% tithe, 10% tithe and I get to keep 90% of what's God's. That's a pretty good deal. You say, well, I can't give 10% of my money. It's not 10% of your money. It's God's money. And you get to keep 90% of God's possessions here tonight. But God owns all that I have. We noticed Sunday when we started that price that was paid for our soul. That we are not our own in 1 Corinthians 6 tells us. But we are bought with a price. That we're not our own tonight, but we are purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ. And we have no claim over our bodies. We have no claim over our life. And we have no claim over our possessions tonight. We're not alone. It's not how much you give to God, it's how much of God's possessions you get to keep. In Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 6, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 6, in verse 19, you know the verses. How many times have you read them? How many times have you heard them? Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, but isn't that what we do? We lay up to, now folks, it's wise to prepare for the future. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about that. But the Bible makes it clear, this world is not our home. Everything I have, I'm gonna leave behind when I die. And the Bible says, lay not up for yourself treasures upon the earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and thieves do not break through nor steal. And then the statement here, verse 21, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. We get that all backwards sometimes. We say, well, my heart's not in it, so I don't wanna give. That's not what the Bible says. I wanna see what you love, I'll take a look at your checkbook. I'll take a look at your possessions. Where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be also. And I'll guarantee you, when you start putting your treasure into missions and this missionary and the others that will meet this week, when you start putting your treasure into missions, guess what? Your heart will be in missions. When you put your treasure into the work of the Lord here in your church, your heart will be in the church. Where your treasure is, that's where your heart will be also. I remember some years ago I was walking across a parking lot and there was a fellow standing by a beautiful, beautiful automobile. Big old black sleek thing. And he was crying. Standing by his automobile. I said, this man has a need in his life. I'm going to go approach him and I'm going to talk to him. And I got up to him. I said, excuse me, sir. I said, is there something I could help you with? And somebody had scratched the door of his car. And there he was, crying his eyes out over that scratch. I felt like saying, oh, no problem, I'll put one on the other side, they'll match. That's where his treasure was. And that's where his heart was. Jesus says over here, in verse 22, the light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thine whole body should be full of light. Now you get focused on something. But if the nine be evil, the whole body should be filled of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that that what you're looking at, what you focus at tonight, will determine whether you have the light of the needs for missions or the darkness of covetousness. And it's in that context, he says in verse 24, no man can serve two masters. Who are we going to serve tonight? Who will we serve tonight in our life and with our possessions? Now, here is the principle of giving according to the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Listen carefully, these are instructions of the word of God. Faith promise was not invented by man to get more money out of the church. It was discovered by the study of the Word of God. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, we see God's method of giving. First of all, Verse 1, now concerning the collection. Well, we know what we're talking about, right? We took a collection tonight, you see. I know sometimes we say, well, we're going to take an offering. We don't really take an offering. We give you the opportunity to give in the offering. Just once, I would like to really take the offering. I mean, you just get your wallets and purses out and just leave them open and just let the ushers take the offering, you see. He's talking about the collection, talking about money. And he tells us here, now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order in the churches of Galatia, even so do you. He said, look, I taught others this, now you Corinthians, I'm going to teach you this as well. And the first thing he says that there is a day of collection. He says in verse number two, upon the first day of the week. The first day, that's Sunday. We meet on Sunday, we don't meet on Saturday. Saturday is not the first day of the week. There are some that says, oh no, Seventh Day Adventists, and there are some Seventh Day Baptists who got it all messed up. We meet on Sunday, the first day of the week, because that's when Jesus rose from the dead. And in celebration of his resurrection, we meet on the first day of the week. It is interesting that Jesus reiterated all the 10 commandments except one. You remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Why? Because he was going to fulfill the Sabbath. And he would be our Passover, you see. And all through the New Testament, it was on the first day of the week that they met. And he says, OK, we have a day of collection, the first day of the week. Proverbs talks about this in Proverbs 3, verses 9 and verse 10. Then when it talks about the first fruits, we start the week with God's worship, you see. the first day of the week, but then he gives the involvement here. He says, upon the first day of the week, let every one of you, this involves everybody. He's not mentioning any amount yet, but he says there ought to be an involvement of every single person. This is why We make a big thing about this. Every person ought to have one. We're a family, aren't we? What do families do? They pull together. What do families do? They stand by one another. They help one another. And this is what he's talking about, every one of you. There was a little boy up in Wiscasset, Maine. I preached a missions conference up there a few years ago. And a little boy wanted to get involved in giving the missions. He didn't have any much, but he took his fake promise card and he wrote down weekly 25 cents. Now, he can get away with it. You guys can't. All right? He's just a little boy. But I want to do something for God! I want to be part of faith promises. He put a lot of us older Christians to shame in his willingness and wanting to get involved. Twenty-five cents. But he never asked his mommy and daddy for it. He never went to mom and dad and said, look, I need my missions money. Will you give me a quarter? No. In Maine and Connecticut and Massachusetts and a few other states, we have a deposit on our soda cans. When you buy it, they charge you a deposit, and it's five cents in Connecticut. In Maine, it was 10 cents a can. And what he would do, he'd go around the neighborhood, he'd go around the park, and he'd find the cans he had to find, and he'd bring them down to the redemption center, and he'd get his 25 cents. Mama told me a few weeks later, after the conference was over, she sent me an email and said, you should see how excited he is. When the mission offering comes Sunday morning, he puts his 25 cents and he's just holding that. And he is so glad to give everybody, teenagers, you need to be involved in this. This isn't just for mom and dad. That's why we say everyone gets a card. Now, if you want to summarize them all, and if you've got little children, you might want to monitor what they put down. You know, they could innocently put down something unrealistically. But turning to everyone is represented in giving to the worker. Did I read that right? Most of you? Those that are wealthy? Those that are caught up on their bills, let every one of you lay by him in store. We have the day of collection, and we also have the involvement. One person can't do it all, but working together, we can get the job done. To lay by him in store. There's the method. Now, if you get paid on Wednesday, then you take your tithe, right there. Right there. And you lay it aside until Sunday. If you get paid on Monday or Friday or whatever it is, you lay it aside until the day of collection. I just say this, if you go on vacation, give your tithe before you leave. You won't be here to put it in, so you put it in before you leave. And that way the work of God is sustained. But to lay aside, to put it in store, to set aside. And by the way, according to Leviticus 27 verse 31, there's a fee for paying your tithe late in the Old Testament. That's right. That's right, bud. Somebody's reading their Bible around here. And I know some of the others knew that, too. But it says, a man redeems himself. Well, Lord, I got to give that money to the parker. But Lord, I'll double up next week. God said, that's good. But you add the fifth part there on, too. Don't rob God. He gets the first fruits. He gets the first fruits. to lay in store. So you lay it aside. I think it's best, if you can, instead of waiting until Saturday night or Sunday, and say, well, how much could we afford to give this week? No, it has nothing to do with it. It has nothing to do with what you can afford. You laid it aside. You make out the check, or whatever you do, you put it aside until the day of collection, Sunday. But I want you to notice how fair this is to everybody, because he said, as God hath prospered him. Now, that's proportional giving. Somebody might make $1,000 a week. So his tithe is $100. Somebody may make $100 a week. Who's tied this $10? Not equal giving, but equal sacrifice, you see. That that one that made more, gives more. And that one which made less gives less, but it's all in proportion. I know people say, well, I don't believe in tithing. It's in the New Testament. And I don't believe anything you want to believe, but I do know it's proportional giving. That's what he says here. As God hath prospered you, you give accordingly. It's proportional giving. And it's the sacrifice, $10 of a person making 100 is as equal sacrifice as $100 of a person making 1,000. That's just, God's so fair about everything. And then people complain. Oh, it's too much, I can't do that, that's not right. But God is fair in all that he does. And by the way, let me just look back at Malachi. Now you know sooner or later in the missions conference, you're gonna get to Malachi. Malachi chapter 3. Notice verse 8. What a question. Will a man rob God? So how can I rob God? If all that I own is God's and you use it for yourself, you just robbed him. You took it from him. Will a man rob God? Yeah, ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? And God says, in tithes and offerings. And because of it, you're cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Robbing God. Let me ask you something, folks. Look up at me for a moment. I want to see your face. Has God been good to you? Why would you want to rob somebody like that? Has God blessed you? Why would you want to rob someone like that? And people say, well, Preacher, I can't pay my bills on 100% of my income. How in the world am I going to pay it on 90%? That's the problem. As long as your hands are in God's pockets, you'll never be blessed. Will a man rob God? In verse 10, God tells him what to do. And this is where your tithe belongs. Bringing all the tithes into this storehouse. Now, folks, some of you may get mad at me here, and some of you may not like what I'm going to say, but you have no business whatsoever, and I say this on the authority of the Word of God, not my opinion, you have no business sending your church tithe to some TV evangelist, some radio preacher, or someplace else. It belongs here in the local church. There's the man right there. that will come to you in a time of need. You call up the TV purchaser. Purchaser, I'm sick. Would you come pray for me and see what happens? Maybe just send you a letter with an envelope in it. This is where the tithe goes, folks. Now, if God really abundantly blessed you, and you tithe, and you give the missions, and you still got a lot of money left over, see me in the foyer. It belongs in the storehouse. He said, can you see that in the New Testament? Yes, the book of Acts. There they brought the things to the disciples there. They brought them to the gathering place and the disciples distributed it all. It is the storehouse of God. That's your normal, systematic, weekly giving called the tithes. If you want to give more than that, you can. But now, you say, preacher, now, what's this stuff then? And you don't take and say, I'm going to give money to missions over here, and I'll just take, instead of giving this amount of my tithe to the church, I'll just divide it in half and give half in the tithe to the church, and the other half I'll put in missions. No, you don't do that. This is not to be split up. This is an addition to. It's hard, folks. I hope you understand this tonight. At least we talk about money. But how are we going to do this unless we understand what the Bible says tonight? And this is not as inspirational and motivational as last night was. And bless God, this altar was full last night when we were here and prayed for those lost souls that are on our mind. And I hope you haven't forgotten about them. Don't let that spirit of last night die. But if we're going to send missionaries, we've got to know God's plan. OK, how do we pay the electric bill? Through the tithe. How do we pay the church salaries? The tithe. How do we pay the maintenance and the insurance and everything? That's through the tithe to the local church. That's the teaching of the Bible. Well, where does faith promise come in? 2 Corinthians chapter 9. He says in verse nine, excuse me, verse seven, 2 Corinthians 9, verse seven, every man according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give. Now again, he's talking about money. He's talking about giving here. Now this is different, because you notice he says in verse number one, for as touching the ministry to the saints, the other was for the saints, this is to the saints, this is to the missionaries, this is to others. To the saints, it is superfluous for me to write unto you, for I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia. And Achaia was ready a year ago. Your zeal had provoked many. Oh, there came a time the Corinthians says, we're going to give to others. We're going to support missions. We're going to give it out. And they were so zealous. And it was great. And other people caught the fire. You know, enthusiasm is contagious. And you get excited about something, somebody else would get excited about something. You get excited about giving, somebody else would get excited about giving. And that's what happened with the Corinthians. And Paul said, I boasted of you. Boy, did I brag on you. Those Corinthians, wow, they said they were going to do something. Now he's writing back to them a year later. In verse 3. Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain, in this behalf, that, as I said, ye may be ready." He says, I've been bragging on you, but it's not come in yet. I've been bragging on you. And what I've been saying about you, others got encouraged, well, if the Corinthians can give, we can give. He said, but I'm sending the brethren now to collect that which you said you would give. And it says here in verse four, lest happily, if they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, now that you didn't keep your word and what you were gonna give, we, that we say, not ye, but we should be ashamed in their same confident boasting. You ever bragged about something and then was embarrassed you bragged about it? I'm always, my car is, like I said, 220,000 miles. I hate bragging on that, because usually that's when something happens. And he says, I bragged about you. I boasted of you. And I don't want to be embarrassed to have to say my boasting was in vain. And that's why he says, therefore, Verse 5, therefore, because of this, I thought it necessity to exhort the brethren that they would go before you and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof you had noticed before that in the same might be ready as a matter of bounty and not of covetousness. You said you were going to do something. Now do it. boasted of you." Then he says in that context, verse 6, but this I say, he which soweth sparingly, shall reap also sparingly. And he which soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully. Folks, you know, principle's so true, isn't it? You got farms around here, you got farms all over around here. So if one guy goes out and he just plants, you know, just one little acre, that's all he's gonna get. If he plants 10 acres, he's gonna get more. And it's the same in your giving. You give sparingly, you reap sparingly. You give bountifully, You reap bountifully. And that is the context, he says in verse 7, that we read a moment ago. Every man according as he purpose in his heart. That is not the tithe. You don't purpose in your heart the tithe. That's simple mathematical function. That's all, mathematical calculation. There's my salary, there it is. And 10%, boom, that's it. You don't purpose in your heart. This, this now you purpose in your heart. This you say, I'm gonna go beyond the tide. And this I'm gonna purpose in my heart. It's a decision you're praying over, I trust every day with this card in your hand. Lord, what is your will for me to give in my heart to faith-promised missions? And here, as he goes through this, he said in verse 8, And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work. Listen, I'm going to tell you something. My wife and I are not rich by anybody's standards. But we've not missed a meal. Not been late on a bill. God has met our needs. Now we have always tithed. I remember, honey, you remember this. See, an evangelist, if he's not preaching, he's fasting. I have no salary. I do have a handful of churches, and God bless them, that consider me a missionary to America and wherever I go. And they do send me monthly support, and that's a big help. But one month, no checks came in. Or one week, no checks came in. I had no meeting. No meeting means no offering. No offering means no money. Then we did get a check for $25. What's the tithe? $2.50. You remember that, honey? I said, honey, there's no way in the world I'm going to tithe $2.50. Our mission's offering was greater than our tithe. My tithe's up and down. My home church, they never know what they're going to get from me. I mean, you just never know. So I said, you know what we're going to do? By faith, we're going to tithe in advance. I'm not putting a check in $2.50 on the envelope under tithe and then so much. I'm not going to do that. Call it pride or whatever you want, but I wasn't going to do that. So I kind of projected out on average what our tithe would be, and that's what we put in. And you know what? God made it up. God made. Isn't that what God is able? That's what he says over here. And God is able to make all grace. Listen, you can live by sight if you want to. I'd rather live by grace. I'd rather live by faith. We were talking today at the dinner table when my wife and I were first married. I had a cell. I sold my electric razor for the marriage license. Then I sold my beautiful Ithaca X5 lightning rifle for the blood test. We didn't have anything. We got married. We used to go down to the dented can store. I don't think they have those around anymore. And they were cans that were all dented up, and you can get them for a quarter and everything. Some of them didn't have any labels. You got those for a nickel. Boy, supper time was interesting with those. You never know what you're, OK, what's the first time you open it up, and it's sauerkraut. That's not as bad as having liver. But anyway, but we survived. Go to the day-old bread store. God provided for us. My wife graduated after four years. I was on a five-year program. She graduated on Monday. We got married on Saturday. Went back to school. She was all done. She graduated. I had one more year of college. She got a job working in the business office. She's very good at figures and accounting and stuff like that. So she got a job in the business office at the college, which was nice because they would see her between classes and we'd have lunch together many times. It worked out nice. She also, after that was over, would go down to J.C. Penney. and work three or four hours in the nighttime at JCPenney. I had a job working at a Sunoco gas station when those days were there. You pumped the gas for you, you know, and I got a job working all night at that gas station pumping gas, trying to make ends meet, pay my school bill. It was found out, and she worked in a business office and found out that I had the biggest bill in college. I'm proud of that, but they keep letting me in. They say, you can come back. You can come back. And they did. They let me come back. One night, I'm sitting about 2 o'clock in the morning. I'm feeling sorry for myself. God, it's not right. My wife's going to work two jobs. I'm working all night here. I'm going to school. I want to serve you. Before I left for work that night, I left a note. on the table to my wife and I wrote her, I said, honey, pray that God would send in a huge, and I wrote huge, huge, a huge amount of money so we wouldn't have to do this. Two o'clock that morning, I'm sitting in the place and having a real pity party with myself. Guy pulls in with a big, sleek, long, black automobile. It got to me, folks. My flesh came out. God, it's not fair. Look at that guy. He's probably got money to burn. Probably not even saved. My wife's working two jobs. I'm working all night at this gas station. It's just not fair. But I had to go out and pump his gas. I went out. He says, fill it up. I said, yeah, but that time I usually get a dollar or two dollars, you know. He wants a full tank. I'm pumping the gas. He goes, hey, would you mind checking the oil? I'm like, push it, pull it. It's fine. Good. How's the radiator and washer fluid? Yeah, they're good. OK. Hey, how about cleaning the windshield? Oh, what does this guy want? How about the back window? What does he want, a car wash? Folks, I had a real bad attitude. He goes to pay the bill and he says, excuse me, but are you one of those Bible college students up on the hill? Now all of a sudden, Mr. Spirituality comes out. He goes, ah, you might be able to use this sometime. And he gave me an envelope, and I put it in my pocket. He said, yeah, probably a get-rich-quick scheme, some type of pyramid-type thing. You know, you sell this soap or something, and you make all kinds of embarrassing large sums of money and all of this. You don't have to do anything but make deposits. And I just put it. So I was sitting there, and I go, Now, let's see what's in here. I opened it up, folks. There was $2,500. That's what I said. I got so excited. Boss, you got to come in. Boss, boss, boss, you got to come in. I got to go home. I got to go home. What's the matter? What's the matter? I just got to go home. Got home, and my wife said, did you quit? What happened? Sonny, sit down. Did you pray? She said, I did. And God answered, I said. Her first reaction was, is it real? It was. I was able to pay off my school bill. Sent the tithe to the home church. There was a fellow in the school. They had twins. His wife had twins. One died. And they had medical bills. They couldn't pay. We were able to help them a little bit as well. Tell me God's not able, folks. Now, it doesn't always happen that way. I mean, sometimes money doesn't come out of the outlets of the wall. I understand that. But God does. God does provide. And he says here, God is able. But the question tonight, are you willing? Jesus said, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness and all these things should be added unto you. I can go on tonight. A fella saw me driving an old beat up Subaru. The floor was rusted out. One of the boys in the back seat said, hey dad, I see the road. He said, what do I put you driving a car like that for? He said, it's all I have. He said, I'll tell you what, you go down, you pick yourself out a nice car and I'll pay for it. I went looking for cars. I found this beautiful New Yorker, nice leather seats, and oh, it was really nice. I said, well, maybe it's more than really he had in mind for me. So you know how they let you take it out for a test drive? So I brought it up to the fellow. I said, hey, Joe, I got a car over here that I kind of like. He goes, oh, you like Chryslers, huh? And he looked at it and he says, well, I said, I guess, but I wanted to get something nice. I said, this is nice. Paid for it. I'm just trying to tell you something, folks, tonight. God is able to provide for me and my needs if I'm willing to trust Him tonight. And this faith promise tonight giving is that measure of our faith. Sister, would you come to the piano, please?