Let us look at one verse here in 2 Corinthians 8, and it's the ninth verse. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. I think it would be good for us tonight to look at that verse again and say it together out loud. All right, let's say it together. Beginning, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. What a marvelous verse. What a glorious truth that is. And when you think of the Lord coming down from heaven, when you think of that conversation that is recorded in the 10th chapter of Hebrews, where Jesus said to his father, I delight to do thy will. Oh God, a citation from the 40th Psalm. When you think how Jesus came into this world, the sacrifice that he made for our sakes, though he was rich, though he had all the riches of heaven, though he had at his disposal the angels, though he had at his disposal all the glories and the majesties and the beauties of heaven, though he had all of the Father's eye and heart, he left that. Voluntarily laying aside not his deity, but some of the manifestations of it. To bear our sins in his own body on the tree. I've heard it said many times, Jesus Christ, the greatest missionary the world has ever known. He left his home country, went to another country to bring people to heaven. So let's consider some sacrifices for missions, and let's pray together tonight. Father, I want to thank you for your mercy to this crowd of people. The fact that in this room tonight are sinners saved by grace. In this room tonight are those who at some point in time, just like Brother Sprunger testified tonight, and just like Brother Walls testified last night, at some point in life, bowed the knee, bowed the heart, and put faith and trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ. And now tonight, would you minister the word of God to these dear people? And we commit this hour to thee in Christ's wonderful name we pray, amen. Sacrifices for missions. When we think of the example that our Lord Jesus set for us of making that sacrifice, coming down from heaven to man, leaving his home country, leaving his father, leaving the one that was so dear and precious to him and going down to this earth as the precious and only begotten and much beloved son. You remember from heaven, the Lord said, this is my beloved son and how he must have missed him, if I can put that in quotation marks. Because Jesus and his father had perfect communion and they are everywhere. And the son of man, even though he was on earth, was also in heaven because he's omnipresent. And yet there was a voluntary setting aside of that. And when we think of sacrifice, we all kind of want to grab onto things. We want to hold back. I would challenge you tonight to say what Jesus said. I would delight to do thy will. Father, if there is something you want me to do in prayer for missionaries, I will do that. If there is something you want me to do by proxy, that is, though I can't go, I can help send, then I will do that. If there is something you want me to do in person, then I will do that. Churches in the United States of America are accustomed to having these special people come on Wednesdays and Sundays. We call them missionaries. They come in, we shake their hands, we look at their prayer cards, and we go back. to our normal lives. They're making those sacrifices. What sacrifices are we going to make? Let's talk about, number one, the sacrifice of prayer, sending supplication, the sacrifice of intercession. And I will call your attention to some verses tonight. And let's start with a verse in Romans chapter 15, a couple of verses there. Romans 15, verses 29 and 30, notice what Paul says to the Roman church, he's never been to Rome yet. He's sending a letter on ahead, anticipating that he will come there one day as a missionary, anticipating this day. It had been a lifetime goal. And in fact, there was a time when God gave Paul a vision and he said, you're going to preach here. And after you've preached here, you will see Rome. And with that glorious goal in mind and that anticipation, notice what he says as this letter, this great letter of the Book of Romans comes to an end. Romans 15, 29. And I am sure that when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Now I beseech you, brethren. For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. and for the love of the spirit. Now look at these words that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judea and that my service, which I have for Jerusalem, may be accepted of the saints, that I may come unto you with joy by the will of God and may with you be refreshed. Did you notice that phrase, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me? It sounds like prayer can sometimes get to be work. I wonder tonight at Bethel Baptist Church, if there would be a couple, then you would say, you know, I don't have a lot of money. I don't have a lot of health left, but I can sure pray. I was talking to a preacher friend of mine long, long ago. His dad is way up in his 90s. He pastored the same church for over 60 years. And he said, Dad can't get up and walk around much anymore. He spends most of his day either in a chair or in bed. But he said, my dad prays for six hours a day. 92, three years of age. Just just gets in his chair because he can't get up and move around much and just cries out to God. And I will tell you, if you listen to anything tonight, their brother sprung or pray talked about. If you listen to anything that Brother Wall said last night, if you listen to your missionaries, you're going to find out that what I said last night is true. Missions is impossible. Without the power of God. The Great Commission is an impossibility. There is no way in the world that we can reach the world except by the power of God. And how do we call that down here? How do we get the power of God? Listen, we get it by striving together in prayer. We get it by begging and pleading with God. It's not these little flippant, shallow prayers. They don't get anything done. And we Americans, I'm sorry, we're used to pushing buttons and getting things done. We need to quit googling everything and start getting a hold of God again. I'm not against your computer. Your computer is not the devil. The devil can use your computer, but your computer, it has no spiritual value. And your cell phone and all the rest of your little gadgets and gimmicks, and I have some of them. I don't know what to do with them, but I have some. I just carry a phone around just so I look modern. about the only modern looking thing about me. But we need to get back to some real praying. That's where the power comes from. Paul said that you strive together with me, the sacrifice of prayer, sending up our supplications, where we really take time out of our day, where we get off from Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and all this. You probably heard that YouTube and Twitter and Facebook are all going to go together. Have you heard that one? It's going to be called you twit face. Just get off of that stuff for a while. Go in a room, shut the door, get on your knees with some prayer cards in front of you. And beg God to do something. Because those missionaries, this man, Brother Walls, and his wife, this man, Brother Sprunger, and his wife, they're just people. They don't have pixie dust in their pockets. And even if they did, pixie dust doesn't save souls. We need the power of God, and we're going to get it when we pray for these missionaries. I would call your attention to the book of Ephesians chapter six tonight, the book of Ephesians. Paul makes it very personal. He has given us in the sixth chapter of Ephesians this great this great focus on the armor of God. And there's a belt of truth. There's a shield of faith. There's a breastplate of righteousness. There is the shoes of the of the preparation of the gospel. There's a helmet of salvation. And then he says this at the end. He says in verse 17, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now notice praying. During your missions conference. Is that what he says? No, he says always. praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And then he makes it personal. He says, and for me. Well, who's Paul? He's the missionary. Paul was the one out there starting churches, going from city to city, following the Macedonian vision, following the call of God, getting stoned, getting shipwrecked, getting scourged, getting thrown in prison. This was the man that was saying, hey, and would you pray for me? And for me, and he said, and here's what I want you to pray for. Pray that I don't have any more trouble. Pray that I just, you know, I'm just tired of being persecuted. Is that what he said? No, he said, pray for me that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador and bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. How do missionaries have the power and the boldness to open their mouths in an unfriendly culture, with unfriendly government officials, with people pointing AK-47s at them. How do missionaries have the boldness to go into a situation where it's not a free country? Where do they get the ability to do that? They get it from people praying for them. begging and pleading with God for them. I would call your attention to these and other passages, but even Hebrews 13 where Paul says, pray for us. It just makes a statement, pray for us. I would encourage you tonight as you sit here in these beautiful surroundings in your soft padded pew. I would I would encourage you as you're going to go home tonight. You have an easy chair and a soft bed and you have a nice vehicle and a warm house and plenty of food. I would encourage you to say that starting with this missions conference and until God calls you home. Your house is going to be a place. for the sacrifice of intercession on behalf of these people that are doing a work you and I can't do. You need to understand they can't do it without you. I've never known a missionary who doesn't say something like this. Thank you for your financial support, but thank you even more for your prayer support. So there is this matter of the sacrifice of intercession where we send our supplications up to God. But then there is the proxy sacrifice where we send not just the supplication, but we send someone else. And this church has the ability, I don't know, 25 or 30 missionaries along this wall. That wall would take another few, and a few more, and a few more. And you'll have them all up here in the choir loft. And you'll have to move the chairs or stick a letter on the back of each chair or something, have some hanging on the front of the pulpit. Nobody's heart's going to be broken, amen. That'd be good, wouldn't it? And by the way, wouldn't it be good to fill up these pews? Yeah, that'd be a good thing too, wouldn't it? I'd be nice to have chairs sitting out that we actually needed to use. Be nice to get to the point where the choir has to stay on the platform. And you know how that happens. You know what the lifeline of the church is missionaries. And the more you get involved as a church, the more your vision is turned. We sang the song tonight. You stole my invitation. I had to change my invitation song. Set my soul afire for the lost in sin. That's not just on the mission field, that's right here. And the lifeline of Bethel Baptist Church is a heart for missions and when this church takes care of God's workers and God's men, God will take care of this church. Nothing grows a church anymore than a vibrant missions program. Nothing grows a church anymore than a vibrant missions program. And if you are going to make the sacrifice of prayer, may God bless you, but the sacrifice of sending other people, the sacrifice of investment in Philippians chapter four, I referenced this last night. I would call your attention to that passage tonight. Paul had been in Philippi. in his ministry, we find the record of that in Philippians, or in the book of Acts chapter 16. That's where they met the girls possessed by a spirit of divination. Paul was thrown in prison. They met Lydia there. They started a church there. It was one of those cities where the believers were just extra special and Paul just loved them. He called them his dearly beloved and longed for his joy and crown. He loved these people. There was something special about this church in Paul's heart. And you know what they did? They loved him back. They supported him. Now let's look at it. Philippians 4.10, but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly. that now at the last, your care of me hath flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. Notwithstanding, you have done well that you did communicate with my affliction. Now you Philippians know 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 you sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now unto God and our Father. Be glory forever and ever. Amen. Here was this church in Philippi. They joined with Paul in this ministry. They sent gifts to him and twice while he was in Thessalonica for just three Sabbath days, they sent something to him. Something came up. I don't know what it was that came up, but something happened to the Philippian church. Either they backed away from support. or something happened where they couldn't. We don't know what happened. We just know that Paul says they were careful, but lacked opportunity. But then the opportunity came again, and they started supporting him. And he tells them how precious that was to him. Can you imagine what it's like? to drive around the countryside like missionaries do. Three, four, five, six children in the backseat. Mom's up front homeschooling four of them, nursing one of them, changing diapers. And the husband has got to go from this church to that church. And I'll tell you what, when they get out of the car, they all have to look just like this. Every hair has to be combed, the little girl's curls have to be nice and the bows straight, and the boys have to have their shoes all polished so you can shave in them, and they gotta have their ties on, and boy their shirts can't have spaghetti stains on them from the fellowship dinner the night before, and they have to have a washer in the back seat of the car! And they travel all over the countryside for a year or two or three raising support. And they get to the field and they think, what happened to that church? They used to be supporting us. Well, there's 50 bucks a month we're not going to get. Oh, what happened to this church? Well, there's 100. And you know what? They have to come back home and raise more support. Can you imagine living like that? That's how missionaries live. You know, they have bills, too. Their kids need dental visits, just like your kids did. Their kids get earaches, like your kids get earaches. Maybe they get ingrown toenails. I don't know what they need. But they have health issues. They need clothing, too. By the way, their kids grow. I mean, there are missionaries that we took on when we first went to LaGrange, Indiana, and they had one little kid. Now they have adults in their family. And I'm like, whoa, when did that happen? They have needs, they need vehicles and they need insurance and they have many needs that we don't have. And we are sending them out. And I will tell you that one of the greatest things you can do is get involved financially. I don't care if you put down on your card on Saturday, twenty five dollars a week, fifty dollars a week, one hundred dollars a week, whatever God puts on your heart. It is a promise between you and God and you're doing it by faith. But I will tell you, There are faithful choice servants of Jesus Christ all over the world who need your help. Paul needed their help. Do these missionaries learn how to be abased and how to abound? Have you had times on the field, brother, when it was tight? Yeah. Have there been times when it was like, wow, everything's going great. Of course. These people, they haven't gotten there yet, but they're going to know what that's like. It's not all, you know, cheesecake and ice cream. There's, you know, there's some days you got to eat dirt. You got to eat a peck of dirt before you die anyway, so. Or is it a bushel? I can't remember. I think it depends on what part of the country you're from, how much dirt kids really eat, you know. sending them and investing in them. I like what Third John says. The Apostle John brings up something about missions. I don't ever hear this at missions conferences, but it's phenomenal. The book of Third John, and it's only one chapter, so you get to chapter two, you went too far. Back up. You get to chapter two of Third John, you're in the book of Jude. 3 John 1, verse 5, Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and to strangers which have borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom, if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well, because that for his namesake they went forth. taking nothing of the Gentiles, we therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow helpers to the truth. Who were these traveling people? They were people taking the gospel from one place to another. And John is praising this church. He calls them the the elder, the well-beloved Gaius. I believe that second John is written specifically to the church. Third John, I believe, is written specifically to Gaius, the pastor of that church. And I believe that that you can you can find that because of the similarity of the message. And by the way, the message to the pastor and the message to the church is pretty much the same message. And he says, you're doing faithfully the things you do for the brethren. And you bring them forward on their journey after a godly sort. What kind of a journey is a godly journey? It's a journey that is made for the spread of the gospel. It's a journey that is made for the spread of the truth. And they don't take things of the Gentiles. I don't think the Walzes have a bank that is providing for them. I don't think they have some business back home that is underwriting their ministry for $1,000 a month. No, you know what? Missionaries go out and they get their support from the people of God. This is God's work. Missions is the work of God in the world. And God's people support God's work. It's a wonderful thing. I believe that there are people in this room tonight. Who should be earnestly seeking God and can be earnestly seeking God to say, how can we get involved in this missions program? We haven't been involved in faith promise. We've given our tie. That's kind of been all the thing that we've done. But you know what? We need we need to start doing something for these missionaries. I don't want to get into all the money we spend on trifles in the United States of America. I just don't want to do that. But we do a lot of that in this country. There's so many things I could pick on. People treat their pets better than they treat the servants of Jesus Christ. Now you may love your dog. I'm not asking you to go home and shoot your dog. But your dog doesn't need a $500 toy. But these missionaries do need $500. I'm not asking you to abuse your children. But I've been in Christian's homes where there had to be a toy room. There's so many toys, they have a whole room to fill up. Nobody needs that many toys. I was in a man's house not too long ago. He opened a gun cabinet. I ran. The guy had over 25 guns. Who needs 25 guns? I'm not against the Second Amendment. I'm pro-NRA. I'm pro-gun rights and all the rest of it. But who needs 25 guns? And he said, well, I use this one when I'm shooting this kind of animal. I use this one when I'm shooting that kind. And I use this one when I'm shooting. And he told me all the different animals that he used the different guns on. And I'm thinking, wow, I just go down to the market and get my beef. You know, if you want to be a hunter, go for it. I'm not against hunting. I'm not against fishing. But who needs 47 fishing rods? You see where I'm going with this. Not against prosperity. I'm against prosperity that cuts out the work of God. You know, in the Bible, the book of Acts, we have a man named Barnabas. He had houses and lands, plural. The Bible doesn't say they sold all of what they had. It says those that had houses, plural, and lands, plural. You know, you can live in only one house at a time. You know what they did with those extras? They sold them. They brought the money that who knows how much it was. I don't know the economy of Rome. I'm not an expert on ancient currencies, but they brought the money. They laid it at the apostles feet. They turned around and walked away. They said, Give it where it's needed. I don't know. Maybe somebody has something like that here. I'm not against your having something for your retirement. I have a house back in LaGrange. It's not a fancy house. You know what? It keeps the rain off in the summer, and it keeps the snow off in the winter. And we have a little lawn, and we have a little shed out back. And I have a mower that I bought for a few hundred bucks. My neighbor to the north and my neighbor to the south, they have better homes than garden's yards. When they drive by my house, they go like this. I keep the grass mowed, period. What I'm trying to say is, can we simplify a little bit so we can get some people to the mission field? And we downsize. Is there something that we can invest in God's work to the utmost part? I want to say thirdly tonight, not just the sacrifice of sending up our supplications in prayer, not just the sacrifice of sending somebody else in this matter of getting the gospel to the ends of the earth, but what about the sacrifice of person? What about going yourself? What about that? Have you ever thought that for your two-week vacation, you'd go to a mission field and just help somebody for two weeks? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought that when semi-retirement comes around, that instead of buying a motorhome and traveling all over the country to do everything you want to do, you would take some of that time and talk to somebody in a mission agency and say, who needs some help? Is there a couple that's struggling and they could use a grandpa and a granny to come along and just play with the kids a little and give the mom and dad a little? Is there somebody that needs something that I could do? Maybe there's somebody sitting here tonight and God's tapping you on the shoulder. And he's not just tapping you on the shoulder, he's squeezing your heart a little bit. He's saying, I want you to be a missionary. The sacrifice of person. I remember this, I have thought of this so many times. I remember of a preacher preaching in a back country church. The offerings they brought to the preacher were things like chickens and cucumbers. Just an old country church back in a hollow somewhere. I can say holler. Now up north, holler means you raise your voice. Down here it means a place back where there's just a two track. The missionary didn't have any idea what he would get for an offering, but he preached his heart out in this little country church. And at the end of the service, a little boy crept out, crept past daddy and mommy. Little barefoot, ragged jean boy came down to the front. He grabbed one of the offering plates, and I won't do this because I'll break it. He took the offering plate, put it right on the floor, and stepped inside. He said, I'm going to give myself. The missionary said it was the biggest offering they received. On his whole furlough. Because he gave himself. And that's what we find in the book of Second Corinthians. We were just there a few moments ago, and if you want to go back there, Second Corinthians chapter eight. Where we started tonight, and we won't be much longer. In 2 Corinthians chapter 8, look at verse 5. And this they did not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. Romans 12, 1 and 2 talks about this, to give yourself a living sacrifice. You know, God doesn't want you necessarily to die for Him. He wants you before you die for Him to live for Him. to present your body, he says, present your body. You know why he says that? You know why Romans focuses on that? Romans chapter six says, yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6 13. Then we get to chapter 12 and he says, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. What is this presentation? What are these members? The members of the body that are mentioned in scripture are the hands, the feet, the eyes and ears, the tongue or lips, the mouth, even the mind, and the heart, the nose, What is the significance here, folks? The significance is we yield them either to God or to the world. I would like to ask you tonight, what sin can you commit without using at least one of those members? You can't commit a sin if you don't employ your hands or your feet or your eyes or ears, something, you have to employ something. Those same members are to be yielded unto God. as those that are alive from the dead were alive from the dead. We've been saved by the power of God. Last night, the missionary told about when he got saved. Tonight, the missionary told about when he got saved. How about I do that? I got saved as a senior in high school. I'd been testified to by an underclassman for the year before. I had never been to church, never heard the gospel. Didn't have any idea God loved me. When she started talking to me about John 3, 16, I didn't know what John was. I didn't know what three meant. I didn't know what the 16 was. I'd never seen an organ. Didn't know what an organ looked like. Never opened a Bible. She started telling me I needed Jesus. When she said that to me the first time, I looked right at her. I said, I thought you were more intelligent than that. Because I was a highfalutin, Arrogant atheist. I'll tell you what, she just kept at it and kept at it. She was a bus kid from, are you ready for this? Louisiana. Can any good thing come out of Louisiana? Yeah. Her dad was in the Air Force. He got stationed up north. where I grew up on a farm in northern Vermont, and that girl came to our school, and she focused in on me, I believe the Lord sent her to our school to reach this farm boy. Because to my knowledge, other than my brother and me, she never led anybody else to Jesus Christ. She's made an absolute mess of her life by terrible decisions. I thank God she began opening her mouth to me. put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ on the 25th of October, 1974. I woke up the next morning to milk cows, and the first conscious thought in my mind was, Jeff Farnham, you are under new management. It was a Saturday morning. At breakfast that morning, after milking the cows, I said to dad and mom and my two brothers, I'm going to church tomorrow. My mother wheeled around like Just cussed her mother. She said, you're doing what? I said, I'm going to church tomorrow. And that began a battle in our family. It wasn't a welcome news moment. My dad on Sunday mornings would think up chores that I'd never heard of on the farm just so we couldn't go to church. Because when I started going, my older brother started going. But you know what? God's a powerful God. And I got to church more often than not. And I kept going and kept going. And then my Jewish grandmother gave me the graduation present of going to California, where she lived. And I went out there and joined a Baptist church. And the pastor of it was a man named Shelton Smith, now editor of The Sword of the Lord. And after being under that preaching for a while, I knew that God wanted me to be a preacher. Went forth on a Sunday night, the 4th of April, 1976. I had been counseling with him about some matters, and he had encouraged me to pray that God would show me what he wanted me to do with my life. I shook his hand that night. I said, Pastor Smith, the Lord wants me to be a preacher. You know what he said to me? He said, I knew that. I just wanted you to know. I wonder tonight, is there somebody here, and you know God wants you to personally do something related to missions? Then surrender to that. Give your heart to it. Submit to it. 2 Corinthians 8, they first gave themselves. You'll never give anything else if you don't give yourself. I'd like us to stand with our heads bowed.