Oh, it's a delight to be here. Good crowd, I gotta get balanced. I don't wanna think that I'm, I wanna be able to come, one nice thing about this is I can come right to you if you doze off, amen? I'm not worried about the people that sleep, it's the ones that stay awake make me nervous, amen. But Ann Marie and I are thrilled to be here and I want you to take your Bibles, would you go with me to Proverbs 23 and verse seven, Proverbs 23 and verse seven. I love missions because it takes the gospel around the world. And I love your theme about the sower went forth to do what. So, and as you take these commitments to give to missions like you do every year, we call it faith promise missions. That means if God provides it, we're giving it. Amen. And God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or even think. You'd be surprised if you just sold all the junk at your house. You could give a couple thousand emissions above what you're normally giving. Can I get an amen right there? Right. You say, I'm not getting rid of my stuff. Can't take it with you. Amen. But the Lord wants us to take seriously the ministry of giving to reach a lost and dying world. And I'll tell you what, our country and our world is in a mess. And man can't fix it. Only God can fix it. It's amazing what happens when a person gets saved. Their life changes. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, what? All things have become new. The passage of scripture I wanted to start off with in Proverbs 23, 7 is, for as he thinketh in his what? Heart. So is he. And you know, there's a lot of misconceptions about missions. You know, I had a lady come to me one time in my church and she said, Pastor, why are we sending all of this money out? Why don't we do something for ourselves? And I thought, wow, capital improvements on the church are important. And your place looks beautiful here. It's great. You know you take care of and love your church. Amen. And I said to her, well, we've got to reach the whole world. And she couldn't get it in her mind how one church could reach the whole world. But when you get millions of people reaching the world, things happen. New countries are opening. There's 195 countries in the world at this point. Many of them don't have the Bible in their own language. So there's much to be done. And it takes money to do that, doesn't it? It takes money to take care of the things at your house, doesn't it? And so it does for the world. And it's a big job, but God gave that to us. He gave that to Trinity Baptist Church, and we have been blessed, and therefore, we want to be a blessing. And you know, it's interesting, the way you think determines your giving. I want to give you an idea here, good versus bad, on the issue of missions. Let me just read a couple of these to you, and there's many of them. But missions, missionaries are our heroes. I mean, we can agree with that. There are heroes versus missionaries can't make it in the real world. There are some people that have that attitude. The second one is missionaries are the only way to reach the world. You know, modern technology has really opened up a lot of doors. You know, everybody was down on COVID, but one pastor that I know, he had about 25 people in his church. And he had to get up and preach to nobody, you know, because they weren't meeting. He says, man, I'm tired of getting up there and preaching to nobody in the service. I said, well, how many did you have on the internet? Well, about 85. I said, well, you're doing better than you were before COVID. Right? And so we have to realize that one person could take the gospel to literally thousands of people just by getting on social media and giving your testimony. That's the way you can give the gospel out. And so there's ways that we can reach the world versus we don't need to waste our money on missions. That's sad, isn't it? But that's the way people think. Some people think that way. All of us are missionaries. And then some would say, well, let's let someone else do it. You know, we've got a pastor. He can do it. We have Sunday school teachers. They can do it. Oh, no, no, no. It's all of us doing it. Missionaries is a cherished word. And some would say missionaries are poor vagabonds, ugly and uneducated. I mean, that's just the way some people think. It's hard to believe it, isn't it? Have you ever heard that phrase, you can't make this up? There's been a lot of that going on lately in our nation. It's hard to believe some of the things that are going on. And so it is in every mind, we have to come to the place where we draw from the Lord. And as we think God, we think correctly. And I'll tell you, when you get a person to the place where they are in tune with God and are in love with God and want to please God, it's amazing what can be done. And this is a giving church. Your pastor told me how much that you gave last year. It's amazing how that God can use you to do so much. There are not a lot of churches that are over $100,000 a year. And I was in a church in Texas, and they gave $70,000 two years ago. They set their goals to give 80,000 and their goals were 98,000. And you know that they're gonna be over 100,000 this coming year because they've gotten excited about what God's doing. And to make that commitment, you're saying, I am committed that I'm going to do this with God's power. And we'll get into that in the next service. Now, I wanna take a few moments. I wanna ask you a couple of questions about your, finances. Okay, here we go. Number one. When it comes to purchasing things, when it comes to getting things, you have to ask yourself the question, do I need it? Do I need it? My dad told me when, when Ann and I were getting married, he said, Dan, take 30 days and Don't make any decision on what you want to purchase until you've prayed about it for 30 days. When you come to the end of that 30 days, you'll have perfect peace exactly whether to buy it or not to buy it. And I'm amazed how many times I came to the 30th day and said, I don't need it. I don't need it. And I think that a lot of times we as Christians, we think we need something we may not need. I remember when we first got married, my wife, we had a broom for our rugs instead of a vacuum cleaner. Men don't care about the floor, but wives do, right? And I said, we got some wedding money, let's go get a new vacuum cleaner. She goes, let's pray about it. Pray about it, we got the money. And the next day, the lady next door that came to our wedding, she said, I've got your wedding gift for you. Would you like to come up and get it? And she goes, I'm a little bit embarrassed because it was used once or twice, and it was a brand new vacuum cleaner. You know, I mean, I could tell you story after story after story where I thought I had to have something, but later I realized I didn't even need it. The second question is, have I allowed God to provide? You believe God is waiting to minister to you and to help you? You believe God can provide for you by praying? Isn't that what faith promises? We pray. We say, Lord, what do you want me to give? And some of you have been giving for years. You're asking, should I give more? If God is able, is God able? It's not even if God is able. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or even think. And so here we are. We say, Lord, I'm going to give you a chance to work. And it's wonderful because sometimes God gives us extra money that we were never expecting. How many of you ever gotten money you weren't expecting? Sure, see that? And you could give more than you thought you could give, exceeding abundantly above all. you could ask. So it's important. The Bible says, for a great door of effectual is open unto me, and there are many adversaries. So there's always going to be, Satan's going to try in some form to hinder you from doing what God could do for you. He doesn't want you to do what God wants. And the Bible says neither give place to the devil, right? So we can shut him down and we can shut his devices down also. Number three, have I lived by faith or do I live a bit foolishly? Do I live by faith or do I live a little bit foolishly? There's times that money can be wasted, isn't it? We have to be careful about wasting what God has given to us. The Bible says, will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But they ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? in tithes and offerings. And then the Bible says in the next verse, ye are cursed with a curse. Wow, that's, I don't want God's judgment. I want God's power and blessing, don't you? And we can have his power and we can have his blessing. Then number four, will the decision I make bring freedom to my giving or bondage to my giving? You know, a lot of people, they say that the average home is $35,000 in debt, and that's not counting mortgages. How can we give if we're strapped? How can we give if we've used it up? It's interesting. Some children today that are married and out of the home, they'll call up mom and dad and say, hey, I need to make the rent this month. I'm short a little bit. If they hadn't ate out all week, they would have had the money. It's just things like that that cause us to realize that a lot of times, the decisions we make put us in bondage. instead of in freedom. There's nothing greater than being debt free. And I would encourage all of you, and I know many of you probably are debt free, but if you're not, that ought to be a primary thing that you take care of. And you work at it. Set a plan. Get some advice. But get to the place where you owe no man anything. Now we understand a mortgage or maybe a car payment for going to work, that type of thing. But get to the place where you are not in debt. And then you'll find that when the pastor gets up and says there's a missionary that has a need, wow, you can give to it and you can use it for God's glory. and for his honor. There's a need at the church. You got to put a new roof on or something. There's a special need. You're right there ready to be able to give to it. We understand that we don't want to be in bondage. We want to be free to give as the Lord has blessed us. Now let's take our Bibles and go to Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11. This is where the church at Antioch They received a new name. They were first called Christians at Antioch. But in verse 19 of Acts chapter 11, I want you to notice, this is the time just after the martyrdom of Stephen. And I want you to notice this. Now they, which were scattered abroad, notice they were scattered. You know how God got evangelism out? He scattered them through persecution. Isn't that amazing? The enemy was against Christ at Calvary, and they didn't let up. They kept on persecuting. In fact, the Bible says, Persecution. And so, Stephen is stoned with stones, and here he is saying, lay not this sin to their charge. He was like Jesus, wasn't he? When Jesus said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. But in this passage, I want to read it to you here. It says, now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Phinehas and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which then they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed, and what'd they do? They turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came into the ears of the church, which was at Jerusalem. And they sent forth Barnabas, as he should go as far as Antioch. And you'll notice that the church began to grow. There was a moving of God because the people were moving with God. That is very important. A missions conference is when we concentrate on moving forward, advancing for God and for the souls of men. And they were a people that proclaimed the gospel. If you want to take notes right now, number one, they were a people proclaiming. The gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not just one person. Like you said, you've had a lot of people give out gospel tracts. You'd be surprised. Somebody takes a gospel tract and takes it home with them and they throw it in a dresser drawer and two years later they look at it and then they come. We had that happen in our church. A man by the name of Paul Keck came because he got that tract given to him. And it's amazing how God brings people to himself. God's a miracle God. and he's able to bring people to the end of themselves. And it may not happen by coming into a church. It may happen, maybe there's a tragedy at the house or there's a problem that comes into their life and they say, where do I turn? And then they think about somebody that knows the Lord. Somebody that is living for God at Trinity Baptist Church and they say, I'm going there because I know those people live by faith. Those people love the Lord and they're good people because God's good, right? There's no goodness in ourselves. It's all his good goodness to us. So people were proclaiming and wherever you see people proclaiming, you're going to see souls saved. You'll see them saved. It's wonderful. Salvation is preached of the Lord Jesus. Then I want you to notice the second thing, the people of faith. They were a people of faith in the book of Acts chapter 20. Let's go over to chapter 20 and verse 21. They were testifying, 20 and 21, chapter 20, verse 21. testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, notice, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I love that phrase. A person is not going to be saved unless they repent. Repentance is a godly sorrow for sin. Mixed with faith brings salvation. It's wonderful. They were a people of faith. They testified to the Jews and to the Greeks. Nobody's being missed now. Before it was just the Jews, now they've gone to the Gentiles, and they're reaching the Gentiles with the gospel. They were people of faith. Jesus answered and said unto them, have faith. in God. Have faith in God. Believe God for everything. We need to get to the place where we are so dependent upon God that we are out of the picture. Do you understand that? I'm going to live by faith. I'm going to trust my God. He said, you have not because you ask not. And I'm going to ask God for some things. And there's nothing wrong with asking God for things. He asks us to ask Him. In the book of Isaiah chapter 30, I don't have time to go there, but Acts 30, Isaiah 30 verse 18, the Bible talks about how God has to wait for us. He waits on us. You think you're waiting on God? He's waiting on you. The difference between making God wait and waiting on God is you have asked Him to do what only He can do. How many believe in miracles? Do we have a miracle-working God? Then why aren't we bombarding His throne with requests? Don't you think that'd be a good idea? What do you need? I, God, so supply all your needs. We have needs that aren't being met because we haven't asked. We've been praying for Ian's oldest brother, and just the day before he died, I had the privilege of leading him to the Lord. It was amazing. It was amazing. He always said, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. But God brought him to the end of himself. And on Wednesday, he wasn't coherent. On Thursday, he was. I said, this is Dan, your brother-in-law. And he goes, I know. How you doing? He wasn't even coherent on Wednesday. Thursday, he said, how you doing? I said, well, I wanted to call and ask you if you're ready to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, because a couple weeks earlier, we had given him the full gospel. I thought he was gonna get saved, but he didn't at that moment. But I'm calling him on Thursday, and I led him to Christ. It was so beautiful. He prayed the prayer, and then he thanked me after. Thanks, thanks, Dan, I appreciate that. And the next day, he died. Well, he really started living, right? He went to heaven. So God is able, God is able. You by faith trust God for everything and watch him give you more than you've ever had. That's the way our God works. He responds to our response. He responds when we respond and otherwise we're making him wait. Then number three, we have a people of prayer. Go with me to Acts chapter one, right at the beginning. In Acts chapter one, look at me at verse 14. The Bible says, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. Wow. They continued. with one accord in prayer. We take on a responsibility. I heard the story of a group of people that called a pastor. Well, he had been their pastor for a while, but some of them were saying, I don't really think he's saved. And they had reasons. And so a group of them, about six families, began to pray. They prayed by themselves in their own homes. They said, oh God, save our pastor. They told nobody else. They didn't want anybody else to know about that. But they said, save our pastor. And then every Sunday they came to see if he'd gotten saved yet. Isn't that good? That's faith, isn't it? And one Sunday they came in and The pastor was totally different. He was soul conscious. He preached the gospel where he didn't before. And all of a sudden, they had a saved pastor instead of a lost pastor. That's good, isn't it? Why do I say that to you? Because God answers prayer. The more you pray, the more answers you're gonna receive. Isn't there somebody that needs to be saved? at this church from time to time? You could be praying for that one. The pastor will get up here and preach the word under the anointing of the spirit, and your prayer, God will use your prayer to speak to that person, and that person will come and get saved. Why don't we just live by faith, not just for missions, but for everything? Amen? Wouldn't that be good? They were a people of prayer. Then I want you to know that they were a people of fellowship. Go to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. These are great, great stories. Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. And they continued what? steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and in fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers." Wow. You like fellowshipping? We're going to eat in a little while, I think, aren't we? Do you like to fellowship? When you fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, you get a burden for them, just as they get a burden for you. And all of these prayer requests, wow, I've not seen that happen in a long time, where all that many prayer requests are given out like that, that's good. We need to know how to pray for each other. And every one of you ought to have the list of all of the people that you pray for. Trinity Baptist Church prayer list, right? where you bring people before the Lord, and then whenever somebody gets saved or somebody gets a victory or somebody gets better, you can say, I prayed for that. There's nothing more thrilling than praying for somebody to get saved, and then one Sunday they walk the aisle to get saved. This man right here, your pastor, he surrendered to Puerto Rico. This church sent somebody out of your own, That's beautiful, isn't it? And I think that the more we are fellowshipping with the Lord and fellowshipping with each other, and we keep the mind of the Lord Jesus Christ in the forefront, you're gonna see things happening on a weekly basis. We had a lady in our church that kept a real good prayer list. And she'd go out of church on Sunday morning. She'd say, well, I got four answers today. There were four people I prayed for that haven't been in church, and they were all there. And this was every week. We'd been praying for her to get saved. And then God calls people right out of our own congregation to go into the ministry and to serve the Lord. Is there anything greater than that? For a church to be able to send out a missionary to a foreign field, and then to see what God's doing there. And that's a duplication of Trinity Baptist Church. You established another Trinity Baptist Church, so to speak. You know what I mean? And it's wonderful to see churches starting churches and reaching areas where there's no message of the gospel. And that takes fellowship. That takes fellowship. And then we have, number four, we have A people of compassion. A people of compassion. You know, the Bible says, and some have compassion making a difference. Compassion, soul winning compassion. In fact, the book of Isaiah, Acts chapter 11, verse 24 says, for he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. That's what it's about. A church is dying unless a church is reaching souls for Christ. Folks are dead in trespasses and sin, but they can come here and be made alive. And oh, I love it, the change God makes. Did He change your life when you got saved? You've never been the same, have you? You think about it. It doesn't mean that we're perfect. It doesn't mean that we don't have areas we need to work on, but boy, we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Amen? They were called Christians. They were people called Christians. They were giving people. In Acts 11.29, it says, then the disciples, every man according to his ability. Would you go there with me, Acts 11.29? This will be my last point this morning in Sunday School Acts 11.29. Look with me. Then the disciples, every man according to his what? Say it. Ability. You know, God does not require anything more than what you're able to do. God's not a hard taskmaster. He knows what your abilities are. He knows the gifts he's given to you. All he wants to do is see them exercised. And we do that right after the morning worship service as we get ready to give our commitments, faith promise commitments. Boy, be sure, how many have never given to faith promise missions? Would you raise your hand? There may be a few that haven't. Be sure that if you're not giving to missions on a monthly basis, fill out that card and say, I'm going to do this much. Ask the Lord. You can ask the Lord. He's not an author of confusion. He'll tell you. Give $10 a week to missions. Give $20 a week to missions. Give $5 a week to missions. If you've never given ever before to missions, give $2 a week. It's amazing how God multiplies that, amen? He's not asking you to give above your ability. Now, what he can do with your ability is he can give opportunity to your ability. And that's what we call faith giving right there. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent it unto the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul." So here it is. It comes in, and it goes right back out. And it gets used wherever it's needed that the work of God may advance. I don't think we should be discouraged in the day in which we're living. Did you hear me? I don't know how the election is going to come out. I don't know how a lot of things are going to happen. But God has given us a responsibility to vote. He's given us a responsibility to pray for our country. He's given us a responsibility to not slow down. We need to pick up speed as the day approaches. The day of the Lord could be tomorrow. We could be raptured out of here before the services are over today. How many would like to go? This little boy was sitting on the front row, and the pastor said, how many want to go to heaven? And boy, he grabbed his hand like that and put it down. The pastor noticed it right away and said, son, don't you want to go to heaven? He said, yes. I want to go to heaven, but I thought you were getting a group to go right now. He had something else planned, I think, in the afternoon there. Maybe lunch. I don't know. Let's pray, OK? Our Heavenly Father, we know that you are great. You are mighty. We underestimate your power, too. Forgive us. And I pray, Lord, that as commitments are made today, may each one get great joy out of making a commitment to Almighty God. We love you. We thank you for sending your Son. We thank you for the joy of being born again. And we love missions because that's your heartbeat. That's what you desire all of us to do, is to go into all the world and to preach the gospel to every creature. And may we do that for your glory and honor. In Christ's name, amen. Pastor?