All right, I am going to wrap it up tonight. I guess that's the part of the meeting you actually know what's going on. And so let me say just a couple things. As you're turning to the book of Philippians, and I mean in sincerity tonight, my aim and my goal is to be brief. If you haven't got it by now, you're not going to get it. And if I haven't made it simple enough for you to get it, I'm not going to do it tonight anyway. So I appreciate you being here. And my wife and I travel a little more than we did when I was full-time pastor. And we have seen, in many cases, churches that used to be are struggling, and churches that are trying to get off the ground are finding it more difficult. And it's just hard for the average Christian. You know, the Bible said in the last days, perilous times shall come. And perilous just simply means dangerous. I think that's a good description. I think it's odd that somebody writing back here at the time they're writing at, way, way, way, way back before Columbus was ever even thought of, knew that we were going to exist in perilous times. I'm not a prophetic engineer in the sense that I can tell you what's going to happen. I mentioned the day we were watching the Russia stuff, and I find that bear over in the book of Daniel has three ribs in his mouth. And I think he's trying to get his first rib today. And when he gets that third rib, you better, Katie, bar the door. Because I love being a Bible believer. I love it. And this is going to sound weird, because people make fun of you and look at you like you're a loony until you cross the threshold into prophecy. Boy, you just start talking prophecy and watch the crowd gather around and go, yeah, I heard, and I heard, and I, yeah. Well, that's because this book is accurate. this book is accurate. And who would have believed in the midst of a missions conference in the last days we would be watching the Russian bear try to get one of its ribs back and already having talked about getting two more. That'll be three, won't it? You say, are you a prophecy teacher? No, and I'm not sure that's right, but it sure is a grand quinky dink, isn't it? And I'm praying I'm right, because that is all right where the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ hinges. And so I appreciate more and more every day of my life how this book ends, even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. And I think that wraps it all up, doesn't it? Tonight, in the book of Philippians, I just want to read a verse of Scripture to you that you already know by heart. And I want to connect it to what we've talked about in the context of missions and particular in giving to missions. Preachers are renowned for being money guys, and I'd never have tried to be. I detest that idea. I tried something different a long time ago, and that was I would tell the Lord, and nobody else. And I've watched the Lord take care of Ms. Sal and my needs every single time, no matter what they are. And so I don't think it's the bully pulpit that gains the recognition. But I have no problem at all coming to a church on a Sunday night or a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night, and getting up in front of a group of people and just raking them over the coals trying to get them to give, because it's not for me. It's for something the Lord said had to be done. And secondly, I have no problem with it, not only because the Lord said to do it, but because I have found that giving God control of my life requires that I give Him control of my wallet. He can't control my life if he doesn't have access. You know, if I get up in the morning, I gotta have a checklist. My brain gets foggy now every once in a while, and I have this laying here, and then I have this laying here, and I got that, and I've got a place that I try to keep everything so I know where it is. And before my wife can tell you, inevitably, I'm looking for my glasses. Sometimes going, where in the world are my glasses? You know, that's kind of the way I figure out where they are eventually. But I have learned that keeping organization helps a little bit as you get older to keep track of all the stuff that you never used to have to even keep track of. Somebody said, you know, it must be easy to get old. I got news for you. It's tough. Because half the stuff you need, you don't know where it is. And the other half, you knew where it was a while ago, but now you're not sure exactly who got it and where it went. And it's difficult getting old. But I have no trouble at all trying to encourage people in one thing, and that is letting God take control of their finances. Now, I'm not going to tell you tonight how much to give to missions. I'm not going to tell you how much you ought to give to God. I think I can tell you ought to tithe. I think that's a biblical concept, and before you, you know, put your thumbs in your lapel, I think that's the starting place, okay? I can let you in on a little secret. You can do a whole lot more than tithe. And I'm not saying you have to, I'm saying you can. And I say that because God not only can supply 10%, God can do exceeding abundantly above all we think or ask. What a statement about the God we serve. And I have to say tonight that I would not have been able to say that 40 years ago, I suppose, when I started into the ministry. I still had my questions. I was still young. I had a young family. My wife was expecting, and all of that stuff was just becoming part of our life. We were about to make a move, and all of those things were coming to pass as I came to take a group of people in a living room and see if God was going to give us a church. And I might have said what I'm going to say tonight, But there would have been in the back of my mind. Is that okay to be honest like that? Did you ever have something that God said and you say, well, I believe it. But in the back of your mind, you're going, I don't know. Maybe we ought to check out another version or something and see. But that's true of a lot of lives, particularly when we're young or when we're young Christians. We can say, boy, I believe the word of God. I believe it from cover to cover. Or my friend used to say from lid to lid. We ought to believe it that way. But sometimes believing it and putting it into practice and letting it dominate and control my life are really different matters. And so I'm not here tonight to get your money. I really am not. If you don't give a dime, it's not gonna affect me. My wife and I have given over the years and will continue to give and continue to increase to the best of our ability. It's not about what you do tonight or what you get away with, but I'm here to tell you tonight that if you never learn to give God control financially of your life, you're going to miss one of your greatest blessings. You say, why? Because I think that that's a place where He delights in doing exceeding abundantly above all we think or ask. And I say that now as an old guy, as a retired guy, and as a guy that God has blessed and taken care of. And my wife and I are not retiring with all of our affluence and wealth. We're not going to drive our Mercedes home tonight or our Bentley around the block tomorrow. But you know what? We got a vehicle to get around in. We got gas in the tank. House payments are paid. Lights are on. And we love each other. And we're healthy. And I have tonight, I know this unless somebody's sick, I have 19 grandchildren that are all in church right now serving the Lord. You know, as you get older, your values change too. And I remember what it was like to want a new car or to want to buy a new house or to want to move into this place. I remember all those things. It's like ancient history now. But as you get a little older, it's looking back and realizing that God's taking care of you not just today, but he's got you down this trail in a place you never thought you'd be. And it may not mean much to you tonight if you're 20, 24, that your grandchildren are in church, but it will when you're 67. And it will mean a lot to you to be able to say, my grandkids all love the Lord and they've all trusted Christ as their Savior, except the little tenancy ones that are not old enough to know what's going on yet. But to know that God can take care of you, to know that my children are happily married and living with their spouse and in church every single Sunday. My son's pastor told me not long ago, he said, your son is one of my best friends. He said, he's a real help to this preacher. Boy, You know, there's a time, Brother Walt, when you wonder if your kids are even going to stay in church, because they hang around with deacon's kids. And you just, you think, Lord, help that not to wear off, you know. No, I'm kidding. But you understand you can get in as much trouble running around in church. as you can anywhere else. And just the fact that a kid's here tonight doesn't mean they're not going to end up somewhere in a world of hurt. It's a matter of choice that keeps you walking with God. But sometimes that choice comes about as a result of parents setting or trying to set or trying to maintain a right example. And I'm going to tell you, if I lived in this day and time, I would struggle with being faithful to church. If I lived in this day and time when I was starting out, I'd have a hard time putting up with all the shenanigans that are going on in my country and its government and the way things are run. I probably would be vocal and wild and crazy and stupid, okay? Because I'm not saying it's stupid to have those feelings, but I find all the ranting and raving in the world hasn't changed a whole lot. Evil men shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." Now, what part of that do you intend to change? You say, well, what am I supposed to do? Keep running your mouth, but run it to heaven and remind God, hey, I'm here and I'm not going that route. Take care of me. Keep staying in the lines that God's established on the highway of life and realizing that this is the safe place right here to be. Tonight you're in the safest place in all the world. I can imagine that there is in this world because God's here with us to take care of us. Philippians 4.19 has always been one of the verses that kids like to memorize, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory. That's one of those verses that it is easy for us to amen. until we're having to live it. You know some verses like that in your Bible, where you say, boy, yeah, that is the truth, because everybody else says that's the truth. And boy, I know God's big, and God's powerful, and God promised, and God, and we can do all that. But when we get to the place where we're having to use and rely and hang on to some of those verses, they become a little more difficult. People love to quote, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. But I've had people on their deathbed say, preacher, I'm really struggling here. You say, well, what does that mean? No, they never believed it. No, sometimes the changes and the quirks and the twists and the turns of life bring you to a place where you never had to consider that passage from this perspective before. But the truth of the matter is that it's still true, even if it's difficult for me to implement it into this moment right now. That passage is still true. It still is the Word of God, even when it's hard for me to see how that works in my life right now in these circumstances. I would say that over the course of my ministry, better than half of the people who walked away from the Lord and got out of church, when we went to see them, gave me any other reason other than I always thought this is how God would do this in my, and could quote a verse. And because that verse didn't fit their circumstances the way that they knew it was going to, they threw their whole Bible out the window. If you find you've got a problem with the scripture somewhere because of the circumstances in your life, before you jump off the cliff, realize it's far more likely that the problem is with me than it is with God. And it would be a foolish thing for me to react to how I feel about this passage and what God said than to just wait it out and let God prove himself yet once again to be more knowing than I am about the circumstances. Isn't it odd as a Christian that there are passages in the Scripture, when you read them, you're tempted to say, oh, yeah, yeah. And then God brings you down through a valley or up through a mountaintop or across a plain, and you look back and you say, you know, that is true. That is true. I say to you tonight that this passage is one of the greatest passages in all the Word of God because it is hard to argue with. but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. You say, well, preacher, I'll tell you something. Let me tell you about a time in my, yeah, but give it a little time, will you? You know what I find? I find every once in a while when I find that God didn't keep his word, if I hang on, I realize it's me that's messed it up somewhere. Okay, that doesn't mean God was unfaithful if he didn't give you a Bentley. Okay, that's not what the passage says. It doesn't mean that God was unfaithful to you because you destroyed your marriage and lost your spouse. People do stupid things. But the truth is, in spite of the stupid things we do and the things that we look at that don't seem to go the way we thought everything was going to go, so it disgusts us, in spite of all the rhetoric we may find, God will supply your need. He promised to do so, and I submit to you there won't be one in heaven that will point a finger of accusation at our God and say, you failed me. I'll be honest with you tonight, it's closing night so I can't, right? I could lie to you the rest of the week, tonight I can be honest. I found myself in some valleys in the course of the ministry where I had a hard time believing that. I've had some places and some events in my ministry and in my life where I've actually kind of had a one-on-one with the Lord. Lord, you said this. And I have a hard time believing that's true because of the circumstances of my life. It's okay to get angry at the Lord as long as you realize He's right and I'm wrong and I'll figure that out eventually. Isn't God grand to allow us to let off steam every once in a while? Isn't it a wonderful thing He doesn't just zap us the first time we open our mouth and say something stupid? I think sometimes God lets us pout and get poochy-lipped and complain and murmur and huff and puff and jerk and just give Him a royal fit. And because in the end, God knows when everything breaks apart, He's going to put His hand on our shoulder and we're going to realize what a wonderful Savior. Amen. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Well, I'm going to be honest with you, I'm not really excited about walking down through the valley of the shadow of death. Say, well, you know, I'm going to walk through shouting. You go ahead, go ahead of me. Stand here for a while and wait it out if it's okay with you. I realize some of those truths are absolute truths, but I haven't implemented them yet, and I'm not necessarily looking forward to implementing them. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. It doesn't mean they're not true. And it doesn't mean I can't take God at his word. So what are you talking about tonight? Well, let's talk about what this whole conference has been about. Let's just be, you know, straight line honest. It's about you putting money in the pan. Okay. Now, this is probably a little awkward timing with the tax man coming up here just in the next few days. You probably have some doctor bills from COVID left over. I mean, let's be honest, there's never a good time to talk about money unless it's somebody talking about giving theirs away and you happen to be first in line. But the meeting this week, pastor's prayer and consideration of how God wanted this meeting to be conducted and hopefully and who he brought in to speak and the missionaries that he had invited in. Can I be honest? It has one goal, and that's to get some money in the pan. And you say, well, I just, I hate people that are always trying to get my money. Well, between me and you, God getting your money is not as bad as anybody else getting your money. Okay, so I'm not here on behalf of myself, and pastor's not doing this on behalf of he and his family, and the church is not organizing, trying to get something so we can, you know, get something new to go in the building. This is about missions tonight. This is money, yes. But it's about money that can be exchanged for things necessary to get the gospel to people in faraway places so that they may be in a language that you and I could never understand with tears running down their face, say, thank you for what God's done in my life. And realize at some point you had a little part in that. Still doesn't make it helpful when people talk about your money. But the world's truth is that, and I say the world's truth because it's true of the majority of people in the world, I think it was 92% polled in a poll, it's probably way too old to even quote from, but I don't know if I knew or when. About 92% of people polled said that they had severe financial problems. And they wanted to blame it on something else or an event in their life, and when financial people sit down and begin to look at them, it was really just poor management of money. Is that okay for me to say tonight? You say, well, no, it's not okay, because I know where you're going to land this plane. Right in my backyard. And that's true, because in honesty, a lot of times we blame other things and other events for financial woes, and well, you know, if I'd just been born with a silver spoon in my mouth, or if somebody just walked up and, give me a million dollars, then, listen, you wouldn't be like everybody else then either. The truth is, All of us have a tendency to mismanage our money when it comes to one thing, really, and that's us. I have no problem buying for me, but my wife buys ridiculous things. Just unbelievable what a woman can spend money on. I mean, a guy, for crying out loud, I probably only have 200, 220 fishing lures in my tackle box. But everybody knows, you, man, on a Friday when it's a little overcast and the tide's running, you've got to have a purple one on there, man. And if it's really windy, you need some feathers. So, and Lord forbid you'd be out there in the middle of the lake trying to catch a walleye and you don't have the right lure. But you women for crying out loud. Who taught you how to manage money? Find your doorbell being rung. That's kind of where we are in it. Nobody knows how to handle money like me. At least that's what I think. But the truth of the matter is, all of us have a hard time doing the right thing with our money. And all of us have an easy time doing stupid things with our money. And every one of us here tonight, if we took a testimony meeting, we could spend the rest of the service talking about the dumbest thing we ever did with money. Because you say, how can we take the rest of the search? Because we'd go around once. And that kind of testimony meeting is one of those where after you've given your testimony and the person behind you starts, you go, oh, yeah, that one, what I just said wasn't the dumbest. We'd have to go around and around and around and around again about if I just had that dollar or that $10 or that $100, if I could just, if I hadn't bought that car for crying out loud. We've all made stupid mistakes with our finances. And here is a promise that is so rich that I suppose if we could be promised long life with good health, if we would be promised the best spouse and bright children or whatever it was, it could not compare to this one that says, but my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That passage does not call on me to do anything other than trust the one who will take care of me. But it frees me from the clutches of this world that says, if you don't got the cash, you don't get what you want. But that's not what he said here. Missions conferences, and I don't know that I've said this, I probably did, I guess I did remember saying it because I try to say it each, it's about money. It just, it really is. And it's about your money. It's about your money. But I can't convince you, but you can prove whether what I'm saying is true or not by putting it into practice. I said before, I had the privilege of growing up in a Christian home, and I'm thankful to the Lord for it. I honestly don't know if I'd be on my way to heaven if I'd been raised any other way than the way the Lord allowed me to be raised. And you say, well, you had all the advantages. I know I probably did. Think about this because I do. Think about what a horrible sinner I would have been if God hadn't given me the folks I had that would keep me in place where they kept me. But having said that, having said that, God puts us in those places where he doesn't depend on us. If you don't put a dime in the pan at all for the Sturtz family, Okay. If you, you could go around to some of the churches that do support them and weave a story and those churches would drop them. Okay. Let me help you with that. God will still take care of their needs. God will meet their needs. The mission will go on. The job will get done. And you can sit back and cry and complain and bellyache about it all you want to. Now that doesn't mean you just throw money to things that are not wise. But it does mean if I can find God's man, God's woman doing the things God wants to have done and needing some supply, I have no fear about being a part of that. Now, we all will agree that that's true. Yeah, I believe that, amen. I got 25 bucks in my pocket, I'm gonna get five. Or I'm really spiritual and I'm gonna keep five and give 20. But this is beyond that. This is beyond that. This is beyond that realm of what have I got in my pocket or in my account. It's beyond what am I thinking I can make if I run the math and do the geometry or whatever it is that needs to be done. I mean how much, it's beyond all that. It is the opportunity to give what you never would have imagined you could possibly ever give doing what you could never imagine you could possibly ever have done with God's blessings. That's God's way. Because according to the passage that if I give, and if I give a little, or if I give a lot, if I continue to give, at some point, the needle's gonna swing over here to the need funds. It has to. If there's a limited amount of money in the scenario, and I begin to take that money and say, well, okay, I love the Lord, and this is a good guy, and I'm gonna help out there, or I think every Christian oughta do this, and I think, you may have quirks. I said, I have quirks. Just things where I've tried to test the Lord. One of my quirks was growing up and watching the offering pan go up and down the aisle. And I remember my father saying one time, as the offering pan went by and was going down the aisle, he just kind of mumbled real quietly, but I heard him. He said, that's kind of a shame. And I'll tell you what he meant. There wasn't any money in it. It was offering, right? Who's the offering for? It's an offering to the Lord, right? There wasn't anything in it. That troubled my father. And it troubled me because it troubled my father. And I got a perspective on it. I thought, my God's better than that. It's quiet in here tonight. I'm not gonna give an invitation. Okay, how's that? We just let the invitation slide. Doesn't it bother you that we're taking up an offering for the Lord? How many of you the Lord's been good to you? How many of you the Lord's been better than you deserve? How many of you think he's worthy of something? Now, I'm not going to blow smoke. I don't put $100 bills in. And I don't stand up so everybody can see. But by the grace of God, if there's an offering plate coming my way, I try to put something in it. And it may not be much. It may be just a couple of dollars. It may be that the next guy will look at it and go, there's only $2 in the offer he paid. Yeah, but it doesn't mean that to me. It means I realize I'm accountable for what's in my pocket and what's in my life and what God's given to me. And I don't listen. More than having $2 in my pocket, I want God in my life. And I want to honor that God that has been in my life so many times and done exceeding abundant above all I would ever think or ask. I want God in a position of having to supply my need, but my God shall supply all your need. Look at the next part, according to his riches. I can only supply the need that God might have at this moment with my little bit. I'm limited. I'm not telling you you need to give everything you have to the Lord. I'm not telling you you need to mortgage your house. That would be silly. God wouldn't live in your house anyway. I'm saying $2 that I put in an offering plan is not going to, it's not going to amaze the angels in heaven. It's not about the angels in heaven. And it's not really about making God be amazed with me. It's just letting him know I love him and I care for him. I have a whole stack of things in my home office now because I'm not in the church anymore and most of that stuff is in boxes and I'm going through it. And I have a whole box of stuff that is little stick drawing crayon men and women and trees and things. I got a whole pile of them and you open them up and it says, I love you pastor. And I've often thought about using them for blackmail to some of these adults that are now married raising their own kids. You know, 25 bucks, I won't give this to your kids and show them how much talent you had. The dilemma, you know, do you throw some of this stuff away or do you keep it? If you keep it, it's nostalgia. But you know, when I look at that stuff, I don't remember, you know, this grown lady that's got two kids and her husband's a foreman at the plant. I look at it and I see a little girl that ran down an aisle and say, Pastor, I colored this for you. That adds value to it. That adds value to it. Because it means something to me. And I gotta believe that most of the stuff I do doesn't overwhelm the angels of heaven. But it's okay if all I can do is draw a stick man. If I give it to my God. Because he doesn't forget. He knows. So this is not about get out your checkbook and by faith write some big check and do something magnificent and climb to the top of the heap, let everybody know your name so they know you're just a good... It's shut up and do something for the God that cares more for you than you care for yourself. And no, you and I are not necessary. And the money that I give is not something that's going to keep the kingdom from going bankrupt. I'm headed to a place where the streets made out of solid pure gold. I'm headed to the place where the gates are one pearl. You think God's hard up for money and cash? You think he needs that? Listen, the benefits are all mine. All mine. None of them are heavens. You say, well, what benefit? I'll tell you the benefit. I can tell you me and God, me and God get together every once in a while. He knows me. I give. Say, how much do you give? Well, probably a couple dimes by comparison of what others could or would or should. But it's not what you give, it's who you give it to. And then the reciprocal is what I want to leave you with tonight. Is that I know that every need that I have ever had in my life, when I still only had two nickels, God shows up and puts His in. Is it okay, is it fair to say that my wife and I are not rich, we're not wealthy, we're not even, listen, we can't even see that shore. But we are blessed. We have days where we have more than heart could wish. We have days where it's just a joy to see how good God's been. Way back there when you thought it was unfair and now you look at it, you thought it's the biggest blessing we've ever had. It's a joy to know that we've grown old together and love each other and care for each other and none of that's changed. It's a wonderful thing to talk to the grandkids and realize that they're all in church and going to church. It's a wonderful thing to realize some of those things. So what are you doing, preacher? You're trying to twist my arm? No, I'm trying to get you to just put God in a spot and let Him prove to you. Because let me read to you again, but my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory. How much, how many, how much? I don't know what correct English is. How many riches are there in glory, would you guess? Well, according to that, he can supply your need. And I'm just looking at face value, but it's the Baptist church and Baptists all look the same. I'm pretty confident there are no mega millionaires here tonight. Just from appearance, I'm sorry. If you're here, give me $5,000 and I'll apologize. But in heaven, a mega millionaire would be a pauper. And God said, hey, listen, I know it's hard for you to do that. I know you don't want to get involved. I know you were saving up for that magical thing or whatever it is. But I'll tell you what I'll do. You prove your love for me and I'll take care of every need. Every need. Can I say tonight he has been faithful? to take care of every need that this preacher and his wife and his family has ever had. I don't want to raise or didn't want to raise my kids in a home where we will always be grudging serving the Lord. It's quiet and maybe so. Moms, dads, be careful. Well, you know, we got to help missionaries. If we didn't have to help missionaries, we could probably go to Disney World. Boy, thanks for helping the Lord out there. Hello? Don't drag God into that thing and somehow make Him the bad guy. Well, you know, if we didn't tithe, we'd have a lot better home than we have. But, you know, we've got to do something for the Lord. Make it sound like you're keeping God afloat. We tried not to ever do that. We tried to let our kids know it was a privilege and a blessing and we're not ever given God enough. Isn't it wonderful that God would accept something from us? Isn't it incredible that God would take a piece of paper with a picture of a cruddy American president on it and somehow transform it into eternal assets? Listen, I can't do that, but God can. God can take those, whatever they are, Benjamin Franklins or whoever's names on there, I don't know anything about them, I just know they're dead. You get a stack of Benjamins and hang on to them, you say, boy, I'm a wealthy man, but you light a fire the wrong way and all them Benjamins are gone. But if you become rich toward God, there aren't any Benjamins. Everything's gold or silver, pearl, diamond, onyx, barrel. Everything is precious stone in heaven. And more than that, there's a God who shines like the brightness of the noonday sun. that knows you by name and knows everything you've ever done for His cause, even though it was infantile and probably worthless to someone of His stature, He's got it recorded, and He remembers, and He knows, and He's one day gonna thank you personally. Some of these little boys and girls one day, I believe with all my heart, Brother Walt, are going to be called to the throne before all thrones, and a great God's going to lean forward. And that hand that put the stars and the sun and the moon out there, that voice that spoke in all the worlds came into existence is going to take the hand of a little child and say, thank you for those two dimes you gave on Sunday so somebody could go to the mission field. Thank you for contributing. we serve a great God. But that's not all that's gonna happen, because that same God's gonna say, you remember, you remember when that car swerved that day in front of you and almost hit you? I stopped it. You remember that day when the doctor called and said that the films were a little troublesome and he needed to talk to you, but when you got there, he said, oh, they just messed the film up. Remember that? I was watching out for you. You remember that time, it's going to account to us a thousand times, a thousand times, where we never noticed, we never understood. Heaven didn't bother to send us the memo, but God was taking care of us every step of the way and providing for us so we didn't have to shed tears and weep and endure the anguish. We never knew there was going to be a problem because God took it all away and we could walk with our heads held high and sing, oh, how I love Jesus, not knowing that he was taking care of us even in that moment, supplying our need sometimes that we didn't even know we had. Won't it be a wonderful thing when God shows us the needs that we actually did have, that we never got a bill for, Nothing ever came due because God took care of them before things came due. Serving God, serving in the field of missions and helping missionaries is a financial thing. And you say, well, what is it? Now, it doesn't mean I give my tithe to somebody else. My tithe belongs to the Lord. And I understand I'm preaching to the choir here, but it's helpful, I think, to go through these things because somebody may miss it. God already owns 10% minimum of everything that I have. It's his. You say, why? Man, you know how much oxygen I've breathed? You know how much steak I've eaten and burger and potatoes and you know, I mean, all that stuff he's gotten supplied. He's more than taking care of whatever I've had to give. Tithe belongs to the Lord. And by the way, you can't give till you tithe. All right, this is quiet. This is a Baptist church, right? Ah, Methodist. I'm sorry, I thought it was a Methodist church. Will a man rob God? He said, you've robbed me in tithes and in offerings. You've got to get the tithe in there before you can go on to the offering. Does that help? Boy, I'd love to have somebody, amen, somewhere speaking tongues or something. Help me out. You say, preacher, I don't like preachers who preach about money. That's because you're a tightwad. You say, you're not going to talk to me? I already did. It's too late. I already did. God wanted me to tell you that because you obviously hadn't been told that before, so now you have. Do you understand, and I probably sound very mean, and I'm not trying to be necessarily, but I'm trying to get your attention, what you and I give is not going to turn heaven upside down. God's not going to wipe sweat from his brow and say, wow, I am really glad Brother Shepard got his church in line there. Just we weren't going to be able to do this if it hadn't been for Brother Walt and his people. You're great people, but you're not indispensable to a God who is eternal. So my giving to God, get this please, is not about me somehow impressing God or paying rent or ransom for whatever it might be. It's not some bill that I have. God is good and I'm here and alive and enjoying life because God is good. And God said, you love me? Remember when he pulled Peter aside who always entered a room mouth first? He always had something philosophical to say and the Lord had to say, you know, Peter, just shut up. But when the Lord said, Peter, just listen, just calm down here. And here's what I want you to do. It was always something small that God wanted that was simply not always to impress the Lord, but to teach us at times that He's been blessing us. And somewhere along the line, it's good just to be thankful and appreciative. Giving to missions, and I say before, these missionaries can't go. And since we're on missions, that's why I'm trying to stay on point for the next few minutes. We're trying to get money to send them around. Do you know what a plane ticket costs? Do you know what it costs to get your passports and things like that in order and have your documents brought up to date? Do you know what it costs to get off of an airplane and even to get somebody to carry your bags to the cab in a foreign country? It's always, can I help you? What can I do for you, sir? That's the way it is. I would think it's safe to say that whether you're a missionary or a multi-millionaire businessman going through whatever, you name the airport in Europe, you're probably not going to get out of the airport without having spent $100, $150 just to get people to help and to carry a luggage or to move a luggage or to get a cab or to land. It's just the way it works. You say, that's horrible. That's what I'm telling you. But they have to endure that to go to boola boola land. They're going to go out there where the grass hut is, but before they get there, they're going to spend several thousand dollars getting through all the customs and all the junk that has to be done to get there. And then guess what? They're going to find out, this is the church building you've built? Well, I don't think we better go in there. It's going to fall. And you know who helps with the building program? In Bula Bula Land, the missionary does, and you know who helps with all of those things that have to be done. You say, well, they're not going. You know who helps to get all those Bibles and all those books and all those crates shipped by the truck? You know who unloads those trucks or pays somebody to unload those trucks? You know how all of that stuff gets accomplished? Money. Is that all right? And somebody said, well, you know, missionary, he came in here, we gave him $1,000. We can give you $1,000 to go away, too. And trust me, you'd be well paid. I'll guarantee you, every one of these missionaries have probably sat down in a web because they didn't get to eat lunch, because they only had this many dollars, and who knew this kid was gonna be there, who knew this guy that was starving, or who knew that these people were gonna have trouble with their car, and they were bringing people to church. Your missionary takes care of that. Your missionary takes care of that. Well, what about the bad missionaries? Hey, let me know. Don't support bad missionaries. Okay? I don't believe there's any mandate for you to support a bad missionary. You say, well, how do I know? I don't know. That's why I support them all because I just can't take the risk. I figured God will sort it out. Do you understand what you have here at Cornerstone Baptist Church? You understand the blessings that you have? How many hundred people a day drive past your building? And out of those hundreds of people, how many of them are probably at the end of their rope? How many of them have maybe gone home and taken a computer or a cell phone and typed in and got a message for your pastor or found a verse of Scripture that applied to them and their situation? And they're too proud, or maybe too worldly, or maybe too sinful to even try to contact you. But you saved their life, or you saved their marriage, or you saved their day, and you've been doing something for them. Those are the things that are residual to serving the Lord. And somewhere along the way, you putting money into the pan may, who knows, may tip the guy that picks the luggage up and throws it in the car. Well, that's not why I'm giving the missions." Well, that missionary, well, the guy put the luggage in the car, handed him a gospel tract, and maybe in a very broken language said, you know, this will really be a help to you. And maybe he wadded it up, put it in his pocket, took it home, threw it up on the dresser with his keys. And that next day, his wife picked it up and thought, what in the world is going on with this? And she couldn't read it because it was in a foreign language. So she picked it up and smoothed it out where it had been wadded in his pocket. And she didn't know what it said, so it intrigued her. She couldn't throw it away. And so she put it over here somewhere with some other papers and things like that and just simply forgot about it. And then one day, one of the kids came running into the living room, said, Mommy, Dad, what is this? They didn't know what it was all about. They had no idea. It was still in a foreign language. Nobody could read it, and they didn't understand it. And the guy said, you know, I remember some guy gave me that when I took his luggage and put it in the cab. Well, what language? I'm not even sure what language. And somewhere along the line, they kept that thing around for a while, and then they ran into some Americans that were expatriates or something along that line, or somebody knocked on a door and said, I'm from a church. But somehow, do you understand how God works? Eventually it probably all comes back around to that little piece of paper that nobody understood, and that's where God opened the door and unlocked the lock to get into somebody's heart down the road. I want to be involved not in things that are just big. I want to be involved in whatever God's doing. You say, well, I want a missionary that's doing great things for God. Hang on, I'm sure you probably have something come through. This is probably the biggest thing I know that's going on at this point in time, getting Bibles into Ukraine and places like that. But, you know, they have their down days too. Maybe the biggest thing we can do is just find the missionary that God kind of leads us to and brings into our presence and puts before us, that missionary that you can see the tear in the corner of their eye when they talk about going to a field where nobody knows, nobody's ever heard, and say, God, I want to help them get there. What does it do for you? Well, I'll tell you what it does for you. It's really neat, because when the missionary takes the money I put in the pan and goes to Bula Bula Land and gets off the plane and spends the next four years of his life there, he sends me a letter just about every month. Yeah, I know, yippee. And I know this, if he comes back home, he might give me a call, and if he needs more money, he might stop by again. More yippee. You say, wait a minute, you just told us we should support them, now you're... See, the game's not over yet. One of these days in heaven is where everything's gonna be righted. God's going to close all the books on this earth one of these days, and He's going to bring everything down to the bottom line, and He's going to draw that line, and He's going to say, here's what that ministry was worth. Here's how that worked out. Here's what this accomplished here. Here's where that went and how it went around over here and over here. I've known missionaries that have taken money that came from a church and given it to another missionary because he needed it worse than they did at the moment. I have supported missionaries I don't even know. That's what missions is all about. It's making the money available so the work of missions can get done. I don't like people that preach about money. Well, that's why I started right here. But, but, that's a disjunctive conjunction. Here's how I know what a disjunctive conjunction is. Here's how the word but works. I may be walking this way, but now I'm going this way. It turns things around. It's a disjunctive conjunction. Heads be back in the other way. And I know giving may be difficult, and I know it may take money that you could use for something else, but I know my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory. You may have great plans. You may say, Preacher, I've been saving all my life for this, and I'm really looking forward to it. And I know that's true, but God can do exceeding abundance above all that you think or ask. I know that that disjunctive conjunction always works when God's involved. And therefore, I can take what I have, what I have planned for, what I have desired to acquire, and I can part with it gladly and happily. Why? Because God can bring it right back where it needs to be. You say, you say that because you're a pastor. I don't know why I say it. I say it because it's in God's word. He didn't say it to pastors. But I like to say it. And I'll tell you why I like to say it. Because there's a lady back there that's kicking, amen, what I'm gonna say. And I have kids all over this country that would amen it if you wanted to call them on the phone. They can tell you that, boy, God can take you through some dark valleys. And there are times I've talked to my own kids who are in some dark valleys. You say, what do you tell them? I just tell them to walk with God because somewhere down the road, there's that thing that's just going to swing it around. God's got it all planned and taken care of. What does it mean to you in this world? Better to have a million dollars or to have God on call? I'd rather have God on call than to have anything this world had to offer. I think the old song said, I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today. I'd rather have him more than to be the king of a vast domain, be held in sin's dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus. Now, let me add Rick Sal's verse to that. I'd rather Jesus had my money than I had it. Because I've wasted a lot of money. I bought a lot of stupid stuff. I bought stuff that I needed and then found out I didn't need it. And somewhere in the process lost the receipt. Anybody else ever done that? I just have stuff at home that should, listen, if you ever need anything, call me. Because the odds are I might have it. And I can't take it back because I lost the receipt. I'd rather have Jesus. because he makes everything good. And there are some places that cash, not accepted. Cash not accepted in the intensive care ward. Cash is not accepted in third world countries where people are starving to death. Cash is not accepted in the incurable disease department. A lot of places in this world cash is not accepted. Your American Express won't go there, but God's grace will go there. You may be in a place where you say, God, I need, I need, I need, and Lord, I know, I know nobody can solve this, but you said that you would supply my need, and so I have nowhere else to go. And boy, at a time like that, it is wonderful to know I've tried to do the right thing with what God placed in my custodial care, and I've tried to be faithful in giving it wherever I could. I'd rather go home, having put everything I had in an offering plate, than to see an offering plate go past a row of people that were lost and without Christ, empty, and have them go away thinking, this is what these people think about their God. I want them to know my God's worth everything I have. I want them to know I may not have much, but He's worth more than I could ever amass in a lifetime, so I'll give Him what I have and can give Him. And by the way, I can do so fearlessly because time and time and time again when my life has hit the wall and I've said, God, I don't know what to do. Oh, I've never heard an audible voice, but I felt the touch of that hand, and somewhere in the back of my soul I've heard that voice." He said, that's okay, I got it. I'll take care of this. I'll supply the need. What a wonderful verse. What we do for God can be put into the proper realm by simply remembering that my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory. Are there things that I wish I had and don't? Yeah, man, I could give you the list. It's not very often I go down the interstate, but I don't pass a car. I think, boy, I'd love to have that. That's different. That's what I would really like. And I've noticed, maybe you're not that way, I'm sure you're probably not, but my likes change depending on which direction I'm going, on the interstate. I can go down this way on the interstate and that's the car, man, that green one, I like that green. Yeah, coming back, it's the blue one. I don't understand it, but it's just the way it is. Maybe it's the way the sun shines on the interstate. We're pretty finicky, aren't we? Did you ever want something really, really, really bad, so bad that you went out and went in debt to get it, and then before you got it home, you wish you really, really, really hadn't bought it? That's why you ladies form such a long line at the return counter. I'm glad to tell you that whatever we do, wherever we go, and however we decide to support the Lord, God's not going to be owing to us. Not going to be owing to us. And I can say with a clear conscience tonight, since I was, I'm sure maybe before, but I'm sure from the time I was 17, I have given the faith promise missions all of my life. all my life. From the time my wife and I got married, we as a couple gave to faith promised missions and we've tried to increase. I suppose every single year we've tried to increase. We've never missed a meal or house payment or gas in the vehicle. We've got more friends than we can go to visit. We can go to strange churches like this one and run into people that we didn't know we knew because we'd forgotten that we knew them, and now we know them again, and we get to meet some of the same people over and over again. What are you saying, preacher? I'm saying that whatever we do for the cause of Christ, whether it's financial or name it, whatever we do, God doesn't come up owing anybody. because God supplies all and every and each need according to His riches in glory. Bow your heads just for a moment. I wasn't trying to coerce you. It's not up to me what you give, and it's between you and the Lord, and I don't know and don't want to know. And really, to be honest with you, I only care about what I give to the Lord. But I know I pastored a church for a long time, and I know in that church there were people that had probably, from my estimation, money they could give. And then I had others that I realized, boy, it'd be tough for them to give. And so I worked out a unique strategy. I just tried to get them all to give. Because it wasn't about how much you had to offer. It was about the God that would meet your need. And over the years, I'm sure we've put several millions of dollars on the mission field. And all of our building payments have gotten paid, and everything that had to be done and fixed got fixed. And people kept coming in the back door, and people got saved, and families had children. And I must confess, God's been good to me. God's been good to this preacher. And I've just tried to tell people to do the things that I knew God would be honored with, first of all. And secondly, the things that I knew that God, as he was honored, would turn around and resupply what had been sacrificed. I'm thankful for your church. I love your pastor and his family. It's a good church, and I mean that sincerely, and there aren't many, many good churches left. But may I say this to you tonight? A good church is not just good because it has a good feeling or friendly people. It's a good church because it's willing to step out on faith and say, if there's a need, we'll do this to meet that need. We'll put ourselves on the line, but we'll not worry about it because God can, will, and does supply all our needs.