Been a great service already, man. It's good to have Pastor Mark Bowman with us. He's no stranger to the church family. He and Pat have been good friends for a number of years, and I'm just so pleased that he could come up and be with us for this conference. Of course, I think he pastored in Yorkton, and that's where we really connected. And then we helped start the First Baptist Church there in Steinbeck that he pastored. And we've just stayed in touch through the years. In fact, during those years when he was in Steinbeck, I would drive to Morris and he would drive to Morris and we'd sit at a restaurant and fellowship and talk one with another and try to encourage each other. I trust I was an encouragement. Amen. But it's good to have friends in the ministry. Amen. It's good to have him with us. You come preach to us, brother. Good to have you here. Thank you, Pastor. Well, it's a great opportunity to be with you tonight. The Lord is good. I remember talking to our folks here in Steinbeck about some of you folks, and I said, are you related to them? They said, oh, no, they're on the other side of the river. I'd rather be on the other side of the river, amen, with people like you that have stood by the stuff. Think of all the people that'll be in heaven because of this ministry here. Think of how many people are already in heaven because of this ministry. I've preached at a lot of the churches that preachers have went out, and I'm thankful for the missionaries. Before I get too far, thanks for the wonderful music, and it's just been a blessing to be here. Thank you for all your work to make this, and I'm thankful that you're here tonight. And I'm praying that God will do something in our hearts. Let's turn in God's Word to Luke. I've been reading through the book of Luke. I'm getting a little bit of a ring, fellas. I don't know if that's me or... But in Luke chapter 6, there's a verse that I've claimed in giving for many years. And it's talking about a truth that we say that we believe, but do we really practice? You know, we give God the glory for all he's done, but there's so much more that God could do through us if we would have the faith. to believe God's Word and to trust the Lord and to see what God can do. You know, it's not about what I'm able to do, but what God is able to do through me. It's not about what you're able to do, but if we'll surrender to the Lord, it's what God can use you to do. Many times we sit in a church like this and you'd say, well, I'm not very important, you know, in this church. Let me say to you, you are very important. God loves you. God made you. God put you in this place and part of the body of Christ. I just wanted you to know how much God loves you and how much he appreciates your faithfulness to him and the body here. Look at Luke 6, 38. We'll have a prayer and get right into the message. Give, and it shall be given unto you. pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet with all, it shall be measured to you again. Notice that first little line, give and it shall be given unto you. Would you say that with me? Give and it shall be given unto you. Lord, we thank you for all that you have given to us already. We thank you for your bountiful blessings and we love you. We pray that you speak to us and through us in each and every heart that your Holy Spirit would challenge us with your word. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You know, faith promise and grace giving is about Christians that are interested in being part of the Great Commission. It's about people that want to go the second mile for the Lord. You know, the Great Commission is about people that want to be partners with God in going to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Now, I'm not talking about the tithe. The tithe is the Lord's, and that's to go to the church. to fulfill the needs of the church here. But I'm talking about a person that wants to give in faith promise giving. And here in verse 38 says, give and it shall be what? given unto you. And that applies not only to the individual, but to a church. I know the first year of the church, I was pastor and gave over a hundred thousand. People said, well, just think of what we could have done with that hundred thousand. And I said, well, you know, that's the best year financially the church has ever had. And just as the church gives to mission, God blesses that church. And just as you as an individual give, the Bible says, give and it shall be given unto you. Look at Luke 8. I was sharing this with the pastor before. we came in, a verse that spoke to my heart a few weeks ago, and it talks about the Lord preaching, and the Lord teaching, and those that received a blessing from His preaching and teaching, and verse 3, the last part of it says, and many others which ministered unto Him of their substance. They gave to the Lord physical things, whether it was sandals, or food, or shelter, or water, or whatever that he needed. You notice, we give, we're ministering as the body of Christ to the Lord for all that he has ministered to us. Has the Lord ministered to you? Has God blessed you? Has God helped you? Has God sustained you? Has God met your needs? I trusted the Lord as my Savior 54 years ago, I believe it was, in 1970, and went from religion to a relationship with Christ. You hear these dear people ministered unto the Lord of their substance, that which they had. Now, if you read down to verse 14, there's another thought that I want you to see. It says, Verse 14, and that which fell among the thorns are they which, when they heard, go forth and are choked with what? The cares of, I lost my place, cares and riches and pleasures of this life. The cares, the riches, the pleasures of this life. Now notice the lexical part. Bringeth no fruit to perfection. Paul said in Philippians that he wanted fruit to abound to your account. You know, one of these days we're gonna die. And the older we get, you know, you keep thinking about when that's gonna be. When you die, you're gonna leave everything that you have behind. The only thing, as Jesus said, we can send forth riches, laying up treasures in heaven, where we're knowing where it's going. Do your giving while you're living so you know where it's going. A lot of people think it's a wonderful thing to leave a lot of money. I think it's good to leave something for your children or your grandchildren, the Bible teaches. What I'm saying, while we have opportunity, let's use our riches to produce some fruit as the missionaries shared tonight some fruit. One of the great fruits that you have is of your children. I'm thankful for my wife and our five children are serving the Lord. You know, Brother Luke, my son-in-law, and Bethany in Halifax, he pastors Missionary Bible Church, where you got that cutter and the folder. And so I'm just thankful for the fruit that we can have a part of. God is working, and God wants to work in you, and through you, and use you. Now, there's a lot of verses. Let's go to Proverbs just a moment. I wanna read just a few verses in the book of Proverbs, and then we're gonna come back to the New Testament. But in Proverbs chapter number, let's start in verse 12. Chapter three, Proverbs three. We're thinking about giving and we're talking about having some eternal fruit. The Bible says in Proverbs three and verse nine, honor the Lord with thy what? Substance. You know, in Bible days, they didn't always have money. They didn't always have currency, but whatever they had, God said, honor God with what you already have. Honor God with your substance. and with the first fruits, not what's left over at the end of the month. The Bible says put God first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. We're the first. Give God the first few minutes of every day. Give God the first consideration of every decision. Give God the first dime of every dollar. Give God the first day of the week. Give the Lord first place. Now notice it says, what's the promise? Give me the first with all that increase, verse 10. So should thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. I remember Brother Heil's teaching and he said, you know, don't be a reservoir, be a river. You know, a reservoir, you know, just holds back. And that's, we get blessings from God, and we fill our pockets, and we get blessings from God, we deposit in the bank, and we get blessings from God, and we fill our closets, and we get blessings from God, and we fill the garage, and other places, and how much more stuff do we need? you know. The Bible is talking about trusting the Lord with all thine heart and giving to the Lord. And it says, so shall thy barns be filled. See a reservoir just holds back. We get blessings from God and put it in our pockets. But a river Shares a river flows out to others as we get things from God God's looking for people to use to be a blessing to carry out the Great Commission to be used to help in reaching the lost Have we seen that look at a couple other verses in Proverbs look at verse chapter 19 and verse number 17 chapter 19 and verse 17 and And there the scripture says, let's start verse 17. He that hath pity upon the poor. Is there anybody any poorer than those that are lost without Christ, without hope? He that hath pitieth on the poor does what? Lendeth unto the Lord. They're giving. And that which they hath given, he will do what? He will pay them again. When I was in evangelism, we were out of First Baptist Church of Bridgeport, and every year, at the start of the year, Brother Ouellette would encourage people to be a tither, be a giver. And he was there for, I think, 38 years, something like that. But every year, and he'd say, now at the end of 90 days, if you need money, if your bills aren't paid, if you haven't been blessed, just come to me, and we'll give back every bit, every dime that you've given to the church for the first three months of the year. And he said, we never had one person come back. You know, givers have. Give, and it shall be what? Given unto you. That's what the Bible says. If we sow bountifully, we will reap bountifully. Now let's go to our faith promise passage. There's a lot of passages of faith promise. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter number eight. Most of you remember the story of the little widow in Zarephath. And Elijah goes there when the brook dries up, and she's gathering some little sticks and gonna make the last meal that they've been stretching and holding on to, and they're gonna eat this last meal together, her and her son, and they're gonna die. And the man of God shows up and asks for a little water. And she was a gracious woman. And even though there was a drought and people didn't have water, she was willing to share some water. But then he went a little bit too far when he said, and make me a little cake first. She only had enough for her and her son. But you know what? She went and held on to the promise of God and said, if you give some first to Elijah, to God's servant, he'll supply and multiply that little bit that you have. And you know, that's what she did. She gave it to God, and God multiplied it and blessed it for a year that ate on it. Now, I'm just trying to say to you that you can't outgive the Lord. And one of the ways to grow is by giving. And as we give, we're trusting the Lord to meet our needs. What's that verse in Luke 6, 38 say? Give and it shall be what? given unto you. That's when you exercise faith to believe that God will bless you. Now, here in 2 Corinthians 8, it's kind of known as the grace-giving, the faith-promise chapter. It says, moreover, brethren, 2 Corinthians 8, moreover, brethren, we do you to wit, wit meaning here, I think, understanding, of the grace of God. God is so gracious. God has been so good to us. Of the grace of God bestowed upon the churches of Macedonia. How many have ever been to Greece? You've been to Greece? A few of us? Okay. Now, Achaiai is where Corinth and Athens are, but Macedonia was in the north. Macedonia is where Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea are. Alright, so he's talking about the giving of these churches in Macedonia. And notice in verse 2 it says, how then a great trial of affliction and abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality. We see an example here of faith promise giving, and it was a precious example because they had two problems. The first problem we see is a great trial of affliction. We went to 1 Thessalonians 1, or chapter 2, or chapter 3, we could show you that they were suffering persecution. Now, most of us aren't suffering much persecution. But people that are suffering persecution would have a good reason not to give, wouldn't you think? But not only were they suffering persecution, but notice there in verse 2 when it says, and their deep, what? Deep poverty. You know, the widow that gave the two mites. You know that story? Jesus said, hey, you see all those that gave of their abundance? You see that little widow? She just gave more than all the rest. You go, how do you figure that? Because she gave it all. You know, God ought to own it all. The earth is the Lord's, the fullest thereof, and they that dwell therein. It's all God's. We should have got in the offering plate when it went by. Say, Lord, I'm all yours. And whatever I have is yours. And I want to honor you with it. Now, that widow that God noticed that she came in and dropped that two little mites in, how many of you think that she starved to death after that? The Bible doesn't tell us, but I know God. God took care of her. She never lacked. You know, I found in my old life, as we trust God and give, we taught our children to honor the Lord and give a tithe. We always had kind of an allowance system, and my wife had a little thing on the refrigerator, and they had their chores to do. And the wife checked them off, and they weren't getting paid for doing chores, but we wanted them to have some money because we wanted to teach them about giving and how to use their money. And so they would give a tithe, and we always taught them to give a missions part, too, and encourage them on it. And, well, my son was working for a church that was having problems, and I called Brother Goetsch, and his son had worked there, and he'd had problems. He said, you need to get your son out of there. So I moved my son out of there, and took him down to Tennessee, where he lived in the basement with his in-laws. Well, it was kind of humbling for my son, you know, he's newly married and no job and living in the basement with his in-laws. One day he called me and said, Dad, I made a pledge to give $250 a month to missions, and he said, I've only got 300 and something dollars left, and he said, I don't have a job, and what do you think I should do? Man, I choked, you know, I think, you know, what are you gonna say? And then he said, well, daddy said, I know what my dad would say. He'd say, honor the Lord with your substance. And so he sent that $250 check off by faith. You know, within just a couple days, he had two jobs. Now, the story goes on that Pastor Sexton then helped him get to another church as an assistant. And the first time he went to visit that church and preach, there was a man after the service that came to him and said, you know, God spoke to me while you were preaching today. And he said, if God leads you to come here, I'm going to take care of you. Well, my son didn't know what that meant. After, when he went out with a pastor, he told about it. And the pastor said, oh, that man's a very rich man. And he did end up going there. And the rich man built a 6,000 square foot new home and allowed him to live in their other home, a beautiful home, for, I don't know, six to eight years and never paid one dime of rent. Now, I'm gonna ask you a question. Do you think that just happened by chance? Or do you think that give and it shall be given unto you. I'm not saying if you give, you're gonna get a house to live. I'm just telling you a personal illustration. What happened, he trusted the Lord, he stepped out by faith, he gave when he didn't have it to give, and God blessed him. That's what these people did here in verse number two. They had persecution, they had poverty, but notice the last couple words, they abounded unto the riches of their liberality. They gave liberally. Verse 3, for to their power I bear record, and beyond their power. So you see the example here of not over the preciousness of their giving with the circumstances, but we see the pattern of their giving to their power and beyond their power. Now, when the offering came by a little while ago, I gave to my power. I took some money out. When I first came to Canada, I thought this colored money was kind of like Monopoly. I thought it was kind of weird. I like the red ones and the brown ones too, but I don't have any of those. But I do like the different colored ones. And I got used to that. I kind of like that. But anyway, if you gave to your power, you gave what you had, right? And that's good. God's already blessed us. We've got so much we can give to our power. But the Bible says they also gave beyond their power. Now how do you give beyond your power? That's when mission giving gets exciting. Let me ask you a question. How much have you been praying about God giving you money so that you can put it in the missions giving? Do you believe God answers prayer? Why don't you ask God for money that you can give to missions? I started doing that years ago. You won't believe. I could tell you stories all night. You would not believe what God has done. Now, if you give to your power, you have the money, okay? You give beyond your power. So, if you put money in tonight that you know you gotta have for gas to get to work this week, you're giving beyond your power, because you're trusting God to put food on the table. $20, you can't buy much gas anymore, is it? But I'm just trying to give you an illustration. If you give beyond your power, that's when God gets excited. Now, it gets involved and we get excited. Now, I want to give you one illustration of something I did last year. And I've never told any other church and it's not about me. It's all about him. But I was praying about giving to missions. We have a young man named Ernesto that was born in Bolivia. Where is that brother, Sharon? My kids are in Vallablanca. April and Justin, do you know them? How far are you from them? It's a big, huge country in Argentina. But anyway, that's where my kids are at, one of them. But anyway, what was I talking about? I lost my train of thought. Yeah, Ernesto started a church in Bolivia. And he was assistant pastor for my son. And I wanted to give some money, he hadn't started it yet, but he's had two couples saved, and he's preparing to get it going. Anyway, two houses up from me, a house went up for sale. And, I'm not gonna lie. It was the nastiest place I have ever seen. Dogs and cats, you know, the mess, the stink, it was nasty. I mean, you open that door, and it just sat there for sale for a long time. Nobody's gonna buy that thing. The floors were rotted out by the kitchen, and the cupboards were junk, and it was bad. It was bad. Well, I felt impressed to buy the house. I bought it for cheap. Nobody wanted it, right? So I went in there. It took me about three months. And when I was done, you know, they had new floors, new underlayment, new paint. I got cabinets given to me for free. Nice white cabinets. Place to put new ones in. I put beautiful marble countertops. on that and painted it and sold it and was able to give a lot of money. Now I didn't give it all, I don't want to be like Ananias Fry, I had to pay back to pay for all the new windows I put in and all the money that I put into it. There was a lot of money left. I gave a chunk of it to help this church start in Bolivia. I'm just saying there's something that you can do beyond your power if you would just pray that God would help you. You know, just about three weeks ago, and neighbors, and like I said, I can tell you stories. Do you wanna hear one more story? You got time for one more? Okay, I'm gonna tell you anyway, so you might as well vote for it. I found this, I go for a walk in the morning, and I found this nice cabinet, not cabinet, I guess it was, it was an old bookcase, but it had a light in it, and it had spindles, and it was really nice, and really heavy, and people put it out for trash. Well, I saw that there. I went and got my truck. My wife gets upset with me about this. She says, you keep bringing other people's junk home. But anyway, I brought that thing and put it in the garage. And I put it on Facebook. I sold it for $65. Now, you say, well, that's not very much. No, but if everybody here gave $65, that'd be a lot of money. And I didn't, it didn't cost me anything, it was free. There was no risk, you know, right? I'm just saying, and it's exciting to me when God just provides something out of the ordinary. You start praying for money that you can give to missions and you won't believe how unexpected things will come, how God will bless you and multiply what you have because of that verse, Luke 6, 38, still says, give and it shall be what? given unto you. God wants you to be like these people here in Corinth that even though they had poverty, even though they had persecution, they gave willingly. Notice it says. And then verse four, it says they were praying that Paul would take the offering, praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift. and take upon us the fellowship of the ministry to the saints." Now, what was the gift going for? If you would just turn back to Romans, hold your hand there, and turn back to the book of Romans, Romans tells us in chapter 15 that the Jews were having a tough time. You know, most Bible Christians in the New Testament we read about were very poor. They didn't have the luxuries we have. They didn't have the clothes we have. They didn't have the houses or the food or the cars. They just were trying to make it from day to day. And yet they gave joyfully. They gave willingly. And the Bible says here in the Romans, 15 and verse number 26, and it hath pleased them of Macedonia. Where is that? That's northern Greece. That's where Philippi and Berea, Thessalonica are. Now notice it says, and Achaia, that's the south Corinth, Athens to make a certain Contribution for who for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem so God was trying to get the Gentiles to have a heart for the Jews and to give the Bible says where your treasure is there were your own Heart, be also. Does God tell us to love Him with all our hearts? Well, one of the ways, you know, the Bible says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And one of His commandments, you know, we read John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave. God has given us everything. What would we be without the Lord? Where would we be without the Lord? And we have an opportunity to give in missions. Let me encourage you, not just to give to your power, but beyond your power. I'm not asking you to do something, don't do something, you know, foolish, ask your past, but if God leads you to do it and God's in it, God will provide. God will bless. I have sold cars and gave commissions, you know, I have, I just tell you, and it's not about me. I'm just saying that. You can do more than what you're doing if you'd ask God to get involved. So what can I do? Not very much. Most of us couldn't do much. It's not rich people that do big things. It's little, insignificant people like us that just ask God to bless us, to show us, to help us. Well, you got things in your garage that you're gonna use that you could sell and give to missions. I've sold guns and gave it. I've sold boats. I've done all kinds of things, and you can, too. I'm saying we could do more than what we're doing if we let God give us, and help us, and enable us. God owns it all. Amen? And we can use the power of God to be a pattern for an example. I like what Luke, I mean Hebrews 13 says, with such sacrifice, God is well pleased. Learning to give beyond your power turn to Philippians, and I'm done. There's a lot more to say and we'll say some more tomorrow night And I I hope that you'll be here, but in Philippians chapter number four and if you would start in verse number two Philippians 4.15, now you Philippians know, that's in Macedonia and northern Greece, also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving or receiving, but you only. Wouldn't you like to have been a part of one of the greatest missionaries? and helping Paul as he preached the gospel around the known world. As we continue to read here, it says, for even Thessalonica, you sent once and again unto my necessities, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all and abound, and I am full, having received Epaphroditus, the things which were sent from you, and odor of a sweet smell, acceptable sacrifice, acceptable, well-pleasing to God. Now we like to quote verse 19, we like to claim verse 19, but the promise was given to those that helped and gave to Paul. What's it say in verse 19? But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. You know, if we would honor the Lord with our substance, and that we would not only give to our power, but beyond our power, and trust God to supply, the Bible says, just like the Philippian people gave to help him, he said, my God should supply all your need. Let me ask you, have you even been praying about the missions conference and what God wants you to do? You know, I think that we need to be more serious. Jesus is coming back. Our time is short. There ought to be an urgency and say, what can I do with missions? What can I do? I heard about a rich man that gave a church building to a church for free. And a few years later, He went bankrupt. He was riding with a man, and they happened to come by that church. And the fellow was riding with the rich, former rich man, said, boy, I bet you wish that you had that church now, all the money that it is worth. He said, no. He said, if I'd have had it, I'd have lost it, too. Give to God. You'll never lack. Honor the Lord with what you have. You can't out give God. God will bless you and you'll be happy in Jesus. And you'll grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord if you're willing to trust Him.