It's kind of scary seeing that bald-headed guy looking at me up there. I didn't even notice that last night. Helen, I don't know where you're at, but I got a picture of Brian and I sitting at the the front, but it was from the back. And I recognized Brian right away, and I thought, well, who's that other bald-headed fella? And my wife said, well, that's you. Amen. Well, I'm glad to be here tonight. I want to thank the ensemble. You did a wonderful job. And the team, you did a great job, too. I want to encourage you to keep singing for the Lord. Don't ever stop singing for the Lord. I enjoyed the Hymns. I wonder, have you done your best for Jesus? No. None of us have. But He's sure been good, hasn't He? I trusted Him as my Savior in 1970, August 9th. And the day I got saved, I felt God calling me to His service. It's been a wonderful journey. God has been good. But I'll tell you, it's not about what we're giving to Him. It's about all that He's given to us. God is so blessed. Open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. I don't want to start crying. Sometimes I do. I want to read from chapter 9. And the wonderful offertory too. You know, all the missionaries appreciate Cheryl. I first met her when we were in Yorkton. That was a long time ago. And she's still going for the Lord too. I'm taking care of my mom and I'm pastoring Antrim Baptist Church. I call it Backstripe Baptist because everybody that goes to our church has a line right here on their because we have a gravel road that's muddy, and when you get out of the car, you know, you just, you gotta, and so, and we don't have a, the church's 170 years old, and a good Sunday, we'll have about 50 people, and the Lord's got a couple new families I'm working with, I think they're gonna start coming, Last Sunday we had a lady, I led the husband to the Lord, but the wife hadn't come, and she came the other day, and so we're excited about that. But anyway, I'm pastoring Antrim Baptist Church. My mom's 98. and I've been trying to help her. She's had a couple strokes. You can't see very well, but she's lived in the same house for 70-something years, and it's on the same road that we live. This is about six miles south, and my wife is there kind of helping her. My father-in-law built a place behind us, and he lives, he's 87, and he lives right behind us, and so we're helping our parents, and I think that's a good thing, Cheryl, be doing, helping your mom. You have wonderful parents. I loved your mom and dad. They've been a blessing to us throughout the years. So let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter number 9. Last night we were working and reading in 8, and I want us to look at chapter 9. And let's start in verse number 5. 2 Corinthians 9.5. If you're there, say Amen. Therefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before you and make up beforehand your bounty, your blessing, your gift, whereof ye have noticed before that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty and not as of covetous. You know what missions does for a church? It causes them to be generous and unselfish. It causes you to have the joy of the Lord in your life. It makes a total different atmosphere and spirit because missions gives the church the opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission. Amen? How are we going to go into all the world and preach the gospel just from Winkler? you know, or wherever your church is. And so, by supporting, I think we have 25 missionaries at our little church that we support, and they're going for us. And they're our partners in the gospel to reach the world. And verse 6, it says, But this I say, that he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according hath his purpose in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that he always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. Isn't that a wonderful promise? And as it is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. Now he that ministers seed to the sower, both ministers bread for your food, and multiplyeth your seed sown, and increases the fruits of your righteousness, being enriched in everything, to all bountifulness, which causes through us thanksgiving to God. For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but abundant also by many thanksgiving unto God. Whilst by the experiment of this ministration they glorified God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ and your liberal distribution, your liberal gift unto them and unto all men. And by their prayer for you, which long after for you the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Lord, we thank you for the gift of yourself. We thank you, Lord, for taking upon yourself all of our sins. We thank you for your precious blood. We pray that you would wash us clean, Lord, and fill us with your Holy Spirit, and help us to love your word, and love souls, and help us, Lord, to surrender ourselves to you, to be available in your service. We ask you to speak to us here tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to take a little different direction than what I studied all day. I feel that, you know, it's not about what we give to the Lord, but it's about what He's given to us. Just look at that last verse. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gifts. God's gift is so great and so high and so holy and so abundant And it's unspeakable, it's undescribable. We can't even comprehend that God would leave heaven and all the glories of heaven to come down to this sin-cursed earth, to be born of a virgin, to be a baby. I mean, to go from the supreme creator of the universe to a baby. I mean, that's pretty humbling. but without ceasing to be God. He lived a holy life so that he could die for us. And he taught us by his life what God was like and what we ought to be like. And he went about doing good and healing the sick and raising the dead and preaching the kingdom. And we're just thankful that he died for us. Aren't you thankful that you're not on your way to hell tonight? Aren't you glad that your sins have been forgiven, that he died and buried and rose again victorious over death, sin, hell, and the grave? And tonight if you think about his unspeakable gifts, Think about all the things that God has done for you. It was one of the men's retreats, the fishing retreats I remember being at. I don't remember who said it, but one of the older men, everybody was kind of complaining about, you know, aches and pains and being in the tent and underground and all that. And one of the men said, well, I just thank God that I've got two sides. When one side got sore, I just rolled over on the other. I said, you know, that's something I never even thank God about, you know. There's so many things that we've take for granted that God has done for us. You know, we have five kids that are all serving the Lord full-time. And it wasn't because that we were good parents. We failed in so many ways. But you know, God was there. And when we exercised faith and went to start a church in Steinbeck, Manitoba, we were in Yorkton at 88 and 90, we came down to Steinbeck. And I didn't have sense enough and I wasn't humble enough to go and raise support like I should have. And we took about six weeks. I think we had about $700 a month support. Anyway, It came time for the rent. How many of you have to pay rent or a house payment? Well, it came time for the rent and I got our kids all together. We had family altar every day and we prayed together but we played together too. We had a lot of fun as a family. I said, kids, you know, we need to pray because the rent is due and we don't have the money. And one of your families, called me on the phone and said, Brother Bowman, did you look at those magazines that I gave you about the Mennonites so you can understand a little bit about the Mennonites? And I was thinking, oh yeah, I looked at them a little bit, not very much. Not as much as I should have. It has saved me a lot of grief. I love the Mennonites, but they're different people, you know. And I'm an American, you know, trying to make an American. No, I'm trying to make a Christian out of you, you know. I'm a citizen of the United States, but I'm a citizen of Canada, too, because they couldn't run me off, you know. They tried to. But more importantly, I'm a citizen of heaven. And anyway, he said, did you look through the magazines? I said, yeah. He says, well, the reason I'm calling, he said, there's a check in there, and you've never cashed it. Oh, and he said something about a check. You know, my antenna went out. I said, I know where they are. Hold on. And I ran out in the garage. Boy, I started going through them things, and there was an envelope in there. I got that envelope, and I came in and said, yeah, I found it. He says, well, you need to cash it, you know? And I said, OK, thank you. And kids gathered around. I opened that check up. How much do you think it was for? $700 a rent. Our kids said the reason they're serving God today is they saw God answer prayer. They saw God save souls. They saw God do a work. And young people, you've got to experience God. yourself. You can't trust on mom and dad's relationship. They've got to experience a relationship with God. And what has God done for us over and over and over again? It's not what we have the privilege to be involved a little bit in doing something for God because he's been so good. But what has God done for you? You need to think about it. I remember we were in evangelism, and I said, Lord, the tires on your car are getting pretty thin. And when we started evangelism, Mom wanted to buy the tires. So she bought the tires. And they put the paper in the glove box. And I always stuffed the bills and stuff in there. And it had the miles. And I had been faithful to have them rotated, mom's tires and all that. They were 80,000 mile tires. And you know, you never get that much of what it says. I had 100,000 miles on those tires. Anybody ever run your tires that long? How did you do that? I didn't do it. God did it. I said, Lord, your tires are getting pretty thin. I said, we're supposed to go to Calgary. And I just had peace about it. They're going to be OK. So I said, OK. And the third day, it took us three days. We're old and slow, you know. The third day, we were 15 miles. seeing the city and all of a sudden, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, a little bell's going off in the car, you know, I'm a pilot, you're supposed to be looking at your instruments every minute, you know, but I wasn't, and the heat gauge was all the way over to the top, you know, so I pulled right over and lifted the hood and I expected to see steam or a hose or, you know, something, and there wasn't anything and I didn't stand there a minute, A car didn't pull over and a guy said he was a mechanic and wanted to know what the problem was. He looked it over and then he jumped in the car and all of a sudden fear. Here's a stranger in the car with my wife and I'm outside. I hope he doesn't drive off with her. But he got out and said, well, I don't see anything wrong with your car. But he said, I would just slow down, which is hard for me, and slow down, roll down your windows, and turn your heater on full, and I think you'll make it. And so I got going and called on the cell phone. The pastor we were preaching said, I told him, I said, our car's got problems, and we're headed after Sunday and Monday to BC and all the mountains and stuff. I don't want to be stranded up there. And so he said, yeah, I'd find some place to get an appointment on Monday. Anyway, we took it to the get fixed and when I went to pick it up, he said, well, I couldn't find anything wrong with your car. Seems to be fine, he says, but I noticed your tires were getting pretty thin, so I put four new tires on. I said, well, what do I owe you? And he said, you don't owe me anything. Say, God, now I don't know about you, but I get excited when God does something. Amen. And God put four new tires on for me. You think about what has God done for you? How many of you got the COVID over and got sick with the COVID? Anybody? A few of you? How many were in the hospital? Okay, well, I kept passing out, and my wife was kind of concerned because I'd fall on the floor, you know. And she said, honey, you need to go to the doctor. But I was sure, you know, I was going to get better, but it just seemed to get a little worse every day. And so she finally talked me into going to this walking clinic we had there in Duran. And I walked in, and they took x-rays and stuff. And the doctor came, and she said, I'm calling an ambulance. He said, if you don't get to the hospital, you're going to die. I thought, well, I never had a doctor tell me that before. And I said, well, I'm going home. And I don't want no ambulance. And so I rode home with a wife. And I got to thinking about it a little bit more. And so I thought, well, maybe I should go. So I went to the hospital. I was in there four days. And they wanted me to stay five. I said, no, I want to go home. And four days was enough. I went home. How much do you think it cost? I didn't have any insurance. How much do you think it costs in a COVID ward to be in the hospital for four days? Who wants to guess? Give me a number. 5,000. What do you think? 20,000. What do you think? 100,000. I didn't know what the bill was. I was waiting for the bill to come in, and it didn't come in, and it didn't come in, and it didn't come in. So finally I called the hospital and said, I've been waiting for a bill, and the bill hasn't come in. They said, oh, don't worry about it, Mr. Bowman, it's already been paid. I said, well, how much was it? He said, $24,000. And I said, how is it that it's paid? She said, well, the government just stepped in and paid it for you. We accepted $13,000. And I thought, the government just stepped in and paid? So I made some calls anyway and found out that they had all that COVID money and they needed to use it. And praise God, they paid the bill. You know, let me say to you. It's not about what we've done for God. It's about what He's done for us. And because God has done so much, verse 15 says, Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. If you have a love for God, just think where you might be right now if it wasn't for the Lord that reached out and saved you. You could be burning in hell. Aren't you glad that Jesus paid our hell, suffered the sins of the world so that we could spend eternity in heaven? I mean, missions is exciting because Matthew 6.33 says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things. will be added unto you. What things? Your food, your clothing, your air to breathe, your water to drink, your shelter. I mean, just think about all that God has done for us throughout these years. Yesterday, we looked at chapter 8. I just want to review for just a second about the example of faith promise that these brethren promised to give because of the Corinthian church that said they were going to give, but they didn't. But Paul went north to Macedonia, to Thessalonica, to Philippi, and to the northern churches, and the churches were excited about what the Corinthian church was going to do, and they gave gifts. And the Bible says that they gave, even though they were in a trial, even though they were in deep poverty, it says in verse 2, they gave to their power and beyond their power. You know, it gets exciting when God opens doors and God sends money in as we pray, Lord, I want to give to missions. We were just starting there in Steinbeck, and we didn't have two nickels to run together. And I said, Lord, we want to give to missions. And a lady called and said, Pastor, we need to get a roof on our place. And I got some fellows around to help me, and it was an easy roof, not steep, one story. Hey, we had $1,400 to give to missions. I mean, sometimes it requires a little extra work on our part, but we can do more for God than what we're doing if we'll trust the Lord with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding, but all our ways acknowledge Him. He'll direct your steps. He will provide your needs. So we saw the the example of faith and the exhortation of faith in verse 7 and 8, and we also see that they gave willingly with the right spirit and attitude, and they gave in an attitude of worship. Look at verse 9 of chapter 2. For you know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what we were just talking about, that though He was rich, Yet for your sakes became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. We see the word expedient, how it's expedient for this church to give so that you can fulfill a great commission in supporting missions. See, it's a blessing not only to the missionaries, but it's a blessing to the church as we fulfill the command of our Lord to go into all the world and to preach the gospel. We see it's expedient for you. What does that mean, it's expedient? It's for your benefit. It's for your profit. if you will give a commission. And then we see the execution of it in verse 11. How that in verse 10, he said, now listen, you were forward to do, they made a promise a year ago, but they hadn't fulfilled the promise. He says there in verse 10, you were forward a year ago. Now, verse 11, therefore perform the doing of it. Do what you promised. God that you're going to do. I remember in Oklahoma when I was working for Brother Vineyard, I had a couple I'd led to the Lord, and they prayed with me and promised that they would come and get baptized, but they never would get baptized. Lost track of them. Long story short, one day they called me. He said, Brother Bohm, we're in trouble. The government's come in, welfare has taken our children. We've been trying for three or four weeks to get them back. He said, what should we do? I said, well, you know, Psalms 50, I believe it is, says that we should keep our promises to the Lord. I think that's where it is. Let me see if I can find it real quick. In Psalms 50. Verse 14, offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. I said, didn't you folks promise God that you were gonna get baptized? And they said, well, yes. I said, well, why don't you come? I think it was on Saturday. I said, why don't you come Sunday and fulfill your promise to God, get baptized. They came and got baptized on Monday. They got their kids back. I'm just saying, are you keeping your promises to God? God will keep His. God is faithful. His mercies are new every morning. But are we going to do right and honor the Lord with our substance? We see the execution of faith promise in verse 11, where it says, now perform the doing of it. And then we see the experiment of faith promise. Look at, if you would, we read the verse earlier in verse 13, 9-13, it says, while you experiment. How many of you ever worked in a, you know, like a chemistry lab or that kind of thing and did some kind of experiments? You know what I'm talking about? God says, faith promise giving is an experiment. And God says, Malachi, prove me and try me if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. Look at what it says there in 2 Corinthians 9 and verse number 12, I think it is. No, 8. And God is able. to make all grace abound towards you, that ye always, having all sufficiency, shall abound to every good work. That's a promise that God is gonna bless you if you'll honor him. The experiment of faith promise. How many of you ever read Pilgrim's Progress or at least heard about it? All right, that's a good, great book to read. John Bunyan, he had a saying. He said this, a man there was, they called him mad. The more he gave, the more he had. And you know what? That works for you too. Luke 6, 38, you remember that from last night? Give, and it shall be given unto you. The most important thing is that you give yourself to the Lord. In chapter 8, it says there, Praying with us, and with much entreaty, that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering of the saints. And this they did, not as we hoped. but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God. You know, every morning I try to kneel and pray and say, Lord, I give you myself. And I die to myself in my will and way. And I pray that you would fill me and lead me today and empower me and deliver me. When was the last time you just gave yourself lock, stock, and barrel to God? Lord, from my stinky feet to my bald head, hopefully you have here, but I'm yours. You know, if you give everything you have to God, he's the owner. And let's do what God, there's no pressure. I'm not trying to pressure you. Whether you give something or not, it's not gonna affect me any, I'm leaving, you know. It's not gonna affect your pastor. But what it does affect is the carrying of the gospel around the world. God's looking for people to be a river Like we talked about last night, not a reservoir. Just keep filling your pockets. How much do you need? Can we trust God to provide for us? Some of us have been fearful that famine is coming. We've stocked up a little bit. I think some of you have heard about that famine too. It's easy. We've been eating so much, I coke buttoned earlier. But tonight, I just want to challenge you. Will you give yourself a fresh and a new to the Lord and say, Lord, what do you want me to do in this next year for missions? We've heard some wonderful things. I've tried to share a few thoughts with you, and I just want to close with that thought. Are you a river that's carrying on fresh water to other people, or are you a reservoir that's just trying to keep everything for yourself? Jesus said, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Would you bow your heads with me? Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to share and to talk about how great you are and how you've provided, how we've never not been able to pay a bill, how we've never went without a meal because we didn't have anything to eat, and how that You blessed beyond anything that we ever deserve. And Lord, we just give ourselves to You, and You are the owner of all things, and we just pray for each young person and each adult that might Pray and say, Lord, what do you want me to do? I surrender myself to you. Direct me, Lord.