with your church and your pastor. Mike Rogers was my first friend when I came to Sacramento. And I say that pastoral friend, I guess, when we came to Bible Fellowship. And I had a notice in the mail. It wasn't addressed to the former pastor. It was just addressed to the church. So I opened it, and it was an invitation to the Capitol Connection. I think is what you called it then, I don't know, maybe something. Anyway, I thought, well, this is a good opportunity to meet preachers. And he talked about the preachers get together, they go to the Capitol building and pray and meet with people. And so I called the pastor and I found out that we had a lot in common. He was an Air Force veteran. We were both Air Force veterans. Of course, he was in like a lot earlier than I was, right? No. And baseball fans, now here's where we didn't have anything in common, right? He was a Dodgers fan and I'm a Cardinals fan, right? And so the National League rivalries, they usually end up in the playoffs sometimes. But anyway, and so we went to a ball game together in San Francisco and just hit it off. And he's been a real friend of me the whole time we were there and just an encouragement and praise the Lord for your church. I want to speak today on some key verses and principles concerning giving. We've been talking about, this week, missions, faith promise giving. It all goes together. Our charge and our way to be involved in missions is giving, going, and praying. And we can all be involved in praying, every one of us. And most can be involved in giving, and some can go. And God talks about this all the way through his word, how that we're committed to get the gospel out. It's the church's job to get the gospel out. Jesus left the Great Commission with us as a church to go into all the world and reach everybody. As a preacher friend said it, every creature needs a preacher. And I'm so glad someone came to me with the gospel. And you are too, if you're saved today, you're glad that somebody came to you with the gospel. And this matter of giving, it's not just an obligation, it's an honor, it's a privilege to be involved in what God's doing in this world. Someone said, I don't know how long ago I wrote this quote down, but it says, giving stands as a testament of the human spirit capacity to mirror the divine. In other words, God gives. God created, and everything God created gives. Think about it. God created the light. God created the stars, the moon. They give. God created the planet, the plant life. Think about that. They give. God created animal life. They give. I had some pork sausage this morning on that breakfast buffet, huh? You know, he sacrificed a pig. That pig sacrificed, like the pig and the chicken talking together, you know. And they were looking at this breakfast menu and this pig said, this chicken said, I had to sacrifice so they could have breakfast. And he said, you think you had to sacrifice? But anyway, and he goes on to say, grace giving is not about fulfilling obligations, but embracing a way of living that joyfully is responsive to the extraordinary grace that we've received. When God saved us, there's many words for that, but amazing grace is one way to say it. And so grace giving, it really translates into grace living. When you embrace giving as a lifestyle, you're going to see it's not just about money. It's about giving your life. It's about giving your time. It's about investing your life into other people, whichever way. And this matter of missions is the greatest thing because the Lord's involved with that. And I believe that the Lord, you know, I think I preached a message here one time on His greatest concern is going to be His last command at the judgment seat of Christ. The Lord told us over and over again, five times He gave the Great Commission. And I think if He said it one time, it's important, right? But He emphasized. And so I think when we stand before the Lord, we're going to give an account of a lot of things, I believe. You know, there's a verse that says, every idle word you'll give an account for. That's convicting, isn't it? I wouldn't say every idle text, every idle post maybe, but every idle word. We're going to give an account for a lot of things, but we're going to give an account. I think primarily his first concern will be, how were you involved in my last command? How were you involved personally in getting the gospel of this world? Whether it's personally through our own witness, whether it's locally or whether it's globally. So we have an opportunity, and giving through the local church is a great opportunity, how we can be involved. And, you know, a church like our church here, an independent Baptist church, is a blessing because we give offerings to the missionaries that 100% of that offering makes it to the missionary. And you say, well, what's different about that? Well, when I was at Bible Fellowship, the years I was there, somebody, I guess, subscribed to it. I didn't, but it was the Southern Baptist annual report from their, or maybe semi-annual or whatever, on their missions program, the foreign missions board and whole missions project. And they would put in their chart of the offerings they take. Like in a Southern Baptist church, they take a Lottie Moon offering. Lottie Moon was a great missionary in China. They take a Fannie Armstrong and Lottie Moon. Anyway, two missionary names, but a Christmas offering and then one during the year. And these offerings are a time when they can give to mission. But I've pastored Southern Baptist people that came from Southern Baptist churches to our churches, and they said, we've never met a missionary. We were involved in missions, but we never met a missionary. You know, we had a lesson on who Lottie Moon was and all that. But they would send a chart. And I'm not being negative when I say this, okay? I'm not being negative. Thank God for every dime that goes there. Thank God for every missionary that's on the field that's preaching the true word of God and the gospel. I'm just saying the way we do it ties us to the missionary. But they would send a chart. And I've held this chart up before at our church. And it said, out of every dollar, this much makes it to the mission field. And out of every dollar, about 15 to 20 cents made it to the missionary. The home office gets this much. The schools get this much. The local programs get this much. And the missionary gets about 10 to 15% of that offering, of that dollar. And I thought, you know what? I can honestly say that you give a dollar in an offering plate here, and a dollar gets to the missionary. And there is administrative costs along the way. A lot of times missionaries raise support for that in different organizations. But that ties me with that missionary. So if I give to the young family like that's in Russia and I read their letter and I read that this person got saved, that's dividends report right there. And God blesses that and it gets us involved with that. We're going to look at some verses today on key verses and principles concerning giving. The first principle is this, God owns everything. In Psalm 24 verse 1, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. That just kind of settles it right there, right? The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Fast forward a little bit over to Psalm 50. Psalm 50 and verse number 10 says, for every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee for the world is mine and the fullness thereof. Isn't that good? You know, God knows every beast of the field. And I've been sitting on a deer stand, and I've reminded God of this verse, you know. I've been sitting there, and I'll say, God, every deer out here is yours. Would you please send one by? And I'll try to hit him. I'll try my best to not miss. But anyway, it's all God's. And that's the first principle of giving. We say that the tithe belongs to the Lord. And it does. In Leviticus chapter 27, verse 30, the tithe belongs to the Lord. That's what it says. But truly, it's all God's. It's all God's. God told the children of Israel, Deuteronomy chapter 8, that he gave them the strength to earn money. He wanted them to be reminded, when you get to the land, you're going to inherit a land that's really ready to live, move in ready, you might say. But he said, remember that it's me that gives you the strength to earn the money. You know, so we say, well, the tithe is the Lord, I give the tithes and He lets me spend the rest. Well, really, it's all His, okay? It's all His. He commands that we give the tithe. The Lord Jesus commended the tithe in the New Testament, so it is right to do that first. And this mission offering we're talking about is not the tithe, it's above and beyond that. But the tithe is the Lord, but everything belongs to the Lord, and we realize that Then we begin to live by the principle that it all belongs to God and giving won't be a burden, it'll be a blessing. Giving won't be a burden, it'll be a blessing. When God asks us to give something, it's no problem. He'll give it, okay? He'll give it to us. It's kind of like this. Sister Joyce, I'm gonna give you a dollar, okay? Okay, okay. And Mercedes, I'm gonna give you a dollar, okay? Okay, just hang on to that. Don't hang on to it too tight, but just hang on to it. Okay. So, the first principle. Hey, I'm sorry I ran out, brother. So, it all belongs to God. So when he asks for it, it becomes a blessing. We realize that it all belongs to God. Can I have that back? You know why it's so easy for her to give that to me? I think she'd do it anyway if I ask her for a dollar. But the truth is, I just gave it to her. She realized that it came from me. And now if I come back and I say, I say, okay, thank you, Mercedes. She gives her eye back to me because she realized in the first place that it came from me and it comes from God. And that's a mindset that we need to get. So God says, you know, if God puts something on our heart to give to somebody, you know, I love, Brother, he's with the Lord now, Dr. Joe West. He was Mr. Missions. He pastored the Town East Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas for many years. And giving living was his motto. I mean, he probably went to the Lord maybe giving 90% of his income. Even as a retired, after he left the church, Brother Joe was an amazing guy. But Brother Joe, he used to What did he say about the tithe? When he first got saved, he went into a church, a Baptist church, and there was a sign. They were having a stewardship campaign, and it said, every Christian, a tither. And he said, for two or three weeks, he wondered what a tither was. He went to the pastor, he said, I'm a Christian. I want to be a tither. He says, it's not tithe. It's tithe, brother, not tithe. So he said, that's how I had to learn to give. But he taught us, he said, never, never deny a generous impulse. And you know, if you believe that God owns it all, then when you're having a conversation with somebody and God just puts it on your heart, and he'll do this to give that person something. You know, you may not, God knows what you have. It may be a $20 bill, maybe a $1 bill, maybe a $5, maybe a $100 bill, whatever. But God puts it on your heart to do it. You won't have a problem with it. If it belongs to God, God must eat it. And I've done that before. I've had my wife do that. And then people tell us later, you know, I had a need. I didn't know where it was going to come from. And then you gave me that money. No, I didn't give it to you. God gave it to you. God met that need because, see, He puts you as a giver and the need together. and he meets the needs. And so God owns everything. We need to make sure we know that. Giving to the local church is not fundraising, but it's placing Christians under the window of heaven. God says, give and I'll open up the windows of heaven. So really, it's a blessing to be able to give. I love counseling. Back when I pastored, I counseled young couples, premarital couples. you know, before marriage. And when I was going to marry somebody, I wanted to do pre-marriage counseling. And I taught a lesson on giving because I thought, I'm going to open you up for a blessing in your marriage if you adapt, you know, if you put this to practice in your life. God owns everything. Number two, God wants us to willingly give ourselves as well as our gifts. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter number eight. 2 Corinthians chapter 8, of course, I've referenced it last night, it's a passage on how Paul's using the churches of Macedonia as a challenge to give and be involved in a faith offering. But he says in verse 5, and this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. Paul said before they gave an offering, And they were the ones that were poor, but they were begging Paul to take this offering. Before they did that, they first gave themselves to the Lord. And so that's key. So God owns everything, and he wants us to willingly give ourselves as well as our gifts. He wants our heart. Have you ever given when you really didn't feel like it? You just gave out of obligation? And you gave, well, God can use that gift. But I'll tell you, if you gave your life to the Lord, it's a lot funner giving because God asked for it. And you've already given your life to the Lord. So whatever he owns, he has given you, and you give it. This is practiced all the way through the Bible. Look at 1 Chronicles 29. And this is, you know, David wanted to build the temple, but the Lord didn't let him. God said, David, thou art a bloody man. You're not going to build the temple. Your son Solomon's going to build the temple. But David was able to collect the offering for it. And he collected the offering for the temple. And chapter 29 is all about that. But look at verse number nine, it says, Now this is talking about, you kind of back up a little bit, but notice verse six, it says, Then the chief of the fathers and the prince of the tribes and the captains of thousands and hundreds, with the rulers of the king's work, offered willingly and gave for the service of the house of God. of gold 5,000 talents and 10,000 drams and of silver 10,000 talents and of brass 18,000 talents and 100,000 talents of iron. and they with whom precious stones were found gave them unto the treasure of the house of the Lord by the hand of Jehiel the Gishanite. Then the people rejoiced." You see, that's a lot of money. I don't know how much that really, you know, translates into dollars and cents in our economy, but I want to say it's a lot of money, right? Gold has gone up, you know, a lot, you know, over the last few years, just to say, but they offered it, but they offered willingly. They had offered willingly themselves and their offering. And interesting thing is, with that temple, that when they went to worship, they saw what they had given. They saw what they had given. And you know, when we give to the Lord, we don't always see with our eyes these souls that have been saved on the mission field, but we hear their names called out sometimes in a prayer letter. And let me just say, it's hard as a missionary to write a letter and report everything in a month or two months. You know, oh yeah, I forgot to say about this one or whatever. I used to, you know, I'm a kind of a, the way I preach is, you know, one, two, three, four kind of points, and that's how I did prayer letters. And I would give my prayer letters to Karen and then she would really make a prayer letter out of them because if I had sent my prayer letters out we'd have lost support. But you know I said ABCD and then she'd put it where it read like a letter in a story form. It was great letters. But you know what about this one getting saved and what about this one getting saved and that's fruit that abounds to our account. It really does, and praise the Lord for that. So we offer willingly to the Lord. Number three, God wants us to be a cheerful giver. We're there in 2 Corinthians again, and this verse is found in chapter 9. He says, Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. So God wants us to be a cheerful giver, a joyful giver. That word means to be prompt. Really, the word hilarious comes from this word. A cheerful giver, a happy giver, just loving to give. And these are what you call glad givers. They're glad when it's offering time. Man, they're not dreading the offering. They're glad to give. Praise God, they can't wait to give that offering. Well, he also talks about those that give grudgingly. He said, don't give it grudgingly. These are the sad givers. You know, these are the people that they love money, and it hurts to give it. I mean, if they're giving a $5 bill in the offering, you can practically hear Abe Lincoln screaming as he leaves their hands, you know? I mean, they love that money, and they hate it. Oh, it's offering time. I guess I've got to give a little something. God says, don't be like that. Be a glad giver. Not a sad giver. And then he talks about those who don't give of necessity. And I'll say, that's a mad giver. That's the kind of people that give just because they have to. OK, it's missions conference time again. And the pastor and whoever preaches is going to be talking about money. And I'll be glad when this is over. I'm just going to do it just to ease my conscience. Well, God says, you're missing a blessing when you do that. He wants you to be a cheerful giver and a glad giver. And we miss out on a blessing when we do it any other way. So that's grace giving. And then here's another point I think that I brought it out last night going to look at it again today in Luke chapter number 6 verse 38. In God's economy we give then we receive. Luke 6 38 says give and it shall be given unto you. good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that ye meet, withal it shall be measured to you again." Now the context of this verse is very important. This is Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, but this is Luke's version of it. And notice in verse 37, or verse 36, be therefore merciful as your father also is merciful. Judge not and you shall not be judged. Condemn not and you shall not be condemned. Forgive and you shall be forgiven. It's semicolon. He's continuing the thought. Give and it shall be given. So if we're judgmental and critical, we can expect that in return is what he's saying. He says, Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. If you choose not to forgive, you won't be forgiven. He says it right here. He said it also in Matthew chapter 6 when he talked about the model prayer. He put a couple verses on the back of that. We pray the Lord will forgive us for our sins. But when you hold up and you won't forgive somebody, God says, wait a minute, if you can't forgive somebody, God can't forgive you. So here he says that. He says, forgive, and you shall be forgiven. Be merciful if you want God's mercy on you. Don't you want God's mercy on you? Man, then we need to be merciful to others. You know, I don't want people judging me and being critical of me. And therefore, I don't want to be critical towards people. I want people to forgive me when I mess up, because I mess up. Right? We mess up, don't we? Husbands, shake your head. Yeah. Some of the hardest words to say is, I'm sorry, I was wrong, right? Please forgive me, right? Well, why? Because we mess up. Well, I want to be forgiven, so I need to forgive. Okay, then he says, give and it shall be given. See how that works out? It's just not about giving, it's about our lifestyle. A lifestyle of giving. You give forgiveness, so you want forgiveness. You give mercy, because you want mercy. and it's the right thing to do. You give love and you get love in return. So given it shall be given. And this is not just, I don't think it's just talking about money, because I think the whole principle of life, you give your time and you're gonna get back time. You give your talents and you're gonna get back a blessing. I have given time when I didn't really feel like I had time to give, right? As a pastor, you know, you're making final preparations message on Sunday and Saturday afternoon you get a call that somebody has had a heart attack and you have to go and be with that person. And you need to. That's what that's what a pastor does a shepherd. And I've on the way to the hospital I've prayed Oh God help me I'm not done with my sermon prep yet. And it's like the still small voices. It'll be all right. You just give you be where you're supposed to be and I'll be where I'm supposed to be. And you know And he'd come around, God gave me time back. God gave me the message and he probably, it was better than if I would have stayed. I'm sorry, I can't come and be with you. I'm prepping for this message. No, you give your time, you give to your time. You give your talents to people. You give of things that God has given you. You commit to teach a Sunday school class, or you commit to pray for a missionary, to spend 15 extra minutes a day maybe praying for the missionaries by name, or 10 minutes, or whatever. Whatever time you give, or whatever you give to the Lord, God says you will receive back. By the way, that's not why we give. We give because we love the Lord. We give because we want to be obedient. God will pay back. God makes sure that He is not in debt to us. Then God promises to supply all the needs of a faithful giver. Let's look at Philippians chapter 4. Now Philippians was, this was one of those churches of Macedonia that Paul's talking about. in 2 Corinthians. The Church of Philippi was started during Paul's second missionary journey, and they became a regular supporter of him. As he traveled, they would send offerings. They'd find out where he was going to be, and they would send somebody with him with an offering to him. And he had received an offering, and he writes this letter back to them. And he says, your church has communicated with me like no other. since the beginning concerning giving and receiving." He says, you've been there. And he says, I've received again, chapter 4, an offering that you've sent. And he said, that offering is a sweet smelling savor to God. You know that offering that you give to the Lord is a sweet smell? I mean, it's just, it smells good to God. It's like a burnt offering going up to God. And he writes this letter to this church thanking them for what they had done. And he reports, and he addresses a problem. There was a couple ladies in chapter 4 that they're named, let me see, yeah, verse 2, Iotis and Syntyche. He addresses these two ladies were obviously having something, you know, he said, be of the same mind in the Lord. That's all he said. But man, their name went down in the record, the eternal record. Whatever it was, he addressed them publicly. Hey, you guys be of the same mind. He showed how to be of the same mind, Philippians chapter 2. Christ, have the mind of Christ. So he addresses these problems while he's writing this prayer letter to them. But he says here in chapter 4 and verse number 12, Back it up one more. Verse number 11. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. We have to learn that, don't we? We have to learn whatever condition or state God places you in We need to learn to be content. And that's learned by the grace of God. You know, when I retired, resigned the church and went into a different ministry, you know, we had to learn some different ways of operating. It's okay. God's been there. And God has just, you know, been faithful along the way. Praise the Lord for him. But you have to learn these things along the way. Then he says, I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." That's a verse that comes in the context of a man that's telling about how to base and how to abound, how God provides every need and God will provide every need and He'll give you the strength to have the grace to live the Christian life. I say that because people quote this verse out of context. You know, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Then they go over to the weight room and, you know, I'm pumping iron for Jesus. Well, you know, I don't think that's exactly what the Lord meant by that verse. You know, he was talking about to a missionary church, knowing how to abase, knowing how to abound, knowing how to live for the Lord in every circumstance. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Then he says, notwithstanding ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction. Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. So he says, look, when I left, After starting the church there, I left Macedonia. You continued to stay by my side concerning giving and receiving. You were giving gifts. He says, for even in Thessalonica, you sent once again to my necessity. When he landed in Thessalonica, there was a gift for him there from the church at Philippi. You know, every month we would get a list of churches that had sent their support in faithfully, you know. And it was our way of being accountable to that church. We knew that they had sent. They knew that we had received it. But you know the list of these churches. And churches like Faith Baptist, they're faithful. They didn't miss a lick, you know. I mean, right here, churches like that. And this was the Church of Philippi. They were faithful every month to send that check, every month to do that. And he says that. Then he says, verse 17, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. Isn't that good? He said, look, it's not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that will abound to your account. And that's what we've been talking about, fruit, those people that are building that everlasting habitations. And we're able to one day be with that person and meet that person that was fruit that we never saw on this earth, but we're going to spend eternity with. Rejoice in because we gave to the Lord. And then he says, but I have all and abound. I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God. You know, we don't know what Epaphroditus from the Church of Philippi had brought him, but he was full. Maybe it was some meat. Maybe it was some food. Whatever it was, he said, it's an offering to God. Praise the Lord for that. Then he says, but my God, get it, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So God promises to supply the needs of the faithful giver. Here was a church that was involved with the missionary like your church is. And if you're personally involved in this offering, And you're faithful to give unto the Lord. God promises to meet your needs. And I didn't say greeds, right? And he doesn't say greeds. He says needs. God promises to meet our needs. And it's interesting because there's the people. He says your need. The people at Philippi, they were the ones that were receiving this promise. And we, as part of a missionary giving church, can claim this verse. Who is the promise given from? My God. By the way, the bank of heaven will never run out, right? I mean, it's my God that's supplying that need. You say, you know, I mean, there is an end to Dennis' account, okay? I mean, I can't make a promise like that, but God can, because He, you know, it's according to His riches, by the way. It's not out of His riches. It's according to, and that's all the riches of heaven, praise the Lord. And the perimeter of the promise is all your need. It's not like what you think you need, it's all your need. You ever begin to pray for something and you realize you were really praying for something that you really didn't need? And then God waited maybe until you got to that, you know, you adjusted your prayer down to what you really did need and then it was met? You know, I think God sometimes in the process of prayer works on the prayer Prayer as much as the prayer. Promises to meet our needs and then the provision, His riches in glory. The wealthiest source known to man, the bank of heaven. Never be depleted, never dry up. Inflation, it doesn't matter if we got a businessman in office like we do now or we got a spin thrift like we did before. It doesn't matter, right? The Bank of America is not the one making this promise. The Bank of Heaven is. And it'll never dry up. You know, we raised support to go to Africa. And we raised, at that time, about $5,500 a month was our goal. You say, that's a lot of money. Well, where we went was, at that time, one of the five most expensive places in the world to live, in Juba, South Sudan, because the war had ended and all these businessmen were coming in to invest in the country, and the country has oil, the country has gold, the country has water, so it was very expensive to live. And we couldn't even live in the capital city. We went to look at a building to rent, this just side note, we went to look at a building to rent, and the guy showed us this house, and I said, now how much is this per rent? He said, 5,000 a month. I said, I'm a preacher. And I said, I am not with the US government. I said, I don't know what you're thinking, but it looks nice, but it's not for me. So what I'm saying is that sounds like a lot, but it really went fast. Anyway, we raised that money. We started raising money in 2008. The first Sunday of 2008 was our first Sunday in deputation. And you know what happened in 2008, right? The economy crashed. We were in Lancaster, California in October, and we stayed with a family that did real estate. And they were great guns. By the end of that year, they were bankrupt. And yet Lancaster Baptist Church took us on and 15 other families that, you know, for $150 a month or whatever. And I thought, you know, and Paul Chaplin preached the same thing. He said, hey, We're not talking about the bank of heaven here. We're talking about what God can do and get these missionaries to the field. And we did that. We raised that money and we were on the field in 18 months. We were done with deputation in 14 months. We raised all that and then an extra over an abundance of that. How did you do that? By faith. By faith. Because we believed that God could do it. And God put our need together with his churches like this church. And God got the work done, and they're Sudanese in heaven. And the work is still going on today because of a church's investment into our lives. And so giving is a privilege. Giving is an honor. But giving is something that first you need to give yourself to the Lord. Have you given yourself to the Lord? Then you say, God, now what do you want me to do? And listen to God. Listen to God. You say, well, I was doing this much last month, last year, Can I do more? I want to do more. If you want to do more, God will make a way. But you first give to the Lord and then see what he does. So faith, promise, missions, giving. Let's pray and ask God to help us to understand these things. Father, thank you. Seal these things in our hearts, we pray. And Lord, bless this church. I know they want to do more for you, want to be able to support more missionaries and get light where there is no light in this world. And Lord, bless, we pray, the pastor and the men and women of this church as they lead and go through these days to come. And Lord, we know we're living in the last days. We know we don't have much time left, so help us to be faithful. Bless the service to come, we pray in Jesus' name.