All right, we're going to do something. We're going to shift gears, do something a little bit different this morning. You don't even know what we're doing yet. It could be better. We've been, of course, studying through the Book of Proverbs together, and we will continue to do that. But this morning, we're going to We're going to address as a church the circumstances of the church membership meeting, the body family meeting that we had about a month ago in relationship to the new venture that the Lord has placed before us as a church, and that is the mission to Costa Rica that the Delaplane family are going to be spearheading. And the unique and I believe very important, very important is just too small of a word to convey. I think the significance of it for us, but the opportunity that the Lord has given to us as a body and individually as families to participate in that mission, to partner together in the mission that the Lord has directed for Clint and Rocio and their family to spearhead in the very near future, and they're continuing their preparations to be going before the summer is out. But we had placed before, and for anyone who happens to be visiting this morning and was not there at that meeting, let me just describe that what we're really going to be talking about this morning is church family business, and we invite you to sit in with us this morning and and listen in on our church family. But I'm more really directing this and we're going to be addressing our lives and our commitments and our part of this family that God has called us to. And, you know, Terry's comments earlier and Karen's comments after her in terms of how the Lord had been moving on their hearts this morning as understanding and appreciating what it means to be part of a family of God. at a local level, at a church level, I think is one of those things. I didn't call either of them up and ask them to prime the pump for what we would be speaking about this morning. So I appreciate the Lord doing that. We had asked each family to go home after we described what we clearly believe the Lord is doing among us and wants to do through us in sending Clint and Rocio and their family back to Costa Rica to minister full time. And as far as we know, you know, the Lord may have other plans, but as far as we know, for the rest of their lives here in this world, and to be involved in evangelism there in Costa Rica with a very specific opportunity, an open door that's available at this particular moment, and eventually to even be involved in a planting of a new church there in Costa Rica. And we had asked each one to go and pray and to seek the Lord in the sense that I really believe this, as Clint had emphasized that night at the meeting, that if this is the Lord's work, that the Lord is going to provide. And that since this work is something that's being birthed from us, that just like if we were to give birth to a baby in our natural family, we would not expect that the primary provision for that baby would come from outside of our family, but we would look at that as this is now our responsibility and we should take that to heart and we should, you know, seek the Lord as to how he wants us to provide and the part each one of us as families is to play in that provision. So we sent you all home to pray and to seek the Lord and then to get back to us by a specific date with commitments. Commitments for not just a one-time offering, though many did give in a single offering which will help the transition down to Costa Rica. We asked you to make a commitment to the ongoing support of their family and the work there, the ministry there, on a monthly basis. And then since that time, we've just kind of left everybody in the dark as to what the response was. Not everybody has responded yet. There are still one or two households that have informed us that they're still in the process of working out budget circumstances, and they have a desire and a heart to commit and to participate, but we have not heard back from them yet. But the vast majority of us have responded. I want to just tell you right up front, I really, really appreciate that each one of you took it seriously, that you did go, you did pray, and that each one of you did receive some sense of direction from the Lord and made a response. What we're going to do this morning, I'm going to ask Clint to come forward. He's going to share for probably 20-25 minutes something in that vicinity as we've worked it out about the actual practicalities of what was committed, what is actually on the table. And he's going to, of course, share in terms of how his heart has been affected by that, what this means for him, for his family and for the work ahead. And then when he's done, I'm going to come back and share just a few thoughts about what I believe this signifies for spiritually. So, Clint, why don't you come on forward? In 1 Samuel 17, 33, Saul said to David, you are not able to go against this Philistine, to fight with him, for you are but a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth. How many times do we feel like we're in the receiving end of that message? You're unable. You can't do it. I'm reminded of a time when we were living in Costa Rica. It was 1996. I had been invited to teach at a evangelism seminar conference in Nicaragua. It was supposed to last one week. It was three days in Managua and three days on the East Coast. And I committed to teach. I prepared the lessons. I knew what I wanted to give to each one of the pastors that were going to be coming. There were going to be 300 pastors attending total between the two conferences. And as I got closer to the date when I was getting ready to leave, we were out of money. We were living on a shoestring budget at the time. we did not have the money to reproduce the materials for those 300 pastors. And the people who were putting on the conference had told me beforehand they didn't have the money for that. So, here I was, I had this commitment to go and I didn't have the money to go. I didn't have the money for the bus ticket to get there. So there I was, wondering, what am I going to do? And it was getting close. Meanwhile, the man who was in charge of the conference in Managua couldn't find a place to hold everybody that was going to come. They had invited, the one in Managua was supposed to be 200 pastors there. Well, so many other pastors and elders and other people wrote asking if they could attend. He couldn't find a place big enough to hold us all that he could afford. He finally found a place. It was going to cost more than he had, and he just was going to trust the Lord that the rest of the finances were going to come in. The finances weren't there for him. Several of the pastors I talked to that went to that conference traveled from different parts of Nicaragua to get there. Many of them told me that they were pastors of poor churches. According to our standards, the pastors themselves were in poverty. They received no salary from their congregation. None. They had no money to get to the conference. You are not able to go against the Philistine. In those pastors' cases, one after another, I was told of Somebody or some situation or some circumstance that provided for them and they were able to arrive The man in The man in Nicaragua who was in charge of Finding the place he he found basically it was an open field area and he rented what we would consider like a big top Tent type structure. It was during the rainy season. So we had to have some sort of covering and And he did not have the money, and he had hours left to get the money paid for, and there was no money available. Finally, he was so upset, he just went home. Left his office, went home, and told his wife it didn't come. They got on their knees and prayed. When they stood up, His wife took off her wedding band, said, use this. And he took off his wedding band, and they sold them to cover the price. In my case, here I was. I didn't know what I was going to do. It was one of the first communications checks I had received from this church. And it covered exactly the amount that I needed to copy my materials and get me to Nicaragua. January of this year, I received a call for help in Costa Rica. A missionary there who the Lord has been working through He's established a preschool, an elementary, a high school. He's just started a university, a seminary, a Reformed Christian press and bookstore. And he's got a new church plant going. But he needs help. Physically, you look at the possibility of this body of believers, of sending a missionary out, if you just look at the physical limitations, it would seem, once again, you are not able to go against the Philistine. But, as in Nicaragua, and here in Canoga Park, Tree of Life Church, It's God's work. And when it's God's work, it will happen. And He will be glorified. And it's exciting for us because we get to participate in His work. I've been very optimistic about raising the finances that are going to be necessary, but There's also been that seed of doubt that I believe but help my unbelief I've made some preparations and others I've just kind of set on the side like well, you know, I don't want to get that far ahead not until I Can see how things are coming coming along It was Nine days after we had our combined home group, that between offerings from this congregation and a couple from outside, that we reached our goal. Nine days. If that is not the hand of the Lord, I don't know what is. Nine days, that is unbelievable. I have lots of friends who are missionaries. They spend six months to a year raising their support. One day, we presented before this congregation a work of the Lord. And you all responded. So where are we at? Well, to start with, before we had that meeting, the elders had talked and they had decided that right now I receive a salary from the church, $500 a month. That's not all I live on right now, but I do have other income. $500 a month as a pastor of the church. They agreed that they would continue with that when we go to Costa Rica. You, the members of this family, have pledged $1,825 a month. Plus the $500, that's $2,325. That is 80% of the minimum needs that we would have for Costa Rica. What you don't know is, and I didn't mention it at the meeting, is the day of that meeting I had been told, unsolicited, by a couple of people outside of the body that, within certain parameters, that they would help up make any difference, and that's with inside those parameters. There's our 2,900 that we need for our monthly ministry. Unsolicited as well was help for moving expenses, which, as I mentioned previously, that came unexpectedly. As we've already begun making preparations, commitments, those expenses are going to be a little higher than we thought. And right here amongst this congregation, there's people here who have given one-time pledges, donations, that are going to help cover those extra expenses as well. The Lord is good. And the Lord is obviously working through this body right here. So what's the plan now? Rocio and I, a few weeks ago, we sat down and made a list of everything that we need to do and then I expanded a little bit, jotting down all the details. At one point in time it was up to 60 items, things that we need to get done and take care of. Some of them are huge and some of them are pretty easy. Our goal is still to be settled into Costa Rica by late August. Backing things up, we need to have a couple weeks prior to that where we send our container full of our household belongings and everything down there. Prior to that, we need somewhere between four to six weeks to find housing. Housing is very difficult to find, to rent, especially for a large family. So what's the next step? Well first Rocio, Diego, Pedro and Pablo will be leaving for Costa Rica. They will be staying with Rocio's family there and that will give Rocio an opportunity to check out the housing situation. What date? One month from today, July 6th. John and myself will be leaving mid-August sometime. Henry has been blessed with a wonderful opportunity. He'll be staying with one of my brothers and attending Moore Park College. And it was interesting, we had talked about a possibility like that, and it was like two days, three days later, it was a short time after that, My brother came up to me, once again unsolicited, and said, you know, I've been thinking. Another wonderful opportunity. Henry will continue attending here at Tree of Life Church, and we're very excited about that, and he is as well. Keep an eye on him. For those that were not at the meeting that Friday night, just real briefly, what we're going to be doing in Costa Rica is, as Pastor Tim had mentioned, there's this new church plant. They need somebody to work primarily in the area of evangelism. And the Lord has blessed me with lots of experience in evangelism. I'll be helping them there. I'm basically in a sense kind of on loan to them for one or two years As long as necessary to help them get their numbers up and get a little stability in the church plant After that our goal is to move to Cartago where we where we would like to plant a Arbol de Vida which is in Spanish a tree of life a new church and One of our other works there will be in the area of education. Between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, there are three reformed Christian schools. Most of them have teachers who have no background in teaching. Most of them have degrees, but no real background in teaching. And I've been asked if I can provide teacher training for them. So I'll be providing ongoing mentoring and teacher training seminars. The new university would like to create a degree in the area of education so that the schools can receive teachers who have been properly trained and equipped. So one of my jobs, a long-term work, will be to prepare a program in education for the university. The seminary is very shorthanded on teachers, There's two teachers, Bill Green, the primary missionary I'm going to be working with, and then another Reformed Baptist missionary there, Steve Henning, he lives an hour and a half away from the seminary, and yet he teaches there on a weekly basis. He does it because there's a need, but even with the two of them teaching, they're still stretched to teach all the classes that need to be taught. So one of the other works there will be to teach at the theological seminary. And in conjunction with that, I'll be continuing my theological studies, so better prepare me to teach there. And lastly, will be to direct Tree of Life, this Tree of Life, short-term missions. And that will be to provide opportunities for members here to go to Costa Rica and work for a week or two weeks there with the mission. And trust me, there is lots of work to do. The missionary there already has two or three teams a year that come in from other churches. And it's not enough. There's lots of work to be done. And if you don't speak Spanish, there's manual physical labour to be done. If you do, well you can do that and or you could help in the evangelistic direction of things or the teaching area. Plenty of work to be done and I would encourage you to take advantage of those opportunities. typically the way the teams go is they spend usually like seven days working and they usually take like two or three days to see Costa Rica. I mean, hey you're there, you might as well check out the rainforest, check out the beaches and get to know a little bit about Central America. I'm going to shift gears a little bit and I like to make reference back to about a year and a half ago to the Lemon Tree meetings, those combined home group meetings that we had where before the congregation was a discussion, are we supposed to be here or not? What does the Lord have for this body? Rocio and I, as we listened to those discussions, we so badly wanted to get in front and say something, but we felt like, you know, we've only been here a short period of time, and everybody else had something to say, we're like, we'll wait, and if there's time, we'll get up there. Well, it just didn't happen. One of the points that was brought up quite frequently was the size of the church. You know, we're shrinking. at that time, anyway. Rocio and I, our first year in Costa Rica, we worked a year, year and a half with a church called the Embajada Celestial. It had, I don't know, on a regular basis, maybe 10 people, including children, every Sunday. And we're thinking, small church, what are you guys talking about? That church now has been in existence, I don't know, probably seven to ten years. And for years it was like that. Ten people every Sunday. We met in a garage. And it was so simple. And it was frustrating sometimes. You're like, Lord, what's going on here? Today they have their own building. And it's full. It took years. But even if the Lord had just used that church as a small church, there were lives that it touched, year after year, as a small body. When I got saved, I came to know the Lord, I was baptized in Saratoga Springs, New York, baptized in the Hudson River, and that church, Sunday after Sunday, typically had six people. Six. Sometimes we got, you know, up to twelve. That was a big day. I was with that church for four years. It never changed much, but the lives we touched and how that church touched my life was incredible. This, a small body? I don't think so. We worked with a church in San Miguel in Costa Rica. It was a little bit larger. It was actually a country church, but they had consistently about 30 people, including children, that came. But once again, the lives that were touched. Actually, they thought of themselves as, hey, we're not doing too bad. 30. Here we are, a church of 40 families strong. Families, not people. We must not look with our physical eyes. The blessings that pour from this church are incredible. When Rocio and I moved here, spiritually, we felt dried up and used, wiped out. We were excited with what the Lord had done with us in Costa Rica, but in all honesty, we needed a time of being fed, a time of refreshing. We found it here with our family, Tree of Life. This is a great church. It's a great church because of what the Lord is doing in it and through it. I was kind of stunned as I heard Terry and Karen speak this morning. I was like, that's the spirit of what I want to communicate today. This is family. This is it. This is my family. You are my brothers and sisters. Saul said to David, you are not able to go against Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth. Little later, David stood before the giant. David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day, the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky, the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel." This church has done great things. It will continue to do great things. It is about to embark on a mission. This isn't about the Della Plank family. This is about a work that the Lord is doing in and through Tree of Life Church. to send a missionary to Costa Rica to proclaim the good news. This is a work of this family. And just as David proclaimed to the Philistine that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, that all the earth may know and see the God of Tree of Life Christian Church. He will be glorified in and through our lives. How exciting and what a privilege we have to be a part of the Lord's work. I praise the Lord for each and every one of you. And I love you. And as 2 Corinthians 13, 14 says, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. If you brought your Bibles, I'd like you to join me in a couple of different passages of scripture this morning. I want to address what the Lord is doing in terms of not so much the practicalities, but I believe the spiritual principles that we have now set in motion for our lives and for, of course, Clinton Rocio and their family and for the kingdom. Beyond that, could you turn with me if you would for a moment to Matthew chapter 16. We read this passage at our meeting that had started this process here a few weeks ago. I'd like to re-read it, re-emphasize the principle here. This is at a key moment in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. He's having a private conversation with His disciples. He's testing their hearts in terms of their understanding of who He really is and why He's really there. beginning in Matthew 16, 13. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, and others Elijah, but still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets, he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. The particular phrase I want to focus on is in verse 18, where in describing why the Lord was there, he's already, as I said, tested them as to can you properly identify who I am. But following that, He identifies why He's there, what is His mission, what is His purpose in coming to this world, the Son of God incarnate in human flesh. And His purpose is this, in verse 18, if you were to boil down, why did the Lord come? You know, we could say it in terms of the mission directly in front of Him, which would be, of course, He came to die on a cross, to make a sacrifice for us, to deal with the issue, the problem of our sins, and then to rise from the dead and conquer death and provide the means for us to be eternally united with God. And that would be absolutely true, of course, theologically correct. But when he was describing his purpose, his mission, in this particular passage, he leaps right over the cross, and he leaps right over even the resurrection. He's not describing them as less important by leaping over them. But what he's doing is he's giving his disciples a glimpse into the ultimate purpose that is at the heart of the cross itself and the resurrection. The ultimate purpose of why Jesus came, why he died on the cross, why he rose from the dead, why he sits enthroned at God's right hand, administrating affairs of God's kingdom and all of creation. is that he came to build his church. And this is the unique work of the Lord. This is a work that only Jesus himself can do. No one can say, I built the church or I built any one church. If it's a church that truly represents the Lord, as we hope this one is, then it's the Lord's work that has built it. And it's the Lord's work that sustains it. But this church and what we're doing here is not the sum in total, as we all understand, of what God is intending to accomplish in the earth. He is about the business of continuing to build his church, and he's not finished with that. And what is waiting in Costa Rica is more of the church to be built. And so the Lord has called us and privileged us with the opportunity to be involved in that. And what I want us to see here is I'm saying that the church is something that only the Lord can build. The true church is something only Jesus himself can build, but he does not build it apart from us. He chooses to build it through us. Now we have to emphasize that it's Him and Him alone that's building it so that we never fall into the trap of thinking that somehow we did whatever it was we did by our own strength, our own power, our own finances, our own wisdom, our own abilities, our own gifts. That all that we do that builds anything of lasting value, anything of eternal value, we do by the grace of the Lord. It's Him that's working it. It's Him that's accomplishing it. But He accomplishes it not apart from us. Jesus could build his church without any human involvement, but he chooses to build his church through the involvement of his people. And that involvement is identified by a very specific term. Turn with me, if you would, from Matthew here back into the New Testament to the book of Philippians. I'd like to share a couple of passages from the book of Philippians this morning. And there's a key term that I want to focus on that I believe identifies this opportunity and the way that we have responded to the opportunity by way of a spiritual principle that is a key principle in all kingdom business. And this is kingdom business that we're doing. This is not just some nice little activity that we've decided to do as a church just to keep us all busy. This is high-level stuff that is going on, that the Lord is stirring up among us and will be doing through us. And this particular term is identified for us. I'll just start reading in Philippians from the very beginning of the book, chapter 1, verse 1, and I'd like to read the first six verses. Paul and Timothy bond servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. Overseers here is of course another term for what we refer to as elders or shepherds of the flock. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Now, verse six should be an easily and quickly recognizable verse for us. He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. We have a song that we sing connected to this verse, and it's a wonderful passage, and we oftentimes refer to it. But what I want us to see is that verse six is a very specific application in a very specific context. And it's tied to what he's just described, what Paul the Apostles just described in verses one through five. And in particular, in verse five, he talks about the fact that in verse four, he prays on a regular basis for the Philippian Christians. Paul had previously spent time in Philippi. And in spending time there, the Lord had used him to form and establish a church by evangelizing people that had not even heard of Jesus prior to Paul arriving there in that city, bringing them to the Lord, and then gathering them together and forming them into a church. And before he left, he had essentially organized them into a church of people. And then he had left and gone on to other cities, because God had similar work for him to do in those cities also. But as he left, of course, because he had a personal investment in what the Lord was doing among them, he prayed for them on a regular basis, probably prayed on a daily basis for them. But as he was praying, And trust me, this wasn't the case in all of Paul's prayers for the many churches that he prayed for. As he prayed for the Philippians, he prayed with a different perspective than he did when he was praying, for instance, for the Corinthians. There was a church, a true church, a real church, a church that the Lord had established through the ministry of the Apostle Paul in the city of Corinth. and there was a church in the city of Philippi. As he was praying for the Corinthians, Paul oftentimes, as he describes it himself, experienced deep heartache. as he was thinking about what was going on with the Corinthians and as he was praying for them. And of course, you know, a study of the two books of Corinthians will describe what was going on there that would have produced in Paul such a heartache as he's praying for them on a daily basis. But as he turned his attention to the Philippians and was praying for them, he prayed for them as he describes himself, always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all. Paul had a deep and abiding joy in his heart every time his attention turned to the Philippian church. Why? What made him so deeply, satisfyingly joyful as he thought about and prayed for the Philippians? It was in verse 5, in view of their participation in the gospel from the first day until now. Now, the key word here, the word I want to focus on, is this word participation. You may have a little notation in your translation next to the word, which would direct you to a side reference, which would give a little bit more insight into the meaning of this particular word. In mine, the side column reference describes for the word participation the concept of sharing in the preaching of the gospel. The word that Paul actually used here is a Greek word that is the word koinonia. And I think that night described briefly the meaning of the word when we met together about the possibility of what the Lord was going to be doing and our part in that in Costa Rica. And the concept of the word koinonia is this. It's a word which means literally to share. And it's the word that is also translated and has come down into just popular Christian usage as the English word fellowship. For instance, we have what is identified on this backside of the property and we'll be going there soon as Michael described in the announcements. We have what we call a fellowship hall. What that means is we're identifying generally what goes on inside of that structure by calling it the fellowship hall. Fellowship goes on in there. But what actually goes on in there? Like Michael referred to the smell of toasters, you know, following the the smell there. Or, you know, we eat in there. We sit around tables and chat with each other. You know, we stand around and talk with each other. We, you know, we do some very basic and simple stuff. Is that what Paul is describing here? That as he is not with the Philippians right now, but he's thinking about them on a daily basis and he stops to pray about them and he remembers the toast. And by remembering the toast, He has this deep and abiding joy in his heart because of, you know, what the Philippians have meant to him. Is he remembering the casual chit-chat conversations that he experienced with them in the fellowship hall? And that's what's giving him deep and abiding joy. Well, I'm sure he did remember the chatting conversations that they had, and I'm sure that that was, you know, to a degree, you know, an aspect of a happy memory. But that's not what Paul's talking about. It's not even close to describing what's really in his heart and why, as he remembers them, why as he prays for them, he experiences a welling up of joy in his prayers for them. What he's describing is the word means fellowship, yes, but it means something more than that. Probably a better translation in our modern English usage would be partnership. It's a term which means to share in a way of partnership with someone else. And what Paul is really saying here Always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all in view of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Now, what kind of partnership did the Philippians share with Paul? There was some measure, of course, of working together with him and alongside him and helping him in the actual practical work of ministry, the ministry of the Word, the proclamation of the Gospel. But that's not the primary and the most significant way that the Philippians shared, because Paul really did the bulk of the teaching, he really did the bulk of the evangelism, the bulk of the proclamation of the Gospel itself, the standing up in public and actually opening his mouth and sharing the Word of God. But the Philippians shared with him deeply in a partnership relationship, and the primary way that that was evidenced in Paul's life and in his ministry was financial. What the Philippians did, that was unusual and that shaped his remembrance of them on a regular basis. was that they, unlike any other church that Paul was connected to, and he was connected to many churches, all of these letters, with the exception of the book of Romans, that we have that Paul wrote in the New Testament, are letters that Paul has written to churches that he himself established, gave spiritual birth to, so to speak, as a father in the faith, as he brought these people to the Lord and organized them and formed them into churches. He loved all of the churches he was connected to as a father loves all of his children. But he had a special remembrance of the Philippians because the Philippians responded to the bigger picture of why they were a church in a way that none of the other churches did. The other churches. were primarily focused on just what the Lord was doing with them and what church was all about as it touched their lives and affected their lives on a daily, weekly, yearly basis. What the Philippians did was they saw that God was doing something greater in their earth than just their own lives and how it was affecting their lives. God was building his church worldwide. God was establishing his kingdom. And he was doing it at that moment in history primarily through the ministry of the Apostle Paul. And that as a result of that, there were specific and practical needs in order to equip him and to free him to do the work that God had called him to do. Some of you are familiar with this. How many of you have heard the term tent making as it relates to the concept of missionary work? How many of you have heard that term before? It just simply means a missionary who's doing missionary work, but is also working a job in order to provide their own practical needs while they're there on the mission field. That term comes originally, of course, from the life and ministry of the Apostle Paul. Why do we call it tent making instead of car washing? You know, We call it tent making because Paul himself was, by trade, first, before he was ever an apostle, was a tent maker. That's what he did. He sewed tents. And there were circumstances and there were times in his ministry, after being called and set by the Lord as an apostle, where in order to make ends meet, he needed to actually sew tents and sell them. just to get enough money, like Clint was talking about, to get to the next city to preach the gospel to the next group of people who had never heard it before. And yet, there were times when it was the Lord's purpose for Paul to devote all of his energy, all of his schedule, all of his time to the work and the ministry of the gospel, and to be free from the obligations that go along with tent making. But only the Philippians, out of all of the churches that Paul ministered to, saw that, caught that vision, and chose to partner with Paul in a way that would free him to do the work that God had called him to do. I'm going to read real quickly three passages of scripture. You don't have to turn. This is describing the work of the Philippian church in this ministry of partnership financially in the work of the gospel. Now, it's going to describe the Macedonians. Just understand this, that the Philippians were the Macedonians. Philippi was the chief city in the region of Macedonia. I'm going to read a couple of passages from 2 Corinthians, and then I'll turn to Philippians 4. Now, brethren, we wish this is Paul writing to the Corinthians. Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God, which has been given in the churches of Macedonia. Paul is writing to one set of churches, and he is describing and using the example of another group of churches with the Philippians as the primary example, that in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. What he's saying is their circumstances were such that there was no practical and natural way to expect that they would have been in a position to give to his ministry. And yet they did. They found a way to give. For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints. Listen. what Clint shared a moment ago about the typical patterns for how missionary work is funded in this generation. And I talked about this a little bit at the meeting that we had. It's a shameful thing that generally the pattern is that the missionary, even one that's truly called by the Lord, typically ends up begging people to support them for the work that God has called them to go and accomplish. What Paul is describing is the exact opposite of that. These people, the Philippians, were begging him to give to the work that God had called him to do. Paul didn't beg them, they begged Paul. And this, not as we had expected. Meaning, Paul knew, just by human nature, not to expect that kind of response. Clint shared, honestly, I appreciate this with me, that he didn't expect anywhere near the amount of a monthly commitment that you made. He just didn't expect that much. He wasn't looking at you guys and thinking, oh, you stingy tree of lifers. But he just knows human nature enough to know that it would be unrealistic to expect that amount of money to be committed among this number of people on a monthly basis with an open-ended promise connected to that commitment. Meaning, we didn't ask you guys to make a commitment for a month or three months or six months or a year. As far as I'm concerned, and my wife is concerned, we're giving what we're giving every month for the rest of our lives, unless the Lord makes it clear and obvious otherwise. So Paul says, not as we had expected, and certainly true not as Clint and Rocio had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and then to us by the will of God. Let me read another passage. This is from 2 Corinthians also. Paul here is using the example of the Philippians to rebuke the stinginess of the Corinthians, OK? Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge? Paul, while he was in Corinth, never took an offering from the Corinthians to receive money for his own support. He ministered to them free of charge to them. But it doesn't mean because it was free of charge to them, it was free of charge altogether. Paul still had to live. He still had to have finances and funds to be able to eat and to live and to minister. So where did those funds come from? Did I commit a sin and humbly myself so that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge? I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you." Now he's exaggerating the concept here. Paul didn't literally steal money from anyone else, but it's as though he did because who should have been paying for his support was the Corinthians. But instead he chose to not. take from them. And he received from others who did he receive from? And when I was present with you, and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone. For when the brethren came from Macedonia, that's the Philippians, they fully supplied my need. And in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of a ki meaning that Paul Paul used this circumstance to speak more boldly to the Corinthians than he would have been able to if he had been receiving money from them. And what we've done, essentially, is we freed Clint now to go to the Costa Ricans and speak freely, boldly to them without any hesitation. He can say everything God has put on his heart to say because of the provision that God has made for him through us. One last passage. We'll end here today, Philippians chapter four. This. This thing that the Lord has done among us to provide for their work as they go, their provision, it has significance and meaning for us. And of course, it has an effect on them. I've just described the effect it will ultimately have on the Costa Ricans. It has an effect on Clint, it has an effect on Rocio, it has an effect on each one of us. First of all, very practically, it just, of course, just enables them to go do the will of God. And that's, I don't mean to make light of that by just saying it that simply. They are called to go and do a work, and there's practical circumstances connected to that. We have now enabled them to obey God, and to serve God, and to fulfill the calling of God for their lives. But there's also an emotional impact. Let me read from, and that's not a light thing either, let me read from Philippians 4 verse 10. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me." There was a brief time when the Philippians were not giving to Paul on a regular basis, but now he's recently received a gift from them and he sees it as, that financial gift being received from them, he sees it as a reviving of their concern for him. In Paul's mind, the money equals concern. It's not just money for the sake of money. It's all about what's going on in that group's heart toward the work that God has called him to do. You've revived your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. Clint and Rosia have gone through a training school by the Lord over the last number of years. They've learned to be content in whatever circumstances God sets them in. Whether we had provided all or whether it provided little, they would have gone and served the Lord and been content in that and trusted the Lord in that. But the fact that we've done what we've done has an effect. Let's read on. I know how to get along with humble means. I also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance. I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Christ or through him who strengthens me. Nevertheless, the fact that they're equipped to go down and trust the Lord like they did in that event in Managua, for the Lord to just make miraculous provision or not, they nevertheless have been affected by the fact that they're not going in that set of circumstances. What's the effect? Verse 15, You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, but you alone. For even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Now, he ends the letter like this. But remember how he began the letter. He began the letter with I pray for you constantly, but when I do, every time I pray for you, I have in my heart joy. The emotional impact, and it's not a light thing, in Paul's heart, by virtue of the Philippians' generous giving to the ministry God had called him to, was he was encouraged. He was strengthened for the work. And each one of you know, in your own life circumstances, how much a difference it makes when you're doing even what you know is right, but you're doing it with encouragement versus doing it with discouragement. doing it with the momentum of support and help from those around you that see and understand that God has called you to do this thing. And what a wonderful encouragement that is, versus the discouragement of feeling disconnected, alone, and I got to do this because God has called me to do it, but, you know, no one else sees it, no one else values it, no one else appreciates it. It is a huge factor that we are able to send them to Costa Rica now in the momentum of great encouragement. I'm speaking for him and for Rocio to say this, but I believe that their ministry is going to be that much more full now that they're going in the wave of our encouragement to them and our partnership with them. Now, what does that mean for us, however? It means this. Paul says in verse 17, not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. What is he talking about? What is this account that Paul is talking about? Is he talking about some church savings account? Yes and no. He's not talking about some physical, practical account here in this world. He's talking about an account that exists in heaven. And that account is increasing for the Philippians because they have given in partnership in the gospel to the work of the Lord. And every dollar, of course they didn't give dollars, but every dollar that they gave to the work of the Apostle Paul, went physically and practically out of their personal bank accounts and they never saw that money again. But where it ended up was in a heavenly account that had their name on it. And as it's in that heavenly account, and you know how this works, any good bank, if you put your money in the bank, what does it do there? It earns interest, right? And if it doesn't, you have your money in the wrong bank. and you're doing the wrong thing with it. When you give to the work of the gospel as you have, and as you will be giving, what you're doing is you are... and you're not doing it for this reason, first and foremost, but this is the joyful and glorious results of it. Every single dollar is funneled through Clint, but doesn't end up in Costa Rica, it ends up in heaven. And not just dollar for dollar. It's not like if you give whatever it is, let's say you gave a hundred dollars to the work in Costa Rica. It's not like you're going to get to heaven on the final day and you stand before the throne of God. The Lord reviews your life, what it meant, what he called you to accomplish, the opportunities he gave to you to serve, to obey. And he evaluates how you responded to that. And he looks at you and he says, hey, You gave $100 to the ministry of Clint Delaplane in Costa Rica. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Here you go. Here's $100 back. He, you know, peels off a nice crisp $100 bill of heaven and hands it to you. You think that's going to be the way it's going to work? Uh-uh. I don't have the words to describe what you will receive, but I do know this as a biblical principle. That $100 is going to translate to riches and glorious reward beyond compare. And riches is just a poor word to describe it because it's not going to be finances that are going to be returned to you. We talked last year somewhat about the rewards that are awaiting the faithful and the obedient in heaven. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about degrees of glory. in heaven for eternity. We're talking about degrees of proximity to the presence and purposes of God. We're talking about degrees of responsibility that will be assigned to us forever and ever and ever. And all for a relatively small sacrificial gift. And what I want to encourage your hearts in is that this is not some insignificant thing. that the Lord has done. I'm personally very encouraged and blessed by how the Lord has worked. I was so blessed a few years ago when the Lord gave us the opportunity to purchase a college in India, and we placed that opportunity before you. And the Lord moved among us, and we were able to provide the entire purchase price of a college in India that's functioning and is increasing interest every day since then. All of you who participated, and for those who didn't, I'm sorry, you missed out. It's as simple as that. You missed out. Now, there'll be other opportunities like this one. But for those who did participate, since that day that we purchased that college, and you provided the way for me to fly over to India, and we made the purchase of that college. Since that day, there's been interest accruing to each one of your accounts that participated in that. And you're going to be blown away when you see what it is that the Lord has waiting for you on that final day. This is just another opportunity, but it's, in my perspective, an even greater opportunity and a more significant thing. Not to denigrate what the Lord is doing in India and will do to that college, But this is more directly at the heart of how it is that God is working to build his church, even than the work of the college in India. So I'm blessed, I'm encouraged, I see the significant hand of the Lord upon your lives and having responded the way that you did. And what Clint said about how, you know, in nine days, 80% through this body alone has been provided and that the Lord has already 100% provided the need for him to go and do the work that God has called him to do. That is an awesome thing. Be blessed, be encouraged, and you can anticipate what's waiting for you on that final day. Let's pray. Father God, I am thankful that you have done what you've done among us. And in one sense, Lord, I see that all that you've done among us in these last five or six years has just been to prepare us for this thing that you're doing right now. Now, you may do much more in the future, but if this is all that you ever accomplish among us, I'll be happy to go and stand in your presence and give an account and look to you and listen to what you have to say to all of us on that day. I look forward to it with joy. I pray, Father, that you would bless Clint and Rocio's hearts, encourage them, strengthen them for the work that's ahead, and bless our hearts, Lord, to be faithful to fulfill that which we have committed to do in our service to you and through them. And I thank you in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.