on faith promise. Turn with me, 2 Corinthians chapter 8, and I want to preach to you for just a few moments the expediency, that's a word that God uses, the expedience of faith promise. Notice with me, 2 Corinthians chapter 8, we're going to read through it, I'm going to do some talking as we read through it, and then I'm going to give you a few points to just hopefully encourage us about our giving. Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia." Can I just stop there? Mountain Lake, I don't know if you realize it, but incredible grace has been bestowed upon you. What God has done through this ministry, and that means through you, is incredible. And you have a testimony all across this country, really all across this world, and people understand that God is at work here. That's God's grace. God's not at work here because you deserve God to be to work here. God's at work here because of His grace. Notice how that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. I read that verse and I get so excited when I read that verse because I have met so many people over the years who are waiting for the right time to start giving to missions. They're waiting for that ship to come in. They're waiting for the raise. They're waiting for no inflation. They're waiting for that time when the economy is just perfect. And can I just be honest with you? If you're waiting for that time before you give, You're probably not going to give when and if that ship ever comes in. And I want you to notice the testimony that God uses to point to, to teach us about giving to missions. Notice it, they were experiencing a great trial of affliction. You know what that means? That means they were being persecuted for being believers. They were believers in a Roman empire that taught that Caesar was a god. And these folks were not entering into that. They weren't taking their pinch of salt to give to Caesar. They weren't going to say, hail Caesar, and call him a god, because their god was Jehovah God, Jesus. There was one God. They worshipped Him. And they were persecuted because of that. I'm glad to say to this point we've not experienced that. But I want you to notice something else. Their deep poverty. They weren't giving to missions because they had so much money they didn't know what to do with it. They were giving to missions because they had experienced the grace of God and they felt an indebtedness and they wanted to share with the world what God had done in their life. They wanted the rest of the world to know that. And in the midst of their poverty, in the midst of being persecuted, they found a way to give. And by the way, they gave abounding in the riches of their liberality. That doesn't mean they had riches. It means they were generous with what they had. That's powerful Scripture, preacher. That's powerful. Alright. For to their power I bear record, and yea, beyond their power they were willing of themselves. You see, way before they were concerned about pocketbook issues, they were concerned about heart issues. And they had given their hearts to the Lord, and when our hearts belong to the Lord, so do our pocketbooks. Praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. Can I interpret that verse for you? They were saying, preacher, Paul, please take this money. Please take this gift. Please use it in a way that it can be a help to other people. Brother, if that spirit broke out in our churches, can you imagine what would happen? I'm fixing to get happy here in a minute, I'm telling you. My tire just evaporated. 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 in so much that we desired Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also. Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. And herein I give my advice, for this is expedient for you. who have begun before not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago. Let me stop. There were times when Paul said, I'd like to do something, but it's not expedient, therefore I don't, and maybe expedient, but I'm not gonna do it. On this occasion, Paul says, it's expedient and you ought to do it. Now I want you to understand that word expedient. Webster says that word expedient is, it's useful for effecting a desired result, it's suited to the circumstances of the occasion, advantageous, it's convenient, and Strong says it means it's pleasing to the Lord. What the Lord is saying in these verses is this, that when it comes to giving benevolent offerings, when it comes to giving grace offerings, it's an expedient thing to do. It's good for us to give them and it's pleasing to the Lord for us to give them. Now I want to be very clear as I come to this. When we're in chapter 8, we are talking about giving not in our tithe, but grace giving. Grace giving covers some bases. Grace giving is benevolent giving. It's giving to meet the need of someone else. The particular offering they're talking about right here is because there are other believers suffering worse than the believers in Macedonia. And so even though the believers in Macedonia are suffering, they're giving and saying, Paul, would you take this to those believers in Jerusalem who are suffering so bad they can't find food to eat? But then he switches in chapter 9, and he begins to talk not only about benevolent grace-giving to meet the needs of others physically, but he talks about benevolent grace-giving to meet the greatest need that any person on this globe has, and that is to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He talks about missions giving. You see, there's a couple of kinds of giving that you and I have to be aware of. Number one, there is the tithe. You say, well preacher, you preachers always talk about tithing, but we don't live under the law. We live under grace. We don't have to tithe anymore. You know, that's just, that's a false notion. I want you to understand that the tithe existed before the law. Abraham lived hundreds of years before there ever was a law given by the Lord, but Abraham knew in his heart it was right to tithe. Hey, let me add this. Not only did he know it was right to tithe, he knew it was right to tithe to the right place. And so Abraham, when he tithed, he didn't give to a pagan king, he gave to Melchizedek, the priest of God. Now a little bit later, Moses codified the tithe in the law. The tithe is 10%. And if we had time to read through Leviticus and Deuteronomy, we'd understand that the law is 10%. But I want you to understand we don't live under law. Jesus, when He went to the cross, the law was nailed to His cross. And thank God, we live under grace. But please understand this, that Jesus still commended the tithe. And so you and I as believers, we tithe to our storehouse. We tithe to the place where we are ministered to. We tithe to the place where people are won to the Lord and discipled and helped in our Jerusalem. Hey, it's wonderful to have the facilities that you have. Will you understand something? God built that building over there. God did that. That's the grace of God on your church. And God says, I'm going to give you that building, and this building, and those buses, and the places out there, and the radio station. I'm going to give those to you, and yes, you've got to support them, you've got to build them, but I'm going to give them to you so you can win your Jerusalem to the Lord. Hey, Oakland is needy. And that's what your tithe does. But can I remind you of what God told us yesterday? Both. In your Jerusalem, but both in your Jerusalem and Judea, and in Samaria, and to the outermost part of the earth. So God says your tithe takes care of the home base, but your grace says, let me give so a whole world can be reached. And he says, hey, that's expedient for you to be a part of. It's expedient for your church to be a part of. You know what a blessing to a church is? It's a blessing when a church has an outward look instead of an inward look. You know what I'm sick to death of? Am I allowed to be sick to death of something? Okay, here's what I'm sick to death of. I'm sick to death of charlatan evangelists who say they need $60 million for an airplane so they can fly around the United States. That's kingdom building, but it ain't God's kingdom. I'm weary to death of people who are churches that will be all about the facilities they build, but never about the souls in their community. They're building kingdoms. They're building their kingdom, not God's kingdom. The quickest way I know for a church to lose the blessing of the hand of God is to become just focused on ourselves. And God says, listen, I want you to build the base so that you can reach your Jerusalem. That's the tithe, but by grace, I want you to have a vision to reach the world and that's grace giving. The church at Jerusalem, can I remind you of something? The church of Jerusalem received that commission, but they did not obey that commission. And they decided through their prejudice that it was only them that could be saved and only them that the gospel was for. And they never reached out beyond the walls of Jerusalem. You know what God did? God sent persecution. And that persecution got them out from outside of those cities. It is when a church obeys the commission that a church can truly be blessed. It's expedient. It's convenient. It's pleasing. It's effective when a church will begin to obey and reach out to the world. But wait a minute. I'm not just here to talk to the church. I'm here to talk to me and you. And would you understand something? When I preach a sermon, I don't preach sermons to scold the people that I'm preaching to. Let me give you a little insight into the sermons I preach. God gave them to me for me. And I figure you're as bad as me, so I'll just tell you what God told me, alright? That's my sermons. And I want to tell you, it's important as a member of my church that I participate in the plan of my church. When God gave that command, Go ye therefore, that was an imperative. Here's all that means. It wasn't a suggestion, it was a command. It was a command of the Lord. Church, go into all the world. Make disciples. Baptize disciples. Teach disciples. And when God said that to the church, He said it for the church to get it done. And if the church is going to get it done, it comes down to the members of the church saying yes to the command for the church. I want to be obedient to the Lord in my life. Please don't misunderstand me. There is a thousand miles of work to be done yet in my heart. I'll be honest with you, I've been saved for 49 years. I got past the easy stuff. I got the easy stuff out, okay? I'm still working on the hard stuff. The stuff way down in my heart. But I want my life to be a testimony for the Lord. I want to be obedient to the Lord. And listen, that's not just in how I outwardly live my life. It's not just in what Bible I carry. He was spouting off all those anacronyms. I was going to get up and say, okay, we're going to engage in the KJV. I want to carry the right Bible. I want to live a sanctified holy life. But sometimes we count that just on the outside. We count that just on not going to the wrong places, being in the right places, looking right, doing right. But hey, it comes down to giving right. And we don't like talking about that so much. But when God commanded the church to go, the individual of that church has to say, then God commanded me to give. And one of the radical acts of obedience is for me to say, if that's expedient for my church and expedient for me, then I am to enter into that program if I'm going to be obedient. That's hard preaching right there. But it's true. And one of the areas I've got to be obedient if I'm going to please my Lord is to be radically obedient to His command to enter into giving by grace so that others can hear the Gospel. Here's number two. Not only am I to be radically obedient in that, I am also to give God the opportunity to see Him work in my life. Go over to chapter 9 for just a moment. Notice what it says. Notice in verse 8, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. Some people say to me, hey preacher, where's faith promise in the Bible? 2 Corinthians 9, verse 8. God is able. Do you believe that tonight? God is able. Let me drop another Greek word on you. I'm a Greek scholar. That word able is the word dunami. I'm told, I'm not smart enough to know, but I'm told that word dunami means great power. And I'm told that we brought that word straight from the Greek to the English and we just made dunami dynamite. because it illustrated great power. I don't know if that's true or not, but I believe it might be. Mr. Strong says that word able simply means this, that it's possible. In other words, with God, it's possible. Hey, how about this way? With God, ain't nothing impossible. God is able. What is He able to do? He is able to make all grace abound toward you and toward me. For what purpose? That I will always have all sufficiency in all things so that I can abound to every good work. God is able, you believe that? to make me to abound, do you believe that? For what purpose? So that I can be sufficient to give, to abound to every good work. It's faith promise missions conference time. God is able to make me able to give to missions. I used to love our missions conferences. At Heritage, we always had military families like the gas trucks coming in. And they were new. They'd come into our church, and we'd be having a missions conference, preaching on missions. And sometimes that is the first time they ever heard that. And they'd be challenged to give the missions. by faith, they would give the missions, and they were a little bit fearful. It's a big deal. You give, and you make that promise, and you give. And I loved it. Preacher, about a month or two or three months later, I'd see them coming to me. They'd be coming to me saying, hey, preacher. I'd say, what? They'd say, you're not going to believe in what? I'm not going to believe. God gave me the ability to give what I promised Him I'd give. I'd say, no way. God did that! Yeah! Yeah, God said He would do that! And yet we're shocked when God says He'll do what He did. You say, how does He do that? Hey, sometimes He'll increase our supply. I got a raise, preacher, I wasn't expecting it. I got a check, I wasn't expecting it. Hey, sometimes God will rebuke the devourer for us and allow things to last longer than we ever dreamed they would. Hey, sometimes God will just reach down and give us grace to do without. You say, well, that's not how this is supposed to work. Well, if you think that, then you've bought into this healthy, wealthy gospel thing. Because sometimes doing without is a lesson we need in our lives. I'm just saying that God is able. God is able to make us sufficient to give by grace so that others can hear the gospel. Here's number three. It establishes right priorities in the life of a believer. Drop back a verse in chapter 9. And notice it 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. The Bible tells us that a believer is to purpose in his heart. I study that and I think to myself, what's that mean? to purpose in my heart, okay? If I read it like I understand that word, I just say, well, okay, I'm determined to, I have purpose to, here's what I'm gonna do. But I wanna tell you, study that word, and you know what you'll see the Bible's teaching us is? The Bible is teaching us, examine your priorities. Understand that word purpose in your heart as prioritizing your life. There was a day that Jesus said, hey, fellas, let's go on down by the temple because I want to observe how people give. That ought to get our attention. You mean Jesus watches? Yeah, Jesus watches. And they go down there, and there are rich men that come by giving extravagant amounts. They're at the women's temple, and it's, or courtyard, court, and it's benevolent giving, it's grace giving, and they put it into big metal boxes with fluted entrances, and men would bring coins there, and they would tinkle down into the box, and they would be so many coins, and people would go, ooh, ah, look at how much he gave. And then a little widow came along. And she gave two mites. Two mites is nothing. It didn't even barely make a sound when it fell in. And Jesus says to his disciples, hey guys, she gave more than all the rest. And the disciples were shocked and they said, Jesus, did you just look and see? How could she have given more than all the rest? And his answer was, all the rest gave out of their abundance. But she hath given all she hath. You know what this verse is saying to us when it says, purpose in our heart, examine our priorities? It's saying, don't give out of your abundance. You know what those men did? They gave large amounts that were convenient to give. They gave large amounts that were very comfortable to give. It wasn't a challenge to them. It wasn't difficult. They had figured it out. They knew they wouldn't miss it. Hey, one of the things as believers, let me challenge you, we never come to the point where we step over the line of faith. We're so tempted to just figure out what we can give and never know that we missed. Oh, we might have to do without a little something, but it won't be a challenge. We can still do everything we want to do. How about stepping over the line and saying, God, I'm not going to live my life timidly this year. I'm going to trust you. I'm going to give sacrificially. I'm soon to be 73 years old. I've been on a diet 72 years and six months. It has not worked yet, OK? It's going to kick in any minute. And every once in a while, I'll say to my wife, I'll say, honey, I don't need anything. And I just don't lose weight. I don't eat anything. And she said to me once, she said, you know, I've read where if you'll write down everything you eat, then you can figure out why you may or may not be losing weight. And I said, well, that sounds good. I'll do that. I did that three days. And I said, well, it ain't no wonder I'm not losing any weight. I'm eating everything in sight. And you know what I had done? I had told myself something was true that wasn't true. See, I had told myself that I couldn't eat any less, I wasn't eating much, and then when I wrote it down, I said, goodnight! I ate the whole city! And that's why God says, purpose in your heart. See, we tell ourselves, well, I couldn't give another dime. We tell ourselves, man, I'm really living by faith, when in truth, what we're doing is more accurately living out of our abundance. Sometimes it's a real good exercise, and I think it's real important for each of you to have a missions conference every year. And that's why we take this card and we say, pray over this thing. But too many people will just have a figure in their mind I can do this. God says, think about it. Pray about it. Examine your priorities. I use this illustration. I've probably used it here. I love coffee. I know it's sin. Just put up with me. I love coffee, all right? And I even go to that wicked place, Starbucks. And if you're going to Dunkin' Donuts, you like liquid but not real coffee, all right? I got a fight going now. Two ladies walked in there and bought coffee in front of me one time and two drinks came to $13.15. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not against that. I'm not preaching against that. Don't hear me saying that. But I wonder if I'd have said to those ladies, and I did not, but I wonder if I'd have said to those ladies, hey, why don't you give the missions if they wouldn't have said back to me, oh, there's no way we could. There's no way we could give the missions. I mean, we live in Washington, DC. It's so expensive to live here in DC, and there's no way. You know what, if you did that twice a week and you cut that out of your life, it's $25 a week. You ever think about what that would be over a year? You say, you're telling us we ought not to drink? No. I'm telling you, look at your priorities. Because just like I looked at what I thought I was eating as versus what I was, and sometimes if we just take a look at what we're spending as versus what we think we're spending, and where we're spending it, Maybe there's just a way we can say, I can do without that. So that somebody somewhere can hear a message about Jesus saving them and they can enter into what I've entered into and have the joy that I have. One last one and I'm done. Go back over there to chapter 8 and look at verse 8. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. You know, we're the richest people on planet earth. You say, oh, you're going to tell us because we're Americans. No, I'm going to tell you because we're saved. We're the richest people on planet earth. Good night. We have the grace of God, the blessing of God on our lives. And He made Himself poor so that we might be rich. And I'm just saying to you that Paul says it, not me, Paul says it, that if we sincerely love the Lord, we'll follow in His steps in that. And that when we're willing to put others first, when we're willing to do without something so that they can hear the Gospel, that's as close to the heart of Jesus as we're ever going to get. And it proves the sincerity of our love. I'm a very verbal person. Have you noticed that? Have you noticed me and Brother Gastrock We talk. And that's okay. My wife says God created silence for me to fill with talking. And I love my wife, and I mean it. I love my wife, and I find it easy to express that to her. Honey, I love you. Honey, I love you. Nancy, I love you. Oh, honey, I love you. I say it 25 times a day. And every once in a while, she's a quiet lady. Every once in a while, just under her breath or just loud enough for me to hear when I say, honey, I love you, she'll say, do the dishes. Yeah. You know what she's saying? She's saying, talk can be cheap. If you're sincere, why don't you manifest that some way? Here's all I'm saying and I'm done. That's where the Missions Conference brings us. It brings us down to where this is an act of compassion. This is an act of grace where we can say, I'm rich in the grace of God, and God is able to make me to abound. And maybe I just ought to look. Maybe there's some way I can reprioritize some things. Maybe I can shuffle this or do without this. Hey, kids, we're not going to McDonald's once. We're going to give that to the Lord. And maybe just in that act, of sacrifice. I can step over the line and say, God, I just want to give this so that others can have what I have. And you know what God does? Have you ever tried to out give God? God says, oh, no, you don't. You're not going to sacrifice. No, sir, I'm going to give back to you. I'm going to sacrifice and I'm going to give that that God... Oh, no, you're not. You're not going to out give me. Now, I'm being silly, but I'm telling you it's true. You can't out give God. And when God sees sacrifice, He says, well, that's expedient. When God sees it, He says, I love that. And I want you to know I'm going to bless you. I'm not asking you to be foolish. I'm not asking you to give it all. I'm saying let's take a look at what our priorities are, and I'll guarantee you we can find a way to give out of what God has made us to abound in so that others, by grace, and hear the truth of Jesus Christ. That's missions giving. Would you pray with me? Here's the invitation, folks. I'd love to see a bunch of you carry your faith promise card down to this altar. You say, I can't get down to that altar. I understand that. Pray where you are. Get that faith promise card out and pray over it. Say, oh God, help me to prioritize. And by the way, when God does lead you to make a sacrifice, don't say, well kids, we could have gone to McDonald's, but people need to hear the gospel. No, give it cheerfully. Not grudgingly. I'd love to see you pray over that card. Well, I don't have to make an act of it. I know you don't. I know you don't. It might encourage someone else too. God, I want to trust you. And God, by faith, I want to give. for the sole purpose, not because I'm required to. I give my tithe. I wanna give because I want others to experience the grace that I have experienced and they need to hear the truth to do it. That's it. Father, would you work in our hearts? Would you help us to prioritize? Would you help us, Lord, to be willing to do without so that others may know the truth like we know? And then may we have that adventure of walking with you and seeing you work to make us abound so that we can be sufficient to give. You just can't out give the Lord. Help us, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.