Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
It is good to be here. Let me start out by saying I
won't be offended if you think I have an accent, but I do not
have an accent. You're the one that has the
accent. You know what I'm saying?
Because if you were to say Marcia, that would be right, but
not Masha. You know what I'm saying?
So anyhow, let's, if you have your Bibles, let's go to 2nd
Corinthians 8. Let's quit messing around here
and let's get right to the Scripture.
Do y'all stand for the reading of God's Word?
All right, let's go ahead and do that.
Let's stand and the way it the reason that the that we stand at
Berea Baptist Church in Springfield as they know it'll
be a long time before they ever get to stand again.
They they realize that so this is their last opportunity to
stretch their legs over the next three nights.
Lord willing, I want to preach from 2nd Corinthians 8 and
Chapter 9. And there's a section in there
that I won't preach, but I'll preach mostly of these verses
through Second Corinthians chapter 8 and Chapter 9.
I hope that it won't be a little bit longer tonight, but it may
be because I I have to lay the groundwork of what is taking
place in these two chapters and what Paul is doing and what he
is preaching to the church at Corinth.
Of course, we know that he was really there in Corinth longer
than anybody anywhere else that he had ever been on his journey
coming into Europe through Philippi and then Berea
Thessalonica. And eventually he makes his way
to Corinth. It's a very, you know, carnal
place. It's a very large place.
And but, but, but you could understand that Paul was
probably had a little bit of trepidation when it came to
Corinth, But the Lord came to him and said, don't, don't be
concerned about the, I mean, it's almost like what he said to
Jeremiah, don't be concerned about what's taking place here
and what you see, there's a people here.
In other words, God wanted to know that no matter where you're
at, there's a church to be established in this area.
Now years have passed and now he is writing back to the church.
His second book, his 2nd letter. We know the first one was a
pretty much a rebuking letter because of the, some things that
were going on in the church. Second Corinthians is more of a
revival. And let's talk about an offering
that needs to be taken up. So keep that in mind and we'll
look at this tonight. Notice in verse one of Second
Corinthians 8. Moreover, brethren, we do you to
wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia.
Now the churches of Macedonia that's going to be like Philippi
Berea Thessalonica. How that in a great trial of
affliction, the abundance of their joy and deep and their
deep poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality.
What a verse. That verse is almost like one of
those verses in the Bible. You're like, is that a
contradiction? And it's not.
But you see words like trial, affliction, joy, deep poverty,
riches, and liberality. Some of those.
Words don't seem to go together, but yet they do in this text.
Then he says, For to their power I bear record.
Yeah. And beyond their power they were
willing of themselves, praying us with much entreaty that we
would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the
ministering to the Saints. 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, 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, so he goes.
These are the things going on in the church.
As you abound in these things in the church, faith, utterance,
knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that
you abound in this grace also. Just so you'll know that he's
talking about an offering. He's talking about the money
that they were taking up. Then he said this, I speak not
by commandment, but by the occasion of the fore awareness
of others. This is interesting, he says to
them, to prove the sincerity of your love.
Father, we pray tonight as we gather around the Word of God
during this first night of the mission conference.
I pray that you would help me to deliver the message in such a
way that it would be understandable.
That it would. Go into the hearts of each
person that listens. And I pray Lord, after the next
several nights will have a clear understanding about the
principle of faith, promise, mission giving, what it does for
a church, what it does for an individual, and what it can even
do for a family. But mostly as a corporate body
of believers. I pray, Lord, that we might
understand the necessity, the importance, the conviction that
we should have concerning the offering that goes beyond the
locality in which we're at tonight.
And of course, that would be here in Easton, MA.
And as we send money around the world and see missions all
around the world, may we understand the implication as we
are involved in what is called the Great Commission.
Help me, Lord, to present the message tonight in a way that
would be understandable. In Jesus name, Amen.
You may be seated. Thank you so much for standing
tonight and the and the and the reading of God's word.
I already messed that up. That won't take long sometimes
when you come to a mission conference.
In fact, missions is probably my favorite meeting of the year and
and mission. The reason is, is missions has
changed me and my wife. I mean, we go back to 1984 when
we were saved serving in the Air Force and we had just.
Finally figured out about tithing.
We had just like, I think the Bible tells us that we're
supposed to tithe. And it was about nine months
later that we we were involved in the first mission conference
that I'd ever even heard about. I grew up in what I would
consider a very liberal Southern Baptist church in the in the
north of Chattanooga, TN. Never got saved until I was in
the military. And the first time I heard about
faith, promise, mission giving and the principle of it, it
astounded me. It was just, it was too much for
me. And so every since 1984, me and
my wife have been involved in giving to missions through our
church. But when somebody hears about
faith, promise, mission giving, here's what a lot of times
people want. Well, can you?
Give me a verse. Can you give me a chapter and a
verse where the Bible says fill out a card and give so much
every week? Where's that?
At Where's that verse at? Well, it's it's in the Book of
Hesitations, chapter 12. No, it's not.
It's not in the Bible per SE like that where you get a
chapter and verse about what we do.
But I could tell you this if I was going to talk about tithing.
The Bible does make that very clear.
And I can give you several verses in the Word of God where
the Bible tells us about where how we're to tithe through our
church and that 10% of our gross income really doesn't even
belong. To us, it belongs to the Lord
through our church and that's how that's what helps us take
care of the preacher and the building and all the things that
goes along with a a church. But but a a chapter and verse
you cannot find. But here's what you can find.
And I think that I will be able to prove that from the
Scriptures tonight. And that is this.
There is a principle of faith, promise, mission giving.
Given in the word of God and it's actually found here in
second Corinthians chapter 8 and 9 Now here's the here's the
principle. One of the principles, there's
several principles. You know when you have a a
principle, a precept, A conviction, I mean the
principle. One of the principles that is
found here is the principle of giving outside of the locality
of which you're. At meaning your ties are to go
to the church here and that takes care of the church here
but. When you talk about missions,
you're talking about just like you saw tonight and we'll see
over the next few nights and and the missionaries that are around
the world that is beyond your locality.
Where does that come from? Well, it comes from the Apostle
Paul as he goes to Corinth and the other churches of Aki and
then also in Macedonia, and he tells them about a problem
that's going on and that they need to help in this problem.
And we'll look at that. So, so one of the principles is
by faith. One of the principles is the
grace of God. You'll see that principle found,
but there's that principle of giving outside of our locality.
Now some people, they just like, wow.
Well, it doesn't benefit us. It doesn't benefit our church if
I give the missions. No, it benefits the Kingdom of
God. And here's what you need to
understand. The Kingdom of God is bigger
than anyone church, but every church needs to be involved in
the Kingdom of God. And so the question before us
tonight on this first night of the mission conference is, can
we see a principle of faith, promise, mission, mission
giving? So let's look at this tonight
and just these first 8 verses, and then also look at a little
bit at chapter #9 and then look at the background of what is
taking place here. And then we'll see if we can
answer that question by the time we get to the end of the sermon.
I know that'll be a while, but we will get there.
What's the background to where we find ourself when Paul is
writing to church here in Corinth and talking about the
Macedonian churches and how that the grace of God had been
bestowed upon them? What?
What is that all about? Well, here's what happens.
So the apostle Paul, a year before, had come to the church
at Corinth and he had preached a message to them about giving to
the poor Saints in Jerusalem. I'll show you that.
But I've always thought that let me ask you this question.
So if if wouldn't you like to know what the message was he
preached? I mean, there'll be times when
the Bible is silent, maybe about a message that was spoken or
then. Later on maybe you can take
scriptures and put it with scriptures and because the best
commentary of the Bible is the Bible because scriptures will
always interpret scriptures. And if there's something that we
don't know from the scriptures, it's because God doesn't want us
to know, but he wants us to know so much.
So anyhow, I, I was, I remember studying through this and
thinking, wow, what was the message that Paul preached to
them? Because if you go to Chapter 9,
let's do this really quick, just a couple of verses.
I want you to see that a year earlier, before he's.
Writing Second Corinthians, Second Corinthians and including
chapter 8-9. He comes to the church at
Corinth. Now we'll look at verse #1 he
says for As for as touching the ministering to the Saints.
So again, he's talking about this offering that they're going
to be taking up. For the poor Saints in
Jerusalem, there's a famine going on down there.
And they're they're, they're in, they're in trouble.
They need, they need some help. And Paul comes to the church at
Corinth and says we are going to get involved in the offering to
send it to the church at Jerusalem, now the church at
Jerusalem. Just so you know, that was the
first church that was started by Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ started the first church and now you have this
church is in trouble as far as they have a need.
And so, so Paul goes for his touching the ministering to the
Saints. It is superfluous for me to
write to you. And again he says this, for I
know the forewordness of your mind, for which I boast of you
to them of Macedonia that Achaia was ready a year ago.
Look at this. And your zeal hath provoked very
many. So you get to got to got to get
a hold of this. This is so important for the
next three nights. So the apostle Paul, he comes to
the church at Corinth and he preaches the message that we're
going to look at in a minute because I'm going to show you
what the message was. He preached.
He preaches this message to him. And what does those two verses
say? It says they got excited.
They said, yes, we want to be involved.
We want to, we we want to be involved in this offering.
So yes, so they got excited. And now, a year later, it's come
to his attention and he's finding out as he's writing the
letter. That even though they got
excited a year ago and they were all ready to go, they had not
performed the doing of what they said.
Now Paul is afraid. This is all through St.
Corinthians 8:00 and 9:00. You can read it, but Paul
becomes possibly. With a situation that he could
be embarrassed by showing up at Corinth because, you know, they
didn't have ATM cards, they didn't have a, you know, like a
Western Union or being able to Apple.
Pay in that amazing that you can get on your Apple iPhone and you
can send money to a grandson who's overseas.
Like I've got a grandson overseas right now in the
military. But my wife said, oh, for for
his birthday, we can just Apple Pay him and he's in a different
country. I mean, America, it's a great
place. You know what I'm saying?
You got to love America. But they didn't have that.
They didn't have Apple Pay. They didn't have a bank
accounts. So what they would have to do
with an offering like this, if they were going to go to these
churches and they were going to take up these offerings, they
would have to send messengers, they would have to take
emissaries from each. Of the churches and then they
would collectively take the money to to Jerusalem.
And that's what's going that's what's going to take place.
Titus was one of the fellas. There's some people from
Macedonia, there's people from Philippi, there's people from
Berea, there's people from AKI and they're going to be able to
take this offering. But here's the problem.
Paul's getting ready. To show up at Corinth and he's
heard that they have not laid aside like in first Corinthians
16 it says lay aside each week the offering that you're going
to take up there's a principle right there that we give faith
promise weekly we. Lay it aside what God's laid on
our heart. I know some people get paid
monthly or what everybody is, but Paul said every week, take
up an offering every week. Hey man, we're Baptists.
We take up an offering every. Time we have charge.
So he said, lay this offering aside.
And he said a year ago you were excited, you were all juiced up
about it. Now listen, there's something.
Listen, you got to be careful not to get stirred up in your
emotions and then don't do what you what God's told you to do.
Got to be very careful about that.
So they they were, they were all excited.
They'd gotten excited about the offering, but now they had not
followed through in their offering.
But here's the deal. Paul left Corinth and he goes
down to Macedonia and he preaches the same message to the
churches of Macedonia that he did to Corinth.
And they were nowhere near the affluent.
They had the affluency. The Macedonian churches were
poor in, in light of the, of the Ki churches, including Corinth.
Now you can do a deep dive study and there's a lot of reasons why
Macedonia was under, was under oppression and they they were
poor than up at Corinth. There's a lot of reasons for
that. I'm not going to go into that,
but just just you have to take my word for it unless you want
to study it yourself. AKI was well off, Macedonia was
not well off. And you'll see another principle
here. It doesn't matter how much you
have, it's where your heart is. And the heart of Macedonia was a
large heart and the heart of of a Corinth was a stingy heart.
So the question becomes, well, what was it that he preached?
Because the the Macedonian churches were not only willing
to give, but they had actually participated in the offering and
that Paul was receiving by the Gentile churches.
Now here's the other thing line of like a background.
So when you get to 2nd Corinthians chapter 8, notice
that Paul is using the Macedonian churches to try to
convict the Corinth church. They're like, hey, so he's
turning the tables. Really.
He's turning the tables on him. He says, let me tell you about
the grace of God that's been bestowed on the churches of
Macedonia. You see what?
You see what Paul's doing. So Paul will turn the table, so
to speak, on the Church of Corinth in our text tonight.
But before we can preach the text, which I'd like to do that
hopefully I want you to see the message that Paul preached to
the church at Corinth and to the church at Macedonia.
And then I want you to show you the implications.
So you got to go to Romans chapter 15, Romans chapter 15.
It's turn left is what I was going to say just before.
So. Well, if I can find it in the
New Testament, yeah, you got there, brother.
Abel's Romans chapter. 15 And I want you to look at verse #28
Now here, this is interesting. Paul wrote Romans, I believe he
wrote Romans for from Corinth. But Paul wrote to the Roman
church, the believers in Rome, and he is writing to them
because he's going to come. He wants to come there.
Now you'll know that Paul got to Rome, but not exactly the way
he'd anticipated. He never, I don't think anybody
would ever anticipate that they would make it to Rome strapped
to a Roman soldier. I don't think he he understood
that, but especially when he's writing he, he just says I want
to be there. So look what he says to them.
I want you to go at verse #24 He says whenever I take my journey
into Spain, I will come to see you.
I will come to you for I trust to see you in my journey and to
be brought on my way thither word by you.
If first I be somewhat filled with your company, but now I go
to Jerusalem to minister unto the Saints.
Look up here don't read know one more verse 25.
He says I want to come to you. I want to I want fruit that it
may have bear to your account. But he said first I've got to go
to Jerusalem. I'm going to when I when he
sends this letter off. He said I'm headed to Jerusalem
because I'm going to minister to the Saints.
What does that mean? That means he's taking the
offering. The offering is with him.
He's collected. He's in Corinth, There's a
collection of the offering. There's people from Macedonia at
Ki, they're with Paul. They're going to go to Jerusalem
to take this offering that they've taken up, that they've
collected. Now notice verse 26, and you can
see the tie in here to 2nd Corinthians 8 and 9 as we look
at the Macedonian churches and the churches of Akai, which
would have been a Corinth. It says this, for it hath
pleased them of Macedonia and Akai to make a certain
contribution for the poor Saints which are at Jerusalem.
All makes sense, right? But notice what it says in verse
27. This is the message that he
preached. It hath pleased them verily.
And debtors they are, For if the Gentiles look at this, for if
the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual
things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal
things. Now time out, let me explain
this. So what Paul is saying here,
he's saying the Church of Jerusalem, the churches of
Macedonia and the churches of Akai, they owe a debt to the
church at Jerusalem. Why do they owe a debt?
Because it was the church at Jerusalem.
That was eventually how they got saved and their churches were
established. Let me give you an example.
So Barnabas leaves Jerusalem. You can read this in the book of
Acts. He goes to, he goes to Antioch,
all right, And Antioch, basically Barnabas is the pastor
of the church at Antioch. He decides to go down to Tarsus
and to get a man named Saul who everybody's scared of because
the man's been killing Christians, but yet he's been
saved by the grace of God on the road to Damascus.
He's had to be let down a wall, down a basket of a wall just to
escape those in the city who wanted him dead.
And he really dealt with that all of his life.
So he's down there. He doesn't know maybe what his
next step is. And Barnabas comes down there
and says, why don't you come with me to Antioch and let me
show you a Gentile church? Because God's going to get him
ready to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
Somebody say Amen. So he takes him and he becomes
his assistant pastor. And the Bible said they
ministered there. And then the Holy Ghost in Acts
chapter 13 says, I want the pastor and the assistant pastor
to go on the mission to go on, on the to be missionaries.
And they go to the area of what we would call Galatia.
Galatia. Galatia is not a city.
Galatia is a region. And there were several churches
that were started there. Well, then he comes back.
Paul and Barnabas come back and they give a report to the church
at Antioch and they're all fired up and they're like, man, God is
good. The gospel is spreading.
It's even going to the Gentiles. Gentiles are being saved.
Churches are being established. And then God said, OK, I want
you to do it again. And so Paul and Barnabas say
they and by the way, you'll see a shift in Acts where Paul
really be kind of comes the leader and he says to Barnabas,
let's go visit our brethren again and let's see how they do.
Let's see how things are going and let's go check it out.
And then and then Paul and Barnabas goes and let's take
John, Mark and and Paul said no, that ain't going to happen.
That got that kid, he he bailed out on us on the first journey.
And you know what, Paul? I'm more like Paul than
Barnabas. We need, we need Barnabas.
You know what I'm saying? But I'm like, we ain't got time
for that, you know what I'm saying?
Ain't nobody got time to wet nurse this kid who should have
been grown up by now. But we know.
Praise God. Paul would later on say bring
John Mark. He's profitable of either
mystery. Praise God.
Even old men can get God's grace in their lives.
So Amen, brother. They can, You can learn.
You can. God can work and crust away that
old heart, and I'm very thankful for that too.
I'm not what I used to be, but I, I, I'm not what I, I'm what I
used to. I'm not what I should be, but
I'm not what I used to be. And God's still working on me.
That's my favorite song. God's still working on me.
And they had a Baptist fight. Can you imagine 2 disagreements
between two of the great men in the Bible, Barnabas and Paul?
And so you know what Paul did? Said Well, I tell you what, you
take John Martin, you go One Direction, I'll take Silas and
we'll go another direction. And I don't have time for it
because I'm already running out of time.
But here's the point. They end up going to Macedonia.
They got the Macedonian call. They would try to go one way.
They couldn't go to Asia. They couldn't go to Bethenia.
Holy Ghost wouldn't let them. So here's here's the deal.
They had to travel about 600 miles to eventually get to fill
the pot. And that's where the gospel
entered into Europe. That's where the gospel entered
into Europe. And a lady named Lydia got
saved, the woman of purple and she got saved.
And she said, if I've been found worthy, why don't you stay in
the house here with me? And it was from there they went
to Thessalonica, they went to Berea, they went to eventually
the Corinth. And you know what Paul is saying
here he goes, listen, you owe a debt to the church at Jerusalem
because and listen, if you look at Romans chapter 1, the Bible
says we owe a debt. Our debt that we owe is to the
gospel. That's what that what's Paul
said, you owe a debt to these people who brought you the
gospel of Lord Jesus Christ. That's the message that Paul
preached to chorus. They got all stirred up about
it, but they got their emotions stirred up, but they hadn't
followed through. He goes down to Macedonia and he
preaches the same message. But then he puts a caveat on it.
He said, he said, this is the message you owe a debt to the
church at Jerusalem. But let me add this to you.
The churches of the churches of Corinth, they're all fired up
about it and they go, well, if they're fired up about it, we
want to be fired up about it. Now the difference between
Corinth and Macedonia, like Philippi and Philippi was a
great giving church. I mean, read Philippians chapter
4. My God shall supply all your
need according to His. Glory in Christ Jesus, don't
time out, don't use that verse unless you're a giver to
missions. Don't use it because you're just
a charismatic, not a Baptist. If you do that because.
You got to be, you got to be a giver.
You got to be a giver to be able to quote that verse.
Well, I'm not. Don't worry, I'll offend
somebody for the nights. Over.
I'm not trying to. So the point is, is his this,
that's the message Paul preached.
Then he says this, it's like this.
We are all debtors of the gospel.
And the way that we give back to that debt is by giving back to
allow the gospel to go all around the roar.
And really, every year we have a mission conference and you know
what? We'll have another one next year
and the year after that, because missions never.
Stops. Therefore, knowing what is going
on, listen to this and I'm almost to the message.
Aren't you excited? Therefore, knowing what is going
on here, we find a great text to preach about the principle of
faith. Promised mission giving.
So while there may not be a verse, there is definitely a
principle of giving. So when we move into the text,
the problem is a year earlier the church had made this promise
in giving, but they had not follow through.
The other problem was Paul had told other churches about the
excitement of Corinth and it had made such an impact on them.
But thou they're not performing the doing of it.
Now let me tell you something about faith promise.
It's changed my life. It's changed my life, my wife's
life, it's changed our family's life.
I've, I've been a pastor of only two churches in the last 35
years. Both of those I've only been a
member of three churches my whole life.
The church I got saved in, the church I pastor now, and the
church that I pastored in Knob Noster just outside of Whiteman
Air Force Base. And I believe God has blessed
the churches that I've pastored. For one, one of the reasons is
because they've been faith promised mission giving
churches. Faith promise is not a pledge.
Faith promise is a promise. And there's something that's
different. It's not something that is
required to pay. Tithing is required by God to
pay. And you will never be blessed by
God ever, until you learn to tithe.
But then when you go beyond the tithe, now you're given an
offering. Some people think that tithing
is an offering. No, tithing is an obligation.
When you give beyond your tithe, that's an offering.
So what's going on in our text is Paul is turning the tables on
Corinth by what the churches of Macedonia have been doing.
So the mission of the church, listen to this, is missions and
faith promised mission conference, and giving is the
business meeting of the church. So this is a business meeting
for the next couple of days. So let me ask you this.
We're not going to look so much tonight at Corinth.
We're going to look at the churches of Macedonia and how
did they give? That's the message tonight with
the background in mind. How did they give?
Well, first of all, I want you to look in verse one and two and
I'll show you how they gave. Moreover, brethren, we you we do
you to wit of the grace of God bestowed in the churches of
Macedonia. How that in a great trial of
affliction. The we're back in second
Corinthians chapter 8, verse one and two.
This is our message. How that in a great trial of
affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty
abounded into the riches of their liberality.
All right, the first way they gave was in poverty.
That don't make no sense. Well, a lot of things don't make
any sense when it comes to what God tells us to do.
I mean, God tells us to tie, that if you go to work tomorrow
and you talk to somebody about tie, then they'll think you're a
nut case. They'll go.
I mean, I mean, the government's going to get their part, Amen.
Why doesn't God get his part? Render unto Caesar the things
that are Caesar's. But render unto God the things
that are God's. We always make sure.
Uncle Sampa. Yeah.
Whether they don't, they'll come and get me and put me in jail.
Well, what do you think God's going to do to you?
You better be more afraid of God than you are.
You better have greater fear of God than you do the government.
Now you better pay your. Taxes.
Let me tell you that. Right now I'm going to tell you.
But look at this, this is, this is unbelievable.
They're giving, they're giving there.
There was poverty involved in their giving.
Notice that little word wit. Moreover, brethren, we do you to
wit, the word wit means an intelligent understanding of
something. You know what Paul is saying.
I want you to have an intelligent understanding of the
grace of God that's been bestowed on the churches of
Macedonia. Oh, really?
The grace of God. You want us to understand the
grace of God that's been bestowed on the churches of
Macedonia? Yeah.
That in a great trial of affliction, abundance of their
joy, deep poverty abound in the riches or liberality.
I'm telling you, there is not a commentary in the world that
could that can wrap their head around that verse.
So Paul here is saying to the church at Corinth, I want you to
intelligently understand the grace of God that's been
bestowed on these churches because these churches gave
under deep affliction. And according to verse 2, he
still blessed them even in their trial of affliction.
I don't have time to go back to Acts chapter 16, but it's a
great story on how the gospel got into Europe.
It's it wasn't an easy task. If you go back to 2nd
Corinthians 7, Second Corinthians 75, go back there,
just the verse before that. Notice what Paul said.
He's given a little bit of a what I'd call a testimony here
in Second Corinthians 75, for when we were coming to
Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on
every side without were fightings within.
Were fierce. Nevertheless, God that comforted
those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of
Titus. And I'm just telling you it was
not an easy task. Nothing Paul did was easy.
Church planning is not easy. It's not for the faint of heart.
I can tell you that. We went to Knob Noster in 1989.
I was 29 years. Old We basically started all
over a church plant right outside of right outside of
Whiteman Air Force Base. And it was no easy task, But
I'll tell you what, what was a blessing about it?
At least we had a building. It was a.
Small building held about 100 people.
We didn't have no people, but we had a building.
So I just told my wife, I said, well, God's just going to have
to help us fill up the building. And God did, God did a great,
God did a great work. That's not the message tonight.
But the point that I'm making, it's not easy.
I I worked a job for FedEx for almost 10 years while I was in
Bible college when I started the church.
I love FedEx because they saved my family from poverty.
They fed my family, but it was hard work, hard work building a
church, hard work going out, doing all the things that need
to be done. Well.
It was not easy for Paul to go into Macedonia because he had
the fear of unknown territory. They were entering into an
unknown territory. I hate going somewhere that I
don't have any idea what is the terrain is.
I like to know my surroundings. We flew into Boston.
I've never been to Boston. We came to church last night,
gave me a car and said go to this address.
We're out there and I'm like, I never been here before.
I don't know where I'm at. I don't know what I'm doing.
And you guys got the longest ramps in the world.
You go to a ramp on Missouri, you're on it for 2 seconds.
You're on, you're on I-44 here. It takes you 12 days to get
around the circle unknown territory.
I didn't I'm not familiar. I drove around all day today and
I go I'm feeling better about now I can kind of see where I'm
going. Let me show you what Philippians
chapter. Let me let me tell you about the
church in Macedonia called Philippi in chapter 4 verse 11,
Paul said this to the church that got started.
Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in
whatsoever state I am there with to be content.
I know both how to be a bazed. I know how to abound everywhere
in all things. I'm instructed listen to this.
This is what Paul said both how to to be full and to be hungry.
We don't even really know what that's like both to abound and
to suffer need. And then he says this, I can do
all things through Christ, which strengthens me.
But notwithstanding, he said to the church at Macedonia, this
kind of church, they were, excuse me, you have well done
that. You did communicate with my
affliction. When he uses the word
communicate, he's talking about helping financially, his need
time in a time. He said, You Philippians know
also that in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed from
Macedonia, no church communicated with me as
concerning giving and receiving. But ye only.
For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my
necessity, not because I desire to give, but I desire that fruit
may abound to your account. But I have all in the bound.
I'm full, having received of Opaphrodites the things which
were sent from you. Look at this, an odor of a sweet
smell, a sacrifice well pleasing to Paul, no well pleasing to
God. But my God shall supply all your
need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
In other words, the churches of Macedonia, even though they were
poor, even though they were in great affliction, they gave to
Paul time and time again. Paul goes to them and says, hey,
we need to take up an offering. They said we're in.
We. The idea is, well, we're excited
that Corinth is in, but we're in.
Don't use these verses again unless you're giving to see the
gospel. They gave out of the abundance
of their joy. Look at verse number 2nd
Corinthians 610. Second Corinthians 610 Bible S
says as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making
many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing all things.
Giving by faith means this. Listen to this.
Giving by faith means giving in spite of your circumstances,
because the circumstances that were in Macedonia at this time
of history where they were very poor and God knows your
circumstances and I'm not, I would never talk about giving by
foolishness. Somebody comes and says I make
$100 a week, I'm going to give $90.00 to missions that that's
foolish. And it is foolish to think like
that. But giving by faith will
sometimes stretch you a little bit if you give by faith.
Now can I give? You my interpretation of Second
Corinthians 8/2. Would that be allowed?
I'm going to do it anyway, so you might as well say yes, all
right. This is Jeff Abel's commentary
of Second Corinthians chapter 8, verse 2.
This is how I interpret it. Deep affliction plus deep
poverty plus the grace of God equals no excuse for not giving.
Giving by faith means giving in spite of your circumstances,
because the circumstances they were in was not good.
And can I say this, God knows your circumstances.
And the churches of Macedonia in the most difficult of
circumstances. This is another amazing thing.
They had joy even though they didn't have a lot of money.
You can have joy without money and they didn't have a lot of
money. They still had a burden for
other people. They still wanted to see people
saved, and especially in seeing the gospel go all over the
world. I've been a pastor for 35 years,
almost 36 years. Listen, I've seen everything
people think it's all about them, and it's not about them.
It's about the gospel. It's about the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm AI want to give, I want to
be a giver. I want to help people in their
need. We're always taking up our
Wednesday night offerings. A lot of times will be for
special needs for people. There might be a great need.
We've had several in the last some family.
And I'll say something like this.
I'll say something like that, folks, we got a need and we need
to raise $5000. And then if anybody needs to
come and talk to me, I'll be glad to talk to you.
And there's always that one. Sounds like they got to come
talk to me. And you know what I do?
I talk to them. I said, this is what it, but
I've been there long enough that the church pretty much will
they'll they'll trust me. I mean, we got history together.
And so if I say there's a need, there's a need.
I remember one time I shouldn't tell the story, but I'm going to
anyway. So I did this.
There was a special need. I said we need to take up this
offering. And sometimes it'll take us a
couple of weeks, take it up. Sometimes we might take it up in
a month. But I keep getting up over every
Wednesday night and saying, well, we ain't met the need yet.
We still need some more money, so why not?
One night I did this. This lady came up to me and she
said, oh, preacher, could you help me like you've helped
others? I said, well, and that's my
desire. What's going on?
And she told me her son couldn't make his car payment.
And I'm like, well, he's a pretty big old boy.
He should be able to get a job and pay his own.
You know what I'm saying? These guys that you know, these
guys that stand on the side of the side of the hill on the kids
say you need money. I I usually roll down in the
window. And say, hey, McDonald's.
Is hiring over there on that? Oh, you don't have much
compassion. Not not for a well bodied young
man who should be out working, getting a JOB.
So I said, but I told her I'd pray about it because I think
that's what a preacher should do.
So I did. I prayed about it.
And then it came to me one day while I was sitting there
praying about it. So I went into the financial
secretary's office and I wrote the name down of the person and
I. Put it on her desk, I said.
Can. You give me the giving.
Record. Because I don't want to know
what people give at the church. I don't.
You know why, brother, I'd be mad all the time.
Only person that gives as a financial secretary, and the
only thing I've really ever said to her is, listen, if somebody's
always been a tie, they're always been a giver and all of a
sudden they quit, I need to know about it because there's a
problem. Other than that, I don't want to
know because I don't want to go around not liking people.
I already have enough trouble as it is.
So I laid that piece of paper down on that the desk and said,
can you give me the given records for the last year for
this family? And so then I went back to my
office and I started walking. I was sitting there in my office
and actually I had my back to the door, which I don't normally
do, but I was working on something.
And you ever been sitting somewhere and you feel like
somebody's sitting there staring at you?
So I'm there and I reeled around in my chair and she's standing
there because she can't wait to see my face when she does what
she's about to do. And so she lays the piece of
paper down and she slides it over to me and I pick it up and
open it up. And it said $10.
And I said $10 a week, $10 a month.
She goes no preacher, $10.00 for the whole year.
Interesting. So you know what I did next?
I made a phone call to this lady who asked for help.
And I got on the phone and I said hey.
And I've mentioned her name. I don't want to say it out loud
because somebody might figure out who it is.
And I said this is Pastor Abel's.
I want to talk to you about the need that you said you need it.
She was all preacher. Thank you so much.
I knew you'd come through and help us.
I said, what time out, Time out. I can't help you.
She goes, what do you mean you can't help me?
I said, well, you ask a question, why can't I help you?
I'll ask a question based on the question that you asked.
And my question is, how much money have you given to the
church over the last year? And she goes, Why?
What does that have to do with anything?
I said, well, the preacher needs to be paid.
You know, my family would like to eat.
We got these nice padded pews that we set in and we pay the
electric bill to turn on the lights.
And you like to sit in there and you like to be like.
Warm in the winter and cool in the summer, I said you're a God
robber, and if I gave you money and you're robbing God.
I said that'd be like me giving a drunk a drink and I'm not
going to do that. So you need to get right with
God. Well, I never heard a preacher
talk like that. I said, well you have now
sister, I love you and the Lord. I hope it all works out for you.
Hey man, it's good and I don't have to say it out loud, you
know if you're given or not. Here's the second thing.
Now listen, let me say it this way.
Even though they gave out a deep poverty.
They still gave I'm going to tell you in 2010, I went to
India and me and Brother Carl Boenster went together and we
went to the see the ministry of Brother Sam Thomas.
And brother Sam Thomas is a dear friend of mine and we went to
Bible college together and I was 24.
I was 25 when I started Bible college because I got out of the
Air Force. Sam was about 17 years old.
So we, he, he's about 8 or 9 years younger than me and I met
Brother Sam in a class and I, I immediately my spirit just, I
love this guy. I just loved him.
He's just amazing and saw his burden for India, saw his burden
anyhow, just so every year he would say to me, oh, I'm sorry,
let me say this. So when I begin, I told my wife,
if I ever get to pastor of church, which the jury was out
when you're in Bible college, I said, if I ever get to pastor of
church, my first missionary is going to be Sam Thomas in India.
And sure enough, when I became pastor, he was still in Bible
college. I took on my first missionary as
a pastor to a guy that was still in Bible college because I knew
he was going to go back to India and do a work for God.
And I, I had him come up, stayed in my house.
We had him in our first mission commerce that I had in 1990.
We supported him and I still support him today.
So every year he'd call me, and he always called me Doctor
Abel's like I'm as far from a doctor as you can get.
Doctor Abels, Brother Abels, I need, I need you to come to
India, to me. Don't be offended, all right?
That's the way the guy. Talks.
I can't help it. You think I can help?
The way I'm talking from my southern accent, so it's OK.
I do it to him. All the time.
I Hey, brother. Doctor Abels.
How you doing? I'm like, hello.
How do you know my name? How do you know who this is?
Me. He can.
Because because you got the worst Indian accent of anybody
I've ever heard in my life. You can't have a Tennessee
accent and speak like a Indian. So every year.
You need to come to you need to come here.
You need to come preach our No, I ain't going to India, brother.
You know what I'm saying? I might be from the South, but
I'm not going to India. And every year my wife, who is
the resident Holy Spirit of my house.
Jeff, if you don't go to India, you're going to be sorry about
it. Well, I'll just die.
Sorry, most people think I'm sorry anyway, but you know God
got a hold of my heart and I said you know I'm going to go to
India. Let me tell you something, we
are rich in this country. I saw people walk 7 and 8 miles
to go to church and sit and Brother Sam would say to me,
Brother Abel's, you got to preach for at least an hour.
Now, Norm, that ain't a problem for me.
He goes, you got to preach for at least an hour, hour and a
half if you can do it. I got it in me.
He goes, because these people walk 7-8 miles, they'll sing for
an hour and they won't preach them for an hour and a half.
My heart was broken. I, I got on my knees before God
and I said, God, if you'll let me go to India, I will leave
Bream Baptist Church as a pastor.
I'll go to India. I mean, because we're, we're
spoiled in America, whether you realize it or not.
We, we really are. I mean, we, we, we're just
blessed, but God has blessed us for a reason.
So anyhow, I came back from that.
I've never, I've never been the same, but I've never seen
poverty like that. I've never seen it on that
level. I've never seen the mass of
humanity like that. So when I came back from India,
the first thing that I I thought about was that might be about
the way the churches of Macedonia were, if we could put
it in that context versus America, and that'd be kind of
like the churches of Corinth and see those people, they give and,
and, and they just, I mean, I, I, I got one day I was, I was, I
was the me and brother booster. We're the only it's 120°
outside. They've got us in an air
conditioned room and them kids and them boys at that Bible
college sleep on mats and all in one big room.
There was 75 of them in one room.
They slept there. And I went out there one day and
there was these two boys standing there.
When they saw me, they like jumped to attention.
I'm like, no, no, no, no. I'm you know, I'm just just a
regular guy, man. I'm just.
And I said, I asked them their name.
One had a Hindu name, one had a Christian name.
So in their broken English in my non Speaking of India.
Because I don't speak India except like this and that don't
count. I began to learn that through
them they could speak broken English and I said one had a
Hindu name, one had a Christian name and they were able to
communicate with me that the one that had the Christian name,
like Daniel, their family had gotten saved before this young
man was born. This other boy over here that
had a Hindu name, his parents got saved after he was born.
And he was able to communicate to me that when his mom and dad
got saved, as soon as they got baptized, the village burnt
their house down and threw him out of the village.
And you know what this young man said?
He's like 18 years old, 19 years old.
He said, I'm going to go back to that village and I'm going to
start a church. And I said, what?
And so I go back up into my room because they were out there
washing their shirts. They were, they were washing
their shirts in a, in a sink, like a sink.
And they and I went back in and I said, brother Sam, I just met
two guys and he told yeah, that's blah, blah, blah.
I said, what do they have to what are, what are they doing?
What he goes, well, they only have one white shirt and they
wash it every day. So then go to church.
I, I had five white shirts with me on the trip.
I took all of except for one. And I said here, get past these
out. I went home and told the church
we sent all of those boys. We sent 150.
We bought 2 shirts for every one of them, which was 150 shirts
and 75 pairs of pants. You know how many white shirts I
have in my closet, brother? 11 because I counted them before
I came. My wife said the other day, do
you know you got 11 white shirts?
I said, I know I'm going to add two more, so I have 13 because a
man of God can't have too many white shirts.
Is everybody getting this? They gave in their poverty.
You know what those people in India do?
They give. Brother Sam told me they, and
you know what they really do? Here's what they really do.
They give of themselves. And that what it says here.
Notice the next thing in the verse.
It says verse 3. Now we're moving along.
We're already up to verse #3. For I bear for there to their
power, I bear record and beyond their power, they were willing
of themselves. So in other words, there's power
in their giving. Now not only was there poverty
in their giving, but there was power in their giving.
Meaning they were the type of people who said, Lord, what
would you? Have me to do, What would you
have me to give? That's why we say to people,
Hey, ask the Lord what he will, what he will have you to give.
That's a good question. Lord, what would you have me to
do? The kind of giving comes from
the heart. It's called a cheerful giving.
As mentioned in Chapter 9, the church in Macedonia, they didn't
need no prompting reminding, they just gave.
The church in Corinth, they need to be reminded their giving was
by faith. It wasn't out of pressure.
And here's what it means when it says they gave out beyond their
power. They gave out of God's power,
meaning not they didn't give by their ability.
They gave by God's ability because you know, I've had the
power to do this. I have the power to do that,
meaning I have the ability to do this or I have the ability to do
that. And and they gave beyond their
ability that's given by faith and there the word power.
Here means the faculty of doing or performing.
It means moving or producing a change.
It's the idea of ability, of strength.
The exertion of power proceeds from the will.
And the key to the Christian life is to do the will of God.
And it is the will of God that you be involved in the principle
called faith, promise, mission giving.
We know very clearly from the Scripture that God is not
willing that any should perish, but that all would come to
repentance. And therefore God wants people
to be saved. And one of the ways we do that
is by sending missionaries all over the world.
And you know what, America has become a mission field once
again. And then I want you to look at
number verse #4 praying us with much entreaty that we would
receive the gift and take upon us the fellowship of the
ministering to the Saints. Now the way I like to look at
this verse, I get the. Idea here that Paul was almost
embarrassed to ask them to give because he knew their situation.
I remember back in 19, I have to think about this.
We were building a building in Knob Noster and we built a very
nice building. By the glory of God, we, we,
you, if you get in construction, you'll never even believe what I
tell you. So we built that building for
$35 a square foot because we did all the work we did and we got
the materials and all that sort of stuff.
So we were building this building.
We're in the middle of this building project.
I, me and my son and another man, we worked every day from
daylight to dark. I was never so glad when
daylight saving time came. Every time daylight saving times
come, like it changed last week. I get a little PTSD.
I'm like, because I was so glad because we didn't have to work
at 9:00 at night. We could be done at 5:00 because
the contractor wanted to quit when it got dark.
I was. Like, oh man, I never.
I never thought 530 Darkness would be so welcomed in my life.
And we had been working on that building for about 9 months.
And we came to our Faith Promise mission conference.
And I'm in my office and I'm saying things like this now.
Lord, you know, if our people are giving, I mean, they're
giving beyond their ability. They're giving all this money.
We're just, they're giving. They're giving.
Maybe we should, maybe we should
not be too hard on them this year about Faith Promise.
And the Holy Ghost smoked my heart, took me to my knees and
said, no. You need to understand that
giving beyond your locality is as important now as it was when
you started building this building.
So I repented because I do that a lot.
I got right with God. We had a mission conference, and
I want you, I want you to, I want you to listen to this.
It was the largest mission conference giving we'd ever had.
You know why? Because they gave beyond their
ability. They gave by God's ability.
And that's what the churches of Macedonia, that's why they are
our example tonight and in verse #4 and, and, and you almost get
the idea that Paul felt bad he was asking these people to give
because of their situation. But what did they say?
They petitioned Paul to receive the gift on their behalf.
They said, we want to be a part of paying the debt.
Only when a person understands they don't own themselves can
you give by the grace of God. How is it listen this?
Yeah. How is it that we are saved by
the grace of God through faith, but we can't give by the grace
of God through faith, praying us with much entreaty that you we
would receive the gift. And then in verse 5 through 7,
notice this. And this they did, Paul is
telling the church at corn this they did not as we had hoped,
but first gave of their own selves of the Lord and to us by
the will of God. This they did this they did they
gave they gave their money, they gave their person.
He tells the Church of Corinth in verse 11, look at this.
This will be for tomorrow night. Now perform the doing of it that
as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a
performance also how to that which you have.
We'll look at that tomorrow night.
But the point is, is they perform the doing of giving.
Even though they were in poverty, even though they were
in affliction, they gave beyond their ability.
And that's why in verse 7, Paul turns his attention back to
Corinth. Look at this.
He turns his attention back to Corinth and he says.
Hey. Therefore, as you abound in
everything, as you abound in your faith and your utterance
and your knowledge and your diligence, and in your love to
us, hey, make sure that you abound in this grace also.
He calls the word. He calls the giving grace.
Make sure that you do what you're supposed to do in this
giving. Isn't it amazing that when your
heart is right, then your giving can be right?
Sometimes in a Christian's life, the last thing to get saved is
they're giving. But you know what he says at the
end of this and I'm almost done, verse 8, he says.
Give look at this. He says I'm not speaking by
commandment. In other words, there's not a
commandment. To give an offering, there is a
commandment to give to faith promise.
But he says I'm speaking not by commandment.
Then I like to turn around and go, well, the Holy Spirit of God
wrote this and then he says this, if you want, here's here's
the reason that you should give beyond your locality.
This is the reason you should give beyond your locality to
missionaries all over the world and going to Bridgeport, CT or
wherever it might be in New Hampshire or Eastern
Massachusetts. This is why we gave to this
word. This is why we support this
work. Listen to this.
We want to What's the last words of chapter verse 8?
Prove the sincerity of your love.
You want to prove the sincerity of your love, Then give in this
offering that's beyond your own locality.
Hey, church, I'm telling you, listen, I'm now I'm talking to
the Corinth. I'm talking to Corinth, but I'm
also talking to you and to me. Hey, church, I'm telling you
about the poor churches who gave what about you?
There's no commandment. To give faith promise, except to
prove the sincerity of your love for souls around the world.
Pay your debt. Pay your debt.
Everybody's got debts, I mean. Everybody has debts, but when I
said that somebody come out and I don't have no debts, You don't
really. You don't have the debt of
paying your light bill every month.
What do y'all call it up here? We call it the light bill
utilities. That's a debt.
You know what happens if you don't pay that debt?
Click, they turn the. Lights off, you have a debt now.
Most people don't own their house.
I don't own my house. I've got people in our church
that own my house, own their house.
But I pay my house payment ever. I pay my taxes.
Don't tell me how much y'all pay in taxes.
I don't want to hear it. We all have debts and and and
Macedonia goes no, no, no, no, no.
We, we, we want to prove the sincerity of our love.
We want to pay our debt. We want to give and and that's
what that's what he's saying to them tonight.
So giving to faith promise will prove the sincerity of your Lord
to your sincerity of your love towards mission and
missionaries. Now in our church, we, we
support about 85 missionaries. I've always wanted to get to
100, but for some reason we just can't get there because somebody
will come off the field or something like that or what
happened. So about 85 missionaries.
And, and so every, every time we get 30 letters.
And that happens probably every two or three weeks because you
have 80 missionaries. We want our missionaries to send
us a letter at least every other month, which I don't think is
too much ask. And so, so we get these letters
and I have an intern that that puts these letters together in a
booklet. And then we put that booklet out
on the foyer back there. And what they don't know is, is
I'm, I'm standing out there and I'll, I'll stand up and say,
Hey, we got a new booklet tonight.
And I, I'll say, hey, grab you a new booklet.
And then I go back there to shake hands and I watch to see
who gets the booklets, because those that really give, they
want to read the letters and we know what's going on.
So giving by giving to faith, promise will prove the sincerity
of your love towards mission and missionaries.
I want you to look at Chapter 9, verse 2, for I know the
forwardness of your mind. Corinth, that word forwardness
means I know the cheerfulness and the readiness and the
promptness and the eagerness you had to give.
Unfortunately, they got all excited, but now they were not
giving. So the churches of Macedonia
understood that they were debtors and they for giving by
grace what an example these churches were to us tonight.
Now I'm going to. Close with this story and I
appreciate it. I won't go this long tomorrow
night or Friday night, I promise I might.
OK, I don't want to lie, do I? So when my son was 10 years old
and my son, he is what you would call an entrepreneur.
And he's been that way since he was 10.
So I was working at FedEx and I came home from FedEx one day and
and so my son asked me a question.
But so back in September, we used when I was in Nomnos.
We had our mission conference in September.
Y'all have yours in November at church at Berean.
We have ours in April. So this is September.
And back in those days, my kids got $3 a week for we believe in
the work program. We don't believe in, we don't,
we don't give allowance. I don't believe in allowances.
I believe in the work program. Allowance is free.
Work program means you got to feed the dog, make your bed,
take out the trash and you get them little check marks.
You know, my wife, my wife was a big check marker thing, you
know, on the TV, on this refrigerator.
If you do take out trash, check if you do this.
Well, if they had all the checks, hey, they got $3 at the
end of the week. And so we were in the mission
conference in September and we come to the end of the week and
my wife said, hey, have you talked to the kids about giving?
And I said, man, no, we've been busy.
I said, I tell you what, you talk to Heather, I'll talk to
BJ. That's my son Brian.
So I go talk to my son. And I said, hey, you've been
listening this week. Yes, Sir.
You think you'd like to get involved in Faith Promise this
year? Yes, Sir.
That's OK. What what do you think about
doing? He said $2.70 and I'm liking,
well, your ties, $0.30. See, they know that even though
they're homeschooled, they knew that.
So you give $0.30? I said.
Bubba, that's all your money. What are you?
What are you doing? He goes well, Dad, you feed.
ME3 meals a day. You take care of me.
Is it OK if I give all my money to missions?
And I'm trying to rebuke my son. In the spirit of God, he goes,
what are you doing? Leave him alone.
Yes, Sir. I'm sorry, Lord.
So he fills out to make faith prom every week.
He'd do his work. Even $3.
He'd take it. Put an envelope, $0.30 mission,
$0.30 tied to $2.70 mission. Now don't that rip your heart
out. It didn't mean I'm like, but you
got to hold them to it. As far as you know.
Hey, we stopped somewhere to get a coke.
You ain't got no money. Not my, my, my problem.
He didn't care. So now we'll Fast forward
September, October, November, December, January, February.
Five months later, I come home from FedEx one day and he's
sitting in the he's sitting on the, he's sitting on the couch
there. And he said dad.
He said do. You care if I get a paper route
job? He's 10 years old.
What paper route job? There's a paper route in our
area that's come open. And I was wanting to know if
you'd take me over to the, over to Warrensburg And, and I, I got
an, I got an interview, kids at 10 years old.
He's got an interview. Oh, I love this kid as far as
that kind of stuff. Anyhow, so I get in the car and
I take him over the whole time I'm driving over there I go, I'm
the FedEx driver for Warrensburg.
Just so you'll know this, I know every business in Swarnsburg.
I'm thinking, all I got to do is walk into this place and show my
face and they'll go, oh, that's the FedEx guy.
That's his son. They'll give him a job.
So I rolled up there to that and I said, you want me to go in
with? He goes, no, dad, I got this.
So now I start sweating, you know, I got sweat balls coming
down my arms. He goes in there and you see,
you see his little head. He's only 10 years old.
And you see him talk to the person.
They lift the thing up. You see him shoot back there and
I'm like, oh, Lord help him. This is his first time out into
the wilderness. He comes back and he's got bags
and rubber bands and he. Throws them in the back seat,
slides in, shuts the door and goes.
I got the job. I said OK.
Then I gave him the dad's speech all the way home, 10 miles away.
Now you know me and your mom ain't going to help you roll in
papers. So no, you know what he is.
He hired his sister, who didn't. Give as much to faith promise.
So that she got to get a job and that those papers would come in
every day at 2:00. He'd roll those things, put them
in them things and then he'd go out on his bicycle and he'd be
gone for about an hour and a half, two hours.
And he delivered them papers. And 1st month he got $75.00 in
his paycheck. Son, I didn't have $75.
And every week he'd take his, he'd take that allowance that he
got, he'd put $2.70 and 30 cents.
And then on the side, if he got, when he got paid, he was $7.50
on his tithe out of his new job. He was loaded and he had that
job. And then December comes and he
comes home and he's got he's, he got in his pocket and he brings
out these wads of 20s and $50.00 bills and $10 bills and $1.00.
Bills and $5 bills. And he throws it on the table.
I'm saying, son, where did you get that money?
He said, they're giving it to me.
He said they're calling it a Christmas.
They come, it's Christmas time. They're giving me Christmas
bonus. I said, are you serious?
He goes, yeah, You know, about a month ago.
Dad, I don't know if I told you this, he said.
But I started looking at the people that I was giving papers
to, he said. There's some older people out
there. They're like 40-50 years old.
Yeah, they're old, he said. So instead of just throwing it
in the yard, he goes, I started putting it on their front porch,
he said. So when I drop it on the front
porch, they've been opening up the door and saying, so we're so
we can't. We've never had a paper guy like
you putting on front porch here, $20.00 for Christmas.
Merry Christmas. He was loaded, Holy Spirit of
God said. You think I could take care of
those who give in a way they don't even understand?
I think so. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.