The Principle of Giving | November 5, 2025

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.

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

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

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

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.

Romans 15 · chapter mention Romans 15 · chapter mention

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

Acts 13 · chapter mention

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

Romans 1 · chapter mention

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

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

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

2 Corinthians 8 · chapter mention

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

Acts 16 · chapter mention

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.

2 Corinthians 8:2

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.

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

[email protected]. 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.