Faith Promise Giving Flipbook

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 49 before the people. The printing of weekly prayer bulletin with excerpts from the letters would be very informative. 4. The Sunday bulletin should include faith promise giving totals for the week. If the offerings are down, then asking the church to pray, be positive. It is far better to rejoice over what comes in, rather than complain about what does not come in! 5. When missionaries visit your church give them significant recognition. Do not be afraid to give the missionary time during the morning worship to give a testimony or even preach. The pastor that promotes missionaries will promote himself before the people. The church will match his respect for the missionaries. 6. A Mid-Year Booster Conference will help the church when the excitement has begun to decline. Be sure that this Booster Conference does not upstage your annual conference. One Sunday or a Saturday and Sunday should be adequate. Your speaker must be well qualified in conducting a conference of this nature and understand specifically what needs to be done to boost the church. 7. Use commitment cards again. There may be some who have come into the church since the last conference. They will need to be given opportunity to participate. Some members may have gotten slack in their giving and their faith. Give them an opportunity to begin again. Give them another card to make their commitment over again. However, do not change the goal for the coming year. You will find that having a mid-year booster conference will help you reach the original goal. 8. The money that is given for world missions needs to be spent as soon as possible. The people will want to see this money spent and sent! Having special projects for the missionary will increase giving excitement. The more business meetings held to give away mission’s money the more excitement in the church. 9. A Christmas Missionary Offering. This special offering could be promoted as early as October and emphasized each week until Christmas. The church will respond better to this offering if there is a special project that everyone can identify with. This

50 Faith Promise Giving offering could also be added to the total faith promise goal of the church if so desired. PLANNING THE BUDGET FOR THE COMING YEAR Budgeting the faith promise will be essential for good stewardship. It is important to not be over-zealous. In the event that giving declines it is good that a percentage system of giving to the missionaries and missionary projects be established. This way the church only gives what it has received. Otherwise giving could become a burdensome thing if funds have to be taken from the general fund to support fixed amounts for the missionaries. There are different budgets that could be established. Most churches set aside 10% of the faith promise giving for next year’s Missions Conference expenses. This enables the conference to be self-supporting. In addition, the budget could be set up as follows: 10 % for next year’s conference 50 % for missionary support 30 % for special missionary projects 10 % for leadership missions’ trips Should we discontinue our regular missions giving? Absolutely not! The faith promise is over and above all other giving. If the church has already set aside a certain percent of its monthly budget for missions keep on with the existing program. Then faith promise becomes an added blessing to all that is already being done. The local church may have designated a certain percentage of their total general budget to missions (maybe 10% or more), but the individual member has not personally participated in giving to missions by faith. Faith Promise giving engages the individual members in a personal way in addition to the church general budget. POOR CHURCHES ARE NOT EXEMPT FROM FAITH PROMISE Frequently churches in developing countries report that they are too poor to give. Missionary pastors in foreign countries often contact us asking for financial support, especially for their salaries. We encourage the pastors to teach their churches to give. Their

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 51 common answer is, “But our people are too poor to give.” Our response is, “How long will you keep your people poor!” We are not being insensitive to their need, however, we know all too well, that if you “feed a man a fish you will feed him the rest of his life, but if you teach a man to fish, he will feed himself.” The Macedonian churches were “in deep poverty”, the Bible says. Yet they gave out of their “deep poverty” an “abundance”. Poor churches are able to give by faith, in fact, they may give even more than churches who have a lot of resources. When a poor church discovers the abundance of God’s supply through faith, it revolutionizes them forever. Many international churches in developing countries are practicing faith promise giving. We have Filipino churches that have done faith promise for many years. One such pastor is Brother Abner Tuazon says: “They (Brothers Leon Jasper and Harold Williams) taught this (faith promise giving) in early 1980’s, when began to teach and practice the principle. We learn to depend upon God’s promises. Since 1998 the church has been supporting me financially, morally, so much more than without any foreign support. He continues, “Faith Promise principle has been very effective not only in raising funds for the church ministries but also in spiritual aspects. It is an amazing thing to see the results of trusting the Lord when stepping out on faith. We have been “Why should anyone supporting missions, co- sponsoring 6 missionaries, hear the Gospel twice, and helping 3 bible before everyone has seminaries, also building heard it once?” projects in Philippine Mission Development, and ― Oswald J. Smith conducting medical and dental missions’ outreaches.”



Chapter 8 Hosting the Missionary and His Family Philippians 4:15-20 (v16 “…ye sent once and again unto my necessity.”) Your Missionary Guest is Probably on Deputation: The Purpose of Deputation is to … • Secure financial support • Solicit prayer support • Promote world-wide missions • Edify the believers at the churches • Recruit other missionaries “Deputation is an unknown period of time for calling, writing, and visiting an unknown number of pastors one does not know, driving on unfamiliar roads in unbelievable conditions at unearthly hours, staying with people you have never met, and eating food you do not recognize, in order to convince unfamiliar churches to support a missionary that they do not know to go to a field where he has not been, to do a work he has not done in a language he does not know, with funds he does not have.” (Author Unknown) Hosting the Missionary/Missionary Family (all are missionaries: missionary wife, missionary children) 1. The Missionary only:

54 Faith Promise Giving a. It is easier hosting a missionary without his family, but a missionary can be gone on deputation for a month or more at a time. He and his family need each other. b. It can be very difficult for families to be separated from one another: financially and emotionally. 2. The Missionary and His Family: a. Most missionaries, if they can afford it, or have a strong sending/sponsoring church that supplements their expenses, will travel with their families. b. This often requires extra preparations on the part of the Host church, unless the missionary family is able to travel in a fifth wheel etc. Be Aware of the Needs of the Missionary/family 1. Some missionaries have fifth wheels, RV’s, or Campers for travel. a. They will need to know of a place where they can park their motor home securely. b. Church parking lots are a possibility, but are they secure, do they have ample power for electrical hookups, etc. Local camping sites. Be willing to help them with this expense if the church is able. 2. Transportation: If a missionary is traveling in an RV or Motor Home, he may need a way to transport himself and his family to and from meetings. a. The host family may want to provide an extra vehicle for their use. b. The host church may want to get a rental car. c. Missionary can carpool with members. 3. Accommodations for the Missionary Family: a. Staying in someone’s (church member) home might be burdensome, but there are Christian families who would delight in hosting a missionary. Lifelong friendships can develop which is good for churches and missionaries.

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 55 b. The Pastor’s home is the most common place that a missionary will find himself. This depends on the pastor’s size of home and size of his own family. Although, many pastors will invite a missionary into his home no matter what his home is like. It is very beneficial for the pastor and the missionary to get to know each other, especially for the purpose of getting to know the missionary in order to recommend financial support in the future. c. Be aware of their dietary needs—if preparing food for them in home. Just ask, “is there anything you can’t eat?” Preparing simple meals will often be more appreciated by the missionary because he has been sitting for hours in his vehicle without any exercise. Missionaries tend to gain unwanted weight during deputation. d. Expect disruptions to your daily routine. But look forward to learning a lot about your missionary guests and their vision for their future mission ministry. e. Missionaries and their families are often exhausted upon their arrival to your church or home, give them some space to relax. f. Alternative Accommodations: 1. Youth Camps can often house a missionary and his family, depending on the time of year. 2. Some church member may have a cabin, or an unused mother-in-law suite, or a garage apartment. 3. Some members may have a 5th wheel that can be used for this purpose as well and have it parked at some convenient location. 4. It is even possible for some churches to make available an unused Sunday School class as a temporary place of housing the missionary. (The above suggestions for hosting a missionary family are for the purpose of helping pastors and churches to take on a traveling missionary without having to rent a hotel room and taking him out to eat for every meal. It can be a collective effort on the part

56 Faith Promise Giving of the church to be a blessing for missions, and to be blessed by missionaries and their love for Christ and souls.) The Missionary in your Church Services: There are a few things you can do to help a missionary share effectively with your church and satisfy some curiosities in the course of their presentation. 1. If possible, offer more than one setting for the missionary to speak. Each opportunity at a church has its advantages and disadvantages. A Sunday morning message will reach more people but is less intimate and detailed. A Wednesday night visit with a small group may allow a missionary to customize their presentation, which can be more compelling but then will necessarily leave out aspects of their work. 2. Give your missionary guest some direction. Sometimes when my family received an invitation to speak, we’re simply told, “Tell us about your life on mission.” That’s a really broad question, and we can share about our life on mission a million different ways. When you invite a missionary to speak, give them information about your church’s general knowledge of international missions and different worldviews. For instance, if your church is already familiar with the majority religion in a missionary’s country, then the missionary knows it’s not necessary to spend a lot of time explaining that religion. Or if your church is new in their missions’ involvement, then a missionary can spend more time on their overarching goal as opposed to the nitty-gritty details of their work. During Services Let your congregation know it’s OK to ask questions of the Missionary. Question, “Describe how God led you to a life overseas.” God is actively calling his people to mission at home and abroad. When we share what God used in our life to move us

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 57 overseas for the gospel, the Holy Spirit may remind or illuminate for others that God has them on a similar path. Question, “How can we specifically pray for you and those you work with?” A missionary will likely share general ways you can pray for their work, but most will shy away from sharing the tough stuff. When people ask this question with genuine interest, we know they care about a deeper partnership and will follow through in their commitment to pray. Question, “What are some current obstacles to your work that could have a practical solution?” Sometimes missionaries need extra manpower, resources, or funds. Maybe they are raising money for a motorbike so their national partner can take the gospel to rural villages. Perhaps they are trying to get a business platform off the ground, and they could use advice from an accountant. Maybe they are trying to reach medical students, and an in-country visit from a US physician would help create inroads with the local medical community. Whatever their obstacles, there’s a good chance people in your church have the resources to provide a solution—and, in turn, give your church the chance to get involved in missions. After the Visit After a missionary visit, your church can continue to learn from, partner with, and serve those missionaries in myriad ways. Though it’s best to ask each missionary how you can best serve and keep in touch with them, here are a few potential options for following up with the missionary later. 1. Most missionaries send periodic newsletters or prayer calendars. Ask if you can join their mailing list. 2. If you desire a deeper level of involvement, ask if it would be appropriate to text or call them occasionally once they are back on the field. There are plenty of secure phone apps that enable a missionary to share exciting news or important prayer requests securely.

58 Faith Promise Giving 3. Consider partnering long-term by sending short-term missions teams or even long-term missionaries out of your congregation. Foreign missionaries usually spend a few months back in the US after three or more years overseas. If you are interested in hosting a missionary, you can invite them to speak at your church. Together, you can open an opportunity for God to stir your church’s affections for his global mission. Ask questions of and encourage these missionaries while they are at your church. And don’t forget the potluck, or international dinner. (Taken from, “Some Practical Tips for Hosting a Missionary Speaker at Your Church,” By Rachel Cohen edited by David P Smith). Hosting a Missionary Event or Missions Conference? Or you would like to do your first Missions Conference? Please contact Bro. David P Smith for a copy of “How to Have A Great Missions Conference”, for more ideas on Hosting a Missionary Event, or a Faith Promise Missions Conference. The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time. ― Carl F. H. Henry

Chapter 9 Faith Promise Missions Conference Westwood Missionary Baptist Church, Winter Haven, Florida (March 21-25, 1994) Speaker Dr. Harold Williams, Co-founder Macedonian Missionary Service A Four Part Series on Faith Promise Giving Printed and transcribed from audio tapes with permission Introduction to Dr. Harold Williams Brother Williams, at this writing is still somewhat active in ministry. He has a long history of promoting and teaching on Faith Promise Missions giving, as well as teaching Missions 101, at Emmaus Baptist College, formerly known as Florida Baptist Schools, Brandon, Florida. He has inspired the lives of many young men and women to pursue foreign missions. His students are all over the world doing the work of establishing indigenous Baptist Churches. He is a fantastic teacher of the Word of God and has been broadcasting to the world on Trans World Radio for many years. Brother Williams has been a world traveler leading by way of example, teaching foreign students indigenous church principles. He is loved and admired by all who know him and have been his students. Dr. Williams co-founded, with Leon Jasper, Macedonian Missionary Service in 1973;

60 Faith Promise Giving a ministry to serve Missionaries as they served God on the foreign field and at home. The messages that follow have been transcribed closely to the manner in which he preached and taught during the conference at Westwood Missionary Baptist Church. The Heartbeat of God is Missions… You know why? Because missions is a New Testament Church obeying the Great Commission to go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. God is extremely interested in saving all who will believe. But how shall they believe on him? They’ve not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? You see, that’s the job of a New Testament Church. It is to reach out in all directions, north, south, east and west, and obey the Great Commission. Now, you know, you don’t have to pray a lot about obeying plain commands. Did you ever think about that? I hear people all the time talking about praying about obeying God. Now listen, you don’t have to pray about obeying God. Just suppose that you were in boot camp and your drill sergeant barked out an order. If you’ve not been there, you’ve seen movies, how that works. And that drill sergeant will be yelling his command and standing at attention; and that drill sergeant says, I can’t hear you! And he yells a little louder, and he says, I still can’t hear you! Some of you remember that? Suppose that trainee, when he’s given a command said; let me pray about that for a while. Just how many laps do you think he would have to run, and push-ups he would do, and just how long do you think he would stay in jail? And here we are, with the plain command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And we just sit around, saying, let’s pray about it. You don’t have to pray about obeying plain commands; the only thing to do is just do it. Have you heard that phrase anywhere lately? Just do it! The fact is that we need to get busy and do it. Now, really, this is not the right church to say that too, because this church has been doing it. There’s a lot of other churches that I could say that

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 61 to, with a great deal more fervor. But still, we have not completely obeyed The Heartbeat because there’s still much to do. And of God is we are still under the commandment to go into all the world and preach the Missions gospel to every creature. And as some of you were giving your testimonies, I thought about an old preacher, who wrote the last book, after he had written the gospel and three letters; then he wrote the Revelation. Old John was about 96 years of age, when he wrote that little one-chapter Epistle of Third John. And he’d been hearing the testimonies of some of his children, as he called them. I just got through saying that I was surprised to hear those testimonies. But I was thinking about brother Lanier standing here listening, he had to be a lot prouder than I, because he’s your pastor. You see, over in Jeremiah, chapter three and verse 15, the Bible says, “And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding”. That leads me to Third John, verse four, where that old pastor said, “I have no greater joy, than to hear that my children walk in truth”. No greater joy. I can say that, and if I can, I know Brother Lanier can. No greater joy than to hear you give those testimonies of what you’ve learned, and some of the prices you’ve paid, to go, and to see, and to do, and to be a part, of obeying the Great Commission. And so we’re going to start a week of study. And some exciting things are in store this week, I’m sure. I know that there’s going to be some nights of real enjoyment in studying the Word of God and being challenged. I want to direct your attention now to one verse of scripture, from which our theme comes, in Jude verse 22. The Bible says, “and of some having compassion, making a difference.” You know, we all have a command from the Lord. That command is to witness to those that we see every day, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”. While that is a corporate command to a local New Testament Church. It’s also an individual command to every believer, to go into the highways

62 Faith Promise Giving and hedges and to tell them about Jesus; because his last words were, “But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses...” Acts 1:8. He did not say, ‘I command you to be my witnesses’; but this is a declaration of fact, Jesus merely made a statement of fact, “you shall be My witnesses” both in Jerusalem and Judea, and Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. And while he was speaking, he was caught up out of their sight into the clouds. You know, most of the time if a loved one passes and we don’t get to be there we will usually ask the question, “what were their last words?” And usually, we will treasure the last words that a loved one spoke before they died. When Jesus went away his last words, were not scolding or rebuking, it was just a statement of fact. You are my witnesses; you are witnesses of me. Your witnesses of me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria in the outermost part of the earth. He didn’t say, would you like to be? Or I certainly hope you will be. He just said you are. We have a command. And I hope that we will obey that command to go into all the world. Brother Lanier (Clyde Lanier, pastor at this time) said last night, I’d probably bring some statistics, you’d probably be disappointed if I didn’t. Did you know that the world population has grown to 5.76 billion, I used to say 5.1, and 5.2? And I lost track of it for a while. But it’s 5.76 billion people. And did you know that we’ll reach 6 billion people on earth, probably by the end of 1995 (2020 now 7.65 billion), or the first of 96, not very long, maybe a year and a half, two years, and the world will be at 6 billion people. It seems that as fast as we can win them, (and my, what reports we’re hearing from Africa, and from other places; Romania, and such results that are coming from various places around the world in spite of the hardness in some areas, like Japan and France, and a few other places where it’s very, very difficult to make converts) in spite of that, there are many places in the world where you can preach and people will run all over themselves to get down to the altar or to respond and receive Christ as their Savior. In spite of that the world population of unbelievers is growing faster than we can win them; you win one and three more are born.

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 63 So you know, it’s not going to be done by one plus one is two, plus one is three, plus one is four; because by then ten have been born. You can’t do it that way. But I’ll tell you a way that is working and is being found to work. And it’s the simple plan that Jesus gave in John chapter one as those men began to follow after Jesus, “and Phillip found Nathaniel and Andrew found Peter”. And each one won one. And each one discipled one. And when they had done that, then they began going out and now there are two, and they won two, and discipled them, and now there are four, and the four discipled one each, and now there are eight, and then the eight discipled one more, and now there are 16, and it just keeps going, did you know how long it will take to get to 6 billion? It takes 31 times. We’ll get some of you fellows with slide rules or calculators to do just a very simple thing. Two times 10 to the 31st power, plug it in your calculator and you find it’s 6.8 billion. 30 is only 3.4 billion. You’re not quite there. But 31, that’s the one. That’s how it will work. Now, I understand that from a standpoint of practicality, you’re gonna lose some along the way and it’s not gonna work out exact. But you see, the concept is that if we obey the plain command of Matthew 28, it can be done. What is the command there? It’s not the word go. Go was a participle, it literally said, “going” or “having gone” assuming something that was already in evidence. By the way. Did you know this the “goingest” generation of people ever in the history of the world? How many miles did you folks go to get to Kenya? How many miles did you go to come back? I just went to Singapore and back; I got 21,000 frequent flyer miles on my credit card for a free airplane trip. I probably travel 100,000 miles a year, some of you probably traveled nearly that much. All total, it would be amazing to know how many millions of miles, this group of people right here travel in one year. This is a ‘going’ bunch of people. So, “go” is not the problem. Everybody’s going, you go to work, you go home, you go to church, and then you go home again. And you probably go by the store on your way home, you’re going all the time. See, the problem is not whether we’re going but he says, as you go, what are we to do? “Disciple the nations”, that’s

64 Faith Promise Giving the command in the Great Commission. Now, disciple means more than simply winning them to Christ. “”Disciple” means to make them true disciples of Jesus. And you see, when we obey the command, if I just win one and disciple him, then the two of us win one and disciple them, and then we do it again. And then again, and then again, remember it only takes 31 times and the entire world would be won to Christ. Do you see what I’m trying to say? Jesus did not give us a command that was impossible. I realized that when we look at 100 people and 5.7 billion, they say, Man, this is too small a group. What can we do? Do you ever get the feeling? How big the task and how small we are to meet it? That’s human. But did you know that God already had that figured out long before he made the command? Go into all the world preach the gospel to every creature? We’ve been doing that in a measure here. And I want to tell you that God is pleased with what we’ve done. But I’m not sure that he’s pleased that we have not done all that we could have done. You see, we could do more. I just started listing some people. Let me give you a list here. I began looking and started thinking about Romania. First fellow I knew that went there was Jimmy Franks. He’s preached here at our church, many of you know him. And David Butts, he went there. Kab Su Kim from Japan, many of you have heard him preach here in our church, he prayed some years ago. Then of course, brother Doug Wiersema went over. And after him, there’s Gabriel that’s going there. And did you know that another brother that you have not met maybe some of you might have. Brother John Sanders is on his way in May. And not only that, but brother John said in his newsletter that there’s two more young men in Texas that are going to go follow him. That’s two, three, four, five six, seven, eight. Five years ago, there wasn’t even one in Romania. Then Albania, brother David Smith went over and was with the group that went to do some evangelism over there. They’re going to have a Macedonian STEAM (Short Term Evangelism and Missions) team over there. About five or six young college age kids that are going there this summer. You’ve heard of a fella named Darvy Fenison; also Terry Richards went with him to Albania.

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 65 Daniel Rogers preached in our church several years ago. You may or may not remember him. He used to be in Paraguay. And young Ted Barker just went over there. They were both in Paraguay and they got to praying about it. Now both of them have moved from Paraguay to Albania. Then there was brother Morris Buchanan, our first ABA missionary over there. And now brother, David Taylor took his place. So there’s 6 in Albania. Five years ago there was not even one. So there’s 14 men in two countries where there was zero only 5 years ago. Of course, you know, Juan Angulo and Carlos Angulo, in Peru. In Mexico, there’s Hugo and Gabriel. Some of you have met Gerardo, and Victor and Isaias Rodriguez has been here in our church, Juan Gonzalez and Rosendo Pruneta, all of these fellows that are down there; and I could probably name four or five more. But most of these have preached here in our church. There are men that are working, laboring faithfully, winning souls every week to the Lord, and things are going great down in Mexico and churches are being built. Then of course, you’ve heard of Lynn and Ernie and Joel, you know them in Kenya. And these are just a few. There’s, remember Robert Emmanuel, he was in our church. For a year or so, is now back in India, and him and Thampi Joseph, two of our fine young Indian men are back there in a country of 800 million people. And they’re winning people. I just saw Thampi’s report where he preached for Robert and said there were more people saved than he’d ever seen at one time in his life. Oh, listen, God’s doing a great work all over the world. And the best thing is that we’ve had a part either in their support or in their training, or having them as a part of our church, and they’ve had an impact on us. And we’ve had an impact on them. We are talking about something that excites me. But as I hear these testimonies, and think about these men; many of them I had an opportunity to teach in school (Florida Baptist Institute, now Emmaus). And now they’re out there on the field doing a great job for God. But there’s 100 more that I could name if I just scratched around a while. You see, the point of this mission conference is to raise awareness of missions, to raise our level of Bible knowledge

66 Faith Promise Giving concerning missions, and our practical knowledge of what’s going on in the world around us. Another part of our purpose for this conference is to raise our level of commitment, our availability, to go to the fields, to raise our sensitivity toward the men, and the problems, and the things that we need to pray about for them. We’re to raise our awareness to become intercessors to intercede and plead with God on their behalf. Every now and then, I hear, just sort of through the grapevine, that some of you are senior saints here. Do you think like, I can’t go to Africa? Well, sister Lucy did. She’s almost a senior saint. But some of you, may be your health won’t allow it. But did you know that one of the greatest challenges before any New Testament church today is to raise up a band of intercessors. Did you know that you can be an avid intercessor, even if you are on your sick bed? As a matter of fact, I found that sometimes that I can get a lot more praying done on my back than I can any other way. I remember one time when God put me flat on my back for three weeks, I did a lot more praying in that three weeks than I did before or since. And there’s a ministry, for those of you who feel that you are not able physically any longer to make these trips. And beyond that exciting cutting edge, there’s a ministry for you, of being an intercessor, to plead with God on behalf of those who do go; and on behalf of those missionaries that are out there, who are at the wiles of the devil. And when they go on the mission field, they’re there, they’re vulnerable, and the devil is waiting, like a roaring lion to seek whom he may devour. God is looking for those with the commitment and the sensitivity to be intercessors. We need to raise our level of knowledge about people and projects and missionaries all over the world. And last but not least, we need to raise a budget. Sometimes people think the missions conference is for that reason alone. I want to say that though it becomes an important visible aspect of our conference, it’s certainly not by any means the only thing we’re looking at here. We’re looking for those who are willing

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 67 to go, for those who are willing to stay by the stuff; for those who are willing to get involved; for those who are willing to be intercessors; there’s a job for every one of us to do in obeying the Great Commission collectively. Just like an army unit will have foot soldiers and there’ll be supply people and there’ll be those that are in communications and those that are in intelligence. And then there’s the doctor and the medic and the corpsman and there’s everything under the sun. Every group has its back-behind the scenes support group. The Desert Storm troops won that battle in 100 days. But you know, for everyone that was on the front there was about 90 in the background. For every one that goes to battle, there’s 100 who stand in the wings waiting to be of support, and of help to him to make it possible. No, the battle is not won by the foot soldier alone. Of course, it takes foot soldiers to do the job. And sometimes a foot soldier seems to be the one who gets all of the praise and the credit because he’s the one who stuck his neck on the line. But I remember a Bible principle, you’ve heard it before, but some of you have not. David went to battle once. And he had about 600 men. When they got to a brook, a crossing, a substantial number of them began to faint, they were tired. And they fainted. And David said, you stay here by the stuff, that is, you guard the supplies and you be available on call when we need you. But the rest of us will go on. And they went on and they won the victory. They took the spoils of victory. And they came back and when they got there, they began to tally the booty. And the ones who went to battle began dividing the stuff and they said, wait a minute, this bunch over here didn’t do a thing. They got tired, and they just stayed. They guarded the stuff, anybody can do that. We hale and hardy ones with the swords, we went and stuck our necks on the line. Now, we ought to divide the spoils and they ought not to get anything because we did all the work. And David said, as his part is that goes down to battle, so shall his part be that stays by the stuff. They shall part alike, they divided equally among all of them, because in God’s eyes, you who sit in the pew every week, are just as important as the

68 Faith Promise Giving missionary who’s on the front line. He may get to give the report, but God has the record. And He knows when you have prayed. He knows when you have contributed to this body; He knows of your part in sending them and supporting them and supplying them and praying for them and encouraging them. Then when they reap the harvest, God spreads that out overall. In Philippians 4:17, Paul was talking about this very thing.” He said, “My God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Then he came to that verse 17, he said, “not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account,” you see that? God is not asking you to give because the missionary wants your money. God wants you to give to obey stewardship, number one, and so that the work of Christ can be done number two, and when the missionary has results, it is divided among all of us. And at the judgment seat of Christ, He who has an accurate record, is going to reward according to our faithfulness, according to what we’ve done, in obedience to the plain command of Christ. And so we need to learn to be obedient. We need to have a passion for obedience to the completion of the plain command to disciple the nations; to disciple the races (ethnicities); to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I couldn’t even begin to close tonight without challenging you for the rest of this week. Because for each evening, I have scheduled to spend about fifteen minutes each evening on the fundamentals, the basic principles of Faith Promise. To some of you, that’s old hat, I’m sorry that you have to hear it over and over again. But most of you have already forgotten. And some of you have never heard it the first time. And so we all need it one more time. And if I sound like a broken record, I apologize and every now and then somebody says “Don’t you know anything else but this?” Yes, I do. But this is what we’re in this week and this is what I’m gonna do. I’m going to share with you the principles of Faith Promise, to show you the biblical fundamentals and the mechanics of Faith Promise. But to challenge you, the first thing I want to do is to ask you to read Second Corinthians chapters eight, nine and ten. Not right now. But a good time to start would be tonight

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 69 before you go to bed, for sure through the week. Share this with someone else and pray about it. All Four parts were Transcribed by https://otter.ai from audio tapes Harold Williams (part 2) Missions Conference Tuesday Night Okay, let’s get right into our study. Last night we began where I always begin with the foundation, the root of faith promise. In Second Corinthians chapter 10, verses 15 and 16. “Now, when your faith is increased, we shall be enlarged by you abundantly to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.” Number one is the premise when not if, but when your faith is increased. If would make it optional or suppositional. When, indicates that it’s normal, and if it’s not happening, it’s abnormal, or more precisely, sub Normal. Normally, your faith begins like the grain of a mustard seed, when God gave to us saving faith. That’s where it began. It may have been to you like a grain of mustard seed. But as it begins to sprout and grow, Jesus said, “Behold how great the tree that even the birds can lodge in its branches”. The figure there is the birds of the air, find shelter, strength, sustenance; they find everything they need to survive and thrive in that great tree that started from a little nut. Someone said, one time about an acre. That, you know, when you look at great stately oak trees, just remember, it started from a little nut, just like you and me. And then you see what happens when they grow and grow and grow? Well, we start with the grain of mustard seed, we begin to grow and when your faith increases, that’s the premise. The immediate result is that we, Paul was using the editorial we, have the writer writing to the church at Corinth. He was speaking to a local church and he said, we shall be enlarged by you. That we actually had to do with his missionary ministry. You see, there, we’re probably most of the time as many as 10 or 12 people. There’s one time that 11 were named toward the end of the book of Romans, you can name Paul and Silas, Timothy and Titus, Aquila, and Priscilla, Apollos and Luke, and two or three more. Wouldn’t you like to have that group to go

70 Faith Promise Giving into a new city and start a church? That’s why they could go into Thessalonica and be kicked out in 30 days and leave an indigenous church. Because they went in with this wide variety of skills and talents and enthusiasm, the maturity and wisdom of Paul and Luke and Silas and the youthful vigor of Timothy and Titus, the teaching ability of Aquila and Priscilla the oratorical ability of old Apollo’s silver tongue. They had all of the skills necessary. They went in, and they could start churches and get run out of town by the Jews; but it’s too late, they already started a good church. And so, we began with the premise when your faith is increased the immediate result is, we shall be enlarged by you abundantly. And the ultimate result is to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. Now, that really equates to the Great Commission doesn’t it? Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, preaching to the outermost part of the earth. But wait a minute, how are we going to do it? Well, we’re gonna have to have an increase in our missionary ministry, if we’re gonna do it. Okay, that’s fine. That’s a given. Now, how are we gonna accomplish that? Well, when your faith is increased, that’s when it’ll happen. Now, we want to build on that that’s where we went last night. Tonight, I want to talk to you a little bit about what a faith promise is. Most of you know, but to a few of you that may be a new term. And you might ask the question, is that biblical? Well, I want to show you if I can. A faith promise is a covenant between you and God. Now, let me tell you a little bit about covenants. Did you know that God made a covenant with Adam, the first man he created, then he made a covenant with Noah? Then he made a covenant with Abraham and confirmed it with Isaac and Jacob. He made a covenant with David. And he made a covenant with Israel called the Palestinian covenant. And over in the New Testament, he made a new covenant. That’s the one that you and I enter into by faith, based on the shed blood of Jesus. A covenant can be defined this way. I will, fill in the blank, if you will, fill in the blank. I will, if you will, you can fill in the blanks. And somebody says, Well, that sounds like a contract. Well, let me explain the difference between a contract and a covenant. Now,

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 71 bankers are nice people, but they’re not given to charity and generosity. They’re nice people. I like bankers, I better like them because I need them from time to time. But did you in the last 20 or 30 years did you ever borrow money from a banker? And say, now I want $1,000. And my word is my bond, and we’ll let shake on it. Did you borrow any money that way in the last 20 years? I remember daddy used to borrow money on a handshake. And you might with a personal friend even today, but you don’t do it with a bank. You see a contract is based on this trust. What that contract says is basically we’d like to believe in you. But frankly, we don’t trust you. We want your signature on this contract. We want you to understand the terms. You pay this back, we’ll loan you $1,000, if you will pay it back at $150 a month for 100 months. Well, that’s a lot of interest, isn’t it? Well, whatever you can figure out the numbers, get your calculator out and figure it out. But you see precisely they want you to specify exactly to the dollar and say how much you’re going to pay and how many months you’re going to pay it. What the interest rate is, the government makes some tell you any more truth and lending. Why, because the government doesn’t trust the banks, and the banks don’t trust you. Everything’s based on this trust. Okay? They probably have good reason for it. It would take us all not to go through all both sides of this. They probably have good reason. Not only will they do that, but they say oh, by the way, the refrigerator you are going to buy with the money. If you don’t pay, we’ll come take the refrigerator back. It’s called collateral. See, the bank wants everything nice and neat. Everything packaged really neat. And if we don’t get our money, we’ll get the refrigerator and we’ll get your right arm and your wife if you don’t pay. Why? Because, frankly, they don’t trust you. But now a covenant is based on trust. So this is the difference between a contract and a covenant. When you make a covenant with God. You’re saying, Lord, I will do this, if you will do that. That’s the kind of covenant God made with Adam and Noah and Abraham and David and Israel. You say, Well, should I make a covenant? Well, it’s sort of like saying, should I be growing in

72 Faith Promise Giving faith? What did we just learn; ‘when your faith is increased’? Where does it say the other? Look at Ecclesiastes chapter five, verse four, and five, “When thou vowest a vow unto God”. You say, I don’t believe in making covenants. Well, God did. And when Solomon wrote that by inspiration, he didn’t say now, if you make a vow to God, defer not to pay it. He said, ‘when you make a vow to God’; the idea is that it is normal for God’s people to make covenants, vows with God. It’s normal to do that. Why? Because God wants you in a close personal relationship. By the way, you don’t have to put up any collateral. You don’t have to say now I’m going to give you back $100 a month for the next year, or anything like that. But by faith in God, you make a covenant with God. It begins like we suggested last night, Lord, increase my faith. Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. And, Lord, lay on my heart what you want me to give. Now, if you will pray that way, Lord, increase my faith, help my unbelief, and lay on my heart what you want me to give this next year? I guarantee you, if you’re serious in you’re asking, you’re not just going through the motions, because you see there’s a lot of folks that can go through the motions. They say, Well, Brother Williams said, we ought to pray this way. So I’ll go through the motions, Lord, increase my faith, I didn’t really mean it, Lord, but Brother Williams said I ought to do it. So Lord, increase my faith. If you didn’t mean it, and God knows you didn’t mean it, then you may as well not have said it at all. What I’m trying to say is I implore you to do it, but do it spontaneously out of your own heart. Do it because you mean it. Because it’s right. Because we ought to do it. Because the Bible teaches us that we ought to do it. We’re not doing it because brother Williams said, we ought to do it. We’re doing it because the Bible says we ought to do it, we ought to be serious about how we’re going to reach the world, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if we’re serious about the the goal, then we must be serious about the means to reach the goal. So I implore you, because the Bible says it. Pray, Lord, increase my faith, help my unbelief. And lay on my heart, what you want me to do? Is it not true? Just as a matter of logic,

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 73 is it not true that if God has a unique specific will for my life, that the best thing in the world I can do is find out what it is and then do it? I mean, that’s just logic. God has a unique and specific will for your life. To narrow it down. He has many other things that he specifically has for you. But he also has a specific area in mind concerning your giving. The tithe is the Lord’s, based on what you earn, your offerings are based on what you are willing to give of your means back to God beyond your tithes. But then when we get into this, it’s called Graduate School giving. Tithing is sort of high school giving; Grace giving. Giving out of our abundance is our collegiate level, you know, you’re going to university now, you’re giving but you want to go on to graduate school. I mean, this is getting up there in the rare air, where very few folks want to go. Now you’re getting to the place to where you give, not based on what you are able to give, but on what you’re willing to trust God to give through you; using you just as a channel of blessing. When you pray, Lord, lay on my heart, what you want me to give this is above your tithes and your offerings, has nothing whatsoever to do with your ability. It has all to do with your level of faith in God. And if you believe that God has a unique will for your life in the area of you’re giving, seek his face, “Lord, increase my faith. Lay on my heart what you want me to give this next year beyond my tithes and offerings, in the area of faith, what do you want me to trust you to supply? Now when you’ve come to the conclusion, you might want to pray all week about it. But when you come to the conclusion of exactly what God wants you to give, it may scare you to death, because your first reaction will be, I can’t do that. And, you know, that’s where God says, Good. That’s just where I want you, just beyond where you feel comfortable. We’ve talked about it before, haven’t we? About thermostats? They used to have that little green area. We call it, the what? Anybody remember? The comfort zone! Where Baptists love to reside? I mean, that’s where all Baptists love to live, in the comfort zone. And you know what exercise does when it gets you out of your comfort zone, it extends you to the limit

74 Faith Promise Giving of your endurance, and right there is where the coach says to the boys, “let’s make one more lap around the field”. And they say, but coach, we’ve gone as far as we can go. And he says, now go one more lap. What’s happening? He’s extending their range and their limit of endurance. He’s toning their muscles and building their wind and extending their endurance. And did you know in the realm of faith, I know this may be a crude illustration, but it’s in an area of the way we understand don’t we. We understand in the physical realm. It works the same way. Did you know that in the area of faith, you’re going to have to get out of your comfort zone? You get over here to say Lord this far as I can go and he says good. Now we’ll just take one more step. This is beyond my ability. Now. I’ve got to trust God. Did you ever see that cartoon of the fella that was holding on to the rope? You know the saying used to be when you get to the end of your rope tie a knot and hang on, that’s humanistic. The spiritual application is when you get to the end of your rope turn loose. Well, that’ll test your faith really quick, won’t it? Turn loose. But this was the cutest cartoon, I loved it. Here’s a guy hanging on, tied the knot at the end of the rope and he’s hanging on, he’s yelled help all night till his voice is gone. And it’s daylight the next morning. He looks down, and he’s that far from the ground. And he hung there all night yelling for help, and all he had to do was turn loose. I have probably told this story before, some of you are shaking your head. I know I have. But let me tell it one more time. In the South Sea Islands in World War Two, when the servicemen didn’t have anything else to do they liked to catch monkeys. You know how to catch a monkey? It’s really simple. They find a coconut. And they bore a little hole in one end, and then bolt a chain to one end and tie it to a tree. And then they bore that hole and the hole was just big enough, but that monkey could figure out to get his fist shrunk down, and he could get his hand in there, then they put a pretty little pearl button inside and he’d look at it and shake it and rattle it and look in there. He wanted it so bad, he would get his hand down in there then when he got a hold of the button, his fist would swell up and he’d pull and pull and pull and he couldn’t

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 75 get loose. And he would run up and down the tree and around it. He would bawl and squall; in essence what he’s saying is, I want to get loose and you say dummy, all you have to do to get loose, is to turn loose, and slide your fist right out. But the monkey would rather get caught than to turn loose. Now in the area of spiritual things, the devil has put a lot of pretty little buttons out there; the cars and the houses and the nice air conditioning and the plush carpet; in a way we live extravagantly. Don’t we? Who said that the other day? The preacher was talking about our extravagance, isn’t that right? This is the 90s we all live extravagantly. But we’d rather have the extravagant lifestyle. And say, I just don’t know how in the world I could ever give another dollar to missions. When we’re under the plain command of Christ to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And here we are, we’ve got the pretty little pearl button in our hand, we swelled up our fist and we bawl, and squall; we come to the altar, we say I want to be free. I want to be blessed of God and all you got to do is turn loose. That’s all it takes! Me to, me to. But ask God what he wants you to do. And when you know what God wants you to do, you make the covenant with the Lord— Lord, I will give it if you will supply it. How simple that is; I will give it if you will supply it. If we flip it around, God hasn’t said so in so many words, but his word, you can read his word and see the heart and the mind of God, the area of supply and all of his children’s needs. And you can see the principle woven in the wharf and the woof of the fabric of our spiritual life and relationship to God. So when you have said, Lord, I will give it if you will supply it, flip it around and God’s answer is: I will supply it if you will trust me for it. Do you see how simple that is? Now we have what’s called a conditional covenant. In Ecclesiastes five, verses four and five says, “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it. For God has no pleasure in fools”. That’s pretty harsh. What it really means is, God has no pleasure in foolish people. God does not have any pleasure in foolish vows and foolish ideas and foolish attitudes. But the King James put it pretty blunt. It said God has no pleasure in fools, pay that which thou hast vowed for

76 Faith Promise Giving better it is that thou shouldest not vow and not pay and be not rash with my mouth and cause thy flesh to sin. Now we come to Luke 6:38. I’ll have to stop. But you know, Luke says, in verse 38, it says, Give and it shall be given you. What is “it”? Whatever you give, it shall be given you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over shall men, give into your bosom, for with the same measure ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again”. Our time is gone for tonight. But for those of you, where this is new for you, would you study that verse. Tomorrow night, we’ll take off from there and add to it, and I want to show you that our God is a loving God. And God is love and someone has said, you may give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. God so loved the world that He gave. When we are discipled to be like him, God wants us to be a loving person, like he is a loving God. “Now, when your You cannot be a loving person, faith is increased, unless you’re a giving person. we shall be And as Annie Johnson Flint said in one of her songs “He giveth, enlarged by you and He giveth, and He giveth abundantly…” again.” Better quit. Harold Williams (part 2) Wednesday Night Sermon All right now, we’re going to continue on where we left off last evening. I want to ask you to turn to Luke 6:38. While you’re turning there, I want to share with you a couple of other verses, because each night we’re building. We started off with the foundation on Monday night. Now when your faith is increased, we shall be enlarged by you abundantly, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. We looked at the concept, Lord, increase my faith, Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief. For you see, living the life of faith is what it’s all about. It starts with the mustard seed. The Bible tells us Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. After you get saved, the first thing you need to

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 77 do is start getting into the word. Get in the word and stay in the word. Don’t “A faith promise worry about all the rabbit trails and the superfluous stuff, get in the word. is a covenant, The word is where you will get the not a contract.” meat. That’s where you get the sincere milk. That’s where you get everything that you’re going to need. Now, teachers are helpful, but teachers can’t do it by themselves. Remember, it’s the Word of God that will do the work of God. And so you’re getting the word and as you get to studying and meditating and ruminating on the word, it’ll become as Jesus said, in John 6:63, the words that I speak, they are life, they are spirit, and they are life. You can’t do without the word. So we start there. And as you begin to grow, you grow and that mustard seed becomes the big tree. That tree becomes a place of refuge, a place of spring, the place of the source of life and nourishment, it becomes everything. As you take in the Word of God, then your faith begins to grow. Now when your faith increases; what will happen? We shall be enlarged by you abundantly. For what? To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. Now, last night we built on that, the idea of what is a faith promise? A faith promise is a covenant, not a contract. Contracts are based on mistrust and distrust. They require your signature and collateral and all of those things that go with contracts. But a covenant is equal to commitment. You don’t sign your name; you don’t put up any collateral. But you say, I’m committed. I’ll do it. And remember, when your faith is increased, indicates that it is normal for your faith to increase. Now, concerning the covenant, Solomon said, when thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it. Not, if you vow, not if you make covenants, but when you make a covenant. It is normal for God’s people in this deep, personal relationship with God, that when you get into the word, you lay that book open, and like grandma’s Bible used to be with the old tear stains all over the leaves, as she read it, and then she prayed for her children. And she prayed those hot tears of compassion. Oh, we need some of that today don’t we?

78 Faith Promise Giving You say, there’s enough of this stern, harsh preaching, that says, if you don’t get saved, you’re gonna bust hell wide open. Then when the fella dies and goes to hell, here’s this gruff, harsh fella standing there, looking over into the grave. And he says, see there, I told you, so! No compassion, no love, no commitment, nothing. It’s sometimes just preaching, because it’s there. But there’s no compassion in it. Tell you what, when our preaching gets bathed in the hot tears of compassion, ‘and of some having compassion, but making a difference,’ Jude, verse 22. So you see it’s compassion, that compassion will cause things to happen. As we get into the word and we study it. We have these periods of quiet time and meditation with the Lord, where we spend time in prayer and study of the word, you say you’re building a relationship with your father, when you do that. Now, as you build a deep abiding relationship with Him, then you come to the place where you will feel comfortable and safe. Making a covenant with God. No wonder most of the time when we come to this idea of covenant, it scares us to death. Well, if your relationship is shallow, you know, making a covenant probably will scare you. But as your relationship with Christ begins to deepen, then it won’t be hard to make a covenant with God, because you will not see Him as a harsh father just gleefully clapping His hands waiting to rap your knuckles every time you do something wrong. But you’ll see him as a kind, loving, gracious father, who loves his children deeply and wants them to grow in spiritual maturity and wisdom. And as those things happen, our relationship to him begins to deepen. And when our relationship begins to deepen, then when we come to make a covenant, we say, Lord, what do you want me to do? And then when you know what he wants you to do, what was it JOHN said in First John? He said, in His commandments are not-- anybody remember? What was that? Grievous; his commandments are not grievous. You know what that means? You won’t look at one of God’s commandments and say, Boy, I don’t like that, that really breaks my heart to have to obey that commandment. No, if your relationship to Christ is deepening and broadening and, and all of that, and your love for him, and your

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 79 awareness of his love for you is deepening; then when he gives you a commandment, you rejoice in it. It becomes a joy and a pleasure to keep the commandments of God. You see, you can pretty well tell which 50/50 people are in based on whether they like to obey the commands of God, or whether they feel like Well, I have to, you know, I really don’t want to but I have to. Remember, you’ve probably heard preachers quote, this verse. Yeah, woe is me if I preach not the gospel. Sort of sounds like they’re having a pity party, doesn’t it? The only reason I’m preaching is because God would strike me down dead if I didn’t. Listen. What they need to do is read the next verse which says, and if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. You see, if not, then a dispensation is committed to me. In other words, if you’re only doing it because you feel like you have to, well, you’ve got a dispensation, and you’re just legalistically carrying out your duty, poor you. Listen, I enjoy preaching. If you didn’t know it by now you ought to. I enjoy, I love preaching. I love digging in the book and sharing what I’ve learned with others. I really do, I love it. And his commandments. So I have to admit there’s occasions when God’s commandments are not altogether enjoyable, you know. I haven’t arrived but Paul said the same thing. He said brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. Even when he is ready for the chopping block, he said, fellas, I’ve not arrived either. Well, I haven’t either. And the preacher here he hasn’t either. And I dare say that brother Philips would probably agree that he hadn’t neither. You know we’re all still headed in that direction, just haven’t arrived yet. I count not myself to have apprehended, but I’ve gone further down the road than I’ve ever been before. And when I look back, it’s like a song says Hither to the Lord has helped us. All the way my Savior leads me. What have I to fear? You see? All right now, where was I? I chased that rabbit really good, didn’t I? But it was a good one. You needed to hear that. Amen? Let’s get back to Luke 6:38. Did you find it yet? See what I was doing was giving you time to find it. Now that you’ve found it, I want to share those other two verses that I told you I was going

80 Faith Promise Giving to share with you there in Proverbs, you don’t have to turn there, just listen to him. Proverbs three, 9 and 10 says, honor the Lord with thy substance. And with the first fruits of all thine increase, and so shall thy barns be filled with plenty. And thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Did you get that? What’s the condition he says? Honor the Lord with your first fruits with your substance. Honor him, put him first in everything. And he said your barns will never be empty. They will be filled with plenty. You know, sometimes we go about giving to God as though it’s our last dime. Really don’t know where my next meal is coming from Lord, you wouldn’t do that to me, would you? Well, no. If you’ve been having that deep abiding relationship with him, you will know better. God is never going to do that to you. What was it David said about it? He said I once was young and now am old. I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. I haven’t either. Have you? Have you ever seen the righteous forsaken? Or his seed begging bread? I haven’t. God is good. Now one other in Proverbs 11:24 and 25. You might write these down so you can read them at home later. This one says there is that scattereth and yet increaseth. There is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat. And he that watereth shall be watered also himself. The import of those two verses is that you can’t outgive God. When you give to God, remember that God will in turn, fill your barns, and you won’t ever lack. Someone once said, give till it hurts and then just keep on giving till it quits hurting. And when you do, you’ll find that you have not received any less. In Malachi 3:10, here’s another one, just add this to your list. Try me and prove me herewith saith the Lord of hosts, and see if I will not pour out on you a blessing, so great that you’re not able to receive it. Have we ever gotten one that big? If you haven’t, could it be that you’ve not put him to the test? He said “Try me and prove me”, test me. See if I can do it. Did you know that we are channels of blessing? I’ll probably get on this tomorrow night. But this would be a good time to illustrate it. There’s a God in heaven who has an unlimited supply. There’s a mission field out there and all of these places. By the

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 81 way, take a look at the missions’ posters once again. Before and after service, not right now. But they represent millions of people. And as you look at all of that you see what a need is out there. And if you started trying to tally up all of the needs, it would run into the millions of dollars and that’s a big sum of money, isn’t it? But I want to tell you it’s not, it’s peanuts to God. God has an unlimited supply. And we have a mission field out there that has an insatiable need. And why is it that the two have not yet met? The unlimited supply meeting the insatiable need, you know why? Because God has ordained that you and I should be channels of blessing. We like to be reservoirs of blessing. A reservoir just receives and receives and holds it, until it’s needed later. We like that part when it comes to being a reservoir, but I don’t find anywhere in the Word of God that God ever ordained any of us to be reservoirs. But he did ordain us to be channels of blessing. We sing about it in our hymn books. But you know what has to happen? Channels get clogged up on the inside, corrosion corruption, tree limbs, roots, you know, the leaves, everything gets in aqueducts and in various places, and then you have to go in and clean them out. But on the other hand, like the arteries in your system, the vessels and all, every now and then somebody has a pain, they put a little tablet under their tongue. What is that? Nitroglycerin? Isn’t it? You know what it does? It dilates those arteries. Why? So that more blood and oxygen can flow. And so you know, what we need to do is add to that, Lord, increase my faith and help my unbelief. We need to add this to this, Lord, make me a channel of blessing. Clean me out on the inside and dilate me to make me a bigger channel of blessing. You know, there’s a principle and our preacher mentioned it last Sunday or Sunday before in the sermon. He said, there’s a principle in the Word of God, though it doesn’t say it in so many words, but it’s there, “God will give through you while he will not give to you”. God wants to use you as a channel of blessing to use you as an instrument to pass along the unlimited supply to the insatiable need. And here we are a multitude of channels of blessing waiting to be used of

82 Faith Promise Giving God, but God is waiting for us to be cleaned up on the inside, and dilated to be a bigger channel. Now when your faith is increased, what will happen? Your faith promise should increase and you’ll be dilated as your faith is increased, and faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. That means if you get into the word, and you meditate on it, and you have a deepening relationship, your faith enlarges your channel, and you become a channel of blessing. But now wait a minute. Some of us are like a salesman, we think that we ought to earn 10% Commission. So God gives us $100 to give to missions and right away we think now wait a minute, I’ll give 90 of it. But the other 10 is mine. Why? Because like a salesman, I want my commission. You know what Isaiah 59, one and two says, God spoke through Isaiah and he said, “Behold, my ear is not heavy that I cannot save. My arm is not short, that I cannot save. But your sins have separated between you and God. That’s what has happened, sin will shut off the switch. By the way, when you start deciding to siphon off your 10%, God will just shut off the valve as it were. You could have been a channel of blessing but you chose to be something else. And so God just shuts off the blessing. Now when we say, “Lord, lay on my heart, what you want me to give. Use me as a channel. Clean me on the inside in enlarge my faith. Help my faith to grow. Lay on my heart what you want me to give. Then when God speaks, we make that covenant with him. Don’t be afraid to make a covenant with God. Lord, I’ll give it if you’ll supply it. Now, Luke 6:38. You thought I forgot it, didn’t you? Luke 6:38, Give and it shall be given you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over; shall men give into your bosom. With the measure wherewith you mete it, withal it she’ll be measured to you again. You know how that worked in Jesus day. I know I’ve done this before, but I won’t do it one more time. In Jesus day, men wore a garment called a tunic. A tunic was a wraparound skirt; you men wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those things. But they wore them. And when the wife says, honey, we need a measure of flour. He would go down to the bazaar; he’d

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 83 negotiate the price for a measure of flour. And when it was done, they didn’t say where’s your bucket? They just said, All right. He unwrapped one wrap of his tunic, he’d gather it up and he would form a pocket in it and hold it. The man would start scooping in the flour. And he’d start pressing it down and shaking it together. And he would keep on pressing and shaking until he had it level full, and now you’ve done a measure. But wait a minute, most good merchants would give good measure. That means that he would pour on another couple of scoops until it was nice and rounded. And if he was a really good merchant, he would pour it on till one scoop went on, and one scoop would fall off. That means, you can’t get any more on it. How did God say he would give? He said I’ll give it back good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the measure wherewith you mete it, withal it’ll be measured to you again. In other words, you cannot outgive God as you give to him. You can expect that he’ll give it back. Now wait a minute, be careful that you don’t demand of God the means and the method and the measure. You let God be the determiner of when and how and how much. Don’t say “God, I’ll give you $10 on Sunday”. But the catch is you got to give it back. Give $15 back on Monday, because you won’t get that kind of a bargain. You give God the prerogative of giving it back, when and how, and how much. You will find that his way of doing it is much better than your way. Give and it shall be given you good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. Give. Why? Because God so loved the world that He gave, and God who is discipling us to be like him, wants us to love like he loves, and give like he gives: measureless, unrestricted, without any holds barred, without any strings attached. Just give and it shall be given you. Now, concerning this thing about ‘give and it shall be given you’. Did you know that there’s not a stingy bone in God’s body? Now, I realize he didn’t have a body. But if he had a body, he wouldn’t have a stingy bone in his body. And did you know he wants us to learn not to be stingy, but to give and give and give again. When we learn to do that we’re on our way to being a lot

84 Faith Promise Giving like God. Sometimes people say, “Did you know you know, nobody loves me. I’m all that there’s not alone. Nobody cares for me. I don’t a stingy bone in have a friend in the world. Well, you know what Solomon said he that God’s body?” would have friends must himself be friendly. In other words, he’s saying you be a friend first and you just keep on being a friend. Pretty soon you find you got more friends you know what to do with. But it didn’t come by saying, ‘Hmm, I’m not gonna be friendly with him until they’re first friendly with me. God says no, the shoes on your foot first. You always perform first before you ever expect anybody else to perform. When you get to the place where you are friendly with others, all of a sudden, you will find that you have all the friends in the world that you need. Sometimes you feel like you’re a little bit unloved. You know what the answer to that is? Just love people. Pretty soon, you will look around and find out that you are loved by many people. Why? Because you love first. Don’t wait for them to love you, for you to love them back. We could just carry this on out. The point that I’m trying to make here is that the world says if you’ve got a need just go out and get it. You’ve heard that little thing before Haven’t you? That cute little saying the world says “get all you can count all you get and then sit on the can”. And that’s the way the world does it. But God said, no, that’s not the way. If you’ve got a need, give at the point of your need and God will give back to you. And you’ll have more than you started out with. But you know, that’s hard for us humans to do hard for us to, to come to that and say, Boy, I need some money. The way to get it is to give away the money I’ve got. But doesn’t make any sense does it, humanly speaking? But God says no, you give and it shall be given you. You give and God will give it back. That’s why God wants us never to be stingy and withhold, because if we would be like him--He doesn’t withhold from us. He’s not stingy with us. And if we’re going to be like him, then we’re gonna have to do it the way he does it. Well, I gotta quit.

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 85 Harold Williams Fourth and Final Sermon at Faith Promise Conference March 21-25, 1994 I always come to the last night of the regular series with a great deal of mixed emotions. Because I remember what the Lord said to the disciples once; he said, I have much to say to you, but you can’t bear at all now. And so, I’m not going to try to say it all. But I want to see if I can wrap up as best I can, without leaving out too much here in the brief time tonight. We started out saying, Lord, increase my faith and help my unbelief. Lord, lay on my heart what you want me to give this next year, week by week, which is the normal way, because scripture teaches us to lay by in store on the first day of the week as the Lord has prospered you. That’s the normal way. Now, some folks get paid by the month and they give by the month. If that’s the way you want to do it, that’s fine. Just do it. But normally, folks give by the week, and that was the biblical precedent. That’s a good way to do it. Lord, lay on my heart what you want me to give week by week above my tithes and offerings, that amount that I’m going to give by faith, Lord, I can’t do it. But I’m trusting you to use me as a channel of blessing. And I’ll obey Luke 638. Give and it shall be given you a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom. But with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again, Lord, I’ll do that. But I can’t do it on my own. But I’m going to trust you, as I give it to supply it and make it possible for me to keep on doing it week by week. That is what a faith promise covenant is. Now, who ought to do it? Well, the answer to that is, everybody. You see, when you’re talking about living by faith and walking by faith, you’re talking about an individual matter. Now, this church, corporately has a certain amount of faith. But how do you know? Because you see the individual members and the faith that each of them have when it came to saving faith. Mom, could you be saved for dad? I know a lot of moms that prayed for years and years for a husband to get saved. But her faith couldn’t save him.

86 Faith Promise Giving I know a lot of parents who have prayed over wayward children and pray that they one day get saved. But the prayers of the most fervently righteous mother and dad cannot save a lost child-- can’t happen. Why? Because everyone must trust Christ for himself. Now, if saving faith is an individual matter, wouldn’t you agree that walking faith is an individual matter, living faith, practical faith? It’s a personal matter. So when we get to the matter of a faith promise, that’s also a personal matter. Why? Because we’re not gonna ask for anybody to put their name on a card. It’s not a contract. It’s a commitment. A commitment. You know about commitment, don’t you? You’ve heard that cute little story about the chicken and the pig. Have you heard that? Most of you have. This was a story of the chicken and the pig. And they heard that the farmer was going to have VIPs at the house, and they got all excited about it. And the chicken said, let’s do something special. What can we do? Well, they thought about it a while. And after a while, the chicken got to squawking and flapping her wings. And she said, I know what we’ll do. We’ll have breakfast, let’s have ham and eggs. In just a minute, the pig thought about that and said, No, you know, that’s easy for you. For you it’s a contribution, for me it’s total commitment. Well, when you get to this matter about faith promise, don’t talk about just a mere contribution. We’re talking about total commitment, in obedience to the Great Commission, the command to go into all the world and preach the gospel, it calls for total commitment. And I never will forget the time that brother Ed brown challenged us about building a print shop that we’re building now. You remember in that trustee board meeting, when the Board of Directors met? Their job is to ask that ultimate question, what’s it going to cost? And so sure enough, it wasn’t long till somebody on the board asked the question, what’s it going to cost? And brother Ed looked at him just as straight face as he could be, and he said, it’ll cost you everything. If you’re not committed, then don’t do it. But we made a commitment, we’re going to do it, we poured that 62 yards of concrete yesterday, praise God, I ask you to be praying about it. And I got a little bit concerned because things weren’t

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 87 coming together. But we poured that concrete yesterday and everything’s going fine. But it takes commitment to do something. Sometimes the devil looks at you and laughs and whispers in your ear and says, You’re being awful silly to keep on. Don’t you know, when you’re defeated? Why don’t you just quit? How many times have you been told by that still small voice in your ear? Say why don’t you just quit? Takes commitment, doesn’t it, to keep on going? Alright, now let me get back where I was about individual faith promises. Dad, I recommend that you lead your family, all of them that are saved all of them that are old enough to understand what we’re doing here. And encourage the entire family to pray and ask the Lord what he would have each of them individually to do. I encourage the young people all the way down to the six and seven year olds that are old enough to understand without any pressure, to be encouraged to let them make their faith promise. I love to see those little cards come in that says five cents a week, 10 cents a week in a scrawling handwriting, that tells you it came from the kids. And my wife loves to tell the story about a little girl, in 1969, out at West Side Baptist Church. She was about nine years old then. And she made a faith promise and dad kind of picked around to find out what it was. And she said it ain’t none of your business, this between me and God. And he kind of kept picking you know, to find out. But then when he couldn’t get her to tell, he just said all right. Let me just tell you this much. If you ever get in trouble and you need help, just tell dad and he’ll be glad to help you. And she said, “ain’t gonna do it. So it’s between me and God. If God can’t do it, you can’t either”. So she started giving her faith promise. And about six months later, she came in one Sunday morning with tears in her eyes and she said, “ Brother Williams Do I have to quit now?” she said “I paid my whole year’s faith promise, do I have to quit now?” Come to find out she had been she’d made a faith promise of 50 cents a week at nine years of age and that was in 1969. Now, well, that’d be worth three or four or $5 a week now, that’s pretty good for a nine-year-old, isn’t it? But she had actually given $1 a week and by the end of six months,

88 Faith Promise Giving she had given her $26. And she didn’t quite understand how it worked. And she wanted to know, could she keep on doing it. And she did. Now, if a nine-year-old kid can do that, she can teach us all a lesson. As a matter of fact, it taught us great lessons. And I’m proud of that little girl, and what she did, and the encouragement it’s been because I’ve told this story 100 times all over America, and encouraged a lot of kids. And I love to see these kids come in with 5,10, 20, 25 cents 50 cents, on those cards; it may not add up as fast, but I’ll tell you what: “you train up a child in the way should go. And when he’s old, he’ll not depart from it.” That’s the thing that we’re wanting to, to learn. And I’ll tell you what, if you get 25 or 30 of those kids giving 5,10,25 cents a week, it’ll add up. It’ll be a lot more money. And just think, at the end of the year, it’ll be more than some churches give to missions all year long. So remember, make it an individual matter, and use the opportunity to teach your kids so that when they’re old, they will not depart from it. Now in First Kings chapter 17, you can turn if you wish, you don’t need to necessarily. I’m just going to tell very quickly that story of the widow of Zarephath. Again, you’ve all heard it, probably bored to tears hearing me repeat it. But just in case, some of you haven’t heard, that lady is a real testimony in this principle of faith promise, because you see, there was a famine in the land, and she was about to die. The meal and oil had come down to where there was just enough left for one little cake. And she had determined that she would make a cake and her and her son would eat it and die. And God spoke to her and said, I’m gonna send the Prophet by to see you. When he gets here, whatever he says you just do it. In the meantime, over on the other side, there’s the Prophet, he’s hungry, tired, thirsty. God says I’m gonna send you down to the widow’s house. And when you get there, you just tell her whatever I say. Now, this is a loaded situation. I probably would have balked at it myself. But you know what both of them just trusted God. And when the Prophet got there, he said, what are you doing? And she probably thought it was a foolish question.

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 89 Anybody can see, I’m gathering sticks. What are you going to do with the sticks? Well, I’m gonna make a fire. And then I’m going to take the last meal and oil I’ve got, make a little cake, and me and my son are going to eat it, then we’re going to die. And the Prophet said, Make me a little cake first. And I always, years and years ago, I read that and I said, the nerve of that Prophet, he’s got an awful lot of nerve didn’t he? He sounds like a Baptist preacher. But you know what the root truth is that God had told both of them, and they were both just being obedient. That’s what really makes the story more interesting. The fact that two people were obedient to the voice of God, and she obeyed God, and she made a little cake for the Prophet. The Bible says the meal and the oil wasted not, did not diminish. But it’s interesting what it didn’t say. It didn’t say that God filled up the meal barrel or the cruise of oil, but neither of them diminish, she would pour and make a cake. And it didn’t diminish, you’d pour again, it didn’t diminish. And all of that kept on until the famine was over. And some many years ago, it’s been 25 years now that I saw a principal there that God has blessed in my life. I don’t make it a recommendation. I make it a testimony. It’s not a recommendation that you do it. You may if you wish, but there’s no command in the Bible to do it. But I felt led of the Lord to do it. And it’s simply my testimony that 25 years ago, I said, Lord, I don’t have a meal barrel. I don’t have a cruise of oil. I didn’t really know exactly what those terms meant. But you know in general, I understand. But I said that that’s not the way we do business. I don’t have that. But I’ll tell you what I do have, I have a checkbook, and that’s how I generally keep track of things. And I said, Lord, I’ll make my checkbook, my meal barrel, and I will make a covenant with you that I’ll just give it and I’ll trust you to put it back. And you know what, just like the meal barrel, it’s never been full. But it’s also never been empty any longer than it took to go back to the bank. I’ve written checks, just like you have on Friday, and beat them to the bank on Monday. Don’t you tell me you have never done it? I expect everybody hear has done it some time or another. And I’ve done it too. But you know what God has never held out on me.

90 Faith Promise Giving Now, I confess that I have not always been faithful to him. But I can also testify tonight that God has always been faithful to me. If you want to make the checkbook, a meal barrel, that’s between you and the Lord. But don’t try it and then blame it on brother Williams, it’s up to you, because there’s no command in the Bible to do that. You understand what I’m saying? But it’s my testimony that God has always been faithful to me. You’re going to see now in the last half of this video, something and I don’t know if it’s in the video, but I always tell it in a mission conference. You saw that plane circling last night, didn’t you and that bucket at the end down there? How that they could put the stuff in it. And it just stayed stationary while the planes flying around and around up there. That’s hard to do. I know a lot of pilots and I don’t know any that can do it. I tried it some myself once. I couldn’t do it either. It Takes A Real Technique to do that. But you know what? One of those men, the husband of Elizabeth Elliott, the preacher mentioned her last night, she is prominent in this video. But her husband, Jim Elliot was one of the five that you’ll see. And when they met the Lord, it was kind of the shot that was heard around the world for missions. And the bottom line was that hundreds took their place. People asked the question, was it worth it? What a waste. But I’ve always looked back at Matthew 26, where Mary broke that alabaster box of costly ointment and anointed the feet of Jesus and then washed his feet with her hair and wiped it up with her hair and oh, what an aroma. And some of the disciples led by Judas said, to what purpose was this waste and Jesus said, Let her alone. She’s done what she could. This is a testimony to her all the days of her life. Now, I want you to know that it was not a waste what you’re going to see on this video, it was not a waste. God used it and multiplied it many, many hundreds of times over. But Jim Elliot had written in the flyleaf of his Bible, this statement; he said, a man is not a fool, who gives up what he cannot keep. In order to gain what he cannot lose. A man is not a fool who gives up what he cannot keep, in order to gain what he cannot lose. I want to tell you that God is looking for people who will give their lives. Someone asked me

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 91 one day, I just don’t know whether I like the sound of that, what’s your Bible reference for it? And I said, the Bible reference for it is Matthew 16 verse 25, whosoever will save his life shall lose it. And whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall find it. Then again, Matthew 6:19, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moths nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. I’m going to conclude with this. Like I said last night, I’m not through, but I’ve got to quit. There’s a little triplet that goes something like this. What I spent I had, what I saved, I lost, what I gave I kept. Think about it. What I spent I had; you get your check on Friday night, head to the bank, or to the grocery store, don’t you, and you unload most of it right there. Then when you get through with the mortgage, you sure enough unloaded most of it. By the time you get through with the bills, the consumables, we’re a consumer society aren’t we? We consume most of it. God is fortunate if he gets any of it. Because we’re out there busy spending it, consuming it. And so what I spend, I had, it’s gone. What I saved, I lost. Do you see a lot of people save and save and save and they work like slaves for 40 or 50 years to lay up for the rainy day, save it and save it and then comes the time that like that rich man that pulled down his barns and built bigger ones? And finally God says, thou fool this night thy soul is required to thee then whose shall these things be? He died, he left it all didn’t he? That’s what somebody said happened once, they said had it actually happened at J. Harold Smith’s Church out in Fort Smith, Arkansas. One of the rich deacons in that church died. And there was a custodian; the man and his wife, and they were there, the body was there, getting ready for the funeral. They were there cleaning around before anybody got there. An old gentleman walked over and looked in at him. He’d known him for years. And he looked at him and said, reckon what he left? The wise lady looked in there and said, I suspect he left it all. You can’t take it

92 Faith Promise Giving with you. What I spent, I had. What I saved, I lost. But the good part is what I gave, I kept. See, what you give to God is what will be waiting for you on the other side. It’s your choice, you can either spend it here or send it on ahead and have it waiting for you when you get there. But it’s your choice, oh, it’s not going to be there in the same amount of dollars and cents, that would be foolish. But it’s the principle of the thing. What you give to God is what you’re going to reap in eternal dividends, investing for Christ. What you invest now is what you’ll reap dividends on for all of eternity. And with all that’s in me, you know me, you know that I’m not just whistling through my hat, that it’s been my life, my whole life to preach and teach and practice world missions. That’s just about all I’ve ever done. And so when I tell you this, I’m not just standing here, and you can’t go away saying well, he’s paid to say that; because I haven’t been paid to say anything. I’m telling you out of my convictions, and you know my life and my testimony and my practice, my habit. And I just appeal to you. All that’s in me. Give of your best to the Master. Don’t withhold from him. You will be glad in eternity for every dime that you give to God. Thank you. “You will be glad in eternity for every dime that you give to God.”

Chapter 10 My First Experience With Faith Promise Leon Jasper The first time I had heard the terminology, Faith Promise, was at Ardella Baptist Church in Lakeland, Florida. My family and I had moved to Lakeland in August of 1971, where I had enrolled at Florida Baptist Schools (Florida Baptist Institute, College, and Seminary).  We had purchased a house near Ardella Baptist Church and that church, at that time, was where most of the faculty and students were attending. We moved our membership from the church in Kentucky where my wife, Joyce Ann, and I were saved.  After attending Ardella BC for a few weeks, I began hearing the terminology, Faith Promise Missions, almost every service. Then the pastor announced the time for the annual Faith Promise Missions Conference. I thought, if this is something new, I want to make sure it is biblical (scriptural). Even before I trusted the Lord as my personal Savior, I believed that tithing was the correct thing to do.  When I got saved, I began tithing the very next Sunday. Even though I was only making $50.00 per week, I gave my first five dollars to the Lord. The next week, I learned that the Lord is no man’s debtor. When I heard the concept of Faith Promise, which is praying and asking God to put a burden on your heart, for an amount that you would be willing to trust Him for, to give for missions, above your regular tithes and offerings. 

94 Faith Promise Giving It came to my mind that I had been giving above my tithes for a long time, and seeing God replenish what I had given. I learned a new terminology: Faith Promise. I began to pray, more earnestly and specifically, for Him to put a burden on my heart that I would definitely have to trust Him to supply.  Then I learned about the meal barrel principle. If you have the funds available in your pocket or checking account, go ahead and give it, then let the Lord replenish your account, or meal barrel. (I Kings 17:13-16) I prayed and asked the Lord for two and one-half times the amount I had been giving, above my tithes. As a first year fulltime student taking 18 credit hours per semester, a wife and two children to provide for along with two house payments, (our house in Kentucky that we left and the new house we had purchased in Florida), with not even a part-time job in sight, I began giving the Faith Promise amount the next week. As I said before, this was above my tithe. You may ask, how did I know what my tithe should be? I estimated the amount that I needed to make in order to pay all my bills and take care of my family needs (food, clothing, etc.) and began to tithe off that amount.  The only regular income I had was the G.I. Bill that helped with my schooling. After I paid my tithes of this amount, what I had left over was exactly the amount of my Florida house payment! My only other income was a $50.00 per month donation from my former church in Kentucky.  After giving my Faith Promise offering for four weeks, and nothing out of the ordinary happening, I continued to give the second and third month, and the meal barrel (checking account) was almost depleted. The following Monday,  when I got home from school, my wife asked me if I had seen the balance in the checking account, and I answered, “Yes.”  Then she said, “You know I go to the grocery store this Friday,” and I said, “Yes, I know you go every Friday.” The next day, Tuesday, when I came home from school, she asked again if I had seen the checking account, to which I answered, “Yes.” She gently reminded me again that

Biblical Principles of Grace Giving 95 she would be going to the grocery store on Friday, to which I said, “Okay.”  When I came home from school on Wednesday, my wife came to me with an envelope in her hand and asked me if....and she gave the man’s name.... owed me any money. My astonished answer was, “No, not to my knowledge. Why?” Then she said, “Well, this envelope has all this money in it with a note that says, “Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.” On the outside of the envelope was the man’s name and return address. She asked, “What does this mean?” My answer back to her was, “I guess if I never ask him a question about this, he will never have to lie to me.” Now I will have to wait until I get to Heaven to find out because I attended his funeral several years ago.  By the way, the amount that was in the envelope was exactly what my Faith Promise giving had been for the previous three months. Needless to say, we both learned that God is faithful. And my wife... she went to the grocery store that Friday, as usual. By Leon Jasper Macedonian Missionary Service Somerset, Kentucky Leon Jasper was President and co-founder of Macedonian Missionary Service, Somerset, Kentucky, is now deceased as of May 15, 2021.



Chapter 11 Dr. Weeks Dubose Testimonial about Faith Promise Giving I have practiced tithing for as long as I can remember. Even as a teenager, I gave a tithe of any money I may have earned. In my early years of my pastoral ministry, even though I practiced, taught and preached tithing, it was not necessarily a popular subject in many churches. In fact, it was not an accepted subject to preach in some of the churches with which I had contact. However, in addition to tithing, I also taught what I called “second mile” giving. I called attention Jesus’ teaching that grace reaches further than the law. For example, if in anger, someone struck you on the cheek, turn the other. If the law required going a mile, freely go further. I applied that to giving as well. The tithe was incorporated in the law and was required. For believers, it became the baseline example. It was the least a Christian should consider giving. Tithing was already an accepted act of worship before the Law was given and was included in the Sinai Covenant. But grace goes far beyond the Law. It is God giving to us that which we don’t deserve. So, should not our giving to Him go beyond the expected? I would suggest to the church that we consider using the tithe as a starting point for our giving and then give a “free- will” offering as God supplied. I guess this would be what some call “grace giving.” At that time, I was not familiar with the terms “Grace Giving” or “Faith Promise,” so, I referred to it has “Second Mile” giving. In 1971 while I was a pastor in Florida, I was introduced to the concept of Faith Promise giving. While the concept was being explained to me, it struck me that this was what I had been trying to

98 Faith Promise Giving convey about allowing God to assist us in obeying His command to give. Faith Promise, however, puts our faith on the line for a specific purpose—missions. How much of our service to God are we willing to trust to God? I liked that challenge. Before the concept was explained to me, I had heard a preacher ask, “How would your giving to God change if you trusted Him completely to supply?” In a way, that was what I had been trying to get across in my preaching. The concept of Faith Promise presented clearly the possibilities. I wanted to know more. The more I learned, the greater the challenge became. Honestly, even though I practiced giving more than a tithe, at first I found trusting God for a specific amount was more of a challenge than I imagine. My mind was filled with a lot of “what if’s.” What if I made a wrong decision in my commitment? What if the concept was not scriptural? What if God didn’t “come through?” It was during this time that I came across Colossians 2:6, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” How had I received Jesus as my Savior? It was by faith. Paul said I was to walk or serve Him the same way—by faith. I have defined faith as “trusting God to do for you what you can’t do for yourself.” At that point, I accepted the challenge to ask God to supply me with a specific amount above my tithe that I would give for no other purpose than for missions. Admittedly, it was not a large amount, but it was more that I had been giving, and honestly, it was an amount that was beyond my ability to provide. I was tithing, and I was prepared to continue to do that, but I sincerely prayed and asked God to impress me with an amount above my tithe that I should trust Him to provide. I asked the members of the church to join me to exercise faith that God would increase our church’s missions giving. That was 50 years ago. There have been times when, as the old saying goes, if the wolf came to our door, he would have to bring a picnic lunch with him. But I am being honest when I say that God has been faithful and has made it possible for me to give, no, return, my Faith Promise offering to Him. At times along the way, I had to move out of my comfort zone and stretch my faith by increasing my commitment