Preached at Markham Baptist Church, April 7, 2002

I will never forget the thrill and the privilege I felt the year that my dad and brother intentionally began to mentor me and teach me all they knew about the garden business. It was clear that if I wanted to be a part of the family corporation, the door was wide open and they would teach me all about it. So that summer I was invited to managers meetings, to go with Mark to visit our rose and nursery stock suppliers, to visit the annual flower trial beds, to see which varieties were doing well and we would promote in the stores the coming year. They basically said to me, "Tom, if you want to be a part of this, then we'd be glad to have you aboard and share the responsibilities, the work and the benefits." I remember appreciating the fact that they didn't hold the business to themselves, but instead invited me to share in the whole enterprise.

Perhaps you have had a similar experience with someone who has invited you to share in a task and you felt incredibly privileged and pleased at having been asked and considered to share in the work. It could have been as simple as preparing a special meal with one of your parents, or teach a class at school.

I don't know if Dad and Mark consciously knew it or not, but they were doing exactly what our Lord has done with you and me, with the church. You see, our Lord has a huge work - He has come to seek and to save the lost. And we know there are whole lot of lost people out there. They don't know the love of God, they don't know the forgiveness of God, they don't know the way to God, some aren't even aware of the reality of God. There are a whole lot of lost people out there in this big world of ours and our Lord has a huge work to do. And to be sure, our God is the great God of heaven, and He can do the work - He is able. But the wonder of it is that He has not kept the whole enterprise to Himself. He invites you and me, He invites all His followers to share in the work, to share in the responsibilities and to participate in the blessing of sharing the love of God, the forgiveness of God, and the way to God with the whole world. He has not kept the work to Himself, but has invited us to "Tell the World". His own words are these:

"Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and in teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I am with you always to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19,20) (NIV)

During the next number of weeks we will be examining how God calls us to this wonderful work of telling the world.

This morning we will discover that one of the ways that we can help in the work of telling the world of the way to God and to God's love and forgiveness is by giving. We are called on to give of ourselves, our time our talents, our spiritual gifts and material wealth - all to Jesus, all to Jesus. But this morning I want to focus on a part of the whole that we are to give and that is our material goods, our money to help tell the world.

Now I cannot spend a lot of time this morning to encourage you to give to missions. I pray that Holy Spirit has made it plain to you that it takes money to print Bibles and put them the hands of people who have never heard the word of God. It takes money to get food to people who have none. It takes money to train missionaries and send them to places and people of great need. It takes money to tell the world, without it the work of God is hindered.

What I want to do this morning is to place in your hands a tool through which you will be enabled to give to that important work of telling the world.

This tool is called the Faith Promise. It is perhaps one of the most significant and strategic tools that God has given the church over the past century to raise money for the missionary endeavour.

Broadly speaking, the faith promise offering is an act of faith where you, in dependence upon God, promise to give "x" number of dollars to the work of telling the world, through the coming year. It is closely connected with the doctrine of faith - it is a theology of sacrifice, it is theology of giving based on the need of spreading the gospel. The faith promise has its roots in 2 Corinthians 9:1-7.

"Now it is not necessary for me to write you about the ministry to the saints, for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be; otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated--to say nothing of you--in this undertaking. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you, and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion. The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Corinthians 9:1-7) (NRSV)

Now the background to this text is that there is a great need in the church in the city of Jerusalem. They are being persecuted, they are being kept from employment because of their faith in Jesus Christ. People aren't buying from them because of their faith in Jesus Christ, so they are impoverished and they are experiencing a great deal of pain. They are in tremendous need.

During the coming year, our faith promise offerings will be directed to people who are in similar need. Your faith promise will enable us to help feed the hungry in Afghanistan through the Sharing Way, our relief and development agency. You will enable us to teach young pastors the word of God in France, and in Kenya so they can in turn teach their congregations. We have developed a proposed mission budget that will enable us to minister to the needy here at home and around the world. The purpose of this month is to make you aware of those needs.

So the apostle Paul organizes what possibly could be the first relief fund. An offering to raise money in one church to help folks in another church, in another culture, in another location, become stronger in their faith. They give as a demonstration of their love for God, and to strengthen the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The text says in verses 1 and 2 that the Corinthians are aware of the need in the church in Jerusalem. And it says in verse 2 that they are eager to help, so eager that Paul has been boasting about them in Macedonia. Paul has been telling them of the enthusiasm of the church in Achaia, that is the province of the City of Corinth, and that enthusiasm has caused many other churches to give to the cause.

And Paul says in verse 3 that he is sending the brothers - in the previous verses we learn this is a group of three men, one of whom is Titus. He is sending them to so that the church in Corinth may be ready for the offering. They have this enthusiasm to tell the world, and they want to do it, so Paul sends this group and says, "I want you to be prepared," in verse 4. That is, "The enthusiasm is great, but I want you to think, to pray about what you are going to give."

And he says in verse 5, "We want you to be ready," so that when we come the gift is ready. Paul doesn't want to show up and say, "There's a great need in Jerusalem, you said you would help, where is the money you said you would give?" And the people say, "Oh well we haven't really prepared ourselves for it." Then it would look, Paul says, like I was twisting your arm. It would look like extortion.

The offering is coming - think about what you are going to promise so that you are ready to give it at the right time. So Paul sends the three.

That is where we find ourselves this morning. Imagine me to be Titus, and I'm asking you to consider now what you will give not today, not at the end of this mission conference, but during the coming year to the work of telling the world the wonderful news of Jesus Christ. What can you depend on God to provide you to help support the world wide missionary task.

Imagine Titus' delegation going from house to house in the Corinthian church.

They first visit Mr. and Mrs. Zachery. Mr. Zachery is a wheat farmer. And he has all his money tied up in their wheat farm. There is no cash on hand. They have 10 acres of wheat on the edge of town.

And Mr. Zachery sees Titus coming up the street and he greets him at the door. He says, "You really are wasting your time here because I don't have any cash right now - we've got it all tied up in our wheat farm." And Titus says, "We don't want your cash."

And when Mr. Zachery hears that, he says, "Come right in! What is it that you do want?" "Well," says Titus, "you know the needs in Jerusalem and what we are asking you to do is to trust God for a certain amount of money - not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but over the next twelve months and Paul will be here to collect the money and we can help those folks out."

"Well," Mr. Zachery says, "I don't have any money right now. I've got everything tied up in that 10 acres of wheat out there. But I'll tell you what, I will commit the proceeds of five of those acres to the cause - to the brothers in Jerusalem."

So after shaking hands Titus leaves and he is so happy, saying, "We've got five acres of wheat." In reality they had nothing. All they had was the promise of one man and one wife to trust God to make that wheat field a success in the coming season.

You say, "What's faith about that?" The Zacherys had to have faith that the weather would be good, that the market would be stable, that they would have the strength and health to harvest that wheat field.

The next house they come to is the house of Mr. and Mrs. Pinecohen. They are cattle farmers. And they say, "Fellows, we are glad you are here. We are concerned about the church in Jerusalem. But all of our money is tied up right now, we don't have any cash at all."

They explain, "We don't want your cash right now. We are here to challenge you - do you believe in this cause? Yes? Would you like to help? Yes? Well would you consider this - what do you think you could trust God to provide you with over the next twelve months?"

Mr. Pinecohen thinks for a moment. "I'll tell you what - I've got a cow right now that is about to give birth. And I tell you whenever that calf comes I will give the proceeds of what I make from the sale of that calf to the cause in Jerusalem."

And they are so excited. They leave the house, and they say, "We've got five acres of wheat and one calf." But in reality they still had nothing. All they had was the faith of a married couple that if a calf was born they would give the proceeds.

What's faith about that? They had to trust that the calf would not be still born. They had to trust that the cow was not diseased. They had to trust that the calf would bring a good dollar at the market.

They endeavoured to live by faith and make a commitment.

There is one other name, and he is a developer. And like all developers he has all his money tied up in a shopping center on the edge of town and he doesn't have any cash on him right now. And Mr. Eli says, "I have some property that is going through some changes and if I can sell that property I will give the proceeds to the cause in Jerusalem." And they were excited.

"We have five acres of wheat, one calf, a development." All they had was the faith of three families in a local church just like this one that believed in a cause that was greater than themselves, but they trusted God for money to come in for the next twelve months.

And faith promise offerings were under way.

The next two verses, 6 and 7 are key. Verse 6 underlines the idea of faith behind this offering. It is an act of faith - it as we sow a steadfast and confident faith in God, we will reap generously. But if we commit ourselves in reserve we can expect little. It is an act of faith. We are not asking for what you have now - but what you believe God will provide during the next 12 months.

Please note that this is an offering that we are asking you to give over and above what you give to Markham Baptist Church. We're not asking you to cut what you give to MBC and give half to missions and half to the work of this church. We are asking, what can you trust God to provide over and above what you give already to give to the work of telling the world. Now some of you give to missions, on your offering envelope you fill that line in with an amount. Now you need to talk to God and ask Him, do you give the same amount or are you going to trust Him for more this year?

And this brings us to verse 7 underlines the idea that the faith promise is a spiritual exercise. We don't want anyone to give reluctantly or under compulsion, but to give cheerfully. And in order for you to give cheerfully you must be able to say, this is what God says I am able to give for world missions. So, spend the next number of days praying to God, asking for His leadership in this endeavour.

This is a spiritual exercise. It is not called a pledge. A pledge has the idea of that this is a commitment between you and the church, or you and the missions committee. No, this is between you and God. No one from Markham Baptist Church 3 months from now, six months from now will knock on your door and say, "Where is your faith promise?" There will be no letters reminding you of your faith promise. This is a commitment between you and God. If 12 months from now you cannot make your faith promise, that is an issue between you and the Lord - not between you and Markham Baptist Church.

Why do we need an amount? What we do is take the totals of faith promise and from that we build our missions budget for the year. We are looking for $25,000 to be promised for our mission budget for the coming year. It is a more than what we gave last year through the old system, but it's not a huge increase.

Now you may be asking, How can God make a faith promise offering possible? How does God provide it? Sometimes when you make a faith promise, God will provide it right out of nowhere. He does an incredible, miraculous thing. And sometimes that happens.

But most times that's not how He does it. Most times God provides a faith promise offering through your life. God goes beyond just the offering and a dollar issue - He does a work in a life, and you and I begin to reprioritize our lives. And suddenly things we thought were important, some luxuries that we take for granted here, become very unimportant when we compare them to the needs of Indonesia, to the needs of Kenya, to the needs of South Africa, to the needs of Brazil.

So what God does sometimes is to begin to teach us more about Himself when we begin to cut back here or cut back there. And through that sacrifice, God begins to provide that faith promise.

Paul Borthwick is a powerful missionary speaker and every where he goes he reminds people that if they will just get rid of cable television, how much they could give to missions every single year. I'm not saying it is right or wrong, but it is a way you can get involved by reprioritizing your life style.

There are other ways that God provides your faith promise. Another way is through additional sources of income. There are all kinds of stories of some of people who are retired and receiving a pension but you are still in good health and you have pursued work in other areas and you have used that as a way to make your faith promise in the coming year. What's faith about that? How many people do you know who do that? What are you doing? I'm working over here, applying my trade. Well aren't you retired? Yes. Then why are you working? Well I'm just doing so that I can give money to the mission program of the church. Others have done it through paper routes, or babysitting, or deliver pizzas.

What about the possibilities of faith promise in your life? Everyone gets one. And what we doing and for the next three Sundays, four services including this one. Take a moment to the wording in side. It is personalized. MY faith promise. A place there for your name, and a blank - for what you believe you can trust God to give every month.

Every child should make a faith promise.

Look what it says. "Through dependence upon God, I ..."

When you begin to pay your faith promise - you can pay it through your offering envelope. There are two lines. The first is "Weekly Budget". The second is missions. Your faith promise needs to be fulfilled on that missions line. The weekly budget line goes towards the work of this church to meet its immediate and long range goals.

My friends during the next three weeks, we will be receiving the faith promise cards. Please be in prayer and ask God for his leadership in this area. May you do so with an awareness of the awesome fact that God has not kept the proclamation of the good news to Himself but has shared the responsibility, work and the blessing with you and me.