In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of having a positive attitude towards money and understanding its role in carrying out missionary work. He shares a story about a man who had a goose that laid golden eggs, which symbolizes the provision of God. The speaker highlights the need for financial support in missionary work and encourages gratitude towards those who provide for missionaries. He also reminds the audience that money is a means to an end and should be spent wisely. The sermon emphasizes the importance of trusting in God's provision and not holding onto money.

Before I begin this morning, I should correct an error that I committed yesterday in the evening service. Jeff Littleton, who was also in Lausanne, reminded me that Pastor Juan Carlas Ortiz was not from Chile, but he was from Argentina, and he's certainly correct. And I just want you to know that I did know that, but I don't know what I was doing last night. Thanks, Jeff. During these morning sessions, I'm going to be talking to you on different subjects directly related to missionary life. And you may be wise, or it may be helpful to you, to take notes, because many of you here are going to be missionaries. And we can always value by what it took other people thirty years to learn or more. This is why today we know so many of the wonderful truths of God, because men like Martin Luther went through what he did, and John Wesley went through what he did, and Jesse Penn Lewis and Evan Roberts went through what they did to teach us some of these great truths. And we don't have to go through all the things they did to learn those truths. We should learn and enter into their labors. The message this morning, or the lecture, if you wish to call it that, is entitled The Missionary and Money. Now it's sad that we have to bring such a mundane thing into the spiritual atmosphere of chapel service, but it is true that you cannot carry on missionary work without money. You try it. It's wonderful to think you can. So we need to take some very positive looks at how we handle money, and what is our attitude toward money, and how do we keep enough money flowing in, because the world certainly doesn't intend to give you any money to do the Lord's work. This vile world isn't a friend of grace to help us unto God, and the government grants that may be available for other institutions of learning and other great projects, you can't tap into that supply, but we have a vast supply, do we not? All right, I'll read you the lesson this morning. There was once a man who had a goose. She laid an egg every day. One day she laid a golden egg. The man went to town and sold the egg. The next day the goose laid another golden egg. Wife said the man, we shall not be poor anymore. Every day he found a golden egg and sold it. Soon he was not content with this. Wife, he said, I shall kill this goose and get all the golden eggs at once. So he killed the goose, but he found no golden eggs. The Ontario Reader, 1929. An egg a day represents poverty, doesn't it? Have you ever tried to live on an egg a day? But a golden egg a day represents enough, the right supply. And then the lust of covetousness comes along, and we're not satisfied with that provision just enough every day. We want more. And so we kill that relationship. And the end to the supply comes. Some of you have read the article that my wife wrote in the Northern Lights a few years ago about her testimony about soap. When we first went to the North, our first mission station was Churchill, where we met Bill and Kay Linder and others from here, and where we first met Ted and Lucille. And one day an Indian lady came to our home just on Saturday evening and said, I would like to borrow a bar of soap. I just have had a baby. We've just come home from the hospital and I want to give the baby a bath. My wife looked and she had one bar of soap left and it was Saturday night. And in the old culture in the North, Saturday night meant bath night. And she looked at that bar of soap and she thought of her children that needed a bath. And then she thought of the Indian woman's desire to give her child a bath. And she said, all right, Lord, I'll give my bar of soap. So she gave her last bar of soap to the Indian lady. And she said, Lord, you'll have to take care of the bath for the kids. While she was doing the dishes after supper, she opened a box of liquid, not liquid, but dry detergent soap for her dishes. And on the outside, it said free inside one bar of soap. And she opened it and she poured all the contents into several bowls to get to the bottom. And would you believe there were two bars of soap in that box? For the next ten years, my wife never had to buy a bar of soap. People sent soap. Ladies group sent soap. She found soap. She won soap. She had soap, soap, soap. We may have lacked for water, but we never lacked for soap. We had dishwashing soap and we had clothes washing soap and nice smelling soap and gritty soap that would take the grease off. All kinds of soap. Then we moved to the Arctic. And down there, you have to buy your food a year at a time when the barge comes in and the water in the spring and the river. And she looked at her soap supply and she just had that one golden egg left, you know. And she decided that perhaps she should order a year's supply of soap. So she ordered a year's supply of soap. And the soap stopped coming in. And she has given this testimony many times as the lessons of God's supply. He will do it either of two ways. He'll let you supply your own needs. He'll let you work and slave and worry. Or he'll supply a golden egg a day. God is able to supply his children in the midst of any kind of circumstance, any kind of economy and anywhere in the world. You're going to have to deal with the issue of money. You may not think being at Bethany that you will, but it'll probably be more difficult for you than it will for many in other Bible schools where they must pay their tuition and have their meal tickets every day in the cafeteria. My oldest son, Rowan, had to meet the issue of money when he was in four years in Ontario Bible College. He had $1,500 a year to pay for his tuition. And then he had to have a meal ticket every day. And he said, I learned to trust God for money. Along came Christmastime one year and he had to have his semester's tuition paid by Christmastime or couldn't come back for the second semester. And he owed $50. And one of his friends came to him and said, Rowan, when are you going to start doing something about your tuition? He says, I am. I'm praying. And he said, when are you going to start doing something practical? He said, what could be more practical than praying? We were on our way down and as we were visiting an old lady on the way down, she gave us an envelope to give to him and had $50 in it. He went all through four years like that. There in the mission field, he said, we have never from the time we learned to trust him had to worry as long as we're willing to go on the supply just at the time when it was needed. The golden egg a day. How many of us let covetousness, the lack of faith enter in. You are going to need money and you're going to need the right attitude about money. And you're going to need to know, even if you are working under an organization who provides your food and provides your transportation, you're going to need to have the right attitude about money or covetousness will come in and it'll ruin you. We had a president of the Bible school where I attended and he used to in pastoral theology, drill it into our minds. He said, young men, he said, the enemy will get you on one or two areas. If you do not walk with God, he'll either get you through immorality or through the love of money. And how true it is. How many servants of God have fallen through the love of money as well as through falling into immoral sins, raising and maintaining sufficient support is a spiritual issue for a missionary. Settle the issues about money in your prayer closet. I remember getting a letter from Perryman in England a few years, number of years ago, I guess it is. And he said, I just had to face it one day. I didn't have enough money to do what I thought God wanted me to do. Now, God intends that you do have enough money to do his will. We ought to regard people not as those who can help us, but as ones that God motivates one way or the other. Be careful of your attitude of expecting things from people. It's wrong to expect things from people. You notice it as you, you'll learn it as you go around as a missionary. And some churches are rich and they won't give you enough to pay your gas to get there. Uh, my wife and I went to a place one time and traveled a couple of hundred miles to get there and to go back. And, and, uh, after ministering there and showing slides, they took up a nice collection and they, then they voted on what they do with it and they sent it to Africa. And, uh, we didn't have enough money in our gas tank to go back. You must watch your attitude and say, amen, that wasn't the goose. And, uh, you have to be careful of your attitude towards people because the Lord is the one that's providing. Uh, we, uh, always remind our missionary candidates that they are responsible also to be thankful to those who provide their needs. And remember too, that money is just a means to an end. It is necessary, but it is not the end. It's not something to keep. It's not something to hang on to. Money in this world was made for one reason to spend, right? You're going to walk on it in heaven. You're not going to spend any money in heaven. Might as well spend it. Spend it wisely, but spend it. I had a millionaire tell me, he said, my sons have all the money they need. Both of them, he said, and my wife and I decided we're going to spend all our money before we die. I said, wonderful. Boy, you know, that go a long way. Okay. Point number one. That was a long introduction, wasn't it? Tithing. Do you know anything about it? Tithing is the way to start to learn to give. Now, why do I talk about giving when I talking about money? Because if you don't know how to give, you will never know the joy of God's giving you. Missionaries have to learn how to give. You have to be generous. Tithing is a fixed law of the universe. All you have to do is read about Eden. It began a way back there. The 10th belongs to God. Malachi 3.8. We can't afford to touch the 10th. And I don't think it only means money. Tie tithing your time. Try giving God two hours and 40 minutes a day for devotion and prayer and praising and rejoicing and see if he doesn't bless you and pour into the store out of your, of your heart blessings. Hail and drought and grasshoppers worms consume one 10th of all farmers crops today. Would that lead you to the conclusion that not all farmers are tithing? God will get his 10th one way or the other. Israel spent 70 years in Babylon paying back what they owed God. Remember it belongs to him. It's not that you're giving him something. It's simply giving his share. Because since you're redeemed by the blood and the old Testament, the blood owned everything it purchased, it claimed what it cleansed. And you can't claim cleansing without the ownership of God being stamped upon you. And that means your money too. Learning to give is a great lesson. Learning to give to people who can't repay. Learning to give to those who you know aren't going to pay back. When I was in Brochet, the first, uh, second mission station we were in, the Lord taught us how to give. He was pushing this verse down into us. Give! Luke 6.38. Give! Hoping for nothing in return and men shall give to you. Press down, shaking together and running over. I had misinterpreted that verse because I thought it meant that the ones you gave to would give back to you. They'd pay it back and say, I'm so glad you gave it to me. Here it is back again and twice as much. That isn't what it means at all. It doesn't necessarily mean the same person will give back to you at all. Someone else. Uh, I can remember when the Lord was pushing this down into me, he said, give some of our missionaries. It said, don't bother giving to the Indians because then they won't come back because they'll feel they owe you money and you'll lose friends. But the Bible said to give. So I thought I would listen to God instead of to the missionaries. And I had three barrels of gasoline and Indians started coming to borrow my gasoline and, uh, I loaned it and I had a little book. I think I still have it. I wrote down, uh, Albert Deneganaza, five gallons of gas, Louie Denechetta, uh, 10 gallons of gas, Eugene Bononi, three gallons of gas. And, uh, every time they came, I give, I said, Lord, I'll give it all away. You'll see. We won't have any gas for our washing machine and for our gas light and for upward motor or for our skidoo. And we won't be able to travel. And I gave and I gave and I gave till I give a 90 gallons away. And I only had 45 gallons left. And, uh, we didn't have much of that because it was winter time and we were using it for our gas line and for our washing machine and for the iron, the iron, everything ran on gas and our light plant. And then the spring came and the ice just broke in the lake. And I went across the lake to a fish camp. The man wasn't a Christian. He wasn't, he was practiced black magic to be true. He was a Laplander. And, uh, when I come over there the second time I came along and he said to me, uh, Hey, uh, we, we like you to come over here. He said, you don't need to ever buy gas when you come over here. He said, and bring your can and bring a big can and fill it up every time you come. And so for the next four years, I took my big can and I filled it up and I filled up my tank and my outboard motor. And I filled up the tank in my skidoo and all the time in those four years were there. He, this guy poured back into my tank, the gas that the others had taken out and God poured back in. And I don't, I didn't count it, but I'm know it was two or three times more than 90 gallons. The same was true of food. They would come to borrow food. My wife, uh, on one occasion ran a store right next door to us. It was called the brochet trading post. It wasn't much of a trading post. It was a log cabin. You could buy anything from beach balls to moccasins, and you could, uh, put your quarter in the jukebox and she'd go out and crank up the light plant and, and give you a song. And my wife run that one, uh, fall while the lady was out. It was a Ukrainian lady ran this trading post. And she, my wife said, well, what's the price and all this stuff? She said, Oh, just what you think. Boy, was there ever a sale on? She didn't think some of the stuff was worth very much and she sold it quite cheaply. But the Indians would come in and want to get debt and debt means credit to them so they could go to their trap lines. And because the lady had told my wife not to give them debt, she would take them home to our place. And out of our year's supply of things, she would be giving them out to the Indians. And so we ran out of, uh, groceries. And so we said, Lord, our groceries are just about all gone. We'll have to get some. So, uh, we went out to Lynn Lake where Dick Linder was ministering at the time. We bought some groceries and how are we going to get it in? And along came this Laplander again, this man that practiced black magic. And he came and he, he filled up a whole Norseman full of groceries and he flew it right in way past his fish camp, landed it right at our place and unloaded it. How wonderfully God gives when you learn how to give. Luke 3, 638, give be generous. Proverbs says the generous soul shall grow fat. Maybe we don't want to grow fat today, but, uh, it was a Bible expression of having plenty. All right. Point two, beyond the tithe. Tithing is a good way to begin how to give, but if you only know how to tithe, you don't know how to give. After a while, tithing stops you from giving properly. After you've learned, I can remember when we used to tithe, we'd put our, get our a hundred dollars a month as missionaries and we'd put a $10 in that jar. And when the $10 was given, that's all we could give. Sorry, Lord, your jar is empty. And, uh, then we found out that you don't have to have money to love it. Luke 16, remember the Pharisees, they scoffed at Jesus when he told them the story about make yourself be careful about the mammon of riches. First Timothy 6.10, Hebrews 13.5, keep yourselves free from the love of money. And I thought you, you only rich people love money, but there's a great number of missionaries who have problems because they love money. And it's terrible to see poor people in love with money and missionary should deal with it. It's not enough just to say, oh, that won't happen to me. You must set it right before you on your altar at prayer time and say, Lord, I choose to take the money you give me and claim all the money I need, but never to love it. It's a hopeless thing to love. You start loving money and you'll get like money, hard or crinkly. I learned a lesson at Churchill. Oh, then, you know, the mission field is a great place to learn lessons. When you get out there all by yourself, particularly if there's no telephone and, and no communications and you really need some help and, and, uh, and you can't go to brother so and so, and you can't get back to the Bible school, then, then all you got left is heaven. Isn't that too bad? All we got is the source. And so we can go to the source and we can learn things. And I had to learn something. I started, I heard a testimony from a missionary that they don't tithe anymore. They gave everything to the Lord. And when the money comes in, they use what they need and they give what the Lord wants to him. I said, oh, that doesn't sound very good to me. And then I read about, um, David Brainerd, David Brainerd, uh, dying down there in the bush of the new England states of tuberculosis, wrestling against those powers of darkness. Didn't even know what he was up against. He was able to say, I gave three quarters of my allowance this month to the needy, to the Lord's work. And I thought, how could he do that? And then I read, uh, F.B. Meyer's testimony, how he had learned that tithing was a hindrance to giving after you'd learned how to give. And he said he gave everything to the Lord. Then along came a fellow missionary. He says, oh no. He said, uh, and this fellow missionary, uh, looked like he lived, uh, lavishly seemed to have new stuff in his home, new tape recorder, new table, new chairs, and, and new clothes. But, but then he just seemed to give it away when he left. And, and, uh, so one day I said, all right, Lord. Uh, and I said to my wife, we're not going to tithe anymore. We, when our allowance comes, we're not going to put $10 in there. We're going to lay the whole hundred dollars on the, on the desk and say, Lord, this, it's all yours. If we need some, we'll take it. And if you need some, you can have it. We're, we're, we're as much yours as, as the 10th provided us, uh, reaching the conclusion that, uh, I belong to him too. So the entirety belonged to him. So we gave it to God and, uh, refused to hang onto things. You know, that is a deeper work in your heart than you might think. It's a deeper work to, to get rid of these earthly things than you might think at the start. Peter, 2nd Peter 3.10 talks about the earth and the works they're in going to be burned up. And that includes, certainly includes money. Well, we, uh, we said, all right. And do you know that that first year, that very first year that we gave away more than what we kept to keep us running. And that same year we got a new typewriter and we got a new engine for the, for our motor toboggan. And we got a new track and we got some more stuff to go around it. And I don't know what else new we got, but how do you explain that you don't because, uh, you're just jumping into the circle of God's supply. And we went from egg Christians to golden egg Christians. And the supply was always enough for every need. There is giving beyond the tithe and you have to learn about it. And this is what it is, pressed down, shaken together and running over. And you'll find when you go on to this kind of living. Now you have to learn this. God will lead you to it in his own time, but there is giving beyond the tithe. So many of our missionaries and, uh, have a miserable attitude, a poverty stricken attitude. Uh, Russ Broadhead, who is with the mission that Dick Linder used to be with, uh, needed an airplane or said he needed an airplane. I don't know anything about that, but, uh, he told the Lord he wanted an airplane and, and he ordered one brand new mall someplace down in, uh, Nebraska. And so the, after about a year, the company wrote to him or wired to him and said, your airplane is ready. And he had been trusting in his, the inheritance that came from his mother's, uh, will, uh, to provide for down payment on an airplane. Well, inheritance got all tangled up and it came out zilch. There was nothing, nothing to it. And he said, wow, I don't have any money. And so he headed for Nebraska anyway. And we got down there and just before he went to the factory to pick up his aircraft, uh, a farmer said to him, uh, say, uh, you sent in a letter that you were going to get an aircraft. He said, do you have any money? Well, he said, uh, not really. So he said, how much is it going to be? Well, I said, I'm getting 10% off. He said, so it'd be $21,000. The farmer said, okay. So he took him to the bank and the farmer borrowed $21,000, gave him a check for $21,000. And they went out and paid cash for the mall. And it's sitting up there, right? And, uh, uh, one of the farms right by cold Lake. He said, I had promised the Lord I would get rid of a, of a poverty attitude. I can remember coming to conference with a new pair of yellow boots, Kodiak boots, and a missionary saying to me, how can a missionary have new boots? I said, I asked the Lord for them. He gave them to me. You know, you can have a lot of things and you can have a lot of nice things. If you don't have any hold on them, it's always amazing in our house. And we get something new, how the Lord lets there get a scratch in it or a dinge in it or something in it, just to put his mark on it. And, uh, my wife got a new vacuum cleaner and, uh, I was using it. Of course, the Lord isn't careful sometimes who he uses to put his mark on things. And I said, the Lord has his mark on your vacuum cleaner. She said, she didn't say anything. She getting used to it now, not to me doing it, but there's always a mark on it. She had a new washing machine one time and it sat in Churchill for a whole year. We didn't have any power while she scrubbed on the scrub board and I helped her wring it out. And then long came the time when we got some power over across on some two by fours and, and we laid the washing machine down on the floor to put the casters on it. And there was just one stone in the whole house and the washing machine laid on that little pebble and made a nice little round seal right on the side of it. And so we knew it belonged to the Lord. How good it is to use all these things and remember to whom they belong. Number three, praying for finances. God has promised that you should have enough for every need and for every good work. And we shouldn't only have enough for our needs. You know, we should have enough to give people something when we need it. Oh, it's good to be able to give. It's a wonderful ministry and missionaries can enter into that mission ministry of giving, but we should have enough for every need. And we shouldn't go around the country looking like we didn't have enough because God can provide. Dr. Hooper, our Dean in Bible school, he's a missionary that was in the revivals back in the early days in Ethiopia. He said he used to tell about the ladies used to come into his office and be fingering her their threadbare coat and say, yes, we're just living on faith, you know? No, that, that isn't the golden egg type of living, is it? I was, but at the same time, God can give you things wonderfully well that, uh, seem to fit all right and, and, and just provide. When I came to Bethany last night, the most expensive thing I had on was my tie. Uh, somebody had given me my jacket and somebody gave him my vest and I got the shirt for 15 cents down in, uh, World Visions in Toronto. And, uh, the same thing. And God says you'll have enough for every need. And he, uh, is careful sometime that you learn humility and getting it. And you can get some wonderful things from the missionary barrel that fit right in. Uh, however, I went to Beth, I went to, uh, Wheaton two years ago to their Mission Emphasis Week and they sent out a letter on how to dress and they said, please, no clothes from the missionary barrel. We don't want our missionaries to look dowdy. We want them to look like the Lord can provide. Of course, they don't know the missionary barrel has really improved in these last two or three years. God has promised that. Therefore, you need to go into his presence and say, my father, I need something. And I related to you, I think two years ago about when I was coming to your missionary conference here two years ago and I needed a suit. So the Lord and I went shopping in Lloydminster and we bought a real nice suit. It's not, it's not very bright with today's fashion, but two years ago it was quite bright. And, uh, and he arranged that I had enough money that I'd made a mistake. So I had enough money left to pay for it. And so God has promised that we should claim. Kenyon, who has written several books, but one entitled New Creation Realities said, I belong to God. And he said, I, uh, I rely on the fact that if he has committed to me, his, his business, and I am his servant, then I have every right to use his resources so that when I have a need, I just say, Lord, send some of your spirits out and get me this. I need it. Oh, you know, we live so far beneath our potential as children of God, praying for these things as well as God's promise. And as well as asking God for the things you need, there is spirits of, there are spirits of finance that do several things. They discourage you from asking. They tie up Christian money in all sorts of harebrained activity. Uh, then there's something else you have to, uh, as well as God's promise. And as well as asking God for the things you need, there is spirits of, there are spirits of finance that do several things. They discourage you from asking. They tie up Christian money in all sorts of harebrained activity so that more money is available for the Lord's work. Then you have to be in prayer for those who are supporting you and say, Lord, deliver them from the spirits of finance would cause them to go into all kinds of financial ventures, which would use up their money and tie up their money, which won't make it available for the work. And so you can pray for your supporters that way. Uh, we were in prayer at one time in the North. We needed an airplane and we were asking the Lord to supply the money for a new one 80 or a one 80. It wasn't a new one. And as we were praying, our prayers were reaching out in every direction. And they reached down to a place called Wellesley, Ontario, where a Christian businessman was just in the process of spending several thousand dollars to buy a new piece of land and to start new investment. And when the prayers, uh, start falling around him, uh, from heaven, they go up heaven and back, you know, uh, then, uh, he said to his wife, what are we buying this land for? We don't need this. And he said, we don't need more work. We're busy enough. He said, we just might get all tied up in this new venture and I might have a heart attack and, and I might die and leave you with it. We might as well, uh, not spend that money. And then came the letter telling him about the need of an airplane. And they said, Oh, that's where they need the money. And so your prayers can keep your Christian supporters from tying up their money foolishly and not only tying it up foolishly, but getting it loosed in all sorts of ventures. Uh, Canadian Bible college yesterday, as day before yesterday, he took me on a tour of the new buildings that they're putting up to house the new students that are coming in. They said, now it's being paid for in rather a funny way. Someone gave us a lot of land away down in California, which we have to sell. So we have enough money to build up here, but they prayed that egg loose down there. And, uh, this is the way you have to do it when you're praying and spirits of the devil tie up Christians and all sorts of, of enterprises, keeping their money tied up. And this is an active part of missions. Um, so when I was a young missionary, I'd only been on the mission field. Oh, for a few years. And it was before or rather around the very same time that we were learning about money. And, uh, there was an old lady that used to come. Uh, I think she's Laura's grandmother, Mrs. Somerville. Is that right? Laura, where are you? Is she right? She's Laura's grandmother. Oh, she was one of the prayer warriors that got Northern Canada evangelical mission rolling. She used to pray and, oh, she got things going coming up on the bus one time from battlefield. And when I had taken a 900 mile trip to get to conference hitchhiked all the way, I was riding the bus the last way. And she was on the bus and a bunch of other missionaries going to conference. And she had just learned this song. Um, how great thou art. It was new to me. And she was insistent that I teach it to the missionary. So she, uh, insisted that while we were riding on the bus, we learn it. And when she started shaking her long finger in your nose, uh, then you, you responded and maybe Laura's had this happen, but, uh, uh, I can remember one summer and we were meeting in a tent and our dining hall was in a tent and I was talking to her about money and she backed me up against the middle pole of the tent. And she came real close with her blue eyes and her finger. And she said, young man, until you learn to pray and overcome the demons of finance, you'll never have enough money. I never forgot that I entered into a, uh, a warfare and I've always had enough money. I don't always have money, but I always have enough. You know, if you've used up the golden egg from the day before, you might not have one at the moment, but there always be there when you need it. And, uh, I don't have any money in my pocket, any coins. You know why? Bill, Bill Jackson is a fellow on our mission and he was lecturing. He's an Indian. And we get him to talk to us sometime at conference about how, uh, what things we're doing wrong to the Indians. Well, he said that when we're speaking to them, he said, well, the first thing you're doing wrong, he said, when you stand up in front of an Indian audience to preach, he said, you should never jingle the coins in your pocket because they're not listening to what you say. They're thinking how much they can borrow from you after the service. And, uh, I don't keep any jingling coins in my pocket. So the spirits of finance or something you're going to have to deal with they're in the world and you have to deal with them. And there's enough for yourself and enough to give to the saints. After we had learned to start giving, we had moved to another mission field down in the Arctic at the time. And I had sold the boat and motor when I left Brochet and I had about $400 in the bank. We had paid our way down there and we had a little bit of money. And I came out to conference. And when I was in conference, uh, the Indian Bible school at LAC, uh, Island Lake didn't have any food for that summer. And the Lord said, well, I need that money. And, uh, so I just wrote him a check for it because we had made the agreement that if he needed, he could have it. If I needed, I could have it. We don't bother about worrying whether we've done the tithe or overcome the tithe and not had the tithe. The Lord and I have it together, you see. And if I need it, I can have it. And he wants it. He can have it and he needed it. So I gave it to him. And, uh, and my wife said, Hey, when I came home, we had Rowan in high school at the time at Briarcrest. And he said, she said, we owe $800 for the tuition. He said, are you going to send a check for part of it? And I said, well, the Lord needed it. He took it. And, uh, but I gave it to him. I agreed with him. I mean, he didn't take it against my will, but at the same time, although we had paid all the money to go down there by that Christmas, we had his whole tuition paid and we had our whole year supply of groceries paid for. And I had enough money left over to, to put a down payment on a, on a motor toboggan to use down there in that area. Oh, how wonderful our God is when you are willing to walk along with him who provides the golden egg just as you need it day by day. And it helps to have a wife that knows how to pray too. All right. Number four, learning to receive gifts. Now it's a real difficult task for a lot of Christians, a lot of missionary kids who have to begin with earn their own money and then, uh, to turn around and have to live off the gifts of others. Of course, it's just pride because God is not, is giving you a gift. Even when you work for it, where did you get your strength and health and whose area you're breathing? And where did you get the talents you're using? Uh, so that it's, you should be able to say, thank you Lord for the gift too, but it becomes a real stumbling block in a lot of missionaries' lives to learn how to receive gifts. And in the portion in John 13, uh, Jesus, uh, told the, taught the disciples a real, uh, lesson. And it's the story about the washing of feet. And after supper, uh, Jesus rose from supper and he laid aside his garments, John 13, four, and girded himself with a towel. And he took off his garments, girded himself with a towel, and he poured water into a basin. Hey, that's the way he supplies, by pouring. And he began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel, which he was girded. And he came to Simon Peter and Simon Peter said, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? And Jesus said, what I'm doing now, you don't understand and don't know, but afterwards you will understand. All right. Peter had a little problem there. He was willing to wash other people's feet, but he wasn't willing to let somebody wash his feet. And there are two lessons in this section. One is to take care of the other person's need. And one is to let somebody else take care of your need. And that sweet Christian humility in which you do not need to make a great, uh, fanfare about somebody when they give them something you need. Oh, it's too bad you had to give this great gift and deny yourself. No, thanks. That's all. Thanks. Praise the Lord. I was expecting that. I knew God would provide my needs. Quiet humility. And it's pride that says nobody else can wash my feet. And it's a real lesson for some of you kids who may have come from a rich background or for able to provide your own means of finances. And you always have enough for your stamps and for your toothpaste and your shaving cream. Then to go out and, and you have to let some dear soul come along to you who has a lot less than you have and give you money that they have earned on a very difficult job. In Churchill, one time I was speaking on this subject in a prayer meeting or a morning service. And, uh, uh, the Sunday that was Sunday. That's right. On Monday afternoon, uh, I think Bill Linder was there then I'm in Wayne born and they were building a part on the Eskimo house where the Eskimo missionaries live. And they were pushing out the roof and making dormers. And I was home working on language. And along came one of the young kids with a note. And the note said, we have the roof off the dormer half in, uh, it's starting to snow and we're not going to get it finished. There's our feet come and wash them. And, uh, I was happy to lay my language work aside and go wash feet. You know, you, because that was a step in his life. And it's going to be a step in your life to let somebody wash your feet, receiving from the poorest. You see the reciprocating principle of body providing for other members of the body. Carlos Ortiz pointed out that a member of the body of Christ or a member of anybody does not just join to it. That's only part of it. But he says one member must supply nourishment to another member. And if you're not supplying nourishment to another you're a block and you're a dead piece and you're not a member, you're an artificial limb. And so there's that reciprocating action. And we should no more feel bound and in bondage to somebody who gives me a hundred dollars to help me about the Lord's work, or even to help me buy something that I need, or maybe something I just like any more than somebody should be, who receives the blessing from a message that I might give the reciprocating principle of the body of Jesus Christ. Stan Colley told me one time of a humbling experience in his life, how his support on over a hundred dollars each month was provided by a woman who was over 65 years old in Toronto, who went to offices and scrubbed floors all night long. And she lived on her pension and gave all she made to the missionaries. And he says, she lives in a one room, little cold water flat. And she has dedicated herself. Oh, he said, when I get that a hundred dollars and I know the long weary hours and I know everything I can just say, Lord, you'll have to reward her later on. And this is a wonderful thing to learn, to receive gifts, receiving it from the poorest. And then remember, don't look to rich people for gifts. They are supporting, but I have rarely received gifts from rich people. So what's your attitude. God is providing through dedication of his saints. I was at a, in a restaurant one time in Eastern United States city. And I was sitting there with five or six men, rich men. I think two or three of them were millionaires. We were having dinner together and my missionaries get in all kinds of different situations. You might eat a dried meat from a dirty pan and drink tea from a dirty cup with the Indians who are subjected to Satan. And you might eat in the best restaurant in the finest cities in our land with millionaires, but you're still belong to the King of Kings. One of those mysterious people that goes around. And there I was sitting with those guys and they were talking about a golf course they were building down in Florida. And one fellow says, well, I think we should pour another a hundred thousand dollars into that and make this and make that. And all the time I was concerned with only enough money to get back to Bethany. I had to speak here. I think at the time, this is about six years ago. And I didn't have enough money to pay my bus fare back here. And they threw all that money around and put some in that and put some in a trailer court someplace else. They paid for my dinner, but I didn't get enough money out of them to, to come back. Not that they wouldn't have give it to me. If I had asked them, they would have gladly, but rich people are not aware nearly. So a sensitive to the needs is as poor people are and they might help great projects. So watch your attitude towards rich people and millionaires in the United States are almost a dime a dozen. There are all kinds of them so that you're going to meet them all over the place, even in the Christian church. And why do you think they're millionaires? They're not giving them anyway. When people give you money and remember this, remember that when people give you money, they are sending part of their life to you. They have been at the job in the office or in the factory. And some of the people that support missionaries who walk around in the beauty of beautiful places on God's earth and breathe the fresh air and eat the nice succulent fish are supported by people who sweat eight and 10 hours a day. And they take that eight hours right out of their life and they transform it into money and they send it to you. And you receive that as the lifeblood of people that support you. It's their life. That's why they share in the rewards in heaven. That's why it's a joint effort. The people out there and the people here and the people there, the ones that are giving their life and they give just as much your life as you do or I do part of their life. God will add all these things to you. Number five, gratefulness. Be sure you're grateful, humanly grateful. It's nice to be thankful. God will reward them. I always tell people, well, the Lord will reward you at the resurrection of the just, according to the integrity of your heart when you gave it to me, but I'm grateful. Thank you. And you can't save money more than that. You don't need to pile it on. Be grateful by word. If you're a missionary on the field, be grateful by letter. Even you kids at school, you're going to get gifts. Make sure you write a letter because in that letter, you may be able to say something that meets their need. It's not just thank you for the gift, but God does speak and reveal more of a spiritual truth to people who are directly involved with giving out his spiritual truth than he does with people who are working with their body to earn money to support those people. That's the way the body works. One is the hard-working part of the body, like the heart, that provides strength for the tongue to talk and the brain to think. And God does that with his body. But make sure that you reciprocate back. And in that letter, you might not only thank them for the money, but you will also give them something to encourage them and say thank you for that eight or twenty hours that you have given to the field. It's part of the missionary venture. Make sure that you follow the instructions, too, of designated gifts. It's important to do that. It's important that you, as a missionary, too, that you visit the people that support you. We have a rule in our principles and practice that if your support drops off in the mission field, you have to retire from the field for a year and go do something about your support. And we consider it's a spiritual issue. And we found out one fellow that we sent back from the field that he hadn't visited supporters for about 10 years. And we said, go visit them. He went to visit them, and his support came right up. Certainly, you have to visit those and go back to those that are supporting you. Off the field for lack of support. It's a spiritual issue. Somebody wrote an article not long ago in the Prairie Overcomer, and he said, here are all these fine young people ready to go to the field, and you supporters aren't supporting them. I said, if these young people are so fine, their support would be coming in. They'd be out getting it, and they'd be out praying, and they'd be doing the work, and God still provides for the people he wants to go. Number six, debts. Aren't they great? You're in debt? Get out of debt. Oh, no man anything. It works. It's a policy of our mission. We won't go ahead unless we have the assurance of God that he's going to provide, and we don't go into debt and the kind of debt that are binding. You know, debts really come from being covetous. What's covetousness? Jesus only lost one disciple, and he lost him through covetousness. Judas was good. He loved the Lord, and he didn't really mean to deny him. He didn't really mean that Jesus should get killed, because when he saw he was condemned, he thought he would escape like he did the time at at Nazareth. He thought he would escape like he did from the synagogue, and he thought he could make some money on the fact that Jesus could always get away when people tried to kill him. He didn't really know how deep covetousness had taken hold of his soul until he was destroyed. Watch covetousness. L.E. Maxwell said, I love to walk downtown in Edmonton and look at all the wonderful things I don't need. That's a good attitude when you look down. Say, look at all these things I don't need. Oh, be free, and if you're free in this matter of money, oh, God doesn't have any problem with things he wants to give you. He can give you new things and exciting things and electronic things as long as you're not hanging on to them. And then watch pledge buying. Listen to what Habakkuk says. He says, those who pile up pledges, who pile up things that are not their own, for how long? Then they'll be taken. Habakkuk 2, 6 and 7. I won't take time to read it. Missionaries have failed. We had a missionary one time that had to leave the field, and we didn't really know why. He just seemed to bog down and stop, and then became bitter. And when we finally found out, there were bills piled up all over the place we didn't know anything about. The cat train who took in his stuff, when the next missionary tried to go in, says, we won't take you in until you pay the bill of this other guy. The grocery store and all the oil companies, the bills, the bills were just piled up, pledge after pledge. Uh, he broke down spiritually. Watch the pledges and watch the debts. Keep freedom free. Keep free in these things. I'm not saying that you shouldn't buy a car on time. Sometimes God will let you buy some on different ways. You're not really in debt as long as you meet that monthly payment, but listen, watch that it's not a bondage. Make sure that everything like that you do is, is sought out with God. God has, uh, we have had to have, uh, six cars now in the years we've been out of the Arctic in seven years, seven cars in seven years. And, and each time he's done it differently, but never was there any burden. Uh, last year he gave us, somebody wrote me a check and it was cash and I didn't know it was coming. He canceled a holiday to the South America so he could give us that money. He said, I felt you have a need. And this last year he, uh, we, we borrowed some money from the bank and I didn't never worry. They just took it off her account and every month there was a golden egg in there to pay for that. And I didn't know where it came from. He'll do it differently, but remain free in these matters of money. Okay. Number, uh, seven, just a note of warning. There comes a time to refuse a gift. There comes a time to say, no, a gift with strings attached. A man came to me one time and he said, uh, now I know that in your mission, you get 10% off everything you buy from Eaton's. Now he said, I would like to buy some plywood to fix my house with. And he said, if you'll order it for me, he says the 10% that I save, I'll give it to you. Ooh, you could hear the hiss in that one. And, uh, I said, wait a minute. Uh, you're not giving anything. You'd have to pay the full amount anyway. And it would be illegal for me to do that because it's only open for, by the Eaton's company for missionaries of the Northern Canada evangelical mission. Watch gifts that bind you. Another man came to one of our missionaries and they gave him a check for $800. And he said, this is for the work for the Cree gospel broadcast. And he said, you know what this money is? He said, it's $800 that I usually pay the insurance company for my hail insurance for my crop. But he says, I'm giving it to you. Now he says, I expect you to pray. So my crop won't be hailed out. But the man says, look, I'll take your $800, but I won't guarantee your crop won't be hailed out. If you'll give it to me in that condition, I'll take it. He says, I'll pray, but I won't guarantee it. You've got to be careful. There are all kinds of people coming along and remember that the gifts that are given to you, people really are giving them to God. You should receive them from God and spend them that way. In conclusion, let me say that you should be able to have victory and joy in this. Now, if the hand that lays the golden egg lays at 10 o'clock today and doesn't lay until four o'clock tomorrow, it shouldn't cause you undue anxiety. Paul said, I have learned that in whatever state I am to be content. You know, that's a wonderful place to be. I have been places where I didn't have any money. I had to meet a certain payment, uh, airplane ticket or a bus ticket. And I said, Lord, wonderful. I haven't got the money. That means I got some time on my hands so I can go and do something else when it's all settled between me and God, the onus is on him, the responsibilities on the angels. He can figure out any way he wants to do it, but I remain free and freedom is the most wonderful aspect of the Christian life, particularly in regards to money, victory and praise and joy. When you don't have anything and humility and gratitude, when you have in abundance, let God teach you his lessons about money in an avaricious age, in an age of affluence, keep yourself free from the love of money, but do not be poverty stricken in the Lord's work. Hallelujah. Let's pray. Our father. We remember the day when Jesus sent a disciple to a fish and got enough money to pay a tax. And although he didn't have a home, although he didn't have enough clothing, although he didn't have a job, didn't have any income, you provided for your son, you provided him a grave and you provided him a cross and you provided him homes and you provided him meals and you did wonderful things. And Lord, we believe you intend to keep on doing that for your sons until Jesus comes, until we take the money that the earth has lusted after and coveted after and walk on it in the new Jerusalem. Bless these kids as they face these things in this world. Amen.