In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of giving and how it relates to receiving blessings from God. He quotes various verses from the Bible, including 2 Corinthians 8, Luke 6, and 2 Peter 1, to support his message. The preacher uses the example of Daniel in the book of Daniel, who discovered a promise from God and responded by fasting and praying. He also shares a personal story about a young man who was prompted by God to give his savings to a missionary in India. Overall, the sermon encourages listeners to give generously and trust in God's promises of abundance.

There's no shortcut to spirituality. There's no shortcut to spiritual power. If you've missed the cross, you've missed it all. John 12 24 says, except a kernel of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. That is, it's fruitless. It's just one, and it stays one. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. And it's as simple as that. If I'm not willing to die to myself, I'm not willing to die to sin, then I must be willing to live with a fruitless life, because there's no other way that I can be fruitful in the service of God, except by dying to myself, so that Jesus Christ can live his beautiful life through me. He still called, you know, long after he was raised from the dead and ascended back to heaven, he was called in the book of Revelation the faithful and true witness, and he's still that today. He's the one that wants to witness through you and I. But sometimes we're so in control of our own lives that Jesus Christ cannot effectively share his truth, his gospel, through us. So unless I'm willing to die, I can do what I want. There's no shortcut. There's no simple five-minute or twenty-minute program. It's impossible. The Bible says, A faithful man shall abound with blessing. Ever notice that verse? Hey, that's beautiful. You want to abound with blessing? Then you'll have to be faithful. I'll have to be faithful in walking with God. I'll have to be faithful in the will of God, faithful in reading the word of God, faithful in prayer, faithful in sharing Christ. A faithful man shall abound with blessing. All right then, the wagons represent the promises of God. Dr. Herbert Locke here has written a series of books. One of them is on the promises of God, all the promises in the Bible. I haven't read the book, but I have the book. I've gone through it in part, and he was saying that there are over 8,000 promises of God to his people. Now, they're not all direct promises that God said, Thus saith the Lord, and I'm making a promise to you. They're not all that definite, but there may be just a simple statement, and we can take that to ourselves. We can make a promise out of something without in any way violating the sense of Scripture. And I'll explain that as we go along. So we have all these promises. Standing on the promises of Christ my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring. Am I standing on them? Do I understand them? We Christian people are called, in Romans 9 and in Galatians 4, we are called children of promise. The children of the promise are counted for the seed, that is, for the seed of God. In Hebrews chapter 6 we are called the heirs of promise. God wanted to show to the heirs of promise the immutability, the unchangeableness of his own promises. He wanted to show us the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel. So we are the children of the promise, we are heirs of promise. Now, Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 1, we have to look at the third as well as the fourth verse, according as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these, by these, these exceeding great and precious promises, you and I might become partakers of the divine nature. How by these? You know Daniel, a prophet, Daniel was reading the book of Jeremiah one day, it says so in Daniel chapter 9, and suddenly he was startled almost out of his sandals to discover that God had said that he was going to accomplish exactly 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem, and he did some rapid calculations and he realized the 70 years were up. So what did he do? He took it as a promise, and he went to prayer, he fasted, he prayed, he put ashes on his head, he took off his clothes and put on sackcloth, he cried to God, he confessed his sin, he knew that God had made a promise that 70 years was all it would take. Now he says, God hear, God not, God do. Oh God, cause your face to shine on your sanctuary and on your city. What did he do? He took the promise that God had made and he pled the promise back to God. That's what's meant by standing on the promises. In Ezekiel chapter 36, God was speaking about the nation Israel again, and there were 10 different things that God said that he was going to do for them, and every one of them was a promise. All right, sometimes people think, well, if God made a promise, it's a kind of an arbitrary thing. It'll definitely happen, no matter what goes on, it'll happen. You know what God said in that chapter? I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. The promises have to be pled back to God. I have to take this promise, whatever it is, covering whatever need there might be in my life or somebody else's life, and I have to bring that promise back to God and say, now God, you said this, and I believe it, and that settles it. That's what prayer is. Prayer is pleading the promises of God back to God, and believing that what God has promised, he is able also to perform. That's prayer. Now this means that I need to know what the promises are. I very believe there's a promise to cover anything that may ever happen in life. You know, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. There's a promise. You aren't going to stay in your problems forever. God has promised we'll get out, but the faster we plead a promise of that kind, the faster we'll likely get out again. But there's no excuse for a Christian not knowing the promised book, the Bible. What a blessing to have a book that came from God. He declares unto man what is his thought in the Bible. Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be in the Bible. In the volume of the book it is written of me, Jesus Christ. What book? The Bible. And here are the promises of God. And they are very dear people and a million dollars in the bank, because behind every promise stands an unchangeable God of truth, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. Do you believe him? That's the problem facing us, that many of us only believe him in a meeting, but not when we're going through the trials of life. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. We don't like to hear that. Whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father chastens not? But if you be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are you illegitimate children and not sons? Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of Spirits, and live? For they verily chasten us for a few days after their pleasure, but heed for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous nevertheless afterward it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby. But I'll tell you people, we need to have the promises of God. There's all kinds of Christians that crack up when they go through problems because they don't know what the promises are. They don't, if they do know some of the promises, they don't know they're supposed to plead them back to God in faith and prayer. And they don't seem to understand that God responds when his people come and bring the promises to him. He made them, and he made them for us. And he stands behind them one thousand percent, and he never fails those that trust in him. All right, let's look at some of the promises tonight, shall we? Maybe you're here tonight, maybe you're not a Christian, you're not sure that your name is written in God's book. If you were called out of this world tonight, you don't really know where you would go. Here's a promise for you. Found in Romans chapter 10, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Believe it? I said something like that in the morning service one time. Matter of fact, I was, I spoke something about Revelation 3, 19 and 20, where the Lord Jesus Christ said, as many as I love, I rebuke and chase and be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with me. And then I said, now you may be sitting down here this morning and you're not God's child, you know you're not born again, you don't have Jesus living in your heart, but you can have. I said, why don't you right now just bow your head before God and invite the Lord Jesus to enter your heart. At the door, a lady, probably in her 60s, she came up and grabbed my hand and said, oh pastor, I did it. I said, what did you do? I said, she said, I did what you said, and he came into my heart. And she's walked with God ever since. And it can happen to you. Talk to the Lord, invite him to come into your heart, into your life, become your savior. If you are tired of the load of your sin, let Jesus come into your heart. If you desire a new life to begin, let Jesus come into your heart. Just now, your doubtings give o'er. Just now, reject them no more. Just now, throw open the door. Let Jesus come into your heart. He promised, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him. That is, we'll have fellowship together and he with me. All right? That's concerning salvation. Sanctification. Here's a good thought. It's not exactly a promise, but this is one of these things that you can take and plead back to God as a promise. Paul said, and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful as he that calls you, who also will do it. So while it's not exactly a promise, it's a kind of a thing that I can take as a Christian, and I can plead it back to God, and I can say, God, you said in 1 Thessalonians 5, that you wanted me to be sanctified wholly. Therefore, God, do it for me. And I can trust him to do that for me. I can look at the prayer of Jesus in John 17. It's not a promise, but I can make a promise out of it. He was praying, Father, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Or I could look at something Paul said in Ephesians 5, that Christ also loved the church and gave himself forth that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. Then as a preacher, and any preacher could do this, I can take that and make a promise out of it and say, oh God, every time I open my mouth, sanctify and cleanse the church with the washing of water by the word. And God will do it. God will do it. So we pray before every meeting, God speak to every person in that meeting. And he does it. He does it. And your conscience bears me witness that it's so. All right. Forgiveness. You know, some people, they can't accept God's forgiveness. They read about it. They think it's a glorious truth, but they can't accept it for themselves. They allow the devil to rob them of years of joy and peace and fruitfulness by constantly thinking about some of the bad, perhaps vile things they did in the past. Jesus Christ said, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto the sons of men. I have to believe that. That's a promise. Having forgiven you all trespasses, that's a promise. First John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a promise. I can believe it. And when I take my stand on promises of this kind, I have peace. And God does what he said he would do. But he waits for my faith to respond to his promise. And that's where many of us fail. You're concerned about your family. Well, I have five children and eight grandchildren. I'm concerned about mine, too. Any promises we can think of? Oh, a lot of us would think of that promise in Acts chapter 16, and it's a great one. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. Now that's a promise that God gave us. Can I not take that promise and plead it back to God on behalf of my children, my family? Yes, I can. And I know another one, Isaiah 44. Listen carefully. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon your seed and my blessing upon your offspring. And, oh, you know what people say? Well, yeah, I know God's done that. He's poured a blessing. He's poured his Spirit on my children, but they just haven't responded. I say, all right, let's go on then. And they shall spring up as among the grasses, willows by the watercourse. What about that? That has to do with your children responding to God's Holy Spirit. And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the watercourse. Don't let the devil have one of your children. They're meant for God. They're meant for heaven. And even if the devil has them now, believe that God will get them out of his power. Because he can. I remember I knew a godly woman. She was a godly woman, but her husband was terribly backslidden. None of her family seeking God. And she was praying, oh God, do something great in my family. And then she was horrified one day to discover that her two oldest boys, one was 21, one was 19, that they were both drinking liquor. And this drove her right to the throne of God. And, oh, she began storming heaven day and night. God, she cried, do a miracle in my family. She pled the promises. It just happened to be my privilege to be there the night it happened. One of the boys came forward in the meeting, received Christ, 19 years old. Then he said to me, let's go and get my brother Abe. Abe was up in the balcony. So the two of us went up there and we got Abe. And then the two boys said, okay, Pastor, you come home and talk to dad. And I said, oh no. I knew their dad was really a tough hombre. This was the first year I was out preaching. I don't know much now after preaching 40 years almost, but I didn't know much then, I'll tell you. I said, well, you know, it's 10 o'clock. Oh, dad doesn't go to bed till 12. So I was really trapped. And so in great fear and trembling, I went down to the house and we walked in the front door and the father was sitting there reading a newspaper. And when we three of us walked in, we stood by the door looking at him and he put the newspaper down. He looked at his one boy. He looked at the other boy. He never even looked at me. And he turned and folded the newspaper and he turned and dropped on his knees and began to pray. And there was a girl sitting over here reading a book. And the old book began going like this. And I went over there and she got on her knees and began to seek the Lord. And there was another girl over here and she began to cry. And the mother came into the room and she started clapping her hands. And she began jumping up and down and she was crying, I pray for a miracle. And God said, Fr. McLeod, there's two more upstairs. Go and get them. Oh, boy. I went up the stairs about four at a time and there was two boys, 15 and 16. They were sleeping in the hallway and they'd heard what was happening down yonder. They were already on their knees praying when I got there. The whole family came into the kingdom of God that night. I think three of them turned out to be missionaries. One of them an outstanding missionary in South America today. But a godly mother pled the promises back to God. She wasn't about to let the devil have her family. He had them, but not for too long. She got them all back. Dear people, no Christian parent ought to allow his children to stay in the devil's power. It may not happen overnight, but it will happen. Mark my words. If you believe God, listen again, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your seed and my blessing upon your offspring and they shall spring up as among the grass as willows by the watercourse. Believe God. Plead that promise back to him in the one in Acts chapter 16. God will do it for you. Are you worried about finances? You know, a lot of Christians, they just worry and they fret a life away. They never really get going for God because they're so worried about all these nasty things that are going to happen. You know, 99% of the things you worry about never take place. Did you know that? I'm 61 years of age. I can tell you, 99% of them never happen. So why bother casting all your care upon him? For he cares for you. That's the antidote you see. Finances? Very simple. Proverbs 3 says, honor the Lord with your substance, that's with your capital, and with the firstfruits of all your increase, so shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with new wine. So somebody's sitting down there saying, oh yeah, Bill, but that's the Old Testament. Okay, let's hop over to the new, shall we? Luke chapter 6. Jesus said, give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet with all or give, it shall be measured to you again. You don't have because you don't give. I mean, that's what Jesus Christ taught in Luke chapter 6. So if you don't have, the thing to do now is to give. Let me give you a little example from Saskatoon recently. I showed a film on India. I pointed out a man on this movie film named Daniel Abraham. You can't forget a name like that. A man that God is greatly using, and a man that has a tremendous vision for God, but he lacks money. And there was a young man sitting down there. He had $1,000 in the bank. Well, actually not quite $1,000. He was short a little bit, and he needed that to go to university and to pay tuition and to look after a place to stay, because his parents had moved out of Saskatoon to British Columbia. So he was nursing back and earning more, trying to put it all together. And the Lord said, I want you to give your money. I want you to empty your bank account and send it to Daniel Abraham in India. And he did. Do you know what that kid did by faith? He wrote a check for $1,000 when he never even had it. Then he knew within a short period of time that cash, that check was going to be cashed. Lord, please, Lord, I did it because you asked me to. And do you know what the Lord did? Before the check was cashed, the Lord sent in more than enough money to cover the check. And you know what the Lord did beyond that? A fellow from our church in Saskatoon who didn't know about this at all, he came to this kid and he said, my wife and I have been praying about some special ministry for God, and the Lord told us that we're to take you into our home as our son, and we'll pay all the bills for the next 12 months. Oh, isn't that just like the Lord? That kid was so excited to listen when he saw what God had done. All right, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give into your bosom. For if the same measure that you give, it'll be measured to you again. If you're lacking, it's because you're not giving. There may be some other factors, but basically that's it. Listen to 2 Corinthians chapter 8, where Paul said this. He said, he that sows sparingly, and he's talking about giving, he that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly. In other words, you'll get what you give. He that sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man, according as he purposes his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, nor out of necessity. For the Lord loves a cheerful giver, not like some people that put a quarter on the collection plate, and then they sing, God be with you till we meet again. I heard a black preacher one time, and he was saying, you know, he said, the Lord doesn't like those people that put nickels on the collection plate. Talks about it in the Bible. He says, the doctrine of the nickel lay it down, which thing I hate. Then he says, you know, these people that put coppers on the plate, he said, well, the Bible talks about that. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil, the Lord reward him according to his works. Well, he did violence to the context and the text of scripture as far as that's concerned, but it says, the Lord loves a cheerful, and that word cheerful, you may know, is the Greek word from which we get the English word hilarious. Are you a hilarious giver, or does it really, really break you to have to give a little extra to God? You know, if it really hurts you, don't do it. You might just as well keep it. God doesn't want it. People, he wants a hilarious giver. Oh, to thank God that I've got some money to give. I may not always have it. You know, it's easy to give away Billy Graham's money, and he doesn't have nearly as much as a lot of people think he has. He's on a straight salary. Some people think he's a millionaire. He is not. But it's easy to give away money you don't have. If I had a million dollars, boy, I'd give God about, well, I'd give him at least twenty thousand. You know, I'd want to build a cottage and build a house and get a van and a car and, well, I saw a seven thousand dollar boat and motor. Might even get me an airplane, but I'd sure give God at least twenty thousand. Big deal. It's like Jacob, you know, he said, Lord, if you'll do this and do this and do this and do this, then I'll give you a tithe of all I possess. Pray tell me, what would God Almighty want with a bunch of flea-bitten sheep and camels? This bargaining with God thing. Don't do it. God loves a cheerful, a hilarious giver. All right, if you're in trouble financially, the way to get out basically is just to give, because that's what it says. Finances. Let's forget about it. You know, in Matthew 6, 33, remember what it said? Seek you first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Listen, do you mind if I say this? I don't think five Christians in 100 really actually believe it. How do I know that? Because most Christians are worrying about tomorrow. How I'm going to pay the bills? How I'm going to do this? We're running short of money, just like God was dead or having it blown up or something. All right, honor the Lord and he'll honor you. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. It's a promise, isn't it? And all these things shall be added unto you. Pardon the personal reference here, but when I was first converted, shortly after this, I was called into the ministry and I went preaching. And the church promised they would pay me $10 a month. I got $30 every three months. That was my salary. And I thought this was fantastic. Then after six months, I found a girl as crazy as I was and we got married. So then two of us had to live on the same amount of money. And we tithed and we gave beyond the tithe, beyond a tenth, when we could and sometimes when we couldn't. And I'll tell you people, I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world to just to have seen the faithfulness of God. And when our kids were younger and I worked for the Shantyman's Mission and the salary was very tiny, $85 a month. And after four years, we're getting $125 a month. I mean, that was the total story. We had to pray everything in, I mean everything else in. And it used to be a game with the kids, what's Jesus going to send for breakfast? And when we'd get a suit that we prayed for and it was exactly my size, the kids' eyes got so big because, you know, the Lord knows the size too of your suits. It was just an education for them that they couldn't have gotten in any other way. And I just thank God for his marvelous faithfulness. He is faithful, the promise the Bible says. You're worrying about your health? What about the word of God? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. You say that in the Bible? Yes. It doesn't say you won't get them, but it says when you get them, he'll heal you. It does say that. And perhaps you remember how in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul said, God said through Paul, now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. Ever thought of that part, the Lord for the body? Sir John, verse 2. Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers. Why don't we believe the promise of God? I know sometimes God may want to heal me by an operation, or God may want to heal me through medicine, but I think oftentimes we're robbing God by not letting him do it in other ways. Any man sick, let him call for the doctor. No, it says let him call for the elders of the church. It doesn't say to go halfway across the continent to some big healer. Do you know why people like doing that? Because they don't want to appear before the elders, because the elders might begin to probe their heart, they might have to know about some problems in their life, but the healer doesn't know a thing about it, and they don't ask any questions. You know what it says in James chapter 5 in the context, confess your sins one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. That's all part of it. When I go to the elders to be prayed for for healing, then I have to confess if there's sins in my life, I need to be honest about them and confess them. And then it says the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. Health. We should never worry about it. God is with us. He lives in us, doesn't he? Yes, he does. You think he doesn't know about it? Certainly knows about it. And people say, why do I have to tell him? Because he said, let your request be made known unto God, that he knows all about it. In all their affliction, he was afflicted. He feels. And like the Bible says, he was tempted in all points like we are, yet without sin. All right, let's put that in the hands of God, too. Afraid of old age? You know, a lot of people are afraid of getting old. People told me, I remember a Christian lady said to me one time, she said, it's so horrible to get old. You know what some people do, even Christians, when they're old? They wake up in the morning, they count their pains. They got six pains, they only had five yesterday. And they, you know, and they phone up their friends. They say, you know, I counted my pains today and I have six. And I only had five yesterday. That's how some people live. What does the Bible say about it in Psalm 92, about the righteous? It says, they shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing. And it doesn't mean in pounds. And so we can expect, as long as we live upon earth, that God will use our testimony for his glory. I remember Dr. Brock. Remember, he was 85 years old and he was song leader for satyrs in Saskatoon. He never seemed to miss a meeting. And if the meeting went till two o'clock in the morning, some of them went till six, he was there. And he went someplace, you know, for meetings. I forget where it was, I think it was down in Selkirk, Manitoba. And here they put him in a house with some people. And he didn't like it there. He said, Hey, why don't you go and stick me in a house with those old people for they're 65 years old. He said, and they sit all day long with the blinds pulled out. Put me with the young people. Do you know what George Mueller said? And he died at the age of 93. He said, I have more physical stamina at the age of 80 than I had when I was 30, because I learned in the meantime how to trust God for strength. And he made 13 world tours after he was 70 years old. And a world tour in that time, it meant being on a boat, not on an airplane, maybe for three weeks or longer crossing the ocean. You know, it wasn't like it is today. That's what he said. Down at Mido, Saskatchewan lives old Sam Moser. I don't know if anyone here happens to know Sam Moser. You know, he used to be the town bootlegger, then God got him and he became the town witness. He was a barber. And while he was a bootlegger, it was a great connection, you know, because he had the liquor in the back of his little shop there and he was the only barber in town. So they all had to come to him. So the guys got there, they got their hair cut and they also got their hair cut in another way. Then Sam became a Christian and he became a fantastic witness for God. I asked him one time when he was about 80 years of age, I said, Sam, how many tracts did you give out last year? He said, I don't count them, I weigh them. I said, how many did you give out? Oh, it was about a quarter of a ton. The church in Midale, they had a birthday party for him last February. He was a hundred years old, still going strong, straight as a wall, eyesight, good hearing, he's alert. And when the revival came to Saskatoon in 1971, I went down to Midale. Remember he was probably, what, 93 years old then? And I spoke and he got to his feet and said, well, Pastor Bill, I think I need prayer. And he came marching up the front and knelt down in the whole church, probably the one who needed it the least, but he had such a tender conscience toward God. So people asked him, well, you know, what have you done? What kind of an exercise program do you have? Well, nothing particular. Well, what kind of an eating? What's your diet? Just like anybody else. And people are trying to find out the secret of longevity. Do you know what it is? He that hates covetousness prolongs his days. Did you know that was in the Bible? Are you a covetous person? You're going to wind up in the perhaps. Watch it. Do you honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou mayest live long on the earth? You don't honor your dad and mom, don't expect to have a long life. It's not promised to you except on that basis. Honor your father and your mother, no matter who they are. I knew a girl one time and her father was an alcoholic and her mother was a prostitute. She still had to honor them because they were instruments that God used to bring her into the world. It's not always easy to honor your dad and mom when they're not walking with God and they're not perhaps nice people. You still have to. And by doing that, God may make them into very nice people someday. You can believe him for that. Anna lived to a very great age, it says in Luke chapter two. Why did she live to be such an old person? Was it an exercise program? Was it diet? No, I'll tell you what it was. Her prayer life. She departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. There are so few people like that that God can't afford to let them die. I didn't tell you, but Sam Moser has a prayer list seven feet long and he prays for every name and organization on that prayer list every day. And I'm on that prayer list. I'm glad to know it. He prays for them until they die. All right. Afraid of old age. What am I afraid of? There's promises that cover it all. And I need to know, do you lack love? Here's a great thought in Romans 5, 5. The love of God is shed abroad. It's the same Greek here as in Acts chapter 10, where it says the Holy Spirit was poured out. It's poured out. So the love of God is poured out in my heart by the Holy Spirit who is given unto me. And every Christian has the Holy Spirit living within them, or he's not a Christian at all. So I can ask God then, it's not directly a promise, but I can make it into a promise without violating anything. God, you said this, that the Holy Spirit pours out your love in my heart. So do it in my life. If I'm willing to deal with sin and deal with self, God will do this. God will fill me with his love and I'll have enough love to take care of any problem that may come my way. I remember once down in Omaha, Nebraska, a lady gave a testimony. She was probably 24 or 25 years of age. Here's what happened. Her best girlfriend, who was married, stole her husband. She didn't know that this gal was making eyes at her husband and pretending to be her best girlfriend all along, and the two of them took off. And this girl hated that girlfriend of hers so deeply, it was just burning her life away. And in the promise of God, she was in some of the meetings and God spoke to her heart and she got all this bitterness. She got rid of it by the grace of God. Then you know what she did? She wrote a letter. She found out where they were living and she wrote a letter to her girlfriend and asked her girlfriend to forgive her for the horrible bitterness and hatred she'd felt. And she said, I just want you to know that I love you with all my heart. The gal got the letter and read it, jumped on the telephone phone long distance, and she was crying and she said to her former girlfriend, she said, you're asking me to forgive you. I should be asking you to forgive me. Please forgive me for what I did. And that whole problem was solved just like that. Beautiful. But you see, God had to fill her heart with his love, which God can do, and God did that for her. So winning, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weeps, bearing precious seeds, shall without doubt come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Galatians chapter 6 says, Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we are there for opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. You know, one of the big troubles in the average Christian's life is this, I'm in a hurry and God isn't. I expect God to do it all right now, and if God doesn't do it all right now, I can believe God for two days or maybe even a week. But oh God, if you don't get it done in a month, forget about it. We try to hurry God up instead of letting God do it in his own time and in his own way. Now it says of the Lord Jesus Christ that Jesus Christ was the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers, to confirm them, to ratify them, to make them better than cash in the bank. In Old Testament days the promises were there, but many of these promises were not theirs. It says they saw them, they were persuaded of them, they embraced them by faith, but they never really realized them until Jesus Christ came and then he confirmed the promises that God had made to the fathers. Now that's in Romans chapter 15. In 2 Corinthians 1.20 it says, All the promises of God in Jesus Christ are yea and amen unto the glory of God. So the promises are real because God is real. And oh that we might know them and stand on them and plead them back to God, and we'd see far more of the power of God and the activity of the Holy Spirit in our own life and family and in our churches than we are currently seeing. God used Charles Spurgeon. One of the reasons he used him was because every time he opened his mouth he believed that God the Holy Spirit was speaking down there. And Vance Havner said, I never speak, but I'm expecting the glory of God is going to burst in some heart down there. I believe it. God will use me. I believe it. God is with me. I believe it. God gets me out of my problems and trials. I believe him, his promises. God provides the finances. God gives health. God gives joy and peace. All the things he's promised. Remember, he careth for you, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. All right, Abraham in Romans chapter 4. God told him, you're going to have a child of your own. What did he do with the promise that God gave him? He said he considered not his own body now dead. He never looked at the problems. He considered not his own body now dead when he's about 100 years old. Now you have the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform. God took him out for a walk under the stars and said, look at the stars, Abraham. Can you count them? Or so shall your seed be. And he believed in the Lord. Literally, he amened God. He didn't know how it could be done, but he knew God would do it because God had said it. He didn't consider the problem, which is what a lot of us do. We consider the problems and we wash it out. It can't happen because of all these problems there. It says about Sarah in Hebrew chapter 11 that she judged him faithful who had promised, so she was just like her husband Abraham. They both believed that God would do it. They didn't know how, but he said he would. Now it's his problem. He'll do it. We'll believe him. And they did, and God did. And Abraham became the heir of the world. Not just the one son, Isaac. He became, the Bible says, the heir of the world, the father of the faithful. It's a beautiful thought. I had a friend, you know, he had a problem that preachers sometimes face, that they don't have a message. Sometimes it's worse when you get up on the platform and you've got three of them running around in your head playing baseball or something. You don't know what to do, which one to really preach. That occasionally happens, not too often. Keep praying that God will continue giving us the right messages for each occasion. He's doing that. I know he'll continue to as we believe him together. But it's an awful feeling. But it's far worse, you know, when you don't have any message at all. And this happened to Percy Wills, who was a shantyman out in Victoria, British Columbia. He told me what happened. He was to preach in a large church one time, and he couldn't get a message. He struggled over it and prayed and all the rest of it, and nothing happened. So he decided, well, he'd walk to church. It was a beautiful June, the weather was really nice. And he thought, well, I'll just walk to the church and maybe I'll get some inspiration along the way. So he started off Sunday morning and walked to church, never got any inspiration along the way. But just before he got to church, he saw a drunk man coming down the sidewalk, and the guy was staggering and so on. He thought to himself, man, you know, this time in the morning, the guy's drunk. But when the fellow got close, he saw he wasn't really drunk at all. His eyes were not right, and his eyes didn't track right. And he had his head down trying to get his eyes lined up, and the sidewalk had some broken patches and so on. And he was really having trouble just putting his feet where they needed to go. And he really felt sorry that he'd misjudged the man. Well, they started the service, they sang the hymns, and he was sitting there really sweating it out. He said, my mind was just as empty as a barrel sitting upside down. There was nothing in it. He didn't know what he was going to preach on. Big church, big crowd, what am I going to do? Well, Lord, you have to do it. I'm your servant. You do it. And he said, finally got the place where the pastor said, I want to introduce the Reverend Percy Wilson, Victoria Bridge, Columbia, Canada. He will now bring the morning message. And Percy said, I got to my feet, and I got to my feet, and God gave it to me. Do you know what it was? Cockeyed Christians. From the illustration of the fellow walking down the sidewalk, it just hit him like a bombshell. And he told me how he developed it. He developed this way, that the problem with the average Christian is he's got one eye on God and one eye on circumstances. So he's always having an awful time walking. But isn't that true? Well, sure, it's true. And we would have both eyes on God. We wouldn't have this kind of a problem, but we don't have. So we're watching the problems and we're watching God and we're stumbling and we're falling and all the rest of it. It's not the way God wants it, but it's the way it is for many, many people. Remember what it says in Hebrews chapter 12, looking unto Jesus, keep both eyes on him. You know, Peter walked in the water just like Jesus. Did you remember that? Until what happened? Until he took his eyes off of Jesus Christ. And as soon as he did, he saw the wind boisterous, down he went, down he went. And it's a perfect picture of what happens to many Christians. We take our eyes off of Jesus. We get looking at the circumstances and all of a sudden, do you know that little chorus? Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees and looks to God alone. Laughs at impossibilities and cries, it shall be done. And cries and cries, it shall be and cries, it shall, it shall be done. Laughs at impossibilities and cries, it shall be done. You didn't know I couldn't sing, did you? But faith, mighty faith, the promise sees and looks to God alone. Laughs at impossibilities and cries, it shall be done. And it's done. See, you have to plead the promises back to God. That's what they're there for. Exceeding great and precious promises. And by these, we become partakers of God's very nature and God's love. According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, to the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust. Are you believing God tonight? Or are you believing yourself, or believing the devil, or believing someone or something else? No wonder we stumble and fall the way we do, when our eyes are in the wrong place. They looked unto him and were enlightened, the King James says. One translation says, they looked unto him and were radiant. I like that. Eyes fixed on God. Oh, he takes care of all the problems. By my God have I run through truth, and by my God have I leaped over a wall, a worm can thresh a mountain, the Bible says. Doesn't matter how small you are, as long as you get your eyes fixed on God. He's big enough. He fills the heavens and the earth. He's big enough. He'll do it. I remember reading of a missionary who got into a particularly difficult field and he felt so lonesome, he just felt like packing up and going home. The people were so utterly godless and so dark, he didn't know what could ever happen. He got so discouraged, he went out into a field of praise. He was out in the field by himself, praying when suddenly he said he saw a vision of Jesus Christ. He said he must have been a mile high. He said, okay God, that's big enough. Is God just a mile high? If God's only a mile high, why a jet plane can fly over his head? Do you know what the Bible tells me? The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, Psalm 24 and then Isaiah chapter 66. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. God is so big that if you and I were to build a temple big enough to reach clean around the world, he couldn't even get his feet in. All right? The heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build unto me? Where is the place of my rest? All those things have my hand made. All those things have been, saith the Lord, but to this man will I look. The word man's not in the Hebrew at all. He said, I won't look at your buildings. I don't care how big they are. I'll never look at your buildings. But to this will I look, to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my word. Oh, listen, to get back to something like this, where when we read the word of God, we tremble. This is the word of the living God. He looked on the earth and it trembled. He touched the hills and they smote. He just looked on the world. The whole thing began to, our God is so great. You think you have problems that big? Not really. You just think they are, and the devil's helping you to think that way. All right, I'm going to close. Hebrews chapter 12. Seeing we also accomplished about what so great a cloud of witnesses. Who are these people? All these people have learned how to trust God. You know, some people think that Samson had bulging biceps, weighed 289 pounds, you know, and he was, oh, every inch a man. If that's true, why did they ask him the secret of his strength? He wasn't a big man physically. He was just a normal person. He may have even been pint-sized. I don't know. But he so believed God. People say to me why in the world did the Lord write the story of Samson in the book of the heroes of faith in Hebrews chapter 11? Because he was a man of faith. As I said yesterday, he was a very humble person too. And God loves humility. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Do you remember that time that 3000 men of Judah came and they asked his permission to tie him up? They did. He said, okay, I'll let you do it. I'll let you do it. Providing when I'm tied up, you don't fall on me with a sword. And they promised. So they tied him up and delivered him to the Philistines. He was tied, brother. He was tied. They'd have clipped his head off in about three seconds. But you know what he did? He believed that God would set him free. And he was just waiting there chuckling to himself because he knew the power of God was going to come. And it came and the rope fell off his arms like flax is melted in a fire. And he found a moist job on of an ass and he slew a thousand men. And the 3000 men of Judah were up there in the hills. They never even ventured down to help him. They were scared. Oh, people, this story, the Bible is a story of one person and God. People have believed the Lord. They didn't care like David and Goliath. You know, Saul stood head and shoulders above every man in Israel, but Saul didn't venture out against Goliath. You notice that, eh? No, he was scared. You know, God had died the day before. He read the newspapers, but David hadn't read the newspapers. David reckoned God was alive and discovered he was. Maybe the stone was a little bit off, but an angel just shunted it over. So it hit him between the lamps where it was supposed to, and down he went. But he believed God. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And please remember this again now. He didn't stagger at the promise of God through unbelief. He was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully persuaded of what God had promised, he was able also to perform. And in Hebrews chapter 10, it says, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful to promise. And to close in Hebrews chapter 12, seeing we also are accomplished about with so great a count of witnesses, let us watch. Let us, first of all, lay aside every weight. There are some things that some of you people have that are weights that may not be sins. For example, I used to like archery. I used to make archery tackle and all this kind of thing. And I used to tell myself, well, I'm not spending that much time at it. And it's good for your muscles and your chest and all. And one day the Lord said, I want you to stop it. He didn't tell me to lay it on you, but he told me to stop. And I didn't listen. So I was hunting one fall with my bow and arrow, my conscience killing me. And I fell and my fist hit the ground. I was carrying a hunting arrow in my fist and it smashed in my hand. And the point came right up against my heart here. And if I hadn't been able to hold myself with great difficulty with my left hand, I wouldn't be preaching tonight. The Lord said, are you listening? I said, yeah, Lord, I get the message. So I went home, but two days later, I reckoned it was the devil, not the Lord. So I went hunting again. But this time I made positive sure I wasn't climbing any hills. That couldn't have been the Lord. He wouldn't work that way. So I was walking along with a hunting arrow in my hand, every step I took. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. And in the book of Hebrews, do you know what that sin is? It's the sin of unbelief. And unbelief is the father and mother of almost every sin there is. Hebrews 3.13 says, take heed therefore, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it's called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Unbelief and sin go hand in hand. And unbelief is a sin that so easily besets us. Will you have done with it? Will you break with it? Will you believe your God? How long must Jesus Christ call to his people, fools and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken? Even after his resurrection with his disciples, he reproached them for their unbelief and their hardness of heart. Have you your heart yet hardened, he cried? They considered not the miracle of the whole world because their heart was yet hardened. Will you lay aside every weight tonight?