Day 6 of 6 — Glow in the Dark. About 3 minutes.
Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
Philippians 4:17
In a codicil to his will, written the year before he died in 1790, Benjamin Franklin left a thousand pounds each to Boston and Philadelphia with a condition attached. Neither city was allowed to spend it. The money was to be lent out in small sums to young tradesmen setting up their own shops, the interest was to go back in, and nothing at all could be touched for a hundred years. At the century mark each city could take part of it for public works. The rest had to sit for another hundred. The final distribution came in 1990, two centuries after he signed the page, and Philadelphia’s share had grown to something near two million dollars. Franklin had been dead for two hundred years and the money was still working.
Paul reaches for a bookkeeping word when he thanks the Philippians, and it changes what their offering was. Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. He is not after their money, he says, and he means it plainly. He is after what their money turns into.
Think about what that meant for them. Every person Paul led to Christ after their gift arrived. Every church he planted. Every letter he sat down to write, including the one they were holding while they read that sentence. Paul got his needs met, and that was the smaller half of it. The Philippians got fruit, and God was the one keeping the ledger. He calls their offering an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God. It did not stop at Paul. It went up.
Tomorrow is Missions Sunday and the Faith Promise cards go in. Do not let that land on you cold in the middle of a service. It is not a bill, nobody will come after you for it, and nobody but God will ever see the number you write. It is you telling Him what you are trusting Him to help you give across the coming year toward reaching people who have never once heard. Settle it with Him tonight rather than guessing at it in the morning. And be clear about what you are doing when you write it down. You are making a deposit into an account you will not see the balance of in this life.
Growth principle: A gift toward the gospel does not stop at the missionary. God keeps it as fruit in your own account.
Take it with you: Settle your Faith Promise with God tonight, before the service, rather than guessing at it in the moment.
Pause and pray: Lord, I do not want to guess at this. Show me tonight what You would have me trust You for this year, and give me the faith to write it down and mean it. Amen.
From Sunday’s message: A Church That Sends (Acts 13 and Philippians 4) · Sunday, October 11, 2026
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