First Fruits

Giving God the Best: The Principle of First Fruits

Thank Bishop Wellington - Run for hope 2k - P. Ben and I

Bible Passage: Exodus 23:15–19

This scripture brings out the principle of first fruits. This principle is an expectation that God has for His people. Not to gain wealth, or for God to take what is yours, but to show your dedication to Him and yield to His will.

By Christ dying on the cross for us, He made the ultimate sacrifice. Theres nothing we could do to match that, but God does call us to a life of sacrifice. When we allow ourselves to follow God’s will above our desires, we’re living a life of worship and sacrifice.

In doing so, God sees our faithfulness to Him and blesses us with what we need for our daily lives. We’ll talk about blessing more next week.

We are meant to reflect on our lives and think about the priorities we’ve set and say, “is God in this?” Not only that, but “Am i putting God first?” - In my resources, my time, my talents.

We must fight - not in our own strength, but with the Spirit of the Lord against materialism and our own desires and strive for a life that honors God above all

Giving God our first fruits as believers is an action that follows the belief of His sovereignty and provision… meaning that ultimately, we know that God is in control and He will be our provider.

The action of faith and obedience in giving of our first fruits. Its like Bishop Desmond talked about last week… positioning ourselves… to trust in Him and receive His provision.

We have to not just position ourselves by doing it, but our heart needs to be positioned as well. We set a priority of God over our own hearts desires.

God gave us the grace an mercy that we have today. Jesus was the first fruits of that.

Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;”

Jesus is God’s best and He freely gave Him for us. He was the first person to walk the earth like He did and now, He lives in us. We all experience God’s first fruits.

We’ve got to do three things:

Prioritize - We first give to God with a cheerful heart

Preserve - The first fruits are sacred and they have a purpose

Present - When we give, we give our best

1. Prioritize God's Provision

Exodus 23:15–17

The principle here is that we set aside the best and first of what we labor from the field.

What we have is already God’s, but He provides and prioritizes that provision for us to live a godly life.. but in that, gives us the choice and the ability to prioritize.

To prioritize means we have to align our heart with God’s will.

Our first fruits to God help us combat our selfishness and our desires.

At the beginning of the year, Megan and I decided to give our first paycheck. We did this out of a desire to combat the selfishness we…. mostly me… would feel when you go into a new year.

This is not just our money, but what is produced in our lives both physically and spiritually.

Physically, we give of our time, money, and talents. But spiritually, we produce a devotion and willingness to serve and follow Him.

Our dedication to God is shown in our first fruits. First, showing a priority, a reverence and respect for Him.

We have a natural desire to be first. When we were in elementary school, did they assign line leaders every day? There was a level of excitement when we got to be first.

God’s desire is for us to prioritize Him. Putting Him first.

In this principle of first fruits, we’re experiencing a foretaste of what we will continue to experience.

This might be too far back… but what about the first time you were first. The feeling of first is something you don’t get to experience again.

But every time we give of our first fruits, we’re experiencing the first fruits of God’s gift to us… Jesus. We receive more of Him, and at the same time, we kill our desires.

Its not that we get to be first, but we put God first and He adds whats necessary to our lives. We give Him the power over our priorities.

God wants us to rely on Him first. God wants us to give to Him first.

Why? Because that shows our priority, obedience to Him. You might not like that, but if not to God, then to who?

Our selfish desires only leads to destruction, but His desires leads us to eternal life.

2. Preserve Sacred Offerings

Exodus 23:18

These rules under the law are not something we’re under today, but we can see the message here: We need to preserve what is sacred and not mix the godly with ungodly.

If gathering the first fruits from the field is a product of your labor, then that means what we do is important and will produce either a good or bad fruit.

What are you going to produce and give to God? Something that is preserved and sacred or tainted by our selfish labors?

I wouldn’t accept the work of a good employee if they were also robbing me.

If you worked for me and I said to you, “I want the very best from you and for you. In order to live in this principle, you must give me the first and the best.”

If they gave me the first 10% and an offering before they did what they wanted… But were also robbing me, would those first fruits be considering a sacred offering?

Next week, we’ll talk about blessing - sometimes, we don’t want to wait for the blessing so we fabricate it. We take whats for God, use it and give Him whats left.

God’s not wanting leftovers. He wants your first .. but its not just about it being first…. its about it being the best of you.

He’s telling us, “don’t act like you’re sacrificing for me then steal from me.”

Theres nothing sacred about that.

What makes the offering sacred? Our hearts. The sincerity in our hearts for the offerings that we bring.

The value comes from how we give. Is it cheerful or is is resistant?

Did we give that after we did what we wanted or did we give before?

Don’t look at the perceived value, but how to present your best to God… If you have a respect and reverence for Him, you will. Thats how we keep it pure and unblemished.

We don’t have to be pure and perfect… but when we reflect on the purity and perfect of Christ and His sacrifice and give willingly out of that, God sees our hearts.

Hearts that aren’t perfect, but devoted to seeking Him. Theres a sincerity to that.

3. Present Your Best to God - Don’t Overshoot It

Exodus 23:19

What is the best?

The choice first fruits - This means that when you see what you’ve done with your work, your dedication, your time…. you look at whats best, and it goes to God.

Have you been to Texas Roadhouse - you could pick Outback, Longhorn… What makes Texas Roadhouse special? You get to pick your steak. I always do that. I want to look for the best one and pick it. If someone else is with me, we can’t both have the same one. I might look at another one and say, “oh that looks like a good one.”

We might do this with God. God’s asking for our best and we give Him just “what looks good.”

Well you know, ?? steak looks good… i’ll give one like that.

We present God what is best… not what is good compared to what we see around us.

My best first fruits might not be your best fruits.

Don’t bring something to God that is compared to someone else’s labor.

Our laboring is going to look different. Why? Because we’re in different soil.

It says, “of your soil into the house of the Lord.”

Don’t get to the house and look around… “They put a 20 in, i’ll put a 50. They only put 5, so I think I can do that.”

“They’re worshipping really good today… I will do that.”

“Everyone else is really down today, thats what I’ll do.”

The soil is not here! The soil is where you labored all week. You’re bringing your best… not or the church, but for God!

During the week, when you’ve labored in your soil… your work, your family, your alone time… what is being produced and have you presented God with it first?

Don’t let your offering be based on anyone else’s labor.

God isn’t here hoping you’ll give the right amount. He’s hoping you’ll give your best.

My 5 year old got to spent money at school on family for Christmas. I literally have to give him the money to spend. They have a shop that seems to be dollar tree items (so it went up .50) and they get to spend their money (the money I gave them) and bring us something back.

In other years, they’ve forgotten about me. They bought for grandparents or friends. Last year, my 5 year old brought me a pen. A golf pen because he knows I like golf. During the fast at the beginning of the year, I told him I’d use it in my notebook. It brought him joy and reward knowing that I accepted his gift and I didn’t care that I gave him the money for it. I didn’t care that it wasn’t that great of a monetary value. I was happy that he thought of me and chose to give to me.

We can come back with the smallest gift to God, but if we’re living life to the fullest with all the newest and best things while God gets the tiny bit… we’re not presenting our best.

The same goes for our abundance. You can’t truly offer your best until you kill your desire for it yourself.

We are meant to see Christ’s sacrifice as the ultimate killing of flesh. But we are called to daily reject our flesh and focus on His sacrifice of flesh.

Before we knew Christ, we were unaware and asleep to this.

1 Corinthians 15:20–26 NASB95

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.

Big Idea: By giving God our first fruits, we recognize His supremacy in our lives, leading us to a deeper trust and commitment to His plans for us.