Firstfruits of the 2026 Harvest
First Fruits • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Take up missions offering - adding Project Rescue as a monthly missions partner in 2026
Explain why we are doing this and the Lounge (an international support addition and a local project) at the first of the year.
Welcome to 2026!
I believe this year will be a year of Harvest at the Shed, but not just at the Shed.
I believe this year we will see a continued surge in line with the momentum we have seen begin to build over 2025.
New research from Barna Group, as part of their ongoing State of the Church initiative with Gloo, reveals a surprising shift: Millennials and Gen Z are driving a resurgence in church attendance.
According to Barna’s latest data, 66 percent of all U.S. adults say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today. That marks a 12-percentage-point increase since 2021, when commitment levels reached their lowest in more than three decades of Barna tracking.
Put simply, this equates to nearly 30 million more U.S. adults who claim to be following Jesus today than just five years ago in 2021.
Weekly bible reading has increased 12 points just since 2024 with the largest increase being seen in Gen Z and Mellinials. Among those age groups nearly half of both generationsnow read their bible weekly.
Among those same generations, what was a steady fall in church attendance has seen a spike to all time highs, nearly doubling since 2020.
Globally, Christianity is growing at a rate that outpaces the natural population growth, especially in pentecostal and charasmatic movements.
This momentum represents both an opportunity and a challenge for the church today.
The opportunity is that there is a resurgence of interest and a rise in the answer to the call of God.
The challenge is this: that we as a body are responsible for the discipleship that comes with this rise in interest.
This is what the harvest of 2026 is going to look like, it is a harvest of discipleship that can only happen in the context of relational connectivity.
Why did we add another mission to support and start the year off with a project like the lounge?
Because I believe there is a harvest coming and we have already begun to see the first ripening in the momentum that has been building here at the Shed.
In the scriptures, when there was harvest, the first thing that God instructs is that there should be an offering of first fruits brought to God.
This is a principle that predates the law, it carries through the Old Testament and is revealed again in the New Testament…
When Cain and Able brought their sacrifices to God they were described this way:
3 So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the fruit of the ground.
4 Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering;
Notice what the author contrasts in their offerings… Cain brought his offering in the course of time, but Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock…
It wasn’t the leftovers God wanted. It was the first of Abels flock that pleased him…
It wasn’t about whether it was from the flock or from the crops, it was the order in which it was done.
In fact, this teaching is often connected with money, but giving monitarily is only one way to engage with this principle…
For Abel it was his flock…
For Abraham it was the spoils of battle…
In Genesis 14, Abraham won a battle and with it all the goods of the enemy, but before he even went home, he gave 10% as an offering of firstfruits to God through Melchizedek.
In Deuteronomy, it’s even the first wool from the shearing of the sheep:
4 “You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep.
In the Law there were at least three different first fruit offerings that were given, one for the barley, one for the wheat, and one for the fall fruits…
16 “Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.
There was another kind of first fruits described in Numbers 15:19-21
19 then it shall be, that when you eat of the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the Lord.
20 ‘Of the first of your dough you shall lift up a cake as an offering; as the offering of the threshing floor, so you shall lift it up.
21 ‘From the first of your dough you shall give to the Lord an offering throughout your generations.
Leviticus says it this way:
17 ‘You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord.
Chronicles describes it like this: 2 Chron 31:5
5 As soon as the order spread, the sons of Israel provided in abundance the first fruits of grain, new wine, oil, honey and of all the produce of the field; and they brought in abundantly the tithe of all.
Solomon taught about it:
9 Honor the Lord from your wealth
And from the first of all your produce;
10 So your barns will be filled with plenty
And your vats will overflow with new wine.
Nehmiah mentioned it:
35 and that they might bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all the fruit of every tree to the house of the Lord annually,
In the New Testament Paul utilizes the metaphor of firstfruit in 1 Cor. 15:20
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
Jesus was a type of first fruits, the first of a harvest, the first representative of what was to come…
Because one of these days, we will rise like Jesus rose with new bodies to live and be with Him forever!
And we know this because He rose first, as a first fruits, a representation of what was to come…
That’s what this principle of firstfruits is all about.
It’s not about taking up a good offering. This principle is about prioritizing the Kingdom of God first and representing that prioritization by giving of the first fruits…
The first fruits were given before the rest of the crop was touched…
This was before they knew it would all work out, it was before they started in on it themselves…
It was before they divided it up to make sure they had enough.
It was before they calculated how much was gained or lost.
It was FIRST.
33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
37 And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 “This is the great and first commandment.
So why did we begin the year with a project that benefits the community rather than doing something for us? Because we as a church want to start by giving FIRST, in anticipation for the harvest we believe is coming this year.
Again, this isn’t just about money, it applies to every area of life.
When put into practice, what this principle does is twofold:
1. It shows your trust in God.
1. It shows your trust in God.
In order to give to God first, you have to trust that He will provide the rest.
10 And those who know Your name will put their trust in You,
For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.
3 When I am afraid,
I will put my trust in You.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
In God I have put my trust;
I shall not be afraid.
What can mere man do to me?
5 Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
This is what dedicating your first, highest, and best does! It shows your trust in God!
The second thing this principle does when you put it into action in your life is…
2. It Dethrones Idol Kings
2. It Dethrones Idol Kings
Some of you remember me mentioning the three kings that are dethroned when I talked about fasting last time, but over the next three weeks I will expand on three areas this principle applies to and the three kings that we will dethrone in our hearts by putting this into action:
The first is King Appetite…
Next week, I will be teaching about fasting, because we are beginning the year with a fast.
If you were here when I taught about fasting several months ago, you can join me in fasting starting this week.
If you haven’t heard me teach about fasting yet, I encourage you to be here next week and listen and get on the same page before you start your fast.
If you want to fast track that and start with us this week, you can go back and listen to that sermon on our website or youtube.
We are dedicating these first weeks of the year back to God as a time of firstfruits in every area. This fast is a dedication of firstfruits and the dethroning of king appetite…
The following week we will talk about dethroning King Busyness. When we prioritize what God prioritizes rather than our worldly cares, we actively dethrone the idol of busyness…
When we dedicate the first fruits of our time back to God as we are doing in this first month of the year, we are showing our Trust in God that He will direct our paths and give us the time we need to accomplish what He wants…
And the last week of the month we are going to finally talk about a firstfruits offering in finances.
Before we get there, however, we are starting the year off beginning this Friday, with an arrangement of our finances through Financial Peace University…
If this year is to be a year of Harvest, we can only be effective if we aren’t drowing in debt, always just catching up, and living paycheck to paycheck, so this grow group will spend the first ten weeks of the year aligning us with God’s mission in our finances.
If you would like to sign up for that, you can do so on Church Center. We believe in this so much that Jimmy will be leading the group and the church will pay for your license if you will come.
We will start that this Friday night at 6pm, then on the last Sunday of this month we will be talking about Dethroning King Mammon by dedicating the firstfruits of our finances to God.
Again this shows our trust in Him to provide what we need because He is our source and provider.
That last Sunday we will take up a firstfruits offering where we will put our faith into action and start the year off with a dedication to God.
That will also be the Sunday we break our fast together at Meet’n’Eat. At that Meet’n’Eat, we will take communion together, share a meal, then present the Lounge that we are working on now.
This is our month of Firstfruits…
There’s one more thing we are going to do this morning and I can’t think of a better way to start off the year, but with worship and with a baptism.
We are going to worship together and in just a few minutes we are going to have our very first baptism of 2026!
