First Things

Welcome Home

Good morning, and welcome home to Cross Creek Community Church. I’m Amanda Stiles, and I’m so glad you’ve joined us here this morning. If you’re watching online, we stream live every Sunday at 10 am on Facebook @crosscreekfl, and the trimmed video is uploaded to our YouTube channel @crosscreekflorida by Monday afternoon.

Today, we are diving into part two of our series “True Riches.”

In this series we are looking at what it actually means to steward the material gifts God has placed in our hands. If you missed last week’s message, “The Trust Test,” let me just gently tell you: you need to go back and watch it this week. Don’t miss out on what God is doing through these teachings.

This entire series is anchored in the words of Jesus from Luke 16:10–11 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?”

It is our deep responsibility to steward everything we’ve been given - both our spiritual gifts and our material resources - in a way that honors and glorifies God. Make no mistake: Jesus cares deeply about how we manage our money. Why? Because the way we handle our earthly finances is the primary indicator of how we will handle His heavenly resources.

ME Opening (Engage) – Hook the listener immediately with a relatable tension.

Let me ask you a question to kick things off today: Is it easier to manage your life when you have very little, or is it easier when you have a lot?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed a pattern in my own life. As blessings are added, as responsibilities grow, and as “stuff” accumulates, it actually gets harder and harder to prioritize. It gets harder to keep things in the right order.

Have you ever hit a season where there is just so much going on, so many demands, and so much clutter that your soul feels like a total hot mess? You sit there paralyzed, not even sure what to do first, desperately wishing you could just hit a giant “easy” button.

We try to fix it, right? We download the latest AI organizers. We buy the daily planners. We set up the grocery delivery and sync our budget apps to the weekly bogo deals. We spend all week micromanaging our schedules, our families, and our bank accounts.

And yet… we still wake up feeling like we are just constantly putting out fires. We look at our watches and our bank statements and feel that familiar, exhausting ache: I do not have enough time, and I do not have enough resources.

And it always feels the heaviest when things are out of order.

WE Introduction (Tension) – Bring the congregation into the dilemma so they realize this is about them too.

Every single person in this room - and everyone watching online - faces difficulties. We all walk through seasons of trouble. It’s part of being human. But let me ask you to consider this:

Would you rather go through trials with everything in order, or with things out of order?

See, our God is not a God of randomness and confusion. He is a God of divine order. He doesn’t want us living our lives in chaos. He didn’t design you to spend your life chasing your tail in an endless, stressful cycle of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Sometimes, the most spiritual thing you can do is just stop. Sit down. And reboot.

Most of us have done a practical version of this. You look at the bank account and realize there’s a lot more “month” left at the end of the money. So, you sit down at the kitchen table to look at the budget. It’s time to prioritize, so you look for the things to cut.

First to go is that extra streaming subscription - how do we accumulate so many? Then we cut out the daily Grande latte at Starbucks. We skip the mani-pedi. We tighten our belts for awhile, we cook at home, and we pinch pennies for a couple months. We feel really good about our self-control - until a birthday pops up, or an anniversary comes around, and bam, out comes the credit card again. The cycle repeats.

Why does that happen? Because a true reboot of your life - and a true reboot of your finances - requires something much deeper than just shaving off a few minor luxuries at the edges.

You can’t just trim the small stuff. You have to look at the big stuff, right at the very beginning. True prioritization means putting first things first.

Here’s the real dilemma we have to face today: We often treat the Creator of the universe like an optional accessory. We treat God like a cosmic spare-tire. We completely ignore Him when the road is smooth and life is good, but the second we get a flat tire, we frantically reach into the dark, screaming for Him to fix it.

If we’re completely honest with ourselves this morning, we would admit that the disorder, the stress, and the chaos in our lives is not actually a time-management problem. It’s a priority problem.

True priority is not an emotional feeling. It’s not just showing up on Sunday and singing a song about how much we love God. True priority requires a concrete, tangible reorientation of our daily lives. And that is exactly what we are going to look at today.

Pray

GOD Body (Truth) – Deeply explore the scriptures, dismantling common objectives with biblical truth.

Let’s go straight to the Scriptures. It shouldn’t surprise us that the Creator of the universe has a lot to say about how to put our lives in order. God doesn’t want to be an “extra” in your busy schedule. He doesn’t want to be a line item on your to-do list. He demands the top spot.

God First

Look at the very first (and greatest) commandment in Deuteronomy 6:5 is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Jesus echoes this in Matthew 6:33 saying that when we “seek first His Kingdom, and His righteousness, then all these things will be added to us.”

“All these things” That refers to every single practical thing you woke up worrying about this morning. The bills, the food, the house, the future. Jesus is giving us a divine truth here. He’s saying, If God is first, then everything else will come into order.

Does God want us to trust Him with most of our heart? No, Proverbs 3:5-6 says trust Him with all your heart. As we learned last week from Matthew 6:21, wherever your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be also. We have to be incredibly careful about what competes for our trust. Why? Because whatever has your trust, has our loyalty. Whatever has your loyalty, has your heart.

Jesus exposes the ultimate rival for our heart in Matthew 6:24 He says that we cannot serve both God and... what? say it with me, wealth. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

This is the great challenge when it comes to prioritizing our finances. Where are true riches actually found? They aren’t found in the fluctuating numbers of your bank account. True riches are found in covenant relationship with our unchanging God. As Jesus asks in Matthew 16:26: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”

First Fruits

When we surrender our lives to Jesus, we call Him “Lord.” But if we call Him Lord, our lives should actually reflect His lordship. Keeping God first means continually surrendering every area of our lives to Him.

It’s one thing to keep God first in morning prayer, or during a worship song, or on Sunday - the first day of the week. But the Bible says to honor Him in all our ways. That includes our finances.

Look at what it says in Proverbs 3:9–10 “Honor the Lord from your wealth And from the first of all your produce; So your barns will be filled with plenty And your vats will overflow with new wine.”

Last week, we opened up the topic of the tithe. The word “tithe” literally means a tenth. It represents the first ten percent of our income. In Scripture, this is called the “first fruits.”

Turn with me to Exodus 13. Go ahead and put your finger right there on verse one.

In the Old Testament, the “firstfruits” referred to the firstborn child, the firstborn animal, or the very first harvest of a crop. These things were considered holy, set apart, and belonging exclusively to the Lord. They were given as a foretaste of the harvest to come, offered in raw thanksgiving for God’s goodness.

Look at Exodus 13:1–2 God tells Moses to “Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me.”

Look at that language. God doesn’t say, “Hey Moses, I hope the people will consider sharing a little bit of this with me if they have enough left over.” No. He states with absolute ownership: “It belongs to Me.” Whether you acknowledge it or not, the first fruits belong to God.

Let’s jump down to verse 12. Watch how specific this gets: Exodus 13:12–13 “You shall devote to the Lord the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the Lord. But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.”

God is establishing a fascinating blueprint here: He divides everything into two categories: clean and unclean.

If a firstborn animal was clean - like a sheep - it belongs to God. It was sacrificed directly to Him. Think about the sheer faith that required.

You had to sacrifice the very first lamb before you knew if that sheep would ever produce nine more. You had to give the first before you even saw the rest.

But what if the firstborn animal was unclean - like a donkey? An unclean animal could not be sacrificed on God’s holy altar. So God gave an ultimatum: It must be redeemed.

To save the unclean donkey, you had to sacrifice a spotless, clean lamb in its place. The death of the clean lamb legally saves the life of the unclean donkey. The clean is sacrificed so the unclean can live.

And if you refused to redeem it? God said you had to break its neck - meaning you couldn’t keep it. You lost it anyway.

The tithe is our modern-day “first fruits.” If you don’t trust God enough to redeem your finances by giving Him the first 10%, that unredeemed money will end up slipping through your fingers anyway. The tithe is the clean 10% that redeems the unclean 90% in your bank account. It belongs to Him regardless of what you do with it, if you bring it to the storehouse or not - you can’t keep what belongs to God.

Jesus is God’s Tithe

So how does this relate to us today? Well, let me ask you two questions:

First question: Were you and I born spiritually clean or spiritually unclean? In other words, when we were born in the natural, our spiritual state before God, at that point, was it clean or unclean? Unclean, of course! Every single one of us was born with a sin nature.

If you need proof of this, just ask any parent in the room. Parents, did you ever have to sit your two-year-old down and teach them how to be selfish? Did you have to teach them how to throw a tantrum or say “No!”? Of course not. It came very naturally.

See, we have to teach children to be good because we are born under the broken nature of Adam. That’s what the bible says, and experience would teach us. We were all born spiritually unclean.

Second question: Was Jesus born clean or unclean? Clean. Completely perfect. Spotless. Sinless.

Now look at the golden thread of the Gospel, even in the seemingly archaic ordinance of donkeys and sheep: The clean Jesus was sacrificed by God so that the unclean - us - could be redeemed.

This is the ultimate expression of the firstfruits principle. Have you ever realized that Jesus is God’s tithe? That’s how significant this principle of firstfruits really is.

Think about how tithing works. You give the first 10% right off the top of your paycheck. You give in faith, before you even know what tomorrow looks like.

God said, “when your sheep has a lamb, give me the first one.” He didn’t say, “Wait until your sheep has ten lambs, see which one is the weakest or the one that keeps running away, and give me that one.” “Wait until you see what your profit and loss statement looks like at the end of the year.” “Wait to see if that investment pans out and you’ll have extra to give.” No! He demands the firstborn lamb before you see the rest of the harvest because that takes raw faith!

It’s not currency that unlocks the blessing; it’s the faith and obedience that God responds to. When we give the first 10%, we are making a down payment of faith. We are declaring: “God, We put You first. We trust You above our bank accounts, above our economy, and above our jobs.”

And the reason I say Jesus is God’s tithe is because God gave Jesus first.

God didn’t wait for humanity to clean up our act before sending His Son. He didn’t wait to see if we would turn out to be a good harvest. As Romans 5:8 tells us, while we were still mocking Him, while we were still scorning Him, and while we were still nailing Him to the cross - right off the top, while we were still sinners - God sacrificed His clean, firstborn Son to redeem us, the unclean. (Troy come up)

Jesus was God’s down payment of faith for a family of redeemed sons and daughters. He is the ultimate firstfruit of the resurrection, guaranteeing that because He lives, we will live with Him forever.

Communion

We read earlier in Exodus about that unclean donkey. If it wasn’t redeemed by a clean lamb, its neck had to be broken. It had to be destroyed. Left to ourselves, that was our story.

Because of our sin nature, we were spiritually unclean. Left unredeemed, we were rightfully headed for brokenness and death. But God, in His infinite mercy, looked at our chaos and said, “I will redeem them.”

Would you please stand with me right now all across the room? As you stand, our ushers are moving to make sure everyone has the elements. Go ahead and open the smaller end of your communion cup, and take out the bread. wait

God didn’t wait for us to fix ourselves. He surrendered the One most precious to Him. Jesus, God’s spotless lamb, took the destruction that we deserved. His body was broken so that your connection to the Father wouldn’t be.

He said, “This is my body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

Let’s eat the bread together. (wait)

Now, open the larger end of your cup, and hold up the juice.

This cup is the physical proof that God put you first when he gave His very best to bring your life back into divine order. He made a promise in Jesus blood that those who receive it will live forever in covenant with Him.

He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

Let’s drink the juice together. (wait)

YOU Summary (Application) - Bring the truth home to the individual listener. The “ONE POINT” should be made clear.

Now, stay standing for just a moment. Look at me. When we consider the radical generosity of what we just tasted - God sacrificing His firstborn Son for an unclean world - we simply cannot leave this room unchanged.

The principle of the firstfruits is not a suggestion. God demands first place, without exception. And when He occupies that top spot, every other area of your life aligns properly. Not because your problems suddenly vanish, but because you are walking in daily, active obedience to the Creator of the universe. Because if He can save your eternal soul by surrendering our lives to His Lordship, then He can save your chaotic Monday morning too if you will continue to give Him priority.

Write this down if you are taking notes, or just tattoo it on your heart today: When God is first, everything else comes into order. If He is truly your Lord, then ensure that He has A, Number 1 priority in every single area of your life! Whatever it is, He is good at it! Trust Him.

So, let me ask you the uncomfortable question like we’re sitting right at your kitchen table: Is God first in every area of your life? Is He first in your budget? Is He first in your schedule? Who gets the first 10 minutes of your day? Who gets paid first when your check comes in?

Whoever gets the first of your choices is your true god.

If you are giving God the leftovers, you’re probably going to keep spinning your wheels and feeling like your life is a constant hot mess. When we hold back the firstfruits, we leave our time, our families, and our finances unredeemed. We are demonstrating to God that we don’t think we need Him, and we’re trying to carry the weight of it all by ourselves.

But when you give God the first lamb before you see the other nine, you break the spirit of devouring chaos over your life. You shift the burden from your fragile shoulders into His almighty and capable hands.

US Cast Vision (Inspiration) - Paint a compelling picture of what happens when the church acts collectively. Close the envelope from the tension identified in the WE section

Imagine if all of Cross Creek Community Church hit this reboot together! Imagine the unshakable foundation we would have when the trials of life hit. You wouldn’t have to face a single trial alone or out of order.

When the diagnosis comes, when the layoff happens, when the relationship fractures - if God is already first, your foundation is already secure. You don’t have to scramble in the dark for a spare tire because the King of Kings is already in the driver’s seat!

In a chaotic culture that is desperately searching for a giant “easy” button, we have the true, timeless, and simple answer: PUT GOD FIRST. (press the easy button) This easy button doesn’t delete your problems, but it anchors your soul in God’s divine order so when the storms of life come, you can be a lighthouse of peace.

Action (Challenge) - What do they need to do with what they have just heard?

So, here’s your challenge this week:

First, the challenge of time: Give God the first 10 minutes of your day. Try it for just seven days. See how opening His Word, sitting in prayer, and setting your heart in divine order changes how you face the world when it tries to pull you into chaos.

Second, the challenge of finance: Stop giving God the leftovers in your finances. Take out your phone right now, open the Church Center app, or scan that QR code on the screen. Step out in raw faith, automate your tithe to come right off the top of your paycheck, and watch Him redeem the remaining 90%.

God literally says, “Test Me in this!” Watch and see how He opens the floodgates.

Pray

Father, we thank You that You did not leave us in our chaos. You didn’t leave us unredeemed. You Gave your firstfruit, Jesus to bring holy order to our souls. I pray over every household under the sound of my voice today. Break the spirit of financial anxiety, break the spirit of scheduling chaos, and give us the raw courage to step out in faith this week to give You our first and our best.

Benediction

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He bring divine order into your chaos as you put Him first. Go in the peace, the power, and the order of Jesus Christ. Amen.