Visioneering: Pt 1 - First Things First

January 2nd Sermon

COMMUNION DURING WORSHIP

INTRO:

Happy New Year!

According to the Bible, every person is created with gifting and talents. Every person is given a measure of faith.

You were created by the almighty God,

fashioned for a purpose,

crafted for your calling,

wired for your work.

If there is breath in your lungs, there is purpose for your life!

It’s a NEW DAY! It’s a NEW SEASON.

It’s a NEW YEAR.

Behold the old things have passed away, and God has made all things NEW.

I have a burning passion in 2022 to see people released into ministry.

Just as God has raised people up through the generations to redeem that which was lost, God made you for SUCH A TIME AS THIS.

The Big idea of The Bible is GOD IS LOVE and wants nothing more than to spend all of this life and eternity with you.

In his LOVE, he gave us JESUS. Jesus is our Emmanuel... God With Us. He came that we might be redeemed.

That thought is so profound that when you overthink it, you can fry a spark plug in your brain.

The redeemer is here.

Just like God raised up Moses as a redeemer, I believe God is raising us up as a church, to be carriers of redemption.

REDEEM: SLIDE To “Redeem” something literally means:

to buy back. To repurchase. To win back... Websters - to free from what harms us, to set free from captivity by payment of ransom, and to release from blame or debt. To free from the consequences of sin.

2022 will be a year of REDEMPTION!

MORNING PRAYER TIME:

I asked the Lord, what’s on His Heart... He said “YOU”.

And I saw myself, standing here this morning, expressing that to you.

YOU are on His Heart today.

If you hear nothing else this morning, Hear this... GOD LOVES YOU.

He cares so very deeply for you.

The areas of your life that no one sees... He sees.

The pains you’ve felt... He sees.

The times you rose to the occasion...

He cheered you on!

The times you blew it...

He covered you and He forgives you.

It’s a New Season.

The Redeemer is HERE!

Visioneering - Pt 1

I want to start today with a question:

Does God want to bless you?

Some might say, I don’t know if he wants to bless “me” in particular... Okay then, does God want to bless people?

Most would agree that God, being a good Father wants to bless us as his children.

Why did Jesus come?

To open blind eyes, set captives free, to redeem that which was lost...

Is that a Blessing?

YES.

Okay, so let’s agree that in principle, GOD desires to BLESS His People.

Let me ask you another question, are there things I can do in my life to limit God’s blessing on my life? - YES.

Illustration:

God wants to bless marriages. True or False? - TRUE.

Is there anything that a husband or wife could do that would remove the blessing of God on their marriage? Yes. If there’s secrets, lying, infidelity, abuse... that would certainly limit the blessing in the marriage.

The Blessing of God is a partnership with his people.

God’s desire is always to do GOOD.

God’s desire is always to BLESS.

The rain falls on the just and the unjust.

Every person is given a measure of faith.

When we receive a word from God, we can choose to accept that word or reject it.

When we hear about Jesus, we can accept him or reject him. We are not robots.

When we learn of biblical truths, we can accept them or reject them.

Principle of Firsts

There are principles throughout the scripture that reaffirm God’s nature. One of the principles is that when God is FIRST in our life, the rest of our life is blessed.

+ Principle of First Mentions

Hermeneutics

One of the laws of biblical hermeneutics is that Scripture is always the best interpreter of Scripture. For this reason, we always compare Scripture with Scripture when trying to determine the meaning of a passage.

Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles and methods of interpreting the text of the Bible.

Redemption is the overarching theme of the Bible. When you hold your Bible in your hands, you’re holding a redemption story.

Exodus 13:1

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate (set apart) to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”

*In the Hebrew Language it’s so emphatic that this is GOD’s.

Exodus 13:12-13

12 you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's.

13 Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck.

(it’s no good to you… you’ll lose it anyways) Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.”

THOUGHTS:

IMMEDIATELY after the Lord redeems his people from 400yrs of slavery and bondage, He institutes this principle...

Why?

Because he knows how quickly they could forget just how powerful He is and how precious they are.

When GOD is first in every area of our lives, the other areas of our lives are blessed. That doesn’t mean we won’t have troubles... Jesus said that in this life, we’ll have troubles and tribulations. But yet in the midst of trouble, we can experience true blessings.

Keeping God First is the key to having a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Keeping God first is the key to spiritual maturity

Keeping God first with our Time, Talents & Resources is the gateway to abundance and effectiveness in our time talents and resources.

This is the principle of Firsts.

POINT #1: FIRSTS ARE HOLY

POINT #2: The First Born must be sacrificed or redeemed

*This is the Law, but it’s also the principle.

How do you know what to sacrifice and what to redeem?

Clean & Unclean

The Lord gives us two examples of animals... they are either CLEAN or UNCLEAN.

If your UNCLEAN animal is going to be used, you must buy it back from the Lord with the sacrifice of the Lamb.

The firstborn must be sacrificed if it’s going to be cleaned.

The firstborn CLEAN must be sacrificed

The firstborn UNCLEAN must be redeemed

Illustration: Human Unclean

When humans were born in our spiritual condition, were we born clean or unclean? A: Unclean.

Parents: Did you have to teach your children to be bad? No. WE were all born unclean.

Was Jesus born unclean or clean? He was born clean.

THE CLEAN had to be sacrificed so that the UNCLEAN could be redeemed.

First Born, First Fruits and the Tithe.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is the FIRSTBORN among the brothers, but also the first fruits. As the Firstborn, perfectly clean, he gave himself as a sacrifice to redeem the unclean.

In the New Testament it says that God gave Jesus as HOPE that we would believe. That root in the Hebrew actually means “FAITH” - so God gave Jesus in Faith that we would believe.

It’s the same with the Tithe... we bring the tithe in FAITH.

JERICHO:

When the Israelites conquered Jericho the Lord required them to bring all the silver and gold into the house of the Lord... why would he say that? Simple... because JERICHO was the FIRST CITY they would conquer.

The FIRST PORTION is the REDEMPTIVE PORTION.

The FIRST portion REDEEMS the rest.

When you give the FIRST 10% to God, it redeems the 90%.

Don’t give the first 10% of your income to the electric company, because the electric company doesn’t have the power to bless your finances, but GOD does.

It’s very important that you give the first portion to the Lord.

#3 The First Fruits

must be offered

Proverbs 3:9-10

(hundreds of years after the law)

Honor the Lord with your possessions and the firstfruits of all your increase

Exodus 23:19

“The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.

The TITHE always comes

to the HOUSE of the Lord.

God never uses the word GIVE when he talks about Tithing...

He only uses the word BRING.

BRING OR STEAL

Go study Tithing on your own...

those are the only two things we can do with our tithes... we either bring the tithe, or steal the tithe.

CAIN & ABEL OFFERING

Why did God accept Abels offering, but didn’t accept Cain’s offering

Genesis 4:3-5

3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

It’s not that God “would not” accept it... he “could not” accept it.

Some say well God can do whatever he wants... but that’s not true. God cannot act outside of his character. That’s why it’s so important to know God’s word and his nature.

God can’t act out of his nature.

God can’t be second. Theologically this is called the preeminence of God. He’s above all, before all, and is first.

Abel brings his first offering... God is first.

Cain brought an offering, in the process of time... God wasn’t first.

Jesus said where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. In other words, it’s easy to see what’s first in your life based on what leaves our hands.

Anytime I get paid, if you look in my bank account, you’d see the deposit, then Authentic Church. Deposit, then Authentic Church... because God’s first in my life. I’ve been practicing this principle for 20yrs.

One of the biggest things I can pass along to my kids is to PUT GOD FIRST in every area of their life.

LEGALISTIC:

I’m not talking about being legalistic... I’m talking about the principle.

I want everyone at Authentic Church to ask themselves is God first in your life? Tithing is a much bigger deal than people realize. We don’t tip God. We bring our tithes and we offer him our best.

#4 The Tithe Must Be First

Leviticus 27:30 ESV

30 “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord's; it is holy to the Lord.

ROOFING COMPANY ANALOGY

10 $100 Bills.

Q: How much is the tithe on my profits?

A-$100

Q: Which $100 bill is the tithe?

The mortgage company, cell phone, car payment, etc...

Some people pay all their bills and then if there’s any leftover, it goes to God.

God doesn’t want your leftovers.

Your leftovers are not holy to God.

Malachi 3:8-10 ESV

8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

the First ONE redeems the rest.

This is a principle in scripture that says when you put GOD first in every area of your life, including your finances, you’ll redeem what was cursed.

Exodus 13:14-15

14 And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.

15 Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’

ENDING:

You know, anytime I read something in scripture that is hard for me to hear, I read it again. I pray about it. And I ask this question of myself: Why is this hard for me to hear? Many times the reason it was difficult was because it was TRUTH that was contrary to what I thought or felt. But my feelings do not negate or affirm truth. TRUTH IS TRUTH.

This was written 4,000 years ago… still applies to us this day.

GOD IS GOD.

GOD IS FIRST.

GOD IS TO BE TRUSTED. And in this area of Finances, he says you can TEST HIM in this.

This is the Principle of Firsts and it’s found all throughout scripture.

I want to lovingly challenge you today and encourage you to PUT GOD FIRST in every area of your life.

Maybe you’ve tried it before but maybe you’ve never seen this principle in scripture this way, and understood it’s importance.

Maybe you need to make some lifestyle changes to do it, or sell some things to do it, or downsize in an area to do it... whatever you need to do to live 100% with God FIRST in every area, DO IT. Just make a decision and do it. And I can promise you this, you’ll never regret it.

You’ll never regret putting God first in your week. In your day. In your year.

And you’ll never regret putting God first in your finances. Remember, it’s not about getting something from you… it’s because he wants to get something to you.

We’re going to take communion today. As we do, if there’s any area of your life where God has not been first, take a moment and repent. Have a word with God, because HE has a word for you.