The Principle of the First

Intro:

This morning open your bibles to Exodus 13: 1-2. Today’s message I would say is the most important message of this series. Over the past few weeks we have been in a series called “The Blessed Life”. Today I am going to be talking with you about the principle of first.

As we begin I want to make this statement: If God is first in your life, everything will come into order.

Understand that I’m not saying you wont have difficulties or problems. Everything coming into order doesn’t mean you won’t go through struggles. Jesus said in John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.””

The question is would you rather go through tribulation with everything in order or everything out of order? When God is first, everything will come into order in your life. The opposite is also true. If He is not first then nothing will come into order in your life. God has to be first for there to be order in your life.

I want to show you a principle that runs all throughout scripture. From Genesis to revelation. So, lets start in Exodus 13:1-2 “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.””

Remember that something consecrated means that it is set apart.

In the principle of the first God is saying quite directly the first is mine. It belongs to me, its my property, I am the owner. This is very important to understand when you talk about the principle of first.

The first born God says, belongs to me. Now look at Exodus 13:12 “that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the Lord’s.”

Here we see very similar language that it shall belong to God. They will be the Lords, but He goes on to say that every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb.

Now pay attention here. Exodus 13:13 “But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.”

He says a firstborn donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. If you wont redeem it then you shall break its neck. This is a very important to understand about the principle of the first. If you don’t redeem the first your going to lose it anyway.

As we have been talking about the first of our income. I want you to apply this understanding to your finances concerning the first 10% (tithe). God is saying if you choose not to bring it to me, your going to lose it anyway. Its still going to go out of your account.

We are going to dig deeper into this thought today. So that we can understand the principle of the first. This brings me to the first point today.

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The firstborn must be sacrificed or redeemed.

So as we read, according to scripture the firstborn must sacrificed or redeemed, but how do you know which to do? Let me give you three examples.

- Understanding the law of first in animals. Exodus 13:13-14.

In Exodus 13:13-14. The Lord gives two animals the donkey and the lamb. The donkey represents unclean animals, and the lamb represents clean animals. God does not accept what is unclean. So if its a clean first born animal it has to be sacrificed. If its an unclean animal it has to be redeemed with the sacrifice of a clean animal, or its neck must be broken. Ok, so how in the world does this relate to us today?

- Understanding the law of first Spiritually.

When you were born were you clean or unclean? Unclean.

What do we mean by unclean? When we were born in the natural, your spiritual state before God, was unclean because of sin. If you think you were born without sin all we have to do is ask your parents. We all know that none of us have to be taught to be or act bad. It comes naturally for us all, because we are born into sin.

Was Jesus born unclean or clean? Clean.

Listen to me very carefully:

The clean (Jesus) had to be sacrificed so that the unclean (us) could be redeemed. Thats what we just read in Exodus 13. Thats how important this principle is. We are going to see that this principle refers to tithing but I want to say something to you that maybe you never thought of: Jesus is God’s tithe. Let me explain. Romans 5:8.

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God gave Jesus in hope that even when you were contrary to him, you might find life. This is faith released.

- Understanding the law of first financially.

Let’s understand this financially. In the law of the first I shared with you last week from Malachi that we are to give the tithe first. God is not asking for our leftovers. You don’t pay your bills and see if you have enough left over to tithe.

You give the tithe , the first 10% because it takes faith to give the first. Think about it God says when your sheep has a lamb give me the first one. That takes faith! You know why? You don’t know if the sheep is going to produce anymore. Giving the first to God takes faith. It is a trust in Him that He will provide another.

God didn’t say wait until your sheep has ten and then give me one of them. No, he said give me the first one before you have any others.

We have to understand that its’ not the 10% that enacts the blessing, its faith released that enacts the blessing.

Its giving the first 10% and the reason I say that Jesus is God’s tithe is because God gave Jesus first. God didn’t wait to see if we were going to clean up or straighten up before He would send His son. No, God gave Jesus when we were mocking Him, and spitting on Him, and nailing Him to a cross.

Another example is the children of Israel when they went into the promised land. God said bring all of the silver and Gold from Jericho into the house of God. Why didn’t He say 10% of Jericho? Its very simple because Jericho was the first city.

Do you see it? He says bring the first into the house of the Lord and the rest are redeemed. They are out from under the curse. They are blessed.

The reason the principle of the first is so important is because the first portion is the redemptive portion.

Please hear me when you give the first to God. The rest are redeemed. The opposite is true. Don’t give the first and the rest is under the curse.

So if we bring the first to God, then the rest is redeemed and blessed by God.

2. The first fruits must be offered.

According to this principle that works all through scripture the first fruit must be offered. Proverbs 3:9-10 says, “Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine.”

Here we see two things. 1) Honor the Lord with your possessions. 2) Honor the Lord with the first of your increase.

Let me show you another scripture. Exodus 23:19 “The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

Now we saw last weekend about Malachi that He said bring the tithes into the store house. The tithe (firstfruits) always comes to the church. You don’t divide your tithe. You don’t designate your tithe and give it somewhere else.

Notice the word bring. The reason God uses the word bring instead of the word give when he talks about tithing is because you cant give what doesn’t belong to you.

You have two choices according to scripture. I know this is strong but it is simply the truth. According to scripture when it comes to the tithe you can either bring it or steal it. Those are the only two choices. There are no other choices for the tithe according to the scripture. They either brought it or they stole it.

Do you remember when God told Israel to bring all the silver and gold from Jericho to the house of the Lord and Achan kept some of it? Remember what happened next. When they went out to battle the next city they lost to a force that was nothing in comparison to the might of Israel. It wasn’t until Achan brought what he stole that Israel again had victory.

In Joshua Ch. 6 God calls the tithe consecrated or set apart. Same thing with the first born, but in Joshua 7 once Achan took it He said Israel has stolen from me and they are cursed. So, concerning our finances it is consecrated when we bring it to the house of God, but it sits under a curse if we leave it in our bank account.

Why would want something cursed instead of blessed?

So, in this area it is important to see that it takes faith to give the first. It takes faith to believe that 90% redeemed and blessed will go farther than 100% cursed.

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Apply:

Have you ever wondered why God accepted Ables offering in Genesis, but not Cains? Genesis 4:3-5.

The answer is in Genesis 4:3-5 “And in the process of time (now those words are very important) it came to pass that Cain brought an offering (it does not say He brought first fruits. He just brought an offering in the process of time) of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected (received) Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.”

Do you see it? Cain was a farmer. He didn’t bring the first fruits. Able was a rancher and he brought first born and God said I will accept that, but I will not accept the other.

Let’s take this a little further. It’s not that God wouldn’t accept it, God couldn’t accept it.

Do you know why? God can’t be second. God is preeminent. That means that He is not only first of all but He is before all. He is higher than all, he is above all, he is first, he is before all. So, God is first.

This is the reason that God couldn’t accept Cains offering is because God is always first and Cain did not bring a first fruit offering. God said Im sorry I cannot accept a second place offering because I am always in first place.

If Jesus is God’s tithe, tithing might be a little more personal to the father also than what we think. See it represents who is first in your life. It’s one thing to say God is first in our life, but if we were to open up our check book or view our account online. What would it say? It may be your favorite store that is first and not God.

Alright so 1) The first born must be sacrificed or redeemed. 2) The first fruits must be offered. Here is point number three.

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Closing:

3. The tithe must be first. Leviticus 27:30.

Leviticus 27:30 “And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s. It is holy to the Lord.”

Again we see that the tithe belongs to the Lord. God has set it apart for himself, and that’s what the next phrase says. It is holy to the Lord. The word holy simply means set apart. That is why its stealing, because it is set apart for himself, and that is why it has to be first because God is first and he owns it. So, in order to redeem it, we have to return it first.

Let’s close with a practical illustration. Let’s say you are a landscaper. I call you and say I would like to add som plants, trees, flowers, and pavers to my house. You give me an estimate and you itemize it. For practical purposes lets say the bill is $4000. Materials are $1500, Labor is the same $1500, leaving you with a profit of $1000.

How much is the tithe? The tithe is only on the profit not the total amount paid to your company. You tithe off the increase. In this case the increase is $1000. So, the tithe is $100. Now if you had 10- $100 bills in your hand for the profit which one is the Lord’s? The first one.

The first one that leaves your hand. Thats the tithe. The principle is that I don’t wait to see if there is enough left over for God after I set some aside for the mortgage, car, utilities, clothes, etc. If i did wait for the leftovers God wouldn’t accept it anyway because God doesn’t accept leftovers. He is first.

This is all about the heart. In Malachi 1:13-14 “You also say, ‘Oh, what a weariness!’ And you sneer at it,” Says the Lord of hosts. “And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; Thus you bring an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” Says the Lord. “But cursed be the deceiver Who has in his flock a male, And takes a vow, But sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished— For I am a great King,” Says the Lord of hosts, “And My name is to be feared among the nations.”

We don’t want to give God our leftovers. We want to return to Him the first and redeem the rest.

So when you receive the increase in your life. Put God first. Make it a point to honor Him. We all were once lost and without Hope. Yet through Jesus Christ God has brought us out of slavery to sin and redeemed us by His blood. Let, this be the heart that we give from. One of gratitude for the mercy and grace of God in our lives.

Let’s pray!

That God would help us to trust Him with our lives.

Salvation

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