Put God First
The Hebrew word feasts means appointed times. The timing of these feasts and the sequence of these feasts have been ordered by God. These feasts are also called holy convocations. These times are for the specific purpose of God and man meeting together for holy purposes. Next month we will celebrate the third Feast of the year, the Feast of Tabernacles. I hope you had the oppportunity to observe Resurrection Sunday (Feast #1) and Pentecost Sunday (Feast #2). These appointed times with God are very significant and should be observed by all believers especially in these last days.
Today we are going to continue with Prioritizing the Presence of God and focus specifically on First Things. One major Bible doctrine is known as Eschatology which is the study of last things. The study of this area is vital in knowing future prophetic events such as the Rapture, the return of the Messiah, the day of the Lord and the messianic Kingdom. There is an entire study that is devoted to last things.
The study of first things is not considered a major discipline, and there is really very little teaching out there on this subject. I thank God for Pastor Larry Huch and Pastor Paula White for the teachings that they have given to the body of Christ on the subject of First Things or the Principle of First Fruits. The Bible does have much to say.
Let’s turn our Bibles to MATT. 6:25-34. We have heard and quoted this verse many times. Let’s take the time to really break down what is actually being said to us.
The word first in the Greek means “Chiefly, firstly or foremost in time, place & order of importance”.
To seek God first is the principle thing, it is what everyone should give detail to above anything else that is going on. Above where you live, above what your job is, what clothes on your back, food you eat, all of these things are secondary.
C.S. Lewis, who was a british theologian and who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia and just known for his quotes, said “When FIRST things are put FIRST… Second things are not suppressed but increased”
This verse says that all these things Shall be added to you. In the Greek, this means to place additionally or lay besides. It also means to repeat or to increase. What this means is that as we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness then all the things that you need will be placed in addition to your life. if you have the right foundation, tour life will be layered properly.
What does it mean to seek first? The amplified says to seek means to (aim or plan and strive after (to go all out, do your best, make every effort) first
What is the Kingdom of God? The Amplified Bible says that it is God’s way of doing and being right. It is the extension of God’s rule or dominion in the earth.
- The Kingdom is The King’s domain or an area or sphere in which He holds a preeminent position”
- It denotes God’s PURPOSE (the extension of His Rule)
When we plan and make every effort to put God FIRST by obeying His PRINCIPLES & following His divinely established PATTERN, our life becomes aligned with His plan & aligned with the promises He has for us.
EVERY KINGDOM Has RULES AND PRINCIPLES… {I.E} = “Laws or Principles of Living”
In MT 5:1-8; Jesus teaches what we call the beatitudes, blessed is the poor, blessed is they that mourn.
A PRINCIPLE = is from the root word “Prince =
· meaning dominion or monarch”…
· “A fundamental truth or law on which others are based…
· A rule of conduct…The method in which something operates…”
RULE – A PRESCRIBED GUIDE FOR CONDUCT or WAY of LIVING… THE LAWS PRESCRIBED BY THE KING.
This teaches us several things:
- As citizens of this Kingdom, our job is not to DESIGN or DEVELOP the pattern but to discover & implement these principles
- Our responsibility is to put the decision & plan of the King into effect…
- This also teaches us that whenever we implement a divine PRINCIPLE we will reap a divine Result or Reward…
When the order of your life is to seek God’s ways first and adhere to His principles and laws, you will increase.
God is a God of increase, not only spiritually but in every area of your life. He wants you to have emotional increase. He wants you to increase in your career. He wants your family to increase. If you can just come to the table or enter into your prayer closet with this belief that God is a God of increase and He wants you to increase, I think that it will really change how we pray, and how to see things that come up against us.
One of the things that I said last week was that Kingdom of God is a reality, it is a divine system, made up of the King’s principles and laws, the kingdom of God exists now and it is for every believer. There is a worldy system that has it’s principles and laws which are prescribed by its King. The bible calls it the Babylonian system, it is separate from God. It is where man is in charge and does not want God.
So the Kingdom of God is not for when we get to heaven. It is aboutt heaven being realized here on earth. That is even how he instructed the Disciples to pray, thy kingdom come and thy will be done, where? On earth as it is in heaven.
God wants to show himself in you and through you because you are created in His image. He wants to add to you and lay things beside your life but it is as you seek Him first.
To seek God means to worship God. And we do not want to reduce worship down to coming in here and singing songs on a Sunday morning, lifting and clapping your hands, going through our routine and ritual of hallelujah, thank you Jesus for the first 30 or 40 minutes of the service.
Worship means to shape or build worth, value and respect in your life. When you .worship means you respond to what you value the most. It is your lifestyle and worship encompasses everything. It is in my giving, it is in my attending church, it is in my conduct in the work place, it is in my conduct in my home.
Worship is not about valuing the hand of God but the heart of God. We cannot honor the things that God gives to us and does for us over who He is to us. A sinner can thank and praise God for what he has done, but worship is relationship and it is intimate. Not anybody can worship. Real worship is so intimate and private, it is knowing that all the hell that you have gone through, and knowing that it is a miracle that you survived those things. For some of us it is a miracle that we survived our childhood. Really, I should be living on welfare, or somewhere out of mind, or on drugs, or infected with a disease…
Real worship says that when I cry holy, and I think about the goodness of God, and how much he loves me, and how much he longs for me, God loves me, and desires to talk with me, and breathes the breath of life on me, and pursues me like a long lost love and he loves me like no one has ever loved me.
So real worship is so intimate and it is the where the great exchange takes place. He takes away my sorrow and gives me joy, he takes away my low self-esteem and makes me an overcomer and gives to me boldness of heart and mind. That’s real worship and only intimate worship is where God can see into me and there is oneness.
That’s why worship is not a song service. It has to be my lifestyle and I can worship God anywhere. I can worship him in my car, I worship him in my house, I worship God in my giving, with my whole heart and with my life.
So, in seeking God, we are to see his plans, his principles, and his patterns first. Seeking him means to worship him and there are great exchanges that are occurring.
God has an arrangement for your life and when something is arranged It is put into a proper, systematic order…That ORDER is ALWAYS in ALL things…FIRST THINGS FIRST”…or the “The Principle of Firstfruits”
So, then that lead me to ask God Why are there first things or why is there a first and why is it so important to you?
One of the first things that God taught me over 28 years ago as a newborn Christian is that He is very serious about His order and things being in order in our lives
PRO. 3:9-10, 9Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: 10So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
III. WHAT IS “FIRST FRUITS”? –
Exodus 23:15-17
EXODUS 23:19, 19The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God.
[Ex 22:29-30 NIV] 29) "Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. "You must give me the firstborn of your sons. 30) Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day.
LEV. 23:10, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:
PRINCIPLE: “THE FIRSTFRUITS SET THE PATTERN OR ESTABLISH THE DESTINY OF WHAT IS LEFT”
-It is the ONE THING that affects or governs everything that follows it
Anytime something is a FIRST THING, A FIRSTFRUIT (also called a devoted thing)… GOD ALWAYS LAYS CLAIM TO IT..
There are things that belong to God and to God alone and he will not accept anything else.
So we are now back to the question that I asked last week, are you ready to stop delaying your destiny and you have to answer the question is this going to be the year that great things happen in my life. If we want great things and God things happening then it is imperative that we understand first things first.
Let’s turn to Genesis 4:1-7
In reading this it can be somewhat perplexing because on one hand we know according to Acts 10 where Peter says that I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. So then why would God, who has no partiality or respect of person, say I reject that but I will accept this. So it brings to question whether or not God is playing favorites.
So, in my search I found that the Character of God does not change and I found in Deuteronomy 10: 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.
So no, God does not have favoritism and he does not show partiality. So there had to be more to this than God accepting Abel’s offering but not Cain’s.
Some of you believe that God favors others over you. Was able better looking than Cain? The truth of this can be found in your own life. You know you don’t deserve to be where you are or to have the things that you have, you have things in your life that you are not even qualified to have but because God chose you and He love you, and he believes in you, he accepts you, his grace and mercy has made it possible for you. Your are not a product of your past and it does not matter what anybody says because if God be for you then who can be against you.
So my own life says to me, no it can’t mean that God simply liked Abel more than He liked Cain. What I find that this not about preferences. This is not about what God prefers but this is about God being honoring and having respect for obedience. It is about worship and it is about honor, and it is a text about putting God first. This about positioning and putting God’s presence as your priority. This is a text about first things first or firstfruits.
We cannot live by our feelings and we can’t live by what we prefer to do, but we must live by our principles. We will delay our destiny if we are basing things on how we feel. But we must live based on our commitment. What did you commit to do? You cannot change or altar your commitment basing it on whether or not you like what is going on around you, or you like the person, or whether or not things are going the way you think they should go. You may feel like giving up, but what did you commit to the Lord. You may feel like you need your tithes and offering to pay your bills but what did you commit to the Lord. There is a covenant that we have entered into with God and daily where is your devotion?
So we must live by our commitment and not be legalism. Legalism is a strict adherence to a literal interpretation of a law, rule, or religious or moral code.
1 Samuel 15:22 “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.
God says that your hallelujahs, and your offerings, and your speaking in tongues does not mean anything to me if you are not honoring and respecting the covenant and the commitment you made to me. God says your sacrifices are not what I want. He wants your heart and he wants my heart. He wants my obedience out of the relationship that He and I have
So God is very serious about first things being first. It’s not that he wants your stuff, it is because he wants you. And the law of giving comes from the law of loving. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that he gave. And so giving comes out of loving. So we give back to God because God so loved us and we love him back.
The woman with the Alabaster Box brought her
So now we get down to it. Matthew 6:21 says to us that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Your treasure reveals where your heart is. This is the dividing line right here. This is where somebody who can talk a game, but I need to see some action behind those words that you speak.
When you get home, pull out your checkbook, and just look back over since the New Year, it will show you what you treasure is, and it shows you where your heart is. You have to be honest with yourself. If you cant part with what belongs to God then where is your heart. God wants your heart.
7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Accepted – (Hebrew) = An elevation in rank or character; elevation or cheerfulness,
dignity, advanced, to lift and raise up.
If you do what is right, and you are obedient to God’s way of doing things, your life will be elevated or advanced, lifted and raised up. God is saying here to Cain to retrace your steps and find where you went wrong then amend your offering and your intentions.
What you give to is a reflection of what you love, value or desire. God didn’t want or need Cain’s offering, He wanted Cain. We want God to be faithful to us but God wants us to be faithful to him.
Churchill said the price of greatness is responsibility. Greatness for our families, for our city, and for this church.
If the price of greatness is responsibility then all decisions have a price. So, if we want success, are we willing to sacrifice? This is something that we have to ask ourselves everyday in every area of our lives. When we made a commitment to God we made the decision to do something.
Decision means to cut away from. When we commitment to something we are cutting away all other options and all other possibilities. Some people don’t want to be committed to God because they do not want to cut out other options.
Heb 11:4 – By faith Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain did (am much more full or
complete sacrifice)
Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. We can’t do this thing halfway and think that oh well, at least I brought something. I hear Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer, and all the generals of the gospel say that partial obedience is still disobedience.
They both brought an offering but Abel brought firstfruits. God didn’t whisper in Abel’s ear what to do and not tell Cain. They both had the same information.
Cain – gave what He wanted to give Abel – gave what God wanted.
Cain and Abel both knew that there was a specific way in that God wanted to be worshipped, they knew that there was a specific place to worship, and they knew that there was a specific time to worship.
The Lord dropped this in my heart last night as I was preparing this and to ask you this question. Are you committed to what God has called you to here at Dominion Church? Are you committed to seeing this church grow even if things are difficult? Can you commit to moving forward even if things are not going the way you think they should go? Can you do it because it is what pleases God?
We are at the place of no return. Are you committed to this being your best year? Can you say come hell or high water I’m in? God I am in and I am here for you! Because the quality of anything is in direct proportion to the commitment of excellence to this things. This is a ministry of excellence. It is a ministry of honor, integrity, and God’s glory.
