The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: First and Best

Episode Date: October 30, 2022

We bring to God our first and best because God first loved us by giving us His best in Jesus Christ.

Amen and amen. How we do, church? Doing good? How's your weekend going? Mine's going great. Hope yours is. If you're checking the current score, do not moan or grown

during the service or cheer, either one. Okay. Hey, if you got your Bibles, actually, if you got your journal, and I saw that you do. So go to page 53. That's where we're going to be. If you brought your own Bible,

we're going to be all over the place. I've got good news and great news. Good news is, sermon's only going to be 10 minutes today. The great news is, there's a 50-minute intro to the sermon. And if you don't get that, you won't understand the sermon. So in a while, about 45 minutes, we'll get to Genesis chapter 4.

That's where we're going to end up. That's the text that's in your journal. But I've got to give you a little intro to that because we're in the third week of this teaching series called the 10-10 life. And it's rooted in John chapter 10, verse 10. And the Bible says that the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus, the good shepherd has come that we may have life and have, and have it abundantly.

And today, what we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about money. So everybody relax, everybody, breathe in, breathe out. Let me tell you who's not nervous. Generous people. They're like, oh, good, okay? Now, remember, John 10-10, he's a good shepherd. And what he wants for you is abundant life.

And the Bible says that the sheep know the voice of the shepherd, which means if and when we do what he says, what he tells us to do leads us into an abundant life. This is the kind of shepherd that makes us lie down in green pastures. This is the kind of shepherd that leads us besides still waters. This is the kind of shepherd that restores our soul. There's no amount of money in your bank account that can restore your soul. There ain't a vacation you can go on that can restore your soul.

There ain't a team on the universe that can restore your soul. I don't care how they're good they're doing right now. I promise they will let you down, give them long enough. In Jacksonville, we should all stood to our feet and said glory to God right there. Okay, so. Now, what, so know this, the abundant life is him. Not an abundance of possessions.

God wants what's best for your life, which is him. And what is best for you is to understand that he is first, that he is first, not just in number, but in essence, not just in sequence, but in essence. And if he's not first in your life, your whole life will be out of order. It's what I'm going to do.

Typically what I do when I teach the Bible is I pick one verse and we walk through it for an hour, okay? Today I want to show you a principle that's in the scripture from the very beginning to the very end, and it's called the principle of preeminence. And it's rooted in three truths that will find all over the scripture and one response.

Because the idea is, the idea of the preeminence of Christ is this, is that we are like an engine, and the only thing that we run on, if it is a gas-powered engine, then you've got to put gas in the engine for it to run. And we are an engine that has been built to run on him. We are like little tiny babies that are crying out and what we need, what a little baby needs from his mama is his mama, because she has the only goods that can provide for him.

And we were created in such a way that when we cry out, what we need is God and what God gives to us is himself. This is the abundant life. And so we're going to walk through a bunch of scriptures so that we can understand the preeminence of Christ. Three truths, one response. Truth number one. God is first. God is first.

It's just who he is. In fact, this is how the whole Bible starts. In the beginning, God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That he is the uncreated creator. I mean, think about this. Think about the very first human beings. God breathes the rule of the breath of life.

to Adam, he opens his eyes, he is face to face with his creator, and that's what every single one of us were created for. And then, the only thing that was not good is God said it's not good for man to be alone, so he puts Adam to sleep, and when he wakes up the second time, he is there with his naked wife Eve, and he's thinking, I should take more naps, because every single time I wake up, it gets awesome and awesome and awesome. You understand? And then God gives this cultural mandate. He says, you're going to subdue and cultivate, you're going to be fruitful and multiply. Now think about this. The first full day of Adam's life, all right?

He was created on the sixth day, and on the seventh day, I'm sure Adam was like, boss, what are we going to do tomorrow? I mean, we got a lot to do. We got to subdue and cultivate all of this garden. I can't wait for the be fruitful and multiply command. Looking forward to that one. So God, what are we going to do tomorrow? We've got to be busy, busy, right?

And God says, here's what we're going to do tomorrow. Ready? Sabbath. Nothing. Not because they're tired. I don't know if you've ever been created. I don't think it makes you tired. They're not resting from work.

They're resting for work. Here's what God wants them to know. If you don't orient your life in such a way where I am first, where I am preeminent, then your whole life will be disoriented. God is first. This is not just an Old Testament thing. John chapter 1 verse 1.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life. So if you're not in Him, there's no way you could be walking in the abundant life. Colossians chapter 1.

We spent about two years as a church in this passage. Colossion chapter 1, verse 15, says it this way. He, talking about Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for Him. and he is before all things. And in him, all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. So he is before all things. And then the question we ask ourselves is this, have some things taken the place of him and become preeminent in our life. We spent two more years in this verse called the Shema, Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 4.

The reason it's called the Shama is the first word, is here, oh Israel. Here in Hebrew is Shima, and that does not just mean listen with your ears. It's like when my daddy used to say, boy, listen to me. He does not mean, do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? He means, I'm about to say words and you're going to do something about it. Here, oh, Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord of your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. In other words, when you see God for who he really is, one, first. The Hebrew word is Akhad.

And it means like God is not just number one on your list of priorities. God would be the paper on which you list all your priorities. When you see him for who he really is, preeminent first, then the normative natural response is that we would love God with all. So the reality is simply this,

that God is first. Now this is scary for some of you. He will be first in your life. He will either be first as your Savior or he will be first as your judge, but he is first. God always acts within his own character and nature. He can't do it any other way because he is a God of character. So the reason that God loves you ain't because of you. It's because God is love.

The reason that God judges sin is because God is just. The reason that God can pour out grace upon us is because God. God is gracious. And so there's a bunch of things that God just can't do or won't do. Like God has never been surprised. Have you ever think about this? You know what's never happened?

God's never sat up in heaven and went, you know what I just thought of? That's never happened. Because he's already thought of all the things that you could possibly think of. There are no future things that he could possibly think of and be surprised by.

The Bible says that God never changes. He can't change, which is good news. That means he can't be, he can't get better. We can't get worse. And this is really good news. That means when God offered you salvation,

it's not like he's going to see what you did tailgating yesterday and be like, nope, never mind, give it back. That's not how he works. And so because God is first, so truth number one, God is first. Truth number two is this. Because God is first, he loves first and he went first. Romans 5'8 says this, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us. I love it. I love it in the NIV because it says God demonstrates his love. And the only reason I love it is that's how I'm memorized it. I'm going to help you memorize. Romans 5-8, God demonstrates. Now you've already known the rest, okay?

You're welcome. I'm here to serve. God demonstrates his love for us in this that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us. The reason God goes first is because he's first. How many of you are so thankful to God that he's not waiting to score you for the semester

and then decide if he wants to demonstrate his love? love for you or not, but that He goes first. You see, God is first. Because he's first, he goes first. John 316, even if you knew to Bible study, you know this one. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish and have eternal life. We love the whoever believes in him part. But the reason that the whoever can believe is because God loved and God went first, therefore God sent his son. One of my favorite passages. 1 John, chapter 4, verse 10. In this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sin. And propitiation means a payment that, oh, my preacher's heart

could die and go to heaven right now. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. When we launched this church, church growth expert says, people can't understand big words like perpetuation. And I thought if you can order evento caramel macchiato you could learn perpetuation okay now i get mine black because i'm a grown man but i don't have time to get into all that okay anyway that this is love god is not responding to us in love because of our good behavior but god first loved us and demonstrated it by sending his son as the payment that satisfies which means if you were in him he can't be dissatisfied in you that's such good news In fact, by the time you get to verse 19, John is going to say that we love because he first loved us. Did you realize even if you're not a Christian, you're not sure about this whole Jesus thing and you just got duped into being here?

The reason that you can love one another is not because you contain love within yourself, but because God's common grace, he has loved us and his love allows us to love one another. You see, God is first, and because he is first, truth too, is he loves first. and he went first. Now, up to this point, everybody loves this, right? Everybody's like, oh, I love his church. God loves and loves me and goes first. Amen. All right. We're going to take a little turn here, so buckle up. Truth. So number one, God is first. Number two, because God is first, he loves first and he went first. Number three, what we do with our money reveals and even steers our heart. That's right. What we do with our money, our finances, our dollars, our checkbooks, our credit cards, our debit cards, what we do with our finances, our money,

reveals and even steers our hearts. All the next verses are from the sermon on the mount. And occasionally, I don't really get that this much around here. You guys are kind of awesome. You say nice things about my preaching. But occasionally I will hear people say, why you got to talk about money so much at church? Okay. In order for me to talk about money as much as Jesus talked about money, I did the math a few months ago,

I would have to talk about money 10 times as much as we talk about it now. So if you don't like churches to talk about money, you would have hated the teaching ministry of Jesus. So why does he talk about money so much? Because it's crazy how money gets all entangled with our hearts. And he wants your heart. And so what we do with our money

reveals and even steers, points us points our hearts. You see, money and words are different. Jesus says out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. But he's going to say, wherever your money goes, your heart is going to follow. Matthew chapter 6, verse 19, this is called the sermon on the mount. Jesus talks about all kind of things on the sermon on the mount. He gives the gospel presentation.

He talks about oaths. He talks about marriage, talks about divorce, talks about lust, talks about sin, talks about all kinds of things. And the thing that he talks about more than anything else in his longest recorded sermon and in all of the Bible is he talks about money. He says stuff like this. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy

and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. You see, we all invest our stuff somewhere and he's saying if you invest all your stuff into the temporary world, all that's going to give you

is an abundance of possessions, not an abundant life. Because here's the thing, everything you have is temporary. Do you know this? I mean, I talk about it all the time. Death rate in America, right around 100%. Every time I check. And everything you have, man, everything you have, is going to stay here. In fact, sometimes people will be like, well, I'm saving money.

You know you can't actually save it. You can give it, you can spend it, you can leave it. That's all you can do with it. And everything you have, you realize you're going to leave it. You've never seen a hearse with a U-Haul because it all stays here. And everything you have, man, they're going to sell in a garage sale. Unless you make a bank, it's an estate sale. It's the same thing.

They got punch and a triangle pomella cheese. That's the only difference. All right? And think about this, man. Whatever it is, whatever that stuff is that you just think you got to have, like those pants you got on right now, them fancy pants you wear. You just felt like I got the hat in pants. You put them on and feel like, oh, yeah, baby.

These feel good. All right, guess what? We're going to sell your fancy pants for $4 at hopes cause it one day. That's a fact. Some girl you don't even know right now is going to look better than you do in your used pants. Say law. Think about that for a minute. All right.

Hey, fella, your golf clubs? Did you just had that? Your golf clubs? See how quiet it gets? Whoa, whoa, whoa, now you're meddling. All right? Listen. Let me just, can you just just just just.

jot this down, boys, it ain't the clubs. All right. Yeah, man, we're going to sell your clubs. We ain't even going to sell them as a set. $5 a piece. We're just going to hand them out to whoever's got $5. Here you go, he goes. And some dude that ain't even that good is going to be better than you with your

used clubs, I'm just telling you. You see? So why in the world will we act like we're going to live here forever? I traveled a crazy amount last week. I think I was in four different hotels. Can you imagine if I pulled up in the hotel, walked in my little room and said, Can't have this.

No, no, no, daddy don't walk around on carpet. I need hardwoods up in here. Called the front desk and Lowe's, got us on a conference call. All right, here's what we're doing. We're going to rip out this carpet. We're going to put in some hardwoods. We'll take out this little countertop. Who needs this stuff?

We need quartz. That's what I got to have. And I'm going to get a microwave, but not just a microwave. They make them now. There's a convection oven, an air fryer, and a microwave. Don't ask me how I know that. And then I'm a little time. How about we bump out and made a little breakfast nook here.

And here's what the people at the Econo Lodge would tell me, You know what? We appreciate it, but that seems like an awful waste of money since you're going to be here for a short time. I think heaven looks at us like, hold on. You know you ain't going to live here forever, right? Store up for yourselves. Not treasures here on earth. But in heaven. The only thing that I can figure, according to the word, that you can take to heaven, is people and praise us. So wouldn't we leverage it all to take as many to heaven as we absolutely could? And then he says this very famous verse, verse 21. for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Not the other way around. That your treasure goes first and your heart follows them.

So if I were to come out in the audience right now and take your wallet, just take it. Oh, your wallet. I'd like your wallet, okay? Wallets. I would go and get your wallet. I can tell about your socks, you got a good wallet, all right? I know him. He's a deacon, all right?

and if I were to get your wallet and put it in my pocket and preach the rest of the sermon, guess what? My man on the front row right here is going to pay attention to this sermon in a way he's never been able to pay attention before. He ain't watching the screen. He's watching me if I walk around, his head's going to move around with me. At the end of the service, when it was over, if I went back behind the stage, he would pop up here and be like, hey, where'd pastor go? They'd be like, you need prayer? No, man, I need my wallet. Right?

Yeah. Why? Because wherever your treasure goes, there your heart follows. The best example I've ever seen of this is in 2003, when I first moved here, my pastor, Pastor Jerry Sweat and his entire family, they used to be fans of that team that visited here and is on their way back down south to Gainesville right now, okay? Now, they wore the colors, they had the cheers and get up and whatever, go home, whatever that thing is, all the things, okay? Then what happened is by God's sovereign grace, their eldest son did not go south.

He went west to Florida State University, all right? I don't know if I'd up woo if I were y'all right now. You did Georgia Tech pretty good, but whatever, right? No, he went that way. And then I don't think the family got together and prayed about who they should pledge allegiance to on Saturday, but I know this. They wrote tuition check after tuition check after tuition check. And it did not go south to Gainesville.

It went west down I-10 to Tallahassee. And over time, not overnight, on the weekends, instead of doing this thing, it turned into thing and now they are Seminole fans. Why? Why? Here's why. Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. This is what Jesus is teaching in the sermon on the mouth. What we do with our money not only reveals but even steers our heart, Matthew 624, couple lines down in the same sermon. He says no one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other or he will be devoted to the one and despite the other, you cannot serve both God and money.

That money makes a terrible master. Makes a great tool. Makes a terrible master. And do you see how tied up our hearts are to our money? And here's the truth. God doesn't want you money. He doesn't need you money. I mean, what are you going to give the,

what are you going to come to a million dollars? Neat. I spoke the stars into existence. What do you think? I need to buy pants? Like God doesn't want you money, man. He doesn't. it's actually already his, it's all his.

He wants your heart. And he wants it so much that he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to purchase you and pay for you. And Jesus didn't just tithe his blood towards you on the cross. He gave it all so that he could purchase us that we might know him. And God knows that the number one competitor oftentimes for our hearts are the things that we own

because we think we own them and then sure enough they begin to own us. Then he ties up, this section on teaching in the sermon on the Mount with a very famous verse, Matthew chapter 6, verse 33. He says, but, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these things will be added unto you. And these things, what he's talking about is what he's just covered in the sermon on the Mount. Jesus is the master teacher. And basically he's saying this, hey, listen, man, what are you worried about? Why are you so worried about what you're going to

eat and what you're going to drink and where you're going to live. Because the reality is what Jesus is going to do is Jesus addresses the two categories that most of us fail in when it comes to finances and resources. There's this great Irish proverb that says for every mile of road, there's two miles of ditch. One of those ditches are the people that look for their security in money. We call them savers. We got any savers in the house. Okay, any savers in the house?

All right, look at that. One person right here. That's what I mean? Okay. If you notice, none of the savers extend their arm all the way. They're like, there's no need for that. This is fine. I think you can see me here, folks.

Okay. Yeah, God bless y'all. Y'all are awesome. Okay, so, now, is there anything wrong with saving? No, no, no. Actually, the proverbs say that we should save enough that we bless our grandkids, okay? So there's room for saving for sure. But what Jesus is talking about, when he's saying this, he goes, wait, well, what?

But when you put your hope in your savings, you're putting your hope in a thing that can't do for you, what you want it to do for you. Because you think that your money, by saving it is going to offer you security. And it can't offer you security. Can't keep you married, can't keep you healthy. It can't offer you those things. Can't keep you fulfilled?

And then he says, to the savers, all you savers out there, he says this, so consider the birds of the air. Now this is called the sermon on the mount, not the sermon in the synagogue. So he's actually out on the mountain. And I don't know if birds flew by, but it doesn't matter. He's Jesus.

He could have been like, cue the birds. There they go. A little birds, okay. He's like, look, birds. And he goes, what are the birds? save. They don't save anything. They don't have a lockable safe. They don't have a 401k. They don't have an IRA. Not one bird is checking the stock market this week. And guess what? Does God take care of them? Answer is yes. And Jesus is saying, you mean to tell me the birds trust God

more than you? And then, don't tell Peter this. It'll ruin their whole life. And then he says, do you know that you're more important than the birds? So if the birds can trust him for security, can't you trust him for security? And then, and see, at this point, all the spenders, got any spenders in the house? Yeah, that's it. There's always, woo, what do we win? Okay, nothing. Yeah, the spenders are like, you tell them, pastor, I'm married to a saver, and that son of a gun,

we don't ever get to do nothing, go out on triple coupon Tuesday and wear hammy downs. Okay, relax. You see, and here's what's crazy by God's sovereignty, usually a spender and a savor fall in love with each other so you can fight about that for the rest of your life. Praise God, okay? And so the problem with the spender, there's nothing wrong to spend the money. The problem is if you begin to put your hope there and you begin to think that this temporary stuff can fully and finally satisfy, if you just think like a new house is going to do it for

you, you realize, I don't care how big your house is, you can only sit in one room at a time. You realize that? You think a half-bath is going to do it for you. You think that new car is going to do it for you. Then after you ride around about six weeks, you realize that the McDonald's fries stay alive in your new car, just like they did your old car, still make the same smell. This is how silly you are, man. You know, you can't even see you driving that new car.

Never thought about that. And, listen, man, this is just from love. By the time you're old enough to afford it, you look kind of goofy driving it, fellas. I'm just telling you, just dude, like, oh, look at him. That's cute. He's all insecure, just riding around in that car. And if you're young enough to look cool, nobody's like, what an industrious young man. We're like, tell your mom she's got a nice BMW.

That's how that goes. There's no win. There's no win in the new ride. Now, I did have somebody after nine. I'm like, well, pastor, but I heard you're looking at a new motorcycle. But that's cool. That's totally different. That doesn't count, okay?

Those are cool. But the problem is if we think these things, these temporary things in the world, like clothes are a great example, are going to satisfy us. This is why we call it the cul-de-sac of stupidity. Like, look at you from pictures from years ago, in the clothes that you thought were awesome then. Did they do what you thought they would do? No.

But then you think the next set of clothes are going to do something for you? Again, this is why we call it the cul-de-sac of stupid. Not because stuff is stupid, because you're stupid. Same thing, over and over and over. And so Jesus is saying, oh, but, however, however, instead of looking for your security and your satisfaction in the temporary stuff of this world, You put your faith in your trust in Him, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,

and then all these things, what things? All the stuff that you don't need to be worried about on this planet. All the things of this world will be added unto you. Now, truth one, he is first. Truth two, because he is first, he goes first, he loves first. Truth three, what we do with our money and our finances reveals and even steers the direction of our heart. So based on those three things, our response should be this if you're a Jesus follower. Our response is to respond to God with honor and with love and worship, we bring to God our first and our best because he first loved us by giving us his best in Jesus Christ. That what we do with our finances is an opportunity to worship him and to direct our entire life so that these things that we think we own don't get ownership of us, but we realize. that he owns it all. Malachi chapter three. Malachi is an Old Testament prophet. We studied this a

couple of years ago. And Malachi's invitation is going to this rebellious children Israel and saying God the father wants you to come home. Malachi 3.7, he says it this way. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. So who is he talking to? And if you're like, those pesky Israelites never did what they were supposed to. Oh God, bless you. He's also talking about us. Every single one of us that are prone to wander, prone to leave to God we love. This is who he's talking to. And then look at this relational language. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. He's like, I want you to come back to me. But you say, how shall we return? All right, God, I hear your invitation. How shall I return

to you? And of all the things he could have gone with. He doesn't say, we got to start reading your Bible more, you need to go to church more, you need to join a disciple group. That's not. The thing that he goes after is he goes after the first. finances. Why? Because where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. And he asked this question. It's kind of an offensive question. Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, how have we robbed God? Now, have you ever robbed God? Like, I don't think there's anybody in here that we're like, yeah, there's this other day, and the altars were full of people, nobody's paying attention, and I ran by one of the offering boxes and said, lunch on me and robbed God. Would you do

if you would do that, I would like to introduce you to our prison ministry as a recipient. Okay. No, man. But to rob somebody basically means is, I've got what's yours. So I don't think anybody would stick their hand in there and take cash out that had been given to God. But if what is God's is in your account and not in his account, God would say, yeah, man, you have what is mine. And then they're like, well, how? How have we done that?

And he says this, in your tiths and contributions, in your tides and contributions. There are levels of generosity when we talk about what we bring back to God. In your tiths and contributions. The word tithe is often talked about as 10%. And it's a standard in the Old Testament about how much we're to bring to God.

But if you look through the scriptures, the tithe is not just 10%. The tithe is what is first and best. And the reality is this, every single one of us are tithing to something. Everything we have is a bloodbought grace gift from God. And then we take the first part of that and we put it towards something. And what almost every American, including church-going Christians do, is they take that first and that best and they put it towards security and satisfaction to take care of themselves.

It's like houses, cars, education, that kind of stuff. And here's the problem with tithing to stuff. that stuff cannot do for you what you were looking for, and it will always let you down. And so what God is saying is that the tithe is mine, what is first and best is mine. That belongs to God, and we all tithe to something. And so they say, how are we robbing you? And he says, in your ties and contributions? Then he says, you are curse with a curse, for you are robbing me.

The whole nation of you. Verse 10, bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. There's a lot here. First of all, he says bring, bring, which, by the way, I hope you realize this. We can't give God anything. Now, in our communications, it's always hard to call it bringing, you know, like put a bring button on the app and all that kind of stuff, so we'll use the word give. There are other places that say give, but you realize you're not actually giving God anything. Everything that you have is already his. I need you to know that, okay? So we're not bringing him, I mean, we're not giving to him anything.

And in fact, I don't even love the term generosity. Because are you really generous to God? He's the generous one. What are you generous to him with? It would be like this. If you came to me and said, Pastor, I need your truck. Happily, I will let you use my truck. This is only illustration you ain't using my truck, but just pretend.

And then if you used it for like two weeks. And two weeks later, you came up to me and you were like, Pastor, I have something for you. I want to make a move of radical generosity. and I'm like, all right, now we're talking. And you said, meet me in the parking lot. And after the service, we met in the parking lot. And you said to me, I would like to present to you a used Chevy truck on me.

But I got, fool, that's my truck. You just brought me back my truck that I let you lose. How generous? I'm the generous one for letting you use my truck, okay? So we bring to God. You can't give him anything. And it's all his. And so he says, bring the full tide.

that means you bring what is first and best to him into the storehouse, in the new covenant, that would be the church, that there may be food in my house. Now, in the old covenant, there was actually food for like the priests to eat. In the New Testament, the food is the ministry of the word that happens here. That's what we're investing in. That we are responding to the character and nature of God because he is first and he went first, therefore we bring our first and best, and it provides the food for us to be nourished on. Now, I will tell you this, if you're going going to say bring the full tie to the storehouse, you better run a tight storehouse. We get a third party external audit every year, and we are a part of this organization called

the ECFA, and we just went through this like checkup to make sure everything's tight. You can check it all out on our website as you should. But we are to bring the full time. And then listen to what he says there. He goes, and thereby put me to the test. It's the only thing in the Bible I can find where God says, test me on this one. And put me to the test, says the Lord of Host. if I will not open up the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

So he says, put me to the test. So there's this famous radio preacher. He's awesome. God named Dr. David Jeremiah. And he's super old, so he says whatever he wants, which I love. You think I'm a little edgy now. You wait until I'm Dr. Paul's age. I'm going to get me a crooked finger and I'm going to wear you people out every week.

It's going to be awful. Everybody loves a prophet until they got a word for you. You understand? And so, David Jeremiah was talking about teaching on tithing. his church. He's a phenomenal Bible teacher and he says this younger couple comes to him and they're like, pastor, we don't know if we can do it. And he goes, okay, I'll tell you what. How about this? How about the first of the month you write me a check and I will keep it on my desk? And if at the end of the month you need it back, I'll give it back to you. Well, you trust me. And they go, oh, that'd be great.

He takes it and he tears it up and says, how dare you trust me more than the Lord? Mm, right? See, old guys say cool stuff, right? That's what Malachi say. That's what Malachi's saying. The question is not about do you trust me? The question is do you trust God? And he says, you bring to me mine what is first to tithe. And here's the thing, is there blessing? Who doesn't want for God to pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need?

I do. God does want to bless you. Now, the blessing may not be in Cadillac and Cotton Candy because I don't know how much of that we need. So he may read it. define those blessings, and you may ask, is there blessings when you tithe 100% yes? First is just in the natural. Even if you take the supernatural out of it completely, when we tithe, basically what we're doing is saying, I am learning to live on less than what I make. Because you realize, all of us

operate on a percentage of our income. If you don't know what that is, that's dangerous. The average in America, most people operate on like 111% of what they have. That's called not good. You buy stuff you don't need with money you don't have to impress people you don't even know. It doesn't take very long where you're upside down crying out to somebody else to help you. Got that? I heard a lady in the 9 o'clock service came up to me and said, hey, to all the spenders, when they're out of spending, they always go try to find a saver. That's a fact, all right? And so when you learn to live on lesson you make, then you will always have enough. But God doesn't stop there. He's a lot. He's He always sprinkles some super on that natural.

I'm just telling you he does. Because he could be trusted. And God can do more with your 90% than you could do with your 100%. So ultimately, when you've been like, God, forget you, I got this. He's saying then you're not trusting me. Now, there are some preachers on TV. I don't know why they're on TV so much, but they are. And they will use verses like this to preach a heresy, which is called the prosperity gospel.

Let me just tell you, the gospel needs no adjectives. It's good to go on its own. Now, the prosperity gospel goes something like this. If you give to God, then he will give you health, wealth, and happiness. Now, the problem is not that God doesn't want to prosper you. He's a good dad. He's a good dad. But is stuff really what we're looking for?

Absolutely not. You see, the fundamental heresy of the prosperity gospel is this. I go first. I go first. And God, if I give and sew into this ministry, then you owe me. and in that you were saying that I am preeminent. What the Bible teaches, that God is first, that God went first and loved first,

that what we do with our finances reveals who is first and even steers our heart towards first. You see, the reality is that it's all his, and we are stewards. There are three ways to think about stuff. Some people think mine is mine. That's called selfish. Some people think yours is mine.

That's called stealing. Yeah. Or socialism, but I don't have time. for that. I knew you would love it, but don't worry about me, okay? And then what the Bible calls us to see it is, mine is God's. That's called stewardship. And so he says, you bring to me your first and best, your ties and your offerings, and you watch what I do in your life. It's not just an old covenant thing in the new covenant in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9, verse 6. Paul says, the point is this. Now, pay attention. Anytime the Bible says the point is this,

God just put it on the bottom shelf, because sometimes he don't explain it. Sometimes it's like a journey with a man and some seeds and a dog and a donkey. And you're like, what? I don't understand. Right. And then sometimes he's like, this is the point. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work. That God loves a cheerful giver. He doesn't want anybody to give under compulsion. At the end of this service, there is no special offering.

In fact, this is why we don't pass the plate because I don't want you to give under compulsion. I want you to decide in your heart what God has called you to bring to him. and this weekend, November 4th and 5th, we are going to have a night called the Advanced Commitment Night, and I'm going to ask you to be leaders in our church and to go first, to be leaders. And basically, between now and then that you get to decide what is God calling you to give in your heart? There's two ways to come up with that, okay?

Both of them are fine, one's way better than the other. One is that you decide in your heart just based on rationality and reason. get out the budget, get a pencil, be like, hey, let's quit doing Hulu so much, and how about don't get coffee that costs so much money? We got free coffee at the office every time, but now we're getting into my personal business, you know what I mean, and you do some math, and be like, we could probably do this, and then you come up with a number. That's one way to do it.

So there's like reason. And the other is revelation, because he's a good shepherd. And he calls his sheep by name, and the sheep know the voice of the shepherd. And what we do is we come before the Lord and say, if you say it, I'll do it. And if you leave me, I'll go, what are you calling me to do? And I'm not asking to do anything specifically.

I'm asking you to do whatever the Spirit of God tells you to do. And then cheerfully bring your first and best. And God loves that. So this weekend, November 4th and November 5th, Friday night, Saturday night, same event, pick one. We're going to do advance commitment night. And I want to invite you.

At all of our locations, we're coming right here to San Pablo, and you should be a leader. And if somebody can't make that, then a weekend after that, we're going to all play along together. Now, that's the introduction, all right? So now you're ready for the sermon? Genesis chapter 4.

Because if you jump into Genesis chapter 4 without understanding that God is first, and God went first, and what we do with our finances reveals what's first and even steers our heart towards what's first, then you can't fully understand Genesis chapter 4.

He says this. Now Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. Single ladies, that is not a life verse for you. That doesn't mean what you think it means, okay? Verse two, and again, she bore his brother Abel. Now, Abel was a keeper of sheep, so he's a shepherd, and Cain, a worker of the ground, so he's a farmer. So you got sheep, and you got corn. Verse three.

And in the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord and, um, and, um, and, um, and, um, he was the, and offering of fruit of the ground. 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, but for Cain and his offering, he had no regard. Okay. So you get it. The shepherd brings the sheep. The farmer brings some corn. He has regard for one offering and no regard for the other. Why? Why, why, why, why? Is it because God likes meat better than vegetables? Well, everybody know that's true. Of course. I mean, we can see it at the cross.

After the cross, we get to eat bacon. Praise God. I mean, pre-Christ, no bacon. Post-resurrection? Bacon. How good is our God? You don't believe in a good God? You ain't ever had bacon.

You understand? You know how to make bacon better? Wrap it in bacon. That's what I'm saying. Every time you eat bacon, you should bless the Lord all my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name. Okay.

Now, but this is not what he's talking about, okay? You see, I need you to see the principle of preeminence. But God is first. God went first. What we do with our stuff, with our money, not only reveals what's first, but steers us towards what's first. And with cane,

cane in the course of time, that means cane planted, the water made it grow, Kane harvested. And then after the harvest, cane counts it all up. And ultimately what Cain is doing is then Cain brings an offering.

All you Bible nerds need to know, this is before the law was ever given to Moses. This is before any kind of Levitical law about how much to tithe and all this. They knew intuitively, but their creator deserved a sacrifice. But here's what Cain does. Kane, after a time, he brings an offering

because he needs to make sure that I got enough for me, and then he looks around, and ultimately he brings God the leftovers, and God is first. God doesn't do seconds. He is first. And so God has no regard to be titherto. to be brought the leftovers.

Why? The first commandment is this. There's only one God. He is first. And yet Abel, the Bible says that he brought the firstborn of his flock in their fat portions, which means, let me put this in modern context,

that Abel worked on commission. He didn't know how much was going to come in. He didn't know how many babies the mama sheep was going to have. And the very first one that is born, he knows, okay, is the firstborn and I'm going to bring my first to God because he is first and he is best. And somebody may say, yeah, but Abel, how do you know how many more you're going to have?

I have no idea, but here's what I know. I'm going to trust God, my creator. I'm not going to trust me. So I'm going to bring him first. The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God. The only way to please God in your finances is to bring him the first fruit faith offerings. Not wait to see if you got enough for you and yours, but to trust him with what's first. and you're saying, God, I trust you. Because you are first and you went first, and you love me enough to send your very best first in Jesus Christ. So my response is to bring you my first and best.

So in my house, here's the way this works. The first week, the first day of every week, the first money that comes out of our account is we bring back to God first and best. Now, let me just tell you, we're not legalist about it. Like if Gretchen gets a coffee on the way here instead of just getting the free coffee in my office, I'm not like, you know what, now we're cursed with a curse.

No, God knows our heart. In fact, a bunch of you signed up for reoccurving giving. This is like pre-first. Like, you have already decided this is what's coming out every two weeks or however you work it out, all right? But what we're doing is bringing our first. And in my house, I didn't just want it to be first in order. I wanted to be first in essence.

Like, if you look at our family budget, the biggest number on there is what we bring to the local church. because that's more important than my house, cars, my kids' education, that everything I have is a blood-bought grace gift from him, and I want my life, and particularly our finances, to reflect it, and so we bring first and best. This is what Abel does. This is what we have been called to do.

And notice this, there's no amount mentioned. Sometimes people, when I bring up the Malachi verse, they'll be like, well, tithed. It didn't tithe the Old Testament. And now we live in the New Testament. Or New Testament, Christians still required to tithe. I got good news. No.

You don't have to stop at a tithe. You don't. That's like T-ball level. That's like a good starting point. If you just have a very limited revelation of God and you don't know the resurrected Christ yet, but post-resurrection, man, we are free to give it all, to bring it all.

People say, how much should I give to God? You should give it all your sin, all your regret, all your condemnation. You should bring all of that, and then you should bring your first and best, whatever that means between you and the Lord. You should at least start with where the old, covenant started, because that was like kindergarten for the believer, but you were free to go as

far as Jesus did. Aren't you glad Jesus didn't tie this blood? No, no, no, no, no, he gave it all. Now, so Cain brings leftovers. Abel, first and best. And then check this out. First time I've ever seen this is this week. So, Cain was very angry. Kane was very angry, and his face fell. And the Lord said to Cain, why are you? Why are you? you angry? And why is your face falling? Now, if he told the truth, he would say, because I love money more than I love you. If you told the truth, he'd say, because I don't trust you. I got to take care of me. And then God says this, if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.

You know what I can't, listen, man, you talk about money, people get angry. You know where anger comes anger is never the thing. There's something behind anger. And it's always fear and control, and I'm not getting what I want. That's it, man. It's fear. I don't know if I can trust you. It's control. I got this. It's I'm not getting what I want. I'm over those pants you were talking about earlier. Yeah, so he gets angry. God is the one that ought to be angry. And he's not. And then he says, he says, listen, if you do well, that phrase do well is where Horatio Spafford that wrote, it is well with my soul, it's where he got that phrase. Like, whether it's peace like a river or tragedy comes my way,

I could say it is well, it is well with my soul. Like my condition will not be based on my circumstances. My condition, Shalom, will be based on my relationship with you. He says, you get that, you'll be all right. But sin is crouching at the door ready to pounce on you. And guess what? It got him. It got him.

In fact, one day, he's going to rise up right after this. He's going to kill his brother over jealousy. And then he's going to live a life of isolation because he gets banished from the community. And then this begins a generational curse in the life of Kane. Because the Bible goes on to tell us about the kids that he has. And one of his kids is named Lamek. And what Lamek does, Lamek brings two things into human history. One is polygamy.

Lamek is the first person in the Bible to say, you know what? I'm not going to do this thing God's way, like Adam and Eve and us and the Lord is enough. No, no, that's not enough for me. That he selfishly is like, no, no, I'm going to take more for me. And the other thing he brings is revenge. That's what happens. Lamex's name means poor and wanting. That the God of the universe, the Cain and Abel, offers an abundant life.

And Cain says, forget you, I got this. And he went down a road that led to nothing but poverty and wanting. and what God wants for every single one of us is an abundant life. Here's the point. We bring our first and best because God first loved us by giving us his best in Jesus Christ. So listen to me, I don't want you to respond in generosity to a series of sermons for a season in our church. I want us to be a people that live lives of generosity in response to the gospel of Jesus. So this weekend, November 4th and 5th.

And again, for some reason you can't make that, we're going to do it in big church a couple weeks after that. I want you to grab your card. Put it in your hand. Don't worry, it won't bite you. You don't have to fill anything out yet, all right? You're going to go decide in your heart. At our advanced commitment night,

we are going to sit down and we're going to ask God, what are you calling us to do? And you're going to write a number right here in this box. It says my slash our two-year 10-10 life commitment. and the question I need you to wrestle with the Spirit of God on is this. Does that number represent first and best? Or am I after a time just bringing an offering to bring God's seconds? The abundant life is found when we do exactly what He tells us to do.

Now, every single time I talk about this, I think about this event that happened in my life, in our family's life. And I think a part of it is a casualty of my vocation. Because of your generosity, we have staff people, and people like me. I get to all day, every day, study this book and figure out how to teach it. So I think in Bible verses. It's just how my mind works. I don't know what you think about. I think about Bible verse, okay?

And years ago, JP was 8 years old. Now he's 16, about to be 17. Years ago, it was after a service. And this is before any of all this was built out. We were just like in original phase when I used to teach from ladies, accessories now and then lay away, okay? So it was when we were over there. And there was a back hallway behind my office. And in that hallway was a little, we used to have these giving kiosk, you know, it kind of looked like ATM where God could rob you. You know what I'm talking about?

Like a guy told me one time, he thought it was an ATM because I was like, have you ever robbed God? And he came up to me one time. He's like, I think God robbed me. I put in my number. I thought money is going to come out and I said, thank you for your offering. I'm like, well, God bless you. I don't know what to tell you, man. Okay. So first and best matter to our family a lot. And so again, first in order, but in essence. And so what we, we decided every single week, first day of the week, on Sundays, as soon as I would get done, I would go and you'd put in your phone number, your stuff would come up, and then you would type in how much you were bringing back to God. And again, J.B. was eight years old. He was about that tall. He never paid attention to anything,

but for whatever reason, this day he's dialed in. And he looks at the number. And you know it's relative. Some of you think, wow. Some of you think, oh, that's cute. Well, whatever, man. It was a lot for me and Gretchen. And he looks at it and he goes, dad. Why do we give so much money to the church? I said, first off, Scooter, you don't give Jack. You understand? You actually cost us money, all right? You were just living under the covering

and the blessing of me and your mama, so for about 10 more years and then it's fourth and long, you've got to go. All right, so. But he looks at it, in the eyes of an 8-year-old, he's like, what are we doing? When that happened, when my son asked me, what does this mean?

My mind goes to Exodus 13. Exodus 131. This is another example of the principle of preeminence. It says this in 131. The Lord said to Moses, consecrate 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. Get down to verse 11, and when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, that's the promised land. As he swore to you and your fathers and shall give it to you,

you shall set apart to the Lord all the firstborn that opens the womb. Then he gives a gospel illustration. I don't have time to unpack. Then you get to verse 14 and he says, and when in time to come, your son ask 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. So you fast forward about 4,000 years and I'm over here. And my son says, what does this mean? And so God's telling Moses to tell the people, listen, one day you're going to live in the promised land.

One day you're going to live in houses you didn't build. One day you're going to be eating out of refrigerators that you didn't stock. And everything you have is a bloodbought grace to get from God. But you've got to bring to him what's his and what's his is first. And a generation or two is going to go by. And your son's going to come to you and be like, Dad, you've got some questions. See, eventually, I'm going to be the shepherd. I'm going to be in charge.

You're going to hand this over to me. And I've been looking over the books and, Dad, you're killing us. You're killing our bottom line. I mean, every time we have a firstborn, you bring it to the Lord. And I know your grandparents said it was a big deal, but I don't understand. Why don't we just wait? Why don't we just wait? There's always a gimpy one.

And once we make sure we have enough, maybe we kind of bring that. He'd probably be all right with that. Moses, God tells Moses to tell the people, you tell them when your son ask that by God's mighty right hand, we were slaves in Egypt. And he brought us out. Therefore, we will bring our first and best. So, J.P. says, Dad, why are we doing that? There was a little pew back there. I took off my backpack, sat him on the pew, got on my knees so I could be eyeball to eyeball

with him. I thought about Exodus 13. I said, look here, buddy. The daddy you know is not the man I've always been. For a long time, I was a slave to my own sin, to my own selfishness, to my own insecurities, and I did what I wanted with who I wanted whenever I wanted. And there was a trail of tears in my way. and not by anything I did to deserve it.

I don't deserve it. By God's mighty right hand through his son, Jesus Christ, came on a rescue mission for me. And he plucked me out of the slavery of my own sin. And he brought me right here to the promised land through his blood to be at this church, to be your dad. And because of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

because God is first and God love me first, me and your mama will happily gladly bring our first and best to him every single. time. That's what we're talking about here. And then in a really sweet moment, he's grown out of this for sure, but in a really sweet moment, my little eight-year-old boy looks at me, and I'm all emotional, because I get emotional when I talk about the gospel, I just can't get over it. And he looks at me and he just says, I'm glad you're my dad. When we bring our first and our best, we are rejecting the lives of this world, that the things of this world can bring us security and satisfaction.

And when we bring our first and our best, all we are simply saying to God is, I'm glad you're my dad. Would you please stand? Let me pray for you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, I thank you and I praise you that this is love. Not that we love you, not that you're in heaven waiting to see how we respond, but you are first and you go first. And Lord, because you are first, may our lives be lives defined as worship unto you, because we bring to you what is yours. God, I pray against the spirit of fear because it will creep in right now. God, I pray against the enemy who will lie to us to help us believe the lies of this world.

And I pray that we would see you for who you really are, that we would know that you're the good shepherd and that you are calling us to an abundant life in you. We prayed in Jesus' name. Amen. So church, we're going to respond to the gospel. We're going to pray because there's a bunch of us that need to begin to hear the voice of the shepherd right now. We need to come and kneel before him and say, if you say it, I'll do it. If you leave me, I'll go.

And we're going to sing. We're going to join our voices together to make much of the one that loves us first. And we're going to bring, just like we always do. So let us respond. Let us sing, let us bring, let us pray. Let us go. Thank you.