Who's The Boss - Part 3 - First Fruits
by Kevin Allen
August 30, 2026 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Matthew 22, Matthew 22:37, Matthew 6:21, Exodus 13, Exodus 13:2, Exodus 13:12, John 1:29, Exodus 23:19, Proverbs 3:9, Malachi 3:8, Malachi 3:6, Genesis 4, Genesis 4:3, Leviticus 27:30, Romans 11:16, 1 Corinthians 16:1, Malachi 3:11, Matthew 6:21

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--who-s-the-boss-part-3-first-fruits
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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We're going to wrap up our series today and we're going to go to Matthew chapter 22 in just a minute and read a couple of verses of scripture as we've been talking about tithe and offerings. Now, I've said this every Sunday and I'll say it today as well. Sometimes it feels like it's almost it brings a wet blanket into an apostolic service when we start talking about money. But I want you to know that there is no more spiritual subject we could talk about than money.

In fact, over 2300 portions of scripture and hundreds of books have been written on the topic that I'm going to talk about today. So, I'm not attempting to thoroughly cover all the arguments, but simply bring to you principles that I have realized that are true. In fact, some of you have been so kind to share your testimony since the first Sunday I started talking about who's the boss to where we are today about what what God has done in your life because of you starting to implement some of these principles in your life.

I'm not surprised by that because God is a God who honors his word. It's his word. It's not my word. I'm bring I'm going to bring you his word. But today's topic is something that's been near and dear to my heart today because it's something that I only learned myself about seven years ago. You think, "Well, Pastor Kevin, I thought you've been studying this most of your life." I have, but I'm always finding new things. >> I'm always learning. I hope you always learned.

Here's the deal. None of us have arrived yet. >> Yeah. If you feel like you have arrived, then you really need to print repent today. You know how I know we haven't arrived? Because we're still here. >> Yeah. None of us are on the go streets of gold today. Amen. >> Amen. My goal with this series has been to simply to give you some solid biblical principles and verses to consider as you live your New Testament life as a giver and a tither and to clearly explain where we stand as a church on this subject.

The foundation and essence of a Christian life is to follow Jesus with everything and hold nothing back. As I've said before and I'll say again, I'll say it to the day I die. He's either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. He wants to be Lord of every area of your life, every piece, every part. To be a disciple means to follow God not only with my life but my financial life because they're inseparable. They are connected to how I worship. To be a lover of God is to be a giver.

To be filled with his spirit is to be filled with every very essence of God. And he's a generous God. He's a good God. He's a God who gives. I've been the beneficiary of that. Have you? >> Yeah. God so loved that he gave and he's continuing to give. In other words, our walk through sanctification includes our wallets. They have to be converted as well. It's okay. I got all day. Matthew 22:37. And Jesus said to them, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."

This is the first and great commandment. When we give God our lives, this includes our treasures, our time, our talent, our abilities, and our finances. According to Jesus, the places and people we give our treasures to are the keepers of our heart and are the objects of our affection. Which often explains why I don't have any money because my wife and daughters take it all. They are the object of my affection. Matthew 6:21 says this, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be."

>> Also, your heart will follow your treasure. Amen. >> Your heart will follow your treasure. Jesus is revealing something much deeper about the human heart. Notice he doesn't say where your heart is, your treasure will follow. He says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." In other words, our heart has a tendency to follow our investment. We don't tend to invest in things we don't care about or if we do, we invest very little in those things. Often times, this is to get somebody to go away.

It's not that we truly have a heart for the matter. what we continually give our time, our talent, our abilities, and our finances to, what receives our attention, what gets our energy, what occupies our thoughts, what we sacrifice for, eventually our heart begins to move in that direction. Have you noticed that? I'm not blowing anybody's mind this morning. I know, but here's the deal. If God is going to be first, God has to be first in every area of our life, every aspect of what we do.

We have to place God first. The very first principle that we have to grasp is that if we're going to understand giving is the f the principle today, I want to talk about the principle of first fruits. Everybody say first fruits. >> It can also be called the principle of firstborn or tithe. Now, here's the deal. I want this is important for me to establish this. I'm going to talk about something that could probably be the first time you've ever heard this talk or preached to you.

So, I'm I'm asking you from the very beginning of this message to keep an open heart and open mind. And my goal is to is to try to show you through scriptures how this principle has been there from the very beginning. From the very start, from the very book of Genesis to where we are today, there's been a principle that's very special when you understand the power that's intended when I establish from the very beginning that everything I have, my God has given me.

>> Every good and perfect gift has come from above. Everything that I have, every benefit, every blessing that's come into my life, God has given it. Amen. >> Do you guys believe that? >> Do you believe those things come from him? Yes. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. We believe that. We teach that here at this church. That's what the word of God tells us. So, I'm going to go a little slower today because this is a principle that I feel like you have to stop and allow your mind to marinate in.

When I say that, I mean sometimes you got to stop in the word in the word of God and you got to get you got to slow down. Now, I know in this series I've not been my normal preachy self on Sundays because this is a powerful set of principles that if we get and we grasp, I promise you it will make a difference and it make a huge impact in your life. So, I'm going to go a little slower today and I'm comfortable with that.

I hope you're comfortable with it. Y'all ready to dive into the word of God? We're going to go to Exodus chapter 13 because here's what I feel like. I feel like far too many people are confused about tithing and the principle of first fruits. In the 13th chapter of Exodus, we find an important financial precedent that is being established at the very beginning of what God was trying to do. Exodus 13:2, consecrate to me all the firstborn. Everybody say firstborn. >> Whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both man and beast is mine.

Anybody confused about what he's talking about? God said right up the right at the very beginning, whatever is first belongs to me. And what I'm going to show you through scriptures is this principle is there. God likes to set a precedent for a reason. I'm going to show you the reason and the why behind it. But I'm going again I'm going to read that verse to you. Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast is mine.

Skipping down to verse number 12. that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb. That is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which have which you have, the male shall be the Lord's. But every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb. H do you see this? Something that maybe wasn't what was valued or something that is unclean has to be redeemed. Everybody say redeemed. >> Redeemed >> with a lamb. And you will not if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck.

In other words, if you're not going to redeem it, then it has to be sacrificed. And all the firstborn of man among you are sons, you shall redeem. That redemption story is tied into giving. He establishes whatever's first, whatever opens the womb of man and beast, it belongs to me. If it's something unclean like a donkey, then it has to be redeemed with a lamb. A precedent is being set. That that's unclean cannot be sacrificed in itself because it's unclean. But it can be redeemed with a lamb.

Everybody with me so far? According to the Old Testament law, the firstborn was to either be sacrificed or redeemed. There was no third option. With that in mind, think about the account of the New Testament in which John the Baptist meets Jesus on the banks of the Jordan River and he says in John 1:29, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Think about the implication that that statement made in contrast to what I just read you out of Exodus 13.

Behold the lamb of God who's here to take away the sins, who's here to redeem. You guys are seeing a connection, right? Everybody with me so far? There's a connection of the things that have been uncleaned have to be redeemed. This is going to get good in a minute. Jesus was God's firstborn. Jesus was clean, perfect, and unblenmished. The only perfect one that ever lived. I know you think you're perfect, but you're not. You're not. Neither am I. We're far from perfect, but he was.

He was perfect, and he took our place. He could redeem us. On the other hand, every one of us have been born unclean. We're born into sin. Now, think about the principle of the firstborn in Exodus. Remember that the law stated that the firstborn was clean. It had to be sacrificed. But if the firstborn was unclean, it had to be redeemed with a clean animal. When Jesus redeemed us by his sacrifice at Calvary, he bought us back from himself. He literally was a first fruits offering for us.

Let that settle in your mind. The first fruits principle that is there. You and I must need give our first fruits offering, our tithes. In the same way, before we see the blessing, we have to give it in faith. This financial commitment that God is asking of us in scripture is a walk of faith. It's a walk of trust just like God has always desired from the that you have to walk by faith and not by sight. It's easy when I say look if you will give I'm going to give you a 15% return back.

Then you're like okay well I understand the terms. If I give you this you're guaranteeing a 15% return back. But with God he says I want you to trust me. I want you to trust me. I want you to give and trust that I will not I will open the windows of heaven and I will pour out a blessing that you can't contain. Well, what is that blessing? I'm not going to tell you. I need you to trust. I need you to take a step of faith and see what happens.

Now, many of us in the room, in fact, I great I dare say the vast majority of us in the room understand this principle when it comes to our tithes and our offerings. But I want you to understand there's a there's another principle that oftentimes gets overlooked, and that's the principles of the first fruit. And my goal is to try to establish this establish this with you today to understand before I do anything before there's any other financial decisions in my life when I have an increase I give immediately to God.

>> It's a first fruits principle. Everybody say first fruits. >> God did not wait to see if we would change or repent. Did he? >> He went to Calvary with no guarantee that we would live for him. How many are thankful that he didn't wait to see what we could do? Every hand should be raised in this room because it if it was dependent on you and I to be faithful, he could have bypassed the cross. But thanks be to God that he didn't wait on us.

In fact, he said, "You know what? I'll go first. I'll do what you can do." He was literally the first fruits offering. You and I have to understand this principle. God gave his best first. On a side note, have you ever wondered why God could kill the firstborn of Egypt? Has that ever bothered you when you read through the Exodus story? Why that bothers you? Why? Why did he say, "Why did he kill the firstborn?" Well, I'll tell you why. Because they belong to him anyway.

They were already his. You may say, "Well, I have a hard time with that, Pastor Kevin. I'm not saying that I can fully grasp all the reasons why, but I do understand that he declared the firstborn that opens the womb belongs to me, and they had not been given to him. So, he went ahead and took what was his rightful thing to take." Let that settle in your mind. Again, I know I'm dropping some stuff on you today. I'm not expecting you to have an apostolic response and run around the room and bite the sheetrock.

But I need you to grab a hold of the power of this message that is there. The firstborn didn't die in Israel. Why? Because they had been redeemed by a lamb. Right? The Passover lamb. Did you you start to see the correlation, the connection that is there? Slow down and process what I'm saying to you. The firstborn in Israel didn't die because they had been redeemed by a lamb. But the firstborn in Egypt died because there had been no redemption applied to their life.

Do you see the principle that is at play? It's God's principle. There's a redemption process that comes apart even with our giving. The principle of first fruits is very, very powerful. We are to give the first fruits to God. Our time, talent, ability, and our finances. To put it another way, when a firstborn lamb is born in a flock, it's not possible to know how many more lambs are going to come from that mom, from that u lamb. God says, "Look, I want you to give me the firstborn."

He didn't say, "Look, you can have the first five, but number six belongs to me." Or maybe let's get spiritual with you guys because y'all don't like that. That's man's number. Number seven belongs to me. That was a church funny. I'm glad that Sister Jennifer got that. He didn't say, "Brother Freeman, the 7th, what did he say?" He said, "Give me the first." Well, I don't know if she's going to have any more. Well, then you got to trust. Do you see this walk with God is always requiring a trust factor?

Because if you're trying to figure out how you're going to financially do something, I promise you, you're going to fail miserably. Pastor Kevin, I feel like I've done pretty good for myself. I don't know if you if you're not doing it God's way, I promise you more than likely your money's controlling you. I say that because it's not redeemed. There's a principle here. There's a principle at play that if you give God his due first. If you establish the the the principle of the first fruits that before I do anything God I'm giving you your portion then the rest becomes redeemed.

Not to spend any way you want but to spend according to how his spirit leads you. Does that mean you can go on vacation? Yes, you can go on vacation. Don't misunderstand the principle that's there. It's a trust factor that goes in. God didn't say let your you produce nine lambs. He says give me the first one. And it means giving to God before you see if you're going to have enough. Because if you trust that he's going to supply all your needs, you're not worried about if there's going to be enough.

>> He takes care of you. >> I wish I had one or two people to be a witness in this room for what I'm talking about. There's a principle to say that God has taken care of me. There's been times when I give, I've heard people say, "I don't know that I can do." I'm here to tell you, you can't afford to miss this principle in your life. When you become a giver, when you become a giver according to God's plan, not I'm not talking about a prosperity doctrine.

I'm not talking if you if you sew a $100 today to my car fund, God's going to bless it on you. No, there's no Bible for that. Anybody preaching that message, you need to go the opposite way from them. And I say that and it's on camera and I'm recording right now. It's wrong. It's not scriptural. It's not biblical. The prosperity doctrine is a lie from the pit of hell and has enslaved too many people. That is not God's principle. Well, that's not the way it works.

That is not scriptural. They may pull a verse of scripture out, but that doesn't mean that's what the Bible means by it. >> You can you can whip this around and try to make it say anything you want, but that doesn't mean it's accurate or right. >> You got to take it as a whole. And I'm telling you, there's a principle from Genesis through Revelations that talks about the principle of first fruit, honoring God. There's this trust factor when he says, "I just want you to come walk with me, but it's going to take some faith on your part to trust that I can be the one who's your provider, that I will give you the provision you need, that I will open up the windows of heaven in ways that are not even financially.

There are other blessings outside of money that I thank God he has given me in my life. There's other things that I'm telling you I do. I couldn't have purchased them." You can't buy the favor of God. You cannot buy it. It is there for you if you simply find yourself being obedient to his scriptures. Tithing is one of the ways we acknowledge that God is first. The first portion is the redemptive portion. I'll say that again. The first portion is the redemptive portion.

In other words, when the first portion is given to God, the rest is redeemed. In the same way, coming to church, the first of the week is important. >> Did you wonder why we start off why Sunday is the first day? Why it's established? Because we come to church, it's the first day. I give him the first of my week. And I'm just going to say this out there and you guys can cast stones in me, but it's called the Lord's day, not the Lord's hour.

>> I I hope you feel shame and condemnation right now if you try to squeeze in the church service around whatever else you want to do. >> It is the Lord's day >> meant to redeem the other six. Now, I'm not saying you can't do some fun activities that are there, but that should not be the priority in your life. Your priority should be, you know, I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. That you get up with an attitude that says, you know what?

Today's the day I get to go to church. Today's the day I get to be in his presence. Today's the day when I get to fellowship with like precious believers to be joined together and we worship God. Today's a great day. I don't have to do it by myself. Today I get strength. Today I get comfort. Today I get peace. Today I get fellowship in my life. I get to be connected to somebody else who understands I know it's not popular preaching. It won't give me any hits on my TikTok channel.

It's funny because I don't even have social media. As God's people, we need to give the first part of our week back to God. Not only does the firstborn belong to God, but the first fruits belong to him also. Exodus 23:19. I want you to look at this. Pay attention to the words. Words matter, ladies and gentlemen. Words matter. The Let's read this together. The first The first of the first fruits. Stop right there. Isn't that interesting? Did you catch that? The first of the first fruits.

In other words, I don't want you to go reap, but the very first thing that comes your way, the first of the first belongs to him. of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God and you shall not boil a young goat in his mother's milk. That's an interesting thing to unpack later. It's not the tenth portion of your first fruits. It's the first portion of your first fruits. The house of God is where you bring it. Nowhere else but to the house of the Lord.

Proverbs 3:9 says, "Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase so that your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine." As this passage suggests, the tithing of the Lord's house involves honoring the Lord with our possessions and with the first fruits of all of our increase. In the Old Testament times, guess what most people did for a living? They were farmers. They had agriculture. They raised animals. They grew crops for a living.

The increase came as the crops were harvested and livestock was produced. Today, you might be a banker or a lawyer or a school teacher or a construction worker or a coder or we could go on and on and on. Your increase comes in and however your job provides. No matter how it comes, the word of God makes it clear. We're to honor God with the first fruits of our increase. Why? Why do we do that? Well, he explains it in the verse. So that your barns will be filled with plenty and that our vats would overflow.

I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me. I like plenty and overflow. >> So there's a connection. There's a correlation that if I give the first fruits that he comes back and he provides an overflow of abundance. Remember the fall of Jericho, how God instructed them. I preached about it a few Sundays ago how the God said, "Look, don't you touch anything when you go into Jericho. Besides Rahab and her family, the rest of it you leave alone. In fact, he called it a cursed.

If you take what belongs to me, it's what? It's cursed." Now, why would he do that? Well, what was the first city they conquered when they went into the promised land, Brother Freeman? What was the first city? It was Jericho. It was the first fruits. The principle of first fruits is throughout the entirety of the word of God. He was establishing a principle, a principle of trust that there's going to come a time for you to have the bounty, for you to have the conquered goods, the things that belong to you.

But it's not this one. This one belongs to me. It's there even in battle. So what happened? What happened when Achen decided that he needed a new Babylonian jacket, a new pair of shoes, nice little wedge of gold? What happened? What happened to him and his family? We know the script. What? What? What did he said? They they went to fight the next battle in Ai, right? Which is a whole another sermon we should work on about how Ai conquered them. That's funny, too.

You guys need to lighten up a little bit. They go in there and they get whipped, right? And they come back and everybody's tearing tearing their clothes and throwing dirt on their head and everybody's like, "Woe is me." I'm like, "You guys just took down Jericho." Ai basically was a little bitty township to which God says, "Hey, I'm going to tell you the reason why you didn't do that is because you you parttook of the occurs thing. You took something you thought there ain't even in fact if you go and read the story, I'm giving you the Kevin Allen version.

Kevin Allen version says we we ain't got to get the whole army. This is just a little old place over. This is a speck. They got a fort. We just took down a walled city. They got a fort. We We'll take a couple thousand people. We'll have them knocked out before lunchtime. They come back with their tail between their legs crying and moaning. And God says, "You can try with all the might you got, but you took the curse thing and you've forgotten the principle that I'm the one who fights for you.

I'm the one who gives you the strength. I'm the one who takes care of your enemy. I'm the one who provides all this stuff." You forgot the principle because why did you forget it? because you took the curse thing. The you forget the order and priority of things when you don't establish first God that all the increase that comes to me is because you gave me the ability to do it >> and that I will trust you first. >> I will give to you first before I do anything else.

Before I pay one bill, I'll give to you first because I want the blessing to come back on the rest. Malachi 3:8, "Will a man rob God?" But you have robbed me, but you say, "In what have we robbed you?" In tithes and offerings, we talked about that last week. They're tied together. You are cursed with a curse. Why are you cursed? Because you're robbed. It's amazing to me how many people overlook the scripture or simply explain it away. Someone say, "Well, that's the Old Testament, Pastor Kevin.

It is the Old Testament." What is up with you people in Old Testament stuff? Like we have to cast out the whole Old Testament because we have a New Testament. It's complimentary to understand that there's there was divisions in the law, the Mosaic law, right? There was the there was the ceremonial, there was the civil, right? We didn't cast it all out at Calvary. Calvary abolished this the that you had to have a sacrifice to cover your sins because he took our place at Calvary.

But it didn't. And the reason I say that is because there's several things that were under the law that now that we're under grace, we don't do away with. All right. Under under the law, it says you couldn't prostitute your daughter. So under grace, you can do that. Well, you're being silly, Pastor Kevin. Well, under under the law, adultery was wrong. So is it is it fine under grace? Robbery was wrong under the law, but is it fine under grace? No. Come on. Don't be so silly.

>> Don't be so silly. I've already showed you a few Sundays ago that the principle of tithing was before the Mosaic law. It started with Abraham and Melzdc. It was a priestly order. It's still a priestly order that is there. It was before the law. Before the law. Before the law. So just because it's Old Testament doesn't mean the New Testament doesn't still back it up. In fact, Jesus even talked about tithing himself. how the Pharisees were so precise in everything that they tithed, yet they were rotten on the inside because they were making it more than it was ever intended to be.

It wasn't mean, it wasn't meant to be a division or a divider or a qualification. It was meant to be a walk of faith. Always has been. What I find interesting about people who want to argue with that about Malachi 3 about it's not required. Malachi 3 and six, same chapter says, "For I'm the Lord God. I do not I'm just going to go out on a limb. If he thinks it's robbery then I'm pretty sure he thinks it's robbery now. Unless you want to argue with chapter verse number six.

Feel free take it up with him. Let me know how it turns out for you. You guys okay? Are are we staying in the word of God? Now, here's what here's what's going to happen is you can go home and you can Google is tithing still necessary and you can find everything in the world about why we no longer have to do that just like you can find everything about any subject you want to matter whether for the good or for the bad. So, I I challenge you to personally walk through the scriptures yourself.

Don't take my word for it. Go through it yourself with an open honest heart. And I promise you, I promise you if you do that, you'll see that the principles of first fruit and tithing and offerings are still God's desire for you in your life. If that's the if it no longer applies, when did these things supposedly change? When did God change? Tithing, the firstborn, and the first fruits all belong to the Lord. It was not a law, but it was an unchanging principle established by an unchanging God.

Genesis chapter 4. You guys still okay? Hey, you want to learn a little bit more? >> You ready for another good one that I probably you probably have scratched your head over that I think I can explain to you today. Genesis chapter 4, the story of of Cain and Abel. Has this story bothered anybody at some point in their life? It's okay. I'm not going to cast you out if you raise your hand. Has this story ever bothered you? >> Because you're like, "Wow, at the very beginning, it seems like God was kind of harsh, right?

I mean, after all, after all, they were just trying to give back." Well, let's read it. Genesis chapter 4 verse number three. And in the process of time, everybody say process of time. >> Process of time. I want you to hang on to that thought. You know, you got it. Grab that thought. Process of time. I need you to see you grab it. Grab it. Only about half of y'all grabbed it. The other half. Grab it. Grab it. There you go. Process of time.

All right. Do that because I know you're paying attention to me. In the process of time, everybody hold on the process of time. Everybody got it held. Now, hold your hand like that while I read the rest. And it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit. Everybody say the fruit >> of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn, everybody say firstborn >> of the flock and of the fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering.

And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. At some point, we probably have all wondered about this, but the word makes it very clear that the offering Abel brought was of the firstborn. Right? You guys still holding your time? Get your hands down. All right. It says in the process of time. All it says that Cain brought was fruit, right? Time. There was time. Time passed. It doesn't say he brought his first fruits, does it? And I feel like the writer was detailed enough to say that that that that Abel brought the first of his flock.

that if Cain would have had the first fruits, it would have been designated in this in in the scripture we read. Don't you? I feel like it's very detailed. Why would why would we say we had a first lamb and not the first fruits? But remember the process of time. You see, there was a harvest taking place. Somewhere along the way, Cain decided himself, well, I'll give some to God. But he didn't make it a priority to give it to him first. Whereas Abel said, hey, the first one I'm going to bring to God.

So, so again, he didn't say that he was condemned. All right? There wasn't there wasn't a condemnation here. But what did it say? It said what what was what was it said about his offering? It wasn't received. And then we know he gets mad and God has a whole conversation with Cain and says, "Be careful. Be careful with that attitude you got." What's he telling? What's waiting on the other side of the door? Sin's waiting for you. If you would do what your brother did, your offering would be see would be received.

Also, I'm telling you, the principle of first fruits was at play. Now, again, he didn't receive it. And I hope you guys receive this today because I don't need anybody slayed after church because Cain got so mad, right? He slew Abel. We got the first murder. You going to tell me that giving isn't spiritual? bad attitude. God warned him and said, "Be careful in this. Be very, very careful. Your attitude matters." Ladies and I, I said this last Sunday. I heard it said before that God God loves a cheerful giver, but he'll take it from a tight wad.

I don't get that. I get it. He wants you to be happy about what you're giving. I want I get when I read the scriptures, he wants to be first. >> He wants to be first. Why? trust, faith. It's about establishing the priority in your life of who's most important, which means I can't be most important. I'm I'm I'm going to go look. I'm going to get out here on the Medlin post, which means your family can't be most important. >> Which means your hobbies can't be most important.

I'll get it to you a little bit deeper. Gives you New Testament people like red letter words. Jesus says, "Seek you first the >> Yeah, there you go. Get mad at him." He said, "First." That's New Testament. There you go. The implication here in the story is he didn't bring his first fruits to the Lord. There's a lesson for us. God is looking at our hearts when we give. As I said last week in the story about the widow's might, do you remember who was sitting over the offering box?

Watch what was going on. Who was there? This is a trick question. Who was there? >> Jesus. Jesus is sitting beside the offering pan. Now, how many of you would be uncomfortable if I sat back there by that offering box? If I go right there, that one on the wall and I just sit there and I watch you come by and be like, "Caleb, what are you putting in today?" You'd be like, you'd be like, "I got an envelope. Open it up. I want to see.

I don't need to be nervous, wouldn't you? >> You're probably glad that I don't do that, right? I'm glad I don't do that, too. That's what Jesus did. What's it telling us? Is it matters what you give? It wasn't about the amount, was it? Wasn't. Why? Because the rich that were given, the blessed were given, they said they gave much, but he said they gave out of their abundance. In other words, it didn't really cost them a lot. It was it was a big number, but that wasn't impressive to God, was it?

Jesus wouldn't be like, "Woohoo! Look at all the zeros behind that one. She gives two mites." And he says, "Hey boys, get it really uncomfortable. Everybody gather around the offering pan. Look what she gave." And he said, "She gave the most because she gave out of her ability to trust. Lord, I don't know where the next is going to come from, but I'm trusting you because you have always taken care of me. I'll give back. I'm telling you, our heart matters when it comes to giving.

He doesn't want you to give begrudgingly. He wants you to give out of a willingness of your heart, and he wants it to be first. Leviticus 27-30. And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is whose and is holy to. It belongs to him. And he thinks it's holy. Just as the firstborn and the first fruits belong to God, so does the tithe belong to him. But like the other two, it must be first.

So here's what I here's what I've realized. Here's the here's the principle that my wife and I have done. And I want to give credit to this because this idea first came to me from my brother-in-law Josh. Everybody clap for Josh. He's getting a little moment of play making him uncomfortable because usually I talk derogatory about him like any good brother-in-law would do. But he actually challenged me in this and said, "Have you if you discovered the principles of first fruit?" I'm like, you know, I know about first fruits in scripture, but I don't know that I've ever studied it out.

and he was the one that challenged me to do this and it changed my way of thinking. Principles of first fruit means if you get, let's just make this easy. Let's say you get paid on Friday. Now, let's be honest with you. Most people, most of us today no longer have a physical check. Most of us get direct deposit. Praise the Lord Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank God I don't have to go stand in the bank line. Principles. The first fruit is I just got paid today.

So before I go to lunch and eat because I know you know I know you know you know when it hits your account. Don't act like you don't know. You know when it's there because you're like oh yeah because the moment it's wrong you're like hey wait a minute. You know you know when it hits before you go buy a Coke or a pack of chewing gum or you pay the mortgage. The first thing you do is you pay your tithe. The very first thing you do is you pay your tithes because what you're saying in that moment is God, thank you for the increase.

The very first thing I choose to do with this is to honor you. >> Is to honor you because I I want the rest to be be to be blessed. >> Let me let me say, do you want your mortgage company to be blessed? >> No. >> So why would you pay them first? >> Yeah. You don't you don't want to pay the you don't want to pay you don't want to pay the electric bill where you want the electric company to be blessed.

>> No. Who do you want to be blessed? You >> in order to do that, the first thing you need to do is establish God, you are Lord of all of my life. So the very first thing I do with the increase that comes my way is I honor you. Josh and I were talking about this and as I was changing this principle, we talking about being at the gas pump one day and realizing that the check had hit and you're like, I was about to buy gas.

Hold on, Lord. Before I do anything, before I buy that gas, I'm going to pay my tithe. >> What are you saying, God? You're the priority in my life. You are the provider of my life. You give me the ability to do the I'm setting it straight right now, God. Before anything else happens, God, I give back to you what you ask. That's the first fruits principle. The first portion should be the tithe. That's the first fruit. Romans 11:16, for the first fruits is holy, the lump is also holy.

You know, if the root is holy, then so are the branches. Do you see the principles there? Hey, that's New Testament. Well, yeah. What you probably saying, well, pastor K, why you say that so much? Because people email me. God bless you emailers. I like good questions. I'm not scared of a question. But I always encourage you, take the Bible as a whole. Don't take a part or a piece or a portion. Take it as a whole. What did God intend? What's the reason behind it?

Where's the direction it's pointing? There are so many blessings that go along with tithing, but the principle of putting God first is the principle of faith that initiates the blessing. There are triggers. The first portion is the portion that redeems the rest. The first portion is the portion that redeems the rest. Remember that it was the first lamb that redeemed the rest. Abraham offered his first son, Isaac. Notice that that God didn't say to Abraham, "I want you to have a few more sons."

and then one of them is going to belong to me. Now, Abraham had a promise and God kept his promise and gave him a son and then God said,"You know what? Let's go sacrifice that boy." Now, that's such a foreign concept for us because we don't live in a life where it's culturally relevant or important to sacrifice children. But that was not the day and age in which Abraham lived. People sacrificed their kids. Now, I know there's been some time as teenagers, we thought, "You know what?

I'll put you on that block right now. I will tie you down and I will stab you. Just saying. They they'll push your buttons. That mouth sometimes you're just like, "Mama, I'm sorry for all the smart mouth I gave you." As I heard said before, grandkids are God's way of giving you a blessing for not killing your teenagers. You guys should watch y'all's mouths. But God said, "Sacrificing." Abraham had no guarantee there's going to be any more sons. What was taking place? Faith.

Faith. Can you keep trusting me? You I've brought you this far, but but are you going to stop just because I gave you the promise? Will you stop allowing me to be Lord of your life? Process this for just a minute. I told you I was going to give you some scriptural principles for you. You got to think about this. Why did he take It took faith for Abraham to offer Isaac. And faith is precisely what tithing requires. It is giving God the first in faith.

If God is first in your life, everything will come into order. If God is not first, nothing's going to come into order. I promise you, it'll fall apart. Your marriage will fall apart. Your health, your finances, your family, your job, your career, your ministry, nothing's going to make sense because you didn't put God first. The Bible says that God will rebuke the devour for my sake. Did you catch that? If I will trust him, he will rebuke the devour. That's why I said sometimes it's not always about cash in in the mailbox.

There's been times that we've given sacrificially in our marriage, big numbers, and we had a financial blessing come within a short amount of time afterwards. It was no doubt in our mind that, hey, this is this is God saying he was honoring our sacrifice. But there's been times we gave big numbers and we got no monies. But sometimes the car kept running. >> The air conditioner, praise God. Thank you Jesus. Hallelujah. Kept running. There was a time in my life when you guys remember me praying for my refrigerator.

That joker kept going another 18 months. Praise be to God. I mean, I finally had to buy one, but at least he gave me enough time to save up a little money to buy it. So, it's not always about getting a dollar for-doll return. Sometimes there's things that you can't Sometimes there's stuff that you haven't even processed that God has kept you from. He's rebuked the devour for your sake. You didn't even know. You're not even aware of it. But at the same time, there's so many of you who are shortch changing yourself because you won't put him first when it comes to your finances.

God doesn't need you to give as much as we need to be blessed. 1 Corinthians 16 verse number one. Now concerning the collection of the saints, as I've given you orders of the church of Galatia, you so you must also do on the first day of the week, let each one of you lay aside something, storing up he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. Now, a lot of people that are anti-tthers go back to this verse and say, "That's the new principle right there is that God says you restore something."

I think they're taking it out of context. I feel like this part plays into what God's principles had always been because it's on the first day of the week. You're establishing the order of first fruits. You we when you should be in the house of God that you already established something that you're going to give to him. Something belongs to him. You're establishing a precedent and a principle in your life. Before I do anything else, before I set all the other things in my week, how it's going to process, I'm going to give to God first.

I don't tithe because tithing is a part of the Old Testament law. I tithe because it's a life to me in my family that we live. Whether you believe this or not, this is gospel truth. Sister Pam can back me up wherever she went. She's the She's the one that makes sure all the accounting is done at this church. There are people who do not attend this church who pay tithe to God to this church because they understand the principle. God's principle is always God's principle.

And he will always validate and back up his word. Always, always, always, always, always. And some of them, they know better than live the way they're living, but they know enough to commit theirel financially to God. It's a principle you can't get around. The principle of tithe or the first fruits of the firstborn was in operation when Abraham was asked to offer sacrifice of Isaac. I told you about that. If something was right under the law, is now not right under grace. Specifically, tithing was clearly the right thing to do under the law.

The Old Testament makes it very clear. But now is it wrong to do under grace? Certainly not. I don't know how you process that. How is that right? Can we if we were willingly violate going of God's principles of first fruits see our finances come under a curse? Was that possible? Yes, absolutely it is. The good news is that we have the wonderful promise of Malachi 3 which promises that he will rebuke the devour in verse number 11 on our behalf where he says it's the only time in scripture where God says basically in modern vernacular I dare you.

He says in Malachi, prove me in this and see prove me. You give your tithes and your offering and prove me and see if I God will not open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on your life that you can't contain. In other words, God said, I'm I'm I'm backing up my word that if you will try this, I promise you your life will be better giving than it will without giving. You think that you need that, but I promise you your life's better without it.

>> Ultimately, in this series, it's never really been about money. I'm getting ready to bring this to a close. It has always been about lordship. Money, as I said at the start of this message, is a very spiritual matter. It's very spiritual. Ultimately, it's about the lordship. It's about revealing who's really in charge. In other words, who's the boss in your life. Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be." Also, your treasure has a way of revealing your heart.

And maybe the greatest question that we could ask ourselves today isn't do I tithe? Maybe the greater question is asking oursel, is Jesus really first in my life? Is he first in every area of my life? Now, God's been moving in our spirit, in our service today. I felt his spirit many times. In fact, it was that last choir song that they sang. I just felt God so powerfully right over there in my little spot where by by the stairs of him confirming in my spirit that I was right where I needed to be today.

There have been a few of you who have come up to me over the past couple of Sundays and talked about how important this has been for you. How this has been eye opening to you. How you have never really seen it the way I showed you in scriptures and given you the why behind the things we we do while we do what we do. So let me let me let me ready to close this way. I'm asking you again. Is Jesus truly first in your life?

Not somewhere in the top five? Not something that's just convenient? Not first after I've taken care of everything else. But is he first in your life? First in your finances? Is he first in your marriage and your family and your schedule and your decisions and your ambitions? In your future? Is he first in all those areas? Because the principle we've talked about today reaches much further than just a paycheck. God wants to be the first because God deserves to be first. I wonder if there's some areas of our lives where we have slowly moved Jesus out of first place.

Not maybe not maybe it wasn't even intentionally. Maybe we because we were not being intentional. It just happened. I want you to think with me. I literally I have maybe 90 seconds and I'm going to I'm going to close this thing up. But I want you to just process the next couple of minutes the way I hope you do. I hear the Lord calling us back to the place where we put him first. Feel like he's saying to us today, "Put me first >> in every area and see what I will do for you."

I'm not asking you to come put a paycheck on the altar. That's not what I'm asking for. I'm not at all. But I am asking you maybe to put your heart on the altar. Maybe for somebody that means it's your finances. I don't know. But maybe maybe just maybe maybe it means your career. Maybe you know God has called you long ago for ministry. that somewhere along the way you got involved in a career and that career is taking you further and further and further down a path that God never intended you to go.

There's a guy that I used to know said to me one time about missing Sundays. He said, "Pastor, I I pay double ties on Sunday." To which I said, "That's not scriptural, nor does God ever ask you to do that. You cannot justify being outside the house of God." somehow that that that mindset as if God needs me to contribute. Don't misunderstand me. The money situation is because God needs your money. He understands the spiritual component because the number one subject he talked about even in the New Testament involved money.

Why? Because he understood the connection. He understood the implication. Because money brings with it security. Money brings with it provision. Money brings with it safety. Money brings with it this this thought and this mindset that I can control the narrative. But when we give, when we establish the principles of God, you are first in every area of my life, especially my finances. We are saying, I trust you. I trust you. Maybe it's a relationship. Maybe somebody in this room today has prioritized a relationship where it's not supposed to be.

Somehow you've convinced yourself that God doesn't really care, but you know that relationship's not right. You know it's not right. You know it's leading you away. You know you're compromising in areas you should never compromise in. I'm speaking to somebody in the Holy Ghost today. You better be aware. You can't justify wrong. You can't justify breaking God's principles. You cannot violate those things and expect it to work out in your favor. I promise you, there'll come a day when you realize I made a mistake.

Maybe it's your plans. I'm a planner. I love plans. I like a good plan. I like having my schedule. I like having things go my way. But sometimes those can interfere. Maybe God's asking to be lord of your calendar. I'm going hit a little bit closer to home. Maybe it's your family. Maybe you're saying, "Well, Pastor Kevin, like why why would God have a problem with my family?" Well, if your family becomes a more priority than him, then that family has become an idol.

And he will not have any idols before him. He will not have any idols before him. He will not have any idols, even if they're your flesh and blood before him. And we live in a culture and a society that elevates family above all, even at the sacrifice of God. So maybe maybe it's your children. I don't know. I'm asking you to think with me. I know this is this is a this is a slowown message. This is some deep plowing I've been doing today.

But I feel very confident I am in the will of God right now. Maybe it's your time. Maybe it's something that you've been holding on to because you're afraid that if you completely surrender to God, you won't have enough left. But first fruit says, God, I trust you with what comes next because I'm giving you what comes first. And if there's anything in your life that's gotten out of order, and that happens, guys, and it's happened to me many times. Things have just gotten out of order.

It wasn't intentional. I wasn't trying to be distracted. I wasn't trying to be uh uh not mindful of where God's supposed to be. It just happened to me. If there's anything that has quietly moved ahead of Jesus, if you've been given anything to God besides what's first and what's best, or if you simply want to stand before him today and declare, "Jesus, you are Lord of everything I have and everything that I am." I want you to come. I want you to come to this altar.

I want you to come. I want you to bring your heart. I want you to bring your plans. And I want you to bring your family and your future and your finances. I want you to bring the part of you that you've been afraid to surrender. Because here's the last question I have for you. Who's the boss? The answer is Jesus. Jesus, you are first. Jesus, you are Lord. And today, I'm holding nothing back. I'm holding nothing back. So, I invite you, church, it's it's time to pray.

It's time to make sure that he is Lord of all of our life. So I invite you to come. It's prayer time. It's prayer time.