The First Thought
by Sam Hodum
February 15, 2026 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 43:11, Psalm 76:11-12, Proverbs 18:16, Matthew 2:11, Deuteronomy 26:1-3, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Proverbs 3:9-10

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/sam-hodum--the-first-thought
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Thank you, praise team. You know, it makes it it makes it a lot easier at least to start out preaching. It may not make it easier end in preaching, but it makes it easier to start out preaching when when the church is in the flow of the spirit. It just it just does. Now, right, my challenge is to not mess it up. Get out of the way. Let God do what God's planning to do today. I'm so glad that you're here today. As you're being seated, before you're seated, see that's a as as I go, right before you go. But as you're being seated, would you hug two or three people today and tell them how glad you are to see them? All right. Now, now we done we done we found out who the Chatty Cathy's are. All right. Uh I do want to mention thank you to those that helped. Uh we were honored to host the Bible quiz uh tournament yes for Tennessee yesterday. Uh thank you to all those that helped. It was a long day. Uh we we have the chief of chief nerds in here with us. Uh brother and sister Hicks, they stayed over. They're so kind and so gracious to to grace us with their presence today. And then and I don't know if y'all know this or not, but we have we are we have our very own She's not homegrown, but she's she is homegrown. She's just the chief nerd. She's not the chief of the chief nerd. So she's we're going to we're working on getting her a a crown and all that stuff, whatever that goes. Christian. She was chief of the chie chief nerdge yesterday. Worked all day. And sister Mandy, man, she coached Jaden how to how to hit a buzzer. I mean, security. I I want to say that uh I'm I'm not I did not grow up Bible quiz and and I'm thank but I am thankful that we are we're working to do our best to make this a part of a sustainable part of the culture here at CAC because I do believe in it. I do believe that when you can have 125 plus people come and spend their whole Saturday focused on the word of God that just good things are going to happen. I I just believe it. I there is there is nothing bad about that except the smell cuz there's a bunch of kids but you know that was the only part. Oh me I How many have many have know what your family culture is? How many how many have have you discovered that as you're walking through life and you say, "Yeah, my family does that." And somebody looks at you and like that's pretty weird. Yeah. I I really wanted I love a good object lesson. I really wanted to start with that today. And my family my family culture um I actually I for some reason for three generations we've eaten peanut butter and cheese and cracker. I know that's that's reaction I got. Everybody I'm telling y'all it's good stuff. I asked my grandpa last night. I was like pops where did your dad eat peanut butter and cheese? He's like no. I was like where'd you learn that from? You I don't know. They must have been starving to death. It must have just been one of those things. It was the only thing left in the house. I don't know. I'm telling y'all, I love it. And if Lord willing, AG loves cheese. We'll see. Lord willing, he's going to be four generations of eating peanut butter and cheese. And that's pretty weird family culture. I'm not really sure what to be proud of about that. But for for most of us, we learn that our family culture is odd when we go to school. And we say, "Hey, did y'all do this for the weekend?" And everyone's like, "No, no one ever does that. That's that's weird." Yeah. Uhhuh. And then for the homeschoolers in your 20s, you figure out your family's weird. All right. I I'm I'm sorry. You're just gonna figure it out. Family's weird, guys. That's everyone knows that. Everyone loves their own unique weirdness. And it's okay to be odd. It's okay to be weird. When you're 20, it's it's a little harder to process. I'm sorry. It's just your cross to bear, homeschoolers. It's just what's going to happen. You're going to you're going to go to work and they're like, "That's that's pretty weird, man. Please stop." And you know what? You're going to have to decide. Is that going to be part of my culture or not? I that's I I do I start to think of then we get a whole group of us together and then we develop our own culture. We develop our own language. We get group culture based on our individual cultures and preferences and desires. Uh for for us this type of service, this type of church is part of our culture. There's nothing overly biblical or unbiblical about the way we have church. It's the way we enjoy worshiping God. It's the it's it's what we feel like has set our culture. We feel like it's a healthy way to have church. And so that's the way we go about it. For someone that's never done that, if you walked in today and then you heard Sarah yelling at people, you're like, "Well, that's pretty weird. That lady's mean. She's not that mean." Okay. But like that's culture, right? And if you go to another church and no one says a thing to anyone and they're the frozen chosen, that's their culture. And that to me is pretty weird. But you know what? We all we all got our flavors like to so to speak. We we've all got our preferences. That's part of it. Then we get to we we look at it. We build group culture. And then we can get to uh where I grew up, we had our city had a culture and then the the the town 15 minutes away that was also like 2,000 people or less, but it had the McDonald's, you know, like come on. Come on. It those cities couldn't mix. The culture was exactly the same. People were equally weird in both places, but both places thought that the other was weirder. All right? They couldn't build a school system. Like the schools were just super tiny and small, and they wouldn't build a school system in between them to put it together because the people couldn't get along. Yeah. I mean, you know where you know where I'm from. I'm from the Boondocks, y'all. You get it. It's tribalism. That's part of It's the culture. One of these days they may have to do that, but it's going to take a minute. All right, some people are going to have to die out essentially is what's going to happen. Then we we do that and then we build a state culture. In the United States, we uh we are blessed with 50 states. Did we add one? Did we add one yet? Sorry, that's that's that's a news joke. All right. God only knows, right? We didn't add Venezuela, right? All right. Everybody's scared to laugh. They're like, "Are we going to offend somebody for this joke?" We might. I don't know. State. Every state you go into, it has its own culture. It has its own flavor. If you if you if you go to Michigan, you get out and someone says, "Hey guys," and you're like, "Okay, time for me to leave." No. Or or you go you go to I don't I don't even know. You go to Maine and you see the four people that live there and they're all related to Don and you're They're like, "Wait, this is Canada, right?" No. Or you go to Oregon and I don't know what happens in Oregon. I And we're not going to California, so we're in Tennessee. Why would you believe God's promised land, right? You know, Amen. Oh, I heard some Yeah, I hear you. The And then we get to national culture. All right. We get to national culture. These guys, they're going to play a video for us. I I found this. This was hilarious. It's a YouTube video. They're going to play this for us. These guys are from Great Britain. All right. Waffle fries. We're here. Chickfil-A. You guys wanted it. Oh man. We've been requested to try Chick-fil-A. I'm not joking. Thousands of times. And it's our last day. So, we're here. You can be quiet now. I'm going to try the waffle fries first. Okay. Yeah, I'll join you. What? What are those? Right. W good. Salty. I'm a fan of salt. Look at the size of them. Oh yeah. What's going on, man? Oh, wow. Okay. Um, waffle fries. So, yes, from me. I got the Chickfil-A Deluxe cuz I'm What did I get? Greedy. I think I just got the spicy. Oh, it looks good. Cheers. Chick-fil-A. Oh, it's spicy. It's so tender. That's got a kick to it. Oh, chicken is very good. I'm not a fan of pickles myself. Pickles. I like that. I can see why everyone was recommending it. Chicken burger for me might be better than beef. I'm a fan of a chicken burger. I think we saved the best till last. Why don't you try mine? I'll try spicy. What's yours got on? Okay, let's try the spicy one. Right, I'll give you this one. Cheers. All right. A chicken burger. Never heard that before. Those are those are our closest that's that's the people we came from per se. Like our nation came from Great Britain it and that's pretty weird. They were blown away by Chick-fil-A. Amen. Won't he do it? It just shows over a little bit of time how much cultures drift and how much culture shift. Even though that culture was the is the predominant founding culture of the US, over the last 250 years, we've invented some things that are better than what they have. Just saying it. Just saying it. It's great to be in America. Amen. But when you start looking at this and you start looking at the culture of how the word was written, how the Bible was, we start Can you imagine the difference in 250 years and then the difference in the culture of 2,000 years? That's hard to grasp because here's the thing. Not only is it time, but it's also if we look at our our the way our culture is built, we're we're built around a guilt- driven culture. We we have laws and we live by those laws. And if it's not black and white in the law, it's right or wrong. That's how it works, right? If you speed, you get a ticket. If you unless you go less than 10 under and then hopefully you don't, right? And somehow that's not actually written in there, but you know, there's some there's some give and take to the law, but as a whole, the law is rigid. The law is given to us and that that's our culture. But in wester in in Eastern culture, in the Middle East, in Africa and and in the Far East, the culture is it's a honor shame culture. It's it's more about just just some quick just some quick looks at it. Western culture is egalitarian. It's equal. Everyone's regardless of age, status, we're just equal. We're all buddies. Uh but to easterners, ignoring social distinctions is rude, right? Uh we say respect your elders, but the reality is from an eastern standpoint, we completely disrespect our elders. It's just uh it's Eastern culture stratifi stratified. The older people are more respected and admired admired. The social hierarchy, it's statusbased pecking order. We look at it as inequal inequality. They look at it as structure and order. Uh time versus event focus. For example, we use time to complete a task. We spend time. We budget time. We look at it. They save time. We spend time as efficiently possible. But Easterners are event focused. People have unlimited time for relationships. If you for for for our culture, if you go to someone's house and you sit there for three hours drinking tea when you're only supposed to be there for 30 minutes, they going to be mad. And I'm just telling you, I'm in that culture. But in a far eastern culture, Middle Eastern, that's if you hurried, it's rude. That's normal. That's why they're late to everything. I mean it that because now some of y'all are going to be like, "Oh yeah, I'm definitely I'm definitely, you know, I'm definitely from the culture of the Middle East." Yeah, definitely. I'm late to everything. Some of y'all do sit around and chat like a bunch of chatty Cathy's. I am beginning to wonder if we have this cultural divide in our church. I'm just as I'm going through this, um, honesty versus harmony. Uh, the Western culture, we speak to get to the point. We do not beat around the bush. Can I get an amen? And then for easterners that is rude. They value harmony. Avoid avoid saying no because that would disrupt relationships. It's interesting. Uh there there's a whole bunch of different of these. But the reality is that these we we create the government to to to enforce our laws and then we think that's going to shape our culture and socialize our kids and and the reality is in in the eastern cultures that the relationship in public opinion determines what's right and wrong versus the law. And so like the cultures this just it's a fundamental way of looking at thing. with it. But and and we look at it you you see this as a collectivist honor shame. As a collectivist it's focusing on group harmony, public perception uh maintaining social honor to avoid shame versus guilt cultures in western their individualistic in emphasizing personal consciousness laws and objective right and wrong. Guilt focus on what you do. Shame focuses on who you are. Here's the thing. Those are both in our DNA. It's not un it's not synonymous with just west and east culture. Our culture, if I may, they have they're an cultures are an aggregate aggregate of the individuals within them. Honor and shame and guilt, they're all natural. We have those pieces within us because we have built these constructs anyway as definitions based on what we do. But many times in our western culture, we look at this and we see something that is technically not right and wrong or right or wrong. It's technically right or it's technically wrong, but there's no law or there's no law on it. There's no technical wrong to what someone is doing, but we look at it and we sense that something's not right. There's a part of us that that has that honor and shame in us regardless of where we grew up. It's part of human nature. It's a part of us that we can look and say, "Okay, that person technically may not have broken a law, but look at the wreckage that was left in the wake. Something was wrong there." You see? You see what I'm saying? We It's It's It has more to do with interpersonal dynamics. Uh sometimes the way we treat people. Well, I didn't break any law. Well, yeah, but what you said probably shouldn't have been said. This my wife gave me this sermon. The I think the act of uh the the word honor has worked its way out of our culture. We have we don't even use that word currently in present day in times past. If you read pre-1950s, pre-1940s, if you read even American literature, you will find honor and shame mentioned drastically more than you do now. We stopped using the words, but we still have the emotions. We still have the feelings. We have lost the ability to communicate about honor and shame, but they still exist. We just We just don't know. It's like we're like my little guy over here when you ask him when he needs something. He's just frustrated. He hasn't learned how to talk and we're like but that's what that's what happens. It leaves us feeling frustrated when when when we have no outlet. It becomes a lost art to be able to honor someone. It becomes a lost art to to know how to express that. This was this was and and and I'm I'm laying this foundation here and it's a very long foundation but I want you to understand this was the culture in which the Bible was written in. This was the culture that it was too. There's it's part of God's culture. We have God's DNA in us. He created us in his image and his likeness. So God doesn't just speak right and wrong. He speaks honor and shame. Okay. So there is an honor culture that we are dropped. We have we have lost the ability to express that God receives. When you find the the act the simple act of giving gifts, it's it's pretty much lost all meaning. And even Christmas has lost meaning. I don't mean this I'm not I'm not like trying to get up on a soap box over here on this, but when was the last time you gave a gift that had a ton of meaning to it versus, oh man, all their friends are going to have that, so I'm going to get that for them versus FOMO, right? We don't need things. That's fine. God's blessed us. It's okay. We can live in the blessings of God and be all right. But a thoughtful gift is hard to come by. It's really hard to know when someone's giving something or how to express I'm giving this to you. Let me honor you with this. It's hard. I don't know how to do that. If I gave you something trying to I a blubbering mess, you'd be like, "Please just leave it at my door. You're making me very uncomfortable." But I want to honor you. I don't have the words for it. The thing is most of us do not have the words for it. But God very very explicitly wrote about how gifts were to be given. Uh it's very it was very normative of their culture to to give when you went and visited a friend to bring him a gift or her a gift. Uh uh and the refusal of that would be seen as a slap in the face. It would be seen as oh my this person hates me. We see this time and time again. But in

Genesis chapter 43 and 11, uh, Jacob or Israel is having to send a gift to what he who he did not know was his son. And he this there was a whole there's a whole bunch of context here, but they were in the middle of a famine. They had nothing to give. They were going down there to get. But he said, "Then then their father Israel said to them, if it must be so, then do this. Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the man. A little bomb, a little honey, some gum, some myrr, some pistachio nuts and almonds. They're in the middle of a famine. He says, "And they're going to buy grain to eat." And he says, "Let's carry them a gift. Let's make sure that that this man who holds the power of life and death in his hands for my family has he knows that I am honoring him. He knows the dire circumstances we are in. But we are going to bring a gift to him. We're going to present ourselves. You see,

Psalm 76 says, "Make your vows to the Lord your God and perform them. Let all around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared, who cuts off the spirit of princes, who is to be feared by the kings of the earth. I I know this is not our culture, but understand this is this IS THE PSALMIST WRITING of bringing a gifts, honorable gifts to an almighty God who has the power of life and death in his hands.

Proverbs 18-16 says a man's gift makes room for him and brings him BEFORE THE GREAT. THIS WAS NOT IN THE in the word was not his talent. It was his gift when he bring when he provides honor to someone. When he says I honor you with this, that gift makes way for him. It wasn't his skill. It wasn't his talent. And it's sure it'll work in the same way, but in this context here, in the context of the scripture, it was when you're coming before a great man, you bring a gift of honor. This this I I look around and I I want you to understand this that I know that this this is more archaic and I would even say it's more of a masculine way of talking. This is more of an a masculine emote, so to speak. Men understand honor and shame a little differently because there's nuance to it that yes yes I understand ladies do too but I'm just telling you men operate in this in a natural aspect of being respected versus disrespect that's that's a good interchangeable word there of honor and respect of understanding that I need to pay respect to someone that's uh Jesus uh the the magi did this to Jesus In

Matthew chapter 2, they said, "And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down, and they worshiped him. And then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrr." Someone say murder. This is the foundation for how a long foundation for how we should approach God. When we bring our gifts to God, when we when we BRING OUR PRESENCE TO GOD, WHEN WE BRING our offerings to God, WE DO NOT JUST APPROACH IT AS, "WELL, here you go." We bring it to an almighty God, a holy Lord who has the power of life and death in his hands AND WE SAY, "CAN I HONOR you with my gift? I KNOW IT'S NOT MUCH, but can I honor you? with my gift. You see, there was a there was a there's a PRINCIPLE HERE THAT GOD LAID OUT very very directly and he calls it the offering of first fruits and tithes.

Deuteronomy 26, it goes INTO THIS. WHEN YOU COME INTO THE land that the Lord is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of the first fruits of all the fruit of the ground which you harvested from your land your God has given you. And you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose to make his name to dwell. and you shall go to the priest who is in the office at that time and say I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to his fathers to give us and he goes on I'm going to for the sake of time I want you to make a mo make a note make a mark there I want you to finish reading that through verses 11 there because he goes through a very succinct a very direct way of approaching God I possess what you've blessed me with I remember where you brought me from I give you the first fruits of what you've blessed me with and I ACKNOWLEDGE WHERE IT came from and I worship I work that is the pattern at which we bring an offering to God. It is the pattern at which WE BRING OURSELVES TO GOD. I know that you have blessed me. I acknowledge where I was in my own self and I step into and I give you the first fruits of it. I acknowledge where it came from and I worship I want you to know this now. I'm I'm grabbing something here because I I didn't I don't know how to translate this very well. And I I want you to know my heart as I'm talking about this. I have right here. This is a very simple thing that my wife was so kind to she was so kind to frame it for me. This is this is my degree. I I just a finance degree. But I want you to know this story here because I was a 18-year-old kid just like anybody else. Any other 18-year-old kid? Just any other 18-year-old. I mean, you know, just making bad decisions all the time. That's just it. I mean, it it I was I was trying to figure out if I was going to go to school, what I was going to go to school for. And I was sitting there actually at at the orientation and I was trying to decide what my major was going to be. No forethought into that. It's a bad idea. Just plan that a little better than I. Okay. I was sitting there. I was like, "Well, I guess I'll go for business." Well, there Well, no, that's that's not a major. That's a general area you got to you got to declare. And I I'm not going to lie. I've seen a lot of people go to college and change their major like 45 times. Cost them a lot of money. I was like, "Yeah, I ain't doing that." Now, if you've done that, learn from your mistakes. If you haven't, learn from their mistakes. All right. I was like, "All right, what am I going to go for?" I was like, I was sitting there in a very split-second decision that I made. I decided I said, "You know what? I don't know of a church anywhere that has more finances than they know what to do with. Let me just learn about finance." And so, I just went for finance. Okay. Well, guess what? I don't work in church finance. I have no desire to work in church finance. But from that time until this, I went through four years of college, two years of a two and a half years of a master's degree. I did not miss except for one that I know of one regular service in that entire time. And in that time, I had good grades. I worked full-time and I worked in church all the time. I had a van route, led worship, and preached and did whatever else that needed to be done and still went to school and still grad full-time and still worked. Can I tell you something? God, before I graduated, I had I had a internship. I did not make the best grades, but I had an internship. There was one internship where I was at. Okay. God some I didn't even know it existed. God brought it to me and it pro and it gave me a job before I graduated. Not because I was good. I I I'm telling you this right now and I'm telling you this as a testimony. Okay? I I'm telling YOU GOD MADE A WAY for me when I DID NOT REALIZE THAT WAY EVEN EXISTED BECAUSE I BROUGHT TO HIM MY FIRST THOUGHTS. MY FIRST THOUGHT. I DIDN'T HAVE AN OFFERING TO GIVE. I WAS A BROKE 18-YEAR-OLD. BUT I SAID, "IF I CAN JUST WHAT IF I CAN HELP CHURCHES WITH THIS?" THAT'S AS SIMPLE AS IT GOT. THAT WAS AS DEEP AS IT WENT. I DIDN'T SPEND 80 HOURS IN THE PRAYER ROOM. I JUST SAID, "GOD, if I can help your church, where will this take me? I cannot TELL I CANNOT PROVE IT OUT more than that simple little moment IN TIME WHEN I JUST SAID GOD HOW CAN I HELP YOU can I can I tell you today we talk about tithes and offerings we talk about giving this is the month of generosity that's great but when we give him our first thoughts when the purpose of our heart is HOW CAN I HELP YOU GOD HE WILL BLESS it he will change our THE VERY OUTCOMES. HE'LL PAVE A NEW ROAD THAT WE DID NOT EVEN KNOW EXISTED. WHEN I TELL YOU THAT THE BLESSINGS THAT GOD WILL BLESS US and and and there's this there's this verse in in chapter in in

Corinthians chapter 10. It says, we use THIS A LOT. OH, GOD'S NOT GOING to tempt us more than we can bear. He's not going to he's not going to tempt us more than we can bear, but he will because he'll provide a way of escape. Can I tell you if you want more blessings than you can bear, it starts with the first thought. It doesn't just start with the first fruit. It starts with the first thought. If you want, SOMEBODY HEAR ME TODAY. IF YOU NEED A BETTER JOB, IT STARTS WITH HOW CAN I HONOR GOD IN THE job that I have? If you NEED MORE MONEY, IT STARTS WITH HOW CAN I BRING HONOR TO YOU, GOD, WITH WHAT I HAVE, IF YOU NEED MORE TIME, IT STARTS WITH THE FIRST THOUGHT. GOD, I'M GIVING THIS TIME TO YOU TODAY. I need somebody TO HEAR ME BECAUSE IF YOU NEED A PURPOSE, IF YOU NEED A CAREER, if you need direction, if you need love, IT STARTS WITH THE FIRST THOUGHT. GOD, HOW DO I BRING LOVE TO YOU? GOD, HOW DO I BRING I NEED SOMEBODY TO HEAR ME. IT STARTS WITH HOW WE THINK. NOT WITH JUST HOW WE ACT. IT STARTS WITH HOW WE THINK. IF I CAN LINE MY MIND UP WITH THE HEART OF CHRIST. WOO. COME ON. THIS CHURCH, LISTEN. YOU'LL BE SITTING IN ESTATE PLANNING PLACES THAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW EXISTED BECAUSE GOD'S BLESSED YOU WITH MORE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE. YOU'LL BE YOU'LL BE IN BOARDROOMS THAT YOU DO NOT BELONG IN BECAUSE GOD'S BLESSED YOU WITH MORE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE. THE ANTIDOTE TO THE TO THE MORE THAN I CAN HANDLE. IT'S THE FIRST THOUGHT. IT'S MAKING SURE THAT GOD KNOWS THE YOUR HEART. IT'S NOT JUST DOING A good thing. It's doing it for a good reason. I got I got one more thing. Brother Don, come save them. Some of you know what these are right here. I want you to know these are my tools. They're not the churches. I know it looks like it, but they ain't. They're my tools. I'm claiming them. They got my name on them or my let my initials. I No, they don't. I had to erase his off. 2020, we lost a building. And I'll tell you, I didn't I was, you know, we were just there. We were just doing we're just And I had I lived in a condo at the time. I I I needed like something fixed on a door and I realized I'd become a city person because I didn't have a single tool to fix anything. It was sad. I was like, "Oh, I should be ashamed." Oh no. And I was all I needed was like a drill or something. I remember going into I want to say Lowe's or Home Depot or whatever it was that night. I was going through I was like, man, I need I was like, well, you know, this was pre this was precoid hikes, okay, in and prices. So, I got a deal on it. But there was a whole bunch of tools there. I was like, you know what? If I just get that. I mean, we're fing to build a building because we just lost a building. We're fing build. We still ain't built a building. God bless us. Thank God we didn't have to build it cuz y'all know how hard a remodel is. I just my thought was now this is my testimony. They've had time to prove out. Okay, these these have had time to prove out. My thought was God, I guess I need to get that. Well, I didn't even think I was like, "Oh, I need to get those cuz we're going to need them at the church." And I and you know, you and I both know if you've done work at the church, half the time is looking for the right tool. It's frustrating. You're like, "Oh my lord." And so I just bought that set of tools. And I promise you, they've stayed at the church more than at my house. You wore my tools out, so I need to take up an offering real quick. No, last year I was able to buy a house, remodel it, and the amount that I invested in the remodel, I got paid three times that in the value increase in the home. I use those tools. We're still using them. They're just tools. But when I tell you that God honored the first thought, God honored the first thought. I listen, we've all got lives to live. We've all got mistakes we've made. And can I tell you, if you've made a ton of mistakes, just stop. Like, well, it ain't that easy. It is, God. It don't have to be a 80hour prayer meeting. God, how can I bring honor to you, God? How can I bring honor to you with this? God, my job's not the greatest, but I prayed for it. How can I bring honor to you for with it? God, I don't know how I'm gonna make it this month. How can I bring honor to you, God? Can I talk to you hen and teenagers for just a minute? I don't know what I want to do with my life, God. How can I bring honor to you with my life? The practical and the simple have longlasting spiritual implications. Proverbs very simply says this, "

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. Apparently, if you want to get drunk, no.

Stand with me. I want you to know this. That Chattanooga deserves more than what we have to give it. The souls of Chattanooga deserve more than what we are capable of. It's bigger than we can imagine. But can I tell you with every step that we take, if we will simply say, God, my first thought before I take the step, before I mess it up with my motives and ambitions, I say, God, how can I honor you with this? my tithes and my offerings. That's fine. You notice I didn't even none of this equated to me giving money. If I'm going to live the blessed life, it's going to start with the first thought. If I'm going to live in the blessings of the Lord more than I know what to do with, more than I can handle, it's going to be because I It started with my first thought. I truly believe that we have no idea what God will do. I mean, just look back at yourself 5 years ago, 10 years ago. Do you believe that you could have made yourself where you are today? No. But God, prove him out with this. I possess what you blessed me with. I remember where you brought me from and I give you the first fruit of it. I acknowledge where it came from and I worship. Prove prove it out. Listen, this church is not big enough for the revival of Chattanooga. Your pocketbook ain't big enough for the revival of Chattanooga. We can't do it. But you know what? we can do. We can say, "You know what, God? We're doing this because we believe that there's an there's a revival in Chattanooga. It may not make CAC great, but it's going to make your name great. I need someone to grab a hold of the first thoughts today. I need someone to know the blessings of the Lord more than you can contain. They're right here. They start right here. God, I I want to spend more time now. Now, now be careful. Be careful with that. Maybe I want to bring Don't be like I want to spend more time at the church. Somebody told me a testimony about that and they were like, well, maybe I should have maybe maybe not cuz they lost their job. So, they're like, man, oh no, they told me that. Okay. Like it was it was them making the joke. It wasn't me making fun of them or anything like that. Okay. God, how can I honor you with the time that you've given me? How can I honor you, God? It's a lost art in our culture. It's not even part of our culture. But can we make it part of who we are? It's still there. We know what it feels like to be honored. We know what it's like to honor someone or want to. Can we do that today? I'm not asking for you to come and cry on your face in repentance today. All I want you to do is take the first thought that you have, God, how can I honor you with it? How can I bring honor to your church? How can I bring honor to your body? How can I bring honor to your name? How can I bring How can I bring honor to you? Please find a place to pray for just a moment. How can I bring honor to you? How can I bring honor to you, God? I give you my first thought. I give you my first being, my first purpose, my first career, my first love, my first direction. I I I give you my first money. I give you my first fruits, God. I give you my first thoughts, Jesus. Heat. Heat. My hands praise you again and again. All that I have is no, nothing else fit for a king except for a heart singing. Hallelujah. Throw up my hands and praise you again and again. All that I have is allelu. I know it's not much of nothing else fit for king except for a heart singing hallelujah. Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. You know, God God will bless us. And you you may you may have noticed this. I feel like I've noticed it in some things in my life. God, you blessed me here. I'm struggling here. I don't know. You may not have that problem. God, you blessed me here, but I'm struggling here. I'll pray about it. You know what I realize? That's the part of my life that God may or may not be welcome in. I may not have given the first thoughts there. Why? Sometimes it's pride. Sometimes it's shame. Sometimes it's guilt. So I ask you today to look introspectively. God, you've blessed me here, but man, this right here is dragging it down. Where? What are you allowed to speak there? Is God allowed there? Because this is what I found that everywhere I allow God, the blessings flow. I don't know. Jesus, we love you, God. We praise you, God. I pray, Lord, that that this is a church. This is a body. These are a people that are blessed beyond what they can handle. But God, I pray Lord that you would help us to find the way of escape in the first fruits, the first thoughts, the in every facet of our lives. God, you're a holistic God. You're not an isolated God. You're not you're not just God in the church. You're not just God in our at our job. You're you're God all the time in everything. And God, I pray Lord that you would help us to tear down the walls of our heart, the partitions that we have up. God, you're welcome in our marriages. You're welcome in our homes, God. You're welcome in our finances, Lord. You're welcome in how we raise our children, God. You're welcome in how we reverence and talk to one another. You're welcome. You're welcome, God, in every part of our life. God, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to be the church without walls figuratively. Help us, God. The walls that start in our heart, God, I pray, Lord, that you would help us to take them down piece by piece and allow us to trust you, to honor you with our whole being, with our whole body, with our whole life, God. God, we thank you and God, we praise you. The church, will the church say amen?