You are invited to surrender the first portion of your life and resources to God, trusting that He will redeem the rest just as He redeemed you through Christ. When you prioritize Him above all else, you step into a sacred covenant where your entire life becomes blessed, not just your wallet. Start today by acknowledging that everything you have belongs to Him and offering your first in faith.
Hey, guys. Welcome to the Real Church podcast. My name is Daniel Manix and Real Church is my home. I love being a part of the church body here. I am super excited to share the third part of the "blessed life" series with you today.
This message is titled, the principle of first. It's an eternal principle of God that we see woven throughout the Bible. It's super powerful, and I know it's gonna bless you. Enjoy it. 38 parables were about money, but why?
Because it's all about the heart. Exactly. Amen. Thank you, Keith. Pastor David talked about this 2 weeks ago.
Where your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. God wants your treasure. God wants your money because he wants your heart.
That's
right. The 2 are interrelated. They are they are connected. And, last week, we found out that money is a test from God. Tithing is a test of the heart.
It reveals things in us. Right? I mean, it reveals priorities. It reveals affections and loyalty, and and God must be first. So, the principle of first can really be defined or I guess segmented into 2 different commandments or sub principles, if you will.
The first 1 that we're gonna talk about is the principle of the firstborn. And, I wanna go to the establishment of this principle in Exodus-13. But, before I do that, I'd like to set the scene for you. Let me put this in context. Okay.
So, the Israelites are in captivity. They're in slavery in Egypt for about 400 years at this time, and God calls this man named Moses, and he tells him to go to Pharaoh and say, let my people go. We all know the story. Pharaoh refuses the demand, and because of his disobedience, God sends 10 plagues. 10 plagues on the land of Egypt, and the last and final plague is the killing of the firstborn.
*God* kills in 1 single night every firstborn male, whether man or beast, man or animal. Think about that. The the the the targeting, not the females, not the second born males, just the first born males. It's incredible, really. But, there's an even more incredible part of the story.
All of the Israelites are spared. And, the Israelites are spared because they follow the instructions given to them by God through Moses. And in those instructions, they are to *sacrifice* a lamb. That lamb's got to be spotless. It has to be clean.
It has to be without blemish. And they take the blood from the lamb, and they take a hyssop branch, and they dip it in the blood, and they use it as a brush to brush it on the doorposts, the wooden doorposts, and the lintels of the houses. And it's by this sign that death will pass over their households. This is the initiation of Passover. This is the first Passover.
So he takes the *blood* and you put it on the doorpost, the blood of the lamb and the lintel of the house. Kinda looks like a cross, doesn't it? Yep. We'll get back to that. So, the Israelites are now freed from captivity.
They flee Egypt, and God gives them a commandment, a commandment directly from God. And, we pick it up here in verse 2 of chapter 13 of Exodus. God says, Sanctify to me every firstborn, the firstborn of every womb among the sons of Israel, among people and animals alike. It belongs to me. Now, it's important to notice that the Hebrew language of that last phrase, it belongs to me, is extremely emphatic.
*God* wants it to be absolutely, abundantly clear that the firstborn male belongs to Him. Carry on to verse 12, he gives further instructions. God says, You shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb.
Or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons, you shall redeem. Okay. *God says there's 2 options, you either sacrifice* or redeem. And the deciding factor on which option you choose is whether the animal is clean or unclean.
If it's a clean animal like a lamb, sacrifice the firstborn male. If it's an unclean animal like a donkey, *redeem* the donkey by sacrificing a clean animal. If you don't redeem it, break its neck. Any children of men, redeem them, which would imply that man is unclean. Right?
Are you guys seeing the parallel yet? Is this clicking? In the Gospel according to John-1:29, John the Baptist is doing his thing. He's baptizing people and he sees Jesus and immediately he says, Behold, the **"Lamb of God"** who takes away the sin of the world. And, in that 1 poignant statement, he defines the exact specific purpose of the Messiah here on earth.
This clean, unblemished lamb of *God* is to be sacrificed to *redeem* the unclean, the donkeys, you and I. I'm not going to use the other word for donkey, we're in church. But, you get it. God *sacrifices* first the Son. Remember the lamb's *blood* on the doorpost and the lintel?
That's a type and shadow of the sacrifice to come of Jesus spilling his blood on a wooden cross. And all who would look upon him and believe in him, eternal death would pass over us. Amen? That's the fulfillment of the Passover, and that's the gospel. That's the gospel.
So, in a way, Jesus was God's tithe. Wow. Jesus was **God's tithe** And he gave him before we believed. He gave him before we repented of our sin. The order is so important.
He gave it in faith that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. Right? And that's what he asks us to do, to give first so that God will redeem the rest. Right? He gave when we were actually spitting on him, and mocking him, and hurling stones at him, and piercing his hands.
Romans five:eight says it this way, that God shows his love for us and that while we were still *sinners*, we were still in our sin, Christ died for us. Amen. Amen. The order is so important. This is how the principle of the firstborn was fulfilled in Jesus.
It's so powerful, that principle of the firstborn. And this is how God could justify destroying all the firstborn males in Egypt because they are his. Right? It belongs to God. They are his.
It's so powerful. And, it's a faith step, guys. When it comes down to it, it's faith. You put God first and he redeems the rest. Think about it.
Think about giving that, sacrificing that firstborn male lamb. You don't know if that mama lamb's gonna have any more babies. This could be it. You're giving it all away. You don't wait until there's 10 babies, and then the eleventh 1 comes out blind and deaf and limping on 1 foot and say, Oh, that's yours, God.
You got that 1. No. No. Abraham didn't wait until he had 3 or 4 sons before he offered up Isaac for sacrifice, did he? He gave him when it was all that he had.
He offered up sacrifice to God when that was all he had of the promise of God. Amen. Not only does the firstborn belong to God, but also the first fruits belong to God. This is the second sub principle. It's the principle of the first fruits.
And we find it in Exodus-23. Exodus-23:19. *God* says, The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the "house of the Lord" your God. The best of the firstfruits or the first of the firstfruits. God wants the creme de la creme, the top of the top.
*God* gets the first of the firstfruits. And, notice where he says to bring it. You bring it into the house of the Lord. Not your favorite Christian charity or your favorite missionary. Those things are great.
I highly applaud that. But, that's not where the tithe goes. You don't divide the tithe. That goes to the house of the Lord, that goes to the church, that goes to the bride of Christ. Right?
We heard about, I believe it was last week, Pastor David talked about how personal tithing actually is to God, to Jesus, because it's to his bride. And notice how it says to bring the tithe, not Give the tithe. Why? Because you can't give what's not yours. It's all his.
It's all His. We're just stewards. He allows us to keep some of it. It's amazing. So really, you have 2 options in Scripture.
You can bring the tithe or you can steal the tithe. Remember what pastor David talked about, I believe it was last week in Malachi-3, starting in verse 8. God says, Would anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, How have we robbed you?
In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing from me, the entire nation of you. God is serious about the tithe. Remember when the Israelites conquered Jericho? Let's see what God said to do with the spoils of war.
*Joshua-6:19*, But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. You see, God got all of the spoils of war of Jericho. But why? Why didn't He just get the first 10%?
It's simple, really. Jericho was the first city that the Israelites conquered in the Promised Land. It was first. *God* gets the first. But, if you read the next chapter, you'll see there was a man named Achan that actually stole from God.
He didn't listen. He stole some of those spoils of war. And the Bible says that the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel, and they actually lost the next battle that they went into. So, we see what happens when you steal the tithe. What happens when you bring the tithe?
Let's go to the happy part. *Proverbs-3:9* through 10. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce. Then, your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. It's that simple.
If you bring the tithe, the rest is blessed and redeemed. If you don't, if you steal the tithe, it's cursed. So let me ask you a blunt question. Why would you want anything that's cursed in your bank account? *Joshua-6* said that tithe was consecrated or blessed in the house of the Lord, in the church, but it was cursed when it was in the hands of Achan.
And we have enough trouble in our bank accounts, I mean, do we gotta make this any more difficult? Listen, I get it. It takes faith. It takes faith to believe that 90% blessed and *redeemed* is worth more and will go farther than a 100% cursed. But, that's the principle of first.
That's the principle, the eternal principle that God set with us, and God does not change. He can't change his word. This is the truth of the principle of first. Let me show you another example. I want to give you an example that actually combines the 2, the principle of the firstborn and the principle of the first fruits.
It's the story of Cain and Abel. Do you remember the story where where Abel and Cain, they they offer up sacrifices, and Abel's is received or accepted by God, and Cain's is not? This is really the start of a of a death spiral of Cain to the point where he murders his brother. Let's read this closely. Genesis-4, starting in verse 3.
So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the Lord from the fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part, also brought an offering from the "firstborn of his flock" and from their fat portions. And the Lord had regard or received Abel's offering, Abel and his offering. Notice that both Abel and the offering is received. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.
Did you see that at the beginning? It came about in the course of time. The Bible makes it clear that that it took some time for Cain to offer up his sacrifice. And, it says that it was an offering. It doesn't say it was a first fruit offering.
But, Abel's *sacrifice* was a sacrifice of the firstborn. I believe this is why Abel's sacrifice was received and Cain's was not. And, it's not that we have an angry God here or a jealous God in the sense of, oh, I I only want the first. Listen, God, it's not that he just wouldn't receive Cain's offering. He could not receive Cain's offering.
God cannot be second. It's 1 of the characteristics, 1 of the attributes of God. It's called his preeminence. God is over, above, first over all things. God is preeminent.
Right? News flash, whether you put God first in your life or not, it has no effect on where he stands in the universe. "God is first". Whether we put him first or not.
That's good.
Right? It's like the omniscience of God. God knows everything. God doesn't wake up 1 day and say, Oh, myself, something just occurred to me. I never thought about that.
Oh, God can't learn. God can't change. God can't grow. He stays the same. He's already all powerful, all knowing.
He's omniscient. He can't learn. It'd be against his character, his nature, and it would be against his nature to take second. *God* can't take second. So, let me step back for a second.
I'm going to give everybody a breather a little bit here. We're going to play a little game. We'll do an exercise. I'm going ask you a couple questions and shout them out loud, and you get the answer. All right?
I'm not going to trick you like Pastor David did last week. We forgive you, Pastor. Let's say you were doing work for someone. You were working on their house, did a lot of work, and after your expenses, the increase to you, which is what you tithe on, it's it's the increase to you, the increase was $1,000. And you got paid in 10 $100 bills.
How much is the tithe? 1 Exactly. $100 is the tithe. Good. Now, which 1 of those $100 bills is the tithe?
First. You guys, I don't even know why I'm preaching this. You guys already got all this. That's exactly right. Whatever $100 bill leaves your hand first is the tithe.
That's how it's decided. So, my question to you is who are you tithing to? We're all tithing. Are you tithing to Walmart? Are you tithing to Amazon?
Mortgage company? Where does your money go first? Listen, the mortgage company cannot bless your finances, but God can. Give the tithe to God first. It is His.
I was convicted about this myself. You know, I would tithe on Monday, the day after church, and maybe sometimes I would fall back a little bit and have to play catch up in another week. God says, that's not mine. That's not my portion. I get the tithe.
I get first. I am first. It belongs to me. And listen, no condemnation for anyone who's not tithing, no condemnation at all. Okay?
But, when you do go to tithe, when you do go to put God first, you're gonna see the enemy come up against you. He's gonna say, you can't afford to do that. You're gonna go broke. What are you gonna do with this bill and that bill? You know what you do with that?
You crumble it up and throw it in the garbage because it's trash. That's where it belongs. You respond to that with, no, I'm a tither. And, the Bible tells me God says that he will rebuke the devourer for my sake. Okay?
He will rebuke the devourer for my sake. I am blessed. I put God first in my life. I prioritize him, and the rest is blessed. Guys, God doesn't need your money.
Tithing is not for God. Tithing is for you. God doesn't need your money. You need to be blessed. Amen?
Yeah. It's not 10% that enacts the blessing. It's the first 10% that enacts the blessing. That's the principle of first. I'd like to go back to to where we started in *Exodus-13* before I close here.
We're going to go to verse 14. And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come saying, what is this? Why are you doing this? Why are you giving the firstborn? You shall say to him with a powerful hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery.
And it came about when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go that the Lord put to death every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from human firstborns to animal firstborns, there for. I sacrifice to the Lord, the males, every firstborn of a womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem. *God* says to the Israelites, don't you ever forget. Don't you ever forget where you were before me. Don't you ever forget what I did for you.
Everything that you have is because of me. And from a spiritual perspective in the new covenant that we're in, this is what we are to share with anyone who asks us, believers and non believers alike. And they say, why are you giving so much time to the church? Why do you give money to the church? You know, I don't do that.
I don't believe in that. Why do you do that? Listen, I wasn't always a Christian. I did some bad things in my life. I was a slave to sin.
I was in bondage. I had no future. I was I was heading for eternal separation from God. And, there was nothing I could do to get myself out of it. But, God, with a Mighty hand, delivered me from that death.
He saved me when he didn't have to. He sacrificed the first to redeem me even when I was in my sin. So now, he has set my feet on a solid rock. And he's blessed me with everything that I have. Everything that I have.
So, I gladly give the first. Not out of duty or compulsion. I gladly give the first. Because I have this Sacred covenant with the creator of the universe now who says, if you give me the first, I will fill your barns overflowing with with blessings from heaven. It opens the "windows of heaven" to my life.
And notice I'm not saying a blessed wallet. Okay? It's a blessed life. It's everything in our lives. Your relationships, your health, your marriage, everything is blessed because of this.
And, he cannot change who he is. The Lord does not change, and he can't go against his word. And, this is the principle of first. This is the sacred covenant that I have with him. Amen.
Can you guys bow your heads and close your eyes, And, Ben, you can come up. Thank you, God, for showing us this eternal principle of yours. It's not the law. It's not out of duty or compulsion. It's a promise from you, God.
What an amazing promise. Thank you God for setting us free. The fact that you have, Lord, it it causes us to give to you out out of joy, out of gladness. Some of you might be in here this morning saying, you know what? I am still a slave to sin.
And I didn't even realize it until this very moment. I didn't even realize my chains until this very moment. Listen, you don't have to carry that anymore because God gave first. God so loved the world that he gave and he's waiting on you. He has redeemed you.
All you have to do is drop those chains. Believe in him. Putting him first in your life saying, God, I surrender all that I was. That's not me. I am yours.
I'm gonna give you the chance on the count of 3 to make that decision. It's a decision that I ask you not to take lightly. This is the most important decision you can ever make in your entire existence. Forget your life, your existence. 1, Jesus loves you.
*God* loves you so much in that while you were still a sinner, he sent Christ to die for you. He wants a relationship with you. He wants to spend eternity with you. 2, do it now. Now is your moment.
Now. Today is the day of salvation. Don't wait. You're not promised tomorrow. 3, raise your hand.
Don't be afraid. Don't don't worry about the people around you. This is between you and God. Those of you that are online, if you're feeling that that that yearning in your spirit, that all of our spirits, we yearn to be close to our Creator. It's an innate desire of ours whether you know it or not.
If you're feeling that right now, take the leap forward, take the faith step. Praise God. Everyone in here is a believer. It's amazing. We are all family.
We're all a church. Let's let's pray together as a church, as the bride of Christ. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me before I believed. God, I gladly put you first knowing that you've blessed me with everything that I have. Help me Holy Spirit to have the joy of the Lord in my heart and that I gladly give the first to you.
In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. *God* bless you, church.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged and with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so @www.realchurch.usslashgiving or you can text any amount to 84321 and then just search in the link that comes up.
Search for Real Church Clearwater. *God* bless you, and the best is yet to come.