You are invited to examine your heart and see if God is truly first in your life. Start by trusting Him with your finances and time, just as the Israelites trusted Him with their firstborns. Make a covenant to give back to His house and walk in obedience today.
**God is preeminent**. Preeminent meaning surpassing all others. He is above all. He is first. He has to be first.
That's his character. Whether you put God first in your life has no bearing on whether he is preeminent in the universe or not. God is preeminent. And so we line up with the rest of *creation* when we put God first on our lives and make him preeminent. He has to be first.
The 10 commandments, the first 4 are about God. They're commandments with God. The last 6 are commandments with men. God is to be first. The first commandment is what?
It's actually not. That is Deuteronomy-6:4 through 6. That is the Shema. That's a prayer that the Israelites pray 2 times a day every day. The Lord is our God, the Lord is 1, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.
And I won't say it all in Hebrew, that's the only Hebrew I know. But the first commandment is you shall have no other gods before me. There are none before me. I am first. God has to be first.
And so what we're gonna talk about today is putting God first, and it's a principle actually that's that's found in Exodus. It's the principle of first. God is first. Principle of the firstborn is found in Exodus-13, and the principle of the first fruits is found in Exodus-23. So we are going to dive into this principle that helps us to break the spirit of mammon.
But before we do that, let's put God first. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your preeminence, that you are overall, Lord, that the greatest of all actually is good, and actually loves us, and actually wants what's best for us, and actually cares for us, and has given us everything that we have. And in return, we "give to you first", Lord. We put you first in our lives because we understand that whatever's first in our lives is the center of our lives, and we want you in the center.
So we pray that your word would come forth today, that your truth would come forth today, and we pray that it would be truth that changes the hearts of people. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. So the **Principle of the first**born, so kind of the sub principle, the first sub principle, the principle of first.
Wow. My bible got cut in the move. Unbelievable. Can't have anything nice, know? But the word of God is never cut.
Amen? Amen. Alright. Let's go to Exodus-13:2. Consecrate to me all the firstborn, whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.
Now the the Hebrew language there at the end of is mine is extremely emphatic. God is serious about the fact that the first is his. He is preeminent. Go down to verse 12 for further instructions. 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. Man, seems like God wants a lot here.
Right? He's asking you to sacrifice or redeem firstborns. Why is he doing this? We have to rewind a little bit to to get the answer there. So the Israelites, if you recall, were in Egyptian captivity.
They were slaves in Egypt for 400 years. And God speaks to this man named Moses in a burning bush, and says, I want you to go to Pharaoh and tell him to what? "Let my people go". Let my people go. So Moses, after some coercing, actually follows God's instructions and he goes to Pharaoh and and says, God said, I am said, let my people go.
Moses, know, who was not lofty of speech, who was really a nobody, was running away from Egypt because he was a murderer. He actually murdered someone. And now God is using him to initiate the greatest release of slave captives in history. And and Pharaoh, of course, says no, this is my free labor. So God sends 10 plagues on the land of Egypt.
The final plague is the death of the firstborn, and this is why we have this principle here. So what God does is he says, in 1 night, I am going to kill, not murder, God cannot murder. God is creator. God creates life and he ends life. He has authority over that.
But he is going to kill every firstborn, whether man or beast, man, animal, everything, in all of the land of Egypt in 1 night. But he gives instructions to Moses to give to the Israelites. He says, this is what you're gonna do. You're gonna take a spotless lamb, a 1 year old male lamb without blemish, and you're gonna sacrifice that lamb, and you're gonna take the blood of the lamb, you're gonna take a hyssop branch, and you're gonna dip it in it, and you're going to paint the doorpost and the lintels of your house with that blood. Then, when I come through the land of Egypt, when I see that blood, I am going to pass over that house, and everyone who's within it will be spared.
The firstborns will be safe. This is the initiation of Passover. Okay? So God in 1 night kills all of the firstborn. Why?
Because they are his, he is preeminent, and he has the authority to do what he wants with that firstborn. And this is what he decides to do in order to be the last plague that will set the people of Israel free, and it works. The people of Israel leave Egyptian captivity, Egyptian slavery, and they're in the desert, and God tells Moses, this is the principle that I am instituting. I want you to set apart for the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are male 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, so there's there's 2 options here, right? You either sacrifice or you redeem. And the deciding factor on which 1 of those you do is based on whether the animal is clean or unclean.
A lamb is a clean animal. It's an animal that the Israelites were allowed to eat. Right? It's considered clean by God. So God says, for the clean animals, you sacrifice.
For the unclean animals, like donkeys, you redeem. If you don't redeem it, break its neck. So you might as well redeem it, right, because you're not gonna be able to keep it. And for man, you redeem, which implies what? Man is unclean.
Are you getting the parallel here? In the gospel according to John-1:29, John the Baptist is baptizing people in the Jordan River and he sees Jesus from a distance and he says, behold, the "lamb of God" who takes away the sin of the world. And in that 1 poignant statement, John declares the exact specific particular reason why Jesus is to come here on earth. The **clean, spotless**, unblemished lamb is here to be sacrificed for the unclean donkeys, you and I. That's the beauty of the gospel.
Amen? Amen. So, the lamb's blood on the doorpost and on the lentils, what does that look like? That's a cross. It's a type and shadow of what was to come, that this unblemished pure lamb would be given first in order to *redeem* you and I.
That's the beauty of the gospel. And Jesus is the father's first. *Colossians-1*, Paul talks about the preeminence of Christ, and I don't think I gave you these verses here. Sorry, Alex, but you guys can turn there in your Bibles. *Colossians-1* starting in verse 15 says, the sun is the express image or the visible image of the invisible God, the He is the first born over all creation.
And I'm gonna stop right there with there's a misinterpretation here where it says first born over all creation. Actually, the Jehovah's Witnesses use this as, I would say propaganda, in order to prove that Jesus is a created being, that he's not actually God. That's bogus, right? We don't believe that. We believe that God is the uncreated 1.
He is God overall, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Jesus is God. If you actually look at that word first born, it's prototokos, in the Greek. And the people reading this at the time would have understood that what Paul is talking about is the *preeminence* of Christ. Firstborn meaning in birth order, the firstborn has a preeminence, a superiority.
He has a double portion of inheritance. Paul is saying that He is first. He is not born. If you actually break that down, proto, tokos. Proto means new, tokos means birth or breed or type.
It's actually where we get the word proto type in the English. And so that makes a lot more sense when you think that Jesus is a new breed. Right? He was the last Adam. He is he is the he is the first of a new covenant.
And it's gonna make more sense as we keep reading through what Paul wrote there. He said, he's the firstborn over all creation for in him all things were created. The Jehovah's Witnesses have a little word in there, all other things were created, they added that. But Paul said originally, all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church, and he is the firstborn from among the dead. Again, prototokos, he is the firstborn. Now it makes more sense in context, right? He is the new type of those born from among the dead, that's you and I. So Jesus is the Father's first.
So if Jesus is the Father's first and he gave Jesus for our sake, Jesus was the father's tithe. Let that sink in. Jesus gave, Jesus was given, the father gave Jesus his first to us. God tithed to us, which is just mind blowing to me. Like, why why is the father tithing to us?
You know, we obviously don't deserve that. But he did that for us. He gave his best for us. Makes me a little emotional. So he gave his first, and it was his best.
So God is not asking us to do anything when we tithe that he hasn't already done. He implores us, just as Paul did in Ephesians-5, to be imitators of God. We are to be imitators of him. We are to give our first just as he gave his first. So the question really is why?
Why would you do this for me? Why why would you give your the the treasure of heaven. Right? Jesus, the treasure of heaven. Paul talks about how Jesus is treasure.
He says that, in him are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Jesus is the treasure of heaven. And that's when it starts to make sense because Jesus said, where your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. God's heart is with us. God gave Jesus, God gave his treasure because his heart is with us.
He doesn't just like us a little bit. He doesn't just kinda love us when we're doing well. God so loves us.
That's right.
God so loves us. We just heard it today, the first song that we sang, you know, for God so loved the world, the earth, that he gave Christ to us. For God so loved the world that he tithed. It's beautiful. So the principle of the firstborn is important for us because it really establishes a covenant that we have with God.
And here's the important thing, when it comes to the tithe, we need to understand that the Father gave Jesus before we believed. Amen? Amen. Romans-5:8, God shows his love for us. God gives to us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
He gave to us. And in the same way, God calls us to give in faith. We are to give before we receive. We don't give to get, we get to give. That's really important.
The purpose of giving is to put God first in our lives in a way that says, I don't even know if I'm gonna get any more, but it doesn't matter because everything is yours anyway, so I give to you first, God. When you think about sacrificing the lamb, you didn't wait until that mama lamb had 10 more babies before giving the first. You had to give it first before you knew that there would be anything else opening that womb. In the same way that Abraham had to give Isaac before he had 15, 25 other sons, He had to give Isaac when it was the only thing of the promise of God that he had. First.
First. First. First. First. God is to be first.
He is to be preeminent. Why? Because the first portion is God's portion. It's the redemptive portion. Take note of that.
By giving the first, the rest is redeemed. Remember we said, if it's an unclean animal, you are to redeem it. You redeem it how? By sacrificing the first of a clean animal. And that unclean animal, a k a us, is redeemed.
God can redeem your 90% better than you can handle the 100% without him. 100% without God is less, and trust me, I had a finance degree, I work in finance, I am a numbers guy, this doesn't make sense financially and mathematically. 100% without God is less than 90% with him. Amen? Because we are stewarding.
And what did pastor David say in the first week of this series? *Stewardship* is multiplying. We are able to multiply. Why? Yeah, with the talents that God has given us, but more importantly, because it is redeemed by the grace of God.
Amen? Okay. So not only does God get the first born, but he also gets the first fruits. Move with me to Exodus-23. Exodus-23:19.
You probably didn't think you were gonna be spending so much time in Exodus, did you? Exodus-23:19. The best of the first fruits of your ground, you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. The best of the first fruits or the "first of the first fruits", the the best of the best. God requires the best of the best.
Remember, it is part of his character. It's not just like an emotional thing like, oh, I'm jealous if somebody else has before me. No, it's his character. It's his preeminence. He has to be first.
So you are to bring the best of the first fruits. And where are you to bring them? Into the house of the Lord your God. To the church. Not to your favorite Christian missionary.
Not to your favorite Christian charity. Those things are great. I applaud it, I think it's important, but that's not the tithe. The tithe goes to God. It goes to his bride, it goes to the house of the Lord.
What you're talking about there is offerings above and beyond the tithe. That's great. But make sure that you do not divide the tithes. The tithe has to go into the house of the Lord. And notice that Moses says, we are to bring it into the house of the Lord.
Why does he say bring instead of give? Because you can't give what doesn't belong to you. Again, it's "not yours". We are not owners, we are stewards. Amen?
Amen. Okay. So you only have 2 options in scripture when it comes to the tithe. You are to either bring it or you steal it. Let's turn to Malachi-3.
For those of you that have paper bibles, it is the last of the minor prophets before the New Testament. So I'm getting there myself with 1 hand. *Malachi-3:8*. Will man rob God? What a preposterous thought.
Yet you are robbing me, But you say, how have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions? You are cursed with a curse for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. God is serious about the tithes. You are cursed with a curse. Why would we want something in our bank account that's cursed?
It's "blessed with God". It is *cursed* with us. Turn to do you remember when the Israelites went into the promised land and they conquered Jericho? You guys remember that? It's in Joshua-6.
I wanna give you an example of the of the curse side and then we'll go to the fun happy side. Okay? *Joshua-6:19*, but all silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord, they shall go into the treasury of the Lord. God says all of the spoils of war are mine. Not just the 10%, the first 10, all of them.
Why? Because Jericho was the first city that was conquered in the promised land. It is first, so it was God's. Now, if you read on in the next chapter, a man named Achan did not listen very well, and he actually stole some of the 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.
Why? Because it was cursed with them, but it was holy in the house of the Lord. That's important to keep in mind, that there can be this desire to hold on to what we have, and say, man, just let me multiply this. When I get more, I'm gonna give God so much. It's gonna be so great.
I'm gonna be able to pour out all these offerings and blessings on all these different churches and charities. But I'm telling you, it will be cursed in your bank account. It is not yours and you can't do anything for the kingdom with it outside of first giving God his. Amen? This is a hard message to hear, I understand.
And trust me, I was I was convicted of this when I first preached this message message in 2020. I was I was 1 of those people that I would tithe on usually Monday, the day after church. Right? You're you're you're kinda in a tithing mood. You're like, oh, yeah.
I went to church. I gotta tithe. So every every Monday, would tithe. But as I was preparing for this message 4 years ago, and as I was praying about this, and as the Lord was speaking to me, he said, oh yeah, by the way, that's not mine. That's not the tithe.
You need to give to me first. I get the "first 10%". I get the first. I am not second, I am not an afterthought. I am the first.
And so, now I tithe whenever I first get paid. That's the first thing I do, I tithe. God supplies to me through the work that I do, and the increase that goes to me, I give the first 10% to God. It's not 10% that enacts the blessing, it's the first 10%. That's so important.
It's God's portion, it's the first. We have to keep that in mind. Okay, so what happens when we actually do put God first in our finances? Let's go to Proverbs-3. *Proverbs-3*.
This is a lot more difficult with 1 hand on the mic. Okay. Proverbs-3:8-9. No? Verse 9 and 10.
Yeah. That would kind of be out of context. *Proverbs-3* verse 9 and 10. 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.
It's a simple if then statement. If you do this, then this happens. This, again, as I spoke about in the beginning of this message, the responsibility that I have when I'm delivering this word. There's a responsibility because this word never changes. This word is truth.
It's life and truth. God said this, so because he is a man of his word, we have to take him at this word that this will happen. This is the expectation. We can expect things from God. We get in trouble when we expect things from people, right?
There's a lot of unspoken expectations. God says, you can expect this from me. Your your barns will be overflowing, your vats will be filled with plenty of wine. If you give God your first fruits, if you give to him first. I can't stress this enough, the importance of it being first.
It's not 10%, it's the first 10%. I wanna give you an example, a great example in in the bible of a story, and I don't even like calling it a story because obviously it it really happened. So this event that happened that ties together both the principle of the firstborn and the principle of first fruits. And we find it in Genesis-4. And this is the story of Cain and Abel.
So Genesis-4:3-5. When you have it, say amen. Amen. Alright. You guys doing okay?
It's pretty quiet out there.
Good, brother. Doing great.
I know it's hot. I feel that. Or maybe it's just the lights up here. Or the spirit of the Lord. Alright.
*Genesis-4:3*. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering. It's important to note, not only regard for Abel's offering, but also for Abel himself. But for Cain and his offering, he had no regard.
So Cain was very angry and his face fell. Have you ever wondered why God accepted Abel and his offering, but not Cain and his offering? It seems somewhat unfair. Right? And this this starts the unraveling.
Like, obviously, has already entered into into the world through Adam and Eve, but this is the first the first murder. Right? Cain murders his brother Abel. And this is the beginning of his anger. Look there at the beginning.
In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord. It sounds like it took some time for Cain to come around to offering to God, to bring his tithe. And notice how it says, he brought an offering, not a first fruit offering, it was just an offering. Whereas Abel, he brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. So he actually gave the tithe and he gave an offering on top of it.
Okay? I believe that this is why God did not accept Cain's offering. Because Cain did not bring a first fruit offering, he brought an offering and it took some time for him to do it. He probably gave him the last 10%. I I hope I've gotten this through, that it's not that God is like this emotional, you know, he he's he's being a little child about this.
It's not that God just didn't want to accept Cain's offering, it's that he cannot accept Cain's offering. God cannot work against his character and nature. He would not be who he is then, right? His name, Yahweh, I am. I have always been, I always will be.
He cannot change. He can't change his word. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ is God. God cannot change.
God cannot accept Cain's offering. That's very important. It's not that he doesn't want to, it's that he cannot. Let's do a little exercise. So let's say you did some work for someone, some manual labor on their house, let's say you painted the house, and the increase to you was $1,000 That's what we tithe off of, right?
It's the increase to us. It's not, you you gotta subtract out the cost. Right? Your your materials. The increase to you is $1,000, and you get paid in 10 $100 bills.
How much is the tithe? $100, exactly. 10% of 1000 dollars is a $100. Now, which 1 of those $100 bills is the tithe? The first 1.
You guys have actually been listening. I feel great now. It's the first to leave your hand, that is the tithe. So, sounds like we all understand that. So then the question I have for you is, who are you tithing to?
Who are you tithing to? We all tithe, whether you're a Christian or a non Christian or you know, Hindu or whatever you are, everybody tithes. The first 10 that leaves your hand, who does that go to? What does that go to? Mortgage company, water bill, Amazon.
Where does the first 10% go? That's who you're tithing to. Let me tell you something, the mortgage company doesn't have the ability to bless and redeem the rest of your 90%. I promise. I think it's great that you're paying your bills.
That's being a good steward. That's very important. Amen. But that's not theirs. That's the tithe.
That goes to God. It has to go to God. He will bless and redeem the rest. Amen? Amen.
And and I wanna be clear here, tithing is not for God. Like, "God doesn't need your money". Do we all know that? Show of hands. Anybody know that?
That God's not struggling, he he doesn't need your money? God has cattle on 1000 hills. He doesn't need your money. Remember, Psalm 24 1, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness therein. Everything is God's.
He doesn't need your money. He doesn't need your tithe. You need to be blessed. You need to be blessed. You need to tithe.
You need God on your side. You need to say, God, I show you glory and honor, and I I *sacrifice* everything to you, and I give to you first. You are my everything. You are at the center of my life, so I give you first. You are first.
That's what we need. We as a people need that, and the blessings are ridiculous. I can't tell you since, you know, since I since I preached this message in 2020, was that 4 years ago, you know, my my salary's doubled. My I got married 3 months ago. Today is my 3 month anniversary with my wife.
We made it against all odds, 3 months. Oh, but it's amazing. Life is great. I'm I'm happy. I'm healthy.
Like, I love what I do. I I get to be a part of this amazing church. There it's real. There are real blessings when you put God first. Like, it's it's important.
This is a principle. Alright. I'm not trying to be legalistic here. I'm not saying, oh my God, you gave 10% to Walmart and now your bank account is cursed, you might as well close it. What I'm saying is, you need to say, wow, now I've been given this information, I've been given this knowledge, and if you don't believe me, go back to the scriptures and read it yourself.
I mean, I'm not making any of this stuff up, it's in the scriptures. Go there, read it yourself. Once you get that revelation, as pastor David says, now you're in the "valley of decision". Now you are held responsible for what you have heard. What are you gonna do with it?
Are you gonna repent and turn and start doing things God's way, or are you gonna keep doing it your way? If you turn and and do it God's way, oh my God, the the windows of heaven will be opened up to you. I I guarantee it. And it's not just about money, it's about a blessed life. This isn't called the blessed bank account series.
This is the blessed life series. This is your whole life, everything that you get to experience here on earth as a child of God, man. It's it's part of your inheritance. Take it. It's yours.
Seriously, take it. So, that is the principle of first. Before I wrap up, I wanna go back to where we started. I think this is important, Exodus-13. Exodus-13.
So we had read verses 12 and 13. Right? So look at verse 14. This is what God says. He says, and when in time to come your son asks you, what does this mean?
You shall say to him, by a **"strong hand"** the Lord brought us out of Egypt from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first opened the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem. God says, don't you forget. Don't you forget what I brought you from.
Don't you forget that everything that you have is from me. I brought you out of slavery. I made this happen. I brought you into the promised land. Don't ever forget and share that with generation after generation after generation so that it is never forgotten.
And from a spiritual perspective, we in the the blood covenant, the new covenant, as children of God through Christ Jesus, We are to never forget. When people ask you, why do you tithe? Why do you give money to the church? God, you give a lot of money to the church. What's going on over there?
Is that a cult? My accountant, this time of year, whenever he's looking at my stuff, he's like, you give a lot of money to the church. He's like, you know, I know people that make a lot more money than you and they they give a lot less than you give. The answer is, with a strong hand, God saved me from slavery. I was in bondage to sin.
I was in Egypt and I had no way out. I I couldn't I couldn't do it on my own. And I had nothing. The pursuit of everything was vain, chasing after the wind. But God, with a strong hand, lifted me up out of that prison.
He gave his first, he tithed, he sacrificed the spotless blood of the lamb, the lamb of God for my sake. So everything that I have now is because of him. And it is his. So I gladly give the first 10%. Not just because it's his, I am required to, but because it is an overflow of joy and appreciation and cherishment of what he has done for us, church.
That's why Paul says, God loves a cheerful giver. Why does he love a cheerful giver? Because he loves the heart of a cheerful giver. The the cheerful giver understands where he or she was and where God has brought them. And so they gladly give the first.
That is to be us church. That's our inheritance. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this eternal principle. Thank you, God, that we can understand with open hearts and open minds that when we give the first to you, God, you redeem the rest.
The rest is redeemed and blessed. God, I pray that you would press on the hearts of everyone in this room, not in condemnation, but in conviction to say, my son, my daughter, give to me and I will open up heaven for you. Give to me. Put me first. And everything in your life will flow with abundance.
Abundance of love, kindness, joy, peace, prosperity, humility, generosity. Thank you Lord for this principle. Thank you for what you did for us Lord God. Thank you that you gave first, that you so loved the world that you tithed. And because of that, we are *redeemed* sons and daughters by your grace, Lord.
Thank you for changing our hearts, Lord, to to see things not from a natural perspective, not a mathematical perspective, and an understanding, Lord, by faith we understand. We have faith, Lord, that your principles are eternal. And we bless your name, Lord. We put you first in everything, including our finances, your finances. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Man, I love Daniel Mannix, and I love it when he teaches because he's an excellent teacher and is powerful. And I I hear in my spirit, I hear some questions that are going on in people's minds. And I wanna answer those questions for you because I I think my story will help answer your questions. So I wanna I wanna tack on to the end of his message a little bit of my own testimony on this. Personally, I grew up in the church, and my parents taught me to tithe by their doing it.
And then by teaching me in scripture and hearing messages in the church. And and so ever since I was had my first job, I began to give first 10% of everything I had. Shoot. I mean, I was really passionate about the offering. I don't know.
It's just a passion with the heart. I remember an evangelist came and preached and and talked about tithes and offerings and other things, and I put my whole I remember putting my whole wallet in the in the offering bucket, you know, and and he came to me at the end, he said, we've never had somebody give their whole wallet before. I don't say that to brag, I say it as discipleship. Like, that's the heart. As a New Testament believer, everything we have is his.
The problem is, I hear a lot of New Testament believers say, well, because we're a New Testament believer in the New Covenant, you know, tithing was a part of the law. We don't have to tithe. And those that's the question that I heard. I wanna answer that because I struggled with that for many years. Even the first couple years of this church, I struggled with that.
And I just was like, man, you know, the the tithe is a part of the the Old Covenant law. And and Romans-10:4 says, Christ is the end of the law for those who to righteousness for those who believe. Right? And he he fulfilled it all in him, and and and so I really struggled with that until I went through the Blessed Life series, and I began to see things more clearly than I did before. And so for those of you that were questioning that, I'm gonna show you things more clearly than you did before, and then you're gonna have to wrestle with it and get in the valley of decision, and either submit to what the Word says, or continue in your own way, and miss out on some of the things that God wants it to impart into your life.
We're really just that bold at Real Church. We just put it like it is. Okay? Fair enough? You guys you ready for this?
I'm only gonna be a second. So first first things first. In the in the New Covenant, you know, Jesus, when he said don't commit adultery in the the 10 Commandments, Jesus then came and preached not only don't commit adultery, but don't even look at a woman lustfully in your heart. Right? Don't even don't even don't even do that because that is adultery.
So Jesus took the old covenant law and took it way higher in principle than than even the old covenant law was. But then when we give our life to him, he put his spirit in us, enabling us to walk that out more than we ever could. All we have to do is keep our eyes on him and say, yes, Lord, and he gives us the grace to walk that out fully. Amen? Make sense?
Okay. And but still when I heard that, I'm like, yeah, that's great, but I still wasn't satisfied. So I had to see it in my heart. And so in in Hebrews-7, I'm just gonna read this real quick. I'm gonna show you in 2 different places.
Because remember, our tithe, our money, our time, and our talent, it took that to make that money. So Jesus asked for the first of that money because it's a demonstration that our all of our time, and our talent, and our treasure revolve around him. Make sense? Now watch this. Hebrews Hebrews-7.
For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. And to him, Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. Everybody say a tenth. He is first by translation of his name, King of Righteousness. And then he is also King of Salem, that is "King of Peace".
Now who's the King of Righteousness and King of Peace? Jesus. Okay. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever. The Bible says Jesus is in the order of Melchizedek, so Melchizedek was a type and shadow, a picture of Christ in the old covenant.
And what did Abraham do? Abraham tithed a tenth to Melchizedek. Now who is Abraham? Abraham is the father of our faith that came before the law was given. So what Jesus what I mean, what Daniel said in the very beginning holds the key here.
He said this is a principle. See, there's a couple of principles that were found in the law too, but that were enacted in creation. Period. And they're a principle of the character nature of God. Even God's Sabbath.
Now you see the Sabbath in the law. Right? But God's Sabbath beforehand, rested. Sabbathing, understanding what it means to live from a place of rest and take time in obedience to him to Sabbath, not legalistically. Right?
But out of out of the principle of the Sabbath. I'm resting because I trust him. I don't have to work work work work work work work 7 days a week and and think that it's all mine. So I, you know, if I don't do it, it ain't gonna get done. No.
I'm gonna work as hard as I can from a place of rest for 6 days of the week, and then essentially 1 day a week, I'm going to to rest and trust him with my time. Give it unto the Lord. That's a principle that was instituted before the law. Well, so was tithing. Tithing is a principle, the father of our faith, who, because we have faith in Christ Jesus, we're engrafted into that family, brothers with Israel.
Okay? Engrafted into that family. He tithes first to Melchizedek, which was a type and shadow of Jesus. Do you see that? And so we follow in that principle.
Everything Daniel said is applicable for us because of the principle of tithing. That was before even the law. God instituted the law because he wanted everybody to walk in it. Do you understand? Oh, but that was just 1 time.
That was just that was just Abraham. No. It wasn't Genesis-28. Abraham's kid. Jacob.
Watch this. 28 verse 18. So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put his head under his head and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the on the top of it. And he called that place Bethel. What does Bethel mean?
**"House of God"**. That's the place where he saw angels and ascending and descend descending on the ladder to heaven. Okay? Jacob's there, and he and and he had that dream, and he saw that. He's like, man, surely God was in this place, and he didn't even recognize it.
It was the house of God. It was Bethel. Then what does he say? He called the place the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at first. Then Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and I will get and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.
He's making a covenant with God right there. When you give your life to Jesus, you're making a covenant with God. You're saying, I know he's gonna trust me. I mean, he's gonna he's gonna lead me. He's gonna guide me.
He's gonna protect me. I'm gonna trust him as my father, and I'm I'm gonna I'm giving my life to him. And this stone which I've set up for a pillar shall be God's house. And all and of all that you give me, I will give you a "full tenth", or I will give a full tenth to you. Jacob following in the footsteps of his father Abraham, okay, by faith demonstrating the principle of the tithe way before the law.
So so that that mindset for many people is just an excuse. Oh, well, everything I have is God's. Yes, you're right. Everything you have is God's and you're supposed to steward it. And 1 of the ways you steward it is by walking according to the principle of tithe.
So stop confusing people by saying that. Do you understand? And it and it goes it is to the house of God. What's the house of God in modern day? It's the local church.
It's the local church is called the body of Christ. So by giving the tithe to the local church, whatever If you're visiting and you have a, like, a local church somewhere else, and you just happen to come because some friend inviting you invited you, go back to your local church and begin tithing. God's gonna bless that church, but he's also gonna bless your family because you're learning to steward things according to the principles of God. And man, it's been such a blessing to me, such a blessing to my family, and many others because in surrender, there's freedom. And, man, I wanna walk according to his principles in every area of my life saying, this is yours, Lord.
I give you everything. And so hopefully, you see that, and you begin to say, dang. You know what? I repent. You know what repentance is?
Means I was wrong. I wish I would have been doing it right, and I'm going to not just say I'm sorry, but I'm going to shift my life to begin walking in the direction that God's asking me for because I trust him. And when you trust him, you obey him. Amen? Is that clear?
So when I saw that, and for many for many times when I saw the Melchizedek thing, I'm like, oh, that's just a picture showing that, you know, Jesus is over Levi and the law, but you know, because of what it says later. And then I saw with Jacob, and then I saw the the the principle of the first, which which is the tithe, by the way. Principle of the first is the tithe. You you get the first animal, that's the "first of your increase", but then they gave the first of the fruits. And every time they had the first increase, that's well, we don't have animals, most of us, today.
Right? And we have no place to sacrifice it at a temple. It just doesn't work for us. So "cut that excuse" out of your vocabulary too. Amen?
I only got about 20% amen. The rest of you guys are still chewing on it. That's okay. Go chew on it, and if you don't see it in scripture, then don't do it. But if you see it in scripture, you're you're accountable for adjusting your life to it.
Amen? And I'm good with that. Praise the Lord. Now another thing that this church real well, you have to know that this church tithes. So we're gonna walk in obedience.
You know, if we're gonna do it personally, then we should probably make an example of that publicly as a family, like as an individual church. 10 At least 10% of everything that comes in goes out to the global church, whether that be another ministry in the area, nationally, or globally. Because, man, we're gonna walk in it as a church, and we've been radically generous since day 1 in that way. But in in every area, we're supposed to learn to be obedient. 1 of those ways is baptism.
So we're we're gonna have baptism. So if you're ready for baptism, you can come on up.