FirstFruits • 5.22.22

Perris Valley Church

Series: Priorities

Title: FirstFruits

Date: 5/21/22

Location: Perris Valley Church

Deuteronomy 16:16-17 (NASB)

“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths; and they are not to appear before the Lord empty-handed.

God Owns Everything You think Own

1 Corinthians 10:26 (NLT)

26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

Psalm 24:1 (NLT)

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.

Exodus 19:5 (NLT)

Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me.

Job 41:11 (NLT)

Who has given me anything that I need to pay back? Everything under heaven is mine.

Haggai 2:8 (NLT)

The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

Your Giving Back to God Reflects your Faith in God’s Ability to Provide for You

Mark 12:41-44 (NLT)

Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. 42 Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.

43 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. 44 For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

Giving Should be Sacrificial and Generous

2 Corinthians 8:1-5 (NLT)

Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. 2 They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity.

3 For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. 4 They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. 5 They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do.

Leviticus 23:10 (NLT)

“Give the following instructions to the people of Israel. When you enter the land I am giving you and you harvest its first crops, bring the priest a bundle of grain from the first cutting of your grain harvest.

Giving Is an Act of Worship

Genesis 4:3-5 (NLT)

When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

Matthew 6:25-26 (NLT)

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?