Giving Our First and Best: Faith Not Formality

But Jesus, Jesus is the true and better Abel. He's what Abel was pointing to. He's the point of the story. Jesus is everything that Abel couldn't do. And then Hebrews chapter 12 verse 24 actually points to this. It goes back to the story of Cain and Abel and says this. It says, Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood which says better things than the blood of Abel. Jesus what Abel was ultimately pointing to and Jesus our hope. [00:55:01] (35 seconds)  #JesusTheBetterAbel

The bible tells us this language is is similar to the very language used of Satan, the great tempter of a roaring lion seeking to devour us. It's out there trying to take us down, wanting to take advantage of our pride. That's Satan's greatest and first sin, pride against God. And it's out there for all of us. Our pride, even the story even the thing that I just talked to you about, like trusting God with your money, many of us, our pride goes, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm gonna do things my own way. Listen, that pride is out there. And because Cain fails at the altar, he fails in the field. Because he fails in trusting God and he wants to get rid of Abel and he's so hurt with his pride, he then decides to kill him. [00:52:43] (47 seconds)  #PrideDestroysUs

And it's true that we eliminate what threatens our sense of self. We we just get rid of it. We run away. We hide. We we slander. We try to destroy and break people down. And this is the condition of the human heart. What's so so horrifying in the story is that sin sears the conscience of Cain. It burns out any kind of conscience about what he's done. When God comes to Cain and says, hey, listen. Where's your brother? He's like, who knows where my brother is? Am I my brother's keeper? [00:53:29] (32 seconds)  #SearedConscience

You know, it's interesting. When we talk about giving to the Lord, giving him our first and our best, the reason we do that is because God gave us his first and his best. How could we possibly think that he doesn't deserve ours? If God gave us Jesus, his firstborn son, and gave him so that we could be reconciled to the father, how dare we think that he doesn't deserve it? Ultimately, the reason why we give isn't because we get something but because God wants all of us. The money is just a little bit. You know, the funny thing is that giving changes our heart and God wants your heart more than anything else. God wants your heart. Not just your time, not just your treasure. God wants you. [00:55:36] (50 seconds)  #GodWantsYourHeart

God says, listen, Cain, you look sad. Why are you sad? You can still get a mulligan on this. You can bring an inappropriate offering. He doesn't reject him forever. He's like, just get it right. Just just bring me your first and your best, and you're gonna get that accepted. And Cain's so angry. His pride is so hurt that he can't get over it. God says to him, he says, sin is crouching at your door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. The image here is that there is a monster waiting to devour him and it's a sin. [00:52:08] (35 seconds)  #RuleOverSin

There's this, like, generosity kind of thing. And I listen. I'm not trying to take money out of the pockets of servers. They work hard. It's a hard job. Like, personally, I think that that that's a tough space for many people to be in. However, I think we tip our servers at a higher rate than we actually give to the lord. Shouldn't that be convicting? Here's the deal. God's not interested in us tipping him. Like, thank you for blessing me. I'm gonna tip you on the overage. That's Cain. Abel is, God, I'm gonna trust you from the first of what I have. Before it even hits my bank account, I'm gonna make a commitment to give you the first and the best. [00:46:02] (43 seconds)  #FirstAndBestGiving

calls us to be people who trust him and bring our first and our best. And we find this over and over again in the scriptures. You know, one of the things that's so fascinating to me is that the bible tells us that trusting god with our finances is one of the most important things we can do because it reveals the very essence of our heart and who we are. And over and over again in the bible till god says, don't test me. Like, it's almost like, hey, don't don't bow up on me. Don't try me. You know you need to know that I'm god. But there is one time in the bible that god actually says, I want you to come and test me. You know what time that is? It's when he's talking about giving our tithes and offerings. [00:42:07] (42 seconds)  #TrustGodWithFinances

So here's what God wants for you. He just wants you, all of you. So if you never gave in your heart to Jesus, do that first. Everything else is extra. But if you're following Jesus, part of maturity is saying, God, everything I have, my love life, what I watch, my resources, my money, it's a blessing from you. And I wanna use what I have, my time, talent, treasure, resources, all of it for Jesus. My first and my best belong to Jesus. I think church if we do that, we can change the world, saturate Spartanburg, Carolinas and the world with the gospel. God can unleash us to make a difference in this city. God will unleash you to change your world. Let me pray. God, thank you for our church. [00:58:07] (50 seconds)  #FirstAndBestForJesus

I just kept on getting late on it, like, embarrassingly late. I get a call like, you're gonna lose your water bill. It's not because I didn't have money. It's because I I would just forget to pay my water bill. Has anybody ever done that? It's like, would just come in late and just, like, in this safe space. I'm telling you, like, would forget. And I'd have to walk across the street to the water company. Was right over there and just be like, hey, I'm the And they're like, you're the pastor of First Baptist. I'm like, yes. I didn't pay my water bill. Right? And I'd be like, how much is it? And they'd talk to me about it. And finally, I was like, I'm just gonna automate this thing so I never have to do this again. And I did the same thing with my giving to the Lord. [00:50:36] (34 seconds)  #AutomateYourGiving

So I'm just telling you right now, there are so many there's so much room for growth in this in all of our heart. There's no condemnation here. I'm simply inviting you to try something I think will really radically change your life and will allow us to reach more people for Jesus. Together, we can change the world. And it starts right here. Very simple acts of obedience that nobody will see. But I wanna give you guys a warning today. It has not much to do with giving, although it perhaps is. But I will say this about Cain and Abel is that sin destroyed Cain's life and sin can destroy your life. [00:51:13] (35 seconds)  #ObedienceChangesWorld

And here's the thing I wanted you just to hear today. I think you should try the tithe. As a satisfied person, I encourage you to do It's it's been life changing for us. But I know this is true. Like, listen, there's always reasons not to. There's like, do I trust the leadership? Do I do I trust, like, that it's gonna go to good purposes? Do I trust that I have it figured out? Do I trust that God's gonna take care of me? Put your trust in the Lord and find out what happens. That's what it means when you say, I'm gonna test the Lord. But here's the the hack that I've learned, which is that I automate the importance. I automate it because otherwise, I would forget. [00:49:54] (34 seconds)  #TryTheTithe

And so here we find a principle that God wants for us. He wants our first and he wants our best. He doesn't want us to simply give from the overage of what we've received, like Cain, but he wants us to be people who, by faith, trust him with every part of our life, including our offerings and our resources. And this is a really difficult conversation to have because many times when we start talking about money or finances or resources or sacrificing the Lord, many of us can get our guard up because we've been hurt by people or we've seen people take advantage of it or we just don't wanna trust God with areas where we have trust issues with our finances, and these are all true things. [00:41:26] (39 seconds)  #FaithOverFearInGiving

in this story, we have to understand what's really going on here. Because a lot of us go, okay, obviously murder is bad. Right? When we hear this, we're like, there's a bad thing, first murder. We go from creation of man, the fall, and within a generation, people are taking other people's lives. Tragic story. What's the point for me? Obviously, I'm not gonna murder anybody, so I'm I'm safe on this one. Right? Marked safe from Genesis four. And yet, in the story, we actually find what God really wants from us. [00:38:11] (33 seconds)  #SeeYourselfInTheStory

Did somebody actually like heard that I was struggling put my name on the outside of it but they didn't write it. They actually had taken scissors and cut out all the letters of my name like it was a ransom note and put it on the front, you know. And I remember opening it up and just being like, wow, God, you do provide. And I took $20 off it, marched down to the business office and handed it to them. And what I found is that giving, you know, at whatever level you start at, it's always the hardest level to start at. You know? Sometimes you're like, man, listen, if I was making a lot more, it'd be easy to give. Like, the principle ultimately is being generous with what God has given you now and trusting in faith that he will provide, not out of the overage, but out of the first and our best. [00:49:10] (43 seconds)  #GiveFromTheFirst

Later, when God punishes him and says, hey, you're gonna have to wander because of this, he's not even sad. He's just like, this is too much for me to handle. It's not fair. Someone's gonna come kill me. There's this searing of the conscience. Almost like, you know, burning his hand on a stove to the point that he can no longer feel pain. Cain has had his conscience seared and he does not care about his sin. And here's what you need to hear today is that before Jesus, without Jesus Christ, we are all Cain. If you're saying, where are we in this story? You know, a lot of times I like to say, like, we're you know, let's find ourselves in the story. In this story, we are not able. We are Cain. We are people who don't bring our best to the lord, whose hearts wander, who get angry when we're called out, who just have this sense of not being able to be teachable. [00:54:01] (57 seconds)  #WeNeedJesus

Now today's message is centered on this story, one that most of us have heard pieces of it. We may be able to tell each other the story, but we may not understand the deeper significance of what it means for our life. So the story begins here. Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden. God promised that he would send a savior through Adam and Eve, and Eve has a son. Names him Cain. She says, I brought forth a man with god's help. [00:35:23] (27 seconds)  #CainAndAbelLesson

Now a lot of us, when it comes to talking about tithing and offer offerings, we can get uncomfortable. We get like, man, I don't know how how to respond. I don't know what to do with my hands. Feeling so weird. Like, get your hand out of my pocket. Like, I don't know how to deal with this. Just know that the bible teaches this idea of having faith to God with our first and our best. It does it all over the place. And I know some are like, hey, well, what about the New Testament? The word tithe, this doesn't exist in the New Testament. Tithing in the New Testament is actually the entry point. People gave so sacrificially in Acts chapter four that later, Paul actually has to raise up a collection [00:44:19] (39 seconds)  #TithingIsEntryPoint