The Principal of First | The Blessed Life: Week 3

00:00:00

Well, welcome to church.

00:00:02

We're so glad to have you joining us on Crossroads Anywhere.

00:00:04

My name's Lena Schuler.

00:00:05

I'm the Crossroads Anywhere Community Pastor.

00:00:08

And right now, we're in a series called The Blessed Life.

00:00:11

And I'm excited to get to go through that with you today.

00:00:15

But I want you to be prepared for something that's coming in a few minutes.

00:00:18

We're actually going to take communion together today.

00:00:21

And so if you are a follower of Jesus, you're in a relationship with Him,

00:00:25

that part of our service is for you.

00:00:27

And so maybe you've got a bagel and coffee like I have here with me right now

00:00:33

or a muffin and juice or some kind of food and drink at home or wherever you might be.

00:00:38

You'll want to get that ready for when we take communion in a few minutes.

00:00:42

And before we do that, we're going to spend some time worshipping together.

00:00:46

So I would encourage you as weird as it might feel,

00:00:49

let these words sink in and actually sing with us.

00:10:16

God, I thank you.

00:10:18

I thank you, God, that you call us your sons and daughters.

00:10:23

And by that definition, we are free.

00:10:26

We are free. We are not slaves, we are bound.

00:10:31

So, God, I just pray over every person in this room and every person watching,

00:10:35

God, that we would remember that we would know that,

00:10:37

and whatever you have for us in this message, God, that we would feel pierced by your love,

00:10:44

that we would feel more known by you, sought after, fought for by you,

00:10:48

worthy because you say we are.

00:10:51

We love you. We thank you.

00:10:53

In your name we pray, Amen.

00:10:59

Thank you so much for singing with us.

00:11:02

You sound great in here.

00:11:03

I believe you sound great out there, too.

00:11:05

It's always fun to worship together.

00:11:08

Why don't you make this place a little smaller.

00:11:10

If you're at home, say hi to somebody next to you.

00:11:12

Greet someone. We're happy that you are here.

00:11:30

- Well, you know, one of the reasons that I love worship is because

00:11:33

those songs give us words to remember what God's done for us.

00:11:38

And that song No Longer Slaves, we just sang.

00:11:41

It says, You split the sea so I could walk right through it.

00:11:44

You drown my fears in perfect love.

00:11:47

You rescued me so I could stand and sing that I am a child of God.

00:11:51

And there's something powerful in remembering how God's rescued us,

00:11:56

something powerful in remembering the things that he's done for his kids

00:11:59

and for his people for years and years and years,

00:12:02

like splitting the sea for his people to walk right through it, literally.

00:12:06

And so we're going to do another thing right now

00:12:09

that is a way for us to remember what God's done,

00:12:12

what he's done for us and what he's done for the people that came before us

00:12:16

and are going to come after us, and that's communion.

00:12:20

And Jesus was together with his friends and his last meal with his friends.

00:12:24

And he said, I want you to remember who I am

00:12:27

and I want you to remember who I am on a regular basis ongoing.

00:12:31

And you can do that anytime you eat or you drink together.

00:12:35

Remember me.

00:12:36

And so we're going to do that right now, we're going to remember Jesus.

00:12:40

And so if you have been rescued by Jesus, you are a child of God,

00:12:45

you've received that identity, I invite you to take communion right now with us.

00:12:50

So grab whatever food you might have, whatever drink you might have.

00:12:56

And I want you to start with the drink.

00:12:58

I want to tell you that as you take a sip of this coffee or this juice

00:13:03

or whatever you might have in front of you, the wine,

00:13:05

this is a symbol of Christ's blood that was shed for you.

00:13:11

Drink it and remember him.

00:13:17

And then I want to pick up -- I want you to pick up the food that you have.

00:13:20

I have a bagel right here with me, so I'm going to eat this bagel.

00:13:25

As you eat the food in front of you,

00:13:28

this bread, the cracker that you have, the pizza that you're eating.

00:13:33

I want you to eat that and remember that this is Christ's body broken for you.

00:13:39

He died so that you might have life.

00:13:42

He's rescued you.

00:13:47

It's an honor that we get to remember Jesus

00:13:51

in the way that his friends remembered him 2000 years ago.

00:13:55

And maybe you just took your first communion, if that's true, man,

00:13:58

I am excited that we got to celebrate that together.

00:14:02

That's worth celebrating.

00:14:04

And there are other moments that are worth celebrating together.

00:14:07

Another one that's coming up next week is baptism.

00:14:11

Baptism is the way for us to publicly declare that we've been rescued by Jesus.

00:14:17

For us to publicly declare that we have a relationship with him

00:14:20

and that we want a life with him forever.

00:14:23

And so if you have not publicly declared that,

00:14:26

but you believe that in your heart,

00:14:27

maybe you just took communion

00:14:29

or you've been taking communion for years and years

00:14:31

because you believe that to be true about Jesus

00:14:35

and you're altering your life around that.

00:14:37

And if you've not been baptized, now is the time to do it.

00:14:42

In the Bible over and over again there are examples of people

00:14:46

who have the opportunity, get baptized and they go,

00:14:49

"Well, why not now? There's an opportunity right now."

00:14:52

And the leaders, the followers of Jesus who are there

00:14:56

and who have been baptized go, "Exactly.

00:14:57

Why not now?

00:14:58

Now is the time."

00:14:59

I would say that to you, too, if you're at home and you're going to have the baptized.

00:15:03

Why? Why wouldn't I do it now?

00:15:05

Exactly. Now is the time.

00:15:08

So chat with us on the Crossroads Web site.

00:15:10

Click on that chat box and we would love to help you get signed up

00:15:14

and get started to be baptized anywhere you might be.

00:15:18

You know, one of the other ways that we tell God that we trust him

00:15:22

and we declare our faith in him is through our finances.

00:15:25

So if you want to be a giver, you can head to Crossroads.net/give.

00:15:30

And, you know, I am so excited for what else God has in store in

00:15:34

the midst of this Blessed Life series.

00:15:39

- Hey, I'm Brian, welcome to week three of The Blessed Life.

00:15:42

Man, we've been getting a lot out of this series.

00:15:45

We're not in a campaign.

00:15:46

There's no campaign we see coming in the future.

00:15:48

We're never filling out cards and dropping them in a plate

00:15:51

or bring them forward.

00:15:52

We're simply trying to look at what does it mean to be blessed

00:15:55

and how does generosity play a role in that.

00:15:58

We started the tithe test last week and, man,

00:16:00

a lot of people decided take us up on this test

00:16:04

of looking at 90 days to see if we tithe, does God bless us?

00:16:07

Do we sense God's presence?

00:16:09

And if not, if not after 90 days, if you want it back,

00:16:13

that money will come back to you.

00:16:16

Yeah. Good stuff.

00:16:17

Chuck is going be talking today.

00:16:19

And before we have Chuck talk,

00:16:21

I want to make sure you hear from a guy

00:16:23

who has really instigated the entire series

00:16:26

it comes out of a book he wrote called The Blessed Life

00:16:29

that has impacted me greatly.

00:16:31

And I decided to fly down to Dallas, Texas, to interact with him.

00:16:34

He's going to be on my podcast called Aggressive Life.

00:16:38

You can check that out if you want to in its entirety.

00:16:41

But we also had the cameras rolling for a little snippet

00:16:43

to hear what he has to say about being blessed.

00:16:46

Understand this guy.

00:16:48

Do not put him in the box of big church pastor, big megachurch pastor.

00:16:53

This guy is a special insights from God and what it means to be blessed in giving.

00:16:57

And he was doing it long before he was a mega pastor.

00:17:02

This guy's given away cars.

00:17:04

He's given away his home a number of times.

00:17:06

He's given away everything he's owned.

00:17:08

And he still has a lot because God is doing a good thing in him and through him.

00:17:12

So I thought we'd check him out.

00:17:14

And please meet my new friend, Robert Morris.

00:17:19

- What does it mean to be blessed?

00:17:20

What do you mean when you say, "Blessed.

00:17:21

I've been blessed. Blessed life"?

00:17:22

What is that?

00:17:23

- Well, I think it refers to every area of your life.

00:17:25

So it's definitely it's not just your finances,

00:17:27

even though we do talk about finances.

00:17:30

And Brian, it's really important to talk about finances

00:17:33

because Jesus said that where your treasure is,

00:17:36

where your finances are, there your heart will be.

00:17:41

Now, I many people misquote that, they turn it around.

00:17:43

They'll say, like, where your heart is, they're your finances will go.

00:17:47

Like, if your heart is in hunting, then your finances will go there.

00:17:51

But what happens is it's actually wherever your finances go,

00:17:53

your heart follows.

00:17:55

So if you want your heart in people, like in helping people, helping needs.

00:17:58

You see the pot you pour in other countries

00:18:01

and you want your heart to go there, you actually put your finances there.

00:18:04

And what it means is that when God blesses us,

00:18:07

it means he gives us enough to also bless others.

00:18:10

To be a blessing.

00:18:12

It's not about us making more money.

00:18:14

It's about us being a blessing to those around us.

00:18:17

- I want to talk about tithing.

00:18:20

And then another word that you're the first one to clue me in on.

00:18:23

I've heard and talked tithing, I've been taught that is giving 10 percent.

00:18:27

The first 10 percent of every pay that you get goes to your local church.

00:18:31

I've been doing that since someone who was building

00:18:34

into me spiritually told me about that in college.

00:18:36

I've done that every church I've gone to,

00:18:37

including the church I'm part of right now.

00:18:40

The tithe, though.

00:18:41

Let's--

00:18:43

Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, come on.

00:18:45

You know, 10 percent off the top.

00:18:48

Well, that just seems so, so legalistic, so ungenerous.

00:18:53

So, like, I don't -- that doesn't make the most people feel good

00:18:56

of having a 10 percent tax go to the local church.

00:19:00

How can you, the generous, do what makes you feel blessed,

00:19:04

be up for a 10 percent tax?

00:19:05

- Yeah. Yeah. Well, first of all, I want to say

00:19:08

I've actually felt the very same way.

00:19:10

When I started looking at it because I was raised with my dad tithing.

00:19:14

I get saved and I decide to look and see what does the Bible really say about it.

00:19:19

And what I realized was this is a principle that's actually for my good.

00:19:23

This isn't a tax to pay for the light bill in heaven.

00:19:25

I mean, God doesn't need -- He doesn't have a light bill in heaven.

00:19:29

You know, because the Bible says Jesus is the light of heaven.

00:19:32

So it's not it's not even to support the church.

00:19:35

This is something for me.

00:19:37

It's actually for my benefit.

00:19:38

That that's what blew me away about the tithe.

00:19:40

It's actually for me to put God first in every area of my life

00:19:46

because my treasure is where my heart is.

00:19:48

So it's actually me putting God first in my heart.

00:19:51

And it's all through the Bible.

00:19:52

1500 years before the law we've got Cain and Abel.

00:19:56

Most people know about Cain and Abel.

00:19:58

And Cain killed Abel.

00:19:59

Abel gave the first born of his flock.

00:20:02

He's a rancher.

00:20:04

Cain who's a farmer.

00:20:06

It says he gave an offering to God in the process of time, just over time.

00:20:11

He didn't give first fruits.

00:20:12

And it says that God accepted Abel's, but he did accept Cain's.

00:20:16

And I remember in seminary, a professor, a student asked a professor,

00:20:20

"Why did God accept Abel's offering and didn't accept Cain's?"

00:20:23

And the professor was very honest, said,

00:20:25

"You know, I really don't know why God did."

00:20:26

Well, it's simple when you start reading through there,

00:20:29

I'm not putting the professor down.

00:20:30

It's just that God always accepts the first.

00:20:33

God is first. He's first of all.

00:20:35

When the children of Israel were going in the promised land,

00:20:38

He said, "Give me all the silver and gold from Jericho."

00:20:41

Why would He say all rather in 10 percent?

00:20:42

It's because Jericho was the first city.

00:20:45

When he said when your animal has -- your sheep as a lamb,

00:20:49

give me the first. Why?

00:20:51

And here's why I think.

00:20:52

Because it takes faith to give the first one.

00:20:55

It doesn't take faith to give the tenth one.

00:20:57

So that's why tithing is the first 10 percent,

00:21:01

because it doesn't take any faith at all to pay all your bills

00:21:04

and then give what's left over to God.

00:21:07

It takes a lot of faith to give the first 10 percent.

00:21:10

So what's actually happening with tithing

00:21:13

is not that God needs it or even that the church needs it for support

00:21:17

because God all through the Bible, he can send ravens to support his people.

00:21:22

He can send bread from heaven.

00:21:24

He can call up a fish with a coin in its mouth.

00:21:26

He has no problem providing.

00:21:28

He actually wants to do something in my life.

00:21:31

And that is that from the very -- every time I get paid,

00:21:35

I'm going to say thank you to God by giving him the first.

00:21:38

I'm going to say your first in my life.

00:21:40

- And that is an aggressive move.

00:21:42

Whatever you do first, that's the aggressive thing.

00:21:45

So that's what I love about the tithe and what you just said

00:21:49

is that my wife knows if I'm not in love with her,

00:21:54

it's because I'm aggressively spending money on my truck.

00:21:57

I'm aggressively searching the Web for some other hobby I have.

00:22:01

Aggressively doing it above and beyond her.

00:22:04

It's the aggression when I tell her this night we're going to do X, Y, Z

00:22:09

or this, we're gonna spend on what you want.

00:22:12

And I think that a lot of us are appropriately challenged to ask ourselves,

00:22:17

"Am I sending God cues that I am aggressively about his business?"

00:22:22

And that would mean it would be first off the top.

00:22:25

- Yeah. Yeah. And that's when you were asking me about the little things,

00:22:29

and I was saying this is what I would do.

00:22:30

I was kind of including everybody.

00:22:32

If we're gonna talk about believers, those who'd really believe in God,

00:22:36

believe that Jesus is the Lord and that we give our lives to him,

00:22:39

then we base our lives based on the Bible.

00:22:41

And if we're gonna base our lives based on the Bible,

00:22:44

I'm just -- I want to say to everyone that

00:22:45

the tithe was hundreds of years before the law.

00:22:48

Hundreds of years after the law.

00:22:50

I had some guy that doesn't like me that said, you know--.

00:22:52

- You have people that don't like you either?

00:22:53

- Just one or two.

00:22:54

- How could someone not like you?

00:22:55

Look at you, you're everyone's grandfather.

00:22:58

You never swear or anything.

00:23:00

- I know. No, well, there's a few times in traffic, but OK, let's leave that.

00:23:04

Let's let's talk about -- okay.

00:23:06

Don't put me on the spot.

00:23:07

OK. So but anyway, so this one guy said, you know,

00:23:11

the word tithe doesn't even appear in the New Testament.

00:23:13

I'm thinking, what bible have you read?

00:23:14

You know.

00:23:15

So Jesus talks about it.

00:23:17

Jesus even said you ought to do it.

00:23:18

You ought to.

00:23:20

Matthew 23:23. So the point is, if we're talking about now,

00:23:24

if we are talking to believers and we say,

00:23:26

well, what are the things?

00:23:27

And I said, oh, you know, get your finances in order.

00:23:30

You know, obey the small promptings obey the large promptings.

00:23:32

But I would say the thing I've seen people the most,

00:23:36

changed their life the most is when they decide,

00:23:38

"I am going to give the first 10 percent to God."

00:23:40

I've had more people write me and tell me that changed everything.

00:23:44

I have all sorts of testimonies of people getting new jobs,

00:23:48

promotions, raises.

00:23:50

And it's not a give and you'll get.

00:23:52

That is not it. It's that we get to give.

00:23:55

We don't give to get.

00:23:56

We get to give.

00:23:57

But when God's first, it's amazing how God then wants

00:24:01

to give us more resources because he knows he can trust us

00:24:04

with what he's giving us.

00:24:06

- Very few things turn me on and make me feel really warm inside

00:24:12

more than when a friend of mine or a family memberI.

00:24:15

Find out has started to tithe,

00:24:17

to give God the first 10 percent.

00:24:19

Because when that happens --.

00:24:21

- That's right.

00:24:22

- I know God has him.

00:24:25

Before that, all I know is they have some beliefs

00:24:28

that line up with some things

00:24:29

and may they may have been baptized.

00:24:31

They may have said some prayers.

00:24:32

But when someone does that, I know and God knows,

00:24:36

"I got you.

00:24:38

I got you. And you got me."

00:24:40

There's just a whole new level to that.

00:24:41

- It's a completely different level when we say,

00:24:45

"God, I'm gonna put you first in my finances."

00:24:49

It's one thing to stand in church and say,

00:24:51

"I'm going to put you first in my life."

00:24:53

But when it comes to the wallet,

00:24:55

it is like there's a fishing line from the wallet to the heart

00:24:59

because you can see it.

00:25:00

When people reach for it, it's like I go, oh,

00:25:02

it's like they get chest pain all of the sudden, you know?

00:25:04

So you're right, something happens when we start to tithe

00:25:08

that can't happen any other way

00:25:11

because we're acknowledging God as our provider

00:25:13

and we're putting him first in our lives.

00:25:17

- Well, let me first start with something personal,

00:25:19

and I'm going to touch on this a bit at the end of our time too.

00:25:22

Many of you known, if you don't know, wanted to let you know

00:25:25

that my father, after 91 years of a long and full life,

00:25:28

passed away last Friday.

00:25:30

And so it's been an a roller coaster of emotions for me and my family.

00:25:35

But it's also been an incredible outpouring

00:25:37

of love and support from my Crossroads family.

00:25:40

And so I just want to say on behalf not just my family

00:25:42

here in in Cincinnati, but in Philadelphia and all over,

00:25:46

we are so thankful for all of that.

00:25:47

And as I was thinking about my dad and what we're talking about today,

00:25:51

I realized his life is an example of the key thing that I hope you hear today,

00:25:57

which is simply this: when God is first in your life,

00:26:02

everything else comes into order.

00:26:05

And when God is not first in your life,

00:26:08

everything else is out of order.

00:26:11

Now when I say that, I'm not saying when God's first in your life

00:26:14

you're gonna have a problem-free life.

00:26:16

I'm not saying that because Jesus didn't say that.

00:26:18

Jesus himself said in this life you will have trouble.

00:26:21

But the question that we need to wrestle with is,

00:26:24

would you rather go through trouble with things in order between you and God

00:26:28

or with things out of order between you and God?

00:26:32

And the principle that we're gonna talk about today

00:26:34

is a principle of order.

00:26:36

It's called the principle of the first.

00:26:39

And it shows up all throughout the Bible.

00:26:41

And so we're gonna just walk through this.

00:26:43

Got a lot of things to cove, a lot of scriptures.

00:26:45

I know this, the controversial thing, sometimes it's difficult to talk about this.

00:26:48

And so what I want to do today is just illuminate

00:26:50

scripture after scripture, after scripture,

00:26:52

where we see this played out so that you can see this is what God says.

00:26:56

And then you can wrestle with what does it mean for your life.

00:26:59

But the first point that I would make under this idea

00:27:01

of the principle of the first is this:

00:27:07

This is what we see as this principle gets unfolded

00:27:10

in the Old Testament portion of the Bible

00:27:12

in places like Exodus 13, starting in verse 1, which says:.

00:27:29

It is mine. Mine.

00:27:30

Mine. How many people have kids to do that?

00:27:32

My kids do. Mine.

00:27:33

It is mine, God is emphatic here.

00:27:36

He is emphatically saying, consecrate to me the first born.

00:27:39

What does it mean to consecrate something?

00:27:41

It means to sacrifice it.

00:27:42

That's what it meant in Exodus, sacrifice it, let it go, give it up.

00:27:47

And God is saying do that because it belongs to me.

00:27:52

The first born, what does he mean by that?

00:27:54

The Exodus 13:13 is says:.

00:28:00

Now, what does that word mean?

00:28:01

Again, we're using these like, you know, theological words.

00:28:04

What does that mean? Redeem?

00:28:05

Redeem simply means to remove the curse from something or to make something clean.

00:28:11

And the way that happened in ancient Israel

00:28:13

was through the sacrificial system that God had set up.

00:28:16

And so basically you would sacrifice something

00:28:19

that was considered clean, usually a lamb,

00:28:22

to redeem something that was considered unclean.

00:28:26

God was saying give your firstborn lamb,

00:28:28

which would've been very valuable,

00:28:29

think about that in an agrarian culture where that was your livelihood.

00:28:33

He's saying, give the firstborn lamb to me

00:28:37

and it will redeem everything else.

00:28:40

Now, if you step back from this,

00:28:42

some of you are probably ahead of me

00:28:44

and you're anticipating and making some connections here

00:28:47

that this principle of sacrificing the first and the clean

00:28:51

to redeem the unclean has some deeper spiritual implications

00:28:55

than just our money.

00:28:56

So let me ask you a question.

00:28:58

Were you and I when we are born, were we considered according to the Bible,

00:29:03

spiritually clean or unclean?

00:29:07

That's right. We're considered unclean.

00:29:09

Romans 3:23 says: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

00:29:14

All of us are born with the stain called the sin nature.

00:29:19

That impacts every last human being who has ever been born on the planet, save one.

00:29:24

If you don't believe me, you can just ask the experts in the room.

00:29:27

Many of them have white stickers on their pants

00:29:30

or on their shirts, and they're called parents.

00:29:32

Parents, did you have to teach your child to be bad?

00:29:37

Did you have to teach your child to say mine?

00:29:40

No. Right?

00:29:41

They come that way. We all come that way.

00:29:45

So we can all recognize that we are,

00:29:47

at least from a spiritual perspective, spiritually unclean at birth.

00:29:52

But let me ask you this question.

00:29:54

Jesus. Was Jesus born spiritually clean or unclean?

00:30:02

Jesus was born spiritually clean.

00:30:06

So the clean has to be sacrificed to redeem the unclean.

00:30:12

That's exactly what Jesus did for you and for me.

00:30:16

That's what we just read.

00:30:17

That's how deep this principle of the first goes in the heart and in the mind of God.

00:30:21

It's why John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming,

00:30:24

said this of him and John 1:29:.

00:30:31

You could say it this way: Jesus is God's tithe.

00:30:37

Jesus is God's tithe.

00:30:41

He gave him first.

00:30:43

In fact the Bible says, he gave him in faith.

00:30:45

He gave him before we received him.

00:30:48

ROMANS 5:8 puts it this way:.

00:30:50

God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners,

00:30:55

while we were still in rebellion, Christ died for us.

00:30:59

My Uncle Otis is a preacher

00:31:01

and I love my Uncle Otis's translation of this verse.

00:31:03

He says, while we were busy hating God, He was busy loving us.

00:31:08

God gave Jesus as his tithe and he gave him first,

00:31:11

so we have to give our first, our first fruit,

00:31:14

our tithe in much the same way,

00:31:16

before we experience the blessing of God, we give our first to God.

00:31:21

God didn't say, "Hey, Israel, have 10 lambs.

00:31:25

And then that tenth lamb, give me that one.

00:31:27

Set that one to the side."

00:31:28

No, he said, give me the first lamb to be born.

00:31:32

The principle of the first, it's about the first.

00:31:35

The first belongs to God.

00:31:38

And when you sacrifice the first, it redeems the rest.

00:31:42

Let's look at another example of this principle of the first.

00:31:44

Again, this is all throughout the Bible.

00:31:45

This example is from a little bit beyond where we just saw in Exodus.

00:31:51

It's actually at a time when after 400 years of slavery

00:31:54

and 40 years of wandering in the wilderness,

00:31:56

the nation of Israel is about to inherit the promised land,

00:32:00

this land that God had promised to give them

00:32:02

as an inheritance for them and for the generations of Israelites to follow.

00:32:06

And so they're right at the precipice.

00:32:09

They're about the cross a river.

00:32:10

And the first city that they're going to conquer is the city of Jericho.

00:32:14

Now, if you went to Sunday school or have heard about the Bible

00:32:17

and kind of grew up in that,

00:32:19

that's the city where they marched around it seven times

00:32:21

and then the seventh time they blew the beat the trumpet

00:32:22

and the walls fell down and they conquered the city.

00:32:24

Well, after they conquered the city,

00:32:26

look at what God had instructed them to do in Joshua 6:19, he says:.

00:32:36

Again, the priority, the emphatic priority is that it is first.

00:32:40

And it says:

00:32:44

And why didn't God say, "Hey, go conquer the entire land

00:32:48

and then carve out of all the wealth and all the plunder 10%

00:32:51

and give that to me"?

00:32:52

He actually asked in the case of Jericho,

00:32:54

for 100 percent of all of the plunder that they get.

00:32:58

Why? Because it was the first city.

00:33:01

So what God is saying here is give me 100 percent of the first.

00:33:05

Give me a hundred percent of everything in Jericho

00:33:08

and you can have the rest because of the principle of the first.

00:33:13

So let me just give you a heads up right here

00:33:15

just to make sure that we don't miss this.

00:33:17

That means when it comes to our finances, my finances and your finances,

00:33:21

don't give the first to the mortgage company.

00:33:25

Don't give the first to the car company where you're financing your car.

00:33:29

Don't think first about those things, because here's the thing:

00:33:33

The mortgage company and the car company cannot bless your finances,

00:33:37

but God can. God will when he is first,

00:33:43

when we operate in the principle of the first.

00:33:45

And why the first? Because it takes faith.

00:33:49

It takes faith to make the first check the check to God

00:33:54

and not to the mortgage company

00:33:56

and not to the other bills that might be staring you in the face.

00:33:58

It's the principle of the first.

00:34:01

And it really is saying to God, "God, you have priority in my life."

00:34:06

So you consecrate the first to redeem the rest.

00:34:12

Point number two is: the first fruits must be offered.

00:34:20

I want to key in on the word "must be."

00:34:23

Right? Must be offered.

00:34:25

Now, let's be honest, we all have experience

00:34:29

with some of the fruits of our labor being offered

00:34:32

without us having a choice in it.

00:34:34

We all, you know, I think about my first job.

00:34:36

My first job was at a --

00:34:38

I was a gas station attendant at a place called Hess Gas Station.

00:34:41

Does anybody remember Hess Gas Stations?

00:34:43

So it was like, it's crazy.

00:34:45

This doesn't exist anymore.

00:34:46

It was full service gas.

00:34:47

You'd roll up.

00:34:48

And, you know, I had this like jumpsuit on,

00:34:50

this white jumpsuit with green on it.

00:34:52

And, you know, I'd check your oil and I'd pump your gas

00:34:57

and I'd wash your windows.

00:34:58

It was like full service.

00:34:59

That was my first job.

00:35:00

And I remember my cousin got me connected to this job

00:35:02

and I was so excited because I was like a teenager,

00:35:04

I was gonna make some money, you know, and to get a car.

00:35:07

And I remember like calculating the hours that I had worked

00:35:10

and like anticipating that first check.

00:35:12

I was really excited about that first paycheck.

00:35:14

That first paycheck is coming.

00:35:16

And I open up the arm envelope and I look at the paycheck.

00:35:22

And somebody named FICA had taken some money from me.

00:35:25

And I don't know who FICA is.

00:35:27

Reminds me of, I don't know if you remember that Friends episode.

00:35:29

Who is FICA and why is he taking my money?

00:35:31

Right?

00:35:33

Here's the one I love. I love this one.

00:35:34

I got another meme:

00:35:37

That's how I really felt. Right?

00:35:40

So we all know and have experience with not choosing.

00:35:43

But isn't it interesting that God doesn't just, woops,

00:35:46

it doesn't just disappear automatically.

00:35:48

We have to give it to him.

00:35:50

It has to be offered.

00:35:51

Why? Because God wants us to choose obedience.

00:35:55

He wants us to choose to put him first.

00:35:59

So, again, we see this over and over in the scriptures.

00:36:02

Another place where we see this principle of the first

00:36:04

is in Proverbs 3:9-10, which say:.

00:36:18

Now, again, this is in the Book of Proverbs.

00:36:20

This is the book of Wisdom.

00:36:21

This is thousands of years past Exodus.

00:36:23

This is thousands of years past Joshua, those scriptures that we read.

00:36:28

Exodus 23:19 puts it this way:

00:36:36

God wants to make it very clear to us.

00:36:38

The first of the first fruits, as if first fruits was wasn't enough.

00:36:43

And notice the word is "bring" not give.

00:36:48

It says you must bring the first of the first fruits

00:36:52

into the house of the Lord, your God.

00:36:54

And the reason is because we can't give what isn't ours.

00:37:00

We can't give what isn't ours.

00:37:02

Which means we really only have two choices when it comes to the tithe.

00:37:07

We can either bring it or we can steal it.

00:37:12

Remember that story of Israel and God saying to them,

00:37:16

"When you conquer Jericho, I want 100% of everything to come to me first."

00:37:23

Well, there was one man, his name is Aiken, and he stole from God.

00:37:27

He did. He saved some things that should have gone to God

00:37:31

and instead he kept them to benefit himself.

00:37:34

And the next city that Israel went to conquer,

00:37:37

Israel got demolished, and they didn't know why.

00:37:39

They're like "What happened?"

00:37:41

And God said to them, it's because Israel has stolen from me

00:37:45

and they are cursed.

00:37:47

God said, because you didn't operate in the principle of the first,

00:37:51

all of what you have has been cursed.

00:37:54

And that's true when it comes to first fruits,when it comes to our tithe

00:37:57

that's consecrated and redeemed when we give it to God.

00:38:02

But it's cursed if we keep it.

00:38:05

Let me ask you a question, just a practical question.

00:38:08

Why would you want anything cursed in your bank account?

00:38:12

Doesn't that have enough problems of it's own?

00:38:14

We don't need anything cursed our bank accounts.

00:38:17

So there's something here.

00:38:18

Robert Morris puts it this way in the book The Blessed Life.

00:38:20

He says:.

00:38:30

Now, you might be getting the impression that, you know,

00:38:32

this idea of the principle of the first is really just about us.

00:38:36

It's about us putting God first, about us making sure God is the priority.

00:38:40

And yeah, there's definitely things here for us.

00:38:43

But the reason this is a principle all throughout the Bible

00:38:46

has nothing to do with us and it has everything to do with who God is.

00:38:52

And the place where we see that is actually at

00:38:55

the very, very beginning of the Bible in the Book of Genesis.

00:38:58

The story of Cain and Abel,

00:38:59

you heard Robert Morris reference it.

00:39:01

We're going to dig into that a little bit because

00:39:03

I want us to see this principle and what it teaches us about God.

00:39:06

In Genesis 4:3-5, it says:

00:39:29

The question is why?

00:39:31

Two brothers.

00:39:32

This is the first story of murder in the Bible.

00:39:34

These are the sons of Adam and Eve.

00:39:36

And eventually Cain kills Abel because of what happens in this exchange.

00:39:41

But why didn't God accept Cain's offering,

00:39:44

but he did accept Abel's offering?

00:39:45

We get the clue in the actual verse.

00:39:48

It says of Cain that Cain, in the process of time,

00:39:53

not right away, brought an offering, not the first.

00:39:58

But it says Abel brought the first.

00:40:00

And so God accepted Abel's offering and he didn't accept Cain's offering.

00:40:06

But what I want us to see here is

00:40:08

it's not just that God wouldn't accept Cain's offering.

00:40:13

It's that he couldn't accept Cain's offering.

00:40:18

He couldn't. Why?

00:40:21

Because, believe it or not,

00:40:23

there are some things that the creator of the universe cannot do,

00:40:28

that he cannot do.

00:40:29

Here's a couple of things that God cannot do.

00:40:31

God can not change.

00:40:35

The theological word for this is immutability.

00:40:38

It means that God is unchangeable.

00:40:40

Because think about it this way: if God could change,

00:40:43

that would mean he could get better.

00:40:44

And if God could get better, that would mean he's not perfect.

00:40:47

God is perfect.

00:40:48

He doesn't need to improve on anything of who he is.

00:40:51

So God does not change.

00:40:54

He can't change.

00:40:56

Here's another thing: God can't think.

00:41:00

Not like you and I think.

00:41:02

Think about it, we think to figure stuff out.

00:41:04

Right?

00:41:05

We have gaps in our understanding.

00:41:07

So whether we learn from a book

00:41:08

or if we're learning through relationships or through experience,

00:41:11

we're trying to fill in gaps of things we don't know.

00:41:13

God doesn't have any gaps that he needs to fill in his understanding,

00:41:17

so God doesn't think the way that we think.

00:41:19

Nothing has ever occurred to God.

00:41:21

[laughter]

00:41:25

Something that you have never heard, we'll never hear God say,

00:41:29

ever, ever, ever is this God is never in heaven

00:41:31

and has a moment where he says,

00:41:33

"You know what I just thought of?" [laughter]

00:41:37

I'll put it to you this way.

00:41:38

God never comes across something in anywhere in creation

00:41:42

and says to himself, "Oh, my self."

00:41:45

[laughter]

00:41:48

Right? Because he wouldn't say, Oh my God, because he is God.

00:41:50

Right? That never happens, it never happens.

00:41:52

That's why Isaiah 55:8 God puts it this way, he says,\:.

00:42:01

God doesn't think, at least in the way

00:42:03

that you and I think to figure stuff out.

00:42:04

And here's the third thing: God can not be second.

00:42:10

He can't be second.

00:42:12

The theological word for this is pre-eminent.

00:42:16

The Bible says God is above all things,

00:42:18

he's before all things, he's beyond all things.

00:42:20

He can never be second.

00:42:24

And that's why he couldn't accept Cain's offering.

00:42:28

I mean, I use this term, we all use this term.

00:42:30

Hey, I'm trying to put God first.

00:42:31

Right, I'm trying to put God first in this part of my life.

00:42:32

I'm trying to put God first as I think about this thing.

00:42:34

We all say that, but that's really --

00:42:36

those are words that help us understand what we're doing.

00:42:39

The truth is whether you are putting God first in your life or not,

00:42:44

he's still first.

00:42:46

If he's not first in your life,

00:42:49

that doesn't mean you changed his order in the universe.

00:42:53

It means your life is out of order.

00:42:57

Because God is always first.

00:43:00

The question is, are we aligning to that reality in our life?

00:43:05

So he couldn't accept Cain's offering because Cain's offering

00:43:07

was putting God in a place other than first.

00:43:10

We need to think about that when it comes to the tithe.

00:43:13

Think about it. If Jesus is God's tithe and he gave him first,

00:43:18

maybe this idea of putting our tithe first

00:43:21

means more to God the father than we think, because

00:43:25

tithing really does show you who's first in your life.

00:43:28

I mean, I can tell you all day, I can sit up here

00:43:30

and say all kinds of spiritual things about

00:43:31

God's first in my life. I'm a pastor and I love Jesus and all that stuff.

00:43:34

But, man, if you look at my bank account,

00:43:36

wouldn't it tell you really quickly?

00:43:39

If you looked at my generosity,

00:43:40

wouldn't it tell you pretty quickly if I'm just a bunch of talk?

00:43:44

Or if I've actually oriented my life in a way that puts God first?

00:43:49

So just to recap, number one, you sacrifice the first to redeem the rest.

00:43:54

God did that with Jesus.

00:43:56

And that's what happens when we put God first in our finances.

00:43:58

And second, the first fruits must be offered.

00:44:01

There has to be a choice of obedience we make to offer our first to God.

00:44:06

And the third point is this: the tithe must be first.

00:44:12

So as we've been unpacking this series, we've said the tithe again is

00:44:15

the first 10% of your gross income given to your local church.

00:44:20

That's the definition of the tithe.

00:44:22

Why your gross income?

00:44:24

Because if it's your net income, that means you're putting FICA first.

00:44:28

You're putting the government first.

00:44:30

That's why it's based on the gross.

00:44:33

And those of us who tithe, I mean, I can tell you, I've been --

00:44:35

I'm so thankful my parents taught me this.

00:44:38

And I can just tell you, I've seen the blessing of God

00:44:40

as I have been faithful in this area of my life.

00:44:42

It doesn't mean I'm a millionaire.

00:44:44

It doesn't mean I'm ever gonna be a millionaire.

00:44:45

But I can tell you, I have seen incredible provision

00:44:47

and blessing in my life in a bunch of different areas,

00:44:49

not just money as I have done this.

00:44:51

And some of us are walking this out right now.

00:44:53

Like Brian said, many of you have stepped into the tithe test

00:44:57

and you're saying, "Hey, for the next 90 days,

00:44:58

I am going to put God to the test.".

00:45:00

God says to test him.

00:45:01

And some of you have signed up to do that for 90 days.

00:45:03

You're going to tithe.

00:45:05

You're going to make God first in that way in your finances.

00:45:08

If for any reason you don't see and experience God's blessing in your life,

00:45:12

that money's going to be returned to you at the end of 90 days.

00:45:15

But I believe God's going to come through on his test.

00:45:20

And I just want to say, if this is new to you,

00:45:23

like some of you are like,

00:45:25

"Man, why did I pick this weekend to come to Crossroads?

00:45:27

My buddy's been inviting me, but why this weekend?

00:45:29

Like what's this about?"

00:45:31

Let me just tell you, I understand.

00:45:32

This is challenging, it's not like I came out the womb tithing.

00:45:35

I didn't. This is a journey that I've been on.

00:45:38

And in fact, I was reminded of how this journey is one

00:45:42

where we have to grow into it this week,

00:45:44

when I had a unique opportunity to teach my Mingo children

00:45:49

about the principle of tithing.

00:45:52

- How was Halloween? Did you have fun?

00:45:55

- You got a lot of candy?

00:45:56

- All right. So, hey, there's a spiritual principle called tithing.

00:46:00

And what it means is, yes, Isabelle?

00:46:05

- I'd like to pray today.

00:46:07

- You'd like to pray? All right. We're going to pray after we do this.

00:46:08

OK?

00:46:10

- But here's the tithing looks like.

00:46:12

We take, lets say we've got ten pieces of candy.

00:46:14

That means we have one of those pieces to God.

00:46:18

But since God doesn't eat candy, you're gonna give them to me.

00:46:21

- You're not God.

00:46:22

- No, I'm not God. So lay out your candy and you're going to give me --

00:46:28

What? You don't want to give me your candy?

00:46:32

- Do I have to lay it all out?

00:46:33

- You've got to lay it all out.

00:46:34

-This is not worth it.

00:46:37

- Are you going to give me your candy too?

00:46:46

- I am.

00:46:48

- No, Nathan's going to give me more than one.

00:46:49

Look at all these candies he has. So if we count these, I tell you what.

00:46:53

Let's say, let's just assume, Nathan, you've got, what's that look like?

00:46:57

30 pieces of candy, 50?

00:46:59

30?

00:47:00

All right, so you've got to give me three pieces of candy.

00:47:01

That's the tithe.

00:47:03

Okay.

00:47:05

-You'll let me choose? That's cool.

00:47:06

- I gave you two pieces.

00:47:08

- You gave me two pieces? Which ones did you give me?

00:47:13

- This one and this one.q

00:47:15

- You gave me a Reece's?

00:47:19

All right, Nathan, you're letting me choose the three piece I want?

00:47:21

- Three pieces.

00:47:22

- OK. So, you know I like Snickers.

00:47:24

So I'm gonna take Snickers.

00:47:25

- Go.

00:47:27

- I'll take the full sized Hershey's with the almonds.

00:47:32

- That wasn't smart.

00:47:34

- What wasn't smart?

00:47:35

- For you to do that?

00:47:36

- Because like --

00:47:37

- You want this one?

00:47:40

- No, no, it's fine.

00:47:42

- You want this one? I'm not going to.

00:47:43

- No, I'm not taking it.

00:47:45

I'll take a Reece's from you.

00:47:47

I really like Reece's.

00:47:49

I'll take -- you're giving me your full size Twix?

00:47:52

- That's my Twix.

00:47:53

- You would, really?

00:47:56

Okay.

00:47:57

- This is my Twix.

00:47:58

- You're saying I should take this Twix?

00:48:01

- Would you give me your Twix?

00:48:03

No, you're not going to give me yours, but I should take your brother's?

00:48:05

Okay. All right. Okay.

00:48:09

- Milk Duds.

00:48:11

Isabelle, did you give me your tithe, your candy tithe?

00:48:17

- What did you give me?

00:48:21

Would you let me choose or are you going to pick for me?

00:48:26

- She gave you the Reece's.

00:48:30

- Do you like these?

00:48:31

- No.

00:48:32

- So you're giving me what you don't like?

00:48:37

- Yeah. I don't want that. I don't like it, I don't even try.

00:48:47

[laughter] So we're on a journey in my house around tithing.

00:48:50

It's good for all of us to see.

00:48:52

Did you notice how easy it was for my kids to give each other's candy to me?

00:48:56

Like they didn't have a problem with that,

00:48:57

but theirs it was like, oh, hold on.

00:49:00

It was really interesting to have that experience with them.

00:49:02

This is a journey for us.

00:49:04

You know, it's a journey of the heart.

00:49:05

God is about our hearts in this.

00:49:07

Leviticus 27:30 says:.

00:49:18

And I want to emphasize that word holy.

00:49:21

This is not about what God needs to do to fund his enterprise.

00:49:26

He doesn't need our money to fund his enterprise.

00:49:30

That's not what makes this conversation holy.

00:49:32

What makes it holy is whether we're willing to put him first in our finances

00:49:37

says so much about whether we're willing to put him first in our lives.

00:49:40

And that's a holy thing.

00:49:42

That's what God is up to in our lives.

00:49:46

So gonna give you a math illustration,

00:49:49

which is dangerous for me because I'm nobody's mathlete.

00:49:51

That is not my skill set.

00:49:53

But I want to -- just just go with me on this.

00:49:55

Let's imagine that you are, let's say you're a landscaper.

00:49:57

And I have paid you to do a job for me.

00:50:00

And after, you know, materials cost you X

00:50:03

and then your time and labor whatever ever cost you Y,

00:50:06

and then your profit is a thousand dollars, a thousand dollars.

00:50:10

So I'm paying you a thousand dollars because that's what you tithe on,

00:50:15

you tithe on your increase, you tithe on your income.

00:50:19

And so if I'm paying you a thousand dollars,

00:50:22

the question I have for you is this: how much is the tithe?

00:50:27

Hundred dollars, right?

00:50:30

Here's my second question: Which one of these is the tithe?

00:50:36

That's right. I put it to you this way: The first one to leave your hand.

00:50:41

The first one to leave your hand is the tithe,

00:50:46

and that's what God wants us to do.

00:50:48

Now, how does this play out practically for me in my life?

00:50:51

How many people have heard the budgeting principle: Pay yourself..?

00:50:55

Right, pay yourself first.

00:50:57

What I learned from my parents was, no, give to God first.

00:51:02

And so I get paid on the 15th in the last day of every month.

00:51:05

And there is an E gift. It's an automatic thing that comes out first.

00:51:10

Because for me, this is a heart thing and I want God to know

00:51:14

you are first in my life, not only in my finances,

00:51:17

but yes, actually in my finances as well.

00:51:20

I want to put him first.

00:51:22

In fact, if you look at any budget I've ever made,

00:51:24

you'll always see I structure it the same way.

00:51:27

After all of the income that I put up top,

00:51:30

my first item of what comes out is the tithe.

00:51:34

And generosity, it's the top of the list because I want God to say --

00:51:38

I want to say to God, God, you are first in my finances.

00:51:43

So we started with Exodus 13 and God establishing this principle of first born.

00:51:48

And we're gonna finish with that same chapter, Exodus 13:14-15 says this:.

00:52:20

God wanted this to be a teaching tool that Israel could use

00:52:24

with their children to help them understand the principle of first.

00:52:28

Think about it in modern terms, imagine a son goes to college,

00:52:31

he comes back from college, he's working in the family business.

00:52:34

And he's going through the books

00:52:35

and he begins to see a monthly pattern that troubles him.

00:52:38

And it is that every month the father is giving away $50,000 of the family profits.

00:52:46

You would imagine that at some point if the boy didn't understand

00:52:48

this principle the first he would go to the father and say,

00:52:50

"Dad, what's going on with this?

00:52:52

Why are you giving away $50,000 a month of our profits?"

00:52:57

And that's the opportunity for the father to say to the son,

00:53:00

"Son, the reason I do that is because you need to know

00:53:02

something about our family. We didn't always have a business.

00:53:06

We didn't always have the assets that we have.

00:53:09

In fact, son, we didn't have anything.

00:53:11

We were slaves.

00:53:13

But God, with a mighty hand, saved us, rescued us.

00:53:20

And he's given us everything that we have.

00:53:22

And that's why I gladly give him the first of every month of our profits."

00:53:31

I told you that last Friday my dad passed away.

00:53:35

And I was thinking about how his life really did model out this principle.

00:53:41

This principle of "but God."

00:53:44

See, my dad had a B.C.

00:53:47

life, he had a life before Christ.

00:53:50

This is one of the pictures that we put in his memorial.

00:53:53

This young strapping man with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth

00:53:56

in Europe during the Korean War.

00:53:59

And man, my dad told me some stories about what happened in Europe

00:54:02

that I dare not repeat on this stage because he had a B.C.

00:54:06

life.

00:54:07

My dad had a life where he wasn't always a follower of Jesus.

00:54:10

In fact, I remember when I was a kid, I was about 3 or 4 years old

00:54:13

and my dad would have these like the Big Gulp plastic cups

00:54:18

from 7-Eleven or wherever he got them from filled with alcohol.

00:54:21

My dad was a drinker when I was born.

00:54:23

He was not a follower of Jesus.

00:54:26

And I remember seeing Jesus save my father.

00:54:31

I mean, saving him.

00:54:32

I'm not using that as a religious term.

00:54:33

I'm telling you, my dad was saved from his past.

00:54:36

He was saved from drinking.

00:54:38

And from the time that that happened till the 91st year of his life

00:54:42

when he passed away, I never saw my father pick up a drink again.

00:54:46

[applause] He was saved. He was saved.

00:54:50

And so last Friday night, not last Friday, a week ago, before Friday,

00:54:55

my dad had dementia in his later years.

00:54:57

And I had moved him to Cincinnati.

00:54:58

And he was here with me and my family.

00:55:00

And we loved just the time that we got to spend with him

00:55:03

those last couple years.

00:55:04

He loved being a part of Crossroads.

00:55:05

He was here as much as he could be here.

00:55:08

And I know because he had dementia,

00:55:10

that he had forgotten a lot of those things.

00:55:11

And I remember being in the hospital bed with my dad

00:55:14

and saying, "Dad, I want to tell you your salvation story."

00:55:19

And I told my dad, I said, "Dad, you used to be a drinker.

00:55:23

And I remember that. I remember your B.C.

00:55:25

life.

00:55:27

But God with a mighty hand rescued you, he saved you, Dad.

00:55:34

And ever since that day, you've put God first.

00:55:36

And I know that your life is different.".

00:55:38

And friends, I've got to tell you,

00:55:40

as I sat there watching my father leave this life,

00:55:44

I knew that he was going to a new life.

00:55:47

And it changed everything in the room.

00:55:50

It changed everything in the room.

00:55:51

My friend Jim Gormley captured a photo that is very, very meaningful to me.

00:55:56

This is from 2012 when my dad came to Cincinnati

00:56:00

and was a part of a message that I gave on this stage,

00:56:02

it was a part of his journey that we did.

00:56:04

It was about having a seat at the father's table.

00:56:06

And one of the reasons I brought my dad

00:56:08

is because my dad was a fan of breakfast,

00:56:11

my dad made a hot breakfast for -- a hot and heavy breakfast.

00:56:13

You guys remember that if you were here.

00:56:15

A hot and heavy every morning, that was like his thing.

00:56:17

He always gave us that kind of breakfast.

00:56:19

And so I brought my dad here.

00:56:20

And the way we finished that service is

00:56:22

we had biscuits and bacon for everybody at Crossroads.

00:56:25

So you could get a taste of what it was like at the Mingo table.

00:56:27

It was awesome.

00:56:29

And Jim captured this moment, this embrace and the kiss,

00:56:33

because one of the things my dad also taught me

00:56:35

is that it is not effeminate for father to kiss and love his son.

00:56:39

And I'm so thankful for that lesson.

00:56:42

And I think about this picture.

00:56:44

And when Jim sent it to me, I had two thoughts go through my mind.

00:56:47

And I believe one of them was from me.

00:56:49

I believe one of them was from God.

00:56:50

And you might say, "You wanted to believe this was true.

00:56:53

This was your grief speaking."

00:56:54

Maybe so.

00:56:55

But let me tell you what I thought.

00:56:57

In that moment the first thought I had was,

00:56:58

"God, I am so thankful for every time I got to embrace my father.

00:57:02

I'm so thankful for the B.G.

00:57:04

moment in his life.,

00:57:06

the "but God" moment in his life that changed his life

00:57:09

from a life of sin and brought him into a life of freedom.

00:57:12

I am so thankful for that."

00:57:16

And then I felt like I heard Jesus say to me,

00:57:20

"You see that embrace? Do you see that kiss?

00:57:25

That's exactly how I welcomed your dad

00:57:27

when he came into my presence last Friday."

00:57:29

[applause].

00:57:30

It was just like that.

00:57:35

My dad wasn't always a believer.

00:57:37

My dad didn't always put God first,

00:57:39

but God with a mighty hand, saved my father.

00:57:45

When I was 8 years old, my father baptized me.

00:57:48

So I will gladly put God first because I know

00:57:52

that my life left out of here,

00:57:53

my dad left out here with a life in order.

00:57:56

Because he put God first.

00:57:59

And so every week we've just been asking you to to pause

00:58:03

and ask, "God, what are you saying to me?"

00:58:05

What is God saying to you through this principle of first?

00:58:09

What is it that he wants you to know, to hear, to do today?

00:58:14

I just want to give you a moment,

00:58:16

just in the quiet of where you are right now, if you're online,

00:58:18

if you're in a room to ask him,

00:58:20

"God, what do you want me to do with what I've heard today?".

00:58:23

Just ask him. Take a moment.

00:58:47

- Well, I hope that you have some great food for thought

00:58:51

and then you're gonna put action behind it this week as you put God first.

00:58:56

You know, wherever you are on that spectrum of believing that

00:59:00

or ready to do that, we would love to pray for you.

00:59:04

We have staff and volunteers who right now would pray for you by name

00:59:08

for the specific thing that you want from God or that you need right now.

00:59:13

So if you chat with us on the Crossroads Web site,

00:59:16

you can head to Crossroads.net

00:59:18

and click on the chat button in the bottom right hand corner.

00:59:21

And we would love to pray for you.

00:59:24

Next week, we're going to continue our series, The Blessed Life.

00:59:28

We'll see you back at a location near you

00:59:30

or right here on Crossroads Anywhere.

	Worship	0:54
	Community Life	11:29
	Message	15:38

Recent Series