Sunday 1/27/13 Pastor Michael sermon = First Fruit Living

[MizKJVOnly]

Sunday 1/27/13 Pastor Michael sermon = First Fruit Living  Proverbs 3:9-10

Some people take advantage of every opportunity that comes in their life. Opportunities will come but if no preparations for it are done, it shall be missed. You should prepare for the increase, the opportunity before it comes. God wants us to experience life to the fullest. Jesus said He came that we might have life more abundantly. Jesus came to bring mankind back into the life of blessing like God had intended from the beginning. Adam and Eve were put by God in a paradise called Eden. They had everything they would ever need. God wanted us to have a blessed, fruitful life.

From the beginning of time, man was blessed by God because it was His original intention. God wants us to represent him in the earth and to have dominion, rule over things in the earth.  The problem is that people don’t trust God with their lives and try to give it to and bless themselves. We do it our way. When we do it our way, we don’t get the blessing.   Our way always comes crumbling down! When we do it God’s way, He will take our little bit and multiply it greatly. When we give it to Jesus,
He will bless it and multiply it like he did with the lad’s lunch so He could feed 5,000 people!

First Fruit Living = Living with God as a priority in everything I do in my doings. When I make God a priority in my life, He will make me his priority! Putting God first means He will call our name next for the blessing! When God wants to bring a blessing to our lives, He will part the Red Sea if He has to, to get it to us! First Fruit living takes our lives up to the next level. God cannot be an afterthought in our lives but MUST be a priority.  First Fruit living…..it brings God’s Favor into our life.

1)  Honor The Lord:
Have respect for God. Reverence God. Don’t make a move without checking with God.  Honor God and what we do, do it unto the Lord.  If the President can get honor and respect from us, how much more should we give God!  Respect the Lord and make sure He is the only one we worship and praise. Have there be nobody that comes close to how we feel about God. He deserves the honor because none of us would be here today without God. God has been good to us! Nobody does us like God! Think about the goodness of Jesus and all He has done for us! All the things that He has brought us out of!

Honor is not a passive thing. Honor is active. We cannot honor Him and act like we don’t know Him.  If you have a relationship with God, it causes you to honor him and people will see it and know it.
Verse 9: Honor the Lord with your substance, wealth, wages. We should honor the Lord with our gifts. Whatever God has caused us to make, our wages, we should give him according to how much we honor Him. The more we honor God, the more we give Him. Don’t be bringing one little dollar to church thinking we doing something! Thinking God should be impressed after he has woke us up, put a roof over our head, fed us and protected us! Don’t be breaking off a little bit for God, giving Him something that doesn’t mean much to us. If somebody brought us a dollar, we would be looking funny. We have a hard time when people give us something insulting like a dollar but we have no problem with insulting God with a little dollar!  Somebody that really loves you will sacrifice for you. If we really love God we should sometimes give so we feel it- feel the sacrifice.

2)  Honor the Lord with the First Fruits of Our Wages:
Give God first of the fruit. In Genesis, Abel gave willingly when he gave to God. Cain complained when he gave to God. Cain did not prioritize God when he gave to God. When we give to God first, the First Fruits, He will bless the rest. Exodus 23:19  God wants the first and the best. God has done more for us than the Neiman Marcus store and the Duke Energy electric company. So then we should give God first and pay them next. God will make the money last to pay the others AFTER we pay God first!
Release the best to God! Make God a priority in your life. Goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life! Everywhere you place your feet, God will elevate you because you make God a priority in your life!! 
Verse 10:  Our barns will be filled with plenty. Our bank accounts will have money.  We will have full bank accounts overflowing with money for our needs and our prosperity. 

Proverbs 10:22  The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich and addeth no sorrow with it!

AMEN