LEFTOVERS vs FIRSTFRUITS #bgbg2

A quick announcement that this is my first blog as one of 100 ‘Charter bloggers’ invited to join the Bible Gateway Blogger Grid – hence the hashtag. I’m honoured to be asked by the most visited Christian site in the world which gets 120 million hits a month – selected for being someone who encourages people to get into the Bible.

I HATE LEFTOVERS!

I know, it’s a first world problem for sure – but even so by now, turkey and sprouts have definitely lost their appeal.

Under the sacrificial system in the Old Testament the people were reminded again and again that God is a great King worthy of the best sacrifice and he not only asked for but expected they would present for him “an animal without defect.” Why? Because all those sacrifices prefigure the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that would bring us home to know the love of God.

Shorthand summary? ‘Don’t give God leftovers.”

In a couple of weeks at Ivy I’m going to be speaking about the difference between Cain and Abel’s offering – and why the attitude of leftover giving left God cold.

Why would God say that? Because the temptation would still be there for us wouldn’t it? To go through the herd looking for what you could give, one from my herd’s just going to be sacrificed. It’s going up in smoke anyway! So grab the scrawny, scabby, one eyed, three legged, stubby runt of the litter (called Lucky) and say, ‘This’ll do!’

But God always gives the best. He gave US his very best didn’t he? After all, he gave us JESUS! The Bible says he ‘gives us all things richly for our enjoyment.’ We only ever give BACK from what he already gave, so – do we want to give him the best in return?

God was getting tired of people giving leftovers, thinking, ‘That’ll do’ instead of ‘What’s the BEST I can do?’

Do you ever think, “This’ll do!” When it comes to God? Let me be specific in application for a minute – because most of us haven’t got sheep. But you have got money. That’s your commodity of exchange. When the plate comes round if that’s how you usually give to the things of God – do you ever wonder, “What’s the least I can give, and it still be okay?”

Be honest! I’m talking about looking for the LEAST we can give, rather than the BEST. God wants his people to bring him the FIRSTFRUITS. That means you give the best, first.

All through the Bible there’s this call from God where he says, “I’m going to be your provider now. I’ll look after all your needs and you can trust me. Just give me the firstfruits, I’ll look after the rest. Trust me.”

Jesus told his followers in one of his most famous recorded talks that they shouldn’t worry like everyone else about questions like, ‘What will we eat, drink and wear?’ Most of our worries fall into one of those boxes don’t they?

Jesus says the secret of happiness is not that you shift banks, but that you shift focus.

You focus on HIS KINGDOM. When we do, we learn contentment and trust that our physical needs will be met. He says seek FIRST the Kingdom of God.

What does that mean? It means focusing on the things God is interested in. Advancing the gospel. Fighting poverty. That’s the Kingdom! What if your focus today was instead of worrying how to make a living, you thought FIRST about GIVING?

Giving FIRST, then living. We don’t think like that usually do we? But the people hearing Jesus’ words first time around lived in an uncertain world too, and Jesus says “if you make MY KINGDOM priority number ONE, take care of MY needs – the poor and making disciples – I will CERTAINLY take care of yours.”

Imagine what God could do with us if we became people like that. We put GOD and what HE wants FIRST, we give him the FIRST and the BEST in our lives – not the scraps and left-overs, then we don’t worry about where the food and clothing is coming from because he says, “I’ll get that!”

As a church leader I’ve found there are really only two types of givers,  and it’s not a matter of Amount but Attitude: some people give firstfruits, and other people give left-overs.

I’m thinking about this as we prepare for our FIRSTFRUITS offering at Ivy which we’ll receive on 12^th January. (We have asked people to reign it in over Christmas so they can give it in, in the New Year). People who give to that at the start of a year are seeing everything differently.

It’s about how you see God – who is your provider?

Left-over givers aren’t necessarily greedy – just FEARFUL, because they see THEMSELVES as responsible for meeting their own needs. With families to feed, stuff to buy, and whatever’s left over (if there is any) goes to helping God’s work in the world.

Firstfruit givers on the other hand ask themselves, “Who is better able to meet my needs – me, or God?” They see that everything belongs to God (including the responsibility to meet their daily needs). So, because they have shifted focus to that other Kingdom, they feel free to invest in his interests first – and trust him for their needs second.

Leftovers or Firstfruits? It’s up to you.

Following Nick’s talk last night on GENEROSITY

It’s really pretty simple in any language.
If we want to enter the kingdom, be like children…

More blessed to give than receive

I just received a letter and picture for the fridge from one of the kids we sponsor through Compassion UK. Tucked away between the prayers for us and news of football games was this – ‘please read Acts 20:35’

Not a verse I know by heart – I looked it up. And then I found I did know it:

…remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

I once heard of a Bishop who preached, “Jesus said – and I think he was right…’

Well, I know he’s right!

The apostle Paul knew that too and recalls in this passage words spoken by Jesus which are not recorded in any of the gospels; words that shaped the early church’s thought and practice – and helped it make such an impact! It was said of the early Christians, “They share their food but not their beds.” They were sexually pure but promiscuous in generosity!  They lived like that because they had their eyes on another destination.

Jesus said, “Store up treasures in heaven . . .” Why? Because it’s wise! Because whatever we have given to help the poor or invested in building God’s kingdom will last. It won’t be consumed by moths and rust and thieves.  But you’ll never see a hearse pulling a trailer. 

A friend of mine is an independent financial adviser. He says, “When it come to your money don’t just think just 3 days ahead, or 3 months or 3 years. Think 30 years.” Jesus Christ says, “Don’t just ask, how will this investment be paying off in thirty years. Ask, how will this investment be paying off in thirty million years?”

C. T. Studd left being England cricket captain to reach out to needy people in the mission field he famously said this…“One short life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

I have some bad news. I have a terminal disease! I’m going to die!

Even worse news? You have the same disease! You’re going to die too!

The disease is called mortality. One day, sooner than any of us would like to  think, we’ll each stand before our Lord, the Audience of One. He’ll call us to account for how we’ve stewarded our lives and our resources here.

If your treasures are in heaven….good news. Heaven is coming! All Hell can’t going to stop it. Anything you’ve put in God’s hands – for his work-  is safe. Anything you haven’t – isn’t going to last.

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He’s saying, “Show me your chequebook and bank statement, I’ll show you where your heart is. Your heart follows your money.”

Want a heart for Pork Bellies? Put your money there! Want a heart for Tesco? Buy shares! Want a heart for God? A heart for what matters most to Him? A heart bigger than your next acquisition? Put your treasures where God is at work! Want a heart for your church? Invest your money in your church’s ministry. Then, put your treasures in mission work – reaching the poor. Want a heart for street kids? Invest… every day there are opportunities to buy up more shares in God’s kingdom!

Five minutes after we die, we’ll know exactly how we should have lived. But then it’ll be too late to go back and change anything! God has given us his Word so we don’t have to wait until we die to know how we should have lived. There’s no second chance for the unbeliever – AND no second chance for the believer!

You and I have one short life on earth to invest in heaven. Let’s not miss the opportunity! Here’s a great prayer: May what will be most important to me five minutes after I die, become most important to me now.

Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, made his fortune by inventing dynamite and other powerful explosives. When Nobel’s younger brother died in an experiment, a newspaper accidentally printed his obituary instead. He was described as a man who became rich from enabling people to kill each other. Shaken by this assessment, Nobel wrote a will which resolved to use his fortune to reward accomplishments that benefited humanity, including what we now know as the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nobel had a rare opportunity – to look at the assessment of his life at its end, while he still had time to change it. While we live on earth – God is so gracious- it’s the land of second chances.

Put yourself in Nobel’s place. Read your own obituary, not as written by uniformed or biased people, but as an onlooking angel might write it from heaven’s point of view. Look at it carefully. Then let’s use the rest of our lives to edit that obituary into what we really want it to be.

To live each day with the knowledge that every moment we get closer to death, we get closer to our treasures – rather than further from them.