[listen to mp3] [watch video] [download notes as pdf]
Deuteronomy
26:1-11:
And it shall be, when thou art come in
unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and
possessest it, and dwellest therein;
2 That thou shalt
take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy
land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt
go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there.
3 And thou shalt
go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess
this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord
sware unto our fathers for to give us.
4 And the priest
shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of
the Lord thy God.
5 And thou shalt
speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father,
and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a
nation, great, mighty, and populous:
6 And the
Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage:
7 And when we
cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on
our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression:
8 And the Lord
brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm,
and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:
9 And he hath
brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that
floweth with milk and honey.
10 And now, behold,
I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast
given me. And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before
the Lord thy God:
11 And thou shalt
rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee,
and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.
What was happening last Sunday?
God was speaking and making a point.
He is asking us to make a shift in the
spiritual atmosphere of our lives.
He is asking us to connect the dots in
His Word.
To be in the Spirit is to be a person
who gives.
Let’s read 1 Kings 17:8-24: Giving
unlocks the supernatural.
Giving:
a portal of entrance into the spiritual world
God established a principle in
His Word for blessing and increase for his people and that principle was the
giving of ‘firstfruits’.
Firstfruits are the first and best
portion and they are set aside and given to the Lord as a sign that the
remaining harvest, yet to come, is holy and blessed of the Lord.
Firstfruits are a sacrificial faith
offering of the first and best fruit of any increase given by the Lord. It was
a promise of a future harvest.
To
give is the greater.
Acts 20:35: I have shewed
you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to
remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give
than to receive.
Acts 6:4: But we will give
ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
The
revelation and power of firstfruits: A new attitude.
Galatians
5:22-23: But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
