The Father First: What Gets Your First?

[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here, and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways. [00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in. Thank you so much. Good morning, everybody. Let's take a moment. Welcome in all of our friends watching from all around the world online. Come on, Irish family, let's welcome in the men. Good morning to you. Glad that you could join us today. God's got something special to speak to you from right where you are because you're so lazy and can't get to. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm grateful that you're here. Grab your Bibles, if you would. Genesis chapter four is where we're going to spend all of our time together today in God's Word. Genesis chapter four. If you're new to the Bible, hey, open up to the very beginning. You're already there. Genesis chapter four. And as we're turning there, I want to say, hey, we honor and teachers in this place. You guys made it. Would you do us a favor? If you are teaching, if you're in school administration, would you stand and let us just honor you a little bit today? Come on, come on, come on, come on. I see you up there. See you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's several of them. Like, I can't stand right now. I don't. I need somebody to help me. You made it. You're here. You're right at the end. And in about three months, you're gonna be like, I'm ready to do this again. Right now you're like, I will take any job. Any job. We're glad that you made it. We're thankful for you. And as a matter of fact, because of your generosity, we were able to bless a lot of teachers this past week with some ice cream from Wild Honey, who we love very, very much. Great products. And so we were able to do that. So I wanted to show you a little bit of video of some teachers getting to enjoy some ice cream on you. So I want to say thank you for your generosity. Because you're supporting us, we're able to support them. And I think. I think pastors and teachers have a lot in common because you only really hear about the bad ones. Come on, somebody. You only really hear about the ones that mess it up for everybody else. But for those that are serving, those that are faithful, those that willing to take care of some of your brats, we are, we are very, very grateful for what you do. You've made it to another year. We're proud of you. So I want to get into God's word together with you today. So Genesis chapter four. I want to start a brand new series called Father First. This is brought to you by an idea that I had by the renowned philosopher Ricky Bobby that says if you ain't first, you're last. And for those of you that don't know who that is, don't Google that, don't look that up, because you're going to be like, this is not my church home. That was sacrilegious and I cannot be a part of that. No. Let me just ask you, what's your first. What's your first. What's your first priority? I think many of us, if we were to give the politically correct answer or the theologically correct answer, or depending upon who's sitting next to you, we might have a different answer. When we talk about what comes first in our life, some of us would say, no, my, my children before all else. And some would say, well, no, it's my spouse first. And then my children. Some would say, well, right now I'm just trying to get my money right. I'm, I'm trying to make sure my finances are okay. That's the most important thing to me. And others would say, no, no, no, it's, it's, it's gotta be God first. It's gotta be God. What, what does that really look like in our lives more than what we say? How does it become really practical to put God first? We know the scriptures. We, we know the, the, the merch that was circulated in the 90s. We know all the different things that would tell us that, that God is supposed to be first. And we honor God. And if we're getting a Grammy Award, I want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And if you win the super bowl, thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and then go out and live like hell. Like, what does it, what does it mean to really honor God with the first? And so we're going to go all the way back to Genesis chapter four and look at the very first first family and how the Lord begins to speak to them in ways that, that still speak to us today. Here we are, multiple thousands of years later, where we're dealing with the exact same issues that the very first family dealt with. What has our first so depending on which kind of answer that you give in your own mind, some of us may say, you know, let me say it this way, men, we recognize that sometimes our priorities are a little bit off. And if you've ever had the same conversation I've had, you'll know when your priorities get off. Because my wife would say something like this. Some of the worst words a husband ever wants to hear. She says this. What did I just say? Anybody? Yeah. And I'm like, that's a weird way to start a conversation. But I recognize in those moments that, you know, you don't have my attention. I haven't given you priority. Whatever else I'm involved in has taken priority over you, and you don't recognize it until that moment. What did I just say? What has your first. What has your priority? So, Genesis chapter four tells the story of the very first family. And it starts out with Eve giving birth to her son named Cain. Remind yourself, though, that Eve has been deceived. Her and Adam have both been kicked out of the garden. But God made her this promise in his great mercy. God says, your seed is going to crush the serpent's head. Your seed is going to be the redeemer. Out of your seed comes the Messiah. I have a plan for the redemption of the world. God makes her this promise. So when she gives birth to her firstborn son, obviously she thinks, this must be the redeemer. This is the promise from God. This is the Holy One. This is exactly what God has promised to me. I've now seen it. And we see that echoed in what she names her own son. As a matter of fact, the original Hebrew says that kind of. It's easy to translate it that way. She's saying, I've given hell, I've given birth to a grown man, and this is the Lord. And so it says this in verse one. Eve became pregnant, gave birth to Cain, and she said, with the help of the Lord, I have brought forth a man. Now, I wanted to look in the original language and make sure that. That the very first baby wasn't born a grown man. Because you. You can imagine God's like, okay, we need to. Jesus, we need to work on this. That did not work out at all. Come out with a full beard and like, hey, mom, what's up? But that's. But that is what it says. No, so it's a little different the way that we interpret that from the Hebrew to the English version. But she says, with the help of the Lord, I've brought forth a man. And later she gave birth to his brother, Abel. Now, Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of his soil as an offering to the Lord. And Abel also brought an offering, the fat portions. That's what I'm talking about from some of the. Look at this next word. The firstborn of his flock. And the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering. But. But on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. So it's important as we get into this text to make sure that you remind yourself this is not two different people bringing different kinds of offerings to the Lord. And we have it in our mind. And the way that I think about it is we have one person who really trusted God and one person who was an unbeliever. But obviously both of them are bringing offerings to the Lord. Both of them have been taught how to worship, how to honor the Lord. But God says, there's one that I'm putting my favor on, and there's one that I've got a problem with. And God begins to confront Cain not for necessarily what he brought, but how he brought it. The Lord looked with favor on Abel on his offering. But on Cain and his offering, God did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? And I love the Lord in his mercy. He begins to speak to Cain. He begins to speak to his issue that's going on inside of his heart. Like what. What. What's happening to your face? What. What's wrong with your countenance? Your. Your heart's gone to a bad place right here. You had a good idea, but it went wrong. There's something going on inside of your heart. And God begins to not just read his mail, but tell him how to deal with it. God says this. If you do what's right, will you not be accepted? God says, just do the right thing. I'll accept it. We got to do over here. But if you do not do what is right, look at this. Sin is crouching at your door. It desires to have you, but you must rule over it. Here's God saying, there's a warning for you. Something's happening inside of your heart. And. And there's another chance for you to get this right. But if you don't do this right, God said, this is up to you. If you don't do it right, you need to understand there's sin crouching at Your door, it desires to have you. And God says, you're going to have to dominate, that. You're going to have to find the victory over that. You have to take authority over it. Remind yourself, he tells Adam, the very first man to subdue the Earth, to multiply, to. To make, to create dominion over the Earth. And then he gives firstborn son a very specific set of things that he is supposed to have dominion over. He said, over your own heart, over your own attitude, over your mindset. You're gonna have to conquer that. There's your job from the Lord to take notice of what's happening inside of your heart. And God says, you have to make a decision to overrule what's going on emotionally between you and me. So God says, why is your face downcast? Why are you so angry? If you do what's right, I'll accept you. But if you don't, there's sin waiting on the other side of this door. It's crouching, it's ready to spring. He said, you're going to have to dominate that. You have to subdue it. You have to take authority over it. So what does Cain do? Cain says to his brother, let's go out to the field. And while they were in the field, look. Cain takes out his frustration at God on his brother. Cain attacked Abel and he killed him. And the Lord said to Cain, where is your brother Abel? I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. He replied, am I my brother's keeper? Notice the conversation now. Now that Cain is replying to the Lord. He's saying, but, God, you're not doing your job. Maybe the problem isn't with me. The problem is you. You're not taking care of him. I'm not his keeper. You're. You're his keeper. You tell me where he's at. Well, you just killed him. Remind yourself that when God asks questions, it's not because he doesn't know the answer. It's because there's something going on inside of each of our hearts that he wants to expose. And so God begins to ask him, like, if you. If you do what's right, you know, I'm going to accept you. What are you doing? What. What's. Why are you so angry? What's going on inside of your heart? It's not because God doesn't know, but there's something that God is exposing inside of his heart. And then he says, God, you know what the problem is? You. Am I my brother's Keeper. No, you're his keeper. And the Lord says, what have you done? Listen, Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you're under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. And when you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. He says, you put all your trust in the ground. Let me just tell you, from now on, you're going to have frustration after frustration after frustration. Nothing that you do is going to produce what you think it's supposed to produce. Why? Because you're under a curse. Now the good news is Jesus Christ comes to break the curse. And I'm so thankful that we have a God that loved us so much to send his son to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. And to break the curse of Cade. He hung. He hung on a. On a cross. It says, curse is everyone who. Who is hung on a tree. And he. He breaks the curse for all mankind. But the principle still remains the same. The same issues that many of us have go all the way back to the very first family. So this text is filled with a lot of first, you see first birth, you see first death, first murder, first offering, first worship conflict. It didn't start at the church that you grew up with. That was not the first worship conflict. It's just the first one that you experienced. Oh, my God. The pastor moved the piano. We can't stay here. This place has lost the glory of the Lord. There's an old story that pastors share in our. In our pastor circles about the pastor that gets a new job at a church, and he comes in, and on the very first week, he moves the piano to the other side of the stage, and people just riot, like, oh, how dare you change that stuff? Don't you understand? My grandpa played that piano for 65 years, and he's like, okay, so the next Sunday, he moves it all the way back to where it was. And then every Sunday for the next 10 years, he moves it an inch. The very first worship conflict didn't start in your church. No, no, no. It started right here with the very first family. The first family that ever existed had major issues with comparison with sibling rivalry, with worship, with offerings to the Lord. The very first family had a hard time in their communication with God and their understanding of what priorities were. The very first family immediately struggle with jealousy and pride. Just like us. Not you, the weirdos in third service. Not us. We're good, just like your Family, they struggled with a lot of the exact same things. Being disobedient to God, failed expectations. Remind yourself that she, she believes that Cain, her firstborn son, is the redeemer. Can you imagine what her heart must have responded with when he kills his brother, when he is cursed, when he's driven out. Can you imagine the disappointment? The very first family that has ever existed on this planet had unmet expectations. They had children that they thought would grow up to be something special that ends up doing horrible things. I'm so thankful that the Bible doesn't hide that from us, but it shows us that family is messy. But God gives us an answer. He talks about the priority. He talks about doing things the right way, putting our family into order, putting our priorities into the right order. So there's three things that I think are so important with this text that the Holy Spirit is pulling out for us to examine today. And the first of those is number one. What is first reveals priority. What is first reveals priority. So like I said before, most of us would say if we're being asked, we recognize that God is first before everything else. God is first. But many of us realized that we weren't a first round draft pick all the way back in elementary school. For those of us that grew up generation X, there was a time long before everyone was a winner and everybody's special and everyone is beautiful and everyone's a, is perfect just the way they are. Before that, we realized none of you, none of you are special in any way. And we learned that in elementary school during recess when we would elect two team captains and they would start putting their team together. For those of you that were first round draft picks, the rest of us don't understand you, but there was that moment where we, we wanted so badly to be picked at the front of the line, like be picked first. I remember waiting until the very, very end of the, of the, of the, of the picks and you're like, somebody, anybody. Like, they picked three girls before me, like, what are we doing? And it's like the only people after me and the kid that speaks no English and he's looking at me like it's no me, you know, cool, great. I want to be a first round draft pick. I want to be first, but yet wasn't a priority. And the team captains either, either had two things in mind. Either they want to win or they want to be popular and be surrounded by their friends. Right? I recognize that I don't bring any hope for either one of those things, probably because I had a big mouth and the Lord was redeeming me. He had a plan for me. It just didn't start right then. At that moment, what is first reveals priority. I was obviously not priority. And so the text that we're seeing here in Genesis chapter four makes a distinction between two very important words. And the two words that we're going to look at are the words some and the word first. Some and first. It says in the course of time, Cain brought some, but Abel, it says, brought the first, the firstborn. So the issue is not farming versus ranching and animals versus vegetables. That's not the issue. The issue is giving God priority or giving God leftovers. That's the issue. Priority or leftovers. And unfortunately, today, in our Americanized version of Christianity, God gets what's left over if he gets anything at all. We become a generation that says, God, no, no, I'm not here to give you anything, especially not the first. I'm here to get give me, give me, give me, bless me. We have become Christian consumers, not contributors. And we wonder why things are out of order. I wonder how much of our life could be swiftly changed if we simply adopted the principle that the very first family failed at. There's a distinction between those two words, some and first. I understood this lesson again, not just in elementary school, but I understood it in high school when I started dating. And I found out very quickly that not everyone is as committed to you as you are to them. And we had a term for it back in my day. I don't know if you use this, if it's even politically correct anymore. The term was, she's a two timer. You remember that? Nobody, nobody ever been two timed. Am I the only person who's ever been? I thought you were my people. Some of you, like, I'm just not going to admit it. You're obviously not a pro. You, you get the leftovers. I don't want to be the leftovers. Some of you are like, well, I've been two time. But I was, I was at least the first one in priority. You were still two times. Nobody wants to feel like you're not a priority to someone that you're obviously prioritizing in their life. We understand that in the course of relationships. But yet when it comes to our relationship with the Lord, we often show him a very different response. Here's the thing. Most people don't intentionally reject God. They just keep giving him leftovers. They just keep giving him leftovers. So Jesus comes and makes this right. Matthew, chapter six. He says, but seek first. There's that word again. First the kingdom of heaven. Seek after the Lord and His righteousness. If you were raised in church, it was always, but seek ye first. You got to put the Old English in there. The King James Version, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven. And then it says, and all these things will be added unto you. Now, when I was younger, I thought, okay, all I have to do is just honor God first, and then God's going to give me all this beautiful blessing. That's. That's not exactly what that's saying. Remind yourself, when you seek God first, not only does he begin to give you the desires of your heart. Here's the good news. Because you're seeking him first, he's changed the desires of your heart. Now you want. Look at me. What he wants. And that's completely different than just a Lamborghini. That's what I wanted when I was 17 or 18. That's the height. That's it. God, if you're going to bless me, that's what I'm looking for. I want Cindy Crawford and a red Lamborghini. That's all I'm asking. That's not asking for the world here. Some of you don't remember there was a time. Remind yourself of this truth. God could never be first in our hearts if he's last in our priorities. That's not a thing. Where is God in your list of priorities? So some would say my priority is my spouse. Some would say my priority right now is finding a spouse. Some of you, if we're being honest, would say my priority is get rid of this spouse. On. Get another one. We have a group for you. Some would say my priority right now is my career. Need help with, with this before I ever get anything else worked out. What? There are many things that we would put in that first slot with our actions. But as believers, we understand that God is supposed to go first. We just don't know how that practically works out. So here's the second key I want to show you. Number two. Giving God first requires trust. Trust. Here's something I hadn't thought about until I was looking at this, this text this past week and praying and asking the Holy Spirit, like how to. How to extrapolate from this text exactly what, what the Holy Spirit wants to say. He began to remind me of something that was different with the very first family than. Than it is today. Abel is giving God the first, and he doesn't know the things that you and I know. See you and I understand something called the law of the harvest. You reap what you. Come on, somebody. You reap what you sow. By the way, there's more to that. You reap if you sow. Come on, somebody, you reap after you sow, right? It doesn't come on the front end. It takes some time. But also you reap how you sow. The Bible says you sow sparingly. You're going to reap sparingly. You sow generously. You're going to reap generously. We understand that that one. One seed is not necessarily in God's law of the harvest, produce one piece of fruit, but it produces more than that. So you. You produce in accordance to the blessing. That is all based upon the law of the harvest. Remind yourself this is first family. They don't know what that is because the law of the harvest is not something that they understand or have seen. They're going to have to trust God that what he has provided, he'll do it again. Remind yourself they don't have Malachi 3, verse 10. Test me in this, says the Lord. We have that. They don't have it. Malachi's not even a thought yet. Remind yourself they don't have the worship services that you and I grew up with. They don't have the open mic on Wednesday night that you and I grew up with. Remember that open mic night where sister so and so would stand up and grab the microphone and start confessing sins and naming names and my God, here we go. Whoo. Awkward. Some of you didn't grow up Pentecostal. You don't know. You don't know. And you can lose your salvation every week. You had to make sure that on Wednesday night you were there to confess some stuff. I'm trying to get saved again. But we would remind ourselves that God is faithful and God is good. Why? Because we grew up hearing the stories after story after story of people testifying of the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, the fact that God came through one miracle after the next, after the next, after the next. We grew up on those stories. We developed a faith that understood, oh, if it happened to them, it could happen to me. We would say stuff like, okay, God might have not come through when I wanted to, but he always comes through. Come on, somebody. Right on time. Remember that Abel didn't have that. He didn't have the countless stories of the faith and the proof that God has come through. He only had his relationship with the Lord. So him bringing the first requires a Lot of trust. Is God going to give it again? Is this always going to be here? Can I trust that what I've raised, when I offer it to the Lord, that God's going to replenish that, that he's going to bless this, he decides that even if he doesn't, he's worthy. But his brother says in the course of time, he brought some. It shows us very clearly that Cain trusts the ground more than he trusts God. And God says, there's something going on inside your heart. Something's going on here. I've lost your trust. Understanding that faith in God is required before we ever step out, start giving him the trust, it tells us something that's important for us to see. I want to put it on the screen for you. Say it this way. Giving God the First says, I trust you to provide what I cannot yet see. I don't know. But I trust that you reap what you sow. I especially like it when it means vengeance. And when I'm on the other end of that, great. Get them, God. They reaped what they sowed. But yet, when it comes to our finances, when God says, you're going to reap what you sow. Mm. I need grace. I need lots of grace. Giving God the First says, I trust you to provide what I can't see. I trust you on the front end. And the Lord loves when his people trust him. He loves when we step out and recognize that he is Jehovah Jireh, the God that sees and provides. He sees, he rewards. But remind yourself, Cain and Abel both bring offerings to the Lord. One of them gets favor, the other one gets a talking to. What's going on in your heart? What's happening here? Why is this such a struggle for you? Here we see that God wants more than your money. He wants your trust. He wants your heart. The scripture tells us very, very clearly that where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. That's why so many of us still have an issue there. And I understand there are different reasons why some of us would say, I can't do that. I can't honor God with the first and best because I'm so far deep in debt right now. I get it. I understand. Some would say I can't do that because a church that I know had misused money or they didn't do what I thought should be done. I get it. I understand. I get it. We all have our reasons. We all have our excuses. Remind yourself that Cain and Abel says, I don't know if there'll ever be enough. I don't know if God will ever provide. I think he will because I trust his character, but I'm going to do it anyway. That's real faith. There's trust there. I want you to see that our giving to God is an act of faith long before it's an act of generosity. What has my first. What gets the first of what I have and what gets what's left over? What happens when God loses the first place in our heart? How would we know if God had drifted out of that first place through our actions? How would we know? And scripture shows us right here with the first family. It starts with comparison. The spirit of comparison sets in. We start looking at what they have, what she has, what they have. It's the spirit of the age, by the way, when God loses first place in our hearts. Not that he gave it away, but that we took him out of that first place. We prioritized other things. We've given him what's left over. That doesn't mean you don't trust him, don't like him, don't love him. Something's going on inside of our hearts. That spirit of comparison sets in. We start looking at our neighbors. But they got a new boat. We don't have a new boat. Their boat's a 32 foot. Mine's only 28. We're poor. How did they afford a new car? Look at their house. They have two air conditions. What kind of world they have? First world problems. That spirit of comparison sets in. We can't help it. We start coveting, we start lusting. We start comparing who has what we don't have. And that becomes our goals. To please them and not him. And God warns Cain. He says, look, something's going on inside of your heart because you're looking at his offering and you're recognizing yours didn't get in the favor because there's something that's happened between me and you. God says so God warns him. God tells him exactly what to do because he's merciful. But does he do it? No, he. He doubles down and decides I'm just going to kill my brother. And God warns him. He said, look, sin, it's. It's like a. The word he uses in the Hebrew is. Is describing a predator that's crouching down just waiting to jump on you. And God says, you don't see it. But because you're not addressing what's going on inside of your heart, there's things that you're Opening up your life to that you don't want. He said, I'm telling you, dominate that. Take it seriously. Sin is crouching like a predator at your door. It's weighty, it desires to have you, desires to attack you, desires to destroy your life. He says, and you have to rule over that. Come on, you can do this. God tells him what to do. He, God would never tell him to do something that he wasn't enabling him to do. God's a sufficient God. He said, I'm going to help you do this, but you have to take it seriously. And God describes a predator that's waiting to attack him. Several years ago, some buddies of mine, we had a foursome going at the golf course. And we were coming on hole number 17 right before we were done. And this was a par 3 that was completely surrounded by woods. And so we were walking the course that day. And I remember all of us hit brilliant shots, you know, three feet from the pin, it was awesome. Pastoral exaggeration. But the fourth guy hit a bad shot and you know, he's like, I'm gonna stay back and take a drop. I'm gonna hit another one. You guys go ahead. And so we're walking and talking and, you know, looking back every once in a while trying to make sure you ain't getting killed because your boy was just not doing well. And I remember as we're walking and talking and walking our way up to the green, we hear a huge scream from behind us. And we turn around to see my buddy Clay. And Clay was running with his feet up in the air and his arms back like this, his back completely bowed and he's screaming. And as I look right behind him, a mountain lion jumps into the woods right behind him. As soon as he swung this golf club, a mountain lion runs right behind him, like within a couple of feet. And of course he's screaming, ah. And he's screaming, running towards us. And I'm like, oh, wow. Like, did y' all just see that? That's a full grown mountain lion. And we're just looking at each other like, wow. Of course, Clay is just ready. He runs right past us, just hightailing it for the, for the pro shine, just running like this. Which I thought was hilarious, you know, if there would have been a wall, there been a clay shaped hole where this wall should have been. Complete terror. And so we talked to the pro shop, like, you have a, there's a mountain lion out there. Like, yeah, every once in a while we'll see, we'll See a mountain lion. I'm like, Warner brother next time. This thing was completely surrounded by woods. We had no idea that we were within feet of a full grown mountain lion that was not afraid of us as we just carry it on. And this is the word that God uses to describe sin. He said, something's going on inside of your heart. You have to dominate this, you have to subdue it, you have to take authority over it. And God in his mercy has given a warning when it comes to how we prioritize our relationship with him, with our finances, with the fruit of our labors. God said, something's going on inside your heart and it's opening you up to an attack. It desires to have you. But Cain proved with his actions that he had more faith in the ground than he had in God. He had more faith in his ability to produce than in God's ability to provide. And God says from now on that ground is going to be cursed because you don't, you don't trust me. You've not listened to me. I've tried to warn you, I've tried to help you, but you've put more faith in the ground than God. Now that's not going to produce what you think it's going to produce. There's a life lesson to be seen here. There's a wonderful, fantastic life saving prioritization message that God is giving to us through his conversation with Cain. He shows us this, that the very things that we rely on outside of God will always become unstable. The very things we rely on outside of our relationship with Him. If he's not first, everything that you make first will become unstable. Please hear me. I know this to be true. Not just with your work, not just with your finances, with your marriage, with your ministry. I've seen a lot that prioritize the work of the Lord over the Lord of the work. We think that we're doing things for the Lord. We've gotten away from our relationship with Him. He's most important. There's a reason why love God comes before loving people. Because if you can't love God, you're not going to love his people. You're going to manipulate them, you're going to use them, you're going to lead them wrong. Everything that we rely on outside of our relationship with the Lord, when He's not in first place, it will become unstable. Why? Because it's God's mercy saying, I want you to trust me. This is where life gets into perfect Godly order. When he is truly first, when you honor him with the first and with the best. Here's the third and final thing. I'll close it up with this number three. God notices not just when and what, but how we give. It's the heart behind it. So God noticed what they brought to him. God noticed when. Right. The sum and the first. And it says also in the course of time. Cain brought his offering, but Abel brought the first. God notices what he noticed when. He also noticed how the heart behind it. He said, what's wrong with your face? God, I look this way. This is how you made me. Like, no, no, no. There's anger on it. There's comparison on it. Something's going on inside your heart. You're consumed with you. It's not an offering to me. That's something left over. God sees not just when and what, but how we give. The apostle Paul begins to echo this to his. To his letter to the Corinthians. 2 Corinthians, chapter 9. Paul says this. Each of you notice it doesn't say just the wealthy ones, just the ones that have been really, really blessed. They're the ones that should get. No, no, no, no. It doesn't exempt any of us. Every believer, each of you, it says should. Should do this. Should give what you've decided in your own heart. Right? You need to make a decision in your heart. Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give. And it says, don't do it out of reluctancy. You know, don't do that reluctantly. Don't do it out of compulsion, which takes away, by the way, most of us and how we grew up in old school church where everything was done by compulsion and guilt. And they'd pass that plate right in front of you and just sit right in front of you, just staring at you. And you put in a dollar, and they'd just move, man. I'll give you five later. I'll give you 10 if you just leave. Anybody ever had a super slow usher, an awkward usher that stands in front of you? One of the reasons why we don't pass plates around here. Like, I'm not here to. To. To convince you to do that. I'm here to teach you, like, there's a right way to honor the Lord, and it's done with the first, and it's done with the right heart. Why? Because he's worthy. Giving to God is supposed to be an act of worship. It's not paying a bill. It's worship. Why? Because he's worthy. There's a reason why we worship God on the first day of the week. There's a reason why we do it in the morning of the first day of the week. Because it's the first one of the things that we say here in our culture that will help you to remember. This is scripture before screens with the prioritization of your day. Scripture before screens. Now, some of us would say, honestly, Pastor, my scripture is on a screen. Hey, there's an exception for you. Let me change it to this kingdom before consumption him first, prioritize your day around before you do anything else. Just start. I'm going to challenge you with this. Just say, thank you, Lord, that you woke me up this morning. Just start with that. You'd be shocked if you begin to prioritize time with the Lord at the very first part of your day. You'd be shocked by what you don't have to repent for. At the end of the day, we're going to honor him first. Lord, let your kingdom come. Let your will be done. Lord, this is the day you've made. I'm going to rejoice and be glad in it. And as soon as I have some coffee, I'll talk to you some more. But thank you. Kingdom before consumption. Here's one of the things I noticed about this text. Genesis chapter four is that God clearly speaks. We see God's words recorded, and also Cain clearly speaks. But you never hear a single word from Abel. We don't know a thing about what his voice sounds like, his thought process. Abel never speaks. God speaks. Cain speaks. Abel never does. But later on, by the way, In Hebrews chapter 11, it talks about God speaking well of Abel and how Abel's blood still tells a story. Abel's generosity still tells a story. Look at this. By faith, it says, because he trusted him, Abel brought God a better offering than what Cain did. And by faith, he was commended as righteous. When God spoke well of his offerings. Let me just ask you a question to challenge you. Does God speak well of the heart behind what you offer him? Does God speak well of your offerings? How would I know? It's the condition of your heart when you give it. God spoke well of his offers. And by faith, it says, Abel. Look at this. Still speaks even though he's dead. God said abel's blood was crying out to me, but also Abel's voice is heard in his generosity. His voice is heard in his giving by faith, because he trusted me, even though he didn't know that I was going to produce way more on the back end, he trusted me on the front end, and his voice still speaks today. There's a reason why we're still talking about someone who never said a single word in scripture thousands of years later. It's because of what he gave and how he gave it. And hear me, when he gave it, he gave the first, not what was left over. And that's my challenge to you as your pastor. I don't, I don't teach a lot on, on giving and money. One of the reasons why I had a pastor challenged me with that, with. He said, why don't you teach a lot more about money? I said, because we've never had to. I literally get to pastor one of the most generous churches of all time. It's incredible to me that we are not a church of wealthy people. We're a church of a lot of people who give and honor God. My challenge to you would not be if you're not giving, to give. Most of you do that. I'm thoroughly convinced of that. We're like 80 something percent of our people give now. The other 20%. I don't know what's going on with you, but those are, those are incredible numbers for a church. They don't lie. My question is not what you're giving. My question is when you're giving and the heart behind it. Because those two things make a lot of difference in your relationship with the Lord. I want to remind you it's not about paying a bill. I'm not here to put some compulsion on you. I'm not here to put a guilt trip on you. I'm here to challenge you to step into a place of the right order. What does it mean to put God first more than just an acceptance of an award speech where you say, oh, I want to honor my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, like, more than that. It starts with the decision you make on how you start your day. It starts with the decision that you make every single time that you get paid. What gets the first and how do I give it? Apostle Paul says, the Lord loves a cheerful giver. Is that the condition of my heart? Is it the condition of yours? Is it a joy to honor him? Or is it some obligation that we were forced into? Let me just remind you, when, when it's not given with joy, you. You don't really get any credit for that with the Lord. So good luck, do it with joy. One of the things my wife and I like to do when we give is, is. Is to say, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. For blessing me. It's an honor to do this for you. I love every year when we get to look at our taxes and see the amount that we've been able to give, and that number has gone up every single year. I look at her, she looks at me. We give each other a high five. Because it's been awesome to see what God has done with us. Honoring him with the first and the best. He gets the first, not what's left over. And that was a very difficult lesson for me personally, because I know what it's like to grow up as the son of a church planter and to have it settled in my heart that I would never do ministry ever again. Because I didn't want to be poor like my family. The whole. Our whole life begging people for money that would come to our church. I said, I will never do that. I will never, ever be a pastor. I want to be anything else. And God has a way of taking what you say you'll never do, taking the things that have. That have plagued your heart and said, I have an issue with that. And to turning on something different, to changing the direction of your heart. To say, now I have an issue with not doing it. It's who God has made me to be. So I know what it's like to live on both sides of that. And I know what it's like to experience the truth of God's word when he says, first matters to me. Here's what we see from the. From the voice of Abel that never speaks. Is that our faith and our generosity to God, it speaks for us long after we're gone. So what will your generosity say about you? What will your legacy be? I want to finish up right there, if that's okay. And we're going to spend just a few moments talking to the Lord. I'm going to give you a chance to maybe hear from the Holy Spirit and have him do what the Holy Spirit does. He doesn't just encourage you, but he also corrects you. If there's parts of your life that he wants to correct, this is the time to do it. Would you. Would you bow your head and close your eyes? Spend a moment with the Father? Would you just breathe in his presence and say, holy Spirit? Come, Holy Spirit, speak to me with heads bowed, with eyes closed. It's not just a moment of silence. It's a moment of prayer and meditation. It's a moment of submission to the Lord's word. It's a moment to receive what God has for you. God led you Here today for a reason, to speak to you, to speak to your heart. I think if I've done my job correctly today, the Lord wants to speak to you, and I think you can hear him. John 10. He says, My sheep hear my voice. They hear me, they know me. They're not going to follow somebody else. So, Lord Jesus, we choose today to hear your voice and to not follow anyone else, even ourselves. Father, we've become consumers in a lot of ways. We ask you for help, Lord. We recognize that your word is alive. Your word brings life and light. It brings health, it brings hope, it brings healing. It brings correction. Sometimes we need exactly that. So I pray that, Lord, if we're in error, that you would correct us, Encourage us where we need courage. Build our faith today so that we can trust you more. Help us to step into all that you have for us. Father, I recognize that some of us are in this place today, Lord, they're heavily drowning, in debt. Father, I pray that you would help them right now, that you would speak to them in a way that they can understand, begin to move things around to show them how much you love them, how good of a provider you are. Some of us are feeling guilty. Some of us are feeling ashamed. Holy Spirit, would you come and be our comforter that we know you are? Strengthen, bring hope, bring life. Meet us where we are, Lord. Meet us where we are. But help us to not stay here, to take a step, a step of faith. Now, with heads bowed and eyes closed, perhaps you came to this place and you're saying, pastor, if I'm going to be honest with you, I don't really have a relationship with Jesus. I don't know what that's like. I'm not really sure. My friend, you are in the right place. I'm glad that you're here today. Jesus led you here for this moment to meet you. It's time for us. Let me help you. The same way somebody helped me one time to meet Jesus, Others might be saying, pastor, I was raised in church like you, but I've gotten away from God. I've been running. I've been running for so long. I need to come home, my friend. Yes, you do. If you could see it right now, God himself is reaching down his hand to you and saying, come home. Come home to me. The only question is, will you take it? You may say, I'm not really sure how to do that, my friend, let me help you like somebody helped me one time with heads bowed and eyes closed, I'm going to lead you In a prayer. I'm going to invite you to pray with me. I will not embarrass you. I will not single you out in any way. That's not what I'm here to do. But you need to make this decision. This is important for you. It's time for you to take a step to Jesus to come home. So with heads bowed and eyes closed, I'm going to tell you what to say. And as a matter of fact, all of us are going to say this out loud together so you don't feel embarrassed in any way. Church, let's pray this together. Would you just say, jesus, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe that you came and died. I believe you rose from the grave so that I can have life and forgiveness for all of my sins. Please forgive me and I'll give you the rest of my life. Thank you for loving me in Jesus name. With heads bowed and eyes closed, just those of you who prayed that prayer and say, pastor, that was me. I prayed that prayer. I'm not going to embarrass you in any way, but would you do me a favor? Would you look up at me and lift up your hand all across this place and say, that was me. I prayed that prayer. I see you. Good for you. Good for you. Yes, I see you in the balcony. Good for you. Proud of you. Yes, sir. I see you. I see you, young man. Good for you. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'. [00:47:30] Speaker A: Am. [00:47:31] Speaker B: You guys can put your hands down. Yes, ma', am. I see you. For those of you that just responded, once again, I told you, I'm not going to embarrass you. That's not what I'm here to do. But with no one else looking around, on the screen behind me is a phone number. All I'm going to ask for you is that you text me from right where you are. Text the words I prayed to that number. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to send you back the link to some things that will help you understand what just happened inside of your heart and what to do next. It is the greatest honor of my life to help people meet Jesus and to get into a relationship with him. Please let me help you. I'm very proud of you in the decision that you just made. Good for you. High rich family. Go ahead and look at me if you would. And let's go ahead and stand to our feet together today as we finish up our service. There's nine people in this service responding to the gospel. I Think that's a pretty big deal. Four people in the service before 13 today, that's a big deal. I love it. I love it. Welcome home. We have our elders and their wives stepping forward and as our service ends today, these guys are going to be right here available to pray for you about anything that you might need prayer for. We would love to do that for you. Also, if you've been kicking the tires around here wondering, is this your church home? I want you to know that at 12 o' clock here at about 20 minutes across the street in our youth building, we have our growth track class. That's a two part class. You can come any Sunday that you want. And this is how you become what we would call membership. We call our growth track. We're going to tell you how to fit in, what we believe, what your part is, what God is asking of you. And you get to make a decision, is this your church home or not? But let me just tell you, you're just as weird as the rest of us. Welcome home. We're glad that you're here then for everybody else, let me pray for you. Let me bless you before you go. Father, would you bless my friends with an incredible week? Would you lead them by your spirit? Would you help them to honor your and prioritize you, Lord? Would you bring their lives into perfect order? Would you lead them, Lord, beside still waters, Lord, restore their souls, Bless them. I pray in the name of Jesus and all of us said together, Amen. God bless you as you go. I hope you have an awesome week. [00:49:24] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. [00:49:35] Speaker B: If you want to be a part [00:49:36] Speaker A: of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv or you can check out our [email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will see you next time.