The Power of First Fruits in Your Life | Tony Evans Sermon

Dr. Tony Evans discusses the importance of honoring God with the first fruits of our wealth, as described in Proverbs 3:9-10. Putting God first in our finances is not about merely giving to receive blessings, but about recognizing God as the ultimate source of all we have.

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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

God wants to know what are you doing with what he has given you now.
And 1 of the reasons we’re not seeing more of God is because we get to God when we can.
He wants to know that you had prioritized him, that he’s not just an extra, that you’re not getting around him when you can, when you feel like it.
And that involves honoring God and putting God first.
Proverbs 3 verses 9 and 10.
Proverbs 3 verses 9 and 10.
Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.
A preacher 1 day was trying to get his church excited about the new level he wanted to see God take the ministry.
And so he was just preaching up a storm, and he said, brothers and sisters, for this church to get to the next level you know, we’ve been crawling.
We’ve been beginning this ministry, but it’s time for us to walk.
He had a line of deacons behind him who said, yes, rev. Let the church walk.
Let the church walk. He said, and after we’ve walked for a while and gotten our footing straight, then we’re gonna start to run.
We’re gonna run as a church. Group of deacons behind them said, yeah, rev. Yeah, rev. Yeah.
We’re gonna run. We’re gonna run. We’re gonna start walking, but then we’re gonna run.
Preacher said, and after we’ve run for a while, it’ll be time to fly.
We’re gonna fly the ministry. We’re gonna fly the church. Deacons behind him said, yeah. We’re gonna fly.
We’re gonna fly. We’re gonna fly as a ministry.
Preacher said, now in order to fly, it’s gonna take money.
The deacon said, let the church walk. Let the church walk.
When we come to talk about God being first, it’s a lot easier to talk about him being first in our praise and first in our adoration and first in in this and that.
But when you hit this subject, we can get a little sensitive.
But yet, this is 1 of the places where God uses the word first.
And so to skip it would be to skip scripture.
And it not only applies to the pew. It applies to the pulpit and back again.
Not like the 3 preachers. The 3 preachers were out there, and they were discussing how they give.
And and 1 preacher said, well, I draw a circle, and I take what the lord has given me and I throw it up.
Whatever lands in the circle is his. Whatever lands outside of the circle is mine.
2nd preacher said, well, I I’d do I’ll do something like that.
I draw a circle, and I throw up everything he’s given me.
Whatever lands in the circle is mine and whatever lands outside of the circle is his.
3rd preacher says, I don’t have to go through all that. I don’t draw no circle.
I take whatever he’s given me and I throw it up. Whatever he wants, he keeps.
Whatever falls down is mine. The word first of your produce is translated another word in many versions, first fruits.
First of your produce or as it is often translated, first fruits.
He says, honor the lord with your wealth and from the first fruits or the first of all your produce.
God wants to be first in every area of your life.
He does not wanna be an addendum. He doesn’t wanna be an extra. He He doesn’t wanna be what’s left.
He wants to be front and center first. First fruits comes from an agrarian economy.
That is, they were farmers. And so when they farmed the land and they bought up crops of fruit or vegetables, God says, the first of what I give you is not yours.
It is holy to the lord.
He describes first fruits in Deuteronomy chapter 26 where he says in verse 10, now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which you, oh lord, hath given me.
And you have set it down before the lord your God and worship before the lord your God.
And you and the Levite and the alien whom is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the lord your God has given you and your household.
When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the 3rd year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan, to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
So the first fruit was the tithe that belonged to the Lord.
It was what they were supposed to do in order to worship God and recognize him as their source.
Or as it says in Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 23, you shall eat in the presence of the lord your God at the place where he chooses to establish his name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, your firstborn of your herd, and your flock so that you may learn to fear the lord your God always.
So with first fruits, there was to be a lesson related to worshiping God and fearing God, that is taking God seriously.
And so God says the first portion, the first step, of what I give you is not yours.
It is holy to the lord.
He went so far as to say in Malachi chapter 3, if you take the first fruits, the 10th, of what I have given you and keep it from me, you are robbing me.
So many people come to church in stolen clothes. Many folk drive to church in stolen cars.
In fact, a bunch of folk live in stolen homes because they have robbed God in order to do it.
He says, when you rob me, you literally rob yourself for he says the devourer will come or as Haggai chapter 1 verses 3 through 11 says, you wind up putting it in a bag full of holes.
You think you’re saving it.
On the front end, you have it, but I cut a hole in your pocket so that you wind up spending it anywhere elsewhere.
He says, when you rob me, you have robbed yourself.
He states that this is a spiritual principle that is beyond money, it’s beyond fruit.
It’s really whether you view me as your source.
It says, the tithe or the first fruit was recognition that what you receive comes from me.
The grocery store, menus up the street is not your source.
It is merely a distribution channel so you can pick up something that has come from another source.
Every piece of fruit, every piece of vegetable that you get at the grocery store, at minyards is only because it was farmed.
And it could only be farmed because there was seed, but seed could only grow because it was planted.
It could only be planted because there was soil, but it could only grow because there was sun and rain.
No sun, no rain, no seed, no soil, no fruits, no vegetables. God would be the source.
You have a channel for the resource.
God doesn’t want you getting excited about a channel where you can go buy it and not the source that gave it to you in the 1st place so you could go get it.
He says, I want to be recognized as your source, but I don’t just wanna hear it from your lips.
I wanna see it with your life. And the way I see it, he calls it first fruits.
That is the recognition that I am your provider.
That’s why even in the new testament, 1st Corinthians chapter 16 verses 1 and 2, it says, when you come to worship God on the 1st day of the week, you are to bring your offering.
Why? Because it was tied to whether you were worshiping God or not.
So to sing God praises, to open your bible and read the word while ripping him off is a contradiction.
How can you receive worship from a thief? God has a lot of kids who want access to him.
They want the key to heaven while they’re ripping him off, and then they wanna know why God won’t talk to me, answer my prayer, relate to me.
Who wants to hang out with a thief?
The Bible says, you do rob me of tithes and offerings, Malachi 3.
This is not just something found under the law of Moses. It goes all the way back to creation.
When God created Adam from every tree of the garden, you may freely eat.
But the tree in the midst of the garden, you can’t have that.
I’m a put it there, but that’s not yours.
That tree is mine because if you mess with that, you’re messing with me.
He did this all the way up until the law. He did it through the law.
He did it in the new testament, Hebrews chapter 7 verse 8, when it says men continue to give their first fruits or their tithe.
So the tithe or the first fruits was the way that you let God know you knew he was your source.
So the issue was an issue of honor.
And you would never have a problem with it because whatever is first, you always know about.
And so he calls it first fruits because it was to be the first thing that you consider.
The very first thing a Jewish farmer did when his crops began to grow was to pick it and offer it to the lord.
So he says, I want to receive the first fruits of your produce.
So that was the main concept, and it went to the storehouse, which was the temple.
Why did they bring it to the temple?
Well, this is where we get into a sticky wicket.
You see, the temple was the house of God.
It said in the scripture we read, Deuteronomy 26, you are to do it for the Levite.
You are to do it for the offering. You are to do it for the widow.
You are to do it for the stranger. Uh, let me explain something.
When you bring first fruits to god, god’s not gonna eat it. He’s not gonna eat bananas.
He’s not gonna eat cabbage. He’s not gonna eat watermelon.
He’s not gonna eat he’s not gonna eat any of that you bring to the lord. Why?
Because it wasn’t for him to eat.
It was for him and his ministry to use to be a blessing to somebody else.
Now watch this. There is the difference between biblical giving and prosperity theology.
So let me deal with this lie that a lot of people are being taught and a lot of people are buying into called prosperity theology.
Now, before I clarify this, I want you to understand that god does prosper.
God is not against prospering. So he’s not against you getting a raise.
He’s not against you being an entrepreneur. He’s not even against you being wealthy.
Deuteronomy 818, I have given you the power to make wealth.
So the issue of prospering is not an issue at all. God is for you prospering.
But prosperity theology is to say now here’s the deal, god.
I’m gonna bring you this, this offering, this money. I’m gonna bring you this so you can bless me.
In other words, I’m gonna cut a deal with you. I’m gonna give you this.
I want you to multiply this so you can give me that back tenfold.
In other words, you create a business relationship with God.
Now if you do enough of that and you can preach it right, you can get a lot of people to show up who want their blessing.
Alright? They want to give to God to get from God for themselves.
That is not what God is talking about in first fruits. That’s not what I’m talking about today.
When god talks about giving, he meant not that you were giving to get, but you were giving to minister.
Big difference. In other words, you were giving so that somebody else could benefit from the giving that you did.
You had to be other oriented in your motivation, not self motivated.
Prosperity theology says, I am self motivated. I’m doing this for me. I am self motivated.
I want you to feed my greed. I want you to pour into me, and that’s why I’m doing it.
Which means if I can manipulate you from this pulpit and make you feel like if you do this, you’re gonna get this, then I can get you to do more while building personal coffers along the way.
What God is saying is, no.
When you bring it to my house, the alien should be helped, the strangers should be helped, the ministry should be supported, the programs that that minister to you should be enhanced.
Ministry should occur because of first fruits that are given, not just personal benefit.
When the motivation is you, you’ve turned God off. When the motivation is others, you’ve got God’s attention.
And to make sure you are in the process and habit of ministering to people outside of yourself, he says, give first fruits to me.
And within the context of the temple, it’ll be spread out to others so you will actually invest in others.
So it’s a ministry motivation, not a selfish motivation. It’s all the difference in the world.
So first fruits was not for god to eat.
It’s so other folk could eat, so other folk could be ministered to who are hurting or in trouble or in difficulty.
And so even you could be ministered to, but it was ministry driven.
God wants to shoot a deal tangibly with him to demonstrate that you are serious.
A little boy in Sunday school 1 day, she was teaching about giving and, uh, she asked a little boy.
She said, if you had a $1, 000, 000, would you give it to God? Little boy say, absolutely.
She said, if you had a $1, 000, would you give it to God? She said, yes.
If you had a $100, would you give it to God? Yes, teacher.
If you had a dollar, would you give it to god? He paused, grabbed his pocket.
She said, what’s wrong? He said, I got a dollar in my pocket.
In other words, we don’t talk big about stuff we don’t have.
We’ll talk big about something that hasn’t happened yet.
But god wants to know what are you doing with what he has given you now. K?
Anybody can talk a good game.
Now we know that this issue of money has been abused and misused, but we can’t let the misuse of it deny us from the legitimate use of it.
He says in that first line in Proverbs 3 verse 9, he says to honor the lord from your wealth.
This is an issue of honor.
It is recognizing God as the owner and source of your life.
It is unfortunate today that most people wanna use God, even Christians, as a spare tire.
I want you in the vicinity in case life goes flat, so I can pull you out and let you get things back in place until I start rolling on again, then I’ll put you back.
We want him as a refueling station. We do not want to honor him.
Psalm chapter 50 verses 14 and 15, it says, honor the lord by paying your vow and do it with thanksgiving.
God wants to be honored. He wants to be recognized as your source.
If you ever get this lesson that you only have 1 source, you’ve got a million other resources, mechanisms that god has used, but you only have 1 source.
And when you honor him if the president of the United States came over to your house, he called you up and said, I’d love to have dinner with you.
You’re probably not gonna say, okay, mister Perez.
We got some leftovers here, and we’d love to give you the leftovers because his position is not worthy of left In fact, if you went to a restaurant and you looked at the menu and you chose what you want and they said, well, we think we got some leftovers of that.
Some other people been nibbling on it, but don’t worry about it because I think it’s still fresh, and we’ll be glad to serve it.
That would be unacceptable to you. You know why?
Because the president doesn’t deserve leftovers, and you don’t deserve leftovers when you go to a restaurant and neither does God.
That is why he says in Malachi chapter 1, you giving me what you won’t even give your governor.
You give the top brass the best. You give me what’s left over.
And if it happens to be, uh, a 10th, fine. Or if it’s a 5th, fine.
But it’s what I have left because it was never addressed first.
And 1 of the reasons we’re not seeing more of God, not only in this financial area but in the spiritual area because this was tied to the spiritual, it’s because we get to god when we can.
We get to god when we have time. We get to god when we have energy.
We we don’t put him first. And so he says, you are to look at me first.
And when you do, he makes a staggering statement.
He says in verse 10, so your bonds will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.
Now that’s the part everybody wants. We want verse 10, but verse 10 comes after verse 9.
Honor the lord with your wealth and from the first fruits, that’s the tithe, that I give you.
Then then you will begin to see but wait a minute. Notice the order.
First fruits was meant to honor God and benefit others.
So you don’t get verse 10 unless the ministry is occurring.
If the ministry is not occurring, you haven’t done what God has asked you to do either in motivation or in what you give.
Paul says, my god shall meet all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus, Philippians 4/19.
But Philippians 4 19 only comes after Philippians 4 15.
And in Philippians 4 15, he says, because you gave to the ministry and because you supported us reaching out winning people and because Paul said you supported my ministry, now we can go to verse 19.
My god shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
In other words, don’t be quoting verse 19 if you’re skipping verse 15.
Everybody wants to quote the second verse, but not the first verse.
So he says, I want you to prioritize me.
Proverbs chapter 11 verses 24 and 25 says, if you are stingy with God, God’s gonna be stingy with you.
A man came to this pastor and said, pastor, look. I got problems.
Uh, when I was making $1, 000 a month, $12, 000 a year, I I tied.
When I made a $100, 000 a year, I tied.
When I started making $500, 000 a year, I’m struggling tithing. So pray for me.
Pastor said, okay. Let us pray.
Lord, would you take him back to $12, 000 a year so he could start tithing again?
It’s amazing. We get blessed more and give less.
The average American gives 2.7% of their income to the Lord. Okay? That’s that’s mega theft.
And they do it day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out while at the same time asking to be mega blessed, while at the same time wanting heaven to shower them.
And even if they get it, they wind up having it in a bag full of holes.
They wind up seeing their lives fall apart, their families fall apart because there’s no spiritual dynamic to their giving.
When you open a cereal box, you know, air puffs out.
When you open potato chips, air pops out. You find out it wasn’t a box full of anything.
It wasn’t a bag full of anything.
It was a half bag or 3 quarter cereal box because they put it with fluff air. K.
God doesn’t wanna be have a fluff relationship with you.
He doesn’t wanna have a pretend relationship with you and first involves giving.
And that involves honoring God and putting God first.
God wants to know before your bonds are filled and your vats are plenty.
He wants to know that you have prioritized him, that he’s not just an extra, that you’re not getting around him when you can, when you feel like it because you know he should be first in the sensitive area.
Jesus talked more about finances than anything else outside of salvation and eternity. Why?
Not because he wanted to talk about money, but he knew that that would be an indicator light of how serious you are.
So you shouldn’t have to be begged, cacholed, or tricked to give.
You should recognize God deserves to be honored. People deserve to be ministered to.
I’m gonna do my portion because I need that ministry too.
And then I’m a trust god as a result of the right heart doing the right thing for the right motivation to take care and cover my back.
That’s the motivation.
Now, uh, I have over here I got over here a bowl of apples.
These are apples. In fact, I have 10 apples here. 10 apples.
Nice, big, juicy, red apples. Okay?
I’ve got 10 of them. Okay?
I’ve got 10 well, 9 big red ones and and then a a green 1, but I’m a come to the green 1 in a moment.
These 10 apples, let’s suppose they represent dollars.
So that’s a $100 for an apple, 10 apples, like a $1, 000 worth of apples.
That’s what I got here. Now, God says all these apples come from me.
All all 10 of them are sourced in me. You would have any apples if there were no me.
But I want you to take this green apple, the 10th, and I don’t want you mess with this apple.
This apple is holy to the lord.
Now for many of us, we’re gonna say, I’m losing 1 of my apples.
God is saying no. No. No. No.
You ought to look at this as being thankful that you gained 9 apples.
In other words, you’re you’re telling me that you know that the 9 apples over here are sourced in me and that you recognize I am your provider.
And so when you give your 1 apple to me so that somebody else can eat, when you give that to me, you are to give it to me not mad, not upset, not frustrated, not irritated, not aggravated.
You are to give it to me with thanksgiving.
Because if it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have a basket full of big red apples.
I am the source of your provision.
So you ought to give it to me knowing that I am responsible for what you gain.
Now here’s what we do.
If you’ve been in church for a while and you know, yeah, God says to give the first fruits to him, k.
The tithe belongs to him. The offering was what you gave over and above the tithe.
A lot of people say, come to church. I’m giving an offering.
If you haven’t given the tithe, you haven’t given the offering because the offering was over and above the tithe.
But right now, I’m just talking about that. So you got this tithe.
You’re looking at this 10%. You you’re looking at this yeah.
I know I’m supposed to give this, but, lord, lord, I need a new tire.
Because you understand it’s rough out here, god.
I knew it was a tired guy.
And, lord, Lord, my family we haven’t been on a vacation in a year.
You know, Lord, I I know you want me to rest.
So, uh, you understand. You understand? Because I’m tired. I need a vacation.
Lord, these clothes I’m wearing, they kinda oh, I need a new suit.
Could you want me going to church looking like anything?
You want me looking okay? So you understand, Lord.
My cousin asked me to borrow some money.
And, you know, that’s my people.
So I’ve gotta help them.
So I know you understand and I love you, Jesus. I love you. I’ve been worshiping you.
I was raised in church. Lord, I’m a little short on my down payment on a new house I’m a buy, but I’m a tell everybody I love you.
They’re gonna know I love you.
And, Jesus, my saving is a little low.
So I just want you to know, Jesus, that I love you.
It’s Sunday. It’s Sunday. It’s time for the offering.
Here you go, Jesus.