God Doesn’t Want Your Leftovers | Branded: Part 2 | Pastor Alex Himaya

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Well, good morning church. >> Good morning. >> So good to be with you today in the house of the Lord. Maybe your campus pastor mentioned paint war on Wednesday night. But I want you to think through this like nearly 250 people in the last three weeks in our church have crossed over from life, our death to life, have given their life to Jesus Christ. And I just rejoice in that. And I hope you never get used to seeing that into the degree that you're not grateful for it and excited to be a part of it and participate in it. And before we jump into today's content, two weeks from today. I'm going to begin a series where we're going to walk through the book of Romans. And we're going to go chapters one through eight, and that'll take us till Thanksgiving, to the holidays. And so if you have not read Romans one through eight, I would just want to give you a homework assignment now. But begin reading those eight chapters. And as you read them, don't just read them. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak something to you. To speak a word to you, to apply his word to your life. So next week we'll finish branded, and then two weeks from today, we'll begin the book of Romans. And maybe when you heard the title of this series that we're in, or the branding, no pun intended, you immediately thought of cowboys. And for me, growing up, there were cowboys, which I wanted to be. And there were the cowboys, the Dallas cowboys. Me and my boys were radical fans of the Dallas cowboys. Anybody else in here?

Make that confession today. And my son, Eli, my oldest of my two boys sent me this little clip a few years ago on a text message. I'll show you the clip, and then I'll tell you what he said after the clip. The text that came after that, 'cause I sent, like, question marks. And the text that came after that was, as a father, you have given me many things in life. Your love, your wisdom, your DNA, and apparently a lifetime of unnecessary emotional suffering. You made me a Dallas cowboys fan. And I'm declaring it's not my fault, Dad. And I have mercy on him. Listen, and for the OU fans, look, softball season is coming. It is coming, and it's gonna be good. I promise it's gonna be good. But your brand reveals a lot about who you are. And I'm not talking about your NFL team, or your college football team, or the brand of sneakers you wear, or what kind of phone you use. I mean the brand you wear on the inside of you. But because ultimately a brand indicates ownership. A brand tells the world who you are and whose you are. And we all have a brand, we just don't all know it. And if you are a believer and you are a Christ follower, you have a brand. The Bible tells us that. Look at what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 1. When you believed, he's talking to believers. You were marked or branded in him with a seal, which is the promised holy spirit. And if you weren't here last week, I told you that this Greek word for seal is the Greek word spragis. And spragis is a signet ring that lords or kings would wear on their hand.

And they would mash it on an official document into wax from a candle to seal it. And this is the imagery that Paul had in mind when he was writing that verse saying when you believed, you were marked, you were branded, in other words, God has put his mark on you and branded you through the Holy Spirit. Now two things related to that. Number one, he's laid claim on you. He's calling you his own. And number two, no one can take that from you. No one can take that off of you. Because we are branded, we are different. We're different in how we think and how we talk and what we do at work and how we see our relationships. And we're different in what we're talking about today. Our relationship with stuff or with money. But because if we get this one thing right as it pertains to being branded, it appears that all the other things tend to line up and get in order in our lives. And I wanna say to you today that how we view our stuff says a lot about how we think about the God who gave us all of our stuff. And to help us think about these things in the right way, last week I introduced to you what I'm calling the cowboy code of money. And there were three principles, and this is what we're covering in this series. We are stewards, not owners, is number one. We talked about this last week. And hear me, everything you have in life was given to you by God.

And he gave it to you to do something with. And that something is called stewardship. And then the second principle is this, that we give God our first and our best. We give the first and the best of our time, our talent, and our treasure. And this is where we're gonna camp today. But then finally, next week we'll talk about what we reap, what we sow. And we don't give to God so that we can get back, but hear me, no one can give back like God gives back. And none of us can out give God, and that means giving to God is the best investment you and I could possibly make. In fact, Jesus said, invest in heaven. Store up your treasures, lay up your treasures in heaven. In other words, before we put one diamond, earthly investments, we should be investing in heaven. And hear me today, money is a big deal in the Bible. Because if we get this right, our lives have the potential according to the Bible to be blessed. But if we get it wrong, it can mess everything else up and we can end up in a cycle that we don't wanna be in. A cycle of greed or jealousy or comparison. And it's true that money can't save you, but misusing money can certainly ruin you. In fact, financial generosity is perhaps the greatest indicator of a heart that belongs to Jesus Christ. And what people in our culture wanna do

is draw a line between rich and poor. And really what the Bible tries to do is to draw a line between the generous and the greedy. In fact, speaking of rich, I did a post on Instagram this week that kinda took off a little bit and I asked people to comment on, hey, what was something that you saw as a kid at one of your friends' houses that made you think they're rich? And I mean, we got some stuff on there, like satellite dishes. One of the most reoccurring ones was stairs. (congregation laughing) Like having an upstairs, a pool of any kind, right? And a TV on the kitchen countertop, a refrigerator in the garage. One of the silly ones for me is when I walked into a friend's house and they had not just yellow, French's mustard, but gray-poupon mustard. I thought they are loaded people. (congregation laughing) Do you remember that commercial? Like pardon me, do you have any gray people? But here's the fact, no one of us who commented on this mentioned anything we had. 'Cause none of us thought we were rich when we were younger. And even today, we carry that into our adulthood. And can I just say, do you know that if you're net worth, meaning the totality of all the things you own,

combined value of everything you have, your home, your cars, money in the bank, the value of your clothing, furniture, et cetera, if all of that is worth $65,000, you are in the top 10% of global wealth, meaning that you are richer than 90% of the people in the world. That's an eye-opening thought, isn't it? And that's all last week. Everything I just said is a recap of last week, where we talked about the fact that we are stewards, not owners, but that was about how we think about money, how we view ourselves as it relates to money. Today, what we need to talk about the next step is what do we do with our money? 'Cause it's one thing to say, yes, I agree. I'm a steward, not an owner. It's a whole another thing to actually do something about it, for us to put our money where our mouth is. So if we're gonna talk about what to do with our money, the first thing we need to address as stewards is what is the first thing we should do with God's money, right? the rest of your life tends to fall in order, and if he isn't, it won't, right? That's why we begin by saying it this way. We give God our first and our best, right? And as you're gonna see today, this idea and this theme that God cares about this is woven through all the pages of the Bible, from Genesis all the way to the end of the book of Revelation.

Let me just show you what I'm talking about. Let's go back to the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis, we'll jump to chapter four, and this is a narrative very early in the scripture, and let's just read it together. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift, the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. And can I just tell you for years of reading this story, it really, really bothered me. Why did God accept Abel and his gift but not Cain? They both brought a gift to the Lord and it's not because. In fact, I've heard this preach, but it's not right. It's not because he brought vegetables instead of me, right? In fact, the Old Testament law, God makes allowances for wheat offerings. But when you dig into the text and the verses, here's what you see, and it's actually more apparent than you would think. What is it that Cain brought? Say it. Some. He brought some, right? And what is it that Abel brought? He brought the best and the first.

And here's what I want you to see, is some is not first and some is not best. Some actually in this context is leftovers. It's an afterthought. Cain said I have extra here, I'm not going to eat it anyways. I might as well give it to God. But Abel was accepted because he brought his first and his best. He did not wait until he saw if he was going to have enough. He took the firstborn. And by the way, if you're new to the Bible, the principle of the firstborn is perhaps the number one principle in all of the Old Testament. And we'll get to that in just a second, but he also gave not just what was first, but he gave the best portions to God. Why? I think Abel knew some things. And he was asking himself appropriate questions. He knew he's a steward and not an owner. And the first and the best belongs to God. God declared that over the first and the best. And what made Abel different is the way that he saw his stuff. And I think he had two things in mind. You could write these questions down because they're good questions to ask yourself on a regular basis. Number one, who gets the first consideration in my decisions? 'Cause look, you and I make hundreds of decisions

every single day, not just about money, but about all kinds of things. We make decisions and here's the question, who gets the first consideration? In fact, let's be honest, does God even factor into many of our decisions? And the truth to be told is that some of us have a box. That's the church box. And we bring it with us on Sunday, right? And that's where God gets consideration as in the church box. The problem with having a box is that you can keep things out of the box and your tendency may be to keep money or relationships or whatever out of the God box. But when we give God first consideration of anything, he's able to bless any and every decision that we make. Next question is, who gets the best concentration of my effort? Who gets the best that we have to offer? Or are we giving God leftovers like Cain? Or are we giving him our best? And it's clear in scripture where to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, our mind, our soul and our strength. Which means what? We give him the best of our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength. And this idea of first and best belonging to God is the biblical principle of the first born. Every first born was given to God because they belonged to God all over the Bible.

Okay, go to the next book in the Bible after Genesis to Exodus. And this is what the Lord says. Dedicate to me every, say every. First born, among the Israelites, the first offspring to be born, watch this, of both humans and animals belongs to me. In other words, if you had a flock of sheep, the first born of those sheep was God's. And you gave it to him, you sacrificed it to him. And in your home, if you had a child, your first born child, your first born child belonged to God. And there was a sacrifice that you would make in place of that first born child. That was the principle of the first born. It belonged to God, and not just first born, Look, jump to chapter 23, and it says, "As you harvest your crops, bring the very, say it best of the, say it first harvest to the house of the Lord your God." And by the way, this is where Cain got it wrong. It wasn't that he couldn't bring vegetables to God. And by the way, I think God likes vegetables. He's certainly not vegetarian, but I think he likes vegetables. And I love vegetables. In fact, I will say this. I'll declare. The place is good to great. It's not usually the meat. Many of these guys have figured out what to do with the meat. It's the intentionality on the sides. When it's just coastal with mayonnaise, like put some efforts into all of the sides, right?

We need macaroni and cheese. We need some potatoes that are greasy, right, that have meat in them. But so I think God is into the side dish every now and then, too. But he prescribes this differently. It's not about bring some, and it's the first and the best. Why? Because he's giving God priority. Now what does that mean? How do we give God priority? And how is it that we honor God? Now, let me just illustrate it this way. If I invited you, Maryath and I invited you over to our home, and you're coming, thinking you're going to have dinner, and we're sitting around the kitchen island, or maybe we're at the kitchen table. And I say to you, are you hungry? And you're like, yeah, I could eat. And so I walk over to the refrigerator and I pull out four Tupperware dishes. By the way, my son was in college when he said, where did the Tupperware dishes go? And his cousin was like, what did you say? And he said, Tupperware. And she said, it's not Tupperware, it's Tupperware. And he said, what's a Tupper? These are tubs. These are Tupperware that he had heard at his whole life that they were tubs. But if I got four of the Tupperware's out of the refrigerator, and I said, let me see what we have here. And I pulled it back and I said, well, that's, you know, tacos we made five nights ago. We'll heat that up, and no idea what that is, we'll throw that out. And that's brisket that we did 11 days ago. It'll be all right.

And I said, let's warm this up. Would you feel honored? Of course not. We know better than to even treat our guests that way, right? We don't honor our guests with our leftovers. And what is abundantly clear in scripture is that God is worthy of our first and our best. But the bigger question pragmatically today is how, right? How do we give our first and our best to God? Because God no longer requires for us to make literal sacrifices of our flocks and our fields. Instead, he asks us to give, and generosity is the principle. And obviously that means give a portion of our income today, right? We're not raising flocks and fields, most of us. But so we give our first and best of our income. Well, what is the first and best of our income? Well, in the Old Testament, it was abundantly clear, right? They didn't have to guess about it. It was called the tithe, which means a tenth. In fact, Malachi chapter three is the classic passage that explains how this worked. Let me show you how it worked in that day. This is what Malachi three says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so there will be enough food in my house." Now, what does that mean? Well, let's kind of take it word by word, okay? The first word, circle this word in your Bible, bring. Bringing was not giving. And that may sound like an insignificant difference to you, but if I borrowed your car, and in a week I brought it back to you, none of you would think I was giving you a car. You would think I was bringing back to you what was already yours, right? And the next thing that I want you to see is not just bringing, but we bring what belongs

to God the whole tithe. In other words, in that day they were not getting to say, is it 7% or 8%? Is it off the gross? Off the net? Is it 9.5? It was a tenth. It was very, very clear. And listen, we are stewards, not owners, God is the owner. And when we bring our first and our best, we're really just returning to Him what already belongs to Him. And the last thing is, is where would they bring it? They would bring it to the house of God, right? To the storehouse, which in that day was a room attached to the temple, which was the local place of worship, okay? And it said, bring it to my house, meaning they didn't get to decide, I'm going to put a portion in this Christian school, a portion with this missionary, and a portion in this dog shelter, right? No, it all went to the church, to the local house of worship. That's the New Testament equivalent today is the local church, where you worship. And here's what I want to say to you today, don't get snagged. for many people for many, many reasons. And one of those reasons, for those who've actually studied the Bible, is the question of the old covenant versus the new covenant. For others, it's actually an issue of fear. But let me address the question of old covenant versus new covenant. Well, first of all, the old covenant was not replaced by the new covenant, it was fulfilled in the new covenant. That's different.

Jesus did not say I came to abolish the law, I came to fulfill it. Meaning, every detail of the law is not null and void now that Jesus came. But hear me today, and I want you to mark this down in your heart of hearts as covenant believers, new covenant believers, new testament believers. Our relationship with God is no longer through the law. That's right. It's not. All of you should say amen. It is through Christ. We relate to God through Christ. But to say that the tithe is just old testament or old covenant is actually to misunderstand the origin of the tithe. And it's to think that when Moses read that part about the tithe and the law, that it was brand new to them. And that they were all scratching their heads going, what? Never heard of that before. But the truth is the tithe was introduced before the law was ever a thing. And the people of Israel in the wilderness receiving the law were actually very familiar with the tithe. Because before the tithe was ever commanded, it was demonstrated by their father Abraham. Let me show you this in Genesis 14. We've talked about this before,

but look at what it says. Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth, which is a tithe, of all the goods he had recovered. Now you know the story maybe, that Abraham, after winning the epic war of the kings, had amassed all these goods. And on his way home, he stopped at Salem, which I've mentioned to you many times before, becomes J. Ruth Salem. And in Salem, he gave the priest of Salem. His name was Melchizedek, the representative of God. Many scholars believe Jesus in the Old Testament. He gave him what? His first and his best, a tithe, or a tenth. So this idea of tithe predates the law by a long shock. Second of all, Jesus Christ himself, on a couple of occasions in the New Testament, addresses the tithe out of his own mouth. Let me show you one of them. This is Matthew chapter 23. He's talking to the Pharisees. And he says, "For you are careful to tithe, "even the tiniest income from your herb gardens." They were literally pouring out the cumin seed onto the counter and separating them, the mustard seed. You know how small mustard seed is? And I know this is not biblically appropriate, but I imagine someone like a cocaine addict with a razor blade separating all the seeds out. I think Jesus may be imagined that as well.

And he's saying, you are so careful to do this with all of the little seeds. But you ignore the more important aspects of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. So he's getting on him a little bit. But by the way, in a red letter Bible, this is red letters out of the mouth of Jesus. And he says, you should tithe, yes. But do not neglect the more important things. Jesus does not say, don't tithe. Instead, take care of your widows. He says, you should tithe and take care of those around you. Now look, and chris on them today, capital C church. You have on one side of the equation, Bible-believing people who have read the Bible and interpret the Bible to say that the law of tithing most certainly still applies to New Testament believers today. In fact, many of them would go as far as to say, before you tithe, your income is cursed. And when you become a tither, it actually has the opportunity to be blessed by God. And there are also Bible-believing, read the Bible, interpreting the Bible differently on this side of the equation that believe we're no longer under that law, the old covenant. And the law of tithing no longer actually applies to New Testament believers. And here's what you may be surprised to know today. In our church, we got people from both camps. And you probably sit next to somebody

who's in a camp different than you. Some of you married somebody who's in a different camp than you. And here's what I would say to you today. I don't think this is a fellowship breaking argument. grace asks for way more than the law ever did. But under grace we don't do it under compulsion, we get to do it cheerfully. And we should so value our riches in Christ in this new covenant relationship so highly. We should value our freedom from sin so highly. The gospel so highly that we should be hilarious in our giving. And we should be cheerful and love to participate in giving. And out of the mouth of Jesus, he says it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. So those people over here who've really studied the Bible come down to this conclusion. Over here we should out give everybody over there who is under the law. Why? We have a better covenant and better promises and everything is greater in Christ, amen? You say well where do you stand pastor, right in the middle. In fact here's where I stand, here's what I would say. I think tithing as a law has gone away. But tithing as a principle is here to stay. And 10% is a great place to start, especially in regards to your first and your best. And let me say this at the end of the day, I don't really care where you land on the old covenant, new covenant as it relates to tithing. What I really care about is your pastor is your heart. And it is 100% true that Jesus wants all of your heart. And it is 100% true that Jesus teaches the way to your heart is through your treasure. So don't get distracted by the snagging word tithe and miss out on the principle that God wants you to get. And the principle that no serious Bible scholar rejects at all, it's the principle of the first and the best which runs through the whole Bible.

And I want to show you a diagram that is helpful to me when teaching this to people who've never heard it. And because many of you like me are visual learners, I asked Andrew in my office to create this little visual for me. And listen, in the world or the universe of generosity, philanthropy, donations, et cetera, there are dozens and dozens of words we could choose to define. And there are dozens and dozens of words we could choose to use to illustrate some of these principles. But I've picked two because these are the Bible words and we are Bible teaching church around here. We're not just going to pick them randomly. We're going to let the Bible pick them. And so let's just pick the two words that the Bible seems to mention over and over and over again. The two words, tithes and offerings. And I think by defining these two words, we can cut through the clutter and the muddy water. The word tithe appears in the Bible somewhere around 40 times. We saw already that that word simply means a tenth. That's all it means is a tenth. It's a principle in Scripture. And I think it's here to stay. Now here's the question I get asked by new believers who are coming into the church and they're new to church, new to giving, certainly new to the concept of tithing. And here's the question they ask me honestly. How do I go from giving nothing to the first and the best or a tithe or a tenth of my income? I'm not sure how to make that step. And here's how I answer them. At some point, the answer is going to be you have to take the first step. And what we call that around here is the initial gift or the initial contribution.

That's the moment where you say for the very first time, I'm going to trust God with some of the treasure that he has put in my hands and you make an initial gift. And can I tell you today not only does battle Creek Church celebrate every time somebody makes an initial gift, your heavenly father celebrates that step every time somebody does that. Around here, we're all about helping people advance in their journey with Jesus Christ. And that most certainly includes your generosity journey. Now the next step after initial step that many people take is they come to the conclusion that in this day and age, we being as busy as we are, I have to automate what's important. I have to automate what's important, meaning what, that I'm going to become consistent. I'm going to set it up, meaning I'm going to, every time I get paid, I'm going to make a gift. And every two weeks or every month or every, however it works in your world. And I'm going to do this consistently whether Alex was there or not. I'm going to do it whether I like the songs or not. I'm just going to be consistent in giving on a regular basis. And here's what I would say to you as a loving shepherd and pastor. Take as many steps as you need to from here to here. But here's my encouragement. Get to hear as fast as you can. Why? Because I said it a moment ago. Biblically, we're not moving to the level of giving until we get past this. Which brings me to the next word, offerings. 40 times in the Bible, over 700 times in the Bible. And it's not just the Old Testament, it's the New Testament too. Meaning what? It just appears that what the Bible sometimes calls free will offering, meaning what? It's over and above the tithe. That free will offerings were not only normative.

They happened all the time among not only Old Testament followers, but among New Testament believers. And next week we're going to dig in to this part and what comes after this. When we talk about we reap what we sow. But go back to the principle in Malachi 3 for a moment and God promises something. And he says, if you bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that he will do something amazing. He will unleash his power and God even challenges us with these words. He says, test me in this and see if I will not open the windows of heaven. Powerful, powerful words. Only time to my knowledge that in the whole Bible that God says it's okay to testing. But the object lesson, even in the Old Testament, of God the Father saying to his children, test me in this, is not the picture of a judge with a gavel in his hand. It actually sounds like a pleading father inviting, yearning for us, longing even for us to come into his blessing. And truth be told every time we get a paycheck, we take that test. But if he made that promise before Christ, before the cross and before the resurrection, can you imagine what his promises are in Christ? And maybe that's the question today. Are you in Christ? Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ? And if the answer is no, we're so glad you're here today. I would love to lead you in a prayer helping you come in Christ and into a relationship with him. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes at all of our campuses today? At every campus today, including you men at Allen Gamble. And even as I teach this lesson, I think about some of you men who are giving out of what little you have in that prison, and I'm blessed by your faith. And today if you're here at every campus, any campus watching online and you're not in Christ, you don't have a relationship with Jesus, could I lead you in a prayer today helping you take

care of that, to come into a life-saving, eternity-changing relationship with God's son, Jesus Christ. And as I lead you in this prayer, I want you to repeat it after me out loud. If you want to trust Christ, would you just say, Dear God, I know I'm a sinner. But today I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin. Jesus, coming to my life, to be my Lord, my Savior, my forgiver, in the best way that I know how. I turn my back on my sin and I trust you alone, Jesus, to save me. Thank you for saving me. If you just prayed that prayer and you meant it with all of your heart, congratulations. Thank you for trusting Jesus today. It's the best decision you could possibly make. Before I say amen, could I just lead you through a prayer about what we talked about today? And if you're here today and you're a believer in Christ, and lives in you and on you. It's incumbent upon you to ask the Holy Spirit what you should do with every part of your life. And that certainly includes money. It's not outside the box. So maybe that's you today. Maybe you need to take that very first step. For the very first time in your life, take some of the treasure that God has put in your hand, take that first step and make an initial contribution. Actually trust God with some of your treasure. And if that's you and you say, I don't even know how to do that. In the seat pocket in front of you is an envelope. You can just take it and pull it out and put whatever that gift would be in it or you can take your phone and tap that circle on the seat back in front of you and it'll coach you through how to do that digitally.

And we're gonna celebrate that step if you take that step for the first time today. Others of you, your next step is to become consistent. Whether it's weekly or bi-weekly or monthly. And you need to go on our website or on the Battle Creek app and set it up so that it'll happen automatically. If it's important, we need to automate it in our culture. But for all of us, if you've not gotten to the point of being a priority percentage, the perpetual will give or meaning at least 10% of your income, would you just pray about that? Would you ask God to help you trust Him with the first and the best of your finances? And for those of you who are at that level, maybe you've been at that level for years and years and years, would you pray that you wouldn't get stuck at that level? But you would continue to advance in your generosity journey. Father, I pray you'd help each of us in our own walks with you, advance in our journey with Christ. That you would take us to new heights and new places. And because of you doing that with us individually, corporately, you will take this place to another level altogether. In Jesus' name we pray, and together we all say, amen and amen. Would you thank the Lord for meeting with us today?