John Hagee - Firstfruits Offering
Would you please stand for the reading of the Word of God? Turn in your Bible to Exodus 34:19, as today we open the Word of God to discover the miracle and the majesty of the law of first fruits. The law of first fruits is a giant step toward climbing the stairways to the stars of success and personal prosperity. Obeying the first fruits law, and God promises that you will prosper exceedingly, abundantly, above all that you could ask or imagine. If you ignore the law of the first fruits, then your lack will be endless. This is God's word. Your lack will affect your family. It will affect your children and your children's children. It will affect your business. It will affect your nation.
Today I'm going to give you Bible evidence to confirm this powerful Bible teaching that determines the prosperity of God in your future. Are the person that will determine the quality of which God can bless you. Read with me Exodus 34:19 and 20. Ready? All that open the womb are mine. "All," that means men and every creature. And every male firstborn among your livestock whether ox or sheep, but the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons, you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed. Say that again, and none shall appear before me empty-handed. Verse 26: the first of the first fruits of your land, you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
Now the goat in the mother's milk has nothing to do with the first fruits. But God establishes something here that's very strong in Bible teaching from this point forward: that God desires to bless you. You were born to be blessed. And he wants to open the windows of heaven to bless you. And he uses this phrase because Israel is an agrarian society. They were farmers. And if he opens the windows of heaven, you are going to have a rich harvest. But he also, controlling the rain, can cut that rain off. And suddenly you do not have a crop. You do not have something to sell. You do not have something to eat. So God controls your prosperity. You need to get that clearly in your mind. Today I want to show you what God demands and then what he promises, so that many of you who are always struggling with this matter of funding the Kingdom of God, can see God's desire to bless you.
Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, let us see clearly God's plan for our prosperity, in Jesus' name. Amen.
You may be seated. Let's begin with this first principle, one, God demands to be first. Say that with me, God demands to be first. The Bible says: seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of these things, you see that phrase? And all of these things shall be added unto you. Why do we worship on Sunday? Because Sunday is the first day of the week. And it's the first fruits of the week. Your success begins on Sunday. Why? Because the first fruit sanctifies the following fruit. Get that? The first fruit sanctifies the following fruit.
So if you begin in the house of the Lord on the Lord's day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday are blessed because you consecrated the Lord's day to him. If you ignore that day, God says you're on your own. That's here. Learn that principle that first fruits sanctify the following fruit. Putting God first in your life establishes his Lordship. If he's not first, he's not Lord. And if he's not Lord, there is no blessing, there is no favor, there is no prosperity. And according to the Word of God, you live under a curse. When first things are put first, second things increase. What does it mean to be first? First is preceding all others in time, order or importance.
Think about that. First does not mean number one. You watch the television with these basketball games and football games, and thousands of people are raising their hand, "We're number one". They haven't won a game in a month, but they're raising their hand, "We're number one". It does not mean that. Nothing can be first unless there's something else to be first of. If you're standing by yourself, you're not first: you're alone. If there are 90 people beside you and you're at the head of the line, you're first. You are the first of something that's behind you. First fruits, offering of the first grain harvested in Israel.
The point: if you did not bring your first fruits offering to the Lord's house, there would be no additional fruit for a harvest. God is Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. God created Adam and Eve and placed them in a paradise called the Garden of Eden. Adam went to sleep and he woke up married, which is enough to make an insomniac out of you. They didn't have to work 60 hours a week. They didn't have to go through traffic jams to get to work or get home from work, the smog, the IRS, CBS or worship at the shrine of the cell phone. I'll move right along there. I'll get anointing on that by myself.
God gave Adam and Eve one command: leave the fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil alone. Of all the things they could do, God said one thing you won't do, don't even think about it: leave that fruit alone. Why did God put that tree there? The answer is to see if Adam and Eve would put him first when Satan came to tempt them. The temptation, to put their will above God's will. Listen closely. When your desires, your plans, your ideas, your ambitions, become more important to you than God's plan, you have adopted the attitude of Lucifer, challenging God's authority over your life. Satan was the one who said: "I will ascend to the hill of God, I will be like God, I will, I will, I will..." and God said, "You won't". He kicked him out of heaven. And a third of the angels went with him. You can have the attitude of Lucifer and confess to be a Christian.
Think about that. When Jesus and the twelve were rejected by the Samaritans, James and John asked Jesus for permission to call fire down on them and consume them with fire. Burn 'em up! They're not like us. They're not in our denomination, for heaven's sake. Take care of that. Jesus rebuked them. He looked at them in Luke 9:55 and said: you do not know what manner of spirit is in you. Satan has come to rob, to kill, and to destroy. Christ said: I've come to seek and to save that which was lost. He said to his disciples, you have the attitude of the devil himself. "Oh, well, I just don't believe that". Well, saint Peter had Lucifer's attitude. Peter said to Jesus: you don't need to go to the cross. We'll take up swords and we'll defend you from the Roman Empire. Jesus looked at him and said: get thou behind me, Satan.
What's coming out of your mouth is the will of the devil. You are actually hindering God's divine purpose for me, because the Bible says: "From the foundations of the earth", the Book of Revelation, "Jesus Christ was destined to go to the cross". How do you know if your attitude is controlled by the prince of darkness? When you refuse to put God first, when your will is not God's will, when your will is not God's will. Jesus prayed the prayer: thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. How is it done? Through you, you, you, and myself. Here's the book that we follow. Satan did not put God first. Even though he was an Archangel, God kicked him out.
God created a paradise for Adam and Eve. Leave that tree alone. That did not and God kicked them out. Eve was cursed. Adam was cursed. The ground was cursed. That curse lives to this day, because they did not do what God asked them to do. When Jesus came teaching, he said: seek ye first the Kingdom of God. If Jesus is not first, he's not Lord. And if he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all. It's just that clear. Well what about my rights? You don't have any rights, not according to this. We are all servants of Jesus Christ. God has no super stars, period. You are not your own, the Bible says, you were bought with a price. And that price was the blood of Christ as the cross. Because of his blood, we are redeemed, we are set free, we are sons and daughters of the Most High God. We are liberated from the powers and principalities of darkness. We are the Kingdom of God on this earth. Hallelujah for the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ!
Continue the concept. Why did God choose Abraham to be the father of all who believe? The answer is he understood the law of first fruits. When Abraham tied Isaac and placed him on the altar, and raised his knife to sacrifice him to God, the angel of the Lord stopped him, and God provided a ram. And God said to him in Genesis 22:12: now I know that you (Abraham) fear the Lord. Now I know you will put me first. And believe me: that's the acid test. The living Bible renders it this way, I know that God is first in your life. Only when you put God first is God able to provide what he promises. Because if he promised, and you did not put him first, God would break his own law. And God will not break his law to bless you. You have to meet his conditions for him to bless you. God's law is the law of first fruits.
I've read it to you in Exodus 34. God established a system of sacrifice in which animals were to be burned as an offering on the altar. In Leviticus 1, God designated five animals that were clean, acceptable unto the Lord for sacrifices. All of them chewed their cud and had a split hoof. They were oxen, goat, sheep, pigeons and turtledoves. The animal you sacrificed was a reflection of your financial ability. If you drove a Mercedes, you sacrificed oxen. If you were a widow, for two Pennies, you could pay for a turtledove. But here was the one law, don't come before the king empty-handed.
Everyone has something to give, everyone according as God has blessed you. It's important to notice that there were five kinds of animals sacrificed by Abraham when God gave him the seed to the land of Israel. The land of Israel was made in a blood covenant with Abraham and his descendants, meaning Isaac and Jacob. And that blood covenant stands to this day. The land of Israel has been given to the Jewish people by God Almighty, who owned the world. And that blood covenant stands. That covenant cannot be broken by America. It cannot be broken by the Palestinians, by the u.N., by the European Union, by the Russians: just in case the Russians are wiretapping this historic sermon. The Jewish people do not occupy the land of Israel: the land of Israel!
Now in the law of first fruits, here's another principle: everything is either sacrificed or redeemed. Say those two words, sacrificed or redeemed. Exodus 13:2: consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both men and beast: it is mine. According to Old Testament law, the firstborn was to be either sacrificed or redeemed. There was no third option. Every time one of your live- stock delivered its firstborn, you were to sacrifice it or to redeem it. So we fast forward to the New Testament. John the Baptist meets Jesus on the banks of the Jordan river. And he says, "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world".
Jesus was God's only begotten Son. He had to be sacrificed or redeemed. God allowed his Son, a male lamb without spot or blemish, to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. Once again, we run into the principle, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. We can only be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Only that will get you into the gates of heaven, not church membership, nothing else, only the fact that you accepted Jesus Christ as your sacrifice. And let's spin this, this way. If you do not accept Jesus Christ as your substitute on the cross, then you must die for your sin. You must, because the Bible says: the wages of sin is death. If you accept the death of Jesus, you can have eternal life. But if you refuse his sacrifice, you are the sacrifice. What do you do with donkeys? Don't look at your relatives right now. Look right here.
As a side note in the Bible, it took a miracle for a donkey to talk to Balaam. But because of television, we see this miracle every day in Washington, D.C. but what if you had a donkey and you didn't have a lamb to redeem it? Listen closely. This is very important. Exodus 13:13: every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem it by a lamb. Or if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. Why would killing a donkey be beneficial to you? Because if the donkey was not redeemed, it was not God's property. And if it was not God's property, it would bring the judgment of God to you. It became an open door for the prince of darkness to say, I have a right to be here because that's not redeemed. Why? Because you put your will above God's will. By breaking the donkey's neck, the Israelites were saying, we're taking a stand against the curse, saying, it's better to break the neck of this donkey than disappoint and disobey God.
Now, if you do not give God what is rightfully his, you are, in fact, inviting the judgment and curse of God onto your life. If the firstborn donkey was not redeemed, it would bring a curse on your house and cause far more trouble than that donkey was worth. Now let me ask you this question: how many donkeys are in your life? Don't raise your hand. How many? Things you have not consecrated to God that are bringing you one problem after the another, think about it. Some of you looking at me right now come from families that have had the same problem generation, after generation, after generation. And it is something that has humiliated you: that has taken your dignity and presented you with the wreath of shame to where generation, after generation, after generation. That's a donkey. You need to break its neck and get it out of your life! Walk away from it. Bury it! End it! It's Satan's tricks to torment you.
I want to say this clearly. The quality of your life will be determined by the things you're able to walk away from. And there are some things you need to walk away from that'll bring to you the real blessing of God. Consider this thought: whatever is done with the first portion determines what happens to all the rest. Follow this: Isaac was the firstborn of Abraham. As the firstborn, he was to be (say it) redeemed or sacrificed. I want those two words to be etched into your brain when this is over. It was to be either redeemed or sacrificed. When Abraham and Isaac went to the top of mount Moriah, which is the Temple Mount in the City of Jerusalem, Isaac was tied and placed on the altar. God sent a ram tied by the horns in the thicket to redeem Isaac.
When the first fruit was given, it brings a mighty harvest. Whatever is done with the first portion, remember determines what happens to the rest. You go to church on the first day of the week: it determines the quality of the rest of the week. You give to God your tithe, and it blesses the other 90%. You will find you can live better on 90% that is blessed than a hundred percent that's under the judgment of God. Isaac now is first fruit. He had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons. Those twelve sons produced Joseph. Joseph became the prime minister of Egypt. Joseph then sent for his family, the Jewish people, who were 70 in number. And the next 430 years, they became almost two million people in number. Why? Because the first fruit, Isaac on mount Moriah, had been offered to the Lord.
What you do with the first fruit determines what happens to all of the rest. One sacrifice produced the nation of millions of people. Do you see that? Consider the Exodus. God said, Moses, in Exodus 4:22 and 23: go to Pharaoh and say, "Thus saith the Lord", now this is a quote from God. And he's saying to Abraham, you tell this to Pharaoh. "'Israel is my son, my firstborn son'". A lot of Christians crawl when they hear that. We didn't get plugged in till the cross. God is saying, Israel is my firstborn son. So I'm saying to you (Pharaoh), "Let my son go from Egypt: that he may serve me. But if you do not and you refuse to let him go, then I will kill your son, your firstborn".
Don't you ever think God is a pacifist. When you disobey God, God's not in heaven sucking a Maalox bottle, saying, uh, they're disobeying me. He has all power in heaven and in earth. He can snatch life from a nation just that fast. Pharaoh rejected Moses' request to let Israel go, so God sent ten plagues and totally destroyed the economy of Egypt. The tenth plague was the death of every firstborn in Egypt. The firstborn of children and cattle died that night. Exodus 12:30 says, "There was a loud wailing in all of Egypt: for there was not a house without someone dead". Don't ever think God will let you get by with not keeping what he's saying. If you refuse to put God first, it does not stop God from being first.
Really your opinion and my opinion does not matter. The only thing that matters to God is if we are allowing him his rightful place. It only releases the devourer upon you and your family. When you refuse to obey the law of God and you put your will above God's will, it releases the curse upon every part of your life, because you're not redeemed. The only way out is redemption, which means to buy back from destruction by obeying the law of first fruits. Consider the law of first fruits in the fall of Jericho. Four hundred and thirty years of slavery in Egypt was followed by 40 years in the heat and the grit of the desert. With Joshua as their leader, God released a plan that would begin the conquest on the road to the Promised Land.
Think of Jericho as first fruits. It was the first city that stood between Israel and the Promised Land. Remember what is done with the first determines what happens with all of the rest. God made it clear that he was giving them Jericho. This is not your fight, he says, it's my fight. But I want you to remember that everything that's in Jericho belongs to me. Joshua 6:18 and 19: "For the gold and the silver of Jericho, it is mine. And you by all means", listen, "Abstain from the cursed things: lest you become accursed when you take the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel a curse and a trouble. But all the gold and the silver, and the vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord".
That was God's deal. This is the first city. It belong to me. All the gold and the silver, everything in there that's worth a dime belongs to me. Bring it to the treasury. Everybody got the message except Achan. Achan said, you know this is really a financial opportunity. And he snuck out of his tent at night and went into Jericho. He stole gold. He stole silver. He stole the Babylonian garment. He came back, put it in his tent, put his hands behind his head, and said, I'm rich! But the next day when Israel went out to fight AI and they got trounced by a second-rate army, Joshua said: God, where are you? And God said: there is sin in your camp. And they went back and started a tribe-by-tribe, tent-by-tent check, and they came to the tribe of Achan last.
Why is that important? Because he had plenty of time to repent of what he had done. If he had dug that up and gone to Joshua, and said, "I have sinned," God would have forgiven him. But because he tried to sneak it by God, and when Joshua came by, and said, "Joshua, give the Lord glory," they found that gold and silver and the Babylonian garment. And they brought his wife, his sons, his daughters, his animals, and stoned them to death, and burned them with fire, the Bible says, "To put sin out of Israel". That's how seriously God takes his law. You say, well that's Old Testament. Please understand the Bible says: I am the Lord God. I never change. We live in the dispensation of grace. God is merciful and slow to reaction now.
And aren't we all glad, because half of us probably wouldn't be here? But there will come a day when God will balance the account. And you will either be sacrificed or redeemed. The result is unthinkable. Think about the story, because of one man's disobedience, the entire nation of Israel suffered the consequences. They had to deal with the Achan factor before they could reclaim the blessings of God. Are you taking what belongs to the Lord? Is your family suffering because you are the Achan that's bringing judgment on them? If the church is one body fitly joined together, then your disobedience could affect the whole body. If one man could affect two million people in Israel, what can you do to affect the membership of this church? That explains why many churches do not financially prosper.
When Israel was in the desert, all of them had manna. None of their clothes wore out. None were sick or feeble, not for 40 years, none! That was a miracle. This explains God's abundance will be withheld if we do not deal with the spirit of Achan. The spirit of Achan takes what belongs to God and keeps it for himself at the expense of other people, hoping that God's man Joshua does not pull an inspection. God inspects us. He inspects us. The Bible said,"Let a man examine himself to see if he be of the faith," because there will come a day when you will stand inspection before the Lord for everything you've done on this earth, including the law of first fruits. How much we are willing to lose before we get on our faces before God and ask, "Father God, where is your blessing in our life"?
How insensitive have we come to the fact that we are living by our will and not God's will? Look at what's going on in this nation. How many families will we allow to be broken by the spirit of Achan? How many teenagers and families are we willing to lose to drugs, to gangs, to riots, to revolution, to murder in the streets of the major cities of America? How many businessmen will lose it all before they recognize that the sin of Achan is in their lives? Keeping what belongs to God brings destruction. That's a fact. How long before you're willing to live by the law of first fruits to enjoy the blessing, the favor, the unlimited abundance that God wants to give you from the first breath you breathe on this earth? The law of first fruits and tithing.
I'll say this in closing. Tithing is first fruits. Say that with me, tithing is first fruits. Let's review what we've learned. God established first fruits to establish his Lordship. First fruits includes children, animals and crops, fruit from all trees. God said, I want the first portion of everything. When God destroyed Jericho, it was the first city conquered in the March to the Promised Land. It was it is first fruits. And God said, bring all the gold and the silver in Jericho into my treasury. God didn't say, conquer ten cities and then give me the gold and the silver of one. He said, I want the gold and the silver from the first one, not the last one. Your income is either consecrated or cursed.
Hear that word again. The tithe in scripture is consecrated to the Lord. If you keep it for yourself, it becomes a curse. It's stolen, stolen from God. That's not my opinion. I am too shy to say that. But right here it is in the book of Malachi 3:8 and 9: will a man rob God? Yet, you have robbed me. And the Bible says: in what way have we robbed you? And God said: you have robbed me in the tithe and the offering. You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed me. The tithe is 10% of your income. Preacher, do you expect me to give 10% of what I make to God? No, I do not, but God does. It's not my law: it's his. When a redemptive work is in progress, the number 10 will be involved.
There were 10 plagues that were used to set Israel free from Pharaoh. There are Ten Commandments that are given to set you free from the world. Ten donkeys were tent by Joseph to bring Jacob and all of Israel out of poverty into the rich lands of Goshen. The tenth part of your increase points to the redemption of your income. Is it possible to give 10% of your income and not give your first fruits? Yes. The tithe, according to the law of first fruits, should be the first 10% of your income that breaks the curse over the rest of your income. Back to the statement, "First determines what happens to all the rest".
Let's just say these are $1,000 bills. They're just $1 bills, because this is a low-budget program here. And we lay these out here and it's the end of the month when you are paying your bills. And these dollars have been mangled in the offering as people clutch them. And watch them fall into the offering like it's an orphaned child they'll never see again. Truly, the fact is it will be the only money you ever see again. So if we can get this all, to hold its place.
Here we are. You sit down and you decide now, it's pay the house note. We pay the car note. We pay the fuel bill. We pay the cell phone. Dear God, I should take two of these. We pay for the trip to Hawaii. We pay for post nasal drip for our parrot. This is uh, oh, yes, this is dog food. And you know that Americans gave more for dog food last year than every church in America did for its missionary program? It's a fact. And we go on down until we get to, oh, yeah, here's Jesus. Not hardly. Jesus does not stand in line for you: he is first. If these ten dollar, ten $1 bills represent your income, the first one is first fruits. The tenth one is thumbing your nose at God. How many of you understand what I'm saying here?
Think about that. When God opens the windows of heaven, you will have an explosive harvest that you can't contain. God pours out blessings beyond your capacity to contain it. You won't have enough room to receive the blessings. He will rebuke the devourer for your sake. He will control nature for your benefit. All nations will call you blessed. God doesn't need you to give. You need to give to be blessed of God. When your seed leaves your hand, it goes into your future. It never leaves your life! It's all you're ever going to see again. And stealing it only brings the judgment of God. God has to bring the judgment to be loyal to his word. Do you want God's favor? Do you want God's abundance? Do you want God's victory? Do you want unlimited health? Do you want unlimited promotion? Do you want a barn-bursting harvest? Then give God the first fruit and watch how powerful the remainder is anointed and brings exceedingly, abundantly, above all that you could possibly ask or imagine.
In the Old Testament, Moses told the children of Israel to bring their offering to the house of God, to the priest, and bring it to the anointed hands. Jesus told disciples to bring the sack lunch of a boy, five loaves and two fish, to him. And he blessed it and it fed everyone who was there. And they gathered the fragments. Today we will do as God has instructed in the scripture on this first Sunday to bring the offering to the altar to present it to the Lord in faith and expectation of what God is going to do for you in the coming harvest. I want you to learn the joy of releasing God's power to prosper you in your life. Believe me: tithing for me as a young person was the hardest lesson I learned as a young Christian. My mother started me working in a cotton patch when I was eight years old. I got 50 cents for picking a hundred pounds. And brother, it took me two days of hard work to make a dollar.
I still think about that to this day. When I got in Bible school, and I had no money, and I got a job and I got two dollars for working four hours. And a missionary, Charles Greenway, was talking about things that God was doing in Africa, and he took up a missionary offering. And I saw that offering pan coming by. My little German hand wrapped around those two dollars, and I said, when hell freezes over: this is mine. And when it got in front of me, I turned them loose, and I felt about that high. Oh, didn't you feel good? No, I didn't feel good. I'd like to tell you, "Whoopee, angels came down and sang: the Red Sea opened". I didn't.
If I had the money for Tylenol, I would have taken them. But the next day, a job I had been looking to get for six weeks, I walked out and knocked on the door for the third time. They opened the door, and in 15 minutes, I was working at a job that was a prime job you couldn't possibly get unless a senior quit. And one had quit the night before. I am telling you God will open the door for you in every way. I'm not telling you something I don't practice. I am a strict tither beyond that. And I can tell you the richness of God has been far more than I ever deserved. I want you to stand, as did ancient Israel. And today I want you to come forward with your first fruits offering. Place it in the baskets here. Place it anywhere you can on the platform. And then I want you to write me a letter next week or the next week when God supernaturally makes a provision for you that's something you never expected to happen, because I assure you God will do it. As they sing, will you bring your first fruits offering forward?
Hallelujah! Thank you Lord! Thank you Lord! Thank you Lord! Amen. Amen. Bless the name of the Lord. Bless the name of the Lord. Bless the name of the Lord. Amen. Amen. Would you lift your hands for the blessing.
And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. And may the Lord make his face to shine upon you. And may the Lord be gracious unto you and give you his peace. As you walk from this place having honored the Lord with the first fruits, having put God first, knowing that everything that is in you is now consecrated to him, receive the rich manifold blessing of the barn-bursting harvest, of problems solved, of needs met, of dreams fulfilled, because he will give you the desires of your heart. In the authority of Jesus' name and by the sacred truth of the Word of God, we say, amen.