Revering the Word
Deuteronomy 26 Remembering God and honoring Him with how he has blessed you.
Good morning everyone. This morning we are in Deuteronomy chapter 26. All right. Then it shall be when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you. So he's looking ahead here. They're in the desert, but he's saying this is what I want you to do when you get there. And you possess it and live in it that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you. And you shall put it in a basket and go to the place for the Lord your God chooses to establish his name which ended up being Jerusalem down the road. You shall go to the priest who is in office at the time and say to him I declare this day to the Lord my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to get to our fathers to give to us. Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God you shall answer and say before the Lord your God my father was. So notice this is something that you would say in honor of God. You'd bring your offering to the priest and then you'd say this in honor of the Lord. My father was a wandering Aramean and he went down to Egypt and sojourned there few in number, but there he became a great and populous nation. So talking about Jacob's family here and by the way it was promised that Jacob you know his family Abraham's family that it would be that it would multiply and it started with just Isaac and Isaac had Jacob and they were few in number when they came to Egypt but then they multiplied but they were not free and God wanted them to be free to worship him and the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us and imposed hard labor on us. Then we cried to the Lord the God of our fathers and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction in our toil in our impression oppression and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great tear and with signs and wonders and he brought us to this place and has given us this land a land flowing with milk and honey and this is something that he wanted Israel to do after they entered the promised land and they got the first of their crops to remember all that God has done you know and we need to do that today we need to remember the cross we need to remember the resurrection we need to remember that Jesus made the blind see he made the deaf here he raised Lazarus from the dead he came back from the dead we should also remember what God did for Israel and how the 10 flags came on the Egyptians and how the 10th one was the Passover and how God freed them through the blood of the lamb and how God parted the sea so they went through on dry ground and how God spoke to them on Mount Sinai and how he brought water from a rock and manna from the sky and quail to feed them while they're in the desert how he gave them victory over their enemies how he gave them the promised land God wants us to remember all that he's done throughout history so that we would honor him and here he's having them have this built in when they get to the promised land I want you to come to me give the first fruits of your crops and remind yourselves of all that I've done for you that's good and right for us to do all right now behold I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which you oh Lord have given me and to see the blessing that's on your life and the good things that have happened in your life that God has provided for you and he has blessed you to remember that and you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household and you know I think of my dad right now he always when he prays you know he always says God you've blessed us better than we deserve and sometimes you hear it so often that maybe you're not taking it in but you know I think it's very real to him and really we have been haven't we we've been blessed better than we deserve thankful for having God in my life I'm thankful for salvation I'm thankful that he has been a guide and an anchor to my life I'm thankful that I'm not going through this life on my own not knowing what's true and what's not true but God has given me his holy word in his Holy Spirit I'm not alone I'm the son of the Almighty God Hallelujah we've received so much I've had a marriage of 28 years and three children and I I'm speaking in a sunroom right now of a house and the sun's coming up through the trees and I can look over a little bit of land that I have here and you know what I can say Hallelujah God you have blessed me and we should remember and recount how God has blessed us now listen to this when you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year now this is a special third year tie that they would bring in every three years you can read about this all the way back in Deuteronomy where we were in chapter 14 and there was more than one kind of tithe for the people of Israel so they listen to this in verse 22 of chapter 14 you shall surely tithe all the produce from what you sow from which comes out of the field every year so they were to give 10% of what they got every year but then on the third year they would take another tithe and they would give that to the Levite to the stranger to the orphan and to the widow so there was more than one tithe and it was a way of honoring God by bringing their tithe and being generous with what God has given them it honored God and it was a way to say God thank you for all that you've given me and although in the New Testament we don't have the exact same laws for tithing I think it's a good rule of thumb with all the different tithe Israel had they gave more than 10% by the way and when we don't set aside money with how the Lord's blessed us it's a it is a little bit of lack of gratefulness to God and it you know we kind of are saying I want it for myself and God I don't want to I'm not going to remember you or honor you I'm not you know in a way we're saying we're not attributing what we've received as the blessing from God it's so important you know a tithe to you know you'd set it aside you know and it's a lot of times if we don't if we don't do that we'll spend all we have and then we won't have anything left to give to God and giving is a way to remember God you know you don't see anything in the Bible here about like oh well I don't know what they're going to do with that I don't know what the poor people are going to do with it they're just you know God God said no when you give to me out of what I've given you I've blessed you with everything that you've had so when you give to me it honors me it's not your job to worry about what everyone else does what I want you to do is is honor is honor me you know in the in the New Testament it says that God loves a cheerful giver it doesn't say exactly a tithe in the New Testament but it is a good a good rule of thumb and you know it's a challenge for all of us to consider how we're using our resources for the kingdom of God if we believe that he is creator and that he created all and he even created us and he has a right to declare what the purpose of life is all about and that really life should be about him then what God has blessed us with we would not have a hard time pointing towards his kingdom because we would realize that that's the very purpose of our existence is to live for the king of kings and the Lord of lords so let me pick it up again in verse 12 when you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year the year of tithing now again this was a special tithe on top of the one that they gave every year that I've already talked about then you shall give it to the Levite see this was one that would be given to the Levite to the stranger to the orphan and to the widow that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied you shall say before the Lord your God I have removed the sacred portion from my house so you would actually come to God and say this that you've honored God in this way and also have given it to the Levite to the alien to the orphan and the widow according to all your commandments which you have commanded me and I have not transgressed or forgotten any of your commandments I have not eaten of it while mourning nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean nor offered any of it to the dead I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God I have done according to all that you have commanded me look down from your holy habitation from heaven and bless your people Israel and the ground which you have given us a land flowing with milk and honey as you swore to your fathers and this makes it apparent that God knows how generous we are God knows what we we do with our time God knows what we do with our resources and there's a blessing in honoring God with what how we live our lives there's there's a blessing there's favor upon those who believe in God and who obey him and part of that is in our giving that there's a blessing and favor from God and and being generous towards God and towards the people of God we're 16 this day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances you shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul you have today declared to the Lord to be your God and that you would keep that you would walk in his ways and keep his statutes his commandments and his ordinances and listen to his voice the Lord has today declared you to be his people a treasured possession and now the church is that treasured possession hallelujah and he promised you and that you should keep all his commandments and that he will set you high above all nations which he has made for praise fame and honor and that you shall be consecrated it consecrated or set apart or a holy people to Lord your God as he has spoken hallelujah there's favor upon God's people and the Old Testament that was Israel they lost some of her favor and disobeying God and later lost their nation but God has given it back to them again and God has future plans for that land but now through Jesus we the church who believed in him have been grafted into the family of Abraham we've been grafted into God's family we've received God's favor and now just as he's asked them to obey Jesus said go make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age so God is still after us to love him to know him to receive the indwelling of his Holy Spirit by faith and then to obey what he's taught and there's blessing in that there's blessing in following God's ways there's favor in following God's ways and hallelujah honor him believe in him follow him and he will bless you better than you deserve amen and hallelujah God bless you all [BLANK_AUDIO]