LoveKey Church
FirstFruits
Hello and welcome to LoveKey Church! Today we continue our series called "First" and our message today is "FirstFruits". https://linktr.ee/lovekeymission info@lovekey.co.za
Locations & Times
Somerset West Primary After-Care Facility
2 Short St, Audas Estate, Cape Town, 7130, South Africa
Sunday 9:30 AM
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What is LoveKey Church All About?
Our name comes from the fact that we believe that the KEY to salvation (giving your life to Jesus, becoming a reborn Christian) is the revelation of how much God LOVES you. And the KEY to living the life He has for us is to LOVE him back. That’s why LoveKey Church is a local expression of a part of the body of Christ with a focus on creating a place, opportunity and atmosphere where all people can encounter God, align with His purposes in order to reign in life, and help others to do the same.
ENCOUNTER, ALIGN REIGN, HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME - easy way to remember it.
We believe the Bible is the word of God and we commit to be obedient to it with the leading of the Holy Spirit
We believe that marriage and family is God’s idea and His way of doing it is the right way and the best way. We want to see marriages thrive and families be healthy in Jesus. Because healthy families build a healthy nation - notice I didn’t say “perfect” families, I said healthy - whole in Jesus, reconciled in Jesus, redeemed by Jesus, focused on Jesus.
We stand for unity in the body of Christ - we can be diverse but not divided, and celebrate our different gifts and roles in the greater body of Christ. We really resonate with Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he asks that the Father will make us all one as He and the Father are one so that the world will know that He sent Him. Our biggest evangelical tool is unity!
We want to help eradicate fatherlessness and shine a light on the crisis of cultural Christianity - South Africa has a physical fatherlessness rate of 62% and other forms of fatherlessness in the remaining percentage - it truly is a huge problem.
Cultural Christianity is where people grow up in a so-called Christian home or culture and believe that that makes them a Christian, when in fact it is very possible that the culture they’re in has adopted a version of God that is convenient, made it apart of their culture and they’re actually worshipping their culture.
We want this to be a multi-generational, multi-cultural church that lives to know Jesus and to make Him known.
ENCOUNTER, ALIGN REIGN, HELP OTHERS DO THE SAME - easy way to remember it.
We believe the Bible is the word of God and we commit to be obedient to it with the leading of the Holy Spirit
We believe that marriage and family is God’s idea and His way of doing it is the right way and the best way. We want to see marriages thrive and families be healthy in Jesus. Because healthy families build a healthy nation - notice I didn’t say “perfect” families, I said healthy - whole in Jesus, reconciled in Jesus, redeemed by Jesus, focused on Jesus.
We stand for unity in the body of Christ - we can be diverse but not divided, and celebrate our different gifts and roles in the greater body of Christ. We really resonate with Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he asks that the Father will make us all one as He and the Father are one so that the world will know that He sent Him. Our biggest evangelical tool is unity!
We want to help eradicate fatherlessness and shine a light on the crisis of cultural Christianity - South Africa has a physical fatherlessness rate of 62% and other forms of fatherlessness in the remaining percentage - it truly is a huge problem.
Cultural Christianity is where people grow up in a so-called Christian home or culture and believe that that makes them a Christian, when in fact it is very possible that the culture they’re in has adopted a version of God that is convenient, made it apart of their culture and they’re actually worshipping their culture.
We want this to be a multi-generational, multi-cultural church that lives to know Jesus and to make Him known.
Offer to Serve
Offer to Serve Link
OFFER TO SERVE INVITEIf you feel led by God to be a part of this vision and mission, please contact us at info@lovekey.co.za or fill out our Offer to Serve form on the Church Center app, or online:
https://forms.gle/ufM5cD8KYabn365s6
Please Pray for our leaders, members, marriages, families and our nation
Partner with LoveKey Church
What You Partner With:
Thank you for partnering with our ministry so that we can: 1. reach more people with the gospel message 2. Positively impact marriages and families 3. Play a role in eradicating fatherlessness 4. Shine a light on the crisis of cultural Christianity 5. Minister Unity to the body of Christ 6. Sow into what we hope to be future social justice projects in our local community 6. Sow into trusted organizations preaching the gospel in Israel to Jews, and helping Jews relocate to Israel.- FIRM Foundation and One For Israel
https://lovekeymission.com/partnerEFT: Banking Details: LoveKey NPC, FNB, Current Account Number: 62824888525, Branch code: 250655
Card Payment link: https://pay.yoco.com/lovekey-npc
PayPal: partner@lovekey.co.za
Card Payment link: https://pay.yoco.com/lovekey-npc
PayPal: partner@lovekey.co.za
Ways to Partner
"First" Series
FirstFruits
MAIN MESSAGE:
FIRST - “FIRSTFRUITS”
Main SERIES scripture:
Matthew 6:33: 'But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.'
Recap:
I believe God wants to remind us of our new year’s eve message “Frequency” where he showed us the importance of:
Tuning into His frequency
Creating a frequency of worship
Doing 1 and 2 frequently
Four weeks ago we talked on “First Things First” and we established that it is clear from scripture that we need to put God first and by extension our bodies which is the temple of the Holy Spirit (that hosts the Holy Ghost), and therefore also the church and my role in it.
Three weeks ago we spoke about “The First Commandment” and we saw how important it is to ask ourselves the question, “Do I love God first?” - We saw how easily the people of God turned to a fake God, an idol, when Moses, whom they put first, was away for 40 days, even though they could see and hear the cloud and thunderings on the mountain. And we dealt with anything that we may put beside or in front of Him and Holy Spirit did an amazing thing in our midst.
Two weeks ago with our interesting power outage moment we spoke about “The Firstborn” and I shared the revelation that Jesus was the first to be born-again - so amazing! And how he made us righteous - the righteousness we need to seek first along with His Kingdom - and how he paved the way for us to follow His example by dying to self and being raised with Him into resurrected life! United with Him in life everlasting when we are born again. Amazing!
And last week we spoke on Marriage First - we looked at how we should prepare and approach marriage from a Biblical point of view and that it is about obeying God’s order wholeheartedly and fall in line with His order of how things should happen without trying to do the absolute minimum or looking for loopholes on how I can get what I want.
Introduction:
Today our message is called “First Fruits” - we will see from scripture that if we truly love God first and put Him first in our lives, that it will show in how we see, and what we do with the first part of that which is most valuable to us (increase, finances, talent, passion, job, time etc.)
We will look at
the principle of first when it comes to the firstborn,
the first fruits must be offered
and the tithe must come first.
Today is our 61st service. And it is the first time that I am preaching in my main message directly on tithing and money.
I realise that there are two extremes that need to be avoided:
Creating a legalistic culture where everyone feels obliged to tithe and offer because they have to
Creating a false prosperity culture where we only give to get something from God
The message I will be sharing today has been influenced by Robert Morris’ teaching on the subject. And I want to acknowledge that and honour him as a distant mentor of many around the world, including us, when it comes to this subject especially
I do believe that our Good Father in heaven wants us to gain revelation knowledge of what it means to be his child and really love Him and how that should reflect in our choices when it comes to tithing, offerings and generosity.
The Principle of First when it comes to the firstborn
Exodus 13:1-3 - 'Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.” And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
11:16 - “And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the Lord’s. But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”'
We see here how God institutes the sacrificing and redeeming of the firstborn in humans and animals. The clean animals, like sheep, are sacrificed while the unclean animals, like donkeys, need to be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb.
Why only sacrifice or redeem the first animal? Because it tests the faith of God’s people. It is easier to give one lamb if you have already had 10. But to give the first takes faith, trusting that if I bring this to God, He will provide more.
Furthermore, we need to see that if the firstborn is sacrificed or redeemed, the ones to follow will be blessed.
We also see that the reason is to remind the people of God of the last sign God performed in their place of bondage, Egypt, by killing all the firstborn of humans and animals. And how were the children of Israel spared? They had inside info from Moses - God spoke to Him and revealed to him that they need to put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts - only then will the angel of death pass over their house and not kill any firstborn children.
The clean lamb was sacrificed to redeem the firstborn children, so that the people of God could be set free of bondage and move on to their promised land.
We saw recently that Jesus was the firstborn of Mary in terms of a physical birth opening her womb. But we also learned that he was the firstborn from the dead, the firstborn of many brethren and we saw that it means he was the first to be born-again - making a way and setting an example for us.
Jesus is also referred to the lamb of God, the one who became the ultimate sacrificial lamb once and for all. During the feast of Passover, where the Jews remembered what God did in Egypt, Jesus was crucified - his blood was shed for all mankind so that we do not need to live in bondage of sin and death, but that through stepping into relationship with Him, letting his blood cover the doorpost of my life so that I do not need to go into eternal death by have life everlasting.
Can you see that what was instructed in Exodus was a foreshadow of Jesus and us? We are born unclean. We are born of corruptible seed. Jesus was born clean. Born of incorruptible seed. He was sacrificed. We were redeemed.
Jesus is God’s first. Jesus is God’s best. He gave Him to us and for us while we were still sinners. God sacrificed his first fruits in order to redeem us.
Jesus was the firstborn from the dead of many brethren - he was sacrificed so that we can be blessed.
The first fruits must be offered
Proverbs 3:9-10 - 'Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the first fruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine.'
Exodus 23:19 (a) - 'The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.'
Malachi 3:8-12 - '“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts; “And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the Lord of hosts.'
Genesis 4:3-7 - 'And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord . Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”'
Matthew 23:23 - '“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. '
Mark 12:17 - 'And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at Him.'
It should be very clear from these scriptures that it is Biblical to bring the first fruits of our increase.
And this also brings us to our last point…
The tithe should be brought first
So bring the first of the first fruits first.
In other words, before we pay anyone else- the bank, the grocery store, the school, whatever, we bring the tithe to the church, the storehouse of God.
It is also important to note that we do not GIVE the tithe, we BRING the tithe. Because you cannot give what is not yours. When someone leaves their clothes at your house after a braai, you don’t give it to them, you bring it to them or return it to them
And the tithe and offering are for the storehouse. The house of the Lord. We do not use our tithe for third-party ministries or mission trips - those are good and should be supported, but it is above and beyond your tithe as you feel led by God.
That is why you will always hear me say if you are led by God to contribute to the NVF or BF or Hands-Up on top of your tithe and offering, please go ahead and do so.
Some of you may say “I cannot afford to tithe”. These scriptures should challenge all of us to realise we cannot afford not to tithe in the proper Biblical way.
We do not bring the tithe out of obligation of for legalistic reasons. We do it out of love for God and out of faith - trusting that He has asked for this for a reason and that his promises are true. We should not tithe because we feel guilty if we don’t. We should tithe because we put God first and therefore we recognize that He owns all things and that everything I have belong to Him anyway, so to bring 10% and know the other 90% will be blessed is surely better that having 100% that cannot be blessed - actually the Bible calls it cursed.
REFLECT AND RESPOND:
Let us turn our hearts to God today and choose to love Him wholeheartedly and let us decide that this will reflect in how I steward my finances, my increase, everything I have received from Him. Let us choose to obey out of love for God and out of faith in Him and His promises.
FIRST - “FIRSTFRUITS”
Main SERIES scripture:
Matthew 6:33: 'But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.'
Recap:
I believe God wants to remind us of our new year’s eve message “Frequency” where he showed us the importance of:
Tuning into His frequency
Creating a frequency of worship
Doing 1 and 2 frequently
Four weeks ago we talked on “First Things First” and we established that it is clear from scripture that we need to put God first and by extension our bodies which is the temple of the Holy Spirit (that hosts the Holy Ghost), and therefore also the church and my role in it.
Three weeks ago we spoke about “The First Commandment” and we saw how important it is to ask ourselves the question, “Do I love God first?” - We saw how easily the people of God turned to a fake God, an idol, when Moses, whom they put first, was away for 40 days, even though they could see and hear the cloud and thunderings on the mountain. And we dealt with anything that we may put beside or in front of Him and Holy Spirit did an amazing thing in our midst.
Two weeks ago with our interesting power outage moment we spoke about “The Firstborn” and I shared the revelation that Jesus was the first to be born-again - so amazing! And how he made us righteous - the righteousness we need to seek first along with His Kingdom - and how he paved the way for us to follow His example by dying to self and being raised with Him into resurrected life! United with Him in life everlasting when we are born again. Amazing!
And last week we spoke on Marriage First - we looked at how we should prepare and approach marriage from a Biblical point of view and that it is about obeying God’s order wholeheartedly and fall in line with His order of how things should happen without trying to do the absolute minimum or looking for loopholes on how I can get what I want.
Introduction:
Today our message is called “First Fruits” - we will see from scripture that if we truly love God first and put Him first in our lives, that it will show in how we see, and what we do with the first part of that which is most valuable to us (increase, finances, talent, passion, job, time etc.)
We will look at
the principle of first when it comes to the firstborn,
the first fruits must be offered
and the tithe must come first.
Today is our 61st service. And it is the first time that I am preaching in my main message directly on tithing and money.
I realise that there are two extremes that need to be avoided:
Creating a legalistic culture where everyone feels obliged to tithe and offer because they have to
Creating a false prosperity culture where we only give to get something from God
The message I will be sharing today has been influenced by Robert Morris’ teaching on the subject. And I want to acknowledge that and honour him as a distant mentor of many around the world, including us, when it comes to this subject especially
I do believe that our Good Father in heaven wants us to gain revelation knowledge of what it means to be his child and really love Him and how that should reflect in our choices when it comes to tithing, offerings and generosity.
The Principle of First when it comes to the firstborn
Exodus 13:1-3 - 'Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine.” And Moses said to the people: “Remember this day in which you went out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out of this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
11:16 - “And it shall be, when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore to you and your fathers, and gives it to you, that you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the Lord’s. But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. So it shall be, when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all males that open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.”'
We see here how God institutes the sacrificing and redeeming of the firstborn in humans and animals. The clean animals, like sheep, are sacrificed while the unclean animals, like donkeys, need to be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb.
Why only sacrifice or redeem the first animal? Because it tests the faith of God’s people. It is easier to give one lamb if you have already had 10. But to give the first takes faith, trusting that if I bring this to God, He will provide more.
Furthermore, we need to see that if the firstborn is sacrificed or redeemed, the ones to follow will be blessed.
We also see that the reason is to remind the people of God of the last sign God performed in their place of bondage, Egypt, by killing all the firstborn of humans and animals. And how were the children of Israel spared? They had inside info from Moses - God spoke to Him and revealed to him that they need to put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts - only then will the angel of death pass over their house and not kill any firstborn children.
The clean lamb was sacrificed to redeem the firstborn children, so that the people of God could be set free of bondage and move on to their promised land.
We saw recently that Jesus was the firstborn of Mary in terms of a physical birth opening her womb. But we also learned that he was the firstborn from the dead, the firstborn of many brethren and we saw that it means he was the first to be born-again - making a way and setting an example for us.
Jesus is also referred to the lamb of God, the one who became the ultimate sacrificial lamb once and for all. During the feast of Passover, where the Jews remembered what God did in Egypt, Jesus was crucified - his blood was shed for all mankind so that we do not need to live in bondage of sin and death, but that through stepping into relationship with Him, letting his blood cover the doorpost of my life so that I do not need to go into eternal death by have life everlasting.
Can you see that what was instructed in Exodus was a foreshadow of Jesus and us? We are born unclean. We are born of corruptible seed. Jesus was born clean. Born of incorruptible seed. He was sacrificed. We were redeemed.
Jesus is God’s first. Jesus is God’s best. He gave Him to us and for us while we were still sinners. God sacrificed his first fruits in order to redeem us.
Jesus was the firstborn from the dead of many brethren - he was sacrificed so that we can be blessed.
The first fruits must be offered
Proverbs 3:9-10 - 'Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the first fruits of all your increase; So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine.'
Exodus 23:19 (a) - 'The first of the first fruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.'
Malachi 3:8-12 - '“Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts; “And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the Lord of hosts.'
Genesis 4:3-7 - 'And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord . Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”'
Matthew 23:23 - '“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. '
Mark 12:17 - 'And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at Him.'
It should be very clear from these scriptures that it is Biblical to bring the first fruits of our increase.
And this also brings us to our last point…
The tithe should be brought first
So bring the first of the first fruits first.
In other words, before we pay anyone else- the bank, the grocery store, the school, whatever, we bring the tithe to the church, the storehouse of God.
It is also important to note that we do not GIVE the tithe, we BRING the tithe. Because you cannot give what is not yours. When someone leaves their clothes at your house after a braai, you don’t give it to them, you bring it to them or return it to them
And the tithe and offering are for the storehouse. The house of the Lord. We do not use our tithe for third-party ministries or mission trips - those are good and should be supported, but it is above and beyond your tithe as you feel led by God.
That is why you will always hear me say if you are led by God to contribute to the NVF or BF or Hands-Up on top of your tithe and offering, please go ahead and do so.
Some of you may say “I cannot afford to tithe”. These scriptures should challenge all of us to realise we cannot afford not to tithe in the proper Biblical way.
We do not bring the tithe out of obligation of for legalistic reasons. We do it out of love for God and out of faith - trusting that He has asked for this for a reason and that his promises are true. We should not tithe because we feel guilty if we don’t. We should tithe because we put God first and therefore we recognize that He owns all things and that everything I have belong to Him anyway, so to bring 10% and know the other 90% will be blessed is surely better that having 100% that cannot be blessed - actually the Bible calls it cursed.
REFLECT AND RESPOND:
Let us turn our hearts to God today and choose to love Him wholeheartedly and let us decide that this will reflect in how I steward my finances, my increase, everything I have received from Him. Let us choose to obey out of love for God and out of faith in Him and His promises.