Are You Giving God Your Best?

Exodus 23:14-16,19 "Three times a year you are to CELEBRATE a festival to me. CELEBRATE the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made witthout yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for that month you came out of EGYPT. "NO ONE IS TO APPEAR BEFORE ME EMPTY-HANDED. CELEBRATE the Feast of Harvest with the FIRSTFRUITS of the crops you SOW in your field. CELEBRATE the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. 19 "Bring the BEST of the FIRSTFRUITS of your soil to the HOUSE OF THE LORD YOUR GOD."

What a power scripture on the fundamentals and JOY of giving to the Lord. Did I use the word joy and giving in the same sentence? Yes I did! This is what the law of sowing and reaping is all about. The neat thing about sowing is that you are in control of how much seed to sow. Like a farmer who goes out sowing seed in his field, the amount of seed he throws out greatly determines his harvest. Even a city boy like myself can understand that.lol. The scriptures says in 2 Corinthians 9:6, "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously." Keep that in mind as we move forward.

In Exodus 20-23, God begins to lay down some laws for the people of God to follow. They are out of Egypt, which represented the place of slavery and bondage. Now we get to Chapter 23:14-19 and we read about the 3 festivals God required the people to CELEBRATE every year. The first festival the Israelites(People of God) were to celebrate was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This was CELEBRATED over a period of seven days becuase this represented the time they came out of Egypt. Like I said before, Egypt represented slavery or bondage. This was a dark period in the lives of the Jews. Today as Christians we see it as a bondage to sin. Before you and I come to Christ we are in slavery to sin, but are you not thankful that Jesus Christ rescued you from the power of sin and darkness. Please notice this powerful truth; Before God required the Israelites to give anything He simply deesired their worship. A celebration of what GOD had done. The same is true in ourlives. Before you and I can offer anything acceptable to God we FIRST have to bring ourselves. This is why unbelievers can not understand the power in giving. They are still in bondage.

Secondly, Now that God has saved us, God says something powerful. V:15c, "No one is to appear before me EMPTY-HANDED." Hopefully what I am about to say next doesn't offend anyone but strongly teaches us. Just because we are in tough times financially as a nation let alone as individuals doesn't mean that we short stick God. He still requires our BEST! Whatever your best is! Notice that sacrifices and offerings vary from person to person. God simply wants YOUR best. So many times we allow our circumstances to ROB us of future blessings.

Thirdly, Notice the difference in the next two CELEBRATIONS. The Feast of Harvest was dealing with sowing, but the Feast of Ingathering dealt with gathering. Why? God knows that we can not break His law of sowing and reaping. Before we can reap we have to sow. Nowadays, Christians want to experience the blessing of God w/o first giving God their best! The Bible calls it, ROBBING GOD! When we do not obey God in this area we rob God (Malachi 3). God told the people in Exodus 22:29, "Do not hold back," your offerings. This is exactly what we do. This was supposed to be a time of celebration.

Finally, we are called to put the word of God into practice. Let me encourage you to give God your BEST! Trust Him, the return is unbeleievable! How are you and I suppose to give. V:19, "Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God." We do this through our tithes & offerings. Obey God. Giving becomes a CELBRATION when you do it! Dont wait, Do it and watch God pour out His blessings all over you.


God is Good All the Time & All the Time God is Good!