Trust Fund | First things First; Giving God Your First

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Hosea 4:6 (NIV) “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

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Malachi 1:6 (NLT) “A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name!”

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Financial peace begins with honor

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Matthew 15:8 (NIV) “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

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Honor means I Give My First/Best

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Mal 1:6-12 (NLT) “But you ask, ‘How have we ever shown contempt for your name?’ {7} “You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. “Then you ask, ‘How have we defiled the sacrifices?’ “You defile them by saying the altar of the LORD deserves no respect. {8} When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the LORD [Almighty]. {9} “Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you! But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all?” asks the LORD [Almighty]. {10} “How I wish one of you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD [Almighty], “and I will not accept your offerings. {11} But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations,” says the LORD [Almighty]. {12} “But you dishonor my name with your actions. By bringing contemptible food, you are saying it’s all right to defile the Lord’s table.

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Gen 4:2-7 Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. {3} In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. {4} But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, {5} but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. {6} Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? {7} If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” 

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Matthew 6:24 (NIV) “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

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My first leads to God’s best

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Malachi 3:7-12 (NIV) Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ 8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me. “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’ “In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

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Exodus 13:1–2, 12 (NIV): The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me…12 you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord

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Exodus 23:19 (NIV): Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

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Proverbs 3:9–10 (NIV): Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

Proverbs 14:12 (ESV): There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

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Malachi 3:10-12 (NIV) Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty.

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