Some people here have just come from Thanksgiving tables where you had a change to remember what God did in your life this year. There are some people here who had miracles happen this year. You got jobs, you got well, you got a raise, your family in another country was protected, somebody came through an operation, you bought a house. I know all these things because you have anonymously prayed them all during the year. We have all listened to 52 weeks of prayers as you asked for and then received various blessings.
Would you like to pass that blessing along? What if your answer to prayer could help someone else wait in hope for their answer to prayer? What could you do to help another person? Could you give money right now and that would help? I don’t think so. Could you pray for them today? Yes, that’s a start. But each person here has the power of testimony. If you were to stand and tell a short story of what God has done, there is someone else here who needs to hear that story. There is someone who has not yet received the answer that you received and they need the same answer. You got an answer to immigration? They need the same answer, but it hasn’t happened yet. You got through an operation? They need the same answer, but they are still fearing the surgery.
So I want to invite you to a basic Christian duty – the duty to tell the stories of grace. Your witness of what God has done in your life is what will help others find the grace they need. Who will tell of one thing this year that God blessed them?
The Jewish people had a custom during harvest of bringing some of the harvest as an offering to God. Much of this harvest was used to help the community. We are going to hear that retold this morning and feel the encouragement of the Holy Spirit to bring our harvest offerings to God.
I don’t know about you, but parts of my life story seem difficult to me. I didn’t know what I was doing in college and so I had some painful life bumps trying to figure out what I should be doing. Two of my children are with the Lord. And I’ve had problems at times being the loving person that I want to be and being the wise parent that I should be. And that’s only some of the things.
Some of you have had lives that were much more harsh. You have had to move yourself or your loved ones through the immigration system. Perhaps even now you are in your Egypt moment, knowing that the United States loves cheap labor that cools labor demands when the economy is good and can be deported at any time that the economy turns bad. The point of Deuteronomy is that good people go through some very hard times.
What gets us through is grace. God does not promise to keep from life’s challenges, but God promises to get us through life’s challenges. And Deuteronomy calls on God’s people to have a time each year when they remember the mighty acts of grace and give special offerings to rejoice.
Those special offerings are not just a tip – God asks us to give from the best of our labor. For the farmer, that meant giving the first fruits. In my home, we never used pancake syrup. We used sugar until April for pancakes, when my relatives drove over with maple syrup from their sugar bush.
One of the few irritations of life in Jackson Heights is that you cannot get the kind of maple syrup that I grew up with – Grade A Light. Maple syrup is graded into 5 classes. Grade A Light, Grade A Medium Amber, Grade A Dark Amber, Grade B, and a very strong Grade C which is sold for baking. Grade A Light is produced while the sap is just starting to run – a very clear sap which a much more delicate flavor. As the season proceeds, the other grades are produced but aren’t worth as much as Grade A Light.
A maple sugar farmer would give Grade A Light as a thank offering. It is taking the best of their farm production and giving a portion to the Lord. Has God given you grace? What is the first fruit that you bring in thanks?
Moses made a series of speeches as people got ready to enter the Promised Land. This speech is actually before the people saw the grace and before they grew the crops from which the First Fruits offering will come. I am encouraging you strongly in this series on Transformed Living to make decisions to tithe now, pray daily, attend consistently, and serve regularly to have a new surge of spiritual life. Moses would agree with all of that, but add that the offering of first fruits comes any time that you have first fruits. If you had a testimony this morning, then I encourage you to give a First Fruits offering. If you get a raise next month, find a partner in three months, have a child in March, get an immigration answer to prayer in December – all of these are times to respond to blessing with blessing.
In this passage is one of the first one of the first creeds – which shows us how important it is to say thank you for God’s grace. “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.”
Recall always where you were before grace stepped in. We were wandering Arameans – lost in the highways of life. Believe me friends, it is not your brains or hard work that will lead to your success – it is the grace of God using your gifts and talents. Offering the first fruits shows that you know that your life is a life of grace.
