Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Bible Study | Episode 940

May 16, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 26:1-11  Bible Study | Episode #940

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study.

We are in Deuteronomy, chapter 26, chapter 26. Almost forgot where we were at 1 through 11. And we are, we are dealing with a very important principle. And you know, I don't spend a lot of time talking about giving to the church.

In fact, I don't do it on Sunday morning.

Don't do it.

Don't do it in these Bible studies. That being said, there's a lot of offerings offered and when you're going through these offerings,

they're very important pictures of Christ. So when we deal with the offerings oftentimes in the Old Testament, and I've dealt with them a whole lot,

you deal with what I would say would be pictures of how Christ's sacrifice for us was to be about.

It's just literally imagery that God gives us on how to have a relationship with him through the finished work of Jesus Christ. So you've got all that going on and that's really, really.

Now let's get back. Let's get down to the basic economics. Your own home's economics, your,

the, the, the, your own how you live your life and how you walk.

And I can say this because of my experience. I can say this because of.

I feel like in my life I have been obedient to this. I understand it. I walked in it. I'm not telling you this as someone who is, who is not experienced this and doesn't know this.

I know this for a fact in my own walk and in my own life,

how to live in such a way that I open myself up to receive the blessings that God has for me financially.

And I'm going to tell you that financially because he knows that I'm a vessel that is, he is able to use to do his will in his way as far as money is concerned.

Now, I'm not Saying that, bragging. I'm just saying that I know I understand how.

How to build.

Build financial assets.

I know that.

And it's not from a human perspective. I didn't start from a human perspective. And that is the key.

I didn't start from the way somebody on Wall street might tell you how to do it or a financial advisor might tell you how to do it.

I didn't start that way.

The way I started was I started with the word of God,

and I started with being obedient to the clear things that God has taught us to do about giving to him.

Not that God needs my money. Not that God requires my money for anything.

That's not the key here. Okay? It is that I require God to be lord of my finances.

I require God to be in charge of my finances so that I can have the best possible person in charge of the most important things in my life.

And that is not me. And it's not other human beings. It's God.

And so when I came to passages that taught about how to allow God to be lord of your money,

to build a lifestyle in such a way that God gets to be in charge of how you do money, how you do finances,

when I did that,

I put myself in a position by being obedient to it. I put myself in a position to have my eyes and my ears and my life opened up to it.

And it started way back in college,

started way back when Kathleen and I got married between my sophomore and junior year.

Graduated high school a year before me. She graduated college in three years,

and we got married. And we immediately began to give God of our finances.

We immediately began to tithe him. And that. That back then, is what I understood to be the way we gave to God. Now, remember, I. I'm only responsible for the revelation God's given me.

I don't know if I've talked about that principle, but I'm only responsible for what God said to me. If God hadn't told me,

there's no way for me to know. God's gotta open my eyes to see it. And I want him to open my eyes. Because every time he opens my eyes, I get better.

It's just better. Life's better. My view of the world's better. My walk with God's better. Everything's better when God opens my eyes in an area. And so I want to always have my eyes being open, my ears being open,

my heart being open to what God has to say.

Well, back then I understood that you should tithe to Make God the Lord of my. Of your finances. We started doing that. We didn't have any money.

We didn't have. We. Nobody helped us. Her parents didn't have any money. My parents had three children at home.

Nobody was helping us. Nobody gave us any money.

We had to earn all the money we had. Even though I was in college and in ROTC and playing football and all that kind of stuff,

I didn't have. We didn't have any money. But we still learned to place God at the forefront of our finances.

And then as we did that, God handled our finances. And even though we weren't making any money, we were still saving. We were giving to God and we were saving money.

And as we were saving money, God began to be Lord of our finances. He began to take control of it.

And then I began to have opportunities where God showed me some of the things that.

That I should do to recognize him as Lord of my finances. And what we're in, in chapter 26 is one of those passages. It's a first fruit offering.

And it's. It's where you recognize, okay, I'm stepping out into something new here.

And it's. It's a new venture as far as money is concerned. Business stuff like that.

For the Jews, it was the promised land.

And God wanted a first fruit offering.

Not that God needs the money,

but the Jewish people needed him to be Lord of their hearts and Lord of their entering into the land. And so God gave them the opportunity to give to him,

recognizing that he's the one in charge.

Verse 26. And it shall be notice the word shall always. I always notice shall, because shall is a legal term.

When you come into the land which the Lord God is giving you as an inheritance. Notice where does the land come from God,

and you possess it and dwell in it.

Notice who's benefiting. They are. They get possession and they get to live there. All right. Notice it's not their land, it's God's land.

There's an important principle there. And in the legal sense,

they get a life estate in the land because they get to possess it and dwell in it, but they don't get to own it.

That you shall take some of the first of all the proven deuce of the land which you shall bring from your land. I want you to remember that. That. That.

That possessory interest in the land. I want you to remember that they. They're getting a life estate. They're not getting ownership of it.

Whenever you have the first produce of the ground which you shall bring from your land that the Lord God is giving you and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord God has chosen to make his name abide.

They didn't know it then, but that would be Jerusalem. Jerusalem didn't exist as a city then.

And you shall go to one who is a priest in those days and say to him, I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.

Okay? I He's. There's continual recognition of God being the one who is giving them,

who is giving them the best of his will.

Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God.

My father was Assyrian, about to perish. And he went down to Egypt and dwelt there for few in number. And there he became a nation great, mighty and populous.

But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us.

Then we cried out to the Lord, our God, our Father. And the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. Notice.

They go in and they say, we know that we were from a land that is terrible. Assyria.

That's Ur of the Chaldeans. Okay?

We know that we come from nothing. We know that we deserve nothing.

We know that we were in bondage to the world in Egypt. And we recognize that God knew our forefathers and heard our voice and loved us and delivered us out of Egypt.

So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm. With great terror and with signs and wonders, he brought us to this land and given us this land,

a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold,

I bought the first fruits out of the land which you, the Lord, have given me. Now notice. I want you to hear me.

You're reading this and you're saying that God gave them the land. He also retained the ability to remove them from the land.

So it wasn't a permanent possessory interest in the land.

It wasn't permanent title in the land. That's God's land for God's people.

Okay? It's God's land for God's people. And so when God's people are doing what they ought to be doing,

it's their land.

When God's people are not,

they're not. It's not God's land.

I And. And I still believe that today. I believe that when, when the Jews are doing what they should be doing and, and living the way they should be living, it's their land.

And when they're not, it's not,

then you shall set it before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levites and strangers who are among you.

Notice.

Notice.

What are they supposed to do? They're supposed to recognize God and they're supposed to worship him. You're supposed to go and worship before the Lord your God and you will rejoice in all the good things that he's given you.

Notice, my mind, my heart, everything,

my whole being understands that the good things that I have come from God. And the things that are not good, the things that I don't have, don't come from God.

Okay,

If I have something that is a value of good, if I have something that, that does something wonderful for my life,

it comes from God. And I need to recognize that. How does God make sure that he builds in me a lifestyle of recognition of his good work in my life?

Well,

by putting me in a position where I'm forced to recognize that by giving of the blessings that he's given me.

Now, some people say that's a tithe. It could be, okay, we're going to deal with tithe tomorrow.

But it's more than that.

This is the first fruit offering. This means I'm going to take a basket of the good stuff God's given me.

I'm going to put it in front of you. You mean there's more than tithing?

Listen, there's way more than tithing. In fact, I'm of the belief that tithing may not even be the. I mean, that may be the very minimal that you give. In fact, for most people, it is.

Now, for some people, they can't even give a tithe. They. They're in a position where they're not going to be able to give a tithe, but they got to give something to start.

And so I can't tell you how to walk in this because the thing about having your eyes open and your ears open and your heart open is a process that you got to go through yourself with God.

And so I'm not legalistic about giving to God.

In fact, I'm absolutely not legalistic because I think it would have limited me and what God had given me because I've always given more.

We started out tithing in college. But in the last 20 years, we've always given more than a tithe to God. Why? Because he gives more than I ever deserved to him.

And because since college, Kathleen and I have, in our lives,

put ourselves in a position where we could give more to God.

We could. We could. We. We knew God was the source of the good and best that he was giving us. We understood that and we walked in it.

We realized that, you know, we. When I recognize God in different situations, they're blessed. They're blessed situations.

And so everything that first goes to God becomes God's. And when it becomes God's, it's always blessed. And so I always, in my own life,

have recognized, okay, I've got this. This is happening.

God,

where does this stuff go first?

Where does this blessing that you've given me go in your kingdom first and see. It's. It's.

It's difficult to explain it to somebody until you've done it, but there is a subtlety to it in hearing God, and there is a power to it that resonates deep inside of you where you.

When you find yourself in God's will,

all of a sudden you realize everything that you have is His.

And when you start recognizing that in the actual workings of your life,

all of a sudden the blessings just start flowing.

And the only way I can help you get to this, if you've never experienced it, is to tell you you got to figure out how to make God Lord of everything.

And that means he's got to be Lord on Sunday morning when you talk to him,

he's got to be Lord on Sunday morning when he's hearing. You're hearing his voice,

then he's got to be Lord of your family,

and then he's got to be Lord of your workplace, meaning where you work.

You make him first there, meaning you're going to act according to his way, not the way you want to act there.

And then you've got to make Him Lord of your finances.

And Jesus clearly said in scripture, where your treasure is there your heart is also.

And as you do those things in your life, as you do those things, he becomes Lord of the things of your life.

And as he becomes Lord of the things of your life,

you will experience his best. You will experience.

I mean, you'll experience his.

His absolute best.

And you will begin to prosper in those things.

Your family will prosper,

your relationships will prosper, your church will prosper,

your. Your work will prosper. God will open more and more doors for you and before you know it, you will be prospering in a way that is not explainable.

But you got to walk in it.

You got to walk in it,

and you can't walk away from it.

You got to walk in it.

And I can say this,

that I have enough experience doing it that I can encourage you that God is faithful all the time.

He never, ever is not faithful. I may not be faithful, but he always as you go. Today I pray that the Lord will.

Bless you and keep you. That he'll make his face to shine upon you and and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.