What Separates a Firstfruit from Everyone Else?

I have a question today as a pre- Pentecost message. What separates a first fruit from everyone else? That's my question for you notetakers.

What separates a first fruit from everyone else? Pentecost as as we know, but you know, we're going to learn more specifically on the day of, which is tomorrow. What specifically does it mean? We'll go through that tomorrow. That's what the day is for. And you get plenty of messages. You get two great sermons tomorrow uh that that will help flesh that out.

Today I want to focus on an aspect of Pentecost first fruits. But I have been thinking about this question. Many people I think at some point wrestle with the idea that God has called me. Why me? You know, framing the question a little bit better, I would say it's easy to look around at a world that seems to have a really a lot of really good people.

People that I would say are moral people, people are kind, people that serve one another. That's not hard to find out there. I mean, it maybe you would say it's getting harder to find, but it's not really hard to find those people. I have neighbors I could describe that way. uh colleagues, co-workers I've worked with over the years.

I would describe many of them that way with good quality characteristics. And I look at them and then I look at myself and I know what's behind these eyeballs. I have the whole record. I know all the good and I know all the bad. I know the attitudes I've struggled with, the mistakes that I've made. It's hard for me to look in that mirror and say, "Yeah, I get it.

I know why God called that guy." More like mo probably most of us, we look at that person in the mirror and we wonder, "Why did God call that person when I can see so many other what I might describe as better candidates? Then why hasn't God called them? If everybody else is a better candidate than me, then why did I get called? That's the question I want to try to deal with today to some degree.

It isn't because I am so naturally gifted and I am so wonderful and I'm so smart. I'm just the right tool. And God just finally realized that it isn't about me in that sense because I'm not in competition with everyone else. This is a question where God is looking for something and someone that he believes is a first fruit.

He's looking for qualities. He's looking for attitudes. We note that God says in the scriptures, "Many are called, but few are chosen. Those few become the first fruits." And so, it's I think it's good, it's right, it's appropriate for us to stop and ask, well, what what separates that person whom the Bible describes as being chosen, the few.

What separates a first fruit from everyone else? It's going to boil down to the heart. But the best way I think to look at this will to be will be to go where Christ himself went. So I'm going to turn over to Matthew chapter 5. This section of scriptures in my Bible is labeled the biatitudes. And in this section of scriptures, Jesus Christ identified attitudes of a first fruit.

It's a wonderful opportunity to go through these to say, do I have this attitude? Because this is what separates the first fruits from everyone else. This is what God sees. This is what God wants. This is what he's developing in us. through his spirit. Verse three begins, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

" Now, Matthew prefers not to use the name of God. He uses heaven instead when he refers to God's kingdom. He's talking about the kingdom of God. And he says, "Blessed are the poverty in spirit, the those who are broke." What is poverty? What does it mean to be poor? We we we I think we we we naturally can understand the concept of being broke, having no money or no means.

Uh some some probably a lot if not all of us at some point in our life looked at bills that we just couldn't pay for. there wasn't any money especially early in our in our marriage there wasn't money oftentimes to pay certain things and so I understand broke I understand personally having reached out to say to the church to say hey I I I am we were so new in our marriage we needed some financial help and so third tithe was something we needed to ask for help from and blessed to receive it so I know broke here he's talking about being

broke in spirit The attitude behind somebody who's broken in spirit is not somebody who views themselves as worthy of being somehow beaten, thrashed, punished. That isn't the attitude that's behind that. That is a dysfunctional attitude. the one that says I'm deserving of these really negative consequences or these negative things that should happen to me because I'm just not worthy of greater I'm so unworthy.

Okay, that's not what this is talking about. It's a recognition that there is something greater than me and I willingly submit to that. Not my own confidence. I am not getting into the kingdom on whatever skills, talents, and abilities that I have. There's nothing that I can do that will earn that for me. There's no worthiness that I can say to God, "Yes, but I've that I deserve that.

" It's a ranking. Poor in spirit understands where we are in our relationship with God. that God is at the top. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 5. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 5. [snorts] I'll begin in verse four because I love to go back a scripture when I've given you one. So then now No, I don't. I just just happens in the moment. Sorry.

Verse four. It says, "And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said, woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." So he's simply recognizing I'm not I am not, you know, special in God's eyes because he recognizes that I'm this special incredible person and therefore I can stand on that with my pride.

I've earned this view in God's eyes. He says, "No, woe is me and look at my lips and the things that I say and speak and think because I've seen God the standard and I am well short of that." I think all of us can say that I am well short of that. That's the beginning of poor in spirit. that recognition. Isaiah was not an immoral man by any ordinary human comparison.

He was a prophet, one of the most famous prophets biblically quoted routinely in the New Testament. But when he saw God clearly, then he saw himself clearly. and he didn't have the arrogance to say that in some way he was anywhere approaching God. He was a tool. That same attitude appeared in Peter.

Luke chapter 5 and verse 8. Luke 5 and verse 8. This is when Christ tells him to launch out into the deep and let down your nets for the catch. Verse four says, "And Simon answers and says to him, Master, we've toiled all night and caught nothing. [snorts] Nevertheless, at your word, we will let down the nets." And when done when they' done this, verse six says, "They caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking.

So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And so they came and they filled both boats so that they began to sink. And when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." That's recognition. I get it now.

I really am nothing by comparison to the son of God. Poor in spirit. That's an attitude that God wants us to have. He's looking for that in his first fruits. And if we have that, what did he promise back in Matthew chapter 5? If we will have that attitude, it says, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." That's the destiny of the person who literally becomes poor in spirit.

Verse four of Matthew chapter 5 says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." This is not talking about ordinary sadness. It's the grief that comes when a person begins to see sin as it truly is in this world. And what comes with it? The suffering. human brokenness that God never intended for us to live to be like that to experience.

Those who mourn are those who see the world the way that it is and regret that they see the world the way that it is. We're powerless over it. There's nothing we can do to fix it. Only God can fix this world. And yet as we as we watch and we look and we see what the scripture says is coming, it's all moving in one direction. Degradation.

Everything that we see simply supports the reality that the country is not turning around. The world is not turning around. The hearts of the people have not turned back to God. This is why we mourn. We don't celebrate. Even though we look forward to the return of Jesus Christ, I don't sit here and celebrate when I see the world cascading towards immorality, a world rejecting God.

There's nothing to celebrate in that. All I see is suffering in this world, hurt, anger, frustration, misery. Blessed are those who mourn. This is the kind of mourning that the scripture is talking about. And this is what Christ says is an attitude he wants to see in his first fruits. That we don't want to see this world hurting.

We want to see this world replaced. We want to see a world where God governs and rules. And how much better human beings would live lives if they simply lived the way God intended. Christ himself showed this very attitude towards Jerusalem. Notice over over in Luke chapter 19. I'm always [clears throat] I always like to pause and think about Jesus Christ first as the word as the God that Israel interacted with.

the God who brought them the law, who entered into covenant with them, who watched their entire civilization both rise and fall. It is that being in the flesh is Jesus Christ who says these words in Luke chapter 19 over in verses 40 and 41 or 41 and 42. Well, we'll see where we go. Luke 19 verse 41 says, "Now as he drew near," this is talking about Jerusalem, "As he drew near to Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, if you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace. But now they

are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side, and level you and your children within you to the ground. And they will not leave you leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation.

Christ did not look at Jerusalem and celebrate their future. He wept. He mourned. The inevitability was established. But Christ did not celebrate that. It wounded him in his heart when he thought about it. That's what mourning looks like. David also showed this same kind of mourning after his sin was exposed. David didn't say, "Woe is me.

I got caught." Over in Psalms [clears throat] 51, David places his heart [clears throat] in front of everyone as he writes in Psalm 51. I'll just read verses 3 and four. He says in verse three, "For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge.

" My sins are my fault, and we should mourn that, too. I create the separation between me and God when I sin. And that is something that Christ wants us to know. He wants to see mourning, genuine repentance over our sins. Real regret. If you think about our future as kings and priests, which is what? Leaders and servants in the kingdom of God to come when Jesus Christ returns. That's our role.

That's what we're called to. This is our day of training. We need to learn to mourn so that we can help those people recover, recognize sin, learn repentance, and mourn their own sins, mourn their mistakes, and change. We can relate to that because we've lived it. This is the benefit of learning what mourning looks like, of what it means to be poor in spirit because we're going to be there to help them take the same attitudes on and own them for themselves.

Not somebody who lectures from afar who doesn't have any idea what it would be like to experience that. We've lived it. And what does he say the benefit is? Matthew 5 again. What's the reward for us developing this attitude? They shall be comforted. Yeah, I was just thinking to myself, I could use some comfort once in a while.

I bet you feel that way, too. Verse 5 says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Meekness is often misunderstood as some kind of weakness. Well, the world certainly views meekness that way. But in scripture, meekness is not the absence of strength. It's strength brought under control under God's authority.

That's what real meekness is. Strength brought under control under God's authority. A meek person, therefore, is teachable. He can be corrected. He doesn't have to win every argument. He doesn't have to defend every opinion. He doesn't have to force his way on anybody else. This is one of the most important qualities of being a first fruit because God is preparing a people to inherit the earth.

This is where the kingdom of God is coming to the earth. Those who are going to inherit must first submit. Moses is a great example because the Bible's description of him is remarkable in this way. Numbers chapter 12. Numbers chapter 12. Notice here in verse the first few verses it says here that Miam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married for he had married an Ethiopian woman.

So they said, "Has the Lord indeed spoke only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" What attitude is that one? Looks like it's missing the first first one for sure. Poor in spirit. This is arrogance. And the Lord heard it. Now parenthetically this is added. Now the man Moses was very humble more than all men who were on the face of the earth.

That is inspired writing and record of Moses. God placed that in the scriptures. What a remarkable thing to have said about you that you're the most humble person on the face of the earth. But Moses was not weak. You imagine the strength of character that man had to have, the strength of will to continue on the many times that he wanted to just give up, would have wanted to give up for sure.

In fact, that same man is the one who stood between Israel and God when they sinned to beg God to forgive them. He was not a weak man. His strength was under control. He lost control one time and it cost him going into the promised land. That should be a lesson for us as well. God doesn't want weak people. He wants strength under control under his authority.

That's the key to that, isn't it? >> Who's the boss? I'm going to let God be the boss no matter what. No matter how hard it is. Christ gives this example over in Matthew chapter 11. It's a great visual if you kind of think about this. Here we're going to go to Matthew chap 11 around verse 29. might leave room there.

Verse 28 says, "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden." He's not saying all you weak people, people under burdens, under labor. right now. He says, "Come to me and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." This is what Christ offers to us to come under his yoke. If if you remember, as was touched on, this might have been last week, Paul, the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. And it and Christ says to him, "Why do you kick against the go?" You know what that is? It's the stick that's used for the team that is under the yoke.

When you need to move them around, you use a go for that. Christ holds the go. He's not under the yoke. We are under his yoke and he says his burden what he what we carry because of being under his yoke is light. He removes all the heavy hard things from us. He makes our burden less. But this is where he's at.

Gentle and lowly in heart. So he didn't use his power to exalt himself or to put down the disciples. He used it to serve his father's purpose and to teach us to do the same. You know, the world often associates leadership with dominance, control. This isn't where Christ lives. God associates leadership with governability, a willingness to submit to authority.

A meek person speaks the truth, but he does not try to seize God's role. We live the truth that God has revealed to us under his authority. We bring our strength to obedience. We don't act like we have no strength. We use our strength in obedience to God. So this teaches us that God is trying to teach us today as his future leaders and servants what it looks like to come under authority, to submit, to be willing to be corrected, to be taught by God.

The meek inherit the earth because they are the kind of people who can be trusted with authority. This is the test of this life. Let me say that again. This is the test of this life. Are we willing to come under authority? We get tested on that in various ways. But God is watching because when his son rules, there's one authority.

There isn't my ideas, my way. There's one. God's servants will serve under Jesus Christ. and he wants to make sure that we're willing to come under that authority as opposed to resisting it. Back to Matthew 5 verse 6 says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They shall be filled Probably the most obvious thing to note about this is that we're not already filled with righteousness when we are called.

God gives us righteousness through his spirit. We yield. The question is, are we hungry and thirsty for God's way of life? You know, this pairs nicely with those who mourn, doesn't it? Because the counterbalance to a world that is spiraling down is God's way. That's what we want. That's what we should crave.

The way that you crave when you break a fast and just have some water and some food, God says, "Do you not crave righteousness like that?" To be right with God. That's what righteousness is at the end of the day. to be right with God. This is the attitude God is looking for in his first fruits. There's a big difference between possessing righteousness perfectly because we don't and we can't.

but hungering for it, wanting it, desiring it, craving it. Psalms 119, it's a good illustration. 119 verse 97. It says, "Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. Can any of us say that all day long I meditate on God's way of life? No. But maybe that should be our ambition that we're thinking about it.

We're contemplating it. We certainly have it in our mind when we see a world that's going astray. It should be easy for us to say, you know what, there's a better way. Maybe those are the times we should open our Bible and read something about how much better God's way of life is. How much better that world that's coming is than the world we live in today.

This attitude also appears in the Apostle Paul over in Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 verse 12. Beginning in verse 12, Paul says, "Not that I have already attained or am already perfected because we're not." He says, "But I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

" Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. I haven't reached the goal yet. The prize is in front of me, but I reach forward towards it. He says, ' But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Essentially, this is the attitude of hungering and thirsting for righteousness. I will not be stopped. I am going to do everything in my power to reach that goal, that destination. This is part of what separates a first fruit. They're not someone who has no spiritual hunger, who is spiritually anorexic, if you will. A first fruit is someone who hungers, and who has redirected their life because of it, who's focused on the goal because they want to reach it.

because they want to be in God's kingdom. The world hungers for things like recognition, advantage, pleasure, security, safety, control. But God working in us through his spirit should be changing our appetites to move away from those things towards a right ambition which is to reach and to achieve our place in his kingdom.

That's what he set before us. That is the goal he wants us to achieve. That's our destination. Christ himself shows this hunger very perfectly in John 4. John chapter 4 verse 34. Let me see where by context he's t he's saying, "Hey, we need to feed these people." And uh let's look at verse 31.

It says, "In the meantime, his disciples urged him, saying, "Rabbi, you need to eat." And he says to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know." Therefore, the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him anything to eat?" Kind of funny sidebar here. How often the disciples just flatly missed Christ's points in real time.

This was a classic example that did you bring him some food? He says he's eaten. Not what I'm talking about. [snorts] Verse 34, Jesus says to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." It's what drives him. It's what motivates him. It is what he hungers and thirsts after. [snorts] Christ compared obedience to food.

Doing the father's will is what sustained him. So that's what God is developing in his first fruits. He's not merely informing us of how we should live. He's leading us that way. He's changing us to be able to live that way. He's giving us hunger through his spirit to live that way. And Christ says that these people shall be filled.

So God doesn't give us a right hunger in order for us to starve to death pursuing it. He's going to make sure that we are filled back in Matthew chapter 5. Now in verse 7, blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Mercy. One of the clearest signs that a person understands his own calling correct correctly. Mercy.

We need mercy. The only mercy we get because what have we earned? We've all earned one eternal consequence for our sins. Death. And unless God is merciful and sends his son to die in ourstead, our life ends in nothing. We need mercy. God says, "Blessed are the merciful." If we want mercy, we need to be merciful.

So if we think God called us because we're somehow naturally better than everybody else, mercy is going to be a problem for that person. We can become impatient with weakness in others. That's natural. But mercy therefore looks at their issue, looks at where they're at, and doesn't condemn them for being a human being.

That requires us to understand that it is through grace that we've been called. Or therefore go I. We're no different because I am not that special person who made himself righteous. Only God makes us righteous. Christ gave a powerful example in the parable of the unforgiving servant over in Matthew chapter 18.

This serves as a warning to us. Matthew chapter 18, this parable begins in verse 21 where we see this being set up. It says Peter came to him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him up to seven times?" I wonder if he had Andrew in mind. You know how brothers can be. Christ says, "I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven.

" And then he gives the parable. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents, which is far more than a month or a week or a year of income. This is a massive amount of money in those times.

10,000 talents is a massive amount of money. So, somebody owes a lot. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold with his wife and children, and that he had all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, "Master, have patience with me, and I will pay all." Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, forgave him the debt.

Who is the master in this story? It's God. Who is the sinner? Who is the one with the enormous debt that can't be repaid? Us. But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servant who owed him a pittance. It's all you need to know. A tiny amount, hardly worth worrying about. And he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, "Pay me what you owe.

" So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, "Have patience with me and I will pay you all." Same cry for mercy. Very different response. He would not. Verse 30, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved and came and told their master all that had been done.

And you think God's not watching us. We know he is. We can't get out of this life without God having witnessed what we choose to do or choose not to do. Then his master after they had called him said to him, "You wicked servant." Verse 32, "I forgave you all that debt because you begged me." What's unsaid said there is you begged me for mercy, but you didn't show mercy.

He says verse 33, "Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?" And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. Verse 35. So my heavenly father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses.

That's mercy. Forgiving somebody when they've wronged us. It doesn't mean, remember this, that doesn't mean saying that the wrong didn't happen, that the wound didn't occur, that you should just pretend that nothing happened. It's making a choice to let it go and turn it over to God. That doesn't also mean that the pain goes away forever in that instant.

Sometimes that pain will stick around for a long long time. Mercy does not require us to say the pain no longer exists if it does. It simply says, "I forgive. I choose." And how do we know? We've done that. I talked about that in that message long ago about what is forgiveness. How do you know? It's when you can get to the place where you intercede on their behalf with God.

When you can pray for them from your heart, that God would be merciful to them. That he would teach them, that he would reach them, that he would help them, that he would guide them, that he would not abandon them, that you genuinely care about them, and so you pray for them.

That's when you know you've gotten to forgiveness. And this is how important it is for us to get there. We've been warned by Christ himself. And of course, we see how Christ handled this himself in John chapter 8, John chapter 8. This is the woman caught in adultery. So verse 7 says, "So when they continued asking him, he raised himself up and said to them, he who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.

" And again he stooped down and rode on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. And when Jesus had raised himself up and saw that no one but the woman, he said to her,"Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" And she says, "No one, Lord.

" And Jesus says, "Neither do I condemn you. go and sin no more. That's the lesson for us. He didn't lower the standard and say, "You can continue to live however you've lived against God." He said, "Stop doing that. But I'm not going to judge you because you made mistakes." We all make mistakes. And this is where we have to live. If we want mercy, we have to be merciful with everyone.

You know, we say all the time, you hear Becca and I talk about it, love them where they are. You're not going to fix anybody else. That's between them and God. So, we love them where they are. We are merciful to their weaknesses. Mercy is not weakness. It's not sentimental softness either. It's the disciplined ability to remember what God has done for us while dealing honestly with other people.

God's kingdom is going to require that attitude from us as we deal with human beings who are learning his way that we need to be merciful with them. James chapter 2, I'll finish this point with this. James chapter 2 verse 13 says for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

This is where we need to live. This is the attitude God is looking for in a first fruit. Back to Matthew chapter 5. Now verse 8, Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Purity of heart reaches deeper than our outward behavior. It's actually what's going on inside. A person can fake religion.

You can look great to other people, but your heart doesn't have to be right in order to be there. But God is looking at the heart. Where is your heart really? Joseph is a powerful example of someone who had the right purity of heart. It was in his heart to do right by God. I want to please God no matter what.

And so it's go we go back to Genesis chapter 39. We know that Joseph is confronted by Piphar's wife. He had been given mercy to live and to serve in Piphar's house. And obviously the wife tempted him on multiple occasions to come and lay with her to commit adultery, to sin. Joseph did not want to do that.

And he says here in verse 9 of Genesis 39, he says, "There's no one greater in this house than me, nor has he kept anything back from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against Piphar, against you? He knows where the sin is. It's against God. That's the relationship he wants to preserve and protect first.

That flows from a heart that desires to be right with God, not outwardly, inwardly. He doesn't want to have to carry what comes after that. That is where his heart was. A pure heart does not ask, "I wonder if I can get away with this." I mean, our kids are going to do that. But they're kids.

Hopefully, when we get older, we realize God's looking at that very tender place that reveals everything there is to know about us. And if our attitude is, I wonder if I can get away with this, we don't have the heart that God's looking for, the purity that he wants to see in that innermost place within us. We really need to be asking, what is right with God? Does God want me to do this? Would he be okay with this? I want to be right with him.

That's where I'm going to ask my first question. This is very important for first fruits because God isn't just training us to look obedient. We have to be obedient. And in order to live an obedient life today when it is the most difficult because our adversary is constantly trying to ruin our efforts, we're learning under the most challenging circumstances what it means to truly obey God.

And as our future role as kings and priests and leaders and servants under Jesus Christ, God needs us to be there, our hearts right with him and leading and teaching this world how to live that way from the heart. No excuse will be justified before people who understand what this means. A pure heart is not a heart that's never been tempted.

It's a heart that has chosen to reject temptation. It's a It's not not the heart that's never failed. It's the heart that ultimately chooses to stop failing, to get right with God, and to stay there. Peacemakers. Matthew chapter 5. As we work our way through the attitudes that Christ and God the Father are looking for in first fruits, what makes us different from everyone else in the world are these attitudes.

Verse 9 says, "Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the sons of God." This isn't the peace pursuers, the peace desirers, the peace wanters, the peace likers, peace makers, those people who make peace. A peacemaker is someone who works towards reconciliation. It's what you desire.

It's what you want to have peace. Not the kind of peace that comes on the other side of compromising God's law. It's the kind of peace that comes because you're willing to live God's law no matter what without condemning the world which can't see it, which can't understand it, which can't obey because God has not let them see how to obey yet.

We pursue peace. We make for peace. This is one of the clearest attitudes given to us about that kingdom which is coming as Isaiah presents it to us in Isaiah chapter 9 verses 6 and 7 of Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 says for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given clearly a prophecy about Jesus Christ and it says and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the increase of his government and peace. There will be no end upon the

throne of David and over his kingdom to us to to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. God's government is a government of peace. You know, when his government comes to this earth, God does not leave Satan in power.

The great divider, the great liar, the great murderer from the beginning will be put away, incarcerated for the entire period of the millennium, 1,000 years in which there's no competition for God's way of life. No competition for war, taking, stealing, possessing what somebody else is, fighting, arguing. God is bringing peace.

Our job is to help Christ bring peace to this world. make for peace. So if first fruits are being prepared to serve in that government, then peacemaking has to begin now. With everything that we do, we must make peace happen in our lives, in our relationships, in our families. >> [crying] >> over in Romans chapter 12 just to show us that Paul, the Apostle Paul talked about this.

Romans chapter 12 Verse nine. Well, the heading of this section for me in Romans chapter 12 says, "Behave like a Christian." It's kind of like a little bit of a finger in your chest. Behave like a Christian. Verse 9 says, "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhore what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love.

In honor, giving preference to one another. We are to live peaceibly amongst all men. So what verse 18 says, if it is possible as much as depends on you. This is at the heart of what it means to be a peacemaker. As much as depends on you, not on the other person. The finger is in our chest. as much as depends on me. Live peaceibly with all men.

Now the flip side of that coin is as much as depends on them, they may not desire peace with us. I can't control their end of that deal. I can only control my end, which is to pursue and make for peace as much as I can. So peace is not always possible because righteousness cannot control every other person's response.

But a first fruit should not be the source of unnecessary strife or arguments or discord or fighting or anything else which is the opposite of peace. Our first effort should be peace. We need to learn it now so that we can teach it later. I'm going to go back here to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. Now verse 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

If we think we're getting out of this life without any difficulty, Christ warns us that that's not going to happen. We're going to face challenges. We're going to be confronted with the Sabbath, the holy days. We're going to be persecuted because we don't believe modern Christian ideas like the Trinity. Our beliefs truly do set us apart for those who are looking closely.

And so it's not all going to be an easy smooth run till Christ returns. We're going to have hard times. And it says, "But when we are persecuted for righteousness sake," like that's what I'm willing to endure. I'm willing to be persecuted for that. It doesn't mean, look, it doesn't mean you have to roll over and take all the kicks to the stomach that the world wants to give us.

But we know that we're supposed to be peacemakers and we know that we have to suffer for righteousness sake. So when some persecution comes, we ought to look at it for what it is. A little persecution and be okay with it as a price for this way of life, as a price for the future that we've been offered.

first fruits, the first of the crop, those who Christ resurrects, brings to life, changes, and makes immortal spirit beings, sons and daughters of God in his kingdom, servants, kings, priests, and leaders with Jesus Christ in that kingdom to help the rest of this world comes with a price today. We have to be willing to pay that price.

So this brings us back to the question of our calling. Why me? Maybe the reason is you're willing to become this person that Christ talks about from verses 3-10. of Matthew chapter 5 that you're willing to become that person. You're willing to change. And maybe that's what God sees in you that makes you different, that makes you special.

Your willingness to become a first fruit when the rest of the world may not choose that. You've chosen it. That's what makes you special. that you accepted the calling, you were willing to change and become the first fruit you have been called to become. This is what makes a first fruit different from everyone else.

This is what makes God's people special today.