Paradoxical truths in economy

Luke 6:38 Paradoxical truths in economy
There are some paradoxical truths in the bible. For example, "Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it." (Luke 17:33)
This is the paradoxical truth that means "Whoever wants to live must die just like a kernal of wheat falls to the ground and dies." (John 12:24)
And another example is "Whoever wants to be first must be your slave." (Matthew 20:27) It means "Whoever wants to be a great leader must serve others like a slave."
Jesus fed five thousand people with five small barley loves and two small fish. And then he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." (John 6:12)
But Jesus did not say, "Don't waste !" when a woman poured an expensive perfume on his head. He rather complimented the woman, "She has done a beautuful thing to me." (Mark 14:6)
It is also paradoxical truth that means, "Do not receive God's grace in vain, and give something precious to God without a mercenary spirit, but with pleasure."
And today's scripture "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap." is also paradoxical truth.
These paradoxical truths tell us that we have to live according to these truths in order to receive the blessings of God.
Today, let's take a careful look at these paradoxical truths in the bible, so that we may receive the rich blessings of God.
As you know, the worldly people only try to rake money, but we Christians try to give it because God blesses and loves us when we give.
That is, Christians' happiness is not to grip but to give. He who always rakes money for only himself cannot rake happiness but worries. And he cannot enjoy the happiness of giving.
But God gives enough money to him who gives to God and others. And God lets him enjoy the happiness of giving.
But it is sad that there are many Christians who only grip but not give. They are like the Dead Sea that only receives the water but not give, so that no fish can live there.
But let's see the Galilee Sea. There are lots of fish in it because it let the water go out. Likewise if we only grip, we will become the men of dead faith who cannot enjoy the real happiness and joy.
But if we give on and on, we can enjoy much more happiness, and we will be respected by others, and God gives us much more blessings.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of giving. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we really want to give. Let's see the early church members.
When they received the Holy Spirit, they sold their lands and gave the money to the poor, so that the early church was full of love and joy, and the church grew and grew rapidly.
Brothers and sisters, do you want to be blessed by God ? Do yoy want to be happy persons ? Do you want your family be full of joy and love ? And do you want our church to grow ? Why don't you give ?
Bible says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." ( Acts 20:35) Think about ! It is more blessed for you to give than to beg for, isn't it ? Therefore we have to give in order to make our family (nation, church, ourselves) blessed.
Today's scripture says, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be mesured to you."
That is, God blesses us according as we give. Therefore the bible says, "He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done." (Proverbs 19:17)
"One man gives freely, yet gains even more ; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty." (Proverbs 11:24)
I want all of you to believe the words of the Lord "Give !", so that you may be richly blessed by God.
And we have to know the paradoxical truth that 9 is bigger than 10. That is, he who gives a tenth to God becomes richer than he who uses ten for himself. But people do not give a tenth to God because they think "Even 10 is not enough for me !"
But God says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." (Malachi 3:10)
If we give a tenth to God first, God will bless us. But it is hard for us to realize this truth. Sometimes we need the experience of tithe in order to realize the truth. It was same to me. I also needed the experience to practice tithe.
Let me tell you my experience. When I gave a tenth to God first in the army, there was no lack of money in my life, and something good happened to me. But when I did not give a tenth to God, I always felt lack of money, and something bad happened to me.
Because of this experience, I realized, "Aha, just like the bible says, if I rob God of tithe, pests devour my crops, and something bad happens to me. Therefore from now on I will never rob God of tithe !"
I think some of you have experienced this paradoxical truth like me. Giving tithe is rather an investment than a loss. And it is the gospel of gospels. I hope all of you to be richly blessed by giving tithe to God.
And we have to know the paradoxical truth that the more we spend for God, the more we reap. Bible says, "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously." (2 Cor 9:6)
If we spend money and time on the works of God, it is not a loss nor waste but a great benefit and happiness to us, and it will return to us with a hundred, sixty or thirty times.
Let me tell you my story. When I was a section leader in youth mission of Yoido Full Gospel Church, we needed a wide room for youth meeting.
We prayed God for a sanctuary. Then God worked. At that time my family rented a house of 40 pyong. But we moved into a house of 20 pyong (smaller house) to get a sanctuary.
But I said to my father who had little faith, "We are going to move into a larger house, so we need much more money."
Then my father gave me much money for a large house But we moved into a smaller house. Therefore my father got very angry at that time.
But because of that, my father's business was richly blessed, and a good news of great joy was brought to our family.
It was the news of the marriage of my elder sister. At that time she was 34 years old maid (too old for marriage in Korea).
So my parent always worried about that. And because of my elder sister I and my younger sister could not marry even though we were old for marriage. (It is not the Korean custom that the younger one get married before the older one.)
But what a great news ! A nice guy appeared to her and got married. The marriage jam(?) was completely relieved, so that I and my younger sister could get married fortunately.
Let me tell you another story. When I was a pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, our church needed a big amount of money to buy a building for Sunday school.
At that time my monthly wage was ￦1,000,000. But I made up my mind to donate ￦1,000,000 for that. It was a really big money to me.
But senior pastor Cho told his story in a worship service. "I made up my mind to donate ￦10,000,000 to purchase the building. But the Holy Spirit told me to add one more 0 to my pledge money."
At that monent the Holy Spirit strongly said to me, "Add one more 0 to your pledge money like pastor Cho !"
When I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit I was really surprised and I asked back, "Lord it is too much !" But finally I added one more 0 to my pledge money, which means ￦10,000,000.
After that I did my best to give the money to God as soon as possible. And I could give the money with the great help of God.
And at that time I prayed, "God, when I am going to build the church in the future, please pay me back the money that I have given to you !"
And God has given us(Calgary Centual Full Gospel Church) the money with 30 times, so that we could buy this beautiful church building.
Brothers and sisters, God always returns what we give to him. And God's return is always better than ours. Therefore bible says,
"No one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come eternal life." (Luke 18:29-30)
Brothers and sisters, don't forget. If we give for God, it will be returened to us with many times. Of course, it is the paradoxical truth which is different from the human thinking.
But if we put this truth into practice, we can experience the abundant blessing of God. I want all of you to enjoy the wonderful blessing of God. Amen !