GOD’S PROMISED PARADOX
Luke 6:38
Dr. David L. Haun
Hope Christian Church, Tamarac, Florida
February 29, 2004
There are two language concepts that are confusing to some: the Paradox and the Oxymoron. Oxymoron’s are the joining together of what appears to be opposite and absurd concepts. There are many examples on the Internet, such as "pretty ugly," "even odds," "Great Depression," "Government Organization," "Working Vacation," "Tax Return." (www.oxymoronlist.com.)
On the other hand, a paradox, while it may appear to be inconsistent with common sense usually offers a truth and an opportunity to any who will follow it. Jesus frequently used paradoxes in his teaching. A book by Dave Sutherland and Kirk Nowery, (1) which has assisted me in today’s sermon, lists several examples of Jesus’ Paradoxes. To find you must lose. (2) To be Rich you must be poor. (3) To live you must die. (4) To be first you must be last. (5) To be honored, you must be humbled. (6)
One possible paradox of Jesus will be the starting point of today’s sermon. The Paradox is found in
Luke 6:38: 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 measured to you." (NIV)
I
THIS SCRIPTURE IS GOD’S PARADOXICAL PROMISE TO EACH OF US.
When a promise is made, one must always consider the probability of its fulfillment. In the early months of 1912, the most outrageously expensive round-trip tickets were sold. The cost of the best first class ticket was nearly $10,000.00, in a time when the average worker made $6.00 a week.
The US Census Bureau reports that the average weekly salary in 2002 was $750.00. There are some here today who make more than this, and some who make less. So let’s figure the average might be $600.00. The difference between a $6.00 weekly income and a $600.00 weekly income is 10,000 percent. On that basis, those first class tickets in today’s dollars would be just at a million dollars a ticket. (7)
As expensive as those tickets were, there was a strong rivalry between the wealthy who desired to obtain one. For they were unique tickets, and in April 10, 1912, those fortunate enough to acquire them set sail in fantastic elegance from Southampton, England, on the grand ship RMS Titanic. When the final tally was made of the 1513 people who died that week, included in the list of the dead were nearly all of those who paid so much for their first class tickets. (8)
The White Star Line had claimed the Titanic was unsinkable, and promised a safe passage and a guaranteed return. But the promise wasn’t kept and the guarantee never honored.
Different than that promise of an unsinkable ship is the promise of Jesus we consider today. "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 measured to you."
This promise of Jesus is bigger than mere money. Think of the assets you have in your life: money, time, possessions, opportunities, influence, relationships, and much more. What Jesus is promising is opposite to one’s typical common sense. Don’t spend your life, He says, acquiring and hoarding possessions. Don’t make power and influence your goal in life. Be sharing with your time and your relationships and your money and your possessions. And to the degree that we do this, Jesus promises, we will receive far more back in return.
What this paradoxical promises stresses is not so much a specific amount or item, as a pattern to follow in life. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, urges them ... On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.. (9) That word ’prosper’ has a wonderful meaning in the original language. For it literally means "being blessed in a wonderful and good way." That good way might be in Business. That wonderful way might be in relationships. That good possession might be a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.
So, Paul is saying "as God has blessed and prospered you in your total life, set aside each week, with regularity, an offering worthy of God’s blessing." Because all that really lasts are the blessings that God gives. The Scripture is clear, "we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." (10) You’ll never see a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer.
Dave Sutherland and Kirk Nowery discuss John D. Rockefeller, who as America’s first oil baron, was the richest man in the world. "In the early years of the 20th century, his businesses accounted for one of every thirty dollars generated in the entire United States economy. In today’s currency that would be equal to a fortune ten times greater than Bill Gates has amassed. When Rockefeller died in 1937, a newspaper artist drew a cartoon which posed the question, ’How much did he leave?’ The answer in the next panel said simply, ’He left it all.’ (11)
II.
HOW MUCH WILL A MAN OR WOMAN WITH CHRIST-LIKE FAITH GIVE?
A person with Christ-like faith will give ALL of himself. Do you recall the scripture of Jesus, when he was teaching in the temple court? Mark, in his Gospel, tells the story this way:
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything - all she had to live on." Mark 12:41-44 NIV
A person of faith will offer everything to God. Remember, we talked about this just a couple of weeks ago. Remember the young man, William Borden, who has heir of the Borden dairy estate was worth millions, but committed his wealth and his life to God as a missionary to China? God may not expect us to become missionaries to China. But what Jesus does tell us in today’s paradoxical promise is that we do have, we are to give, and we will be blessed.
The Biblical Pattern is to give a set percentage to God. The Scriptural percentage is 10%. The Bible is clear. God owns it all. (12) He only loans it to us. (13) And God expects us to return ten percent in faithful response to His goodness to us. (14)
"Oh," one might say, "I can’t do that. I can’t afford it." Yes you can. There is not one of us in this room who might not at some point in the future face a decrease of ten per cent in our income. We’ve seen what a dip in the stock market can do. My grandfather-in-law worked in the Oklahoma oil fields during the depression. The owners of the company came to the workers and said: "We’re running out of money. We can’t afford to pay all of you, so we’re going to have to lay some of you off." Those depression-era oil workers refused to see half of their fellow workers laid off, and voted that day to take a 50% pay cut so that all of the men could earn something. And I remember grandmother Tilley saying it was hard, but they made it. And do you know what? Twylah or I neither one were born back then. But when I came to the family, Twylah’s granddad was serving a little Oklahoma church as a lay preacher. I wonder if maybe some part of Jim’s spiritual growth which led to his calling by God to preach, might have been due to what he learned during those depression days of God’s adequacy even when one doesn’t have much.
A woman who once lived in Miami -- I’m not sure where she lives now, owned a printing business in Miami. Her name is Frances. As an adult, Frances accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and joined a local church. She asked her church sponsor how much Christians give? Without thinking about it, the sponsor replied, "Well, a strong Christian might give 20%. And Frances said that she was so excited in her new faith that she took that comment as truth, and starting the next Sunday morning, put 20% of her income in the offering. She said it was months before she realized that was more than most people give. But by the time she learned her mistake, she had acquired the habit. And God used her faith in the writing of literally dozens of books and becoming a powerful witness within her Christian communities. (15)
You and I, if we have the trust in God and the courage to try, can prove to ourselves that we can reach the 10% Scriptural demand in our lives. And if by some chance actions and decisions in the past have placed us in a financial situation that limits our giving, then that faith and trust in God can help us to change our actions and any excessive drive to possess things. It may hurt for a while, but God can lead us to people who can help us learn how to handle our possessions.
I know there are people in today’s service who faithfully give a growing percentage of their income to God. I’m sure there are individuals here who tithe. I’ve not been here long enough to know who some of you are. I know Dorothy and Jack could come up here. I’m sure there are a number who could. I have asked one our members to share today his faith walk as it concerns his possessions. ________________, would you come and share with us your feelings regarding your stewardship responsibility to God to encourage us in considering what we might do in meeting God’s desires in our new church?.
(Select one of your tithers and ask him/her to speak for three minutes on his growth in Stewardship faith and practice of tithing)
Thank you _________ for your honesty and your sharing with us. You know, there’s a positive aspect of tithing as the basis of giving. In tithing, what we Give to God depends on what God has given first. If God gives a little, from that little we return. If God gives abundantly, from that abundance we return. Once we decide to make this commitment with God in our tithing, from then on, everything we give hinges on God. And the paradoxical promise of Jesus is clear:
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 measured to you."
III.
THIS NEXT WEEK, ALL WHO ARE ACTIVE HERE AT HOPE
WILL RECEIVE A COPY OF OUR CHURCH’S BUDGET OF FAITH, AND A COMMITMENT CARD TO LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN MOVE FORWARD AND GROW.
Let’s dream a moment. If the Holy Spirit should suddenly touch each of us who share here in the family of Hope, and if that Spirit moved each of us to move their percentage level of giving to ten percent, then the budget you will receive this week would be totally oversubscribed. . I believe there would be enough money to hire the full time staff you need, enough to increase our church percentage to outreach giving, enough to meet every program and effort planned, and enough to begin to put money aside for the eventual purchase of property.
I believe that! I believe it because that’s what Jesus guarantees in his promised paradox, and because Twylah and I have witnessed it in our own lives. So has John. And so can you.
As Hope moves forward from a beginning mission into a church, that growth is going to occur as people who recognize the truth of Christ’s Paradox, and who commit themselves to respond to God with their time, their effort, their loyalty and their faithfulness in carrying out the ministries of the church in their efforts and expanding the ministries of the church through their giving. God can do it, but God has determined that we are going to be the way it is done.
Someone may be thinking "I don’t believe in signing pledge or commitment cards. I don’t think people ought to know what I’m doing, what I’m giving, or my finances. I don’t think that’s anybody’s business. I don’t know if anyone here has ever felt that way. But if someone has, I would encourage you to rethink your position. You see, it isn’t true that our financial situations are secret. We tell a lot of people a lot of things about ourselves.
When Twylah and I.. signed up to enter John Knox Village, we were given a packet of papers to fill out, on which we told most everything about ourselves. We told how much money we had, we told how many debts we had, we listed the stocks we owned. We told those people everything about ourselves financially. We had to, to show we could afford to move into John Knox. Most of us here today have purchased a home. We had to tell a lot of people all about our finances to get a mortgage We told the broker when we filled out the paper work. We told when he looked it all over. We told some secretary in the home office who entered it in the computer. We told the investigators who checked to be sure our financial statements were correct.
Now the commitment card for our Stewardship is different than those financial disclosure papers. But I hope each of us will see this commitment card as the time we can be bold with God as to who we are, responsive as to who God is, and be confident in what Jesus has vowed in our paradoxical promise today.
One final thought: Someone may be thinking, "I don’t want to make a commitment until I am sure the church is going to make it." What we are dealilng with here is a spiritual response to God. The question is, What would God want us to do for him with our posessions? In the book of Acts, the believers who made up that first church of hope didn’t know for sure it would succeed. Christians faced arrest and persecution. They weren’t sure how long the church would last, but they took all they had, sold it, and brought the money to the Apostles for the church’s work. (16) Don’t let hesitation limit the dream of what Hope can become for God, or to block the opportunity to allow God to bring to you the promise of the Lord’s Promised Paradox.
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 measured to you." Let’s Pray.....
FOOTNOTES
(1) Sutherland, Dave, and Nowery, Kirk, The 33 Laws of Stewardship. (Camarillo, CA. Spire Resources, 2003) 46. (2) Matt. 10:39.
(3) Matt. 5:3. (4) Lu 17:33.
5) Matt. 19:30. (7) Google.com - quickmath percentages. (8) Sutherland. Op Cit. 27-29. (9) 1 Cor 16:2-3 NKJV. (10) Timothy 6:7 NKJV.
(11) Southerland and Nowery. Op Cit. 11. (
12) Ps. 50:10, (13) Lu. 12:42-48.
(14) Lev 27:30. (15) Story heard in a talk by Frances Hunter, given at a retreat in Oklahoma. (16) Acts 4:32-35.
