For the past couple of months, the Lord has directed me to preach the Kingdom of God. It’s an extraordinary honor to preach it, because that’s what Jesus preached – it’s the purpose for which He was sent. (Luke 4:43 NKJV). In fact, even after His resurrection, for forty days Jesus continued to teach His disciples concerning the Kingdom of God. (Acts 1:1-3 NKJV).
For the past couple of Sundays I’ve taught about the financial system of the Kingdom of God. It’s a system totally unlike the kingdom of the world’s system. The structure of the Kingdom’s financial system would perplex the Federal Reserve, the stock markets, and the brokerage houses. It would confound the financial analysts, economists, and business school professors.
Why? Because the central theme of the Kingdom’s financial structure is a paradox: Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. (Luke 6:38 NKJV).
The kingdom of the world says “grab, grab, grab. . . hoard, hoard, hoard.” But in the Kingdom of God, as you give, give, give, “stuff” comes back to you – for your needs, and to start the cycle of giving and receiving all over again.
And we determine the level of our blessing by the level of our giving!
Now that’s a paradox! A Kingdom Paradox!