"Respecting Ownership" - Pastor Doug Batchelor

you if you're visiting we should just let you know that you're coming in to a series this is a series that we've been doing on the 10 commandments as probably is evidenced by the little monuments that we have behind us this would represent the eighth commandment today and there's actually nine so far that we've done but one was an introduction to the law now we're on commandment number eight and our sermon title is respecting ownership because this commandment really encompasses that theme and it's based upon the eighth commandment which is pretty easy for us to remember you shall not steal got King James vow now is you shalt not steal if they that seems short to you it's even shorter in the original it's two words and it would translate don't steal and the word for steal in the Hebrew is a word Ghanim it means to thieve to deceive to carry away secretly to bring to steal away by stealth and it really encompasses it's a broad comprehensive truth that you're not to take something that you don't have a right to and there's the first you notice the first three of the last six Commandments last six Commandments on the second table of stone really deal with human right the last three deal are dealing with property in some respect talking about stealing property it would be talking about taking someone's reputation or name or covetousness that often leads to destroying a person's name or taking their property the other commandments the penalty was almost always death for the last six commandments are sorry the last three of the last six Commandments it was a lesser penalty varying degrees based on what was stolen with the exception of one thing you could steal the penalty was also death that was it if you stole a person namely kidnapping didn't read about that in Exodus 21 16 he who kidnaps a man and sells him or if he is found in his hand shall surely be put to death and you know even in some countries that's still the case there are very stiff penalties for kidnapping in North America as well now the Bible really speaks in this commandment to something that's very important property rights you notice that God is not a communist God says that you have a right to property and that that must be respected there are four ways that you really come in possession of something you typically either buy it or you receive it as a gift or you find it or you steal it now some things you legitimately find but some people find things in other people's houses and so I'm not talking about that kind of finding I'm talking about the legitimate finding where you just cannot find the the owner or sometimes you dig something up that's been gone long the owners long gone and and you found a treasure but property rights is really something that God endorses in the Bible even when Ananias and Sapphira were struck down by the Lord in Acts chapter 5 and it was for a combination of lying and they claimed they were giving a hundred percent of their property and it really only gave part of it they were trying to get the credit for this big generous gift Peter said to them while it was in your hands was it not your own I mean God recognized that it was in their control but ultimately who is the real owner of everything Genesis 14 19 God has called the possessor of heaven and earth that would cover everything in the beginning God made the heaven in the earth and if it says he's the possessor of heaven and earth he owns everything exodus 19:5 all the earth is mine everything belongs to God Psalms 24 verse 1 you know this the earth is the Lord's and the fullness there so everything ultimately belongs to God but even in the Garden of Eden God made it clear to Adam and Eve he was inviting them to be stewards of his property and so respect for the property of others is a commandment of God that that must be regarded that when somebody has stewardship and ownership of something that we are not to be taking what is theirs or under their stewardship and there's a lot of things that fall into this category of thou shalt not steal we're gonna talk about some of them today I went to an Indian restaurant like Indian food most of it and some of it's pretty hot and it was a buffet and for whatever reason in the buffet line of the Indian restaurant there were small spoons and I thought well I guess I'm gonna need one of those and so I took the napkin and I took this ball spoon but I wanted to hold my plate and serve with my other hand so I took the spoon and I put it in my top pocket and I got my food went back to the table and ate with my friends and didn't even occur to me there was also a spoon at the table I don't know why they had little spoons there at the buffet but but not until I got home and I was changing out of my work clothes that I realized I've got this spoon in my pocket I thought what's it oh and then I was overwhelmed with a sense of guilt I thought I just pilfered I felt I stole I have spawned it with someone else's property right from under their nose I I stole they're still very similar that's how I felt now God knew I didn't mean to do it so I thought I heard one voice say a dog it was an accident don't worry about it this spoon probably costs 25 cents they buy them in bulk no big deal and another voice said that's not your spoon that's their spoons and I thought well I've got to take it back I Drive by this place on my way to work so I stuck it in my little briefcase I take to work and it was a couple weeks every time I went got back home with my briefcase I thought or one time I thought about it I thought man I'm late I gotta go when I drove by the Indian restaurant I still have their spoon it started bothered me I thought there are probably people who aren't eating dessert because they don't have that spoon and that restaurant and I knew I'd never have peace so finally I I just made a special trip to that restaurant didn't even eat there I just walked in the front door and the mighty man said hi can we get you table I said no I pulled out this little spoon I said I took this by accident the other day and I'm bringing it back and the man had a look of amazement on his face he said you're a good man he said with a Hindu accent he said let me give you a soda I think you know I said I don't need a soda but he was amazed that I would bring back the spoon because I guess they have their silverware diminished all the time and they've got a constantly replenished it and I thought well you know that's a good witness then that may have done some good today if someone knows they're still people that have a conscience that will bring back now I'm not saying that my conscience is perfect I'm not telling the story for that reason but I am telling this because I was convicted I had a voice inside my head that said not just a spoon and I was convicted you know you can go to hell for stealing a million dollars and you can go to hell for stealing a pin from the bank stealing is stealing and it's pretty common piece commonplace in our culture today for people to just sort of shrug off petty theft theft is forbidden under this commandment how many of you remember the time when you did not need to lock your front door and they even when you went on vacation and then some just when you went on vacation but most of the time day and night the door was open I grew up and you've what they called Universal City too hung of Southern California living with my grandparents a door I don't ever remember the door being locked and it's hard to imagine in Southern California now but boy not today people have alarms and alarm systems and security cameras and there's good cause for that something's happened to the morals and the values in our country and in our culture in the last 40 years some have traced it to the time when they took prayer out of the schools and they took the 10 commandments off the walls in the schools I remember when I was a kid I used to think was I just imagining this I didn't go to religious school when I was young I went to public school in California and we had the Ten Commandments on the wall and we said prayer in our class you remember that and something happened I mean you'd think something as basic is you're not supposed to steal the public school wouldn't have a problem with leaving that on the wall but those things were taken down and there are even some churches that have taken it off the wall I know one church in the town where I was serving his pastor they used to have the Ten Commandments on the wall in their Sunday school building then we did an evangelistic meeting in that town the Sabbath commandment became a problem for some in that congregation they went to the pastor and said what do we do about that he said we're not under the law now we're under grace and they said well why don't we have the law on the wall in our Sunday school class he took it down it's the truth and so that has an impact an impact on a culture it begins to filter down and right now in North America stealing is at epidemic levels let me just give you a few examples shoplifting more than 13 billion dollars worth of goods are stolen from retailers every year in North America 13 billion most companies when they are itemizing their budget for the year along with budgeting in how much paper they're going to use and travel expenses everything in they budget in loss due to theft it's just a factor that's more than 35 million per day is stolen in North America more than 10 million people in our nation have been caught 10 million there's only 300 million 10 million have been caught those are the ones caught shoplifting in the last 5 years I read a statistic last night 1 out of 11 people will admit to having shop lifted in the last year you know what that means you better find your person pull it a little closer to you right now look at that person to the right and the left 9 I'm hoping we're an exception but you'd be surprised there are some people even Christians I've got a friends who is a leader in the Christian Church who admits even after he accepted Christ he had a problem with kleptomania and with stealing things shoplifting affects more than the offender it older overburdens the police and the courts it adds to a store's security it cost consumers more for goods it hurts children's and family not to mention the shame of being caught some people shoplift because they say well the company charges too much so I'm just evening the score they rationalize it the prices are too high or they're insured they've got insurance that will cover it and it's amazing because I used to be one of those people now when I talk to you about this commandment I'm not proud to say it but I was just a plain unadulterated thief and it's not my fault I'm a victim my father was a multi-millionaire and I saw him steal shoplift he thought it was clever it was almost just the thrill of getting away with it and trying to look so what do you think that says to a kid I never ever ever forgot that there's a lot of things I forgot but I never forgot when I went with my father to a boat store and why the salesman wasn't looking we had one of the boats we were looking at it was missing a part and he stole the part off the boat and what do you think that says to a kid and my mother she would tell me the finer points of how to steal from Bloomingdale's and because she was an actress she was a very good thief she could just look so smooth and clever but you know to me it said if you can get away with it and they weren't poor so if that's any indicator how many people out there that don't need to steal steal and you know a lot of people that go into a store to shoplift did not plan on it when they first went to the store and a lot of people who go in a store to shoplift also buy something and so they justified by thinking well you know I'm also making a purchase what about going in a store and going through the vegetable section and you sample a few grapes you ever seen that and but you don't buy anything that's called stealing well yeah if you want to you can sample them let's have that conversation later now I have gone into a store before where I was so thirsty I got the soda there juice or whatever I was gonna drink I opened it now I'm drinking it at the cash register and I haven't paid for it and then I tell him I left my wallet at home no and then then I buy it have you ever done that that's different you know you're gonna buy it they just know you're does really thirsty and the line is long but even then you have a tinge of guilt because it's not technically here still you've paid down many shoplifters stealing buy merchandise at the same time 73 percent of shoplifters don't plan to steal when they go in twenty five percent of shoplifters are kids seventy five percent are adults this is from a website National Association for shoplifting prevention in ASP and I just wanted to give them credit for that there's quite a few statistics professionals most non-professional shoplifters don't commit other types of crime they'll never steal an ashtray from your house and they'll return twenty dollars that they owe you but they somehow don't have a problem stealing from the store it's interesting some do it just for the excitement of getting away with it they get a rush out of it stealing kind of epidemic in our culture but this is not the worst way it happens Romans chapter 13 verse 9 for the commandments you shall not commit adultery you shall not murder you shall not steal notice how Paul bunches this group of Commandments don't murder we want to do that don't commit adultery shouldn't do that don't steal don't bear false witness you shall not covet and if there's any other commandment all are summed up in this namely you shall love your neighbor as yourself love does no harm to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law if we love we don't steal from each other we'll respect one another's property and yes even the store and if you think they charge too much God has other ways of dealing with that God has not appointed you to be Robin Hood some people think well but I give away what steal and so that justifies it no there is no good excuse sometimes the government thinks it's Robin Hood steal from the rich and give to the poor work and what that insinuates is that the government doesn't believe that the people are inherently good enough to do it on their own so they're gonna make him do it well that's a whole different subject so I'm not gonna go down that road sava schoolteacher was talking to her children one day about the ten commandments and the teacher said no what do you call a person that reaches into a man's pocket and takes his wallet with his money little boy jumped up and said his wife the Bible says stealing can also happen through just not being fair we should have just scales we should be honest in our business dealings with people amen Christian businessman should give good measure pressed down shaken together and running over why do unto others as you would have them do unto you is the principle when it comes to this and if you're a Christian and you go to a hotel room yes you are invited to use the soap that they provided and there's usually some toilet paper it doesn't mean you're supposed to take every little ounce of shampoo and all the extra toilet paper with you and put it in your suitcase and say to yourself well I paid for it if people came to your house and did that your when you go to a hotel you're a guest in the hotel you're paying to be a guest it doesn't mean you're supposed to clean out everything in the room before you leave it got a little quiet some of you and I said that that wasn't in my notes oh I just thought of Deuteronomy 25 13 you shall not any have in your bag differing weights a heavy and light weight is supposed to be a certain weight you shall not have in your house differing measures a large and a small you shall have a perfect and a just weight a perfect and adjust measure that days you want to live a long life that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all that do these things who behave on righteously are an abomination to the Lord your God one more on that proverbs 11:1 dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord but a just weight is his delight we should be fair and honest in the Bible they measured everything out they had little scales if you bought whether it was silver or gold and they weighed your gold and your silver the food or the grain they'd weight things and they'd have fair weights I sold firewood for several years and firewood sells in a tier three tiers to a court unless it's stove wood which is 12-inch and there's four tier to a court because a court of wood is 128 square feet 128 square feet is 128 square feet and when you sack of firewood you'd stack it up four feet high four feet wide eight feet long that's a cord of wood and one day there was a man in town who is hiring people to split wood and he had a crew down there splitting wooden I thought well you know I'll go work for him and let him have the headache of trying to do all the sales and so I said you mind if I work for you splitting wood and so I worked for him for a few days and when he was stacking the cords I knew right away because I I don't know if he knew I sold my own wood and I said this isn't a full court are we selling these as a court he said well you've got large cords and small cords these are the small courts I know what there's no such thing as a small court it's a hundred twenty-eight cubic feet well he was a dishonest businessman and he would tell these old ladies all this to kinds are these are the clothes small courts but he was charging full price for court of what might not hurt to mention to you a few years later he was murdered that your days may be long on the land and we just read that God does not look favorably on people who cheat each other and some people steal from their employers and some employers steal from their employees it works both ways you can read in the book of James about those unjust employers in chapter 5 verse 4 and it says the wages of their labors they have not paid it's crying out to God for justice being fair in your dealings you know sometimes when you're negotiating with somebody and you're gonna buy something and you try to get the price down and that's fun you know we always do that and have you ever traveled and you've bought something overseas and you barter a little bit and they say ten dollars and you say no no is that i tender eight dollars they say nine dollars you say 850 and there's nothing wrong with that because what you're doing is trying to find a fair price but if you know that t-shirt you're trying to buy is easily worth more than five dollars and you're trying to get them down to three dollars and you can see that they're poor that's not good and I've met people like that and they claim to be Christians they come away from a deal like this at home I got a good deal I said yeah well you took advantage of that person because they're desperate you ought to be fair with people I had someone come to our house to do some work recently and they said they'd do it for such and such an amount I said it's worth more than that when it came time to pay him I paid him more and they were pleasantly surprised Bible talks about a man who shocked his Labor's by the end of the day he paid some of them more than others who he paid one group what he had agreed but he decided to be generous with some and pay them more maybe they needed it more who knows but there's nothing wrong with being generous with people just don't take advantage of people it's okay to try to get a fair deal we all agree but sometimes we push it too far and we're trying to take advantage of someone's desperate circumstances and just remember this do unto others as you would have them do unto you however and you know what I found is when I'm fair with people I remember not too long ago bartering with someone over a used truck our family just bought a used truck to replace my truck that was already twenty seven years old and I thought to myself well how far do I want to push this guy I want to be fair and I picked what I thought was a fair price and he was happy I was happy and you know I've got this little superstitious belief that that trucks gonna run better because I didn't take advantage of I agree maybe it's my own superstition but it seems to be running fine I found in the past where you tried to take advantage of somebody God just can't bless you might think I got a great deal on this but let's see how long it runs you see what I'm saying there's a principle there that if you're fair with people God will bless you he'll be fair with you so have an honest scale you heard the story about the lady came in just about the time the butcher store was closing and she rushed in she said I've got some company coming over I need a chicken do you have a chicken he said yeah ma'am I got a chicken he goes back to the freezer he's got one chicken left in the freezer he doesn't tell her that and he pulls it out and brings it out he plops it on the scale is one pound and a half and she looks at it and she says do you have another one I need a little bigger one and he doesn't have another one but he didn't tell her that he says I'll see what I can do he goes back he takes the chicken 16 in the freezer pulls it back out again gold puts it on the scale except now he rests his knuckle on the scale and it says 2 pounds she said well I think I'll just take both of them yeah busted you will reap what you saw what do you do if the clerk gives you too much change at the store as soon he said what if you don't find out till you get home take it back he all heard the story about Honest Abe ostensibly one of the campaign's stories was that he got home or someone bought something he found out that they gave him a nickel two mutts and he walked ten miles to give him the nickel and I'm kind of inclined to believe that it was true he had he had principles so otherwise you keep what's not yours and yells all kinds of things that devil will tell you he'll say all well serves him right look how the Lord's blessed me with extra money the cashier gave me thank you lord I know he's testing you this eighth commandment requires honesty and fairness in all of our dealings Leviticus 19 11 repeats it you shall not steal or deal falsely nor lie to one another sure I am the Lord every attempt to gain from the ignorance weakness or misfortune of another person's person is registered as fraud in the books of heaven the golden rule is here always do unto others as you would have them do unto you but is it wrong to steal if your poor teacher asks the kids in school if you found a purse left on a park bench with money in it what would you do when a little boy raises his hand he says if there was a poor family you should take it back implying if there not a poor family you don't is that accurate or did God say rich or poor don't steal and if you find something that belongs to someone you take it back it doesn't matter how much they have I've met even Christians that have thought when it came to retain a debt if it was to a poor person they were more obligated than to a rich person if you've got a debt to pay you have a debt to pay and as a Christian it's a principle and God has not appointed you to even things out in the world by again doing that Robin Hood where if the rich I should not pay it back but if the poor well I probably should stealing is stealing proverbs 30 verse 9 it says lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord he says that if I have too much I'm liable to deny you ever forget the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my god poor stealing profaning the name of God there's something extra special about poor people that also are honest that you can trust with integrity Exodus 22:1 here's what the law said verse Exodus 22:1 through verse 4 if a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep if the thief is found breaking in and if he has struck so that he dies he shall have no guilt for his bloodshed if the sun is risen on him there shall be guilt for his bloodshed in other words if you know maybe he's clobbered by the man who catches him and he's been stealing breaks into his barn or his house and steals and if he survives it he still is required to pay as if he survives it if the Sun is risen on him there will be guilt and he should make full restitution if he has nothing then he'll be sold for his theft what a tease a poor man Lord he has nothing what does God say I didn't write this you take it up with him rich and poor don't steal that law is not just for rich people and I've just seen this this attitude that's permeated our culture that it's really bad when there's corporate theft in high places because they make millions and it's just and boy poor people it just makes them really mad because they've got so much money that it sort of justifies stealing from corporations or a justifies stealing from rich stores and stealing you steal from yourself when you steal you steal your character you steal your integrity you're stealing from other people if a person steals from a store that raises prices for everybody else you're stealing property from everybody and you never ever it or ever take it from me a recovered thing you never get ahead by stealing from somebody it's just amazing they say what goes around comes around I would steal something and then my friends would steal it for me or I'd stole a car and then it broke down I had spent two days hitchhiking back in the rain or I'd steal a stereo nearly risked my life and it was a broken stereo and just everything went wrong or I stole and I stole a TV I woke up found out that someone broke in and stole my TV and I had the audacity to call the police and so I it took a long time but I finally learned there seems to be some higher power out there because you never ever do you know nobody has ever committed the perfect crime and don't be thinking well I'll be the first one because no one can you know why you cannot really break God's law cause you will always be paid in this life of the next nobody ever gets away with it most of the time because God is good there's consequences in this life because he's trying to redeem us and teach us to turn from that bad behavior but stealing the Bible calls it a sin rich or poor it's what put Jesus on the cross isn't that right do not steal how about paying your debts to some people steal by just not paying what they owe Psalms 37 21 the wicked charges it and does not repay well I change that a little bit the wicked borrows and does not repay when you use a credit card aren't you borrowing your you're borrowing money in advance and when you don't pay what happens every L everyone else in order to compensate the credit-card companies must charge a higher interest the cost of money the cost of products everything goes up now I recognize sometimes there are businesses and their laws about chapter 11 chapter 13 chapter whatever chapters there are chapters of you don't pay these laws it used to be a person couldn't pay a debt they'd be put in a debtors prison and that was pretty harsh so there are laws that deal without with how to pay back debts sometimes people don't plan and God is merciful if you filed bankruptcy it doesn't mean you've committed the unpardonable sin you all hear me I think bankruptcy ought to be the very last thing that a Christian resorts to as a an option because if you have debt because of choices you've made you ought to do everything in your power to pay it back there are a lot of programs out there to help oh but pastor Doug it'll take me years a lot of people are in debt because they're buying things that they don't really need trying to live a lifestyle that they have not yet earned and then they can't pay for this is true and then they end up being thieves because I said well I just can't pay it back but you've got that stuff still in your house or you've used it and it's gone and you've taken property that wasn't yours now talking to all of us now God wants us to pay our debts and if you ever borrow anything from your neighbor you still have that shovel if you go to a store and you tell Macy's I'd like to just borrow this is that called borrowing if you borrow something from your neighbor and just because they didn't tell you the day when it was supposed to come back it doesn't mean it's not stealing that three weeks later you still have it and they don't God wants us to be faithful to return things we've got a problem with hymnals at the church that have disappeared not in a church I think what happens is some people say you know there's this song I want to learn and after all I'm a member and I pay tithe and offering I'd like to take it home and learn this song they forget to bring it back yes that was a veiled appeal if you have a hymnal that you've borrowed we're running short proverbs 3 verse 27 do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is in the power of your hand to do so if you have borrowed something whether it's money or some object and you got it you know mrs. ring he fo makes me very nervous because she's always sending me home with food and it's delicious and I sure appreciate it but it's in her containers go home praise the Lord okay and then I just Fred you already know that I'm a little compulsive about making sure I don't cuz I'm you know when you're a recovering thief you become very hyper conscious about these things because I don't want it on my record I can see it now I'll be standing there in the Judgment Day and the Lord's gonna be showing me missus when he falls Tupperware that's still in my kitchen and you know what I'm talking about any of you ever have those concerns I think it ought to bother us a little bit if something belongs to somebody else get it back to them and you know what else makes me nervous that's a little personal thing that scares me people give me books a lot of people give me books to read and manuscripts and I say to them do you need this back and they say yes and I'll say let me buy my own because I am afraid I people like you many books I forget who gave it to me and I still got it and I don't know what I'm gonna do and it just makes me very nervous and so some of you probably have books that you any of you ever borrow book and getting back yeah no don't worry I've easily I think the Lord can forgive don't this understand there's some things you can make right and some things you may not be able to make right but God wants us to be faithful in he that is faithful in that which is least is what faithful also in much Exodus 22 14 if a man borrows anything from his neighbor and it becomes injured or dies the owner of it not being with it he will make it good if you borrow something and you break it the right thing to do is to fix it and get it back to them you should return it in the same or better condition has someone ever lent you their car don't bring it back dirty the nice thing to do is wash it before you bring it back they gave it to you with three quarters of a tank you bring it with one quarter of a tank that's kind of like stealing isn't it put gas in the tank wash it up give it back to him you know what they'll be happy to lend it to you next time but if you give it back to the minute covered with bugs and their tank is running on fumes what would you do do one to others as you would have them do unto you gambling oh wait one more thing under that borrowing you got a party to go to so you go shopping at Macy's or Nordstrom's you wear that dress to the party then afterwards you thought I don't think I'm ever going to probably go to that party again you take it back and get a full refund come along let that sink in I did in the Vantage listing meeting one time I probably shouldn't have done it and I didn't Bonnie or Karen had bought me a new tie and I put it on just before the meeting and I looked down and I still had the tag on it and when I first put it on and I said to the people I said does this look okay and he said yeah say yeah I got a new tie in so I said you like it yeah we like this said I pulled off the price tag I said I guess I'll keep it as if I was gonna take it back after wearing it once to the meeting that I was just kidding I was gonna keep it I just needed go on record in case you ever watched that program now my conscience was bothering me gambling its gambling stealing well I think we know gambling is wrong but you know gambling is all based on the premise of that you're trying to get something from other people without working just by playing a game of chance right away Christians ought to know there's something wrong with gambling because it becomes addicting not living very far from Reno we don't even even worry about Reno anymore there's bingo parlors everywhere and because Indian casinos that's basically become legalized gambling all across the 50 states under the pretense of being cultural diversity it says really legalized gambling and we've got one of the biggest bingo parlors or casinos in North America's almost across the street from amazing facts and a lot of people lose everything and we thought we ought to put a sign out front but for ministry because the traffic that goes by a lot of people lose everything going to those places because they're addicted proverbs 28 2008 phul man will abound with blessings but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished whenever you get involved in any get-rich-quick scheme you're usually not gonna be without guilt there's all kinds of different forms of gambling and multi-level marketing and things that are designed for people to get rich quick usually at the expense of somebody else and that stuff borders on the definition of stealing gambling is really trying to take you know if the lotteries doing who do you think buys most of the lottery tickets poor people are rich people poor people do statistically it's it's very clear and the government's basically prevailing all this money from the the poor people and ostensibly it's supposed to be going into some kind of government good project but people are doing without so they can buy the lottery ticket attached to some dream and what do you think happens with the majority of people that get this big windfall there's very few of them that win but the ones you get this big windfall track what happens in their lives afterward all kinds of man just recently got murdered by his family who won the lottery because everyone was worried about who was gonna get the money and it's not attractive it's not connected with good things gambling constrain relationships interfere with work lead to financial catastrophe people do things they never thought they would do when they get addicted to that how about stealing time Ecclesiastes 9 verse 10 whatever your hand finds to do do it with your might but there's no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you're going they did a survey at 2006 combination of America Online in salary.com workers in this one poll admitted to wasting an average of nearly 2 hours a day of company time the number one distraction was surfing the internet followed by socializing with co-workers other top time wasters were running errands making personal phone calls and arriving later leaving early according to the poll that interviewed 2,700 people 2 hours a day of an eight-hour day that employees are admitting that they don't really work you wonder about productivity what happens there and economy yeah you know and that's this is an America a lot of countries they work six days a week I mean they really work six days a week and some of them work seven days a week I'm not saying we should be workaholics but if you're being paid for the time you're at work being paid you ought to work this idea that you're being paid to rest most workplaces give people rest time off there's a lot of fraud it's stealing from your employer again Colossians 3:23 whatever you do do it heartily as unto the Lord if God was your employer if Jesus was your employer would you be just playing around on Facebook during his time and yet I think we all know a lot of that happens how about stealing ideas there's more people out there than you might imagine that have PhD behind their name that downloaded their thesis plagiarized it took it from somebody else or what about cheating in school on tests 74% of students admitted sharing answers with a classmate during a test you know I found in my research for this another website that gave some statistics on cheating and how prevalent it is I mentioned 73 percent of all test takers include including prospective graduate students and teachers agree most students do cheat the majority cheat at some point eighty percent of high school students agreed wasn't always that way that's gone up quite a bit in the last 50 years statistics show that's cheating among high school students has risen dramatically you notice I told you they took the ten commandments off the wall while about twenty percent of college students admitted to cheating in high school during the 1940s today seventy-five between 75 and ninety eight percent of college students surveyed report having cheated in high school in the past it was a struggling student who was more likely to cheat just to survive today it's the above average student who also cheats to get the very best grades it doesn't have the stigma it no longer I used to have with it you're really stealing sometimes someone else's homework when you do it I heard about a professor in a college that was about to give a test and he told his class just before the test he said you're gonna get a test on two things today honesty and trigonometry said if you are gonna fail one of the tests fail the test of trigonometry he said there are a lot of good people out there that know nothing about trigonometry but there are no good people that don't understand honesty and so it's possible for someone to steal by taking ideas that belong to somebody else you can steal a person's reputation through gossip and slander what's the most important thing you possess your house your bank account or your name and sometimes my slandering a person saying evil things about them trying to cut them down maybe there's a promotion coming and you're hoping you're aligned so you've got to undermined them to others and spread bad things i'muh talks about that second Timothy 3 verse 1 through 3 know this in the last days perilous times will come men will be lovers of themselves lovers of money boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy unloving unforgiving slanderers gossiping about others saying malicious unkind even if they're true you don't need to be cutting that person down and stealing the reputation and it's really hard to recover those words once they're spoken stealing from God you know I'd be amiss as a pastor if I didn't mention what the Bible says about tithe and offering but does it say in Malachi chapter 3 will a man Rob God did you ever say where have we robbed you in tithes and offerings you're cursed with the curse but you've robbed me even this whole nation a hundred percent of what we have that we worry about other people stealing really belongs to God we are simply temporary stewards of what God has given us have you ever seen a hearse pulling a u-haul now you can't take it with you these things all belong to God and we need to remember that and one way we show that is you know what beautiful thing about this commandment is it's really telling us that God does give us the rights to use his possessions he says prove you believe it all belongs to me by the tenth of your increase and offerings you return that and I will bless the other 90% I'll bless what you have he'll also protect what we have that doesn't mean that if you're a faithful type here no one will ever steal but it seems like God restores somehow or other now having said all this I don't want to leave you looking as depressed as you do right now the Gospels good news can't thieves be forgiven yes Luke nineteen eight there was a man named Zacchaeus and he was a publican and publicans used to take taxes for the Romans and they pocketed they were notorious they were mafia back then they line their pockets with just like the Mafia used to control the shipping industry the publicans controlled the shipping industry and they'd line their pockets with the goods of others when Zacchaeus was received by Jesus he was so moved he said Lord half of my goods I give to the poor and if I've taken anything by anyone through false accusation a form of stealing I restore him fourfold why fourfold because the Bible said that you're supposed to pay back four times when David talked about this man who stole another man's land he said he will restore fourfold because he did not have pity they used to pay back four times and part of being forgiven is you should be willing to return now you say pastor Doug I'm so glad you preached this sermon about stealing because you know I've had my neighbor's rake in my yard and I don't got some things I took from my employer that I probably shouldn't have taken they're little things but you know I needed extra paper and paper clips whatever was so I brought some home from the office supply and praise the Lord that Jesus will forgive me you right he will forgive you you need to bring your neighbor back his chainsaw you don't think he notices it's gone his rake even if he doesn't notice you need to take it back I've had a lot of people come to me after a message like this as a pastor Doug if I confess what I stole I may end up in jail what do I do I say you trust Jesus you go back to your boss you tell them what you did you say I've become a Christian I'll do everything I can to make it right but I just felt I needed to confess and you see I have never known anyone that was incarcerated though some could have been because they were honest it usually shocks people and even the courts are very lenient with people that has suddenly developed a conscience it's like that man who wrote a letter to the IRS and it says please and close fine fifty dollars I cheated on my taxes and I've not been able to sleep if I'm still not able to sleep after this I'll send the other fifty the IRS is not even a very good light right now so I don't know if I should have sent that but it says in Ezekiel 33 if the wicked restores the pledge gives back what he has stolen now what if you can't give it back sometimes I was a thief I burglarized houses out I woke up sober didn't even know where they were it was in the dark and really this sometimes you just can't or it's been years and the person's dead what do you do well God forgives you praise the Lord he'll forgive you did Jesus forgive a thief on the cross could he pay anything back no and he said you're gonna be with me in paradise so does Jesus forgive thieves enough question about that but as far as possible if you can right some wrongs pray the Holy Spirit will show you how to do that and God is willing to forgive you he'll forgive you first you notice he forgave Zacchaeus after he forgave Zacchaeus he was so excited to be accepted by Jesus he said now I want to do the right thing because you've forgiven me and he'll forgive you today but resolve in your mind to do the right thing amen now while we talk about this subject it is very serious because the Bible tells us that it was ultimately a thief who betrayed Jesus it was greed that drove Judas to sell his Savior for silver and so if we don't think that stealing is serious it cost jesus's life it is serious business Ephesians 4:28 Paul said let him who stole steal no more but rather let him labor working with his hands the thing which is good that he might be able to give to him that needs stealing is all about sin and selfishness it's taking for me a Christian it's the opposite what's the opposite of stealing kymmie and so the Bible says if you're gonna stop stealing don't just say oh don't steal don't steal don't steal do it the other way steal backwards work earn give there are two kinds of people in the world there are people who go through life trying to take more out of it than they put into it there are consumers and there are producers say by God's grace I want to be a producer for Jesus I'm gonna try and earn produce help so that I can give I can support and that's really the message of Christ he came to give God so loved the world he gave now the most serious thing that we could steal life is a gift to you God has given you the greatest gift if you live your life for yourself you'll be stealing what Christ is paid for he purchased your life for his service with his blood if you live selfishly you are a thief if you take it the Bible says you keep it you'll lose it he who thinks to save his life will lose it but he who loses his life he who gives his heart to Jesus I'm paraphrasing will find it the way to really be able to keep the greatest treasure life is he must give it to the one who owns it and that's Jesus so what would you rather have your rather of Jesus or the things of the world

Channel: Aaron

Views: 7,114

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Id: AZPreju3I9Y

Length: 52min 2sec (3122 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 07 2018