Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Exodus

Exodus 20:15 06/27/04

Title:  ‘Giving…Not Taking’                                                                                                                                                        Text: Exodus 20:15

Intro: Stuff…everybody likes stuff…everybody wants more stuff…everybody wants new and improved stuff. Am I right? We like stuff.

Question: What are some of the ways we can get stuff?

One way we get stuff is
•    As a Gift
    Gifts are an act of grace as the one who gets the gift may or may not deserve it. Salvation falls into this category. We don’t deserve God’s forgiveness, we don’t deserve eternal life but they are both given to us by the grace of God for his good pleasure. Giving a gift is an act of grace.

Another way we get stuff is
•    By Working
    The way we get money to purchase stuff is by working. Even allowances are usually associated with chores, another kind of work. When we get stuff through work, it’s stuff we deserve because we worked for it. And Scripture reminds us that work is important to the life of the Believer.

Another way we get stuff is
•    Through an Inheritance
    When a relative passes away, often the estate is left to the surviving family members. Much of the stuff we have in our home was part of my grandparents estate when they died.

Another way we get stuff is
•    By Investing/Saving
    In Matt. 25 the master rewards his servants who invested the money he gave them. Getting stuff, especially big and expensive stuff, often requires the patient practice of investing or savings.

Another way we get stuff is
•    By Prayer
    We need to tread very carefully here. Scripture says

Read: Matt. 21:22  ‘If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.’

Read: John 14:14  ‘You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.’

    But this is not a license to sit back, forget about work and just ask God for stuff. Jn 14 gives the qualifier ‘in my name’. When we pray in the name of Jesus we are saying that we desire what God desires for us. We are asking that our prayer be in the will of God. God can provide the stuff you need in life as an answer to prayer. But someone once said

ILL: ‘Pray as if everything depended upon God. Work as if everything depended upon you.’

A final way we get stuff is
•    By stealing it
    Simply put, we take what is not ours.

Question: Why do people steal to get stuff?

•    Some believe the world owes them. So they steal to get what they think they deserve.
•    Some want instant happiness and satisfaction. They don’t want to take the time to work or save for their stuff.
•    Some believe that everybody does it.

ILL: To prove this point a cab driver in NYC would wrap his garbage each day and leave it in the back of his cab. Always, by the end of the day, someone had stolen the package.   (Robert Shannon, 1000 Windows)

We live in a society that expects people to steal. That’s why we have locks on our doors and windows as well as home and car security systems. And we are justified in locking up our stuff because Scripture gives us the right of private ownership. In fact, two of the commandments insure our right to possessions.

Read: Ex. 20:17  ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’

Read: Ex. 20:15  ‘You shall not steal’

If we don’t understand our right to own stuff, if we choose to believe that possessions are not evil, if we think that owning stuff makes us less godly, then the 8th  and 10th  commandments are meaningless. They, along with other texts like Acts 5:3-5 tell us that we have the right to own stuff. And since we have that right given to us by God, no one has the right to steal from us.
 
Transition: What I want to look at this morning are the ways we steal. Like the other commandments we have already examined, I believe we will find that we may not be as innocent as we think.

I. Taking from One Another
What kind of activities fit the category of stealing for others?

•    Direct theft. Armed robbing, burglary, stealing a car. You may call it a joy  ride but God calls it stealing.
•    Stealing someone’s good name by gossiping about them to others. You may call it ‘sharing’ but God calls it stealing.
•    Stealing answers from someone else’s test paper in school. You may call it copying, God calls it stealing.
•    Shoplifting. You call it 5 finger discount, but God calls stealing.
•    Tax fraud. You may call it creative book keeping but God calls it stealing.
•    Borrow something from someone and never giving it back. You may call it being forgetful, but God calls it stealing.
•    Keeping the change given to you by a store clerk when you know it was too much. You may call it good luck but God calls it stealing.
•    Copying cd’s, cassettes, videos or dvd’s that are not yours so you can use them.

ILL: US News and World Report had a picture of a young boy with headphones and a cd player. The caption read ‘Wanted. Got a digital pirate in your home? Get a lawyer’

    The boy in the picture was interviewed, he said he knew copying music from his friends (file sharing as it is called when you use the computer to do it) was illegal but he had no moral qualms about it. When it is so easy to do, it’s hard to resist.’ Apparently he and thousands like him, don’t even try. I would venture to say it is going on in many of your homes. We may say it’s no big deal, but God says it’s stealing.

•    Taking money from your family. This can be children taking money from their parents wallets or purses or spouses doing the same thing.

ILL:  A Sunday School teacher was speaking to her class about right and wrong. She gave the example ‘If I were to go into a man’s pocket and take money out of his wallet without asking, what would  I be? Looking for a ‘You would be wrong’ answer, instead a little boy raised his hand and answered ‘A wife’.

While funny, taking money from your parents or spouse, without their knowledge to you may be borrowing, but to God it’s stealing.

•    Not allowing someone to help you, when you need the help and they are sincerely offering to help. While you may say you don’t want to be a burden, God says you are actually stealing a blessing from them.

Transition: I know I haven’t covered everything. There are a lot more activities that we call something else and God calls stealing, but I think you get the idea. Stealing from others, in what ever form it takes, is sin.  But there is more. Stealing is also

II. Taking from God
•    When we do not give faithfully, cheerfully and generously.

Read: Mal. 3:8-10  ‘Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, How do we rob you? In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse, the whole nation of you, because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the LORD Almighty, 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.’

    Because the people of Israel had held back a portion of their tithe to the Temple, to God, the priests did not have enough to help those who needed it. So a lot of people resorted to stealing to get what they needed. That’s the context. Let’s bring  it up to date.
   
   God is saying that we rob him of what he intends to give to others in need and to use in ministry when we withhold a portion of our tithes to him, to the church.

    Other NT texts reminds us that giving of our finances is to be cheerful, regular and generous. It is something we think and pray about, not just put our hands in our pockets when the offering plate comes around and see how much we can do without.

ILL: John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was preaching to a crowd one day on the proper use of money. His first point was “Make all you can,” to which a bystander was heard to heartily affirm, “Here, here!” His second point was “Save all you can!” Again the man in the audience cheered “Yes, yes!” then Wesley jumped to his third and final point, “Give all that you can.” To this the man shook his head and muttered to a buddy, “Too bad he ruined a perfectly good sermon.”

    A giving church is a powerful church. God has blessed us with many generous and faithful givers..God can use more.
When you give less than you can, you have stolen from God.

•    When we do not give our time.
    How much time do you give God? God’s church? 75 or so minutes on Sunday? Is that all? Doesn’t he deserve more? When we limit God’s time to 75 minutes on Sunday we rob God of the worship due his name. When we leave the rest of the week for ourselves, we rob God of ministry and service.

•    When we do not give our talents.
    God has brought each one of you here for a reason. One of those reasons is to make CBC better able to reach out to our local and global communities with the Gospel of Jesus Christ though our many ministries. When you refuse to use your talents/gifts, you rob God of assets for kingdom building here at CBC.

•    When we seek and accept praise meant for God.
        When we serve for the purpose of an ‘atta boy’ or we take credit for what God is doing in and through us, we rob God of the praise and glory due his name.

Conclusion

Over and over again Scripture reminds us that Christians are to be givers and not takers. One final example…

ILL: When we had our Free Car Wash last summer, one man said come on, nothing is for free, what do you want? In a world that expects people to be takers, he couldn’t accept the fact that we just wanted to give him something with no strings attached. I responded that there are things in life that are free…forgiveness of sin and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.

That is what the Kindness Patrol, here at CBC, is all about. It is our opportunity to give to others, whether it is a Free Car Wash, Free Soda Give Away, Free Cleaning of the tables at the Entertainment tent at the Lion’s Fair, it’s all to show people a picture of God’s love through our giving.

Join the Kingdom Builders this summer as we give the free gift of God’s love to a disbelieving but needy world.

Well, whether it’s becoming a part of the Kindness Patrol, or offering your finances, time or talent here at CBC, whether it’s how you obtain good grades or music, don’t steal from others or from God.

Be a giver and not a taker and God will be honored.