The Big Ten: Keep Your Paws Off
Well before we start today, I just
want to say a special thank you to all of our veterans and all of the families
of veterans. Without you, I probably wouldn’t be standing up here talking this
morning, so I thank you for your sacrifice.
Today’s commandment, as Joe pointed
out for us, is Do not steal. This commandment, I think, reveals something that
is peculiar about the human race. Anybody ever watch Animal Planet, or National
Geographic channel or anything like that? They talk sometimes about animals
that are territorial, right? Like they view a certain area of land as their
land and no one else’s. Humans are definitely the same way, but it seems to me,
that not only are we territorial when it comes to land, but absolutely
everything that we have, right? What’s mine is mine.
It doesn’t take children long to learn
this. I guarantee if you go down to the nursery today, you will see a child
claim a toy as their own, and if another child comes to take that toy away from
them, some yelling and crying is bound to happen. Our stuff is our stuff and no
one else’s. No other animal is nearly as territorial as we are, and that’s why
God knew he was going to have to step in and make a commandment regarding our
stuff, because He knows how much we like our stuff and He knows that if someone
takes our stuff we’re going to get angry and trouble is going to follow.
I mean, it is pretty obvious that
stealing is a sin against man, right? When someone takes something from you,
you get upset, and if you take something from someone else, they get upset with
you.
So
stealing is a sin against man. But again, just like last week when we talked
about adultery, stealing is also a sin against God. Rarely do we think of it in
these terms. And I want to share with you today three main reasons that
stealing is a sin against God.
First, stealing is a sin against God
because it causes harm to other people. Stealing is a sin against God for
precisely the same reason as it is a sin against man. Taking possessions from
someone in an unlawful manner causes harm to that individual. Sometimes that
harm is limited just to the fact that the person no longer has something that
was once theirs, but often times the harm done through stealing reaches much
further. It is invasive. It is threatening. It is scary. It is violating.
Anyone who has ever been the victim of a robbery knows that often times the
loss of possessions takes a back seat to the emotional injury that is caused.
I remember Beth telling me about being
robbed while working up at Krogers. And another friend who came home and found
her house ransacked. The loss of the money and the items that were stolen paled
in comparison to how violating it is to be the victim of stealing. It stems
from the realization that someone can put morals aside and through force,
coercion, or shrewdness, they can just take whatever they want from you. You
have no control. And that’s a scary thing, and an emotionally damaging thing.
And God hates it. So that’s the first
reason stealing is a sin against God, because it does harm to others.
The second reason that stealing is a
sin against God goes a little bit deeper into our psyche. Apart from people who
have like an addiction to shop lifting and steal just for the rush of it, the
majority of the time stealing happens because they need or want something.
There is some sort of thing out there that they want and so they steal money so
they can buy it, or they just steal the item itself, or they steal an item,
sell it for money, and use the money to get what they want.
And this doesn’t just happen in
ghettos or slums. This type of stealing has invaded corporate
And I think, how sad is that? How sad
is it that churches and Christians are getting caught up in breaking the 8th
commandment by stealing from the church itself? But the reason for it all boils
down to one simple principle: stealing means we don’t rely on God to supply our
needs, or said a different way, God isn’t enough for us.
Think about that. Stealing means we
don’t rely on God to supply our needs. God isn’t enough for us. How are we
called to live as Christians? What is our prayer every Sunday as we offer our
tithe to God? We say, “God you supply our every need. You have blessed us.” God
has promised to take care of us, right? Like it says in the scripture, do not
worry about your life, what you are going to eat or drink, what you are going
to wear. Look at the birds. They don’t work all day in the fields to reap and
sow and gather, and yet God feeds them. Aren’t you more valuable than they are?
Look at the lilies in the field, how they grow without working to make
themselves beautiful, and not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one
of these. And if God clothes the grass in the field, how much more is he going
to make sure you are clothed. So Jesus says, do not worry saying, “what will we
eat or drink or wear?” The Gentiles strive for all these things; and your
heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the
So knowing this, what are we saying
when we steal? What does that say? It says, “God, I know you said you would
provide, but I just don’t trust you. I’m going to take care of it myself.” Or
it says, “God, you are providing for me, and I appreciate it, but I’m tired of
just getting by on the bare necessities. I want more. What you’ve provided just
isn’t enough.”
When we steal, we are no longer
trusting God as our provider. We are instead trusting ourselves. And if I can’t
trust God to provide for me in the little things, the basics, things like food,
water, and shelter, then how can I trust him with the big things like
salvation? If I can’t trust God to be my sustainer today, how can I have faith
that his son died for me on the cross to save me from my sin, sustaining me for
all eternity? If God’s provisions aren’t enough for me, if God isn’t enough,
how could I possibly turn my life over to him?
That’s the inherent problem with
stealing. Stealing shows a lack of faith for God to provide for you. Stealing
says, “I’ll do it myself. I’m the only one I can trust.”
So stealing hurts others, stealing
shows a lack of trust in God as our provider, and there is a third way that
stealing is a sin against God. You know, there’s a great verse in Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 29 says this: God made man simple; man’s complex
problems are of his own devising. I love that verse. God made man simple; man’s
complex problems are of his own devising. If there is one word that describes
the type of culture that we live in, that word is NOT simple.
And it is in that reality that we find
the third way that stealing is a sin against God. Stealing is a sin against God
because of the unhealthy value we place on material things. Stuff. Objects. Not
only are we hurting others, not only are we not trusting God to supply our
needs, but we do these things because of our love for material goods. Our love
for money. What the Bible calls mammon. And Jesus says outright that the love
of money is the root of all kinds of evil. You cannot serve both God and
mammon.
What is the true root of stealing? It
is seeing what others have, and our desire is so strong to conform, to fit in,
maybe even to stand out, that we steal. We steal because we want stuff. We want
stuff because our society has this twisted notion that what you have – what
kind of house you have or car you drive or clothes you wear – has some sort of
bearing on your self worth. And if God isn’t going to provide for us to the
standards that society has set, then we might just have to take matters into
our own hands. Richard Foster said in his book “Celebration of Discipline,” and
I love this quote, “It is time we awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick
society is to be sick.” Did you catch that? Conformity to a sick society is to
be sick ourselves.
What does it say about us as a society
that our modern-day hero is the poor boy who grows up to become a rich man,
instead of the rich boy who grows up and gives away all he has to become poor?
Foster goes on to say, “Covetousness we call ambition. Hoarding we call
prudence. Greed we call industry.”
Just like other commandments before,
if you put a positive spin on the commandment, “Do not steal,” I think you can
learn a lot about the true intent of the commandment. Do not steal, I believe,
becomes “Do desire simplicity.” If you are desiring simplicity, not only will
you not steal, but you also trust God 100% to provide for you in every
circumstance. If you desire simplicity, you treat every single thing God has
ever given you as a gift. Not only that, but should you ever become the victim
of theft, your attitude is totally different. If everything you have is a gift
from God, if you hold everything loosely, then when someone takes it from you,
it wasn’t really yours to begin with, so we avoid longing after our “stuff”
that is gone, and rejoice in the gifts that remain. Stealing is wrong, but man,
if someone comes to me and is actually in need of anything that I have, what
case could I possibly have for keeping it for myself?
Do you understand the freedom that
comes from an attitude of simplicity? And I’m not talking Amish-style
simplicity, I think that goes a bit too far. I’m talking Christian simplicity.
I want to share with you a few of Foster’s principles for living a simple
lifestyle. These are things that are doable. Things that makes sense. Things
that say, “I refuse to be a slave to anyone or anything but God.”
The first principle is buy things for
their usefulness and not their status. I actually heard a pastor say the other
day, “I was going to buy a small, cheap car to save gas money, but I was afraid
I’d get laughed at, so I bought a Jeep.” Seriously, I thought I was going to
lose it. And we do it with clothes, too, right? I won’t make you raise your
hands, but how many of you have more than one dresser of clothes? Or more than
one closet? Or a closet the size of a small room? What would happen if we
stopped trying to impress people with our clothes, and started trying to
impress them with our lives?
The second principle is to reject
anything that is producing an addiction in you. I’ve started to do this with
pop. I was drinking like 4 or 5 cans a day, I’m down to one now. Doing better.
But other things, too. Chocolate. TV. Newspapers. Anyone…like me…addicted to
doing the crossword? I didn’t think it was a big deal until one day I got
stumped and I didn’t start working until an hour after I intended to. That’s a
problem! Reject things that are producing an addiction in you.
Third, develop a habit of giving
things away. Just give them away. Not a garage sale. I call it de-accumulating.
Just get rid of stuff. All that stuff in your attic and closet that you haven’t
seen in 5 years but you are saving just in case. Chuck it. Throw it away or
give it away.
Fourth, refuse to listen to the
propaganda of the world of modern gadgetry. Time saving devices never save
time. Anything that claims to pay for itself in 6 months never does. I can’t
think of a single gadget I have that doesn’t complicate my life further.
Fifth, and most important, shun
anything that distracts you from seeking first the
Pastor
Dan Metzger
Van
Buren United