Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:03 This one lady, Christina burden a great name for this girl because she is a burden on society. Her name is Christina burden. She stole almost $4.5 million by defrauding the government out of money from the cares act. She spent 184,000 in airfare and private jets and hotels. She spent $124,000 on luxury purchases from Louis Louis Vuitton and Neiman Marcus. She bought $16,000 worth of boats and car rentals. She wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to friends and family, $150,000 of which was spent on Mercedes and land rovers.
Speaker 1 00:00:40 One girl.
Speaker 0 00:00:42 Now the saddest thing about these stories is that we all expect this to occur. You do too. When you go to CVS, the thing that amazes me is all of the stuff is on the shelf. When you go to CVS, have you ever noticed that, like you could you get a rack, all this stuff in your cart and walk right out the door, you might get prosecuted, but they lock up only a few things. And why is it? The razors are always locked up. I got to ask like 12 people to come over and help me because they forget about me standing in the razor aisle. Uh, you go to you go to a, uh Kohl's and they leave all the jewelry
Speaker 1 00:01:14 That they expect. You probably will get stolen,
Speaker 0 00:01:18 But they lock up all the expensive stuff. You see, we live in a world that kind of fully expects there to be some, some stealing. Uh, that's going on. Listen to this story, depending on your neighborhood, you can pretty much count on this. This one guy was a taxi driver in London. This group called standard publishing ran this story a few years ago, instead of going to the top to the dump. This taxi driver used to wrap up his, his, uh, garbage and put it in his backseat of his taxi. By the end of the day, it
Speaker 1 00:01:47 Was always gone. He
Speaker 0 00:01:49 Could count on somebody stealing whatever was in the bag. I'm beginning to think that these kinds of circumstances, it not stealing is the exception to the rule. So let me remind you again, in God's top 10 list, Ephesians 20 in verse 15 says, thou shalt not steal. I feel like I should say it in England now shall not steal no stealing, even sorry. Exodus did I save actually the 2015 in the Hebrew. This is just two words.
Speaker 1 00:02:17 No stealing my question to you
Speaker 0 00:02:22 This morning is this, why is this so important?
Speaker 1 00:02:25 God. Now the first obvious answer is this. These Israelites are slaves. They are transformed
Speaker 0 00:02:35 Slaves. They've just been rescued out
Speaker 1 00:02:37 Of Egypt. These people have had nothing.
Speaker 0 00:02:41 Tyler lives. They have lived in a world where stealing was pretty much
Speaker 1 00:02:45 And the act of survival.
Speaker 0 00:02:48 So for them, they need to understand that in order to build a proper society, there needs to be some rules about ownership, some rules regarding property.
Speaker 1 00:02:59 These commandments are necessary
Speaker 0 00:03:00 For building a thriving society. First and foremost, you must have respect of property. Now, keep in mind, they've been slaves in Egypt, but they have just now left Egypt with a whole lot of stuff. Do you remember when God brought them out of Egypt? One of the miracles that happened was the Egyptians gave them tons of gold.
Speaker 1 00:03:21 They came out of Egypt with gold
Speaker 0 00:03:23 Earrings and necklaces and all kinds of gold that they could carry for the first time in their lives. These slaves owned stuff. And so God said in the top 10 lists, I want to give you some very important rules to live by your stuff is,
Speaker 1 00:03:38 And others people's stuff is theirs. Don't steal it. The contrast here
Speaker 0 00:03:45 That Israel was supposed to build a society on respecting the stuff of other people. And the old Testament law was very specific on consequences for stealing. You can read about this. This is just a small list, but it's, it hits the main ones here. I mean, robbery in general is in the Vertica six human trafficking is an Exodus 21 in Deuteronomy 24, dishonesty and weights and measures is Leviticus 16. Giving loans at interest is an Exodus 22. And on and on it goes, all of these are lumped under the idea of steal. You're taking something that's not
Speaker 1 00:04:15 Yours. There are hundreds of verses like this one that I'm about to
Speaker 0 00:04:20 Read you in scripture. This one is from Exodus 22, one and seven. If a man steals an ox or sheep and kills it or sells it, he shall repay five oxen for knocks and four sheep for a sheep. You get that, you steal a sheep, you got to pay back how many, four steal an ox, how many you got to pay back? There are consequences for stealing verse seven. If a man, if a man gives to his neighbor money or goods to keep safe and it's stolen from the man's house house. And then the thief has found he shall pay double. I mean, you go through all of these verses and there's a ton of them in the old Testament. It tells you how important stuff is to God. Your stuff matters to God,
Speaker 1 00:04:56 God, because it matters to you. God,
Speaker 0 00:05:01 This new society was to be founded on a respect of property that you had in a respect of property
Speaker 1 00:05:06 That others owned, which included by the way, your body and their bodies. There was no passing
Speaker 0 00:05:12 Along with bodies around. That's why human traffic is included
Speaker 1 00:05:15 In this. But the second
Speaker 0 00:05:18 Reason why this is so important is that like the rest of the tenant
Speaker 1 00:05:21 Words, this command mirrors, God's character. There's something Holy in this commandment,
Speaker 0 00:05:29 Just like there's something Holy in
Speaker 1 00:05:31 All the other commandments. We don't know,
Speaker 0 00:05:33 Just not take God's name in vain because it's a crass thing to do in public. We don't take God's name in vain because his name is Holy. We don't just not abuse the Sabbath because it's, it's a day that God wants to be his own. There's something Holy, there's something special
Speaker 1 00:05:48 About that day. We don't know
Speaker 0 00:05:51 Murder just because if we get caught, we spent 20 years in prison. We don't murder because there's something Holy about taking a life. There's something Holy about the image of God. All of these commands have to do with something about the character of God. And he's explaining it to us in the laws
Speaker 1 00:06:07 He's giving. And therefore there is something
Speaker 0 00:06:10 Holy about your possessions.
Speaker 1 00:06:14 Now let that sit in for a moment because we live in a world that does not think this way.
Speaker 0 00:06:20 There's a sanctity in every single commandment that God gives. There's something, Holy, there's something special sanctified about each one. This one is no exception. There's a sanctity in possessions. We live in a world that sees stuff as a means to an end.
Speaker 1 00:06:35 And the more stuff I get the further along I get, God sees stuff in a completely different way. God
Speaker 0 00:06:42 Sees things as a gift from him that he's giving to us
Speaker 1 00:06:47 Steward.
Speaker 0 00:06:50 I think the God stuff is more than just a means to an end, like his name, his image, a family unit. Why is why we on our parents? All of these things are sanctified. And so is our stuff. Listen, you may have earned your stuff, but God gave it to you.
Speaker 1 00:07:08 You don't believe
Speaker 0 00:07:09 That. Let me read you some passages of scripture that you're obviously very familiar with. Maybe some of these knots, not so much, John, the Baptist in verse 27 of John three set, a person cannot receive even one thing, unless it is given to him from
Speaker 1 00:07:21 Where church from heaven.
Speaker 0 00:07:24 James writes in James one 16, don't be deceived my beloved brothers, every good gift
Speaker 1 00:07:29 And every perfect gift is from where church
Speaker 0 00:07:33 From above coming down from the father of lights. And now you're the same thing yourself or Craig. You're stretching that a little bit. Let's hear what Jesus said. Well, I'm glad you asked when Jesus taught us how to pray. What did he say? Matthew six 11. Give us this day, our daily bread. Where does your stuff
Speaker 1 00:07:49 Come from? Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:07:52 That is why we need to understand there's a sanctity in possessions because we live in a world that teaches us stuff as a means to an end. But your stuff is not a means to an end. It's specialty.
Speaker 1 00:08:03 You it's special to God. If God gives us stuff, the way
Speaker 0 00:08:11 We use that stuff becomes an act of.
Speaker 1 00:08:16 We respect them
Speaker 0 00:08:17 Property of others. And that becomes an act of worship. Here's the point. All things come from God and should be used for God. That is why thou shall not. Steal
Speaker 1 00:08:28 Is in the top 10
Speaker 0 00:08:31 Privilege of owning. Something is a gift that we have from God. We are stewards of what God has given to us. And we are stewards of what God has given to others. There's a high priority of God for personal ownership, working to earn a living, stewarding what you've earned and what you have earned, being responsible for taking care of.
Speaker 1 00:08:52 It's almost
Speaker 0 00:08:53 Like the stuff that God gives you, calls you. And he says to you, listen, I'm giving you this thing. Now do your best to use it. Like I would do
Speaker 1 00:09:00 Use it, redeem it. That is what,
Speaker 0 00:09:04 Why everything in my house. I look at it in a different way, probably than a lot of people do. I look at my stuff and I think of it. This stuff has been given to me by God. These things are on loan to me by God, I am a steward. I better use them. Like God would use them. And so I don't abuse the things that God has given to me. In fact, I try and be generous
Speaker 1 00:09:25 With them, my car, my computer, my, my, uh,
Speaker 0 00:09:30 Dogs, you know, a lot of my kids, everything, my marriage, everything that I have, I want to make sure that I'm a good steward of it because God has loaned me this th this stuff so that I could use it as he,
Speaker 1 00:09:43 He uses as he would use it. Now you're probably thinking yourself, well, Craig, I'm not a thief. So I've got this one down. We can finish
Speaker 0 00:09:51 Shop here and sing our last song and make our way out.
Speaker 1 00:09:55 Uh,
Speaker 0 00:09:56 You know, you know, this is not as easy as that, right? How many creative ways can you think of how we
Speaker 1 00:10:03 News stuff, how we abuse stuff that other people own?
Speaker 0 00:10:11 How about active stealing? This is obviously at the top of the list. Some would say, well, we
Speaker 1 00:10:16 Never do this, but active
Speaker 0 00:10:18 Steely includes downloading stuff from the internet. That's not yours to download
Speaker 1 00:10:23 Active stealing.
Speaker 0 00:10:24 Listen to this. The library counts on losing 200 to 500 books a year from the average library. That's a national loss of about twenty-five million dollars
Speaker 1 00:10:35 A year. Uh, but
Speaker 0 00:10:37 I forgot to take it back. Okay. Granted,
Speaker 1 00:10:40 When you find it, take it back, that's
Speaker 0 00:10:45 Stealing. And, and some of us do this by mistake, but ultimately we're taking something that's not
Speaker 1 00:10:50 Ours. Fraud is another one.
Speaker 0 00:10:54 God is one that we love because we love this new phrase. We've adopted it. Let the buyer breed, beware what a terrible phrase that is in Jesus' day. Fraud was done in a lot of different ways, but Jesus talks about it when they mix water and wine together and sell it as the good stuff.
Speaker 1 00:11:11 Jesus,
Speaker 0 00:11:11 Jesus, it says to Judah, actually in the old Testament says, you're making lots of money selling this wine. That's mixed with water and saying, it's the best thing that crop has brought
Speaker 1 00:11:21 For it's fraud. I've been different
Speaker 0 00:11:25 Millions of times in my life. It feels like I went to a yard sale and I, I got this, uh, this weed Wacker. And I said to the guy like it's, it's $5, right? Five bucks. He said, you know, it works great. I said, are you sure it works? Oh yeah, it works great. Are five bucks, weed whacker sold. I'll bring it inside. Brought it home, plugged the soccer in NAFA. There's nothing going on in this thing. I'd been defrauded.
Speaker 1 00:11:48 It happens to us all the time, destruction or devaluing
Speaker 0 00:11:54 Of property. This is vandalism spray painting a car, key, key keying, a car. This is taking a piece of property and not telling the owner about it. Not taking care of something. That's been loaned to us and giving it back. Like we've taken care of it. This is like parking your car in a grocery store, parking lot and realizing your kid left the cart in the back, rolling across the parking lot. And your fear rises to your throat. When you look in your rear view mirror and see that cart hit the car on the other side and then figure yourself that their problem and your driver
Speaker 1 00:12:36 That would be destruction or devaluing of property,
Speaker 0 00:12:40 Honesty and weights and measures is another one. The <inaudible> 1935. Israel was always getting into trouble with this one. You're probably thinking yourself, what is dishonesty and weights and measures. But really because 1935 says, you shall do no, no wrong and judgment and measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights and adjust EBITDA. That's about 22 liters. In other words, when you're measuring something and it's one EFA, it's 22 liters, don't say it's 23
Speaker 1 00:13:07 And adjust
Speaker 0 00:13:08 Hin. What's a hand it's about four courts. So don't say it's four. Don't say it's five or three. I'm the Lord. Your God who brought you up out of land of Egypt. In other words, this is selling your house. That's 2000 square feet. And realizing that, uh, that, you know, you're selling it at 2000, but it's only not 1,989.
Speaker 1 00:13:30 This is Matt
Speaker 0 00:13:30 Using a quantity of income that we say that we have, that we may not anybody done their taxes
Speaker 1 00:13:35 Yet.
Speaker 0 00:13:37 This is where we say something on our tax form that may or may not be necessarily true dishonesty and weights and measures. This is not declaring the tip
Speaker 1 00:13:47 Ups that you got this year. I
Speaker 0 00:13:53 Worked at Canadian tire. Some of you are going, what in the world is Canadian tire? Well, I think their slogan at the time was we sell more than tires. It was like the Walmart
Speaker 1 00:14:02 Of the day. And I worked there and, and uh, I was,
Speaker 0 00:14:07 I'd have to punch the clock. Do you remember punching the clock? Anybody ever punched the clock before? So you punch in and you punch out. What I found was what a normal process at Canadian tire was. If somebody knew that they were going to be late, they would call a friend. Like it was like, what's that? What's that what's that show is called a friend, uh, who wants to be a millionaire? Yeah. All right. So call a friend. Why are you calling a friend? Cause he got to get it punched in on time. You're going to run a little bit late, but you don't want to, you don't want to be docked for pay. So get Jimmy to punch it in. So people would punch in and they would punch out. Steal a few minutes here, steal a few minutes there. Another one is giving loans at interest. This was called usury in scripture. It's all over the place. What this means is
Speaker 1 00:14:55 If you take out a loan, you pay the loan back. It hurts now, doesn't it who signed the loan you did, who should pay the loan back? You should, if you don't, it's stealing. It's giving loans,
Speaker 0 00:15:14 Loans at user yet at interest. But if you agree to take the loan, you must borrow what you borrowed. You must obviously pay back. Now the law allows for people to get into trouble here
Speaker 1 00:15:24 And to get out of trouble. There is allowances
Speaker 0 00:15:27 And you could do this within the law. I have no problem with that, but ultimately, we've got to teach this generation. If you sign your name on a line and you say you're going to pay something back, pay it back
Speaker 1 00:15:42 For God's people. We are to carefully examine our hearts and under
Speaker 0 00:15:46 Send that when we loan, we need to be, we need to do it like God, you know, God has a lot to say about this in the old Testament, Exodus 22, 25, listen to this. This is going to rock your world a little bit. It might upset you, your worldview. If you lend money to any of my people, God says with you who is poor, you shall not be like a money lender to him. And you shall not exact interest from him. Did you know that was a verse in the Bible.
Speaker 1 00:16:11 Now notice the wording. If you
Speaker 0 00:16:13 Loan something to any of my people, don't charge them interest.
Speaker 1 00:16:19 Jesus picks
Speaker 0 00:16:19 Up on this and says, if you loan anything to a brother or sister, hang onto that thing. Loosely Luke six 34 Jesus says from his own mouth. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount, but love your enemies.
Speaker 1 00:16:38 Do good and lend,
Speaker 0 00:16:40 Expecting what in return church does that blow your mind? Lend, go ahead, expect nothing in return and your reward will be great. You will be sons of the most high for he is kind for you is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. In other words,
Speaker 1 00:16:56 Church, when we loan something to a brother or sister, we should loan it with generosity. I have loaned out a ton of books. I've gotten my new back. Not a lot of books
Speaker 0 00:17:13 Do I receive back? But that's okay because every book on loan out, I just don't expect to see it again. Uh, Michael was in our youth group. Uh, he's a doctor about a last week by once in a while, the kids, when they would get to be driving age, they'd want to, you know, try out the youth pastors car. So I would give him my keys and they would drive around the parking lot. Or they drive here, drive there and simply this. And Beth will tell you
Speaker 1 00:17:36 Our, our, our lending
Speaker 0 00:17:38 Policy was we lended out. We never expected it
Speaker 1 00:17:41 Back. So I never had expensive cars by the way, the last one is robbing. God
Speaker 0 00:17:50 Probably think of yourself. Well, how do I Rob God, I'm glad you asked Matt Micah Malakai three eight says, will man, Rob God, yet you are robbing me because you say, how have we robbed? You? You've robbed me in your tithes and contributions. God makes it clear that
Speaker 1 00:18:07 We are to give back to him a portion of what he has given to us.
Speaker 0 00:18:13 The old Testament, that was a laid out process. That was a laid out amount in the new Testament is not
Speaker 1 00:18:19 That, but in the new Testament, the principle is the same. We give
Speaker 0 00:18:23 Back to God a portion of what he has given to us.
Speaker 1 00:18:26 We give it to the, to the, to the church.
Speaker 0 00:18:28 So we're involved in to the gospel, getting out the outreaches that we're having. Our church does gospel outreaches. We did special offerings for Venezuela community needs. Last year, we've supported the food pantry, abuse, spouses or children in need, Christmas gift boxes. We've done online church. That's been a very expensive thing that we've added to our agenda here, whether it's working now or not. I don't know, but you know, most of the time it works. Uh, we've we've rent this place. Fountain view, we support the pastoral staff. First Corinthians nine 14 says those who proclaim the gospel should receive their living by the gospel. There is a variety of things that we support through the church because you are faithful in your giving. And for second Grinnellians nine six says this. This is the point. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will rebound to flee. Each one must give, as he has made up in his mind to give not reluctant
Speaker 1 00:19:22 Plea or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. You can only
Speaker 0 00:19:28 Do cheerful giving. If you realize your stuff is not yours,
Speaker 1 00:19:33 It's God's to begin with. It's come from his hand and you have a chance to give back. Now, if we steal from somebody else in any way,
Speaker 0 00:19:46 These defrauding or devaluing, or just straight up stealing, we steal any of those things that we had up here on the screen just
Speaker 1 00:19:55 Few minutes ago, what's the one thing they all have in common church. Simply this it's greed. It's straight up greed. Greedy
Speaker 0 00:20:08 People seek to elevate themselves, standing on the back of
Speaker 1 00:20:12 Or others. Hard work at its core. Theft is elevating myself beyond where I really am. Now.
Speaker 0 00:20:22 It's not a bad thing to prompt yourself to move on
Speaker 1 00:20:25 To, to move up and onward. It's not a bad thing. God
Speaker 0 00:20:31 Use that. And we should never be satisfied with where we are. God wants us to push ourselves to do more and to do more with his glory. In fact, in Romans 12, eight, did you know this earning money is a spiritual gift. Some people can sleaze and earn money. Have you known these people? It's I'm not one of them, but some people it's just, it's just in them. They can't live unless they're earning. It just comes easy
Speaker 1 00:20:54 To them. And you should
Speaker 0 00:20:56 Know that that's a spiritual gift. And those people are meant to be generous with what God has given
Speaker 1 00:21:02 To them because you
Speaker 0 00:21:04 Can get ahead in good ways, or you can get ahead in bad ways, in the bad ways, our dissatisfaction, I am not satisfied with what God has given to me. So I'm going to take what somebody else.
Speaker 1 00:21:18 The
Speaker 0 00:21:19 Antidote to greed is one
Speaker 1 00:21:21 Word contentment, Hebrews three, three
Speaker 0 00:21:25 13, five. Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for. He has said, I will never leave you nor
Speaker 1 00:21:35 Is that a great verse
Speaker 0 00:21:37 Because basically that verse is saying church.
Speaker 1 00:21:40 If you think you need stuff to make your life full, as a believer, you've missed the point because I will never leave you nor forsake you is worth everything. Contentment
Speaker 0 00:21:57 Being satisfied with God's method of distribution. It's okay to ask God for things. And Jesus says, you should. You don't have, because you don't ask. That's what Jesus said. So it's okay to ask God for stuff. Stuff is not bad. Stuff can be a whole
Speaker 1 00:22:15 Thing, but God may answer you a couple of different ways. He may say yes and give you stuff. And you should use that stuff for God's glory. Be a good steward of what he's given to you. He could say no, and you
Speaker 0 00:22:29 Have to be content with what God has already given
Speaker 1 00:22:32 To you. Because if you're a discontent,
Speaker 0 00:22:35 No is just going to make you angry. It's a good level indicator to find out if you love
Speaker 1 00:22:43 Or you love God. And the third way he answers us is wait, wait, because
Speaker 0 00:22:49 You can't handle it yet. Wait, because you don't need it yet. Wait, because it won't help you yet. Whatever the reason is, sometimes God just says,
Speaker 1 00:22:57 Wait, and we have to be content with that too. Contentment
Speaker 0 00:23:03 Is being okay with God's method of distribution,
Speaker 1 00:23:07 Because God
Speaker 0 00:23:07 May give some, God may give
Speaker 1 00:23:09 Jimmy everything that I'm asking for. And I have to be okay with that village church.
Speaker 0 00:23:19 With this commandment, God is establishing a new nation. Unlike any nation ever seen on the planet. Let me tell you one more time. Cause you may think to yourself, well, number eight, we can slide over this one. Dose thou shall not steal. I got to tell you what this one, commandment God is establishing a nation on this planet that this planet has never seen before. Never has this happened before in human history. Israel is experiencing this like never before see in Egypt, they were just abused hard work. Didn't get them out of slavery. The rich abused, the poor, the government was corrupt. They owned everything. It was impossible for you to make anything of your life and move up. You couldn't do it. You were a slave in Egypt. It won't work.
Speaker 0 00:24:03 The only way to get by to survive was to steal. But God is saying I'm creating a brand new economy here. The world has ever seen anything like it. And it's based on the fact that your stuff means something to me. God says, God values. Personal ownership, hard work was rewarded with prosperity. Personal laziness gave way to personal poverty. Taxes were reasonable and the poor never went hungry. This is a new economy that God was making up. This singular law created a, a nation that the world had never seen before. A system of government that has never existed before. Not because of what it forbid, but because of what it upheld a means of prosperity to all those world, willing to work hard and potential for families to break the cycle of poverty.
Speaker 0 00:25:06 So that brings me to the so Watts and these are going to kind of shock you because you're thinking to yourself, I'm still not quite sure how this one is so important. Maybe that's you. So listen to these. So what's number one, God values, personal property, personal ownership. This was the first nation on the planet that would own stuff. These individuals had stuff that was theirs and they were responsible to keep it and to respect the stuff of others. It was so important that the law of the land protected it. And it was so important that God's law protected it. This is why by the way, communism does not fit in with the Bible.
Speaker 0 00:25:48 This is why every believer should reject communism because it has nothing to do with being a Republican or a Democrat or whatever political party you have. It doesn't really matter. The basis of communism is a fact that everything's equal. Everybody owns equal shares of everything. This is not the economy that God sets up in scripture. We reject any political system seeking to reinvent God's values for society. Communism mitigates a strong work ethic for all, just as everybody should do something. It regulates personal ownership. You can't own these things, but you can own these things in limits the ability for people to move up. It, it, it elevates government distributed distribution of wealth, over responsible responsibility of personal property. Do you know why you give to the Lord? You give to the Lord because it's out of the generosity of your heart. I don't come knocking on your door and saying, why haven't you given your 10%?
Speaker 1 00:26:44 I don't do that because it's between you and the Lord. God gave you your stuff. God gave me my stuff. He expects us to be faithful stewards of it. This is why when we give to the Lord, God simply says this. God loves a cheerful giver. We accept a society that values what God values is in his revealed word. And what does God value? Hard work, honest ownership, contentment, and willing generosity stewards know. And I'm not, I'm not against taxes by the way, taxes. Uh, yeah, let me just, some taxes are ridiculous. And my money is getting used for stuff I do not approve of. I will say that, but I give to Caesar what Caesar and I give to God. What's God's I don't use my taxes as a way to out of giving to God. What's God's politicians that say they give him their taxes. So they're not generous with their stuff. Do not understand what it means to have personal ownership and a heart of generosity stewards know that they're entrusted with stuff. Why? Because they are to bless others. Look at this in first Timothy, six, 17, as for the rich, in this present age, charge them not to be haughty or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who provides richly us with everything to enjoy. I love that.
Speaker 1 00:28:12 Do you know why I don't have a problem using my stuff to take my kids out for ice cream because I enjoy doing it. And God has richly given me stuff to enjoy. I can use my stuff to enjoy my family. I can use my stuff to enjoy life. I can spend gas money to go stand in a stream and catch some trout because I'm enjoying what God has given to me. He richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works church, and to be generous and ready to share. Do you know why you're giving stuff so that you can be generous and willing to share? There's nothing wrong with having stuff. There's nothing wrong with having riches. There's no requirement for how much we are to keep and how much we are to give away.
Speaker 1 00:29:05 God just loves it. When we're generous for Israel, consequences for stealing were baked into the law, but so were laws for being generous with your stuff. Did you know that in the story of Ruth, do you know the story of Ruth Ruth is very poor and she has lost all the men in her life as has her mother-in-law. They are widows with no hope baked into the law of Israel. Was this law for land owners, farmers to be lazy. You're probably wondering what that means. What that means is when farmers were to collect their crop
Speaker 0 00:29:45 From the field, they were to intentionally leave the edges with crops, laying
Speaker 1 00:29:51 All over the place.
Speaker 0 00:29:53 They were intentionally meant to be a little shoddy in their collection process. Why? So that the poor people in the community
Speaker 1 00:29:59 Nitty could come and gather what was left over. You see, God loves a cheerful giver. And the only reason why Ruth and Naomi survived was because Boaz followed the law. He was a generous landowner and church. There's a lot to be said for how God's people learn to be generous. Well, Craig, I don't have that much. Yeah, I know. I know. I know. It's it's all we can do sometimes to just get by. I know, but I have to tell you some of the most generous people I've ever met in my life just didn't have a whole lot of anything, but they were generous.
Speaker 1 00:30:39 Your stuff becomes a testing ground for your heart church. Will you be more attached to your stuff or more anxious to use your stuff to please God do see Jesus put it where your treasure is. That's where you can find your heart, where your treasure is, is where your heart is also. So do you love things or do you love using your things for God and to bless others? Which brings us to number two, God, values, generosity. We are meant to see our stuff. As God sees it respect the ownership of others. And regenerous with the stuff that we have. The church was started, acts four, the church was birthed and all
Speaker 0 00:31:23 These people got together. And one of the verses I love in there was it's a verse that says nobody considered what they had to be their own, but
Speaker 1 00:31:30 To each other generously as each head
Speaker 0 00:31:33 Need, nobody told them it wasn't communism. It wasn't this, this commune of, of, of, of, of tunic, wherein sandal, loving people and somewhere in California, that's not what this has turned into. And don't let anyone lie to you and tell you that it is
Speaker 1 00:31:50 The church
Speaker 0 00:31:51 Began simply because people received things from God. They took care of those things. And when they saw someone in need, they gave out of a job,
Speaker 1 00:31:59 Generous hearts, second Corinthians nine, this, there, there are verses about possessions all over scripture. Second Corinthians nine 11 says this you'll be enriched in every way so that you can be generous in every way, which through us will produce Thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but overflowing and Thanksgiving to God.
Speaker 0 00:32:23 You know what that means. That means when you take what stuff you
Speaker 1 00:32:26 Have and you bless somebody
Speaker 0 00:32:29 Else and they go, I can't believe you're so generous. I can't, you have no idea how much this means to me. I'm so grateful for what you have done to me. Do you understand what that's doing? That person is giving glory to God because of you. Your stuff has a potential
Speaker 1 00:32:45 To be Holy because you can use it to direct other people to God. Only if you're generous. Only if you see yourself as a steward. If your idea of stuff is get as much as you can and take as much till you get what you need. And then you'll learn to be generous. You've got a heart. That's deceiving you. If you're not generous now you're not going to be later. Like the rest of the 10 commandments. This commandment mirrors, God's heart. It mirrors God's heart in the people that belong to God. And in this way, when we share our stuff, we point others to Jesus Christ. Number three, God values. Contentment contentment simply says, we are good with what God has given to us. This is why stealing is so wrong. We are simply not content with what we have. So we need what somebody else has. First Timothy six, six says us read this first verse with recharge because it's one of my favorite. Would you read it with me? Godliness with contentment is great gain. I'll finish it for, we brought nothing into the world and we'll take nothing out of the world. But if we just have food and clothing with these things, we can learn to be content contentment with godliness. Oh, church is great game. Some of the most miserable people in the world have the most money.
Speaker 1 00:34:19 What damage we do to God's name when we steal, because we claim that God is not good enough to us. In fact, James four talks about this. What causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not? This? Your passions are at war within you. You desire and you do not have so you murder you covet and cannot obtain. So you fight and you quarrel. You do not have, because you do not watch church ask because God gives all good and perfect things. You do not. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Why do we not have things? Because we do not ask. And why do we not receive things sometimes because we cannot be trusted, not yet. Number four, God values. When our hearts change towards stuff.
Speaker 0 00:35:09 This is one verse in scripture that I read. And it's kind of weirdly placed in Ephesians four, because if he's Forrest talking about how a woman loves a man and a man loves a woman, and I feel like I should be singing a song at this point. But if he's in four 28, just seems to be like a little out of place,
Speaker 1 00:35:26 Says this, let the thief steal no longer, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he might have something to share with everyone in need. Thieves. You are
Speaker 0 00:35:38 Called to repentance. If you're sitting here thinking of yourself or you're sitting at home thinking yourself, okay, okay. I've, I've screwed up on this one. I have stolen a few things in my life. God loves thieves hearts that turn to repentance and he loves to change those hearts into hearts of generosity. The way that he do that, he does that is he makes your heart stop looking at stuff as a means to an end. And he makes your heart start looking at stuff as a means to bless others,
Speaker 1 00:36:06 Thieves steal, no longer work
Speaker 0 00:36:08 Hard with your hands so that you have something to give,
Speaker 1 00:36:11 Give to someone in need.
Speaker 0 00:36:14 Sharing is the opposite of stealing. Obviously in scripture, God changed hearts and we'd love to change hearts. Zacchaeus is one of my favorite stories. Remember this story? Wee little man and a wee little man. Was he, you remember Zach? He is
Speaker 1 00:36:29 A wee little man. Zacchaeus was a tax collector in this, in this little town that nobody really knew about, but the people that were there. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:36:39 Because they hated Zacchaeus. That kiss was a Jewish guy that worked for Rome. Tax collectors were the worst of the worst. By the way, Jesus had one in his slew of disciples.
Speaker 1 00:36:49 Tax collectors were thieves bottom line.
Speaker 0 00:36:53 And that became a disciple for Jesus Christ. His heart was checked. God loves to change.
Speaker 1 00:36:58 God comes to town. Zack.
Speaker 0 00:37:01 Yes is there. And the people of the town hate this guy. Why? Because Zach Kias has to bid for the job with Rome. Rome would tell Kias these tax collectors, we need this certain amount, but whatever else you want to charge, you get to
Speaker 1 00:37:16 Keep so Zacchaeus could charge whatever he wanted.
Speaker 0 00:37:21 Give to Caesar, what Caesar demands and keep the rest for himself. So the people of his town, the Jewish people saw him as a sellout. Rome was the enemy. He was collecting for the enemy and he was collecting their money and keeping it for himself. Jesus comes to town and comes to face to face with the most hated guy in town. Now you're thinking yourself, Craig, I think you're stretching this a little bit. I'm glad you said that. Look in Luke 19 and verse seven. Here's the story. When they said it now Jesus has seen Zacchaeus and he says, Zacchaeus, I want to come to your house and have lunch. So they wander off to get any climbs as tree because no one's letting Zacchaeus in the front. They all want to see Jesus in this guy. They don't care about. So he can go to the back short. So he's not going to see anything anyway. So Zacchaeus climbs a tree most undignified, but he was curious about Jesus. So Jesus says, I want to have lunch at your house today. So they walk off together and look how the town responds. When they saw it, they all watched church, they grumbled and they said, he's gone to be the guest of a man who's asleep.
Speaker 1 00:38:23 He's a thinner, how did the town think his Ikea's now? We're not told what they had for lunch. We're not even told what they talked about at lunch, but there's a period between chapter in Luke, 19 chapter 19, between verse seven and verse eight, where Zacky his heart was changed. We don't know what he said. We don't know what Jesus said to him, but here's the result. Verse eight Zakia stood and said to the Lord, behold Lord, half of the goods I give to the poor. And if I've defrauded anyone of anything, I will restore it. Fourfold. And Jesus said to him today, salvation has come to this house. He sees that kiss. Wasn't buying his way to heaven. Zacchaeus was a thief. Who'd been changed. He realized that what he had wasn't his and he was going to make it right. God loves thieves hearts. That change. Why do we obey the eighth commandment? Because we recognize all things come from God. All things are to be used for God. So I don't take stuff. That's not mine. You get to use it for the Lord. And I get to use what's mine for the Lord. And in all of that, it brings glory to God.
Speaker 1 00:39:43 Beth and I, a few years ago, went to this pizza place. We went out on a date, didn't take the kids with us. It was wonderful. We stayed at this one little, uh, pizza place and, and uh, had dinner there. They made really wonderful pizza. They were well known for their pizza. So we sat there. We enjoyed one another. And the end of this,
Speaker 0 00:40:05 The eating time came in. The bill came that little, little black envelope. I like this one. You know how that block envelope comes in. I had cash on me that day. It was a weird day
Speaker 1 00:40:12 Cash. So I put the cash in the bill fold and the waitress came up though. The, the attendant came up and she, she got the money and she went up the cash register and got her changed, brought it back. And instead of giving us the right chain, she gave me $20 bill. Instead of giving you a $1 bill, it was $20 bill. We ended up like, I almost made money on this dinner.
Speaker 0 00:40:36 So I, I looked in it and I thought to myself, Oh, she gave me a whole lot of change here. This doesn't look great. So I did the math in my head and I realized what, what had happened. And so I w I got up from the table and I told Beth, and I got it from the table. I walked up to the cash register. I said, listen,
Speaker 1 00:40:50 Gave me a little too much change here. And it was like, this woman's world just, just collapsed. She couldn't believe what just happened. She thanked me profusely for being honest.
Speaker 0 00:41:03 Thank you so much for bringing this up. Thank you for giving us a chance. Thank you. It's so nice of you for being honest. And my response to her was simply this. Why wouldn't
Speaker 1 00:41:12 I be,
Speaker 0 00:41:14 Why is this the abnormal thing for you to expect? It's not my money, this poor girl, it would have come out of her tips. What kind of a person would I be to walk away with something that's not
Speaker 1 00:41:28 Mine? While this girl
Speaker 0 00:41:30 Goes home to God knows what she's going home to
Speaker 1 00:41:35 20 bucks, less tips for the night. You simply can not read into scripture without being impacted
Speaker 0 00:41:47 With the emphasis that God puts on
Speaker 1 00:41:49 Stuff and church. We must be people who see stuff as God sees stuff, good stewards of what God has given to us and respecting what God has given to others. That is why we do not steal. May God use all of our stuff to bring him glory in Jesus name,
Speaker 0 00:42:14 Father, thank you for our time together. As we have spent some time just talking about these short
Speaker 1 00:42:21 Words, four little words, but packed with meaning. Thank you.
Speaker 0 00:42:28 You, you trust us with things. You give us things. Thank you that every good and perfect gift comes from you. And thank you that you call us to use our stuff to bless you and bless you
Speaker 1 00:42:39 Others. May we live in such a way that we recognize the sanctity of the things that we own, the possessions that are ours. And thank you for trusting us to be good stewards of the things you have given to us. May you bless
Speaker 0 00:42:55 Us now, as we go into communion, I pray in Jesus
Speaker 1 00:42:57 Name, amen.
Speaker 0 00:43:01 Every service by, uh, spending some time in communion. The reason we do this is because we want to make sure the gospel has been clearly proclaimed in what we do here at village church East.
Speaker 1 00:43:13 Uh, if you're with us
Speaker 0 00:43:14 In house today, you, you get to participate. Uh, this morning you can come up and there's a in front of you. There's a table there. And just wait for each family to come up. We'll try and practice social distancing as best we can grab. One of those cups in there. And the top is the bread. And in the bottom is the juice. And you, you got two little things to peel off it. It does take a little bit of engineering to figure it out, but you'll get it. If you're at home, we invite you to participate with us as well. During the season, we're inviting you to take any bread or crackers or something that you have in your pantry and some juice that you might have in the fridge or some liquid that you can drink. Because the point of this whole thing that we do this communion thing is not that something changes magically. When we take this, there's no molecular thing that happens in the juice or the bread. It's just juice and it's just bread. But for us, it means the world to us. Why does it mean the world to us? Because of what it represents this bread and this juice that we drink together. When we're gathered together as a church, represents the sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It represents that our sin could not be forgiven where it not for the blood of this person.
Speaker 1 00:44:19 Perfect lamb of God. Jesus came to this world, sinless. He lived a sinless life. None of us could do it. You probably succeeded even this week. Not that I'm dissing you or anything. I'm just assuming. You're like, I am. None of us can live a perfect life, but Jesus did every single day. He was a very image of God lived the perfect life. And that's why when he died, he shed perfect blood. His blood only could cover the sins of the entire world. And that's why we invite you to participate. Because when we eat and we drink, we declare that we have been washed. Our sins have been washed away through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. His body was pierced. His blood flowed, the bread represents his body. The juice represents his blood and all of this represents the fact that this was necessary so that we could be right with the father.
Speaker 1 00:45:25 It was necessary that blood is shed for the remission of sins. And if you know Christ as your savior, you have been forgiven. You may think to yourself, well, Craig, I shouldn't take community cause I've really screwed up this week or I'm really a Royal screw up on a regular basis. And you don't know how it is for me. I want you to know that for so long. I looked at communion like I gotta be perfect before I take communion. And it wasn't until I was older, that God really spoke to my heart and said, nah, that's not the point of it. It's not how you approach the table.
Speaker 1 00:46:02 It's how you see what this represents for you. I need communion because I need to be reminded on a regular basis. I don't have what it takes, but God does. And when I eat and I drink, it's a continual reminder to me when I do it together with you as a church and with you at home, it's a continual reminder to me that I'll never have what it takes. I need Jesus Christ. If you've never accepted Christ as your savior, maybe this is all new to you. I'd love to have a conversation with you if you're watching us online or if you're in house and you'd like to have a conversation with me, I am very accessible. I love to have these conversations and I'd love to help you understand how you can change a life of guilt into a life of freedom through the blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible says there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit for the spirit of God has set us free from the law of sin and death. Listen, you have freedom in Christ. That is why we take communion. As often as we do, it's just a good reminder. We don't have what it takes. We need Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:47:20 Before we do any of this, we're going to take a moment. And if you would just spend some time, maybe, maybe the Lord has spoken to you this morning, laid something on your hearts and you need to just spend some time
Speaker 0 00:47:30 Alone with God, bow your head, spend some time just talking to God in silence of your mind.
Speaker 1 00:47:35 He hears every word. He knows the hairs of your head. He knows the thoughts of your minds. He hears you pray to him,
Speaker 0 00:47:41 Him. And just ask him, maybe, maybe ask him to forgive you of something that he's laid on your heart, or maybe just
Speaker 1 00:47:47 Thank him for what he has done so that we could be free from sin and death. I would encourage you to do that. And then
Speaker 0 00:47:56 Music will start. The band will start playing in those of you that are home, grab your juice and your bread. And those that are in-house just come on up. As we sing, grab the cup and sit and just kind of wait and sing with the rest of us. Or you can stand and sing. We love to stand and sing here, but then I'll come up. I'll read a verse, a scripture, and then we'll all take together. And the reason we wait so that we take together is because I want you to know I'm nobody special.
Speaker 1 00:48:24 And we're all in the same boat I need.
Speaker 0 00:48:27 I need to be reminded of Jesus' forgiveness for me, just like you do as well. And so we eat and we drink together, declaring that Jesus is,
Speaker 1 00:48:34 Is everything to all of us. So would you take a moment and just in the silence of this time, pray to God on your own.
