Live | Thou Shalt Not Steal

A thief climbs through a window, hears a parrot say “Jesus is going to get you,” and suddenly realizes he’s not alone. It’s funny at first, but it sets up a serious question: if Jesus Christ is Lord, what does that change about the way we handle money, work, integrity, and even the choices we excuse as “no big deal”?

We dig into the eighth commandment, “You shall not steal,” and we don’t stop at the obvious. We talk about stealing from others through fraud, cutting corners, and misrepresenting what’s fair. We go after laziness that lives off other people, and we confront stinginess that squeezes others so we can stay comfortable. We also tackle personal finance and biblical ethics: paying debts, refusing shady shortcuts, and asking whether gambling trains our hearts to win while someone else loses.

Then the focus shifts to something even deeper: can we rob God? If everything we have is ultimately from Him, worship becomes more than a Sunday moment. We wrestle with stewardship, giving, and the heart behind tithing. Finally, we land on the most urgent warning of all: it’s possible to steal from yourself by rejecting grace and trading eternity for the toys of this world. Grace isn’t something you steal, buy, or deserve. It’s a gift received at Christ’s expense.

If this message challenges you, pass it along to a friend, subscribe for more Christ-centered sermons, and leave a review so more people can find it. What part of “You shall not steal” hits you the hardest?

Transcript

Welcome And A Thief Story

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Welcome to the Kenneth South First Podcast, where we're building transformed lives one message at a time. Each week you'll hear Christ-centered sermons from Dr. J. Perry Fowler, rooted in the truth of God's Word. This is where real faith meets real life, because a life built on truth is a life that lasts.

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And he went into and through a window, and when he went in, he had a backpack on. And when he went in with the backpack, he started grabbing stuff and started putting in his backpack. And while he was there, he awakened somebody that was obviously in the room, and they simply said these words, Jesus is going to get you. Well, when they heard Jesus is going to get you, he took out his flashlight and he began to look around. It was scared him, and he looked and he noticed that in the corner there was a parrot, the family parrot. And the parrot just looked at him and he shone the light on him. He said, Jesus is going to get you. Well, when that happened, of course, the man said, You know what? You scared me to death. He took his backpack, he threw it across the room, hit the cage, knocked over the bird. The bird began to kind of roll around, finally came to a stop. He had the flashlight on, and all of a sudden, this thief heard something in the corner. And what he did is he turned over, and there is old Rottweiler standing in the corner, and the parrot said, Sick him, Jesus, go sick him. That's the story of the dog named Jesus.

Why Jesus Christ Changes Everything

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You know, in the world we have very few people, especially in America, in France, and different areas, the French, the German. We will rarely name a child Jesus. But yet in Mexico and in Spain, it's more normal. Matter of fact, 3.8 million people in the world are named Jesus. That's currently the day. As a matter of fact, the surname is as well used in Brazil and Portugal, but there is an addition to the name of Jesus that will change everything about that name. And it's simply not only saying the name of Jesus, but adding to that the title Christ. So when you say Jesus Christ, it changes everything. What it says is that this one who is named Jesus, he is the all-seeing God, he knows all things, he is all things, he is Lord of all things, and he is anointed, he is the Redeemer, He is the Savior, and one of these days he will judge the world. And we know that about Jesus. We read that about Jesus, we study that about Jesus. And so when we know that he sees everything, what we know is this one day he does have the right to judge all things. And so in the Ten Commandments, he gives us truth. And so that's what we need in our life. We need to know what road to get on, how to live on that road, how to pass through that road, how to walk with Jesus Christ, and how Jesus Christ believes and what he thinks and what we should do as a

You Shall Not Steal Explained

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result. So among that, we have this eighth commandment that says, you shall not steal. Now, I want us to kind of do as we have in the last several sections we've had together. We kind of drill down into those four words. You shall not steal. And we begin to kind of look and see, how can we steal? Well, one of the ways we can steal, first and foremost, is we can steal from others. If you read the Hebrew word, the Hebrew word for steal is the word ganab. And the Hebrew word literally means it means to carry away secretly or to take. And so what we usually think about when we think about stealing, we usually go to that Hebrew definition and we say, wow, you should not take something that belongs to somebody else. You should never do that. That should not be something we do. And so it seems really simple. You say, okay, let's shut down the sermon now. We all know what it means. Do not take something that belongs to others. But is there more? Is there more we should think about? And the design of these sermons is the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me is to say, help these people to think. Help them to take their minds, let me speak into their hearts, and help them to be able to address the things in our world that relate to this whole idea of these particular commandments that I've given. And so with that, we have a tendency to stop and say, okay, this just means we should not steal from other people. And of course it does. But let me just kind of pause before we kind of go on to that. Let me just say, a lot of people will look at this and they'll say, you know, it's okay to steal, kind of a Robin Hood mentality. It's okay to steal because other people have things that I don't have. But let me just explain this to you. I don't know where you are in your world as far as what you have, what you might have in your banking account, or what you may have when you return home, or whatever you have. Listen, here's the thing: God has provided what He's provided for you. Now, there's nothing wrong with having things. I want just to make that very clear. We look in a world and some people say, well, everybody should have the same. That's not always the way. That's not how God does it in his economy. We may not like it, but it is the way it is. But I want you to understand, Jesus had some stuff. For example, the book of John tells us that Jesus had, of course, in John 19, verse 23 and 24, Jesus had a seamless tunic. As a matter of fact, when Jesus went to the cross, what we know happened is they took his, they took his outer garment. When they saw it, they said, listen, this is so valuable, let's gamble for it. And so that's what we see happening. There, as Jesus Christ was stripped of his robe, they began to gamble. They played this game. It's called the King's Game. I could get into it all day, but you don't want to hear about that. What you want to hear is, is what is this all about? What this is all about is Jesus saw no reason to not have things. As a matter of fact, he saw that God, his father, would provide for him what he needed, including the strength to go to Calvary for you and me. Everything that we have comes from God. But yet Jesus had this, and by the way, it was worth about two to four days of work. Some people say it was valued, you know, uh at a pretty good amount of money, you know. When you think about a week's worth of work, what that would cost you, that would be no small thing. But Jesus saw no problem having that. Furthermore, we know that Mary, when Jesus was preparing to go to the cross when he was over in Bethany, Mary took an ointment out. You remember the story? And what happens is Judas immediately looks at it and just like what some people do in the world, and they'll say, listen, there's something wrong with Jesus having something. We're more comfortable with that Jesus as has the pillow that's a stone, which he obviously did. But yet what we see is we see that sometimes people struggle with this fact, just like Judas did, that Jesus had some things. As a matter of fact, he had this oil that was spilled over onto him on purpose. It was he was anointed with this oil. And Judas looks at it and he says, This is could have been sold and given to the poor. That's exactly what he says. And what Jesus looks at him and says, he says, Leave her alone. She's preparing me for my death. But Judas is still running his calculator in his mind. He says, This could be worth about 300 denarii, which would have been a minimum of between $40,000 and $60,000 of ointment. Now that's a big old deal. But Jesus said, I'll take it. And I want you to see, Jesus said, This is preparing me for burial. And when Jesus was on the cross, without a doubt, because she had anointed him with this oil, he would have smelled that in the midst of the stench of death as he was giving his life for you and me. It would have been a sweet smelling sacrifice to the Lord. So with that, what we find is there's nothing wrong with having things. But yet there is something wrong if those things have us. If we have those things and those things, they dictate how we feel, they dictate how we live, they dictate everything about our personal opinion toward God and what he does in our life and what he doesn't do in our life, and we get caught up in that, I'll tell you what happens. That is when that has become an idol. When we discussed that earlier in previous sermons. But yet there's nothing wrong with having things. But there is three ways that we get things. One of those ways is we get those things first off by working. You know, I watched Snow White the other night. Hi ho, hi, ho, off to work we go. Amen. That's what happens tomorrow. And there's no Monday off tomorrow, so you're gonna be hi-ho in it tomorrow. But that's one of the ways that we get things, we get stuff. Another way we get things is through a gift. And by the way, it's wonderful when someone wants to give you a gift. And that's what happened with Jesus. Jesus had Mary who wanted to give this gift to Jesus, and Judas was sitting there, and he was like doing all kinds of judgment on Jesus for this. But Jesus accepted that gift, and so there's nothing wrong with accepting gifts. But then there is a third way you can get things, and it is the wrong way, and that is through stealing, taking away from another person. But what we find is God will honor those that work. God says he will honor those, even when he gives gifts. God is a God of grace that gives gifts to us all the time. Every good and perfect gift comes where from? Up above, from the giver, from the giver of all things, from the father of lights in whom there's no shadow of turning. So we know that everything comes from God.

Work Gifts And Taking Wrongly

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But why would we take from someone else? There's a second way we can take it is through fraud. Now it's breaking two commandments. It's not just stealing, but it is also bearing false witness. Because fraud is actually getting something by deceiving somebody else. And so fraud can happen in our life when we take something we steal from someone else by committing fraud, by misrepresenting in the New Testament. We saw this, misrepresenting weights was one of the ways that people committed fraud against others. And it was condemned in the New Testament. And it's condemned from God. God says, no, treat everyone fairly, do the right thing. And by the way, when you when you promise a day's work, give them a full day's work. That's one of the ways we can commit fraud as well.

Fraud And Cutting Corners

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A third way is through laziness. Look at your neighbor and say, you don't look very lazy to me. You got up this morning, right? Thank God. The Bible says, six days you'll work, and on the seventh you'll rest, right? That's what we know. We learned that from the Ten Commandments. Six days you're going to do your labor and do all your work. And yet, let me let you know, God honors work and God is a worker. Jesus said this, Jesus said, My Father works, and so do I. So even the ministry of Jesus, Jesus looked at what he did on a daily basis, not just as an opportunity to be able to minister to people, but he saw it as a means and a way of working. That was his job. That was his work to do. And ultimately going to the cross was work. It cost Jesus so much, and he gave his all for you and me. Why'd he do that? He did it because he wanted to provide for us. Now listen, laziness is a problem. We have some people in the world, by the way, that are that are handicapped, they can't work. About 12% of the population I've read have a handicap and are not able to work. And we as a church, we as the people of God have a responsibility to be generous to them and help them and to help others that do not have. And matter of fact, I had a guy after early service that came and said, I have a need. And we're working toward taking care of that need. That should be the way we would respond to those who have a need. But then, second off, what we know is there are some people that are what I call spiritual porch sitters. You know what I'm talking about? I lived in Alabama. I always knew what that was like. And you just sit on the porch. You go to work in the day and you leave and you sing on your pastor, they're on the front porch, and then you come back and they're still sitting on the front porch. And they're able-bodied. Let me just say that's that is laziness. And Paul addressed this, and he addressed it as one in scolding the believers saying, don't do this, because he said, We hear that some of your idle, your front porch sitters. It's almost like he says, I'm just applying it to Alabama turns. Now, nonetheless, they are not busy, he says about them. They are busy bodies. So you're always going to be doing something. If you're not busy, you'll end up, you'll be tempted to be a busy body. And so he says, Such people we command. And then he says, and we urge. We command you and we urge you in the Lord Jesus to settle down and earn the bread they eat. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3, 11 and 12. So we're told, listen, don't steal by uh from other people by being lazy. Don't depend on other people for welfare just because of the fact that, hey, I think I've got it coming to me. That is not biblical. God condemns this. And so, furthermore, also what we see is we see that there is another way of stealing, and that's what I call stinginess. Now, this

Laziness And Living Off Others

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is kind of a borderline one, and you might you might want to kind of pause here and say, okay, what am I gonna feel about this? Stinginess is that, is that being, uh, is that stealing from somebody or is it not? I'm gonna let you decide, but I'm gonna present it from a way that I believe it makes sense. But stinginess is one of those things that I think is just the opposite of Jesus. Jesus was not stingy with his time. He went to the marginalized, he went to the needy. Furthermore, Jesus was not stingy in his power. He did miracles, he even fed 5,000. That was a lot of people to be generous to. Furthermore, he was not stingy in his service, he washed his disciples' feet, which only a slave would do in those days. And Jesus was not stingy with his life. You know what he did? He died for us. That includes you and me. Somebody say hallelujah. So, hallelujah, he did this. But what about stinginess? What about stinginess? You know, some people are employers, and you say, I'm gonna buy low, buy, buy low and I'm gonna sell high. I'm just gonna just do it, I'm gonna gouge, I'm gonna do everything. Listen, that's kind of stinginess. Especially in situations where uh, of course, the things times get hard. Uh, some people say, Well, I want to keep my employees paid low, but I want to keep my income high, and they'll call that a business management uh decision. Listen, what should we as employers be? I'm a pastor of the church. We're actually, I'm kind of the head, work with the personal committee, and we we employ people. And in doing that, I hope and pray that we're always thinking about the other person that we're hiring. Because it's so important not to be stingy. I want to tell you kind of a little personal story. When I was growing up, when I was about 12 or 13 years old, I began to mow lawns. And so I mowed lawns, and we had a lot of people, matter of fact, they had like 30 lawns I mowed. It was unbelievable. I had no idea that you could actually make a business out of that. Had no idea, but uh I had a business, didn't even know it. I was mowing lawns and most of the time what I would do is I would go and I would just ask the person, listen, what do you want to pay for me to mow your lawn? That's why I was so popular. And so what happened was is I remember going to this one lady, and uh she had about an acre, a little over an acre lot, and she was a member of our church that I grew up with in, and uh, my dad was a pastor. And what happened was as I went over to her house and she said, I need for you to mow my lawn. I have no one to mow my lawn. I said, How much do you want to pay me for that? And she goes, $4. Well, when I looked at that, I thought, well, at least I'll make $5. Most lawns and they're even half this size, but okay, I'll do it. This is a lady, she probably doesn't have a whole lot. And so I said, We're in agreement, it's four dollars, I'll mow your lawn. And sure enough, I went and mowed her lawn and motor lawn multiples of times, several years, motor lawn, but I remember so often going to try to get paid. Have y'all ever been there? She came out on her front porch and she had a little change perch and she opened it up and she began to take out one quarter at a time and put it in my hand. I was like, this is miserable. I'm so hot and sweaty. I mean, it was Arkansas summer. And back then we didn't have weed eaters. You know what I had? A hand weed her. I weed eated around her house with a hand clippers, and and I had done everything to make it so nice, and I take a lot of pride in my lawn. And so I decided this is what I'm gonna do, no matter what she pays me, but she she would take those quarters out and put them in my hand one at a time. And then one day I remember she got into a new pattern. And what she did was she would begin to take out eight quarters and she'd put them one by one in my hand. And she'd say, Honey, it doesn't look like it was very high today. I'm thinking, Oh, help me, Jesus. Here it comes. I said, Well, then why did you call me to ask me to mow your lawn? She goes, Well, I thought, you know, well, if I waited another week, it might rain and we get into all that. She goes, I really think it was worth $2. I said, okay, fine, whatever. Put the quarters in my pocket and I went on and I mowed the rest of my lawns, and I did fine. Obviously, I've done just fine. But what bothered me about that more than anything else was here was a lady. I was like 12, 13 years old, a lady who had grown uh up in our church that I grew up in and become an older woman. But yet instead of just, I mean, if she would have just said, listen, I'm kind of down, I don't have as much money, I had a little extra bills this month, can you help me out? That would have been a different thing. But it was always just, let me see how stingy I can be. And what I found after that, I just dreaded mowing her lawn. I thought, I know she's gonna, we're gonna have to go through the same routine on the front porch again. And it was just awful. I just disliked it. And but one thing I can tell you, I mowed like multiples of lawns, and I cannot tell you everybody's name that I mowed lawns for when I was 12 or 13 years old, but I can tell you her name. Her name was Miss Klein. Miss Klein, I remember. You know why? Because instead of being more of an impression of Jesus for me, she had more of an Ajudas impression on me. Because I thought, here is somebody who really is getting out the ticker tape, trying to make sure that she gets the most out of the least amount that she can give me. She was stingy. None of you say, Well, is that stealing from somebody? You decide. I'll let you decide. You and the Holy Spirit can work over that. But I do believe it is in the spirit of stealing at the very least. Another thing that we get into when we look at this whole thing is as we pause and we say, okay, uh, are there any other ways of stealing? Yes,

Stinginess And The Lawn Mowing Lesson

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another way is not paying your debts. Now let's say, in the New Testament, the Bible says, owe no man nothing but in love. And a lot of people look at that and they'll say, You should never get a loan. Well, if you can get a loan and you can if you can buy a house without a loan, congratulations. Okay, you can do that. But I I don't see that's what the Bible's saying. It says, owe no man nothing but in love. Now, if you pay your bills, you don't owe that person until next month. Okay? If you pay your bill, if I pay my electric bill today, I will not owe that. They will be kind enough to give me my electricity and trust that I will pay for it for the amount I use next month, right? So here's the deal, here's the deal. Everybody kind of gives you a loan anyway. If you think about it, getting the electricity you get, you're getting a loan. So the Bible has really straight up information on how to handle this. And it basically says this pay your debts. Pay what you owe somebody else. Owe no man nothing but in love. So, anyway, make sure you pay your debts. But it brings up another question, and this is probably a hot topic today, and one of them is is gambling stealing? Now, I asked several people that this week, and uh most everybody said no. So I said, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna throw it out here and I'm gonna let you guys deal with it. I'm gonna let the Holy Spirit deal with that one just the same way he does the stinginess thing. But here is the question: are we stealing if somebody else has to lose for us to win? Now that's a good question. You're back, your mind's rolling right now, and you know, we are told, listen, the lottery is okay because it is making it all right because people are going to college on this. They're getting scholarships for this. Well, all I gotta say is if you think all that is going for is scholarships, whatever, whatever. But nonetheless, we we isn't it funny how if something is even possibly wrong, somebody tries to package it in something very glamorous, something very good. This has gotta be okay. Well, let me just kind of just give you some food for thought. You can make a decision on this, you and the Holy Spirit can work on this really hard. But here's the thing. Jeremiah 22, verse 13, this is what I've been thinking about. The Bible says, woe unto him who builds his house on unrighteousness. In words, you build your house on something that is wrong, on unrighteousness, on some unrighteous way of getting that money. And so he says, Woe to him who builds his house on unrighteousness and his chambers with wrong. So with that, when you look at this, I think definitely in the spirit of stealing, I believe we should consider what it is gambling okay or not. Now, besides that, let me just explain some things that I think may help you. This is kind of off uh off subject for a second, but you're really not. And let me just say this: gambling is not the smartest thing you'll probably ever do. And I want to prove it to you. Let me explain this to you. I looked it up this week to see what's the chances that I have if I go buy a ticket for Powerball today, or if I go buy a mega millions ticket. The chances are one in 292.2 million that I will win Powerball. Okay? The chances that I will win mega millions is 302.6 million for mega millions. Now, I don't know if you put those numbers down right then, but let me just explain to you. The chances of winning Powerball is one in 292 million. The chances of getting struck by lightning today is one in 1.2 million. Did you just put that together? So uh there's about a 290 plus chance, million chance that you're going to you're gonna you're gonna get struck by lightning over winning the powerball. Getting a hole in one. Any of you golfers out here? I can't see from the lights. Let me just see. Anybody a golfer who got a golfer right here? What do you think, Lynn? The chances are that you'll get a hole in one. One in what?

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I've never got one in my life.

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You've never gotten one. You haven't practiced enough. 12,500. One in 12,500, you'll get a hole in one. I'd rather take my chances on getting a hole in one than buying a mega million. I really had. Uh here's one more. Uh, one more is becoming the president of the United States. You say, okay, I'm gonna run for president. And you're gonna put that out there. What's the chances that you will become president? It's one in 32.6 million. Now, let me put that in comparison. The chances of winning mega million is 302.6 million. In other words, you're nine times more likely to become the president of the United States than win mega million. So, whatever I got, no matter where you land on this, all I gotta say is if you decide to gamble, good luck. Seriously, good luck. Because here's the deal that's what you're gonna need. So here's what we ought to be doing in our walk with God. We ought to let God work in our heart to ask us the hard questions. We ought to let the Holy Spirit, instead of the community that we may live in or maybe the world we live in, dictate what we think is right and wrong. What does God say is what really matters.

Debt Gambling And Hard Questions

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And that leads us to the second thing, and that is a second question is can I steal? Okay, we can steal from others, but we can also steal from God. Now let me explain to you, the Bible says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So what that means is God owns everything. Look at your neighbor and say, God owns it. Yeah. Now think about what you love the most in this world. Guess what? God loves it. And God owns it. You don't own anything. Naked you came into this world, naked you were returned. That's a little vivid, but you get the picture. Naked you came into this world, naked you returned. So here's the deal. Everything you have, the Bible says every good and perfect gift comes from above, down from the Father's life. You say, Well, I work for that. Yes, you do. Who gave you the ability to work? You say, Well, you somebody gave me as a gift. Well, who moved on their heart to give those things to you? Here's the thing. So often we discount God from the blessings in our life. We say, hey, I God bless you when somebody sneezes. Or we say, How are you doing? Well, I'm blessed. We say that. But here's the deal: God is a blessing, God. God's been blessing you all day long. I'm gonna tell you what, it rained a lot this week, but I was thankful for the blessing. Amen. Sure beats the powdered sunshine and the pollen, right? We need something to wash all that way. We need something to grow everything that we need so that we can eat and enjoy life. We enjoy the greening and the world. Listen, God is a blessing God. So from that, he asks us to do a couple of things. Number one, he asks us, number one, to honor him through serving and keeping his Sabbath. Now, we already went over the Sabbath. It's already there. We've already saw it in the Ten Commandments. He says, listen, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. We already read it. He wants us to worship him. He wants us to be grateful. He wants us to come and worship out of gratitude. And he wants us to say, I was glad when they said into me, let us go into the house of the Lord. But not only that, but he wants us to worship him in everyday life. He wants our life to be dedicated to him so that we can worship him. Listen, that is what our life is about. When you get to the end of life, you're not gonna sit and say, Boy, life was all about my portfolio. Life was all about, you know, whatever. You're gonna say, life was about God's blessings in my life and me utilizing and using those for his glory and using the gifts and talents God gave to me, so that in turn I can glorify him. You are made for worship. The Bible says that you are not your own. You're bought with a price. Let me read this to you real quickly. It says in 1 Corinthians 6, 19, hang in here with me. What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and which is inside you, he asks? Which was given from God, and you do not have ownership of yourself? Why? Because you're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit. Both belong to God. So here's it God owns you. So here's the thing. When you become a Christian, God puts his Holy Spirit inside you. And when he puts his Holy Spirit inside you, guess what? He comes to take ownership. And when he takes ownership, here's the thing: you are possessed by Jesus. You are possessed by God. Some people are possessed by demons, possessed by the devil. We're possessed by the Spirit of God. And so it's we're possessed by the Spirit of God. We are walking worship centers. So we take our worship and not only into Sunday, into the Sabbath, but we take our worship into every day of our life. We serve Him. We say, God, what can I do to thank you? How can I praise you more in my life? What is it that you've brought me here to do? What's the purpose of my life? I want to fulfill it. So that's what God wants for you and me. So that's one of the things he does. And another one, this is the most controversial. And you knew this would come up when I come to end of this. And the next one is about tithing. People say, Well, is tithing right or wrong? And so people who don't want to tithe, they'll take a scripture like 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 7, and it just simply says this. It says, Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart. Now you've heard that, to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. But then you'll read in Old Testament in Malachi, right before the turning to Matthew, you'll read something like this. You'll read the Bible says in Malachi 3:8, Will a man rob God? Now that's stealing. That's why I bring it up here. Will a man rob God? For you have robbed me, but you ask, Have we robbed you, God? God answers, in giving of tithes and offerings. And so here's the deal. When I look at this, I want to tell you personally in my life what I do. I tithe. Matter of fact, I not only tithe, but I give an offering, and I love to do that. It is the only perfect thing I do in my life. But I promise you, I do it perfectly. And as I do that, I do that because I don't sit and say, God, what is the least amount I can give to you? God, what is the how in my life can I just just kind of just kind of make you happy with what I give? It's kind of like have you ever been to a birthday party and you really didn't want to take a gift? Okay, let's bring it a little closer to home. Have you ever been to a graduation party and not want to take a card? I knew there would be somebody that would cough at least in that one. Tis the season, folks. You ever been to Christmas and you go, boy, I really wish we didn't have to buy something for so-and-so. Who said you have to? You really don't have to. But you say, well, it's expected. And sometimes we look at God that way. We say, well, God, what do you expect of me? Let me ask you, is that the right attitude? Here's what he says. Listen, Paul says, listen, I don't want you to, I truly believe Paul would have been an advocate for tithing. I'm an advocate for tithing. I believe it's right. But to me, that is the minimum that I want to give to God. And the reason why is because I can outgive God. And I'm going to show you that in my life. How God is blessed and blessed. There have been lean times and there have been low times. There have been high times and there have been good times. We've had it all. But that's how God works. But in that, what I have chosen to do in my life, and what I believe God has asked us to do, and I do believe, I do believe we all should consider what that means. Do you know why God gave tithing? God gave tithing so he could say, I'll give you a hundred percent, and I want to see if I can trust you to give back 10% to me. And that's how I look at it. That's how I see it. You may see it differently. And it's okay, you take it up with the Holy Spirit. But I'm just saying, to for me, for me to not give to God and not to tithe would be in my heart. I would be stealing from him because this is what he wants me to do. And I can say that. It's something I love to do. It is one of the most delightful things in my life, is to be able to give. Because one place where I can give Jesus my all, I can give it right here. It's not hard, folks. It's just a choice. But yet in our heart, if we want to make an argument about tithing, what we do is this, oh, God doesn't expect that of us. Such an Old Testament term, that's a covenant thing. And we get into all that, and I'm like, why did you what did you just say you don't want to tithe? Okay, if you don't want to tithe, don't tithe. Take it up with God. Take it up with God. I'm not here to push anything down anybody's throat. I'm just trying to say, this is what I see God saying. And I pray that you will see what God's saying to you. So with that, can we rob God? Yes, we can. But the third thing we can do is let me just take this thing home.

Can We Rob God

SPEAKER_01 33:37

We can rob from ourselves. And you say, how in the world can I rob from myself? That doesn't seem possible. How can I steal from myself? Well, one of greatest robberies that takes place in the universe today is people stealing from themselves a spiritual future. Let me explain that to you. The Bible says this, and I'm just gonna read the Bible verse, and you're gonna I pray that you'll receive it. It says this, 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 9, underline it. The Bible says, the Lord is. Let me start there. Let's say that. The Lord is. Say that with me. The Lord is. Okay? Now let's finish the rest of it. Not willing that any should perish. Say that with me. Not willing that any should perish. Here's the thing. Do you think you're in any? Listen, we're all innies, we're not outies. You know what I'm saying? The Lord is not willing that any should perish. That's every single human being. He doesn't want you to perish. He doesn't want you to have an eternity without God in hell. He's not willing, that's not his will, that any should perish. But he says, but all, say this with me, but all come to repentance. That all come to repentance. That's what the Bible says. Now, with that said, what I recognize is that God's will was done when Jesus went to Calvary. God's will is done. Jesus says, I'm not here to do my will, but the will of the Father. That's what he did. His will, he says, God so loved the world. John 3.16, you know it. God so loved the world that whosoever, you're a whosoever, whosoever believeth in him, that means placing your faith in him, trusting in him. Whoever believes in him should not perish. But have what? Sing it with me. Everlasting life. God wants you to go to heaven someday. God made a way for you to go to heaven someday. But even more than that, God made a way for you to follow Jesus Christ. And when you follow Jesus through this life, guess what? It will take you all the way over the valley of the shadow of death, all the way into the kingdom of God, and forever we shall be with the Lord. Praise God. That's the plan of God. That's what he wants for you. But guess what? You have a choice. And the choice is that God's going to give to you is a choice of whether or not you accept his gift. See, he is very generous. He's so generous that he says, I want to give to you eternal life. The Bible says it comes from him. We don't get it on our own. We don't deserve it. We don't buy it. We don't even steal it. We just receive it because God is good. And that's what Jesus did on the cross. He made a way, he made the payment for that gift to be given to you. Because he's not willing that any perish, but all come to repentance. Now, with this, let me just take this home. But you have a decision. If you go to hell when you die, it's not God's fault. If you stand before God and you have rejected Jesus Christ, the Bible says you're without excuse. The Bible says no matter what, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. We know that. That'll either happen here or it'll happen there. You say, well, what in the world would keep somebody from making the decision? See, if you wait till there, it's too late. If you make that decision here, it's right on time. And God loves you enough that he sends his Holy Spirit in a moment like this, before we close, to draw your heart and to draw your spirit and say, What am I going to do with Jesus? The only reason why I know anybody would say no to Jesus is because they want to do their own thing. When you become a Christian, you repent of your sins, you say, I am no longer wanting to go that route. I'm not going to be perfect. We know we're not perfect in ourself. We're going to make some mistakes, but here's the thing: the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all sins. Aren't you glad that his blood is enough? And in that, what we know is as though we have made a conscious decision. We call this repentance. We have just made a conscious decision listen, I'm not walking the way that I once wanted to all by myself. I'm going to walk with Jesus. I'm going to live my life for and with Jesus Christ. That's called repentance. That's going down one direction and saying I'm going a different direction. And now I'm going the direction of Jesus. Now, with that repentance, what happens in our life is God gives to us a relationship with Jesus. And in that relationship with Jesus, he'll correct you, he'll discipline you, he'll guide you, he'll love you, he'll provide for you. But if you reject him, you're facing judgment by yourself. And I want to just say, what in the world would make you say, I had rather make myself my own God, make my own decisions in life, do it my own way in life, and I'm just gonna do it, and I'm gonna just kind of try to do the religious thing, and maybe it'll be good enough. Listen, that's not good enough. Only Jesus is good enough. He says, I am the way. You know what the word way there? The way, the word way there is the word hold off. I am the road. You're getting on a new road. I am the road, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man comes to the Father but by me, but by me, but going with me down this road. That literally is what that means. So when we accept Christ, what we say is we say, I am making the decision to walk a different route. I am walking with Jesus. The Bible says, narrow is a way that leads to eternal life, to eternal life, broad is the way that leads to destruction. The word way is the hodos word, which means I'm as a road. So the road to destruction is a wide road. A lot of people go there. But then there's the narrow road that some choose and we walk it with Jesus. We don't go alone, we can't do life alone, we do life with Jesus Christ. And you've got a decision. What do you do? What in the world would keep you from that? It reminds me of a story.

Stealing Your Eternity From Yourself

SPEAKER_01 40:30

It took place in Oklahoma City several years ago. I'll close with this story. But several years ago in Oklahoma City, there was a terrible apartment fire. True story. And what happened was is it happened in the middle of the night, the Oklahoma City Fire Department, multiples of alarms, many, many fires. Everybody came to the try to rescue everybody out of that burning apartment building. On the second floor was a lady who had a little baby, and they had rescued her, got her out, but she was unconsolable. She was on the on the sidewalk, screaming to the top of her lungs, my baby is in her crib. My baby is in her crib. My baby is in her crib. And she was trying to fight to get the fireman to let go so that she could go back into the burning building, but they were literally holding her down because she was so concerned about losing her baby, which is rightfully so. One fireman saw this and he was so disrupted by that, he said, I have got to go in. He says, I'm gonna risk my life. Thank God for our first responders, by the way, who are willing to do this every single day. Our police and fire, we ought to support them. God bless them. But yet, let me just say this. He went up and he went up the second floor ladder, uh, up the ladder to the second floor, went in. He had all his breathing oxygen apparatuses on. He was in there, it was the the smoke was thick, the fire was all around, and he could barely see, but he did find finally the crib and he scooped up this bundle and he put it to his chest and he came down and he came down the ladder and he handed that sweet bundle to the woman. And she opened it up and she began to scream. And she said, This is not my baby. This is my baby's baby doll. It's a tragic story, isn't it? But you know what is just as tragic, and maybe even more tragic, is someone holding on to the toys of this world, and when the smoke clears, standing before God, and you have no one holding your hand, you have no one guiding you, you have no one but yourself and your worldly goods. Whether you got them by work, whether you got them by gift, or whether you got them by stealing, you have stolen away your whole eternity from yourself. It's a hard word, but it's true. So let me urge you, let me compel you, let me you say, well, Pastor, you're trying to manipulate you. If that works, let's do it. You know why? Because I love you enough to tell you the truth that you need Jesus just like I do. And without Jesus, there is no life. Here's what we know about grace. This is so wonderfully shared with me from our media leader, Trey Morell. This is what he said at the end of our our as we were preparing for our podcast, and I think this is so good, and I just want to share it with you. Grace. You don't have to steal it. Grace. You don't have to buy it. Grace, you don't deserve it. You just need to receive it. God's not trying to steal your life away from you. He created it. God's not trying to, in some way, steal your money from you because, you know, of the tithing conversation. He wants you to worship him. God loves you so much and me that he is all about giving grace. You know what grace is? Acrostic. A gift received at Christ's expense. Today, don't steal from yourself an opportunity to accept the greatest gift of all, the grace of Jesus Christ. So,

Grace Repentance And An Invitation

SPEAKER_01 45:10

Lord, we love you. We're grateful for the gift received at Christ's expense. And right now, in this moment, there are people listening online around the world. Right now, in this moment, there are people in this very room listening. And Lord, I pray that right now that they would make the decision to lay down the things of the world and pick up and receive the greatest gift ever made offered to man, and that is the gift of salvation. Lord, nothing is more imperative and important in their life and our lives than that. So right now, where we are, God, I pray that you would bring us all to a point of true repentance in our life. We say, I don't want to go the way of the world. I'm making a decision today. Today is a mark in the line in the sand. I am going a different direction. I'm going to walk with Jesus. I'm going to become a follower of Jesus and I'm going to receive his grace. And I believe that he died on the cross for me, and I believe he rose again for me, and I believe that he made a way to give me this grace that I'm being offered today as the Holy Spirit is pricking my heart. That's why I'm inviting now you, Jesus, to come in. I receive your grace today. If that is your prayer today, and you believe with all your heart that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, would you just tell him this morning, would you say, Jesus, I'm coming with you. I receive your grace today. He'll come into your life right now. And if we go through this invitation time, maybe it is that God has been drawing you and you've been looking for a church home, and God is saying, Listen, this is the church home where you're gonna study God's word, you're gonna fellowship together, we'll serve the community together. This is the place where I am calling you today. Would you come and join this church officially today? And furthermore, maybe today there's something else in your life that God has just spoken to you during this message, and you need to just come lay some stuff at the altar today. Would you do that? Or maybe you have some burdens, maybe you have your needs. Today, God's here to meet with you. So, Lord Jesus, we praise you and thank you that you are here in this place, speaking into our life. Now we respond to all for the glory and the praise of the Son, the Lamb, the Savior of the world. His name is Jesus. We do it all for him. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Let's stand together and let's sing the song. All the saints and angels, they bow before the throne. Let's do that this morning. Let's celebrate him. Let's worship him and come and respond to his call today. He's here for you.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

Stay connected, share this message, subscribe, or visit us online at Kinnesoft First.church. We'll see you next time. Keep building your life on truth.