Thou Shalt Not Steal

“I don’t steal” feels like an easy win, until we slow down and define what stealing actually is. We keep working through the Ten Commandments with Exodus 20:15, and Pastor Perry helps us look past the obvious and into the everyday places where integrity gets blurry: the quiet “borrow and keep,” the lazy shortcuts at work, the stingy instincts that justify taking advantage of someone else’s need, and the growing reality of cyber fraud and scams that are built to trick you in secret.

We also tackle a question people love to debate and rarely examine: is gambling stealing? We talk through the odds, the way “get rich quick” hope can reshape a person’s relationship with money, and why stewardship matters more than a clever excuse. If God is the giver and we are managers of what we’ve been handed, then our spending, saving, and risk-taking all become spiritual, not just financial.

Then we go right at the taboo topic: can you steal from God? The tithing conversation isn’t about guilt trips, it’s about worship, trust, and what happens inside us when we get bristled by generosity. We close with a warning that hits close to home: sometimes the biggest theft is stealing from ourselves, slowly gaining the world outwardly while losing our soul inwardly. If that tension feels familiar, you’re not alone. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review with the moment that challenged you most.

Transcript

Cold Open And New Song

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is the Kennesaw First Podcast. Life built on truth.

SPEAKER_05 0:09

We're here, everybody. How are we doing?

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Are you gonna turn the music on for us?

SPEAKER_02 0:17

I said, guys, here's how we're kicking it off today. All right, guys. What's up, guys? I have a new song that I found. This is what I was doing last week when I wasn't on the pod. Here it is.

SPEAKER_05 0:54

I want to see the motions to this, Jason. Do you know? Do you know the Ten Commandment book?

SPEAKER_02 0:59

I'll get some Jeff Slaughter uh BBS motions to it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

I'm not a good dancer, so but y'all were doing a great job in here. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_05 1:09

I appreciate that. I pride myself on that.

unknown 1:12

You should.

Small Theft Stories And Icebreakers

SPEAKER_05 1:14

Well, so we are back with the Truth Behind the Sermon podcast as we continue on through the Ten Commandments, Pastor Perry talking about verse 15 in Exodus chapter 20. Thou shalt not steal. What a uh command that's so easy for us to overlook. Uh, easy for for people a lot of times to be like, this doesn't apply to me. You know, I don't steal things. Um but as I kind of got to thinking about it, we we we find it easy to miss uh to maybe overlook some things that we could say probably are stealing. So my my little icebreaker question today is one, did you ever steal anything? And if so, what was it? Chaston, no committing or no admitting to Grand Larceny, the FBI probably listens to our podcast.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

But I don't think I've ever stole any anything like from a store. Sure. Um, but I have definitely I have definitely put my hand in the cookie jar when I wasn't supposed to, you know, and gotten up late and been like, I'm gonna go get that coke out of the fridge, or I'm gonna go get uh that bag of cookies. Um I did go through a phase where so we tell time of my childhood uh through how big I was. So I was I was kind of small as a kid, and then uh through my like fifth and sixth grade years, I was chunky. I shopped in the Husky section. Um the husky Levi's with the adjustable waists on them. Um Trey, you've probably had a six-pack since you were born, so you don't get it. But anyways, uh I have definitely the husky.

SPEAKER_03 3:12

I thought that was like a serious thing.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

100% JC Penny, Levi's husky section.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

Um I remember how disappointed I was when I found out what husky meant. I thought that's got like special genes.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

I thought it was like I thought it was like the dog. I thought it was like the dog, like husky dog, like oh yeah, I've got the cool eyes on you. Jason's walking around. Yeah. Meanwhile, I was just uh I was just fluffy, you know? And uh so I've definitely gone and got the cookies late at night. Uh so I would say that's that's what I've done.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Yeah. Uh so with me being a younger sibling uh in the household, my uh older sister, she would always get the nice stuff.

SPEAKER_05 3:57

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

So yeah, I uh yeah, you know, so uh when she's off to school, you know, my bus comes a little bit later, me being in middle school. Uh oh. And uh yeah, I would definitely go in her room, take it, use it, but I'll put it back. Sometimes I forget and I get caught.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

So she'd get home, piss her head period.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

What would you use?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

So I've always You opened up a can of horns with that.

SPEAKER_05 4:21

When you said use it, I was like, I don't know where this is gonna go, but Perry's gonna ask.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

So lilac deodorant. No, no, no, no, no, no. Uh she was always in a cosmetic cosmetology. So I would always use some of that stuff too, you know.

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Because I've I've always tried to cut my own hair or cut people's hair.

SPEAKER_05 4:43

So I was always paying too much. I can't get Trey to cut my hair though.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

No, I'm not, man.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

I can't. I can't.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

You have to be forgiving. Uh so if you're not there, then we can't do it. But if you're there, we could probably try it out.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

We'll do it sometime. Little did we know he has a special gift. Man, we all do, man. We all do. He can pull off the barber thing. Oh I'm all right with it. Yeah, there you go. I'm all right. There you go.

SPEAKER_05 5:07

I, you know, I probably did similar things to that as far as older siblings, um, video games, that kind of thing from older stepbrothers. Uh, I don't know that I took much from my sister besides like maybe food or something, you know, out of the fridge that was not marked or was marked, and I didn't care. Um, Husky Boys Unite, you know what I'm saying? But uh But yeah, even like, or like you think about like a pencil, like you're like, hey, can I borrow your pencil at school? And then you just hold on to it. That thing is staying put because that's a smooth pencil. Yeah. And I've got another class I gotta go to, so I'm gonna need this next period too. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Hey, I will say that's that's a weakness of mine. If you got a good pen and you hand it to me, it's going home with me. If you have an S gel, Sharpie S gel, and you hand it to me, and you don't come hunt me down to get it back, yeah. I'm keeping that thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Speaking of, there's a silver marker that you took from downstairs in the gathering center. I thought about that yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

I didn't steal it, I know exactly where it's at. I'm keeping it safe. Uh yeah, I'm keeping it safe. Look at us. We we are doing uh exactly what uh this sermon this week does. We're kind of talking about what what classifies as stealing. Um and so, Pastor Perry, you give us um some really practical things and some very pointed things, and and you um you kind of get a little bit deeper uh below the surface of uh what this commandment really is telling us. So can you bring us through that?

Stealing Beyond Shoplifting

SPEAKER_03 6:46

Yeah, the the most obvious thing to talk about is the stealing stuff from other people. And the the Hebrew word that's here used is ganab, which means to carry it away in secret take. Yeah, in other words, I'm gonna I'm gonna come in under the stealth of radar and I'm gonna take what belongs to somebody else. And we we often think about you know like Chaston stealing uh the the pen from down at the gathering center, you know, we think about it that way, but uh but we don't think about other things. And probably, you know, one of the one of the things that we don't think about as much, but I mean stealing is a big time problem in America today. And really it's uh uh cyber stealing is a big deal. People are you know pulling the wool over people's eyes and getting money from them. Um I just recently had a thing where a supposedly ATT sent me a message saying you didn't pay your bill. And I'm like, no, I paid my bill. So I went home and I looked back up and I'm like, sure enough, I'd paid the bill. Everything is showing on my banking account. I paid the bill. But people have gotten really, really good at fraud today. And uh that's one of the ones the things I bring up, but they gotten really good at fraud, but they knew the amount of money that I actually pay monthly to AT ⁇ T for my internet. And it would have been so easy for me to fall for that if I had not gone back and double and checked more than once to make sure that uh, you know, that I had paid the bill. So, so there's a lot of fraud going on, and a lot of people uh look at that and they say, Yeah, that's stealing. But do we ever think about like laziness? Where the Bible talks about six days you're gonna do your work, and on the seventh, of course, we read about the Sabbath. But laziness is something that that Paul warned about, and uh he says, We hear that some of you are idle. He talked about this in Thessalonians and about being idle, and he says they are they are not busy, but they're busy bodies. Uh such people I command and urge in the Lord Jesus to settle down and earn their bread that they eat. So sometimes people can can prey on somebody else's good good benevolence because of laziness, and really it's a form of stealing, saying, I'm not gonna do my, I'm not gonna go work, I'm not gonna do what I need to do. Um, and so that's that's another one, another one of stinginess and just being stingy. Sometimes, you know, I I drove up to Starbucks today, and you know, I I had a little extra that I had. Um, and you know, I got my, you know, well, I don't know how much these coffees cost these days. Anyway, it was like nine bucks by the time I was done.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Seven bucks.

SPEAKER_03 9:51

Yeah, like seven, yeah, it was like it was a lot for a cup of coffee. But, you know, at the same time, I I just really appreciated the young lady that was taking care of me. And, you know, the question is that's kind of a borderline thing, but is that kind of stealing from people? Is it some people expect that? Some people I I would say it's more of a gratuity, but but I I wouldn't really uh say that's being really uh somebody that's stealing. But it's uh on the other hand, there's sometimes when we know that we should be paying a certain amount for for somebody to come and do a job, and maybe they've fallen on hard times. And uh or maybe I I mean I purchased uh a smoker a couple of years ago and the guy was having a hard time paying his rent. He says, I really didn't want to get rid of this, but um I'm needing to sell it so I can pay my rent. And in that case, you know, I I gave him I well, I'll just tell you, I gave him like a hundred extra bucks for it uh because I knew he was trying to unload it at Christmas time to take care of his rent, and this is what he had. And so I appreciated the fact that that he was willing to take care of his family that way, but I could have been stingy instead. That was one of the things that I thought, you know, I need to I need to give him extra money on this because I can. I mean, God had blessed me, somebody had been kind to me, so I'm like, pass it on. So I I think sometimes that can be a borderline thing, and of course, not paying your bills, not paying your debts is definitely uh the Bible says no, owe no man nothing but in love. So we pay our bills or we sell what we have, and we we live by our means. Um but here's the question I want to throw out to y'all that kind of goes along with this. That's

Gambling And Money Stewardship

SPEAKER_03 11:48

I is gambling stealing? And um that's a real popular thing today. Of course, I will be the first to say I don't think gambling is a very smart thing to do. Sure. But is it a gambling reason why I don't think it's smart, and I bring this up in the message, is winning Powerball, you have one in 292 million chances to win um win Powerball, or one in 302.6 million to win mega millions. And you put that in contrast with getting struck by lightning, you have much greater chances. It's only one in one point two million. Uh getting a hole in one golfing, which this is what fit for you, Chaston, one in twelve thousand five hundred. So just keep going and golfing and you're gonna get one. One of all three. Yeah, yeah. But uh becoming the president of the United States, one in 32.6 million. So what that means is there's nine times more chance that you'll win uh that you'll become the president of the United States overwinning megamillions. So I laugh at that, and I'm like, it's not the smartest investment. That's probably not a good steward. But here's the question that I throw out, and I really don't answer it in the message too much, except just to say, you know what, you've got to figure this out. But when somebody else loses for you to win, is that stealing from them? Yeah. I've thrown that out to several people this week, and almost everybody said, no. You know, I mean I might I don't think about it, but think about it. Let's not just let's not just grab on to something just because we think that feels right. But um I guess that's that's the whole thing. The whole focus of the message is let's talk about what it really means to break this commandment. Let's really think it out. Let's come to conclusions and let's come to let's not just grab onto stuff because the culture says this is okay or this supports education. This is how this is this is how we, you know, we get you know the the educational scholarships in Georgia. But what's your thought? Anybody want to throw it in there real quick?

SPEAKER_05 14:10

So I I have a friend actually uh who used to be in student ministry, now he's an account. Um and he he's actually very I'm not gonna say passionate, but he will have this conversation until he's blue in the face. And so he'll do a lot of like I shouldn't say a lot, he doesn't do a lot, but he'll do some sports gambling, right? Some fantasy football type stuff where uh you pick your daily lineup or whatever, and based on their performance, you can win money. And the way he talks about it is that he'll say basically there's there is a level of skill in it. And so if there's a level of skill in it, he doesn't feel like it's gambling or stealing necessarily because someone else is choosing their options, you're choosing your options, and it's based on observation and skill. Um I don't know if I completely jive with that, you know. I don't know if I completely sit in that. Um, but it is definitely an interesting conversation uh to to look at and really say, like, how comfortable am I with this? Is this being a good steward of my money? Yeah. Um, you know, a lot of times people I the the re response I get a good bit. We had this conversation in a group chat probably a year ago or so, Trey. Uh me and Trey used to be in a uh an online football league with some guys that I knew from college, and uh they got into talking about it. And it's always funny when the pastor inserts himself into the conversation because then like the whole tone changes and everybody gets nervous. Um and so I don't remember really remember how we got to it, but um, a couple of those guys in there would would say uh that basically there it went, man. It just disappeared. It was a good point, too. There's no way I can scroll back that far in that group chat though.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

What did they say?

SPEAKER_03 16:21

So did they struggle? Did it create a struggle by bringing up the conversation? Yeah, if so, then the whole point of the sermon is doing the same thing. It's like we should think about what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah. Well, and you brought up a good point of is this being a good steward of what I've been given?

SPEAKER_05 16:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

And I had this conversation actually with my brother-in-law, because he likewise has a friend who, you know, put down 150 bucks on a college football game and ended up winning uh like 2,500 bucks. And he was just enamored by this. And he was like, Well, he researches, he does all this work, and he does this. And I was like, man, what's the what's the goal here? Are you just trying to are you just trying to get rich quick? And I said, let's let's dive deep down into the heart behind this. Are you trying to, are you trying to outpace where you're at? Are you trying to are are you seriously being a good steward with what God has given you? What is your relationship with money? Yeah, and that that would that was my first question. Is like, hey, what is your relationship with money? Do you view it as I have earned this, this is my own, I get to do with whatever I want to? Or is this what God has given me to be a steward of? And that should answer your question of whether or not you should gamble. And and we can be we can be real, we can think so highly of ourselves too, and say, Well, I'm just gonna put down twenty dollars because what's twenty dollars to me? But uh it's really not a get rich quick scheme. But at the heart of it, it nine times 9.999 times out of 10, we are trying to game the system. We're trying to get the the money quick. And uh, you know, one stat that I read about the about the lottery says that people in the lowest tax bracket spend 13 on average, 13% of their yearly income on the lottery. The people in the higher tax brackets spend less than one percent. So it one is the system preying on people who are who are poor. Um, and two, the people who are who are buying these are looking for that, they have that that desperation. They're looking for, they're grasping at straws, and they maybe don't quite have the understanding of, hey, this is God's money. I have trust in him that he is going to uh supply for me. And so that those would be my questions, is like, especially when it comes to money, is um, you know, what is your relationship with that first? And then you can start to go on and answer those questions and decide if it's right for you. Nine out of 10 people are gonna say, this is not right for me. Now, I've gone on a cruise ship and I've played the slot machine. I want I lost five dollars and I said, Nope, I ain't doing this. Learn my lessons. I was like, I could go, I could go get a little more sushi at the sushi place.

SPEAKER_03 19:36

Maybe you went OEC and got struck by lightning.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Then I went to the putt-putt place and I hit a hole in one before I knew it. I was president of the United States.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Well, this is the whole point of the whole message, and I love the Ten Commandments because of this, because the thing is, is we often the the searing of the conscious of of mankind has always been let's make this look good. Let's give you a good reason why this makes sense. And uh same thing, that's why I brought up the question is is it like in the lottery, everybody's like, well, this is how we get our kids to college, this is how we promote education. But at the same time, 13% of people in that lower echelon of income are struggling because they're just looking for some hope. That one, you know, and and so that really, really is important. But the second point that you brought up that I think is really good is a question is is where does my money come from? Well, we say, well, by work or by gift of kindness, somebody can give you some money, like I did the guy, the extra money when he was selling something to me, or by theft. And um, so that brings up a question is what is our relationship with money?

Can You Steal From God

SPEAKER_03 20:58

And so that brought us to the second question is can I steal from God? And of course, you already know where we'll go on that. As soon as I say that, you're like, okay, what about Malachi? Oh my goodness, this gets you want to get some people wound up. Malachi, and that's what I came across is is will a man rob God, but you've robbed me in tithes and offerings. And man, you want to get some people wound up. You can get them wound up by talking about tithing. That's like that's one of the taboo conversations in churches. Like, we're not gonna talk about that. I mean, I even had some guy send me one time a sermon by Billy Graham telling us why tithing was an unbiblical uh statement. Well, you know, and what they were trying to say is this Billy Graham must really be on to something. Uh, and I think his point, and by the by the way, I did listen to the message, and the message was more or less uh a question about the law. Versus grace. So people that say, okay, don't tithe, you don't have to tithe, we'll go to 2 Corinthians 9 7 that says each of you should give what you have decided in your heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And a lot of Christians are struggling with this today. There's about 70% of Christians that say we believe tithing is a biblical, it's a biblical principle. Another 30% will say no, tithing is not a biblical principle. We live on this side of the Old Testament, not that side. And that was only for the people that were in Israel. I look at it and I'll tell you how I live my life. I live my life very strictly, not because out of obligation, but uh I mean, super strictly I do this. I make sure that everything God gives to me, I give him 10% back. I've been doing that since I was eight years old. Um, it's the one thing that I can say that I do 100%, if you want to put it like this, by the law, I keep the letter of the law that way. But you know what, I have found from doing that and from making that a pattern of my life, it is one of the most joyful things that I can do. Matter of fact, as God has increased my income over the years, I've been like, look, my tithe is now over this number. I know. And I'll be honest with you, I remember when I started giving tithe that was more than I made when I was six, you know, when more money than I made when I was 16. And I made a little bit of money uh because I had multiples of jobs that I did. And I thought, my goodness, I'm finally now giving back what I made when I was 16. And then it's kind of crept up there. And I love to do that. I love to see how God has blessed us. And I can look on my tithing record and I can tell you exactly how much God gave me the year before. And but it's it's become a joy to me. And I think that's what 2 Corinthians is talking about is saying, listen, I don't want you to give out an obligation. If any of you ever, I mean, we're right in the middle. Let's just let's get let the elephant in the room be in there. We're right in the middle of graduation season. And you get those things in the mail where you're like, okay, I need to give somebody something, you know, because they're graduating. And you really want to, but then after you get 25 of them, you start thinking, okay, uh-oh. You get a dollar to little to Amazon a half. I even give everybody a 20 bucks service card, you know, this is really going to affect my finances. And it can get to the point where you're going, hang on a minute, this is really impacting, especially when you're in ministry, we get a lot of those. And so I often think about it, okay, am I giving this reluctantly? You know, and but what about when it comes to God? You know, do we give to him reluctantly? If somebody even mentions tithing, do we get all bristled up? That ought to be a that ought to be a signal and sign that, hey, maybe my heart's not where it is. Of all the people that I should want to honor is the person that's given me 90%. This is how I live my life. He he's giving me 100% and says, live on 90%, and I'll give you 10. That's a that's a great that's a great you want, I'll give you we we can I'll give you, you know, uh, I'll give you uh, you know, 100% and you give me 90% back, and uh key you can keep 10 all day long. Yeah. You know, uh especially when you when you stop and think about that with God. But I think that has long been too much of a conversation of excuse saying, you know what, I don't want to give God 10%. And um now I can say that, I'm just gonna be honest. I mean, I've been tithing over goodness well over 50 years now in my life, but I have found so much joy in it, and um I love to get a Lord, you know, and I love to have something I do 100% right, even by old testament law, if you want to make it that. Yeah, it's a joy that I have in my life.

SPEAKER_05 26:32

Yeah, I think uh a really cool thing there is the joy that comes in obedience to God, right? And so tithing, giving is the one area that God says test me in this. Yeah, right. I would love to say that my entire adult life I've been tithing that or that I've been tithing since I was 16 and working at Bilo grocery store, right? But I wasn't, yeah. Um, I can even remember early in mind and cares marriage, there were days where we didn't make much money, you know, and I was I was nervous. Um, but one of the you know most awesome things you hear people tell stories of how you know they they decided to pay their tithe, and then that day they found a check that was the exact amount to pay the bill they were worried about not paying because they were they were gonna tithe. Those things are awesome, and those things happen. That's never happened for me. But what has happened for me is there's been times where I've been like, all right, Lord, like I'm giving it to you, but but we tight this week. Like these are things are gonna, we're we're gonna be, we're gonna eat some beans and rice, we're gonna go Dave Ramsay this week, okay? Um, and so but when I I say that, and then those same weeks are the weeks that blow me away.

unknown 27:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:39

When I just look at, you know, I'll check the account at the end of the week, and it's like substantially more than I figured we had sitting there. You know, God is so faithful in that, and that honestly just draws me to that place of of even more conviction to to continue on in it. Like, God, you've proven yourself faithful. So I'm gonna continue to be obedient, right? I want to give to you because you you deserve all of it.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Well, that's one of the things that brought up in the sermon. Tithing is not about what's coming out of our wallet, it's what really controls our worship. It's saying, okay, where your treasure is, there your heart is. And so that's been true for me. I remember when Jan and I were in seminary, um, I had one of those pay periods where it was really bad. I was like, how in the world are we gonna pay for food? At that time, we were buying $25 worth of groceries at the second save. You know, I mean, I'm not even kidding. We were broke as a joke. We were so poor we couldn't afford the other OR, so we were Po, you know? Like what we say, we were so Po. And uh Vody Baucom said that. Remember Bodie saying that? Oh, that's awesome. But but um I remember there was that one time when I said, I just can't afford to tithe. And we didn't those that pray period on to you, that went from bad to worse. And so you talk about testing me in it. Uh and I know a lot of people look at that and they'll say, Okay, um, you know, okay, is God offering up to all these rewards and stuff if I'm obedient, you know, and we can get into a lot of really bad doctrine there. Sure. Um, but but it did go from bad to worse for us at that point because I had been living a certain lifestyle. There was a rhythm of the way I was honoring God, and it was worship. My giving is worship. And uh it went from bad to worse, and I finally sat down with Jan. I said, I gotta confess to you, I I didn't I didn't tie the last pay period. And she goes, What in the world are you doing? And I mean, she let me know real quick that was not okay, that God would take care of us. My wife has had so much faith. That's her number one gift. Um, and next pay period, guess what we did? We doubled our ties. We doubled our ties. We prayed about it, we worked together, and you know what? Uh, it's obvious we didn't go without a meal. And it's obvious God took care of us. And it I don't know, I've always felt like God will bless you. You can't outgive God. Right. And so that was one part of

Stealing From Yourself Over Time

SPEAKER_03 30:26

the part of the message. The other thing is we give him of our time and we serve him. Uh we we honor him with the Sabbath, which is in the Ten Commandments. But probably one of the number one ways that we can steal is to steal from ourselves and to steal away the day of grace where the Holy Spirit is drawing us and speaking to us, and we say to the Lord, you know, another day, another moment. I'll I'll I'll walk with you, I'll obey you later. Or we say, out in the calendar, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you've been convicting me about this thing in my life, and I'm gonna I'm gonna get that right one of these days. And the fact is, is one of these days it'll come. And um so that's that was my third point in it. And um I just think I think stealing just goes a whole lot more further than we can imagine. But the greatest gift and the greatest giver came from God Himself. Um, you can't outgive God. God gave his everything for us um and giving his son for us, and he gives to us and blesses us all the time. I love it when people stop and say, How are you doing today? Blessed. I love that. I I really do like that.

SPEAKER_05 31:51

Mr. Dwayne says it every time that you talkly favored. Blessed and highly favored, and it's and honestly, it's such a good little heart check, you know, of like because he means it. And so then you're like, you know what? I'm blessed and highly favored too. You know, I belong to the king.

SPEAKER_03 32:06

Yeah. There there's nothing like walking with Jesus, there really isn't. And will there come times of testing and trial? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, come on. And will there be times of discipline? Yeah. I think sometimes we don't receive that, but the Bible says the Lord, once the Lord loves, he disciplines. And so he can bring discipline in our life to get us back into line. But the greatest thing is faith. It's do I have faith enough in God that I won't steal from somebody else? Right. That I won't be be a person of fraud, that I will have a good work ethic, and that I will, I will see whatever you do, do it heartedly as unto the Lord. You know, it's so easy to slough off and to just kind of just, you know, just float on by and get through and get your paycheck and say, okay, I did what um, you know, needed to be done so that I could get to the next pay period. But there's so much more to life than that. It's integrity and it's faith. And that's what God does. God doesn't look on the outward appearance, he looks upon the heart. So he loves the heart that is a cheerful giver.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

So this message, it pretty much is a reminder that everything we have that ultimately belongs to us belongs to God. Um, we are called to be steward of time, resources, relationships, and lives in ways that you know it needs to honor Him. So for my first question to you guys, why do you think it's easy for people to overlook the acceptable forms of stealing in everyday life?

SPEAKER_02 33:50

What do you mean acceptable forms?

SPEAKER_01 33:54

So as we were discussing earlier, we're talking about the things that are say, for instance, uh stealing from stores or stealing from siblings or things like that. Those are things that'd be okay, you know, that's fine. The silver marker. Yeah, that's gotcha. Perfect. Gotcha. Perfect segue.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

So we overlook the kind of little petty things that are just kind of normative.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Yeah, I mean, probably because it doesn't, at the end of the day, it doesn't provide all that much strife to us. Like, man, I have the means to go down to the store and buy 12 more packs of markers for oh, big spender, big flex over here. 12 put it on the church cloud instead of um, but you know, probably because it doesn't provide uh much um grief to us or strife to us. Um, but we we should really look at those things. And it should be this should be a moment that we really check our heart and our heart posture when it comes to money, when it comes to the small things, when it comes to our time. I mean, that's such a big thing. You know, I I I always point this out to people. Um, I would I would do this back in Groves. I would say, you're going to Houston, how far is it? And they'll say, Oh, well, it's an hour and a half. Okay. No, it's not. It's a little, it's a little over 150 miles. But you gave it to me in time. Why? Because we value our time. And that's how much we value our time. We don't value the miles that it puts on our card. We don't value the gas that it's going to take us to get there. We value how long it's going to take us to get there because our time is so valuable. And what happens when we start spreading ourselves so thin is that we find ourselves pushing our spiritual lives and pushing the Lord into the into the margins where he needs to be the focus and everything else needs to needs to come off of that. And uh, so I would say, you know, this should be a really good heart check for hey, maybe we do need to return that marker. Maybe we do need to take a look at our time, our tithes, our finances, and say, not am I stealing, but am I being a good steward of everything that's been given to me? And then also, uh, one thing that I kind of uh discovered through thinking through this and reading this was looking at it in the context of the Israelites there. Uh, you know, if if there was a thief among them, it would pretty much throw off the social order because they had to live in unity in order to survive. You know, so if there was uh someone who stole some food, uh it made others go hungry. If someone stole uh a live animal, say uh a goat or an ox or something, it would throw off the farming industry. If uh someone stole some clothing, it made others be vulnerable and cold. If there was a kidnapper, it tears apart a family. So it's not just that you're breaking the law, but you are now you are putting enmity between other people and you're you're kind of breaking that relationship with other people. And and it it applies to us as well. When we begin taking from others what is not ours or taking from God what he has given to us, it throws off everything kind of in within uh our our sphere. And so uh it's a it's a good moment to really uh reevaluate that.

Everyday Generosity That Looks Like Jesus

SPEAKER_01 37:48

So, Perry, you uh you were telling us a story earlier about the gentleman where you gave the extra hundred bucks to him. Um and you also mentioned that generosity reflects Jesus. Yeah, you know, he was never stingy with his power, his time, his service, or even his life. Uh so what are some practical ways that Christians can reflect the generosity of Jesus in a culture that constantly pushes selfishness and accumulation? Wow.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

That is a that is a great question. Um I really, I really you're you're exactly right. We live in a culture where you really don't even trust people. And you're like, okay, are they trying to pull one over on us? You know, um I just had my car fixed. I'm like, okay, this is gonna be, you know, a few hundred dollars for that car to be fixed because some somebody rammed into me and it was the insurance thing claim. It ended up being a five thousand dollar fix. And I'm like, do they really need to do all that work? You know, so it raised a question in my mind of okay, is this industry even being fair to each other? And I think we live in a culture where we see things like that all the time, and we wonder, okay, are we really, really our brother's keeper? Are we really taking care of one another? And I think the way you do that is is do it, it's a simple golden rule thing. Do unto others you'd have them do unto you. Would you want somebody to be fair with you? Uh would you want somebody to be generous? I mean, the lady at Starbucks, you know, would she prefer me to be generous and give her an extra dollar or two to put in her cup, you know? Uh, even though I think I might have got ripped off by the seven dollar coffee, you know. Uh no, I chose to buy the seven dollar coffee. Does that mean, does that mean that I shouldn't be generous with her? What would I do if I was on that side of the window? And I think when we begin to see people in that light, and we remove that selfish, um, you know, the selfish glasses, you know, where where we look at things and it's just a mirror looking back at us. When we start looking at others and we say, you know, that person could be me. What would I want if I was on that side of the of the of the window? And I think it's just the smallest little thing, the smallest little acts of generosity. It doesn't take much just to say, you know what, I can give an extra dollar here. Or I can I can take an extra moment here. And the lady that's out there, they're just having a hard time getting her stuff out of her cart, you know, a Kroger. You know, I can stand back, don't scare her, but hey, would you like some help? And hey, can I take your cart back to the store? It's little things that we've put into the rhythm of our life that I think begin to change the culture. If enough of us do that, it's it's gonna make an impact. So you start with one person, and that happens to be the person you look in the mirror at every morning.

SPEAKER_05 41:22

I think of John 13, uh, where Jesus washes the disciples' feet and then tells them, like, hey, just as if I'm your Lord and I'm your savior, I've washed your feet. Now you ought to go and wash others. Um when our mentality can be there of I'm here as a servant of God's kingdom. And so me being generous is me being obese. Um I I think of a story um that I told students a while back. Me and Karen and the boys were on our way home from somewhere, I don't remember where we were at, but it was uh there was a McDonald's and there was a BP gas station right next to it, and it was dark and I needed gas, and we were gonna we were going inside to eat. And so I took Karen the boys and said, Y'all go ahead and go in, I'll go get gas um and come back over and and eat with you. And so I go to get gas, and there's a homeless guy sitting on the front, and I had a five-dollar bill sitting in the tray. I never have cash, I had cash that night. But this guy comes walking up, and what do I do? My first thought is, uh, man, I didn't give this man money. Like, I ain't got nothing. Um and so I kind of push the little thing closed. So not only am I being stingy, now I'm also gonna lie to this dude and tell him I don't have anything. Right. Well, so before I could even talk to him, I just hop back in the car and drive around. And when I tell you the Holy Spirit just wrecked me in that moment, I had to drive back through there and eat that humble pie and say, hey man, I'm sorry. But here, you can have this. Like you said, Perry, it's not about us being our brother's keeper. It's just when the Lord tells us to do, we do. Um, you know, another small way we can do that. I used to really do the math on tips. So I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna, I'm tipping this amount and that's it. And then I was like, dude, you're you're sweating like 54 cent right now. Like when you really stop and think about it, it's like the difference between 18 and 20, right? Or the you know, uh, or you know what? Yeah, my cup did get empty while I was sitting there. And my that was my dad's thing, man. Drilled it when I was a kid. I can remember like if his glass got empty, the tip was going down. That was just that was one of the standards that he set. And and granted, the the cultural perspective on tipping was different then than it is now. Yeah, for sure. Uh but Jason's got a tipping rule, but anyways, uh but so uh I remember when it just hit me that was like That dollar fifty is not destroying your budget, but you know what? That dollar fifty can make that person's day.

SPEAKER_02 44:05

Well, and when we understand too, we're walking around. We we talked about this a few weeks ago, is that we're image bearers of God, we're representatives of Jesus. And so the way that we treat people is a direct representation of Jesus. And so if we can show them through our actions who Jesus is, how compassionate he was, and if we could metaphorically wash their feet by helping them out with the cart, uh tipping generously, if we can show them Jesus, they'll be more susceptible down the road. We had this guy back in Texas who would stand out on the corner. His name was Mark, and everybody knew him. They talked about him on the Facebook threads. He stood out there every single day. He had this hunchback, and he would stand there, he had his cardboard sign, and he would just he would just yell at every car that came by. He had no clue what he was what he was doing or what he was saying. And he'd be out there with brand new shoes, he'd be out there with brand new pairs of jeans, you'd see him eating at uh the schooner. If my grandparents are listening to this right now, though, you'd see him eating at the schooner, and um people would get so in out of shape because maybe he's taking advantage. And my my viewpoint of that was he might be, he might be, but God never calls us to control things that we can't control, he calls us to be compassionate, to show them love when they don't maybe we feel like they don't deserve it. We maybe perceive they don't deserve it, but imagine if God would have looked at us and said the exact same thing and said, uh, they don't deserve it. So I'm gonna hold, I'm gonna withhold because they don't live up to X standard. No, God gave us grace, and so we should give, we should give others grace.

Gaining The World And Losing Your Soul

SPEAKER_01 46:10

So one of the strongest uh points in your message was that stealing from yourself, stealing from ourselves, um, it's a warning that people can rob themselves spiritually by rejecting God's grace. So my last question to us uh is what does it look like for someone to gain the world outwardly, but slowly lose their soul inwardly?

SPEAKER_03 46:37

Well, you could almost name names here if you're not careful, you know, because you know people that have turned away from God and while God reigns on the just and unjust, you can look at people in the world that have you know, they have everything going for them and they die and like the guy in Texas, he was buried in his Cadillac, you know, kind of thing. But what do you really have in the end? And it's not just talking about eternity, but what do you have personally? Oh what do you leave to your family? What really matters is who you have who you have become because uh you have had this relationship with Jesus. You know, we talk a lot about uh doing for other people because we want to show to them Jesus, and which we should. But what about uh just how God changes us and nobody else sees it? By changing the rhythm of our life and so forth. Ultimately, that is going to pay off in amazing benefits by the impression that you leave in this world and the culture you leave in this world. Um maybe we're robbing ourselves and we're just simply robbing ourselves. We might not think anybody ever really is touched by something we do out of generosity, but we are when we do something with generosity because it changes our heart. Because we're doing it for an audience of one, we're doing it for Jesus because Jesus is working in our life. So I guess that's how I would answer that question. Um we would rob ourselves from the opportunity for life change. And yes, that plays itself out into eternity. And I end the sermon with a pretty hard zinger. Uh a really hard zinger, which um I'm not gonna talk about because I want people to go back and listen to the message, but but it's a tough zinger and it makes you think about what am I holding on to? Um and what am I grabbing on to? What am I taking out of this world? We're taking nothing but Jesus. Naked I came into this world, naked I'll return. That's what the Lord said. But what we are, what has happened in this soul of ours where the Holy Spirit lives, that's what we're taking. And that's what other people are impacted by the most. Not us, but Jesus in us.

SPEAKER_01 49:45

At the end of life, nobody stands before God wishing they had accumulated more stuff. What matters most is what we did with what God placed in our hands, our time, our relationships, our generosity, our worship, and our hearts. Because everything we have is just temporary, except the soul God gave us. So don't spend your whole life chasing things that you can't keep while neglecting the one thing that lasts forever. Jesus is still the greatest gift ever offered to humanity. And the beautiful thing about grace, you don't have to steal it. You don't have to earn it, you don't have to buy it. You just have to simply receive it. Gentlemen, see you next week. See you next week.

Closing And Staying Connected

SPEAKER_00 50:49

We're glad you joined us for today's segment. We believe a life built on truth is a life that transforms everything. To stay connected, share this message, subscribe, or visit us online at Kindlesaw First Tot Church. We'll see you next time. Keep building your life on truth.