Deuteronomy 5:19
The Eighth Commandment

I. Don’t Steal
1. John Winthrop said, “We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our [luxuries], for the supply of others’ necessities.” The first case of church discipline in Puritan New England was for profiteering.
2. When we scratch below the surface we open a can of worms: Who’s to say what belongs someone?
3. Is my house, my furniture, my vehicles, my money all ultimately mine, to do with as I please?
4. Often this commandment is interpreted to support the right to private property. That’s only half-true.
5. The commandment is first not about rights but about responsibilities.
II. God Is the Owner, You’re the Steward
A. The Heart of Stealing
1. “You don’t own anything!” You are responsible for things. You’re a steward.
2. God owns it all. Some of it He has distributed to you, either through your work or as a gift.
3. Keeping too much change from a cashier is stealing. A shop-lifter is a thief, even if he’s poor.
4. Living in an apartment without paying rent is stealing from the landlord.
5. Stealing is the attempt to take something that God has not provided that we should have.
6. The thief decides he knows best to whom something should belong.
7. The thief is anyone who does not recognize God’s claim to everything.
B. Stewardship
1. If you forget you’re merely a steward, if you think you’re an owner, then you’re a thief.
2. Cotton Mather said, “All that we have is but a loan from the Great God unto us.”
3. Psalm 50:10-12, “every animal of the forest is mine,. . . the world is mine, and all that is in it.”
4. We can steal our own things if we forget we are but stewards and start acting like we are owners.
5. Because we are stewards, we have to take care of things. We have responsibilities to improve.
6. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) shows that God expects us to grow what He gave.
7. We need to have these words ringing in our ears at all times, ‘Render account of your stewardship’.
8. Lotteries and other forms of gambling are lousy ways to invest, poor stewardship.
9. Laziness is a sin because it is squandering of our time, of our opportunities to be good stewards.
III. The Commonwealth
1. We are called to use our time and our jobs to add, not only to our wealth but to the “common wealth.”
2. Don’t confuse love with indulgence. Stop stealing by giving to people in a way that really helps them.
3. The Apostle Paul said that if someone will not work, then don’t let them eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
4. We don’t do people favors if we don’t expect them to work and contribute, to pull their own weight.
5. Israel was to leave some of their crops unharvested for the poor to take for themselves (Lev.19:9).
IV. Stealing From God
1. In Malachi 3 the people were stealing from God by not contributing to worship, to the ministry.
2. If we can look at the cross and think we owe only a percentage, then we’ve not seen the cross rightly.
3. Our church covenant says, give “cheerfully for the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church”,
4. Acts 4:32, says that “no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own”.
5. Ananias and Sapphira gave to the common pool, publicly, but not the full amount, lying to the church.
6. The church is involved in your giving. You are accountable to the church.
7. Giving is a major part of your discipleship, not private. The church is all about making disciples.
8. If you can do something special (like go to Disney World) without stealing from God, then you may.
9. No thief will inherit the Kingdom of God; every thief will go to hell (1 Corinthians 6:10).
V. Invitation: Christ is used to being around thieves. He died hanging between two of them. And one of them believed. Because of the crucifixion of a Man just feet from him, he would not have to endure the wrath of heaven. Are you a thief? That one penny you kept as if it were your own, you stole from God. As a thief, if you are to be right with God, then you must repent, confess your sins, renounce your claim to own something. Let go of your claims to deserve, to own, to have rights. Come to Him and give — not just some spare change — give your whole life to Him as a living sacrifice.