Crime Pays—Negatively
Exo 20:15 "You
shall not steal.
Eph 4:28 Let him who stole steal no longer,
but
rather let him labor,
working with his hands what is good,
that he may have something to give him who has need.
When a man attempted to siphon
gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street, he got much more than he
bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find an ill man curled up next to
a motor home trying to steal gasoline. The man had plugged his hose into the
motor home’s sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to
press charges, saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had.
• A pair of Michigan robbers entered a convenience store nervously waving
revolvers. The first one shouted, "Nobody move!" When his partner
moved,
the startled first bandit shot him.
• A guy walked into a corner store with a shotgun & demanded all of the
cash. After the cashier put the cash
in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of Scotch
he wanted on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well,
but the cashier refused saying, “I don’t believe you are over 21”. The
robber said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because he
didn’t believe him. At this point, the robber took his driver’s license out
of his wallet, gave it to the clerk. The clerk looked it over, agreed the man
was in fact over 21 & put the Scotch in the bag. The robber then ran from
the store. The cashier called the police & gave the name & address of
the robber. They arrested the robber 2 hrs later.
Reality
is often stranger than fiction. Some people think crime pays.
• It is amazing how hard some people will work at being dishonest.
• Today we are going to look at another commandment that appears to be a
simple one, but it is one that is frequently ignored.
• In the most comprehensive study of its day, an article in the October 98’
issue of the Journal of
Law & Economics (University of Chicago Press) says crime costs $17 per day
per person, or $1.7 trillion in 1997 dollars. The report, covered such details
as police & private security expenses, corrections costs, expenses of
crime-related injuries & the amount of the theft.
Criminals annually steal $603 billion+ in assets while also
creating an additional
$1.1 trillion worth of lost productivity.
Exo
20:15 we are told, "You shall not steal.”
1. Thief. “From old English to crouch,
one who takes illegally, by secret, or
stealthily”
(Webster). A sneak thief, or burglar.
2.
Robbery or mugging. To take illegally by force. “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among
thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him . . . leaving him
half dead” Luke 10:30
3.
Seizure. Using without permission,
taking company assets, using and abusing another’s possession, etc.
4.
Deceit. “The Lord hates dishonest scales and dishonest weights” Pro
20:23. Mechanics charging for
work not done, adding to expenses, false claims, false advertising,
exaggerations, making promises you can’t keep.
5.
Defraud. “To deprive of something by
deception; the old English word means to cheat” (Webster). To withhold something rightfully due. If you don’t
pay a debt on time, you defraud and not allow them the use of their money, i.e.,
Not giving employer 8 hrs of work for 8 hrs of pay.
HOW
DO YOU FEEL WHEN SOMETHING IS STOLEN?
1. Angry, (because we are possessive)
2. Violated, because
someone took part of your life.
3. Hurt, because you need it or miss it.
4. Confused, you don’t know what to do.
5. Thankful, it could have been worse.
DON’T
BE LIKE OUR ENEMY.
1. Not
kill. “He
(the Devil) is a murderer from the beginning” Joh
8:44
2. Not
steal. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, & to
destroy. Joh 10:10a
3. Not lie. “He (the
Devil) is a liar, and the father of it”
John
8:44.
“Am I a thief?
I.
Instruction: DO NOT STEAL.
A.
God says, we are not to take property of another person.
The commandments so far
have dealt with issues of divine authority, life & death, sacred time, etc. Suddenly the gears are shifted
from Holy Spirit and Holy relationships to the issue of things. God
considered the possession of things, of significant importance to include
respecting
ownership as one of the
Big Ten.
1.
God’s commands are not to burden us, but instead to give us
freedom within boundaries. Some see have laws or rules to follow as slavery, but
in truth, accepting a commandment sets you free from the struggle of the drives
from your old nature: selfish nature.
You don’t have to debate
stealing because God said it is wrong.
B. We are to respect
ownership of possessions.
1.
We are
told we are not to take what does not belong to us.
Old Testament, if you stole, you were required to pay 2X restitution.
If you took 2 sheep, you
had to give back 4 as restitution. Exodus 22
2. Anyone who has been robbed knows the pain of the theft.
The Bible provides a way
to ease some of the pain and suffering that accompanies a loss of property.
the Bible tells us the repentant thief would only have to add one fifth on top of what he took.
Num 5:5-7
Exo
22:1 “If a man steals an ox or a sheep
and slaughters it or sells it, he shall
pay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.”
4. We are
talking about the way they made a living in the O.T.
Sheep & oxen were
their livelihood.
5. What
would happen if a person knew, getting
caught stealing stuff, would require them to pay anywhere from 2x the value to
5x.
C. Stealing is taking
something that is not yours!
IT’s that SIMPLE!
II.
Identification: AM I A THIEF?
(Are You ONE?)
I don’t think many of us are planning on robbing someone or planning
to break into a home to
steal someone’s stuff, however….
A.
Stealing can show up in a multitude of ways.
1. Identity theft is becoming the fastest
growing crime in America.
• U.S. Postal Inspection Service estimates 50,000+
per yr are victims
• victims ID fraud decreased from 10.1 mil-2003
& 9.3 mil-2005 to 8.9 million in 2006.
• Total 1 year fraud amount in 2006—$56.6
billion
• fraud amount per victim avg. $6,383 in 2006.
2. We can
steal software by sharing it with other people.
3. When
you go to work & take office supplies home— stealing
4. There
are many people who steal cable TV.
5.
Cheating on taxes by miss reporting—income
6. When
employers don’t pay fair wages, they cheat employees.
Jas 5:4
All the workers you've exploited &
cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used & abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger.
(msg)
7. White collar crime of retirement
accounts literally wiped out.
8. When workers goof off on the job, they steal from their employer.
9. Recently I received a bill for having cable hooked up in TEXAS.
10. When
a check is written for money we do not have…. stealing.
B.
God says anything you take that’s not yours is stealing.
III.
Intention:Rational
in BREAKING
the
8th
Command.
A.
We can be good at rationalizing
anything.
= the process of constructing a
logical justification for a decision, action or lack thereof
that was originally arrived at through a different mental process.
• Here it is in everyday
terms: you make up a way to explain actions so that it sounds OK!!
B.
It’s easy to rationalize stealing.
• taxes = They take too
much, they waste taxes, so I cheat on my taxes.
• a large business or employers are a target: the company owes it to us.
(the raise you didn’t
deserve, get) Not yours, they do not owe it to you.
• It’s only a little, won’t be noticed. What if all of us take just a
little? • Have you ever been given too much change at the store or have you
ever been given something at what you knew it was the wrong price? It is not
stealing when they made a mistake is it?
• GO back & let them
know the mistake. You’d want them to do the same for you? Someone’s
ignorance or mistake should not be our gain.
• How about the one that says, EVERYONE DOES IT.
An
article in Campus Life Magazine states the following concerning the idea of “Everybody Is
Doing It.”
• According to a recent Campus
Life survey, 80 % of readers say they’ve cheated
in school. Most of those say they’ve cheated "seldom" or "only
once," but one reader
actually admitted to cheating every day!
• 6% of you say they never
cheated.
• 73% say cheating is a problem
at school.
When we asked why
people cheat, the common answers:
"they didn’t study" (87
%), "to get a passing grade" (80 %),
"to get better grades"
(77 %).
Enough statistics. It’s clear
that cheating is a big issue. But is it a problem?
After all, it’s so common, almost
everybody’s "doing it"—even the nation’s very
best students. According to the latest survey of Who’s Who Among Ameri
can High School Students, 80 % admit to cheating. Many students find
cheating easy to justify. "Cheating never hurts anybody," one guy told
the Chicago
Tribune in a story about cheating
in school. "Ten years from now, who’s going to care?" "Why
should I know the parts of a squid’s stomach?" said a girl, citing her
reason for cheating on a test. When that girl’s mother heard her daughter had
cheated, she hardly flinched: "It’s cheating, after all," the mom
told the Tribune. "She didn’t pull a knife on somebody."
IV
Let’s Illuminate: Small things really
do count.
Luk 16:10 "He who is faithful in a very
little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very
little thing is unrighteous also in much.
A. The 10 commands can be very convicting. (don’t quit, 2 more)
God wants to save us from
our own selfish nature.
IN TRUTH: we are all
guilty of breaking the 10 commandments.
• Not too many of us
will rob a bank, but are we guilty of breaking God’s
commandment in other ways?
Jam
2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in
one point, he is
guilty of all.
B.
We belong to Christ, we are to live by a higher standard.
1. The
sin of Stealing, is in direct opposition to
God: who gives...
Made in the image of God,
We are supposed to care,
2. Giving our tithe.
“Will a man rob God?” Yes, but you ask the question where have I robbed God? God’s answer,
“You robbed Me in tithes and offerings” Mal 3:8, 9, author’s translation.
3. We are to worship and
serve God.
That is our highest calling.
4. Stealing harms a person on the inside, i.e., discouragement, victims
often give up, or become vengeful.
C.
We must be people who can be trusted.
1. NOT
just to worship GOD.
2. Care
for Our family, protect life, live pure,
3. To
respect others property.
D.
What do we do NOW?
1. Talk
to God. 1Jn 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
2. Part
of our testimony must be repentance. Eph 4:28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let
him labor, working with his hands what is
good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
3. Then we reconcile: 2Co
5:17-18 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new. 18 And all things are of
God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
God has called us to
reconciliation.
REPENTENCE is a part of
our testimony.MAKING THING RIGHT, becomes a testimony of how Christians
WE are not perfect but we
are to live as best we can for HIM.
Invitation Hymn 317 “Only
Trust Him”