[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: What a blessing it is to be gathered here together for worship on this Sunday morning. I'm so excited to have the opportunity to be with each of you on this morning. I don't know about for you, but I know personally this summer has absolutely flown by and I'm so grateful for the experience I have had here. I want you to know that when my friends and my family, they ask me, hey man, how's that internship going for you down in Alabama? I want you to know that I just have to tell them it's special. And it's so special because of the people here. It's so special because of you. And I've never in my life had such an abundance of kind people and families pouring out to me. And I want you to know how big of an impact that's had on me. I want you to know how much I love you guys. And this morning we're gonna be continuing our sermon series, the Divine Connections, looking at our Ten Commandments given to us back in Exodus, the 20th chapter. And if you haven't been with us over the past six weeks, we've been looking at these commands. And while today we may not live under the old law, we can still search to see the heart of God in these commands and to see in some way how these commands can relate to us today. Now, it being the seventh week would mean that if we were on pace this morning, I would be speaking about thou shall not commit adultery. But considering I'm a 21 year old unmarried man, I thought I'd do everyone a favor. And so I got Mr. Brandon to hit a little flip flop with me. And so this morning instead we'll be talking about the eighth command, thou shall not steal.
In early October of this past year, I would have been about two months into my study abroad trip and we had been all over Europe, but at
[00:02:15] Speaker C: that point we were in Paris, France.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: And I absolutely love, loved Paris. And one of the really cool places we got to visit is we got to visit the Louvre. Now, if you don't know what the Louvre is, it's basically the largest art museum in the world. It was built originally as a royal palace, but was converted into a public museum in the late 1700s thanks to the French Revolution. It holds over 35,000 works of art, including Egyptian artifacts, Greek and Roman sculptures, all sorts of Renaissance paintings, countless masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, created by Leonardo da Vinci.
And when I thought about this command, thou shalt not steal.
The Louvre was the first place I thought about, because you might have remembered on October 19th of this past year, seeing on the news that just less than two weeks from when my group visited the Louvre, another group visited the Louvre. Four men dressed up in construction worker outfits showed up in the middle of the day.
They brought a truck with a furniture lift attached to it. They raised themselves up to a balcony where they cut a hole in the window. And in just a few minutes, they had stolen hundreds of millions of dollars worth of artifacts and jewels.
Thou shall not steal.
When I considered this command, I want you to know that at first glance, I really struggled.
I struggle to find what's the connection here?
How do I relate this to a group like this? Because I think in my own life, personally, if my neighbor was to bring home a brand new sports car, I might look at that car and think it's awesome. I might even wish I had it for myself.
But there's not a piece of me that wants to figure out a way to try to steal that car. When I walk into the convenience store, there's not a thought in my mind that convinces me to stuff my pockets full and walk out without paying for those things. When I was visiting the Louvre and enjoying my experience there, there wasn't a single part of my being that was trying to calculate and scheme a route in which maybe I could dangle myself from the ceiling using a metal wire. Maybe I could tiptoe around and steal ancient artifacts. It never crossed my mind. I didn't think about it. And so I consider a group as blessed as we are in a country as blessed as it is, where we have all of our basic needs met.
And I ask, man, really, how applicable can this command be on the list of things we struggle with? I would have to say stealing is probably not at the top of that list.
So I had to ask myself, how do I share this command? And what in the world do I do with the other 30 minutes of my lesson. And so that's honestly where I was at. I was in a place of struggle. But throughout this past week, as I've gone through the Word, as I've searched the heart of God in this command, and I've had several conversations with people I look up to, people who encourage me to look at God's Word in a new angle. This morning, I'm so excited to dive into God's Word and to have the opportunity to share a connection that I believe this morning can change our lives.
Today we're gonna be in the book of Joshua. We'll be in the seventh chapter, if you want to be flipping there. But I want to lay down a little bit of context before we get into the main passage. If you look just a chapter earlier, in chapter six, what you would see is God has commanded his people to go to Jericho and take over the city. He's commanded them to. To march around and blow their trumpets for seven days, and they do just that. And on the seventh day, the city walls fall down.
And Joshua, rather, he commands his men to go into the city, to lay waste to the city, to lay waste to the people of the city, to set everything on fire. But he says, as far as the gold and the silver and the things of value, we're gonna set those aside and we are gonna dedicate them to the Lord.
We'll pick up here in verse one where it says, but the people of
[00:06:10] Speaker C: Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things from Achan, the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things, and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.
[00:06:25] Speaker B: So we read here in the first verse. Remember, Joshua has said, we're going to go and destroy this city, but the things of value, we're going to dedicate them to the Lord. We meet a man named Achan here, who he believes this command is not going to apply to him. And we see that he is a great thief. We'll start in verse two.
[00:06:41] Speaker C: It says, Joshua sent men from Jericho to AI, which is near Beth Aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, go up and spy out the land. And the men went up and spied out AI. And when they returned to Joshua, they said to him, do not have all the people go up, but let about 2 or 3,000 men go up and attack AI. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few.
So about 3,000 men went up from the people, and they fled before the men of AI. And the men of AI killed about 36 of their men and chased them before the gates as far as cherubim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted
[00:07:18] Speaker B: and they became as water.
What do we see in the text here? Well, what I see is I see that ultimately the battle belongs to the Lord. It reminds me of in Judges 7, where Gideon is called to fight the Midianites. And so he amounts to about 32,000 soldiers. But God tells Gideon that that's too many. And so Gideon sends 22,000 of them home.
But again, God says, that's still too many. So Gideon continues to send soldiers home until he's left with 300 men. He sends soldiers home until the Lord's army is outnumbered 450 to one man.
But miraculously, the Lord's army wins that battle that day in judges the seventh chapter.
But here in Joshua 7, we see the actual opposite of that. We see an army with great numbers, an army of great strength. In fact, when the spies go out into the land of AI, they report back to Joshua, and they say, joshua, you don't even have to worry about sending your best because the people of
[00:08:14] Speaker C: AI are so insignificant.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: But here in Joshua 7, we see that the Lord is not with his people, and therefore they take casualty. And so it shows us that it never had anything to do with Israel. It was always God working. And today in our lives, it never had anything to do with any of us. It's always been God working.
Verse 6, it says, Then Joshua tore
[00:08:37] Speaker C: his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord, until the evening he and the elders of Israel, and they put
[00:08:45] Speaker B: dust on their heads.
[00:08:46] Speaker C: And Joshua said, alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over
[00:08:50] Speaker B: the Jordan at all?
[00:08:51] Speaker C: To give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.
Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan. Oh Lord, what can I say when
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Israel has turned their backs before their
[00:09:02] Speaker C: enemies, for the Canaanites and all the
[00:09:04] Speaker B: inhabitants of the land will hear of
[00:09:06] Speaker C: it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth? And what will you do for your great name?
[00:09:12] Speaker B: So this defeat destroys Joshua. He cries out to God. He says, God, how could you deliver us? How could you carry us through Jordan simply to hand us into our enemy's hand? And God responds in verse 10, where he says, get up.
[00:09:26] Speaker C: Why have you fallen on your face?
[00:09:28] Speaker B: Israel has sinned.
[00:09:30] Speaker C: They have transgressed my covenant that I commanded Them, they have taken some of the devoted things they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore, the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies because they have become devoted for destruction.
I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: So God tells Joshua to get up and to go and to realize that their destruction had been brought on them because of theft within their camp. And in verses 13 through 18, you'd watch as God commands Joshua to go clan by clan and tribe by tribe and to reveal who the thief is. And Joshua does just that. And in verse 19, he reveals Achan as the thief. And he says to Achan, my son,
[00:10:17] Speaker C: give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him. And let me now tell me, what have you done? Do not hide it from me. And Achan answered, joshua, truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. And this is what I did when I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels. Then I coveted them, and I took them. And see, they are hidden in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: I want us to notice verse 21. Here Achan is confronted by Joshua. And Joshua says, achan, what have you done? And we read as Achan offers a complete but nevertheless worthless confession. You see, a confession loses its redemptive power when it becomes the confessor's only way of escape. And what does Achan confess? He says, I saw, I coveted, and I took. And then in the end of the verse, the text says, he hides his possessions. It reminds me of Genesis 3, where we see Eve in the garden, and she sees a fruit. She desires it. She goes and she takes and she eats of it. And then what does she do?
She hides.
What I want us to realize this morning is that oftentimes our sin, oftentime our theft, it doesn't happen in a moment's notice. Oftentimes theft happens in the heart long before it happens with our hands.
And so if it's theft that starts in our heart, which starts from our desire, which comes from what we see, we must be very careful with our little eyes and what we might see. Let's finish the reading this morning, closing
[00:12:00] Speaker C: in verse 22, where it says, so Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent. And behold, it was hidden in his tent and with the silver underneath. And they took them out of the tent and brought them to Joshua. And to all the people of Israel. And they laid them down before the Lord and Joshua and all of Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zerah, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters, and his oxen and donkeys and sheep, and his tent and all that he had. And they brought them up to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today. And all of Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day, the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Now, the reason I want to read a passage like this is because I want you to see the seriousness of our sin. I want you to understand why it's such a big deal when we choose to steal from our neighbor, when we choose to steal from God. I want you to recognize what it cost Achan and his family on this tragic day.
I want us to look at a couple of reasons why I believe God has asked us not to steal. First reason is because every act of theft is an offense against heaven.
Why was it such a big deal that Achan had stolen on that day? Well, it wasn't a big deal because he had stolen from the fallen city of Jericho, or because he had stolen from the fallen people of Jericho, or because he had stolen from Joshua. Achan's sin is a huge deal because
[00:13:38] Speaker C: he has stolen from God.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: We know that in our life, everything we have is from God. We know that the Lord holds the whole world in his hand. And therefore every blessing and good thing in our life is simply something that the Lord has given us to borrow.
And so when we see and we covet and we take and so we steal from our neighbor, we steal not only from our neighbor, but we also steal from God. And understand what you're saying to your neighbor in that moment of theft.
You're saying you don't deserve this blessing from God, but rather I do.
Secondly, stealing is the language of a heart that believes God has withheld something. I want us to understand that the God who gives us this command to not steal is also the God who is our provider, who is our creator. And so he's saying, I've given you and provided everything that you need in your life. You have no reason.
And so to obey this command is to understand that everything belongs to God. In the first place. So therefore we do not have the right to steal from our neighbor. Why?
Because to that individual person, God has given them exactly what they need. And to you, God has given you exactly and abundantly what you need.
Deuteronomy 6, 10, 12 it says, and when the Lord your God brings you
[00:15:01] Speaker C: into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give you, with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and when you eat and are full, then take care, lest you forget
[00:15:20] Speaker B: the Lord who brought you out of
[00:15:22] Speaker C: the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: God has given and provided everything in our lives, has he not? I want us to for a moment consider just how blessed of a group of people we are. I want us to consider how kind Jesus has been to us. I want you to consider the car that you drove in to get to worship this morning. I want you to consider how now we sit in a place of comfort. And I want you to consider how for many of us, we'll leave here, we'll leave this assembly and we'll join together around probably some type of table to join in a meal to fellowship with each other. And we're so abundantly blessed, but yet we're the same group of people who covet in our hearts, and we're the same group of people who just aren't content in all the things that God has given us.
In 2024, it was reported that there was over 4.5 million acts of theft committed in our country. Do you realize how many billions and trillions of dollars that amounts to? In 2022, it was reported by the IRS that there was a 696 billion dollar tax gap. We may say that we don't struggle with stealing, but if that's the case, why do we see statistics like this reported?
Well, it's because our country has a theft problem. And perhaps this morning we have a theft problem. But nobody thinks they have a theft problem because of two reasons.
Because we play mental gymnastics. We play and we justify our theft. And this morning, it doesn't matter where you land on, on that totem pole of theft if it's the most minor offense, all the way up to the biggest offense, if we're landing anywhere on that totem pole, we're all guilty.
To the poor man who goes into the convenience store and he steals a sandwich, he's justified it in his mind because he's so hungry. To the employee who steals out of the register, they say, well, you know, my boss is just such a.
And so it would be better for me to have these things than for them.
To the person who steals from a large corporation, they say, again, you know, that corporation is corrupt. So again, it would be better for me to have those things than for them. I think about Achan on this day here in Joshua 7 and I wonder what kind of mental gymnastics he played, right? I wonder if he told himself, you know, the wicked men of Jericho, they don't deserve these things. It would be better for me to have them.
And if I take these things, perhaps I could provide for my family. That would be great.
This morning you may think that you're a smart businessman.
Tax avoidance is one thing. Tax evasion is something else. Insurance manipulation is something else. You might be an employer this morning. Colossians 4, verse 1 says, Masters, deal with your bondservants in a just and a fair fashion, because you too have a master above you who's in heaven.
So do you pay your employees what they deserve? Do you pay them what you would be expected to be paid if you worked that job? Or is there some avenue in which you can undercut them because you know they're in a certain difficult situation? Or you can get by undercutting them, perhaps because of their age or because perhaps of their race.
On the flip side, half hearted work is stealing. When you take a break because your employer isn't watching, you're stealing. When somebody shows up in your life and they care about you and they pour out to you and you treat them like their existence is worthless, you've stolen their time, you've stolen their care. When there's somebody in your life who you know is in desperate need of the gospel truth shared with them and you deprive them of that, you become a great thief.
You've stolen life from that person. What if it was that serious to us in every avenue of our life? I want you to imagine you're walking through a park and perhaps you pass a park bench, and on that bench there is a Carhartt or Nike, Lululemon, whatever your favorite brand is. There's a brand new jacket. It catches your eyes and you notice, oh, that's my perfect size.
Would we play mental gymnastics and say, well, it's probably better for me to have that jacket then just leave it out here and be ruined?
Or could you say, that's not my jacket, so I can't take it.
And probably what's happened is someone's forgotten it, and probably they're going to come back and look for it. And who am I to deprive them to steal away that individual blessing from the Lord?
Several years ago in my life, I mean, it's been a while.
I was at dinner with my mom and we had ordered and we got our water cups, right? And we're heading over to the drink dispenser. And you guys know the classic temptation when you've got the water cup but nobody's looking.
And I walk up to the dispenser,
[00:20:10] Speaker C: and it's kind of a two in
[00:20:11] Speaker B: one dispenser where you can press the button for water or hit the back dispenser for lemonade. And so I walk up and I smash that back dispenser. I get a glass full of lemonade. And as we sit down, my mom said to me, trenton, you know, we got water cups.
And I lied to her on that day. And I said, oh, I know. I thought I was getting water. I saw the water icon, and so I thought I was getting water. But that day, all those years ago, I became a thief.
Now, you might say that's just a silly example that doesn't really count as theft. That's not a big deal. This morning I want to challenge you.
Is it that big of a deal?
Because I would say it's a huge deal. Why?
Because God tells us that thou shall not steal. I'd say it's a huge deal because although it's something as insignificant as a cup of lemonade, that cup of lemonade is not mine to take.
I think it's a huge deal because I want to remind you that Jesus says, he who is faithful in the little will surely be great in the big things.
If God cannot trust you to make an honest decision about a water cup, why in the world would he trust you to to make a much greater decision in your Life? Habakkuk, chapter 2, verses 9 through 11.
[00:21:25] Speaker C: It says, Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house to set his nest on high to be safe
[00:21:32] Speaker B: from the reach of harm. You have devised shame for your house
[00:21:35] Speaker C: by cutting off many people.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: You have forfeited your life for the stone will cry out from the wall
[00:21:41] Speaker C: and the beam from the woodwork respond.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: The Lord is saying, it doesn't matter what you have, how wealthy you are. If you had to take one vain step to get any of it, it's worthless. It's shameful.
This morning, you hear the command, thou shall not steal. And as the listener, you may say, okay, sounds good. I can take this Sunday off because I'm not guilty of that.
But I want to challenge you this morning to look inside and to ask yourself, is there something you've been looking at that you don't need to look at that's led your heart to a coveted state? Is there something in your life that you've hidden?
Is there any avenue, any small, peculiar avenue in which you've become a thief?
Why did those four men steal from the Louvre on that day in October?
They stole because they saw something they wanted. They coveted it in their heart and they took it. And to this day, nobody knows where those jewels are at, nobody knows where those crowns are at because they've been hidden. And we look at those criminals who robbed the Louvre and we look at them with disgust. And we read about Achan's sin there in Joshua 7, and we look at him with disgust. And we see example in society after example in the word of these types of criminals, and we look at them all with disgust. But every morning we wake up and we look ourselves in the mirror and we smile because we've justified our thievery.
This morning I've got one final point as we close, and it breaks my heart to bring up this point, but it's the biggest point. It's the whole point of this sermon. It's the point that changes my life. It's the point that the greatest person that we steal from so often in our life is Jesus Christ.
Do you realize that you don't own your life, that you've been bought for a price? First Corinthians says it was a great price, a price of blood and a price of death. And you've been bought in order that you may be transformed. And you've been transformed so that your life may be an outpouring of glory to the Father.
And so to take anything that God has given us, that glory, those talents, and to keep them for ourselves, it makes us thieves. I want to ask you. What?
I can't even read it right. It's kind of a confusing question. Have you stolen what God has given you? When you read a question like that, it might make you turn your head a little bit because it doesn't really make sense. How can I steal something that's been given to me?
What's so interesting about the way our God works is he's blessed us in immeasurable ways. He's poured out in our lives talents and abilities and opportunities but the thing about God is he's asking for them back.
So what has the Lord given you this morning? Has he given you time?
Perhaps you've got a lot of free time on your hands these days. I don't know why that is. Maybe you're stepping into retirement. Maybe you've just been successful in the workplace and so you get to lighten your load a little bit. What do you enjoy doing with that time? Maybe you're able to go and play golf three times a week. Look, I've got nothing against golf, but if the kingdom is your priority in your life, would you stop stealing the Lord's time? Would you be willing to give it back to the person who gave it to you in the first place? Would you be willing to consider if there could be a better use of your time? If there could be a better way in which you could be serving others and visiting with people and encouraging others?
Maybe the Lord has given you influence. Maybe you're the type of person that people just enjoy being around.
Maybe you're in middle school or you're in high school.
The Lord has kind of made you a little popular or you're just liked or looked up to in the workplace.
Look, there's nothing wrong with being attractive towards people. But if the kingdom is the first thing in your life, would you stop stealing the Lord's influence? Would you stop making it be all about you? Would you realize that the greatest thing that you can do with your influence is to assist others fix their eyes?
Christ, what's God given you? Abilities, talents, good health? Maybe the Lord has blessed you financially.
Again, there's nothing wrong with having money, working hard, and being successful, buying nice things for yourself. But again, I'll say, if God's kingdom is the first and most important thing in your life, would you stop stealing the things that the Lord is allowing you to borrow? Would you be willing to take a step back from luxury, to seek out the people around you, to seek out in your own community if there's someone in some way that you could be assisting them?
Charles Spurgeon he says, I have often wondered that only Achan did it, but
[00:26:24] Speaker C: that one Achan had brought defeat upon Israel at the gates of AI.
I wonder how many Achans there are here this morning.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: I should feel myself very much at
[00:26:34] Speaker C: ease if I thought there were only one. But I'm afraid there are many who have the accursed thing hidden within them. The love of money, wrong ways of doing business, or unforgiving tempers, or an envious Spirit towards their fellow Christians.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Thou shalt not steal. This morning.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: Are you a thief?
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Have you stolen something from the Lord that you're not willing to give back? In Exodus, the 22nd chapter, it tells about how if a man is to steal something from someone in his community, by law he is to give back four or five times the amount in which he stole.
What have you stolen from Jesus?
Do you realize that you stole his life?
It's your fault that he was pierced.
It's on you that he was disrespected and mocked. And when I consider in my own life sin, and I consider choices I've made and ways I've treated people, it destroys me.
Because when I began this lesson, I thought I was innocent.
But now I realize in every single one of those avenues it was in which the way I crucified Jesus Christ.
And that convicts me to say, I want to give back five times to God.
I want to give back ten times to God. I want to give my whole life to Jesus Christ. I want my whole life to be an outpouring of blessings, because I'm grateful.
I'm grateful for the price he paid. And here's the thing. I know there's nothing I can do, no amount of good works or offerings I can make to justify what I stole, because what I stole was priceless.
And so instead, I'll give what I can to the least of these.
I'll give what I can to my family and my friends and the people I love and the people I don't know.
I love Jesus Christ because he flips the narrative over and over in Scripture. I couldn't help but think about Matthew 5. And I consider as he's preaching there on the Sermon on the Mount, and he's telling his disciples there, he's saying, I know you've heard it said that thou shall not murder. But I tell you, don't even be angry with a brother. He says, I know you've heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, if somebody is in need of a tunic, you give him your cloak as well. He says, I know you've heard your whole life to love your neighbor and to hate your enemy. But I tell you to love your enemy. I tell you to pray for those who persecute you. And I couldn't help but wonder, how would Jesus flip the narrative on this command?
You've heard it said that thou shall not steal. But I tell you, what would Jesus say?
I think maybe he would say, but I tell you to bless your neighbors. You've heard it said, thou shall not steal, but I tell you to live in radical generosity. I tell you to assist your neighbor as they steward God's gift. And remember there in the end of Joshua, that seventh chapter, that place where Achan is stoned, it's kind of memorialized, and it's called the Valley of Achor.
And it's noted as this place of shame, kind of this depressive place. And it's referred to as such throughout Scripture.
But In Isaiah, the 65th chapter, in verse 10, it says, Sharon shall become
[00:29:40] Speaker C: a pasture for flocks in the Valley
[00:29:43] Speaker B: of Achor, a place for herds to
[00:29:45] Speaker C: lie down for my people who have sought me.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: Our God is a God of great redemption and great transformation. He's a God who takes a place of shame and he turns it into a valley for sheep to lie down. And this morning, God is offering the same transformative and redemptive power to each of us this morning. Ephesians 4. 28, it says, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor
[00:30:10] Speaker C: doing honest work with his own hands
[00:30:13] Speaker B: so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
For a moment, I want you to take your hand, and I want you to make a close fist. I want you to hold it here, and I want you to squeeze as hard as you can, okay? And I want you to just squeeze this for only a moment, but just keep holding it for a second.
And now what I want you to do is I want you to let go.
Man, doesn't that feel good?
Feel the sweet relief in that? This is how so many of us are living, saying, it's mine, it's mine, it's mine, and I've got to have it right here. And if there's something that I want that I don't have, I got to go and I got to grab it, and I gotta keep it right here, and I've gotta hold onto it with every ounce of my strength so that
[00:30:54] Speaker C: nobody else can get it from me.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: The Lord is offering you relief. He's offering you a great peace.
Arnold Schweitzer, a theologian from the late
[00:31:09] Speaker C: 1800s, he says, value of a life is not measured by how much a person accumulates, but by how much they give away.
[00:31:18] Speaker B: At the end of our lives, we
[00:31:19] Speaker C: will not be remembered for the things we owned, but for the lives we touched and the love we shared.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: So this morning, I beg of you,
[00:31:27] Speaker C: don't be a thief.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: What's the good in that? But rather be a giver Give and give abundantly to the people in your life.
Give love. Give undeserved grace and mercy. Give friendship to the person who doesn't have any.
Give your life to. To Christ.
Jesus Christ says to the person who loses his life for my sake, then he'll find it.
While we live like this, while we hold on to everything we've got, while we're looking to see what we can take, man, we'll never find the true joy that comes in Jesus Christ. We'll never find a peace that passes all understanding. That's only found in Jesus Christ.
But God is offering us great redemption when we'll be willing and humble enough
[00:32:11] Speaker C: to turn things over to him.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Thou shall not steal. Satan is the greatest thief of all. Perhaps this morning he's stolen your joy. He's stolen your hope. He's stolen your purpose. I want you to know that Jesus Christ, through torment and through the greatest act of sacrifice that this world has ever seen, he paid the price so that you can reclaim those things from Satan.
And he's paid that price so that he can pour into your life abundantly until your cup overflows in order that you might go out and overflow onto other people.
And you may be able to give to other people because God has given to us so abundantly and graciously.
This morning. Maybe you realize that you haven't been doing that. Maybe you realize that in some avenues of your life you've become a great thief. You've been stealing life from people. I couldn't think of any better way for you to handle that this Sunday morning than to come forward to confess that, to ask for prayers to be supported by such a beautiful, loving family.
Maybe you haven't began your walk with Christ yet. I want you to know, if you haven't began your walk with Christ, Satan is winning in your life.
He's stealing every ounce of your being. He's stealing your eternity.
Would you take God up on the offer? He's making you to live a new life, a life of redemption that begins in a watery grave of baptism.
Would you be humble enough to take that step this morning? Today, if there's anything in any way at all, we can assist you. We would encourage you to come while we stand and while we sing.
