Not All Theives are in Jail

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Exodus 20:15 “15 “You shall not steal.”
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The Ten Commandments
1. One God
2. No idols
3. Revere His Name
4. Remember to Rest
5. Honor Parents
6. No murder
7. No adultery
8. No stealing
9. No lying
‌10. No coveting
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Introduction:
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Martin Luther once said, "If all thieves, who nevertheless do not wish to be considered such, were to be hanged on the gallows, the world would soon be desolate, and would be without both executioners and gallows." One of the major problems of our society is theft. I
read of one estimate that said that one out of very 52 supermarket customers carries away at least one item that was unpaid.
The U.S. Commerce Department said about 4 million people are caught shoplifting each year,
but for every person caught, 35 go undetected.
That means about 140 million shoplifting incidents occur every year.
Also, according to this survey, few shoplifters steal out of need.
70% of all shoplifters are in the middle income bracket and 20% had high incomes.
Only 10% were in the lower income range.
A nationwide shoplifting epidemic is crippling the finances of brick-and-mortar retailers,
which warn that they may be forced to raise prices or even shutter stores in order to offset tens of billions of dollars in lost inventory.
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The National Retail Foundation is estimating that it lost $94.5 billion in 2021 due to “shrink” — an industry term that means lost inventory — which is being blamed primarily on shoplifting, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It also noted retailers, on average, saw a 26.5% surge in organized theft incidents in 2021
The $94.5 billion sum represents around 1.4% of retail revenue in 2021, according to the NRF, whose data shows significant year-over-year increases in “shrink” that accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.
Between 2014 and 2019, shrink rose at a compound annual rate of around 7% year-over-year,
according to the NRF. In 2020, shrink surged by 47%.
The next year, it increased by another 4%.
https://nypost.com/2022/12/23/retail-theft-cost-retailers-94-5-billion-in-2021-report/
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Stealing is a sin against God because:

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Theft is a failure to trust in God’s provision in your life.

Whenever we take something that doesn’t belong to us, we deny that God has given us or is able to give us everything we truly need. Therefore, keeping the eighth commandment is a practical exercise of our faith in God’s providence.
There is a very spiritual side to this command. Our motivations for breaking it may rooted in simple selfishness or pride, but at a deeper level it is often rooted in a lack of faith in God’s provision.
Do I believe that God owns everything? (Ps 24:1) Do I believe that God is right and good in distributing his goods and gifts as he sees fit? Do I believe that God’s provision for me is sufficient? If I do, why would I be willing to go outside God’s law in order to get what I want? Am I willing to do what is necessary within God’s law to improve my situation?
So, how do we turn from our unfaithful ways to trust in God and obedience to this command?
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Theft is also an attack on God’s providence for others.

This is a second way that stealing is a sin against God: It robs what he has provided for someone else. Here it is important to understand that the eighth commandment assumes a right of ownership.
By saying, “You shall not steal,” God indicated that people have a right to own their private property.
Otherwise, the whole concept of stealing would fail to make any sense.
Only something that belongs to someone can be stolen from them.
But the reason that anything belongs to anyone is because it comes from God,
and we do not have the right to take for ourselves what God has given to others.
Robbing and stealing form your neighbor is not a sign of love but devalues their hard work and industrious attitude.
In fact, it is more than stealing property from them, it is stealing God’s blessing and goodness form them.
By stealing from others you are making yourself God
and thinking that you should have what God has not given you
and have what others have been given by God.
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What does the 8th Commandment forbid
what does the 8th Commandment Require:.
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Live with Integrity.

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By not robbing others

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Everyone knows that stealing is wrong. Even people who don’t read the Bible know the eighth commandment, which says, “You shall not steal” (Exod. 20:15). To steal is to take something that doesn’t belong to you. The Hebrew word for stealing (ganaf) literally means to carry something away, as if by stealth.
To give a more technical definition,

Theft is to appropriate someone else’s property or to diminish God’s Image unlawfully or immorally.

What the eighth commandment forbids seems very simple. However, most people fail to understand its full meaning. Like the rest of God’s law, the prohibition on stealing is comprehensive:
Let’s look at some ways we steal from people and then we’ll consider how we rob God.
1.Murder - stealing someones life form them.
Adultery. It’s no accident commandment #8 follows the prohibition against adultery because this sinful act robs the marriage covenant of the sacred vows made between husband and wife.
2. Stealing someone’s innocence. This can happen through immorality or abuse.
3. Kidnapping and trafficking. The earliest rabbinic tradition interpreted this command as specifically prohibiting the stealing of people. In the very next chapter, we read in Exodus 21:16: “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.”
4. Theft.
5. Robbery. This involves the taking of property through force or the threat of force.
6 Burglary. Burglary involves breaking into a structure to commit a crime.
7 Stealing from employers. USA Today reports 48% of all American workers have taken something from an employer. This can involve lifting office supplies for personal use, padding expense reports, taking longer lunches, laziness, or cheating on time cards.
8. Stealing from employees. This can happen when employers don’t pay a fair wage or withhold benefits from workers. This sin is addressed in James 5:4: “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.”
9. Refusing to work. While some are not able to work because of a disability or are retired, others can work, but choose not to. This could be classified as a sin against society.
This is dealt with in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12: “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.”
10. False measures and deceptive practices. Proverbs 11:1 says, “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight.”
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"Tipping the Scales,"October 3, 1936
There is a chicken on the scale waiting to be weighed and purchased.
You have a butcher who is wearing an apron
His customer is a respectable-looking woman of perhaps sixty. Like the butcher, she looks pleased.
The two of them exchange a knowing smile, almost as if they are sharing a joke, but the joke is really on them because the painting shows what they are secretly doing.
The butcher is pressing the scale down with his big fat thumb, to raise the price.
At the same time, the woman is trying to get a better deal by pushing the scale up with her forefinger.
The reason both of them look pleased is that neither is aware of what the other is doing!In typical Rockwell style, the painting is a charming scene from American life that makes us laugh at our own foibles.
But really what the butcher and his customer were doing was violating the eighth commandment.
Myers comments: “Both the butcher and the lovely lady would resent being called thieves.
The lovely lady would never rob a bank or steal a car.
The butcher would be indignant if anyone accused him of stealing;
and if a customer gave him a bad check, he would call the police,
but neither saw anything wrong with a little deception that would make a few cents for one or save a few cents for the other.”
In a word, they were stealing.
11. Malicious gossip and rumor. According to Proverbs 11:9, we rob someone of their reputation by passing along gossip: “With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor, but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.”

Robbing God

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Time - Treasure- Talent
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One pastor puts it like this, “When we withhold the things that are rightly His…we are in effect stealing from Him.” The 8th Commandment isn’t just about stealing; it’s about stewardship. 2 Corinthians 5:10 tells us we will give an account to God for how we’ve managed what He’s entrusted to us: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
Time
I’ve benefited from something Jerry Bridges wrote about three different attitudes we can have toward our possessions:
• What’s yours is mine; I’ll take it.
• What’s mine is mine; I’ll keep it.
• What’s mine is God’s; I’ll share it.
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Treasure
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Malachi 3:8-10 “8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”
When we grovel about giving or withhold what is His, we are robbing God of His right to use us to propel His purposes in the world.
Look at the first part of verse 10: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house…” The storehouse was the chamber in the Temple where the tithes and offerings were kept.
The storehouse was the place where the priests kept all the livestock, grain, and crops that were tithe to them. . The OT Tithe was never about giving money, but just what was produced from the land.
They would store it there and it would be given to feed and care not just for the priest but also for those in need, the poor, the immigrant, and such.
When we do not give to God we are shortchanging how God can us us and the church to meet the needs of others, Spiritual and physical.
Talents
We have been saved to serve. According to Romans 12:6, God has called us to live on mission by using the gifts and abilities we’ve been given: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…”
When we withhold our talents form God and the church all we are doing is robbing God of what he has gifted us with and also you are robbing others of encouragement and spiritual growth.
Failing to use what God has given to us is a form of stealing.
Give God the title to your life. One way to steal from God is by robbing Him of His glory. That’s what Nebuchadnezzar tried to do, and he ended up eating grass like an ox (Daniel 4:28-33). Herod also tried grabbing God’s glory, and he ended up becoming worm food (Acts 12:22-23). Isaiah 42:8: “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other.” Are you living for His glory or are you all about your story? Have you ever surrendered fully to God and given Him the title to your life?
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Live with Generosity.

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By doing good to others (Eph 4:28, Gal 6:9-10)

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Ephesians 4:28 “28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”
Galatians 6:9-10 “9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
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Benevolence Vs Discipleship

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Benevolence
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We can help those who need help with food, shelter, and the necessities of life.
There are times when all these are a call to be generous to the hurting and suffering. When a disaster comes, we should be generous to help. Such as when a husband walks out on a wife and children leaving no support for them, we should help as a church and as Christians. In times of death and there is an immediate financial need. But we must be careful how we dispense benevolence because we could be just enabling sin that is covered under the eighth commandant.
Plus we misunderstand that needs to not constitute a right to be meet by everyone else.
We must understand that we should not feel guilty when we have so much more than someone else.
God may be blessing you so that you may be able to bless others, but that in no way should make you feel guilty that you cannot help everyone that you encounter that has a need.
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Discipleship
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“The same is true when we work with poor people. If we treat only the symptoms or if we misdiagnose the underlying problem, we will not improve their situation, and we might actually make their lives worse.” ― Steve Corbett, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself
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However, an aid-based model of poverty relief can cause problems and even prolong poverty if we handle it improperly. In some cases, when we give aid indiscriminately and long term, beneficiaries can become dependent on it and even stop working to meet their own needs. The aid-based model of poverty relief can cause the related problem of enabling sin. If we help those who are impoverished because of their sin, our efforts can insulate them from the effects of their sin, thus robbing them of a natural motivation for repentance and restitution.
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protect the connection between work and production. But doing so requires us to make a longer-term commitment and have more personal interaction than in aid-based relief, so such efforts are usually more difficult to implement and sustain.
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Indeed, successful ministry to the poor should not be measured by how much we give away, but by how many people we can help overcome and remain out of poverty.[1]
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By cheerfully giving to God

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· Two of the most important New Testament passages that address giving appear in Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church.
The first passage is
1 Corinthians 16:1–2 (Page 1143)
16 Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
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· The second passage, which is too lengthy to quote here in its entirety, covers all of 2 Corinthians 8–9 (please, read it!).
o Using 1 Corinthians 16:2 as a rubric, and appealing to 2 Corinthians 8–9 for support,
o we can discern 4 principles of giving from Paul’s instructions in these passages.
1 Corinthians 16:2 “2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.”
Giving

Giving is to be periodic

(Habitual)Regularly·
1 Corinthians 16:2 “2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.”
Paul writes to the Corinthian church, “On the first day of every week” (1 Cor 16:2).
o there is ample biblical evidence that the early church met weekly, on Sunday (see John 20:26; Acts 20:7; Heb 4:9–10; Rev 1:10).
· Paul begins his instructions about giving, then, by noting that the Corinthian believers ought to give when they are gathered together on the first day of the week.
o Such giving would prevent a lack when funds were needed (see 2 Cor 8:10–14; 9:3–5).
o Of course, in our context, many believers are not compensated weekly;
o but even if one were paid on a biweekly or monthly basis,
o giving could still be periodic.

Giving is to be personal

1 Corinthians 16:2 “2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.” ·
Paul continues his instructions to the Corinthian believers by writing, “[let] each of you”(1 Cor 16:2).
Giving is something inherently individualistic. It’s between you and God what you give. At the same time, the Bible makes it clear every believer is to give: “each of you.”·
Every Christian ought to give since generous giving is a personal response to receiving God’s grace in and through Jesus Christ (see 2 Cor 8:1–2, 9; 9:15).
· God gave his only Son to atone for sin, to reconcile us to him,
and to provide eternal life to those who would repent and believe in Jesus.
Christ came to earth so that we might become eternally rich through faith in him (2 Cor 8:9).
· God’s grace toward us ought to be a motivation for giving—
it is what Jesus appealed to in the parable of the Good Samaritan—
and generous giving is a tangible expression of our love for God.

Giving must be planned

1 Corinthians 16:2 “2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.” ·
Paul directed the Corinthians, “Put something aside and store it up” (1 Cor 16:2).
· Here Paul is calling for thought and intention in regard to giving.
· Note that Paul does not make an emotional plea by offering heart-wrenching stories.
· He does not appeal to guilt, nor does he endorse sporadic, impulsive giving of varying amounts.
· Rather, Paul calls for planned, thoughtful giving.
· In the book of 2 Corinthians, Paul also teaches intentional giving as he refers to giving with a willing mind (2 Cor 8:12)
· and references the gift that the Corinthians had previously promised (2 Cor 9:5).
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Giving is to be proportionate

1 Corinthians 16:2 “2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.” ·
As he continues his exhortation, Paul says each believer should give “as he may prosper” (1 Cor 16:2).
We’re to give according to how God has blessed us. The believer is to set aside money “as he may prosper.” Proportional giving means the more God blesses us, the more we’re able to give.
2 Corinthians 8:3 “3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord,”
the apostle encourages believers to give “according to their means.”
In other words, each person was to give according to what he or she possessed.
People with greater wealth could give more than those with less. In 2 Corinthians 8:12
Paul teaches the importance of having a heart that is ready and willing to give.
Of course, giving in such a manner is only possible when one understands the gospel and loves God more than earthly possessions.
Someone put it this way: “Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving.” The emphasis is on liberality, not limitation.
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Generous giving is a sign of spiritual maturity and sincere love—and here,
· Paul challenges the Corinthian church to demonstrate the sincerity of their love for their brethren by giving to meet their material needs.
In 2 Corinthians 8:7–8 the apostle encourages the church to abound in the grace of giving, just as they abound in faith, speech, and knowledge.
· Genuine love for God and growth in the Christian life will result in a mature, giving heart.
· Indeed, a heart dedicated to Christ cannot help but be generous toward God and his people, often (if not usually) leading us to voluntarily give far more than what was required under the Old Testament tithing regulations.
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Hope for the heart of the Thief.

If this command has clobbered you, you are not alone.
I find it fascinating the Bible begins with two thieves stealing forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:6).
This act of theft by Adam and Eve led to the fall of humanity.
Later, when God’s people came into the Promised Land,
Achan stole glittering gold, shiny silver, and expensive clothing.
He buried this loot in the ground, causing God to send His judgment on him and his family (Joshua 7:10-26).
Fast forward to the launch of the first church when two thieves stole money they had pledged, leading to their deaths (Acts 5:3).
I have some great news today! Jesus was crucified between two thieves!
These two criminals deserved to die for their lives of looting.
One of them refused to repent but the other said in Luke 23:41: “…for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” In a similar way, each of us deserve death for our sins.
This thief then turned to Jesus in verse 42 and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” I love how Jesus responded to this robber in verse
Luke 23:43 “43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.””
Ray Pritchard points out the last person Jesus forgave before His death on the cross was a thief. His salvation was…
Every word in that sentence is crucial.
“Today” — Instant salvation
“You” — Personal salvation
“Will be” — Certain salvation
“With me” — Intimate salvation
“In paradise” — Heavenly salvation
As the saying goes, it doesn’t get any better than that.
Jesus said those remarkable words—not to a good man or to a religious man—
but to a thief who was paying the ultimate price for his thievery.
Can a thief be saved? Absolutely.
Only Christ can transform a burglar into a benefactor.
Isaiah 53:12 “12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
says that he was numbered among the transgressors. Here’s a simple way of saying that.

Jesus was numbered with the thieves so that a thief like me could be saved.

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