Generosity

Generosity ()

Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Exodus chapter 20, verse 15. The page number is noted in the bulletin for the pew bibles. You can also pull it up in the YouVersion app by going to the bottom where it says “more”, and then events, and then First Baptist Park Street should pop up.

When I was a lad of four or five, I went with my mom to the grocery store. The grocery store was wonderful, because it had candy. Candy. I loved candy. And my mom was a cruel mom, for she did not let me have as much candy as I wanted. And one day, at the checkout line, there it was. Right in front of me. Candy. Not just at eye level. At hand level.

I took a candy bar. But what to do with it? Mom would not let me just take it…aha! I took that candy bar, and I put it in my sock. And right as I was feeling good about my cleverness, I felt a…lifting sensation as my mom lifted me and placed onto the conveyor belt.

This was new. I was staring at my mom. The cashier was staring at my mom. All the people in line were staring at my mom. And then my mom said some terrible words. She said “Daniel, I think you have something to give to the cashier.” My mom was staring at me. And the cashier was staring at me. All the people in line were staring at me.

I was nabbed. Snagged. Caught. I turned bright red, took the candy bar out of my pocket, gave it to the cashier, and then tried very very hard to turn invisible.

So, please stand with me as we read these three words, the eight commandment, these words that, by the Holy Spirit, will convict us and transform us.

Exodus, chapter 20, verse 15.

Do Not Steal.

Please pray with me.

The Ten Commandments resound across history. We are going to focus on the deceit in a thief, the ramifications for a thief, and the generosity to a thief.

The Deceit in a Thief

(26:00)

What makes a theft

What does the Bible say stealing is? The verse in Hebrew is “Lo tignav”, literally “not steal” in the imperative. A command. And in subsequent verses, the Bible calls someone who steals a thief. It’s literally the same word, gannav, turned into a personal descriptor.

But what does it mean? We look to the Bible to define it, show the extent of it, and the root of it. It happens a lot. Jacob - the father of the nation of Israel - steals his brother’s birthright and his blessing. But he’s just following his mom’s example. Jacob’s mother Rebekah stole idols from her father and hid them so he wouldn’t find them.

· the Bible believes in ownership, and the right of the owner here not to have what they own…stolen. Because

Stealing threatens the social order

Brief example of usher stealing…

and causes pain to neighbors.

The food thief makes others go hungry; the horse thief interrupts farming; the kidnapper tears apart a family; the clothing thief makes another suffer from the sun or the cold.”

And that means your neighbor also has ownership rights!

This commandment is how you are to deal with your neighbor. It does not say “you better not steal from me”, it says to me “Do not steal” from you. Because our neighbor has ownership rights to what he has worked for, what God has given him

The extent of theft

So let’s look at the Bible for the extent of theft.

It’s personal property theft: “When a man steals an ox or a sheep and butchers it or sells it, he must repay five cattle for the ox or four sheep for the sheep.” .

It’s also stealing a person: “Whoever kidnaps (also gannav) a person must be put to death, whether he sells him or the person is found in his possession” .

Employers holding back from employees what they owe them is condemned.

Employees taking stuff from their employers or withholding promised effort is too.

You can even attempt to steal from God.

“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!” “How do we rob you?” you ask. “By not making the payments of the tenth and the contributions. You are suffering under a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing me”

If you take from someone without permission, if God puts anything in your hands for you to share, and you keep it, you’re stealing.

Not just taking or keeping what isn’t ours, stealing typically involves an attempt at deceit.

Jacob and Esau again. The LORD spoke to Moses: 2 “When someone sins and offends the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in regard to a deposit, a security, or a robbery;…He will make full restitution for it.

Stealing is so common, you may not even think about it.

But you have locks on your house. Your car. Every single website you log into you need a password. passwords on your computer, your email, your bank account. Passcodes…fingerprint…facial recognition…Why? Because, if not, someone will steal your stuff.

The root of theft

We take what isn’t ours. And this command shows we have a root problem underneath.

In , Adam and Eve were deceived “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” () and

because they were deceived to take what was not theirs

Now we deceive to take what is not ours.

Jesus says in , "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft . . . " Where does stealing spring forth from? A heart corrupt with deceitful desire.

This is a cosmos-warping deceit, coming from the evil father of all deceit. Here’s why: here’s God. He’s all-knowing. Knows exactly what you need. He’s also all-powerful. Can give you exactly what you need. and we think we know better and are stronger than God?

That’s why this is a cosmos-warping deceit. When we take what isn’t ours, we are putting ourself in the place of God. and this has massive ramifications for the thief Those ramifications echo out to a community, to relationships, and to our soul.

Ramifications for a thief

(19:00)

We’ll work from the largest backwards here. Theft is terrible for the economy. Overall, property crimes cost American individuals an estimated $15.3 billion in 2017.[1] That’s nothing, though, compared to the amount that employees steal. Harvard Business review estimated that in 2013 employees stole over $200 billion dollars…from companies they work for.

Theft is also corrosive to the character of a community. A community of thieves is not enjoyable to live in. It’s a community with deceit at the root, crowding out trust in God and trust in others.

(if time ok) Story of attempted phishing scam at FBC?

Because theft also has…

Ramifications for relationships

This commandment is pointed at us, helping us love our neighbor. One of the ways to love your neighbor is not to steal from them. You may think you deserve it more. It will help you more. It may even seem good to you…but it is not loving your neighbor.

Because the deceit at the root of theft drives massive wedges in personal relationships.

Let’s go back to the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob deceived his father Issac in order to receive the blessing, and it separated Esau and Jacob. Deeply separated. I-Esau-am-going-to-murder-my-brother-Jacob separated. Theft puts massive wedges in relationships. How do you trust someone who has deceived and stolen from you?

Are you an employer? Do you play games with money thats not yours?

Employees, do you check Facebook at work? Nevermind, that’s like asking if you breathe. Let me ask that differently: do you check Facebook and if your boss comes by…you quickly change your browser?

How about this, the high bar that God sets for theft: Are you withholding what you are supposed to give away, in either money or in time?

Are you a student? When doing your homework, are you taking time on your phone not doing homework?

And it has ramifications to your relationship with God. You and I, when we steal, are saying very clearly to God, “I don’t trust you to give me what I need.”

Ramifications for a soul

This is the crux of the matter, isn’t it. We can talk about how the deceitfulness of stealing eats at the character of a community. We can say it puts divisions at work, eats away neighborhoods, and even within families. All of that is true.

But none of that compares to what it does in our relationship with God. Theft is us saying ”what’s yours is mine.” And ultimately, we are saying that to the one who gives us all good gifts. All our money. All our days…hours…minutes. Every breath in our lungs. It is all a gift, generously given by God.

The Generosity to a Thief

(12:00)

God’s is amazingly generous to a thief. And while it’s not in the commandment in Exodus, the eight commandment comes up again, this time in the book of Ephesians, written to those who follow Christ. . “Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.” Three are three generous statements to a thief here. First,

The generosity of stop

Stealing is part of the immense corruption that comes from being deceived about what is truly desirable so that we deceitly desire.

And it is generous and kind thing for God to tell us “you can stop”. Stop. Stop stealing. It protects us from creating a foothold for the enemy.

story of RV bill. It was generous for God to guard with a command

There is a generosity in good work

God made work, and it was his first gift after he gave us life. It is good! The boredom, the frustrations, those things…that’s because of the fall. But honest work is good, and working for what you have is God’s good plan.

Since work was a gift given to all, there is a danger here. There is someone here who works hard so that they will not steal. Your desires may not be deceitful to take what they want, but you work to get what you want.

That’s why Paul says work is not enough. Honest work is not enough. We need a reordering of our very desires, our very heart through the…

The generosity of sharing

This is it! This is the measure of the replacement of the old deceitful desires!

Just stopping stealing - while good! - won’t by itself restore trust and relationships.

Just working - while good! - won’t by itself redeem our deceitful desires.

Don’t steal to have. Don’t work to have. Work to give.

It’s all God’s! His!

“But I worked for it!” Who gave you those hands?

“But I made good choices” who gave you that mind?

We need a full desire replacement. Replace our old self - a thief - with a new self that desires giving generously.

Conclusion (4:00)

here’s how that happens is prefaced by 4:21–24

“…as the truth is in Jesus, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness…”

We need a new self. Here’s how you get a new, generous, self: God generously gives you HIMSELF

This is a heart problem. It began waaaay back with the first humans, and it’s been our heart-level inheritance ever since. So Jesus Christ - God himself - became flesh and dwelt with us. He lived a perfect life, but was arrested, and one of his followers betrayed him. You’ve heard the betrayers name. Judas. You know what else Judas was?

A thief. That’s what tells us. Judas deceitfully took part of what was given for the poor, and kept it for himself. A thief.

So Jesus, who never broke even one of the Ten Commandments, was sentenced to die by the word of a thief. And to add to that, when hung on a cross, he was hung between two criminals. What kind of criminals? The word is broad, but here’s one thing it meant: thief.

Jesus, betrayed by a thief, hung between two of them. And yet, this is when one asked for forgiveness, Jesus gave generously to him.

Are you a thief? Do not doubt he will do the same for you.

Perhaps you’ve never trusted him. Put your faith in his as savior and Lord, and he will pay all your debts with himself.

Perhaps you’ve trusted in Christ, but deceitful desires found a foothold: Repent, and ask the Holy Spirit to renew you once again. He will, immediately, right now, and help you remember what its like to work to give, generously.

I’m going to pray, and as I pray, whatever state you are in, through Jesus, ask for your old self to be replaced. God will give you his Spirit of generosity

Pray

[1] https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/02/20/american-cities-with-the-most-property-crime-in-every-state-2/