Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes.
Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Yes, if you've stolen from somebody else, you can be forgiven. But with that forgiveness by God comes a responsibility, a responsibility to make restitution, to pay back what you've stolen. When we steal something from somebody else, we're certainly robbing them of something valuable. But listen to this, we're also robbing ourselves of something else. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, these days, economic hardship on American families, it's really at the forefront of our minds.
Rising inflation, economic uncertainty have put some in dire situations. And as a result, we're seeing an unprecedented rise in theft. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress clearly articulates God's opinion about stealing. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Can you imagine what would happen in our country if every American followed the Ten Commandments?
Sounds almost like heaven, right? Our nation is bearing the consequences of lawlessness. But I'm convinced that we can push back the darkness that has swept over our country that we love.
The revolution begins with you and me. It starts when we as individuals take God's commandments seriously. Well, I've written a brand new book on this important topic. This one is intended for the child or grandchild in your life. It's called The Ten Commandments for Kids, and it's fully illustrated for children. Every God-fearing household should own a copy of this creative resource so that you can teach the ones you love these valuable, life-giving lessons that are prescribed by God Himself. We're in the final stretch of this teaching series this week on Pathway to Victory. While there's still time, I want to be sure you're among those who receives a copy of The Ten Commandments for Kids. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Well, in recent months, we've all seen an alarming rise in retail thefts.
Thugs dressed in hoodies rush into public stores, leaving with bags filled with stolen goods. Today, I'm calling on all Americans to heed the Eighth Commandment of God. I titled today's message, Respect the Property of Others. We're in a church in Florence, California, but in 2021, when Sister Mary Margaret was 80 years of age, a federal judge sentenced her to one year and one day in the penitentiary for embezzling the money and defrauding parents. She was forced and encouraged to repay more than $800,000 she had stolen from these parents and students. Her response? She said, I have sinned. I have broken the law.
I have no excuses. She was right. In stealing that money, she had broken not only United States law, more importantly, she had broken God's law. In fact, she broke one of the most basic laws God has given to govern our lives and our society. It's found in Exodus 20, 15, you shall not steal. If you have your Bibles, turn to Exodus chapter 20, as we discover why we should respect the property of others.
We're in a series I'm calling the 10, how to live and love in a world that's lost its way, and we're gaining a fresh look at God's most basic laws for living. We call them the 10 commandments. Now, the eighth commandment we're looking at today, you shall not steal, is much like the last two commandments.
In the original Hebrew text, it is only two words. Remember the sixth commandment was no murder. The seventh commandment, no adultery. The third commandment is equally blunt. The eighth commandment, no stealing. Moses later expanded on that in Leviticus 19, 11 and 13, when he wrote, do not steal, do not defraud or rob your neighbor.
Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. In just a minute, we're going to look at four ways we commonly break this eighth commandment. But I want to begin today by talking about the basis, the need for this commandment. Why does God talk about not stealing? There's a basic assumption here that frankly is under attack today in our country.
And it's the assumption that people have a right, not just a right, but a responsibility to acquire personal property. Today, there are some woke Christians who are trying to teach that we shouldn't have personal property, that we shouldn't have differing levels of income, that the Bible advocates a kind of Christian Marxism or sanctified socialism, where everybody ought to have the same amount and earn the same amount of money. In fact, I actually heard the pastor of one woke church say the great commission for churches is to end income disparity. That's the mission of the church, to make sure everybody has the same amount of money.
Is that true? Well, some people actually misuse the Bible to promote such an idea. They turn to Acts chapter four, verse 32, these words about the freshly birthed church and the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul. And not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.
See, pastor, there it is. Everybody sold their goods, put it in the common pool, and everybody enjoyed the same level of income. But that's just a superficial reading of the text. When we looked at this in our study of Acts, we pointed out that this giving of your assets and pooling of assets was voluntary. It wasn't confiscatory. Nobody forced the church to do that.
Individuals chose to do that. But in the same passage, the Bible honors personal property. In Acts five, verse four, remember Peter was chastising Ananias for lying about the amount of money he had given. He had claimed to have sold a piece of property and given all the proceeds to the church, and he held back a portion.
And Peter said, Ananias, why did you lie? For while your property remained unsold, didn't it remain under your control? In other words, it was yours to do with whatever you wanted to do.
That's the idea of personal property. Another interesting passage in scriptures found in Philippians four, verses 11 and 12. I bet most of you know this passage by heart. Paul said, I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I'm in. I know how to get along in humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity. In other words, he said, I know how to live according to a budget. If I have a lack of resources, I cut back. If I have an abundance of resources, I enjoy it.
I've learned to be content in both circumstances. Now, these words were written 25 years after the birth of the church in Acts two. If the goal of the church had been to flatten income disparity and made it that everybody had the same amount of money, then Paul never would have learned to cut back. He wouldn't have needed to. He never would have learned how to experience abundance. He never had abundance.
Everybody had the same amount. My point is, God's plan is not for sanctified socialism. And the reason I bring that up right now is if the Bible teaches that we have a right and responsibility to acquire personal property, then we have the right and responsibility to protect that property. And that's what this eighth commandment is all about.
If you don't protect personal property of value in scripture, you're going to have anarchy in society. And our country got a good look at that back in 2020. Remember in the aftermath of the horrible murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, there were some woke mayors who decided that they wanted to defund the police, especially the mayors of Seattle, Washington and San Francisco, California. In San Francisco, they defunded the police and the result was shoplifting increase. They didn't even send police to shoplifting calls. Businesses as a result were boarded up.
Other businesses refused to move into downtown San Francisco. And the result was the mayor eventually had to reverse her policy and call for an increase in funding of police. The whole assumption is personal property is part of God's plan and it's his plan for us to protect that property. Now, how do you acquire possessions? If it's God's will for us to accumulate money and accumulate possessions to care for ourselves and our family, how do you do it?
Well, there are three and only three ways to acquire property. And all three are mentioned in Ephesians 4, 28. Paul wrote, he who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor performing with his own hands what is good so that he will have something to share with one who has need. High school seniors, this is a very important principle for you to understand at the beginning of your college education and as you try to find God's will regarding your work. The primary method God gives for acquiring property is through our work. That is we must labor performing what is good according to our hands. In Deuteronomy 8 18, God said, you shall remember the Lord your God for it is he who is giving you the power to make wealth. God gives each one of us the power not to become billionaires or millionaires, but to make the wealth of money we need to take care of ourselves and to others. Have you ever heard the phrase he's a self-made man or she's a self-made woman?
There is no such thing. Nobody is self-made. We are all God made. And God gives us the gifts, the ability, even the energy to work and to make a living. And that's God's plan. The way we take care of ourselves is through our work. In 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 10, Paul said, for even when we were with you, we used to give you this order. If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat either.
Very simple. No work, no money, no food. That's God's plan.
Now don't write me any emails. Yes, there are exceptions to that. And the Bible gives them. If somebody is disabled and not able to work, we are to be generous and compassionate and help provide a safety net for those who can't work. But Paul is saying those who can work should work and they shouldn't eat if they don't work.
They don't work. In Genesis 1 28, it's very clear God created the first man and woman to be workers. Look at this. God blessed them. That is Adam and Eve and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every other living thing that moves on the earth. We were created to be workers because God is a worker. We are created in his image. Look at Genesis 2 15.
Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. Now, you know what is significant about this verse? What is significant about Genesis 2 15? It comes before Genesis 3 verse 1.
Now here's why that's significant. Do you remember what's recorded in Genesis 3? It's how sin came into the world. The fall of man and the curse that resulted from that fall. But there are a lot of people who mistakenly believe work itself is a curse. It's a curse from God. It's because of the fall of Adam and Eve that we have to work for a living. If only Adam and Eve hadn't blown it in the garden, I could be sitting on the French Riviera eating bonbons. I mean, that's what a lot of people think.
No. Before the fall, God said, I'm creating you to be a worker, not just to make money, but she finds your fulfillment in your work. God meant for us to find fulfillment in our work. I want to introduce an idea to our seniors today, and it's the idea of your life work. One of the most important things you'll ever discover in these next few years is what your life work should be. My friend Bob Beale describes and defines life work as that work, which is the best use of the rest of your life. Your life work is that work, which is the best use of the rest of your life.
And your life work will always be the intersection of two things. First of all, your passion. What do you really care about?
What are you really interested in? And secondly, your giftedness. What has God uniquely gifted you to do? And when you find that intersection between your passion and your giftedness, you've discovered your life work.
Philippians 2 13 says, it is God at work within us giving us the desire, the passion, and the power to do His will. My friend Bob also says, an activity is only work if you'd rather be doing something else. Hopefully you find that life work. That doesn't mean it's not tiring. Work is exhausting.
It became more exhausting after the fall. Genesis 3 17 to 19 said, your work is going to be harder because of sin, but that doesn't mean it can't be fulfilling. And God's plan for you is to find that life work so that you can generate the income to acquire property and take care of yourself and your family.
And there's something in the best sense of the word, a pride of ownership, when you earn money and are able to buy those things that you and your family needs. I remember speaking of high school, when I got my first car, it was in 1971. My dad as a hobby rebuilt Volkswagens, and he gave me as a gift, a Volkswagen Beetle. Remember the Volkswagen bugs?
I guess they're still running around here. And I'd go down Central Expressway. I remember I asked my dad one time, where's the air conditioner? He said, oh, Robert, this has a 260 air conditioner. It's a 260 air conditioner.
He said, yeah, roll down two windows and go 60 miles an hour, and you'll have all the air you need. Now, I love that little car. The only problem was one day, the fuel line in the back, that's where the engine was, worked its way loose, sprayed the engine, and the car blew up while I was driving it down Beltline Road. So I had to get rid of that Volkswagen. But you know what car I enjoyed even more than that? The first car I bought. The first car I bought. I'll never forget, it was a Pontiac Grand Prix. Now, I took care of that car because I had purchased it. I remember the payment, $167 a month I'd send to the Pontiac corporation, but I'd check the oil every day. I'd check the tires every day.
Saturdays, I'd spend waxing it with the turtle wax. I took care of it because I had purchased it. There's a fulfillment that comes when you earn money and you purchase what you need. And that's what God says is our basic way of acquiring property. It is through our work, work that is fulfilling, not tedious. The second way you can earn money and acquire possessions is through inheritance.
Again, that's in Ephesians 3 or 428. It's implied when he says, work so that you will have something to share with those who have need. If we can, we shouldn't consume everything we have in a lifetime. We ought to leave something for our children and our children's children. Proverbs 13, 22 says, a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, that is to his grandchildren. We can work for money. We can inherit money.
Those are legitimate ways to acquire property. But the Bible says the illegitimate way is through theft, through stealing it. Let him who steals, steal no longer. Why do people steal?
J.I. Packer put it this way. He said, the temptation to steal property, to deprive a person of what he has, arise because fallen man always wants more than he has at the present and more than others have. He's saying the basis, the reason we steal is because of covetousness.
We're not satisfied with what we have and we think somebody else has too much. And so we steal, breaking both the 8th and the 10 commandments. Now I know you're going to think, well, this is one sin I'm not guilty of. I've never stolen anything. But remember, there's more than one way to commit adultery, more than one way to murder, more than one way to lie.
As we'll see next time, there's also more than one way to steal. Let me mention four ways we violate this commandment. The first way is by despoiling, despoiling. I know I wasn't familiar with that word either. I was looking up for a word to help me in my sermon outline, in my alliteration and came across this word despoiling. You know what despoil means? One theologian says it's an act of violence when a man's goods are forcibly plundered and carried off. It's armed robbery. That's what despoiling is, forcibly taking from somebody else what doesn't belong to them. How many of you have ever been the victim of a mugging or the break-in of a car or even your own home?
How many of you have had that? A large number of people. You know how violated you feel when somebody invades your space. But it's not just armed robbers who despoil people, students who cheat on an exam. You're invading somebody else's space to take what is not yours.
Employees who take home office supplies to profit themselves. Did you know it's even possible to steal ideas from people without giving them credit, claim for your own what really belongs to somebody else? A few years ago, I received an email from a woman in Georgia. She and her husband watched Pathway to Victory on Saturday nights on their local TV station. She said in her email, imagine my surprise after listening to you Saturday night when I went into our church Sunday and heard our pastor preach your message basically word for word. And not only that, he passed out an outline that had come directly off your website.
Now, that doesn't bother me at all. Everything's grist for the preacher's mill, Dr. Crystal used to say. But if you're going to quote extensively from somebody, whether in a paper at school or whether in a sermon or a speech, if you're going to do it word for word, give credit. Don't pretend it's yours if it's not yours. That's how we despoil by taking by force. A second way that we steal is through dishonesty. This is a little more subtle, but it's misrepresenting truth in order to gain from other people. Now, in biblical times, the way you did that was to have dishonest scales and balances. In Proverbs 11 one, Solomon says, a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. If you were buying a commodity from a merchant and he had a false weight or a false balance, he might tell you he's giving you a quart of oil when he's just giving you three quarters of a quart of oil.
He might tell you you're getting a pound of wheat when you're just getting a half a pound of wheat. There are several more ways in which we often break the eighth commandment without committing outright theft. So be sure to join me again next time for part two of this message. We're in the final stretch of this teaching series that started earlier this month.
And for just a few more days, you're invited to request an exclusive offer from Pathway to Victory. I'm referring to my brand new book for children called The Ten Commandments for Kids. All of us have witnessed the devastating results when a generation chooses to defy God and his laws. Just look at the increasing number of school shootings, gender confusion among boys and girls, and baseless immorality.
Americans cannot ignore the laws of God without terrible consequences. Moms, dads, grandparents, it's our God-given role to instill a sense of security and safety that comes when we follow God's most foundational rules. So while there's still time, request your copy of my new book, The Ten Commandments for Kids. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. Let me underscore that your generous gift today is very important. Right now, we're asking God to allow us to expand our impact for God's kingdom across America and around the world.
None of us needs convincing that our nation is deeply divided and confused today. Gratefully, God is using this media ministry to bring his message of hope and light to people who are craving to hear the truth. Thank you for your faithful support. Together, we are piercing the darkness with the light of God's word.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you invest in the ministry of Pathway to Victory by giving a generous gift, we'll say thanks by sending you the brand new illustrated children's book, The Ten Commandments for Kids. You'll also receive the original best-selling book by Dr. Jeffress, The Ten, How to Live and Love in a World That Has Lost Its Way. Call 866-999-2965 or visit our website, ptv.org. Now, when your gift is $125 or more, we'll also send you the complete collection of audio and video discs for The Ten teaching series.
Plus, we'll send you a study guide to use on your own or with a small group. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Let me give you that mailing address, P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. Again, that's P.O.
Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you back for part two of the message, The Eighth Commandment, Respect the Property of Others. That's coming up Wednesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Picture yourself relaxing aboard a luxury cruise ship as you sail the Mediterranean Sea on the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. This 11-day journey will take you to unforgettable destinations in Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
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