Today on bold steps with Mark job, we're discovering ancient words for new life.
Thou shalt not steal means thou shalt not steal. We open up the small door of taking, and we open up a culture of taking in our lives that can invade our spirit, damage our soul, and begin to remove the favor of God upon us.
Welcome to Bold Steps with Mark Jobe, president of Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New Life Community Church in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, as we move forward in our look at the Ten Commandments, we're looking at commandment number eight thou shalt not steal. And it's not as simple or straightforward as it sounds, is it, Mark?
No, it's not Wayne. Most people that hear this maybe think, hey, I've never committed armed robbery or deliberately gone out and hijacked a car. Those are the extreme examples, right? But a heart of compromise that takes that which doesn't belong to us, even in the small things, I think opens up a door of repercussions just as severe as carjacking
may be in the spiritual realm. Yeah. And I think that there's a lot more people guilty of the heart of thou shalt not steal violating that commandment than what we think.
Well, let's open up our soul to the Spirit of God. So he speaks to us through this message. Thou shalt not steal. Here's Mark Jobe.
I don't know if you've ever been robbed before, but there is something about someone taking something from you that's not theirs that just kind of stirs up this Sense of violation. How about it? How many of you have ever been robbed before someone robbed something? Uh, I was thinking a little bit, uh, a couple of years ago when we started our Humboldt Park campus. I was having a staff meeting at the church, getting ready to launch
a service there, and so I was running late. I parked my car and ran into the to the meeting that we're having, but I forgot to take my GPS. I forgot to hide my GPS. And so an hour and a half later, when I came out, my the driver's side window was broken. They'd stolen my GPS, and I, I saw the car and I thought, where's the punk that did this? Well, I was mad, I was mad. Why? Because I had to find a I had to clean up the glass. I had to find a place to
replace the window. They took my GPS and there's something like, hey, don't you know this belongs to me? You're not allowed to take this. A few years ago, I remember another incident where I was walking down a street in Madrid with my wife and, and I was walking down the street. I looked, I looked over at her, I noticed this hand in her purse and I turned around and there I caught him red handed, a 16 year old boy trying to rob my wife's purse. And so he took
off running. I took off running after him. I mean, we were both going as fast as we could. But you say, pastor, what would you have done if you caught him? I don't know, I'd pray for wisdom from God. Um. He ran into a subway, chased him as far as I could, but he got away. But I remember feeling indignant. Hey, you're trying to take something that doesn't belong to you. This belongs to me. You can't take it from us.
Anybody that's been robbed has felt that way. Why? In part because there is a sense of there are boundaries. And when something belongs to you, it is. It is yours. And when someone forcibly takes that without asking, it is a violation of not only the laws of the land, but it's a violation of spiritual laws that have consequences
not only legal, but more importantly, there are spiritual consequences. Now, you may not realize this, but I am convinced that the eighth commandment, the breaking of the eighth commandment, has been so diluted that I believe that a great majority of our society practices the breaking of the eighth commandment
in one way or another. It's kind of like the the husband that told his wife, hey, do you realize that the cleaning lady that came in to clean our house, I caught her red handed stealing our towels, and she said, what towels were they? He said, well, the ones with the Holiday Inn logo on them. I believe there's this sort of, this pervasive culture where we look at certain types of stealing and robbery as, okay, as long as it doesn't seem to be aggressive. We view it as okay.
And I want to talk about that for a second, because I believe that, uh, we are sowing seeds that open up doors to the kingdom of darkness instead of the kingdom of light when we violate the eighth commandment. Jesus said in John chapter ten, verse ten, the thief comes. Speaking of Satan, the enemy. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus said, I have come to give and to give life more abundantly. The kingdom of Darkness culture
is characterized by taking the Kingdom of light. Culture is characterized by giving anything that becomes a taker is buying in to the values of the kingdom of darkness. Anything that is a giver is buying into the values of the kingdom of light. Jesus came to give. The enemy came to take. When we violate the eighth commandment, we are opening up our lives for the enemy to come in and begin to create a kingdom of darkness culture
within our lives. I want to talk to you about some of the camouflage ways that the enemy actually has seeped into our American culture and made the breaking of the eighth commandment something that is culturally accepted, for example. I want to just give you a few ways that the eighth commandment is violated. Number one, property theft. That is to take something from someone else, a property that's not yours. For example, tools taken from the job. You
work at a construction site. You figure the boss has a lot of hammers, a lot of saws, a lot of tape measures, and you don't have as many as he has, so he's not going to miss it. So you just take a few tools that you need to use in your project. In the back of your mind, you justify it by I will return it one day, and then suddenly you're building up a whole chest tool full of tools that all came from the job, and we excuse it as though, well, it's no one's going
to miss it. It's no big deal, but actually is a widespread practice. And taking 60% of the inventory, 66 of the inventory lost last year in America is attributed to employee theft. That amounts to not millions of dollars, but actually billions of dollars. In the United States, department store pilferage exceeds $4 billion a year. One estimate said that one out of every 52 customers a day carries
away at least one unpaid item. My 19 year old daughter, while she's working her way through college, she actually is working at a at a at a clothing store. And there's been several days when she's come back to me and she'll say, dad, you can't believe how blatant people are about going and robbing clothes. I mean, it's just crazy. Not only teenagers, but their parents as well. If they can get away with it, they feel like, hey, it's okay. And you say, well, they must be in extreme poverty. Uh,
it's not Limited to people in poverty. Lindsay Lohan is doing it and she's not in poverty. It's the idea that if I can get away with taking something without being caught, then it's actually okay. One economist has said that if thefts stopped in America, we could balance the budget between 3 to 5 and between 3 to 5 years. Property theft. The second camouflage way that we break the eighth commandment is employee theft. Employees admitted to an average
of 20% of their time at work goofing off. That accounts for a four day a week, work day. Work week. 20% of your time talking social media. You're supposed to be inputting data onto your computer, and you're just checking Facebook statuses and emailing people and doing a little YouTube, entertaining yourself a little bit. And you say, well, pastor, everybody does it. It's no big deal. But here's the way
it works. Listen, if you're being paid $15 an hour and you wasted an hour, you just stole $15 from your employer. You may not see it that way, but it's a violation of the eighth commandment. Thou shalt not steal. Coming late to work, leaving early and punching a card that makes it sound like you've been there. Violation of the eighth commandment. 50% of all working Americans admit to calling in sick when they were not. Nice day outside. Who wants to go to work in the summertime? Call
up the boss. Are really feeling sick. I don't know what it is.
Must be that bug going on. Please. I can't go in today.
Click up. Put on your bathing suit down to Oak Street Beach. Um, violation of the eighth commandment, you say? Well, pastor, everybody does it. It's no big deal. But what I'm trying to tell you that it may not be a big deal in our culture, but according to God, you are violating a a commandment that opens up doors in your life for the seed of the kingdom of darkness to begin to infiltrate in your life. Deep theft. In other words, getting into debt without the intention of paying it.
Psalms 3721 says, the wicked borrow and do not repay. Child support, theft, having alimony and child support that you try to slither out of by either not reporting the job that you're at, or being paid under the table in cash so that you can escape alimony payments. Let me tell you, I believe that that's one of the worst kind of thefts that can occur when you have a child and you try to work your way out of the responsibility of paying alimony for that child. In fact,
can I tell you this? Unfortunately, I've had a few conversations of phone calls of of someone that will tell me, hey, pastor Mark, you don't know me. We've never met, but my ex-husband goes to your church, and I'm a little desperate here because they work. But yet there's been five years that I haven't seen a single payment given to me. Could you please do something about that? Listen, I don't want to get those calls. I want to get a call that says this. Pastor Mark, you don't know me,
but my ex-husband goes to your church. Before he went to your church, he never paid one dime in alimony payment. Now that he's going to your church, man, he started to pay me on a regular basis because I don't know what God has done in his life. That's the kind of phone call I want to get.
Discovering the deeper meaning behind commandment number eight. That's what we're learning today in this message from our series on rock solid Living. You're listening to pastor Mark Jobe, and this is Bold Steps to hear this message again, or to listen to any of Mark's previous messages in this new series, please visit us online at Bold Steps. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for Mark's
email devotional. Start your week off right with a bold step or weekly, it's delivered right to your inbox each Monday morning and is free. Get to steppin in your walk with Christ today when you go to Bold Steps. Now let's step into the second half of today's message. Mark is titled it Thou Shalt Not Steal.
There's not only child support theft, there's insurance theft. When you try to build the insurance company out of something. And hey, if you think you've escaped unscathed out of all of this and you say, miss me, miss me, miss me, you didn't get me, pastor ha! I think I'm doing good. What about pirating? Oh, I've never joined a pirate club. No, no, no, I'm not talking about pirate like Redbeard. I'm talking about copying, uh, movies, CDs, music that you haven't paid for, that you somehow get
downloaded and you get it for yourself. And you say, pastor, it's not hurting anybody. But the bottom line, I'm telling you, is that it's still legally considered theft. Well, it was praise music pastor. Worse yet, even. The point that I'm making is that oftentimes we're violating the Ten Commandments. And you say, well, pastor, don't get legalistic about it. Everybody does it. And it's sort of expected in our culture. I mean, I walk through the grocery store and okay,
so I give my son an apple and he eats it. And, and I have a little bunch of grapes while we're walking there. You pretty much fool by the time you get to the counter and you haven't paid for that food yet either. And although it may seem small to the rest of our society, here's the point. The point is thou shalt not steal means thou shalt not steal. We open up the small door of taking, and we open up a culture of taking in our lives that can invade our spirit, damage our soul, and begin to
remove the favor of God upon us. That's why. I want to I want you to see a couple verses here, because I believe that violating the eighth commandment, stealing or robbery or thievery, stops the flow of God's blessing and the favor on our life. And let me give you a few verses to that effect so that you can see it. In Zechariah chapter five, verse three, the prophet is speaking to the people of Israel, and he's talking about commandment thou shalt not lie on one side of
the tablets, and thou shalt not steal. On the other side of the tablets and he says, this curse is going out over the whole land. The curse of what? What is a curse? A curse is the opposite of a blessing. Blessing is the favor of God. Curse is the withdrawal of the favor of God. Blessing makes life go easier. Curse makes life go more difficult. Blessing is like the oil that causes the engine to run smoother. Curse is like the withdrawal of the oil that makes
it difficult, more more difficult to to move forward. And the prophet is telling Israel, there's a curse that's going over the whole land. And they ask why? He says, for according to what it says on one side, one side of the tablet, every thief will be banished. The prophet is saying, there's a curse coming upon the land, because there's widespread thievery happening among the people that are
supposed to belong to God. In Deuteronomy chapter 27, verse 17, it says, cursed is the man who moves his neighbor's boundary stone. Now, in an agrarian society, your land is your most important source of income. You plow you till you plant and your income comes from that. So if you lose land and what some of the ancients would do is they would move the boundary, they would move at night, they would move the rocks that marked the
boundary of their land. And if they could move it over 3 or 4ft, they would gain a whole stretch of land and increase their income. But it was robbing their neighbor. And God says, cursed is the man that moves the stone. In other words, when you rob your neighbor, there's a curse that comes upon your life the withdrawal of the favor of God. First Corinthians chapter six, verse ten says, do you know the wicked will not inherit
the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. And then he lists a whole bunch of things that will not inherit the kingdom of God. And among them he says, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor the slanderers,
nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. What I'm pointing out to you is that God takes seriously the breaking of the Ten Commandments, the Ten Commandments, but he takes seriously the breaking of the eighth commandment that violates the nature of God's heart, which is the heart of giving and turns us into takers. One last verse I want to give you under this is Malachi chapter three, verses eight and nine. It says, Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me because you ask, how do we
rob you in tithes and offerings? You're under a curse, the whole nation of you, because you're robbing me. God is saying anything that you take that doesn't belong to you. Anything that you owe someone else, including what you owe to give to God. And yet you do not give. Becomes a curse to you. Now here's the way it works. I believe that giving and releasing Jumpstarts a Kingdom of God cycle in your life that counters the enemy's cycle
of destruction. Notice what the Apostle Paul told to the Ephesian believers in Ephesians chapter four, verse 27 through 28. I want you to listen to this. This is huge. I want you to grasp this because some of you may be arguing, well, pastor, I don't see what the big deal is. Okay, so I checked out a half hour early at my job without working. I don't see what the big deal is. Okay, so I lied a little bit on my income tax. Do you know? I need the money a lot more than the US government
needs the money. Okay, so I took a few tools from my job. Our tendency could be to excuse it. What I want you to understand is that it's not just about the quantity. It's not about the dollar amount. What it's about is the seeds that you are planting in your life, and the negative effect that they can have. And you may be sowing curses, so to speak, into your life without even realizing it. Upon the violation of the eighth commandment, I want you to see this. Ephesians
427 through 28. It says, the apostle Paul says, and do not give the devil a foothold. And spiritually, what God is saying is that when you give a foothold to the enemy, it means that the door is wide enough open so that more and more can start slithering in through that foothold that you've given to begin to bring about an atmosphere of destruction upon your life. And so the Apostle Paul says, and do not give the
devil a foothold. And then he says, he who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work doing something useful with his own hands that he may have something to share with those in need. Hold on a second.
You're listening to Bold Steps with our Bible teacher, Mark Jobe. We'll continue this lesson and our current series called Rock Solid Living when we come back Monday. But quickly, I want to change gears for a moment and discuss a valuable opportunity we have for our listeners. Mark. Many parents wonder how to help their daughters and navigate the challenge in the tween years. And that's why we're grateful for our bold step gift this month. Lies Girls believe.
Yeah, we have the author, Dana Gresh, with us today in our studio, and I'm so excited about this resource because I think it's so needed. And so, Dana, tell me, uh, how does this book help facilitate like conversations between specifically, maybe a mother and her 11 year old daughter.
That is the whole point of it. My heart beats for parents to be in the driver's seat of their moral development, their faith development, because God's Word tells us it's not the pastor. It's not the Christian author. It's not the Sunday school teacher. It's mom and dad who are meant to teach them biblical truth. And I guess the best way to answer your question is to sort of share a story of what happened. One of the lies in that book is I'm a Christian because fill
in the blank. And when I surveyed these 1500 tween girls to write the book, they would say things like, I'm a Christian because mom and dad are or I'm a Christian because I go to church or I'm a Christian because I was born one. Those, of course, are not biblical definitions of what defines Christianity or being a
follower of Jesus. They have to understand their sinfulness. They have to believe that Jesus died on the cross in, in, in punishment for that sinfulness, and they have to say it with their mouth that they believe and receive him as their Savior. And so this girl is reading this book, and she turns to her mom, and she's like, mom, I read this in the book today. I don't think I'm a Christian. And they pull to the side of the road. Mom and daughter have a conversation right there.
Mom gets to participate in this sweet girl coming to the throne of Jesus for the first time in authenticity, surrendering her heart to Christ. And they're able to drive home and tell dad, guess what? She really is a Christian now. I hear stories like that every day. As the girls identify these lies, they have a eureka moment, and then they go to mom because the book is telling them, go to mom.
Yeah, I love that. Love it, love it, love it. So, Wayne, if one of our listeners wants to get this book, can you tell us how?
Absolutely. Just let us know. You'd like a copy of Lies Girls Believe. When you make a donation of any amount to support Bold steps, call us today at 800. D.L. Moody that's 803 3566639 or give online at boldsystems.org or send that gift through the mail. Write to us at bold steps. 820 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60,006 ten. Just be sure to mention you want a copy of
Lies Girls Believe when you write. And as a reminder, when you commit to monthly giving, you'll join our community of bold partners, dedicated supporters who make it possible for listeners nationwide to encounter the life changing truths of God's Word. Your consistent support creates lasting impact. And signing up is easy at boldsystems.org. By the way, when you give this month, we'll be happy to send you an additional resource titled More Than a Label Discovering Who You Are in Christ.
A brand new 15 day devotional from the desk of Mark Jobe. In this powerful new resource, Mark takes you on a journey through God's Word to reveal the truth about your identity in Christ. Through this devotional, you'll uncover who God created you to be, why your identity matters and how to live out your true purpose and calling. So get your copy of this special brand new devotional today. When you give a gift to bold steps or commit to becoming a bold partner, set up your donation today
online at bird-stamps.org. Well, thanks for joining us. Don't forget to tune in to our sister program, Bold Steps Weekend as Mark tackles a challenging topic how to survive a spiritual attack. It's a message you won't want to miss. Catch it this weekend at bold steps, weekends and on many stations. I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you to listen again next week when Mark continues this message titled Thou Shalt
Not Steal. It's part of our series on rock solid living, and you'll hear it Monday on Bold Steps with Mark John. Bold steps is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.