The Thief in the Mind | Decoding the Torah Season 3

To understand if it's ever okay to steal, we have to understand why God gave the commandment, thou shall not steal, in Exodus 20, verse number 15. We're going through the 613 laws of the Torah and giving contemporary application for our lives today as followers of Jesus. You see, the prohibition against stealing, the command not to steal, is given to us because we're not only recognizing that there's an injustice that's done to the one that we're stealing from, but there's an injustice that's done to God who created this one. That's why the Ten Commandments begin with the words, I am the Lord your God. So when we consider whether it's ever okay to steal, sometimes we can make excuses and justifications. Well, for example, my boss is making so much money, the company that I work for is making so much money that it really won't hurt them if I misuse the company credit card, which by the way, happens. I have a family member that had a great employee. His employee was making so much money compared to probably 99% of the other opportunities that would have been available for them. But unfortunately, it was discovered that this employee of my relative was misusing the company credit card and my relative had to let them go. It was very sad because I really liked this individual. But this person that used the company credit card probably thought to herself, you know what, this company is making so much money. It won't hurt them if I take this credit card and buy a few things for my own personal use with it. They justified it. But we have to recognize again, my friends, that stealing is not just an offense against the one we steal from. It's an offense against the Lord, our Maker, who created us in His image and gave us the law. It's an offense against the God-given imprint within all humanity. And so the Lord said, thou shall not steal.

And although it was originally given in the context of property rights, there's a moral imperative within it that should speak to all of us today. Even such thing as employees taking extended lunch breaks that are more than they're allotted, spending so much time in the bathroom, perhaps to use their phone and get away from the office. All types of ways that employers can steal, that employees can steal from their employers, whether it be taking home office supplies. We all have to look at ourselves and be willing to be vulnerable to the Holy Spirit and say, are my stealing in some way, Lord? I think a lot of God's people don't realize that when they call in sick and they say, oh, I'm sick today, and they're really not sick, isn't that kind of a way of stealing? It's lying. It's stealing. We have to really look at ourselves and be committed, beloved, to walk in truth and to let the Holy Spirit sanctify us. And what I have found in my life, whenever I have made that decision to walk in truth, to not lie, to not steal, to not take shortcuts, to not do the easy thing, even though it feels like I'm going to lose something, by doing what's right, God always blesses me and He prepares me for the next season of breakthrough. And so we have to take this command, once again, given to ancient Israel in the context of property rights and apply its moral imperative to our own life and make up our mind, beloved, that we're not going to steal. And you need to look at the little things in your life that you might have given yourself excuses for, that you might have justified, but at the end of the day, when you put those things under a microscope, it boils down to stealing. And so if God's speaking to you right now in this, I hope that you can receive this word and make a decision and say, Lord, I want to live clean. I want to live before you righteously and without offense. And beloved, as you make that commitment and repent and get cleansed of all sin, God is going to bless you and continue to honor you and exalt you in the Spirit and in your relationship with Yeshua.

As we continue to dive deep, beloved ones, into the laws of the Torah, I want to cover the principle of not coveting. We've all heard the word coveting. It's important that you understand this because to feel rich in the Lord, you have to guard your heart against coveting. So let's examine exactly what coveting is. We're going to the book of Exodus chapter 20, verse 17. from which we get the law, you shall not covet. Hear the word of God. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Coveting, beloved, is desiring something that doesn't belong to us. It's desiring something that belongs to somebody else. And we need to guard our hearts because coveting is something that takes place internally. Stealing that we covered in another law is something that happens in the external realm. We physically take something that's not ours. But coveting is something that happens in the recesses of our heart. The 12th century Torah sage, Rabbi Ibn Ezra, provides commentary on this law. And here's what he tells us, that a peasant refuses to covet the princess because the peasant knows that the princess is beyond his station in life. Because the peasant knows

that he can never have that princess, he doesn't put his heart's intention towards her because he realizes what a waste of energy and how foolish and pointless it would be. Likewise, beloved, a wise person, you and I today, we recognize that what our neighbor has, that what our fellow employee has, that what somebody else down the street has, that what another family member has, it's not wise for us to covet that because it's not ours to have. Instead, the Bible tells us, we need to learn the secret of being content with what we already have. Hear Paul's words in the book of Philippians chapter four. I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means. I also know how to live in prosperity in any and every circumstance. And so Paul recognized that there was a secret to being content that was not dependent on what he had. The scriptures admonish us to be content with what we have. I remember years ago, for the first six years of my marriage with Cynthia, we were living in a mobile home park. It was the most impoverished, and maybe that's too strong of a word, but it was the, well, let me give it, let me tell you a story that'll help illustrate the point.

My son-in-law now works in the school district that encompassed the mobile home park that Cynthia and I were living in. And when my son-in-law started working for that school district, they gave all the new teachers a tour of all the different geographical territory that would compose the students that were gonna be attending the high school that my son-in-law was teaching in. So my son-in-law's on the bus tour, and they're driving around to all the different places of this city where my son-in-law's now teaching, and they're showing him the different houses and the different types of sub, what do they call the different neighborhoods? And then they bring my son-in-law, last of all, to the mobile home park where Cynthia and I were living. We were no longer living there, but the person that was giving the tour on the bus said to my son-in-law and the other teachers, now these are the most financially disadvantaged students, and that was the students that were living where Cynthia and I were living. But I tell you that story because when we were living there for six years, Cynthia was so content. She would look out the window

overlooking the kitchen sink, and there was an empty lot next door, and she would be talking about how beautiful the empty lot was. And so this is what the Bible's teaching us here, that we need to learn how to be content because of our relationship with God and because the identity that we have in knowing who we are to Him and how valuable we are to Him. He knows you so well. He loves you. He affirms every part of who you are, and knowing that will release you from desiring things that belong to somebody else that can never satisfy you anyway. Because listen, a rich man is not somebody that has everything they want, but a rich person, beloved, is somebody that's content with what they already have. We should not covet. Instead, what we should do is thank the Lord for what we already have. Of course, it's natural to want more. It's natural to want more, but when it moves into the place where it's an unhealthy fixation of thinking we need this or need that to be happy and don't have an appreciation for how we're already blessed,

beloved, then it falls into the realm. of coveting. I remember years ago I had this dream and in the dream I was lost and I was trying to find my way back home and I came to a place as I was trying to find the way back home that the path that I was on it went two different directions. So I veered off to the right, there was a right path and a path that went straight ahead. I veered off to the right and when I followed that path down to the right eventually it came to the most opulent residence I ever saw in my life. It was the finest money could buy. Everything was over-the- top opulent and there was a pool that was surrounded by like marble granite from another country it imported in and laying on that granite all around the pool there was a ton of people that were just wasted. I mean like they were strung out on drugs and what the Lord showed me there is that ostentatious wealth can never satisfy anybody. So let's not covet things beloved that can never satisfy us. Instead let's be thankful for the fact that we have God, that his grace is sufficient, that true satisfaction comes from the Spirit, from knowing who God is, knowing how much he loves us and who we are to him. So let's pray for that revelation because when we get that we'll truly be thankful and truly be happy. My beloved friend you have an identity and you have a destiny and when we come into the fullness of that revelation we're not gonna want anything else. We're not gonna covet because we're gonna have everything that makes us satisfied and makes us whole. Thou shalt not covet. In the book of Numbers chapter 6 the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people and the Lord said when you speak these words over my people I will place my name on them and bless them. Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. Yissa Yahweh panayv eylecha ve'asem lecha. Shalom. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by his countenance and the Lord give you beloved one his peace. God bless you and shalom.