Mt. Zion Christian Church
3631 Combs Ferry Road
Winchester, KY
859.745.2446
exists to... Worship God. Love Others. Share Jesus.
The U.S. Commerce Department has given some figures which might surprise us all….or maybe not.
About four million people are caught shoplifting each year, but for every person caught, 35 go undetected, it is estimated. If the estimates are accurate it means that 140 million shoplifting incidents occur in a nation of 215 million people.
The result is that shoplifting tends to raise prices. Prices are forced up because of anti-shoplifting devices that merchants must buy, and it means increased overhead.
According to a study in Washington, few shoplifters steal out of need; 70 percent of shoplifters are in the middle-income bracket and 20 percent had high incomes. Only 10 percent were in the lower income range.
Our sermon for this coming Sunday will be the 8th Commandment from Exodus chapter 20 which is "You shall not steal." We would all do well to understand that the laws of men are not the determining rule governing whether a person is stealing or not. This is what is so often misunderstood about stealing. We sometimes use the law to steal. We take from others without ever breaking a law. We secure too much of something, well beyond what we need - something that rightfully belongs to others. Very simply stated, the Bible teaches that stealing is the taking of anything that rightfully belongs to others.
This commandment is broad in scope and sometimes we forget just how we are breaking it. There was a story in a Rochester, Texas church bulletin about a young man who was working in a large department store, being told by his employer that he would be required to work on Sunday. It so happened that the hours assigned to him would have prevented his attending any of the worship services to which he had been accustomed to attending since childhood.
The young man informed his employer that he would not be able to continue his work under these conditions, and his employer told him he would have to go.
A few days later, the young man answered an ad in the paper from a bank which had advertised a vacancy for a teller. In checking the young man's previous employers, the bank president contacted the department store head and inquired as to the boy's record and whether he could recommend him. The store manager replied, "Why, yes, I will be glad to recommend him. He will make you a good man. I just fired him a few days ago."
"Fired him?" the bank president exclaimed. "Why would you recommend a man whom you just recently dismissed from your service?" The store manager explained the circumstances under which the boy was released, and remarked, "I know he will make you a good man for your bank, because if he will not steal the Lord's time, he will not steal your money."
He that will steal a pin will steal an ox. -Greek Thought
An honest man does not make himself a dog for the sake of a bone. -Danish proverb
They are all honest men, but my cloak is not to be found. -Spanish proverb
The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. -Emerson
A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad. -Theodore Roosevelt
2,000 years ago bandits would hide and wait on roads where travelers would pass by. When the unsuspecting person walked past them, they would then attack him and take everything he had... including his clothes. This is the back drop for the story of the Good Samaritan which Jesus told to illustrate how terrible we are at times as thieves on roads and thieves in robes... the religious people passed by the oppressed and did nothing. Come discover just how many ways we violate this commandment. Hope to see you this coming Sunday as we look deeper into all the Bible has to say about this commandment.
For the Cause of Christ,
Kenny