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Honor People's Property: The eighth command of the Ten Commandments is, "You shall not steal." Why does God care if we take something that isn't ours? Because God wants people to do good work, provide for themselves, and live in harmony with their neighbor. And, as they are able, to be generous and hospitable, especially toward those in need. Why? Because this is the way of Jesus. Recorded on Mar 19, 2023, on Exodus 20:15 by Pastor David Parks. Ten Commandments: Learning the Law of Love is a sermon series on the most influential legal code in human history. Why should we learn about the Ten Commandments today? Because they reveal God’s will for how human beings ought to live: to love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves. Ultimately, the law of love points us directly to Jesus. Sermon Transcript So, all year we’re focusing on Learning the way of Jesus. And today, we’re continuing a sermon series on the Ten Commandments. And we’ve said that the Ten Commandments, as part of God’s moral law, reveal how God wants people to live. Ultimately, this way of life can be summed up as learning to love the Lord your God, heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to love your neighbor as yourself — this is a law of love. So today, we’re considering the eighth command, which is a command to honor other people’s property, “You shall not steal.” But this command is more about loving your neighbor than it is about loving your neighbor’s stuff.  There are so many implications of this command, and the connection to the grace and generosity of God is really interesting, so let’s jump right in. If you have a Bible/app, please open to Exodus 20:12. We’ll read through the second half of the Ten Commandments and then unpack the eighth together today. Exodus 20:12-17 (NIV), “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” As we’ve said, the book of Exodus was written about 4,300 years ago by Moses, the great prophet and leader of ancient Israel. And Exodus describes a key turning point in history when God rescued the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and entered into a covenant relationship with them, which included giving them the Law. The first four commands are focused on how we are to love the Lord our God, while the remaining six are about how to love our neighbor as ourselves. Well, today, we’re focusing on the eighth command, which reads simply, “You shall not steal.” This command prohibits or outlaws theft or the taking of someone else’s property. Put another way, we’re not supposed to take things that aren’t ours to take. This is about honoring other people’s property/stuff. This command is connected to the tenth command, which is about coveting or desiring what you don’t have. But first, here, the eighth command is specifically against taking something that isn’t yours. Have you ever stolen something? Maybe it seemed so small and insignificant that it really didn’t seem like a big deal. I think of shoplifting candy from a gas station or back in the year 2000 when Napster was breaking every copyright law ever by letting people share music for free. At the time, it didn’t seem like it was that wrong because it wasn’t hurting anyone, was it? Well, the gas station owner or the record companies and artists wouldn’t feel that way. The theft was directly cutting into their livelihood. But what does God think about this? What does the Bible say about the moral issue of theft? And what should we do if we’re already guilty of stealing? For the rest of our time, we’ll start with the OT first, then we’ll move to the NT,