Work, Generosity and the Schooling of Desire

Mike Bowling, pastor here at Englewood Christian Church, has been preaching through the 10 commandments this year, spending 3 weeks on each commandment, one looking at the Old Testament context, one looking at what Jesus said, and one looking at that commandment in the New Testament and beyond…

This past Sunday was the third week of the series on “You shall not steal,” and the text was Eph. 4:28:

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.

There are a bunch of Slow Church related themes running through this sermon, but I guess I had never really paid attention to the above verse. It’s interesting that the thief is NOT admonished to work to take care of his own needs (as we might expect), but rather to work in order to have resources to share with others.

Listen to this sermon:

[ Download as MP3 ]

Other sermons in this series are available here…