A man came running into the store and said to his buddy, "Bubba, somebody just stole your pickup truck from the parking lot!" Bubba asked him, "Did you see who it was?" His friend said, "I couldn't tell, but I got his license number." (that would be…how not to catch a thief)
As my scripture text for the message today, I look at…. John 10:10 “The thief only comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy, but I am come that they might have life and that more abundantly”. Now, I want to say right up front, that, we know Jesus cares about thieves, because He chose, in the grand scheme of things, to be crucified between two of them…and one of them actually believed on him and was given eternal pardon and grace….
But there are also many who are like the one on the other side….who rejected him even as they breathed their last….
One of the reason many folks fall prey to the thief, is because they don’t recognize him when he shows up…Not every thief shows up in a ski mask and black shirt and pants….Some show up as familywho haven’t learned delayed gratification, or as a friend who doesn’t even realize they are thieves of your potential…Some come as a TV ministry that just won’t make it unless you send them your last $100 dollars….and some come in your own skin as undisciplined behavior, secret habits, uncontrolled desires and false expectations…
Too many folks like to get a five fingered discount… Last year 2 million Americans were charged with shoplifting … but experts tell us *…..that only 1 in 35 shoplifters is ever caught. The average shoplifter is between 25-45 years old. —More women shoplift than men —According to the Retail Merchants Association, 3/4 of the shoplifters in are middle to upper-middle class. —80% of all shoplifters have money or credit cards with them to pay for the things they are stealing. So we can see that this is not about stealing to meet a need, it is stealing, because they are thieves! Retailers estimate the annual cost of shoplifting in America to be $10-50 billion. Each of us will spend $300 this year in extra costs and charges because of someone else’s five fingered discount. America is becoming the land of the freebie and the home of the burglar….. For example, here’s some thieves we may be familiar with… Let’s catch some thieves right now…..Is it possible that when we withhold forgiveness to anyone, we are now forgiveness thieves, because Jesus said I have forgiven you, so that you can also forgive others…. Is it possible that if we go around, just negative, and griping and complaining, that we are Joy thieves, when Scripture tells us that we are to rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice….Is it possible that we have become tithe thieves if we withhold our tithe and giving, we are we then Thieves and robbers, when God tells us to bring all the tithe into the storehouse….Is it possible that we are robbing heaven, if we fail to share Christ with others, when so many are filling up hell…Didn’t Jesus tell us to go into all the world and compel them to come in.?
WELL…NOW…. That we have CAUGHT THOSE THIEVES….!!!
We can forgive those whom God has told us to forgive…..We can begin to rejoice in the Lord, instead of going around long faced…..We can get our tithe paid up and get back on schedule, instead of holding on to dust!....We can begin to tell it on the mountains, over the hills and everywhere since we’ve caught that soul winning thief!!!
Paul, in his writing to the young minister Timothy whom he had mentored, Basically said…Flee from temptation, and don’t leave a forwarding address….1 Timothy 6:9 “But they that live for riches, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. v10 For lusting after money is the root of all evil, for some who do anything for it, have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. v11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. v12 And fight the good fight of faith, that you may lay hold on eternal life, whereunto you are called, and have kept a good testimony before many witnesses. For many have compromised God’s best for their life….”
Don’t be complicit to the crime…. If we’re not careful, you can actually assist the very one who wants to steal from you…..By silence, by living a double standard, By needing to get even with someone, By careless and reckless choices…..By being willfully uninformed….By being stubborn and unteachable…. and By not observing those things that are designed to protect you….You can’t put yourself in a dangerous place and then be surprised when it happens…(DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER)
One night, Murphy was walking home when, all of a sudden, a thief jumped out and they began to struggle. They rolled about on the ground and Murphy put up a tremendous fight. However, the thief managed to get the better of him and pinned him down. The thief then went through Murphy’s pockets and searched him. All the thief could find on him was 25 cents. The thief was so surprised that he asked Murphy why he had bothered to fight so hard for 25 cents. Murphy replied, “I thought you were after the five hundred dollars I’ve got in me boot!" (OOPS!)
If you step outside of God’s place of safety, the thief will victimize you! He will put a hurt on you, while you’re blaming people!....There’s a reason they put guard rails on a sharp curve….and you can choose to ignore the signs, choose to not slow down, and ignore all the warnings, but you only prove that the guard rail is there for a good reason…. Drinking only a little bit of poison, is still drinking poison….a little rattlesnake will bite just like a big rattlesnake…. If you live by plastic, you will end up in the shredder- Many know from experience that usually,folks don’t own their stuff, their stuff owns them….
I have locks on my doors, on the car, the house, the shed…and I lock them… not because I don’t have faith, but because there are crazy people out there! The reality is that THERE ARE THEIVES….I can ignore that reality, or I can lock my doors.
Jesus said the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy… We lock our doors to keep the thief outside and our stuff inside… Matthew 24:43 “But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up”.
I came across this easy guide to installing your own security system….
First, go to the local thrift store and buy 3 pair of size 14- 16 work boots. Then place them on the front porch, along with several copies of Guns & Ammo and NRA magazines. Next, put a few giant sized dog dishes next to all of this. Last of all, leave a letter tacked to the wall, saying “Hey Bubba, big Jim, and Slim… I went to the gun shop for more ammo, don’t let the pit bulls out. I had to put them inside because they attacked someone who knocked on the door, and there was blood everywhere that I had to clean up. You might want to just wait outside until I get back….
I have locks on my doors, because there are a lot of crazy people out there!! We lock our doors to keep that thief outside and our stuff inside….
In our opening text, Jesus said “I am the door”….. this is about securing our entry areas….We know that as shepherds grazed the sheep out in the fields, they would build safe areas where the sheep could go into at night and find security from all the beasts of prey. These were called sheep folds, and the entry into the sheepfold had no door, so the shepherd would lay across the opening in a way that no sheep could get out without walking over Him, and no beast of prey could get in without alerting him…..We all need safe places…where the thief cannot enter….
As parents, we are the door to our family sheep fold. When a thief gets in it is our place to deal with it. As married couples, we are the doors to our marriage. When a thief gets in, we must do whatever we can to kick him out! As those who are part of a local church, we are the guards to the congregational entry way, who are entrusted with doing what it takes to protect, watch out for, and assist in keeping the church safe and healthy. While at the same time staying open to receive those who need to enter in and be a part at the level they are ready for. This is by prayer, support, encouragement, and personal commitment of our time….
There is an event in the minds of many americans right now, concerning how the 26 year old who killed 28 people and wounded 20 more during a church service was able to do this without anyone challenging, or stopping him. As a result, a very popular issue being considered, are ministries which are able to train members of congregations to be first responders, in the event of this type of thing happening in the future. They feel that by training a couple of people in every church, this thief who stole the lives of 28 and scarred the lives of 20 more can be prevented in the future….
Whether it’s your marriage, your family, or the church, the first thing we must do is SECURE THE ENTRY WAY….
One of my favorite characters growing up was Robin Hood… He took from the rich and gave to the poor…I even played his character in a big production at our school…(didn’t care for the green tights) I led a bunch of merry men and jumped and swung around on stage and did some sword fighting….it was fun and I really got caught up in the character….but the bottom line is HE WAS STILL A THIEF! He was robb’n da hood!!
The Robin Hood syndrome subtlety pulls us in and we begin to justify his character in our lives….we convince ourselves that somehow, some thieves are good….He’s fun, He’s adventurous, and we begin to justify the fact that we have let a thief through the entryway…. How many young people get married to someone who is fun, and find out the fun fades fast…. As young adults we did things that were simply because everyone else was doing it….What mother has not said, “if your friends jump off a cliff, would you jump off with them’….(Uh, let me think about it, mom)
The real danger here, is that if we’re not careful, the thief can steal the sensitivity of our spirit and our conscience… Scripture compares it to a horse taking the bit in it’s teeth so it no longer feels it tugging at the tender corners of the mouth! It then begins to go where it wants, no matter how much the rider pulls on the reigns. We can gradually allow our spirit to become insensitive to the gentle whispers of God in our spirit, and we begin to no longer feel the tug on our hearts and his voice of restraint.
When King David, began to compromise, he justified it by the fact that he was the king, he could do what he wanted. Before you know it, one thing led to another and he fell horribly into sin, he became a broken man before God. His brokenness is recorded for us in Psalm 51. There, we find these words v. 17 "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart - these, O God, You will not despise". David's great prayer request was, to ask God to restore his sensitivity to the gentle tug of God on his heart, will and emotions.
There was a king who had 365 wives, one for each day of the year in his harem. (speaking of crazy people) One day he visited a monastery and there he met a monk. The king looked at him with great compassion and said, “What a great sacrifice you are making to live such a simple, basic life.” However, the monk objected saying, “Your sacrifice is greater, oh king!”. The king was puzzled and asked, “How is that?” The monk replied, “Because I have renounced that which is temporary, but you have renounced that which is eternal.”
Thieves like to operate in the darkness, so it stands to reason that more light is a great deterrent… Light is a revealer of things that might not be seen in the darkness….Light shows you what you might have missed in darkness… Light makes things clear and plain that were veiled in fog and confusion… The light represents knowledge and understanding which dispels ignorance and gullibility….
1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”.
Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. v15 Neither do men light a candle, and hide it under a bushel, but it is placed on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house”.
If you think about it, there is something very deadly throughout this building we’re in right now – it is called electricity. It is operating the lights, the sound system, the television camera equipment and air-conditioning. It is powerful and wonderful, but it is deadly. The reason it is helpful to us is the fact that it is kept where it belongs. It is running through protected wires and is connected to safe receptacles. If one of those live wires fell on our heads right now, injury and perhaps death would quickly follow.
That’s the way it is with so many things in our lives, that have the potential for good or evil…. They can be harmful if not harnessed… It’s what we do with them, and how we deal with them. It’s about who and what we put in charge of our values. It could be money, power, position, influence, abilities and skills…. What we do with them and how we use them have to do with what our priorities are.
My brother by adoption was raised in the same home, and environment that I was, went to the same school, grew up in the same church, and hung out in the same town that I did…. I went into the ministry, he went to Federal prison for 30 years with 15 years knocked off for good behavior. It didn’t happen all at once, but the thieves were allowed in little by little over time.
Titus 3:1 tells us “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready (hetoimos) to every good work..” The words, “be ready” or “hetoimos’ in the Greek here means stay fit, stay ready, stay prepared. Jesus uses this word in Matthew 24:44 *…..“Be ready (stay fit, stay prepared) for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of man cometh”…..
He’s telling us to be in a constant state of watching for the return of Christ, in all we do, so we won’t be caught unprepared. So that we don’t let down our guard. As the saying goes… “To fail to prepare, is to prepare to fail”…. So, yes, be an optimist, but be an optimist who carries a raincoat…..
The thief operates best when he can get us distracted…And his most effective distraction is division… Mark 3:24 “If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. v25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand”. Our power, our effectiveness, and our witness is diminished when we are divided. The very word divide means “break down”, “split up”, “find the lowest common denominator…. If he can separate us from one another, he can wreek havock, and while we are focused on each other’s faults, instead of God’s presence, we grieve the Holy Spirit and walk out from under the Shepherds protection…and nothing is that important….
Jesus asks a very haunting question to all those of every generation.. Mark 8:36 “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? v37 or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul”? Max Jarman, was the founder of a successful nationwide shoe chain. The world was his oyster…Over the years Mr. Jarman as a Christian layman supported many worthy causes, he gave large amounts to the Billy Graham Crusades. He freely gave his money to benefit God’s work in many places and many charities. But the day came when his company collapsed and with it, his personal fortune. Someone asked him, “Mr. Jarman, don’t you regret giving all that money away? Think what a difference it would make if you had it all back now.” Max thought a moment and said, “Oh no, I don’t regret any of the money I have given away. After all, I only lost what I kept for myself.” What a fantastic perspective on life. “I only lost what I kept for myself.”
The ultimate theft is not some item worth millions, and it is not things but people. Jesus did not come to earth to die for stuff, but he valued each and every person enough to be willing to leave heaven, lay aside His Godness, live as a lowly man, and die the most horrible of deaths….
To Jesus, you and I are the thing of greatest value that Satan could possibly steal and He knows that the thief is checking every weakness, every area where we are vulnerable, every secret desire that has not been brought under His control, and every area of rebellion. Tell someone….(Shut de door, keep out the devil)
An Olympic gold medal swimmer was asked how he had become a world champion swimmer….He said his secret was “planned neglect”…. He planned on neglecting many other things in order to devote time to his swimming ability. What makes a great chess player? Planned neglect! A great author or musician? And certainly most important of all, what makes a dedicated Christian? Planned neglect of the less important things in life in order to concentrate on the all-important call of following Jesus-
In closing, let me say, since we’re talking about catching thieves… Jesus final act on the cross, was to catch a thief….Jesus’ final breath was taken between two thieves and the bible says that He was numbered with thieves…. which means it’s never too late….He turned and He said… “Today” — That’s Instant salvation…..“You" — That’s Personal salvation… “Will be" — That’s Certain salvation…. “With me" — That’s Intimate salvation….."In paradise” and That’s Eternal salvation…. it doesn’t get any better than that.
We all need to hear those words of redemptive assurance….At the end of the journey to hear, “Today you will be with me in paradise”….
Jesus marched into the head thief’s house and issued a warning to Satan that because of His victory, you and I were going to be coming He gave us these instructions in Mark 3:27 “No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house”.
So we’re going to declare according to God’s word, that all these thieves are subject to us in the name of Jesus….declare it with me….
”Lord You have given us full authority over the power of the enemy according to your word in (Luke 10:19) Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. So we exercise our authority now.
We bind you, each and every thief that would steal from our lives according to (Matthew 16:19) He has given unto me the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever I shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever I shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
According to the authority I have been given, I say unto the thief, “Drop what you have taken and leave here at once in Jesus mighty name, because it says in (John 14:13) That whatsoever I shall ask in Jesus’ name, that He will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son”.
And now I declare according to God’s unfailing word, that the thief shall repay all that he has stolen…because God promises in (Proverbs 6:31) But if the thief be found, he shall restore sevenfold and he shall give all the substance of his house”. Thank You Jesus, I receive it now in Your mighty name!!
