So in Exodus chapter 20, of course, this is where you find the Ten Commandments.
And if a sin is listed on the Ten Commandments, it ranks.
We should probably pay a little bit more attention.
Of course, we should pay attention to all of God's commandments, and there's
a lot of them.
There's a lot of other things that aren't listed specifically on these Ten Commandments
that are the commandments of the Lord.
We should care about all of it.
But when you see a list that God gives out, and they are known as the Ten Commandments,
and that if we were to keep these commandments, we would be loving our neighbor as ourself.
And these are some very important things.
So whenever you see a sin that's addressed here, maybe we should pay a little bit more
attention to it.
And I want to focus in there where it says in verse 13, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt
not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against
thy neighbor.
So there's several, you know, four sins right there that are listed in the Ten Commandments,
and most people would think about these sins and say, yeah, that's pretty bad.
They would say, thou shalt not kill.
Most people would agree with that.
They'd say, that's a terrible sin.
You know, if you are accused of being a murderer, that's not good.
That's bad.
That's just, you know, people would, that registers with them.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
You know, that's kind of gone by the wayside in our society a little bit, but, you know,
by and large, you know, we would understand that that's a serious sin.
And then verse 16, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
You know, we like to say that's talking about lying, and you know, and I understand
that it is, but it's also referring to the fact that, you know, you're not going
to falsely accuse somebody and cause them to be punished by the law.
But, you know, verse 15 is kind of one that we know it's there.
We know it's wrong to do.
We know it happens a lot.
And if we're honest, you know, we might even be a little bit more guilty of this.
I mean, than probably the other ones.
I mean, you can't kind of kill.
You know, you can maybe tell a little bit of a white lie, but you can't sort of kill
somebody.
You either killed someone or you didn't.
You know, you either committed adultery or you didn't.
But when it comes to stealing, sometimes I feel like we think in our minds there's
this gray area.
Well, it's not technically stealing, but look, it's on there.
It's on the list.
And if what we're doing is in any way, shape, or form construed as stealing, you know, we've
committed a major sin.
And I want to preach tonight about the fact that stealing is a sin.
Stealing is a sin.
And you know, obviously the Bible condemns it.
And you're there in Exodus, but you go over to Hosea chapter 4.
Hosea chapter 4.
Keep something in Exodus and go to Hosea chapter 4.
The Bible says in Leviticus 19, ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither
lie one to another.
Exodus 13 says, thou shall not defraud thy neighbor and neither rob him.
The wages of them that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.
So we often think about stealing as just, you know, somebody running into a bank with
a ski mask and a gun and just, you know, holding up the teller.
But the Bible shows us that there's other ways that robbery or stealing is committed.
It's not always just this violent act that is out in the open.
You know, there's dealing falsely.
You know, saying, oh yeah, it's worth this much, selling a car, selling a vehicle.
Is there anything wrong with it?
Nope.
Nothing wrong with it.
You know, then they get it down the road.
I mean, we hear stories about, you know, people will sell a car because the engine
has a knock in it.
You know, it's throwing a rod, which is catastrophic.
I mean, you have to replace it.
And so instead of taking the hit, you know, what I've heard of people doing, I used to
work in an oil change place.
So I heard some of these stories is there's this old trick of, you know, you could take
a bunch.
I don't know if I should be telling you guys this.
I trust you.
Tell us, tell us.
I got to know.
Oh, you say it's got a knock?
Funny.
I had the same problem.
Right?
But you could take a bunch of sawdust and you could put it in that engine with the
oil and it's sodding up and it would, it would, it would muffle that knock for
a little while.
It would kind of make, make everything work straight.
And this is, you know, I'd have never seen it, but this is the rumor that was out
there.
You make sure it doesn't have any sawdust in the engine because after you sell that,
that title over, it's your car now, and it's your fault, you know, for not seeing
if it had sawdust in the engine.
It's out there.
Things like that where people are going to say, well, I didn't, it's not like I took
a gun and put it into his head and said, you know, empty your wallet.
I didn't mug the guy.
Yeah, but maybe we're dealing falsely, you know, maybe we're not telling the whole
truth.
And we're defrauding our neighbor.
We're lying one to another.
He says there at the end, the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all
night until the morning.
So the Bible teaches that employees should be paid every day, that at the end of the
day, you're to be paid.
Now obviously, that's not the way it works in our society, you know, society has changed.
And of course, you know, back then, that was kind of what was expected.
Hey, you're going to pay me at the end of the day.
And that's, you know, because I need that to survive on, and our society has changed
a little bit.
So I've worked for, you know, my boss now is my pastor, Pastor Anderson, I've worked
for another boss, my last pastor, he hired me for a time, and they've both said, hey,
if you ever need to get paid the same day, just let me know, we'll cut you a check.
You know, if there's ever a need, you just say, hey, I need my wages for today.
You know, we're not going to be in violation of this.
So there's different ways that we can steal from people.
It's not just this violent crime, although stealing is most certainly a violent crime,
and it's often that is the way it's carried out.
If you look in Hosea chapter four, verse one, it says, hear the word of the Lord, you
children of Israel, for the Lord had the controversy with the inhabitants of the land,
because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land.
By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break
out and blood toucheth blood.
He's saying, look, he has a controversy with them, why?
Because there is no truth.
There is no mercy.
There is no knowledge of God in the land.
And why is that?
By swearing and by lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break
out.
He's saying, look, the reason why there is no truth, the reason why there is no mercy
is because all these sins are taking place in your land.
And we would all say, oh, you know, the lying and the killing and the adultery and
all this, this is wicked.
Oh, and the stealing, too.
You know, we shouldn't be doing that either.
But we'll compare it to these other sins and say, well, you know, if I had to commit one,
I guess it would be stealing.
But it's still, it's still wicked.
Something we should do.
And look, it says there at the end, they break out and blood toucheth blood.
I mean, it's getting to a place where they're killing one another, and why?
Because they're coveting and taking things that don't belong to them.
So stealing, you know, we can, you know, of course there is the context of it being, of it being
a very violent crime.
But let's not also forget that it can also be done very subtly, where maybe we're not
killing people, but we might be doing it in other ways.
We might be, you know, shaving off a little time off the clock, leaving a little earlier,
staying than we actually stayed, or what have you.
Taking a longer break than we actually marked down on our timesheet.
That type of a thing.
It's possible.
It's out there.
But stealing is a violent crime.
I mean, in any shape and form, you know, even if you were to say, well, I didn't
kill anybody, I didn't rob anybody, it's still always a violent crime because of
the fact that at a minimum, it affects people financially.
It affects people financially, and that is violating somebody.
And if you don't believe me, you know, I'll send brother Gabriel over there and he'll
come get your wallet after it turns into you and say, wow, it's violated, right?
I'm not going to do that.
He wouldn't do that anyway.
But, I mean, if someone's taking your money by force, IRS, you know, that is stealing.
You know, and it's violent.
We get violated, you know, every tax season.
Every paycheck.
You know, you go through your pay stub and you see those taxes coming out, you know,
you feel violated.
Because you are.
Because any time you're coercing somebody under threat of imprisonment to pay taxes,
you know, that is stealing.
So, but that's another sermon for another time.
I shouldn't just throw things out there, but I think every, I see some heads nodding.
I think everyone's with me on that one, so.
Hopefully the IRS doesn't come out at me now.
But look, at a minimum, even if we're just stealing through blue collar crime, we're
not killing anybody, blood's not breaking out, you know, we're still harming people
and violating them because of the fact that we're affecting them financially.
You know, and this has kind of been in my mind because, you know, and some people
already know about this, but, you know, recently at our church up in Tempe, we had
a church vehicle that was, had the catalytic converters cut out of it.
Now, who knows what I'm talking about with the catalytic converters, yeah.
You know, there's these different, you know, precious metals that are in these converters
on all vehicles, you know, part of these EPA emissions and things like that.
And what'll happen is guys will go around, you know, and it's just part of the muffler
system.
I'm giving you all the tricks tonight, aren't I?
I'm telling you about the sawdust, I'm telling you how to get that catalytic,
you know, and they would go in and they'll cut it right out of the pipes, you know,
they'll just take a sawzall, battery operated, you want about an 18 volt, no, minimum
18 volt.
You gotta get a sharp blade, bi-metal, you know, I recommend Milwaukee, and Milwaukee
brand is the one you want to use, don't get the cheap DeWalt's.
But you know, these guys, they, one day, you know, I get, I was sick, I think it was
out with COVID, and pastor calls me and says, hey, I just fired up the van here
at church, you know, it was a Sunday, and he says, and the thing sounds like a
hot rod.
I was like, well, when I get better, I'll look at it.
And I fired that thing up, I mean, it's just deafening loud.
It's just like instantly, you know, great, catalytic converter, cut it right out in
the church parking lot.
Metal shame.
And they're not gentle about it.
They make nice clean cuts, and they're careful not to hit anything else.
I mean, they cut through the O2 sensor, they broke the linkage to the transmission, so
they had to get it towed to the transmission shop, then it'd get towed to the muffler shop,
then get it back to the transmission guy, it was just this big mess, it took like
six weeks to finally get it back.
You know, and, but here's the thing, you know, that guy that stole that is probably
gonna get about 40 bucks for it, he's getting about 40 bucks for that catalytic converter.
They cost like $1,200 or something like that, depending on what you get.
Now, if you own a Prius, you know, those are the ones that really go after them, because
those have rhodium in them, I guess, which is this really rare metal.
And when you start looking this stuff up, you know, catalytic converter theft, the Priuses
are just, that's who, if they see a Prius, they're gonna get it.
You know, and when this happened, I called the local shops to see who could do the repairs,
and they're just telling me, yeah, there's a big, big run on them.
Big run on them right now.
And then, you know, the apartments right down the road from us that we used to live in,
the South Point Apartments, you know, we were trying to do something with the other van,
like, hey, we got an employee that lives down there, maybe ask the landlord if we can
park a van down there.
Because once we get it back, you know, it's just gonna happen again, we can't leave
this thing here overnight.
So he calls his landlord at the apartment and says, well, we just had the same thing
happen here last night.
The tenant had the same thing, come cut it right out of his car.
Well, they're great.
And then I took it to the new van, you know, new to us, I took it across the street
yesterday for an oil change, and the guy behind the counter, I'm getting rung up, he brings
it up.
Have you had any problems with catalytic converters?
I said, yeah.
As a matter of fact, I have.
He said, yeah, I had a customer's car parked right out here and they did the same thing.
And they're just doing it everywhere.
And it's just this big run.
But here's the thing, you know, you'd say, oh, it's just a catalytic converter.
The guy said, well, you know, the catalytic converter, you know, it's going to cost
you a few hundred dollars, you know, I mean, the part isn't that much.
Yeah, but it's going to cost the tow truck.
It's going to cost, you know, the labor, the time the church is paying me to call
the shops, arrange the thing.
I mean, it all adds up.
So the thief in his mind says, oh, it's just this little theft, it's not a big deal,
it's just petty crime.
They don't see how all the costs that actually are associated with that theft.
You know, and that's us being violated financially.
We have been violated financially.
Theft is always a violent crime, even if you're just stealing things.
You know, you're not, you know, you're doing it in the dark of night, you're
sneaking in, you're sneaking out, nobody saw you, you didn't have to club anybody
over the head or whatever.
It still hurts people.
And then there is, of course, you know, when it is more violent, physically,
people are often hurt or killed in the act of, in robbery.
I mean, that's what we saw in Hosea, right?
The stealing that was taking place,
that contributed the fact, as he said, that blood toucheth blood.
There's just so much blood being spilled on the land because of all the people
being stolen from, just being violated and killed.
Because of all the robbers that were in the land.
Go over to Proverbs chapter 1, Proverbs chapter 1.
If you remember, Paul in 2 Corinthians, when he's kind of recounting all the
things that he had gone through, all the things that he had suffered for
the Lord's sake, you know, he said he was in journeyings often.
He was in perils of water.
One of the things we kind of gloss over is the fact that it says he was in
perils of robbers.
I mean, people are, he's trying to go around and
spread the gospel to the Gentiles, and he's getting robbed.
People are trying to take everything he's got.
In perils by my own countrymen, and so on and so forth.
And scripture warns us about violent robbers.
Here in Proverbs chapter 1, it says in verse 10,
my son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
If they say, come with us, wait for
blood, let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause.
This isn't just some, you know, crackhead who wants to just go rip off a catalytic
converter, you know, and get his fix.
This is somebody who wants to lurk privily for the innocent blood,
the innocent without cause.
Let us swallow them up alive as the grave and
whole as those that go down to the pit.
We shall find all precious substance.
I mean, there's people out there that are so
motivated by greed that they're willing to kill people.
We shall fill our houses with spoil, cast in thy lot among us, and
let us all have one purse.
My son, walk not thou on the way with them.
Refrain thy foot from their path, for their feet run to evil, and
make haste to shed blood.
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird, and
they lay wait for their own blood.
They lurk privily for their own lives.
So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain,
which taketh away the life of their owners thereof.
He's saying, don't be fooled by these people.
They're gonna say, oh, we're gonna get away with it.
Just put on this ski mask, we'll be right outside around the corner with
the engine running, the gun's not even loaded.
Just run into that store and shove it in their face and
get whatever you can.
And people start getting involved in violent crime.
But no one ever goes into it thinking, well,
maybe it might be for my own life.
Maybe the guy behind the counter's gonna come up with
the double barrel, and then it's on.
And a lot of times, that's how things turn out for people.
And scripture warns us about people getting involved and stealing and theft.
Because on the surface, it looks like, oh, that's a quick, easy way.
Quick, easy way to make money.
A few hours out at night, I can just go down Southern Avenue in Tempe and
just go look for cars that are left out in these dark parking lots with a sawzall.
I can cut one, I mean, you could cut off a Cadillac Verter in minutes.
If I can get a few an hour, I mean, 40 bucks, I could be making two, three,
400 bucks an hour, whatever, and have a nice little take.
And then I can just be on easy street for a while.
But the Bible's warning us here that the net is spread in the sight of any
bird, and they lay weight for their own blood.
It's gonna come back on their own head.
So are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain.
And I remember always, you'd hear in the news every now and
then about people who have been,
just the serial robberies that have been taking place.
And one of the best ways that the police have used to combat that is by putting
out a reward for anyone that has any information leading
to the arrest or conviction of whoever's responsible.
And now who do you think they're trying to appeal to in that instance?
Just the John Q public who happened to see something?
No, they're trying to appeal to the other guys that that guy's running with.
As they say, there's no honor among thieves.
They think, hey, we're all in on this, I know so and so, he was running with us.
And if we all agree to turn him in anonymously, we could make 50 grand,
we could make 20 grand, whatever.
People turn each other in all the time.
So if we get this idea that we can just get away with it,
that we can just go out there and get involved in this kind of activity,
this crime, stealing, being a thief, a robber.
Don't be surprised if it comes back on your own head.
The Bible says in Proverbs 29, who so is partnered with a thief hateth his own soul.
He hateth his own soul.
If you're going to partner up with somebody who's going to rob and
rip people off, he hates his own soul.
And of course, Proverbs 1, where we read,
he's talking about people who are doing it very wickedly.
They're talking about going out and lurking privately for
innocent blood, to swallow them up alive as the pit and as the grave.
But what we don't think about sometimes is maybe we get involved in
a business dealing with somebody.
Or maybe we end up working for somebody who says, yeah, you know what?
Go ahead and charge more than we should, or go ahead and
don't do the work and bill them anyway.
That kind of thing's out there.
You get into service industries and stuff like that.
I'm glad I never really had to work for anybody like that, and
we kind of had that understanding.
In fact, I had a boss I worked for as a locksmith, and
he would send me out, and it would have been so easy.
It would have been just so easy to tell this sweet little old lady that her whole
lock set needs to be replaced for hundreds of dollars, because it's broken.
When all it really needed was just a little of WD-40 or whatever.
And then, and that's it.
And often he would send me out in that job and I'd tell him what's wrong.
He's like, yeah, just do it for her, don't charge her nothing.
And then we'd get a call back from the grandson or whatever, hey,
I really appreciate what you did.
You know, come over and do my locks now.
And that's where you make your money at doing, you know, honest work.
So we always think about, you know, being a thief or being a robber.
As being, you know, you know, the bank robber, the mugger, whatever.
But it could be, you know, just dishonest dealings out in the workforce.
You know, telling people after, and let me tell you something.
The locksmith industry is rife with this kind of thing.
Because how many times do you have to call a locksmith in your life?
Pretty rare, right?
This is gonna be a little public service announcement about locksmithing, right?
I gotta get this off my chest.
Is because, you know, locksmithing is not like ordering a pizza.
You don't call up and know exactly how much this should cost for
a large pepperoni and mushroom, right?
You know, or a sausage or green pepper, whatever your tune is, right?
You know about what you're gonna pay when you call certain services.
But a lot of people, when they call a locksmith,
they've never called a locksmith before.
They're calling a locksmith,
they're stranded out in some parking lot somewhere.
They lost their keys, they're in the car, whatever.
They're kind of at the locksmith's mercy.
I mean, you can kind of tell them whatever they want.
Here's what most people do.
They get out their smartphone, and the first guy that's got a Google ad,
that's who they call, 24-7 locksmith, if you don't ever call those guys.
Cuz they'll charge you hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
I've had people come into a locksmith shop and show me an invoice.
The guy got locked out at his bank.
His keys were in his truck.
And 24-7 locksmith, or whoever, shows up and opens his door and
takes his keys, puts them in his pocket, and says 300 bucks.
Now, that's a good way to get beat up.
I would never be so bold to do that.
The guy went into his bank, withdrew $300, and gave it to him.
And he came into our shop a few days later and said, did I get ripped off?
And I said, yep, I would have charged you 85 bucks to come out and do that.
And that happens all the time.
So there's a little PSA about the locksmithing.
But that's a good example of the type of thing that goes on.
People don't, the thief and the robber isn't always gonna come with a ski mask on.
He's gonna come in a service uniform.
He's gonna come and give you a bad quote or
try to take advantage of you in some way.
And look, we should not partner up with people like that.
We should not work for people like that.
I remember when I was looking for different locksmith jobs, and
here's another little job advice, employment advice.
If they're always hiring, if every time you go on Craigslist or
every time you go on Indeed, and the same company is always hiring,
that's a red flag, cuz the turnover rate's just like this.
And there have been people that have gone in there and go work for them, and
they realize they're working for a bunch of crooks and criminals.
And there's a lot more to that 24-7 locksmith that I would love to tell
you guys about, but you gotta see me after the service for that one.
And here's the thing, this needs to be preached because of the fact that
it's violent, it's wicked, whether we're doing it through physically,
actually physically violating somebody, or whether we're doing
dishonest business dealings, it's all wicked, okay?
And the problem is, and the reason why it needs to be preached,
is that the world glorifies being a robber.
The world lifts it up.
They glorify theft.
I mean, they make all these movies about them, the casino heist movie.
I was trying to think of some examples, and I had this throwback, all right?
I'll get a little bone of the old man move here for a minute, all right?
We'll get a little worldly.
Jumping Jack Flash with Whoopi Goldberg, nobody, right?
But she's picking locks, she's robbing people, and
it's just all kinds of movies.
We could probably go around the room, hey, you ever see a movie where they
just made the thieves out into the coolest people around?
Yeah, there's a bunch of them, they do it all the time.
And they glorify, it's so hip, it's so cool to be a thief, to rob people.
They glorify it, but the Bible says it's wicked.
And society understands it's wicked.
They're not gonna stand for it, most societies anyway.
Go to Exodus chapter 22, and
don't let the world fool you into thinking that it's just this cool thing
to do, and that you're gonna get away with it, and
that there's not gonna be any punishment.
And I'll tell you, the world's punishment, the way the society handles it,
is worse than anything the Bible prescribes, in my opinion.
And I'm not saying that's right.
I think the world goes way too far.
And the problem with the modern justice system, and
how they punish stealing and theft, is that the victim is very rarely compensated.
The only people that make any money off it is the judicial system.
At the end of the day, the guy who got robbed,
the victim, he's just left there with nothing.
The Bible has the right way to handle it.
If you look at Exodus chapter 22 verse 1, it says, if a man steal an ox or
a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore it, five oxen for an ox, and
four sheep for a sheep.
He's gotta pay back four or five fold, what he took.
Now that's a pretty good system.
I would probably start leaving my keys in the car, if that were the case.
You know what I mean?
Leave the windows down, keys in it.
I know, but the insurance company probably wouldn't approve of that, right?
But if, hey, if I'm gonna get four or five back, it's almost worth it.
If a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he die,
there shall no blood be shed for him.
And this is important, too, because I've heard some people make such
statements as, well, if I ever caught a guy, if he was out in my driveway
cutting out a catalytic converter, he'd be getting a lead salad.
He'd be catching lead.
He wouldn't make it out of the other driveway.
Well, in certain instances, that might be right.
That might be okay to do.
But you can't just have this mentality that you're gonna kill somebody over.
I mean, what you're saying is you're putting a price on a man's soul
at that point.
You know, people, and I remember a pastor who told me a story about
his church, a church that he was a member of, somebody had come in and
taken all the stereo equipment, all the audio equipment out of the church.
I mean, thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment,
just gone.
And they were at a men's prayer meeting, and some guy prays, Lord,
I pray you kill that guy.
Look, there's time and place to pray imprecatory prayers for people.
But some guy stealing a bunch of audio equipment out of a church
isn't one of them.
And my pastor at that time, he was telling me this story, and he said,
I just thought to myself, you just put a price on that man's soul.
And what's that price to you, a few thousand bucks?
I mean, if I walked out and saw a guy ripping off my catalytic converter,
I'd probably try to scare him off or catch him, get a phone out and
get some video, but I'm not gonna pull out a gun and
start going to town and doing work, cuz it's not worth it.
It's not worth, it's just a thing, it can be replaced.
Human life cannot be just replaced.
Once that guy's dead, that's it.
And if he's not saved, he's in hell.
So it says in verse two, and that's why I'm bringing it up,
cuz it says, if a thief be found breaking up, and
he be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
Oh, see, we're justified.
Verse three, if the son be arisen upon him, there shall be no blood shed for
him, so it clarifies it, for he should make full restitution.
If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.
I mean, that's a pretty good system.
People say, well, these guys don't have anything to pay back anyway.
Okay, well, it's called being a bondservant.
Now he gets sold and goes and works for another guy, and
I get a cut of his wages.
I garnish his wages, until I get compensated four or
five fold, depending on what he stole.
It says in verse four, if the theft be certainly found in his hand alive,
whether it be ox or ass or sheep, he shall restore double.
If a man shall cause a field or a vineyard to be eaten, and
shall put in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field,
the beast of his own field, and the best of his own vineyard,
he shall make restitution.
So, not only is this the humane way to handle people who are thieves,
cuz how do we handle it today?
We put them in a cell for years, and then they have a record when they get
out, and they can't go live a normal life, it gets hung over their head.
That's not humane, okay?
This is humane.
It's not only is it humane, but it actually compensates the victim.
The victim actually gets paid back.
Things are actually made right.
It's not the way it works today in our system.
Go over to Luke chapter 23, Luke chapter 23.
And I will say this, our system today, as flawed as it is,
is still more humane, arguably maybe, as other systems.
The Romans crucified thieves.
It was the death penalty.
They would nail you to a cross.
I mean, we see that in Jesus' crucifixion.
It says that there were two thieves crucified with him.
The two other people that were there, that was their crime.
They had stolen something.
Now look at Luke 23.
This always, I don't wanna say it cracks me up, but
always you hear what this guy says and you're like,
even the thieves don't see how bad the system is.
It says in verse 39, Luke 23, 39, and one of the malefactors which were
hanged railed on him saying, if thou be the Christ, save thyself and us.
But the other answering imbued him saying,
dost not thou fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.
That's crazy to me that this guy is hanging up there and
thinking, no, I deserve this.
I stole something.
I don't care how big a thing you stole or whatever you did.
That's not right.
You know, now I understand if somebody's breaking into your house at night and
you don't know why they're there, and you feel for your life or
the life of your loved ones or their well being, then yeah, that's justified.
But if someone's just out in your backyard, running off with a bike,
grabbing some tools or whatever, that's not a threat to your life.
And it's just crazy to me when you read this, this guy, he's up there and
he thinks, yeah, this is what I deserve.
And people read that and say, that's what the Bible teaches.
No, that's just the Bible telling us what this guy said.
Exodus is what the Bible teaches should be done.
So the Romans, I mean, at least our system isn't that bad.
We're publicly executing people for theft.
I mean, you could make the debate, depending on how long they're put away for
in some cell somewhere, maybe that is a fate worse than death, I don't know.
How about the Muslims, right?
The religion of peace, they teach amputation, that's the punishment there.
As for the thief, I'm reading to you from the Quran, the male and
the female amputate their hands in recompense for what they've earned
as a deterrent from Allah, and Allah is exalted in might and wise.
That's their solution, just cut off the hand.
Well, if I'm the guy that gets stolen from, do I at least get the hand?
Do I get it in a jar?
I can say, yeah, put it out in my front yard.
This is what happens to thieves around here.
Hey, look, I know all your stuff's gone.
It's been pawned off and the guy spent it all on drugs, but here's his hand.
Oh, thanks, Allah is mighty and powerful and wise.
Praise be to Allah for this hand.
What a great system, and now the guy doesn't have a hand.
Go make an honest living now with one last hand.
What sense does that make?
Just make sure they get the non-dominant hand if they're going to do it.
Lie to them, it's the left one, I swear.
Sign something, because they got to make a living.
You say, well, that's crazy.
Yeah, but I've heard a lot of even Americans talk, people who are not
Muslims and say, think they can just shoot thieves in any circumstance.
The people that just, I'm all for the Second Amendment, I'm all for that.
I support it, but sometimes I run into people, I've met people,
I'm just thinking, you should not carry a gun.
As I was told, you leave one or two things behind every day, your gun or
your temper, you can't be a hothead and carry a weapon.
That's another story, I'm not going to go in there, but Proverbs 6.
Go to Proverbs 6.
So God's system, his dealing with theft is appropriate, it's good, it's right.
It's the way it should be done.
And don't think that there isn't going to be a punishment for your sin.
I don't care how much the world glorifies theft, how cool they make it look, or
how easy, or maybe you even know people that are involved in it, and
it seems like they're just getting away with it, and getting away with it,
and getting away with it, it will catch up to them eventually.
Eventually that guy's going to roll into somewhere with a trunk load of
catalytic converters somewhere, and it's going to be a private investigator.
It's going to be an undercover cop.
And it's like, all of these are yours.
Okay, well, it's going to catch up to them.
Another example of this is the fact that in our same church parking lot,
just a few months back, and if you ever get around, if Chris is ever here,
get him to tell you the story, because he has a lot better job than I do.
He's there working late one night, and he hears something out in the parking
lot, right outside our office door, where his van is parked.
And he looks, there's this red car parked there.
And I don't know what brought it on, but the guy was up to something,
and then Chris opens the door, and he's kind of like,
because he doesn't know what's going to happen.
Hey, and the guy goes running off, and running off.
And he takes off, across the parking lot,
leaves his car parked right next to his van.
So he gets in his van, he's kind of looking around, and he looks over, and
he's already on the phone with the cops, because we've had people siphon gas
out of the vans and everything else.
Don't ever leave your car there, folks, if you ever have to.
And he's on the phone with the cops, he looks over in the guy's van,
or out of his van window, he can see down the guy's car, and
he sees a license plate just laying there in the back seat.
So he gets out, and he goes back to his back of his van, his license plate's gone.
He goes, that's my license plate, the guy was taking his license plate off.
So he gets his license plate out, and he's kind of looking around, and
there's just all kinds of stuff in there, and there's tools.
I mean, this guy's just being, he actually stole the tools from
the maintenance guy in broad daylight,
when they had been working just a few suites down.
Drove by, reached in the back of his pickup, and
just threw all of his tools in there, and the guy had filed a police report.
And then the next night, he's back in the same parking lot,
trying to rip off Chris's license plate.
So he gets on the phone, and he's got the cops coming, and he's trying to think.
He doesn't want to be there, because he didn't know if the guy went to go get
his buddies, went to go get a club, or a gun, or whatever.
He's going to come back and try to take what's his, or what he thinks is his.
So he gets in his van, he's still on the phone with dispatch.
No, before he leaves, I gotta tell the story.
I can't, I mean, I could tell you want to know, right?
He gets the bright idea.
He's thinking, well, if I leave, I gotta leave, but if I leave, this guy could come
back and just take off, and then all these people's stuff never gets returned.
So he's had this big, what is it, like a one-ton jack?
Like the big ones, you know what I mean?
Like the long ones for lifting vans?
Man, he's had that thing around the office, and I'm always tripping over it,
stubbing my toe, and going, why do we have this jack just laying around?
It was for a time such as this, that that jack was there, it was Providence.
And so he grabs that jack, he rolls it out there, jacks the guy's car up,
takes his tire off, brings it inside, locks the door, and
just put his vehicle right back down without a tire.
He was gentle about it, he put it back down, and just took off.
So he's across the street, and he could see the guy's car, and
he's on the phone with dispatch, and the cops had already been dispatched,
and he's like, and he's explaining the situation, and the guy comes back,
he's back now, he's back in his car, and he says, but he's not going anywhere,
I took his tire off.
And then Chris tells it better than I do, and he says, the dispatch is like,
wait a minute, are you telling me you stole the tire, or he's the thief?
And he's like, no, he's the thief, I just took his tire off, so
I couldn't go anywhere.
So the squad cars come in, they block the guy in, and
he'd taken off the rear passenger tire.
The guy just got in the car, didn't even look to see what was going on.
And he's sitting there, and the cops, they say, hey, what are you doing?
I was just across the street going to McDonald's, just going to McDonald's.
They're like, you parked here to go all the way to McDonald's from here?
Yeah, okay, well, where are you going now?
I was just gonna go to a friend's house, they're like, no, you're not.
He's like, why not?
He said, well, you couldn't go anywhere without a tire.
You didn't realize your tire was gone?
No, you've been here the whole time?
And then it all came out, and the guy already had a record,
he was on probation.
They didn't book him cuz the jails were filling up.
They said, you're gonna have to go see a judge, and
he's probably gonna do more time.
The guy got his tools back, but I'm sure he probably wouldn't have
minded getting four times the amount of tools, or double tools,
I guess, would be in this instance.
I don't know what that had to do with a lot of anything, but
you know what, it was a good story.
But it just goes to show you that crime, forgive the cliche statement, but
it does not pay.
And there's no, I mean, do you think that guy felt cool when he asked to
go to tell his probation officer, when he asked to call his relatives and
say, yeah, I'm going back in for another year or two.
I'm up to it again, trying to feed a habit.
I mean, it's sad, it's unfortunate.
And Brother Raymond, he went out there and tried to preach the guy the gospel
afterward, but he didn't get saved.
But the world wants to make it look so cool and glamorous.
Your friends want to tell you, it's easy, we can get away with it.
Don't worry, you won't get caught until you do.
And then it's embarrassing, it's painful.
And unfortunately, in our system, it could cost you a lot more
than is even just in the eyes of God.
And if you were living in a Muslim country under Sharia law,
it could literally cost you a hand.
Bible says in Proverbs chapter six, verse 30, right there,
Proverbs chapter six, verse 30, I don't know if I had you turn there or not.
It says in Proverbs 6 30, men do not despise the thief if he steal to satisfy
his soul when he is hungry.
I mean, at least that's understandable to say, man, the guy, they're starving,
he doesn't have anything to eat, he's just,
he's stealing bread to put it in his mouth so he doesn't starve to death.
We're not gonna despise him.
The guy that's going around cutting catalytic converters off for
his drug habit or whatever, I despise that guy.
No one's gonna have much sympathy for him.
So, but look at what it goes on and says.
He's talking about, hey, they're not gonna despise him.
We might even have sympathy for him and say, man, sorry.
What a tough position to be in life.
What happened to this guy?
What went on in his life that he has to steal just to put food in his mouth?
But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold.
And the Bible doesn't prescribe that, it prescribes double.
And he's just talking about the fact that don't expect men,
don't expect mankind to go easy on you.
God has what he winds out, but
the reality is that man goes way beyond what is appropriate.
So if we get caught, we think, it's gonna be an easy life,
it's gonna be cool, I'm just gonna be this thief, I'm gonna be this robber.
It's gonna be easy street for me.
But here's the thing, man is gonna take it even beyond what God has prescribed.
Even in the instance like this, where he says, hey,
they don't despise a thief when he's stealing to put food in his belly.
But he shall restore sevenfold.
He shall give all the substance of his house.
And they'll take everything they can get from you.
God's system, thieves should just be forced to make amends with
the person they stole from, and then move on with their life.
But the reality of it is, is that mankind, man, will chop off hands,
crucify you, take everything that you own.
So it's just not worth it.
It never is to begin with, but it's even worse when man's running the show.
And we think, well, I'm never gonna do that.
I'm never gonna go cut catalytic converters off.
I'm never gonna go over to Faithful Word in the middle of the night and
try to take Chris Segura's license plate or anything else he has.
I learned my lesson, I'm not gonna ever do that.
But here's the thing, stealing can take other forms, can it?
Stealing isn't always just us going and
robbing things that don't belong to us.
I talked about, we could do that on the job.
We could do that through charging more than we should, through dishonest dealings.
Stealing on the clock.
This is something you see a lot.
I remember a guy, when I first got saved, I worked at a furniture company.
They sold furniture and we would deliver it.
And often we'd have to rearrange the showroom, which is a lot of fun.
You'd be out to the sales people, put that over there, put that over there.
And you'd have to be moving this furniture around.
And you'd just be in there for hours, just rearranging the showroom.
And no one liked doing it, none of the furniture moving guys.
None of us enjoyed it, but it was our job, so we got paid to do.
I remember we were out there for an entire afternoon one time.
And we just thought this other guy was off doing something else.
And we go back there and a little while later he comes out.
Man, I was just in the boiler room that whole time taking a nap.
Guy was napping on the job for hours.
And it was just like, you're a thief.
What else do you call that?
To get paid to go sleep when you're supposed to be working?
So that kind of thing goes on.
Maybe we're not going to go around with the sawzall or
put sawdust in motors and whatever.
But if we're trimming off the clock, if we're lying on the time sheet,
if we're sleeping when we're supposed to be working, that is another form of
And that might be something that people who wouldn't do some of these other things
might be a little bit more prone to do.
And look, here's the thing, and I don't want to be like, people hear that and
then they just become these sticklers, you know what I mean?
But, and I've talked to other employers and
there's this thing where it all kind of comes out in the wash, I get that.
And we don't nickel and dime each other over every ten minutes.
Well, I work ten minutes over today.
Yeah, but there was this ten minute thing here where you did, Bill.
You know what I'm saying?
I understand there's give and take.
And I've even had my employers come to me and say that, like, look,
there's give and take here when it comes down to the exact moment and
minute when you did this or that.
But look, when you're going into the boiler room and
sleeping for hours, or you're just taking, you say,
I took a half hour break, you really took an hour break.
That's not just something that's going to come out in the wash.
That is stealing.
And we might not do some of these other things, but
that might be something we're a little more tempted to do.
Stealing on the time clock, petty theft of materials.
That's another thing that you hear a lot of about is companies,
most theft happens in house.
It's from the employees, they steal more than anybody.
80% of all theft happens within the company through people just
lying or taking things home, so on and so forth.
And so why would anybody do that?
How could people, because here's the thing.
People begin to justify that theft in their mind.
When they steal from an employer, what they'll do is they'll justify it in
their mind.
They'll say, this isn't me stealing.
Me slipping this $300 into my pocket, that's not stealing.
That's me getting compensated for what I'm really worth.
I'm underpaid.
I deserve this money.
They owed me this.
That's the type of thing that goes on in people's minds when they start to
steal from their employer.
They think, I'm worth more than they're paying me, so
I'm going to go ahead and just pay myself a little bit more.
When it's really stealing is what's taking place.
Go to 1 Peter 4, we'll wrap it up here, 1 Peter 4.
The Bible says in Ephesians 4, verse 28, let him that stole steal no more.
Now what's God's answer?
Make restitution and stop doing it.
Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor.
With both hands, by the way, let him labor working with his hands, plural.
Both hands, the thing which is good, that he may be give to him that needeth.
That's how you're going to pay that back.
Maybe you're never going to get drug into a court of law for
things that you've stolen in the past.
Maybe those people are so far gone and far removed from your life,
you couldn't even track them down to pay them back if you wanted to.
But you know what you can do is you can stop stealing and work hard and
then start actually helping people that have a need.
That's how you can pay that back and make that restitution.
1 Peter 4, where I have a U-turn, says this in verse 14,
If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for
the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.
On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
So it's good if we suffer for the name of Christ.
But if we're going to suffer as any of these other things, that's not good.
But let none of you, it says in verse 15, suffer as a murderer.
So I'd never do that, of course not.
Not me, I'm not going to murder anybody.
Yeah, or as a thief.
Well, you know, I mean, what's an extra hour or two a week that me leaving early or
coming in late that they don't know about?
What's a few hours of me napping in the boiler room while I'm supposed to be working?
Is it really that big a deal, me just taking some things home and
helping myself to materials or whatever?
Well, it is stealing, and we should not suffer as a thief or
as an evildoer, as a fuzzy body in other men's matters.
And look, here's the thing about theft.
It's frustrating when it happens to you.
A lot of people who have stolen,
they kind of stop stealing when they get stolen from.
And they realize how infuriating it is to have somebody just taking things from
you that don't belong to them.
It's very frustrating.
And look, a lot of times people,
you could see why they get frustrated and they just go overboard with it.
Oh, you stole some bread, seven fold, I'm taking everything you got.
Two years, plus probation.
Oh, you stole a car, they just dropped the hammer out of just frustration and
they think that's what's going to dissuade people from doing it.
But here's the thing, and it is frustrating, I understand that.
But just think about the fact that the most important things,
the things that matter most in life, cannot be stolen from you.
I mean, they can't.
Wherever your heart is, there will your treasure be also.
If we store up treasures in heaven, if our heart is in heaven,
that's where our treasures are going to be.
Where neither thief nor moth break through it, where moth or
us do not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
And these things that people take from us are just that.
They're stuff.
I understand it's frustrating.
But you know what, we should never go to the point of just,
we're going to get vindictive, we're going to be vengeful.
It'd be great if we had a system where we could get paid back.
And I asked, I said, hey, should we report this to the police?
He said, would it do any good?
And the pastor said, would it even do any good?
They're probably so busy with other crimes, they would just, pfft,
they'd laugh at that.
But then I got to thinking, would I really want that guy to go to jail for
that?
I mean, is the catalytic converter, as frustrating as it is, and
all the headache that it was over these last few weeks of getting that van
repaired, is it really worth seeing that guy get put away for years, maybe?
And people will say, well, of course, no, he needs to be punished for
his crime, I understand that.
I understand that, and I'm not going to say if you're wrong,
if you feel that way, but to me, sometimes I just go, is it even worth it?
Tell that to the guy with one hand, in some Muslim country or somewhere.
Well, you've suffered justly for your deeds, like that guy on the cross.
I'd rather just see the guy get let go, and maybe come to his senses,
maybe get saved, and stop it someday.
But we should not get so frustrated with people when we get stolen from.
I understand it's frustrating, and
there needs to be some kind of restitution.
But if maybe that's bothering us a little more than it should,
maybe it's because of the fact that our treasures aren't in heaven.
We're more concerned with the things of this earth.
And if we would just store up treasure there, that's more secure than Fort Knox.
No one's breaking through into heaven.
That stuff's going to be there waiting for you, guaranteed.
So that's the message tonight.
Stealing is a sin, it's not something we should just gloss over.
It's not something we should let the world tell us is cool.
It's not something we should let other people pressure us into, or
talk us into, or think we're just always going to get away with.
And it's definitely not something we want to go to an extreme with
when it comes to punishing other people.
And let's just remember that the most important things that
cannot be stolen from us, and those are the things that we should acquire.
Those are the things that we should invest in.
Souls, godly living, all of these things,
the treasures in heaven that cannot be stolen.
Let's go ahead and pray.