What's Yours Is Mine, and What's Mine is Mine

What's Yours is Mine, and What's Mine is Mine

8^th in a Series of 10

Realizing Revival by Following The Rules

November 15, 1998

Rev. Charles S. Mims

Exodus 20:15
¹⁵Thou shalt not steal.

A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the branch and wrote "this iz a stikkup. put all your muny in this bag." While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the note and might call the police before he reached the teller window. So he left the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo. After waiting a few minutes in line, he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising from his spelling errors that he was not the brightest light in the harbor, told him that she could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. Looking somewhat defeated, the man said "OK" and left. The Wells Fargo teller then called the police who arrested the man a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at Bank of America.

It doesn't take the brightest bulb in the chandelier to be a thief. In fact, it would seem that sometimes stupidity is a requirement to be a thief. Consider the man who walked into a bank, handed the teller a note demanding money. When he arrived home, he found the police waiting for him. It seems that this erstwhile bank robber had written the robbery note on his own deposit slip. The police simply went to his house and waited on him. Or consider the two who decided to steal an ATM machine from a convenience store. They hooked up a chain to the machine, and intended to drag it home. Apparently they failed to consider how securely the ATM was anchored to the wall, because during the attempt the bumper of their truck fell off. Afraid of getting caught, they took off down the road leaving the bumper behind. Unfotunately for them the tag for the truck was still attached to the bumper. They were caught. Or the man who walked into a convenience store, put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for change. When the clerk opened the drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving his $20 bill on the counter. So how much did he get from the drawer? Fifteen bucks. Go figure.

It doesn't take a genius to steal, but it does take someone who has lost their sense of honor. It takes someone who has lost the meaning of integrity. It takes a person who is more concerned about their own wants than the rights of others around them. God cares about the property rights of the other guy. He cares enough that it makes his top ten list of sinful acts.

We don't always realize it when we commit sin. In fact, often times we don't really recognize sin for what it is.

Once upon a time, there was a young pastor whose first church was in a small logging community in the Pacific Northwest. Everyone in the town worked for the logging mill, which was the only business and was involved in fierce competition with another mill just upstream. To get a break from his study, the pastor climbed up a slope overlooking the river. To his horror, he saw his church members pulling logs branded by the other mill from the river, cutting off the branded ends and running them through their own mill. The next Sunday, he preached a powerful sermon called, "Thou Shalt Not Covet They Neighbor's Property." After the service, the loggers shook his hand, patted his back and told him how much they enjoyed his preaching. However, the next week, they were back in business stealing their competitor's logs. So, he fired off another scorching sermon called, "Thou Shalt Not Steal". Again he was commended for his powerful delivery and keen insights into the Scriptures; but on Monday the other mill's logs were still being swiped. Enough was enough. This time he decided not to hold anything back. The next Sunday he preached a message entitled, "Thou Shalt Not Cut the Branded Ends Off Someone Else's Logs". The results, he was run out of town!

(Rev. Coy Wylie, from a sermon entitled: " Becoming A Model of Integrity"/Pastor Tom Dooley in a message entitled "What's Happened to Inegrity" at http://www.zoomnet.net/~dooley/time8.txt )

Just like these loggers, we listen closely when the preacher say Thou Shalt Not Steal. We shake our head and say how horrible it is for people to steal, thank God we are not like them. Perhaps we should look this morning at what this commandment is talking about.

How Do We Steal?

The most obvious way that we steal is when we take something from someone else without his or her permission. Simple stealing is easy for us to understand, and for most of us not something we engage in on a regular basis. Children have a simple philosophy of life. The way the look at the world what's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine too if I can get to it. My cousin had a stuffed reindeer when he was a toddler, and we would tease him by trying to take it from him. The name of that reindeer eventually became "MINE" because he wanted us to be sure we understood who it belonged too. In children this sort of behavior can be somewhat amusing, and even to a point charming. In adults this sort of behavior is criminal and sinful. We are supposed to learn, as we grow older, that some things belong to other people and we simply cannot have them. They are not ours to have. If you walk into a bank and demand money, you are a thief. If you stick a candy bar in your pocket and walk out of the store you are a thief. If you drive off a car lot without paying for the car, you are a thief. It seems simple doesn't it? In a way it is just this simple on the surface, but underneath it becomes more complicated. You see, you don't have to pull a knife or a gun to steal. There are many ways in which we violate this commandment.

Some people steal from their employers. There are numerous ways this happens, some blatant, some extremely subtle. When you accept a job you are given a set of responsibilities. If you don't live up to your end of the bargain, you are stealing from your employer. Your employer expects you to give them a full days work for a full days pay. You might also take the office supplies home for personal use, or slip out early one day to escape rush hour. All of these acts are stealing, and they make you into a thief.

You also steal when you cheat. Whether it is on your taxes or your spelling words. In a recent poll 35% of executives overstate tax deductions, 75% take work supplies home for personal use, and 78% use the business phone for personal calls. This is thievery pure and simple. Even if we don't want to acknowledge it. I realize that there are only a handful of you, but I want you young people to listen very closely to me. If you cheat…if you copy that paper, or get the answers to the test from the person next to you, or if you allow someone else to cheat off of you…if you do any of these, you are guilty of stealing! You are a thief!

We have some sophisticated ways to steal nowadays. We can steal now without even lifting a finger. We have made a distinction between blue collar and white collar crime. If a person embezzles money from the church he is not branded a robber, but he is just a guilty as the man who robs the neighborhood bank. When a government official misuses public money, he or she has stolen and is a criminal. Call it whatever you want, paint a nice white face on it, but it is still stealing and God has forbidden us to participate in it.

But we have been talking about things. About belongings and money. We may also sometimes steal spirituality from people. When we gossip we have stolen some person's reputation When we fail to witness we have stolen a chance for salvation from a sinner. When we degrade another person we steal their joy.

Finally we steal from God by not returning to Him the things that are His. We steal money, time, and talent from God on a daily basis. Malachi 3:8-10 tells us that if we neglect to give our tithe to the church we have stolen from God. On top of that, in many churches, people are actually taking money! Ten years ago in the Ocala National Forest, the treasurer of one of the Baptist Churches was indicted for embezzling $85,000.00 from the church over a period of several decades. This man was regularly taking money that had been given to God's ministry and stealing it! Let me tell you this morning that I wouldn't want to be in his shoes. God will surely judge him for his actions.

We rob God when we do not give Him time. When our lives get so cluttered and busy that we cannot find time for God, we are stealing from Him. We are given this time on earth, and we should gladly give some of it back to God, yet we forget that it is His time to begin with and claim it all for ourselves.

The Prescription for Integrity

If we find ourselves mired in the sinfulness of deceit, how do we go about repairing our lives?

Indeed, why would we want to make the effort? Putting it simply we have an obligation to live a life filled with integrity. The world is looking to us to be a moral beacon, guiding those about to be shipwrecked on the shoals of thievery. The first step in this restoration process is to admit our sins. To realize that we have made mistakes and actively set out to right the wrongs. God knows our hearts, and what we have done in our lives, so we need to examine ourselves and agree with Him. Then we must repent for our actions. Sometimes we need to shock the world with our changes.

According to an Associated Press account, in September 1994 Cindy Hartman of Conway, Arkansas, walked into her house to answer the phone and was confronted by a burglar. He ripped the phone cord out of the wall and ordered her into a closet. Hartman dropped to her knees and asked the burglar if she could pray for him.

"I want you to know that God loves you and I forgive you,'' she said. The burglar apologized for what he had done. Then he yelled out the door to a woman in a pickup truck: "We've got to unload all of this. This is a Christian home and a Christian family. We can't do this to them."

As Hartman remained on her knees, the burglar returned furniture he had taken from her home. Then he took the bullets out of his gun, handed the gun to Hartman, and walked out the door. Praying for our enemies is incredibly disarming.

Something was changed in this thief's life, and he tried to make things right. He tried to change what he had done. This is how we must act.

After repentance, we must also make restitution. We must repay the things that we have stolen. That is often easier said than done, but the effort must be made if we are to restore our relationship with God. And stealing will surely ruin that relationship.

To protect our relationship with God, we must live a life of integrity. Ephesians 4:28 says:

Let him that stole, steal no more: But rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

We must stop stealing. We must stop stealing from each other, from God, from the world. We must stand out and be different from everyone else and live a life beyond reproach.

Let's stop stealing and give back to God.