Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. Eph.4:28

Imagine you have a new member in your church, he is a new convert and he is all excited about serving the Lord. You decide to get acquainted with him and after a few minutes you learn that he used to be a thief. You ask him if he has repented of this sin and he assures you that he has.

Now it just happens that later on that week you spotted him at Albertsons and about the time you spotted him you also noticed he took a one pound bag of Starbucks coffee and stuffed it into his inner coat pocket.

Being as gentle and as discreetly as possible you come up to him and greet him with a friendly smile and then in a low voice you ask him if he is going to pay for the Starbucks coffee he has in his coat. His face turns red with shame and assures you that he will.

Next Sunday you continue your frank but gentle conversation with him about his stealing. You ask him again if he repented of his sins when he converted, he says yes he did. “Did that include your stealing?” You inquire. “Yes of course” he replied, “but that doesn’t mean that I have to actually stop completely with stealing does it?” You tell him that it most certainly does mean that you must stop stealing and to stop completely, that is what repentance means, it means you must stop doing the sin that you are repenting from.

Now the man takes to heart his conversation with you and makes the commitment not to steal anymore. It was hard at first because he was in a habit of regularly stealing stuff but he did indeed quit.

Going back to the scripture, “let him who steals” do you suppose the great Apostle Paul was just concerned about thievery or was there a principle there he was teaching us? I think there is a principle here.

You could fill in any sin and say the same thing about it. Let him who kills, kill no more, let him who fornicates, commits adultery, lies, gossips, swears, etc. it is a principle he is teaching us.

What about your sin? Im using the singular sin not sins. When dealing with such difficult subject its best to take it one at a time, kinda like the thief, you would want him to focus on this one sin for starters.

And it just so happens that the very first sin that pops into your mind is probably the one you struggle with the most. This is not surprising Paul in Hebrews said it this way, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Heb.12:1

Notice he says “the sin” singular not plural. Its the biggie, the one that so easily entangles us. Question, have you repented of it? Yes? And do you still do it? Yes? Do you see what I am going with this, with the story of the new convert and his stealing problem? You expect the thief to repent successfully while all the while you don’t expect yourself to repent successfully of whatever sin that so easily entangles you.

To repent successfully means to stop doing that particular sin completely just like the thief. If you are sinning and repenting and sinning and repenting you are not repenting successfully you are attempting to repent but failing.

I know this is hard, do you think I don’t know? I wish you did know the struggles I have gone through just to rid myself of a terrible lust problem. It was the hardest thing I have ever done and the crazy thing is in the end it wasn’t me who did it but I finally learned to put my complete trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver me every single time temptation entered into me.

One, I know it is hard, two I know it can be done because I did it, three I know the power of Christ that resides latently within us. All we have to do is tap into that power. He is waiting for us to do just that, He will wait and wait and wait until you turn to Him and put your trust in Him and call out to Him and cling to Him and don’t ever let go of Him, He will deliver!

When I survey the condition of the Church here in America I am sickened. Where are the ones who I can stand beside and say, “we have put our trust in you Lord and you delivered us.” Not perfectly, Jesus doesn’t expect perfection He wants a relationship and you will never no never know Him until you meet with Him on the battlefield of your heart. 

If someone gets down on their knees and prays, “Jesus, I just want to get to know you better” Jesus will reply, “then meet with me on the battlefield and let’s get  together kick Satan’s butt, lets start with the hardest sin you are battling with, we will deal with the easier stuff later but first I want you to see me unleash the full power I have reserved just for you.” 

“ That is how you are going to get to know me, you are going to see me expressing my anger towards your enemies and you will see just how much I love you and how much I care for you when you see me crush your enemies right in front of you as you stand there and watch.” “Then you will know me and you will love me, you won’t be able to help yourself because my power towards you is overwhelming and how are you going to help but love me when you experience such a great and mighty deliverance?”

In conclusion let him who steals steal no more. Roll up your sleeves you got work to do.