"TO CATCH A THIEF"
A message by
Pastor John Glass, D.Min.


To catch a thief you have to establish something is being stolen.

From 1975-1979 the Khmer Rouge was out to set up an agricultural utopia in Cambodia. To achieve this, they committed the genocide of up to two million Cambodians (out of a population of seven million). "To keep you is no benefit; to destroy you is no loss." Torture was widespread. "Bullets are not to be wasted." The Killing Fields were dug by shackled prisoners who were then buried alive. When the Voice of America announced on April 15, 1998 that the Khmer Rouge had agreed to hand former leader Pol Pot over to an international tribunal he was listening, and suddenly died that evening of "heart failure." He was cremated, leaving the suspicion he committed suicide. Thirty years later not one single leader has been brought to justice.

This could change. A joint UN-Cambodian tribunal has been working on indictments. A trial in Phnom Penh may at last be nearing. However, Cambodians are used to judges who can be intimidated, bribed or in other ways influenced. It is a country where political interference in the courts is common. The UN has brought in judges and prosecutors not susceptible to interference. NPR's Michael Sullivan reported last Wednesday that it is becoming highly questionable whether anything ever will happen. The guess is there is a 50-50 chance that the UN will give up in disgust, pack up and leave without a trial ever happening. The Cambodian government wants to control the investigation and limit the indictments because certain individuals in high positions are concerned about their political future. Would you believe? Stealing justice from the dead so you can retain power, and rule.

In our country, it is religious interference: historical revisionists and religious right extremists are deliberately reinterpreting America's constitutional history and are working to destroy the Constitutional separation of church and state and bar our courts from hearing cases involving acts of religious expression in the public square. They want power! If you'd like to read the presentation regarding this, "America's Christian Nation Debate" (made available to delegates at the 6th World Congress on Religious Freedom in Cape Town, South Africa), either pick up a copy of the sermon or email me and I'll send you the site; http://irla.org/congress/doc/hamilton.html. Stealing Constitutional liberties from the American people so you can have power and rule and establish the Christian Constitution and Christian State is the same principle Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge operated on!!!

To catch a thief you have to recognize a theft is about to take place.

The pastor boards the bus and pays his fare. The driver hands him his change. He takes his seat and counts: 25 cents too much. "I should give it back to the driver," he thinks. "It's only a quarter!" explods in his mind. As he steps off the bus he hands a quarter to the driver: "You gave me too much change." "I know. I've been thinking I ought to start going to church, maybe yours. I thought I'd check the pastor out first. I'll be by this weekend." The bus pulls away leaving the pastor standing there trembling, scared to realize he almost sold his Master for twenty five cents.



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To catch a thief you have to ascertain a theft has taken place.

The Review and Herald article "Why God Can't Reach Skip" was a memorable one because we had a Skip in the church. Skip is a typical boy God loves and wants to reach, but He has a problem. God would have used Skip's Sabbath School teacher but one day she and mother got crosswise and did Skip ever hear the words! That ended that. God would have used the head deacon, but one day he and Dad got crosswise and Skip heard even more words...and that ended that. God would have used the pastor (Skip really liked him) but in one sermon something the pastor said pushed both mom and dad's buttons and did they ever have him for dinner that Sabbath (he wasn't even there)! And on... God still loves Skip and wants to save him, but who is He going to use? Who would think a boy's chances for salvation would be stolen away by his own parents?

To catch a thief they have to understand there is something better.

Is it because thieves are lazy? One woman slipped and fell in front of a store. She filed suit. In court it was disclosed that she had been working one day a year for several years: falling in front of other stores and filing suits. The court put her on permanent unemployment. "He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need" (Ephesians 4.28). Stealing and being kind to others just doesn't fit together.

"When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God. Do not steal" (Leviticus 19.9-11). Not stealing is part of showing compassion to others. "The commandments, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no harm to its neighbor' (Romans 13.9).

To catch a thief you have to identify who it is you are stealing from.

The summer I was 12 I was given a used Erector set (the largest size ever made) - except the motor was missing. Two young businessmen had opened a hardware store in the next block. A smaller Erector set was sitting on a bottom shelf, and it had a motor. I said to myself,
"You are going to have that motor." Don't EVER do what I did. I broke into the store one night. I opened the box in the dimness and lifted the motor out when suddenly I saw a picture of the two businessmen in my mind. They were fine men who were struggling. I couldn't take it. I left it. It is so good that God assigns angels and His Holy Spirit to help us at the point we're headed wrong.

Every person has rights of ownership the rest of us must respect. Some friends of ours live back in near Post Falls, Idaho. When we visited they gave us the grand tour including walking their property lines. One day they discovered a neighbor had moved the markers several feet. They had them repositioned and sent a notice to the neighbor, that moving stakes was a crime punishable under existing law. They make a point to periodically check the markers.


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Of all those we could steal from, the One that makes the least sense is God. "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse - the whole nation of you - because you are robbing me" (Malachi 3.8-9). Isn't God the source of all our wealth? Isn't He the One who gives us the power to gain wealth in the first place. Why steal from Him? Doesn't He mean far more to us than money and things?

The tragedy of this is it still exists today. Split any Seventh-day Adventist church into thirds. The biggest third is those members who give nothing. The mid-sized third is those who give hit and miss. The smallest third is those who faithfully pay tithe and support the ministries of the church by their offerings. Now, you don't have to pay tithe to be a Seventh-day Adventist church member; we'll never boot you out for that. (Although if you are a member and you're not paying tithe, you've made yourself into a liar, because at the time you were taken into membership you vowed that you would pay a faithful tithe.) The Church Manual stipulates faithful tithing as a prerequisite to holding any church office. We're following the Manual much more closely now; if you're an unfaithful officer I'd suggest you leave a nice check before we read the records and have to inform you you're no longer an officer. Am I being clear?

In light of all God gives us, why would we steal from Him? He does say if we want to use the tithe we may, only we have to pay it back with 20% interest. You think that's exorbitant you're right: it's exorbitant because God doesn't want us doing that.

To catch a thief the thief has to experience the blessing.

Usually people were told by Jesus, "As is your faith, so be it unto you"; you had to believe in order for a miracle to happen. But with tithe that's not the case. "'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty (don't miss the Name!), 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,' says the Lord Almighty" (Malachi 3.10-11).

Owen was a cancer patient enduring a lot of discomfort. I visited him frequently in the hospital. One day I walked in just in time to hear him preaching to an older German couple that were money grubbers. (Are you a money grubber?) "I've been a finish carpenter all my life. I've earned a lot of money and I've spent a lot of money. But somewhere along the way I learned to trust in God, not money. If I hadn't learned that, where would I be now? One illness like this and the money's gone." (I smiled to myself, "Preach it brother! Maybe it'll do some good.") Really, what is more valuable: money in the bank or unlimited trust in God and His ability and willingness to provide for you?

Back in the days when $2,000 was a whole lot more to a struggling minister and his family than it is today, I received a call from our insurance company late one Friday afternoon: they were denying further payment and I was going to have to reimburse them the $2,000 they'd already paid. In my mind I heard "I'll take care of this." I insisted on worrying about it until God-did-just-what-He-said-He-would: He-took-care-of-it.




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When King Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 31) re-established tithing in Israel, the result was an incredible national spiritual renewal. I challenge you to test God: pay tithe, give offerings, and experience what God will do for you.

To catch a thief they need to see God.

The children were finger painting in Kindergarten one day. A girl asked a boy "What are you painting?" "A picture of God." "You can't do that! No one knows what God looks like." "They will when I get done!" What is God like? (sing) "For God so loved the world He gave His only Son, to die on Calvary's tree, from sin to set us free. Some day He's coming back, what glory that will be. Wonderful His love to me." "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3.16). What is God like? He loves and gives. It is His very nature and character. He gives. Can you see how theft is so alien to the nature and character of God?

Maybe you've noticed: we pass the plate here. Every time we do is an opportunity to imitate God by giving. Each time we give we strengthen our likeness to God. He is the giver of all good gifts. When He says "You shall not steal" He is really saying "You shall be like ME!" What a wonderful character goal. "We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure" (1 John 3.2-3). What a doable! To be just like God! Next time you are presented an opportunity to give, do it: you'll be more like Him.