Don't Let Them Steal Your Word

Mark 4:15
Some people are like seed along the path, where the Word is sown as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the Word that was sown in them.

Some of us have had enough of God’s Word sown in us to last a lifetime. The problem is not that we haven’t heard the Word of God; the problem is that there are thieves in the Temple.

Not long ago two men robbed my business and stole two flat screens that I purchased for my customers to watch while they were waiting to be serviced. I was outraged by this trifling act of robbery. It bothered me that they had been there before, sat in those seats pretending they were there for service. The most painful part was looking at the tape of the men swiftly snatching down what cost me to put up. The money, the time, the vision, the labor of love that went into putting them in was taken away in a manner of minutes, 9 to be exact.

Those were material things that can be replaced, but imagine how God feels watching us from heaven and seeing His work snatched out after it took Him precious time to put the Word in the preacher to put into you. The cost of sending His Son, the living Word, to die for people who reject Him weekly by not heeding the Word spoken about Him. I wonder how God feels seeing His preacher’s time, sacrifice, labor of love being snatched out by scandalous people who work for Satan. Satan and his imps only come to steal, kill, and destroy.

When somebody steals something from you everybody becomes a suspect when you are still raw but with time I narrowed my suspects down to three people. My biggest suspects were people who weren’t coming in to get serviced but who were just loitering, lingering, and lying.

Watch out for people who:

1. Loiter –to stand idly by to remain in an area for no obvious reason. To Lag behind. Typically when people remain around, not contributing, they are scoping you out to steal from you. If you have people in your life not taking part in service and not contributing they are probably trying to steal your Word. You come home from worship full of the Word, they’ve been chilling at home and you get home for them to steal your Word by arguing or being toxic.

2. Linger—to continue to live or exist although very close to death. If you have people who are just existing and are in close proximity to death around you they have no problem trying to steal your Word. These people rain the Word out of you. The more you teach the more they take but there’s no return because their “deadness” keeps stealing your “living” word. It’s okay for them to linger if your living is influencing them but if not they need to leave and quit lingering.

3. Lying. Ray Charles said, “Scratch a lie, find a thief.” If a person will lie to you they will steal from you. Don’t have anybody around you that you can’t trust.

Dear God, Your Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you and that people working for Satan might not steal it. I don’t hide it so they can’t hear it, I hide it so they won’t know how to steal it. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power unto salvation. Guard my heart against thieves in the Temple.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

PS: To make sure they don't steal your Word make sure you download the New Direction Christian Church Iphone App where you can hear the Word of God for free at the touch of a button. All my sermons and devotionals are on there. Bless you.