1 TIM. 3:15 “WHAT I WOULD NOT DO IN CHURCH”
A) I love my church … I look forward with joy to attend it … Why do I love it?
* Attending the services is like a shower of rain after a dry spell …….
* Like a table of food when I’m hungry … Like a bath when I’m dirty …
* Like a cool drink when I’m thirsty … Like finding a friend when I’m lonely.
B) I love it because Eph. 5:25 says that “Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it;”
* Now, let me ask you … Shouldn’t Christians love the church like Jesus does?
C) Look at the church at Ephesus in Rev. 2:1-7 …
* It was commended by Paul earlier as a strong, stable church, but they left their first love (Jesus).
* But ladies and gentlemen, the church will only be what I am!
* Therefore, there are some things that I don’t want to do in church …….
(1) I DON’T WANT TO STOP THE BLESSINGS OF GOD! * Joshua 6-7 …….
A) The only trouble was that he had not dug the hole deep enough!
* That is always the trouble with sin … You can’t dig a hole deep enough to hide it, NEVER!
* Midnight over the ruins of Jericho … No artillery had blasted its walls … Yet, there it lay, a
heap of desolation and ruin.
* The moon looks down upon the fragments of gigantic walls … Pillars of the temples of Baal, the
dust and rubble of theaters, shops, mansions of the rich, cottages of the poor.
B) For seven consecutive days the army of Joshua had marched around the walls …….
* Carrying with them the Ark of the Covenant and the priests blowing on the rams’ horns.
* On the seventh day, the army marched seven times around the walls of the city.
* When the seventh circle was completed, the people gave a great shout and the walls of Jericho
fell flat, burying in their collapse the shops, temples, and homes of the people.
* Of all the inhabitants, only one survived the catastrophe … That one was Rahab, the harlot!
C) Outside the broken walls of the city, the army of Israel lies encamped!
* The tents of each tribe are pitched around, and in the midst of the camp are the Ark of the
Covenant and the tabernacle.
* In the ruins of Jericho, not a soul is alive … In the camp of Israel, no one is stirring.
D) All are asleep … All but one … Look … Out of a tent comes a man, one solitary man!
* He stands for a little at the fly of his tent and looks this way and that way to see if anyone is
looking … Then cautiously and carefully, stopping every now and then …….
* To look back and make sure that he is not observed … He makes his way out of the camp of
Israel and enters the ruins of Jericho.
E) There he crouches for a time behind a fallen wall, staring at his shadow from the
moonlight on the ground!
* Now he steps over a column of the temple of Baal and carefully makes his way over the heaps
of debris until he reaches the street where the shops had once flourished.
* There he begins to search amid the ruins … In the moonlight he sees something bright and white
shining before him.
F) Reaching down, he finds that it is 200 shekels of silver!
* He fills both hands with the silver and then, opening his fingers, lets it flow through his fingers
like a stream … Once … Twice … Three times …….
* And the sound of silver falling on silver is music to his soul.
G) A little farther along he comes upon a wedge of gold!
* Still farther, he sees something flashing like fire on the ground.
* Reaching down, he lays hold of the precious stone and finds that it’s an ornament on a very nice
Babylonian garment … “Better luck than I’d expected,” he says to himself …….
* As he fills his soldier’s sack with the silver, the gold and the Babylonian garment.
H) Now he cautiously retraces his steps and leaving the silent, ruined city behind him, enters
again the camp of Israel!
* When he reaches his own tent, he pauses and hesitates for a moment, and listens to hear if
anyone is stirring in the camp.
* No one is awake … In the tents of his family, all are sound asleep.
* Then entering his own tent and taking the spade that every Israelite carried with them in the
march, he digs a hole in the ground at the back of the tent.
I) Into this hole he deposits first, the Babylonian garment, then the wedge of gold, and then
the silver, and wraps it all up in the Babylonian garment!
* With his spade he shovels the earth back into the hole, smoothes it over, unrolls his mattress
over the spot and lays down to sleep …….
* Congratulating himself on the secrecy and great success of his expedition.
* He had brought back with him 200 shekels of silver, a wedge of gold, and a very expensive
lordly Babylonian garment, and no eye had seen him do it!
* No, no eye but one … The all-seeing eye of God – Prov. 15:3 “The eyes of the LORD are in
every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
J) Early the next morning, as the fog is lifting on the river Jordan and the Dead Sea, the
trumpets begin to speak in the camp of Israel!
* 3000 soldiers from all tribes obey the voice of the trumpets and falling in line march out against
the strongholds of the city of Ai.
* After the easy victory over mighty Jericho, the capture of Ai was gonna be a cinch.
K) But in the battle of Ai, Israel was defeated! * Some of the 3000 were slain …….
* The rest, turning their backs on the enemy, fled in terror to the camp.
* Joshua was greatly shaken, and in his distress, he fell on his face before God.
* God said, “Joshua, get up, why are you on your face? ISRAEL HATH SINNED!”
* Joshua found the guilty man and all Israel stoned him, and his entire family!
L) Just one man stopped the blessings of God on Israel!
* One family … One couple … One person can stop a whole church from receiving the blessings
of God upon her (Just like a penalty flag in a football game, the whole team suffers …….).
* Unconfessed sin, hidden sin will kill all it touches. * Num. 32:23 “Be sure your sins will …”
* I don’t want to stop the blessings of God in the church, do you? * Don’t be guilty …….
(2) I DON’T WANT TO SHUT MY EARS TO THE WORD OF GOD! * James 1:22-25 …
A) The most blessed news to ever enter my ears was the Word of God!
* Sometimes it’s painful and sharp and sometimes it hurts … Heb. 4:12 “For the word of God …”
* “Quick” means “alive.” * As truly as God lives, the Word lives!
* Some don’t love or understand it because they themselves are cold and dead spiritually!
* The Word is alive, warm, and refreshing … It’s water for the thirsty, It’s food for the hungry,
and it works!
B) “Sharper …” means that it has two cutting edges!
* It cuts, it opens, and lays bare, exposing the secrets of the soul!
* “Discerner,” means that it’s quick to judge and discern the intents of the heart and mind …….
* Yet it is sweet, helpful, clean to my soul and it always gives me hope!
* Nothing can be compared to going to church to hear the Word of God! (Revivals)
* I don’t want to shut my ears to the Word of God … I don’t want to miss a single word!
(3) I DON’T WANT TO SPOIL THE FELLOWSHIP! * 1 John 1:7 “But if we walk …”
A) It’s wonderful to belong to something where all attend have the same thing in mind!
* Unity and harmony should go together! * Illustration: Dog and cat in a sack …….
* I want to be in on all the fellowships!
B) What a privilege to shake hands and sing …….
* To pray, talk, share burdens and problems, share joys … Just fellowship!
* All true born again believers can have fellowship (different denominations)
* God help me to never stay away from church and miss all the fellowship.
(4) I DON’T WANT TO DO SPITE TO THE SPIRIT OF GRACE!
* Heb. 10:29 “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he
was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”
A) How careful we need to be in this area! * The Holy Spirit is a real Person!
* He has feelings … He can be hindered … He can be hurt … And He can be harmed.
* “Despite,” means “to insult; to say or do something very scornful, to be rude or harsh to.”
B) Every time you reject the pleading and wooing of the Holy Spirit, you do just that!
* Eph. 4:30 “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of …”
* The word “grieve” means “to distress; to be sad; to make sorrowful.”
* How do we grieve Him? * Read Eph. 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness and …”
C) 1 Thes. 5:19 “Quench not …” * “Quench” means “to extinguish; go out.”
* We’re not to extinguish the influence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
* If He says “go” then go, asking no questions … Whatever He says, DO!
(5) LAST, IN CLOSING: I DON’T WANT TO STARVE MY SOUL!
A) Many today are doing just that! * Matt. 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger and …”
* A true child of God will naturally hunger and thirst for that which is right!
B) These are some of the things that I don’t want to do in church …….
* I don’t want to stop the blessing of God … I don’t want to shut my ears to the Word of God …
* I don’t want to spoil the fellowship … I don’t want to do despite to the Spirit of grace …
* And … I don’t want to starve my soul (I eat when I get hungry).
