When I pick someone up from the airport, I always try to get there early. But the problem is knowing where to wait. You can sit way out in the cell phone lot. You can keep driving around the loop. Or you can do like me and try to hide out at the bottom of the sidewalk in front of the baggage claim. Of course over the loud speaker there’s a recording “The white zone is for loading and unloading. Please do not park.”

One time Karie’s mom was supposed to be out any minute and I didn’t want to make the huge loop again. So I sat about 30 feet down completely out of the way of any cabs or cars. And they must have seen me on a camera because this TSA security guy comes running down the sidewalk yelling and motioning at me—like I have a bomb in my trunk. And I’m thinking “It’s a Civic. Don’t you think I’d at least drive an SUV.”

I’ve wondered sometimes if it wouldn’t be good have a loudspeaker in the church parking lot like that. A recording would say “The worship zone is for living and listening to God only. Please do not park.”

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 is about worship, entering God’s house. And we see that church is not a place to just park, and sit, and go through the motions.

Solomon has dealt with the emptiness of worldly wisdom, the emptiness of vain pleasure, the emptiness of injustice. Now He looks at the emptiness of wrong worship.

He shows us that passionate worship is careful worship.

John Wesley (1703-1791) broke away from the Anglican Church and founded the English Methodist movement. He adopted this for his rule of life:

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

We will learn about the 6th fruit of the Spirit, “goodness”, and what it means and how we might attain it.

Why would Paul waste ink telling Timothy, who was so close to him, who was like a son to him, about his apostleship? Did the great apostle think Timothy was so young he didn’t grasp the importance of Paul’s apostleship and so he’d forgotten it? Or did he think that Timothy suspected Paul was getting senile, and he had to write and let Timothy know that he still knew that God had made him an apostle? Ludicrous. But then why did he write about it in a personal letter to his beloved son in the faith? Actually the answer involves a fundamental doctrine of Scripture!

And then what did it mean to be an apostle? And weren’t there only twelve? Don’t the scriptures themselves teach that one of the qualifications for being an apostle is that you had to be with Christ and taught by Him during His ministry on earth (around three to three and a half years)? If so, then wouldn’t you have to count Paul out?

If you listen closely to this morning’s message you will not only get a better understanding of apostleship and some of its ramifications but you will find out about an important application of an apostle to yourself!

Yet we want the whole church family to be able to experience the fun and excitement of what God is doing in the lives of everyone from senior saints to bus kids, from the college & career group to the whole church.

Here are some video clips from recent activities at Grace this summer:

• VBS

• Camp

• Skits

• GBC Bake-Off

Every time we have a terrorist attack, a school shooting, or an earthquake where lives are lost, who usually gets blamed? More than Al Quaeda, or rap artists, more than the government, more than FEMA, who gets blamed? God.

People start asking “How can a good God allow this to happen? How can God be good?”

Maybe you’ve had a friend ask this question while going through cancer. Maybe you’ve been tempted to ask it.

Well to begin with, we know that suffering is often a direct result of sin-drunk drivers kill, violent criminals murder, corrupt governments cause famines. And suffering is often an indirect result of sin. The Fall has given us a world ravaged by disease and disasters.

It’s not God’s fault that people are sinning. It’s not God’s fault that we live under a Curse. Yes, God is good. In fact He uses even these evil acts and natural disasters for good.

Rom. 8:28 reminds us “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” God can use even our suffering for His glory and our good.

God is good and kind. And this evening we come to the 5^th fruit of the Spirit, we find the Greek word chrestotes. In Gal. 5, this word is translated “gentleness,” but the other 9x it occurs in the NT, it’s translated “goodness” or “kindness.”

It refers to providing what someone’s needs. A concern to treat others gently. Sometimes we call this God’s common grace-that everyone experiences.

Matt. 5:45 says that He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good. He sends the rain on the just and the unjust. He gives food and air and pleasure and beauty to everyone on the planet. No matter who you are, God has been good to you.

God is good. God is kind. Are you? Are you kind? Would your friends describe you that way? Are you concerned with treating others gently? Are you concerned about meeting people’s needs?” You say “sometimes.” The Bible says this should be true all the time.

This is a fruit of the Spirit. If you’re saved, if you have the Spirit in you-this is a fruit that should be growing in your life every day.

We live in a world that is lonely. According to a study of half a million Americans over a couple decades, they found that our lives are becoming more and more isolated.

For instance, the research showed that the #1 sport in America is bowling. More people bowl in an election year, than vote.

Yet while more people than ever are bowling, participation in bowling leagues has plunged 40%. We’re bowling alone. We have all this social technology, but we’re just getting more fractured and isolated-more alone.

And that is not how God created us. God created us for relationships because He is a relational God.

Have you ever thought about the fact that God has always existed in a relationship? There’s never been a day in the history of the universe that God was alone.

He is a Trinity with three persons of the Godhead living in perfect harmony. All three work together perfectly in Creation, in our salvation.

The only time they were ever separated was on the cross. And it was almost more than Jesus could bear.

We were created in the image of a relational God. We were created to need each other.

God looked at every aspect of His creation and said over and over again “It is good.” But for the first time in Gen. 2:18, He says, “It is not good that man should be alone.” God created us for relationship.

God made all of His creation (plants, animals and humans) to live together in perfect harmony, just as He did in the triune Godhead. That was Eden. That was the paradise He created. But sin destroyed all of that.

Sin severs our relationship with God. Sin severs our relationships with each other. Sin ruined even the beautiful relationship man had with creation.

And so the point is- if you’ve had poison ivy or an animal bite; if you’ve been through a break-up or a broken heart, a divorce in your family or a falling out with a friend-that’s not how God created things to be.

He created us to be relational like Him-to live in perfect harmony. What you’ve experienced- is the effect of sin.

Christ Jesus devised the Lord’s Supper and asked his followers to carry it out in his memory (“In remembrance of me”). Today we will remember how he came as a meek Lamb in humiliation to serve us, even to the extent of giving his life as a sacrifice for our sins on the cross. We will also examine the fact that this memorial points to the future, (“Ye do show the Lord’s death til he come”)

We will use Scripture itself to imagine what it would be like to see him, next time, not in humiliation, but in glorification; to see the risen, splendid Christ face to face - Can there be anything more encouraging and inspiring than this doctrine? than these truths bound up in this object lesson of the Lord’s Supper? One more, climaxing it all. One that has powerful and practical implications for all of the the human race (especially all those who have believed).

This Thursday at 11:00, our Moms4Moms group will meet at Shadyside Park on Broadway for a play date. Click here for a map.

M4M’s mission is to encourage young mothers of preschool through school age students and to equip them to grow their families for God’s glory. Click here for more information.

This Sunday Grace Baptist Church celebrated our nation’s independence with a dramatic presentation, special music and a cookout on the grounds.

After the morning service, members and visitors enjoyed a cookout on the grounds in the gym. In the 1:30 afternoon service, special guests Ben and Sarah Kilcup from South Carolina presented patriotic music and testimonies.

Ben graduated with honors with a degree in church music from Northland Baptist Bible College and completed a master’s degree in church music from Bob Jones. He did a music internship at Pastor Stein’s church and has served as a music assistant at Agnew Road Baptist Church in SC. Sarah graduated from Northland with a degree in missions and a minor in music.

Following their presentation, the church voted overwhelmingly (95% in favor) to call Ben as Assistant Pastor of Music and Youth.

In this Father’s Day message we visit the people of God deep in the Old Testament, during a dark time in their history, characterized by a demoralized priesthood, an alienated people and a silent God.
Reality shows have become so popular in recent years but God gives us reality “drama” throughout Scripture, even thousands of years back into Old Testament times. Of course there were no video cameras to record the action but the Holy Spirit had an inspired writer describe the situations going on in people’s lives and even thought processes, with divine accuracy.
With such a lense the author of 1 Samuel focuses in on the leader of God’s people for 40 years during this dismal time, Eli, the high priest. His is a dramatic story filled with suspense, excitement, paradox, highs and lows. God pronounces judgment on him and yet as we examine his life we find him to be an exceptionally godly leader in his ministry. He failed however as a Father, and that brought him and his nation untold suffering.

If you like dramatic true stories, you need to hear this biographical sermon. It comes with sobering applications and lessons for Fathers and for all of us: “A Sacred But Fatal Trust”.

Come join us for VBS “The Egypt File” where we will explore the meaning of life with skits, games, activities and prizes. Children 5 years old through 6th grade are invited each night this week (June 21 -25) from 6:30 to 8:00pm. Call (765)643-7853 for more information.

Parents should drop off 4-5 year olds in room 103-105 in the school building and 3rd-6th graders at the school’s gym entrance. 1st and 2nd graders will register at the south church entrance beneath the overhang. Due to rain on the field, tonight we will follow the Indoor Schedule:

Prizes: The winner from each department will receive a Razor Scooter, as well as, tickets to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY.

• Junior Memory Verses (5th-6th)
  
• Primary Memory Verses (3rd-4th)
• Pre-Primary Memory Verses (1st-2nd)
• Toddler Memory Verses (Pre-K, K5)

Points Guide

Attendance	50 points	Verse	200 points
Bible	50 points	Bonus Verse	50 points
Visitor	500 points	Theme Verse	50 points

We saw last time, that God is in charge of everything. Every season of life, the good times and the bad, are under His providential rule. And like ingredients in a recipe, He knows what’s best for us, and is making something beautiful in His time.

Now that sounds good-at least in theory. But what about real life?

The problem is, Solomon says 29x in the book of Ecclesiastes that we live under the sun. We live on a fallen, cursed earth. And if you look around, you’ll see sin, oppression, wickedness, death. You’ll see injustice. And the longer you live, the more you’ll see.

And so sometimes it’s hard to believe that this world is in the hand of a wonderful loving God.

For a world that’s supposed to be under God’s control, it sure doesn’t look that way lots of the time, does it?

This is what we find the psalmists complaining about over and over. “God why are you allowing so many bad things to happen to good people. And even worse, why do so many good things happen to bad people.”

This is the problem of injustice. And we have a hard time with this.

We prefer happy endings to stories, to movies, to fairy tales. We want the good guy to get the princess and everyone to live happily ever after.

But this doesn’t always happen. Samson gets killed in the last chapter. Romeo and Juliet do too. Even Humpty Dumpty can’t be restored by all the king’s horses and men.

So even in our fairy tales, we can get used to less-than-happy endings. But what we really can’t handle are unjust endings.

What if the 3 little pigs couldn’t light their pot of water and the big bad wolf ended up having a pork roast? What if the Handsome Prince had fallen for one of Cinderella’s stepsisters. What if the Grinch never had a change of heart and kept all the presents?

But in real life, this is often what happens.

The nice guy finishes last. The bad guy takes his job and his girl.

The godly family is poor and has medical difficulties. The godless actor lives in luxury.

The oppressor gets richer. The oppressed gets poorer.

It’s the problem of injustice.

Within the last few months we watched the horror unfold that resulted from an earthquake that blasted Haiti and created incomprehensible devastation, including the loss of thousands of lives. Just before the Haiti earthquake, an even larger earthquake on the Richter scale hit California, though the location and superior superstructure of buildings prevented the massive loss of life that took place in Haiti. Shortly after the earthquakes rocked Haiti, a larger earthquake created devastation and took lives in Chile. During this same time period, volcanos have erupted.

Who can forget the recent destruction and loss of life caused by Hurricane Katrina, even here in the USA where we think we are better prepared?  In the last few weeks a number of people have been killed here in the mid-west by destructive tornadoes. What is going on? Even non-Christians are asking me about it. “Pastor, doesn’t the Bible say this kind of thing is going to keep happening and even get worse in the end times?”

I’m generally an optimist. I like to think of “whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report,” things of “virtue,” and things worthy of “praise” (Phi. 4:8). But to be realistic, and biblical, yes, we are warned these natural disasters are going to get worse until they come to a climax of God’s judgment during the soon to come Tribulation!

This morning I will take you into the heart of the Apocalypse and the great earthquake that these “little ones” are “rehearsing” for. Not only will we see what the Bible says is going on and what is going to happen, but we will also look at why God’s Word warns us it is coming and how that can affect us and even help us be prepared!

William Henley, the English poet, contracted tuberculosis when he was 12. Later he had to have his leg amputated.

After the amputation, he wrote a poem “Invictus,” in which he speaks of what most people desire— to be in control of their lives.

Out of the night that covers me
black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
my head is bloody, but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
looms but the horror of the shade
and yet the menace of the years
finds, and shall find me, unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate
how charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul

Henley was so bold and defiant, that he became the inspiration for Long John Silver.

His friend Robert Louis Stevenson, wrote him…

I will now make a confession. It was the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness that begot Long John Silver…the idea of the maimed man, ruling and dreaded by the sound was entirely taken from you.

He may have been dreaded in his day. He may have defied death. But in the end, Henley was not the master of his fate or captain of his soul. He’s been dead for over a century.

You see, as much as the humanists, the secularists, the atheists, the William Henleys of life want to control what happens to them, they can’t.

We can’t even control the biggest events in our lives.

Did Saul of Tarsus know Christ before the Damascus road experience where he became Paul? Something he wrote sounds like he did. We will look at that this morning and a more important concept. That same passage tells us the love of Christ should constrain us or motivate us. In fact, when we come to have a personal relationship with Him it radically changes us. Today we are going to examine some of the aspects of that change and the implications involved as we prepare to partake of the Lord’s Supper!

Last Saturday morning, Karie and I were playing with our two girls in the Baltimore-Washington International Airport waiting for our connecting flight to Indy, when a representative of the Honor Flight got on the PA system.

He announced “In 10 minutes a flight of 36 WWII vets from Louisville will be exiting their airplane. These men are being given an all-expense paid trip to see the WWII memorial.”

He continued, “1200 WWII vets are dying every day. This is our last chance to honor them. So as they exit the plane and enter the terminal, they don’t know it’s coming, but we want to give them a hero’s welcome.”

Most of us if we were honest, would say “I want the work that I’ve done, the sacrifices I’ve made (even if it was 60 years ago) to be remembered. I want my life to mean something. I want all the labor I poured into learning, and getting degrees, and building my business, or teaching my students, or raising my children, to mean something. I want to leave a legacy-a company that stands the test of time, students who were impacted by my classes, children who share my faith and honor my values.”

We all realize we’re going to die. Like those WWII vets who are passing away at a rate of 1200 per day. And we want to leave some kind of an impact. Maybe not a memorial, maybe not even a standing ovation in the airport, but we want someone to remember us. We want our work to do good or to be remembered after we die.

Well, I hate to burst your bubble. But we’re in Ecclesiastes, so Solomon will do it for us.

After a cookout on Friday night, Joe Vosburgh will be our speaker. Saturday morning will bring biscuits and gravy. There will be games in the gym as well as on the field, fishing in the pond, and other activities. Sign up now for our Father-Son Campout on the night of June 18th.

Pricing is as follows:

• Teens and Men: $6

• Ages 6-12: $4

• Ages 5 and younger: $2

Please sign up at the Welcome Center after Sunday’s service.

Though Timothy’s Gentile Father no doubt tried to regale him with stories of the Greek gods, the conquests of Alexander the Great, Timothy’s Mother and Grandmother reared him on the narratives from their Old Testament Scriptures. They enthralled his impressionable mind with the histories of men and women who were valiant for God and God’s people, like: Moses, Elijah, David, Ruth, Daniel, Esther, and Joseph. They taught him about the prophecies of the coming Redeemer.
Then the Apostle Paul had come, invading Galatia with the gospel of Christ. His arrival in Timothy’s hometown of Lystra was exciting and controversial. The whole city was in an uproar when Paul healed a local cripple, who had been lame from birth (Acts 14:8-11). The astonished locals proclaimed Paul and Barnabus to be incarnations of their gods: Mercury and Jupiter. The local priest prepared to sacrifice oxen in their honor. But Paul had refused to allow it.
Imagine the events of that remarkable day as they were discussed at the supper table in Timothy’s home. Soon Paul’s stirring news that the Christ had come, been sacrificed, had risen from the dead, and ascended back to heaven in the presence of witnesses– caught fire in young Timothy’s soul, and He became a believer in Jesus, the Christ. It appears Timothy’s Gentile Father had already passed away but now he had someone he would trust, look up to and admire as a father for the rest of his life, the man who had become his spiritual father, Paul.
This message is an introduction to an upcoming study on the book of Timothy. It is a biographical sketch of one of the great young pastors of the early New Testament church. In it we will also answer some of the questions about Paul’s incarceration at Rome and how it relates to the pastoral epistles.

Today we celebrate Graduation Sunday. It’s exciting for our grads to be at the end of a long and rigorous academic path-whether you’re graduating from high school or college or grad school or the FBI Academy. You’ve worked hard and you’ve earned your diploma.

And the good news is that you probably have more knowledge, more understanding, more wisdom than when you started.

The bad news is that according to Solomon in the Ecclesiastes, that wisdom is just empty, it’s vain, it’s hevel, it’s phht-a breath of vapor that disappears in the air.

In fact we saw last time in Ecclesiastes 1:18 that much wisdom is much grief. The more you know about life-the more you realize how empty it is. That is life, as Solomon would say, “under the sun” apart from God.

Now maybe you’re saying, “I should’ve known that. It seemed like the longer I was in school, the more miserable my life was.”

Personally I was in school for 21 of the first 25 years of my life. And it didn’t seem to get any more enjoyable. In fact sometimes the only thing that kept me going was the light at the end of the tunnel-the diploma, the graduation, the degree.

I remember when I finished college; I had this feeling of relief and euphoria.  Maybe that’s how some of you grads are right now.

You’re ready to get a job, get into the industry you’ve trained for. You’re ready to do what you’ve always wanted to do.

You’re thinking, “From now on life gets good. No more all-nighters studying for exams. No more cramped little dorm rooms shared with immature roommates. No more brain sweat and tears.

Now it’s time to enjoy life. Get a nice house. Excel at my new job. Enjoy my beautiful spouse.

Maybe you’re more than ready to trade in the pursuit of wisdom for the pursuit of pleasure.

In Ecclesiastes 1, we saw that pursuing wisdom apart from God is empty. In Ecclesiastes. 2, we’re going to examine the pursuit of pleasure.

A team of 8 students from Maranatha Baptist Bible College will be helping us with camp this summer. They will provide the program: special music, preaching, skits, games and help counsel. You won’t want your kids to miss this special camp (June 7 – 10)!

Rather ironically the motto of the Apollo 11 flight was, “We come in peace for all mankind.” This motto was on the plaque which was deposited on the face of the moon. The landing was on the Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong and Aldrin reported that they found a tranquil and peaceful scene on the moon surface. In retrospect, it was rather audacious to leave a plaque about peace on a place where there never had been any humans to disturb the peace.

One thing is certain, humans know very little about peace. World War 1 ended with the signing of the armistice that was touted as the agreement that would end all wars. The Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, and experts have calculated that since then for every year of war there have been two minutes of peace.

We don’t do much better on a personal level but this morning we are going to dig a practical formula out of God’s Word that can actually enable us to have peace. Then tonight, in the evening service we are going to have a special program-singspiration on “The Peace of God” that has been a great blessing to me as I’ve been praying, meditating, reading, and researching to put it together. I believe it will be a blessing to you as well.

Click on one of the following links below to find out more about us on Facebook. You can also see updates, upcoming events, pictures and even videos.

• Grace Baptist Church

• Pastor Leigh Crockett

• College and Career Group
  

• Indiana Christian Academy

We live in a fast-paced society where it’s “my way, right away.” We get impatient if a driver is going 45 in the left lane on the interstate. We get impatient if a person who goes through the 10 item express lane puts 13 items on the belt. We get impatient with the neighbor whose dog barks all night long.

Even Christians say, “Lord, I want patience, and I want it right now.” But the biblical idea of longsuffering (patience), is that we can go a long time before we erupt. We can absorb a lot of irritants without exploding. Think of patience like oil in your car. It doesn’t remove the contaminants. It just puts them in suspension so they don’t get into the engine and cause it to seize up.

Are you able to do that? Are you able to put the irritants of life into suspension? Or do you have a short fuse?

So that’s how we should deal with the irritating and annoying little things in life. But what about the bigger things, like real injustices, or abuse? How do you handle those?

And so tonight, in James 5, we’re going to look at patience in suffering, patience in the big trials of life. The context of this passage is that James, the half-brother of Jesus and pastor of the Jerusalem church is writing to poor Christians who’ve been abused. But he gives them reasons to be patient in suffering.

Today we celebrate our mothers. Most of us had wonderful mothers who we could always go to for a listening ear, a loving hug or a midnight prayer. Especially today, we salute Motherhood and pause to thank God for godly mothers. Let’s let all our mothers know how much we love them!

When we become a Christian, things begin to change in our life. We are a new creation. Old things are passing away. All things are becoming new.

Here we find the Replacement principle. That the way we are transformed is by putting off the old and putting on the new. It’s like changing clothes.

Remember Lazarus in John 11. When Jesus resurrects him to new life, what does He tell the onlookers to do. “Loose him. Take off the grave clothes. Take off the stinking mummy-like wrapping of death, this man is alive! Give him some new clothes.”

When we get saved, we need a wardrobe change. We can’ t keep wearing the same old garments of sin. We need a replacement. We need our grave clothes taken off and our grace clothes put on.

If you’ve ever had a baby, you know all about this. Your little baby is so adorable. They feel so soft, they smell so good, you could hold them for hours. But then you start to smell something.

And as cute as the baby is, as good as their skin smells, as adorable as they are, if you just let them sit there in that diaper for hour after hour, day after day, they’d be hard to live with.

You say “well I’ll just put a clean diaper over the top of the dirty one?” That’s not gonna help the problem!

Not only will the smell become unbearable for you. The rash will become unbearable for the baby.

And so what do you have to do? Put off. Take off the old, dirty diaper. But that’s not enough. Because that would leave them cold and exposed. Your carpet and your furniture would become sitting targets. No, after you’ve put off, then you put on.

I remember doing a youth activity at a church in Denver. I’d asked the maintenance guy to dig a huge mud hole for a tug-of-war match. Well, for some reason, he dug it where a drainage ditch ran off. And so I take 80 teens out to this hole and it smells like we’re in the sewer. The water was freezing. The mud was nasty. And by the time I went home, I was shivering, covered in mud from head to toe and everything in between.

Now what do you think I did when I got back to the house. “Hmm, maybe I should fix something to eat? I usually shower in the morning so I think I’ll just wait until tomorrow.” No, the first thing I wanted to do was to get out of those filthy, freezing clothes, take a long hot shower and put on some new warm, clean clothes.

In the same way, we are to put off what is morally wrong and dirty. But not just stop there. We need to replace the old with the new.

What motivates people to do the things they do? We are cautioned in Scripture about judging each other’s motives. Motivations for our actions can be so complex that we may be confused ourselves as to what compelled us to do or say something. God who knows all things knows our motivation and the Bible teaches some day we will be judged for it.

In this message we will look at a passage that clearly tells us what should motivate us.

I will also share the testimony of a man whose life was completely changed when he allowed Christ to change His motivation. It not only made all the difference in this sea captain’s life, though he died a couple of centuries ago, what he accomplished has affected all of our lives today.

“The more I looked at what Jesus had done on the cross, the more He met my case exactly. I needed someone or something to stand between a righteous God and my sinful self: between a God who must punish sins and blasphemies and myself, who had wallowed in both to the neck. I needed an Almighty Savior who should step in and take my sins away, and I found such a one in the New Testament….I saw that because of the obedience and sufferings of Jesus, God might declare His justice, in punishing my sin, and declare His mercy also, in taking that punishment on Himself on the Cross, so that I might be pardoned.”
- John Newton

Our Moms4Momgroup is happy to welcome Cassandra De Leon, a pastor’s wife from New Concord, OH, as our guest speaker on Thursday, May 6th at 10am.

Cassandra grew up in Muncie, Indiana at a sister church and school. Her grandfather, Paul Ice, is a member at Grace. She has eight children and one in heaven. She also homeschools her children. To learn more about Cassandra and her family, visit her website by clicking here.

As always a delicious breakfast and exceptional childcare are provided, so plan to come.

Have you ever wondered, “Why do we have so many lawyers?” If you open the Yellow Pages, you’ll see ad after ad for lawyers. If you turn on the TV, you’ll see commercials asking if you’ve “been hurt or injured in an accident? Then call the law office of ______.”

Why do we have so many lawyers?

• And the answer is the same reason we have so many broken families.
• The same reason we have so many church splits.
• The same reason we have so many murders.
• The same reason we have so many suicides.

The reason? We lack the 3^rd fruit of the Spirit. We are missing peace.

This past Wednesday, the Indiana Supreme Court released its Annual Report that shows how in our state over the last ten years, the number of court cases has skyrocketed.

– Total criminal and civil cases : Up 29%.
– Child abuse cases: Up 25%.
– Termination of parental rights: Up 39%

Americans are missing peace. Hoosiers are missing peace. And they’re hoping to find it in court.

But a court decision can give you only a sense of temporary peace.

A court can’t provide true peace.

In fact many times a court decision brings anything but peace.

The jury rules in favor of the bad guy.

The slick lawyer uses loopholes in the law to get an unjust ruling.

Most of the time, a plaintiff and defendant don’t leave the courtroom feeling good about each other.

And so in 1 Cor. 6:1-8, Christians are warned not to take trivial civil cases against each other to court. Instead we are supposed to go to church leaders to make peace.

Former US chief justice, Warren Burger, said:

Chief Justice Warren Burger

“One reason our courts have become overburdened is that Americans are increasingly turning to the courts for relief from a range of personal distresses and anxieties.

The courts have been expected to fill the void created by the decline of the church, the family and neighborhood unity.”

-Justice Warren Burger, “Annual Report on the State of the Judiciary,” American Bar Association Journal (March 1982): 68.

Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia said this of 1 Cor. 6:

“I think this passage [I Cor. 6:1-8] has something to say about the proper Christian attitude toward civil litigation. …Good Christians, just as they are slow to anger, should be slow to sue.”

-Justice Antonin Scalia, “Teaching About the Law, ” Quarterly 7, no. 4 (Christian Legal Society, fall 1987): 8-9.

Real peace will not be found in a lawsuit. Real peace will not be found in a courtroom. Real peace is found in Christ. And so His body, the church, should be full of peacemakers.

As many in our once Christian nation turn their backs on God, many have turned to government to provide for their needs. One decade ago, the notorious twentieth century ended, a century in which large countries openly defied God and turned their lives, economies and faith over to their government– a militant form of Socialism called Communism. The great Utopian experiments ended in catastrophe.

Listen closely to this sermon, “Christ’s Inconceivable Invitation”, as I will share the conclusion of the careful research of a British historian, summing up the effect of Communism on the twentieth century. How many lives of its own citizens were sacrificed to these Communist governments?

I will also show you how that is relevant to the title of my message and what it has to do with this riddle in what Jesus stated:
John 10:16 “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”