Sermon Text for Sunday, April 22, 2018

April 22, 2018                                                                        Text:  John 10:11-18

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Let’s delve into a subject I know nothing about.  Do you know in our world there is voice recognition technology?  It’s true.  You can talk to your phone or tablet or speaker.  You can communicate with someone named Siri or Alexa and they talk back.  They even answer your questions.  Do you realize this is going on around us?

Ok.  I’m not as foolish as I let on.  I just don’t use the technology.  By the end of 2019 it is to be a $600 million industry.  By 2022, $40 billion.  40% of adults use voice search everyday and smart speakers are showing up in many homes.

There are a lot of voices competing for our attention.  Not just the wife and the kids and the boss.  Machines want to be your friend and give you advice and help you find the nearest Subway.  But how many voices care about your soul?  How many are concerned with your faith?  What is the one voice we should be listening to?   With ears opened let’s ask . . .

“ARE YOU LISTENING TO THE SHEPHERD’S VOICE?”

Sometimes lost in our competing voices world we forget or fail to listen to the Good Shepherd.  And who is He?  Jesus.  He says so in our text.  “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (v. 11)  No other “shepherd” in any religion does such a thing.  We are the sheep.  Those that listen to the wrong voices.  Those that follow the path of destruction.  Those that lie down with wolves and get comfortable with the hired hands.

The cry of the wolf, the devil, can lead to destruction.  Many listen to his howls and cannot turn away.  He twists and alters God’s word until it is unrecognizable by the sheep.  The hired hand is no better.  He is the Pastor who is “pastoring” simply for his own advantage and will never confront or oppose error.  The sheep then scatter.  We see this today as people skip from church to church looking for a church standing on the truth of God’s Word or they leave such a church to satisfy their itching ears and their own personal agendas.  In the end they will be devoured and the wolf smiles with blood on his face.

The wolf and the hired hand can be overcome by the Good Shepherd – Jesus the Christ.  Christ is not a chameleon savior.  He is the One who stands before all human history with it’s rising and fallings – its here today and gone tomorrow cycles – and declares:  “I the Lord do not change.” (Mal. 3:6)  What a blessing for the sheep, befuddled and slammed around by the storms of life.  This is the Jesus I know.

One of the things that voice technology proponents are working on is to make it more natural.  They even accept the notion that listening is important.  How are you as a listener?  Your spouse?  Your kids?  Your boss?  Your phone company or internet provider?  It can get frustrating, can’t it?  Who always listens?  Our Lord.  Through prayer there is never a time that He doesn’t listen.  He hears your confession and forgives.  He sympathizes with your heartaches and challenges.  He went to great lengths for your salvation.  He heard our cry for mercy and sacrificed His Son on a cross.  The world didn’t need voice recognition to hear that.  It is the loudest announcement ever made.

We as the sheep do not come to the Good Shepherd.  He comes to us.  We become part of the fold by hearing His voice.  We remain safe and secure in the care of the Shepherd by hearing His Word.

As we rely more and more on technology, human interaction is becoming less and less.  But understand this.  On average you can only type 40 words a minute.  When you speak you average 150 words a minute.  As sheep of the Good Shepherd who listen to His voice, we have plenty to say.  Who can the Holy Spirit help you reach?  Who needs to hear your Christian voice?  Who needs the comfort of the Good Shepherd?  Who recognizes your voice as a helper from the Lord?

Aah, I hear the Good Shepherd.  Do you?  What a great voice to recognize!

Amen.

 

Schedules May 2018

Elder and Usher Schedule

Date
8:00
Elder
10:30
May 6Gerald Semelka, Joshua Parry, Nick HitchBarry HamlinBud Kessler, Curt Kessler, Theron Noth
May 10
Ascension		7PMBarry HamlinCraig Culp, Daryle Schempp, Steve Parry
May 13Gene Fuller, Richard RossNathan KluenderBob Love, Greg McNeely, Mike Huth
May 20Jeff Piper, Lucas Piper, Nathan KluenderMike FieldBrian Dirks, Holden Lueck, Karson Lueck
May 27Joshua Parry, Mike FieldPaul GerikeBud Kessler, Curt Kessler, Theron Noth

Acolyte Schedule

Date
8:00 AM
10:30 AM
May 6 - ConfirmationPastor/ElderJessica Isaac
May 13Pastor/ElderJustin McNeely
May 20
Pentecost		Tanner HitchMatt Williamson
May 27Pastor/ElderWill McNeely

Stewardship Corner May 2018

St. Paul teaches, “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches” (Galatians 6:6).

And again, he says, “Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:13–14).

In other words, ministers of the gospel are supported by the offerings of those who are served by them. And this is how the Church lives even now. It is standard practice.

But this deserves closer examination. For it instructs us not just that we are to give but also what we are to give. And it does so with four little words: “In the same way …”

St. Paul is building his case for supporting the preachers of the Gospel with the sacrificial giving of individual members on the example of the Old Testament people who supported the Levites with their offerings and sacrifices.

We’re to support the Gospel ministry “in the same way.” But how did the Old Testament people support the Levites?

Moses records this: “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always” (Deuteronomy 14:22–23).

The Levites were supported by the tithe, 10 percent of all the yearly yield of that which was harvested.

Does that seem like a lot? Does it surprise you that St. Paul instructs us that we are to support the New Testament Gospel ministry “in the same way?”

If it does, ask yourself: is the Church’s job in the New Testament bigger or smaller than the Levites’ job in the Old Testament? Back then there was one Temple, and the ministry was almost exclusively located in one nation among the descendants of Abraham.

Jesus calls us to teach and baptize all nations (Matt. 28). And there are churches and ministries all around the world. How could we support this new Gospel ministry with anything less than the Israelites supported the Old Testament ministry?

 

Of course, we are free to give more, for we have received more than those in the Old Testament. We have received the fullness of God’s revelation, the fullness of His salvation, the fulfillment of everything that God promised to do.

For we have received Christ, God’s own Son, in the flesh, who took upon himself our sins and in exchange gave us his righteousness. The Father claimed us as his own in Holy Baptism.

He gathers us together in the place where his name dwells to feast on the first fruits of the resurrection, the risen and living body and blood of his Son, our Lord, Jesus. He reminds us that we are His, that all things are ours because we belong to Him. He blesses us here in time with physical and spiritual gifts.

In the same way, and in response to his fatherly divine goodness and mercy, we gladly give to those who proclaim to us “the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.”

For once we were not a people, but now we are God’s people; once we had not received mercy, but now we have indeed (1 Peter 2:9–10).

Celebrating May 2018

Birthdays

Anna Holland                   May  3

Lorene Backsmeier         May  5

Cory Fortney                   May  5

Lucas Piper                     May  8

Lindsay Orr                      May 11

Kerry Warren                   May 12

Benjamin Holland            May 16

Nicki Cloyd                      May 19

Terry Trost                       May 19

Pat McQuown                  May 21

Jack Gooding                  May 24

Doris Hoffmann               May 25

Mandy Kluender              May 26

Joyce Schneider             May 26

Keyyon Pleasant             May 27

Baptismal Birthdays

Carly Benjamin                May  1

Cathy Cloyd                     May  1

Marvin Lester                  May  1

Cooper Mosier                 May  3

Marlene Hitch                  May  5

Halle Sheley                    May  6

Daryle Schempp              May 15

Drew Kemp                      May 18

Ethan Bliese                    May 21

Lorene Backsmeier         May 22

Marvin Huth                     May 22

Steve Parry                     May 26

Lucas Piper                     May 29