Sheep Without (WITH) a Shepherd

[00:00:09] From our text this morning when he saw the crowd, that's Jesus. [00:00:16] He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. [00:00:21] And then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. [00:00:27] Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. [00:00:33] Would you pray with me, Lord? Now open all of our ears and hearts to hear your word. Draw us near unto you through it. Let the words of my mouth, the meditation of all of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight. For you, O Lord, are our rock and our redeemer. [00:00:55] Amen. [00:00:58] Well, the question is in front of us then. Do you think that that's a condition that we have in our world today? People who are harassed and helpless and without a shepherd? [00:01:08] Well, how about America? We'll just narrow it down a little bit. [00:01:13] Harassed and helpless Americans. [00:01:17] How about in Colorado? [00:01:22] How about in Weld County? [00:01:27] Well, surely not in Greeley though. [00:01:31] Harassed and helpless, sheep without a shepherd. [00:01:36] I spoke to a woman once who said, well, there are many ways to God that religion's a good thing and made her feel good about other people. [00:01:47] But she really didn't know of Jesus love for her, spoke with somebody else. [00:01:55] She led me to believe that she was truly acquainted with Bible stories. And she said that those stories really ought to be taught to children. Children need to hear those stories, but not adults, certainly not adults anymore because, well, adults should be studying all the ascended masters. And in her view she was, because of that, much more spiritual than anyone could possibly imagine. But again, she didn't know Jesus as a personal friend. [00:02:31] Another that I spoke with was into universal disarmament and care for the environment and compulsory government education for all children, the goal of which the aim was to achieve world peace through a single federated one world government. [00:02:56] By the way, Jesus was just okay with her because he talked about peace. [00:03:02] And again, she knew nothing of a personal relationship with Jesus or the peace that surpasses all human understanding that only Jesus can give. [00:03:16] I have all kinds of stories like that. And so you're probably now wondering, well, what on earth prompted all that evangelical conversation, you know? Well, I wasn't out on the streets of my town witnessing and I was not stationed at some more enlightened big city explaining the truth of the gospel to self reliant people. No, I was interviewing teachers for a couple of positions, teaching positions in the school that I was leading at that time. [00:03:54] Now naturally a Christian school and the teachers that operate in that Christian school, and particularly a Lutheran school Like I was operating, ought to present a living, active faith in Jesus Christ and the ability to articulate it, the ability to tell it. [00:04:16] So I would put it just that simply to prospective teachers and then ask, would such religious convictions like I've just described describe you? [00:04:30] And I said it that way because I was trying to open the topic of faith inside of somebody in such a way that wouldn't offend them or give off that I'm holier than thou or anything like that in my language. Well, in interviews you hear all kinds of disingenuous responses when it comes to religion and when it comes to employment. [00:04:56] And that's what I heard. I mean, say anything to get the job, right? But a Christian, when you interview a Christian, a believer in Jesus, it's different. [00:05:08] It's almost instantly different. And here's why. Because you start to hear about relationship. Jesus to a believer is at the same time Lord of all and lover of my soul. [00:05:24] Jesus is at the same time to be feared, but also my friend. [00:05:31] Jesus is awesome and available. [00:05:36] Christians, well, they know Jesus. They've experienced his love and they love him in return. [00:05:43] They have confidence in Jesus as the shepherd, and they know that he is going to care for them whether or not they are employed. [00:05:56] They don't mind telling you. So, just different. [00:06:02] So that whole experience, the interviewing and all of that showed me the same thing. That Jesus saw that when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. [00:06:18] So that in every town we have an abundance of such people. [00:06:27] Oh, they don't look harassed and helpless. [00:06:31] They may not even feel harassed and helpless, but they are. [00:06:37] They've found some kind of shepherd out there, but not the shepherd. And something has given them seemingly natural answers to life's problems that has totally disabled them from knowing the true answer. [00:06:57] Like that guy who told me he wasn't a Christian, that his religion was Indian. [00:07:04] So I asked him, I said, you mean like Hindu? [00:07:09] And he said, well, that sounds right, but here's the kicker. He added, I've heard about this Jesus Christ, but I don't follow him. And oh, by the way, you have to hire anybody and you can't discriminate against me because I believe something different. You know, equal opportunity employment and all of that. And it's discriminatory for you to hire me and then force me to change my religion. [00:07:37] That's a quote. [00:07:39] And I politely informed him that I hadn't hired him yet and the prospects were not looking good. [00:07:50] Or this quote exactly. How much religion would be required in the preschool curriculum? [00:08:03] Harassed and helpless people without a shepherd. [00:08:13] Jesus said, ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. [00:08:20] Now, I have to wonder at this morning's text and especially the way it's presented by Matthew, because Jesus disciples, if they're following him, and they were, and they're listening to him, and disciples do what the Master says, right? I wonder if they didn't, like, almost fall to their knees at that moment and start to pray. Oh, Lord, send workers into the harvest field. Because in the text, the very next thing that happens is Jesus calls them together, gives them authority to drive out evil spirits and heal every disease and sickness, and then he sends them out with these instructions. [00:08:55] Do not go to the Gentiles or any Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. And as you go preach this message, the kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, drive out demons. [00:09:08] Freely you have received, freely give. [00:09:14] I wonder if those disciples didn't kind of go, maybe we need to be careful what we pray about. [00:09:20] Yeah, well, today the passage might read like this. [00:09:26] Don't go to Denver or anyplace else in Colorado. Just go to the lost sheep of Greeley. [00:09:34] And as you go preach this message, the kingdom of heaven is near, and heal the sick and raise the dead and cleanse the lepers and drive out demons freely you have received, freely give. [00:09:52] Well, you might automatically be saying, look, I don't heal sick or raise dead or cleanse anything except my own hands. And I haven't driven out any demons lately. [00:10:08] This must be for somebody else. [00:10:12] No? [00:10:14] Well, as one of our members reminded me this morning, yeah, we do raise the dead when we bring someone to the washing and waters of holy baptism. Their life has just turned from death to life, Right? [00:10:29] So all of this is still in God's purview for his people to go and be about. Look, freely we have received, we can turn it right around and give it out. And look what we have around here. [00:10:45] Wonderful worship facility, fabulous school facilities, meeting rooms galore. [00:10:52] That's just buildings. We have people who gather in faith. [00:10:58] We have groups that go and visit. [00:11:02] We have. [00:11:07] Dog ministry. Where is that what it's called? Comfort dog. Thankfully, there it is. [00:11:13] There's all kinds of things for us to do that responds to Jesus called to announce that the kingdom of heaven is near. [00:11:28] Here's the deal. [00:11:30] If Jesus sent his disciples out to harassed and helpless sheep without a shepherd in his day, imagine that the same is true today, maybe even more so. [00:11:40] And maybe you don't want to hear that some people think the responsibility of belonging to something like Trinity Lutheran Church consists in attending, giving and singing and serving on some board or something like that. Those are all important things, make no mistake. [00:11:57] By the way, we do need someone to take over as head of security, for example. [00:12:05] But here's the most important point of all of that. There's shepherdless sheep wandering around out there. What are we doing about it? [00:12:19] Well, some people might say they don't have those kinds of gifts, or that it's the preachers and the teachers and the directors of Christian education who are responsible to take on all of that kind of work. And our staffers here at Trinity, as well as other churches, know only too well the needs that exist in our communities around us, because we see them every day. We. We're around people. But would also be true that we're trained to tell the good news. [00:12:54] But here's our real job. [00:12:56] To train and equip you, the saints of God, to be about the same business of telling the good news to others. [00:13:07] I don't think God intended that this work of evangelism and human care to be performed only by professional church workers. [00:13:16] First of all, there's not enough of us. Boy, do we know that Jesus said, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. [00:13:26] But secondly, we're not as believable as you might think. [00:13:32] I mean, what are we going to say but the truth? [00:13:38] It's our job. We get paid for being good, while you all, you're good for nothing. [00:13:47] Didn't come out right, did it? [00:13:50] But don't you see? Church workers have a vested interest in the message. We derive our livelihood from churches and schools, institutions like we have here. We're going to say and do the very thing that people expect us to say and do. It's our occupation. But you, you are free. [00:14:10] That's the word I think I was looking for there. [00:14:12] You are free to be believable. [00:14:16] You are the ones getting knocked around out there in the world of business or in professional life as you stand up for your faith or in the trades, people watch you and they see how you handle such things as setbacks and troubles and sickness and pain. [00:14:39] And when you respond to those situations with your hope in Jesus Christ, well, believe me, it's believable. [00:14:57] There was a mother who was preparing pancakes for her little ones, little Kevin, age 5, and Ryan, age 3. [00:15:08] She was making pancakes for him for breakfast. And the Boys started to argue about who was going to get the first pancake. [00:15:16] So the mother thought, well, this is a great opportunity to teach. And she informed the little one, she said, you know, if Jesus were here, he would say, let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait. [00:15:30] They both heard that. And Kevin, the older one, looked at his little brother and said, hey, Ryan, you be Jesus. [00:15:43] We are only too ready to let somebody else be Jesus. [00:15:49] But Jesus calls us really to be Jesus to those around us. He calls us to care for the harassed and helpless shepherdless sheep. [00:16:02] And that call is only too clear. [00:16:05] He's calling because heaven is a real place and people go there. [00:16:11] And hell is a real place and people go there. [00:16:18] Can we honestly sit by and not speak up? [00:16:23] Because, well, we all know this. His call is radical, to reach out with his love to other people, crossing over all of those barriers that are out there. Social barriers, racial barriers, economic barriers, gender barriers. [00:16:43] Reach out with his love. Despite our differences in thought or approach to life. [00:16:49] Look, God is perfect, holy, righteous. [00:16:57] And we are not we. [00:17:02] Well, the difference between an almighty, perfect God and our failure, the difference, our failure to measure up is called sin. [00:17:16] We have the luxury of saying here at church, the wages of sin is death. The payment for our sin is death. [00:17:23] But Jesus got in between this holy, righteous, almighty God and us and took the wrath and the judgment we deserve upon himself on the cross so God could offer us and provide for us forgiveness of our sins and life and salvation and freedom and fulfillment, all of our blessings. [00:17:52] Today's reading from Romans 5, it's even clearer. [00:17:58] You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. [00:18:04] Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly dare to die. [00:18:12] But God demonstrates his own love for us in while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's the gift he's given to us. His call today is only to turn and show that gift, offer that gift to those around us. [00:18:31] And you know what? Reaching out to the harassed and helpless is a real and known condition of God's people throughout the centuries. [00:18:43] It's why we have what we have here, because people before us cared to present Jesus in this place and in this time. [00:18:59] In our worship. This morning, we said these words, forgive us, renew us, and lead us so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name. [00:19:13] If that doesn't spell out clearly what Jesus calls us to do, then why are we here. [00:19:22] Our job is to make disciples of Jesus. Regardless of the social or racial or political or economic or moral conditions and differences that are all around us. [00:19:39] We're here at this time and in this place by no accident whatsoever. [00:19:45] God has brought you and me here for this very purpose. [00:19:53] And so the question comes, the question we ought to be asking ourselves. [00:20:04] What are we going to do about it? [00:20:06] What is he calling us to do?