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.