Bulletin Announcements

– Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018 – 

THOUGHTS ON STEWARDSHIP:  John 20:1 – “Now on the first day of the week …”  All is made new by the Resurrection of Jesus!  Even the day of worship has transitioned from the Old Testament’s Saturday Sabbath to the Lord’s Day of the New Testament.  For the Lord has made all things new: He has begun a new week for a new creation in rising from the dead as the New Adam. We are also made new in Him – a new heart, a new life, new desires, a new outlook toward God: all this comes from our Risen Lord’s grace.

NEED A RIDE? If you are unable to drive to church, we have an option that is available.  Please speak with Pastor who has the details.  Thank you.

OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL meets at 9:15 a.m. in the Choir Room which is located on the 2nd level (the west side).

THE ADULT BIBLE CLASS meets in the basement at 9:15 a.m. As we celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation we continue studies on that time period.  We are studying “A Man Named Martin”, a video-based study on the reformer Martin Luther.

FROM THE OFFICE:  It is time again to renew our Lutheran Witness subscriptions.  If anyone is not currently receiving Lutheran Witness and would like to do so, please contact the church office.  There are 11 monthly magazines for an annual fee of $15.96.  Please renew by TODAY!  Thank you.

FROM OUR BOARD OF TRUSTEES:  Because we no longer have the Soccer Club our lawn mowing budgeted for 2018 is $500.00 short of the bid the Board of Trustees have been working on.  If you would like to contribute to this, mark your contribution accordingly and thank you!

APRIL FAMILY MOVE NIGHT:  “The Stray” tells the true story of a dog who saves a struggling family in more ways than one.  “Pluto” comes out of nowhere and quickly makes himself at home with the Davis Family, who are on the brink of falling apart.  In just a short time, Pluto the “wonder dog” manages to save a lost toddler, bring comfort and companionship to a hurting nine-year-old boy, helps to restore a marriage and repair a broken father-son relationship. Pluto is not only a guard dog – he’s a guardian angel.  Join us Friday, April 13th, for another great movie, fine food and wonderful fellowship.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR:  Good Shepherd is once again privileged to serve a “Talk Time Meal” to International Students on the campus of Illinois State University.  We will do this on Friday, April 20th at 6:30 p.m.  To sign-up to prepare and serve the meal look for the sign-up sheet in the narthex.

“WALK FOR LIFE”:  Pastor and Toni will once again participate in the Pregnancy Resource Center’s “Walk For Life” on Saturday, April 21st.  The Walk will be held at Christ Church, PCA in Normal.  If you would like to pledge a dollar amount to their walk or if you would like to walk please speak with Pastor.  Thank you!

OUR CHURCH DIRECTORY:  It’s time once again to update everyone’s address, phone numbers, email, etc.  Please check the reports on the table in the narthex and make any changes necessary to the listing.  Thanks!

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR for a Special Service scheduled this summer.  On Sunday, July 15th, we will have one worship service at 9:00 a.m. outside on our north lawn, under a tent, to give thanks to God for having paid off half the cost to build our church!  What a blessed milestone.  We have a few other things planned that weekend and we will get those details to you as they become available.

PORTALS OF PRAYER:  The April – June Portals of Payer are available on the book rack in the narthex.  Pick up your free copy today.

FELLOWSHIP HOSTS:  In order to get more people involved in our Coffee/Donut Fellowship for 2018 we have two separate sign-ups: Donut Pick-up and Coffee Set-up.  We would like to encourage you to sign-up for one or the other.  You may also sign-up for both if you wish.  The sign-up is by the door by the north stairwell.

THE LUTHERAN HOUR:  “It’s Really Real” is the topic for next Sunday.  The sermon text will be from 1 John 1:1-3  Here’s the deal.  If Jesus actually rose from the dead, it would be wise to believe in Him because there will be salvation in no one else.  If He didn’t rise, we’re all toast.  Hear why you can be confident Jesus’ resurrection is really real.  Reverend Dr. Ken Klaus is the speaker.  Hear his message on The Lutheran Hour on WGN (720) at 6:00 a.m.; WJWR (104.7 FM) and WJWR (90.3 FM) both on Sunday at 3:00 p.m.  Also, if you can receive Lincoln, IL radio station WLLM (1370 AM) the program is broadcast two times on Sunday at 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.  Tune in!  You can also listen to The Lutheran Hour on your personal computer at RealAudio, www.lhm.org.

INFORMATION REQUESTED:  Please notify the church office if someone in the congregation or any family or friends are ill or hospitalized.

PRAYER CHAIN:  If you have a prayer request please submit them by email to Mary Anne Kirchner at makirchner@yahoo.com or you may phone a Prayer Request to Mary Anne; her cell phone# is (309) 532-2582.  The Prayer Request box is on the table in the narthex for any written requests.

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Sermon Text for Palm Sunday Sermon, March 25, 2018

March 25, 2018 – Palm Sunday                                           Text:  Zechariah 9:9-12

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

Legend tells us that once upon a time there was a city named Troy.  Troy was located on the coast of Asia, across the sea from the Greek city-state Sparta.  Walls were built around cities back then to protect the people.  Gates were built into the walls to allow people to enter the city.  During times of war, the gates were closed and people could not enter.

For years the people of Troy and the Greeks fought.  The Greeks had been trying to get over the walls of Troy and couldn’t.  Year after year, neither side won.

One day, a Greek general, Odysseus, had an idea.  “Let’s pretend to sail away,” he suggested.  “We’ll leave a gift for Troy, a gift to announce the end of the war, a large wooden horse.”  That is how things were done back then, when you admitted defeat you supplied a gift.

Could this really trick the Trojans?  The Greeks thought it was a brilliant idea.  Their best artists built a magnificent horse.  When it was ready, the Greeks brought it as close to the gates of Troy as they could without it being shot full of arrows.  Then the Greeks pretended to sail away while playing the music of Styx!

Anyway, the Trojan archers could not believe that the Greeks were sailing away.  Had the Greeks finally given up?  Had the Trojans won?  It appeared that way.  The Trojans dragged the horse inside the city gates, closed the gates and celebrated.

But this horse had a little surprise for the Trojans.  Hidden inside were thirty Greek soldiers.  Later that night, as sugarplums danced in the heads of the Trojans, the thirty Greeks snuck out of the horse, opened the gates of Troy, and let the Greek army inside.  That was the end of Troy.

Palm Sunday is the Trojan horse of the Church Year.

“YOUR KING COMES (TO TROY?)”

Like the Greeks and the Trojans we have all been engaged in a prolong battle.  People we don’t care for.  Situations we make worse with our tongue.  Misjudgments in tweets and Facebook postings.  The battle in our mind that plays out with the devil.  Sin is a force that controls our lives.  We may be thousands of years removed from “the chariot of Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem” (v. 10) but we know the consequences of sin and the brokenness of our lives.  We’d like to hide in the wooden horse because of our shame.

As with the Greeks – and God’s people of Zechariah’s time – it seemed as if our battle was lost.  Like the exiles in Babylon who could not free themselves, we are unable to defeat our enemy of sin.  “The wages of sin is death” and we are trapped in the grave of despair.

But the Lord has a plan and oh what a brilliant plan.  His humble King rides a donkey into Jerusalem and the crowd goes wild.  But then, the city and all it stands for is besieged from within as the King does battle with sin.  Jerusalem will fight back, and by the end of the week, the humble King will hang in shame on a cross.  For a short period of time it will look like evil has won.  The gift of a wooden horse given to the Trojans, but this is also part of the plan.  What could be next?

Satan is duped.  He is asleep in supposed victory and the Trojan horse arrives.  Before He knows it, the King will appear in power – alive! – in Satan’s own fortress.  The King only appears weak and helpless.  His humility is actually His most powerful weapon.  Jesus never exalts Himself.  His weapon in war against sin is his own active righteousness – His perfect obedience to God’s plan.

He takes our punishment on Himself.  He sheds his blood and died.  And then He rises again and presents himself in hell as the victor over Satan.  Like the Trojans, Satan had to be quite surprised.  “It can’t be, He is supposed to be dead.”  Not so fast, you wily and perverted prince of darkness.

This was God’s plan all along.  This was the covenant he made with his people long ago.  He does cut off the power of Satan and He does set us free.  We rejoice at the victory we could never win for ourselves.  We jump out of the horse and sing to Satan, “Na, Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Goodbye!”  That is our chant in the victory waters of baptism and the continued joyful celebration of Holy Communion.

It is enough to warrant a parade.  The hero selflessly rides into Jerusalem to become the victim.  Hero and victim?  We don’t think in those terms but God the Father did and Jesus achieved it.  He is our hero because he is the victim!

“Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Amen.

Elder, Usher, and Acolyte Schedules for April 2018

Elder and Usher Schedule

Date
8:00
Elder
10:30
Apr 1
Easter Sunday		7AM:
Jeff Piper, Nick Hitch		Craig CulpBud Kessler, Curt Kessler, Mike Huth
Apr 8Daryle Schempp, Joshua ParryMike FieldBob Love, Brian Dirks, Randy Reinhardt
Apr 15Craig Culp, Nathan Kluender, Steve ParryPaul GerikeHolden Lueck, Theron Noth
Apr 22Gene Fuller, Richard RossCraig CulpBob Love, Greg McNeely, Mike Huth
Apr 29Jeff Piper, Lucas Piper, Paul GerikeRandy ReinhardtBrian Dirks, Holden Lueck, Randy Reinhardt

Acolyte Schedule

Date
8:00 AM
10:30 AM
Apr 17AM Lucas PiperWill McNeely
Apr 8Pastor/ElderJustin McNeely
Apr 15Chloe HitchPastor/Elder
Apr 22Pastor/ElderMatt Williamson
Apr 29JT PiperWill McNeely

Stewardship Corner April 2018

Our Father in heaven sent His Son, Jesus, to be our savior. His atoning sacrifice is the firstfruits of all the dead, a pleasing aroma to His Father – and ours – so that His perfect life and death count for all who believe in Him.

He claimed us as His own children in Holy Baptism. He sustains and strengthens our faith with His Holy Word and His Body and Blood. As new creatures, who have put on Christ, we bear good fruit. We do the good works prepared for us, which He makes known to us in His Word.

By faith then, trusting in the Word of God, we do what he says because He does not lie and always keeps His promises. For “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

And so the Lord promises: “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine” (Prov. 3:9-10).

How do we honor the Lord with the wealth that God has given us in His generosity? By giving it generously to those whom the Lord has called us to love and support: your family, your society, and your church. And His promise is that in so doing, you will never lack.

I can almost hear it now: “But that’s from the Old Testament!” But our Lord Jesus Himself gives us similar promises in the New Testament. He says, at the conclusion of the parable of the talents, “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance” (Matt. 25:29).

And then at the end of the parable of the dishonest manager, he says: “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Luke 16:10–13).

And in His sermon on the mount, he says: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19–21).

We have become conditioned against these promises because of their misuse by the peddlers of the prosperity gospel – the guys on TV who say you get rich by putting God in your debt. And thus, we miss out on the fact that God does reward temporal faithfulness in temporal matters with temporal blessings.

It’s no quid pro quo. It’s all from God’s grace, His fatherly divine goodness and mercy. But those Bible passages just quoted do in fact say what they say! It’s not the Old Testament’s problem. It’s ours. It is almost as if we have become so jaded against this that we think it a virtue to be stingy with our offerings.

But our Father in heaven still loves to bless those who bless others. He loves to give to those who give freely and generously. In fact, he challenges us to challenge Him: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need” (Mal. 3:10).

And so, while we don’t give so that we would get, we do receive from the Lord in order to give, and He will bless your giving with more receiving. For “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things” (Rom. 8:32)?