This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the CNH District Convention.  Now, in all honesty I wasn’t per se looking forward to this convention after hearing about other district conventions in the past from friends in the pastoral ministry and having sat in on our LCMS national convention back when I was attending seminary.  Yet, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by just how positive and uplifting this event was this weekend!  And after attending, I can truly say how blessed I was by the experience and have been refreshed in my faith once again.

The theme of our convention this weekend was “The Heart Of The Good Shepherd” taken from these words from John 10:14-16, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Jesus describes Himself in these passages as the Good Shepherd and us as His precious sheep.  Just as sheep know the voice of their shepherd and trust him, so we know the voice of Jesus and trust in His love for us.  He loves us so much that He even talks in this passage about laying down His life for the sheep.  That’s the heart of the Good Shepherd for us!

Yet, if we listen closer we will hear the heartbeat of the Good Shepherd in a deeper way.  His heart not only beats for us, the found, but His heart also beats for the lost.  Listen again to the heartbeat of Jesus, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.  I MUST bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” (John 10:16)  Do you hear it?  His heartbeat is also for the lost, not just the found!  LCMS President Matthew Harrison spoke at our convention this weekend on Jesus being Good Shepherd.  During his Bible study he highlighted how Jesus states that He MUST go bring these other sheep into the fold as well.  This is an imperative for our Good Shepherd!

In the last few week’s I’ve been hearing some interesting comments around St. Philip that honestly have saddened me.  There are some who have expressed the following, “Pastor Travis is always talking about outreach and we don’t want to do outreach here.”  I don’t know if that’s your feeling or not, but if it is, your issue is not with me, your issue is with the Good Shepherd.  Jesus is the One who came to seek and save the lost. (Luke 19:10)  Jesus is the One who said that He would leave the ninety-nine found sheep in order to find the one that was lost. (Matt 18:12)  If you don’t like the fact that we as a ministry are focusing on outreach take that up with Jesus because it is He who has called us as His Body to “Go and make disciples of all nations . . .” (Matt 28:16) and that we are to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8).  I am simply reflecting the heart of the Good Shepherd who desires “all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Tim 2:3-4)

Recently I came across this very convicting quote that speaks to this lack of desire to do outreach, “A church that does not desire to reach out to their community with the love of Jesus is a church that is basically telling everyone to go to hell.”  Pause and consider those words for a moment.  As difficult as these words may be to hear, they are true and they convict my heart.  When a ministry doesn’t care enough to reach out with our Good Shepherd’s saving Words of love to their community this is basically what we are saying to them, because that is their eternal fate that awaits them without Jesus.

Yet, this is not the heart of our Good Shepherd.  He doesn’t desire anyone to go to hell.  He didn’t desire for you to go to hell; that’s why He gave His life for you so that you might be saved.  He came and sought you when you were lost either when you heard the Shepherd’s voice through the sweet words of the Gospel later on in your life or when His words came to you and made you His precious little lamb in the waters of Baptism.    He made you part of His flock by His grace; His undeserved love.  Remember, unless you are of Jewish decent  none of us were not part of the original sheep pen.  We were “the nations”, those who were outside of the promises of God to His people Israel.  Yet by His death and resurrection He brought us all, Jew and Gentile alike, into His fold called the Church and given us life in His name.

And Jesus MUST find those who still as of yet have not heard His voice because He does not desire them to go to hell either.  This is the heartbeat of our Good Shepherd still today!  It doesn’t mean that He doesn’t love us the found, but He loves the lost as well.  His love is big enough for all, the found and the lost alike.  As He goes to find those that are still lost, He invites us who hear His voice as the found to join with Him in His mission of love – to share the Good News of what God has done in Christ so that they too might hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.  By God’s grace may this more and more become our heartbeat as well as a ministry here at St. Philip; one that reflects the heartbeat of the Good Shepherd!

I’m sure that many of you as you are driving to work or running errands for the day have had the chance, even if for a few minutes, to listen to Rush Limbaugh.  Now, some believe that he is a voice of truth, others believe he is an arrogant windbag – perhaps both of are true.  Love him or hate him the man knows how to draw and command an audience.  Yet the reason I bring him up is not to delve into politics, but to reflect on something he says often that caught my attention.  He often says in his intros, “Talent on loan from God.”  Now I know that some might not be able to hear that phrase without some reaction to the person saying it.  And yes, on some level it might sound arrogant.  But, if you take his comment at face value it is absolutely true, we all have talent on loan from God.

This last week I had the privilege of attending an equipping workshop at St. Dominic Catholic Church in San Francisco hosted by a friend of mine, Joe Cavanaugh, who I met through Strengthsfinder coach training with the Gallup Organization.  Joe took a number of leaders with this ministry through training to empower them to coach people on their Strengthsfinder results in order to empower them for missional living.

One of the most powerful comments that struck me this last week was Joe’s comment that 80% of people can’t articulate their talents and gifting.  Basically, many people don’t have a clue what they do best or why.  Yet, it’s not just that they don’t know what they do best, but they don’t even appreciate what they do well.  We all tend to suffer from the effects of something called “Minimization”.  What that means is that even if we do have a handle on what we do well, we see our talents as common to all, because we believe there is nothing special about us.  So, basically most people don’t have a clue what they do best and if they do they greatly undervalue their unique set of gifts and talents that God has placed within them, and so do not intentionally seek to develop them.

Yet, this is the furthest thing from the truth.  We all have been given unique gifts and talents by God that allow us to make a special contribution to this world that literally no one else can do.  The amazing thing the Gallup Strengthsfinder assessment does is helps people identify their top 5 talents out of 34 talents common to people worldwide.  Yet, here is the amazing truth – only one out of 33.4 million people will have the exact same 5 talents in the exact same order as you!  But wait, it gets even better when you consider that only one out of 447 trillion people will have the same top 10 talents in the exact same order as you!

And when you combine that with other talents, skills, your personality and life experiences we all have the truth is that you are a unique creation of God, having been created and redeemed in Christ for a purpose that only you can do in service to the world and the Kingdom!  We hear in Eph 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  You were created the way you are with all of your gifts and talents for a purpose that God prepared for only you.

In Psalm 139:14a we hear, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Do your believe that?  This is the truth we all see through faith in Christ.  To sum up this Scriptural truth I want to leave you with these words from my friend Joe, “To accept your natural, God-given talents is to accept yourself the way God created you to be . . . not by trying to become someone He never intended you to be.”  If you have ever wondered what your unique strengths are and what your unique contribution only you can give to the world give me a call and let’s talk further.  We all have talent on loan from God.  The question is what are you doing to do about it?

After the tree we hang up our stockings by the fireplace with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be here. We also place our collection of Santas and Nutcrackers on the mantel as well as step up our small Nativity scene in the living room. Lastly, we move outside to hang the Christmas lights on the house and to set up our large nativity set out on the front lawn.

Let’s see, tree – check; stockings – check; decorations – check; lights – check; nativity sets – check. Oh yeah, shopping, all done – check. I guess we are all ready to celebrate Christmas! All ready except for one thing. Have I prepared my heart to celebrate Christmas? That’s the one thing I wonder if we really pay attention to each year as we make all of our Christmas preparations – have we prepared our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus?

That’s really what this season of Advent is all about; it is a time to prepare out hearts to celebrate the gift of Jesus and the salvation this tiny child brings not only to our lives, but for all the world. During Advent we hear the call of John the Baptist, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.” (Matthew 3:3b)

So, have you taken time this Christmas to prepare your hearts to truly celebrate the birth of Jesus? Have you taken the time to remove the roadblocks that might prevent His coming to reveal Himself and His salvation for you? Have you made room for Him to come into your life anew this Christmas? Getting ready for Christmas is more that setting up the tree, hanging the stocking or even setting out the Nativity set. Getting ready for Christmas is really about preparing to receive Jesus afresh into our hearts and to prepare to receive His gifts of life, of love, of peace and of salvation that only He as the Prince of Peace can bring.

So, come and let us prepare the way for the Lord again this Christmas as together we pray, “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen.” God’s richest blessings and may you all have a very merry Christmas and a most blessed New Year!