Weekly Announcements 8.14.2020

WE ARE WITNESSES
August 16, 2020
Confirmation Sunday
Jesus came from the Father as a witness to the glories of heaven. Forever, Jesus has experienced the goodness and love of God's presence. Through Jesus, we are invited to share in God's glory and love. As God's witnesses now, we share the hope that lives within us.
IN OUR PRAYERS
Cheryl Barksdale, Amy Hedges, Dorothy Levihn, Tee Lipsey, Joe Manger, Margorie Sims, Pat Soulter, Marcia Stoner, Linda Tangman, John Widau, and Pastor Jon Zehnder. For all who mourn especially the family of Virginia Jones. For all schools, students and educators. For all missionaries including Alyssa Anders, LCMS missionary to Russia. For all who are imprisoned. For all persecuted Christians throughout the world. For our active military, including Corey Cook, Jr., Dominick Greci, Katelyn Harvey, Dylan Pliska-Lyndoe and Rex Rafferty.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Sunday School Resumes, Aug. 23, 9:30 a.m.
Special Voters’ Meeting, Aug. 30, noon
Second Grade Bible Presentation, Sept. 19-20
ANNOUNCEMENTS
SUNDAY SCHOOL Resumes on August 23rd!—Adult classes will meet each week in the Sanctuary (with Pastor Lepley), in the Gym (with Pastor Matt and Vicar Kyle Borcherding), and on Facebook Live at 9:30. Children ages 2– 4th grade can participate in our In-Person or At-Home "Foundations of Faith" Sunday School. So that we know best how to prepare, we are asking all families with children to register for Sunday School this fall. Email to register.
Emmaus Lutheran Teacher—Emmaus Lutheran School in Indianapolis is seeking an elementary teacher. The teacher would be expected to teach a multi-grade classroom. The teacher would also be expected to have a valid Indiana Teaching License. Please email Brandon Davis at or call (262) 305-5035, if interested.
SPECIAL VOTERS’ MEETING—-Please join us for an important, yet brief Voters Meeting on August 30th at noon. There are two items on the agenda. Vote to call a Director of Sanctuary Music, and Vote to call SMP Vicar Kyle Borcherding as Pastor. We will need a special quorum, (minimum of 84 people to attend.) There will not be a virtual option because the call votes must be by a ballot vote.
OSLS—Our Shepherd's project approach teaching and multi-aged classrooms in Early Childhood have been recognized as a POWERFUL PRACTICE as part of our recent accreditation. The National Lutheran School Accreditation commission annually recognizes schools which demonstrate innovative leadership through the implementation of best practices related to the academic quality and spiritual development of students.
We are humbled and blessed to receive this recognition after receiving school-wide accreditation! All glory to be God that we can be an example to other schools in this capacity. Please congratulate our early childhood faculty of Mrs. Tracie Douglas, Mrs. Amy Helmkamp, and Mrs. Abby Fritcha!
SCRIPTURE READINGS
OLD TESTAMENT READING, Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
1 Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed.”
6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” 8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”
EPISTLE READING, Romans 11:1-2a, 13-15, 28-32
1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
GOSPEL READING, John 3:11-21
[Jesus said,]11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”