Harmony Christian Church

What will your mark on the Kingdom be? Let's explore together the legacy we’re building. Catch Kent’s sermon this Sunday and be inspired!

EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give). Get the fill in the blank bulletins at my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

My uncle Lou died in his forties.  I can remember, I was a freshman in high school and I can kind of remember that it wasn’t going well.  My parents had gone to the hospital that was about 4 hours away to be with him.  I remember them coming home after he passed and the darkness as my dad dealt with the pain of losing his brother.  We were sitting there and my dad was talking about the last few days of my uncle's life.  He started chuckling and said, you know your uncle Lou wasn’t doing very well and your uncle Roger was in the room with him..  He said, Lou motioned for Roger to come over and hold his hand….  He mumbled something softly and Roger leaned down to hear him.  Lou looked at him and whispered, “Pull my finger…”  lol, that tells you everything you need to know about Wagners…  Ha…

We all have a legacy we leave for those who follow us.

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Every one of us is promised just a few things

We are born, We live, We die…

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It’s all the in-between stuff that sets one person apart from another.

You have a legacy you are setting up to leave.  Some of you are being intentional about it and some of you are not…

What kind of spiritual legacy do you want to leave?  What are the kind of faith stories you want to be told about you after you are gone?

I want to take you into the story of someone who understood legacy, I want to then look at your own life and I want to challenge you to take a stand…

SCRIPTURE:

King David from the Old Testament is an old man at this point.  He has been planning on building a temple for God as his crowning achievement.  But God speaks to him and tells him because he is a man of war and bloodshed he is not going to be the one to build the temple, it will be his son.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had a dream of yours taken from you, but for David, this had to crush him.  He had plans on what the building should look like, he had purchased the land for it.  I’ve stood there in this magnificent spot in Israel. David stood there and knew everything he had put together for it was going to become someone else’s.  

Listen to what He does…

1 Chronicles 29:1-3 (NIV)

Then King David said to the whole assembly: “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the Lord God.

David knows what he is asking Solomon to do, is going to take a lot from him.  It’s funny, the Hebrew word for inexperienced is “soft”.  David knows Solomon hasn’t faced the challenges that he has faced.  He doesn’t have what he’s going to need to face the world that’s in front of him.

What are we doing with what we've been given for the Kingdom? Let’s take some time to reflect on that together. Tune in this Sunday to explore this deeper with Kent.

EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give). Get the fill in the blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.

Interview with Staff

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Give it up for our team!  Thank you guys for all you do for our church!

You know, Ministry is a weird job.  

I’ve had calls at 2 in the morning from a kid whose mom just got thrown through a window and he needed me to talk him down from killing his stepdad.  I’ve woken up to a call to come over to someone's house and counsel them in the most dire of situations.

I have sat by the bed of the dying and cared for them and met with countless couples who are considering throwing in the towel on their marriage.  On top of that we have daily concern for the spiritual life of those God has stewarded us with, even when they don’t always personally care or think about it themselves.

My job specifically I have to be able to lead with the business acumen of a CEO, be available for one-on-one counseling, be able to study like a scholar or professor, be able to get up and speak like a motivational speaker, be a manager and lead meetings, be humble, have a character that matters, be spiritually full to give to others who are spiritually hungry, be able to read a spreadsheet and talk to people who have never seen a spreadsheet. As a pastor, there are very few people you can actually be yourself with - most people feel like they can bear that burden, but the moment they find out their pastor struggles, they walk away.  It’s extremely lonely.

Why do we do it?  Why would anyone choose ministry?

ILLUSTRATION:

Literally a few years back, before coming to Harmony, my brother called me and told me he was bummed because his Christmas bonus was going to be less that year.  When he told me what the bonus would be, it hit me that his bonus was more than my entire salary for the year. 

Oof, that’s tough… So, why would we do this?  Why choose it?

I chose this because I want to take as many people as I possibly can with me.

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I want to see as many people as I can, find Jesus, and become His disciples. 

Reminds me of the parable of the talents, you know the parable right?

A landowner gives a few of his servants bags of gold, one gets 5, one gets 3, and one gets one bag of gold.  When the master comes back he finds out the guys that got 5 & 3 bags had inves

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Can I tell you a story?

For thousands of years Christianity existed in fairly small churches for the most part.  Primarily due to the fact that to travel much of a distance you had to harness up a horse. There were a few larger churches in cities, but for the most part they were pretty small

This was the case until relatively recently in history…

As the church began to grow new models of how to do church began to take center stage.  

One of the primary models that was front and center the last 20-30 years was something called “Attractional Church”

This model used words like 

“Seeker Sensitive”

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The basic premise was this:

Your church needs to be attractive to people in order to keep them in the seats.

Not bad, right, basically, make church cool and people will come.

And it worked, until it became not cool to be a Christian.  

There are things that we believe that are no longer cool in our culture.

Here’s what model produced: we created a whole generation of Christians that were focused on what they liked rather than on what Jesus liked…

And not their fault, it is what the church trained us to be…

But that’s not what Jesus was after

Jesus was after disciples

Listen to how Jesus described following Him

Luke 9:57-62

57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

ILLUSTRATION:

When I was in college, I wondered what it was like to be homeless - I know, I’m weird.  So, I went out for a walk and decided I would sleep outside that night in the city.  I never realized how freaky it was to sleep completely exposed with no protection, no one around you.  When you sleep you are completely vulnerable.  I ended up finding a bank and laying down in the light by their atm, but after about an hour I ended up going home…

We don’t know what happened with this man who said he’d follow Jesus where ever he’d go, but what we do know 

Jesus told him He was homeless - signaling, if you follow me you have to be willing to give up all your comforts

Is this the Christianity you were sold?  

I have friends who have moved to other countries to follow Jesus, one of them literally lives in what we would consider poverty to share the gospel with people.

Others put their lives on the line for Jesus.  

What level of uncomfortable are you willing to put up with to follow Jesus?

ILLUSTRATION:<

What's one step we can all take to feel less lonely and more connected? Join us this Sunday to find out! EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give). Get the fill in the blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

One of the things I always loved about having little kids is how quickly they can become friends.  If you’ve ever been around toddlers, you’ve seen it happen. They show up on the playground, walk over to another little kid - uninhibited and ask, “wanna play?”  By the end your kid is asking if you can do a play date with them and telling you about their new best friend - they’ve planned their whole lives together…

Let’s be honest, as you get older, finding true friendship is hard.

As a matter of fact, 

“In early 2024, the American Psychiatric Association’s Healthy Minds Monthly Poll revealed that 30 percent of American adults felt lonely at least weekly over the past year, while 10 percent reported feeling lonely every day. Younger adults were particularly vulnerable, with 30 percent of those aged 18-34 saying they feel lonely daily or several times a week. These findings underscore the importance of prioritizing public health initiatives and interventions to combat loneliness on a national scale.”

Have you ever wondered why we get lonely?  What that is about?

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It’s because God created you for community

Genesis 2:18

18 The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

When God created humanity, He created us with an innate desire to be with other humans…

God created you to be at your best when you’re with others - in community

Remember last week I told you 

Our hope for you is that you would become a fully activated disciple for Jesus

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That doesn’t happen in isolation, it happens in community.  

If it’s true that most of us are struggling with feeling lonely

If it's true that we were created for community

and if it’s true that it’s hard to find true friendship as adults

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What do we do?

I’m gonna be straight up with you today

My goal with this sermon is singular.  I’m hoping you will sign up for a connect group at Harmony and give it a try.

I want to give you 

3 reasons You Need to Sign up for a Connect Group

1. Being in a group gives you people to stand with and to stand for

Galatians 6:1-2 

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Oh man, it’s SO good to be back up here preaching to you guys.  It’s one of my favorite things to do with you guys.  Didn’t our guest preachers do a great job!

Can you guys believe Summer is almost over?  Ugh, I’ve been trying to keep my heart from accepting that fact.

Have you ever gone on a trip in the summer where you have all these hopes for the trip - “I’ve needed this trip SO bad!” and then you get there and EVERY single thing seems to go wrong?

Years ago, Jenni and I went to NYC, it was over her birthday and I had one hope for the trip, to get Jenni a cannoli in NYC.  So, I found the best cannoli in the city, I researched it and planned this whole sneak attack.  We went to pizza with some friends, when Jenni went to the restroom to wash her hands my friends slipped out and I started taking Jen on this little adventure.  We walked through the streets of NYC making our way to Little Italy, Jenni kept being like, “what is this” all the anticipation was building.  I had checked online and the cannoli shop was open till 10pm and it was 9pm as we started towards the shop.  We could see a couple guys standing outside looking like they were shutting down the shop, so I told Jen we had to run over there. 

I could tell these guys were going to locking up for the night early, so I said, “hey aren’t you guys open till 10?”  they said, “yeah, but tonight we’ve got a party to get to.” You know the moment in a Hallmark movie where they guy does some big gesture to show the girl how much he loves her?  I knew this was my moment, I said, “look, it’s my wife’s birthday and we’ve come all the way from Kansas for the best Cannoli in NYC, can we just slip in and buy one cannoli before you lock up for the night…”  The guy looked at me in my flannel and jeans, he paused for a moment and then said, “nah, we gotta get outa here…”  Lol, I was crushed!

We all know what it’s like to have a hope crushed don’t we? 

-hope that girl or guy was going to be the one and say yes and they said no

-hope to get offered the job only to not get a call back

-hope to get on the last flight home only to have all the seats full

Our leadership at the church as been talking about one question over the past few months

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“What do we hope for those who come to Harmony”

-I don’t mean for all 500 of you, I mean you

What do I hope God will do in YOUR life through YOUR time at this church.

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We are working hard in the background to try and ensure that we are designing what we do in order to answer that question…

I don’t want you to get to the end of your life or the end of your time here and feel like it was all for nothing - 

I want things for you!

I believe God wants things FOR you!

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So, 

How do we keep you from feeling like the door is shut in your face? How do we help you find those the things God wants for you and start to learn to walk into them?

Guest Speaker Jake Stokesbary

Join us today as Dean Rase gives us a word about Gods Grace!

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

I remember watching the very first back to the future in 1985 at my buddy Malachi’s house for a sleep over.  At the end of the movie we were all hopped up like little kids get when they watch the coolest movie ever.  We were all hoping around and I remember what we all were saying, that now as an adult watching it was the most obvious statement in the world, we were all like, “they are totally going to make another one of those…”  we all just knew that Marty was going to be back…

Through this series the Story of God, I’ve hinted around at the most monumental moment in history, I’ve described it occasionally.  

The most monumental moment in history was when God chose to die to rescue us out of the story.  

ILLUSTRATION:

You don’t get how big this is because you’ve grown up an culture that accepts this idea, but I have talked with people who grew up differently and what they tell me is “I just can’t believe that God would die”

What seems impossible to some feels like the only, and most elegant, solution to the Story of God - the only rescue was going to be if God Himself restored us.

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He would come in human form, become a servant, take on our nature, and He would do it perfectly.  

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He would then offer Himself as the sacrifice and go through death to redeem us out from under the law of good and evil - to break the authority of the evil one.

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By us putting our allegiance with Him and His sacrifice, we find salvation from our sins and enter into the new “God” life.

Probably most of you know the rest of the story.

Jesus dies to redeem us from the story

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and then He will rise from the dead 3 days later to prove He has complete and utter victory over death

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This is the crux of the entire story of God!

Then, Jesus leaves, He ascends to Heaven. 

He’s gone…

Do you know what all the early Christians were saying after this?

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“He’s totally going to come back!”

They were like me and my pre-pubesant friends sitting there watching the end of back to the future and were like, “oh no he didn’t!!!   The next ones gonna be even better!”

There’s a lot in the New Testament about this, but I wanted to give you three things to think about:

Jesus was such a killer preacher - sometimes you don’t hear it because you’re so familiar with His stories…  

Matthew 24:42-44

42 “Therefore keep

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Let me ask you to do a little math…  Everyone divide 1 by 3.  What’s the answer?  .3 repeating, right?  Now, what’s .3 repeating times 3?  It’s not 1!  It’s .9 repeating.  Somewhere we lose .1 repeating…  [mind blown].  Math doesn’t work!  this is why bridges fall down eventually!  Lol…

Have you ever discovered that something you believed your whole life was wrong?

like Math… ;)

I know you’ve felt this before

-I’ve had friends who found out the people they thought were their birth parents had adopted them

-I’ve seen families torn apart finding out that the person who was supposed to be faithful had a secret life

It’s almost never good when you discover that what you’ve believed was wrong…

Today, I want to take you into a struggle I had with this, and then walk you through my study in the story of God to find a way out of it..

To start, we have to go back into the story of God back to a prophet Isaiah.  When we covered Isaiah, I mostly told you about how his prophecy impacted me and brought me back to God…

Isaiah was prophesying right before the fall of the Southern Kingdom into the hands of the Babylonians…

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One of the key themes in Isaiah is what scholars have called the “Servant Songs” (Song 1 - 42:1-4; Song 2 - 49:1-6; Song 3 - 50:4-9; and Song 4 - 52:13-53:12.)

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Christians say the Suffering servant in Isaiah is Jesus…

If you’ve been a Christian for a long time, you’ve probably heard a sermon on some of these verses about Jesus…

Except, the Suffering Servant isn’t a person, it’s the nation of Israel…

ILLUSTRATION:

Heard Rabbi’s say this and thought they couldn’t be right, I’ve read these passages over and over again, listened to pastors preach on it and never heard one of them once say that it’s not referring to Jesus but Israel.

The problem is, their right - Isaiah clearly identifies the suffering servant as Israel.

I’m not going to read these all, but I will show you quickly on the screen that this is the case…

[Anthony, can you get these references all on one screen]