Harmony Christian Church

Have you considered the impact of Jesus' death on the cross? How does it personally impact you?  #JesusChangedMe #CrossTransformation IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

PART I:

A few days before the cross…

Jesus is in Jerusalem, he has been upsetting the leaders by asking hard questions and pushing the boundaries of what convention would say.  He’s turned over tables in the temple, He came into Jerusalem with people saying, “hosanna” (in Hebrew means “save us”) riding on a donkey - like Jewish Kings would have ridden.

Jesus will spend most of his nights on the back side of the Mount of Olives, just outside the city of Jerusalem in the city of Bethany - the house of the poor, right on the edge of the desert.  

It is here he will have a woman anoint his feet with expensive perfume  - perfume He will claim is her preparing Him for His burial…

PART II:

it’s the night before the cross.  Jesus is celebrating the Passover with his disciples.  Normally a holiday that is full of joy, on this night it seems ominous.  Jesus starts the celebration by acting like a household servant and washing the disciple's feet.  He will tell them that one of them is going to betray Him.  He seems full of paranoia and it begins to spread to them.  They are asking themselves if He means them.  He, of course, does mean Judas.

this meal is normally a meal full of meaning - food hidden, chairs left for ancient prophets, and food that represents God’s redemption of His people.  But on this night, Jesus inputs a new meaning into the meal.  He takes the bread, it would have been almost more like a cracker.  And he breaks it.  He says, “I’ll be broken just like this for you…”  “what could he even mean by that…” Then he takes the wine and says, “This is my blood, poured out for you - it’s the blood of the covenant that will bring the forgiveness of many…”  

the evening ends, dark and heavy, the group of 12 men and Jesus missing one - Judas has run out and everyone's talking.

PART III:

It’s now late into the evening.  Jesus has gone to the Garden of Gethsemane and now they are among the olive trees - he’s upset, more upset than they’ve ever seen Him.  He prays they sleep, 3 times.  3 times they fail Him.  He is anguished, broken - knowing what’s coming.  The cross is hours away…

Then it happens.  Torches and voices, kisses that betray.  scuffles. 

Jesus was taken off, Jesus not even fighting them, Jesus going to be tried unlawfully in the middle of the night

PART IV:

All night he’s been moved from place to place.  He’s been beaten to within inches of His life.  He’s exhausted, broken, quiet…

and then this…

Matthew 27:27

27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right

How can we believe in God when we can't physically see or experience Him? Tune in to today's sermon to discover how eyewitness testimonies and the transformative power of Jesus can deepen our faith.  Tune in and let's journey together towards liberation!  Jump in with us in Sections 111 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Have you ever heard someone say they can’t believe in God because they can’t believe in something they can’t see? I mean, people believe in all kinds of things they’ll never get to see Gravity, oxygen, Social Security.  That McDonald's is still fast food. 

low gas prices

kids will listen to you

fast food

Ha, seriously though, this is a problem for lots of people, right, they want to be able to touch and feel things, in order to believe in them.  

How do you believe in a God you can’t see or physically experience?

Did you know Jesus knew this was going to be a problem for you?

After His resurrection, after Thomas had put his fingers in Jesus’ side and the holes in His hands, Jesus said this:

John 20:29

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

People act like they’ve come up some grand argument about the existence of God, but Jesus knew this would be the argument from the beginning.  

Jesus knew it would be hard to believe without seeing.

If you’re a skeptical person, maybe you’re wondering why anyone would believe..

ILLUSTRATION:

I get it,  my wife has an easy time believing, it’s how she’s wired.  I’ve always struggled more.  I always think things are hocus pocus.  so, for me, believing in Jesus took some work.  Can I take you to one of things that helped me?

We’re gonna start on a mountain, move to years past Jesus’ death & resurrection, and end with us today…

SCRIPTURE:

Jesus is gearing up to head to Jerusalem, actually, shortly after the passage we’re going to read, Jesus will “turn his face resolutely towards Jerusalem”.  He has started to say and do cryptic things.  Like he takes the disciples up to this pagan Gentile region and asks them who people say He is.  He predicts his death and resurrection for the first time - they don’t know what to do with this.  and then Jesus takes them up onto a high Mountain - this is found in section 111- we’re going to read from Luke's version, but Mark & Matt. include it as well..

Lk 9:28-36

28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 

Jesus takes these three guys on this hike up the mountain and they go so h

Are we willing to come out of the captivity of the evil one and allow Jesus to set us free from whatever binds us? Are we ready to surrender our lives to Him and experience His transformative power?  Join us for this sermon as we dive deeper into the story of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5:1-20 and discover how Jesus can break the power of darkness in our lives. Don't miss out on the opportunity to find freedom and share in the amazement of all that Jesus has done. Tune in and let's journey together towards liberation!  Jump in with us in Sections 88 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

You know the phrase, “Let’s talk about the elephant in the room,” have you ever wondered where that came from?  I mean, because I’d think if you had an elephant in a room, it would be all you would talk about.  I mean did someone show up at a rotary club meeting and there was a pachyderm sitting in the corner, everyone sipping their tea and NOT talking about the elephant in the room?  

I just don’t get it

But I’ll tell you this

Humans have an incredible capacity to ignore big issues to not have to deal with the dissonance they create in us.

-How many companies should have bit the dust years ago, but still hang on

-Married couples, unwilling to deal with the issues in front of them

What we do we do?

We let there be elephants in the room…

b

Today, I want to take you into a story from the Gospels and then show you an "elephant in the room”

SCRIPTURE

Mk 5:1-20

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes.[a] 

Remember what has just been happening with these guys we talked about it a couple weeks ago - they have been on the lake, there has been a terrible storm - they thought they were going to die - likely the sky is still dark as clouds have receded - likely the shore is wet, mud everywhere…  This is gentile - not a jew territory…

I want you to get this…

Jesus has put their life on the line to get here.  Why?

2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

Mark gives us the picture of this man - when you are at the Sea of Galilee - you will see there are all these cliffs surrounding it with caves, etc.  This

Have you ever struggled with trusting God?  What's that about?  How do you get past it? Tune in to Kent's sermon and learn how you can turn and trust the one who can still the wind and the waves and redeem our story. Jump in with us in Sections 87 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

ILLUSTRATION:

The first time I ever swung a golf club was at a driving range.  I knew nothing about golfing except they had given me a long stick to hit a small ball.  So, naturally, as a 20-something kid, I thought, “Hit it as hard as you can…”  Man, I was swinging that bad boy as hard as possible, trying to muscle it.  And you can guess what was happening, it was terrible - the ball was slicing, and then sometimes barely moving.  At one point, it literally went sideways.  Finally, a guy came over to me and said, “It’s not about how hard you hit it, it’s about having good form and follow through”…

I stopped and watched all these other people hitting the ball, I watched them with grace, hit the ball, and follow through with their club and it hit me, I couldn’t get a hit because I didn’t know what I was doing…

WE:

We all know what it’s like to not have good follow-through on something, right?

-Some of you have a boss that takes things to like 90% done and then switches to a new project and it drives you nuts - nothing’s ever finished

As humans, we know what it looks like for someone to not follow through on an implied promise.

b

I think the secret struggle of lots of people when it comes to God, is feeling like God fails to follow through.

There are a few points in people's lives where they tend to walk away from God

The sermon I’m about to preach is one that can cause people to walk away from God.

 b

Can I preach it, and then walk you back through why people walk away and what we can do?

Check it out…

THE SERMON:

One of the things I think Jesus was doing was redeeming the history & story of Israel.

Let me explain - do you know the story of Jonah?  

God called Jonah to go to a non-Jewish nation and call them to God.  He didn’t want to do it, so he ran - he got on a boat with a bunch of religiously pagan sailors and set off for a distant land to run from God.  Jonah went down into the boat and fell asleep.  While he was sleeping, a huge storm broke out.  The sailors, guys who knew what they were doing on the water thought they were going to die.  They finally wake up Jonah and end up realizing he’s the reason - he’s running from God.  They throw Jonah over the side of the boat and the storm stops.  The sailors end up worshiping God and sacrificing to him out of fear.

Alright, let’s jump into the gospels (section 87), cause I want you to see how Jesus redeems this story..

What does our rebellion against God result in and why? Tune in to Kent's sermon to understand the biblical theology behind it and the idea that humanity is in slavery to the fear of death and under the power of Satan, and how Jesus came to break that power and set us free!  IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

You know there was a study that was done to see if kids are more influenced by nature or nuture - meaning, are we more a product of our environments or our inherited traits.  They found that nature won out.  Kids who had been adopted were more similar to their birth families in nature than the families who had raised them.  That’s why my kids are all so good looking!  Ha!

Actually it’s why all my kids knees are going to be shot by the age of 19…  My kids are just lucky to have Jenni for a mom - her good WAY outweighs my genes, thank Jesus.

We all are a product of what we have inherited.

b

This is not just true physically, but spiritually as well.

You don’t have to teach your kid to disobey you, do you?

None of you had to teach your child to be selfish, right?

None of you had to teach your child to say “no” to you

As a matter of fact, it’s not till your kids are older that people start to teach them how to be more sophisticated with sin, right?

This is what most of you experienced in College… 

Rebellion is a part of the human condition.

ILLUSTRATION:

It’s so built in that some parents will use it to get what they want. We say things like,  “You better not eat that vegetable…”  That’s how my parents got me to do all kinds of things - they leveraged my sinful rebellious nature to get me to obey them.  What they didn’t know what they were actually encouraging rebellion in me…  We call it reverse psychology… It’s part of the reason we never used it with our kids…

It’s not reverse psychology though, it’s feeding the beast inside of us.

Rebellion is part of our spiritual inheritance…

b

Can I walk you through some biblical Theology to set up an idea for today?

The Bible is clear that mankind's rebellion against God resulted in death entering the world.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death

Probably, if you grew up going to church you’ve heard that before.  But did you know there is another theological idea tied to this?

At the core of Adam & Eve’s rebellion against God was the core idea of “we will attempt to live life on our own terms” - remember the tree they ate from was the knowledge of Good & Evil?

b

The problem was and is: when Adam & Eve and all mankind become aware of what is good and what is evil - and sti

This week Kent shares with us from the parable of the 4 soils and fills in some blanks on some exciting news for Harmony moving forward..  IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

So, growing up, I always thought if you had good kids it’s because you had just hit the lottery - it was just the luck of the draw.  That’s why my basic plan for starting a family was to find someone with really good kids and offer money to buy their children…  Lol, not really, I was just going to take them…  Ha, I would never do that.  But seriously.  

I really thought it was magic, like there was a great coin slot in the sky that we all just put our quarter in and got what we got out of it.  I thought it was just luck, that was, till I became a youth pastor.  While it’s true that every kid has a personality and no one is going to parent perfect 

I found that good kids were the product of lots of hard-won sweat and tears.  It was lots of follow-through, lots of getting up when it would be easier to stay in your chair.  It was thousands of little conversations and hours spent shaping and caring for those kids - stewarding their hearts towards wisdom and life.

It turns out things grow in the soil their planted in.

b

The Biblical idea for this is called reaping and sowing.

It means whatever you plant is what you will get back in return.

So, here’s the question our staff has been mulling over…

You know the whole reason I’ve given my life to the work of ministry is not just to keep you entertained up here or to help you leave feeling motivated for the week.

My life’s purpose is to raise up and release Leaders for God’s Kingdom - Disciples.

b

The question our staff has been struggling through is how do we help you move from “interested church attender” to “active discipled leader”?

I don’t mean that you would have to be a church leader or become a pastor.  What I mean is, how do you go from “Yeah, I go to church” to, “I’m on mission for Jesus?”  What does it take?

Jesus told a parable to tell us what kind of soil that kind of person grows in.

Here’s the parable:

There was a farmer who went out to plant some seed.  He was doing it the old-fashioned way where you walked through afield and spread it with your hands.  Some of that seed fell on the path next to the field. Birds came and ate it up before it could even take root.  Some of it fell into some rocky ground - that seed took root, but as soon as it came up the sun baked it and it withered because it’s roots couldn’t go deep.  Some of the seed fell into some weeds, it started to come up but it got choked out by the other plants.  The rest of the seed fell on good soil, it took root and started to grow and it produced more seeds all the way up to 100x what was sown.  

Jesus loved to tell these kind of stories.  He used stuff people understood in those days - if he lived in Georgetown he’d talk about making car parts.  But He lived in a place where agriculture ruled the day. &

Ever questioned whether you're saved or not?  Kent is going to take us to a story from Jesus that will touch on that idea.  Stay tuned to the end to get some practical ways to orient yourself to being good Seed.  Jump in with us in Sections 80 & 83 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

I hate having to search for my Starbucks drink.

I place my order online, walk into the store, and there are 75 other drinks sitting lined up like boys at a junior high dance.

I’ve just started grabbing the first one that looks good to me!

Ha, sometimes I take one that’s not mine and just watch for someone to come looking for their precious, mocha latte, with a double half twist cold brewed with a skoch of chai.  

What if you just walked up and started taste testing till you found the right one?  What do you think they would do?  Ha, [act out] “Ew, that should be taken off the menu…”

Every time I go looking for my drink, I’ve got the “Sorry if I just touched your drink” look on my face.  Because they are always hiding the label under the little drink skirt.  

Seriously, I hate it!

I hate trying to find something that’s hidden right in plain sight.

We all know what that’s like, right

Ladies, how many times has your husband been looking for something and you walk over and say, “It’s right here!” and it’s literally right in front of his face!

Ever realized you left the report on your desk in a pile of papers and you’re rushing trying to find it, digging through stacks of junk to find the “one”?

Today, we’re going to jump into a story Jesus told, a parable about trying to find something that was hidden in plain sight.

b

A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning..

Check it out…

Mt 13:24-30

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 

Actually, the weeds Jesus is referring to is a type of grass that grows in Israel, when it is first starting to grow, it looks almost identical to wheat, this is important for later…  Keep it in your back pocket

26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

Jesus said some pretty tough things - He was always hyper clear that there is a competition in our souls of who will have the throne in your heart.  The question is which King will you choose?  Jump in with us in Sections 61 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Do you remember the first time you got on an airplane?  For me, I was older, already an adult.  So, I remember sitting there nervously as we all boarded and sat there, the whir of the engine and the bustle of the stewardesses.  They started to back the plane away from the gate and the stewardess starts to tell everyone how to buckle their seat belts and what to do in case of a crash.  I’m listening to it and I’m studying and pouring over the pamphlet in front of me like it’s my only lifeline to reality…

I can remember very vividly looking around at everyone else on the plane and being like, “if we get in a crash, I’m not helping any of you suckers out!”

Ha!

here’s my question…

Why didn’t anyone care about the instructions about what to do in case of a crash?

Cause I guarantee you, if we’d have been in a crash - it’s the first and only thing they would have cared about…

At least one of the reasons they didn’t care is because they didn’t believe a crash would happen to them.

They’d never experienced a crash and so they ignored the information.

You might want to argue with me and say, “Or they’ve just heard it so many times that they didn’t have to listen anymore.”  I’d agree with you, except, for the fact that I’m pretty sure if you got on a plane and they said, “There’s a 90% chance that we go down, but it’s our only choice to take off right now, otherwise there’s a 100% chance we die” If that was the case, how many people do you think would listen to the instructions that time?  I’m pretty sure every single person would be dialed in, listening to every detail.

The only change would be they believed they were going to need the information..

Can I take you to some of Jesus’ most ignored words? :)

Jesus has been talking to people about praying, he’s been talking about fasting…

He’s been sharing about what life in the Kingdom of God looks like, how to pray, how to fast.

Then He gives the rules of the Kingdom that most of us listen to and then go right back to life as usual.

Mt 6:19-24

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 

In our modern world, this would have been, don’t store up your treasure on earth where stock markets fail and floods and tornadoes destroy…

right?  

Jesus is trying to help them see how the security this

What is it that shapes your identity?  How would you answer the questions, "who am I" and "whose am I"?  This week Kent takes us to some words of Jesus' that have the potential to revolutionize your identity.  Jump in with us in Sections 50 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

ILLUSTRATION:

In World War II the Japanese had prisoners of war write letters to home about how much they hated America and how what America was doing was wrong.  Why did the prisoners do this?  because they were being offered cigarettes.  

What they found is these prisoners slowly became anti-American.  

Why?  

Intellectually, the prisoners couldn’t imagine that they had sold out America for cigarettes.  

b

Ultimately, they justified their behavior by shifting their belief to match their actions.  They became Anti-American.

Why did that happen?  

It’s because

You can’t operate for long in a manner that is inconsistent with what you believe about yourself without creating incredible dissonance inside of you. 

b

The only way to resolve the dissonance is by changing either what you do or what you believe.

did you hear that?  Human's ability to justify things will cause us to either morph our beliefs to fit our behavior, or we will morph our behavior to fit our beliefs - we CAN’T stay in a place of inconsistency for long

b

When there is prolonged misalignment between your belief & behavior you will experience an internal breakdown.

ILLUSTRATION:

let me try and help this make sense with one more quick illustration.  I believe inside that I’m a hard worker - that I go above and beyond.  A while back, I was under a lot of pressure and found myself mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, even when I was supposed to be working.  I would get to the end of the work day and feel awful.  Why?  It was because 

I was being inconsistent with who I am. 

My lack of integrity in my activity was violating my authenticity. 

This is why people in our culture talk about their “authentic self”

The problem is, in our culture, we pretend like our authentic self is untouched by any kind of outside influence or pressure, but that’s not true… Your authentic self is a construct

Your authentic self is a construct of your internal personality plus your experiences, relationships, beliefs, and behaviors.

b

We call this our identity

But identity is not formed in a vacuum

It is one of the

The Kingdom Jesus came to initiate inside of you is so wildly different than what our world expects, you almost look lucky.  Tune in today to learn how your citizenship and not your circumstances determine more about you than you know.  Jump in with us in Sections 49 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT'S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316  to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).

OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

I am perhaps one of the most unlucky people you will ever meet!  I’m telling you, if something could go wrong, it’s going to happen to me.  The first time this hit me was when I was a kid, we had been going off and on to this church - they were having a meal afterward and it was a fancy church.  Like, they had real crystal and china for church meals - none of this paper plates and red solo cups!  For some reason, my parents asked me to carry the tray.  I think they were trying to empower me.  But as I was carrying this tray, I started to fumble it and everything flew off of it.  crashing to the floor, tons of crystal and china.  You could see in the old lady’s faces that I had just committed a mortal sin.  Ha.  And since that point in time, that’s basically the story of my life…

So much so, that I’ve learned to use my bad luck to my advantage.  I’ve found that if I’m in a doctor's office and I’m really getting into an article in a magazine that the doctor will call me to come.  I used to hate this, but now I use it to my advantage  :)

Can I ask you a question?

Who are the people you consider “lucky” in our world?

If you’re like me, you’ve got a person in your mind who nothing ever goes wrong for.  The person who just lucks into meeting famous people, the person who starts a business and it all just seems to go well for.  I’ve got a buddy who is hyper-aware of his luck and he will tell you right away, he doesn’t know why, but he always seems to be in the right place at the right time…

What are the things you would use to say a person is lucky?

b

Did you know Jesus talks about who gets to be lucky in this world?

Ah, some of you are like, “Kent, this sounds like witchcraft - I don’t remember Jesus ever saying anyone was lucky”  

Let me read you the passage and then it will make sense to you, you ready for this?

As I read this passage, every time you hear the word blessed, I want you to use the word “lucky” in your mind.

Matthew 5:1-12

When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then[a]he began to teach them, saying: