Harmony Christian Church

OPENING:

Just read the scripture

Acts 12:1-19

It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 

I can’t even begin to imagine how traumatic this was for the believers.

-Stephen had been murdered, Paul had started persecuting the church.  Now you have James, the brother of John put to death with a sword.  this is the John that you read his letters in the scripture… That guy’s brother tragically murdered, and for what, their belief in the resurrection of the dead through Jesus.

3 When he [Herod] saw that this [killing James] met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

This is passover.  It’s the same time of year that Herod had allowed the Romans to put Jesus to death.  He’s now trying to garner popularity with the Jews by putting the leaders of Christianity to death.  He’s already murdered James - now Peter…

Can I ask you a question?

What do you do if this is you?

What do you do when you see tragedy on a major level?  

What do you do when you’ve done everything right and you still have a child who rebels and walks away from the Lord?

Or you lived a good God honoring life and just got diagnosed with early stages of dementia..

or there is some other major tragedy that seems impossible to overcome?

What do you do?

b

Today, I want to show you what the early church did when they were facing terrifying circumstances.

See, the story is going to get wild, Peter’s going to be in prison guarded by four squads of four soldiers each - this is major - they are afraid someone might try something.  

Listen to vs 5 though

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

Did you notice what the church did?

The church gathered and prayed.

They sought God on Peter’s behalf and I want you to listen to the results…

6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, su

ILLUSTRATION:

You know what is one of the most terrifying questions as a dad?  It’s when I go to the pharmacy to pick up medication for one of my kids and they say, “What’s their birthday”  lol, I can tell you the day they were born on, but the year they were born?  I still have to ask everytime.  I get all nervous pulling up to the window.  

Can we all admit that there is something really special about moms?  Whether you have a mom, are a mom, or just know a mom, there is something special about them.

This morning, I just want to speak to the ladies in the crowd and encourage all of us when it comes to the responsibility God has put in our hands…

SCIPTURE:

In the Old Testament there is a story that I thought would be appropriate for today:

There was a man named Elkanhah who had two wives - I know, I have no idea how he did it..  He had two wives, Peninnah and Hannah.  

Every year Elkanhah and his family would go up to Shiloh to worship God, this is before Israel had a temple and they would worship God in a tent called the Tabernacle.  When Elkanah would go up to worship God he would sacrifice an animal and give a portion to Peninnah for her and his children with her but he would give his other wife Hannah a double portion because he loved her and she was unable to have kids…

Every year this would happen but a rivalry between the women happened.  Can you imagine your husband having another wife - imagine the jealousy and the rivalry that would come up.  You think comparison is bad with today’s social media, imagine living next door to that person…  Listen to what happened to Hannah

1 Samuel 1:6-8

6 Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat. 8 Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

Can I just speak for a moment to those of you who on this mother’s day are feeling excluded?  I want you to know that God sees you and you are not alone.  I know for some Mother’s day is a reminder of loss.  The loss of a mother, the loss of becoming a mother or never able to become a mother.  

Hannah knew what that was like, she was a woman who couldn’t have children and had to share a husband with a woman who could and made her feel less than..  and her husband didn’t get it…

If that’s you today, can I remind you of 

Psalm 34:18

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

God is close to those who are brokenhearted.  Jesus said those who mourn are blessed because they will be comforted.  If mother’s day is difficult for you, I’d encourage you to run to God and let Him draw you near.

Listen to Hannah’s desperate prayer to God…

1 Samuel 1:9-11

9 Onc

What if we lived like we actually believed Jesus is resurrection and life? How would it change us? Join us as we start our journey toward Easter!

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 my favorite magic duos is Penn and Teller, I love them because they all the time tell you what they are doing as they do it to you.  They perform a magic trick while telling you what it is.  They both create mystery and take the mystery away at the same time.  I love it!

This morning we are starting a 5 week journey towards Easter morning.

We are going to follow Jesus into life and my honest hope for you over the next few weeks is for nothing more than for you

My hope for the next 5 weeks is for you to fall more in love with Jesus and to double down on your commitment to following Him through life…

So, now I’m going to Penn and Teller this bad boy, I want to let you behind the scenes to see what we’re doing with this sermon and then I want to perform my “magic trick” for you…

Let’s jump into it, but instead of jumping into the beginning of the story I want to take you where it ends, I want you to see what Jesus is doing before He does it so you can see where he’s taking us..

SCRIPTURE:

After the event we’re about to unpack, people go out and start telling others about it…  I mean the word is spreading everywhere.  Word of what Jesus’ big reveal was…  I want you to see the result of what He did… listen…

John 11:45-53

46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

John tell us that Caiaphas is prophesying about the power of Jesus’ death without knowing it, but listen to what happens…

53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

I want you to hear this

Whatever you hear in the next few minutes, remember that this is the event that triggers the religious leaders to decide that Jesus must die.

Here’s the question

What in the world could have happened that would cause these leaders to come together to start plotting the death of Jesus?

b

What kind of heinous thing could He have done?

Are we climbing the wall or just walking around it? How we handle conflict matters. Let’s talk about doing it biblically. Join us this Sunday!

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.

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

When I was an elementary kid, something I hated was in gym class they would set up this wall that we had to run, jump, and climb over…  If you couldn’t get over the wall, you had to walk around and up onto the stage.  I was this chubby kid who would run at that wall and jump as high as I could, which was like 3 inches.  I’d hit the wall and kind of bounce off of it and have to just go around the wall…

What I found out as an adult is that “going around the wall” is what most people do…

b

Rather than facing issues head-on, they gossip, manipulate, or stew.

Let me give you an example

ILLUSTRATION:

Early on in ministry, I had a parent who was upset with me about something.  “The wall” would have been to come and talk to me. Instead, she got together a whole bunch of other parents, and she had them all write down questions about my ministry.  They passed the questions to her and she started asking me questions…  Have you ever felt like you want to throw up?  I was young and didn’t know what to do.  She started asking questions under the guise of it being anonymous which were really her questions.  I was nervous and felt completely blindsided - thank God there was a guy there who finally stood up and said, “Who is asking these questions” No one answered and he said, “We're done!” and all the parents walked out.  

She went around the wall instead of facing the wall - I’m not saying whatever her issue with me was wrong, I’m saying the way she handled it was wrong.

WE:

You’ve all seen this in your workplace, ever worked with someone who was underperforming and instead of going over the wall and dealing with the issue, the person was promoted?

It’s a weird way of getting a person out of a position rather than dealing with the issue…

When you try to go around “the wall” the problem is, the wall doesn’t go away, it just moves…  

b

The question is, “How do you handle conflict biblically?”

ILLUSTRATION:

You ever have a conversation with your kid and you’re like, “ok, it’s time for you to mature a little bit…”  I don’t think of anyone in here as kids, but I will tell you, I’m preaching this because it’s time as Christians we mature and handle conflict the way Jesus would want us to because 

Of all the dangers I’ve seen in “the church,” the division caused by conflict poorly handled is the most dangerous of all.

So, today I want to do the rest of the sermon more like a Ted Talk.  I want to address 2 things…

Are we black cat fuses, ready to explode, or green fuses, slow to burn? What’s shaping our hearts? Let’s break rage together—tune in!

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.

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

Something you wouldn’t know about me is that I’m crazy when it comes to firecrackers - I’m the uncle who is over there lighting firecrackers and throwing them at your feet the whole time.  I’m the guy that people are like, “Maybe we shouldn’t have invited Kent…”  I was thinking about how when I was a kid, I learned my love of firecrackers.  My brother and I would sit out in front of our house and light black cats and chuck them into the street.  My mom had told us 100 times not to do this - she said you’re going to have one blowup in your hand.  I had also not learned yet to just throw it straight out from the lighter, so I was throwing them like a baseball.  One fourth of July I lit this black cat and pulled it up by my ear and it exploded in my hand and by my ear.  

I couldn’t hear for hours and my hand hurt pretty bad…

I now prefer the firecrackers that have the little green fuses, because they are predictable.  The black cat fuses are unpredictable - sometimes you light em and they just go normal, but sometimes you light em and they burn up almost immediately…

You are like, “Kent, why are you talking about fireworks in the middle of March?”

Here’s what I was thinking about…  

Most people are either black cat fuses or green fuses when it comes to their anger.

b

You are either unpredictable and explode out of nowhere or you are even-keeled and tend to have a slow burn towards anger.

b

Today, I want to help you become the kind of person who becomes a “slow burn” kind of person - I want to “Break Rage”.slow burn” kind of person - I want to “Break Rage”.

Before we get to the scripture, I need to place a deposit in your mind - a concept that maybe you’ve never thought of before.

Have you ever heard the idea of 

Spiritual Formation

b

The things inside are shaping your outside response

Everyone has a spiritual formation - some people are intentional with it and some of us are just going with the wind - but everyone has been shaped by something.

ILLUSTRATION:

When I was a kid, I used to go down to this creek and take a bb gun and shoot out the lights at this bowling alley, it was so stinking fun…  guess what, I know this will be a shocker, but my spiritual formation was weak back then and now, that is no longer a fun activity for me.  Its would actually be disturbing to me.  

The change is that I’ve been shaped, or molded more into a Christ-like image.

b

Today

What if our anger isn't the problem, but how we use it is? Are we letting it lead us to sin, or using it to fight for others? Tune in 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.

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

I remember when I was in 6th grade our science teacher - Mr. Cronkite was trying to teach us to think outside of the box.  He said, like, if you are ever surrounded by a bunch of guys who want to get into a fight, you need to look for the person with the biggest weakness and go after it.  He then proceeded to tell us about a kid who got jumped after school and was surrounded by all these kids who were going to beat him up.  He saw that one of the kids had braces and he took Cronkite's advice and he punched that kid in the mouth as hard as he possibly could!  Blood exploded from the boy's mouth and all the other kids ran of terrified about what would happen to them…

Needless to say, Mr. Cronkite was all the boys' favorite teacher after that…

But he had a point, right, 

Usually, the one who wins a fight is the one who fights the dirtiest…

Today we are starting this series, 

FIGHT

learning to handle conflict (the healthy way)

I’m going to give you the boring stuff - Cronkite knew how to make it exciting, but my goal isn’t for you to learn to win fights, but how to go an entirely different route over the next few weeks…

Especially coming out of this series on relationships…

So, today we are going to look at when anger is a good thing, and when it’s not so much

Let me ask you a question, 

How many of you struggle with anger?

b

Better yet, how many of you would those close to you say you can be an angry person?

ILLUSTRATION:

I asked my kids this and they were like, “no dad, you’re not.”  But I know that’s not always true…  The reality is, just like you, I have times where I’m angry and where I explode…

Today I want to look at when it’s ok to be angry and when it’s not.

CAVEAT:

Here’s my worry with this sermon is that not everyone who is angry actually knows they are angry.  Some of you have just accepted it as part of who you are.  

Here’s how to know if you have a problem with anger.  

b

Ask yourself this question, “If I had a boss who talked to me the way I talk to __(your spouse, kids, employees, etc)_.  Would I put up with it?”

If you’re really brave, ask your loved ones if they think you are an angry person, but be prepared and give them 100% immunity from any repercussions - because if you are an angry person, I p

Are we creating an environment in our marriages where love and respect can thrive? Let’s dig into this together in part 2 of this message on growing in your relationship with your spouse.

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:

If you weren’t here for last week's sermon, you really will want to go and listen to it.  If you remember we were talking about

How do you go from frustrated to liberated in your relationship with your spouse?

We looked at Paul’s words in Ephesians 5:33

Ephesians 5:33

33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

and then we started working backward and 

We looked at what it meant for a man to love his wife

We talked about being unselfish, undivided, unstoppable

b

and I called you men to be fierce for your family.

Ladies, are you ready for your part of the sermon?

ILLUSTRATION:

Have you ever been nervous to do something?  Like when you were a kid getting up on the high dive at a pool.  If you were like me, once you got up there you were like, “uh, well, l guess this is happening” and there’s the kid behind you going, “Just jump…”

Well, I feel like I climbed up a high dive and it’s time to jump - ladies, I’m going to ask you to stick with me through this sermon, because I have a feeling at first you might want to just turn me off and be like, “Nope, this dudes a chauvinist” but I’m going to intentionally stretch it that way so where we actually land is the right place - you ok with that?

Ok, I’m gonna jump and hope you’ll stay with me…

LADIES: 

When Paul says to respect your husband, this is the same word in Greek used to speak of “fearing” God.

I want to ask the questions you might be asking:

What does that mean?  Is this just an example of men writing something to try and “put women in their place”?

Before we answer that, let me give that argument a little more fuel

Listen to this…

Ephesians 5:22-24

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Maybe you are like, “I knew it, the bible’s just full of Chauvinist toxic masculinity” - submit to your husband?  I’d rather stub my toe…

Oh man, see what I’m saying…

Are we loving our wives like Christ loves the church—unselfish, undivided, unstoppable? What kind of man are we choosing to be? Tune in to be challenged and learn how to grow in your relationship with your spouse!

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:

I asked Jenni to tell me what the most frustrating about being married to me and she said, “I just have to pick one thing??"

Ha, that’s the truth, right?

There are so many things that can get under our skin in marriage

-how you squeeze the toothpaste

-leaving dirty underwear on the floor

-constantly changing the channel

-how you talk about one another

-how you talk to one another

-the way you spend money

-etc.

Marriage can be frustrating, but it can also be exhilarating and liberating

b

The question is how do we go from frustration to liberation?

STUDY:

This morning we are going to open up to Ephesians. Paul is in the middle of giving Godly advice for how to have all kinds of relationships, but in this particular passage he has zoned in on marriages and how a Godly marriage is supposed to work

Ephesians 5:33

33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

There was a Christian relationship book written using just this one verse, the book is called “Love and Respect"

-the author takes Pauls basic statement and makes the argument that men and women both need something different

     -Men need respect most and women need love most (this is not to say that women don’t need to be respected or men don’t need loved)

ILLUSTRATION:

When my kids were young, they used to pick out a gift for their friends that they just KNEW they would love!  They’d watch with anticipation as the kid opened the gift at their birthday party and then toss the gift in the pile of other gifts and say thanks.  I can remember once watching my kid go over and timidly say, “um, can I play with it?”

They were giving the gift they wanted, not necessarily the gift the other person would want

b

This happens in relationships all the time…

We give what WE want rather than what THEY need

b

I think most men tend to want to fix things and give distance.

Most women tend to want to give love, words, and closeness.

and we try and give what we wan

What if the key to a thriving marriage isn’t fixing our spouse—but becoming whole ourselves? Tune in Sunday as we unpack what holiness really means and how it might affect you in powerful ways!

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:

There are things I wish people would have told me about relationships before getting married - it’s the kind of stuff you never see in a RomCom…

Like, no one ever told me that you are laying on your back playing with your baby - you know, doing the little airplane mode and that that baby had just eaten that you ARE going to get puked on.  And maybe a little bit of it is going to go into your mouth…  uck… 

And not one tells you that when you call for your spouse that she’s going to grab the phone to take a picture instead of helping you…  Lol…

No one warns you when you get pregnant with a kid that you are going to not sleep for the REST of your life!

There’s no way of knowing when you are dating if the guy you are dating is the kind of monster who squeezes the toothpaste from the middle of the tube or not…

Rom-coms don’t tell us the whole story when it comes to relationships. 

-What do you do when the man you married is shut off and emotionless

-What do you do when she nags at you and never sees the good you’ve done

-what do you do when you wish there was someone else or you’d made a different decision

What do you do when your whole story finally comes into focus and all you see are holes?

b

First, let me say, there is hope for you…

Don’t give up, every good thing is hard… 

b

But if we are going to go from holes to whole, we are going to have to learn some things no one told us about relationships.

There is this thing I want to bring up in a moment, but I need to debug it a bit because most of us have grown up with a picture of the word

Here’s the word, are you ready for it?

Holy

What’s the picture when you hear someone say holy?

-for some of you it’s a priest or someone who doesn’t ever do anything fun

-some of you it’s a woman in a floral print button-down shirt, with a jean skirt on and a bible in her hand

again, someone you perceive to not have any fun

Telling someone to “be Holy” is the linguistic equivalent of telling someone to eat their vegetables in our culture.

I need you to get a picture of that word in your mind so we can destroy it and rebuild it…

1 Peter 1:15-16

15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”[

What do you do when you're not sure the person you are married to is actually your soulmate?  Or even better, how do you choose?  The answer might surprise you? Tune in 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.

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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

I remember asking one of my parents how I knew I'd be in love and they said, "You'll just know". That felt problematic because it took me 25 years to figure out that every time I drank milk I got sick cause I was lactose intolerant. If I couldn't diagnose that, how would I ever have any luck with falling in love?

I mean seriously!

Today we are going to delve into some waters and talk about “love” as we do, I want you to be aware, that I’m going to poke at some ideas like “you’ll just know” that might make you want to say, “Kent you’re a dummy,” but stick with me…  Because…

When it comes to “Love,” our world is saturated with ideas that make for great Rom-Coms, but make for terrible relationship guidance.

Let me explain what I mean…

Tell me if any of these ideas about love/relationships sound familiar to you:

-You'll "just know"

-Finding the "one"

-Finding your "soulmate"

-Finding the "perfect" person for you

-That we can find our "happily ever after"

-We were "meant to be"

-it was "Love at first sight"

Can I ask you a question?

Why do Americans tend to believe these ideas to be true? 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard these pop up in marriage counseling either in a positive - He was my soul mate, or I just knew or in a negative way, I’m not sure we are really meant for each other

You may have your own answers to why we believe these things, maybe you were like me, your parents told you that - but where did they get those ideas?

But I will tell you one sure fireplace that has been peddling these ideas for decades has been Hollywood and now social media.

A lot of these ideas come from ancient religions, myths, folklore, fairy tales, and more - Hollywood capitalizes on them to make great stories and we ingest them as if they were our own ideologies…

Are these ideas really what love is?  What does the scripture say about love?

b

Does it say there is a perfect person for you that “you’ll just know”?

b

Maybe you’re thinking

“Kent, I don’t know why it matters if I believe these ideas or not?”

b

It matters because your deeply held belie