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The central question of Christianity is why does someone dying 2,000 years ago and rising from the dead matter to you? If the answer to that question is "it doesn't" then it's all meaningless, but what if it's real?  What if God came to do something bigger than you can imagine?. Join us Sunday to dive 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.





OPENING ILLUSTRATION:



Did you guys know there is a proper way to fold a towel?  



Look all the women are like, “Of course there is” All the men are like, “You fold towels?”



It’s really true.  The other day I was folding towels when I was done I came back in and my beautiful wife was refolding the towels, I was like, “What are you doing?”  She, with a kind look on her face said, “I appreciate you trying…”  



Lol…



I wasn’t mad though - it just means I don’t have to fold towels anymore… :)



Some of you are like, “No, it means you need to learn to fold towels correctly…”



One of the worst feelings in the world is to put your energy into something that ends up being worthless…



The other day I was having a conversation with someone who said he didn’t believe Jesus died and rose from the dead.  What he said was he couldn’t understand how someone dying 2,000 years ago and rising from the dead would do anything for anyone.



It’s a good question, right?  How does someone dying 2,000 years ago and then raising from the dead do anything for you?



b



What if you put all this energy into Christianity and it all ended up being worthless?



b



The even better question is, what if it’s real?



I wanted to share with you a historical account from the Story of God - if you don’t know we’ve been in a series on this looking at how God’s interaction in the world has worked.  I want to show you a story today that I think will help make sense of why Jesus’ death on the cross makes a difference for us… and then hopefully help you see that it’s worth investigating…



DAVID:



Probably one of the most famous people from the bible is King David.  David did not start off as King.  He was a shepherd boy, he’d spend his days in a field, all by himself watching over flocks and caring for these animals.  He would lay on rocks some days and other days watch as a wolf or bear prowled on his sheep and would have to fight them off.  He was a musician and a warrior - actually, he was one of the fiercest men in the scripture.  He did a lot of good things and did some hideously bad things…



One time when he was older, while all the kings normally went off to war - meaning he was home in his Kingdom with most of the women - He took for himself one of his key men's wives and hatched a murderous plot to kill her husband - one of his friends…



David did plenty wrong - but what he got right was he had a heart for what God’s heart beat for.  



b



Even when he messed up, David would turn back to God…



one of the most famous stories of David was from when he was a young man before he had blood on his hands and before he’d seen enough life to know better…



You have probably heard this story before.  



David was delivering food to his brothers who were fighting in the then King's army, Saul…



Israel had drawn up battle lines with their foes, the Philistines.



You HAVE to get your mind out of the little kid books you've seen about these stories.  These fierce battles warn men.  There is dust in the air, the stench of sweat and campfires.  



One minute these guys are prodding one another on, the next they are talking about back home.  Picture any movie you’ve seen with military men waiting…  They are waiting because neither army wants to go out and attack.  The Philistines keep sending out their champion, a giant of a man - Goliath -

🎙️🔊 Tune in to Kent's sermon today to learn about Samuel and Saul and the cataclysmic collision that led to Christ. Let's dive in together and discover more! 🙏✨ 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:



When I was a kid my brother had been doing something to make me mad.  I was sitting at the top of the driveway with my skateboard, and my brother had been making fun of me or something. As I sat there I can remember as clear as day when I let go of my skateboard, my brother was riding his bike down the sidewalk and I can remember watching it in slow motion as it went down and all of a sudden it hit me that my timing was perfect and he was going to hit the skateboard.  When his front tire hit the skateboard his bike flipped and he went flying. 



We’ve all been there when two worlds collided



-You’re wife meets your ex wife



-When the department leads of two divisions - sales and production explode because one wants to keep selling and the other wants to slow down



-Your kids over shotgun in the car…  lol



Some collisions can be cataclysmic and have repercussions that last for generations. 



ILLUSTRATION:



Did you know that how the Atomic bomb that Oppenheimer and his team developed and used during WWII, at a very basic level, is by having atomic reactions where nuclei splits, which creates a violent release of energy?  Neutrons are released which bombard other nuclei and cause a chain reaction of unfathomable damage and destruction. 



Today we are going to zoom in on a collision that will unfold in slow motion over the next few weeks and have massive consequences.



Today we are going to look at two people.  I want to tell you both of their stories leading up to the collision.



Samuel & Saul - the start of the undoing.



b



Samuel:



Samuel is the last of the judges.  He operates almost as a priest and a prophet.  He was born to a woman who was unable to have children.  She prayed and asked God to give her a child and if he would she would give the child to the Lord’s service.  So, when she had Samuel, she brought him to Shiloh and gave him to the old Priest Eli to be raised.  Samuel is probably one of my favorite characters in scripture.  He hears God’s voice as a young man and he tries hard to follow God - he’s not perfect, but he is a man who brokered the collision we’re talking about.



Saul:



Here’s how the scripture describes Saul



1 Samuel 9:2



Kish had a son named Saul, as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else.



ILLUSTRATION:



I’ve got a brother-in-law who is 6’ 8”.  Jenni’s sister is 6’ 1”.  When we are around them we look like their mini me’s.  But one of the things I’ve noticed being around him, Joe, who is naturally a strong leader gets pegged as a leader before he opens his mouth.  I think a huge part of it is his height.  That people see him and expect him to be a leader due to his height.  You may not believe it, but did you know there is a thing called the “height premium” where sociologists have discovered that tall people on average are paid more than short people?  It’s time for us short people to unite!  Heightest beware ;)



Saul is going to be chosen as the King of Israel, primarily because he looked like he should be a king…



b



As a matter of fact, when it’s announced he is king, they can’t find him because he’s hiding among the luggage…



Saul is of the tribe of Benjamin



At the end of the book of Judges, one of the things we learn about the tribe of Benjamin is that they were almost completely wiped out.  It’s this story of things going out of control - the Israelites have a civil war, they fight

📖 What are we doing to pass on the knowledge of God to our kids? 🙏 Join Kent to explore this crucial question through the book of Judges!  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:



So, I need to confess something.  I am a problem in our family.  Not just a problem, I am THE problem.  Here’s how it works.  It will be 9 or 9:30 at night, our kids will have school the next day, and everyone is getting ready for bed, showers, brushing their teeth, etc.  One of our kids will come into our room to say goodnight and a half hour later we are wrestling around and joking or watching a show or whatever.  I am the agent of chaos in our family!  Lol, it’s what I do!



Our kids know it too, they know if they can get me to think something is funny or fun that it’s over, I’m gonna forget about the reality of the day that is looming on the other side of night and I’m going to go headlong into crazy.  



When I was a kid, I hated order, I hated structure - I’m naturally a rule breaker, but as I’ve aged, I like to think I’ve gotten a little wiser and one of the things I’ve learned is



Where chaos rules, consequences multiply



b



We all know actions have consequences right?  



If I stay up late on a school night, I’m going to have a longer harder day the next day…



You can only ignore the consequences of chaos for so long before they become unbearable.



WE:



-This may be a hoarder house where you can’t move around and can never invite anyone over to your house



-it may be the person who lives with the spouse that you can’t trust - anything they say is ever honest



-it may be the teacher who has no ability to manage their class 



I don’t care what the context is, if you ignore the consequences the chaos will eventually overtake your world.



I want to jump into a world that was FULL of chaos today.



b



The book of Judges in the scripture follows on the heels of Joshua and his generation passing away.



Listen, I tell you a few stories from the book of Judges you need to not think of the Jewish people as you might see them, an organized nation and religious group.  



These were more like an odd mix of the old west and native American Indian Tribes that were loosely connected to each other. 



There is a violence and a way of doing things that does not fit with our modern sensitivities…



God’s promise had been “If you obey me, I’ll be with you. If you don’t, I’ll remove my blessing…”



b



Over and over again this will be God’s promise to humanity and over and over again WE will walk back on the contract.



b



The Israelites stop following Yahweh God and begin to experience life outside of His blessing…  They experience violent oppressors, famine, and wickedness…



Here’s what’s crazy to me about this though



God never gives up on them…



b



He just keeps coming after them - no matter how many times they run from Him.



During this period, the way God comes after them is to raise up Judges.  There are a lot of them but I want to highlight 3 of them



Deborah



Debbie was a prophetess in Israel, she had a tree that she would sit under and people in the nation would come to her to have their cases decided.  She was wise and courageous.  She led in a time when Israel was under great oppression by a cruel leader named Sisera.  



I don’t want to simplify it too much, but at times it feels like God is like, “Ok, enough, the people need help.”  What Scripture says is that in essence 



God would raise up these judges in response to the people finally going “We can’t bear these consequences anymore…”



When God called Deborah he told her to anoint a military leader named Barak to go and war against Sisera from Mount

How do we remain human in an artificial world? Join us as Kent delves into this crucial question. Listen in and let's sanctify this moment together. 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 fill-in-the-blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.



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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:



We live in a crazy world.  I remember growing up talking to my great-grandma Streeter in the 1980s.  She had traveled to Kansas when she was a kid in a covered wagon…  Isn’t that crazy?  I remember thinking about how we had colored TVs, cars, phones, and planes and she had experienced all those changes in her life.  



She had experienced monumental change…



You may not recognize it right now, but you are one of those people too…



b



We are standing on the precipice of one of the most monumental changes in history.  



The internet (I remember hearing the first time someone said, “www. - it stands for world wide web…”).  Smartphones came out in 2007 and gave the internet a way to live with us all the time and now we stand on the verge of AI to potentially take all that to the next level.  



People who stand at the intersection of monumental times tend to do at least one of three things. They either…




Try to hold onto the past and seek to turn back to what they came from.  



They embrace the future unquestioningly and become passive receivers of both the opportunities and consequences of the times.



They find ways to sanctify the future, remembering the past and moving forward to the future God desires.




Our world is changing at a monumental pace.



We are privy at all times to all information



We live in incredible fear and anxiety because we bear the entire weight of humanity in our minds - you know about a war the instant it breaks out and see the devastation in your ticktock feed



We are INUNDATED with information - did you know one of our biggest challenges at the church is communicating with you - because you are so over-communicated within your world that you can’t hear what we are saying - that’s not a comment on you or me, it’s our world…



And it’s all about to go into overdrive.  



ILLUSTRATION:



When I was a kid I remember going to my grandma’s house, she had this basket of fruit on her table and I grabbed an apple and took a bite.  As I did, my teeth sunk in and I realized it was styrofoam.  The fruit wasn’t real.



You and I are about to have that same experience in ways you can’t even imagine.  



Already you can’t tell if the pictures you are looking at are created by AI or are actual people.  Video is already there and will soon be everywhere - you won’t know if who you are looking at is really the person or not.  You can’t tell if I wrote this sermon or if AI did.  



And here’s what I think is going to happen.



I think there is a potential that we are going to go from a world that is fairly cynical to a world that is unbearably brutal in its inability to trust anything that cannot be experienced firsthand.



b



It will have dramatic effects on the way people perceive truth, faith, God, the scripture, and Jesus Himself.



b



I feel the global church trying to turn back to where we came from.



I see the people in the world who have no faith, unquestioningly, passively receiving it



b



My question is, how do we become the people who sanctify it?



don’t hear me saying what I’m not - I’m not saying we remove truth or the past isn’t vitally important….



I’m asking a different question altogether.



How do we be human now in an artificial world?



b



My answer is always to go back to scripture and the story of God - there is so much to learn there…



SCRIPTURE



We are not the first to stand on the precipice of monumental changes.  



Joshua is one of the most interesting people in scripture.

🌟Join us for a powerful sermon journeying through Moses' life. What idols do we worship? Let's reflect together. Tune in at Harmony Christian Church. 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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This morning, I want to take you into the story of someone who is larger than life - so large that nearly 3,500 years later we are still talking about his story… 



b



The Story of Moses



Moses’ life is so big, I can’t really do it justice… Instead, what I want to do is take you into three movements.  



I want to take you through the story of Moses, a specific incident from his life, and a challenge for us all.



b



MOVEMENT 1:  The Man Moses



He was born into a time of incredible tumult.  The Israelites had been in slavery to the Egyptians for hundreds of years.  Moses is born to an incredibly brave woman who fights against all the odds to save her child.  Through a miraculous set of events, Moses is adopted into the family of Pharaoh - King of Egypt.  Moses is raised in a world of contradictions.  A slave who is a prince.  As he ages he will be moved for his people and in a moment of rage he kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew Slave.  Moses will run away and for 40 years will be an exile.  When he returns it is because of an encounter with God in a burning bush.  God will call him to lead his people out of Egyptian slavery to come into the wilderness to worship God.  It is an epic story, it’s so massive I can’t do it justice.  But



During this time, God will send 10 plagues on the Egyptians trying to get them to release their iron grip on the Hebrew people.



b



The last of the 10 plagues was the death of the firstborn son.  



b



The Lord sent an angel through Egypt and anyone whose house was not marked on the door frames with the blood of a lamb, their firstborn son died.



b



This is called the Passover, because God passed over the Hebrews in this moment and finally released them from their slavery.



b



For the next 40 years, Moses will wander in the desert with the Israelites, leading them and shepherding them.



b



Through all of this, Moses faces the challenges of leadership and following God…



MOVEMENT 2:  The Specific Incident



The Israelites have been in the desert for some time now.  God has been leading them with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  He is providing them with food, and water, He is giving them everything they need.  



Immediately people begin to complain.  



God begins to intervene and he gives what we know today as the 10 Commandments - it is a covenant of relationship.  



It starts like this…



Exodus 20:1-6



And God spoke all these words:



2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.



3 “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.



4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.



b



The covenant is: abide by the law of God, He will bless them. Don’t, and He will curse and leave them to their own devices.



Moses goes up on the mountain to hear from God (because the people begged him to) - God will codify the covenant onto two stones.  He will be up on the mountain for 40 days.  But I want to read to you what happens during that time…



E

Ever felt like you're constantly hitting walls? We've all been there. Join us as Kent unpacks the story of Joseph and finding resilience in adversity.  It's 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:



One of the hardest things for me to figure is people who just constantly hit wall after wall.  Have you known people like this?  I feel like growing up, my family was like this.  My parents started a marketing company when I was really young and a guy stole the money they had set aside for taxes and their business went under.  My dad got a job and I got hurt, we went to the ER and found out his new company had been siphoning the insurance money instead of paying it and that company went under.  It was one thing after another.  



Every time we’d get up, we’d get knocked back down…



b



Does anyone know what that feels like?



b



Today, we are going to look at the story of Joseph and how he got knocked down and back up again and again and came away with a different perspective…



STORY:



Joseph is the great-grandson of Abraham.  His dad Jacob has 12 sons who will become the 12 tribes of Israel.  Jacob’s wife Rachel - who he loved most only had two sons for him and at the birth of the second one, she died.  Her two sons were Joseph & Benjamin.  Brothers already have lots of tension in their relationships.  But you can imagine a couple of them being from the mom that your dad loved the most.  This story is full of Jealousy and Envy.  Honestly, as you read the book of Genesis, it feels like the same story unfolding over and over again in different ways.  Jealousy, rage, anger, and deception, all getting the best of these people.  



Joseph is different though.  He seems to not do much wrong.



One of his biggest faults when he’s young is he seems to not have much humility…



Joseph will have a dream where there are 11 sheaves of grain - kind of big bundles of wheat or barley or something.  All the bundles come and bow down to Joseph's bundle…  



Well, the interpretation is clear.  Joseph has 11 brothers and now this kid thinks we’re going to be bowing down to him…  Oh man, can you feel the anger rising in his brothers?



Then the kid does it again.  He can’t keep his mouth shut.  He comes in and tells the family that he had a dream that the sun, the moon, and the stars all were bowing down to him.  Lol, he just can’t stop..



His dad, Jacob - I picture him rolling his eyes and being like “Come on son!”



He rebukes Joseph - but the damage is done.



The rage, the jealousy, the envy and anger has all been planted in the hearts of his brothers…



One day, Jacob sends out Joseph to check on his brothers - he’s sending him multiple days away.  Joseph reaches the spot his brothers should be at and they are gone.  He finds someone who tells him they’ve moved on to another grazing area.  As Joseph is approaching his brother see him and plot their evil plan.  They knew it was Joseph approaching because of the colorful coat he was wearing, just another insult that their dad had given him this special coat that none of them had.  Their plan was to kill him, but Rueben convinces them not to do it - to just throw Joseph in a well/pit.



ILLUSTRATION:



Years ago I was at the Grand Canyon and I decided to climb up from the side of the path that goes down into the canyon.  I got up and realized you couldn’t go back down.  I was stuck, I either kept trying to go up and maybe died, or tried to go back down which looked like even more death.  These guys have gone up this cliff and now they don’t know what to do…



They talk again about killing him, but Judah stops them from th