📣 Tune in to Kent’s sermon this Sunday! We dive into the twists of ancient Israel’s story and the domino effect of selfish choices. Can’t miss this! 🎙️✨ Listen in to ponder, “When faced with power, do we serve or seek self-gratification?” 🤔 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:

My wife loves watching survivor… One of the classics of survivor is “Previously on Survivor”…

PREVIOUSLY on THE STORY OF GOD:

I want to remind you of the highlights so far because we took a hiatus to talk about some books and not the stories…

God created all things, people walked out of the story of God to create their own story – God pursued them, calling to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Joseph will come into the story and rescue all of Egypt as well as his own family from famine.  The Hebrew people will settle in Egypt and eventually become an enslaved people.  God will again reach out and raise up Moses to lead the people out of slavery.  They will come into the desert and as quickly as God reduces they too will walk out of God’s story to create their own – they will create a golden calf while Moses is away listening to God and say, “this golden calf is the god that brought you out of Egypt”…  The people will wander around for 40yrs, God will raise up Joshua and judges like Gideon and Deborah.  Eventually He will raise up Samuel and the people will reject God as King and choose their own, Saul, David, and Solomon…  

This is where we enter into the story…

ILLUSTRATION:

When I was a kid one of my favorite things to do was to set up a domino chain.  My buddies and I would set up a chain of dominos all over tables for a week or more at indoor recess. We’d work on it all till the day we’d get a chance to knock it down.  That chain reaction of a domino to make the last one fall of the table is sooo cool to watch.  This week is the beginning a domino that will fall that will cause a chain reaction in the life of Israel.  We will watch it unfold… till it all ends with one domino falling – the last in the series that will be the most spectacular of all…

It all started with the death of Solomon.  During his life, he had spent time repairing the walls of Jerusalem that his father David had built.  During that time he saw a young man named Jeroboam who was a hard and diligent worker.  Solomon saw something in him and put him in charge of the labor force for the tribes of Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim.  

At this same time, Solomon had turned his heart away from God after other gods… God raised up a prophet named Ahijah to go to Jeroboam, this young man, and tell him that God was going to take most of the Kingdom away from Solomon’s son and give it to Jeroboam.  Ahijah took off his coat and ripped it into 12 pieces and gave Jerry 10 of them and told him he would rule over 10 of the tribes of Israel.  If he would remain faithful to Yahweh, God would establish his kingdom like He had promised to do with David.  

What do you do if you are a young man and you have something like that told to you?  I’ll tell you what you do, you run for your life…

That’s exactly what Jerry does.  He runs to Egypt to hide from Solomon…  He leaves everything behind….

Solomon will die…  His son Rehoboam we will call him Reh…  He will go up to Schechum (this is about halfway up Israel – if your arm is Israel it’s your elbow pit).  All the people of Israel will come to hear from him and anoint him as King.  They send Jeroboam who they have called back from Egypt to go speak to Rehoboam.  Listen to what they say to him…

1 Kings 12:3-4

3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 4 “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Reh will ask for 3 days to consider the proposition.  

He will bring in all the elders of the land who will say this to him…

7 They replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”

This is a good answer, right?  Except it’s not what Reh wanted.  So he gets all his buddies together and asks them…  These are all the people you’d see on a reality TV show now adays floating on their yachts partying and having no clue about reality…  They come to Reh and say, “You tell these  people that if they thought your dad was hard, they haven’t seen anything yet…”  Your dad’s waist was as thin as your pinky.  If he whipped you with whips, you’d whip them with scorpions…”  

In this moment, Rehoboam knocks over a domino and starts a reaction he can’t stop..

A civil war breaks out at this moment and the North and South are separated

b

The Northern tribes – 10 of them – go with Jeroboam and anoint him as their King

Jerry will set up two places for people to worship – at the North in Dan and at the southern tip of his kingdom in Bethel he will set up two golden calves and he will tell the people, “These are the gods who brought you out of Egypt”.  I’ve stood in Dan at this replica of the temple….  Jerry won’t follow Yahweh, he will create a false religion to manipulate and control the people – he knew if they went down to Jerusalem they might turn back to Reh, so he turned them away from the one true God to false gods so he could control them…

The Southern two tribes, Benjamin and Judah anoint Rehoboam as their King

b

These events will lead to the eventual downfall of Israel & Judah and the nation of Israel becoming subject and invaded by other nations

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Eventually, they will lose their Kingdom altogether and become a people who are subjugated by the Romans

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You can watch it all unfold from this one moment… a moment where one man chose self-gratitude over servanthood

Can I get Devotional with you?

It’s easy to look at Reh and Jerry and think, these guys are idiots… They are selfish, manipulative, and arrogant…  But if the story of God teaches you anything…  These guys are doing what humans have always done..  

We choose to gratify ourselves over submitting to the way of God

These guys are you and me…

They are the parent who rules over their kid with an iron fist

They are the manager who steps on every employee to climb the ladder of success

they are the manipulator who uses religion and emotions to clone people…

These guys expose in us our own tendency to turn from the way of God to get what we want when we want it at whatever it costs us

Do you remember the things that were asked of Reh and do you remember what the elders said to him?

“Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

and 

“If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”

When Jesus came into the world, He came as a King, He brought a Kingdom and invited you into it.  I want you to hear His words as He invites you

Matthew 11:28-30

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 20:28

28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus came as the King we’ve all needed all along

His way is SO different from the way of the world

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Jesus invites you into the story, He offers you a new life, and invites you to learn from Him

CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:

I was talking to my daughter the other night about how different the way of Jesus is…  I told her, everyone in this world is scraping and fighting to get “theirs”.  They all fight and kill, manipulate, and scratch out their way in the world.  But Jesus calls us to something different, He calls us to lay down our lives for others, He calls us to die to ourselves and to love others.  I said, It comes down to belief.  If I believe in Jesus and that I have everything I need because of Him, then I can lay down my life without being resentful of others.  I know if I have Him, I have enough.  My unbelief is betrayed when I start to fight, scrape, and scratch my way out of this thing…

What about you?  Do you find yourself scratching and scraping or are you trusting and turning to Him?  His yoke is easy, his burden is light.  Learn from Him…

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