Harmonized

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How does this move the vision to be woven up, in, and out?

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What am I asking them to do?

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A good part of the last three days has been the tearing down of a mostly rotten fence and the building of a new one. Thankful for good friends and family that came and helped make that happen.

It’s funny how weird it was when the fence was down and four yards were connected.

My dogs hated it. Their playground had multiplied to park size and they had to stay on leashes.

I made the comment to Brad that it was a shame that we had to have fences, how cool would it be if we could have this connection.

One of my neighbors, during the planning phase used the old line, “Good fences make good neighbors”.

But it’s funny. I’ve only spoken to him before in quick comments from opposite sides of the fence. The last three days we have talked a ton. Same with the neighbor to their left.

Tray helped Mrs Horn pull weeds for a good amount of the time Brad, Matt, Laura and I were yanking concrete posts out of the ground.

We spent far more time as neighbors without the fence.

But he’s still right. Our dogs were antsy to run. Eventually the difference in noise, yard styles, the lack of privacy, would start to get old. The fence is back up, and that’s good.

But it’s still a shame. It’s like there’s a part of me that knows it shouldn’t be like this.

Ugh

Paul is going to use the word “harmony” in today’s one another. Harmony is awesome. But it’s hard. In music, it’s different voices, different instruments, playing different notes, but all the same song.

It’s every member surrendering their voice into a larger whole for the benefit of the song.

Last Sunday we were gone so we could enjoy Joshua’s last official high school marching band parade.

We have been band parents since Becca started 6th grade 10 years ago.

Thinking about this message and the word harmony, got me thinking about the “harmony” of 6th grade band vs these high school musicians who were so good together.

We’re going to miss this season of life, because it was so cool to see our kids as a part of this larger cooperative effort.

But that growth, the number of kids who bail on band between 6th and 12th grade, (like I did) tells you that getting to a place of harmony in music is hard.

It’s just as hard with people in the workplace, in our families, and in the church.

The church is a collection of individuals with different voices, different styles and skills, personalities and priorities.

But the calling is to one mission, to be united in heart and purpose and Paul in Romans, which we have already looked at a couple times in this series on “One Another” (the letter has that theme) actually adds a short prayer in his closing thoughts that God would grant us to live “In Harmony” with one another.

A couple reasons it’s worth looking at this one.

Paul wouldn’t pray for God to grant that if it was easy.

Just like musical harmony, it takes work and practice to play our part while also blending with the voices of others.

And just like the reality of the communal yard, harmony is hard enough that it is far easier and more practical to build fences that just let me play my part in my space while you play yours in yours.

Easy and practical…but not the symphony the composer intended.

The consequence is that the church can start to look like any other community, when we are supposed to stand out, according to Jesus in John 13-17 because of our love for, unity with, and commitment to the blessing of one another so the world can be changed.

We have our vision of being a community that is woven into God’s story, woven into one another’s lives, and woven out into the community around us. Individual threads, who come together in the name and power of Jesus to accomplish his purposes.

We don’t do church for our own sake, but in response to the love of Jesus, we in turn love and pursue his mission in the world.

That starts in here, and flows out there...

But it’s really hard.

Aha!

Let me read Paul’s prayer for us.

Romans 15:5 “Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus,”

Our key is right there. “According to Christ Jesus”

In high school my best friend was in the jazz choir, “Topnotchers” and they needed more male voices.

my solo singing voice was mediocre at best, but when we driving along listening to music, I could match his note.

If he tried to harmonize, I would usually lose pitch, and something ugly happened…kinda like the middle school band.

But he asked the choir director about me joining the topnotchers with the understanding that I would sing first tenor with him.

In the choir with all the other parts, I found I could hold my note as long as I could match his. Eventually I grew out of that and could hold my note, even when our parts diverged.

My start was singing, “According to Trevor”. He was the pitch that I could follow to keep in harmony with all the other parts.

Paul prays that the church in Rome would live in harmony, According to Christ Jesus.

THIS is our starting point when dealing with disharmony. Let’s put this verse in it’s context and see what is possible.

Whee!

Harmony According to Christ Jesus

Back to the beginning of this chapter

Romans 15:1-2 “Now we who are strong have an obligation to bear the weaknesses of those without strength, and not to please ourselves. Each one of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”

Remember our Obligation

This is a call back to the first sermon in this series where we started in Romans 14:19 “So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.”

We talked then about how we deal with differences.

There were the strong and the weak, they disagreed on matters that did not seem insignificant, but Paul made it clear that compared to the gospel they were just that.

He calls back to that just a chapter later…Do you think this mattered to him? And he knew it needed repeating.

There is an obligation, especially for those mature in faith to bear the weakness of others, to pursue their good, to build them up.

I got to coach several of Joshua’s soccer teams over the years. There were always a few great players, a few beginners, and then a good sized group that played well enough to have fun and see some success.

The best teams to coach were the ones where the great players saw themselves as team mates first. They encouraged, built up, invited the weaker players to try.

They pushed them toward new skills and levels of effort without criticism or anger. They rose to the occasion to cover up for the failings of the newbies.

It was awesome to watch the growth that occurred in all of them, and we saw team success.

The newer players also put in the work to get better. They took coaching, recognized the need for growth and tried hard.

We also had years when the best players were frustrated to be playing on a team with these lesser players. And it showed. They disparaged the efforts of the average and new players, who then put in less effort.

In games everyone played for themselves and the result was rarely team success.

It’s worth noting Joshua’s last season playing soccer was one of the second kind. And despite being an above average defender, (dad bias maybe) he wasn’t interested anymore.

I tell you this to make a point. If you count yourself spiritually mature - you have an obligation to those who are growing. Not to boss them around, but to give of yourself for their growth.

And if you know you need to grow...

and we all need to keep maturing, then you have an obligation to let others lead you in growth.

If you want to know what a mature follower of Jesus looks like, we have a one page discipleship assessment in the back you can grab anytime. I encourage you to go through it with someone who you look up to in faith, and have them help you identify areas of growth.

Maybe you are mature in the area of evangelism, but not in compassion. Use your gifts to help others grow in evangelism, and allow someone mature in the area of compassion help you grow.

Ok, second thought on harmony

Romans 15:3 “For even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

Bear The Hurt Of Others

We have this obligation to bear the weakness of others, our goal being to please our neighbor, to build them up, “For Even Christ did not please himself. On the contrary, it was written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

For your study of God’s word, here is an important principle: When you see a quote from another passage, go look.

The little reference always assumes you know the larger one. Which we usually don’t.

That one line is from Psalms 69. David is crying out to God because of his enemies, and much of their abuse comes because of his commitment to God.

David’s desire to please God was so great he took the insults upon himself that were aimed up.

Jesus loved in both directions. He bore the hurt and anger of those opposed to God, and he bore the pain of those oppressed by people.

All this is leading to the call to harmony, from the call to build one another up.

Our inclination is the opposite isn’t it? We like to bounce insult and pain away from us. Not absorb it.

You insult me, I fire back with how you are the real problem.

But this is so much bigger than not returning the attacks we receive.

This is stepping into the space of taking the pain directed at SOMEONE ELSE and receiving it for them.

That sounds ludicrous. Where is the boundary? What is the limit?

The boundary is where our space for love is.

Jesus, who had boundless, perfect love, took the pain of the cross for my sin.

He bore my pain, my failure, my sorrow, my weakness, and he took it to the cross that I might have life, joy, peace, and grace in him.

Paul, who has known the power of that salvation, does not hesitate to call us to the SAME. And it starts with being like Jesus and simply asking how my life can serve the life of another over myself.

Did I mention that harmony is hard? This is why we do this life of harmony “according to Christ Jesus” Like I matched pitch to Trevor’s voice, we match our lives to Jesus.

Let’s keep going

Romans 15:4-5 “For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus,”

God’s Word Trains Us

We got back to our call to harmony, but don’t skip past a key. In fact it is connected to what I just pointed out about scripture quotes in scripture.

What was written in the past is FOR our instruction.

but, We are doing this “According to Christ Jesus”

Well, who is Jesus? John 1, in the beginning was the WORD.

Jesus is the incarnate word, he fulfilled what was written.

So the written word is one of our most accessible and reliable ways to know and understand what following Jesus looks like!

That Psalm, every psalm. Every line and story of Numbers and Jonah, and Daniel. They are for us to learn and understand who God is and who we were created to be.

Just like me learning to sing, or athletes learning to compete, we need training.

The training of scripture is amazing!

It gives us hope because we learn endurance and we are encouraged by the scriptures. And then Paul repeats those words.

The instruction gives us hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the scripture…and then his prayer…Now may the God who GIVES endurance and encouragement...

And it is out of that training and that equipping from God that we CAN live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus.

I didn’t learn to sing harmony without Trevor overnight. It was day after day of 7 am work with the choir. It was study and practice and work. Not quite 30 years later without that effort, I couldn’t do now what I learned to do then. I would have to retrain.

This is the trap many mature believers fall into.

We have been Christians a while. We read the bible once, we still read it. But we already know it. So we read it without letting it change us. We aren’t looking for God’s character.

This is why we often see people who have been Christians a long time be largely devoid of grace, lacking in zeal for evangelism, filled with worry, or lackluster in worship.

We quit training. We quit pursuing God like a man in love pursuing his bride.

And in the midst of those losses, it is inevitable that we would lose our willingness to prioritize harmony.

If we are going to be a church that is a part of a movement of the gospel, reaching the lost, seeing the broken healed, families transformed, we have to, have to, have to, be allowing God’s word and his holy spirit power to have their way in us, doing the training.

Let me look at two key results that come from allowing God to shape us into those who harmonize.

Romans 15:6 “so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.”

What changes?

One Voice

I love a so that. Why do we want God to empower us and train us to live in harmony?

So we might glorify God…with one mind and voice.

First of all, let’s remind ourselves of the power for one another when we sing. That One Voice thing, changes us. Changes the dynamic in the room, the culture, the connectedness.

But as we alluded to in that message a few weeks back, when we are not in harmony with one another...

I can’t believe he is singing like that.

It’s weird that her hands are up in the air.

I can’t believe they can sing like they love Jesus when I just heard about the way they...

I’m the one carrying the load…and they just sing like they’re God’s favorite?

I tell you what. We could all have perfect pitch and sing with the power of Josh Groban, the range of Mariah Carey, and the sweet beauty of sara Barellis, and in God’s ears… well in 1 corinthians Paul addresses a bit of this

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

It can be our tendency to focus more on the doing of mighty works than on the love that is to be a part of our very core.

But imagine the impact of a church who with a single voice tells the world they are loved. Where every student, parent, and teacher in the Hockinson school district may know very little about Jesus, but by golly they know that Hockinson Community Church loves them and is ready to care.

If there wasn’t a bingo night, a football game, a clothing drive, a food pantry, a tree lighting, or anything else where the presence of God was not felt because of the God’s people who with full measures of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control were out there showing the love of Jesus beyond these walls.

Think that might cause some to want to know the Jesus who empowers such different people to enjoy this kind of harmony for that kind of impact?

There is power in being a people of one voice and one mind. But…the word is harmony. It’s not that the voices and minds are identical. Each brings something unique. BUT for those minds and voices to be surrendered to God’s purposes to blend together in a harmony that changes the world? That’s the vision that keeps me going. Because I believe that is possible.

Let me close with verse 7

Romans 15:7 “Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed you, to the glory of God.”

Let’s have the worship and prayer teams come up.

Therefore…Because of all that, welcome one another…THE SAME WAY JESUS WELCOMED YOU!

because that glorifies God. It glorifies God because it reflects his character and nature.

It shows that we are paying attention to and appreciate what he has done for us.

We see the humility of Jesus demonstrating God’s love and commitment to us and so we glorify him by acting like the image bearers we were created to be and we do the same thing for one another and the world.

Let me challenge you this morning with this.

In the struggle to find harmony, look to Jesus like I looked to Trevor. Match the notes of your life with his.

If you aren’t being discipled by someone, if there isn’t a person in your life you have given permission to speak hard truth to you, then DO THAT. You will always be stuck if people can’t tell you where you need to grow.

If someone gives you that permission, do so out of love, and to help them become who God made them to be, not who you want them to be.

I’ll add that if you don’t have people speaking hard truth to you, or if you don’t receive that truth well…you probably shouldn’t be trying to help someone else. You have nothing to teach if you aren’t teachable.

Identify relationships where you have contributed to disharmony in the church. Commit to doing YOUR part to create harmony.

Not to getting them to do their part…but surrendering yourself and doing yours.

There is a world in need of a harmonized church to show them what the kingdom of God looks like.

Stand with me and join me in prayer.

Adoration

Harmony of trinity

Harmony with us at the price of the cross

Confession

We have not denied ourselves...

We have not found harmony

We have sung our own tunes at the expense of others

Thankfullness

For grace, for opportunity to change

Supplication

Change our hearts through the power of your word

Teach us to line up our voice with yours