Remembering God's Kindnesses: Samuel Raises a Memorial Stone

1 Samuel
Written By Steve Estes

Download MP3
Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Samuel 7:2-13
December 11, 2022

Sermon Outline

1. The background

  • Israelites sin, are routed by the Philistines

  • Ark of the Covenant taken to Philistia, God makes Philistines' lives miserable

  • Philistines send Ark back to Israel, Israelites rejoice

2. The story

  • Israelites' idolatry

  • Divine discipline

  • Real repentance

  • Samuel sacrifices

  • Philistines flee

  • Ebenezer erected

3. The Ebenezer Stone

  • What is Ebenezer?

  • What does Ebenezer mean?

4. The Lessons

  • God's people experience his help only when they have a mediator

  • God is honored by special occasions of remembering his kindness

  • God will continue to remember with us only as we continue to remember him

Steve Estes

Steve Estes has been senior pastor at Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, Pennsylvania, for over thirty-five years. 

Steve’s books and other writings began with his longtime friendship with Joni Eareckson Tada. As teenagers, they grappled with why God allowed Joni’s paralysis in a swimming accident in the Chesapeake Bay. Steve left for college . . . they kept in touch . . . she liked the style of his letters. When her 1976 autobiography Joni spawned thousands of reader responses, she asked Steve to join her in crafting a follow-up. The result was A Step Further in 1978.

Later, Wycliffe Bible Translators commissioned Steve to write the biography of former college friend Chet Bitterman, a Wycliffe linguist who was kidnapped and murdered by political terrorists in Colombia in 1981. Other books and articles followed, including When God Weeps (with Joni) and A Better December (a giveaway book for non-Christian friends at Christmas.)

Steve was educated at Westminster Theological Seminary, Columbia Bible College and Jerusalem University College in Israel. He has taught homiletics at Westminster and is a board member of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation.

But Steve would say his most significant life achievement was persuading college classmate Verna Stoltzfus to marry him in 1974.  They now have eight children and more grandchildren than can fit in a van.

Previous

John the Baptist Introduces the Word
Next

The Word as Light and Life