Jeroboam's Dying Son and Dying Kingdom

1 Kings
Written By Steve Estes

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 14:1-20
March 17, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. Sorrow in Tirzah

  • Jeroboam’s son is gravely ill

  • Jeroboam sends his wife to inquire of Ahijah the prophet

  • Jeroboam’s message travels ahead of his wife

  • Ahijah’s message looks backward

  • Ahijah’s message looks forward

2. God wants us to feel the loss that comes from rejecting him

  • We learn Abijah’s name

  • The story grows gradually darker

  • Tragedy is told through the sad experience of the mother

  • A short summary of Jeroboam’s life

  • The point

3. This tragedy exposes the horrible nature of sin

  • Sin = ingratitude for mercies God has shown

  • Sin = attempting to manipulate God

  • Sin = Thrusting God behind one’s back

  • Result

4. God’s mercy in a message of judgment

  • Mercy to David

  • Mercy to Abijah

  • Mercy to readers of 1 Kings

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.

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The Fall of the House of Jeroboam: Nadab and Baasha
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Young Prophet, Old Prophet