Story of Three Dynasties

1 Kings
Written By Steve Estes

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 16:25-28
April 14, 2024

1 Kings 16:25-28: Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more evil than all who were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in the sins that he made Israel to sin, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols. Now the rest of the acts of Omri that he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? And Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son reigned in his place.

Sermon Outline

1. Elah: The carousing king

  • His degenerate reign

  • His sad end

  • A warning about the worship of pleasure

  • The double evil of pulling others into our own sins

2. Zimri: The tough-guy king

  • He ends Baasha’s dynasty the same way it began

  • His dynasty ends in a blaze of defiance

  • The ultimate expression of self-determination

3. Four years of civil war

4. Omri: The winner who was a loser

  • Politically a winner

  • Spiritually a loser

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 Rise of Ahab and Elijah
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Problem, Prayer, Promise, and Paradox