Ahaziah's Deathbed and Jehovah’s Stubborn Holiness

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 22:51-53 & 2 Kings 1:18
July 28, 2024

1 Kings 22:51-53: Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, because he walked in the ways of his father and mother and in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He served and worshiped Baal and provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger, just as his father had done.

2 Kings 1:18: As for all the other events of Ahaziah’s reign, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

Sermon Outline

1. Ahaziah’s disappointments

• Disappointments over money

• Disappointments over his country

• Disappointments over physical trauma

• Disappointments from a shortened life span

2. In his disappointments, Ahaziah sought relief in idols

• The Lord of the Flies

• The insanity of idolatry

• How people “consult idols” today

3. God refused to tolerate Ahaziah’s idols

• Elijah intercepts, Ahaziah responds

• The ethics of the fire from heaven

• Ahaziah’s final attempt to arrest Elijah

4. God gives grace to the humble

• Humility grows from proper fear

• The Lamb of God bore God’s wrath for those who would believe

The Death of Ahab

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 22:1-40
July 21, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. A meeting between Ahab and Jehoshaphat

• The significance of Gilead

• Ahab proposes to retake Ramoth Gilead

• Jehoshaphat’s request

2. Pressure on Micaiah

• The pressure in general

• One pressure in particular

3. Micaiah speaks the truth

• Micaiah’s sarcastic sycophantic answer

• Micaiah’s serious, truthful answer

• Micaiah recounts his vision

4. Micaiah is punished for speaking the truth

• Zedekiah slaps Micaiah

• Ahab incarcerates Micaiah

5. Ahab dies in battle

• The battle proper

• God’s sovereignty in the battle

• Ahab’s burial

• A summary of Ahab’s life

6. A final word

Naboth's Vineyard

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 21:1-29
July 14, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. The exchange between Ahab and Naboth

• Ahab’s offer

• Naboth’s refusal

2. Back at the palace

• Ahab sulks in his room

• Jezebel promises a solution

3. Jezebel’s murderous scheme

• The letters

• Who was blasphemed: Jehovah or Baal?

• The trial and the verdict

• Ahab takes possession

4. The exchange between Elijah and Ahab

• Elijah confronts Ahab in the vineyard

• Jehovah’s verdict on Ahab and Jezebel

5. God’s amazing grace

• Ahab’s change

6. Lessons

• Naboth is a picture of the lot of God’s people

• Such injustice is often inflicted by the government

• God’s servants must be prepared to pay a price for standing for justice

• God will intervene to bring justice to His wronged people

• God delights to exercise mercy while imposing his justice

Ahab Versus Ben-Hadad

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 20:1-43
July 7, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. The thread

• Ben Hadad’s invasion

• Israel’s desperate condition

• Ben Hadad’s intimidating demands

2. The first battle

• An unnamed prophet advises Ahab

• An Israelite victory stuns Ben Hadad

3. The second battle

• Both sides regroup

• Arameans march to Aphek the following year

• Why does Ahab pardon Ben Hadad?

4. A prophet condemns Ahab

• The story

• What was Ahab’s sin?

5. Getting clear about God

• Getting clear about God’s grace

• Getting clear about God’s power

• Getting clear about God’s judgment

Recruiting Elisha

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 19:19-21
June 23, 2024

1 Kings 19:19-21: So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”

“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.

Sermon Outline

1. Elijah goes to Abel Meholah

• The journey

• The destination

• The family of farmers

2. Elijah recruits Elisha

• A hard-working heir

• A silent summons

3. Elisha’s response

• He chases after Elijah

• He asks to kiss his parents goodbye

• He breaks all ties with the past

4. What the day’s events meant for the people affected

• Elijah

• Elisha’s parents

• Elisha himself

Elijah Restored on Mount Horeb

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 19:9-18
June 16, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. The Story

• The place

• God and Elijah address one another

• Three dramatic elements

• The voice in a low whisper

2. God’s twice-asked question

• Some suggest God’s question is a rebuke

• A better suggestion is God’s question is an invitation

3. The meaning of it all

• The meaning of the earthquake, wind, fire, and low whisper

• God encourages Elijah with a promise

Elijah, Depressed in the Desert

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-18
June 2, 2024

1 Kings 19:1-18: Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.”

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep.

All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.

The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.

Sermon Outline

1. Immediately after Carmel

• What Ahab said

• How Jezebel reacted

• What Elijah did

2. Elijah’s flight to the desert

• Leaves servant in Beersheba

• Weeps in a wadi

• Sleeps in the shade

3. Commentators’ criticism of Elijah’s despondency

4. How we should see Elijah under the broom tree

• What the text implies about Elijah’s heart

• What the text shows about God’s heart

5. What should we make of all this?

• God is tender toward discouraged servants

• God’s tenderness ultimately comes through Jesus

Rain, Grace, and Second Chances

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 18:41-46
May 26, 2024

1 Kings 18:41-46: And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”

So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’” Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the LORD came upon Elijah and, tucking his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.

Sermon Outline

1. Ahab and Elijah

2. The text’s first great lessons come by watching Elijah pray

• Prayer in public must be fueled by prayer in private

• Prayer must follow (not just precede) our spiritual accomplishments

• Prayer should major on God’s agenda, not ours

• Prayer should be in earnest

3. The text’s final great lesson comes by watching Elijah run

• Ahab’s ill-desert

• God’s grace

Jehovah Versus Baal on Mount Carmel

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 18:1-40
May 19, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. Elijah and Obediah

• Severe famine

• Obediah’s fear and courage

2. Elijah and Ahab

• Ahab blames Elijah

• Elijah issues a challenge

• Why does Ahab agree?

3. The setting and the stakes

• The beautiful setting

• The wavering people

• Application

4. The prophets of Baal call on their god

• Their first attempt

• Their second attempt

5. Elijah calls on his God

• He slowly rebuilds Jehovah’s fallen altar

• He prays to the real God

• God answers with fire

6. Elijah slays the false prophets

Elijah Raises the Widow's Son

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:17-24
May 12, 2024

Sermon Outline

Part 1: The ways of God are mysterious

1 Kings 17:17-18: Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”

• Things got worse, not better, for the widow

• Things got worse, not better, for Elijah

• An infinite God can be baffling to finite creatures

Part 2: If God is going to use you, it will cost you

1 Kings 17:19-21: “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought tragedy also upon this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”

• Believers move toward others

• Elijah got involved with his body

• Elijah got involved with his prayers

• Ministry to others is being a bridge between God and them

Part 3: The result

1 Kings 17:22-24: The LORD heard Elijah’ cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look your son is alive!” Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”

• The God who gives life to the dead

• We gain faith, and grasp truth, in stages

• Does this mean we can expect healing?

• Doubting Thomas

Elijah, the Ravens, and the Widow

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:2-24
April 28, 2024

Sermon Outline

Elijah at the Kerith Ravine

• God tells Elijah to hide

• Hide for Elijah’s safety

• Hide for discipline on King Ahab and Israel

• God’s provision for Elijah

2. Elijah at Zarephath

• The place

• The widow

3. Lessons

• God has His own where we least expect them

• God’s promises can be trusted

The Rise of Ahab and Elijah

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 16:29-17:1
April 21, 2024

1 Kings 16:29-17:1: In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.

In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the LORD spoken by Joshua son of Nun. Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.”

Sermon Outline

1. Ahab’s day didn’t seem evil

2. Alliance with Sidon

• King Ethbaal

• Princess Jezebel

• Canaanite religion

• Jezebel’s unholy mission

3. Two brief episodes

• The sons of Hiel at Jericho

• The prophet Elijah at Samaria

4. Lessons

• Sin usually presents itself as “no big deal”

• Sin always progresses

• God is always working even while evil rages

Story of Three Dynasties

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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

The Fall of the House of Jeroboam: Nadab and Baasha

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 15:25-16:7
March 24, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. Nadab’s evil reign

• His sins

• His assassination

2. Baasha’s usurpation

• Background

• God’s summary of Baasha’s reign

• Same idolatry, same judgment

3. A doctrine we are familiar with

4. A doctrine we may be unfamiliar with... and find puzzling

• God predicts Baasha will destroy Jeroboam’s dynasty

• God will punish Baasha for doing this

• God’s sovereignty over sin.

  • God is too holy to sin (Habakkuk 1:13)

  • God is too holy to cause anyone else to sin (James 1:13-14)

  • God controls every sin to ultimately further his own righteous purposes

  • God will bring sinners into judgment

5. God’s sovereignty in Christ’s crucifixion

Jeroboam's Dying Son and Dying Kingdom

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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

Young Prophet, Old Prophet

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 13:1-34
March 10, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. The young prophet denounces Jeroboam

• The grand opening for Jeroboam’s religion

• A voice from the crowd

• A supernatural sign

• Jeroboam’s response

• Jeroboam’s chastening

2. The young prophet meets the old prophet

• The sons’ report

• The old prophet’s deception

• The young prophet’s punishment

3. Questions the writer deems unimportant

4. Theme of the passage

• What does matter to the writer?

• Jeroboam and the Word of the Lord

• The young prophet and the Word of the Lord

• The old prophet and the Word of the Lord

King Jeroboam's Rival Religion

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 12:25-33
February 11, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. How Jeroboam strengthened his new country

• He strengthened two key cities

• He revamped worship in Israel

2. How Jeroboam founded a new religion

• How they would worship

• Where they would worship

• Who would lead them in worship

• When they would worship

• Why do these things matter?

3. Today’s false religion

• “Spiritual but not religious”

• Progressive Christianity

• All the above is self-invented religion

Israel is Split (Jeroboam's Revolt)

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 11:26-40, 12:1-24
February 4, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. Jeroboam of the tribe of Ephraim

• Ephraim’s early promise

• Tensions with other tribes

• Crown given to David of the tribe of Judah

• Jeroboam put over labor force of Ephraim and Manasseh

2. Ahijah’s Prophecy to Jeroboam

3. Result of the Prophecy

• Jeroboam revolts, fails, and flees

• The prophecy is fulfilled

4. Lessons

• Your spiritual condition affects those around you and those who come after you

• God is sovereign over national calamities

• God’s determination to save his people can never be stopped

Solomon’s Fall, God’s Verdict

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 11:1-43
January 14, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. Introducing Solomon’s sin

• His drift into idolatry

• Young Solomon wouldn’t have dreamed of following other gods

• How he started with other gods

2. God became angry with Solomon

3. God’s discipline of Solomon

• Discipline via Hadad of Edom

• Discipline via Rezon of Aram

• Discipline via Jeroboam

4. Lessons

• Drifting is deceitful because it happens gradually

• Drifting has a domino effect

• It matters who we are close to

• Where there is repentance, mercy trumps sin and discipline

Benediction

Jude 24-25: To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Solomon's Golden Reign

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Kings 3-10 & Revelation 5:12
January 7, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. Solomon as a ruler of power and strength

2. Solomon as a ruler of wisdom

• God appears to him at Gibeon

• The two prostitutes

• Wisdom in literature and natural sciences

3. Solomon as a ruler of wealth

• Refinery at the Gulf of Aqaba

• Overland trade routes

• Sea-going trade

• Result

4. Solomon as worthy

5. Solomon as a ruler of honor, glory, and praise