Faith Over Doubt and Anxiety

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Speaker: Carroll G. Wynne
Scripture: Psalm 3
March 20, 2022

Psalm 3: “Oh Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah

But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah

I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.

Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.

Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah”

Sermon Outline

1. David's Difficult Place (vv. 1-2)

2. David's Four-Point Sermon (vv.3-4)

• "You, O Lord, are a shield about me."

• "You, O Lord, are my glory.”

• "You, O Lord, are the lifter of my head."

• "You, O Lord, are the hearer of my cries."

3. The King's Benediction (vv. 5-8)

Love and Loss

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Speaker: Craig Garriott
Scripture: Ruth 1:1-22
March 13, 2022

Sermon Outline

1. It was the worst of times

• A dark national time

• A dark economic time

• A dark family time

2. A love greater than the losses

• Elimelech's faithlessness didn't diminish God's faithfulness

• Naomi's loss drove her to God

• Ruth's love is God's response to Naomi's lament

3. Applications

• Sometimes God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves

Facing Down Calamity

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Speaker: Andrew Hageman
Scripture: Esther 4
March 6, 2022

Main Points

1. Mordecai's grief: Feeling responsible for the coming calamity
2. Esther's dilemma: Contemplating responsibility to avert calamity
3. Esther's response: Living out faith as a sacrifice for many

Sermon Outline

1. God's silence is not evidence of his absence.

• God's sovereignty is much bigger than us.

2. The Bible's response to grief and difficulty is to turn our eyes upon God.

• We can come boldly before the throne of God in our grief.

3. Esther's choice may be upon us.

• Ask God to prepare us to sacrifice for the sake of Christ.

4. Only by Christ's power can we ever follow in Esther's footsteps

• Christ is the true and better Esther, making atonement before the throne of God on behalf of all believers.

Israel Asks for a King

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Speaker: Joe Whalen
Scripture: 1 Samuel 8
February 27, 2022

Sermon Outline

• vv. 1-3: As the faithful judge Samuel becomes old, the Israelites don’t want his corrupt sons to succeed him.

• vv. 4-6a: The Israelites demand a king, like their neighbors had.

• vv. 6b-9: …and God tells him to give them a king, but with a warning.

• vv. 10-18: Samuel warns Israel what a king will do to them.

• vv. 19-20: Israel rejects the warning outright.

Two truths

1. We never just reject God; we replace him

2. Our biggest problem is the unbelieving heart inside ourselves, not outward circumstances

Good news

God gave us a King who paid for our sins and who adopts us into His family

Cancer in the Church

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Speaker: Mark Estes
Scripture: Joshua 7
February 20, 2022

Sermon Outline

1. Sometimes a great victory is followed by a great defeat

• Sin leads to defeat

• Dissatisfaction leads to coveting

• Decisive action is needed

• Sin is a cancer-like threat

2. Unrepentant sin cannot be tolerated in the Christian life

• Individually

• Corporately

• A word to the young

Saved... for His Glory

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Exodus 15:22-27
February 13, 2022

Exodus 15:22-27: Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”

Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.

Sermon Outline

1. The Danger of Grumbling amidst Grace

2. The Reality of Testing alongside triumph

3. The Hope of Balm after bitterness

Spiritual Certainty

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Speaker: Dr. Timothy Witmer
Scripture: Romans 8:28-30
February 6, 2022

Romans 8:28-30: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Sermon Outline

1. The certainty of his promise

• For whom is this promise intended?

• How extensive is his promise?

• What is the heart of the promise?

• How certain can we be?

2. The certainty of his plan

• Foreknew

• Predestination

• Called

• Justified

• Glorified

The Final Day of the Lord

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Speaker: Clint Estes
Scripture: Joel 3:1-21
January 30, 2022

Sermon Outline

1. God will judge the world for how it has treated you

• Who are the nations?

• Why judge them?

• Images of judgment

• Fulfillment in Jesus

2. When God judges the world, you will be restored

• Safe from divine judgment

• Safe from human mistreatment

• Prosperity

• With the LORD

The Friendship of the Lord is for Those Who Fear Him

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Speaker: Rick Renninger
Scripture: Psalm 25
January 23, 2022

Sermon Outline

1. Psalm 25 uses chiasm (a literary device in which a sequence of ideas is presented and then repeated in reverse order)

2. Creative outline that shows the chiasm of Psalm 25 as a flight of stairs going up and then down:

D. Pardon my iniquity
(v. 11)

C. Growing confidence C. Growing confidence
(v. 8-10) (v. 12-14)

B. Wanting insight and recalling B. Still waiting in faith but with
the LORD’s faithfulness increased distress
(v. 4-7) (v. 15-18)

A. Waiting on Yahweh in confident A. Waiting on Yahweh in the
trust in the face of his enemies face of his enemies
(v. 1-3) (v. 19-22)

We can also view it more like a ladder:
A. Waiting on Yahweh with confident trust in the face of his enemies (v. 1-3)
B. Wanting insight and recalling the LORD's faithfulness (v. 4-7)
C. Growing confidence (v. 8-10)
D. Pardon my iniquity (v. 11)
C. Growing confidence (v. 12-14)
B. Still waiting in faith but with increased distress (v. 15-18)
A. Waiting on Yahweh in the face of his enemies (v. 19-22)

Amazing Grace or Accustomed Grace?

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Jonah 4
January 16, 2022

Sermon Outline

1. Literary Structure of Jonah

• Jonah 1: Jonah commissioned and disobedience → Jonah 3: Jonah recommissioned and obedience

• Jonah 1b: Jonah and pagan sailors → Jonah 3: Jonah and pagan Ninevites.

• Jonah 2: Jonah’s grateful prayer → Jonah 4a: Jonah’s angry prayer.

• Jonah 4b: God schools Jonah in compassion.*

2. Accustomed grace: Jonah’s angry prayer
3. Amazing grace: God’s gracious pursuit

• His appointing is perfect

• His word is persistent

• His compassion is plentiful

4. Extending Grace: The author’s hanging question

“We sing about ‘amazing grace’ and speak of ‘amazing grace’, but far too often it [grace] has ceased to amaze us. Sadly, we might more truthfully sing of ‘accustomed grace.’ We have lost the joy and energy that are experienced when grace seems truly amazing.” — Sinclair Ferguson

*Adapted from David Dorsey, Literary Structure of the Old Testament (Baker Books, 2004).

A Most Unlikely Repentance

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Jonah 3
January 9, 2022

Jonah 3: Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Sermon Outline

1. A recommissioned prophet*

2. A repentant people

• Their repentance is Godward

• Their repentance is sincere

• Their repentance is comprehensive

3. A Relenting God

*Highlight’s God’s perfect patience

Our Need for Self-Control

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Speaker: Richard Goswiller
Scripture: Galatians 5: 22-23
January 2, 2022

Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is live, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Sermon Outline

• The fruit of the Spirit is produced by God the Holy Spirit, not by us as his people

• Branches (believers) have no ability to produce the fruit; they just bear the fruit that the vine (Jesus Christ) is producing through the Holy Spirit

• The Holy Spirit doesn't just give us self-control with the snap of his fingers; He develops it in relation to other qualities, primarily the wisdom that comes from him

• In the moment, at a crossroads — heavenly wisdom directs — self-control settles the matter