"Little-Faiths" (The Disciples & the Epileptic Boy)

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Matthew 17:14-20
March 26, 2023

Matthew 17:14-20: And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Sermon Outline

1. The awful situation

2. Who Matthew focuses on

• Like other gospels, Matthew records Christ's frustration with an "unbelieving generation."

• Unlike other gospels, Matthew focuses on Jesus' disciples in this regard.

3. Jesus' reply: "You of little faith"

• Common theme in the gospels.

4. Lack of faith is no small matter

• The disciples' unbelief caused Jesus frustration while he walked the earth.

• Unbelief shows that one is affected by one's culture rather than by God's promises.

• Unbelief hinders our usefulness in God's kingdom.

• Thus, unbelief is perverse.

5. How Christ sought to stir their faith

• Jesus taught how much can be accomplished when we believe.

• Jesus taught how little faith it takes to move mountains

Navigating Damaged Relationships

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Speaker: Joe Whalen
Scripture: Philemon 1-6
March 19, 2023

Philemon 1-6: Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our beloved fellow worker and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house:

Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

Sermon Outline

1. Three primary people in Philemon

• Philemon

• Paul

• Onesimus

2. Three directions for those of us with damaged relationships

• Focus on what you have... not on what you don't have

  • Jesus is enough

• Keep serving... you'll learn much about Jesus

  • Serving Jesus doesn't exempt us from difficulty

• Keep trusting... we don't know what God is doing in the lives of others

  • God, the greatest Author in existence, knows the best ending to the story

Elijah Must Come First

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Matthew 17:9-13
March 12, 2023

Matthew 17:9-13: Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

Sermon Outline

1. The hard thing Jesus commanded

2. The problems raised by His words (Malachi 4:5-6)

• Malachi predicted: Elijah would precede the Messiah

• Malachi predicted: Elijah would bring restoration to the world

3. How Jesus addresses these problems

• Regarding Elijah coming before the Messiah

• Regarding Elijah restoring all things

• Regarding the disciples' view that Jesus' death was incompatible with Elijah coming

• How this applies to Jesus as the Messiah

4. Lessons

• The reliability of Scripture is not tied to our understanding it

• Not all interpretation is literal

• Jesus and his followers bring salvation through suffering

The Transfiguration

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Matthew 17:1-8
March 5, 2023

Matthew 17:1-8: And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son,with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Sermon Outline

1. Emotional state of the disciples

2. What the disciples saw and heard

• Jesus transfigured

• Brief comment: How to read Bible stories

• Two visitors appear

• Something else unexpected appears

• The voice of the Father from the cloud

3. How Jesus comforted them

4. What we learn

• Ecstatic spiritual experiences are not the norm

• A glimpse into life after death for believers

• The Old Testament God is the same as the New Testament God

• Jesus Christ has no equals

• The need to listen

Real Grace for Real Failures

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Speaker: Mark Estes
Scripture: John 21:1-17
February 26, 2023

Weeping Over Moab

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Isaiah 15-16
February 19, 2023

Isaiah 15-16: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Dibon goes up to its temple, to its high place to weep; Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved and every beard cut off. In the streets they wear sackcloth; on the roofs and in the public squares they all wail, prostrate with weeping. Heshbon and Elealeh cry out, their voices are heard all the way to Jahaz. Therefore the armed men of Moab cry out, and their hearts are faint.

My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as Zoar, as far as Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the way to Luhith, weeping as they go; on the road to Horonair they lament their destruction. The waters of Nimrim are dried up and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone and nothing green is left. So the wealth they have acquired and stored up they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars. Their outcry echoes along the border of Moab; their wailing reaches as far as Eglaim, their lamentation as far as Beer Elim. Dimon's waters are full of blood, but I will bring still more upon Dimon -- a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon those who remain in the land.

Send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the desert, to the mount of the Daughter of Zion. Like fluttering birds pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.

“Give us counsel, render a decision. Make your shadow like night -- at high noon. Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer. The oppressor will come to an end, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land. In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it -- one from the house of David -- one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.”

Sermon Outline

1. The certainty/sadness of God judging sin, illustrated by Moab's ruin

• God judges sin

• Assyrians were fierce

• National mourning in Moab

2. The grief of God & his prophet over Moab's ruin

• Assyrian atrocities and Moabite mourning

• God grieves for Moab as He judges their idolatry

3. The possible solution

• "Cabinet meeting" of Moabite leaders: Request asylum in Judah?

4. The even deeper solution

• Messianic prediction: "One from the house of David"

• Implication: "Moab, you can share in this hope!"

5. Moab rejects the solution, God judges Moab in tears (Isaiah 16:6-14)

• Moab chooses her false god over the one true God

• More lamenting, grieving, and destruction are the result

6. Applications

• God will judge sin

• Ultimate rescue comes only through Great David's greater Son

• God's people should "hide the refugees"

  • Mission to the World

  • Samaritan's Purse

• Pride will keep us from his salvation

• As we announce the consequence of rejecting him, weep!

Benediction

May the Lord Jesus Christ who wept enable you to weep and to rejoice in His coming as Messiah — paraphrased from Luke 19:41-44 & Revelation 21:4

Living By Dying

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Matthew 16:24-27
February 12, 2023

Matthew 16:24-27: Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done."

Sermon Outline

1. Christ invites people to follow him by suffering with him

• An unusual sales job

• "Deny himself"

• Take up one's cross

2. What taking up our cross looks like

• Lesser deaths

• Greater deaths

3. By embracing Christ's cross, I will find my life

• "Will find his life" in this world

• Transition: But horrific things happen here on earth

• "Will find his life" in the world to come

4. By refusing Christ's cross, I will lose my life

• Great temptation to "save" it

• "Will lose one's life" in this world

• "Will lose one's life" in the world to come

The "Must" of Jesus' Cross

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Matthew 16:21-23
February 5, 2023

Sermon Outline

1. The most important thing about Jesus Christ is his atoning death and resurrection

• Jesus explained that he must die

• How much of his statement did his disciples understand?

2. The most important thing to Satan is to frustrate/oppose the atonement of Christ

• That day, Satan used the leader of the apostles to oppose Christ's atonement

• Today, Satan uses a popular strand of supposed "Christianity" to oppose Christ's atonement

3. Jesus opposes those who oppose his atoning death

4. Applications

• Even our believing friends can unwittingly harm us spiritually

• Under their own understanding, humans are offended by the cross

• The cross of Christ goes against our self-righteousness

• Mourn for your sins, repent of your sins, confess your sins, but stop trying to pay for your sins

Sanctity of Human Life

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Speaker: Mike Rudolf
Scripture: Various passages
January 29, 2023

Romans 1:20a: For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.

Genesis 2:7: then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Psalm 139:13-16: For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Jeremiah 1:5: Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

Ecclesiastes 11:5: As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Ephesians 1:4: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing the the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

Sermon Outline

1. Human life is sacred because it is God-created

2. Human life is sacred because it is made in God's image

• Male and female

• Eternal souls

• More valuable than many sparrows

3a. Human life is sacred because God loves life

• The right to life takes precedence over every other human right

• God takes special care to craft each human life

• Woe to those who call evil good and good evil

3b. Human life is sacred because God sent His Son to die on a cross to redeem it

• Jesus, the Lamb of God, willingly went to Calvary

• All of heaven celebrates when a sinner repents

• Human life is made for God's glory

• God lives human life beyond measure, born and unborn

4. Applications

• Wake up if you've been napping on this issue

• Imitate Jesus in humility and service

• Keep on!

Summary

• Life is sacred because it is God created

• Life is sacred because life is in the image of the creator God

• Life is sacred because God loves life and sent his son to redeem it

Grace Upon Grace

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:14, 16-18
January 22, 2023

John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:16-18: For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Sermon Outline

1. We can love Jesus because we've all received "grace upon grace" (Jn 1:16)

• Literally "grace instead of grace"

• Two ideas of grace

• Think of your life

2. We can love Jesus because we've received grace from his fullness

• Illustration: Engine trouble on the road

• Jesus has infinite fullness

3. We can love Jesus because what he brought us far exceeds what former believers experienced

• Nothing wrong with the Law given through Moses

• What Jesus taught and did is vastly superior

• "Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"

4. We should love Jesus because he alone can make the Father known to us

• Jesus is "at the Father's side" (Jn 1:18)

• Jesus is called "the only GOD who is at the Father's side"

• Jesus is called "the only God

Benediction

Now to him who loved us and washed us with his blood be eternal praise, and to you who believe be eternal grace and joy. Amen. — paraphrased from Revelation 1:5-6

Children Born of God

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:12-13
January 15, 2023

John 1:12-13: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Sermon Outline

1. People became children of God by believing in his Son

2. Believing is more than a feeling

• To describe becoming a child of God, John uses an action word

• (With fellow apostles) John coins a new expression to describe the activeness of faith in Christ

• J.C. Ryle on the need to believe

3. Believing means trusting in a person, not just acknowledging a set of doctrines

• John shows the personal nature of believing by the phrase "believed in his name"

• John shows the personal nature of believing by adding a parallel word

• Illustration: Steve the summer youth director

4. How people do not become children of God

• Natural descent

• Human decision

• Husband's will

5. How people do become children of God

Benediction

Matthew 11:28: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

2 Corinthians 13:14: May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

The World Did Not Know Him

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: John 1:10-11
January 8, 2023

John 1:10-11: He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Sermon Outline

1. The fact that the world did not know him

• Before public ministry

• During public ministry

2. Why the world should have known him

• World should have known him because it was made through him

• World should have known him because he was in the world

• World should have known him because he came to those in the best position to know him

3. Why did the world not know him?

• World was spiritually blind

• World was resistant

4. Applications

• For the believer

• For the resistant

Not in the Flesh, but in the Spirit

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Speaker: Matt Carter
Scripture: Romans 8:9-11
January 1, 2023

Romans 8:9-11: You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Sermon Outline

1. Summary of last sermon (Romans 7:14-25)

2. If we are in the Spirit, we are not in the flesh

• Our location identifies us

• Being in Christ frees us from the need for self-importance

• Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him

3. If we are in Christ, our bodies are dead, but our spirits are alive because of righteousness

• Our bodies are dead because of sin

• Our spirits are alive because of righteousness

4. The Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal body if He dwells in you

• How much power does it take to raise the dead and why should the answer matter to us?

  • The exact same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us who live in Christ

5. Applications

• We need to accept that our bodies (as discussed today) are dead

• We need to believe that surrendering to the work of the Holy Spirit will turn out for our good

Benediction

And now, may the love of God the Father who sent Jesus Christ to the cross because he knew that the cross would turn out for both Jesus' vindication and ours; may the faith of Jesus Christ who surrendered himself to the cross because he believed that the Father was faithful and that the Spirit was powerful; and may the power and goodness of the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead and who will raise us also, be with every true believer in this room. Amen