“How Did We Get Here?”

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Exodus 13:17-22
March 2, 2025

Exodus 13:17-22: When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.” But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.” And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness. And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

Sermon Outline

1. A winding road

• The path is not humanly efficient

• Why God leads them on this winding path

2. A Word remembered

• God’s plan is unfolding

• God’s promise is prevailing

• God’s people need reminding

3. A wonderful revelation

• In Exodus, God came down in pillars of cloud and fire

• In the Gospels, God came down as a human

4. Applications

Love in Heaven

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:8-13
February 23, 2025

1 Corinthians 13:8-13: Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I reasoned like a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child. When I became a man, I put childish things behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Sermon Outline

1. Wrong idea of spirituality

• Tongues

• Same wrong idea with prophesy

• What the chapter has said

2. Summary of this passage

3. Three temporary gifts of ministry

• Prophecy

• Tongues

• Knowledge

4. Two figures of speech and a clear statement

• Contrast between childhood and adulthood

• Contrast between reflection and face-to-face

• The clear statement

5. On verse 13

• “These three remain”

• “But the greatest of these is love”

6. Jonathan Edwards on love

• The cause and fountain of love

• The objects of love

• The beings who will love

• Some aspects of love

Growth in God’s Kingdom

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Speaker: Mark Estes
Scripture: Mark 4:26-29
February 16, 2025

Mark 4:26-29, NIV: He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain — first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

Mark 4:26-29, NLT: Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. And as soon as the grain is ready, the former comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest has come.”

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction: Parables as allegory

• E.g. Pilgrim’s Progress

• Prodigal son

1. Some church fathers took it too far

2. Hyper-allegorical

• Avoid over-allegorizing and de-allegorizing

• E.g. wicked tenants

1. Pharisees knew Jesus was talking about them

2. Why are parables hard to understand?

• Key: Mark 4:10-12

• Jesus’ two-fold purpose in telling parables

1. Reveal the truth to his disciples

2. Conceal the truth from the Pharisees

• Why do this?

• Parables were a form of judgment on Israel

3. The parable of the growing seed

• Symbolism

• Four principles

1. In both the growth of corn and the work of grace, there must be a sower

2. In both the growth of grain and grace, much is outside our understanding or control

3. True life shows itself gradually

4. Grain isn’t harvested until it is ripe

4. Applications

What Love Looks Like

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
February 9, 2025

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NIV: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7, ESV: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Sermon Outline

1. Fifteen verbs

2. First: Two positives about love

• “Love is patient”

• “Love is kind”

• Combination reflects God

3. Seven negatives about love

• “Does not envy”

• “Does not boast”

• “Is not proud”

• “Is not rude”

• ”Is not self-seeking”

• “Is not easily angered”

• “Keeps no record of wrongs”

• “Does not delight in evil”

4. Four zippy little phrases about love

• NIV translation

• ESV translation

• Answering objections

• Steve’s Uncle Tom

Love: Graces Better Than Gifts

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
February 2, 2025

1 Corinthians 13:1-3: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• Challenges facing the earliest Christians

• How God equipped them

2. Love is more important than gifted speaking and teaching

• The gift of tongues

• The problem

• The application

3. Love is much more important than mere religious activity

• “If I have the gift of prophecy...”

• “If I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge...”

• “If I have a faith that can move mountains...”

4. Love is more important than even acts of personal sacrifice

• “If I give all I possess to the poor...”

• “...and surrender my body to the flames...”

5. The result of no love

• “I gain nothing”

• “I am nothing”

6. Three closing thoughts

Benediction

Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard our cry for mercy. Our hearts trust in him, and we are helped. Save your people and bless your inheritance, be our shepherd and carry us forever. Amen — paraphrased from Psalm 28: 6-9

A Fine Wife

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Proverbs 31:10-31
January 26, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. A wife of noble character

• Who is the passage speaking of?

• What if I’m not a wife or a mother?

• A woman of noble character

2. First area of her attention: her husband

• A helper suitable for him

• “clothed in fine linen and purple”

3. Second area of her attention: her children

• Basic needs

• Involved in their lives

• All this takes energy!

4. Third area of her attention: outside her home

• Finances (for her home)

• The needy

5. Near the end: “Who can find?”

6. Applications

The Danger of Spiritual Declension

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Speaker: Rich Goswiller
Scripture: Jeremiah 2:9-13
January 19, 2025

Jeremiah 2:9-13: “Therefore I still contend with you, declares the LORD, and with your children’s children I will contend. For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see, or sent to Kedar and examine with care, see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

2. God’s declaration

• “Therefore...”

• Some measure of judgment

3. God’s indictment

• They exchanged the better for the worse

• Idol factories

4. The two evils committed by Judah

• Evil #1

• Evil #2

5. God’s word for us today

• Why do the faithful turn away from the truth?

• Keep yourself in the love of the God who loves you

Human Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Various passages
January 12, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• Where is God when we suffer?

• The story of Rabbi Harold Kushner

• Many evangelicals are like Rabbi Kushner

• Some people take the opposite view

2. The causes behind suffering in the Book of Job

• What caused Job’s troubles?

• God governs nature and its laws

• God governs both intentional and unintentional actions of people

• God governs Satan and demons

3. An objection... and two answers

• The objection

• God is drawn to suffering people

• God’s motives for decreeing evil are good

4. Summary

• What about suffering is God sovereign over?

• For what purpose?

“The Christian’s Eternal Rest” — Adapted from Richard Baxter (1640)

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Hebrews 4:9
January 5, 2025

Hebrews 4:9: There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• Baxter’s life/illnesses

• Old Testament saints in the desert were promised rest

• Christians have hard lives, but God has promised eternal rest

2. Our eternal rest

• Our eternal rest means the end of tiring effort

• Our eternal rest means we will experience perfect love

• Our eternal rest means we’ll have the capacity for all heaven’s delights

3. How our souls will respond to all this in heaven