Truly God is Good

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Psalm 73
June 8, 2025

Psalm 73: Truly God is good to Israel,
    to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
    my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
    when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

For they have no pangs until death;
    their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
    they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
    violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
    their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
    loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
    and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore his people turn back to them,
    and find no fault in them.
And they say, “How can God know?
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
Behold, these are the wicked;
    always at ease, they increase in riches.
All in vain have I kept my heart clean
    and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
    and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
    I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

But when I thought how to understand this,
    it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
    then I discerned their end.

Truly you set them in slippery places;
    you make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
    swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
    O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
    when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
    I was like a beast toward you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
    you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength[b] of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
    you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
But for me it is good to be near God;
    I have made the Lord God my refuge,
    that I may tell of all your works.

Sermon Outline

1. Psalm 73

• Theme

• Structure

• Main idea

2. The slippery slope of jealousy

• Observing prosperity can bring the feeling of vanity

3. The wise way of discernment

• Prioritizing gathering

• Discerning the ending

• Instructing our longing

4. The real refuge of God’s nearness

Celebrating God's Faithfulness

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Leviticus 23:33-44
June 1, 2025

Leviticus 23:33-44: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord. On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work.

“These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day, besides the Lord's Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.

“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”

Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the Lord.

Main point: Holy people practice deliberate rejoicing

Sermon Outline

1. The fruit being recognized

• A safeguard against the sin of presumption

• A safeguard against the sin of self-sufficiency
  *Reflection: What fruit has grown up among us by God’s kindness to us?

2. The truths passed on

• God is mighty to save

• God graciously sustains

• God is passionate about his glory
  *Reflection: What sort of things should we appropriately remember to pass on?

3. The sacrifice in worship

• ”This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” — Luke 22, 1 Corinthians 11

Job Begs an Audience with God

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 13:3, 13:13-28, 14
May 25, 2025

Job 13:3,13:13-28 & 14:

Job to his friends

“I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God.”

“Keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may. Why do I put myself in jeopardy and take my life in my hands? Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless man would dare come before him! Listen carefully to my words; let your ears take in what I say. Now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated. Can anyone bring charges against me? If so, I will be silent and die.

Job to God

“Only grant me these two things, O God, and then I will not hide from you: withdraw your hand far from me, and stop frightening me with your terrors. Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak, and you reply. How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin. Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? Will you torment a windblown leaf? Will you chase after dry chaff? For you write down bitter things against me and make me inherit the sins of my youth. You fasten my feet in shackles; you keep close watch on all my paths by putting marks on the soles of my feet.

“So man wastes away like something rotten, like a garment eaten by moths.

“Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure. Do you fix your eye on such a one? Will you bring him before you for judgment? Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one! Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired man.

“At least there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant. But man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more. As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so man lies down and does not rise; til the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep.

“If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me! If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made. Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin. My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.

“But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place, as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man’s hope. You overpower him once for all, and he is gone; you charge his countenance and send him away. If his sons are honored, he does not know it, if they are brought low, he does not see it. He feels but the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself.”

Job 19:25-27: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end, he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes — I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”

Job 31:35-37: “Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense — let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing. Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown. I would give him an account of my every step; like a prince I would approach him.”

Sermon Outline

1. Review

2. Job has reached an unbearable level of frustration

   • Conversations with his friends has gotten him nowhere

   • His complaints about God have gotten him nowhere

   • His complaints to God have gotten him nowhere

   • Yet through it all, through the tears and pain...

3. Job is about to request an actual encounter with God

   • Job is now on a mission to hear God’s actual voice

   • Job knows his intent is dangerous

   • Despite the risk, Job believes he will be vindicated before God

   • As Job waits, he ponders death and sin

4. Job protests the seeming unfairness of it all

   • Job protests that God seems to think of nothing but sin, and sin leads to death

   • Job longs for a resurrection he thinks will never happen

   • Job needs a mediator to bring these matters to God

5. Lessons

Job’s Early Replies

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 6-7, 9-10, 12-14
May 18, 2025

First reading

Job 6:1-3, 11-12: Then Job replied: “If only my anguish could be weighed and all my misery be placed on the scales! It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas — no wonder my words have been impetuous.”

“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze?”

Job 7:1-7: “Does not man have hard service on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired man? Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages, so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. When I lie down I think, “How long before I get up?” The night drags on, and I toss till dawn. My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.

“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again.”

Second reading

Job 7:7-10: “Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more. As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return. He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.”

Job 10:18-22: “Why then did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me. If only I had never come into being, or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave! Are not my few days almost over? Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and deep shadow, to the land of deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, where even light is like darkness.”

Third reading

Job 7:11-21: “I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard? When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine. I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning. What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention, that you examine him every morning and test him at every moment? Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of men? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you? Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.”

Sermon Outline

1. Review

• The story

• Our approach working through the Book of Job

2. The Book of Job illustrates that God may allow believers to suffer intensely

3. The Book of Job shows factors that intensify believers’ sufferings

• Sufferings intensify when we don’t grasp the role of Satan in them

• Sufferings intensify when we don’t grasp how God’s glory can shine through them

• Sufferings intensify when we don’t grasp that heavenly rewards await believers who remain faithful

• Sufferings intensify through the voices of unhelpful friends

4. The Book of Job shows that true believers who suffer keep engaging God

• Job frankly speaks about and to God

• Yet he does not bolt!

5. Lessons

• Much misery comes from what Christians know yet disbelieve

• God mercifully receives believers who are far from perfect

Jesus and the Children

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Mark 10:13-16
May 11, 2025

Mark 10:13-16, NIV: People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

Mark 10:13-16, ESV: And they were bringing little children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Sermon Outline

1. The story

• The setting is unclear

• What age were these children?

• Why were the disciples rebuked?

2. Jesus rebuked disciples who kept children from him

• Parents become angry when they think their child has been wronged

• How might adults today hinder children from coming to Jesus?

• Jesus praises parents who do the opposite

3. Jesus blessed the children who were brought to him

• Consider what it means to bless someone

• What sort of blessing were the parents seeking?

• Consider the manner in which Jesus blessed them

• What exactly was the result?

4. Accepting the kingdom of God like a little child

• What Jesus doesn’t mean

• What Jesus does mean

Eliphaz “Comforts” Job

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 4-5
May 4, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. How to think about hard Bible passages

• Every Christian should work to understand the Bible as best they can

• There’s a reason God gave the church pastors and teachers

• What to do when you feel lost

2. Review of past three chapters

• The blameless man

• The adversarial wager

• The terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad days

• The three friends

3. Eliphaz’s speech

• The Temanite

• The tone

• The doctrine

• The vision

• The advice

4. What Eliphaz got right

5. What Eliphaz got wrong

• His manner

• His content

Benediction

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood... to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. — paraphrased from Revelation 1:5-6

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing through Shame

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 9:1-9, 35-41
April 27, 2025

John 9:1-9: As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man's eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.”

John 9: 35-41: Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

Sermon Outline

1. Intro: “What’s your story?”

2. Main point

3. The reasons for shame

• Our own sin

• The sins of others

• God’s work

4. The redemption displayed

• Jesus cleanses him

• Jesus exhibits him

• Jesus shepherds him

5. The reversal of sight

When Weeping Gives Way to Witness

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 20:1-18
April 20, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Main Idea

2. Wondering about truth

• The tomb provokes questions

• The Scripture speaks

3. Weeping that turns

• Jesus is The Resurrection

• Jesus is The Good Shepherd

• Jesus is The Way to The Father

4. Witnessing to Triumph

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing at Night

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 3:1-21
April 13, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Main point

2. A religious man (with a hidden problem)

• A man with wealth and influence

• A man with spiritual curiosity, but cultural hindrance

3. The Triune God (with an unbelievable plan)

• The Spirit gives life

• The Son is lifted

• The Father loved

4. All people (with ultimate beliefs)

• Whoever

• Response to the Light

• Empty living vs. eternal living

The Test of Prosperity

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Luke 12:13-21
April 4, 2025

Luke 12:13-21: Someone in the crowd said to [Jesus], “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Sermon Outline

1. The main point

2. The shocking exhortation

• A particularly blinding sin

• A particularly captivating sin

3. The exposing parable

• Our delight is in God

• Our security comes from God

• Our eternity is with God

4. The truth about treasure

Job’s Lament

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 2:11-13, 3:1-26
March 30, 2025

Job 2:11-13: When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• Review

• Job’s friends arrive

2. Job begins his lament

3. Job utters a series of curses

• A curse

• “May God not care about that day”

• “May that day be shrouded in darkness”

4. “Why?”

• The universally spoken three-letter word

• How Job imagines the grave

• The final “why”

• Summary

5. Applications

• God sometimes lets the righteous suffer terribly

• It is important for believers to acknowledge another’s suffering before explaining it

• It is appropriate for a Christian to groan, sometimes long and loudly

Job 3:1-26: After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said: “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’ That day — may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it. May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it. That night — may thick darkness seize it; may it not be included among the days of the year nor be entered in any of the months. May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it. May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn, for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.

“Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb? Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed? For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest with kings and rulers of the earth, who built for themselves places now lying in ruins, with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day? There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout. The small and the great are there, and the slaves are freed from their owners.

“Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure, who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave? Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water. What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Sermon Outline

1. Job utters a series of curses

• A curse

• “God may not care about the day of his birth”

• “May that day be shrouded in darkness”

2. “Why” questions

• The universally spoken 3-letter word

• How He imagines the grave

• Final “Why”

• summary

3. Principle: God sometimes lets the righteous suffer terribly

• Yet God himself affirmed Job as righteous

4. Principle: It is important for believers to acknowledge another’s suffering before explaining it. It is appropriate for a Christian to groan, sometimes long and loudly

5. Conclusion

A Blameless Man Devastated

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 1:1-2:10
March 23, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. A well-run world on earth

• Where Job lived

• When Job lived

• What sort of man was Job religiously?

• Job’s greatness

• Job’s anxiety

2. Transition from earth to heaven

3. First scene in heaven

• The gathering of angels

• The dialogue between the adversary and the King

4. First scene on earth

• Sabeans

• Act of nature

• Chaldeans

• The real horror

5. Second scene in heaven

• “Skin for skin”

• Is God an egomaniac for agreeing to this?

• Job’s agonizing illness

6. Applications

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing His Signs

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 2:1-11
March 16, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• A crisis at a wedding

• Why did John include this in his gospel?

• The main point

2. The revealing crisis

• Why a wedding?

• What the crisis mirrors

3. The foretaste sign

• Why Jesus said what He said

• Jesus brings purification to its pinnacle

• Jesus shields us from our shame

• Jesus sets enjoyment in eternity

4. The hour approaching

• The shadow cast over the gospel of John

5. The response of faith

• The response to the miracle

• Do you perceive Jesus for who he is?

• Train yourself, Christian, to let go of lesser joys

“How soon do earthly lovers come to an end of their discoveries of each other’s beauty; how soon do they see all that is to be seen?... [But] how happy is that love, in which there is an eternal progress in all these things; wherein new beauties are continually discovered, and more and more loveliness, and in which we shall forever increase in beauty ourselves; where we shall be made capable of finding out and giving, and shall receive, more and more endearing expressions of love forever: our union will become more close, and communication more intimate.” — Jonathan Edwards, Heaven, a World of Love (2020)

Eye-Opening Light: Seeing His Glory

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: John 1:1-18
March 9, 2025

2 Chronicles 26: 15-16: The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.

Sermon Outline

1. His climatic coming

• God called out to his own

2. His sober diagnosis

• We naturally hide

• We easily misunderstand

• We quickly reject

3. His unbelievable message

• God adopts all who receive him

4. Applications

”When we approach Him in the intensity of worship, we gather up all the sweetness involved in Fatherhood and all the tenderness wrapped up in sonship; when calamities overcome us and troubles come in like a flood, we lift up our cry and stretch out our arms to God as a compassionate Father; when the angel of death climbs in at the window of our homes and bears away the object of our love, we find our dearest solace in reflecting upon the fatherly heart of God; when we look across the swelling flood, it is our Father’s House on the light-covered hills beyond the stars which cheers us amid the crumbling of the earthly tabernacle.” — Robert Webb, Adoption: The Sweetest Doctrine, TableTalk (2024)

“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