Suffering and Glory

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Speaker: Dr. Iain Duguid
Scripture: Acts 17:1-15
December 29, 2024

An Angel, a Virgin

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Luke 1:26-38
December 22, 2024

Luke 1:26-38: In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[a] the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

Sermon Outline

1. The angel

2. The place

• Far from Jerusalem

• Of “inferior Jewishness”

• The town of Nazareth

3. The time

4. The virgin

• Her need for a Savior

• Her modest role

• Her godliness

5. The conversation

• Gabriel’s graciousness and Mary’s fear

• Gabriel’s reassuring message

• Mary requests an explanation

• Gabriel’s astounding, mysterious answer

• Gabriel’s help to Mary’s faith

• Mary’s courageous, submissive reply

6. The applications

When the Time had Fully Come (the Birth of Jesus Christ)

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Galatians 4:1-5
December 15, 2024

Galatians 4:1-5, NIV: But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

Galatians 4:1-5, ESV: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Sermon Outline

1. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son”

• The Father behind the Christmas story

• God moved toward us

2. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son”

• Doctrine of the Holy Trinity

• Relationship of love

• Relationship of likeness

• The self-existent Son

3. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son”

4. “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son”

• God sent his Son when he alone knew the time was perfect

• God sent his Son when the means were in place to spread the good news

• God sent his Son when the felt need for him had ripened

• God sent his Son when the time had fully come

Weary of Waiting for Messiah

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Malachi 3:12-4:6
December 8, 2024

Malachi 3:12-4:6: “You have said harsh things against me,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’ You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.’”

Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored his name. “They will be mine,” says the LORD Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the LORD Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall. Then you will trample down the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do these things,” says the LORD Almighty. “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

Sermon Outline

1. Background

• Return from exile

• Weary of waiting

• God’s list of grievances

2. The general problem: religion wasn’t paying off

• They had religion

• But their hearts weren’t in it

• From a resentful heart come resentful words

3. How true believers responded to Malachi’s preaching

4. God’s reaction to the conversations of believers

• God paid attention

• What God did for these believers

5. The future Day of the Lord

• What unbelievers experience

• What believers experience

6. God’s closing words

• “Remember the law of my servant Moses”

• “I will send Elijah”

A Covenant Keeping Advent

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Speaker: Matt Carter
Scripture: Matthew 1:1-18
December 1, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. A Gospel built on two covenants

• Davidic covenant

• Abrahamic covenant

2. Grafted to Jesus’ family tree

3. God’s faithfulness through generations

• Famous and kingdom-advancing generations

• Invisible generations

• Foreign generations

• Scandalous generations

• Generations of division and exile

• Generations in which kingship has vanished

• The final generation

4. Two takeaways from our time in Matthew 1

Israel's December: Hoshea, Exile, Samaria Resettled

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 17:1-41
November 24, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. The beginning of the end

• Picture an imaginary future for the United States

• Israel’s situation in today’s text

2. Israel’s final days and ultimate collapse

• Too little, too late

• Hoshea’s folly

• Assyria’s vengeance

3. Why God let this happen

4. What counterfeit religion looks like

• Counterfeit religion often begins with ingratitude toward the one true God

• Counterfeit religion focuses on what is aesthetically pleasing

• Counterfeit religion invents itself; biblical faith receives what is revealed

• Counterfeit religion is after results; biblical worship is after God

• Counterfeit religion rots a person’s soul

• Counterfeit religion ruins not just ourselves, but also our descendants

• Counterfeit religion leads to judgment

5. How counterfeit religion is guarded against

6. The weeping Judge

A Pleasant Company: Jesus, the Twelve, and the Women

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Luke 8:1-3
November 17, 2024

Luke 8:1-3: After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

Sermon Outline

1. Three familiar scenes of 21st-century people

• Major TV networks watched by older folks

• Hollywood scenes of the supernatural

• The situation in the Middle East

2. A scene of some first-century people

• The twelve

• “Some women”

  • The women in general

  • Mary Magdalene

  • Joanna

  • Susanna

3. The man who drew them out of darkness

Anarchy in the Northern Kingdom: Zechariah-Pekah

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 15:8-31
November 10, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. The sad political story

• Two weeks ago — 41 years of prosperity

• Today — 21 years of anarchy

2. The bloody succession of kings

• Zechariah (6 months)

• Shallum (1 month)

• Menahem (10 years)

• Pekahiah (2 years)

3. Pekah’s reign and fall

• The darkening night

• The prophesied Light

4. What sin destroyed this nation?

• The sin that stands out

• Jesus on personal responsibility*

*As you study the Bible, remember that Scripture interprets Scripture

A Picture for Perseverance

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Revelation 1:9-20
November 3, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. An audible call

2. An overwhelming scene

• His presence is real

• His mediation is glorious

• His wisdom is infinite

• His perception is perfect

• His conquest is ongoing

3. A tangible comfort

• John’s response

• Jesus’ reassurance

October in Israel: Jeroboam II and the Writing Prophets

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 14:23-29
October 27, 2024

2 Kings 14:23-29: In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD and did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit. He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

The LORD had seen how bitterly everyone in Israel, whether slave or free, was suffering; there was no one to help them. And since the LORD had not said he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Jehoash. As for the other events of Jeroboam’s reign, all he did, and his military achievements, including how he recovered for Israel both Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Yaudi, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? Jeroboam rested with his fathers, the kings of Israel. And Zechariah his son succeeded him as king.

Sermon Outline

1. Review and introduction

• Israel splits in two

• The southern kingdom

• The northern kingdom

2. Opening description of Jeroboam II

3. Point 1: It’s God’s nature to bless undeserving people

• How God blessed Jeroboam II

• Why God blessed Jeroboam II

4. God’s blessing does not necessarily mean God’s approval

• Examples from the minor prophets

• Applications

5. God’s judgments in one time/place are always to show mercy in another time/place

• Examples

• Where is this in today’s passage?

Rebellion and Obedience

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Speaker: Andrew Hageman
Scripture: 1 Samuel 15
October 20, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. Overt Rebellion: Rebellion against God warrants destruction

• The cruelty and evil practices of the Amalekites

• God’s justice against the Amalekites

• What does this mean for us?

2. Covert Rebellion: The heart of covert rebellion is self-deception

• Covert rebellion begins with self-justification

• Covert rebellion often includes blame shifting

• Covert rebellion results in consequences

3. True Obedience: A relationship with God requires the true obedience which only Christ possesses

• God requires obedience, not sacrifices

• Our hope in Jesus Christ, the obedient King

Spiritual Flourishing

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Titus 1:1-11
October 13, 2024

Titus 1:1-11: Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who lever lies, promised before the ages began, and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;

To Titus, my true child in a common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you — if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

Sermon Outline

1. Elders are a source of discipleship

2. Elders are a display of the Spirit

• Character

• Conviction

• Competency

3. Elders are for soundness of doctrine

Risky Request

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Speaker: David Fogleboch
Scripture: Philemon 1-25
October 6, 2024

Philemon 1-25: Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker — also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier — and to the church that meets in your home:

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

I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.

Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul — an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus — that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.

I am sending him — who is my very heart — back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I did not want you to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary. Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever — no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.

So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back — not to mention that you owe me your very self. I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you’ll do even more than I ask.

And one thing more: Prepare a guest room for me, because I hope to be restored to you in answer to your prayers.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Sermon Outline

1. The request

• Reconcile with a runaway slave

• The modern equivalent

2. The risks

• Paul’s friendship with Philemon

• Philemon’s reputation

• Onesimus’ life

3. Risking reconciliation

The Reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoash

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 13:1-25
September 29, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. Jehoahaz

• “He did evil in the eyes of the LORD...”

• Result of this evil

• “Then Jehoahaz sought the LORD’s favor”

• How God did it

• Israel’s response

2. Jehoash

• Different king, same summary

• A significant episode

• A dead man lives again

3. Conclusion

Jehu Destroys Ahab's Family and Baal Worship

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 10:1-36
September 22, 2024

Sermon Outline

Destroying Ahab’s house

• Jehu’s challenge

• Heads roll in Samaria

• Jehu seeks support of citizens and soldiers in Jezreel

• Jehu slaughters Ahab’s house in Jezreel

2. Meeting relatives of Judah’s recently departed king

• Remember Ahaziah?

• The deadly meeting on the road to Samaria

3. Meeting a most unusual man

• Jehonadab the Recabite

• Jehonadab joins Jehu

• The principle of this part of the passage

4. Killing Baal worship

• A compulsory command

• Death and destruction

5. What are we to think of this chapter?

• Christian, don’t be naive about politics

• God uses scary unbelievers to achieve his holy purposes

• God often rewards unbelievers (in this life) for the good they do

• It won’t do to abandon the sins we don’t like, but cling to the sins we do like

The Heights of His Holiness

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Leviticus 14:33-56
September 15, 2024

Sermon Outline

The holiness of God in his sovereignty

• God’s promises are sure

• God’s providence is real

2. The holiness of God in his separation

• Uncleanness is contagious

• Uncleanness is deep-seated

• Uncleanness is persistent

• Uncleanness renders something fit for destruction

3. The holiness of God in his Son

• Provision for the cleansing of uncleanness

• A High Priest who is also a carpenter

4. Applications

• Do not despair over the shame you feel today

• There is great purpose in seemingly insignificant obedience to God

Jehu Kills Ahaziah, Joram, and Jezebel

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 9:1-37
September 8, 2024

Sermon Outline

1. Previously on The Northern Kingdom...

• Elijah flees

• Jehovah replies

• God’s plan to topple Baal in Israel

2. Jehu anointed as king

• Elisha sends a young prophet on a mission

• Reaction of Jehu’s lieutenants

3. Jehu kills two Baal-worshiping kings

• Killing Joram of Israel

• Killing Ahaziah of Judah

4. Killing Jezebel

• Jezebel prepares to die in style

• Jehu has Jezebel thrown out the window

• Jehu feasts while Jezebel is feasted on

5. Lessons

• Rebellion against God is fanned into flame by those we associate with

• Rebels vs. God are gradually storing up wrath for themselves

• God avenges his suffering people

• Is God’s wrath so gory and terrible?

Joram's Last Chance for Grace Meeting the Shunammite's Son

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 8:1-6
September 1, 2024

2 Kings 8:1-6: Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Go away with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, because the LORD has decreed a famine in the land that will last seven years.” The woman proceeded to do as the man of God said. She and her family went away and stayed in the land of the Philistines seven years.

At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to the king to beg for her house and land. The king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, and had said, “Tell me about all the great things Elisha has done.” Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to beg the king for her house and land.

Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.” The king asked the woman about it, and she told him.

Then he assigned an official to her case and said to him, “Give back everything that belonged to her, including all the income from her land from the day she left the country until now.”

Sermon Outline

1. Background to today’s text (2 Kings 4 for reference)

2. King Joram had already seen God’s divine kindness through Elisha

• Aramean ambushes foiled

• Aramean army delivered into Joram’s hands

• Northern kingdom’s capital relieved of starvation

3. King Joram asks to hear more about Elisha’s great works

• The widow in debt

• Death in the stew

• Feeding one hundred

• A borrowed ax

• The Shunammite woman’s son

4. Lessons

• See how God cares for His own people

• See how important our response to accounts of God’s mercies are

Background for next week’s sermon

• 2 Kings 8:7-14, NIV: Hazael Murders Ben-Hadad

• 2 Kings 8:25-29, NIV: Ahaziah King of Judah

Who, Then, Is This?

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Speaker: Wendell Stoltzfus
Scripture: Mark 4:35-41
August 25, 2024

Mark 4:35-41: On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Sermon Outline

1. The fisherman and the sea

• Simon Peter

• Sea of Galilee

2. Jesus in the boat

• He had been teaching all day

• He still had a lesson to teach that night

3. The storm

• More than experienced fishermen could handle

• Eventually, the disciples ask Jesus to help

• Jesus rebukes the storm, then rebukes his disciples

4. The disciples’ reaction

• “Who then is this?”

• These sinful men realize they’re in the presence of the Holy One

• Jesus’ lesson for his disciples

5. The storms we encounter

• What makes us afraid?

• “Why are you so afraid?”

“Saints, When Absent from the Body, Are Present with the Lord” — A Sermon by Jonathan Edwards (1747)

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:8
August 18, 2024

2 Corinthians 5:8: We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Sermon Outline

1. Departed saints live in the same wonderful place as Christ

• Christ in Heaven still has a human nature

• Heaven is a place

• Angels are in heaven

• Departed saints are in heaven

• We who are saved will be in heaven

2. The souls of saints in Heaven have an unhindered sight of Jesus Christ

• When absent from friends, we can only think about them

• “But then we shall see him face to face”

• Those in Heaven see him “as he is”

3. Departed saints become perfectly like him by seeing him

4. Departed saints enjoy a glorious and immediate closeness with him

• Departed saints are present with the Lord

• But His glorious state won’t intimidate them

• Reasons with his majesty won’t intimidate them