Salvation’s Present

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:6-9
September 28, 2025

1 Peter 1:6-9: In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire — may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Sermon Outline

1. Grief in the hand of God

2. Faith in the furnace of fire

3. Joy in the absence of sight

Salvation’s Future

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-5
September 21, 2025

1 Peter 1:3-5: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Sermon Outline

Main idea: What God has caused, God will guard

1. Introduction

• Homesickness and anticipation

• The foundational main idea

2. What God has caused

• A new birth

• A living hope

3. What God guards

• An inheritance

• A salvation

Such a Great Salvation

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-12
September 14, 2025

1 Peter 1:3-12: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire — may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look

Sermon Outline

1. A salvation ahead

2. A salvation being worked out

• Our trails are various

• Our time is short

• Our faith is tested

• Our reward is being worked out

3. A salvation long anticipated

Multiplied Grace For Elect Exiles

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: 1 Peter 1:1-2
September 7, 2025

1 Peter 1:1-2: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Main point: When sorrow is added, God's grace multiplies.

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• "Christianity is like tea"

• What it's like this side of Glory

2. An unlikely shepherd

• A man who needs no introduction

• A man least expected to write these words

• A man who experienced firsthand the grace of God

3. A foundational identity

• Elect exiles

• Status and sorrow

4. A sovereign plan

• Known by a loving Father

• Claimed by his indwelling Spirit

• Cleansed to be like the Son

5. An agenda-setting prayer

• 1 Peter 5:12: By Sylvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.

“Peter’s brief greeting, ‘Grace and peace be yours in abundance,’ gives in miniature the whole message of his letter. He writes to those who already feel the scorn and malice of an unbelieving world. Writing from Rome under the emperor Nero, Peter knows that they will experience much worse. Can he really pronounce peace in abundance to those who are only beginning to discover the suffering to which Christians are called? Peter writes for that very purpose.

Once he had fought to defend the shalom (peace) of the Messiah. Under the olive trees of Gethsemane, he drew his sword to resist those who came to arrest Jesus. But Jesus had made him sheath his weapon after one misdirected stroke. Peter wanted to fight because he feared that the death of Jesus would end all hope of victory, all hope of the Messiah's peace. But the death of Jesus had done the opposite. It had accomplished the salvation of God's Anointed.

Now Peter, the apostle of the risen Lord, can pronounce peace; the peace that comes, not by the sword, but by the cross.” — Edmund P. Clowney, The Message of 1 Peter (2021)

The Wonderful Works of God

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Speaker: Tyler Estes
Scripture: Psalm 95
August 31, 2025

Psalm 95: Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
    the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
     do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
    as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
    and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
    and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
    and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
    “They shall not enter my rest.”

Sermon Outline

1. An invitation to worship

• A corporate invitation

• A kingly invitation

• A pastoral invitation

2. A warning against hard hearts: seeing the hand of God

• In his works of creation and providence

• In his work of salvation

• In the work of the church

“On my way, the thunder and lightning were renewed; but there being no rain, I kept on, and, blessed be God's good providence, arrived safe at the vicarage. The Lord preserved me from a slavish fear; but I felt a very desirable awe on my mind, even such as I would always wish to feel, on such a commanding occasion. I conversed much with God in mental prayer, and desire to bless his name, that the awful manifestations of his power were not commissioned either to hurt or destroy. I have heard much louder thunder; but never, I believe, saw such prodigious lightning; unless my being more exposed to it, than I ever was before, makes me think so.

Thou, O Lord, commandest the waters; it is the glorious God who maketh the thunder: and (adored be the riches of thy mercy) it was Thou who didst bid the lightnings alarm, but prohibit them to strike. O take me, and seal me thine for ever!” — Augustus Montague Toplady, Memoirs (1825)

Perhaps I Can Make Atonement

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Exodus 32:30-35
August 24, 2025

Exodus 32:30-35: The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin — but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.” But the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

Then the LORD sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

1 Peter 3:18: For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• A treasured possession

• What if I’ve been living for myself?

• The confidence of a Christian

2. A lingering stain

• A debt has been incurred

• A relationship is broken

3. A determined mediator

• Moses pleads with God on Israel’s behalf

• Moses is grieved over sin not his own

• Moses appeals at the cost of his life

• Moses is insufficient to reconcile

4. A future visit

• A day of reckoning

• A day of atonement

Who is on the Lord’s Side?

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Exodus 32:25-29
August 17, 2025

Exodus 32:25-29: And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”

1 Thessalonians 4: For this is the will of God... that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness... that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things...

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• Failure to heed urgent warnings

• The urgent call to us

• The main idea

2. A shocking sight

• A people out of control

• The derision of their enemies

• What Moses saw

3. A gracious call

• A gracious call from the place of judgement

• “Who do you belong to?”

4. A particular judgement

• A call to Levites to punish the unrepentant

• God sometimes uproots to preserve

• Some sins are more heinous than others

5. A blessed result

Aaron’s Reply

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Exodus 32:21-24
August 10, 2025

Exodus 32:21-24: And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?” And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

2. A sobering question

• There is a representative responsibility in God-given leadership

• There was a great sin in the camp because there was a subtle sin at the top

• What of people in a leadership role today?

3. An evasive reply

• Aaron takes refuge in three “disguises”

• First disguise: “My sin is reasonable”

• Second disguise: “Their sin is greater”

• Third disguise: “Circumstances caused it”

• Our pathetic disguises

4. An enduring word

• What becomes of Aaron?

• Jesus, our great High Priest

Living Sacrifices

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Speaker: Matt Carter
Scripture: Romans 12:1-2
August 3, 2025

Romans 12:1-2: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Sermon Outline

1. The call to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices finds its motivational force in the mercies of God.

   • If the mercy God has shown you isn’t motivating you in the direction of offering yourself as a sacrifice, it’s likely that you’ve:

     • Been viewing your own sin as a small thing.

     • Lost sight of God’s holiness.

     • Or failed to recognize how much it cost God to pay for your sin.

2. Though on the outside, the concept of a living sacrifice may seem like a contradiction in terms, Paul has been making sense of it though out the book of Romans:

• Romans 6 and Galatians 2 — We were identified with Christ, both his death and his resurrection though the waters of baptism.

• 1 Peter 1 — We’re owned by him because of the ransom paid.

• Romans 8 — By the power of the Spirit we both put to death and are raised to new life.

3. The offering of our bodies reflects Christ’s sacrifices in two ways but is distinct from his in one very important way.

   • Like Christ, we are the ones offering the sacrifice.

   • Like Christ, we are offering ourselves.

   • Unlike Christ, our offering is in no way an atonement.

     • It is a reasonable act of service in response to the atonement already made — worship.

     • Like Aaron the high priest, we are made holy to the Lord by a sacrifice made on our behalf.

4. If we are offering our bodies (of which our minds are a part) it is a forgone conclusion that our minds will be transformed.

5. A transformed mind can discern God’s perfect will because a transformed mind is the mind of Christ.

Covenant Breaking

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Exodus 32:15-20
July 27, 2025

Exodus 32:15-20: Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written on both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

Sermon Outline

1. Intro

• The famous first half and the not-so-famous second half of Exodus

• Acquiring a taste for worshiping God

2. A covenant-making God

• God’s man is coming to God’s people with God’s gift

• God lovingly calls people into an exclusive relationship with him

3. A covenant-breaking people

• Sin as lawlessness

• Sin as spiritual adultery

4. A gracious covenant advocate

• Moses

• Jesus

The View from Heaven

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Exodus 32:7-14
July 20, 2025

Exodus 32:7-14: And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’“ And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

But Moses implored the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, why does your wearh burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’“ And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing to his people.

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• A post-salvation people with idolatrous hearts

• Hearing from the person in charge

• God despises false worship yet raises up a mediator

2. God’s wrath stirred up

• A stiff-necked people quick to turn aside

• Beware of acting on intuition, while being passive to revelation

• God declares his wrath to get Moses to pray on the people’s behalf

3. God’s man raised up

• He exhibits God’s character

• He appeals to God’s glory

• He pleads God’s covenant

4. God’s forbearance lifted up

• God’s relenting is not an injustice

• The wrath-bearing sacrifice for those who believe

Make us gods!

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Exodus 32:1-6
July 13, 2025

1 Corinthians 10:11a: These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction.

Sermon Outline

1. The Heartbeat of Idolatry

2. The Heartbreak of Idolatry

3. Take Heart against Idolatry

Exodus 32:1-6: When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

Sermon Outline

1. Introduction

• Every picture tells a story

• The sobering picture portrayed in Exodus 32

• The main idea

2. The heartbeat of idolatry

3. The heartbreak of idolatry

• It is with the gifts of God

• It is in the name of God

• It distorts the image of God

4. Take heart against idolatry

• God is faithful

• God came down

A Morning Meditation (in the midst of misery)

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Speaker: Dave Royes
Scripture: Psalm 3
July 6, 2025

2 Samuel 12: Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. This is what the Lord says: “Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you.”

Sermon Outline

1. The lament of troubles rising (vs. 1-2)

2. The cry of the psalmist resting (vs. 3-6)

3. The petition of the LORD reigning (vs. 7-8)

• The crime: 2 Samuel 11

• The verdict: 2 Samuel 12:1-15

• The insurrection: 2 Samuel 15:13-23

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. Introduction

• The “front door”

• The structure

• The main idea

2. The lament of troubles rising

• The context

• A prayer out of pain upon pain

• Troubles can take the form of false narratives

3. The cry of the psalmist resting

• God’s sovereign protection

• God’s eternal significance

• God’s attentive care

4. The petition to the Lord reigning

• King David’s son problem

• King David’s sin problem

• King David’s divine descendant

• Two questions

God Restores Job

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 42:1-17
June 29, 2025

Job 42:1-17: Then Job replied to the LORD, “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth to me as your servant Job has.” So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.

After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the LORD had brought on him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful and Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

Sermon Outline

1. God will publicly forgive the sins and highlight the faithfulness of His devoted, suffering servants

• How Job spoke rightly when trials first came

• How Job spoke rightly during months of suffering and debates with friends

• How Job spoke rightly after God appeared

• Result: God forgave Job

• An aside: What enabled Job to change so radically?

2. God did and will publicly oppose any who have wronged His devoted, suffering servants

• God chastises Eliphaz and company

• God requires of them a burnt-offering sacrifice

• God has Job be their mediator

3. God did and will publicly shower his devoted, suffering servants with everything good

• Restored his relationships

• Replenished his finances

• Replenished (in particular) his family

• Gave him a very long life

4. Who is the Book of Job about?

• God

• Job

• Jesus

• Christians

Benediction

1 Corinthians 1:8-9: He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

Behemoth and Leviathan: God Answers Job a Second Time

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 40:6-42:6
June 22, 2025

Sermon Outline:1. After God’s first reply to Job

• God’s not done because Job hasn’t repented yet

• God’s not done because Job is questioning God’s fairness

• God invites Job to assume kingship over the universe

2. Behemoth, the super-beast

• His identity

• His strength

• Yet God tames this fearsome beast

3. Leviathan, the twisting creature

• Importance of Leviathan

• Description

• His identity

• How ancients spoke of him

• How the Bible speaks of him

4. Putting it all together

• Creation

• Rebellion

• Sovereignty

5. How it ended

6. Applications

• God knows what he’s doing

• The Bible says more about evil than in the Book of Job

God Answers Job a First Time

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Job 38-40:5
June 15, 2025

Sermon Outline

1. Intro

2. God points to the inanimate universe

• The earth itself

• The sea

• The dawn

• Beneath the earth

• Light and darkness

• Precipitation

3. God points to the animal kingdom

• Lions and ravens

• Mountain goats

• Auroch

• Ostrich

• War horse

• Eagle and hawk

4. Job’s response

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