3/30/25 Worship Service & Sermon: Job’s Lament - Job 2:11-13, Job 3

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3/30/25 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Scripture: Job 2:11-13, Job 3
Title: Job's Lament
Speaker: Steve Estes

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.

Notes:

1. Introduction
A. Review
B. Job's friends arrive

2. Job begins his lament

3. Job utters a series of curses
A. A curse
B. "May God not care about that day"
C. "May that day be shrouded in darkness

4. "Why?"
A. The universally spoken three-letter word
B. How Job imagines the grave
C. The final "why"
D. Summary

5. Applications
A. God sometimes lets the righteous suffer terribly
B. It is important for believers to acknowledge another's suffering before explaining it
C. It is appropriate for a Christian to groan, sometimes long and loudly

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 He said:

3 “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’

4 That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it.

5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it.

6 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.

7 May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it.

8 May those who curse days[a] curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

9 May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn,

10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.

11 “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb?

12 Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed?

13 For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest

14 with kings and rulers of the earth, who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,

15 with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver.

16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?

17 There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest.

18 Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout.

19 The small and the great are there, and the slaves are freed from their owners.

20 “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul,

21 to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure,

22 who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave?

23 Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

24 For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.

25 What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.

26 I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.” #job #lament #curse

Additional Notes:

Job utters a series of curses

  1. A curse

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

  3. “May that day be shrouded in Darkness”

“Why” questions

  1. The universally spoken 3-letter word

  2. How He imagines the grave

  3. Final "“Why”

  4. summary

Principle: God sometimes Lets the RIGHTEOUS suffer terribly

  1. Yet God himself affirmed Job as righteous

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

CONCLUSION

3/9/25 Worship Service & Sermon: Eye-Opening Light: Seeing His Glory, John 1:1-18

Title: Eye-Opening Light: Seeing His Glory

Scripture: John 1:1-18

Speaker: David Royes

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."

Notes:

1. His Climatic Coming
A. God called out to His own

2. His Sober Diagnosis
A. We naturally hide
B. We easily misunderstand
C. We quickly reject

3. His Unbelievable Message
A. 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

3/2/25 Worship Service & Sermon: How Did We Get Here? - Exodus 13:17-22

3/2/25 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

* With installation of new Senior Pastor David Royes

Scripture: Exodus 13:17-22
Title: "How Did We Get Here?"
Speaker: David Royes

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.

Notes:

1. A Winding Road
A. The path is not humanly efficient
B. Why God leads them on this winding path

2. A Word Remembered
A. God's plan is unfolding
B. God's promise is prevailing
C. God's people need reminding

3. A Wonderful Revelation
A. In Exodus, God came down in pillars of cloud and fire
B. In the Gospels, God came down as a human

4. Applications

#God #exodus

1/12/25 Worship Service & Sermon: Human Suffering & The Sovereignty of God - Various Scripture

1/12/25 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Scripture: Various
Title: Human Suffering & The Sovereignty of God
Speaker: Steve Estes
Worship Leader: Steve Boyer

Notes:

1. Introduction
A. Where is God when we suffer?
B. The story of Rabbi Harold Kushner
C. Many evangelicals are like Rabbi Kushner
D. Some people take the opposite view

2. The causes behind suffering in the Book of Job
A. What caused Job's troubles?
B. God governs nature and its laws
C. God governs both intentional and unintentional actions of people
D. God governs Satan and demons

3. An objection...and two answers
A. The objection
B. God is drawn to suffering people
C. God's motives for decreeing evil are good

4. Summary
A. What about suffering is God sovereign over?
B. For what purpose?

#suffering #sovereignty #God

3/6/2022 Worship Service and Sermon: Responding to Calamity - Esther 4

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3/6/2022 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Worship Leader: John Sletta
Speaker: Andrew Hageman
Title: Responding to Calamity
Scripture: Esther 4

Main Points

1. Mordecai's Grief -- Feeling responsible for the coming calamity
2. Esther's Dilemma -- Contemplating responsibility to avert calamity
3. Esther's Response -- Living out faith as a sacrifice for many

Conclusion and Application

1. God's silence is not evidence of His absence.
a. God's sovereignty is much bigger than us.

2. The Bible's response to grief and difficulty is to turn our eyes upon God.
a. We can come boldly before the throne of God in our grief.

3. Esther's choice may be upon us.
a. Ask God to prepare us to sacrifice for the sake of Christ.

4. Only by Christ's power can we ever follow in Esther's footsteps
a. Christ is the true and better Esther, making atonement before the throne of God on behalf of all believers.

#Purim #calamity #Esther #responsibility