11/24/24 Worship Service & Sermon: Israel’s December: Hoshea, Exile, Samaria Resettled - 2 Kings 17

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11/24/24 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Sermon: Steve Estes
Worship Leader: Matt Carter
Scripture: 2 Kings 17
Title: Israel's December: Hoshea, Exile, Samaria Resettled

Notes:

1. The beginning of the end
A. Picture an imaginary future for the United States
B. Israel's situation in today's text

2. Israel's final days and ultimate collapse
A. Too little, too late
B. Hoshea's folly
C. Assyria's vengeance

3. Why God let this happen

4. What counterfeit religion looks like
A. Counterfeit religion often begins with ingratitude toward the one true God
B. Counterfeit religion focuses on what is aesthetically pleasing
C. Counterfeit religion invents itself; biblical faith receives what is revealed
D. Counterfeit religion is after results; biblical worship is after God
E. Counterfeit religion rots a person's soul
F. Counterfeit religion ruins not just ourselves, but also our descendants
G. Counterfeit religion leads to judgment

5. How counterfeit religion is guarded against

6. The weeping Judge

#hoshea #israel #samaria #assyria

11/17/24 Worship Service & Sermon: The Women Who Traveled With Jesus - Luke 8:1-3

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11/17/2024 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Worship Leader: Dave Dailey
Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Luke 8:1-3
Title: The Women Who Traveled With Jesus

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.

Notes:

1. Three familiar scenes of 21st-century people
A. Major TV networks watched by older folks
B. Hollywood scenes of the supernatural
C. The situation in the Middle East

2. A scene of some first-century people
A. The Twelve
B. "Some women"
i. The women in general
ii. Mary Magdalene
iii. Joanna iv. Susanna

3. The Man who drew them out of darkness

#Jesus #women

11/10/24 Worship Service & Sermon: Anarchy in the Northern Kingdom: Zechariah to Pekah: 2 Kings 15:8-31

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11/10/2024 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Worship Leader: Matt Griffith
Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 15:8-31
Title: Anarchy in the Northern Kingdom: Zechariah to Pekah

Notes:

1. The sad political story
A. Two weeks ago--41 years of prosperity
B. Today--21 years of anarchy

2. The bloody succession of kings
A. Zechariah (6 months)
B. Shallum (1 month)
C. Menahem (10 years)
D. Pekahiah (2 years)

3. Pekah's reign and fall
A. The darkening night
B. The prophesied Light

4. What sin destroyed this nation?
A. The sin that stands out
B. Jesus on personal responsibility*

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

#zechariah #shallum #menahem #pekahiah #pekah #samaria #assyria

10/27/24 Worship Service & Sermon: Jeroboam II and the Writing Prophets - 2 Kings 14:23-29

10/27/2024 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Worship Leader: Dave Stoltzfus
Sermon: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 14:23-29
Title: Jeroboam II and the Writing Prophets

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.

Notes:

1. Review and introduction
A. Israel splits in two
B. The southern kingdom
C. The northern kingdom

2. Opening description of Jeroboam II

3. Point 1: It's God's nature to bless undeserving people
A. How God blessed Jeroboam II
B. Why God blessed Jeroboam II

4. God's blessing does not necessarily mean God's approval
A. Examples from the minor prophets
B. Applications

5. God's judgments in one time/place are always to show mercy in another time/place
A. Examples
B. Where is this in today's passage?

#jeroboam #amos #blessings

9/29/2024 Worship Service & Sermon: The Reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoash - 2 Kings 13

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9/29/2024 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Worship Leader: Luke Stoltzfus
Sermon: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 13
Title: The Reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoash

Notes:

1. Jehoahaz
A. "He did evil in the eyes of the LORD..."
B. Result of this evil
C. "Then Jehoahaz sought the LORD's favor"
D. How God did it
E. Israel's response

2. Jehoash
A. Different king, same summary
B. A significant episode
C. A dead man lives again

3. Conclusion

#jehoahaz #jehoash #israel #elisha

9/22/24 Worship Service & Sermon: Jehu Destroys Ahab’s House & Baal Worship - 2 Kings 10

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9/22/2024 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Worship Leader: Dave Dailey
Sermon: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 10
Title: Jehu Destroys Ahab's House and Baal Worship

Notes:

1. Destroying Ahab's house
A. Jehu's challenge
B. Heads roll in Samaria
C. Jehu seeks support of citizens and soldiers in Jezreel
D. Jehu slaughters Ahab's house in Jezreel

2. Meeting relatives of Judah's recently departed king
A. Remember Ahaziah?
B. The deadly meeting on the road to Samaria

3. Meeting a most unusual man
A. Jehonadab the Recabite
B. Jehonadab joins Jehu
C. The principle of this part of the passage

4. Killing Baal worship
A. A compulsory command
B. Death and destruction

5. What are we to think of this chapter?
A. Christian, don't be naive about politics
B. God uses scary unbelievers to achieve His holy purposes
C. God often rewards unbelievers (in this life) for the good they do
D. It won't do to abandon the sins we don't like, but cling to the sins we do like

#jehu #ahab #baal

9/8/2024 Worship Service and Sermon: Jehu Kills Joram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel - 2 Kings 9

9/8/2024 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Worship Leader: Steve Boyer
Sermon: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 9
Title: Jehu Kills Joram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel

Notes:

1. Previously on The Northern Kingdom...
A. Elijah flees
B. Jehovah replies
C. God's plan to topple Baal in Israel

2. Jehu anointed as king
A. Elisha sends a young prophet on a mission
B. Reaction of Jehu's lieutenants

3. Jehu kills two Baal-worshiping kings
A. Killing Joram of Israel
B. Killing Ahaziah of Judah

4. Killing Jezebel
A. Jezebel prepares to die in style
B. Jehu has Jezebel thrown out the window
C. Jehu feasts while Jezebel is feasted on

5. Lessons
A. Rebellion against God is fanned into flame by those we associate with
B. Rebels vs. God are gradually storing up wrath for themselves
C. God avenges His suffering people
D. Is God's wrath so gory and terrible?

#jehu #joram #ahaziah #jezebel

9/1/2024 Worship Service & Sermon: Joram’s Last Chance for Grace - 2 Kings 8:1-6

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9/1/2024 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Worship Leader: Matt Carter
Sermon: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 8:1-6
Title: Joram's Last Chance for Grace

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."

Notes:

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

2. King Joram had already seen God's divine kindness through Elisha
A. Aramean ambushes foiled
B. Aramean army delivered into Joram's hands
C. Northern kingdom's capital relieved of starvation

3. King Joram asks to hear more about Elisha's great works
A. The widow in debt
B. Death in the stew
C. Feeding one hundred
D. A borrowed ax
E. The Shunammite woman's son

4. Lessons
A. See how God cares for His own people
B. 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

#Joram #Shunammite #Gehazi

8/18/2024 Worship Service & Sermon: Saints, When Absent from the Body, Are Present with the Lord - 2 Corinthians 5:8

8/18/2024 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Worship Leader: Randy Hepler
Speaker: Jonathan Edwards (modified by Steve Estes)
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:8
Title: Saints, When Absent from the Body, Are Present with the Lord

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

Notes:

1. Departed saints live in the same wonderful place as Christ
A. Christ in Heaven still has a human nature
B. Heaven is a place
C. Angels are in Heaven
D. Departed saints are in Heaven
E. We who are saved will be in Heaven

2. The souls of saints in Heaven have an unhindered sight of Jesus Christ
A. When absent from friends, we can only think about them
B. "But then we shall see Him face to face"
C. 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
A. Departed saints are present with the Lord
B. But His glorious state won't intimidate them
C. Reasons with His majesty won't intimidate them

8/11/2024 Worship Service & Sermon: Elisha’s Fiery Horses & Chariots - 2 Kings 6:8-23

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8/11/2024 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA

Worship Leader: Dawson Estes
Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Kings 6:8-23
Title: Elisha's Fiery Horses and Chariots

Notes:

1. Intro: Secrets are sometimes hard to keep.
A. Aramean king's secrets are being leaked.
B. The new prophet on the block

2. The Aramean king sends an army to capture Elisha.

3. God is with His people, even when they cannot see it.
A. First of three prayers
B. Picture the fiery beings.
C. Think of their number.
D. Think what the actual miracle was.

4. How God protected Elisha and his servant
A. Who made the first move?
B. Second of three prayers
C. Last of three prayers

5. God protects His people so that unbelievers may find that same protection in Him.
A. How Israel treated the captured Arameans
B. What do we learn about God from this?

6. Lessons

#elisha #benhadad