12/17/2023 Worship Service & Sermon: Faith Rewarded Tomorrow - Hebrews 11:35-40

/ Brick Lane Community Church/

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12/17/2023 Worship Service & Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Worship Leader: Matt Lambert
Speaker: Steve Estes, Senior Pastor
Scripture: Hebrews 11:35-40
Title: Faith Rewarded Tomorrow

NIV: Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

ESV: Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated--of whom the world was not worthy--wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Notes:

1. True faith may seem unrewarded in this life
A. Being confined
B. Loss of home or comfort
C. Physical pain
D. A painful death
E. Emotional pain

2. God commends His faithful by contrasting them with the world
A. What God condemns
B. What God loves

3. God's great plan for those with faith
A. Verse 40 is speaking of Old Testament believers after death
B. Verse 40 is also speaking of all believers on the world's final day

Benediction: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13)

#Hebrews #faith

8/27/23 Worship Service and Sermon: Faith Through the Unfamiliar (Abraham) - Hebrews 11:8-10, 13-16

/ Brick Lane Community Church/

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8/27/2023 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Scripture: Hebrews 11:8-10, 13-16
Title: Faith Through the Unfamiliar (Abraham)
Speaker: Steve Estes

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with fundations, whose architect and builder is God.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Notes:

1. The life of faith often involves leaving all that's familiar
A. What Ur was like
B. God's command to leave Ur
C. Abraham's faith in unfamiliar Canaan
D. Abraham's life pictures faith when we leave all that's familiar

2. The life of faith often means seeing only one step at a time
A. When he left Ur, Abraham did not know his destination
B. Even when Abraham learned the general trajectory, he was detoured
C. Had God's word dropped to the ground? No.
D. The life of faith is one step at a time for all believers

3. The life of faith often involves disappointments in how God fulfills His promises
A. Abraham had constant struggles
B. Abraham needed to keep moving
C. Abraham and his family were foreigners in the land
D. For all believers, this life is full of disappointment with how God's promises are fulfilled

4. The life of faith involves knowing that God's promises--only dimly fulfilled in this life--will come blazing true in heaven
A. Ur
i. for Abraham
ii. for us
B. Canaan
i. for Abraham
ii. for us
C. Disappointing Canaan
i. for Abraham
ii. for us

D. What God had in store was far greater than Abraham pictured

5. Closing: God will not fail to keep His promise

#Hebrews #faith