9/3/23 Worship Service and Sermon: The Faith Behind Noah’s Ark - Hebrews 11:7

Join us for worship!

9/3/2023 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Worship Leader: Steve Boyer
Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Hebrews 11:7
Title: The Faith Behind Noah's Ark

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Notes:

1. Human wickedness spreads
A. Adam and Eve
B. Cain and Abel
C. The righteous and unrighteous family lines
D. The family lines merge

2. How God responded to human wickedness
A. Delayed judgement for Noah's sake
B. Blueprints for Noah's Ark

3. Noah's faith
A. Noah believed God's warning of incoming judgement
B. Noah believed God when he had no children
C. Noah believed God over a long period of time
D. Noah believed God despite the world's scorn

4. The Great Flood

5. What do we learn from Noah's faith?
A. Faith can rescue one's family
B. Faith draws a line between the redeemed and the unredeemed

#Hebrews #faith

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

Join us for worship!

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

8/20/2023 Worship Service and Sermon: -Three- Two Ancient Believers - Hebrews 11:4-7

Join us for worship!

8/20/2023 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Scripture: Hebrews 11:4-7
Title: -Three- Two Ancient Believers
Speaker: Steve Estes

By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Notes:

1. Introduction

2. Abel (Genesis 4:1-16)
A. How did Abel know God approved of his offering?
B. Why did God accept Abel and not Cain?

3. Lessons from Abel
A. Faith makes your prayers and church attendance acceptable
B. Faith makes your life speak long past your death

4. Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24)
A. His lifespan
B. He walked with God
C. He hadn't always lived acceptably to God
D. He never experienced physical death
E. His faith is what pleased God

5. Lessons from Enoch
A. Faith in God saves believers from hell

#Hebrews #faith

8/13/2023 Worship Service and Sermon: Finding Bread for Your Friends - Luke 11:1-13

Join us for worship!

Scripture: Luke 11:1-13
Title: Finding Bread for Your Friends
Speaker: Wendell Stoltzfus
Worship Leader: Dawson Estes

Notes:

1. The Prayer and the Parable
A. The theme in Luke 11 is prayer
B. And yet, we struggle to pray

2. The Three Friends
A. An Unexpected Guest
B. An Inconvenient Hour
C. Who the three friends represent

3. The Bread of Assurance
A. We who have the Bread of life rub shoulders with those who don't
B. In the terms of the parable, each of the three friends is, ultimately, starving

4. Real Bread, Real Impudence
A. No doubt many of us struggle with assurance at times
B. Obnoxious persistence in prayer
C. How do we begin?

5. God's Answer to Prayer
A. Jesus says you and I are the link between His bread and our hungry friends
B. What will happen if you pray for your hungry friends every day?
C. What if we don't see any change?

6. Conclusion
A. An Inconvenienced Friend
B. An Unfailing God

#Luke #assurance #prayer

8/6/2023 Worship Service & Sermon: What is Faith? Hebrews 11:1-2, 6

Join us for worship!

8/6/2023 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-2, 6
Title: What is Faith?
Worship Leader: Matt Lambert
Speaker: Steve Estes

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received commendation...And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Notes:

1. Mistaken ideas about faith
A. Wishful thinking
B. Emotion

2. Faith is a confidence in God based on good reasons
A. Confidence in God
B. Based on good reasons
C. More about faith based on good reasons

3. Faith responds positively to what God says

4. Lessons
A. Faith involves your mind and your will

#faith #assurance #Hebrews

7/30/23 Worship Service and Sermon: Suffering and Safety in Christ - Romans 8:18-28

Join us for worship!

7/23/2023 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Worship Leader: Randy Helper
Speaker: Tyler Estes
Scripture: Romans 8:18-28
Title: Suffering and Safety in Christ

Notes:

1. The primary theme of Romans 8 is that those who are in Christ are safe

2. The suffering of Christians is not something to treat lightly
A. Our sufferings are sometimes the result of our sin
B. But our sufferings are sometimes the result of another's sin
C. And our sufferings are sometimes the result of vanity in a fallen world
D. The Bible draws a connection between our sufferings and the glory that we receive with Christ

3. Our sufferings are insignificant compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us at Christ's Second Coming

4. We are sustained in our sufferings by the hope of our salvation

5. We are also sustained in our sufferings by the intercession of the Holy Spirit

6. Applications

#Romans #suffering

7/23/2023 Worship Service and Sermon: Persevere - Hebrews 10:32-39

Join us for worship!

7/23/2023 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Worship Leader: Matt Griffith
Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Hebrews 10:32-39
Title: Christian: Persevere

Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathised with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.*" But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

Notes:

1. What the readers experienced in the past
A. Pressure from fellow Jews
B. Pressure from Gentiles
C. Result of pressure

2. Argument #1: You've already come so far
A. Regarding loss of property
B. For those who escaped ill treatment...
C. Now...persecution seems to have returned
D. The point

3. Argument #2: Great rewards for perseverance; awful consequences for abandonment
A. Perseverance
B. Abandonment

4. All this takes reasonable faith

5. Closing exhortation

*Habakkuk 2:3-4

#perseverance #Hebrews #persecution

7/9/2023 Worship Service & Sermon: The love of God for born-again believers

Join us for worship!

7/9/2023 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Scripture: Various
Title: The love of God for born-again believers
Worship Leader: John Sletta
Speaker: Rich Goswiller

For [God] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45b)

God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5b)

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. (Jeremiah 31:3b)

That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is in the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17b-19)

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you our with a mighty hand and redeemed you for the house of slavery. (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)

I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:23)

The Lord you God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

Notes:

1. God loves you with a redemptive love
A. God has a general love for all His creation (Matthew 5:45b)
B. God has a distinctive redeeming love for people He saves (Romans 5:5b)

2. God loves you with an eternal love (Jeremiah 31:3b)

3. God loves you with an infinite love (Ephesians 3:17b-19)

4. God loves you with an unchangeable love

5. God loves you with an unconditional love (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)
A. Does NOT mean God loves sinners the way they are!
B. Means God's love for you is unmerited.

6. God loves you with a special love
A. God loves to love His saints (Zephaniah 3:17)

7/2/23 Worship Service & Sermon: God’s Ways, Our Ways - Mark 5:21-43

Join us for worship!

7/2/2023 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Scripture: Mark 5:21-43
Title: God's Ways, Our Ways
Speaker: Stephen Coleman

Notes:

1. God's timing is not our timing
A. The synagogue ruler and the hemorrhaging woman
B. How does Jesus prioritize?

2. God's ends are not our ends
A. Jesus restores, cares for the hemorrhaging woman
B. Jesus came to give life to the spiritually dead
C. The end is life for those who are in Christ

3. God's means are not our means
A. Foreshadowing Calvary

6/25/2023 Worship Service & Sermon: God, Humans, Hatfields and McCoys - 2 Corinthians 5:18-21

Join us for worship!

6/25/2023 Worship Service and Sermon from Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, PA.

Worship Leader: Mike Colbert
Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:18-21
Title: God, Humans, Hatfields and McCoys

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Notes:

1. Hatfields and McCoys
A. Who were they?
B. The Civil War
C. The hog incident
D. Roseanna and Johnse
E. Other incidents

2. Our distance from God is like the Hatfields vs. McCoys in that there is real hostility from both sides
A. Hostility from humans toward God
B. God at odds with humans

3. How our distance from God is unlike the story of Hatfields and McCoys
A. H&M hated each other for the other's wickedness; humans dislike God for His righteousness
B. Because of His love, God's desire is to restore friendship with us

Benediction: To every follower of Jesus: "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation." (Colossians 1:21-22)

To every not-yet follower: "Come! Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." (Revelation 22:17)

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen

#reconciliation #imputedrighteousness