Elijah's Spiritual Collapse and Recovery

Gary DeLashmutt

1 Kings 19:1-18

After experiencing a great victory for God, Elijah slips into spiritual depression. All Christians are susceptible to this. Common causes of spiritual depression include: 1) expectations; 2) physical and emotional exhaustion; 3) relational isolation; and 4) taking on too much. God is patient with us, works with us and has a plan for our restoration.\r\n

Elijah in Boot Camp

Gary DeLashmutt

1 Kings 17:1-16

God's interactions with His prophet, Elijah, showcase a pattern for the way that God works in Scripture. Here we see: God gives a command, makes a promise, calls Elijah to take a step of faith, and God fulfills. We learn that God relates with us in this same pattern: He provides a command or promise, He calls us to action in faith, and we get to experience His reliability. \r\n\r\n

Jesus Stills the Sea

Jeff Gordon

Hebrews 1:1-2

Jesus performed supernatural miracles and walked on water to show his disciples that he was God. God is powerful and in control of nature, when we put our trust in Him we can be secure that He is in control.

Jesus Heals a Paralyzed Man

Gary DeLashmutt

John 20:30-31

Jesus made it clear that he was God through his actions, he healed a paralyzed man on the Sabbath. He was communicating to the Pharisees that he as God could work on the Sabbath, and that he had the power to heal broken and sinful people.

Entering God's Rest

Jim Leffel

Hebrews 4:4-16

Rest is a dynamic term, present in the pattern of history as receiving God's promise to blessing. Rest in the finished work of Christ means that we are prepared to receive and accept his sacrifice. To rest in an ongoing way means continuing to trust in God's provision and depend on Him in the whole of life. Dan Beech gave a testimony about the way that he learned to trust God.

God's Rest

Cathy Treyens

Hebrews 4:4-16

Biblical rest is an active to choice to trust God. It includes trusting His unconditional affection towards us, His power to work through us, and His ability to change us. It also means we stop trusting that our good works earn His acceptance. As we rest in God's unfailing love for us, we are able to work out of His grace to love and serve Him and those around us.

Power through Weakness

Gary DeLashmutt

2 Corinthians 12:9

The relationship between power and weakness is a key theme throughout the Bible. God's wisdom says that power is available to those who trust in God and realize their weakness apart from Him. As a result, powerful people can boast in God and their weakness while enjoying a level of contentment as they learn to depend on Christ's power to work through them more. Christ's power empowers us to serve others, be nourished by God's Word, and endure difficulties in spite of our human weaknesses.

The Vine and the Branches

Dennis McCallum

John 15:1-17

Jesus uses the picture of a vine and it's branches to describe Christian growth to his disciples. Jesus teaches that he is the vine, the source of life and power for the Christian, and we are the branches. Just as a gardener prunes a branch, enabling it to bear fruit, so God does ?pruning? in our lives so that we can bear spiritual fruit. We learn that our focus should not be on fruit bearing (producing results), but on staying deeply connected to Christ.

Feeding the Multitude

Dennis McCallum

Matthew 28:18-20

The feeding of the five thousand is a picture of how God calls us to meet people's needs. He has what people need that will satisfy and we are called to share that with them. As we are used by God to meet people's needs we have the privilege to see lives changed, experience deep significance, and we become spiritually satisfied.