Have you ever heard someone share a miracle story and wondered, “Why did God answer their prayer for a miracle and not mine?” In this passage, we will consider the purpose of miracles and how we are supposed to deal with the difficult times when God says No.

Where do you turn in the midst of a crisis? Do you turn to God or do you double down on your own wisdom? If you do turn to God, do you turn to him in humility to ask for help or in frustration to blame him for everything that is going wrong? And how do you respond when the crisis is over? Do you continue to live in dependence upon God or do you drift back into self-reliance until things fall apart again? In this passage we will be reminded of just how desperately we need God’s help and why we can trust that his help will always be there for us.

On what do you place your confidence? Whether we like to admit it or not our confidence is often misplaced in things that are fleeting. Elisha teaches us that for those who follow the LORD, the foundation of our confidence is the Word of God empowered by the Spirit of God. The Word of God alone is always true and always accomplishes the purposes of God. Jesus Christ died and rose to ensure that his Word will overcome all opposition and his promises to us are certain.

Anyone who has ever been discipled knows how God can give you respect and admiration for the one who discipled you. But what happens when God calls that person elsewhere? Should you find someone else to disciple you? Should you disciple others? Listen and hear how the gospel forms us into men and women who count the cost of following Jesus and call others to follow him with us.

What does the call of Elisha have to teach us about the call of God to each and every follower of Jesus Christ? Have you counted the cost? Is following Jesus worth it when it leads to a life of service and sacrifice? Elisha's call reminds us that "God is my salvation." Jesus answered the call of God perfectly so that he could now call us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

      How do you respond when someone points out an area in your life where you were wrong? Do you get defensive? Do you return the favor and point out all of the areas where the person who corrected you has fallen short? In I Corinthians 16:10-11 Paul calls the Corinthians to welcome Timothy’s correction rather than despising him for it. In this message we will consider what it might look like for us to apply this advice towards anyone who chooses to correct us out of love.   

      What do you do when you work really hard to put together a plan only to find that nothing turned out the way you expected it to? It can be hard right? Now what about when your plans involved a relationship? When our relationships don’t go the way we planned we often find ourselves feeling lonely and heartbroken. In this passage we will see how Paul responded when his relationship with the Corinthians didn’t end up going the way he planned it to.

What is it that makes money so attractive? Is it the freedom and the control that it offers? Is it the security it gives in the midst of all the uncertainties of the future? Or maybe it’s the comfort and pleasure that money promises? In this message, we will compare the promises of money and the promises of the Gospel and find that, in the end, Jesus is better. Lastly, we will consider what it would look like to live as if Jesus and not money were our greatest treasure.

If you have a worldview "under the sun" it seems like everything is vanity and a striving after wind. That is certainly how life often feels. Our labor is not always fruitful or lasting. Hurt, disappointment, unmet expectations, lost dreams, and failure are part of our shared human experience in this fallen world. However, the gospel flips all of that upside down! Jesus has been raised from the dead and so we have the assurance that in the Lord our labor is not in vain!