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Big Idea Guide BIG IDEA GUIDE WEEK 1 - FEAR TO FAITH SERIES BIG IDEA God wants to write a new story with my life. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of MESSAGE BIG IDEA water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. When our stories are dominated by fear, addiction, shame, or failure, we are stuck in an old story that is not The angel of the Lord came back a second time the story God intends to write with our lives. When you and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the find your way back to God, he begins to write a new journey is too much for you.” So he got up and ate story with your life, a story of faith, freedom, redemption, and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled and promise. May we let go of our old stories and allow forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, him to write something new. Today we are going to the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and explore how our new story can be one of faith not fear. spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him: “What are SCRIPTURE you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:1-15 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your ICEBREAKER covenant, torn down your altars, and put your What was one thing you were afraid of when you were a prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one kid? left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” BACKGROUND The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain Elijah is on a hot streak of spiritual victories (1 Kings 18). in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to He’s just defeated the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel, he pass by.” prayed for rain in a time of severe famine and the skies opened, and he outran a chariot in an amazing feat of Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains strength. Despite all he’s seen God do, when Jezebel apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but threatens Elijah’s life, he cowers in fear and runs away (1 the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there Kings 19). was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the READ 1 KINGS 19 earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his and how he had killed all the prophets with the cloak over his face and went out and stood at the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, mouth of the cave. “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that Then a voice said to him, “What are you doing here, of one of them.” Elijah?” Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. covenant, torn down your altars, and put your He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the bush and fell The Lord said to him, “Go back the way you came, asleep. and go to the Desert of Damascus. When you get Community Christian Church / www.communitychristian.org For copies of Big Idea products visit www.bigidearesources.com BIG IDEA GUIDE WEEK 1 - FEAR TO FAITH there, anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint QUESTION 5 Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint DISCUSSIONIn what ways can GUIDE you relate / to SESSIONElijah when he # says,- TITLE “I Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to have had enough?” succeed you as prophet. QUESTION 1 QUESTION 6 Elijah had performed many miracles and had seen Elijah complains that he is the only prophet still alive; God’s power in seemingly impossible situations, yet, later in the chapter God tells him that hundreds of yet when he is threatened by Jezebel he is afraid, prophets are still alive (he had also met Obadiah who told depressed, and even wants to die. Why do you think him of 100 prophets who were still alive 1 Kings 18). Can Elijah responded to this threat in this way? you share a time when you were so afraid or frustrated that the fear distorted your sense of what was really true? QUESTION 2 The angel of the Lord meets Elijah in the wilderness, QUESTION 7 but doesn’t give him the answer he is seeking and gives Like Elijah, when we are afraid we may be tempted to him only enough food to sustain him on the next leg of hide in a cave from our fears. For some of us that might his journey. Why draw out this encounter for 40 days? mean despair, surrounding ourselves with comfort, or The number 40 is significant in the Bible. Can you think cynicism and bitterness. How do you respond to fear? of anyone else who endured a trial for 40 days? What What kind of “cave” do you find yourself in when you are could we learn about God by reflecting on this pattern? afraid? God tells Elijah to go back the way he came and to do something even more controversial – anoint someone QUESTION 3 else king. God’s response to Elijah’s trouble wasn’t, “Oh, The Hebrew phrase translated “gentle whisper” is often I’ll take that difficulty away.” Rather God said, “Go back understood as a still, soft voice, though the meaning of to where I’ve called you.” the phrase is actually unclear. Recently scholars have understood it to mean “sheer silence laden with a sense QUESTION 8 of holiness.” God is made known in the silence and Have you ever experienced a time when God’s presence not in the loud manner of the earthquake or fire. Can helped direct you back to where he wanted you to be? you relate to this part of Elijah’s story? Have you ever experienced God in the midst of silence? QUESTION 9 What difficulty have you been avoiding and how might A quote attributed to Alfred Hitchcock is: you plan to go back to where God has called you? Fear isn’t so difficult to understand. After all, weren’t we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf. What CONCLUSION frightens us today is exactly the same sort of thing that Are you living a story of fear? You don’t have to any frightened us yesterday. It’s just a different wolf. This longer. Hear God whisper: “What are you doing here?’ It fright complex is rooted in every individual. is time to come out of the cave…to “go back.” Go back and face the fear; go back and take the risk; go back and fulfill the purpose to which God has called you. Your old QUESTION 4 story may have been filled with fear, but your new story What do you think of this statement? What real fears do will be filled with faith in the God who is with you. you face? Community Christian Church / www.communitychristian.org For copies of Big Idea products visit www.bigidearesources.com NEXT STEPS GUIDE NEXT STEPS GUIDE WEEK 1 - FEAR TO FAITH The Next Steps Guide is designed so that you can go The word of the LORD came to me: “What do you further in your interaction with this week’s Big Idea. We see, Jeremiah?” “I see the branch of an almond encourage you to connect with a few others from your tree,” I replied. The LORD said to me, “You have small group and discuss the following content. Feel free seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word to use it as an individual study tool. Leaders, feel free to is fulfilled. Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to use the content below to supplement your small group them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by discussion times. them, or I will terrify you before them. Today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar and a bronze wall to stand against the whole land— against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and the people MESSAGE BIG IDEA of the land. They will fight against you but will not When our stories are dominated by fear, addiction, overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” shame, or failure, we are stuck in an old story that is declares the LORD not the story God intends to write with our lives. When you find your way back to God, he begins to write a new story with your life, a story of faith, freedom, redemption, and promise.
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